The Sun.
London, England, 1845-01-07 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, TUESDAY EVENING," JANUARY 7, MO.

SPIRIT of the PUBLIC JOURNALS.

FROM THE EVENING PAPERS OF YESTERDAY.
GLOBE.—The public balance-sheet, which will
be found in another column, will be regarded with
general satisfaction by all to whom the prosperity
of his country is a source of satisfaction. It
not merely shows an excess of income over ex-
penditure : that might be the result of increased
taxation, producing, for a time, an immense
revenue wrung from the already diminished means
of the community. The finance accounts now
before us indicate a steady increase of revenue
from those sources of taxation which rise, or fall,
according as the trade and commerce of the country
is in a state of profitable activity or depression.
The " budget" of the approaching session will be
looked for with no ordinary anxiety by the bulk of the
nation. The " surplus" upon the April quarter—
which will include the saving effected by the reduction
of the Three-and-a-Half per Cents. to Three-and-a-
Quarter per Cents., estimated at 1,300,0001.—wi1l raise
the gross revenue at the disposal of the Government
to upwards of 3,000,0001. In what way will Sir
Robert Peel apportion the relief which this " surplus"
will enable him to afford ? The removal of the in-
come and property-tax at the expiration of the three
years for which it was originally imposed, is an
almost necessary consequence of the large surplus
remaining after the national expenditure has been
met. The contingency on which Sir Robert Peel
placed his possible application to Parliament for an
extension of the period to five years, has not arisen.
The country is, happily, in a state which does not
require its subjects to be harassed and oppressed
by an impost at once inquisitorial in the made
of its assessment ; unequal in the distribution of its
burdens; and oppressive, by the amount which it
wrings from the humbler classes of those engaged in
trade and professions. had the resources of the
country been as flourishing as they now are, there
would have been no pretext for the income-tax, to
which Sir Robert Peel flew, as by an instinctive im-
pulse, because it was a means of revenue of all others
the most odious in the eyes of the nation. Nor
can it be forgotten that the estimate which Sir Robert
Peel gave of the probable amount of the proposed in-
come-tax fell far short of the sum it has actually
realised. His estimate of its yearly produce was
3,770,0001.; its actual produce in the past year, when
it may be fairly taken to have settled down into some-
thing like its legitimate results, is 5,190,000/. ; being
an excess over the Premier's estimate of 1,420,0001.
This excess over the estimated sum it would produce,
constitutes a ground on which the nation may rest its
claim for a discontinuance of the tax. The nation
will have paid a larger sum than it was originally
proposed should be raised by means of the tax within
a given period. It has, therefore, a right—irrespec-
tive of other considerations, which tend to show that
the imposition was wholly unnecessary—to be re-
lieved from the load.
STANDARD.—We this day insert what we are
happy to consider the close of the correspondence
between the Provost of Oriel and the Bishop of
Exeter. We must, however, add, that our satisfac-
tion at the termination of the correspondence, does
not arise from any disapprobation of the tone of
either of the writers ; on the other hand, the
correspondence on both sides is a model of the
style in which gentlemen and Christians ought to
treat each other when they state their differences;]
a model which we could wish to see generally
imitated ; we rejoice that the correspondence
has terminated, solely because we must always
regard with pain any dispute between men
whom we are bound to venerate and to love.
Akin to this feeling is the satisfaction with
which we publish the first letter of the
admirable series with which we have been
honoured by our correspodent " A Provincial."
Without being Puseyites, as a Shrewsbury journal
(patronised, if not written, we believe, by Mr. Ben-
jamin Disraeli the Younger) asserts we are, we feel
that it is high time to pause in a popular agitation,
when we find men proposing to carry the system of
the Church for repair to a Parliament in part con-
stituted of Socinians and other Infidels, Protestant Dis-
senters, and Roman Catholics. This, we submit, is a
warning that we may be going wrong, not in opposing
the Tractarian heresy, but in the manner of opposing
it. We wish the Church to be re-established by the
Church, not by a mixed Parliament. Let the true
friends of the Church look to the course taken by the
authorities at Oxford, and they will see that the greatest
of the Universities is nobly doing its duty in
the right way—prostrating a system of falsehood
founded on a vile fraud, by cutting away the root
of the fraud. We trust that the Bishops, who have
it completely In their power to put an end to
Tractarian preaching, andmay by their just influence,
supported as they will be by the people, put an
end to Tractarian practices—we trust that the
Bishops, whose complete power to extinguish the
heresy it were gross hypocrisy to affect to doubt,
will but imitate the authcrities at Oxford, and we
shall not be under the ignominious necessity of
supplicating Mr. Joseph Hume and Mr. Torn Dun-
combe, Mr. Benjamin Hawes and Mr. Benjamin
Disraeli, Mr. Dan. O'Connell and Mr. Patrick
Somers, to reform the orders of our Church. Mean-
while, let us give the Bishops time, and a calm op.
loortunity to obviate the necessity of appealing to the
lay Church reformers named, and others like them.
'The Oxford statute is now the great object—let ali
energies be bent to carry that. If this statute fail. '
we see no resource but the terrible appeal to Par-
liament.

