The Sun.
London, England, 1828-02-11 00:00:00

in its most hideous forms—who have withered
clemency • and kindness where they had loc!ked
for savage cruelty or brutal indifterence—sh6uld
yield to the influence of the place, and that 'the
sentiments of the person acquainted with the' ac-
tual condition of the slave, should differ as widely froin
those of the anti-slavery Societies at home, as infor-
mation does from ignorance. Were it not for-the
pernicious consequences_ to which it leads, it weuld
be absolutely amusing to contemplate. the absurdity
of those who, far less interested in the welfare of 'the
slave than the planters, and still less acquainted Niith
the degree of improvement of which their condition
is capable, assume with all imaginable complacency
that the planters have proved their inadequacy, by a
steady, or, as they call it, an obstinate resistance to
those measures which the ignorance of the one has
proposed, and the resolution of the other has resis-
ted as detrimental to the interests of the Colony,
and likely to prove injurious in their influence on the
Slaves. But even supposing that the ignorant, idle,
and sulky. negro, were as capable of enjoying the
blessings of freedom as an English subject—that he
were as alive to the feelings of degradation, and as
likely to be benefitted by becoming a free agent—
we would ask what are the true means of attaining
those desirable objects?-pot surely by refusing to
advance at all, because we cannot accomplish our
journey in a day—not by rejecting the proffered
boon, because it is not as bounteous as we could
desire ; or exasperating and disuniting the planter
and his slaves, because they decline to coalesce as
closely as we have invited them to do—certainly
not. Contemptuously as persons here pretend to
talk of the discontent of the Jamaica House
of, Assembly, we have no hesitation in saying that
we would regard with the most serious regret any
thing like a rupture between it and the parent stock,
'and cannot too pressingly deprecate the endeavour
to set aside its jurisdiction in legislating for the
Colony. All beneficial changes have been gradually
brought about; and in the- Act of the House of As..
sembly of Jamaica, respecting the condition of the
slaves, there were many provisions not only mani-
festing an anxious desire for its amelioration, but ac
tually fulfilling that desire by the most important
improvements in the existing laws. The Royal
sanction ought not to have been refused to that first
dawn of Trans-Atlantic liberality. We should have
hailed with satisfaction the evidence it afforded of
improved capability on the part of the negroes for
the reception of measures of amelioration, and of an
increased inclination on the part of the planters to ac-
cord them ; and, instead of offending the pride and
irritating the feelings of the Assembly, we ought to
have cheered them on to farther advances by a just
appreciation of those which they had already made.
We should have recollected, that if the truth and
temper of the times were in our favour, an advantage
gained could never be lost—that the first step is al
ways the most important, and that, in the words o
the Poet—

Dimidium facti qui ccepit habet.—New Times.

The Finance Committee to be proposed to-mor-
row by Mr. Secretary Peel, will consist of men im-
' partially selected from every party in Parliament,
and will include most of those who, having devoted
great attention to the financial concerns of the Em-
pire, may be supposed peculiarly qualified to con-
duct the important investigation in which they are
about to engage to an useful and satisfactory issue.
Such a body will be desirous of pursuing the great
object of economising the national expenditure, :4)
far-as it may be found to concur with a due regard
to the power, dignity, and safety of the State ; but
' at the same time reposing with an exalted conscious-
ness on the strength of its own character, and aware
that its recommendations are to undergo the subse-
quent revision of the whole Legislature, it will be
regardless of all unreasonable expectations in what-
ever quarter they may be entertained, and will,
above all, despise those simulated expectations
which are affected and diffused 'manifestly for no
other purpose than to lay the basis and pro-
vide the materials of future sneers and re-
proaches. That it may effect something important
in the way of positive retrenchment we do not
doubt; but this is not the only, nor is it the greatest
good, which may be expected to result from its
labours. It will dispel the gross illusions which
with so much art and industry have been spread be-
fore the public eye, and reduce to rational and prac-
ticable limits the exaggerated notions to which upon
this subject the populace are naturally prone. Some
apprehensions are expressed by one class of politi-
cians, and some hopes by another, that the abolition
of the Sinking Fund may be one of the reconnnen
dations of this Committee ; and the occasion there-
fore seems not to be an improper one to correct one
or two errors which have become prevalent upon
this subject. This Fund, as it now exists, is perpe-
tually represented as a delusion upon the public—as
having no other effect than that of confusing the
public accounts—as being a mock, and not a real
Sinking Fund. The reasoners to whom w e allude
define a real Sinking Fund to be an excess of in-
come over expenditure, applied to the redemp-
tion of debt; and the definition is a good one,
if permanent income and permanent expenditure
are meant; but if in a country like England,
where the expenditure fluctuates, and the in-
come fluctuates still more from year to year, the in-
come and expenditure of any one or two years are
the ideas intended to be conveyed, the definition
then degenerates into an unintelligible absurdity. A
hasty retrospect to the recent history of the Sinking
Fund will suffice to expose this absurdity. In the
year 1819, it was determined by Parliament that a
real and permanent Sinking Fund should be created
to the amount of at least Five: Millions annually.*
If the taxes as they stood after the enactments of
this Session, had failed to produce an excess of in-
come over expenditure to the extent a Five Mil-
lions, it is obvious that a Sinking Fund to that ex-
tent would still have existed, so far as it depended
upon Legislative sanction, although it had not been
realised in the actual receipts of the Exchequer,_ and
that Parliament would have been exposed to the al-
ternative of abandoning the principle it had establish-
ed, or of imposing still further taxes upon the people.
But in fact since that period the taxes as, they
then existed, or, to speak more accurately, such a
proportion of them as the Legislature bas not been
tempted to repeal, tempted by the exuberant excess
of their productiveness, have yielded, except in the
two last years, a surplus of Income over Expendi-
ture fully commensurate with the intentions of the
Legislature expressed in the Acts of 1819. The
amount of taxation, therefore, - actually abolished
since the year 1819, proves and measures the re-
dundancy of the Sinking Fund as then established
by Parliament. That amount is accurately as fol-
lows :--
i S2O No Taxes were repealed.
1821 Taxes were repealed to the amount of 480,000
1822
8,355,000
1823
1824
1825
... 3,146,000
1826
714,000

Total Annual Produce of Taxes repealed
since 1819.......
When we. say,
aswe .
d.c; .
..f.r.o. ............ 12,766,000
inllicial documents
which cannot be contradicted, thatnotwithstanding
since
this rapid reduction of taxes
Ithele
the yea year
el ri
bl
e 9.,
the Sinking Fund then established
by .
rate wisdom of the Legislature, to
five millions and upwards annually, audamtoount of
a
opro-
,ressively increasing amount from
accruingnte-
i
rest, which swells it at this moment to five millions
seven hundred thousand pounds, -in the character
so much insisted- on, of a real excess of income
over expenditure, we cannot of course understand,
nor do we trouble ourselves to understand, what is
meant by the reiterated assertion that there is no'real
Sinking Fund. We know that there is a Sinking
Fund, which the Nation has shown itself able to
sustain, established by authority of. Parliament,—
just as well as the Civil List is established, better
than the
that authority.
pay of the Army and Navy is established by
And we should as readily acknow-
ledge the truth of the assertion that there is no real
Civil List—no real pay of the Army and Navy, on