The Sun.
London, England, 1845-01-06 00:00:00

V"Ant

LONDON, MONDAY, JANUARY 6, 1845.

THE QUARTER'S REVENUE.

The official returns of the revenue for the year and
quarter, made up to Saturday, the 4th instant, ex-
hibit a most remarkable and gratifying feature—an
increase, and, in several instances, to a large amount,
of all the ordinary sources of revenue. The Customs,
the Excise, the Taxes, the Post-office, and the Crown,
Lands, show tie activity of trade and the prosperit3
of the country. The only decrease is under the
heads of "Property-tax " and " Miscellaneous," but
the latter forms no criterion whatever of the state o'
the revenue, as all chance sums and "god-sends," sucl
as the Chinese ransom, fall into it. The decrease in the
former is 57,664/. on the year, while there is an in
crease on the quarter of 33,1261. The increase
the Customs duty is enormous, amounting to not less
than 1,305,4531. For the convenience of the reader,
we give the following brief outline of the abstract.
The total ordinary income for the year ending Ja.
nuary 5, 1845, is 50,081,8871., and for the previous
year 49,078,1681. The total income, including imprest
and other moneys, and' re-payments of advances,
amounts to 51,235,5381., that for 1844 being
50,071,9431., thus leaving a clear surplus of 1 163 595/
The Customs produce 20,378,672/.' showing an' increase
of 1,305,45:3/. on the year, and an
135,167/. on the quarter. The Excise
amroeuasnets to
o'
12,160,1111., being an increase of 365,3041. on the
year, and not less than 200,1691. on the quarter. The
increase, under the head of Stamps, is, for the year
and quarter respectively, 185,2351. and 78,005/. The
Taxes for the year and quarter show an increase of
26,0021. and 11,633/. The Post-office an increase of
83,0001. on the year, and 3,0001. on the quarter.
The total amount of the Property-tax for the year
ending Jan. 5, 1845, is 5,191,5961. The Crown
Lands and Miscellaneous are items of no im-
portance, and therefore hardly deserve notice.
These returns cannot fail to afford satisfaction, and
form a source of pride to every subject of the United
Kingdom. They attest the power, the energy, and
capabilities, of this great country, and while they
remove all anxiety respecting the state of the revenue,
they at the same time afford a proof that manufac-
ture,are in a healthful trade, and shipping,
condi-
tion, and that, though wages are small, still there
must be employment for the great body of the work-
ing classes. The increase in the Excise, the Customs,
and the Post-office, is the best sign of the times.
What forms a peculiar coincidence, too, in this

prosperous state of the revenue, is that the
very patty whom Sir ROBERT PE L and his
a". ft-free trade friends turned out of office,
must rejoice at the result equally with their
opponents, and even with still more genuine sa-
tisfaction. The opening of the trade with China,
which has given renewed life to the manufacturing
districts, the new tariff, which is beginning to pro-
, duce its effect on the Customs, and other principles cf
free trade, assumed by Sir ROBERT PEEL as his own,
all owe their origin to the Melbourne Ministry, who
had the skill to plan them, but owing to the factious
and unprincipled opposition of the Tories, were not
allowed to reap their fruits. The country, in the
meantime, however, prospers; the Whigs rejoice at
it, and, to their honour throw no obstacles in
the way of men who snatched the prize
from their hands. Prosperity as well as adversity
however, has its troubles, and Sir ROBERT PEEL
must now be looking about fir remedies to abate the
plethora. He will find plenty of advice from brother
doctors. One will recommend the abolition of the
malt tax, another of the window tax, a third of the
,luty on soap, a fourth of the income tax—in fact,
there will be no end of specifics. All we hope for is,
that the Physician-in-Chief will do his duty impar-
tially, and remove the pressure from that part of the
1)ody least able to bear it.

