The Sun.
London, England, 1845-07-17 00:00:00

COURT CIRCULAR.

The Queen and Prince Albert, their Majesties the King and
Queen of the Belgians, Lady Portman, Baroness d'Hooghvorst,
Colonel Bowles, Colonel Buckley, Colonel Bouverie, and Major
de Moerkerke, arrived at Osborne House, Isle of Wight, in five
pony carriages, at six o'clock on Tuesday afternoon. Her
Majesty and the Queen of the Belgians afterwards walked in
the grounds, and Prince Albert, accompanied by the King of
the Belgians, went to inspect the farms.
There was no addition to the royal dinner party in the
evening.
Yesterday forenoon the august party walked in the pleasure
grounds adjacent to the mansion. Her Majesty and her Royal
Consort, and their Belgian Majesties, afterwards drove out in
two pony carriage•, with outriders, to King's Key, returning
through the Barton estate to Osborne House at half-past
eleven o'clock.

Their Royal Highnesses the Prince of Wales, the Princess
Royal, and the Princess Alice, accompanied by the Dowager
Lady Lyttelton, were taken an airing from Buckingham
Palace, in an open carriage and four, yesterday. His Royal
Highness Prince Alfred was taken an airing yesterday, in the
gardens of the Palace.
Mr. Mosquera, Charge d'Affaires of New Grenada, trans-
acted business at the Foreign-office yesterday.
The Right Hon. Henry Lytton Bulwer had an interview
with Sir Robert Peel yesterday.
Mr. C. K. Murray, Mr. Higham, Secretary aq Compt-
rollers-General to the Commissioners for the Reduction of the
National Debt, Mr. Carr, and Mr. Freshfield, had interviews
with the Chancellor of the Exchequer at his official residence in
Downing-street yesterday.
Mr. Gibson, M.P., and the Town Clerk of Manchester, had
an interview with the Earl of Dalhousie yesterday, at the office
of the Board of Trade.

Dispatches were sent off last evening from the Colonial-
office for the Governor of the West India Colonies.

CITY DUES ON COALS.

A stronger feeling than we at first supposed seems to have been
excited ley the determination of Government to continue the en-
forcement of a penny duty on all the coal imported into London,
in order to provide a fund for metropolitan improvements. The
friends of the poor say, that if a specific tax is to be levied for the
purpose of making such improvements, it would be infinitely more
just and rational to levy it upon wines and silks than upon a com-
modity which, next after food, is that which the poor man most
requires. It is admitted thst the duty is an extremely small thing
in itself; but it is alleged—and we believe experiencebears out the
position—that every impost of this kind is exceedingly multiplied
upon the retail purchaser. So long as a tax remains, it is made
the excuse for much extortion which otherwise would not be ven-
tured upon, and it throws difficulties and expenses into the trade
which embarrass those who might be willing to embark in it, and
to supply the poor at a lower rate of profit.
At all evens, of the abstract injustice of taxing the poor
man's fuel to pay for what are called the metropolitan improve.
ments, there cannot be a moment's question. Why should
poor people pay more for the means of warming themselves,
that rich people may have more convenient houses and more
airy streets ? Why should not the rich pay for such ad-
vantages out of their own pockets, or by means of a tax
upon some commodities which they exclusively consume?
It is true that labouring people are employed upon these improve.
ments, and in so far they derive a benefit from them ; but so they
would if the funds came from some other source than a tax upon
one of the main necessaries of a poor man's life. We do not
object to the improvements, nor deny that indirectly the poor have
some benefit from them ; but it is for the sake of the rich, or the
comparatively rich, they are undertaken, and therefore the rich,
and not the poor, ought to pay for them.
Let us see Government Commissioners undertaking to provide
proper drainage, and light, and fresh air, and abundance of clean
water, for the districts in which the poor live, and are expected to
continue to live, and then, but not until then, we shall recognise the
justice of taxing the poor that such improvements may be accom.
plished. Were it, however (as it ought to be), the object of Govern.
ment to be generous to the poor, as well as just, we should see the
Administration proposing measure after measure to improve the
condition of the lower orders at the expense of the wealthier classes
of the community. —Post.