The Sun.
London, England, 1867-04-05 00:00:00

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THE SUN, LONDON, FRIDAY EVENING, APRIL 5, 1867.

I \OG LICENCE.—The COMMISSIONERS of
INLAND REVENUE Give Notice, that from and
after the sth of April inst., every person keeping a dog is
required to pay a licence duty of ss. for each dog.
The penalty for keeping a dog without licence is „C 5.
The person in whose custody, charge, or possession, or
in whose house or premises any dog shall be found or seen,
is deemed to be the person who keeps such dog, unless the
contrary is proved.
Post-office orders or postage stamps for the duty may be
remitted to the Collectors of Inland Revenue at Somerset
House or Tower-hill, or Gresham House, Old Broad-street,
with a statement of the name and abode of the applicant.,
on receipt of which t licence will be forwarded. Forms of
application may be obtained at any post-office.
Licenses may bo obtained in London and its vicinity at
the following places :

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

and the concern we feel at the growth of our expen-
diture, which is the first characteristic of Mr. Dis-
raelfs budget, is balanced by our satisfaction at

Tums.—The Chancellor of the Exchequer dis-
charged last night a matter of business in a busi-
ness-like manner. His method of reviewing the
national fir.ances, prospectively and retrospectively,
was simple to severity. Compared with the ornate
rhetoric of his predecessor, it amounted almost to
baldness. At the same time never was a Budget
made more intelligible to an audience. There was
not, indeed, much to tell, but it was told with such
a just distribution of its details that the mind was
in no case fatigued with irrelevant disquisitions be-
fore the central part of the story was approached.
Mr. Disraeli reminded the committee that a crisis of
great and prolonged severity had been encountered
since Mr. Gladstone forecast the financial future of
the year which ended on • Sunday last. We could
not have been surprised had the commercial disasters
of the summer of 1866 brought the income of the
year far below the estimates of the late Chancellor
of the Exchequer. The contrary, however, has
happened. Instead of receiving £67,013,000, we
have received £69,434,000. Our readers know how
the increase has been effected. ,['he Customs and
Excise divide it between them. The other items of
revenue brought into the Exchequer are almost
what had been anticipated, but the two branches
of receipt which depend on the power of consump-
tion of the people—the two which vary with the
prosperity and welfare of the mass of the nation,
produced £2,385,000 out of the £2,421,000, by
which the actual income exceeded the estimates
formed of it. The provisions for the national ex-
penditure unfortunately grew as the year went on.
The original votes of last spring were swollen by
supplementary estimates in July, for a considerable
part of which it is but fair to say the late Govern-
ment must share the responsibility of their succes-
sors, and at the beginning of this Session it was
found necessary to ask Parliament for further sup-
plies. Altogether the sum of £67,031,000 was voted,
although it is some consolation to know that only
£66,780,000 was called for. The actual surplus of
the past year was thus no less than £2,654,172.
The surplus of the coming year might have been
estimated at even more than this, had it been found
possible to keep the votes for the several services
within the limits of last year's expenditure. Un-
happily they have grown so that we are now
spending half-a-million every week on our army
and navy, and thus, in spite of the cessation of
the dead-weight annuity, and a consequent sav-
ing of very nearly £300,000 during the current
twelvemonth, the Chancellor of the Exchequer
has to provide for an expenditure of £68,134,000.
His estimate of income is £69,340,000, or within
£90,000 the same as the revenue of last year, and
he has thus .a disposable surplus of £1,206,000. Mr.
Disraeli proposes to apply £210,000 out of this to
the reduction and simplification of the duties on
marine insurances, which are henceforth to be three-
pence per cent. in all cases except time policies
running more than six months,- when they are to be
sixpence per cent. ; a further sum of £750,000 he
asks Parliament to devote to the reduction of the
National Debt by taking up " Operation A." of Mr.
Gladstone's scheme of Terminable Annuities dropped
last July; and the balance, or £246,000, he would
reserve as a surplus against possible contingencies.
Mr. Disraeli's Budget turns upon the votes for the
military and naval services and the scheme of deal-
ing with the National Debt. He was judiciously
reticent in noticing the expenditure of the coming
year. One of the uses, however, of an annual
financial statement is that it forces upon the atten-
tion of all men the cost of the different branches of
Government. The votes for the Army and Navy
in 1867-8 amount to £26,179,000, and we should
not, perhaps, feel so dissatisfied at this sum, enor-
mous as it is, were we more assured that we re-
ceived our money's worth in exchange for the money
expended: It is no doubt true that Europe is at
present an " armed camp ;" but the phrase affords
us only barren consolation. We feel for the Chan-
cellor of the Exchequer in being called upon to pro-
vide for the increased votes for the two services, in
consequence of which a disposable surplus which
might have been nearly three millions has shrunk to
£1,206,000. Under the circumstances Mr. Disraeli
deserves the credit which his predecessor in office
frankly gave him for having devoted the greater
part of the sum left at his command to the re-
duction of our permanent debt. The dropping
of the Dead Weight Annuity no doubt made it
a national duty to take some fresh step towards
a new system of reduction, but duty is not
always cheerfully obeyed, and there are many
members in the House who would. have preferred

