The Sun.
London, England, 1842-12-24 00:00:00

VEXATIOUS ASSESSMENTS.

r„
MEATH OT" THE Ek)WAGER, LADY IiARYSFORT.
• have to announce the death of this venerable lady,
We
at an a:4vaneed age—her eighty-sixth year. She was
the third l.
•laughter of the Right lion. George Gren-
ville,
sect,d aunt of the Duke of Buckingham.
smid wife of the first Earl of Carysfort,
was an dthe
' in 1787, and by whom she had
whom she marries.'
several children—three daughters and a son, who died
in his first year. ~
4ven 1501., the Earl of
The Earl of Bradford has 8: Viscount Dungan-
Powis 501., Lady Tyrwhitt 100/.,
'' qaph Diocesan
non 201., Rev. J. Lev 2001, the St. II- TAarivniv.,
Society 150 L, towa-rds the rebuilding of _ ' d
nech Church, Shropshire. •
THE NEW TARIFF..-....Great competition exis.
among the innkeepers of: Marlborough ; they have
therefore taken into consideration the low price of 'llk
horse provender and provisions, and have made a con--1 nelli,
siderable reduction in the charges to commercial tra-
hours ; au
vellers, would think b.

The income tax is bad enough per se, and it would
only have been prudent had Sir Robert Peel taken
care that the Jacks-in-office by whom it is assessed.
and managed should perform their functions with as
little annoyance as possible. But they seem to treat
all parties as a set of rogues, who should be put to as
much inconvenience as possible, assessing every one
in the most extravagant, and even absurd manner, and
casting upon the unfortunate tax-payer the trouble,
inconvenience, and expense of an appeal.
We are acquainted with some cases in which the
occupiers of freehold houses are assessed, first, at the
full value of the property as owners, and again, as
occupiers, in other words, at double that they ought
to pay, casting . On. them the burthen of repealing.
We know of one case in which a house let at 601.,
and rated on the parish books at 501., was assessed at
2001. On appeal the amount was reduced at once
to 60/, The only effect of this was to put the party
to the greatest inconvenience, on account of two whole
days' attendance, the assessors all the while grinning
their great satisfaction at the annoyance they had
created. There was the same sort of incivility,—the
same disposition to vex in the case of the required
returns. It was difficult to get information from the
official persons employed under the Act ; and yet the
Act is couched in language so utterly unintelligible,
that a sworn interpreter, acquainted with its language,
should have been provided in every district.
The responsibility of the tax itself now rests with
the Legislature rather than with the Government,
but the odium of all the insolence with which it is
administered belongs to the latter. A Govern-
twat which continues to shut its ears to the constant
complaints that have been made of the mode in which.
the business connected with the Income-tax has been
performed .in all parts of the country, is guilty
of a , foolish disregard both of public comfort and
its own popularity. Ours is a mere vague and
general accusation, but we do not intend to cite cases.
Sir Robert Peel must have abundance of evidence of
the truth of our general proposition ; and it -would
redound to the credit and popularity of the Ministry,
if a general order to be at least civil were issued,
accompanied by an intimation that 'the penalty of
disobedience would be instant dismissal. An amiable
tax-gatherer may be deemed by some of our readers
to be a -Ittsus naturce, but surely gross incivility
and vexatious conduct may be guarded against.—
' Liverpool Mercury.

A STRANGE SUIT. The Gentleman's Magazine
for February, 1736, has the following among its news
of the month :—" A young lady being sued by a gen-
tleman for refusing to perform a marriage promise to
him, pleaded she had good reason to alter her mind,
ln hearing him declare himself no admirer of Fari-
',lid disapproved of balls, masquerades, and late
4ding, she doubted not but that the Court
'he Ind &fortunate escape."

T URKEY.

DISPUTE BETWEEN" THE PORTE AND
THE CZAR.

