The Sun.
London, England, 1828-04-21 00:00:00

maybe abandoned: The authorities of the'State
should at once declare, that nothing will satisfy
them but the maintenance of a board of sove-
reigns at , the public expense,--that: the exten-
uion of the national trade is nothing compared
'with the gains_ of an "exclusive coMpany,7--and
that it is more cOnduciVe. to the commercial pros-
perity of • Great Britain, or more agreeable to
her rulers, to see the port of Canton crowded
with' vessels from Amsterdam and New York,
than with free traders from Liverpool or London.
—Times.

Some of the West India merchants had an in-
terview with Mr. Grant in the beginning of the
week on the subject of the new sugar bill. This
measure, it seems, at least in the form first pro-
.posed, it has been determined by Ministers to
abandon, and they arc now seeking to establish
certain principles, on which the new enactment,
which is to supply its place, is to be, founded.
Ministers admit, we-understand, that something
should be done to promote the 'interests of the
refineries, and for the benefit of the East
trade, and the folloWing therefore are the bases
laid down :-
Ist. That the refiners shall be allowed to work
foreign surars in bond, under the surveillance of the
Excise; to import without duty, and to export with-
out drawback.

2d. That the East India sugars shall be admitted
at 4s. extra dury,with the ascending scale of duty, as
proposed in the first .draught of the new bill.
It was on the expediency of..making these
principles the basis of the new bill, that Mr.
Grant wished to consult the leaders of the West
India interest. AN ith regard to the first point,
they informed him that they hail no objection to
make, inasmuch as foreign sugars under such r -
gulations could not possibly come into - home
consumption ; .but they expressei doubts whether
the plan would b 9 an acceptable one. to the re-
finers. On the second point they were prepared
to offer the same,opposnion which they made at
first, conceiving that in such case t.,:ey ought to
obtain sine countervailing advantages to com-
pensate for the detriment their i terests would
suffer. The principal sugar-reeners have sulkit-
quently had an interview with Mr, .Grant, and it
seems that the proposition, which related to them
met with the. reception which had been antici-
pated by the West .India" merchants. They
)bjected to being placed under the surveillance
of the Excise, and pointed out the practical
disadvantages which would. arise ; since they
%.ould only find a market abroad for the refined
sugar,. while all the refuse, which in their pro-
cesses forms two-thirds of the whole, would accu

-mulate in their hands without any possible vent
fur it. The perplexities which attend .any new
enact►nent on the subject of the sugar trade,. and
the impossibility of reconciling the conflicting
interests connected with it, appear to create
4.)l3stacles which, in the opinion. of Most. people
concerned, will scarcely be surmounted in the
preset it
.session.-L. Ibid.

In the discussion in this House of Commons,
%)11 Thursday night, it was stated by Mr. Huskis-
son, that "iii the United Netherlands, as well
as in Russia, Germany, and all the Northern
Countries of Europe, there was a very rapid in-
(seas% of population ; and all these countries, as
well as England, were subject to the mainte-
nance of a pauper' population.- What Mr.
Huskisson stated is, unquestionable. In most of
the countries of the Continent, the pressure pro-
duced by the rapid increase of population is very
great. In the Netherlands the number of poor
Is greater than in England. In Switzerland, the
distress from excessive population in many can-
tons is very great. A Counsellor of Govern-
ment in Prussia, a M. Weinhold, of Halle, has
published " a Work on the excessive Popula-
tion of the Middle of Europe," in which he
calls on the Governments to adopt measures to
stem the evil of 'a more violent-nature than any
yet proposed. The propositions. of this Prus-
sian functionary have excited a great ferment
throughout Germany ; for though -in most of
the States great restraints are imposed on mar-
riage, yet his Means of repression amount to an
interference with freedom, equally unnecessary
and impolitic. In Bavaria, by a law passed on
the 1 lth of September, 1825 (and in most of
the German States there are similar laws), no
person, " who is not in possession of land of' a
certain value, or which pays' a certain amount
of land-tax, or who is not master of a trade,
agreeably to the regulations laid doiin in a par-
ticular law, or is not in possession of other
means securing to him a subsistence, or does
not fill certain offices in the State, is al-
lowed to marry ;" and " Clergymen who per-
form the ceremony of marriage without re-
eeiving a permission to that purpose from
the
Magistrate,
arc made responsible to the
Parishes for all the damage and expenses to
which they may be put through such marriage.
In France, the poverty from excessive population
is also very
great. The number of poor in Paris
is nearly double the number in London, when
the population of the two cities is considered.
The Department of the Seine contains 817,360;
and in 1822, the ntimber of individuals in Paris
was 91,532, according to
habitually relieved,
Degeraude (Le Visiteur du Pauvre, 4th Ed.,
Brussels, 1828). In several of the towns the
poor are still more numerous than in Paris.
While Geneva was under the French, the peor
were to the
whole population as one. to five: At
Bourdeaux, the proportion is one to five. In
the country parts of France, the indigent popu-
lation is not so great, being between a thirtieth
--
and a fortieth.of the whole. But as there-is no
regular provision for , the poor in the country,
whenever any accident happens in a village; the
inhabitants havina no local resource, are driven
into towns: -Let its not therefore suppos.e-that
there is something peculiar to this country in the
pressure caused by the poor, or that the system
of Poor Laws peculiar to England (most coun-
tries of this part of Europe have Poor Laws of
some sort) have created a burden to which other i
nations are strangers. There is 'a tendency n
population ire •old settled countries to outgrow
the means of subsistence ; and to this tendency
we are indebted for the evil of' pauperism. That
from this cause alone'great misery •may exist in
countries,
we know from the circumstance of'
Switzerlaild, where the taxes are hardly worth
mentioning, being the country which perhaps
suffers the most from pauperism. It is of great
importance, if we wish to meet any evil, to be
aware of its real cause, and we are sorry to say
that great misconception prevails with regard to
the cause of pauperism in England. What is
more common than to hear the pauperism
England placed exclusive ). to the account
of taxation, as it, even if Government were to
take nothing rom individuals, the increase of tic
numbers of the people could not more than kep p
pace with the increasing resources of the nation
under the most- :favourable suppopition. Mr.
Slaney, who opened the discussion on Thursday
night, appeared occasionally to be aware of the
connection between the tendency to increase
beyond the means of subsistence and, pauperism