the provision made for the reduction of the debt,
which is its second and better feature.
TILE " WESTMINSTER GAZETTE " ON TIIE TEMPER-
ANCE MOVEMENT IN THE DIOCESE OF FERNS.—
As the Sunday liquor traffic is one of the great
topics of the day, we wish for the more satisfac-
tory adjustment of this question, and for the
guidance and instruction of those whose exer-
tions are directed towards a reformation of this
abuse, to call public attention to a precedent
bearing upon it, which, in our opinion, cannot be
too well known. We refer to the temperance
movement in the diocese of Ferns. At the recent
temperance meeting held at Guildhall, the Arch-
bishop of Westminster made some very telling
allusions to the closing of the public-houses on
Sundays, which, he said, the Archbishop of
Cashel and Dr. Furlong, the Bishop of Ferns—
by the force of moral suasion alone—were en-
abled to effectin their dioceses. This movement is
deserving of notice, as well on account of the success
with which so praiseworthy an effort has been
crowned, as for the inestimable benefits it has
conferred on so large a portion of the Irish people.
Were we asked to name the country which has
suffered most both in point of morality and mate-
rial wealth by frequent habits of intemperance,
our attention would at once be directed to the Irish
nation. The obedience and self-abnegation, how-
ever, which characterize their conduct in the ex-
ample we are about to adduce, make amends, to a
considerable extent, for the excesses into which
their impulsive nature, or, more properly speaking,
their poverty, may have too often led them. In
fact, they clearly prove to us that the prevalent
intemperance in that country is more the result of
habit, or example, than any natural fondness
on the part of the people for spirituous liquors.
Much of their intemperance is owing to the cha-
racteristic hospitality of the people, and to that
chronic poverty under which they are obliged to
seek out the means of subsistence. True, genuine
hospitality has ever been the leading feature of
the Irish character ; and no peasant, however lim-
ited in circumstance, thinks he has received a
friend as he ought, unless plenty of a certain
beverage—well-known to the people—is forth-
coming. 'This is an old custom with the Irish
peasantry—which is rendered venerable in their
esteem by the usage of ages, ar.d the example of
their fathers—which has suffered no abatement
either by the growing expense in the purchase of
liquor, or the increasing pressure of their own
circumstances. It is also not to be wondered at
that a people doomed to so much misery, conse-
quent upon the worst species of poverty that ever
sapped the energies, and blunted the aspirations
of a generous race, should seek a temporary relief
from the pressure of long-enduring distress in
drink. If the Irish people, however, are more
addicted to habits of inebriety than the inhabit-
ants of any other country, they also possess to
a greater extent the redeeming quality of self-re-
straint. About ten years ago, when Dr. Furlong
was consecrated Bishop of Ferns, he was so hor-
rified at the scenes of inebriety that desecrated
the Sabbath day, and almost profaned the sanc-
tuary with the blood of drunken brawlers from the
public-house, and foreseeing the dreadful conse-
quences which would inevitably result were such
a state of things to continue, he immediately com-
menced the reformation of this abuse in his dio-
cese. He began by laying the bane and antidote
of the evil before the eyes of his flock. He brought
forward facts from personal observation and the
history of the country which fully satisfied the
people that their poverty, sickness, and, in many
instances, their crimes, were attributable to their
attachment to the spirituous liquors. By an appeal
to their religious sympathies, and by the force of
moral persuasion alone, lie succeeded in closing
the shops on Sundays and holidays throughout
his extensive diocese. When lie first intimated
his intention of introducing this measure, there
were persons no doubt who naturally dreaded the
consequences. Many complained that their whole
means of subsistence would be completely taken