FROM THE MORNING PAPERS OF THIS DAT.
CHRONICLE.—We are not aware that a Govern-
ment based on such a foundation as that of the Peel
Administration has had its place in English history.
There have, no doubt, been coalitions, and there have
been compromises ; but the principle, or want of prin
ciple, has been avowed, and a mysterious mixture of
new practices and old opinions has never heretofore been
palmed upon a Parliament. We do not defend alto-
gether the great coalition between Fox and Lord North;
it has the common defect of coalitions to an eminent de-
gree, and whatsoever the grounds on which party
writers of the day rested its justification, it undermined
and lowered the public estimation of public men. But
when Mr. Fox and Lord North combined, the America',
war, about which there had been such grave differences,
had closed, and although persons without long rromorie
could not but be scandalised at a sudden reconciliation.
for party purposes, between chiefs who for so many years.
and with such vehemence of invective, had denounced
each other, the real points of difference had yielded
to events, and the new class of questions which origi-
nated about the period of the Frenchßevolution, and which
have since so altogether occupied in their several phases
the thoughts of politicians, had not then come into vita.
lay. Nor at that period of the history of the House of
Brunswick were principles so accurately defined as they
had been in the reigns of the two first Georges, or as
they were subsequently, in the meridian of George 111
The politics of England up to 1745 were dynastic and
anti-dynastic. The Whigs and the moderate Tories
were for the House of Hanover, and made up the dynastic
party. The Tories, and many of the old families, were
for the Stuarts, and constituted a sort of anti-dynastic
party, not differing much from that which has existed
since the Revolution of July in France, but which, in all
probability, will gradually become absorbed into the
ranks of the Phtlippist monarchy, just as the Jacobites
of Cheshire and Lancashire, as soon as they found they
had a real High Church King, fell into the ranks of
King George 111., and supported him, on monarchical
principles, through the American and French re-
volutions. If our readers will turn to the diaries
and memoirs of those times—those, for instance,
of Horace Walpole and Bubb Doddington— they
will not fail to be astonished at the menagerie of
parties. Politics, in a great measure, were personal. If
a Minister offended a Member of Parliament, the gen-
tleman went into Opposition. If the Crown did not bow
to a Peer, the magnate, with all his cousins and his
boroughs, went over to the Prince of Wales. Fox and
Pitt were retained at the commencement of a session,
pretty much as Sir William Follett is, to conduct an im-
portant case ; sometimes they were together, sometimes
on different sides—sometimes Fox led Pitt, the latter
consoling himself in lucrative isolation—sometimes Pitt
led Fox, the latter maintaining a sort of sulky amity, and
indemnifying himself by the well-paid office of the Pay-
muter for loss of dignity. But these times are over.
Politics became more stable in the school of the second
Fox, at whose feet the leading Whigs of modern times
were brought up, and a more definite system of party
honour was established. The Tories under Pitt were
also still more banded. They basked for the first thirty
years of the present century in the exclusive enjoyment
of power and place, and they established themselves and
their party on the basis of a general resistance to im-
provement, and an inflexible enmity to change. In this
school Sir R. Peel had his education. mo
nopoly,
however, monopol ,
however, of-the Tories was broken up by the death of
Lord Liverpool ; and although the Duke of Wellington
and Sir R. Peel maintained a struggle
of some 4ars
against the advancing intelligence of the age, and com-
promised themselves to an inconvenient extent against
such plain axioms as religious liberty, religious tolera-
tion, Parliamentary reform, and negro as well as Catholic
emancipation, the irresistible current of events ran the
other way, and the stationary party of the Tories was
hurled from power. We well remember the appearance
of Sir IL Peel in the first session of the reformed Par-
liament. He scarcely knew his position ; isolated, or
nearly so, by the mighty stream of popular opinion, to
which his impolicy and want of foresight in the case of
East Retford had given indefinite augmentation, he trod
the floor of the House of Commons as a tourist walks
about tEtna or Vesuvius. For a time he bent gently,
like a willow, a weeping willow perhaps, to the tempest
and the storm. The impetuous career of Lord Stanley
on the side of the people had not then closed, and Sir
James Graham at that period had not addicted
himself to baroraetical observation on the state of
parties. ties For a time all was well. Sir R. Peel ac-
cepted the new order of events, and rumours were
not wanting that the chief of the Conservatives would
shortly connect himself with Lord Grey, and be glad to
take his share in the practical regeneration of our insti-
lutions. In an evil hour, however, for his fame and his
country, he took a widely different course, connected
Itln2self with the surviving leaders of the Tory host, re
arse hied the scattered members of the party. and avail-
ing hiotself of the secession of Lord Stanley and his Joh
lowers from the Whigs, pitched the old Tory camp, with
&l its ancient intolerance towards Ireland, and with all

