The Sun.
London, England, 1844-08-28 00:00:00

•
C t-e C VAC L Alt.. i LORD J. RUSSELL AND " SPECIAL
WiNosoa, To ESDAY.--Prince Albert inspectea' the BURDENS."
Second Battalion of the Scots Fusilier Guards in g, \r- (From the League.)
by
of
therd country. John Russell
risen here this morning in the Great Park. They I The last discussion of the session arose in conse-
-Prince was attended by Colonel Wylde, Equerry in guiene eof
condition a
al n deliveredd
p rosp e e
t y Lo
Waiting. ol
• The Queen took an airing this morning in a pony that speech
speech the 3‘.loble Member for the City of Lon-
phaeton-for upwards of an hour. Prince Albert drove t. 'ton returned to the question of " special burdens" on
her Majesty out.' The royal party was attended by i
itthoebrleantdpe
land. linevtifiliefildieedbahties ,on, iblluierrdse, 'sn, motion, Sir
the Hon. Colonel Grey on horseback.
Her Majesty the Queen Dowager, after lunching 1 .`o the single "burden" of maintaining the poor; but
with the Duchess of Kent at Froginore. House, went oble Lord has discovered two other " bur-
with her Royal Highness to the Castle on a visit to de us," the county rate and !he malt duty, which, in
the QUeen. his opinion, -entitle the agriculturists, that is, the land-
The Queen Dowager was received at the grand owners, to peculiar consideration on the part of the
entrance by Prince Albert, Attended by Viscount Legislature. It is pleasant to find the question of
Hawarden, Colonels Grey and Wylde. Her Majesty protection to agriculture, or, to speak more correctly,
-was attended by Lady Gore and. the Misses Gore, and of protection to rent, placed on some ground which
the Duchess of Kent was attended by Lady Charlotte can be understood and fairly grappled nith ; and we
Dundas. feel grateful to our opponents when they show us
At twenty minutes past four o'clock the Queen their points of defence.
Dowager . took her departure, accompanied by the From the importance attached to the question of
Duchess of Kent; in a pony carriage and four, far I county rates, one would be led to imagine that this
IFroginore, on her return to Bushy Park. Prince 1 impost was one of a very heavy and grievous cha-
Albert conducted her Majesty
.to her carriage. The racter ;" and that, although raised from the land, it •
Countess of' Dunmore, Viscount Hawarden, the Hon. was appropriated to objects in which proprietors of
Col. Grey, and Col. Wylde, also attended the Queen the soil had no interest, and that over its expen-
Dowager to the royal entrance. diture these ill-used individte:os had no control.
The Prince of Wales and the Princess Alice were Now, What are the facts of this case of suffering
taken a carriage drive this forenoon, accompanied_ by and injustice inflicted on the owners of the
the DoWager Lady Lyttelton. The Princess Royal 'soil? The county rate is a burden laid upon all land
was taken in' the pleasure-grounds adjoining the and buildings, and is, for the roost part, expended in
Castle. The :Royal Family were also taken airings the maintenance of roads and bridges, and in the pro-
in the afternoon. .secution Of various classes of offenders against the
The ViscounteSs Canning has succeeded the Coun- i laws. The amount of the rate is fixed by the
Less of Dunmore as the-Lady inWaiting on the Queen. magistrates in each county, and in their hands
Viscount Hawarden (Lord in Waiting on her Ma- lis the control of the expenditure. The magistrates
jesty) arrived at the-Castle this morning. His Lord- are generally landow tiers, and, if there be any
P left in the afternoon. want of economy and care in the disbursement
of the amount collected, they are wholly responsible
for it. The entire amount of county rate collected,
in' 1842, for England and Wales, was but 703,5261.,
England paying 666,9771., and Wales 36,549/. ;
and this sum was levied on land and buildings
spread over more than thirty...seven millions of acres,
averaging not more than 40. per acre, and being
not more than 3,1 d. in the pound on the annual
value of the property assessed. But in what coun-
ties is it that the county rate appears as a very large
item of expenditure P Middlesex pays not less
than 87,715/. ; the West Riding of Yorkshire,
49,692/. ; Lancashire, 41,328/. ; Surrey, 32,543/.,
that part of the metropolis on the south of the
Thames- causing Surrey to stand so high on the
list. The amount paid in 1842 in these four coun-
ties was 211,178/., or very nearly ono-third of the
amount paid by the whole of England. Lancashire
alone paid 41,3281., whilst the whole of Wales paid
but 36,5491. From this it is clear that this " special
is not vein/ at all, but general, and
