The Sun.
London, England, 1867-12-25 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, WEDNESDAY EVENING, DECEMBER 25, 1867

IHE LATE EDITION of " THE SUN " at
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WL'iLYESDAY, DEC. 25, 1867.

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The approach of Christmas with !its holidays and
social gatherings is always welcome in England,
where old customs, especially if they are associated
with our domestic feeelings, are warmly and stead-
fastly [cherished. It is well that it should be so,
for we have not too many holidays, and if we lost
our traditional Christmas we should find it hard to
find its place. In the press and hurry of modern
life there is not much time for the cultivation of the
more kindly and genial feelings, and it is well
that once a year they should be brought into active
play. What with Christmas parties, Christmas pre-
sents, and Christmas family gatherings, the most

lonely and misanthropical amongst us must once
in the twelvemonth be shaken out of his isolation
and made to acknowledge his kinship with hu-
manity. Even EBENEZER SCROOGE of famous
memory, with all his hatred of Christmas, could
not shut out the genial reminders of the season,
and found it impossible to forget that it was
" merry Christmas." The yeas of grace 1867,
however, does not bring our old friend with such
a pleasant face as usual. The Fenians, if they
have not succeeded in any of their more ambitious
objects, have at least the churlish satisfaction of
knowing that they have produced a sensible effect
on Christmas rejoicings. To some little circles
they have brought bereavement and mourning in
place of
_cheerful laughter and the well-spread
li
board. The quadruple funeral which passed
through Clerkenwell a day or two ago represented
but a small portion of the desolation and misery
which a few reckless and daring miscreants con-
trived to work in the space of a few minutes. Those
who have visited the ruins and caught a glimpse of
the remains of little cheerful firesides suddenly de-
stroyed, and the tokens of simple domestic life tell-
ing their melancholy story to tottering walls and
empty air, will give a thought to the sad Christmas
of the Fenian victims of Clerkenwell. Instead of
jovial reunions and hearty, if humble festivities, they
are spending their Christmas tossing on beds
of constant pain and danger, tended by strange
hands, surrounded by strange faces. They had
little reason a few weeks since to foresee so sad a
close to the year, and it will be long if ever before
they can again spend " a merry Christmas," or
welcome with renewed life and energy " a happy
New Year." Then, in addition to this melancholy
story, the Fenian worthies will contrive to spoil the
Christmas of the many hundreds who have to
guard the property of themselves or others from
attack. The men on duty in many large establish-
ments will not be more inclined to sympathise with
the schemes of the Brotherhood for spending a
dull Christmas among counting houses and
stores. Luckily our authorities are now so much
on the alert, and our population is so
thoroughly aroused from its characteristic apathy in
matters of the kind, that the mischievous conspira-
tors will have less opportunity of putting their ne-
farious schemes into effect. There is no vigilance
like that of officials who feel their own interests
directly concerned in the effectual discharge of their
duties, and in this way we may readily believe that
the thousands of special constables who have within
the last few days enrolled themselves for the pro-
tection of the metropolis will prove very efficient
guardians of the public peace. The strength and
unanimity of the prevailing sentiment has displayed
itself strongly in the eagerness with which volunteers
have pressed forward, and we may hope that their
so doing will convey a useful lesson not only to
the disaffected in the sister country, and to the
Fenians scattered among ourselves, but to the
Americans and Irish Americans across the Atlantic.
Whatever opinion they may have of our constitu-
tion, we are making it quite plain to the world in
general that we are thoroughly satisfied with it
ourselves, and that whatever faults we may find
with our Government and our governors we are not
disposed to entrust the task of Reform to other
hands. The performances of the Fenian Brother-
hood, so far as they have as yet shown themselves,
are not calculated to inspire much confidence

in their administrative capacity any more
than in their mutual confidence and agreement.
Fenianism, when allowed in New York as much
latitude as its leaders could for, soon passed
from the sublime to the ridiculous, and the quarrels
and dissensions of the leaders, and their lavish
appropriation of the funds entrusted to them, pro-
voked the satire and contempt of the keen-witted
Americans. It would not be possible to make the
same experiment here, but their dupes would pro-
bably be as much surprised as any one if they could
see the result of it. The fact of the matter, very,
likely, is that the so-called " dangerous classes,'
who live upon their fellows, are glad to
associate themselves with more mischievous
and turbulent spirits, who have taken up Fenianism
as a profession ; more especially since darkness and
fire are to be the attendant satellites of Fenian
avengers, burglars and pickpockets may find it de-
sirable to become suddenly imbued with a sense of
the wrongs of Ireland.

