The Sun.
London, England, 1860-05-14 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, MONDAY EVENING, MAY 14, 1860.

THE SUN.
LONDON, MONDAY, MAY 14, 1860.

It needs but the last drop to brim over the cup
of indignation. It requires but the last straw, says
the adage, to break the back of the camel. And for
the " last straw" we have now Mr. GLADSTONE'S
proposition, for this evening, to abolish the postal
privilege hitherto accorded to newspapers—and for
the " camel's back," the Patience of the House of
Commons: Heretofore, during the past three
months of this singular Parliamentary session, the
popular branch of the Legislature could hardly
have shown itself in every particular more
obliging or complaisant. The Opposition has never
once proved either implacable or ungenerous. It
has not once afforded Ministerialists the oppor-
tunity of raising anew the old, old cry that we
had come to be so heartily sick of hearing
blatently roared forth perpetually upon all
occasions, good, bad, or indifferent, from
the " leathern lungs" of the Whig Ministers'
supporters on the back benches, namely, that of
stigmatising their confronting antagonists as a
Factious Opposition. There has been every provo-
cation certainly—diplomatic, financial, and legis-
lative. There has been the Treaty—there has been
the Budget—there has been the Reform Bill; each
and all of these more or less obnoxious to the vast
majority of the population. Yet, Treaty—Budget
—Reform Bill, have all been allowed to pass
through their various stages of Parliamentary de-
velopment without hitherto one really vigorous
effort in the way of retarding their progress or
thrusting them back (ignominiously rejected) upon
the Administration. Step by step they have been
permitted to advance towards completion. And it
is a curious circumstance in the midst of these
reiterated concessions of amiability towards the
Cabinet, that whenever there has, upon rare occa-
sions, been any disposition whatever on the part of
the House of Commons to hesitate about swallowing
whole and entire any one of the Ministerial nos-
trums proffered to it as tonic medicines in every
respect beneficial to the Constitution r.
GLADSTONE, as the mouthpiece of the Ministry,
has raved against these momentary qualms of hesi-
tation like one demented. The Chancellor of the
Exchequer is fast becoming among our statesmen
what Marshal MASSENA was among NAPOLEON'S
Paladins—the "Spoilt Child of Victory." But the
spoilt child of victory, who•was the prototype, we
all kno,v got, however, far more seriously damaged
by defeat at last in the Peninsula. And the Spain
of his administrative emulator nowadays seriously-
threatens to reveal itself before the close of the pre-
sent session, and to marr materially, if it should
fail altogether, to engulph his once dominant re-
putation.

