The Sun.
London, England, 1844-04-05 00:00:00

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LONDON, FRIDAY, APRIL 5, 1844:

QUARTER'S REVENUE.

Houses, just two months and a half—almost the
moiety, and decidedly the most precious portion—of
the session will have elapsed. In this period, the ex-
perience of almost every previous session since the
Revolution, has established the fact, that all measures
of administrative economy—all decrees of Parliament
which require for their salutary and efficient working
mature discussion and frequent previous appeals to
the judgment of legislators and the feelings of the
people, whom those legislators purport to represent—
should be, as to their principles, affirmed or nega-
tived. The remainder of the session, after an Easter
recess, is always all too brief for an accurate, a care-
ful, or even a conscientious examination of the details
of Bills which have been introduced prior to that
period. Now let us see what operations, coming
within this class of public business, the Administration
of Sir R. PEEL has hitherto accomplished.
By favour of the House of Commons, and a sort of
well-bred acquiescence in the House of Lords, which
is always reluctant to take any course that may have
the appearance to the Court of opposing obstacles to
routine State business, brought forward by the accre-
dited Ministers of the Crown—a great proportion of
the annual estimates have been voted. So far as the
departments of the service of the country, therefore
are concerned, provision may be said to have been
made for them at an early stage of the year. It must
be allowed, too, to the credit of Mr. GOULBURN, a man
of less plausibility and modest pretensions, but, we
are disposed to think, of much sounder talent than his
Right Hon. Leader, that he lost very little time after
his financial project, in proceeding with the Bills, &c.,
forming part of the machinery required for working
his measure for the conversion of the Three-and-a-
Half per Cents. Then, with regard to railway legis-
tion, badly as we were disposed to augur from the un-
meaning, aimless speech of the President of the
Board of Trade some weeks ago, the Third Report of
the Select Committeipn Railways',(which we reprinted
yesterday) has more than kept faith with the public,
as to any promises made by or on behalf of her MA-
JESTY'S Government) touching the progress of the
Committee's labours on that subject. But with these
items, we fear we must say, our catalogue of the
achivements of the Premier's Government must end.
What are the questions—the instant, urgent, im-
portunate, vital questions, with which it has not
yet grappled ? What are the classes, burden-
hampered, starving, stern, and desperate, who have
been vainly knocking at the doors of Parliament six
years past, and have announced a common term to
the limits of this session and their own endurance,
whom the sagacity of the Premier has disarmed of
their hostility ? The large amendment of the poor-
law—the present relief of the hand-loom weavers,
and the provisions of some permanent security
against their perpetually recurring seasons of hideous
destitution—which of these objects has the Premier
entertained to the extent of suggesting any remedial
or precautionary measures in reference to them ?
Ireland, he told us, in 1840, as he had before said
in 1835, was his principal difficulty on coming into
power. Did he intend, by the State prosecutions
instituted under his orders against O'CONNELL and
the other Repealers, or in the mode adopted, with
his sanction, by the law officers of the Crown in con-
ducting them, to remove these difficulties ? Has he
yet taken one step to conciliate the estranged
affections of the Irish people ? The whole case of
Ireland—of its accumulated wrongs and their in-
definitely postponed redress—has advanced no further
this session than the revision of the Standing Orders,
and the renewal of their anomalies.