away, as it depended upon what they sold on
Sundays. But when the bishop assured them
that their fortunes would sustain no diminution,
by a cheerful resignation to the will of Providence,
they paid all the obedience of a simple and devoted
nature to his authority. And what is the conse-
quence ? Though ten years have since rolled
away, no one was ever yet heard to complain of
having lost a fraction by the movement. But, on
the contrary, those who were the least satisfied and
most apprehensive of sustaining the greatest
losses, are now the best contented, and perceive
that they have profited most by the regulation. Go
where you will, not a shop is open, not a drop:of
liquor is sold, unless in cases of absolute neces-
sity. The chapels are frequented, innocent
amusements are substituted for wicked faction
fights, and peace and harmony reign in those
places that once were steeped with the blood of
drunken wretches. And how is this movement
sustained ? Simplyiby the authority of the bishop,
the co-operation of the priests, and the obedience
of the people. What a glorious renovation of a
nation's virtue is this ! We call it national, since
we understand that the other members of the hier-
archy are about to follow the example of the
venerable Bishop of Ferns. This abstinence
speaks well for the power of the Catholic religion
over the Irish people. It is an answer to those
objections which are so frequently made use of
by the Whalleys and the Newdegates, that the
power which the Catholic Church exercises over
the Irish mind has an injurious effect on the
social and political condition of the country. How
fortunate itis for the peace of the Irish people
that they are so amenable to that influence. Sad,
indeed, would it be for such a people were the
authority of the Church incapable of restraining
them from engaging in rash'and hopeless rebellion
against the Constitution of their country ; but we
trust that the. folly and wickedness of this Fenian
outbreak will make even these misguided victims
repent of havinglvio ated the laws of the Church
and of the State. The present distracted state
of thingsin Ireland ought to be a warning to
statesmen of the necessity of adopting more prac-
tical schemes of legislation towards that country
for the future than they have for the past. It also
tells us there is something radically wrong in a
system of government that has failed to win
public confidence—that has engendered and per-
petuated a spirit of distrust and anatagonism in the
breasts of a people so open to kindness. Without,
however, attempting to vindicate the character
of Ireland from the charge of intemperance to
which we have already alluded, we will merely
point to the obedience, self-abnegation, and love
of order which characterized their conduct in the
diocese of FernS. Will the people of England,
who boast of their temperate use of spirituous
liquors, make the same sacrifices, and, hearken;
ing to the voice of their pastors, close their public-
' houses on the Sabbath day ? It is more thand
doubtful that such a reformation can be .effecte ,
unless by the interference of the Legislature.
Though the Legislature can do much towards
re-
forming this abuse, still we are fully impressed
with the belief that there will be much backslid-
ing and hankering after the old habit. When
people are forced into measures against their
I will, rather than led to adopt them of their own
accord; they never lose an opportunity of making
encroachments upon them ; but when theircon
duct is influenced by their religious principles
the case is entirely different. For religion alone
can enable men to bear up against the frailties of
nature. Dr. Furlong built the success of his great
movement upon the respect which his people en-
tertain for their religion. Surely the example of
the bishop, and the obedience of the people, cannot
be too highly extolled, or too widely known. Both
deserve the highest gratitude ; but we are sure
nobler motives than human praise, and human
admiration, have influenced the conduct of either.
The name of Bishop Furlong will ever be embalmed
in the grateful recollection of the people on whom
he conferred such great and lasting benefits.

