The Sun.
London, England, 1832-11-03 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF ME PUBLIC JOURNALS.

We are pleased to find that the example of
the inhabitants of the parish of St. Paul's, Co-
vent-garden is about to be followed in that of
St. James, and that a committee has been ap-
pointed to re-value the parish, with a view to
the placing of the houses of the nobility and gen•
try on something like the same footing with that
on which the houses of the middling classes are
placed. A correspondent, W. T., in endea-
vouring to trace the source of the inequality of
assessments, has stumbled on another equally
glaring partiality. The Act of Parliament lay-
ing down the rule for rating in the case of the
assessed taxes, has reference to the rating for
poor rates. If the aristocracy have withdrawn
their houses from the assessed taxes, he concludes
they have also withdrawn them from the poor
rates, county rates, &c. This is a subject that
must he looked into. It has been often remarked
that London alone pays one half of the whole as-
sessed taxes of the country. This is only to be
accounted for by the supposition that in the me-
tropolis the valuation approximates the rack-rent,
whereas,elsewhere, the valuation is greatly below it.
A gentleman who lately went to Dorsetshire for
his health took a house there at a rent of 501.
per annum. He found that it was rated to the
assessed taxes at only 101. In any of the pa-
rishes in the metropolis or its neighbourhood, a
house paying 50/. rent would have been rated at
40/. at least. When the Jury Bill for Scotland
was first framed, the qualification for Special
Jurors was the possessing of a house rated to the
assessed taxes at 301. per annum. It so hap-
pened that, in one county, and that by no means
one of the smallest in Scotland, there was not
one person possessed of the qualification. The
parish of Lewisham, in. Kent, of which the
population in 1831 was 9,659, pays, according
to a late Parliamentary Return, considerably
more than the double of the assessed taxes paid
by the great town of Paisley, in Scotland, with
nearly 60,000 inhabitants. There can be no
proportion between the wealth of Lewisham and
Paisley. The annual value of real property in
Lewisham, assessed to the property tax in 1815,
was 27,0071., while that of Paisley at the same
period was 75,1251. In short, there is a gene-
ral system of connivance throughout most parts
of the country. The surveyors and assessors
either dare not or will not do their duty. But
they make amends for their indulgence to the
Nobility and Gentry, by their excessive rigour
in the metropolis and neighbourbood.—Mor,
ing Chronicle.

By the arrival of the steam-packet, which left
Rotterdam on Wednesday last, we have not as
yet been made acquainted with the final deci-
sion of the Court of the Hague as to the reten-
tion or surrender of Antwerp—its retention by
force, or its surrender without a struggle. The
time for announcing this decision expired yes.
terday (the 2d inst.), and therefore if that deci-
sion conveys an assent to the proposition of
England and France, it cannot be long delayed.
The steam-boat which carried over the last de
spatches from the British Government to Hol-
land remained at Helvoetsluys for the answer.
The Dutch Government had received on Sunday
night a copy of the convention ratified in Lot►-
don this day se'nnight, and had employed Mon-
day and Tuesday in deliberating on the conduct
which it ought to pursue in the new circum-
stances in which it was placed. The result of
these deliberations cannot be delayed for more
than a day or two. In the mean time public
alarm, as usually happens, has outrun diplomatic
decision, and inferences have been drawn from se-
veral unimportant circumstances which their nature
and direct bearing by no means warrant. The
steam-boat,owned by Dutchmen (the Batavier),
has not ret urned in its regular turn. What then ?
May it hot be detained (as it often has been be-
fore) for the despatches ofthe Dutch Government ?
But the mate and the stewardess, it is said, who
are English, have left the Batavier, from an
apprehension that an immediate declaration of
war would prevent their return to England.
Surely the apprehensions of these two persons
are not decisive proof of Dutch hostilities.
Again, we are informed that the British Consul
had given warning to the Captains of English
vessels in the Dutch waters to be ready to sail,
and to the British merchants in the Dutch ports
to be ready to move their establishments on
the shortest notice. This was a prudent pre-
caution, which the Consul, in his official capa-
city, was bound to take on the probable con-
tingency of a rupture between the two coun-
tries, but does not prove that this functionary
had any particular information en the designs of
the Court of the Hague beyond that of other
well-instructed individuals. We are not, of
course, so absurd as to resist the proof of facts ;
we merely say that these facts are not decisive.
We might pass in review all other circumstances
on which public anxiety has hung the certainty
of approaching hostilities, and show that they
implied no positive information ; but the task
would be almost useless, as within the next two
or three days, or probably before our next pub-
lication, all reasoning and conjecture must yield
to official announcement on the subject. In de-
claring that as yet nothing certain is known on this
side of the water, we beg to enter, by anticipation,
our protest against being considered as sponsors for
the good sense and reasonable resolves of his Dutch
Majesty,or against the imputation of having given
any voucher for his repentance at the last hour.
If we were to infer the future conduct of the king
of Holland from what we know to be his direct
interest, or were to take as sincere the repeated
pledges of his desire to make peace on reason-
able terms, we should not hesitate even now to
say that he would yield to the summons of the
two great Powers at present arrayed against him.
But we are not prepared to deny that there are
many indications of an opposite resolution, and
we can easily allow that the stubborness which
has hitherto braved the menaces may for a short
time defy the arms of the two Powers which have
united to bring his Dutch Majesty to better
councils. At any rate, let us not be alarmed at
the sinister auguries attempted to be drawn by
an Evening Paper from the conduct of the other
three Powers of the Conference which have de-
clined to become parties to our mode of enforc-
ing against him the execution of the treaty to
which they had all agreed. We copy from that
Paper what is called the dissent of the Russian
Plenipotentiaries, which, in fact, states nothing,
reveals nothing, and menaces nothing with which
we were not previously acquainted. We never
saw anything so ridiculously slight as this foun-
dation, or this scaffolding for a theory of a Eu-
ropean war. It is quite evident that after the
five Powers had agreed to the treaty of the 15th
of November, 1831,—after they had endea-
voured in vain, by repeated special missions to
the Hague, to procure the assent of the King of
Holland,—and after they had fruitlessly tried, by
modifications in the articles, to bring him to treat
with Belgium for an amicable arrangement,—

