The Sun.
London, England, 1850-10-23 00:00:00

THE SUN,

that now press down and paralyse the exertions of
industry may ba removed and placed upon ac-
cumulated and realised property. The Free-traders
will have an opportunity of pressing for the
further extension of the prinCiple, and the abolition of
many of the restrictions that still injuriously affect the
trade and commerce of the country ; while the mone-
tary reformers can demand that the attention of Par-
liament be directed not only to the amount to be raised,
and the manner in which it is to be levied, but also to
the circulating medium, in which the liabilities of the
tax-payers are to be liquidated . An instrument of tre-
mendous power will be placed in the hands of the
people, which will enormously increase the popular
strength, and those who would surrender it without
receiving an ample equivalent will
.have to account
to their respective constituencies at the next general
election for the fatuity, the apathy, or the treachery
that could have induced them to pursue so unworthy
a course.

The first, and perhaps the most important point
to be determined in reference to the new property-
tax is the period for which it is to be granted. The
first income and property-tax since the conclusion of
the war was introduced by Sir ROBERT
PEEL in 1842, and imposed for a term
of three years. The deplorable state of
the national finances, the inadequacy of the public
revenue to meet the public expenditure, the annually
increasing deficiences at the Exchequer, had become
too painfully perceptible to permit any doubt as to
the imperative necessity of adopting some vigorous
and decided course calculated to place the public
credit on a firm and sound foundation. For this pur-
pose the income-tax was sanctioned, but Parliament
was assured that it was but a temporary expedient,
the necessity for which would speedily terminate.
" The many" were induced to lend an easy
credence to this " too flattering" tale, but
the better informed "few," who knew the
tenacity with which Ministers of Finance
stick to any profitable tax producing a good round
sum to the Exchequer, clearly saw that if once esta-
blished it would become a permanent charge. No
alternative, however, remained. The national credit
had to be preserved ; we should, perhaps, rather say
restored. It would not do to go on increasing the na-
tional debt during a time of profound peace and tran-
quillity. So the impost, with all its glaring defects
and inequalities, was granted for the term of three
year.

The general prosperity of 1845, and the many
valuable fiscal improvements . effected by Sir
ROBERT PEEL in the interval, induced Parliament
to yield a willing assent to the renewal of a source of
revenue that had led to so many pleasing results, and
an Act was again passed for its collection for a further
term of three years. Circumstances had, however,
materially changed in the meanwhile. In 1848 no-
thing could be given up. The administration of Sir
CHARLES WOOD had occasioned a lamentable falling
off in the income of the country. A large sum-
-8,000,000/. sterling—had been added to the national
debt. An attempt was made to increase the
charge from sevenpence to a shilling in the pound,
which was strenuously resisted, and eventually aban-
doned ; but the existing tax was renewed in the same
form and fur a similar term as before, and it was
again granted until the year 1851.
An attempt will now be made to get it for a longer
term, to make it permanent, or, at least, to continue it
in force for five or ten years, but that must be vi-
gorously resisted. Why should it not be renewed
for a single year? Why should not Ministers have
to come before Parliament in each and every session
as they do with regard to the Mutiny and Stock•in-
Trade Exemption Bills ? It is impossible to estimate
too highly the importance of such a course. It would
do more to consolidate and strengthen the popular
power, to enforce a due respect for the popular wishes,
than any other step that could be adopted.
We trust that the attention not only of fiscal re-
formers, but of those of every description, may
be especially directed to the duration of the contem-
plated Bill.- It is the point of the moat vital import-
ance of any that will be submitted to the consideration
of Parliament during the ensuing session.