The returns of the revenue this year have been made '
a day earlier than usual, owing to Good Friday falling
;the sth of the month. They are, on the whole, satis-
fek.tory. The Customs and the Excise, the two great
soul ces of revenue, show a considerable increase,
thereby evincing an improvement in trade and in the
comforts of the people. The total revenue for the
year is 60,396,977/. In the Customs there is an in-
crease of 658,333/. on the year, and an increase of
384,910/. on the quarter ; and for this the country is
probably indebted to the attention of the Government
being called to the nefarious robberies which have for
years been committed in that department. Next-
year, when, we hope, the Commissioners of Customs
will be compelled to attend to their duty, we may
expect a still more favourable result. In the Excise
tie increase on the year is 474,6071., but the increase
on the quarter, as compared with the Customs, is
very- small, being only $5,3161. On Stamps there is
a decrease in the year of 12,6991., and an increase on
the quarter of 45,8851. The Taxes show a decrease
of 73,0641. on the year, and an increase of 1,987/,
on the quarter. The increase in the Income-.
tax for the year is 2,000,599/., and for the
quarter 107,6271. The Rost-office also shows
a considerable increase, being 15,0001. for the
year, and 30,000/. for the quarter. This is a proof
of the briskness of trade, and we hope,. also of the de-
sire of the Post-office authorities tot carry out the
penny postage system in accordance with the original
plan. Much, however, yet remains to• be done to
render justice to this great improvement i. a all the re-
lations of commercial and private intercoulme; and the
public would rejoice to see Lord LoNsDA LE, or any
other public officer who may be at the he p.d of the
establishment, direct his attention, not so 3rnuch to
revenue or the convenience of the individuwils under
trim, as to the great interests of the public.. In the
-:‘,/Lvellaneous, there is an increase of 336,703..1 on the
year, and a decrease of 500,264/, on the quarter,
caused, :to doubt, by the want of Sycee silver, but
next quar,ter will probably show a different return ;
another insl'alrnent from the Celestial Empire will
restore the bai:lnce. The total increase for the year
is 4,700,669/., for the quarter 825,2981., and taking
the decrease into acopant, there remains an increase
in the year of 4,31A167/., and on the quarter of
326,034/. The total amain t for the Post-office during
the year is 622,0001. On the whole, these returns
hold out bright prospects, ancl taking into account the
revival of trade, and the reduction of the Three-and-
Tekok forward with
Three-and-
a-Half per Cents, the public may
some hope to the abolition of the Inc o.me-tax.

Abortive Bills for extending the jurisdiction of
County Courts, facilitating the recovery of small
debts, reforming the whole system of our Eccle-
siastical Courts and their jurisdiction, and re-
gulating the hours of employment in factories,
have been brought in—with the sanction of Sir
ROBERT PEEL'S Government, or by some one
or other member of it. As they have been
brought in, so, to all appearance, they are likely to be
carried out : that is to say,—" scarce half made up,
and that so lonely and unfashionably" that RICHARD,
Duke of Gloucester, himself would have been ashamed
to stand godfather to them ! The obstinacy of Sir J.
GRAHAM on Irish Church, Factory, Prison,
and Poor-law legislation is emulous of the Premier's
on Free-trade, and Corn, Currency, and Banking.
Precious hours were lost in the vain endeavour to
justify the heartless denial of a pension to the widow
of a gallant officer who had fallen in a duel, with the
laurels which he had won in China, in his country's
service, yet green upon his brow. The Premier dili-
gently pressed the authority of official precedents to
warrant the pedantic harshness of the rule to be ap-
piled to the dead ; in forgetfulness of similar delin-
quencies on his own part, and that of other surviving
duellists, his colleagues in the Government of ex post
facto and of individual-persecuting penalties. The
interests of millions of poor consumers, among his
countrymen, of sugar, tea, and corn never broke in
upon the self-Complacent flippancy with which he
pronounced judgment against " the widow and the
orphan" for the folly, already atoned in his blood, of
the valian soldier, lost to the country as well as to
them. In the intensity of his zeal to fight the battles
of his party, the Premier permitted the Brazilian
sugar debate to close—so far as his inter-
pretation is concerned—all hope of the British
consumer's being allowed to avail himself of
a market in which that produce could be
available to him. Subsidiary questions as to the
evasion by Foreign Powers of slave-trade suppression
' treaties, languished out of the notice paper.under the
blight of Ministerial discouragement within the
Lords and Commons, or disappeared in the limbo of
dropped motions, which opens when a " No House"
is dexterously managed to let them slip through to
their untimely fate. The Oregon Territory, which
is the mas..in topic of popular debate, declamation, or
desire throughout the whole area of the United
States, is a " blue chamber," hitherto, of which our
official'Bashaws will not trust the key to any of the
indiscieet Fatimas connected with him in Downing-
street or Whitehall. Commercial treaties, and the
treatment, by our ally, of poor Queen POMARE,—are
subjects which are alike taboo'd. Parliament must
not ask;—the people must not know,—the Govern-
ment must not reveal,—one tittle about them, " at
present." At any proposition for a vigorous remon-
strance on the part of Great Britain against the exe-
cra.ble tyranny of the traitor NARVAEZ, or the fiend-
ike brutality of the monster RONCALI, in Spain ;
at any proposal to urge the Queen of PORTUGAL to
dismiss from her counsels the incompetent and un-
constitutional Ministry of CABRAL ; our Premier
assumes an aspect of mysterious terror and suppli-
eating wonderment, as if he feared that by delibera-
tion on the' one matter we should find ourselves in
the dungeons of the Inquisition next morning; and
by going into the other, resuscitate the vengeance of
a POMBAL against all impugners of the pure wisdom
of the "Most Faithful Majesty."

