The Sun.
London, England, 1842-04-16 00:00:00

titg _:-Atit.

LONDON
SATURDAY MORNING, APRIL 16, 1342.

Some persons seem to suppose that they ought to
approve of the tariff; because many of the agriculturists
disapprove of it. If no other reason can he assigned in
its favour it ought to be given up. It never can be for
the interest of one class in the community to injure
another class, and we have always, in advocating the
total abolition of the Corn and Provision-laws, been sin-
e). ely convinced that such a measure would benefit the
farmers. The tariff; on the contrary, will, we believe,
not benefit them ; nor do we think it will confer much
benefit on any class of consumers ; and, therefore, we
cannot eagerly join in the demand for the tariff at any
price, because the farmers complain of it.
The principal feature, as far as they are concerned, is
the permission to import live cattle at a certain rate of
duty, and a reduction of duty on meat when imported.
Now the injustice of this towards the farmers is that it
will diminish their gains and not diminish their charges.
The abolition of the Corn-laws would diminish their
charges more than it would diminish their gains. They
employ little or no labour to rear cattle. " A looker in

liouiney Marsh," says Mr. ELLMAN, " is perhaps the
only 'win employed on a thousand acre., of land." There.
will be for the farmers, then, no reduction in the cost of
producing cattle, while the Legislature proposes arbi-
trarily, not justly, to lower the price of cattle in the
market.

There is another consideration which affects the land-
owner rather than the tenant. Under the Tithe Com-
mutation Act, the tithe has been commuted into a rent-
charge, the amount of which is annually determined by
the price of wheat, barley, and oats, for the preceding
seven years. Now, a reduction in the price of either of
these species of corn would lower the rent-charge ; but
reducing the price of meat can only have such an effect
indirectly; and this part of the tariff, therefore, will
confer an undue advantage on the tithe-owners. It is
one of those covert means of transferring property, though
it be only to a small amount, from one class to another,
which the Legislature has no right whatever to adopt,.
and against which every man, who respects property,
ought to protest.

The reduction too in the price of cattle ought to be
taken in conjunction with the great reduction which has
been made in the protecting duties on spring corn. In
the House of Lords last night the Duke of CLEVELAND
presented a petition from Shropshire against that reduc-
tion, ani we think that Sir R. PEEL by this part of his
Corn-law has'really sacrificed the growers of oats in
Ireland and elsewhere to the growers of wheat. Thus,
while he has diminished the protecting duty on wheat,
at the price at which it is usually imported, by a scarcely
appreciable quantity, he has reduced the duty on barley

from 12s. 4d. to 55., or 140 per cent., the duty on oats
from 9s. 21. to 35., or 200 per cent., and the duty on rye,
beans, and peas from Ifis. 9d. to 65., or 170 per cent!
Ntlw either the present law must have been grossly dis-
proportionate in the amount of protection it afforded to
the cultivation of the different grains, or Sir R. PEEL'S
law is. In either case we have a proof of the ignorance and
inefficiency of the law- makers. At the same time thegreat
alteration proposed by Sir R. PEEL is a manifest injury,
on his own abominable principle of settling prices, and
affording protection equally to different classes—to the
growers of oats, barley, and rye, as compared to the
growers of wheat.
There is a still further consideration. These minor
grains enter but little into the consumption of the people,
except in Ireland and Scotland, and some parts of the
Nortfi of Eng!and -; and, consequently, the reduction in
the price of them will only affect wages in Scotland and
Ireland. It is one of these changes, therefore, that will
have little effect in reducing the charges of the farmers, and
a considerable effect in reducing his gains. The alteration
may probably lead also to the increased consumption of
rye, barley, and oats, for food, and our people will fall
back, in consequence of its comparative cheapness, on
the black bread, which, as used by the Germans, is such
a bugbear to the Tories. If it be desirable to encourage
the people everywhere to subsist on wheaten bread,
rather than on rye and barley bread, the great reduction
is Cie duties on spring corn will have a contrary effect.
If these alterations in the Corn-laws and the Tariff
were to have all the beneficial effects which Sir
R. PEEL and his partisans ascribe to them, we should
still oppose them as parts of an erroneous and unjust
totem. Sir R. PEEL has said more than once that the
alterations in the tariff will reduce prices and benefit al:
classes, without injuring any one. It is his duty, then, as
a legislator—he is hound, by the strongest objections—to
propose those alterations without coupling them with
an obnoxious income tax. Ile, however, offers these ad-
vantages, which he is not justified in withholding—
which, to withhold, would really make him out a
malicious wretch, instead of a benetieill states-
man—as a bribe to allow him to fix an income
tax on the whole people, and they are, unfortunately,
willing to accept the hribe. What they ought to de-
mand as a right they consent to receive as a boon, and
for that give up something more valuab'e than what they
receive.