its inveterate addiction to monopoly, under a new name.
In the years which followed we find him playing the part
of a sort of Pulteney against Lord Melbourne. He
crippled the education of the people by intermingling
religious animosity with that sacred cause. He laid the
foundation of the anti-Saxon nationality of Ireland by
obstructing all the measures, so wise and peaceful, of
the late Administration. He has jeopardized for ever
the legitimate claims of the landed interest, by repudi-
' sting a compromise which would have settled, for the
next half century to come, a source of discord which is
disturbing the relations of social life, and separating,
by the ties of selfishness and imaginary gain, the
great interests of town and country throughout the
empire. He became, in fact, the champion of a
faction, when circumstances put it into his power
to hare been the mediator between parties. He
lost the golden opportunity of establishing a Go-
vernment in avowed conformity to progression, and by
associating himself with persons notoriously indisposed
to consult the temper Of the age, he placed himself in
the disagreeable position of an apparent identity of pre-
judice, and he has since found himself in the still more
disagreeable position of being forced by circumstances
to disavow his second Toryism, and to throw his Ad-
ministration on the mercy of the House of Commons, by
a wholesale piracy of the measures of his opponents.
We do not, of course, object to useful measures. Con-
ciliation towards Ireland is better, far better, than bayo-
nets—the recal of Lord De Grey is worth half a hun-
dred batteries ; but we have a right to say that if the
measures of the present Ministry are right, nothing can
excuse the factiousness of the late opposition. If it be
right to recognise the Irish Prelates, to place their
.Arch-
bishops in precedency to temporal Earls, and to give a
Catholic bishop the pas: before a Protestant dean—if it
be right to augment the resources of Maynooth in the
way indicated in the letter of our Dublin correspondent,
and to extend to others than Protestants the immuni-
ties and privileges of Trinity College, Dublin—if it be
right in Lord Heytesbury to receive the Roman hier-
archy with courtesy at his levees, and to recognise them
on all occasions as the priesthood of the people—we will
not attempt to designate the course of those who de-
nounced the initiate justice of Lord Normanby, or im-
pair the fair chances of success which this dexterous
experiment may bring about, by contrasting the present
with the past, or by drawing a portraiture of Sir Ro-
bert Peel from 1836 to 1841, at the he head of the Jack-
sons and the Lefroys, with the M`Neiles and Stowels in
his train—opposing the moderate arrangements of Lord
Morpeth for Irish Church reform, stigmatising the la-
mented Mr. Drummond for a sentiment which is now
incorporated amongst English axioms, and raised by
men of every party to the first dignity amongst maxims.
It is no wish of ours to recur unnecessarily to what is
past. Political necessity is the mother of strange com-
pliances.. The campaigns of opposition might have re-
quired such stimulants. But be this as it may, the
aspect of things before us—whether we contemplate the
tardy change, at the close of last session, in the Irish
policy of the Government, or indulge in conjectural esti-
mates of their future course—justifies us in the conviction
that by the success of the Whig system, and by the failare
of the Tory, one thing is proved, and that to demonstration,
namely, that Ireland mu3t no longer be trifled with for
party purposes as it hitherto has been ; and that Sir R.
Peel, whatever his past conduct may have been, must be
supported by the Liberal party, if, upon the opening of
Parliament, he produces—as it is rumoured he intends to
do—measures in coincidence with the expectations ho
has raised. The Liberal Parliament gave him credit for
agreement with them in the abstract. By the recal of
Lord De Grey he has secured to himself and to Lord
Eliot full scope for administrative liberty. There is no
Castle wherein the contumacy of Orangemen will have a
sanctuary ; Phcenix Park will no longer be a sort of
Leicester House, in opposition to her Majesty's Prime
Minister. As for Sir R. Inglis, he will have enough
to do at Oxford before Easter, and it will not be neces-
say next session to put off all useful bills till the
lion. Baronet is out of England, and fairly landed at
Wiesbaden.

TIMES.—The perturbation of the Ministerial ma-
jority on the first preliminary vote of the French
Chamber, and its recovery on the second division, are
striking exemplifications of the truth of the remarks we
made the last time we adverted to this subject. They
have exhibited more conspicuously than before the
ennipotence of a party, not altogether unknown at other
times in the British House of Commons, which boasts of
the title of " the King's friends :" and the practice of the
ballot enables these pliant servitors of the Court to
bowstring a Minister with as much certainty and secresy
as the mutes of a Turkish seraglio. Such, however,
was not on this occasion the purpose or intention of the
'sovereign. Ile has contented himself with giving
'iis Ministers what children and old maids calls a
fright ; and the effect of this sudden impulse of the
royal mind was so transient as to be set down to
accident. Like most accidents of the same kind
which occur between Cabinets and Kings, it tends very
visibly to strengthen the personal power of' the Sove-
reign at the expense of' the dignity of his advisers and
the consistency of their adherents. The springing
if this little mine, which alarmed the garrison with-
