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

tintinft *lnt.

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-
bibit 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 the
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," such
as the Chinese ransom, fall into it. The decrease in the
former is 57,664/. on the year, while there is an in-
crease 'on the quarter of 33,126/. The increase in
the Customs duty is enormous, amounting to not less
than 1,305,4531. For the convenience of the reader,
we 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 49,078,168/. The total income, including imprest
and Other moneys, and re-payments of advances,
amounts to 51,235,538/., that for 1844 being
50,071;9431., thus leqving a clear surplus of 1,163,5951.
The Customs produce 20,378,6721., showing an increase
of 1,305,453/. on the year, and an increase of
135;167/. on the quarter. Tl•e'Excise amounts to
12,160,111/., being an increase' of 365,3041. on the
year, and not less than 200.169/, on the quarter. The
increase, •under the head of Stamps, is, for the year
and' quarter respectively, 185,235/. and 78,005/. The
ale o
Taxes for the year and quarter show an increase of
26,0021. and 11,633/. The Post-office an increase of
83,0001. on the year, and 3,000/. on the uarte
The total amount of the Property-tax for the year;
ending Jan. 5, 1845, is 5,191,596/. The Crown
Lands and 'Miscellaneous are items of no im-
portance, and therefore hardly deserve notice.
These returns cannot fail to afford satisfaction, and
forma 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-
tures, trade, and shipping, are in a healthful condi-
tion, end that, though wages are small, still there
must be employment for the great body of the work-
ing classes. The increase in the Excise, the Customs,
and the Post-office, is th• best sign of the times.
What forms a peculiar coincidence, too, in this
prosparbus state of the revenue, is that the
very party whom Sir ROZNIT PLED and his

anti-free trade friends turned out of office
must rejoice at the result equally with thei
opponents, and even with still more genuine is
tisfaction. The opening of the trade with Chins
which has given renewed life to the manufacturin,
districts, the new tariff, which is beginning to pro
duce its effect on the Customs, and other principles a
free trade, assumed by Sir ROBERT PEEL as his own
all owe their origin to the Melbourne Ministry, whi
had the skill to plan them, but owing to the faction;
and unprincipled opposition of the Tories, were not
allowed to reap their fruits. The country, in the
meantime, however, prospers; the Whigs rejoice al
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 inccinc tax—in fact,
there will be no end of specifies. 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, ce,ntinued with more or less in-
tensity for upwar:is of thirty years, the people of
;he United TII:Igdom obtained Parliamentary Re-
form. The, main objects of that Reform was to
give people more power in the Commons'
Housell e.
of Parliament, to -destroy the monopoly of
lyarroughs' 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 contest, 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 churches, 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. Like the old worn-
! out Bouanos dynasty, they believe that they hold
their tenures by P,ivine right; in blind 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 palpable, 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 are infatuated,
the people are not to be the victims. 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 was reform more
necessary than at the present moment. The tenets of
Popery have taken deep root in the 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 classes are strongly
imbued with a spirit in direct hostility 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, and the - most
obvious, the most effectual; and the most
certain remedy too, is to reduce to something
like ordinary dimensions the vast patronage and
authority of the Episcopal Bench. No twenty-six
men have the tenth, nay, the hundredth part of the
political power now entrusted to that ecclesiastical
body. In fact, it is so enormous, that any reform in
the Church, any meddling, as they call it, with
Church lands, or any interference whatever with any
acquisition, however unjustly acquired, would not
have the slightest chance of a fair hearing in the Le-
*feature. These, however, are not ordinary times; and
:t , for the people therefore to seize the opportunity,
MA urge on their representatives steps for abating
the evil. Why should one man, because he happens
to b! Archbishop of CANTERDURY, have the patronage
ef2 livings ? Or the Puseyite Bishop of LONDON
lei ninety, and his brother of EXETER fifty ? Or the
twenty-six Prelates,lwith their appendages, the Deans
and Chapters, have in their gift %5043 livings--one
fourth of the whole patronage of the. Church of Eng-
land? This constitutes a power, in such a small com
munity, injurious to every department of the State'
and dangerous to libarty ; for one of the main objects
of established churches is not, as they profess, to teach
the pure truths of Christianity, but to keep their
flocks in darkness, in order that 'the learned may do-
mineer over the ignorant. We. appeal to history.
When did the Bench of Bishops ever bring forward
measures that had any other object in view but their
own aggrandisement, and can the spirit which
animates them be misunderstood when it is remem-
bered that all the great Parliamentary enactments of
the last twenty years have found that body
ever in opposition to the just claims and privileges erf
the people ? The abolition of slavery and the slave-
trade, the abolition of the Test and Corporation Acts,
Catholic Emancipation, the education of the people,
and the Reform Bill, afford fair specimens of that
selfish and grasping disposition for which the Church
in all ages has been conspicuous ; yet, with such
proofs, the Legislature and the community still allow
these men to possess an amount of patronage suffi-
cient to damage every great and good measure. This
patronage, however, is employed Slow, not to obstruct
plans of reform, but to carry out one of the wickedest
schemes ever devised—the . re-establishment of the
Catholic religion in England. But it is hardly
necessary to point out the influence which a Puseyite
I3ishop must necessarily exercise over the young
priesthood, and over the many thousands who look to
him for livings or promotion for their relatives and
friends. The only way to clip the wings of Puseyism,
is to remodel the Church, and, first of all, to make a
more equal distribution of its patronage.

In Taits Magazine fol. this Month there are some
udicious remarks on the subject of the Repeal algal-
ion, whose special object the writer justly regards as
impracticable and even could it, by any possibility,
he carried into practice, as detrimental in no ordinary
degree to the interests of the three kingdoms, more
especially to those of Ireland. Yet, though he ex-
presses himself decidedly hostile 'to the Repeal
crotchet, he is impressed with a profound sense of the
power and popularity of the movement, and greatly
exaggerates, we think, its effect on the public mind
of the sister country. Thus he assures us that it is
not only the ardent desire of a 'vast majority of the
Irish people, whom misery has left nothing to lose by
rebellion and civil war ; but that it is the fixed ideas—
the enthusiastic aspiration of a set of men, of whose
intellect,, energy, and sincerity in the cause there can
be no possible• doubt, though their political sagacity
may fairly enough be questioned. Ile. adds,. that the
whole commercial and trading 'democracy of three
Irish provinces are for it, as one man, and that the
opposition of the fourth has already begun to be
somewhat equivocal ; that the various municipalities
Repeal resolutions; that the Na-
thiaovnealvcotheudresthrong
has
pronounced its solemn benediction ;
—in a word, that the movement has every attribute
of formidableness, depth, breadth, and strength. This
picture is exceedingly overcharged; indeed, were it
not so, no power on earth—'not even' that of Mr.
O'CoxisELL—.:could keep Ireland in its present state
of quiescence. The overruling passion of the hour,
hearing down before it all obstacles that reason might
throw in its way, Would infallibly find "vent either in
the shape of renewed rnonsterLmeetings, or in some
less questionable form. Tbe writer in Tait goes on
to observe :—" The recentnfirin aastpioleeltosfo:
polrirtsehntostatatfaciont
are given oxiking co
which we have more the.* once urged on the notice of
our readers—Mr. O'Coawsu. is not the Repeal
movement. The agitator has ceased to be master of
the agitation. The magician is impotent to exorcise
—has only a qualified and conditional power to com_
mand—the spirit th"t his spells have evoked. He
cannot tow do quite what he will with his own ; there
is a power in the Loyal National Repeal lese•fition