The Sun.
London, England, 1828-03-26 00:00:00

PARLIAMENTARY PROCEEDINGS.

HOUSE OF COMMONS
NOTICE OF MOTION FOR THIS DAY.
&!r. Jeplison—Bill for amending the Law of Dictics.jei
and Replevins, in certain cases.
OLDER* OF THE DAY FOR THIS DAT.
l• StiPply—Committee.
Ways and Nteans--Committee.
S. Passengers' Regulation Bill—Third reading.

NOTICE GIVEN YESTERDAY.
Thursday, March 27.
Mr. Linh—Bill to provide for the regulation of the Pub-
lic Office for registering Memorials of Deeds, Con-
veyances, and Wills, in Ireland.
Friday, March 28.
lUr• Home Drummond—Bill to regulate the Salmon
Fisheries in Scotland.

FOREIGN EXCHANGES ON LONDON•
AMTrcADANI, MARCH 21.-12.—Two months, 11. 92!-i
FETBILSRURGII, MARCH 7.—'Three months, 10%.

NIGH WATER. AT LONDON BRIDGE TO-MORROW.
vi*r14.14...10 minutes alter U. I Evening....3l3 minutes after H.

To COMMERCIAL TRAVELLERS AND OTHERS.
ALBION HOTEL, HAYMARKET, SIIEFFIELD.
WTRAVIS respectfully informs his nu-
• merous Friends, Commercial Gentlemen, and
the Public in general, that he has lately entered upon that
APacious Inn, THE ALBION HOTEL, situate in the
Haymarket, Sheffield, so many years known as " Healey's
ii°tel," where he trusts he shall meet with that encourage-
in!rit which, by an unremitting attention to business, it
will be his constant study to deserve.
The Premises have recently been most elegantly fitted
and nothing conducive to the comfort of those who
may honour him with their Patronage will be found
Ivanting.
Wines and Spirits at a moderate charge.—Good Beda
a''d Stabling.

igAsP,I)
• j

LONDON,
WEDNESDAY EVENING, MARCH 26, nes. c;

Earl GREY, last night in the House of Lords, re-
peated the questions of Sir ROBERT WILSON in
the Commons on the preceding evening, and the
answer of Earl DUDLEY was considered perfectly
satisfactory, although not holding out the same pros-
pect of peace. The fact is, that Government have not
yet received any direct information from St. Peters-
burgh since the warlike rumours lately circulated had
reached this country, and they are therefore unable
to. say whether war will take place or not. One
thing certain is, that war has not yet been proclaimed,
and the last advices from the East are more favour-
able to the continuation of peace than otherwise. But
a trifling occurrence may wholly alter the state of
things. The chances of Nvar are far more likely at
the present moment than they were a month ago—
but still we repeat that Government have received
"0 Positive information on the subject, whatever
their impression may be as to the ultimate two of
affairs.

The French Papers of Sunday contain no news.
The complexion of an article,, dated Vienna, is
favourable to the continuation of peace in the East.
The Emperor of RUSSIA is said to be disposed to
act with great forbearance. " Seeing is believing."

By the Anisterdam Journal of the 22d inst. it
appears that an insurrection had broken out in Su-
matra, which had been quelled by a detachment
from Palembang, and the insurgents were compelled
to pay the expences of the expedition, as well as an
annual tribute.

It was said in Berlin, on the 15th, that the Rus-
-sian Guards had received orders to march from St.
Petersburgh.

IV the Sir Edward Banks steam-packet, we
have received Papers from Hamburgh to the 23d
inst. An English Journal had been established,
entitled the Hamburgh Reporter, which promises to
be of very general benefit. It is conducted with
`pint, and is
perfectly liberal. The accounts from
Petersburgh, of the Sth March, say that the Schah
Ptßma has agreed to pay the indemnity upon
hearing of the march of the Russian troops. Peace
1/111 therefore be preserved with Persia, and the
Russian armies will thus be at liberty to direct all
their energies upon the Turks, in the event of war,
tvhieh is now believed to be inevitable, as the Im-
perial Guards have marched from St. Petersburgh.

