The Sun.
London, England, 1861-04-09 00:00:00

these imposts as local taxes, in themselves ex-
cessively vexatious. But let it be borne in mind,
before we thus summarily sweep them all away,
that they have been levied now for very nearly
these last two centuries, in fact ever since
1666, the annul rnirabilis commemorated by
," Glorious John," as the year of the stupendous
conflagration. And remembering that they have
thus been levied and paid for 195 years in all—let
us then see what is the precise nature of the good
that is proposed to be secured to the metropolis in
return—not observe! for their perpetuation (the
bill now before Parliament aims at nothing so
preposterous) but—for their prolongation for ten
years and for no more than ten years additional !
Sir GEORGE LEWIS explained the nature and bear-
ing of these advantages very succinctly and clearly
yesterday evening, moving, as we are glad
to have to repeat that he did successfully, that
the bill be read a second time. He explained
for example, in the first place, that the fourpenny
duty, the one hitherto levied, as we have shown,
for purely corporation purposes, he proposes to
apply through a clause to be introduced when the
Bill is in Committee, to the extinction of certain
debts incurred by the City under Act of Parliament.
" He would now explain," he said last evening by
anticipation, " the nature of the debt to which he
wished to apply the duty. To make New Cannon-
street, the Corporation had borrowed £540,000, and
charged the same upon their revenue, the 4d. coal
duty being, by a vote of the common council, bur-
dened with this particular debt. He therefore now
proposed that the whole of this 4d. duty should for
ten years be appropriated to the payment of the
interest and principal of the debt he had mentioned.
As the radius of collection was to be diminished,
the estimate of the produce of the tax was consider-
ably less than what it now produced, and would
be about £60,000. The interest upon the debt
already referred to would amount to £21,000, so
that there would remain about £40,000 to be ap-
plied to the liquidation of the principal. In ten
years that would amount to £400,000, but
taking into consideration the operation of the sink-
ing fund, he calculated that the whole of the
£540,000 would be paid off in the time he had
specified." As to the two other coal duties, the duty
of Bd. and the duty of ld. per ton, hitherto as we
have also shown already appropriated to various
purposes of public utility and metropolitan im-
provement, Sir GEORGE LEWIS proposes now to
perpetuate for another ten years those two duties,
henceforth to be clubbed together under a single
duty of 9d per ton, and to apply that ninepenny
duty for ten years to come to the furtherance of
the grandest of all metropolitan improve-
ments, that namely of the Thames Embank-
ment. It is because of the proposed
most judicious application of the proceeds of
these otherwise odious duties, that we are not
by any means averse to their continuance for yet
one more interval of ten years' duration before
they be, as we hope they may then be, as we may
be pretty certain they will then be, abolished. By
that time the act of their abolition may be accom-
plished moreover with double satisfaction, for by
that time we may confidently trust that London
will be magnificently bisected by one broad line
at least, if not by two parallel broad lines of
Thames Embankment.

There are symptoms in America that the Repub-
licans are now encountering the usual difficulties
consequent on a party victory, and that they are
not a little perplexed by them. The PRESIDENT
himself is, we are told, not equal to what they

expected, nor equal to the amount of personal
government and action which he had himself
expected. He finds himself, after being for a year
or two a great local political hero, matched in his
own Cabinet with men his equals, and some of them
superiors 'in point of ability, and he is obliged to
defer to their counsels. It was supposed he would
have been a political Dictator, and he did begin in
that way ; his inaugural address, being in no
sense like our QUEEN'S Speech, an " advised"
address, but the work of his own mind
and pen. Since then he has had proof
that all his reputed firmness is not sufficient to
enable him to carry out the policy he wished with-
out money, troops, ships, or the requisite authori-
sation from Congress.
It is due to him, however, to remember that his
chief difficulties are not of his own creating. The
state of his military and naval force at home is en-
tirely the work of conspirators, over whom, as they
worked under the auspices of the willingly blind
BUCHANAN, he had no more control than he had
over the Man in the Moon. The same to a great
extent, perhaps altogether, may be said of what
will evidently prove one source of the greatest
embarrassment to him—the Morrill Tariff.
Too late the Republicans now perceive that
they may levy what duties they please, but
that it is not in their power to compel
shippers to send goods to the ports where the duties
are levied. If protection were the only object, then
this might indeed be a matter of indifference.
Unfortunately for Mr. LINCOLN and the Republi-
cans, which party passed the bill, they want
revenue and protection together. They intended
not to exclude foreign goods, but so to raise their
price by heavy duties that their own clumsy and
less competent manufacturers might command prices
in their own market, at which their awkward pro-
tected management would still leave them a profit.
From the last accounts which we have received,
they now fear losing both revenue and high prices
too, European produce goes to the southern ports,
ascends the Mississippi, and is distributed from St.
Louis, in Missouri, over the Three States of the
Union, The smuggler keeps down both prices and
revenue ; the shipper to southern ports weakens
the Federal Exchequer, and strengthens that of
its southern rival. Mr. LINCOLN'S Government, by
its own most favourable estimate, does not expect
to raise more than 30,000 dollars by customs ; it
will want fully three times that sum, and yet
soberer minds do not think that under the MORILL
Tariff half of it will be realised. So completely
has selfish cupidity defeated its own objects. A

