The Sun.
London, England, 1866-01-01 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

TIMES.--Sanguine as we have now good reason
to be from repeated illustrations of the buoyancy
of the Revenue, the Quarterly Returns still con-
tinue to surpass our utmost expectations. The net
result of a comparison between the Returns before
us and those of the corresponding periods in last
year exhibits, of course, a decrease, in consequence
of the heavy reductions of taxation in the last
Bmlget ; but this decrease is surprisingly below
what might have been expected, and will offer the
most gratifying disappointment to Mr. Glad-
ston's calculations. He remitted taxation to the
extent of five millions in the financial year, and
he estimated the probable recovery, in conse-
increthasaetdtchoensduemerpetasioen,wahtieah
he antici-
pated
ouldmillion and
conse-
quence of increased
so
s wholee
for y ea a r
ninewasm 31
£3t
h, 75708 f ,
£2,833,500.000 . This
Instead of this, the actual decrease for those nine
wgiveon thea dea
months is but £1,116,958, or not very much more
r
than a third of what was anticipated. Upon the
quarter the result is even more remarkable, the
actual decrease being but £62,181, against an
average estimated decrease of £944,500. Lastly,
taking the whole year 1865 as compared with 1864,
the decrease is less than a million. Such results,
while to a considerable extent they may be attri-
buted to the skilful management of the Chancellor
of the Exchequer, must be due in a far larger de-
gree to an extraordinary prosperity in the nation
at large ; and they justify the most ample con-
gratulations upon our entering on the new year.
We have reason to anticipate that this remark-
able prosperity will be continued during the ensuing
quarter, and, if so, Mr. Gladstone's task next
session will be scarcely less agreeable than it was
last year. The loss which he anticipated on the whole
year was, as we have said, £3,800,000, while the
actual loss during the last nine months has been
little more than a million. If the next quarter be
but proportionately favourable, we can hardly fail
to find ourselves in the receipt of two millions more
than we anticipated. It will be an easy task to
reduce taxation, and when we consider what an
immense increase in the comforts of the poor must
be represented by that additional ten million pounds
of tea of which we have spoken, we may well rejoice
at any further opportunity of pursuing the same
beneficent policy.
HERALD.—Whatever else comes of the manner in
which the Government has seen fit to deal with the
rebellion in Jamaica, we know with certainty that
it will entail upon us considerable expense and no
little public inconvenience. Sir Henry Storks has
been fetched home from Malta in hot haste, and
Mr. Russell Gurney has been suddenly summoned
from his comfortable quarters at Guildhall, to be-
come for some weeks or months a member
of the Royal commission to inquire into the
state of Stoney Gut and the murders at Morant
Bay. We doubt not that adequate provision has
been made for the discharge of the governor's duties
at Malta, and we believe that the Court of Alder-
men were engaged for some time on Saturday in
arranging for the conduct of the civic judicial
business in the absence of their Recorder. To the
constitution of the commission no one can take
exception, and if the Ministry have done well in
issuing it we do not know that they could possibly
have chosen men better fitted for the work, or more
certain to command the confidence of the country,.
than those who will leave Southampton to-morrow
morning. But this little point precedent is just
that on which, as we believe, the law .officers of
the Crown feel a most uncomfortable amount of
uncertainty in the present and a painful degree
of apprehension for the future. They have
hastily jumped to the conclusion that the Queen
can do anything and everything in all parts of
her dominions. They have yielded to the de-
mands of the Anti-Slavery Society, and have ap-
parently trusted to the dicta of that active but
not learned body for guidance on a question of great
and grave importance, whether as a matter of con-
stitutional principle or of colonial policy. Of course,
under these circumstances, no one need be surprised
to hear that the blind have led the blind with the
usual results, and that we are likely to have in the
course of the new year an entirely new comedy of
errors--a reproduction of " All in the Wrong" on
a large scale, which will make all the actors in the
piece look sufficiently silly. We do not forget that
the Act of Indemnity, like all other acts of the Colo-
nial Legislature, requires the Royal assent, and it
may be said that until this is given the Gover-
nor cannot claim the benefit of his legisla-
tive absolution. We grant that this is so,
but this only brings us to a fresh diffi-
culty. A commission like that just appointed
has no power to examine witnesses on oath unless
that power be given by act of Parliament. As no
such enabling act has been passed it follows that
the evidence taken will be a mass of mere hearsay,
unless the Colonial Legislature comes to the rescue
of those whose very presence in the island is an
insult and a disparagement to it. Practically, the
commissioners will have to go cap in hand to
Governor Eyre and his Parliament with some such
story as this :—" We have come out here to inquire
into matters which you have already investi-
gated, to inform ourselves at second-hand of oc-
currences which have taken place under your
eyes. We know that you have already con-
sidered the subject, and passed your opinion on
it ; that we have come here through the
action of a section of English politicians whose
legislation has injured your property, who have for
years scoffed at your sufferings, and who, ever since
they knew of your recent peril, have belied your
character,
impugned your motives, and held you up
to execration as the basest and most cruel of man-
kind. Therefore we come to you and say, Give us
power to administer an oath, that we may examine
witnesses anxious to make out a case against
you. Enable us to sit with something like the
ordinary authority of a court of justice, that
those who desire your detriment may marshal
their forces to the best advantage, and then,
while of your personal impartiality you may feel
assured, you will feel equally certain that those who
have assailed you in England will make the most
and the worst of anything their sable proteges may
say against you." The answer of the colonists to
such a request certainly may be favourable, but
we do not think that the Goveinment has any
right to calculate upon such an eventuality. Yet,
unless they do so, the Ministry will be responsible
for having put the Crown into a false position by
sending a tribunal of eminent gentlemen to the
other hemisphere, charged with a commission which
may at the very beginning of its labours be rendered
almost nugatory, through its unavoidable depend-
ence upon aid which can only be rendered by that
very Assembly, whose most solemn acts are brought
into undeserved discredit by its appointment.

A COLUMBINE BURNT TO DEATH.—During the
performance of the pantomime on Thursday night
at the Sunderland Theatre a fearful accident occurred,
which has unhappily been attended with fatal results. It
appears that the jets at the wings of the stage are supplied
with gas from an indiarubber tube, but the tube having
been caught by the foot of some one while making an exit
the supply was prevented, and the lights consequently
went out. The gasman applied a lighted taper almost im-
mediately, thinking they had been blown out; but the gas
which had been issuing from the disconnected tube at
once exploded, and the flames, springing up some feet,
caught the dress of Miss Ricardo, the columbine, as she
flit ed by, and she was instantly in flames. She shrieked
and rushed on in the middle of the scene, where her father
was playing as clown, but was thrown down by one of the
stage carpenters. Mr. Bell, the lessee, rushed from his pri-
vate box, and his top coat was pulled off and wrapped
round the poor girl, and the flames were beaten out. A
number of the audience clambered from the pit to the stage
while the fearful scene was going on, but they ultimately,
resumed their seats, and the performance proceeded. Medi-
cal assistance was at once procured, and the poor girl was
conveyed to her father's lodgings in Blandford-street,
where the three medical gentlemen who were called to at-
tend her held out hopes that in a few days she would be
able to resume her duties; but this, however, proved an
erroneous impression, for she died on Friday afternoon
from the shock her system had sustained. Mr. Ricardo,
the clown, was much burnt on his left hand in orleavour-
ing to save her.