The Sun.
London, England, 1861-05-17 00:00:00

X F 0 R D,

6, OXFORD-STREET.

Mr. LEVY, undoubtedly the best performer of the day on
the Cornet-a-Piston—Grand Selectilns (oi the most complete
scale)
Dinorah, Martha, Stradella, (tc., and other vocal
and
from
instrumental music, by Miss Russell, the Misses Stuart,
and Miss Ernst, Messrs. Charles Greville, Fornari, Kimber-
ley, Bernard, Beaumont, Bervoc, Huish, Signor Tivoli, and
Mr. Henry Herbert, with full band and powerful and selected
chorus, conducted by Mr. F. Jonghmans.—The following
Comic talent, Messrs. W. Randall, J. Blanchard, W. H. Wie-
land, Hollingsworth, E. Marshall, Harvey, and French, and
the Brothers Conrad in their latest and best entertainment,
every evening. Admission, Hall, sixpence ; Balcony and
stalls, one shilling. Private Boxes, 10s. 6d.

HIGH WATER AT LONDON BRIDGE.
THIS DAY.—Morning, 6h. 38m.—Afternoon, 7h. Bm.
To-MORROW.-Morning, 7h. 38m.—Afternoon, Bh. 16m.

THE WEATHER.—Strx OFFICE, MAY 17, 1861.
THERMOMETER, IN THE SHADE.
74—highest since noon yesterday.
53—lowest this morning and during the night.
52—this day at noon.
BABO3IETER-30.17—a range of 22 degrees between
yesterday and to- day.
WlND—North-Easterly—fresh; with dull cold weather.

The great Party Fight—like Madame GRISI's
"positively last appearance"—is again and yet again
postponed It is to come on after the Whitsuntide
Holidays. The second reading of the Customs and
Inland Revenue Bill last evening without a divi-
sion is consequently to be regarded only as a " put
off," not in any way as an acquittal—so at least we
are given to understand by the whole tone and
manner of the right hon. gentleman the Leader
of the Opposition. The Conservative Party,
Mr. DISRAELI tells Ministers quite distinctly, do
not regard themselves as in any respect committed
to the acceptance of the Budget as a whole. They
only delay thek onslaught upon it now that it is
before them as a substantive measure. They con-
sented to the first reading, simply, because that was
a purely customary proceeding. After a good deal of
discussion, many angry words, and the expenditure
of much sarcasm, and of yet more argument, they
have decided, as from the first the probabilities were
they would decide, upon not •coming to a vote upon
the second reading—but rather upon quietly
allowing that stage also to be passed without the
two great opposing factions coming to a collision,
and so deciding that the whole Whitsuntide recess
shall be overleaped by Another Postponement.
Thus in point of fact it actually was last
night that the matter was eventually settled
for the time being. Occasionally the House,
at that apparently formidable and possibly momen-
tous sitting, was so " thin " yesterday that it almost
at moments ran the risk of a "count out." The
circumstance we are here alluding to is not with-
out its significance. It is because we feel it has
been so, that we thus pointedly direct attention
to it. These discussions upon the Budget
have long since come to be looked upon as little
better than so much waste of time for inasmuch
as the questions involved in that Budget have
either been already decided upon division, or have
been thoroughly "ventilated," to use the cant
phrase, in the debates that have since taken
place upon the whole bearing and character of the
Bill now before the lower House of Parliament.
The continuous putting off, and putting off again
and yet again of any definite amendment by the
Opposition—tells a tale plainly enough to be un-
derstood without the utterance of one syllable of
explanation. It shows, as clearly as anything can
show it, that the Opposition are still nothing less
than bewildered as to the point upon which they
shall eventually take exception to the financial policy
of the Government. As the right honourable
gentleman the Leader •of the Opposition
himself acknowledges in respect to the matter
of the Income Tax, that, to all intents and pur-
poses, has been settled definitively for the current
year by the mutual consent of the Ministerialists
and the Opposition. There was a struggle after-
wards upon the question as to whether the ls. sd.
per lb. duty upon tea should be maintained
or diminished by the lopping off of the
odd fivepence but that matter also was
definitively arranged for another twelvemonth
by a clear majority of Eighteen, or at any rate (if
Mr. STEUART'S vote is not to be counted) of
Seventeen, in an unusually large house—a clear
majority of Seventeen or Eighteen upon the side of
her MAJESTY'S Government. Virtually that vote
was regarded as the settlement not only of the Tea
and Sugar Duties directly, but indirectly also of
the question as to the abandonment henceforth and
for ever of the branded Duty upon Paper, the last
impost among that particularly odious class of im-
posts long known in this country under the generic
title of the Taxes upon Knowledge. The opposition
of The Opposition to the project for the remission of
those paper duties altogether and summarily,
proves, however, after all, to
be so intense and
resolute of its kind that it is in consequence even
now—not abandoned ! It is scotched, not killed.
If die it must this session, it is determined at any
rate to die hard. And then to add to the entangle.
ment yet again of the whole complex question of
the Budget as a matter of dispute between the
occupants of the Treasury Bench and the
occupants of the benches of the Opposition,
there comes the yet more delicate and important
and vital question growing. out of it—the constitu-
tional question as to the line of demarcation
between the powers and prerogatives of the Lords
and Commons in Parliament assembled. Then
again, in regard to the Constitutional Ques-
tion as in regard to the prior question
affecting the Paper Duties, there are visible
and appreciable) tokens of disunion, of a, lack at:any

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THE SUN.
LONDON, FRIDAY, MAY 17, 1881.