loan is to be resorted to; but it has been badly
managed, and it is feared it will be unpopular.
It will be a great discouragement to the Repub•
lican party that the forts in the South will have to
be given up. Every hour it is expected that Fort
Sumpter will be evacuated ; the only compensation

being that, after some considerable amount of con-
troversy, the Americans have decided that the

name is to be reinforced if the fort cannot. The

grandson of the revolutionary hero after whom it

was named having declared that his grandsire

always signed not Sum—but Sump-ter.

The gallant Major ANDERSON will, we

'ear, hardly deem this an adequate satisfaction

for having to quit a position in which he would
haves liked to show what a soldier could do. Fort

Pickens is also, z+ is said, " at starvation point,"
but even here, though this 2..+ could be relieved
the Cabinet appears afraid to do it, because 11

be construed as an act of hostility by the South.

When this last fort surrenders the Southern Con-

volition will have complete control of the Gulf of
'Mexico. The Republican party seems much hum.

bled, and indignant at the prospect of being beaten
by the South in every military point.

There has been little additional movement on the
Secession question. The seven confederated States
hold their position, and seem likely to strengthen
it in Europe, by their much more favourable tariff;
but no other States have yet joined the confedera-
tion. Missouri is even determined to stand by the
Union at all hazards ; it will do so if even all the
other border States should secede. Arkansas voted
for the Union in Convention, by 39 to 35, but the
minority carried a proposal to refer the question to
the whole people. In Virginia the Secessionists
have nearly converted the Union majority into a
minority. North Carolina adheres pretty strongly
to the Union. In Texas the question seems likely
to issue in a State civil war. It will evidently be
long ere the States settle down into their final com-
binations. A Pacific Ocean Confederacy is even
talked of, and when once the mania for confedera-
tion has begun, we should not be surprised to see
California and Oregon set up for themselves ; and
perhaps even a fourth Confederation arise out of
the border States. " Manifest Destiny" is fast
splitting into fragments.

