The Sun.
London, England, 1856-04-01 00:00:00

" 0 most lame and impotent conclusion

And for t---for this " thing" of a Peace, we
have heen squandering for t►vo years millions upon
•-• millions of pounds sterlinu 1 We have been sacri-

ficing the very flower of our army ! We have
been sending regiment after regiment to perish in
the horrible pest-houses of Scutari ! We have been
leaving battalion after battalion to rot in the cold,
and damp, and mud, and all the attendant priva-
tions of a cemetery-like Crimean encamp Olga !
For rats !
It may be asked by the political fribbles wbo

.:.u,.: _
~~

are the toad-eaters of Gov/ rnment—" For what ?''
We will answer—For m Despicable Treaty of
Peace, the principal fruit; s of which may be thus
briefly enumerated :
HANGO unavenged—t ?tat incident of unparal-
leled atrocity in th© annals of modern
warfare when a boae's crew, carrying a flag
of truce and advant :ing under the shel-
ter of that hitherto Isacred symbol upon a
mission of benevolence 4 I,nd magnanimity, were
made the victims of an inE ',mous ambuscade, and, as
such, were for the most ,part, by the soldiers of
the CZAR, in cold blood and most deliberately,
I assassinated !

&Nom unexpiated—oven to this day unexpi-
ated—save only by the •voluntary destruction of
their own ships-of-war by the Russians themselves
within the harbour of Se►ibasstopol !
The atrocious stabbimg, and pistolling of our
wretched WOUNDED upon. the " foughten fields" of
Balaklava and Inkermaln—while the gallant fel-
lows thus inhumanly butchered (to be afterwards
rifled, and insulted even in death, by their mur-
derers), lay writhing upon the ground in agonised
helplessness !

Those are somo among the chief triumphs won
during the course •f this disastrous war by that
savage and brutalised em.emy, our diplomatists are,
nowadays, beslavering with their courtesies ! Those
are among the conspicuous results of the deplor-
able struggle which has but just now terminated in
France and in Eugland with a craven ringing of
bells, firing of cannons throwing up of caps,
cheers, banners, and illutuinations !

But other memories tlan these of course will
have to be recorded by Otte future historian of the
present epoch in the annals of Christendom. He
will have to celebrate other circumstances, very
conspicuously, besides th ose we have already par-

tic ularised, as among the zaore notable consequences
of this two years' conflict between the legions of
Russia and those of the Western Allies. Ho will
have to inscribe upon those blackened and blood-
stained pages how it came to pass that England
especially, first of all by her war policy, and after-
wards by her peace policy, tampered with the
glory at once of her military and of her maritime
reputation. As thus :
The British Navy adventuring upon not one
heroic enterprise, either in the Enxine or in the
Baltic, in any way commensurate with the renown
secured to it in the more daring and chivalric

times of NELSON, and ErWOUTH, and COLLING -
WOOD. Insomuch that we may now define as
about the result of all our grand naval prepara-
tions—the recriminative contest in the House of
Commons between Sir CHARLES NAPrER and Sir
JAMES GRAHAM— or as Punch has it, the mud-
bespattering, each of the other, by CHARLEY POT
and JEMMY KETTLE.

The British army, upon the other hand, not
merely adventuring upon, but actually achieving,
many glorious, and some of them even wholly un-
paralleled, enterprises of valour—with this lament-
able result, however, in almost every instance
namely, that of proving simultaneously in the pre-
sence of foes and of allies that its ranks were
composed of—what ?—(oar Gallic friers have
hit upon the aptest and wittiest phrase in the
way of definition) of—Lions led by Asses !
Such is the novel prestige accruing, on this hand
to the British army, and on that to the British
navy, as the consequences of this lamentably mis-
managed War, and of this disgracefully because
precipitately and insecurely patched-up Peace !

Besides—the turning point of the whole
struggle remains even now but the scene of a par-
tial 1,
victory. Sebastopol to this day remains un-
taken ! So long as the North Forts have re-
mained in the hands of the resolute defenders of
that great robber-stronghold, so long the place
remains, up to this present moment inclusively,
but half conquered ! And yet—with Sebastopol
not yet taken—England and France, together with
the lesser Allies, and in shameless complicity
even with the deSpica.ble German Neutrals, have
agreed to patch up a Treaty of Peace, and to do
this, forsooth, with due regard to the " honour"
of Russia! GOD knows it would
.be far better,
and a vast deal more to the purpose, if they
looked rather to the conservation of their own
honour intact, rather than to the restoration awl
satisfaction, and consolidation of the honour
["save the mark !"] of their grim Muscovite
antagonist !
Apart from all this, however, the English navy
has been aggregating its power, meanwhile, to an
extent hitherto unattempted, almost in a manner
we had said altogether unthou;ht of—to the end