Somerset House Collector's Office.
Tower-bill

Gresham House, Old
Broad-street
Mile-end Surveyor's Office, 118, Mile-end-
road.
Dalston
Dal ston- road.
Islington lnland Revenue Office, 6, Pullen's-

row.

Highgate and Hamp f
Surveyor's Office, 21, Harrington-
stead street, Hampstead-road.
Paddington Surveyor's Office, 18, Paddington-

green.
Kensington Surveyor's Office, 25, Upper Philli-

more-place.
Vauxhall Surveyor's Office, Hanover-place,
Clapham-road.
Camberwell lnland Revenue Office, 95', Hill-
street, Peckham.
Southwark
43, Somerset-street,
Portman-square Surveyor's Office.
WM. CORBETT, Secretary.
Inland Revenue, Somerset House,
London, April 4, 1867.

the popularity of assisting in a diminution of taxa-
tion. Mr. Disraeli chose the policy of alleviating
the permanent burden of the nation, and the amount
left at his disposal towards reduction of taxation
was necessarily trifling. if the duties on Marine
Insurance were not the most onerous imposts ia our
financial system, they were sufficiently oppressive to
require revision, and it would, perhaps, be difficult
to spend £200,000 better than by reducing them to
a moderate and nearly uniform rate. Mr. Ayrton
pleaded the cause of the metropolitan hackney car-
riages, and Mr. Marsh advocated a mitigation of
minor licences ; nor can any one who has measured
the burdens of the smaller shopkeepers and cab-
drivers of London deny that they have considerable
claims to attention. In another year we may hope
that something will be done for their relief ; but the
narrowness of the means at Mr. Disraeli's command
is a conclusive answer to any proposal for the dimi-
nution of taxation. The same remark applies, only
with greater force, to Mr. Denman's plea for at-
torneys, and while we join in I\lr. Hubbard's regret
that nothing has been done towards abolishing the
fire insurance duty, the reasons for deferring its
consideration are unanswerable. The propriety of
appropriating the greater part of the surplus to the
reduction of debt was questioned last night by Mr.
Laing and Sir George Bowyer, but will, we believe,
be generally admitted. The fact that nearly
£300,000 of the surplus arises from the extinction of
the dead weight annuity cught to conclude the ar-
gument. We inherit this year the fruit of the self-
denial of former years, and are bound to consider
our successors in turn. If Mr. Laing's argument
that taxes remitted " fructify in the pockets of the
people" were grounded on fact, something might be
urged against paying off any part of our debt,
though even then Mr. Gladstone's retort that debt
paid off fructifies as much as taxes remitted would
be sound. Were the fundholder paid off, he would
invest his capital just as the taxpayer invests his
savings. Every one, however, must be awarethatthe
remission of a small amount of taxation only pro-
duces increased expenditure, and the tax remitted is
not saved. The objection to the mode of reducing
the debt adopted by Mr. Disraeli from Mr. Glad-
stone's scheme of last year appeared last night
to command greater support, though it is far less
real than Mr. Laing's argument would represent it.
Part of the National Dent consists of a sum of
£24,000,000, owing to the National Debt Commis-
sioners, who, in their turn, owe a larger sum to the
trustees of the savings-banks. Interest on this sum
is paid to the Commissioners at the rate of 3 per
cent., or £720,000 a year. It is proposed that they
should be paid annuities amounting to £1,776,000,
and terminating in 1885, by which time the capital
debt would be extinguished. This may be remem-
bered as Mr. Gladstone's " Operation A," and Mr.
Disraelipa r t o
fhis p r
predecessorsudentl y a bs
, ta nsc
hs
ef
mr frown
rrdhoep
ssi something iething worse, since it Fund in disguise. It
last year was revived last night, that the scheme was
nothing
indeed, but
the old Sinking
tied the nation to a bargain from which it could not
recede. Even Mr. Laing ventured on the statement
that it would create engagements which must be
maintained under all circumstances. It is somewhat
remarkable that Mr. Gladstone, while defending the
reduction of debt, should not have more clearly stated
the short answer to these objections. The National
Debt Commissioners are but the Chancellor of the
Exchequer under another name, and the scheme Mr.
Disraeli has adopted is but a bargain between his
right hand and his left. The annuities still to
run may at any time be converted back into the
interest on their capitalised value, and the impolicy
of borrowing money at heavy rates to pay off an easy
debt, which was the cardinal fault in the management
of the old Sinking Fund, will thus be avoided. At
the same time the capital, which actually has been
repaid, will not exist as a nominal asset upon which
a needy Chancellor of the Exchequer can fall back
without the knowledge of Parliament that the debt
has been increased. The operation of the scheme
can be suspended at any moment of difficulty, and
its merit is that it throws the fact that the debt is
being reduced into the background, and thus gives
no opportunity for those demands for reduced taxa-
tion which members seeking the favour of their
constituents are prone to raise in season and out of
season. The small extent of the scheme may be a
matter of regret, and, compared with the gigantic
efforts made by the United States, upon which
Mr. Gladstone yesterday dilated, it is sufficiently
trifling ; but were its operation greatly extended,
the objection that the taxpayer would make a better
use of the money exacted from him would become
weighty. We are content to approve a plan which
is unexceptionable while limited as it is in extent,

THE DIPLOMATIC SEILVICE.—It is rumoured that
the following changes are to bo made in the Diplomatic
Services consequent on the resignation of Lord Cowley :
—Lord Lyons to be Ambassadorat Paris; Mr. Elliot, from
Florence, to be promoted to Constantinople ; Sir Augustus
Paget, from Lisbon, to be transferred to Florence ; Sir C.
Wylie, late her Majesty's Minister at Hanover, to be ap-
pointed in the same capacity to Lisbon.—Owl.
lADvEßTHEmENT.]—Holloway's Pills.—Conscientious
Conviction.—No investment of money can bo so profitable
as that which ensures good health. It has beenestablished
beyond dispute that Holloway's Pills, which cost but a
trifle, will successfully wrestle with and overthrow dis-
ease. In all the many forms in which dyspepsia or indi-
gestion presents itself, it may be thoroughly removed by
these purifying and gentle aperient pills, assisted by a
diet which must be simple in quality and moderato in
quantity. • Long indisposition, resulting from defective
appetite or imperfect assimilation, yields to this efficient
treatment; and nausea, disagreeable tastes in the mouth,
headache, and the annoying collection of phlegm which
plagues the dyspeptic in the morning, will be banished by ,
these balsamic and strengthening Pills.