The Sun.
London, England, 1845-01-06 00:00:00

v trienin4 .51M.

LONDON, MONDAY, JANUARY 6, 1845.

THE QUARTER'S REVENUE.
The official returns of the revenue for the year and
quarter, made up to Saturday, the 4th instant, ex-
hibit a most remarkable and gratifying feature—an
increase, and, in several instances, to a large amount.
of all the ordinary sources of revenue. The Customs,
the Excise, the Taxes, the Post-office, and the Crown
Lands, show the activity of trade and the prosperity
of the country. The only decrease is under th€
heads of " Property-tax " and "Miscellaneous," but
the latter forms no criterion whatever of the state of
the revenue, as all chance sums and "god-sends," sucl
as the Chinese ransom, fall into it. The decrease in th(
former is 57,664/. on the year, while there is an in
crease on the quarter of 33,1261. The increase in
the Customs duty is enormous, amounting to not less
than 1,305,453/. For the convenience of the reader,
m•e give the following brief outline of the abstract.
The
total ordinary income for the year ending Ja•
nuary 5, 1845, is 50,081,8871. and for the previous •
year 49,078,1681. The total income, including imprest
and other moneys, and
amounts to 51,235 re-payments of advances,
,5381; clear that for 1844 being
50,071,9431., thus leavingsulus of 1,163,595/.
The Customs produce 20,378,6721,,
ashowing an increase
of 1,305,4531. on the year, and n increase
ts
to'n
135,1671. on the quarter. The Excise a
12,160,1111., being an increase of 365,3047.
year, and not less than 200,1691. on the quarter.nTthh''
increase, under the head of Stamps, is, for the year
and quarter respectively, 185,235/. and 78,005/. The
Taxes for the year and quarter show an increase of
26,0021. and 11,6331. The Post-office an increase o 4
83,0001. on the year, and 3,000/. on the quarter.
The total amount of the Property-tax for the year
ending Jan. 5, 1845, is 5,191,5961. The Crown
Lands and ,Miscellaneous are items of no im-
portance, and therefore hardly deserve notice.
These returns cannot fail to afford satisfaction, and
form a source of pride to every subject of the United
Kingdom. They attest the power, the energy, and
capabilities, of this great country, and while they
remove all anxiety respecting the state of the revenue,
they at the same time afford a proof that manufac-
ture', trade, and shipping, are in a healthful condi-
tion,, end that, though wages are small, still there
must be omployment for the great body of the work-
ing clas,;(-J. The increase in the Excise, the Cust.ims•
and the Post-office, is the best sign of the times.
What forms a peculiar coincidence, too, in this

prosperous state of the revenue, is that the
very party whom Sir ROBERT PE FL and his
t-adc 1 tui•T,ed out of 0 r
must rejoice at the result equally with their
opponents, and even with still more genuine sa-
tisfaction. The opening of the trade with China,
which has given renewed life to the manufacturing
districts, the new tariff, which is beginning to pro-
duce its effect on the Customs, and other principles of
free trade, assumed by Sir ROBERT PEEL as his own,
all owe their origin to the Melbourne Ministry, who
had the skill to plan them, but owing to the factious
and unprincipled opposition of the Tories, were not
allowed to reap their fruits. The country, in the
meantime, however, prospers; the Whigs rejoice at
it, and, to their honour throw no obstacles in
the way of men who snatched the prize
from their hands. Prosperity as well as adversity
however, has its troubles, and Sir ROBERT PEEL
must now be looking about for remedies to abate the
plethora. He will find plenty of advice from brother
doctors. One will recommend the abolition of the
malt tax, another of the window tax, a third of the
duty on soap, a fourth of the income tax—in fact,
there will be no end of specifics. All we hope for is,
that the Physician-in-Chief will do his duty impar-
tially, and remove the pressure from that part of the
body least able to bear it.