After a struggle, continued with more or less in-
-ensity for upwards of thirty years, the people of
the United Kingdom obtained Parliamentary Re-
form. The main objects of that Reform was to
4ive the people more power in the Commons'
House of Parliament, to destroy the monopoly of
boroughs' vested in a few Lords and Commoners, to
obtain for the large unrepresented towns their
rights and privilege-s, sanctioned by the genius of
he Constitution, and above all, to establish laws
t'or the benefit not of the noble and the rich only,
but for the whole community. Much as that great
neasure was crippled in its passage through both
[louses, it has, after all, conferred many blessings on
the community, and established the great principle
hat the other two estates of the realm (for the con-
trol of the people over the Crown was fully esta-
hlished at the Revolution) may, from time to time,
be changed and amended according to circumstances.
rhe part which the Church, and especially the Bench
if Bishops, took in that arduous contest, is well
mown to all. They were regarded as the most
Atter opponents of the people's rights ; and so strong
.vas the general conviction, that in the streets, at
public meetings, nay, in the very churches, the sacred
character of the prelates did not screen them from
popular indignation, and the cry became almost
aniversal, " Down with the Bishops." The Bishops
done have forgotten the crisis. Like the old worn-
out BOURBON dynasty, they believe that they hold
.heir tenures by Divine right; in blind security they
et people and Parliament at defiance, and like men
loomed, urge on their fate. How else can any
ational being account for the palpable, the mon-
trous attempt, in these days, and in Protestant
England, to revive the mummeries of the Catholic
religion, and reconcile the Church to the See of
Rome ? But if these men are infatuated,
he people are not to be the victims. The people
nave the means of correcting the evil in their own
hands. The Reformed Church was established by
and by law it can be altered, amended, and re-
stored to its original state. Never was reform more
necessary than at the present moment. The tenets of
Popery have taken deep root in the Church, the
leading bishops openly profess them, many of the
leading men at Oxford, the nursery of the Church, of
the nobility, and the higher classes are strongly
imbued with a spirit in direct hostility to the re -
flormation, and they only watch the opportunity to
lestroy that noble fabric, which was cemented by the
ulood of so many martyrs. It is high time, therefore
for the Legislature to provide a remedy
against these alarming evils, and the most
obvious, the most effectual, and the most
certain remedy too, is to reduce to something
like ordinary dimensions the vast patronage and
Authority of the Episcopal Bench. No twenty-six
inen have the tenth, nay, the hundredth part of the
political power now entrusted to that ecclesiastical
body. In fact, it is so enormous, that any reform in
the Church, any meddling, as they call it, with
Church lands, or any interference whatever with any
mcquisition, however unjustly acquired, would not
lave the slightest chance of a fair hearing in the Le-
gislature. These, however, are not ordinary times; and
t i ; for the people therefore to seize the opportunity,
and urge on their representatives steps for abating
he evil. Why should one man, because he happens
o b Archbishop of CANTERBURY, have the patronage
f 2 ' 0 livings ? Or the Puseyite Bishop of LONDON
av 3 ninety, and his brother of EXETER fifty ? Or the
-wenty-six Prelates,:with their appendage!, the Deans
And Chapters, have in their gift 2,500 livings—one
tburth of the whole patronage of the Church of Eng-
land ? This constitutes a power, in such a small com-
munity, injurious to every department of the State
And dangerous to liberty ; for one of the main objects
of established churches is not, as they profess, to teach
the pure truths of Christianity, but to keep their
flocks in darkness, in order that the learned may do-
mineer over the ignorant. We appeal to history.
When did the Bench of Bishops ever bring forward
measures that had any other object in view but their
iwn aggrandisement, and can the spirit which
animates them be misunderstood when it is remem-
hered that all the great Parliamentary enactments of
-he last twenty years have found that body
,ver in opposition to the just claims and privileges of
he people ? The abolition of slavery and the slave-
rade, the abolition of the Test and Corporation Acts,
Jatholic Emancipation, the education of the people,
and the Reform Bill, afford fair specimens of that
selfish and grasping disposition for which the Church
in all ages has been conspicuous; yet, with such
proofs, the Legislature and the community still allow
these men to possess an amount of patronage suffi-
cient to damage every great and good measure. This
patronage, however, is employed now, not to obstruct
plans of reform, but to carry out one of the wickedest
schemes ever devised—the re-establishment of the
Catholic religion in England. But it is hardly
necessary to point out the influence which a Puseyite
3ishop must necessarily exercise over the young
?riesthood, and over the many thousands who look to
`um for livings or promotion for their relatives and
riends. The only way to clip the wings of Puseyism,
is to remodel the Church, and, first of all, to make a
nore equal distribution of its patronage.

We quote the following curious passage from the
Post of Saturday morning :—" What right have the
!ay persons who meet together at Exeter or elsewhere,
•o give their opinion about Church matters, and to
.;all for alterations, unless they consider themselves
,nembers of -the Church; and if they be members of
:;he Church, why should they be so utterly oblivious
•f the conditions of their membership ? It is mani-
est that they never think of this—that they do not
ecollect that their undutiful conduct, in meeting and
Alking as they do, disqualifies them altogether from
interference in Church affairs. Their mode of inter-
; erence destroys their right to interfere. The mind that
is in these people is the mind of mere Dissenters—
lay, it is much more licentious than the mind which
belongs to regularly organised bodies of Dissenters,
:or even they recognise some rules of church govern-
nent. But these stulti of Exeter, who meet to babble
:nd talk and make a disturbance, seem to have no other
'llea than that clergy and Church are only to be held
in respect while they are pleasing to them." We
gave been induced to quote this somewhat lengthy
)assage, because we consider it in its way as a cu-
iosity—as a specimen of dogmatism and haughty,
upercilious intolerance singularly and amusingly at
. ariance with the tone of thought and feeling preva-
ent in the present day and for many a long year past,
tnd worthy of a journalist in the days of LAUD, or a
,ycophantie Court scribe during the brief tyrannical
.way of JAMES the SECOND. Imagine indeed the ar-
rogance of a public writer denying the right of the
city to express an honest and
.decided opinion on a
natter that deeply concerns themselves—denying
heir right to make the slightest opposition to innova-
-ions that shock their feelings, disturb their sense of
)ropriety, and degrade the established faith in their
.yes by associating it with a variety of obsolete, worth-
-I,ss usages and superstitious mummeries, borrowed
avowedly from an antagonist Church, which they
mud their fathers before them have been taught to
cold in conscientious aversion ! The laity not justi-
ied in taking a vital interest in Church affairs!
Why, the laity are themselves the national Church„