Mr. Alderman THoMPsoN last night presented a
petition from no less than seventeen Insurance Corn-
panies, against the present exorbitant duty OD
Policies of InsuranceZ which may be justly called a '
most impolitic tax. The petitioners were distinctly of
opinion, that not only were a vast number of persons
prevented from insuring by the amount of duty, but
-that the Revenue would actually be improved by a
reduction of one-half, or from 3s. to Is. 6d. per
Cent.
The speech of Mr. GOULDURN, no doubt, con-
tained a powerful appeal to the fact of there having
been a gradual and progressive increase in the income
derived from Fire Insurance,and alluded to the diffi-
culty he felt in making any alterations in a tax
which produced upwards of a million annually to
the country.
It appears to us, however, that considering the
high respectability of those who have gravely stated
an opinion that the Revenue would gain instead of
losing by so large a reduction as one half, the
CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER would be an-
thorised in reducing the duty us a tentative measure
from 3s. to 25., or at least to 2s. 6d. per cent.
If the consequences predicted by the Insurance
Offices did result, it would doubtless be fair to
make trial of a still further reduction; but if a de-
falcation wera the consequence, it could riot in:one
• Year's trial, amount to a very serious sum, and the
CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER would be pro-
tected from even mural responsibility by the high
authority on which he proceeded, and the tacit as-
sent of the House of Commons to the statements
last night made by
\V
, Altili4RTON, and Mr. BARING.
Alderman TriomPsoN, Mr.

Crerman Papers to the 19th and 20th,
re-
ceived this morning, say that peace will not be in-
terrupted, as Austria, whose interest it it; to pre-
serve it, will use all her exertions to prevent the
out of war :
breaking

•IFNVA MARCH 13.
While all foreign Journals are filled with reports of war,
the speculator's on our 'Chan e, at most, take notice of the
fluctuations' in the funds. We are here firmly convinced
Whosee breaking out of war will be prevented,
v rht ; the scale as Austria,
el-
41 scale is so great, must desire peace,
both for political and commercial reasons.
The recruiting
of th, army,
effect,: is Iligre'".. of, only because it is executed according
to the recent system which is now carrying into
able as those who xvi,,h for waris would willingly believe.—
; hut. it by no means so consider-
The prices of corn, too, which for some time past have
been rising, appear now inclined to fall. To-day, at half-
past two--
Metalliques v.'ere ;A Bank Shares.,,...
.... ... 1029
.
and in consequence of the more. . favourable prosects opened
by the last finnan of the
ter rise in the funds is Multan to the Principalities, a fur-
very probable.
NMI! has just been received that the town of Marston

(near Stein) =,•a9 deaulated the night before last by a dread-
ful fire.

CRACOW, MARCH S.

His Imperial Highness the Grand Duke Constantine has
returned to Warsaw. Since his return reports favourable
fa the preservation of peace have been spread, and it is
hoped that his Majesty the Emperor will come to Warsaw
in April to receive the homage of the Polish nation. The
Polish army, however, is still in motion, and its general
staff in Lublin, to which his Imperial Highness will remove
his bead-quarters. At the same time large divisions of
Russian troops daily• enter the kingdom, and the recruitiag,
as well as the delivery of horses and military stores of all
I,inds, continues as before. The re-introduction of the
former mode of election in the Constitution of our little
Republic has lately givm occasion to many unpleasant oo-
currences.

VIENNA, MARCH 14.
S9l; Bank Shares, 1,027.

STUTTGAPJ), 3t. ncii 16.

His Majesty the King passed a tolerable day yesterday,
but felt himself very weak. The irruption has hitherto
proceeded regularly, and this morning the fever has consi-
derably abated. The Queen passed yesterday very well,
but did not sleep go well last night ; the regular progress
of the disorder has not, however, been checked.