s
the towns and the manufacturing as
bhUarrdeedn
El
by
well as by the agricultural districts; and unless it
be assumed
.that land ought to pay no taxes, and
that owners of land are a class of so sacred a cha-
racter as to be entitled altogether to exemption
from taxes and all other inflictions to which man-
kind in general are :subjected, we know not how
any sane man can regard the county rate -as any
ground fur the existence of the cern-law as a
means of compensation to the class of landowners,
-In the discussion of the question of the food mo-
nopoly, there have been adduced many reasons for
its continuance—some fraudulent, and others simply
ridiculous; and this of the burden of the county
rate is about the most absurd of all. What is the
value of land without roads and bridges, and who
are so much interested in the punishment of offen-
ders as the owners of property ? How many in.
stances are there in every county' of the value of
land being prodigiously increased by the forming of
roads and the opening of new markets for the produce
of the land ? To dwell upon these points would be to
assume a want of common capacity on the part of our
readers ; and we confess we cannot persuade ourselves
that Lord John Russell was in earnest when he ven-
tured to speak of the burden of county rates as one
entitling the landowners to tax the food of a whole
nation and to inflict the evils of famine upon multi-
tudes of their fellow-countrymen. The landowners
would do well to inquire if county rates are not
greatly increased by the " burden " of prose-
cuting and punishing a class of offenders who are
made so by laws enacted by landowners to provide
sport and amusement for - themselves and their
friends. How much of the county rate in Norfolk,
Suffolk, Buckingham, and other agricultural coun-
ties, is expended in maintaining a police force to act
as gamekeepers, and in punishing poachers ? The
landowners and magistrates in those counties can
give some interesting particulars on this point; and,
if they had a particle of decent shame about them,
they would be the very last to have this question
brought before the public eye. But suppose we
grant that the county rate is a " special burden" on
the land, and how far is it repaid by the corn-law ?
The county rate of 1842 amounted to 4id. per
acre in England and Wales. To compensate the
landowners for this grievous burden, how much
should the corn-law give them in return ? The
tax of 4id. per acre surely cannot require a pro-
tecting duty of 20s. per quarter on the importa-
tion of foreign wheat, nor yet of a fixed duty of Bs.
as proposed by the late Government in 1841, nor
even a " moderate fixed duty" of any amount
above I-4d. per quarter, supposing each acre to pro-
duce equal to three quarters of grain. Let it be
remembered how small the whole sum of this
" burden" is—that it is paid on buildings and ma-
nufactories as well as on land--that it is levied by
the county magistrates, generally proprietors of
land, and that it is expended entirely by them—
that it is applied chiefly to the maintenance of
roads and bridges, without which land would be
almost valueless, and to the prosecution and
punishment of offenders against the laws made for the
security of property, and largely on account of of-
fences against the game laws made by landowners to
provide amusement for landowners—that it only
amounts to 41d. per acre throughout England and
\Vales ;—let all this be remembered, and then imagine
the amount of credulity the man must be blessed
with, who believes this "burden" to require a
corn-law to compensate for it ; or the as-
surance or ignorance of a statesman who can
bring forward this "burden" as a ground for the
continuance of a tax upon the chief article of
human subsistence. It is indeed amazing with how
much coolness these pretences are put forward, as
if the owners of land were the only
men who
became acquainted with tax-gatherers. The 700,0001.
collected in county rate is about as much as the
tax levied on cotton, the raw material of our most
important manufacture, For the ()aunty rate the
landowner gets roads, bridges, security for property,
value to land ; for the cotton-tax, what do those en-
gaged in the cotton-trade receive ? Th.ey have this
tax laid upon them, not to provide Ned§l and bridges,
arid markets, but to go to the general taxation of
the country, and to hatig upon them as a dead weight
in the fleece competition they meet with in every
market in the world. To what a wretched condition
are our landed proprietors reduced when they can
stoop so low as to ask for the perpetuation of a bread-
tax on grounds so contemptible as this.
