The Sun.
London, England, 1844-11-11 00:00:00

Hitherto the Premier's financial ventures have been
favoured with a marvellous succession of fair wea-
ther. With whatever temerity he has embarked on
enterprises from which his friends and his foes would
have equally dissuaded him, there can be no question
that he has always had "lucky runs," and got into
port under circumstances that would have probably
swamped many bolder and more resolute statesmen.
To one so confident in his star, "light airs" from in-
auspicious quarters may blow, it seems, unheeded.
Probably the recent meetings which have been held
to petition the Legislature for the repeal of the malt
tax and the tea duties, are regarded only as "gentle
breezes" by him who has sailed, in three •successive
seasons, through all the hurricanes which blow over
the expanse affected by " the property-tax ;" yet we
think we may predict for him some coming tempest
which he will find it more difficult to weather than he
anticipates. The little breeze, of which he may now
make small account, will soon increase into a raging
gale, blowing from all quarters. In other word,
Sir ROBERT will soon learn the formidable issue sa!
that scheme of currency, which he has sacrificed the
position and fortunes of so many in the attempt to
uphold, regardless, alike, of the cruelty and the
impolicy of leaving the underpaid and overworked
industrious classes to defray the vast bulk of that
indirect taxation on commodities which the com-
pulsory establishment of prices, regulated by a fixed
cheap price of gold, leaves them, in the first place,
instead of the wealthier consumers, to defray ; and,
in the second, to defray out of wages reduced in s
more than corresponding proportion to such dete-

riorated prices.
Prima facie, therefore, the ease which the indus-
trial classes have to urge is a very powerful one for
the repeal of the duties on malt and tea; two com-
modities which, as the most essential, are also the
most extensively consumed elements of their subsist-
ence. But the average annual yield of the malt-tax
to the public Exchequer is not less than 5,000,0001.,
and of the tea duties than 3,000,0001. Now, these
appeals for their extinction, or very great reduction.
have the prescription of many precedents in a long
series of past years in their favour. At no former
period had the petitioners so strong an equitable title
to the indulgence of Parliament. By their energy,
assiduity, patience, and intelligence, manufacturing
production throughout all its branches has been not
only incredibly improved in all its proceFses, but has
extended the variety and the sum of its fabrics to an ,
amount capable of supplying at any notice the de-
mands of all the world. Unhappily—(an all important
proposition which the various tracts published by the
Society for the Emancipation of Industry have
powerfully demonstrated)—there exists no principle
of distribution to diffuse these products among th(
meritorious, but impoverished hands, whose unmiti-
gated toil has produced them. From the labours of
a busy life, devoted to the supply of all that car
minister to the comforts and luxuries of those above
them, they derive to themselves nothing more than
stinted necessaries to support their toilsome career of
privation and misery. It is difficult, then, on the one
hand, to deny that they have a reasonable title to ex-
pect to be relieved, say from 50 per cent., of the taxa-
tion on tea and on malt. But, on the other hand, it
seems as difficult, at least, to conceive how the Premier,
whom a property-tax of 5,200,0001. per annum barely
enables to tide over the annual expenditure of
the country with a surplus of revenue, the aggre-
gate of which is more than ten times the
sum of that tax—is to concede the sacrifice or

the 4,000,0001. forming a moiety of the joint
product of the duties on malt and tea. Nevertheless

there is, in reality, one certain means, one infallible
course, open to the Premier, and which we have over
and over again pressed upon him the necessity for his
adopting, upon every consideration connected with his

own fame and his country's welfare. Let him repeal
his disastrous Gold Standard Bill of 1819 ; let him at
once recal his so-called " complement" of that Bill of
last year. Let him lower his compulsory bullion
principle to the point of compelling the Bank to pay
its notes in gold—not at a fancy statutable, cheap
price, but at its current, varying, "market" price.
Let him thus communicate the true and invaluable

power of representation, not of mere arbitrary value,
to the incalculable property of this empire, for ever
seeking investment, but unable to find it for lack of a