Lord ALTHORP, in proposing to repeal Mr. PER-
CEVAL'S Act of 1808, for converting the Three per
Cents. into annuities on lives, states as his reason
the disadvantages of the bargain. We pay too high I
a price for those annuities, and therefore it is highly
proper to relinquish this losing trade. But this, it
will be observed, is a distinct ground from the policy
of the measure. It may be very expedient to con-
vert those perpetual annuities into life annuities,
though it may not be expedient to give too high a
price for' them, and this is the question which, as
we do not think it is well understood, we propose
shortly to consider. There is really no branch of
finance in which our statesmen, we must speak it
boldly, have erred more glaringly against the light
of common sense than in the various plans they
have adopted for the redemption of debt. It
is quite clear that there is no way of getting
quit of debt but by paying it; and that no direct
pecuniary advantage of any sort can be gained by
any financial operation. The arrangements of
finance merely respect the time and the mode of pay-
ment, and every one who has cash transaction to
manage knows well that it may be much more
convenient to pay at one time than at another; and
that it is frequently important to protract the payment
of debts. Thus the object of the funding system, as
it is called, is to protract the payment of the debt
indefinitely ; and in lieu of the principal, which it is
inconvenient to raise immediately, it imposes a small
charge for interest, which is however perpetual.
The effect here, therefore, is to ease the present
generation and to burden posterity ; and hence it is
that we now groan under the accumulated debt of
more than a century. The tendency of a Sinking
Fund is to counteract the improvidence of the fund-
ing system. It burdens the present generation, and
it relieves posterity; and it was a wise measure,
therefore, when it was first established by Mr. FITT
in 1786. The error was in maintaining the appear-
ance of a Sinking Fund after the reality was lost;
in continuing to pay off ten millions of debt, when
we were borrowing at the rate of thirty or forty;
and in thus multiplying our transactions to no
p.Yrpose and incurring useless expence. If we
had taken the produce of the Sinking Fund
as fat' as it would go, and only borrowed the
surplus, which is what any one in private
life would have done in like circumstances, we
would have saved all this complexity. But, as if
these useless operations of borrowing and paying
were not already sufficiently cumbersome, Mr. PER-
CEVAL, without seeing the nature of his own scheme,
proposed to convert perpetual annuities into life
annuities ; the effect of which was, to increase the
present burden, and to lessen it in future—under
a different form it \vas, therefore, precisely the
same in principle as a Sinking Fund. Mr. PER-
CEVAL might just as well have proposed to
have made an addition to this fund. The
present burthen was already too great for
the country, we were every year incurring a
heavy addition of debt, and Mr. PERCEVAL'S plan,
like that of the Sinking Fund, tended to add to this
burthen, already too great, and to go a step further
in the folly of paying one debt by incurring another.
It is clear, that unless we have a surplus of income
over expenditure we cannot pay debt. But here,
while our expenditure exceeded our income to such
au extent, and while we had already one useless
project of paying by borrowing, another scheme of
the same nature is set on foot, as if to render the
public transactions still more complex and cutnber-
some. The error of Mr. PERCEVAL was in not per-
ceiving that unless he had a surplus of income all
such schemes were nugatory ; that to whatever ex-
tent he converted perpetual annuities into annuities
on lives, to the same extent he incurred an additional
debt, and that all he was doing was to move back-
wards and forwards in the same road without making
any progress.
Some of our other financial measures are marked
with the same inattention to principle. The late
Marquis of LONDONDERRY'S plan of the Dead
Weight, as it is called, was the exact counterpart of
Mr. PERCEVAL'S scheme, as it converted the naval
arid military pensions, amounting to five million
pounds per annum, which were annuities on lives,
into one great annuity for forty-five years ;
by which, in place of paying at present the annual
• sum of -five millions, which would continually de-
crease, we only paid 2,800,000/., which annual rate
was to continue for 45 years. The plan, therefore,
gave present relief, but imposed a greater burden
ultimately. It was in this manner entirely opposite
• in its principle to Mr. PERCEVAL'S plan, or to the
plan of the Sinking Fund; and yet at the time
that this transaction was carried into effect, of con-
. verting the military and naval pensions into a 45
• years' annuity, we were labouring, laudably rio doubt,
to establish a Sinking Fund of five millions per
annum, as if .the salvation of the country depended
upon it. Our finance system was thus a com-
pound of contrarieties, We had the scheme of a
Sinking Fund for easing posterity at the expence of
the existing generation ; and we had the Dead
Weight scheme, by which posterity was burdened
arid the existing generation relieved. We were in-
tent on establishing a Sinking Fund ; nay, we im-
posed taxes, in 1822, for the purpose of procuring
the necessary surplus, which the country could ill
bear; and yet we deliberately gave up ;the Sinking
Fund provided to our hands, by those annuities on
lives, (for annuities on lives are to all intents and
purposes a sinking fund,) by converting them into a
45 years' annuity. We thus built up, and we pulled
down, without system or principle; we established
• one sinking fund, while we relinquished another;
our policy wanted unity of designs we did not look
to the principle of these finance measures, and thus
we groped in the dark. We hope the present Mi-
nisters, who we must say have . hitherto displayed
' the most laudable candour and regard to the public
interest, will avoid these fulluciei., and pursue greater
simplicity in their financial schemes.

The Duchess of KENT and the Princess Au-
G um visited the Duke and Duchess of CLA RENCE yester-
day at their residence in the Admiralty.
The Duke of WELLINGTON met with an ac-
cident on Saturday evening. His Grace was in the act of
alighting at Apsley-house from his cabriolet, when his foot
caught the edge of the curb stone, and the Duke fell on
the steps of the portico with considerable violence. The
Duke was confined to his residence in Piccadilly till yes-
terday morning, from the effects of the fall, when his
Grace went out for the first time, and proceeded to the
Ti easurv.