A Parliamentary document of no inconsiderable
importance has just been issued, having reference to
the unfortunate misunderstandings which have re-
cently arisen between the lonian representatives and
his Excellency the Lord High Commissioner. Having
particular allusion to the political sentiments prevalent
among the inhabitants of that minor archipelago,
these papers have been examined by ourselves with
the closest and most dispassionate scrutiny. Our
attention has been especially directed to the change of
feeling manifested by the lonian multitude (through
their representatives) towards the protecting sove-
reignty during the time when Lord SEATON
presided over their administration, and that
since manifested under that nobleman's successor as
Lord High Commissioner. Throughout the latter
portion of Lord SEATON'S stay at Corfu the most
amicable relations were maintained by his Excellency
with the local Parliament ; whereas almost from the
first entrance of Sir HENRY WARD, the conduct of
the affairs of that insular government has been dis-
turbed by a succession of lamentable squabbles, some-
times threatening the most serious and embarrassing
consequences. To discover the reason of such a Bur-
priting difference of sentiment on the part of the lo-
nian Legislature, it becomes only necessary to ob-
serve with vigilant care the events which have
one by one transpired, and to note down with
a most cautious exactitude the references made to
those events in the correspondence of the Lord High
Commissioner with her Britannic MAJESTY'S Govern-
ment. After poring over the 131 pages of this cor-
respondence, printed with due sequence in the Par-
liamentary document referred to, we may be per-
mitted to allude somewhat more explicitly than might
have been previously permissable to these harassing
and unhappy differences.

Without altogether exonerating Sir HENRY WARD
from blame in these transactions, it must be boldly
And honestly premised that they have originated in
his Excellency's anxiety to withstand all efforts
at precipitate innovation and in his strin-
gent endeavours to suppress the disgraceful
insurrection in Cephalonia. Abstractly such at-
tempts to secure obedience to authority, and respect
for the constitution, are entitled to the highest praise
imaginable. It only remains to be seen whether in
striving thus earnestly to vindicate the influence of
the treaty of Paris, and to maintain a profound regard
for the sway of the protecting Sovereignty, Sir
HENRY WARD may not have, in some measure at
least, exceeded the actual requirements of the
occasion, mistaking severity for determination, and
forcing upon the lonian Legislature the unwel-
come dogmas of finality instead of a simple
recommendation of moderated improvement.
that is the difficulty demanding solution in
regard to these melancholy occurrences. For its
better appreciation, it becomes requisite to observe the
precise nature of the demands all along made by the
constitutional reformers in the lonian Parliament. It
will be necessary likewise to discover what where the
views taken of these: same demands by Sir HENRY
WARD'S immediate predecessor, and to contrast those
views with the opinions entertained upon the same
subject by the present Lord High Commissioner.
As early as the February of 1848 (simultaneous
consequently with the French revolution), we find
the people of the lonian Islands petitioning for three
extraordinary innovations—innovations no less radical
in their nature than the emancipation of the press, the
subjection of the extraordinary expenditure to the
cantrol of the Legislative Assembly, and the modi•
fication of the electoral law in such a manner that
a right would be established for the holders of the
suffrage to elect their municipal officers freely, and
without the interference of the Lord High Commis-
sioner or the Executive Government. So earnestly
were these reforms desired by the local population
taroughout Corfu, Zante, Santa Maura, Ithaca, Paxo,
Cerigo, rud. Cephalonia, that Lord SEATON, in a
dispatch dated the 21st February, 1848, assured
her MAJESTY'S Colonial Secretary that the
petition might be at once numerously signed
by the intelligent inhabitants of those islands
generally. Neither would these memorialists be
men incapable of estimating the meaningof the desired
improvements, foremost amongst them being Mr. NA-
POLEON ZA3113 ELLE, termed by his Excellency in the
same dispatch, "one of the most eminent and re-
spected advocates of the bar of Corfu." As early as
the November of 1844 Lord SEATON had written to

Lord STANLEY " respecting the expediency of per-
mitting private presses to be established," for,
in spite of the existing censorship, violent
articles could be written at Corfu, printed
in the newspapers of Malta, and a few days afterwards
transmitted back to the bureau of the correspondent,
and thence distributed throughout the lonian Islands
without let or hindrance. At length, on the 29th of
March, 1848, we find Lord SEATON going a little
beyond this recommendation for relaxing the censor-
ship, writing to Earl GREY in his dispatch of that date
thus emphatically :
" I think it desirable that I should obtain im-
mediately the sanction of her Majesty's Government,—
" I. To establish a Free Press I
" 11. To place the extraordinary expenditure under
the control of the Legislative Assembly!
" 111. To alter the mode of municipal elections by
establishing the right of the electors to elect their
municipal officers freely and without the interference
of the Lord High Commissioner or Executive Go-
vernment 1"