that nothing at all should be done, or for that
matter even attempted, byits newly-organised and
most formidable array of gun-boats, or by its two
stupendous fleets of screw men-of-war !
Apart, moreover, from all we have here previ-
ously remarked in reference to the English army
—that has gained for itself by its blunders, by
its disasters, by its general disorganisation, that,
we say has gained for itself—the Chelsea Hospital
Commission 1 As for its victories—they have
been to all intents and purpase4 aul)stanfially
just TWO. England has the glory of the Alma—
France the glory of the Malakhoff. The other
three of conspicuous note have been epigrammati-
cally described thus—Balaklava as a blunder, In-
kerman as a surprise, and the Redan as a defeat ! Se
much for the principal incidents of the stt uggle—
the battle of the Tchernaya, or, as the French
call it, of the Bridge of Traktir, being bat a bril-
liant episode. Our maritime armaments in the
Black Sea having to content themselves with the
" safe" capture of Kinburn—and thole of the
Baltic with the "safe" capture of Bomarsund.
Added to all which, at this disgraceful close of
this most disastrous war—Odessa remains un-
harmed, Nicholaieff unassailed, and Kars very
infamously abandoned. Consequent upon all
which—comes—The Precious Peace ! The Peace
for which we are to illuminate our windows—
jangle our church bells—fire off salvoes of artillery
—set all our gay streamers fluttering in the sun-
shine--and PAY Tim Pima ! Very satisfactory, no
doubt, with a doubled Income Tax, and all sorts of
linpotta
upon articles of daily consumption, and
ourfair lame damaged, and millions upon millions
already scattered virtually to the winds of
heaven, and more
to follow in due season, and o
hundreds and thousands our brave soldiers,
the dauntless children
brothers, our sons
the soil, our fathers, our
crunakai
crumbling into.
dust on the shores of
that terrible region where
the
so much heroic blood has bee t
Peace ? Call this a Peace ? shed in vain !
It is
test it—but the most hollow of 'all
Truces !
until (at
—oPea,9e ? Why, anything in the shape of a-p
should never have been dreamt of, peace
very least) we had not only taken S b e as.opn, en-
tirely and in real earnest, but until f
a ter we had
actually swept every man Jack of the ussi it •
ana
out of the Crimea! But now—Alas 1 the result
we can any of us
,recognise on the instant—_theme
e
, will come yet a lisle later on, the dread and
inevitable Day of Reckoning.

The Revenue Returns for the financial year
and quarter, which has just been brought to a
conclusion, will due found in another part of this
day's impression. They are chiefly remarkable as
affording siditional evidence of the accuracy of

the apparent paradox, that In fiscal addition, two
and two do not always make four, so that addi-
tional burdens are imposed on the tax-payers
without any corresponding benefit to the Ex-
chequer.

We find that the total sum collected, which,
be it remembered, represents the gross receipts,
not the net profits, has been 65,704,4891., being
an increase of 4,497,6711., or more than two
millions less than the estimate of Sir G. C.
LEWIS ; wkile the produce of the quarter has
been 17,361,1611., or 1,477,6451.
Coming to the particular items, we find that
the increase under the head of Customs has been
for the year 789,9961., and for the quarter
497,0581., a very poor return for the additional
duties ou Tea, Sugar, and Coffee. In the Excise
the addition for the year has been 295,5421.,
and for the quarter 37,0821., showing how com-
pletely our predictions as to the anticipated pro-
duce of the increased Spirit Duties have been
verified ; the chief result being the extraordi-
nary stimulus thereby afforded to the demoralis-
ing practice of illicit distillation in Scotland and
Ireland.

In the Stamps there is a decrease of 238,642/.
on the year, and of 55,766/. on lie quarter,
chiefly arising from the removal of stamp on
newspapers, while that there was no equivalent
obtainer by the postage of unstamped journals,
may be gathered from the fact that in the Post-
office there is a falling off of 162,4621. on the
year, and of 2,5241. on the quarter.

