The Sun.
London, England, 1844-04-30 00:00:00

that, after paying off the balance of deficit of 1843, I
namely, 2,749,000/., he has, this year, an available I
surplus of 1,400,000/. Now with the disposition of
2,749,0001. we have no quarrel. It may have been
much better thus to pay deficiency for 1843 out of
revenue for 1844, than to extinguish it—for the pre-
sent only—by loan. But we cannot without a mur-
mur witness his appropriation of the 1,400,0001.
Altogether, as Mr. WILLIAsts, of Coventry, well
reminded him, there had been, with the income and
property-tax, amounting, alone, in this last year, to
5,100,000/., an aggregate of additional taxes during
the last four years.„ of no less than 8,000,000/. Well,
'with this elastic public income, and this net balance
in favour (after so large a demand upon it for the de-
ficiencies and delinquencies of its predecessor,) what
is it that 1844, so careful for 1843, is to do
for us, unfortunates, of the present day ? It takes
eight millions ; and it remits us 400,000/., not quite
so much I A liberal allowance of bread, this, to all
the sack absorbed' into the QUEEN'S Exchequer. Let
us see upon what articles this 400,0001. is doled out.
On coffee there is to be a total reduction of
50,0001., which we hail with Mr. BARING as pro
tanto a homage to free trade ; and together with the
meditated discouragement of chicory, we trust it will
work well for the general trade and the unadulte-
rated reputation of coffee. But such fractional pates
of financial confectionary as a little 12,000/. on
vinegar, to oblige the admirers of sharp flavours—
and such glittering beads fur grown children who
can be cheated out of their just claims for much
more solid and extensive modifications of foolish im-
posts, as 35,0001. on glass, are downright puerilities
to be introduced into such a statement by the CHAN-
CELLOR of the EXCHEQUER of Great Britain, dealing•
with a yearly income of 52,000,0001. The reduction of
100,0001. on marine insurance is very good ; yet it is
provoking to find it not infinitely better by at least a
proportionate reduction of that bitter tax on prudence,
foresight, and frugality, the duty on fire insurances.
100,000/. off the duty on foreign wool, we believe,
may rank in point of utility with the reduction on the
duty of coffee. But whilst Mr. GOULBURN was
throwing away 90,000/. from his revenue on cur
rants, why did not he throw after it some of the
hundreds of thousands of pounds which his coffers re-
ceive annually from the poor, levied on the corn that
should have produced the cheap flour wherewith
puddings for the currants might have been prepared
by them? We reserve till another opportunity the
remarks we have to offer on the bad faith evinced by
Sir ROBERT PEEL on the subject of the Income-tax,
and on the course it behoves the contributors to that
obnoxious and disgraceful impost now to adopt, in
insisting upon its repeal.