out making a breach in the walls, will tend, if we are
not mistaken, to embarrass the proceedings of the Oppo-
sition in the approaching general assault. It turns out
that the chief weakness of the Government is not with-
)ut, but within their camp ; their dangers are in the
intrigues of the Opposition with the Court, not in their
invectives in the Chamber ; and those tactics have been
tarried to such an extent, that the aspirants for office
seem to have abandoned even the pretext of an attack
in the system of the Government to concentrate all their
vehemence on the persons who compose it. If we are
to attach any credit to the leading organs of the French
)pposition, they yield to nobody, now-a-days, in their
seal for peace and their respect for the English alliance.
['hey protest they will only beat M. Guizot by a better
ise of his own weapons, and they engage not only to do
what he has attempted, but to perfect what he has left
indone. They were his antagonists—they have become
its rivals. These professions must not be construed
oo literally, nor must they be too contemptuously
-ejected or discredited. The cause of peace cannot but
;ain by any change which makes it the interest of
he Opposition to preach peace instead of war ; and we
-eadily believe that both in France and England
he party who have talked most of war were thoroughly
nsincere, and only used these high-sounding words as a
weans of throwing dirt at the Ministry. The shots
Limed at M. Guizot took effect upon us, though, it must
ie confessed, the balls were spent before they reached
is ; the hooting of the Minister was converted into a
sue and cry against England, and if in our supposed
alliance with the French Foreign Secretary he shared
my of our power, we certainly came in for a more than
iroportionate share of his obloquy. Such a division of
urofita is neither agreeable nor just ; but it is an inevit-
,ble inconvenience of a party preference in a foreign
country. We have repeatedly seen the effects of these
unlucky predilections in the less powerful States of the
world, and they have proved a halter round the necks
if our best friends on several important occasions in
)pain, and Greece, and elsewhere. A Government
hat cannot exist without that sort of foreign support
very soon unable to repay that foreign support, even
iy the ordinary courtesies of friendly Powers ; it
ither denies its benefactors or sinks into complete
liscredit ; every act of common civility is stigma-
ised as a base concession, and we invariably get
east from those who claim most from us. The same
inciple applies, though of course to a very different
-xtent and in a very different manner, to our relations
with the French Government itself. The moment it is
,elieved, however erroneously, that the whole strength
f the Ministry is derived from the English alliance,
hat alliance becomes virtually powerless and inefficient.
if that union exists for the purpose of keeping in this or
hat Cabinet, in either country, it is contemptible ; if it
s maintained for the real purpose of uniting the policy
and interests of the two nations, it is the glory of our
•ime and the basis of the peace of the world. At a
)eriod when, by the confession of all parties in France,
the differences between them are reduced to mere shades
if distinction, and the whole warfare of the political
world is conducted by closet intrigues or personal attacks,
with which we have nothing in the world to do, it is
uot only convenient, but absolutely necessary for us, as
Euglish politicians, to insist upon our neutrality in all
such party contests. Our object is to be on good terms
,with France, without being dependent on this or that
Minister. God forbid that the pacific relations of the two
!ountries should depend on anything so precarious as a
French Cabinet! Without doubt, when those relations
were in serious jeopardy, the energy and prudence of
he French Government succeeded in resisting the in-
temperance and indiscretion of the Opposition ; but it is
,n erroneous assumption to suppose that the same ele-
ments of discord are still raging against us on the other
side of the channel ; and the truth is, that the organs of
:hose dangerous opinions have been not only conquered,
.at, what is better, converted. And we can bring no
higher testimony to the success of the policy of the two
'..;abinets of England and France, than the fact that their
ppunents are now seeking not to resist or undo their
work, but to turn it to their own purposes, by professing
L still greater zeal than that of the authors of the system.
.Ve have said thus much before the opening of the de-
iate on the Address in the French Chamber, because, if
this disposition of the Opposition has been corrottly ex-
,,ressed by themselves and reported abroad, the issue of
the conflict will be of comparatively little importance.
It is extremely probable that M. Guizot, awakened from
my excessive confidence which he may before have en-
tertained by the discovery of the late intrigue, will crush
sis rivals in debate, and obtain his usual majority ; but
-f he falls, we have no reason to doubt that a Conserva-
tive and pacific policy will still he pursued in France,
and probably with a greater freedom of action in favour
so unentangled t
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HERALD.—Sir Robert Peel has now fully and en-
tirely accomplished one of the great objects for which
the nation, sick and endangered by Whig quackery,
" called him in," in Mil. He has restored the national
finances. The last two years of Whig Government, if
we take our view at the period of the year at which we
have now arrived, furnished the following account of the
national revenue :

