The Sun.
London, England, 1850-05-08 00:00:00

TILE SUN,

tared into," and that other points beside the amount
realisgthy the Exchequer, are worthy of being taken
into consideration, that some respect must be shown
for the loud and unequivocal expression of public
opinion, and that a C abinet Minister, whatever may
be his private feelings on the subject, should at least
exhibit some regard for equity and justice in his obser-
vations. There is, therefore, at least some chance of their
escaping from the evil consequences of a de feat, more
especially since they have abandoned the go old
rule by which Ministers resigned, as a ma er of
course, if left in a minority on a fiscal or financial
question—a change that was indeed essential to the
safety and permanence of any Cabinet in which the
Right Hon. Baronet the Member for Halifax occu-
pied the important and arduous position of Chancellor
of the Exchequer.
But the results will be very differeiit when the
views of Sir CHARLES WOOD are sustained by a msjo-
rity of the chosen representatives of the people. He
will then, most probably, be permitted to stumble on
in his stolid and unmeaning course, setting the wishes
of the people'llt defiance, and regulating the ntitional
finances as if there had been no such thing as Parlia-
mentary reform, and our Legislators, in place of
being the representatives of free and independent
constituencies, were still the nominees of borough-
mongers, who would sell their votes to the highest
bidder. Such a state of affairs may be
not only dangerous to the existence of the
Ministry, but fatal to the best int s
of the country, rendering probable some sudde
violent change, and endangering the recognized r
of property. The people may not always be con-
tented~ to endure their grievances patiently and sub-
missively.^ A. spirit of resistance may be engendered
thatmay not easily be got rid of, and Lord J. RUSSELL
may perhaps exclaim with Pr nuns--" Another such
victory, and am ruined ! On Saturday we stated
that " Sir CHARLES WOOD was the evil genius of the
Government, who will eventually bring about
its overthrow," and the proceedings in the
Housed Commons last night, on Mr. EWART'S
mo-
tion for " leave to bring in a Bill to repeal the duty
on advertisements," more strongly confirm us in that

opinion.
Never was a stronger case made out against any
impost than that which the Hon. Member for Dundee
so trimly and distinctly established against this, the
most objectionable of the various takes on know-
ledge. It is, as the Honourable Gentleman justly
remarked, "a tax on the vehicles of informa-
tion and commerce—it taxed knowledge, it taxed
agriculture, it taxed literature, it taxed the wants
of the community." It is " amongst the heaviest
burdens that impede the production of literary works."
There is no more formidable obstacle to success in
" the struggles of a book against taxation." But,
objectionable as it may be in these respects, there is
another point of' view i❑ which it may be regarded,
in which the grievance will be exhibited in even a
stronger light. It is a tax on the industrious
poor, which practically prohibits them from seek-
ing for employment, which prevents them from
gaining their daily bread by their own exertions. The
half-starved sempstress is prevented • from making
known her wants, and stating the low rate at which
-she is willing to engage herself. It places an insu-
perable obstacle between the 'employers and the em-
ployed—between the supply of, and the demand for,
labour. The servant-maid, who desires to obtain a
new place in order to preserve her from adopting the
last dreadful resource to which so-many of her class
have been driven, is unable to state her
qualifications and testimonials, or, if she
can obtain sufficient' to pay for the ad-
vertisement by means frightful to contemplate;'
endangering her' present and future happiness, and
degrading her for eveffrom a state of innocence, she
must contribute as largely to the national revenue as
the lordly aristocrat, who announces for sale or ex-
change an estate worth many thousands per annum•
It is the same on a:single line as on a notice occu-
pying balf-a-doaen:columns ; in fact, its impolicy is

only surpassed by its inequality and injustice. To it
we are indebted for those clumsy vans that block up our
streets and impede our progress through the crowded
thoroughfares. To its operation may be ascribed the
ridiculous spectacles of those unfortunate specimens
of humanity Who wander about encased in boxes
covered witb.notices, exciting at the same time our
tears and our risibility—our tears that men made
in " the image of their CREATOR," with feelings similar
to our own, should be so deeply degraded by the
painful necessities of their conditions—our laughter
at the absurd appearance which they present.
But these arguments, powerful as they must
be considered by every unprejudiced and
well-constituted mind, wrought no effect on
our ' excellent Chancellor of the Exchequer.
The old stereotyped answer was returned which has
been ,repeated tape ad nauseam on every similar.
queition. He could not defend the obnoxious impost ;-
he' could not Baia single word in its justification, but
contented himself with the vague and general assur--
slice that "he would certainly be very glad to remit
this and every other tax, if he had the means
of carrying on the public service and pay-
ing the interest, of the Debt without them.
`The repeal of the taxes upon air and light, upon
-knowledge, and upon many . articles of con-
sumption, had been demanded, but -as he could not
carry on the public service without them, he hoped
the House would concur with him in resisting the
motion." Such were the arguments by which the
propriety of these infamous imposts was sustained,
and which induced the House to reject the proposi-
tion. Well might the Swedish Chancellor have ex-
claimed, " My son, behold with how little wisdom the
world is governed !" and the receiver of stolen good's
have chaunted—
" The statesman because he's so'great
Thinks his trade is as honest as mine."