Summonses. were issued yesterday morning
from the Foreign-office, Downing-street, for a Cabinet
Council, to he held in the afternoon. The Ministers as-
sembled at three o'clock, and sat in deliberation till a quar-
ter past five. Those present were the Duke of WELLING—
TON, Earls BATHURST, DUDLEY, and ABERDEEN, Vis-
count MELVO,LE, Lord ELLENBOE.OUGII, Mr. Secretary
PEEL, Mr. Secretary HUSKISSON, the CitaNcELLon of tke
EXCHEQUER, and Mr. llEanxEs.

An American messenger arrived on Monday
with despatches for Mr. LAURENCE, the American Charge
d'Affaires, from his Government. Mr. LaußENcit trans-
acted business yesterday at the Foreign-office, Downing-
street.

A King's messenger arrived at the Ake 6
the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs on Monday even-
ing, with despatches from Viscount GRANVILLE, our Am-
bassador at Paris.

The Duke of NORTHUMBERLAND and the
Hon. AGAIt ELLts transacted business yesterday at the
Treasury. -
Earl NELSON, Viscount BRIDPORT, and
Lord Hoot), visited the Duke of WELLINGTON yesterday.
The Duke of WELLINGTON transacted busi-
ness yesterday with Mr. Secretary PEEL.

FASHIONABLE CHANGES.—The Marquis
and Marehionetts of Londonderry, from the:ir residence in
Park-lane, for Paris ; the Earl and Countess of Sefton, and
the Ladies Molyneux, for Brighton ; 'Marquis and Mar-
chioness of Tavistock, from their house in Arlington-street,
for their seat, Oakley House, Bedfordshire; Sir Charles
and Lady Hulse, for their seat, Breamore Mouse, Hants;
Captain and Mrs. Wilson, in Wisupole-street, from Paris ;
Mr. and Mrs. Campbell, at the London Hotel, Albemarle-
street, from a tour; Mrs. and the Misses Woller, from
ditto, for their seat in Gloucestershire; J. Parkinson,
Esq. from ditto, on a tour ; Mr. and Mrs. Liddell, at the
British Hotel, from Bath ; Win. Lumley, Esq. at ditto,
from a tour ; Mr. and Mrs. Hunter, at Hakes's Hotel,
from Windsor; Captain Marsack, at ditto; F. Webb,
Esq., Mrs. Webb and family from ditto, for Brighton ;
George Best, Esq. and Mrs. Best, from ditto, for Botiey's
Cottage, near Staines ; Mrs. Macdonnel and family, from
ditto, for Hampstead ; Lord Ougley and the Hon. Monta-
gue Ougley, from ditto, for Old Warden; Major Eyles,
from ditto ; Mr. Snow, from ditto ; the Countess of Goa-
ford and family, from Thomas's Hotel, Berkeley-square,
for Suffolk; Mrs. Montetiore, and family, from ditto, for
Brighton.
Letters reached town yesterday Morning from
Lord WILLIAM BENTINCK, dated Teneriffe, Feb. 27. His
Majesty's ship Undaunted reached the island in 14 days
from Plymouth, during which she experienced most severe
weather, so much so, that she was obliged to remain there
three or four days to rest her rigging.

TIIE MARQUIS OF ANGLESEA.—A veteran,
of the name of Satyr:, who had lost his arm in the battle
of Salamanca, observing, a few days ago, the Marquis as
he rode through Stephen's Green, advanced and took off
his hat ; the Marquis, with an affable look, which be-
tokened a generous recognition of the relics of a brother
soldier, reined in his horse, and said, .4 Well, friend, do
you want me ?" "My Lord," replied the invalid, " I had
the honour of being taken prisoner with your Lordship in
the year 1812, on our retreat from Salamanca." " Ha!"
said his Lordship, " I remember—are you in want?" con-
tinued the Marquis, at the same time putting his hand in
his pocket. " No, my Lord." " What can Ido fur you
then ?" " Put me into some humble employment, my
Lord." " Well, then, write to me—but there are a great
many applications in before you."—lrish Paper.

LIVERPOOL, MARCH 24, 1828.—T0-day
we had a short supply of good Beet; which was in great
demand, and was sold at a little advance in price; in
middling or inferior Beef there was no alteration in price.
The supply Of Mutton was a little better, but. we cannot
say there was any alteration in that article. Beef, Bid.
to 1. ; Mutton, 61, to 7,1(1. per lb.