Tonight, in truth, the Cimucellor of the Exelle-

quer administers the extreme test to the patience of
the Commons House of Parliament. It is but a
drop of water after the outpouring of a cataract.
It is but the addition of a single straw or a soli-
tary feather to the tons upon tons-load with which
he has hitherto during the last quarter been weigh-
ing down the consciense of the Legislature. But we
believe that here once more the wisdom of the
old proverbs will in truth be vividly verified—the
last drop brimming over the cup the last
straw breaking the back already plainly
enough typified. Among all the various wanton
and uncalled-for remissions of duties that have
ever been proposed to the House of Commons in a
year of enormous deficit—commend us, as incompar-
ably the most extravagant, to the one about to be
coolly submitted to the consideration of the Douse
this very evening, by a Financier combining the
speculative rashness of a JOHN LAW with the
over weaning self-reliance of a WILLIAM PATTER-
SON. Here is an impost, in point of fact—
that no one in the three kingdoms has
for one instant complained of—that brought
last year into the revenue a round sum of £150,000.
With the payment of that amount into the Trea-
sury the journals of the United Kingdom volun-
tarily burthened themselves. It was the result of
a tax the contribution of which to the national
income by the newspapers was purely optional. It
suited the convenience of the newspapers, and the
comfort of the subscribers to newspapers, to pay it.
It has tended hitherto, quite obviously, to the faci-
litation of the transmission of news throughout
the population, to the diffusion of knowledge, to
the circulation of general intelligence. The abro-
gation of this voluntarily contributed tax can
do no one any possible good—must, inevitably, do
a great many a vast deal of injury, subjecting
hundreds of thousands of individuals to incalculable
annoyance. It will at the same time wantonly
strike off another source of supply to the revenue.
Compared with the £70,000,000 of our current
expenditure, of course, this mere total of
£150,000 for the last twelvemonth is insigni-
ficant. But every little makes a mickle—
and more than ever is " every little" a matter of real
importance to a state, whether that state be great
or small, during a period which is notoriously and
avowedly a period of a very considerable and in-
creasing deficit. The only concievable reason to
be advanced for the introdUction of this prepos-
terous scheme of Mr. GLADSTONE'S in regard to the
transmission of newspapers through the Post
upon a plan, undreamt of before now, and one that
will infallibly prove altogether impracticable and
inoperative—is that it may tend to relieve from a
certain degree of anxiety and trouble a particular
class of officials at St. Martin's-le-
Grand. This, remember, at the very time when
the Post-office is doing what it was never intended,
what it is never desirable that it should do—
namely, contributing a clear surplus of more than
£1,000,000 sterling to the revenue over and above
the actual amount of its expenditure. Here is the
root, here is the core of the whole folly of this last
bran new financial crotchet of our wonder-working
Chancellor of the Exchequer. The surplus of the
Post-office as a matter of principle, and as a matter of
course, before being drained off into the national
treasury, ought to be applied, so far as may be in
any way practicable, to the development and im-
provement of the Post-office itself, as one of the
most important and invaluable of our great adminis-
trative institutions—as one of the most conspicuous
and easily recognisable agents of modern civilisa-
tion. So long as the Post-office establishment admits
of improvement—admits of development—so long
ought its own surplus revenue to be applied
in extending and perfecting its operation.
Remembering what the Post-office is, or rather is
intended to be—it is simply ridiculous that we
should allow its officials to shirk labour and evade
responsibility at the very time when it can pour
(over and above its own annual expenses) a clear
surplus within the year of over one million sterling
into the exchequer. We cannot for an instant
allow ourselves seriously to believe that the House of
Commons will tolerate such an exemplar of fatuity
as the eccentric project which Mr. GLADSTONE is
about this evening to submit to its consideration.

With mingled hope and fear all Englishmen are
watching the expedition of GARIBALDI. The
French journalists, who, we would hope, represent
of necessity the selfish perplexities of the Tuileries,
not the sympathies of their countrymen, feel con-
strained to object to the brave General's attempt ;
but here men of all parties, Whigs, Tories, or Ra-
dicals, even Peace•at-any-price men, earnestly pray
Heaven to prosper GARIBALDI. All Englishmen
are yet burning with indignation at a system
which imprisoned and kept from trial two of their
countrymen till one of them nearly lost
his reason ; and they know that this system,
far from having been bettered, has become
worse since the accession of the young Monarch.
And Sicily, they know, has not less reason than
Naples to loathe the cruel and illegal Government
of the young Bourbon. The island has even a worse
reputation with the Bourbons than the mainland.
Its inhabitants, as islanders, and inhabitants of a
mountainous country, are naturally lovers of liberty;
the commingling of races—old Sikels, Greeks,
Carthagenians, Normans, Italians, even Saracens
—seems also to tend to the love of civil free-
dom. Be the causes what they may, Sicily has
again and again risen for her liberties ; while Eng-
land from, the use she made of the Island in the
wars of NAPOLEON, acquired a spe€ial interest in
it which has not yet died away. Indeed we ought
to have taken guarantees for the continuance of its
constitutional rights.
liar struggles for freedom, and for union with the
King of SARDINIA, with that object in 1848 we can
all remember. The islanders, for a time, freed them
selves from the tyranny of King FERDINAND,
who, however, had at that time treacherously put
himself forward as a defender of Italian liberties.
The perfidious wretch, however, soon dropped the
mask, and immediately set about the reconquest of
Sicily. In this he was successful, by the help of
that disgrace to the Republic from which they
came, Swiss mercenaries, under the command of
General FILANGIERI ; these cutthroats filled the
island with pillage, massacre, and cruelties of
every kind. Once more the Bourbon extin-
guished liberty in Mood. It is not to
be denied, however, that, for the cruel tool
of the cruelest of tyrants, FILANGIERI governed
well. He at last became bearable to the Sicilians,
and for that very reason, it seems, unbearable to
the Neapolitan tyrant. He was removed, and after
his removal the police, with the soldiery at their
back, appear to have become the tormentors of
the islanders—torment and good government be-
ing apparently synonymous terms in the voca-
bulary of the Neapolitan Bourbons. Hence the
present rising. The people could endure no
longer. They do not appear to have had any dis-
tinguished leader, at least we have seen no mention
of one yet ; the rising seems to have been one of
maddened despair, so much so, that it is even
thought it was intentionally provoked to give tie
troops the opportunity of pillage, and the KING
the pleasure of numberless patriot executions.
If so, those _ who provoked the insurrection