In other matters the Christmas of 1867 is not
altogether a cheerful one. The exceptional mild-
ness of the season, indeed, has been a blessing to the
poor, but the condition of the East-end parishes,
where chronic destitution always prevails, and
where the dullness of trade has been painfully felt,
is more than usually distressing. Here, again,
too, however national energy and benevolence
came to the rescue, and there is no lack of willing
hearts and hands to succour the needy and comfort
the afflicted. Thus although we have seen gayer
Christmases, we have not seen any that should
give us more confidence and satisfaction, since it
is not in the time of untroubled prosperity that
individuals or institutions can show what they are
really worth, but when anxiety, and annoyance,
and disappointment fail to shake their courage or
to lessen their patriotism, their energy, and their
self-reliance.

It cannot be said that the aspect of things abroad
is very pleasing just now, or can afford those who
at this season take a glance at them comprehensively
any very favourable anticipations of their future,
near or distant. What with one thing or another
there is much to dread in the way of a collisio❑ of
interests, and those who try to render their assist-
ance to one nation can hardly venture to do so
without offending another one. The most pre-
scient politician cannot say that there will not be
war, and the most sanguine cannot really
feel safe in expressing their hopes on the sub-
ject. As one dwells upon the theme what
hosts of recollections throng around, and what dark
memories suggest themselves to us of past wars and
recent struggles for power and sordid motives of
gain. A great deal of the evil that now exists may
be traced to the want of principle that pervades the
Continental Governments, more especially that of
Prussia. We are now reaping the abundant har-
vest of misery and misfortune that that nation
sowed with no sparing hand a few years back.
Denmark may tee her wrongs and injuries avenged
a hundredfold in many of the painful dilem-
mas and difficulties that now environ and
perplex the nations of Europe, paralyse trade, re-
strict commerce, injure the credit, and shake the
confidence of communities. Where fortune has
smiled upon us a great deal of the good has been
counteracted by the sinister accounts and warlike
rumours so rife abroad ; and when, as unhappily has
been the case of late, other things have been proved
adverse, bad has been made worse, and a lesser evil
converted specially into a great calamity. Thus
the celebrated black Friday of last year was
partly owing to the state of affairs incidental
to the forthcoming war between Austria
and Prussia and the expected collision with France.
How often during this current year, so near its
close, have the funds fallen and the Bourse been de-
pressed through this and that report that the dark
and doubtful state of affairs justified. If it were
intended by a moralist to convey a practical warn-

ing of the fatal effects of evil desires and unworthy
endeavours on the part of nations, no less than on
that of individuals, where could he find a more im-
pressive illustration than in the present state of
these countries, supposed some years back to be
at the summit of prosperity and crowned with suc-
cess, present and prospective.
France, to begin with, is not the France of yore ;
she may regain her position and shine forth with
increased force and undiminished lustre, but for the
nonce she is shorn of some of her prestige through
the encroachments of Prussia and the insidious snares
of BISMARCK. Austria has had a heavy loss, indeed,
and though she retains nominally her position among
the countries of Europe, sheis not whatlshe has been.
Italy has in some respects made a decided advance,
but then again she has lost a great part of her
gain through the ill-judged and persistent attacks of
fanatical enthusiasts. Even now she is disturbed
in her councils, and seems likely to lose her ruling
statesmen at a very hazardous and momentous
time. Spain is generally not in a very satisfactory
state, but at present it is worse than usual through
the continual discord promoted by jealous and un-
principled persons. Russia is verging on a great
confusion with the Eastern question in the distance,
and the European nationslooking on in mistrust and
disapproval. Prussia, which may be called the next
successful state by some, is, in reality, far from
being the happiest land, through the want of sin-
cerity that distinguishes its rulers, and the want of
public spirit that characterises its people. We hear
of liberty having made a great stride, but then,
again, we know that Deputies are imprisoned for
speaking their minds, and while we are told of an-
nexation to Prussia being earnestly sought after,
we are told that very little, if any, individu-
ality is allowed to them. Some very short-
sighted politicians have presumed to lec-
ture us upon the superior merits of
foreign nations to our own, but let practice be pre-
ferred to precept, and for which foreign rules or
regulations would an Englishman give up his free-
dom and merge his independence for the show of
liberty which exists under a military despotism or
gagged press, and a conventional Parliament ?
Among the blessings which we regard with peculiar
thankfulness at this season of the year, surely esti-
mated at its right value, and ranked at its iightwortb,
is the real unpretending nature of our institutions.
A glance at foreign nations will convince us of
their immeasurable superiority to our own in what is
most worth prizing. Peace on earth can hardly be
counted among our gifts this Christmas, for there
is strife among ourselves, and many troubles in other
lands. A useful lesson may be learned, at any
rate, even by this adverse condition ; and if right
principles were more the standard of action than
the greed for territory, and if the happiness of the
people were truly sought after among the Kings and
Ministers of the Continent, there would, in all pro-
bability, be a marked improvement in the condition
of things, a consummation devoutly to be hoped
for ; and we trust that next Christmas will be the
dawn, and hail the dayspring of better things, and
be illumined by a brighter prospect.