Who stole the note ?—is the question yet unan-
swered. Indeed our Foreign Secretary now says,
point blank, I won't tell you. Mr. DUNCOMBE last
night, it will be seen, returned to the charge ; at
his last interrogation Sir G. C. LEWIS had con-
fessed that the note was brought to Sir RICHARD
MAYNE, by a policeman. " The question I wish to
ask," Mr.DUNCOMBE said last night," is whether he
will state the number and letter of the policeman
from whom Sir R. MAYNE received the note sent
by the Government to Count APPONYI for the
use of the Emperor of AUSTRIA in the Court of
Chancery; also, the mode by which the said
policeman became possessed of the note, and
whether he is still on the strength of the metro-
politan police ; if not, when he left it P"
This was driving our worthy Home Secretary to
rather close quarters. He knew that no other
speaker could, on a Tuesday night, get up and
re-catechise him, and back Mr. DUNCOMBE'S re-
marks, so he " rode the high horse.' He had before
said that neither be nor Sir RICHARD MAYNE had
given any instructions to any one in regard to the
note. That ought to have been enough. But he
had said more. He had taken on himself the
responsibility of any improper use which had been
made of the notes, if such had been made, That
ought to have doubly satisfied his catechist. "Under
these circumstances," he added, " I do not think it
proper for me to give any further information such
as my hon. friend is asking. I will, however, state
that no step has been taken by the Government for
the removal of the policeman from the force."
By the rules of the house Mr. DUNCOMBE had
no alternative but to accept the dignified answer
of her Majesty's Secretary for the Home Depart-
ment; but we fear poor Sir GEORGE has not yet
heard the last of it. A policeman is a public ser-
vant ; his acts are as liable to be canvassed on
public grounds as .those of the Prime Minister
himself. He is a person known to Sir RICHARD,
and if the policeman in his official capacity comes
to his principal in his official capacity, we are
entitled to know the whole truth, and known it
must be and will be. Our readers may have
noticed how fully the main point in KOSSUTH'S
affidavit is confirmed by the first acts of the Go-
vernment in opening the Hungarian Diet. It is
now clear that at the date of the printing of the
KOSSUTH notes, FRANCIS JOSEPH, the plaintiff,
was not King of Hungary. For the first
time the abdication of FERDINAND V. was
laid before both houses of the Diet by
Count D'APPONYI. The recent date of the docu-
ments, it is said, occasioned, as it well might do,
some biting remarks. Nothing can be clearer than
that all this time FRANCIS JOSEPH has been only a,
usurper and a " pretended King" in Hungary. The
old law of Hungary is explicit on the course to be
taken in case of resignation. It lies with the Diet
to appoint a Regency, and, by acceptance, to make
valid the abdication. The Diet, however, never,
knew of the abdication, of even the Imperial crown
except by the newspapers ; while in the form of
abdication itself, poor FERDINAND carefully
guarded against renouncing the crown of Hungary.
The proof of all this is now complete; it remains,
however, to be seen whether FERDINAND has a
last abdicated spontaneously or under coercion.

It will be something marvellous if Poland and
Hungary do not come by their own through their
present movements. Now is their opportunity. Italy
has afforded them an example —an example testify-
ing in the most signal manner the capacity 'of
a grand but long down-trodden nationality to rise,
to scare away its oppressors, to break asunder its
political chains, thoroughly to vindicate its inde-
pendence. That example, we may rest perfectly
well assured, will prove in the end sufficiently con-
tagious. More particularly now that not only is
Italy consolidated into one compact Sovereignty,
but that England and France, constitutional
England and imperial France, hive alike
pledged themselves to the principle of non-

intervention. From Warsaw arrives news tha

on Sunday a grand popular demonstration
had taken place there; the military being called
out ; the Governor exhorting the people to disperse ;
the people consenting to do so if only the soldiers
were first of all withdrawn. While occurrences like

these are agitating the hearts of the patriots of the
ancient capital of the still living, though dis-
crowned and long prostrate, Nationality of Poland
—there is a consciousness all through Christendom
that in the dilemma of Austria (threatened as she
is with disruption in all directions, in Venetia, in
Hungary, in her Polish provinces), in the isolation
of Russia (with not one of her old despotic allies
left to her), in the pre-occupation of Prussia (con-
strained as she is to watch narrowly her perils in
the direction of the Rhenish Provinces, and her
hopes in the direction of Schleswig-Holstein), in
the pre-occupation also of Imperial France (a pre-
occupation of a wholly different character
from that of Prussia, being in a manner exclusively
selfish and self-aggrandising. the pre-occupation
consequent upon the development of the Napo-
leonian policy)—in all this, Poland, and with her
Hungary also, may recognise her opportunity.
Whether the rekindled hopes of Poland and of
Hungary be now at length and definitively realised,
rests we do believe under Heaven in a very greal
measure with the Poles and Hungarians themselves.

SOUTHAMPTON, APRIL B.—His Royal Highness
the Prince of Wales, attended by Capt. Grey, Equerry-in-
Waiting to his royal highness, landed in the docks this
morning from her Majesty's yacht Fairy, Hon. Capt. Den-
man, from Osborne en route for London and Cambridge.
His royal highness was received on landing by Mr. P.
Hedger, and Mr. J. Levy, principal officers of the docks,
whom he thanked for their attention, and Mr. R. Bosch
was in attendance on the part of the South Western Rail-
way Company. His royal highness appeared in the enjoy-
ment
Lentoondn.
of the best of health, and left the station at 11 30 a.m.,

Royal
CAMBRIDGE, MONDAY EVENING.—His
Highness tiic Prince of Wales, accompanied by the Right
Hon. Major-General Bruce, Capt. Grey, and suite, arrived
here by the express train, at half-past six, and with their
attendants immediately took their departure in the royal
carriages, which were iu waiting, for MadiugleY Hall.