It was our purpose to have commen led to-day, on
the very inconsiderable amount of legisl. ttive business
transacted in the House of Commons
from the
first hour of the present session to adjourn-
ment on Tuesday last for the recess. But we should
have suspended the commentary we had to offer on
the sins of omission to he charged against the least
emphatic of Governments,—(we have no better de-
signation wherewith to characterise its singular lack
,If moral force),—could we, even now, int the evi-
dence of the past, detect any indications auspicious to
the filture. But a careful revision of the " sayings '9
of Ministers evokes no latent " doings" frorn the an-
Dols of Parliamentary statements and discussion. By
the time appointed for the re-assembling ;of the two

taxation which levies thirty millions per annum on
toiling artisans and producers, whilst this amount
ought to be paid, as the Legislature contemplated it
would be, by the wealthy consumers of the products
of their labour ? Nothing. Behold the account of
work " done and performed"—of the work yet to be
achieved before the close of the sebsion !

One of the most affecting cases of suffering and
destitution we ever remember to have read of, was
made known yesterday at an inquest held by Mr,
WAKLEY, on the body of WILLIAM BROWN, aged one
year and eight months, the son of a poor shoemaker,
residing at 27, A lsop-mews, Dorset-square. On the
jury viewing the corpse, they were much struck with
the extreme cleanliness, though evident poverty of
the apartment; but their attention was more particu-
larly attracted to the emaciated forms of the parents,
and five or six young children by whom they were
surrounded. It appeared in evidence, that the deceased,
without any previous illness, died suddenly, while
sitting on his father's knee, on the afternoon of Satur-
day last; and it further transpired that the wretched
parent had been out of employment for seven weeks,
and the only means of subsistence he had was, by
pawning, one by one, his articles of clothes and fur-
niture. He had not applied for parish relief, as he
had the greatest abhorrence of " pauperising his
family ;" more especially, he added, " as he had
once been a respectable man in the parish, and
had sat on juries before the Coroner, in
cases similar to his own." In summing up the
evidence Mr. WAKLEY observed,—" This was a case
of real distress, The jury had gone to the house and
found the child lying dead, without a coffin, the
mother and six children sitting round in a state of
starvation, and without a farthing in the world to
obtain subsistence ! Yet not one word of complaint
was made, and had not the jury made the discovery
themselves, in all probability the real circumstances
would not have been known !" It is too much the
fashion in these days of fastidious refinement, to
consider the destitute and helpless as reck-
less, desperate beings, who are prone to guilt from
the circumstances of their situation, and utterly
wanting in a sense of justice, consideration, and prin-
ciple. Here, however, is a case which proves just the
reverse, and we mentioned a precisely similar one
that was heard a few days since at one of the police-
offices. In the instance immediately before us, we
find a rigid sense of self-respect, honour, and high-
minded principle rising superior to all those tempta-
tions with which squalid Poverty never fails to beset
her victims, and coming out of the tremen-
dous ordeal unscathed ! Had the parents of
these starving children rushed out into the streets,
and snatched a loaf from the first baker's shop they
came to, the offence would have been a perfectly
venial one ; and dispassionate Justice, taking the miti-
gating circumstances of the case into consideration,
would have relaxed the frown on her brow, and
leaned to the side of Mercy ; but nothing of the
sort appears to have been attempted ; the almost ir-
resiitible temptation was successfully struggled
against ; and the parents of this famished family,
with a heroism and magnanimity above all praise,
preferred rather to die a lingering death by starvation;
than to know themselves, and let their children know,
that they had stooped to the crime of theft! And
so they sate with their surviving children round their
uncoffined boy, awaiting in silence and resignation
the welcome hour that was to dismiss them all from
life ! If ever there was a case deserving of public
sympathy, this is that one ; and we hope that those
who, at the call of the Bishop of LONDON, have sub-
scribed so lavishly for new churches, will not forget to
subscribe at least the " widows' mite," for a case that
is a thousand times more deserving of their conside-
ration.

