The Sun.
London, England, 1857-05-13 00:00:00

Lord PALMERSTON is the Mons of the Liberals.
He keeps them in the wilderness, but points them
to the Land of Promise. Where is our Reform
Bill, they ask, which we murmured for at the
hustings ? I promise you one, next session,
which will content you all, he replies. What
about Church Rates, says Mr. TRELAWNEY, speak-
ing in the name of Ecclesiastical Liberalism ? I
am not without hope, says the Premier, of giving
you your portion on this side the Jordan of proro-
gation ; but I can give no definitive promise.
Next session is the real Land of Promise. Mr.
TRELAWNET is one of the unbelieving race,—he
gives the Premier a week or two's grace, and
if he has not reached the promised land by that
time, Mr. TRELAWNEY engages to assume the rank
of Captain of the Liberal host, pro hac vice, and
will essay to lead it to victory.
This is as it should be. Lord PALMERSTON, and
in this he is not worse than most Premiers, will
move no faster than he is compelled. It may be,
indeed, political charity to compel him. If we may
be excused prolonging the figure, he has before him
a fierce set of Amalekites, Edomites, Moabites, and
Ammonites, whom he must either intimidate or
fight. Tories and Evangelicals, rickety Whigs
and Puseyites, will lay aside their quarrels to
fight in common for the power to tax Dissenters.
We do not believe that Lord PALMERSTON himself
would object to abolishing Church Rates tomor-
row; to abolishing them out and out, with no equi-
valent provided by the nation. But Lord PAL-
MERSTON is not a dictator. He would gladly do
it if Mr. HAYTER, could assure him of a good
round majority ; if he could point the grumbling
Churchmen to an array against them amongst his
ordinary supporters, which no Minister could with
impunity defy. Though we therefore never ad-
vocate removing one ounce of pressure from a
Minister, for his own sake, in the present case we
incline to think the Premier would prefer what
would best furnish his apology for decision.
We have always openly enough told Church-
men, and Dissenters too, our view of the Chureh-
iate question. To the former 'we say, you
ought to blush at this time of day to oppress,
with such manifest and mean selfishness, the aboli-
tion of so unjast and irritating an impost ; to the
latter we say, your case is so strong, and. your
battle-ground, both in the House and out of it, so
advantageous, that it will be through your own
inexcusable apathy if you do not gain a complete
victory. Churchmen, of Lord JOHN RUSSELL'S
school, or that of the Earl of SRAFTESBURY, may
tell us that the principle of Establishments is in-
volved in the Church-rate question ;if it be, then,
we reply, so much the worse for Establishments.
Churchmen should be slow, indeed, to talk in this
style, since, as this noxious tax is certainly doomed,
numbers, on its abolition, will take them at their
word, "and, having abolished Church-rates, will
cry—now at the Church. Should this be the
case, it will be the fault of those who staked the
fate of the Establishment on the right of screwing
a penny or a halfpenny in the round out of men
who, in addition, paid more than twenty times
that amount to support their own worship.

We see by the spirited meeting of what used
to be called the Anti-State Church Society, at St.
Martin's Hall, that this growing party is by no
means discouraged by the loss of one or two of their
leaders at the late election. It seems pretty clear
that their ecclesiastical liberalism had nothing to
do with their defeats. Had they not got into
their heads the anti-popular crotchet of the League
on the Canton business, they would probably
have been in the house still. The Society reckons
its clear gains, we perceive, at not fewer than
thirty-six votes.
,If this be the case, and probably
the point will soon be tested on the SPOONER
motion, their progress will have proved to be in-
deed unexpectedly great. And greater it will yet be
if Churchmen are so mad as to clamour for a pal try
euivalent for the abolition of Church Rates out
of the national taxation, when all of us are de-
manding stern economy. Will it be endured t hat
the Consolidated Fund should be saddled with
200,00 W. or 300,0001. par annum to spare the
meanness of men who will not pay the casual
expenses attendant on their worship of GoD ?
Because Dissenters will no longer be ground under
the injustice, will they irritate Dissenters, and all
the other tax-payers too, by demanding to have
their pockets saved at the general cost ? It is
barefaced avarice like this which injures the
Establishment far more than all the eZorts of Dis-
senters. It convicts it of having taught those who
slumber under its shade such niggardly parsimony
as disgusts all but the infatuated.

We hope on this question Dissenters will b 3
firm. Total repeal, or nothing, ought to be their
motto. The nobler minded among Churchmen all.
respond heartily to this, and will not relish any
compromise degrading to both sides, which
can, besides, but prolong the contest for a
generation to come. We see the pet nonsense of
the hour is that Dissenters should help to keep the
national buildings in repair, becausa they are
national property. Should such a proposition
ever be carried in the house, we would vote with
Dissenters on an amendment, " that as the wor-
shippers amongst Dissenters were proved by the
late census to exceed in number those of th 3
Established Churches, Dissenters, on being rated
to the repairs of parish churches, have half
of those buildings, wherever there was a chapel of
ease in any parish ; and where there was not, that
Dissenters should have the church one half the
day, and Churchmen the other." Tenants who
pay no rent may surely think themselves well off
if they have but to repair tlaeir houses.

me authority to state that the Queen will no
hold a drawing-roona upon the 26th instant, upon which
day will be celebrated.
Her Duchess of Rent left her
er her
Royal Majesty'sllig th)inrtrhAr:7Y
residence, Clarence House, St. James's, at half-past nine
o'clock, yesterday morning, for Osborne.
His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales has gone cn
a tour of the lele district. His Royal Highness, at.
tended by Mr. Gibbs, arrived at Bowmen at five o'clock
OA Monday everan.