A tremendous hubbub still con tinues to be kicke
up by those unfortunate gentlemen the Protectionists.
Yesterday their orators were more than usually
energetic. One, a parlous fellow from Glamorgan•
shire, came down right wittily on the doomed Sir
ROBERT, touching his auditors so sensitively and sen-
tentiously on the quick, that he had them first howling
sympathetically at his vituperations, and next cheering
most lustily at his grandiose threats and braggado-
cios. Then another sagacious right from Wiltshire
warmed into a sort of dunderheaded inspiration,
bellowing out to his hearers, most appo-
sitely, the words which MILTON placed in
the mouth of SATAN when addressing the legions of
the damned in Pandemonium. Never was there
such sublime blundering, such rapturous stupidity.
Poor Professor: ATTOITN himself seemed to have be-
come infected for once by the surrounding atmos-
phere of absurdity and ignorance. His whole
thoughts appeared, as the phrase runs, to have gone
"wool-gathering." Instead of uttering any-
thingofl: whatever pertinent to the occasion, he must
needs cram down the throats of his listeners a
miserable, lukewarm rechaufee of tid-bits already
dished up again
" a certain Thus it
and pamphleteers.
and
Taghain by our periodical writers
us bow was that while telling
the evils') peat moss
re. t CASED considers the
growing of potatoes on a
while informing us that
3 migir
a.
ziiiie too übremthoest grand
panacea for all
the country,'
sarheowofthuendefanrimabelres ehxocwelletno.wcesh, whose razors
lacihvaeanffoie:cattempting to
and while,
of free
moreover, observing that " the spiriteav°ilse"
trade, finding no other place of refuge, has fl • t
the herd of Mr. HUITABLE'S swine—, feeolviwnitihn-oa
horrible sense of nausea that he is making us chew
borne in
the cud of Blackwood'
lent instructor the Professor should have
recollection that we have heard all these things 1
over and over again in " most damnable iteration",
until men have grown sick with very wearisomeness
At the perpetual changes rung on the peat moss of
Mr. CAIIID, on the close shaving of Mr. MEcui, and
on the stye-drawn ammonia of Mr. Humneir. We
want sober argument, and not merely sarcastic petu-
lance—and yet Professor ATTOUN comes up in all
hot haste from Edinburgh to retail jokes that :Mega
has long since rendered threadbare. hamlet —" Mark
me, he will tell us the players are come." Enter
Polonins. Polonius —'s My Lord, my Lord, the
players are come." Hamlet—" Buz, buz." Why,
had he no better news to tell us, Professor AYTOUr
had as well remained north of the Tweed, instead of
journeying
all the way up to the metropolis. Then
again as to his
poetical twaddle about—
" Wasted fields and crowded cities,
4 Swarming streets and desert downs;

LONDON,

All the light of life concenter'd
In the focus of the towns;"

he must, from his known scholarship, have been per-
fectly familiar with the fact that, swarming as our
streets do with wayfarers, and crowded as our towns
are with inhabitants, not a city in the United King-
dom—not even the mighty Babylon of London itself—
can be regarded as in the smallest degree comparable in
density of population to the cities of a remote and
flourishing antiquity. ACcording to some antiquarians,
the number of the Roman citizens alone—at a time, '
too, when Rome was in its greatest state of opulence,
absorbing into itself not only the riches but the popu-
lations of the west and of the east, of Asia and of
Africa as well as of Europe, of Britain and of Gail
as well as' of Italy—almost exceeds the limits Of
credibility, and renders insignificant, by comparison,
" the light of life concenter'd in the foetus" either of
the Chinese capital or of the British metropolis. Yet
Professor AYTOUN whines over the increasing
growth of our towns and cities as though
that were a portent of national dissolution. At
any rate, if the declamation of the " learned
pundit" was altogether ineffectual in securing our ac-
quiescence, it was eminently successful in demons-
trating that there is no necessary affinity between
rhyme and reason.
But the prominent feature of the whole demonstra-
tion made yesterday at the Crown and Anchor
Tavern, Strand, by the ultra-Protectionists, was the
rancorous hostility evinced towards Mr. COBDEN
personally. It would have done Mr. OASTLER'S
heart good to listen to. It would have been
"nuts " to Mr., FEB/34.ND. There were groans,
and plenty' 'of 'them, ' . and fierce ones tco
for Sir Rontser •` PEEL 7.. be sure of that i
But, Mr. ConneN ! warrant him, it would
scarcely have been iafe for him to have shown his
nose within sight of the pliatforre. Why, the whole
meeting was rabid.against him, and rabid with the
rabidneia of 'the tree Fernand-phobia. There was
Mr. Blinn, of 'Cambridgeshire,. rose quite into the
heroics in his denunciations of COBDEN and his de-
fiance of him, and his declaration that the agricUltu-
rists had nothing whatever to fear from " the
threats of demagogues 1" Then there was the
learned declaimer ' already mentioned, Profes-
sor ATTOUN, of Edinburgh, waxed simultaneously
wroth and poetical, assertinga—" When the red
cross of St. George and the white cross
of St. Andrew are bl ended indissolubly to-
gether, I fear not COED:SN, I fear no traitors !''
One Mr. HIGGINS, of B erefordshire, grew won-
derfully funny in his indignation. He said "The
willing bee had been sacriSced for the drones ; but be
told the Government that the bee would not stand it
much longer." Fancy a bee' " not standing. it much
longer ! ' But a little firrther on, Mr. HIGGINS be-
comes rather indecent in his disloyalty. Hearken
to the man's words " They had heard of a
lion queen, who ruled her subjects in safety so long
as she ruled with imp.rtiality ; but when she
whipped the one and caret.sed the other, the beasts
turned upon her and tore her to pieces : he hoped the
Government would take warning and not loosen the
attachment of the fanners to the British Queen." As
Doollenav saith in play—" Why this is clear bur-
glary, thou naughty varlet !" HIGGINS we con-
jecture must be descended from a branch
of the house of that immortal HIGGINBOTTOM
mentioned in the Rejected Addresses, for the
gist of his allusions to the Free-traders amounted
to nothing more than plain, plump, burly "Od rot
'em !" So much for the common sense, the loyalty,
and the rhetoric of the indefatigable gang of the Pro-
tectionists.