We are glad to learn by accounts from Madrid of
the 28th ult., that no military executions had taken
place at Carthagena, and that in all probability there
would not be a repetition of the horrible scenes which
RexcALl had enacted at Alicant. The Corporation
of the city had entered into negotiations with the
General, and while these were going on the insurgent
leaders, with the assistance of the chief authorities,
made their escape in a steamer. The. intelligence
from Madrid is otherwise destitute of interest.
The Three per Cents. were done at 35i for cash,
and 361 at 60 days ; and the Five per Cents, at 234
at 60 days.

In the French Chamber of Deputies, on Tuesday,
M. GARNIER PAGES brought forward his motion for
the conversion of the Five per Cent. Stock. It was
merely a matter, he said, involving the equilibrium
of the finances, and it ought not to be forgotten that
the conversion would produce the not contemptible
saving of twelve millions of francs a year. con-
ceived that the reduction of interest would be parti-
cularly useful to agriculture and manufactures. The
first thing necessary for work of all sorts was capital,
and as long as interest was kept high agriculture
would in vain, from loans being exceedingly onerous,
make efforts to :develope itself, and manufactures
would be incapable of resisting foreign competition.
As to the fitness of the present time, there were three
conditions to be observed in jading of it—everything
was secure in the foreign relations of the kingdom ;
all was safe at home ; and there existed commercial
activity and health at home and abroad. The Minis-
ter of Finance admitted the right of the State to
make the conversion, but did not consider the present
time opportune for such an operation. Ire conse-
quently opposed the motion. On 'Wednesday the
debate was resumed, when the Chamber divided, but
so equally, that the President could not say on which
side was the majority. On a ballot being taken, there
were—for the motion, 154; against it, 163 ::majority
for Ministers, 9. •
The accounts from Naples in the Paris papers con-
tinue unfavourable. It appears from letters received
from that city, that, an insurrection had taken place
at Paola, a town on the coast of the Mediterranean,
in which a colonel and several officers had been killed.
Reinforcements of troops were on their march for
Calabria.

On the Paris Bourse the Five per Cents. improved
in consequence of the opposition of the Goyernment
to the, conversion of that stock. On Wednesday, the
Fives closed at 122 f. 80c., and the Threes at 83f. 20e,

THE BOURSE—WEDNESDAY, APRII.
First Highest Loweit

Jr. Price. Price. price.
French Five per Cents •• • • 122 45 .. 122 60 .. 122 40 • • 122 40
Four-and-a-Ilalf• •• . 110 50 .. 110 50 .• 110 50 .. 110 N
Four per Cents• •• • 105 80 • • 105 80 .. 105 80 105 80
Three per Cents. •• • . 83 15 • • 83 15 • • 83 10 .. 83 15
Bank-of France•..• • • ...... 3160 3160 ..3150 • • 3150
Laffitte Bank; 5,000 f. Sharessl4o • .5140 • • 5140 • • 5140
Belgian Bank • • ....... 660 • • 660 • • 660 • • 660
Belgian Fives,
1840.

1842
Dutch Two-and-a-Half .•- • • 601 • • 601 • • 601 6(}l
Spanish Active .• • • .... 341 .. 341 341 341
Threes •• • • ..... 38 • • 381 • • 38 33
Passive .••. • • • ..... 71 • • 71 • • 7 • • 71
Portuguese Five per Cents • • 47 •• 47 • • 46i • • 46f
Neapolitan... ........ 101 26 • • 101 40 • • 101 25 • • 101 40
106 .. 106 len;