We hai

FRANCE.
Th 3 Mon,iteur promulgates the bill confirming
the different decrees issued since 1855, making
codifications in the customs duties.
The annual subvention to be paid to the parties
obtaining tie concession of the three Transatlantic
lines has been fixed by the bill just presented to
the Legislative body at fourteen millions a year.
The following telegraphic despatches have been
received from Paris :

BERLIN, lltb, Evening.—Prince Napoleon was pre-
sent this morning at a grand military review at Pots-
dam, atter which a dejeuner was given at the palace of
Sans Souci. To-night the Prince will be present at a
ball at the French embassy. Yesterday morning he at-
tended mass, and afterwards received the diplomatic
corps. In the afternoon he proceeded to Charlotten-
burg, where a family dinner took place. The Queen
will leave ta-morrow, and Prince Napoleon the day after,
for Dresden.

13xuLIN, 12th.--The Chamber of Deputies adopted
ye.day the bill imposing a tax on patentes (license to
trade), with the amendment which re-establishes the
tariffs rejected by the Upper House.
BOURSE' May 12.—The following were the last
quotations :

End of Month.
—fr. —c.
69 40

Cash. fr. c.
4. per Cents ......... 91 50
3 per Cents .... 69 10
Bank Shares ......... 4,375
Credit Mobilier ..... .1,288 75 Roman
Do. Account ......... 1,297 50 Austrian
Belgian 41 • ........98"-- Sparkish Threes
Piedmontese (5)..... 90 50 Home Debt
RAILWAYS—FOR CASE.
ir. C.
Orleans ...............1,460 Western
Northern ............ 970 Strasburg
Lyons 1,4623 New Ditto
Mediterranean ...... Grand Central
Geneva ....... 760 Sardinian )—
Midi ........... 8123 Austrian Com. 716 i

90
88,

fr c,

AUSTRIA.
The official Wiener Zeituny of May 10 contains
the following autograph letter from his Majesty the
Emperor to the Minister of Justice :

" Dear Baron de Krauss,—ln order to oonsign to
eternal oblivion the political aberrations of a sad time
past, and more particularly the revolutionary move-
ments which in the year 1848 were directed against the
exsting order of things, I now, in the wayof grace, remit
all further punishment to all my subjects, being civilians.
who belong to those parts of my empire which do not
appertain to my Lombardo-Venetian kingdom, that have
been condemned for high treason, rebellion, or sedition,
(paragraphs 58, 61; 68, and 75 of the State Laws,) and
are still imprisoned in this country.
" At the same time I ordain that no criminal process
shall be instituted for the above-mentioned crimes com-
mitted before this present day, sinless the accused shall
have escaped the hands of justice by flight, and shall
stilt be fugitives ; and I do further ordain that all the
penal examinations now carried on for the above-men-
tioned crimes shall be discontinued immediately.
"This act of grace shall also extend to the individuals
included in the afore-mentioned category who have been
guilty of one or more of the hereinafter named crimes or
offences :—lnsult to majesty, insult to members of the
Imperial family, disturbance of the public peace (para-
graphs 63-66), exciting to sedition, as mentioned in
paragraph 300 of the State Law, or aiding and abetting
in the commission of one of the above-mentioned acts.
(Parazraphs 212, 215, 217, 219, and 307.)
" Thus, all the aforementioned persons, whether im-
prisoned for punishment or for examination, shalt imme-
diately be liberated.
"In respect to those individuals who have been guilty
of other punishable offences, in addition to those which
have been enumerated, you will proceed to a correspond-
ing (entsprechend) diminution of punishment, agreeably,
to the instructions which you with these presents re-
csive from me.

"You will take appropriate measures, so that this
act of grace may immed►ately be made known to all
those it may concern, and be properly carried out.
"FRANCIS JOSEPH.

" Bads, May Bth, 1857."

Accounts from Pesth of the Bth state that the
fetes in honour of the visit of the Emperor and
Empress of Austria continue to be most brilliant.
Whole cargoes of flowers were every day brought
by steo.mer from Vienna and other places to ()ma-,
went the town. Their Majesties had been present
at the launch of two steamers for the navigation of
the Danube, which received the names of two
young princesses, Sophia and Giselle. His Majesty
has consented to accept the patronage of the Hun-
garian Academy of Sciences, and has issued a de-
cree for its organisation with a view to its forward-
ing the study, of ,the Magyar language and litera-
ture. Their Majesties are in excellent health.
Another letter from the same place of the Bth
says : _ .

"The Emperor and the Empress devoted the 6th Imo
receptions, the former receiving men, the latter ladies.
In the evening there was a grand performance at the
National Theatre, e new °pore in three acts being pip.
duced, of which the heroine was the famous Queen