Almost immediately thereupon two of these im-
portant changes were actually effected, namely, those
relating to the censorship and the extraordinary ex-
penditure. " The other demand," says Lord SEATON,
when writing to Earl GREY on the 22d of July, 1848,
" I am now persuaded, after fully considering the
subject and ascertaining the views and opinions of
many of the best informed and most influential per-
sons of the community, should also be immediately com-
plied,with." Than this nothing could be more truly
conciliatory. And the consequence is, that on the
appointment of Slri:TEl.llly WARD, in the room of Lord
SEATON, as Lord High Commissioner, we find the
former writing to the Colonial Secretary, in an ac-
count of his visit to the principal towns in the
lonia❑ Islands :—" I am enabled to:assure your Lord-
ship that upon one point the immense majority [of
the inhabitants] agree, namely, that looking to the
material interests of the lonian Islands, to the pro-
gress which they have made and are daily making in
trade and agriculture, and to the benefits which they
derive from their connexion with a power
whose weight is always thrown into the scale of order
and peace [his Excellency might have added, also,
and to the readiness hitherto evinced by the repre-
sentative of that power to accede to their just de-
mands for constitutional improvement'], no greater
calamity could befall them than a transfer from the
protection of England to that of any other power, but
more especially a transfer to Greece."—Dispatch,
dated July the 9th, 1849.
A comparatively brief period elapses, and the whole
of this feeling of affectionate allegiance to the Pro-
tective Sovereignty appears to have evaporated.
The reason becomes sufficiently apparent on a
closer inspection of the correspondence. For
instance, we find Sir HENRY WARD writ-
ing to Lord GREY from Argostoli (Disp. No. 18.)
as follows :—" There is a general impression that
large concessions will be made, that something like
reality will be given to the exercise of electoral
rights, and that a Parliament, freely constituted, will
be allowed to deal freely next year with those ques-
tions of finance, and the better administration of their
local resources, which in a small and industrious com-
munity come home to all." Yet as early as the 4th
of June, 1849, we find his Excellency writing home
from the palace at Corfu, that finding that his prede-
cessor entirely concurred with him in opinion, that
it was desirable to impress the lonian people and
Legislature with the conviction that it should be
her MAJESTY'S pleasure to assent to the Acts recently
passed, with or without modifications, " they must be
regarded not as a stepping-stone to further demands,
but as a settlement of all questions mooted hitherto be-
tween the protecting and the protected power," he had
thought it advisable to take advantage of his first
communication with the Legislative Assembly to
make known his sentiments on this point. The truth
was, the policy was changed. Hitherto the efforts of
the Lord High Commissioner had been those in the
way of conciliatory advancement. Henceforth they
were to be those of intimidating repression. Under
Lord SEATON, the watchword had been Reform !
Under Sir HENRY WARD, it was to be Finality ! No
wonder the amiable sentiments entertained towards the
Protecting Sovereignty, by the lonian population,
were very speedily exchanged for those, at
first, of suppressed wrath, and, ultimately,
of openly expressed abhorrence. The harsh
treatment received by the lonian reformers from his
Excellency the present Lord High Commissioner was
emphasised in its severity by the yet greater rigour
of his behaviour towards the insurgent Cephalonians.
No doubt his purpose in both instances was of the
most loyal and laudable character; but, unfortunately,
the results have been hitherto only peculiarly la-
mentable and disastrous. How this has been accom•
plit,hed, in regard to the cause of reform in the
lonian Constitution, we have here rather succinctly de-
monstrated. We might with equal facility draw a
similar deduction from an inquiry into the punish-
ment of the rebels of Cephalonia.

DEATH OF LORD STANLEY, OF ALDERLEY.
Our obituary records the demise of this nobleman,
who expired at Alderley-park, Cheshire, yesterday,
at the advanced age of 84. The deceased John
Thomas Stanley was eldest son of Sir John Thomas
Stanley, sixth baronet, by the only daughter and
heiress of Hugh Owen, Esq., of Penhoos, in the Isle
of Anglesea, and was, therefore, brother to the late
Bishop of Norwich. His Lordship married, in 1796,
the eldest daughter of the first Earl of Sheffield, by
whom he had issue Edward John, created Lord
Eddisbury, and the Hon. William Owen, twin with
the latter, and two daughtets. In politics the deceased
was a Whig. He succeeded his father in the
baronetcy in 1807, and was raised to the peerage in
1839. The family property is situate in Cheshire
and in the Isle of Anglesea. The Stanleys of Alderley
claim a common progenitor with the noble house of
Derby. The title and family property are now
succeeded to by Lord Eddisbury.