nothing remained but to enforce theiraward, or to
abandon tl►e result of their labours, amid the
scorn and derision of the world, to the chances
of a war which they had for two years been ne-
gotiating to prevent. In this situation of
affairs, the three absolute Powers of the Con-
ference seemed inclined, from their peculiar con-
nexion with the Court of the Hague, to go no
further than a pecuniary mulct to induce his
Dutch Majesty to accept of their finished arbi-
tration ; while the Cabinets of France and Eng-
land, being nearer Holland, not havi►►g the same
ties with the Dutch Court, and, moreover, be-
ing more deeply interested in the menaced
hostilities between the conflicting parties in the
Netherlands, resolved on more active and effec-
tive measures of coercion. Hence the conven-
tion of the 23d tilt. between the two latter
Powers—a convention to which they alone are
parties, and to which from. ace whole tenour of
the latter negotiations in Downing-street, they
did not, and could not, expect the active concur-
rence of the absolute Courts. From the moment
that this convention was signed and ratified, the
Conference of London was, of course, at an
end, or virtually dissolved ; and nothing can be
more natural than for the Russian Plenipoten-
tiaries to answer the communication of the docu-
ment by declaring that they henceforth with-
drew from all diplomatic meetings on the affairs
of Belgium until they receive further instructions
from their Court. It would be absurd, there-
fore, to consider the Russian note either as a
protest or a menace : it is simply a concluding
expression of that dissent from the proposed co-
ercive measures which had repeatedly been con-
signed to the protocols of the Conference during
its active existence. All the warlike inferences
which the Tory print, therefore, endeavours to
deduce from it are mere moonshine. Nor is the
Tory journalist more happy in attempting to
convert it into au evidence that the mission of
Lord Durham has been useless, or that our
account of its beneficial effect has been exagge-
r►ted. We never expected, as a result of his
Lordship's embassy, that the Emperor of Russia
would be- induced formally to declare himself in
favour of an attack on the father-in-law of his
sister, even for the laudable object of promoting
his ultimate security. It is enough, as we have
stated, that his Imperial Majesty is convinced
that a coercive measure is necessary, in which he is
required to take no part, aid that though his Am-
bassadors in London may dissent from the Con-
ference, and wait for further instructions, lie is
now too well informed on English opiniona,
and the changes in the political condition of
England,- to expect any assistance from the Tories
in case of a rupture with the present councillors
of the English Crown.—Times.
There seems, unfortunately, to be a little doubt
but that Ministers will soon be called upon to
appoint the highest Common Law Functionary
in the kingdom ; and perhaps the highest com-
pliment which can be paid to the present Chief
Justice is the difficulty, not to say impossibility,
of finding among those from whom the selec-
tion must he made any one at all approaching to
what may be called an adequate successor.
Though by no means servile admirers of Lord
Tenterden, or therefore blind to his defects, we
are free to confess that, in learning, in patience,
and perspicuity, very few men have been, and
fewer still, we apprehend, are, his equals. Had
his Lordship only allowed his fame to rest upon
his judicial character, without, to a certain de-
gree, marring his reputation by accepting a
Peerage, and becoming a very meagre politician,
his reputation would probably have stood
higher with posterity than any Judge of
the present or last century. The very same
may be said of the person best qualified, i❑ the
main ingredients, to succeed him ; but such has
been the tortuous course, to call it no worse, of
that person's political career, that we fear all re-
spect and confidence, where respect and confidence
are most required, would be lost, if that persot
were to succeed to an office which he in other re.