RoMan „~ •
RAILWAY SHARES.
St. Germain
Versailles, R.B. ••• • • • ...... 405 .. 405 .. 397 50 .. 400
L.B.••• ..... 287 50 .. 295 • • 287 60 .. 290
Rouen.
Rouen to Havre. ••• • . - 700 • • 700
Orleans ••• • • •••••••• •• .... 912 50 •• 912 50 •• 910 •• 910
Strasburg, to Bale ••• • • • .... 305 .. 305 .. 295 .• 295
Avignon to Marseilles, ••• 766 25 .. 767 50 •• 76G 25 •• 767 50
RAILWAY SHARES, FOR THE ACCOUNT.
St GermMn •• •• .• •••••••• 830 .. 832 50 .. 830 832 50
Versailles, R. 8.. •••• • .. .. 400 .. 400 400 • • 400'
L. 8.•• •••• 285 •• 293 75 .. 285 287 50
Rouen •..• •• •••• •• •••••••• 937 50 .. 940 • 937 50 •• 937 50
Rouen to Havre.• 700 .. 702 50 •• 700 •• 702 50
Orleans ......••••••••••••• 915 .. 915 .• 911 25 .• 911 25
Strasburg to 8a1e.•..... 305 .. 305 • • 295 •• 297 50
Avignon to Marseilles•••• .. 770 .. 770 •• 767 50 .• 757 50

But if such have been the timid, drowsy, irreso*
lute, and dawdling course of Parliament, under the
correction of such a' Premier, on questions nearly
affecting our foreign commerce and our foreign
policy; it has been more eminently inert, feeble, and
desultory upon matters that touch us nearer home.
On affairs that come hom3 to every man's business
affect every man's present and future position, or his
social and civil relations-.-the Government of Sir
ROBERT PEEL, And, therefore, the Parliament, have
been up to this time ominously silent, What has
been done yet for the relief of industriaj labour, MORTALITY TABLE.—The returns for the week,
whose faMishing community is diffusing itself ending Saturday 30th March, show a considerable
employment
throughout the length and breadth of the land, va.lnly increase as compared with the previous week. In
soliciting. the former the number was 1,080 and in the latter
if they be employed, on the other ? Nothinv,
on the one hand, or livi.v _
981, making a difference of 99. The increase, how-
wages,What is ever, is not material, as it is caused chiefly by, acci-
it intended to do ? will the Premier wait' dents, of which the results had not been stated in the
ac-
till that which should be given—and which, given, 1 former returns. In all the specified causes of death
would be received with gratitude and affectionate
y the .
the amount with one or two exceptions is below the
organisation ,
knowledgment—will be extorted b
of numbers, and the strong of desperation ? avefage. There is a slight increase in the first class
hand
including measles, hooping cough, scarlatina, and
What has'yet been done in the number being 280, last week 190, ave-
rage for the re- 'age 170. In diseases of the lungs there is a de-
newal of the charter of the Bank of England,-croup, e
and the , trea.se, the number being 294, last week 309, average
adjustment of the relations on whichjoint-stock and U. There is a great increase from sudden. and
country banks stand to that establishment Nothing % violent deaths. •In the former the number is 51, ave-
But after the recess Sir ROBERT PEEL intends it, r egos 19, and in the latter 71, average 25, but in a
look into these affairs. What has been devised for
the re-establishment of our monetary system note the cause is stated. The present return contains
on a 'number of inquests which had been held at former
sounder principles, and in anticipation of the repeal
opt triads but which had not been received from the
of the Premier's Bill of 1819 ? Nothing. What
woh.: o,ndeiredwoltrn theyn took phlacde. Ofhthe 18 persons
Din ing, the weekano ptre . Thema
thermometer
waseen hivaccinated.
heston
course has been determined on touching the con-
tinuance of the infamous property and income-tax ' the' 2901,57.6 degrees; lowest on the same highest
33.7
of the profound financier, who, by such devices, sup- de gt tees.
plements a deficient revenue in the nine-and-twentieth
year of profound peace ? Nothing. What plan has
been organised for the remodelling of a scheme of

)uring the past week three of the oldest and most
eftti 0:10 magistrates of the Metropolitan county have died,
viz. , Sir Sohn Gilboa; 'the Rev: T. Croswell,- and James
Olii sy, EN.