We are glad that the League, through its recog-
nised leader, has spoken out on the subject of
shortening the hours of labour, and shown to the
country that in this, as in all social questions, sound
philosophy is the surest guide to useful philanthropy.
Mr. COBDEN has pointed out the means of effecting
the good which all must desire, the diminution of
factory toil, without inflicting what would be a more
than counterbalancing evil, a reduction of wages, and
consequently of the means of obtaining the necessa-
ries of life. The opposition which Lord ASHLEY has
met from many of the Leaguers, was obviously
directed not against his end, but his means. Unfortu-
nately, we live in an age pre-eminent above all others
for boldness in misrepresentation, and the advocates
of monopoly eagerly embraced such an opportunity
of placing the free-traders in an invidious light
before the operative .classes. Mr. COBDEN'S speech
has removed all excuse for such misapprehension,
and we cannot help wishing that it had been made
at an earlier stage of the conflict. Profits
are the wages-fund of the country, and
Lord ASHLEY'S proposal directly and imme-
diately tended to their diminution ; but it is to
be first considered whether manufacturing profits are
at present so great as to be able to endure such a
subtraction as must follow from taking away one-
sixth of the income derived from the most important
branches of British industry. It is on the produc-
tiveness of capital that wages depend ; to render
capital unproductive is to condemn the working-man
to idleness and starvation ; to lessen the amount of
its productiveness is to lower the wages, and, there-
fore, the subsistence of the operative in the same
proportion. It was, therefore, the course equally
pointed out by sound policy and true humanity first
to secure the wages-fund, and then to regulate the
amount of employment. We have been from the
first zealous advocates of the Ten Hours' Bill ; we
lament that there should be a necessity in the nine-
teenth century, and in such a country as England,
for legislative interference to obtain for the working-
men such relaxation of employment as is necessary
for the preservation of their physical health and for
their moral and intellectual advancement. It seems
now to be conceded on all hands that nothing will be
done on the subject this session. Our statesmen feel
that they are fettered and impeded by the inroads which
restrictive laws and the income-tax have already made
on the great wages-fund, the profits of commercial
and manufacturing industry. It is therefore the clear
duty of all who have advocated a Ten Hours' Bill to
consider the means by which the wages-fund may be
so increased as to allow the hours of labour to be
shortened without abstracting from the income of the
working man, which is limited enough already, and
subject to heavy deductions from the unequal pres •
sure of our system of taxation. As wages come out
of profits, and profits arise from sales, it is evident that
an increase of the wages-fund can only arise from
enlarged markets. Let us then earnestly endeavour
to remove those monopolies and restrictions which
close the markets of the world against the products of
our industry. Free-trade includes a safe Ten Hours'
Bill in its blessings ; it will enable the manufacturer
to sell more goods, to pay more wages, and to give
to those in his employment the rest essential to their
health, and the leisure necessary for their social im-
provement. Not only will the manufacturers be able
to give equal, or perhaps more, wages for a shorter
period of work, but the operatives will be in a posi-
tion to command them, as indeed they could have
done in 1835 and 1836, had they, during that pros-
perous period, fixed their desires on a Ten Hours'
Bill. The season of brisk trade is the season of the
operative's strength ; when two men seek one master
the master may dictate his own conditions ; but when
two masters seek one man the position is reversed,
and the operative has the power of legislating for him•
self in fixing the amount and remuneration of his
labour.

Madrid journals of the 22d have been received, but
they bring no news. In the Corresponsal, a Govern-
ment paper, the doings of the BRAVO Cabinet are
summed up in these words :—" The Ministry are
employed on the magnificent work of re-organizing
unhappy Spain."

On the Bourse business was done in the Three
per Cents. to the amount of 72 millions and a half,
besides 17 millions in the Five per Cents., and 13
millions in coupons. The Three per Cents. opened
at 36k, at 60 days, and after a good deal of fluctua-
tion rose to 38, when they began to decline, and
ultimately fell to 35k, at which price they closed.
The Five per Cents. opened at 22i, and closed at
22 5-16, at 60 days.

The Paris papers bring no intelligence of import-
ance. The discussion on the Education Bill in the
Chamber of Peers was continued on Saturday, and
again adjourned. Every one seems tired of the
affair, but as a great number of Peers had inscribed
their names, and prepared speeches for the occasion,
as a matter of course, they must go through the
ceremony. The Bill introduced by the Government
will be adopted without any material alteration. In
the Chamber of Deputies numerous petitions were
presented for the abolition of slavery in the colonies ;
and on Saturday next a report is to be made on the
subject, which is looked forward to with great in-
terest, as the Minister of Marine, Admiral Maclean,
had announced that he would take that opportunity of
stating to the Chamber the views of the Government,
with regard to the proposed changes. Arrests still
continue to be made in the army, but no journal
states for what cause. The following mysterious state-
inert appears in the Courrier Francais of Sunday
" The arrest of non-commissioned officers still con-
tinues, and the rumours of military conspiracies are,
therefore, gaining ground. Rigorous measures have
been exercised towards the Bth Artillery, which has
recently left Toulouse. It is even affirmed that the
Ministry suspect officers, some of a high rank. The
imprisonment of a colonel was at one time agitated,
and it is only owing to motives of relationship that