According to the latest edition of his tariff, the new
timber duties are not to come into Operation till Octo-
ber, which will save half the sum he calculated on
losing by the alteration of the duties, or 300,0002 w
believe, 100, that some of hi.s scribes, by a clerical error,
have incorrectly augmEnt,,Nl the deficiency on the year
by 100,000. The reduction of price, he anticipates,
can only be the r, salt of the importation of consider-
able quantities of food paying duties, which will add
to the Exchequer. He has, therefore, tar less need than
11° onkel, out tor an income tax, except that he is pre-

paring for war with America, which he and the Tories
prefer to free trade (for, had the Corn-law been abo-
lished, we should never have heard of that meeting at
New York which our Journal to-day records, nor heard
of a proposition to increase the import duties into
America), and preparing for war against liberty in
France ; and, except as a means of preparing for war, he
could dispense with the income tax. The whole plan is
a fraud on the people, for it is brought forward, as the
Times admits, on false pretences. We ought, therefore,
at once to scout such a petty advantage as the tariff,
when it is accompanied by such a gross iniquity as an
income tax, to maintain a Corn-law and promote the
horrors of war.

On all these accounts, and we might dwell on some
others, it seems to us advisable not to press the tariff,
which is in many points so essentially unjust against the
wishes of the farmers. It involves a new distribution
of property by the Legislature, wbichought always to be
resisted. Better would it be, therefore, for the manu-
facturers, and townspeople, and their representatives, to
make common cause with the farmers and their friends
in opposing the tariff, and so get rid of that, the income
tax, and PEEL together. The present system is far too
much damaged to be continued by any set of men, or
any combination of politicians, however unprincipled.
To break up the monopolist Administration, therefore,
will be a short cut to throwing overboard the whole
system of protection, which continually requires the
Legislature to be dabbling and meddling with the pro.
perty of the people, and to obtaining complete per-
fect, and enduring free trade.

It can scarcely admit of a doubt that the claims of
aristocracy to fill the high station they occupy will not
bear investigation. Prescription and custom are the
foundations of their power, which is threatened by the
very act of inquiry. The habit of the mind, on which
their authority depends, is totally at variance with
investigation, and must cease carrying their authority
with it as inquiry extends. The conduct of the
aristocracy consequently, which provokes an in-
quiry into their claims and privileges, is for
them full of danger. The result, if not imme-
diate, yet at no distant day, will be to place the
aristocracy in that position which their merits and their
services to society deserve, and not in that position which
the aristocracy filled with some propriety a few centu-

ries ago.

Of such inquiries we have seen none more complete
and exhaustive, as far as the investigation goes, than is
carried on by the author of a pamphlet called Aristo-
cratic Taxation ; its Present State, 6^c. Not contented
with proving, in opposition to the interested assertion of
the landlords, that the land is subjected to no peculiar
burdens, the author shows that a considerable portion of
our customs and excise duties, 10,000,0001. at least are
for the purpose of protecting the land. He adds to this
other taxation levied on the people for the behoof of the
aristocracy, and arrives at the conclusion that the total
overcharge of taxation on the middle and lower classes
for the behoof of the aristocracy, is not less than twenty-
eight millions per year. Not contented, moreover, with
merely proving the fact, the author traces the injustice
historically from the beginning of the feudal system
downwards, and properly concludes that this system is
not yet extinct amongst us. He has produced, at a very
appropriate time, a most useful work, which will help to
swell the tide of opinion now rolling in heavily against
the aristocracy.

