The Sun.
London, England, 1850-07-01 00:00:00

tests cei-tain wo:ds used in such Act, wLicla are b
have, and bear, always such and such interpretations,
" unless such interpretations are repugnant to the
subject-rn,tUr, and inconsistent with the context in
which they z,re found."

Again and again I advise some cautious and pc cu-
niarity strong parties to vindicate the national rights
by an appeal to the laws.
Newspapers, by an express clause, are left' in the
option of parties to send by post or otherwise at their
discretion. Let the railway, companies carry them a
half a farthing apiece ! If it he worth while a com-
pany might be fs)rmed to do so without violation —I
should say, with and by permission of law.
To conc:ude, it is a dead fraud, robbery, and con-
fiscation for any Government to er:force a Sunda.) -
stamp-tax on n Sunday paper, .and then, by me-
fusing
its hitherto means of conveyance and delivery,
to put the proprietor to the enormous extra expense
and trouble of private postage, expresses, agents, and
new local delivery —I am, Sir, yours respectfully,
J. J., Barrister-at-Law.

Inner Temple, June 28.
The laws would give a much stronger and
better lesson to Puritanical idiots than anything on
earth besides.

RATING OF TENEMENTS BILL.
TO THE EDITOR OF THE SUN.
Ste,—This iniquitous Bill, which creates a distinc-
tion in law between the rich and the poor, comes on
at 12 o'clock on Thursday next for the third reading.
From the title of the Bill persons are led to believe
that small tenements are not rated at present; such is
not, however, the case, small tenements are rated,
but the magistrates have power, on the recommenda-
tion of the overseers, to exclude very poor persons
from the rates. To get rid of this power of excusing
widows and paupers from paying this Bill is intro-
duced, which creates a difference in the treatment of
the poor and the rich unknown to the laws of Eng-
land in any other case. Why not at once do away
with the power of excusing, instead of going in this
roundabout way to make the paupers pay ? The
owners of cottage property desire no favour, but they
have a right to demand that their property shall be
treated in the same way as other property.
Because from the poverty of the tenants of such
property there is a greater difficulty of getting pay-
ment than from tenants of other property, the land-
lord is to be called on to pay the rates, whether he
can get his rent or not.
In some large towns there are persons who collect
their rent weekly, but not one cottager in a thousand
pays his rent weekly. In the country they pay
half-yearly or yearly, so that an argument used by a
supporter of the Bill, that the landlord swept off
everything, falls to the ground.
It is no argument in favour of the Bill that towns
have applied for such Bills; the intention of all such
Bills is to prevent the building of houses for the poor
in such towns. Villages and towns conspire against
the poor to drive them out—the villages, when under
the control of great landowners, by not allowing anj,
houses to be built, and the towns by getting such
Bills as these.
Do not talk of your model lodging-houses, and
pass sanitary laws, whilst you pass a Bill which•will
do more to prevent improved dwellings being erected
for the poor than anything whatever.
Go through our villages, and inquire how many
cottages have been erected by the " Squires ;" not
one in a thousand of the great landowners ever build
cottages, their plan being to drive the poor to live in
other parishes, although they may work on their
estates, so that when they are old or ill other parishes
have to keep them, though they have had their work.
The proprietors of an estate extending over 7 or S
villages, with an aggregate population of not less
than 4,000, have not erected a cottage for the last
century. The owners of an adjoining village to this
estate have never built a cottage, although many have
fallen down on, each estate. This is the state of
almost every village in England, and I have seen a
great many hundreds of them.
Let an inquiry be made into the number of cot-
tages that has been built in Berks, Wilts, Hants, and
Dorset by persons owning not less than one-fourth of
the parish.
Instead of passing such a Bill as this, better pass a
Bill to compel every owner of a large amount of
land to provide a proportionate number of labourers'
cottages, instead of causing these men, as they fre-
quently do, to walk five or six miles every night and
morning to their work, or to sleep in a barn or stable,
and only return to their families on the Saturday
night.
It is possible that in large towns men may have
built large numbers of cottages and made a good
per tentage of them, but that cottage building is
generally profitable is not true, or we should not find
cottages so bad and so crowded as they are.
If I possess property on which it shall be very
difficult for me to collect the rents, on what principle
of justice can you make me answerable for the rates ?
I ask no favour, but only equal law equally applied.
I am, Sir, &c.,
TIMOTHY BROWN.