Of the malt duty we have little to say, except
that we deem it in itself an unwise impost, inter-
fering with the carrying on of an extensive depart-
ment of trade, and we would willingly see it abo-
lished, But as a ground for maintaining a tax on
bread, it is not less foolish than that based on the
payment of county-rates, The landowners have
made a law to tax
malt, by which beer is made
dearer to the consumer ; the demand for barley is
thus, to some extent, lessened, and in this way the
tax is injurious to the landowners; but as respects
rice, it is only injurious to the beer-drinker. The
landowner has no pity for the consumer; it is not for
him he wishes the tax repealed ; but he has great
compassion for his own class ; he proposes, therefore,
to tax the beeredrinker's bread to repay himself for the
injury he suffers from having taxed the beer-drinker's
beer, if the landowners don't like the malt-tax, let
them abolish it; but in the name of all that is just,
don't ask the people to give up the consumption of
bread because they have already been put upon short
allowance of beer.
From our hearts we pity any man of ordinary in-
telligence who stops forward to defend the corn-law.
The fraud is so glaring and so wicked that no man
can stand in its defence without damage to his cha-
racter and his influence ; and that Lord John Russell
should volunteer as its champion is a wonderful and
a sorrowful passage in the history of one of the
most distinguished families in the ranks of the Bri-
tish peerage.

The Queen Dowager, attended by Lady Gore, left
her residence, Bushy House Bushy Park, yesterday
morning, for Frogmore Lodge, to pay a visit to her
Royal highness the Duchess of Kent. Her Majesty
afterwards proceeded to Windsr, on a visit to the
Queen. In the evening the Queen Dowager, attended
by Lady Gore, returned to Bushy House to dinner.
Their Royal Highnesses the Duchess of Gloucester
and the Duke of Cambridge arrived in town yes-
terday, from Kew. The Royal Duchess honoured
the Countess of Mansfield with a visit, at her resi-
dence, in' Longhorn-place. In the evening the
Duchess of Gloucester and the Duke of Cambridge
returned to Kew.

Monsignor de Pietro, Archbishop of l3eyrout in
partibus, and Nuntius from the Holy See to the Court
of Portugal, , was presented to the Earl of Aberdeen
by Baron de Moncorvo, Portuguese Minister.
Lord Stanley has left the residence of Sir James
Graham, at Netherby-, near Carlisle, for Lathom
House, Lancashire, the seat cf Lord Skelmersdale.

SPORTING INTELLIGENCE.
EGHAM RACES—TUESDAY.
Egham- is nOw so completely out of the world, and
the'means of its inhabitants, for the Ftrposes of sport,
So contracted, that it is surprising, not that the races
should be curtailed, but that there should be any races
at all: The loss of the income hitherto derived from the
gambling booths increases our surprise, and almost
raises ?lie question whether the exertions of the inhabi-
tants, without more powerful assistance from the neigh-
bouring gentry, will be sufficient to avert the fate that
the diversion .of ;traffic into new channels, and other
causes not worth inquiring_ into, have entailed upon meet-
ings that once stood nigh' in public estimation. Of the
meeting that commenced yesterday under the stew-
ardship of Captains Bastard and Martin, it is un-
nee, scary e) speak at length ; if the prizes were
deficient in value and importance, they had
the receinmendation of quantity, and had greater
publicity been given them, would, we doubt not,
have attracted a much larger attendance. It is due
to the Committee to state that their arrangements on the
Course were made with a commendable regard to the
accommodation and amusement of the visitors, and that,
with one exception, they were carried out in a creditable
manner by Mr. Cox, the newly-appointed Clerk of the
Course ; the exception was a want of attention to the
usual allowance of time between the heats, so much lati-
tude being taken that the racing was not brought to a
close until seven o'clock. But fire this drawback, the day's
sport, if not of first qudity, was calculated to give satis
faction to a company not particularly distingue, nor suf-
ficiently numerous to be profitable to the booth and stand
proprietors. The following are particulars of
The Gold Cup of 801:, the winner to be sold for 6001.,
&e. Two miles.
