The Sun.
London, England, 1856-06-03 00:00:00

TO THE EDITOR OF THE SIIN.

have been for the last five years a con-
stant reader of your paper, and with respect to the
late peace agree in most you have written on the
subject. I believe the people of England would
never have entered into the War if they could have
supposed it was to end in such a peace. I say,
that the whole transaction is a scandalous embro-
glio, from which this country has emerged with
her prestige dimmed, and her place in the scale of
nations lowered. But who made the war and con-
chided the peace ? The Liberals whom you did,
and do now, support. Of what avails grumbling ?
The nation puts up with the peace because they
cannot help themselves, and because they are not
properly represented in the House of Commons.
The Times of the 30th exhibits more of the hire-
ling than I have witnessed for some time past. It
labours hard to persuade people, against the evi-
dence of their senses, that the nation were rejoic-
ing for the peace. The locality from which I write
is not an unimportant one. Now, let me offer you
a comparison between the manifestation cf public
feeling on the celebration of the Queen's birth-day
in 1855 and 1856. In the former year there was a
grand review, and thousands were assembled to
witness it. The troops, as is customary, cheered
by order ; but the moment their hats and faces
were raised to the honour of their Queen, their
cheers were almost drowned in the simultaneous
burst from assembled thousands. Now, mark
John Bull's repugnance to being humbugged. On
the 29th above 2,000 troops were reviewed, and
Ido not exaggerate when I say that there were
from 20,000 to 30,000 spectators. The troops
cheered, but, except from a few officials, not a h%t
was raised nor a cheer h3ard. Now, these people
are not less loyal or attached to their Sovereign this
year than they were the last, and a similar shout
would have marked their loyalty, had not two
points, on which their feelings are dissimilar, been
artfu'ly blended by the authorities. John Bull
was not to be cajoled out of cheers for a series of
transactions for which he has .paid but does not
relish.

The same wretched trickery is apparent in the
modes by which the war is to bo paid for. The
Chancellor wants now 40 millions, but he only
asks for 7, and..depends on 32 millions of income
tax, continued for two years at the present rate,
by some austerity in laying ou the tax, and which
escaped the notice of our excellent representatives.
No wonder a Ministry keeps in favour who do not
partially resort to indirect taxation. In the pre-
sent instance the burden of the war will fall, for
the most part, on the payers of the income tax,
amounting, I should think, to nit morn than a
million and a half of persons ; consequently, the
Chancellor, out of the 80 or 90 millions which we
have to pay for thisTrecious escapade, raises one
third by loan, the interest of which falls on pos-
terity, and two-thirds by confiscation. No marvel
that the untaxed support the Ministry, and yet
John Bull, having taken his place amongst the
second-class powers, quietly supports the very
party which has so reduced him, and this odious
and oppressive tax is to pass for two years' without
an effort for its reduction. I say, therefore, that
such a people have obtained as good a peace as they
could expect, and a better one they never deserved.
Will any paper hear the unblushing and unprin-

cipled Tunes venture to assert that this nation
stands, at the close of this war, in the commanding
position she did at the end of 1815 ? Then, who
has done this ? I answer, the Liberals and the
Times. Why, the man who wrote in that paper
the jocose article on the debate in the Peers, on
the surrender of our maritime rights, would dance
a fandango on the grave of his father.
I ask again, why does not Thl Sun, instead ofend-
less recapitulation of all the mischiefs which have
been done, try to pint out the real causes, and
suggest remedies ? Why not support the opposi-
tion, if there is such a thing in the House of Com-
mons, in resisting this continued income tax ?—I
remain, Sir, your obedient servant,
AN ILLIBERAL.
31st May.

THE SABBATH QUESTION.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE SUN.

SIR,—At this moment, when the saints and fanatics
of Exeter Hall are endeavouring t 3 interfere with the
social and rational liberty of the people, and to create in
this country a tyranny of the most odious and demora-
lising character, it occurred to me that the following
bitter denunciation of the pharisaical tribe by the late
Thomas Hood way interest many of your readers. The
uncompromising and bold stand you have made against
these Sunda.y fanatics induces me to think you would
endeavour to find room for these admirable lines in your

journal.—Yours truly,
May 30, 1356.