After a struggle, continued with more or less in-
tensity for upwards of thirty years, the people of
the United Kingdom obtained Parliamentary Re-
form. The main objects of that Reform was to
give the people more power in the Commons'
House of Parliament, to destroy the monopoly of
boroughs' vested in a few Lords and Commoners, to
obtain for the large unrepresented towns their
rights and privileges, sanctioned by the genius of
the Constitution, and above all, to establish laws
for the benefit not of the noble and the rich only,
but for the whole community. Much as that great
measure was crippled in its passage through both
Houses, it has, after all, conferred many blessings on
the community, and established the great principle
that the other two estates of the realm (for the con-
trol of the people over the Crown was fully esta-
blished at the Revolution) may, from time to time,
be changed and amended according to circumstances.
The part which the Church, and especially the Bench
of Bishops, took in that arduous ountest, is well
known to all. They were regarded as the most
bitter opponents Of the people's rights ; and so strong
was the general conviction, that in the streets, at
public meetings, nay, in the very churirhes, the sacred
character of the prelates did not screen them from
popular indignation, and the cry !became almost
universal, " Down with the Bishops." The Bishops
alone have forgotten the crisis. Lik e the old worn-
out BOURBON dynasty, they believe that they hold
their tenures by Divine right; in bib Id security they
set people and Parliament at defiance,, and like men
doomed, urge on their fate. How else can any
rational being account for the palptible, the mon-
strous attempt, in these days, and in Protestant
England, to revive the mummeries of the Catholic
religion, and reconcile the Church to the See of
Rome ? But if these men s ire infatuated,
the people are not to be the victini t. The people
have the means of correcting the evil in their own
hands. The Reformed Church was established by
law, and by law it can be altered, amended, and re-
stored to its original state. Never wt t s reform more
necessary than at the present moment. The tenets of
Popery have taken deep root in th o Church, the
leading bishops openly profess them „ many of the
leading men at Oxford, the nursery of the Church, of
the nobility, and the higher classeti are strongly
imbued with a spirit in direct host ;ay to the re-
formation, and they only watch the opportunity to
destroy that noble fabric, which was cemented by the
blood of so many martyrs. It is high time, therefore
for the Legislature to provide a remedy
against these alarming evils, at id the most
obvious, the most effectual, an 41 the most
certain remedy too, is to reduce to something
like ordinary dimensions the vast 1 tatronage and
authority of the Episcopal Bench. Z4o twenty-six
men have the tenth, nay, the hundred th part of the
political power now entrusted to the t ecclesiastical
body. In fact, it is so enormous, that any reform in
the Church, any meddling, as they gall it, with
Church lands, or any interference what( ver with any
acquisition, however unjustly acquired , would not
have the slightest chance of a fair hearia g in the Le-
gislature. These, however, are not ordint ) ry times; and
for the people therefore to seize the opportunity,
and urge on their representatives steps for abating
the evil. Why should one man, been.) ehe happens
ob 3 Archbishop of CANTERBURY, have the patronage
(.1'2.10 livings ? Or the Puseyite Bisho I) of LONDON
Fays ninety, and his brother of EXETER fifty ? Or the
twenty-six Prelates,!with their appendq es, the Deans
and Chapters, have in their gift 2,500 livings—one
fourth of the whole patronage of the Ch arch of Eng-
land ? This constitutes a power, in such a small com-
munity, injurious to every department of the State
and dangerous to liberty ; for one of the main objects
of established churches is not, as they pr ()fess, to teach
the pure truths of Christianity, but to keep their
flocks in darkness, in order that the lea rned may do-
mineer over the ignorant. We appet 11 to history.
When did the Bench of Bishops ever 1 ring forward
measures that had any other object in I iew but their
own aggrandisement, and can the spirit which
animates them be misunderstood when it is remem-
oered that all the great Parliamentary t mactments of
the last twenty years have found that body
ever in opposition to the just claims and privileges of
he people ? The abolition of slavery at ),x1 the slave-
'rade, the abolition of the Test and Coq oration Acts,
Catholic Emancipation, the education ; )f the people,
and the Reform Bill, afford fair speci Glens of that
selfish and grasping disposition for whit h the Church
in all ages has been conspicuous; ye t, with such
proofs, the Legislature and the commuu ity still allow
these men to possess an amount of pat ronage suffi-
cient to damage every great and good m easure. This
patronage, however, is employed now, nc it to obstruct
plans of reform, but to carry out one of ti he wickedest
schemes ever devised—the re-establisht nent of the
Catholic religion in England. But i.t is hardly
necessary to point out the influence whicl h a Puseyite
3ishop must necessarily exercise over the young
oriesthood, and over the many thousands. who look to
him for livings or promotion for their r ulatives and
friends. The only way to clip the wing 3 if Puseyism,
is to remodel the Church, and, first of a 11,, to make a
more equal distribution of its patronag;

We quote the following curious pa sage from the
Post of Saturday morning :—" What : right have the
lay persons who meet together at Exete ror elsewhere,
to give their opinion about Church it ; atters, and to
call for alterations, unless they comb i•mr themselves
members of the Church ; and if they • be members of
the Church, why should they be so utterly oblivious
of the conditions of their membership ? It is mani-
fest that they never think of this—tb at they do not
recollect that their undutiful conduct, : in meeting and
Nlking as they do, disqualifies them I altogether from
, interference in Church affairs. Their mode of inter-
' Terence destroys their right to interfere. The mind that
I is in these people is the mind of me re Dissenters—
nay, it is much more licentious than • the mind which
belongs to regularly organised bodice 3 of Dissenters,
:or even they recognise some rules of church govern-
ment. But these stu/ii of Exeter, who meet to babble
lnd talk and make adisturbance, seem t o have no other
idea than that clergy and Churchare; Ttein.,
lyhto,be held
e
in respect while they are pleasing t
have
:l st
ybieans
ainsdpuced to quote this so'n what
s a u.
lengthyc
passage, because we consider it in it 3 way a
and haughty,t
:upereilious intoleranceecien o
m singularly isand
amusingly at
•arianee with the tone of thought and feeling preva-
lent in the present day and for many a I long year past,
Ind worthy of a journalist in the days of LAUD, or a
iycophantie Court scribe during the b rief tyrannical
;way of JAMES the SECOND. Imagine indeed the sr-
hworniteesrt
adneany:dinegeidtedhc:
orpiginhiotnofonthae
aoigtya ntcoe
express
b al inc
matter that deeply concerns theme elves—denying
their right to make the slightest opposirtion to innova-
tions that shock their feelings, disturb. their sense of
propriety, and degrade the established faith in their
ayes by associating it with a variety of o bsolete, worth-
less usages and superstitious mummer ries, borrowed
avowedly from an antagonist Church, which theysti
and.. their fathers before them have been taught to
hold in conscientious aversion ! The 'utity not ju
ried in taking a vital interest in Church affairs I
Why, the laity are themselves the national Church,