did not calculate on so obstinate a resistance. '
Notwithstanding all the accounts from Naples,
and the conflicting, though often desponding ac-
counts from Turin ; the patriots appear up to the
present time to have kept possession of the moun-
tainous interior of the island, and the troops al-
though reinforced have not been able to venture
far from the towns on the coast and the fleet.
The coast only is the King's, the interior belongs
to the patriots.
It is in this state of things that we read of
GARIBALDI'S departure. At the moment we are
writing no one knows for certain his plans. He
is reported to have landed 1,000 troops at Marsala,
a small town at the westernmost angle of the
island. It was long doubted whether he would not
land in Calabria, where the people, like the Sici-
lians, are good hands at insurrection, and so
create a diversion ; it seems, however, now more
likely that he will render direct aid to the Sicilians
if he can succeed in escaping the Neapolitan fleet.
Of this the gallant General did not seem to have
much doubt. Indeed, he is reported to have pro-
posed, if requisite, not to let them escape him, but
to board them, if they did not know better than
to molest him Probably the Neapolitan admi-
rals will prefer not to match their broad-
sides with the revolvers and cutlasses of
GARIBALDI. The King of SARDINIA'S ships are
also said to have orders to intercept the General,
but we may presume that there are such things as
verbal as well as written orders, and that it is
quite possible for the Sardinian Admirals, and every
sailor under them, not to see vessels understood to
be GARIBALDI'S—to take them at least for other
vessels, or to sail just in some other direction.
The King of SARDINIA is indeed in a difficult
position. His French suzerain lord does not will
that he should be King of Italy, or even of more of
Italy; while his subjects are all enthusiastic for
GARIBALDI and Italy. Probably the King could not
prevent his departure without risking more than
his popularity—it might have shaken his power
itself. It was requisite to keep the troops to their
barracks to prevent them going on board
GARIBALDI'S vessels, and all classes, notwithstand-
ing the embarkation was conducted as privately as
possible, and for that reason extended over five
miles of the coast, contrived to muster in great
numbers, and to show their ardour for the Sicilian
cause. The King of SARDINIA is at present in
amicable diplomatic relations with the young brute
of Naples, and must act towards him as if he
were a respectable king ; then France is hostile
to Sicilian liberty, especially if it involve increase
of Sardinian power ; and, again, a French army
is at Rome, and a French general has taken the
command of the Papal army. VICTOR EMMANUEL
must therefore behave himself carefully. His sym-
pathies are undoubted, but he cannot afford to show
them. If Sicily join the free Northern Kingdom
of Italy it must be, as with the Romagna and the
Duchies, her own act. May she succeed in a
struggle against such tremendous diplomatic and
military odds.