Lord Exeter's Pergolaria, 3 yrs, Est 111b......(Pettit) 1
Mr. Death's Misdeal, 5 yrs, 9st
Sir G. Heathcote's Miss Wilfred filly, 3 yrs, 6st 1116 3
Lord G. Bentinck's Gaper, 4 yrs, Bst 71b 4
5 to 2 agst Wiss Wilfred f, and Pergolaria,
and 3 to 1 agst Gaper.
The running for the first half mile was made by Gaper;
it was then taken up by Pergolaria, who made the pace
tolerably good, was never caught, and won cleverly by a
length. Miss Wilfred f a good third. Gaper was beaten
off early.
The New and Old Windsor Stakes of 5 sovs. each, with
20 added, 3 yrs old, 7st 1 h ; 4 yrs, Bst 71b ; 5 yrs,
9st ; 6 yrs and aged, 9st 21b ; mares. &c., allowed 31h;
winners once, 4ib extra; twice, 71b extra. Heats,
three-quarters of a mile. Winner to be sold for 80
sovs., &c. (6 Subs.)
Lord G. 13entinck's Vol au Vent, 3 yrs (Abdale) 0 1 1
General Wyndham's Hashed Venison, 3 yrs 1 0 2
Mr. Matthews's Tub Thumper, 6 yrs 0 0 3
Nlr. Payne's Audrey, 3 yrs . . 2 2 dr
Mr. Bastard's Radnor, 3 yrs
Mr. E. R. Clark's Llangollen, syrs
First heat—Even on Audrey and Hashed Vesnion
against the field; a very fine race between the two; was
won by a head. Second heat-6 to 4 agst Hashed
Venison, 2 to 1 agst Audrey, and 3 to 1 agst Vol au
Vent ; won by a length. Llangollen fell about two
distances from home, and broke his rider's collar-bone.
Third heat-5 to 2on Vol au Vent, who won cleverly
by a length, and was claimed.
The Queen's Plate of 100 guineas; 3 yrs old, ist 51b;
4 yrs, 9st llb; 5 yrs, 9st 111 b; 6 yrs and aged, lOst 21b.
Two miles and a distance.
' Sir G. Heathcote's Campanero, 3 yrs (Chapple)
Lord Exeter's Pergolaria, 3 yrs 2
Mr. Ramsbottom's-Pine Apple, 4 yrs 3
Mr. Balchin's Moustache, 3 yrs
Lord G. Bentinck's Gaper, 4 yrs 5
Betting-5 to 4 agst Pine Apple, sto 2 agst Pergo-
laria, and 7 to 2 agst Campanero. Campanero and
Pergularia went in advance at a strong pace to the turn,
where the former, who was rather impetuous, ran out to
the right, Lord Exeter's mare following him. Pine
Apple and Moustache, keeping straight, went on toge-
ther to the first gap, where Campanero and the mare
joined them, and the four ran in company to the three.
itiarters of-a-mile post ; Campanero then took a decided
lead, made the rest of the running, and won easy by two
lengths. Pine Apple and Moustache were beaten off at
the distance, and Gaper never had a chance in any part
of the ram
The Runneymede Stakes of' 5 sovs. each, and 30 added.
Winner to be sold for 1501., &e. Heats, one mile.
(5 Subs.)