Year ending Jan., lE4O
Year ending Jan., 1841
While the account just now published stands as follows :
Year ending Jan., 1845
Perhaps some Radical, or some unthinking person, who
is not a Radical, may exclaim, " Well, there is nothing
to boast of here ! Sir Robert Peel has laid on a pro-
perty-tax, and has thus managed to screw more money
out of an overburdened people than they before yielded,
,Ind that is all !" No, it is not all. For be it observed,
that to raise a large revenue by fair means—by means
which shall not cripple trade or destroy commerce, is
not by any means the easiest thing in the world. The
immediate cause of the utter failure of the Whigs in
1841 was just that they could not do this one thing—.

could not raise the needful revenue by means which Par-
liament would sanction or the nation bear. First, being
unable to invent any new impost, Mr. Baring quietly
added 5 per cent. to the existing duties, supposing, as a
matter of course, that every 1001. would become 105/. But
he soon found out his error. The 1001. remained 1001. still,
and obstinately refused to increase and multiply at his
bidding. Grown frantic at this disappointment, and at
their wit's end what to do next, the Whigs, as has been
often observed, " set the house on fire in the hope of
being able to run away by the light of it." They boldly
proposed, by way of improving the revenue, to ruin at
one blow our farmers at home and our colonies abroad,
on the pretext that the Customs' duties would be increased
by the admission of foreign corn and slave-grown sugar.
Utterly disgusted at such undisguised quackery, Parlia-
ment, by a distinct vote, declared its confidence with-
drawn, and the nation, on a general election, put the
Whigs out of office by a majority of 90. And thus the
reign of empiricism ended, and that of statesmanship re-
commenced. For, however unpleasing the fact may be,
it is not the less true, that it is a principal duty incum-
bent on an English Minister, to discover the means of
raising nearly fifty millions of annual revenue in an
equitable and not oppressive manner. And to say that
this has been effected, is, in fact, to say, that the Mi-
nister has adequately performed one of his most im-
portant functions. The Whigs took office in 1830, with
a surplus of 2,667,000/, handed over to them by Mr.
Goulburn, the retiring Chancellor of the Exchequer. In
1841, Mr. Baring, when opening his last budget, was
obliged to confess, that on the most favourable view
he could take, there was a deficit of nearly the same
amount I In fact the real deficiency must have been
much larger, for Mr. Baring stated his expenditure at
50,731,7661.; while his income, in January of that year,
appeared to be only 44,746,400/. This state of things
was becoming matter of just alarm, and there can be no
doubt that the Whigs felt it to be such, and were but
too happy to escape from a responsibility which was
growing serious. A nation whose expenditure exceeds
Its income by two or three millions per annum, must be
daily plunging into fresh difficulties and dangers. Its cre-
ditors must gradually lose confidence. Its securities
must decline in the public esteem. Its enemies, mean-
while, must daily become more and more alive to the
perplexities which surround it. Thus the downward
course would be fearfully rapid. A vast empire, like
that of England, spread over the whole globe, and open
to attack at every point, must mainly be defended
by its internal character—by the known valour of
its troops whenever called into action, and by the known
vastness of its pecuniary resources whenever required to
be exhibited. And the first moment that should ex-
hibit such an empire, either without defenders, or with-
out the means of sustaining them, would leave her, like
some huge carcase among the vultures of the desert, an
instant prey to myriads of assailants. This may appear
far-fetched and improbable; but the confusion into which
the Whigs had thrown our finances in 1841 had made
even this a possible supposition. The extent of that
confusion may in some measure be estimated by the fact,
that it has taken Sir Robert Peel three years to restore
matters to a healthy condition. That task he has now
successfully accomplished ; and if he were to resign the
helm to-morrow, and never more to appear in public
life, he might exultingly look back on the three years
which have just concluded as those in which he fully and
triumphantly restored the financial credit and prosperity
of the British empire.
POST.—Beyond all question the present state of the
public finances of this country is, per se, a legitimate
ground of Ministerial congratulation and triumph.
When we consider what the state of the public finances
was when Sir Robert Peel obtained office, and what it
is after three years of his administration, we must own
that in this point he has been most successful. Whether
he has taken the best way of increasing the public re-
venue of the country is, no doubt, open to discussion,
and many men of ability and experience are of opinion
that equally good results as regards the Exchequer
might have been arrived at with much better results as
regards the general condition of the people. But the
iu portant fact is indisputable that whereas, for several
consecutive years, the Whigs had gone on with a public
annual revenue considerably below the annual expen-
diture—since the accession of the Government calling
itself Conservative, this bad state of things has been re-
versed, and the public revenue of the country has been
made to exceed the expenditure. The Government, we say,
deserves to have credit for this fact, and we do not see how
any one who is not dishonest, or driven out of his right
mind by the acrimony of party spleen, can refuse to Go-
vernment the credit of having effected this great and
salutary change. But while this matter of fact, by itself,
is a fair ground for praise of the Administration, we
must take leave to protest against the nonsense, and the
sycophancy of certain inventors and publishers of fl At-
tering inferences from the state of the public revenue.
Surely these people would be more discreet if they
bridled their tongues a little, and restrained their pens
from exaggeration and fulsomeness. They tell us that
it is a necessary inference from the state of the public
revenue that the country is highly prosperous. What
dc, they mean by this word " prosperous ?" We know
they would have the world believe that, as the
Minister has succeeded in obtaining a revenue greater
than the expenditure, so he has succeeded in improving
the general condition of the people ; but will they ven-
ture to say plainly that there is good evidence upon
which sensible and observing men may rely that the iin-
provr-naent in the general condition of the people is similar
to that in the public finances? Some people we know have
not any other standard of the prosperity of the country
than the prosperity of the public finances. So far as they
are concerned, the affirmation that the state of the revenue
proves the .country to be prosperous is merely the affir-
mation of an identical proposition. The prosperity of
the revenue is the prosperity of the country—the revenue
is prosperous, therefore the country is prosperous.
Granting the first assumption, we cannot deny the infe-
rence. But experience will not confirm the proposition
that the prosperity of the revenue is the same thing as
the prosperity of the general condition of the people.
It may be (as a Member of the Government has ad-
mitted in the House of Commons), that the rich are
growing more rich, while the poor are growing more
poor. In that case, a direct tax on wealth, which dues
not touch incomes below 1501. a-year, may swell the
coffers of the Exchequer, while poverty is sorely pinch-
ing the lower orders—
" While the tide runs in darkness and coldness below."
For let us remember that, though the revenue de-
rived from taxes on consumption is improving upon
what it was two years ago, it scarcely yet equals what
it was in the worst time of Whig mismanagement,
and it is very far below what it was when the population
was but two-thirds of its present amount, if so much,
and when the people appeared to have no difficulty iti
paying the heavy taxation. That there is direct evi-
dence of the greatly improved condition of a portion of
the labouring people in the manufacturing districts, from
what it was in the first year of the present Administra-
tion, we admit ; but the direct evidence as regards the
agricultural districts is quite the other way ; and in the
face of such evidence it is folly to ask the world to
infer that farming labourers are prosperous because
the public revenue shows a large increase of receipts,
One Ministerial writer asks, with anile simplicity,
!tether it can be that the agriculturists suffer while
the home and foreign markets are manifestly so pro-
sperous ? The answer is that the home market for
agricultural produce is not prosperous. If thousands
of able-bodied labourers are seeking work, at from a
shilling to fifteenpence a day, and cannot obtain even
that, shall we tell Hodge and Giles, and the rest, that
they must be prosperous, since Mr. Goulburn is rubbing
his hands cheerfully as he contemplates the state of the
Exchequer ? If the union workhouses be getting too
full, notwithstanding the general hatred of them—if
discontent prevail, and agricultural property be burned
by stupid wretches whom want has made desperate—
shall we say, nevertheless, that all must be well since
the public revenue is in a prosperous condition ? A
Whig and free-trading journalist, with the habitual au-
dacity of Whigs and tree-traders in forcing matters of
fact into conformity with their theories, makes
no scruple of asserting, point blank, that
trade in our manufacturing towns is trade for
Essex, Lincolnshire, and Norfolk—that bustle in
the manufacturing implies a mitigation of distress in the
agricultural districts. People who write in this way
would make no hesitation in saying (if it suited the
party purpose of the hour) that the scarcity of chalk
implied the dearth of green cheese. At this moment
they would willingly transfer the wheatgrowing business
of Essex and Norfolk to Poland and Upper Canada ;
and if the business of Manchester increased, in conse-
quence, they would insist that Essex and Norfolk must
be all the more prosperous, although their occupation
was gone, and the land was receding into sheep-walks
or barrenness. There is nothing too monstrous for poli-
tical bigotry—nothing too servile for political syco-
phancy. Rational observers of public affairs will, how-
ever, take facts as they find them—give credit where
credit is clue, and not hesitate to condemn where disap-
probation appears reasonable, and likely to be useful.