In the Assessed Taxes there is a deficiency of
177,517/. on the year, but a slight rally has re-
cently taken place, and we find an improvement
of 7,7081. on the quarter. The Property Tax'
shows an increase, both on the year and quarter,
on the former of 3,560,0001., on the latter of
937,9461. It is still, however, slightly below
the estimate. On the Crown Lands there is an
increase of 8,944/. on the year, and of 1,000/. on
the quarter, while on the Miscellaneous, the least
important of, all, inasmuch as it cannot be in-
cluded in the ordinary sources of revenue, the
improvement is, for the year, 421,6901., and for
the quarter 55,1411.
It further appears that the amount received
within the past quarter, on account of the loan of
5,000,0001., has been 3,501,0001., while the de-
ficiency upon the charge of the Consolidated Fund,
to meet the dividends and other charges payable
in the quarter to June 30, is no less than
2,569,6851., so that so far from the loan leaving
a very considerable balance, as was anticipated,
up to the termination of the regular financial
year, we find that there is still a deficiency of
1,070,685/. to be provided for.
This is a very unsatisfactory state of affairs,
and we earnestly hope that Sir G. C. LEWIS will
profit by his dearly-bought experience, and have
the courage to avow the errors into which he has
been betrayed, and his unflinching resolution to
enter on a sounder agd more judicious system,
that will afford relief to the over-burdened tax-
payers, and at the same time produce the maxi-
mum of income with the minimum of inconve-
Inienee to the people.

The Encumbered Estates Court is confessed to
have delivered a large portion of Ireland from the
hands of incompetent proprietors, and its work is
by no means finished. The great task still re-
mains of reforming its tenantry also. To some
extent this has been accomplished by introducing
a better class of landlords ; many of them have
sufficient capital to do a landlord's part in erect-
ing buildings and making the requisite improve-
ments, and are disposed to do it ; others clear
their property and farm it themselves. The
thousands of Ireland are hill, however, by nature
small farmers, and must long continue so. The
question is, What can be done to raise them in
their own calling—to convert their hovels into
decent cottages—their wretched appendages into
farm buildings, and the land itself into a drained,
fenced, and tilled farm.

The first answer will of necessity be, Security
for the man who does all. this._ Now, it appears that
at present this is the rare exception, not the rule.
The landlord will not do it, and he refuses to give
the tenant a lease. In England, wherever leases
tare refused, we know the effect on the land.
Compare the Eastern Counties and the Lothians
with a vast portion of Englaud—.North,
and West the difference may be seen even
from a railway carriage. Tenancies at will cannot
be improving tenancies ; they may be admiralily
suited for creating subservient voters, but no man
iu his senses will make his farm worth snore if his
landlord can step in and tate the entire advantage
in the shape of increased rent.

For the sake, therefore, of all who are in-
terested in increasing the agricultural produce
of the British Isles—and who amongst us is not?—
it were desirable, if possible, to do something
to call out the energies of Irish tenant farmer•.
We can never believe that they are incapable 01
enterprise in their own line ; PADDY is quite as
shrewd as JOHN BULL, and if be can get monEy
for his work, quite as willing to do it. But on
his native soil he has had no chance of self-im-
provement. His land belonged, generally, io
some needy and absent owner, and generally one who
wanted to have the poor fellow completely in h s
power at the next election. The latter was indeed
the case, as in England, under wealthier lane-
lords, but the fear seemed greater in Ireland than
here of allowing a political serf a longer tenan:y
than an annuli one." The worst is that in Irelaild
the tenant has no feeling of security that he shall
receive the advantage of any outlay he may make-,
for the benefit of the farm, in case of being re-
quired for pplitical, or other reasons, to leave it.
We have seen, even in England, mlst disgraceful
ignoring of the moral rights of improving tenant,',
when, from any cause, the aid of law could
not be successfully invoked. But in Ireland the
case hitherto has been infinitely worse, and for
the good of the whole community it seems de-
sirable to improve if possible the relation between
landlord and tenant.

Mr. J. H. SIMPSON, of Westport, has given us
in a small pamphlet, "An Englishman's Testi-
mony to the Urgent Necessity of a Tenant-Right
Bill for Ireland."-x- Mr. SIMPSON has resided six
years in the country, farmed three thousand acres,
and employed three hundred labourers, and may
fairly be considered as a witness of good sense and
competentknowledge. Hiswitness is that it is a first
necessity towards advancing the tenant cultivation
of Ireland that the tenant be enabled to claim for
improvements if in any way required to leave his
farm, and that the tenants would be satisfied
with a moderate and reasonable bill. He also
thinks that it is for England to pass such a bill
iu her own interest as firmly as she passed the
Encumbered E4tates Act, and to pay no regard
to the needy and factious Tenant-League men,
who keep up the agitation for the most selfish
purposes, and would be heartily sorry to see a
set.good bill become an act of Parliament, since it
would deprive then of the power to agitate. He
always found the tenants quite ready to be satis-
rfliegdh rights with
as fair
ufti proposals,
ein
and to accept prospective
Hitherto, as our readers

* W. and F. G.:Cash, 5, Bishopsgatelstreet7v4thout!