The Sun.
London, England, 1832-11-12 00:00:00

and was actually levied from the manufacturer, though the
difference, amounting to nearly one million and a half,
was returned to him on exportation ; by which complex
and absurd practice, an idle payment and re-plyinent of
duties took place, more numerous collectors were required,
and the home consumer was saddled, not only with his own
portion of the duty, but with the interest upon that float-
ing million and a half, which was kept idly passing and
re-passing between the tax gatherer and the manufacturer.
Other remissions of taxes, pressing upon the knowledge or
industry, as those on Newspapers, Glass, &c., were at-
tempted, but failed, in consequence of tho,,e countermarch-
ing tactics of some of the Ex-Ministers, which have al.
ready been remarked on."
Now, when it is remembered that, previously
to the accession of the Grey Cabinet to office, the
Administration of the Duke of Wellington had
taken off taxes to the amount of three millions
and a half, and that it had declared that no fur-
ther reductions could be made with safety to
the revenue, the payment of the interest of the
debt, and the maintenance, in a state of efficiency,
of the different branches of the public service, is
there not great and just credit due to the efforts
which have been made to reduce the public bur-
dens, as well as a strong foundation for hope
that more extensive blessings will flow from the
same source ? In retrenchment of the public
expenditure, which was said by the Wellington
Cabinet to have been reduced to the lowest pos-
sible scale, their efforts have been not less con-
spicuous. The enormous amount of the Civil
List is the only error which can be brought
against them ; but then it must be remembered
that the Parliament with which they had to deal
was one returned by a corrupt constituency, and
that, on other grounds, it would not perhaps
have been very prudent to have acted otherwise
than they did. With this exception, however,
the highest credit is due to them. The army
has necessarily been augmented as well as the
navy ; but what, nevertheless, is the result ? Let
the author of the pamphlet give the enumeration
of the savings effected by them.
That they have reduced the general Estimates of Ex-
penditure, by £2,361,000
That they have placed the Civil List on a more intel-
ligible footing, and effected a prospective saving in
its absolute Pension List to the amount of
They have abolished some 500 useless places and ap
pointments, and thereby effected an immediatesaving
of some
With a prospective saving, as the temporary arrange-
ments and pensions and compensations consequent
to these reductions fall in, of
That the Lord Chancellor's Reforms, in the Bankruptcy
Courts, and other abolitions of Sinecures, relieve the
country immediately to the extent of 45,000
While the additional prospective relief will come to

Reductions have, therefore, been made in the standing
expenses of the country, which will come into imme-
diate or proximate operation, to the total amount of 2,868,000

That the Ministers do not intend to stop short
with these reductions, may be safely enough in-
ferred from the fact that the salary of the Lord
Chief Justice has been reduced from 10,0001.
to 8,0001. a year, and that arrangements are
making for effecting similar reductions in other
appointments as vacancies may occur ; but the
truth is, that itis needless to say a word more
on this subject. Retrenchment, Reform, and
reduction of taxation, Ministers have effected to
an extent which it was scarcely hoped to be pos-
sible to realize ; and if much still remains to be
accomplished, it is not surely very unreasonable for
them to point to what they have done as a cer-
tain guarantee of what they will still endeavour
to accomplish.—Morning Advertiser.
In withdrawing its Minister from the political
Conference at Rome relative to the disputes be-
tween the Pope and his subjects, our Govern-
ment has acted with prudence and sound discre-
tion. It is clear, from the letter of Mr. Sey-
mour, that the proceedings of the Conference
led to no result—because Austria and her two
despotic Allies never intended that they should
lead to any, except it might be the extension
and confirmation of the tyrannic sway of A ustria,
whose policy it is that the Pope should continue
to be unpopular, that, under the pretence of
protecting him with her bayonets, she may keep
the country in a state of military occupation.
If our Government had acted with as much
prudence in the Belgic affair—if, instead of con-
tinuing to negotiate, after it was plain to the un-
derstanding of the most ordinary observer that
our High Allies were playing us false, our Go-
vernment had " thrown up its cards," and retired
from the company of the political gamblers,
whom it had sufficient reason to know were clever
at nothing but cheating, it would have done
wisely, and we would have bestowed upon it
the praise which conduct at the same time so
just, so decisive, and so discreet, would have me-
rited. But, alas ! different councils prevailed, and
the overtaxed people of England are now dragged
into the expenses, if not the bloodshed, of a war, in
direct opposition to their commercial interests—
against an ancient ally, and a profitable customer
—without any just or necessary cause of hostility,
and for a quarrel not their own. In our inter-
ference between the Pope and his present sub-
jects we professed to act, upon invitation, as a
mediator. We profedsed also to act as a media-
tor, in the beginning, between the King of the
Netherlands and his late subjects. Indeed, in
neither case had we a right to act in any other
capacity, for independent nations, be they small
'or be they great, cannot be independent if others
exercise over them the power of arbitrary dicta-
tion. Neither England, Russia, Austria, nor
Prussia, or all put together, have any more
right to dictate to Belgium and Holland, than
Belgium or Holland would have to dictate to
them, except that right which the strong as-
sumes over the weak—the right which Spain
once assumed to exercise over Portugal—which
Austria once exercised over Switzerland—the
right which the three despotic Powers that par-
titioned Poland exercised over that heroic and
ill-fated nation—the right which the op-
pressor and the robber has exercised in all
ages—the right of power over justice !
When our Government found itself deceived and
duped by the despotic members of the Confe-
rence of London, in like manner as it was de-
ceived and duped by the despotic members of
the Conference of Rome, it should have with-
drawn from the one as it did from the other,
and left the litigant parties to settle their own
disputes between themselves as well as they
could. We deny that any difference of circum-
stances justified one line of policy at Rome and
a totally opposite one at London. But this
comes of politicians acting upon what they call
expediency, and neglecting all fixed and intelli-
gible principle. We warned our Government
from the beginning of "the immortal labours"
of the London Conference that they would be
circumvented and deceived by the crafty and
treacherous agents of the Holy Alliance. Dur-
ing all the deception and chicanery of nearly
two years past, the Ministerial Journals have
expressed themselves with indignation that we
should suspect the " honourable intentions" of
our High Allies of the London Conference.
Nevertheless, we continued to express our sus-
picion in pretty strong terms—nay, more, we
charged them with equivocation, shuffling,
and duplicity. The Government Papers—
the servile organs of power, endeavoured
repeatedly to repel the charge
; and while
we attempted to open the eyes of the public,
and even of the Ministers themselves, to