THE ARMY.
(From the Limerick Chronicle, Jan. 1.) •
A strong troop of the 4th Dragoon Guards, under
Major Hodge, from this garrison, two companies of
the 35th depot from Nenagh, and Captain Cole's com-
pany, 15th, from Killaloe, made an extensive detour
of the country on Monday last in search of fire-arms,
in part of the disturbed district of Tipperary, includ-
ing Birdhill, Derry, O'Brien Bridge, Keeper Hill,
Silvermines, and neighbourhood of Killaloe, accom-
panied by Lord Dunally, John Bayly, Esq., Major
Priestley, K. 11., from Nenagh, with a strong police
force.

Captain Capel's company, 15th Regiment, is ordered
from this garrison on detachment to Newport, where
barrack accommodation has been secured. The com-
pany will march on Saturday.
First Lieutenant Lugard, Royal Engineers, in this
district, is promoted to the rank of second captain in
that force.

Lieut.-Colonel F. Maunsell, 85th, landed at Bar-
badoei, and has sailed for St. Vincent, to take the
command of head-quarters, Major French returning
to command the depOt, now in Derry. Captain
Coape, Lieuts. Keyt and Ogilvy, 85th, had relieved
the Grenadier company, 46th, under Capt. Peacocks,
at Berbice, which then returned to Barba,does head-
quarters.
Dep. Assist. Commis. General M'Mahon, in charge
of the Commissariat at St. Lucia, has preferred
charges against Lieut. King, Royal Artillery, and
Ensign Argentil, 3d West India Regiment. Lieut.
Colonel Bush, Ist West India Regiment, is ordered
from Demerara to preside at the court-martial.
The House of Assembly at Grenada presented an
address to Major Maclean, the officers, and men of
the 48th, on quitting that island for Barbadoes.
The 7th or Royal Fusiliers have embarked at
Giitcaltar, in the itesistame troop-ship, for Jamaica,

to relieve the 46th Regiment on the `Veit India sta-
tion, and which embarks early in spring for Canada.
Major Rawnsley's company, Royal Artillery,
marched from Athlone for Dublin on Monday, and
will arrive on Saturday next, to embark for Woolwich.
A detachment of Captain Tylden's company, Royal
Artillery, will arrive at Cork, on Saturday next,
from Duncannon Fort. This day, an officer, ser-
geant, and 20 gunners of Captain tylden's company,
left Derry for Banagher, to be stationed.
The 73d, in Dublin, expect to change quarters with
the 65th, in Castlebar.
A company of the 69th is ordered from Temple-
more to Borrisokane, there to be stationed.
The 66th Regiment has sent a recruiting party
from Dublin to Boyle.
Lieut. Edmund Peel, 11th or Prince Albert's Own
Hussars, has been appointed aide-de-camp to the Lord
Lieutenant of Ireland.

Sergeant Joseph Taylor, on the staff of pensioners
in Tralee, and late quartermaster serjeant of the
depbt, Ist Battalion Royal Regiment, has been pre-
sented with a medal and gratuity for long service
and meritorious conduct.

The Ist battalion Ist Royal Regiment Depot, Clare
Castle, have sent a recruiting party to Ennistimon,
county Clare, in place of Enniskillen.
Recruiting parties 6th Regiment, Richmond Bar-
racks, Dublin, have marched for Castle Connell and
Newcastle, there to be stationed.
Monsygall, Borrisokane, and Newport, will only
he occupied by troops at present. The company, 35th,
at Portumna, under Lieutenant Henry and Ensign'
Morton, which was under orders to join the head-
quarters at Nenagh, will remain, being counter-
manded.

A company 34th Regiment, Athlone, arrived at
Carrick-on-Shannon on Christmas-day, from head-
quarters, and occupied barracks.
Major Harrison's company of the Bth battalion
Royal Artillery, consisting of First Lieutenants
O'Connell, M'Crea, and Smyth, 3 sergeants, 2 bom-
bardiers, 48 gunners, 1 trumpeter, 9 women, and 13
children, embarked at Kingstown on the 27th Dec.
on board of her Majesty's steam-vessel Dee, for con,
veyance to Cork, and on landing marched for Bal-
I incollig.
Captain Stokes' Company of the 6th battalion
Royal Artillery, consisting of First Lieut. Hon. W.
C. Yelverton, Second Lieut. Baddely, 2 sergeants, 3
corporals, 2 bombardiers, 1 farrier, 1 wheeler, 1 car-
riage smith, 1 shoeing smith, 62 gunners and drivers,
embarked at Cork, yesterday, for Bristol, en route to
Woolwich, to join head-quarters.
Royal Marine Artillery, Spike Island—A detach-
ment of one sergeant and five gunners marched from
Cork, 26th December, for Tarbert Fort, Shannon
River. _ _ .

The third and last division of the 67th Regiment,
three companies, under the command of Major Orange,
consisting of 2 captains, 1 subaltern, 20 sergeants,
3 drummers, 171 rank and file, 23 women and 32
children, arrived at Kingstown from Liverpool, on
the evening of Christmas-day, were disembarked,
and proceeded by railway to Dublin, and occupy
Richmond and Island-bridge Barracks.
MovEstetcr or TROOPS.—Quartermaster General's
Office, Dublin Castle, Dec. 2, 1844. Memorandum.
—ln all marches of troops in Ireland, and in all
embarkations coastwise, or to England and Scot-
land, reports will be made to this office immediately
after the march is ended, or the troops have dis-
embarked, or have arrived at their destinations, show-
ing how the troops have been billetted or accom-
modated on board ship ; also showing whether the
marches were long or harassing, or whether the men
have suffered from the inclemency of the weather,
either by land or on ship board ; also showing if the
provisions were good. Anything extraordinary will
be reported. These reports will be made direct from
the officer commanding the division or detachment,
addressed to the Quartermaster- General, Dublin, by
post, and not through any other commanding officer;
the object of which is that this office may be put in
possession of the required information as soon as pos-
sible after the march or voyage shall have been corn-
pleted.—By order of the Lieutenant-General com-
manding.—Signed, &c.
Major-General Turner inspected the 16th Regi-
ment, commanded by Lieutenant-Colonel Campbell,
and a division of the 61st Regiment, in the barrack-
square, Cork, on Friday.
Captain J. H. Rutherford, Royal Engineers, has
been allowed to retire upon full pay, after thirty-one
years' service.