Her Royal Highness the Duchess of Gloucester
left London for Woburn by the North-Western Railway
yesterday, on a visit to the Duke of Bedford at Woburn.

The Lord Mayor of London and suite leave Lon-
don for York by the North-Western Railway, on Thursday
morning, by a special train, in order to be present at the
banquet to be given on Friday.
His Royal Highness Prince Albert will leave the
Euston station for York, by a special train, on Friday morn-
ing, to attend the banquet to be given by the Lord Mayor of
York.

GRAND PERFORMANCE OF SACRED MUSIC IN THE
CHAPEL ROYAL, WINDSOR, BEFORE TIIE COURT.—Ar-
rangements are being made with nearly 100 of the principal
singers of the cathedrals of this country for a grand
performance of ancient sacred music, to take place at the
Chapel Royal of St. George. Windsor, before her Majesty
and his Royal Highness Prince Albert and the distinguished
members of the Court, in the early part ofthe ensuing month.
THE MARINE SOCIETY.—MUNIFICENT BEQUEST:.
—Yesterday a general quarterly meeting of the governors of
the above incorporated society, founded for the equipment,
maintenance, and instruction of poor and destitute boys for
the royal and Indian navy, merchant service, and the
fisheries, was held at their offices, in Bishopsgate-street, for
general business, John Weld, Esq., in the chair. The
minutes of the past court were read and confirmed. During
the past quarter ninety-five boys had been received on board
the society's ship ; eleven had been sent into the royal navy,
twenty into the Indian navy, and sixty-one into the merchant
service. Since January last 300 boys had been thus pro-
vided for, making a grand total, since the formation of the
institution, of near 50,000 boys. A legacy of 1001. had been
received from the late J. Peacock, Esq., of the London
Tavern ; and during the past year 5001. from the late John
Curteis, Esq., 100/. from Mr. Alderman Lucas, 5004 from Sir
Clifton Wintringham, and 9,9081.65. Bd. by John Masser,Esq..
in the Three per Cents., after his widow. The usual routine
business having been gone through, thanks were accorded to
the chairman, and the meeting broke up.
DEATH OF WILLIAM BLACKER, Esq.—The death
of Mr. Blacker, the eminent agriculturist, took place, on
Sunday, at his residence in Armagh. Mr. Blacker, while
agent of the Gosford estates, wrote several essays on improved
modes of agriculture. The deceased was in the 75th year of
his age.

RESTORATION OF ST. STEPHEN'S, WALEROOR
In the prosecution of the repairs of this beautiful church, it
has been discovered that the columns, including their
charming Corinthian capitals, which had been " church-
wardenised," by repeated whitewashings, without cleansing,
are all of the most exquisitely carved stone. These, with
the shields, palm branches, and roses, in fret work; and the
panels of crochet work, which ornament the unrivalled
cupola, are now fast emerging from the filth which has so
long obscured their beauties; and attract the daily visits of
a great number of architects and persons of taste, who evince
much anxiety in the progress of the restoration. It is ex-
pected the church will re-open before the Ist of December.
INFANT ORPLIAN ASYLUM.—A special general
Court of Governors was held yesterday at the London
Tavern, to receive the report of a committee appointed to
consider the resolution of the 10th of June last, ordering cer-
tain accounts to be prepared and presented. The report
stated that the resolution having been brought forward with-
out notice could not be legally acted on. The report was
adopted on the motion of the Rev. Mr. Bacon, who, in moving
its adoption, said that charity, not economy, was the first
principle of the institution.

ARRIVAL OF THE It.X.QUEEN OF THE FRENCH.—
The ex-Queen of the French lett Dovf r yesterday morning
at eight o'clock, by express train on the South-Eastern Rail-
way, and arrived in London at half-past ten. Her Majesty
was accompanied by the Due de Nemours, the Prince de
Joinville, the Duchesse de Saxe Cobourg, the Duo de bar-
mier, and the Baron de Montesquieu.