WE may congratulate ourselves upon the fact
Int the small portion of our Abyssinian army
which has been able to get actually into the coun-
try has fared well enough. So far there has been
io resistance and no enemy. The great physical
lifficulties, especially want of roads and of water,
ppear to have lain on the threshold of their march.
From the shore of the Red Sea to Senafe was, no
loubt, up-hill work. A strong pull must have been
necessary before the advanced brigade had reached
twice the height of Mount Snowdon for Senafe is
T,OOO feet above sea-level—along the difficult and
iangerous mountain pass of Koomaylee. Once
there, however, on the elevated table land,
their course promises to be smoother than we might
have expected. A solitary native chief of the Pro-
vince of Tigre was reported to be in their vicinity
at the head of 7,000 men, but he has professed a
friendly disposition. The conciliatory proclamation
of gir ROBERT NATTER is said to have had an ex-
cellent effect ; the appearance of the troops has
produced a respectful impression on the natives ;
and, above all, the brigade is quite able to take
care of itself.

So far all is well. But we must not fail to
remember that the bulk of the Abyssinian expe-
dition, at our latest advices, had not yet quitted
Annesley Bay, a considerable portion of it had not
arrived so far, and that Sir RoßEitr NAPIER, tile
commander-in-chief, was directing operations
from Bombay. While we have been congratu-
lating ourselves on the success of the pioneer
force, there has been anything but cele-
rity and good management with respect to
the-main body of the expedition. Our difficulty,
it'seems, was not to open up a way into the country,
but to make use of it after it had been opened up.
Although a million sterling had been expended on
the Land Transport service, and though our autho-
rities had three months during which to mature
their preparations, when the time came to follow
up the Advance Brigade it could not be done.
Carriages were not ready, store-ships were unloaded,
the Persian and Egyptian labourers were worthless,
and everything was in the state of confusion which
always ensues when there is no paramount autho-
rity. During the whole month of November there
was no fresh arrival of men, and the whole force
to be organised, provided for, and sent forward
was only 2,000 men. Yet this seems to have taxed
the administrative ability to the utmost, and we
are not without some anxiety to know how it will
deal with the larger force, for the advent of which
every arrangement should have been completed.
Time was important, but this delay has been
attended by a still greater loss. The low country
on which the troops were encamped proved ex-
tremely healthy to the men, but owing to the want
of forage and water it has been death to the mules,
horses, and camels. These invaluable animals
were dying in great numbers, and apparently the
only hope of saving them was to press forward
promptly to the elevated ground. The fact that
mules required water and forage seems to have
been overlooked in the conduct of the expeditiOn.
Thousands of them were let loose on a sandy
plain, under a scorching heat, and with the atten-
tions of one muleteer to some fifteen animals, and
the natural consequence has been that they have
strayed or perished by hundreds. The British tax-
payer has been providing carcases for Abyssinian
vultures at the rate in some cases of £6O
a piece, and the complaint is that the vultures
cannot devour them fast enough. It is to be
remembered that this waste is twofold. Expen-
sive means have been provided for meeting this
want. Condensers have been sent out, but up to
the 28th of November not one had been erected.
Little as we knew of Abyssinia, Massowali was at
least accessible, and Annesley Bay need not have
been a terra incognita. The most ordinary foresight
could have seen the folly of merely accumulating
men and military nsaUriel at such a place as this
without arranging for the subsistence of men and
animals.
How does it come to pass that we begin nearly
every war with a blunder ? That a people
accustomed to every species of military enter-
prise, and possessing unlimited resources, should
commence each fresh undertaking as though it was
the first ? On a small scale, we have here at
Annesley Bay the Crimean errors repeated. We
are unwilling to believe that the English mind is
devoid of that faculty for organising which con-
tinental nations possess. But it is clear we have
much to learn and much to reform. Our military
expenditure at the rate of nearly £1 per inhabitant
of the United Kingdom is not enough to produce
tolerable efficiency. With King TREODPRIIS the