safe, because an expensive, circulation. Where the
power of circulation is arbitrarily contracted and re-
pressed, the power of realising and representing pro-
perty is proportionably destroyed. Had there been
such a monetary system as would allow of taxation
being added to prices, artisans and labourers would
have been now receiving living wages, and the
Excise duties would not have been found so in-
tolerable by that enormous community of consumers.
But the whole of this part of the case is excellently
put in the following passage from the " Circular" of
the Society we have just named, addressed to the
Lords in July last, and now re-published in their
" First Report," of which we shall give an early
notice :

" That whenever prices expand in this country to a
remunerating level—namely, to that just and proper
level which permits of taxation being added to natural
or gold prices—then, under our present system, gold,
not being permitted to rise in price, becomes thecheapest
commodity in the British market, and is sure to be ex-
ported in preference to our manufactured goods.
" That the large amount of taxation in this country,
levied first by Customs and Excise on the producing
classes, to the extent of about thirty-five millions an-
nually, enhances the price of all commodities produced,
and consequently requires a circulating medium so ex-
lLnsive in its nature as to permit taxation, indirectly
evied, to be added to natural price ; without such a
medium, the taxation, for the most part, rests upon the
producing classes—an end unjust, impolitic, in its issue
ruinous, and never contemplated by the Legislature
when this form of taxation was imposed."

We have received Madrid journals of the 3d inst.
General PRIM'S trial it appears was postponed from
the 2d to the 4th. He was to be tried by court-
martial, consisting of general officers, with General
ESPELETA, as President.

In the Chamber of Deputies the fifth paragraph of
the address, which relates to the Church and clergy,
gave rise to some discussion. Senor CARRASCO
moved that the words " without prejudice to
national property" should be added. Several Members
spoke, and it was elicited during the discussion, th..a

of the country, a powerful and permanent party,
at the same time eschewing paltry connexions,
and declining the retail purchaie of petty foes, or stil
paltrier hireling friends." The meaning of the above
passage, carefully as it is worded, is very obvious. If
Sir ROBERT PEEL will consent to throw the Liberal
party overboard ; give the lie direct to all the declara-
tions he has made since his accession to office in
favour of Free-trade; fling all idea of further Re
form in Church or State to the winds ; and
abandon his intention—formally announced in

the House of Commons towards the close of the
last session—of increasing the annual grant to
Maynooth, and placing the Irish education sys-
tem on an improved and enlightened basis ;
if the Premier will only consent to stultify and
degrade himself in this fashion, and submit without
a murmur, as in the olden time, to the imperious
mandates of Toryism, then the Irish Orangemen will
gladly give him their most strenuous approbation and
support; but if he will not so demean himself, but
will insist, instead, on acting in accordance with the
dictates of his own judgment, then he must be pre-
pared to encounter their bitterest hostility, for no
Minister will they condescend to patroni se who is
not prepared fully to acknowledge the great principle
of Tory ascendancy. Verily these are modest pro-
positions on the part of Irish Toryism, and their
modesty will appear the more remarkable, when we
take into consideration the declining state of that
party in Ireland and elsewhere. It has lost much of

its old influence, the course of events is daily work-
ing more and more to its disadvantage; and,
as if this were not quite sufficient humiliation.
it is no longer an united party, but is split into two
distinct sects—the Moderates and Immoderates. And
yet it presumes to dictate terms to Sir R. PEEL, just
as though it were once again lord of the ascendant in
this, as well as in the sister country 1 But the Pre-
mier, if we mistake not, will be far too wise to close
with the terms proposed to him by these noisy, swag-
gering political bigots. lie knows his own position
too well to be likely to compromise it by any decided
retrograde movement, such as a renewed alliance with
Toryism would be sure to involve him in. It is far
more probable that he will effect a junction with the
Liberals than with the Tories, for the strength of
the former, both within and without Parliament, is
increasing in exact proportion to the decline of the
latter.