CONSTANTINOPLE, Nov. '39.—The Scrvian ques-
tion has at length assumed the gravity which the
great • interests involved therein_inust, independently
of its intrinsic merits, obtain for it in the
public mind. Russia is now openly at issue
upon it with the Porte, which very properly
refuses to make the slightest concession. The
tone adopted by the Cabinet of St. Peters-
burgh, or, rather, the Russian Emperor himself, who
addressed an autograph letter to the Sultan on the
subject, is overbearing and arrogant in the extreme.
The late proceedings in Servia are characterised as re-
volutionary, and subversive of treaties—the authors
of them brigands. The Sultan is required to reverse
his late decree in favour of Alexander, and to recal
the fugitive Prince Michael. The reply of the Porte
was at once firm and dignified, denyingthat the Sultan
could by any possibility have countenanced the pro-
ceedings of brigands, declaring that nothing hadtaken
place in contravention of treaties, or the privileges of
the Servian nation, and positively refusing to revoke
the hatti. sherif, which had confirmed its choice and
free suffrages. Another note was presented from
M. Bouteneiff, in which he expresses his regret at
having to communicate so unfavourable an answer
to the Emperor, and his hope that the Porte might be
induced to reconsider and modify it. Prince Haut-
cherly had yesterday an interview with the Turkish
Ministers, and was told that they had nothing what-
ever to add or retract on the subject, and that the
determination of the Sultan was immutable. Such
is the present, posture of the affair' and we are all
waiting anxiously to see what will be the next Step
taken by Russia. Some talk of war as the imme-
diate consequence, thougkthe general opinion is there
will be no appeal to arms, if the objects of Russia
can he equally advanced by an appeal to the
European Powers. This again mutt depend on the
degree of success she has met with in her attempts
to mystify them by the most elaborate misrepresen-
tations of the matter, in the propagation of which
she appears really to have retained the whole of
the German press. So grossly false are the whole
of these statements, that serious refutation is out
of the question. The .plots, the cruelties, and the
persecutions that have been talked of are pure inven••
tions. The fact is, that no political and administra-
tive change in a Government was ever effected with-
less disorder or bloodshed ;.‘and,, Servia ,is . at this
moment in a profound state of tranquillity, Prince .1
A rich-fief not having a partisan in the country, and the
attempts of foreign i.emissaries having .; completely
failed to produce a reaction. How tier lius§.la may
be borne out in'hor present interference by the, treat
of Adrianople, or subsequent .capitulations with the
Porte;is altogether another question. Should, how-
ever, the Powers .who may be Called upon to arbitrate
between -them perceive that these -diplomatic meshes
have been contrived merely for the purpose of cir-
cumventing .and gradually destroying the Ottoman
Giiivernment, they will surely hesitate to ratify a claim
whose execution may be fatal to it, even though it be
"so specified in the bond."
Advices from Belgrade state that Prince Michael
had refused to give up the decoration he had received
from the Porte as the insignia of his rank, and which,
as a matter of course, he should have returned upon
his deposition.—Correspondent of the Post.

CIIRISTIbIAS CAROLS.

Lordinges, Christmas loves good drinking
Wines of Gascoigne, France, Anjou,
English ale that drives out thinking,
Prince of liquors old or new : . .
In this mansion as they tell us,
Christmas wassail keeps to-day ;
And, as king of all good fellows,
Reigns with uncontrolled sway.: ';
Anglo-Norman Carol,• 15th. Century.

.. The custom of singing carols at Christmas tithe,
which, atAhe time that the Roman Catholic religion
held sway in this country, prevailed in every county
and hamlet, hai since the demolition of the monas-
teries in Henry the Eighth's time, gradually grown
• into disuse, till the few relics of the custom which at
• present exist, are but :s stray waifs or fragments of
an old and obsolete minstrelsy. The voice of chil-
dren which once made musical the air of Christmas,
the sound of lyres, triangles, or horns, which accom-
panied them--:the fresh and lively enjoyment which
it drew forth, throwing a glow and hearty pleasantness
over the associations of the time—catch the ear•but
seldom now, or awaken it to gratificatiOn.
To what a shadow of its former self this custorri•has
drawn, and how rarely noticed is its old observance,
the following memoranda will show. Elsewhere, than
in these few instances, do we nowhere find mention of
this faded practice.
• Mr. Brand, in his popular Antiquities, says, " Lit-
ntlieghbots before,ysandg andirl o
s go
tahbeount:gahtt
of the eve of Newcastle-upon-Tyne,and other places in the North of England, some few
Christmas-
day, and on that day itself; knocking at the doors, and
singing their Christmas Carolst"
Mbra
nEllis,inn
y%hiiiiseieldtihtieoninoifibßirgtds of the North
also describing
the n
Riding of -Yorkshire •Celebiae 'Christmas, say:i—
Aut six o'clock on ChristmaSLdflylivas awakened
by a sweet singing under my window. • Surprised at
a visit so early and unexpected, I. arose, and looking
out of the window, I
beheld six young women, and
four young men, welcoming with sweet music the
blessed morn."