We have much pleasure in directing attention to
a very able article from the Derbyshire Courier,
entitled " Paper Currency in India," in another
column, which will go far to convince the Bul-
lionists of their illusive fancy as to the soundness
of PEEL'S Bills of 1819 and 1844. Why, those
precious bills broke down over and over again, and
in their downfall spread ruin and shame over the
land. But still they persist, even against hope, in
backing up a theory which invariably breaks down
in practice. And why? Because the B unionists trade
and profit on the misfortunes of their hard•work-
in g countrymen. No matter say they—one man's loss
is another man's gain. But the wonder is how our
public men—our commercial men, can shut their
eyes to the gross deception practised on the nation
for the exclusive benefit of a scheming few. We
remember when Mr. WILSON said that with a paper
currency we might bury twenty millions of gold in
the bowels of the earth, or in the vaults of the
Bank, and so save the constant loss of wear and tear
incidental to daily circulation. Why not have a
national Bank-note of small denominations even to
half a sovereign for the benefit of the poorer classes
of our labourers. There can be no panic or run
upon a national note. It would be receiv-
able for taxes and every species or debts.
Besides, the nation would pocket the profit deriv-
able from its use, instead of the discounts going
weekly to swell the rest, or profit of the Bank of
England. Our Chancellors of the Exchequer may
be clever men in scheming out Budgets for the
year amid much bewilderment and perplexity;
but why do they not grapple with the giant
incubus that bears down national enterprise
and paralyses commercial credit ? Small notes
made Scotland prosperous and independent.
Why should not England prosper by the same
medium ? It is idle to talk about the difficulty of
grappling with the debt due to the Bank of Eng-
land. To boggle about paying off fourteen mil-
lions, when we raised six times as much to carry
on the Russian war—aye, and lost it into the
bargain ! Verily, we seem to copy the example of
the improvident man, who squanders his all and
borrows more—thus living

" From age to age in everlasting debt."

It is a positive disgrace to our boasted financiers,
who seem only ambitious to make the day and the
journey alike, without making any providence for
the future.

If we had a well founded paper currency we
could dispense with gold except for payment to
square the, balance of account—and when the
foreigner came to buy our gold let him have it at
the market value, cheap or dear, according to
supply or demand. But now he comes and
robs us of it, for he does not pay its pro-
per value but obtains it at the fixed price accord-
ing to the standard of the Bank of England—
which Bank has often been compelled to stop pay-
ment in gold because of its exit to the continent !
There never was such accursed fatuity in a commer-
cial country ! When will the men who guide us
open their.eyes before they lead us to the precipice P
They really seem to be unaware of the tendency
of their actions. For what are cheques
and bills of exchange but notes of a
larger or smaller denomination. There is more
business carried on by their agency than by all
the gold and silver on the face of the earth. And
yet they will not see the folly of their ways, but
still persist is heedless obstinacy.
Our Derbyshire friend puts the question very
clearly, and, after pointing out some of the evils
engendered in Mr. WILSON'S scheme, observes—
" But Mr. Wilson has other arguments in favour of a
paper currency. It not only, he says, economises capital,'
but (1) it reduces the expense of the mint, (2) it saves the
wear and tear of coin, (3) it affords greater facilities for the
public, especially its transmission from place to place,
and (4) 'these advantages are experienced to the greatest
extent when coin, as in India, is nearly exclusively
of silver, and therefore of great bulk in pro-
portion to its value.' The practical conclusion
to which Mr. Wilson arrives is to recommend the
issue of bank-notes for 10s., £l, £2, £5, £lO, and £3O. Sir
C. Wood approves of this suggestion. Observe how com-
pletely the bullionist party in this recommendation falsify
their own principles. Pitt sanctioned the issue of small
notes, for and £2, in Great Britain. Peel and Overstono
conspired to deprive gncland of these mall note, and

tried unsuccessfully, to deprive Scotland also of them. But
Mr. 'Wilson and Sir C. 'W( od, as they want to develop() the
resources of India, and to raise taxes, recommend small
notes of 10s. and upwards."