We shall hereafter find an opportunity probably of
quoting a passage or two from the book ; we only wish
now to guard ourselves from the supposition that we
draw any conclusion against the aristocracy from the
mere tact that, in the earlier ages of society land bore
a much larger share, indeed the whole, of the burdens
of taxation, than •at present. There was a time when
land and its produce constituted the only property.
The increase of other property is the necessary
consequence of the progress of society. It is quite
as right that commerce and manufactures, as they come
into existence, should bear some of the burdens of so-
ciety. Fleets are maintained, in a great measure, for
the protection of commerce. Consular and diplomatic
officers are chiefly required to protect those persons
who visit foreign countries for purposes of trade. Many
of the expenses, therefore, of modern States are caused
by the extension of manufactures and commerce, and
those who profit by them ought to pay a due share of
the cost of protection. It is not, therefore, because
in the progress of society we find commercial and
manufacturing, or personal property contributing,
in relation to the land, more and more to
the necessities of the State, that we conclude that
the landlords throw on others the burdens they ought to
bear. We must have proofs of the particular acts by
which they have clone this, such as their passing the
law fur subjecting personal property to a probate duty,
and exonerating the land—and the utility of the present
pamphlet consists in this, that it supplies those proofs.
If the aristocracy hope to stifle inquiries into their merits,
and hope after such inquiries, to retain their present high
place, they are assuredly most mistaken.

France is not the only country suffering from a war
mania. In the New York papers to 20th ult. received yes-
terdaymorning, nothing is discussed but a prohibitive to riff,
and the necessity of preparing for a war with England.
" Ninety-nine men out of every hundred in this country,"
says the New York Courier and Inquirer, " without
reference to party, cry aloud to Congress for action and
protection. The cry is everywhere heard, Build war-
steamers—increase our navy—put our forts in a state of
defence—re-organize the militia—accumulate every-
where munitions of war—regulate the national cur-
rency—impose heavy import duties—tax all free ard-
cles—and, if necessary, lay on direct taxes to any amount
that the wants of the country may require.' This is the
language of the people." We are sorry for it. Such
language betrays much ignorance and great folly. The at-
tempt to raise a revenue by heavy import duties—or in
other words by a prohibitive tariff, can have no other
effect than to ruin the foreign trade of the United States,
and thus add to the commercial embarrassments of the
country. In Congress an import duty of thirty-five per
cent. is spoken of as necessary to protect native indus-
try. With such a duty Congress will be obliged to grant
a premium upon exports, as assuredly European vessels
will not go in ballast to the United States to export her
staples. With respect to the question of a war Stith
England, nothing can be more absurd or more wicked
than the attempts which the press of the United States
is making to expedite such a calamity. To go to war
about a boundary line, or the right of search question,
would be madness. With respect to a right of search,
for the purpose of impressing British subjects found on
board foreign vessels, we are decidedly of opinion that
it ought to be given up. Such a national right ought to
be blotted out of the law of nations ; nor can an attempt
to enforce it be made by nations speaking a common
language, without acts of individual wrong being com-
mitted, calculated to lead to the most serious consequences.
In Congress nothing is doing ; but if we are to be-
lieve the Journals, public opinion was never less repre-
sented at a Versailles Bed of Justice, in the good old
days of the French Monarchy, than in the legislative
assembly of wise men at Washington. Hear what the
Courier and Inquirer says of them in a leading article.—
Never was there such universal contempt felt by the people at
large for any body of men, as is everywhere openly expressed in
regard to the present Congress ; and, in our opinion, this gene-
ral contempt is most richly merited. We do not refer to any
party in particular ; all are equally to blame, and at this momv•nt
a majority of the House of Representatives and of both
parties in that House, are justly looked upon by the
people, as men who are alike void of the necessary
talents for the discharge of their duties, and of the
patriotism which should prompt them to discharge those
duties according to the beat interests of their constitu-
ents. And just so certainly as they do not change their course
of conduct, and now, when an opportunity offers, some forward
and show that they have at least some little American feeling
in their bosoms, they may anticipate a burst a indignation from
she whole people, such as never before has been elicited in this
or any other country. It appears to us, that such a benighted
set of men never got together as is now assembled at Washing-
ton, or they certainly would be aware at the deep and ani
vernal feeling of contempt which their conduct has excited.
Let them beware that they do not convert that contempt into
indignation.