A. B. C.

EXTRACT FROH AN ODE BY T/1011A.S HOOD.
A pride there is of rank—a pride of birth,
A pride of learning, and a pride of purse,
A London pride—in short, there be on earth
Al host of prides, some better and some worse;
But of all prides, since Lucifer's attaint,
The protidest swells a self-elected Saint.
To picture that cold pride, so harsh and hard,
Fancy a peacock in a poultry yard;
Behold him in conceited circles sail,
Strutting and dancing, and now planted stiff
In all the pomp of pageantry, as if
He felt the eyes of Europe on his tail !
As for the humble breed retain'd by man,
He scorns the whole domestic clan—
He bows, he tridles,
He wheels, he sidles
At last, with stately dodgings, in a corner
Ho pens a simple russet hen, to scorn her
Full in the blaze of his resplendent fan !
" Look here," he cries (to give him words)
" Thou feather'd clay—thou scum of birds !
Flirting the rustling plumage in her eyes—
Look hers, thou vile prodestin'd sinner,
Doom'd to be roasted for a dinner,
Behold these lovely variegated dyes !
These are the rainbow colours of the skies
That Heav'n has shed upon me con amore—
A Bird of Paradise ?—a pretty story !
I am that saintly fowl, thou paltry chick,
Look at my crown of glory !
Thou dingy, dirty, dabbled, draggled jill !"
And off goes Partlet, wriegling from A kick,
With bleeding scalp laid open by his bill.
That little simile exactly paints
How sinners are despised by saints.
By Saints !—the Hypocrites that ope heaven's door,
Obsequious to the sinful mau of riches,
But put the wicked, naked, bare-legged poor
In parish stocks instead of breeches.
The Saints ! —the Bigots that in public spout,
Spread phosphorus of zeal on scraps of fustian,
And go litre walking "Lucifers" about,
Mere living bundles of combustion.
The Saints !—the aping Fanatics that talk,
All cant, and rant, and rhapsodies high-flown—
That bid you baulk
A Sunday walk,
And shun God's work as you should shun your own.
The Saints !—the Formalists, the extra pious,
Who think the mortal husk can save the soul,
By trundling, with a mere mechanic bias,
To church, just like a lignum-vitai bowl !
The Saints !—the Pharisees, whose beadle stands
Beside a stern coercive kirk,
A piece of human mason-work,
Calling all sermons contrabands
In that great temple that's not made with hands !
Thrice blessed, rather, is the man with whom
The gracious prodigality of Nature,
The balm, the bliss, the beauty, and the bloom,
The bounteous providence in every feature,
Recall the good Creator to His creature,
Making all earth a fane, all heaven its dome
To his tuned spirit the wild heather-bells
Ring Sabbath knells ;
The-jubilate of the soaring lark
Is chaunt of clerk ;
For choir, the thrush and the gregarious linnet ;
The sod's a cushion for his pious want;
And, consecrated by the heaven within it,
The sky-blue pool a font.
Each cloud-capp'd mountain is a holy altar;
An organ breathes in every grove;
And the full heart's a psalter,
Rich in deep hymns of gratitude and love !

PEDESTRIANISM EXTRAORDINARY.—On Wednesday
the following remarkable feat of pedestrianism was per-
formed by Ensign Spiller of the 56th Depot, who under-
took to walk 16 miles within three hours. The ground
chosen was the bank of the Royal Canal Dublin. Mr.
Spiller starting from Saunders Bridge, walked to V- e
Downs (four miles) and back, repeating the same within
the given time, having four minutes sad ten seconds to
spare.
THE NEW TELEGRAPHIC WIRES TO INDIA AND AME.
RICA.—The enthusiastic devotion of Mr. Thomas Allan,
C.E., London, to this interesting branch of science, has
been rewarded with results which merit the most at-
tentive considerati m, as some of the most formidable
difficulties which have obstructed the successful com-
pletion of telegraphic enterprises seem by his energies
in a fair way of being easily overcome. It is obvious
that where a frail line of communication has to be car-
ried over the abrupt inequalities of the surface of our
globe,- creeping over the summits of mountains, and
lying along the deep shelves in the bed of the ocean,
too much care cannot be devoted to its composition and
tbsture. The wire prepared by Mr. Allan possesses
advantages superior to those of any other conductor at
present in use, and in the main requisites of conducta-
bility, strength, lightneee, and cheapness, its superiority
is incontestible. The submarine wires commonly em-
ployed are of copper, insulated with gottapercha, and
encased in iron. Mr. Allan's wire is one of iron insu-
lated with a new flexible material sufficiently strong to
afford a full protection from all the contingencies to
which such a conductor is ordinarily liable. The differ-1
ences between the two are at first sight rather startling.
Weighing in some cases as little as one•tenth of the
common wire, we obtain a conducting power three or
even five fold greater, while the relative proportion of
the strength of the wire to its weight is increased to a'
considerable degree. Add to these facts the diminished
cost of construction, atd the greater ease with which it
can be laid down, and we think we have said enough
to prove its inventor a great national beadaotor.,
Caledonian llzercury,