consequences may not be serious, but at some
critical moment we may find these initial blunders
fatal. In the latest European wars victory has
followed the first success. Austria owed her com-
plete humiliation in a seven weeks' war in a great
degree to having allowed Prussia to anticipate her.
She never recovered the first reverses. We incur
the same risk while our military system remains
without organisation ; and it is becoming a more
pressing question every day how long this state of
divided responsibility and inexplicable blundering
shall be allowed to continue. The task may be
Herculean, but a reform is needed, and it will be
well if this expedition contributes to bring it
about. It seems little likely to enhance our
prestige.

LATEST INTELL MENCE.

(REUTER'S TELEGRAMS.)

AMERICA.

NEW YORK, Doc. 24, 6 p.m.

The Cimbria has arrived out.
COMAIERCIAL INTELLIGENCE.

Closing Prices—Gold, 134. Sterling exchange on
London, 110+. 5-20 United States Bonds, 1081 ;
Illinois, 1301; Erie, 72i. Cotton—Middling Up-
land, 151.

PEtILADE LPHIA, Dec. 24.

Petroleum, standard white, 24.

ITALY.

FLORENCE, Dec. 25.

Earl Clarendon left yesterday evening for Rome.
Lcrd Bloomfield has arrived in Florence.
M. Boittel, Chief of the French Police, has also