Mr. T, Coleman's Devil among the
Tailors, 5 yrs, Bat Sibs
Mr. King's Young Loehinvar, 4 yrs, Bst 41b 5 1 0 dr
Mr. Balehin's Epaulette, 5 yrs, Bst 81b 2 3 3 dr
Mr. Brooke's Dean Swift, 6 yrs, Bst 1 llb 3 dr
Mr. Stanborough's Isleworth.s yrs, Bstlllb 4 dr
The first heat was won easy by a length; the second,
by a length; the third was a dead heat ; and the fourth
walked over.
Eight horses are named for the Egham Stakes (heats)
this day,
THE LATE DERBY.—We understand that within
the last few days some important disclosures have been
made in connexion with Ratan's running for the Derby,
and that a full investigation will take place before the
Jockey Club, at one of the Newmarket October Meetings.
Several parties are said to be deeply implicated.

NEW INSOLVENT ACT,
TO THE EDITOR OF THE SUN.
Rini—The mischievous law recently passed respect-
ing debtor and creditor, deserves to be branded for its
infamy by every tradesman in the country. The pro-
tection afforded to trade before this Act came into
power was fragile enough ; but, not content to allow
things to remain as they were, our law.inaUers must
nfteds again interfere, and cast to the wind the little
security we had. I would Inquire, who thaid my
Lord Brougham for what he has done ? I would
aver, not a trading man in England--none will feel
grateful, save the practised sharper and the confirmed
rogue. -If his Lordship supposes he has rendered the
trade any service, he is mistaken altogether, ands with
all his sagacity, is in total ignorance of our position.
One would really imagine that a deputation from the
queen's Bench (and of whose characters there can
he no mistake) had waited on his Lordship to insure
his powerful protection on their behalf, and that he
would be the means of opening the prison doors to all
sorts of characters, and bid diem Qod speed,
Do not, Sir, ranif me with those who are
unmoved at the fact of a truly nnfortnnate man being
thrust into prison by an unfeeling creditor, and
thereby not only separated from his family, but pre-
vented doing what he might for the benefit of his
preditera, Wre tie ,t doubtless many cases of
this kind are toi be met with;' and if hi4'Lordship
had introduced a Bill to relieve or set at liberty such
characters, he would have been a blessing to the coun-
try and a benefit to the trade.
quit itti,Fttp with your Correspondent that it is
high- time thg whnle corfanuftity " nussed "
themselyes op this subjea, and that associations should
be formed in 411 the proyl.npi4l Owns fur the purpose
of collecting such facts as bear on this important
subject. I find I have not quoted your Correspon-
qent's words correctly, but I believe I have given the
spirit of Om.
Wishing these plain observations may meet the
eye of those more versed in the matter, and who will
bring it out fairly before the public, so that sonic
practical result may follow that will act as an antidote
to the evil now complained of, I have only to apolo-
. gisp for occupying so much of your space, and beg to
subscribe myself, sir, yours vespectfuily,
A TRADESMAN.
I
i Oxford-street, Aug. 27, 1844.

THE OPENING OF THE ROYAL EXCIIANGE.—We
are given to understand that a meeting of the Joint
Committee for the affairs of the Royal Exchange is to
take place on Friday, the 30th instant, to receive the
report of the progress of the works, and to fix the day
upon which everything connected with the opening of
the Royal Exchange is to be completed. On the day of
the meeting of the Committee inquiry will be made as
to the cause of the hitherto unaccountable delay which
has taken place in the preparation of the building for
the reception of the merchants and traders, to wham
that delay has been so serious an inconvenience. Eight
Months ago it was announced to the public, that if the
weather should prove favourable, the building would be
ready for business in June. How then, ask numbers of
our fellow-citizens, happens it, that although no obstacle
of any kind has presented itself, and although the
weather has been most auspicious, doubts are expressed
as to the completion of the works before the termination
of another month ? It is positively asserted in the City,
that without any extraordinary exertion on the part of
those who are responsible, the merchants might have
been " on 'Change" two months ago ; and people say it
is hard to suppose that any pulolic body or set of
trustees, would so far neglect their duty as to wink at
the violation of the contracts, The meeting of ih'e
Joint Committee on the 30th instant, however, will ex-
plain ill about it.