spects is best qualified to fill. But it would he
well, let whoever be the person, that, previously
to his appointment, the Government would
pause, and insist upon the previous adoption of
regulations which would give the public some
convenience in return for the expense which has
been incurred in adding three new Judges to the
three Law Courts of Westminster Hall. At
present such is not at all the case. In the
King's Bench especially, the arrear of causes is
greater than ever, which need not be the case if

one or more of the Puisne Judges were to assist
in trying them simultaneously with the Chief
Justice. If it be true that it is a question of
fees which prevents this arrangement, the op-
portunity which is likely to occur ought not to
be passed by without providing a remedy. The
subject of the patronage and the abuses con-
nected with the King's Bench Prison ought also
to be strictly and honestly inquired into, and re-
medied, before any new appointment of Chief
Justice, or, through him, of a Marshal, is al-
lowed to take place. We hear a good deal
of a traffic in human flesh, which, naturally
enough, horrifies our better feelings ; but here
is a traffic in human misfortune, not much less
disgusting, and evidently of much readier cure.
The time, we trust, is not far distant when

much at least of the hateful system of arrest and
imprisonment for debt, at least upon mesne pro-
cess, must and will be done away ; but, whe-
ther done away or not, the evils and abuses of
our metropolitan debtor prisons ought at least to
be put an end to. Let us not hear of vested

interests either in the gaoler or the hangman,
still less in their respective appointees. In the
main, we cannot look without some apprehen-
sion at the probable consequences of Lord Ten-
terden's retirement. Though we abound in
lawyers, it may be doubted, we fear, whether
. _

any great mass of splendid talent exists. Above
all others, constitutional lawyers are most scarce
—such as are qualified to hold the balance justly
between Crown and subject, who, regardless on
the one hand of Ministerial favour and displea-
sure, or, on the other, of popular favour and
reproach, can so fearlessly hold the scales ofjus-
tice as to sati,fy upon reflection all reasonable
minds. This no man, whatever he his attain-

ments, or even his endeavours, will do, who al-

lows himself to be, in any common acceptation
of the word, a politician.—Morning Herald.

We rejoice that we have to add the borough
of Cambridge to the list of places in which we
shall probably witness the triumph of the Con-
servative cause at the approaching election. We
had not anticipated this. We knew indeed that

amo►►g many of the more respectable tradesmen
of the town a strong desire had long existed to
put forward a candidate less immediately con-
nected with a Whig Cabinet than the Ex-
Member for Limerick, and less deeply dipped
in the blunders of Whig philosophy, than Mr.
George Pryme. lint the Conservative party
desired something.. more in their representative
than the qualifications of talent and Toryism.
They desired that he should be personally

known to his constituents, resident among them,
acquainted with their interests, cognizant of
their inclinations. In the endeavour to find such
a man they lost much valuable time ; and in the
mean time Mr. Spring Rice, a stranger and an
Irishman, supported with marvellous incon•
sistency by the very men who had quarrelled
with Lord Graham because he was a stranger,
and with Colonel Trench because he was an
Irishman, came forward, and made a canvass,
which certainly was sufficiently successful to
alarm the friends of the constitutional cause.
We were therefore by no means sanguine as to
the result of Sir Edward Sugden's canvass. But
we are happy to find that in this, as in many other
instances, we hare been too ready to despair.
We have looked over with attention the requisi-
tion by which Sir Edward was invited to come
into the field. It contains such names as will
convince any one who knows Cambridge that,
whether he be first or last on the poll, Sir Edward
will be supported by a great majority of those
inhabitants who are best qualified to exercise the
elective franchise. We have made inquiries as
to the reception which he has generally expe-
rienced; and we are gratified at learning that
the sound sense of the constituency at large
leads them to accept with a cordial welcome the
selection of the requisitionists. We have said
that time was lost by the Conservatives in look-
ing for a candidate who should represent fully
not only the political opinions but the local in-
terests of his constituents. In this respect, un-
doubtedly, the adoption by the Conservatives of
Sir Edward Sugden is not more fortunate than
that of Mr. Spring Rice by the Levellers. But
we think too much importance has been at-
tached in Cambridge, as in many other towns,
to this qualification. The smaller boroughs,
through the means of which men known for
their abilities, their military exploits, or their
professional skill, were sent to the Great Coun-

cil, where we desired to aqsemble all our
country had of great and wise and virtuous,
these smaller boroughs have been blotted out
from the book of the Constitution. Constitn.

encies like that of Cambridge, having no-very
extensive or peculiar local interests, will best dis-
charge their duty to the common weal of which
they form a part by sending to Parliament men
who may be qualified to advance the general
good of the whole country by their independence
of any close connection with the separate cir-
cumstances of a particular district. At all events,
such constituencies may have their own private
affairs sufficiently superintended by one Member;
let them contribute the o.her to the general
exigencies of the State. Cambridge will do
much for Great Britain in giving to her Parlia-
ment the constitutional knowledge, the legal
acquirements, and the honest integrity of Sir
Edward Sudden. Cambridge will do enough
for herself when she commits the welfare of
Trumpington-street and Jesus-lane to the vigi-
lant guardianship of Mr. Professor Pryine.—
Morning Post.