A COUNTY WITHOUT A FIRE-
ENGINE.

DOLGELLET.—A. fire broke out on Friday, the
27th ult., at Dolgun Hall, near this town ; and we
regret to state that this splendid mansion has been
totally destroyed. The fire was discovered at about
half-past one o'clock in the afternoon ; but it evidently
had been burning for some time. Information was
immediately dispatched to this town, when the fire-
bell was rung, and the town-crier went his rounds.
All the tradesmen, and others having men in their
employ, readily sent assistance to the spot; and, on
arrival at the scene of destruction, they set about to
save the furniture, and with such right good will did
they work, that the whole of the building where the
fire did not rage was cleared of everything moveable.
Mr. Lewis, the proprietor, has not been in the county
for a twelvemonth, owing to ill health. The house
had been built eighteen years ago, at an expense of
about 10,0001., and was most magnificently furnished,
but it has not yet been ascertained whether there was
any insurance effected. We have, on several occa-
sions, adverted to the circumstance of there being no
fire-engine at Dolgelley, or in the county of Merio-
neth ! ! and we trust that, after this other sacrifice,
something will now be done towards providing so
necessary a thing for the preservation of life and pro-
perty. It was qu►te evident to all at Dolgun, when the
fire first showed itself, that, with an engine, it might
easily have been put out.—Carnarvon Herald.

POLICE INTELLIGENCE.
MARLBORO UGif-STREET.

EMBEZZLEMENT.—Georye Edwards was brought be-
fore Mr. Maltby, charged with having embezzled various
sums of money, the property of his master, Samuel Sug-
gett, baker, No. 85, Margaret-street, Cavendish square.
Mr. Suggett said the prisoner had been in his service
about three months. He was authorised to collect bills,
but as soon as the money was received it was his duty to
pay it over to him. The prisoner was ascertained to
have received a number of bills from various customers,
which he had never accounted for.

Mrs. Amelia Barber, of No. 9, Market-street, proved
that she paid the prisoner a sum of ten shillings on ac-
count of his master.

Mrs. Elizabeth Laming, 58, Castle-street, proved that
she paid the prisoner seven shillings and fourpence for
his master, and

Mrs. Martha Adams, No. 15, Hamilton-place, proved
she paid a bill of four shillings, for bread, to the prisoner.
Mr. Suggett said none of the above amounts had been
paid into his hands.
The prisoner, in defence, said he knew nothing about
the amounts in question.—Committed.
MATRIMONIAL MONOMANIA.—Ana Nunn, a well.
dressed woman, between thirty and forty years of age,
possessing no very remarkable personal attractions, was
charged with having importuned William Simmons,
tailor, of No. 200, Oxford-street, with so much pertina-
city as to create a serious annoyance to himself and an
obstruction to his business.

From the statement of Mr. Simmons it appeared that
the female laboured under a delusion that he intended, or
else that he ought, to marry her. She constantly pre-
sented herself at his shop, conjuring him, in the most
pathetic way, to accede to her matrimonial proposition.
It was in vain that he appealed to the police to take her
away. She was no sooner free from the constable than
she ran back and repeated her unwelcome solicitations.
Mr. MALTBY asked the complainant if anything had
occurred to sanction the defendant's delusion ?

Mr. Simmons declared that no promise on his part,
nor any familiarity, could warrant the female's conduct.
The only way in which he could account for the infatua-
tion was by supposing that the defendant was Not quite
right in her head.
The defendant, who appeared quite absorbed by her
attachment, said, in a low voice, that the complainant
would not call upon her, so she was obliged to call upon
him. Ile had promised to marry her a twelvemonth
ago, and she was resolved that he should not dally with
her any longer.
Mr. MALTBY—Unless you promise to keep away from
the complainant's shop I must order you to find bail.
Defendant— I'll keep away—not unless he promises to
come and see me.

The complainant declared there was no truth in the
assertion that he had promised the defendant marriage.
Mr. MALTBY thought the father of the defendant
ought to be required to restrain his daughter's be •
haviour, and he should, therefore, advise the constable
to take her to her home and leave her in the charge
of her friends.

Police-constable English tcok the defendant to her
father's, a tailor, in Windmill-street, but very soon
afterwards returned with both daughter and father, in
consequence of the daughter having as soon as relieved
from custody made her way once more to the corn-
plainant's"shop in Oxford-street.
The father said he was quite at a loss to account for
the infatuation of his daughter. She was sane on all
points, except as far as regarded her matrimonial passion
for the complainant. The origin of his daughter's at-
tachment was from the circumstance of her having worked
as waistcoat maker in the same shop where the com-
plainant was formerly employed.
After some expostulation, the defendant gave a half
promise that she would not go to the shop In Oxford-
street again.

The complainant quitted the court.
The defendant, on being released, was observed to
break away from her friends and to follow the com-
plainant.
MARYLEBONE.