And again, " they are quite right in advocating
a paper currency for India, and, indeed, if they wish
to economise coin,' and give the other advantages
on which Mr. WILSON dilates, to recommend notes
of one rupee, which would be pre-eminently suited
to the daily wants' of the Indian population,
among many of whom a rupee is a week's wages.
But they are quite wrong, and we trust the
country and Parliament will let them know that
they are quite wrong, in proposing to introduce
panics as well as Paper Currency; but they accom-
pany their boon by the introduction of the prin-
ciples of PEEL'S iniquitous Bills, which princi-
ples will do nothing but harm. These principles
will operate in India as they do in England.
The Paper Currency, with all the enormous
amount of Bills, Cheques, and Hoondies (the
bills issued by the native money-changers, or
shroffs), will be based on silver—as in England our
Paper Currency and Paper Credit is based on Gold.
Whenever this Silver is withdrawn for hoarding or
exportation, the paper currency will be contracted,
the paper credit system will collapse, and there will
be a Monetary Crisis. A monetary crisis in India
means the reign of famine, starvation, and death
among 200 millions of natives." Let Mr. GLAD-
STONE ponder over this, and look next year in the
face like a man resolved to conquer diffieulties, and
so benefit his country.

_,

ROYAL ITALIAN OPERA.

The first seasonal representation of Mozart's mas-
terpiece, " Il Don Giovanni," with the alterations of
M. Jules Alary, took place on Saturday night. The
announcement of Grisi for her grand part of Donna
Anna was doomed to prove premature ; the gifted
lady being, as was stated in a bill circulated in the
theatre, "suffering from such severe indisposition
as to be quite unable to sing" that evening. Madame
Rudersdorff, it was added, would take her place ;
and she did so accordingly. An apology was also
offered, and the indulgence of the audience was
claimed for Signor Gardoni, who was suffering from
a sore throat, but who nevertheless performed the
part of Don Ottavio very much to the general
satisfaction. The chief novelty of the evening was
Mdlle. Rosa Csillag in the. part of Donna Elvira ;
the next was the first appearance of Madame Penco
this season in the part of Zerlina. Signor Mario
was, as before, the hero of the opera. The part of
Masetto was filled by Signor Polonini, and that of
Il Commendatore by Signor Tagliafico. Signor
Ronconi was the Leporello of the piece, and gave
it quite an individuality apart from that of the
libretto, so full of tact and humour was the per-
formance. It will be seen therefore that, notwith-
standing the abatements adverted to, the east was
an unusually strong one, and that this noble work
of art did not suffer for the lack of consummate
artiste s.

Mdlle. Csillag showed herself a complete mistress
of the style of Mozart. "Ah ! the mi dice," and
the " Mi tradi quell'alma," being splendidly sung.
Her acting too was of the first order.

Madame Rudersdorff's Donna Anna must not go
without notice, although as an impromptu perform-
ance it might claim to do so, when substituting so
great an artist as Grisi, in a character so long iden-
tified with her. She was frequently applauded,
and extorted unexpected honours from the
auditory.

Madame Penco's Zerlina was an intelligent con-
ception of the rustic coquette. She sang the
soprano part of " La ci darem" with much spirit,
and was archly agreeable in " Batti, batti " and
" Vcdrai carino." Her singing was, as a whole,
unexceptionably perfect,

Gardoni, despite the apology made for his sudden
attack of laryngitis, sang the part of Ottavio with
sweetness, omitting some of the more taxing pas-
sages. The house was filled, and the audience in
the best of humours, although the unavoidable ab-
sence of Grisi cast a cloud over the performance.
The band was perfection, and the wondrous con-
ception of Mozart capitally sustained by chorus and
instruments in every detail.