If, however, any one has more specially noticed
this solitary example of the " lingerings of the holy-
day customs of former times," which " exercised a
delightful spell over his imagination," it is Washington
Irving, «ho has thus given us his impressions 6f this
remaining accompaniment of that season of festival.
It appears in his "Stretch Book," and the scene of the
narrative is in Yorkshire :
" I had scarcely got into bed," he says, "-when a
strain of music seemed to break forth in the air just
beloW the window. I listened, and found it proceeded
from a band, which I concluded to be the waits from
some neighbouring village. They went round the
house, playing at one of the windows. The sounds,
as receded, became more soft and aerial, and seemed
to accord with quiet and moonlight. I listened and
listened; they became more and more tender and re-
Mote ; and as they gradually died away, my head
sunk upon my pillow, and I fell asleep." And on the
following morning, " while' I lay musing •on my
pillow, I heard the sound of little feet pattering out-
side the door, and a whispering consultation. Pre-
sently a choir of small Voices chaunted forth an old
Christmas carol, the burden of which was—

Rejoice, our Saviour lre was born,
On Christmas-day in the morning.'"
That they may be also heard sometimes, in the me-
tropolis, and in some of the southern, counties we
believe. Many of these performances, however, com-
mence at midnight, when the day is ushered in by
the ringing of the church bells, and the performers
being, in the majority of cases, the church singers.

NATURAL CURIOSITY:--11l "the garden .of •N. 31. '
Day, Esq., of Kegworth, is a splendid bed of straw;
growth from the blossom to
berriesfin
aey
fruit.
dessert of this deliciouS
.fruiti
m ristrnas:—Nottingham Reviiw.
be i
nevery
gathered
capital
a stagetc h of
The Lord Chancellor. leaves town to-day for
his seat Turville, near Maidenhead, where the Noble
and Learned" Christmas
understand, intends to pass
the
Died, at 'South Newton Dec. 7, Mrs. Elizabeth
Blake, in her 86th year. She was mother to 12 chil-
dren, grandmother to 45, great-grandmother to 65;
the a s y%ncla.dti on. v
e -
and to one in the fifth generation. She was married
in her 21st year, lived with her husband 62 years,`
and was a widow three years. There are at present
living six of her own children, and 111 grandchildren,
making a total of 117. Devizes Gazette.
THE OUTCOME TAX.---It is now creeping out in
various quarters, that those who followed Peel in his
wake to pass the Income-tax, and those, too, who can
best afford to pay the impost, have made the most
false returns. This is no more than might have been
expected.—Nottingham Review.
' " I live in Julia's eyes," said an affected dandy in
Colman's hearing. " I don't wonder at it," replied
George, " since I observed she had a sty in them when
I last saw her." _

INCREASING MILDNESS OP THE SEASON.—The
warm, unhealthy, and unnatural weather has increased
since our remarks on the subject last week. The
result is, that many very extraordinary premature
developments of the. vegetable kingdom are becoming
informs us that
strawberry plants
dailyiinn h
full
s gardenore v
more
‘‘,e nir visible. .
filbert
b e Acorrespondent t
rs
eeeesseen
severalin bloom,
the white meze-
reon in expanded blossom, many rows of peas and
beans some inches above ground, and that his neigh-
bsoonuirohnasittapple-tree with several bunches of blos-
som Gazette.

COMING ON OF INsAivrry.—
The management
of the early -stage of insanity requires on the part
of the physician great delicacy, discrimination, and
judgment. Under these circumstances, where: the
brain is in an irritable condition, and the mind is
struggling between sanity and insanity, the 'person
being conscious that his "
are beginning "to
turn, the medical attendant shOuld proceed cautiously
in his examination. If the patient is led to believe,
from the conduct of the physician, or from anything
which falls from him, that derangement of mind is
suspected, the most painful and disastrous conse-
quences may ensue. In the early stage of insanity
the patient's suspicions are morbidly excited. He has
a dread of " going mad, expresses a horror of such a
calamity, and often most positively refuses to allow
himself to be questioned on the subject of his health.
Should the patient believe, that he is suspected to be
deranged, he will sometimes exhibit great violence
and excitement, and denounce„ his friends and family,
charging them with a conspiracy agyinst his life and
liberty.—F. Winslow's "Health of Body and Mind."