ASSAULTING ♦ND WOUNDING WITH AN Ax.E.—Yes-
Thomas Macnamara, a tall, well-dressed man, who de-
scribed himself as a schoolmaster, living at 34, Rich-
mond-street, Lisson-grove, was charged before Mr.
Rawlinson with having out and wounded with an axe
police-constable Flannagan, No. 41, of the S division.
A surgeon's certificate was produced, setting forth
that the sufferer was unable to attend, and that it was
necessary that he should, from the condition he was in,
be kept at present perfectly quiet
Policeman Kell, 333 S, deposed that yesterday morn-
ing, about two o'clock, while he was on duty in North-
street, St. John's-wood, he heard the springing of a
rattle and loud cries for assistance from Richmond-street.
He proceeded to the spot, and in the passage of the pri-
soner's house saw him and Flaunagan struggling to-
gether. The former had an axe in his hand, which wit-
ness saiv,d from him, and then took him into custody.
Mr. RawuNsoN—Did you observe at the time that
Flannagan had received any injury ? Witness—l did ;
the blood was streaming down his cheek, and I saw that
he had two wounds upon his head.
Mr. ItamLuasoN—What was said when you took the
prisoner in charge ? Witness—The prisoner's brother
was there, and Flannagan, the constable, said that the
prisoner had threatened to shoot him with a pistol, but
that he laid hold of the axe instead, and with it struck
him.

The prisoner's answer to the charge was, that he had
a party, and that Flannagan,his wife, and others of the
family were present. Some words arose between him
and Flannagan, the latter of whom must, if he was
wounded at all, have injured himself by running against
the axe, which he (prisoner) had taken up to cut some
wood, in ordar to light a tire.

The prisoner was ultimately liberated on his entering
into security, himself in 1001., and producing two re-
spectable housekeepers to put in bail to the amount of
501. each, for his being forthcoming on Wednesday (to-
morrow).
QUEEN• SQUARE.

Yesterday John Gough, a- man between 30 and 40
years of age, was charged with having obtained various
sums of money by fraudulent pretences.
The prisoner had been for about eighteen months in
the service of the late Mr. Joseph Hall, carver, of No.
8, Broadway, Westminster, and on the death of that
gentleman in June last, was continued in the service by
Mr. Hall's son, who succeeded to the business. In Sep-
tember last the accused was discharged, and it was sub-
sequently ascertained that he had, both before and sub-
sequent to his dismissal, obtained various sums of money
from persons with whom his employer was acquainted.
The course pursued by the fellow was calculated to do a
wick -ter-
tradesman considerable injury amongst his connexions.
The two following cases, which were deemed sufficient
to sier. G
send foerotrrgieal,Hwaillll, serve to
No. 16,
Is6h,ow
zoti4h,eersyßstreumns:
A
Brunswick-ter-
race, Barnsbury-road, Islington, said that he knew pri-
soner well, as one of the men in his deceased brother's
employ. On the 2d of October prisoner came to him
with a note, purporting to be from his nephew, Mr.
Joseph Hall, of No. 8, Broadway, Westminster, repre-
senting that he had a heavy bill which became due that
day, and requesting the loan of a few pounds. Witness
gave him 10/., for which prisoner signed a receipt.
Mr. William Wilson, of 55, Jrucifix-street, Bermond-
sey, stated that he had known Mr. Hall and his family
for some years by having done business with them. In
September last prissner came to him and said that Mr.
Hall had come that day to that side of the water without
any money in his pocket, and would feel obliged if he
would lend him ten shillings. It appeared by the repre-
sentation made by prisoner that his master was in the
neighbourhood, and witness immediately lent ten shil-
lings. In about a fortnight afterwards prisoner again
made his appearance with a letter purporting to be
written by his master, in which, after thanking him for
having lent him the ten shillings, requested as a parti-
cular favour that he would make it up 2L, which he
would repay on the Monday following. Witness gave
prisoner 11. 10s., and received a memorandum to that
effect.

Mr. Joseph Hall stated that the letters produced had
not been written by him, nor had he given prisoner any
authority to use his name, or sent him to either of the
parties.
The prisoner, in answer to the charge, said he was
exceedingly sorry.
Mr. BURRELL committed him for trial.

FEROCIOUS ASSAULT AND " GOUGlNG."—Yesterday
William Woodham, a plumber and glazier, living in Ellis-
street, Chelsea, was charged with a ferocious assault
upon Benjamin Williams, a gentleman's servant.
It appeared from the statement of the complainant,
whose left eye appeared in a dreadfully inflamed state,
that on Friday last ho went into the Woodman, in Doy-
ley-street, Chelsea, with two friends, and while they
were drinking some gin and water defendant came up,
and, without the slightest provocation, nudged coin-
ptainant's elbow intentionally, and spilt some of the
liquor. Complainant took no notice of this the first
time, but on it being repeated immediately, endeavoured
to fling the remainder of the gin and water at defendant.
Defendant then attacked him with great fury, and com-
plainant defended himself as well as he could. They
fell on the ground, when defendant, who was uppermost,
held complainant's head down, and forcing his thumb
into his eye, turned it right out on to his cheek. Com-
plainant cried out for assistance, and his friends took
defendant off him.

Defendant, in reply to the charge, said he had no
animosity to the complainant. He (the defendant) had
been drinking very freely, and being under the influence
of liquor, might have pushed up against complainant's
elbow by accident, as he left the house. He complained
that he had been much hurt in the affray, and said that
complainant must have received the injury of which he
had spoken by accident.
Mr. BURRELL said he should fine the defendant 51., or
commit him for two months, in addition to which he
should call upon him to find good bail for the next twelve
months.—The penalty was paid.