income tax. This was imposed during the winter
session of 1798-99, at £lO per cent., or 2s. in the
pound, and so it remained on until 1802, which
was the Peace of Amiens, the Treaty of which was
signed on the Ist of October, 1801, and the late
Lord Sidmouth, at that time Mr. Addington, and
who was then Prime Minister (the illustrious
William Pitt having resigned the year previously,
on account of the well-known disagreement
between him and King George the Third
upon the Catholic Question), came down
to the house and voted and carried nein.
con. a total repeal of the income tax. On
the breaking out of the war again, however, ;in
May, 1803, it was put on again at Is. in the pound,
or half its former amount ; i. e., £5 per cent. per
annum, instead of £lO per cent. per annum, and so
it continued for two years, until 1805, when the
war had got a great footing again and the immortal
Nelson was killed at the battle of Trafalgar,
and Pitt had again for the last time become
Prime Minister, and then the impost was further
increased to 6i per cent., or ls. 4d. in the pound.
But a few weeks, not to add days, after England
had given the remains of Nelson a public funeral in
St. Paul's Cathedral, and while " the fatal wound
which caused dismay around" was piercing the
hearts of a brave and generous people, William Pitt
was gathered to his fathers, " his sun having gone
down while it was yet day," and he, too, was buried
at the public expense in Westminster Abbey. What
followed all readers of the history of the last sixty
years full well know. The Whigs, or rather that
celebrated and well-known Broad-bottomed Govern-
ment, came into office; and as I have often in for-
mer letters remarked to you, the Whigs, who had
raved and stormed at the income-tax when first im-
posed by Pitt in 1798, were only too glad to put it
on again at the same amount that Pitt had origi-
nally levied it, 2s. in the pound. The Whigs, as
a party, have invariably been followers, but
never originators. Their conduct with regard
to the old income tax of 1799 and 1806 was
something after the fashion of an old maid,
who, so long as she remains a spinster, rails at and
condemns her own country, because she does not
consider it has done her full justice; but no sooner
does she get spliced, and contracts her late mar-
riage, than her country, which has heretofore been
everything that was odious and detestable, is
now everything that is charming, delightful,
and happy. So the Whigs, who while in
opposition had made the income tax their
stock in trade against the Government, were the
first to make it their stock in trade to suit their
own purposes in carrying on the business of
the country, when they became possessed of
the sweet and savoury things of office. They
attempted to do the same thing in 1848, and
failed. " Serve them right" was the verdict of the
country against them. The income tax, at the
time of the last-named date, might fairly have been
called the sour grapes of the Whigs. Perhaps I
may here be allowed just to digress a little further,
and to show that the conduct of the Whigs with
regard to the income tax has been quite on a
piece with regard to their conduct on almost all
other subjects, religious and political. They drove
out one King and decapitated another, and
yet they were the first, on their return to office in
1830, after a banishment to the regions of the
Opposition of (with very little intermission) 70 or
80 years, to vote no less than two palaces and
£lOO,OOO per annum to Adelaide, the Queen Con-
sort of William IV., in the event of her surviving
ber royal husband. They too, in 1850, on the death
of the late Duke of Cambridge, were the first to
vote £24,000 per annum to the House of Cambridge
alone. £27,000 per annum had fallen into the
Treasury by the decease of the Duke of Cambridge
—the country was a gainer, therefore, by only
£3,000 per annum—no small sum to save. It is
true the Whigs confiscated the estates of the Crown,
and at proper intervals have vindicated the majesty
of the people ; but nevertheless they have been
glad enough always to serve Royalty when it suited
their purpose. They who had spent their
lives, from childhood almost to old age, in
advocating Catholic emancipation, were the
first to cry shame on Cardinal Wiseman
for the so-called Papal Aggression. To return,
however, to the income tax. This tax, after having
been increased to £lO per cent. by the so-called
Broad-bottomed Government, in 1806, was fixed
to remain on until the sth of April, after a general
treaty of peace, which was actually the case, as it
remained on until April 5, 1815, being the first year
after the general peace of 1814. In April, 1815,
it was reimposed for one year in order "to wind
up," as the saying is. Now in 1816 came the
violent battle against it, when Lord Liverpool pro-
posed
to make it a perpetual tax at 5 per cent.
Sir William Curtis, and divers other Ministerialists,
all went over to the Opposition for the purpose of
voting against the income tax, which was, after a
somewhat sharp discussion, at once dashed to the
ground and banished for a quarter of a century, until
reimposed by Peel in 1842. So very unpopular was
the tax that, on the motion of Lord Brougham—
then popularly known by the name of Mr. Henry
Brougham —every paper connected with the tax
was burned. And I have been told by those who
were living at the time that the cheering of the
people continued from the lobby of the old House
of Commons to Charing-cross, so intensely unpo-
pular was the income tax. That a golden opportu-
nity was then lost for making it (the property tax)
a good, sound, permanent, substantial tax, few can
deny who have studied the history of the period ;
i.e., few sound politicians. The heavy weight of
indirect taxation which England groaned under
from 1816 down to the passing of the old Reform
Bill in 1832—or, more properly speaking, until the
introduction of the new commercial tariff of Sir R.
Peel in 1842—was something fearful to contemplate.
So fearfully was all kinds of food taxed in those
good old days that a large number of persons were
kept without the common necessaries of life, and
were in fact in a state of complete starvation.
When the aforesaid tax was laid on again in 1842
by Peel the emergency was equal to a time of war,
albeit we were in a state of profound European
peace, but not universal peace, for, as I remarked
to you the other day, we were engaged in two
distant Eastern wars ; and only the very week
Sir R. Peel proposed the income tax accounts were
received in England of one of the most bloody and
disastrous engagements ever known since the days
of the old American war, in the reign of George
111. Now it never can be fair to tax precarious an d
professional incomes in the same proportion as in-
comes derived from fixed and independent property.
The gross injustice is so very apparent on the face
of it that I trust it is wholly impossible for it
to escape the eye of a Reformed Parlia-
ment. To expect, or even to desire, any altera-
tion before the Ist of January, 1869, is wholly un-
desirable, as well as being quite out of the quesdon ;
for it is obviously unfair to tax people who work for
their living by the sweat of their brove,-subject as
all professions and tradesmen are to all the whims,
caprices, and changes of human nature, as well as
leading a life of complete self-denial, and bearing
in mind, as all politicians ought to do, that the
least ailment or disease of the brain may deprive a
man of gaining his livelihood for ever. Moreover,
none who gain their living from trade or profes-
sional sources can 'ever tell exactly what their real
income is—and albeit they tell you, you may take
the average calculation of time years or so ; never-
theless this by no means does away with
the present gross unfairness of the present
mode of levying the income and property
tax. Let a dead onslaught, therefore, be
made against our present income and property tax
at the general election, which is most certain to
take place in the early part of the year 1869, and
let all people who feel deeply on the subject, as you
and I do, make it a sine qua non with their consti-
tuents before giving the favoured candidate their
vote, on the especial cond'tion of his bringing in a
measure for the readjustment and reassessment of the
income tax. Direct taxation, provided it is but fairly
assessed, is of all modes of taxation the most fair, the
most just, and the most equitable. To say that it
is impossible to make any distinction between fixed
and precarious incomes is to my mind, as I have no
doubt it is to yours, the very height of absurdity.
On another occasion I will show yo, or attempt to