Lord KENYON, the last of his bigoted race, we hope, in
the House of Peers, attempted on Thursday night toget up a
discussion on that bugbear of Orangemen— M aynoothCol-
lege, but met with no support. The Bishop of EXETER was
silent, not one of the RODEN school even gave him a so-
litary cheer ; and one of his own party in politics told
the Noble Peer in direct terms, that to petition Parlia-
ment to overthrow the grant was the " height of absur-
dity." This pithy rebuke drew forth cheers from
Whig and Tory Lords, and also from the Puseyite
Bishopr. This circumstance forms a remarkable feature
of the present time, which every friend of his country
will hail as an omen of good, and as the most secure
pledge for the happy union of two religious parties, the
dire enemies of each other ever since the days of the
Reformation. While, but some dozen years ago, petitions
flowed in from all quarters of the kingdom, breathing
the most bitter hostility to Catholics, a large proportion
of the Commons, and a great majority of the Peers, re-
fused even to entertain their claims for emancipation,
and every attempt was made by a bigoted priesthood,
and a ruthless press, to stir up the worst passions of
the people for erroneous or selfish purposes,
the wild rage has nearly died away, and only
manifests itself at certain periods of the year,
among the old women of Essex, and Denbigh, and the
showy ladies that frequent Exeter-hall. If Lord KEN-
YON has really such a dread of Roman Catholics, why
does he not look at colleges „nearer home than that of
Maynooth ? Rank Popery bas displayed itself in Ox-
ford, it is all but openly professed by many of .the mi- ,

nisters of the Protestant Church, and receives no check
from the Bench of Bishops ; yet this Peer, so anxious to
put down the base and demoralizing doctrines of
Popery, is blind to the perjury of his own Church,
vents all his • rage on consistent Churchmen,
and wickedly and falsely accuses the learned
and moral professors at Maynooth, of teaching doc-
trines subversive of Christianity. In order to put an end
to this malevolent attack on a respectable and numerous
class, we trust the advice given by Lord CLONCURRY and
the Earl of WICKLOW will be followed, and the House
of Commons will mark its disapprobation of such mis-
chievous bigotry by increasing the grant tenfold. Such
a measure would tend to promote the tranquillity of Ire-
land, and at the same time induce men of a higher rank
to enter the Catholic Church as priests. On looking at
the treatment which members of other Churches re-
ceive from the Legislature, the Catholics have good
reason to complain. While a large sum every
year is voted to raise small livings in Scotland, and mil-
lions have been granted for building additional places cf
worship for the richest Church in the world, these miser-
able, envious bigots grudge a few thousand pounds to
Catholics, from whom the Legislature has taken the
whole of their ecclesiastical property. It is high time
to do away with such unjustifiable partiality, place all
classes on something like a footing of equality, and in
these times of danger unite them in one common bond of
unity for maintaining the independence and honour of
the country.

We must not omit the consistent part Mr. WALLACE
took on Thursday night in the discussion, and we would
point to the very different Constitutional opinions enter-
tained by the Member for Greenock from those expressed
last night by the crotchety Lord who represents Sunder-
land We have always believed that when any question
induced the people to send "petitions to the House by the
cart load," that it was the bounden duty of the people's
servants then to pay far more respect to them than
when they were few and Jar between ; but this
is not the Howler logic ; we perceive that scion of aris-
tocracy sneers at cart loads of petitions. We would
remind him that the conduct of his Noble Father was
very different when a Member of the House of
Commons—the petitions of all ranks were ably handled
by that statesman, and the nearer their approach was
to cart loads, the more zeal did Lord GREY evince
in giving effect to them. What would his Lord•
ship's early friend, CHARLES Fox, say, were
he permitted to witness the peculiar conduct of the son
to that friend of the people, so well known for ninny
years as Mr. GREY in the Common's House ? What
would Fox, and SHERIDAN, and ROMILLY, and GRATTAN,
think of those who now not only refuse to listen to those
who would plead the cause of the people, but who have,
by an immense majority, made a Standing Order
against a single word even being said, either in the way
of explanation or confirmation of the contents ofpetitions?
They certainly would say they might call themselves
Whigs, if they chose ; but they were not of the genuine
sort, but a mongrel race, more than half Tory. Mr.
WALLACE, like Mr. DUNCOMBE, deserves the thanks of
the whole body of the people for his steady advocacy of
the untrammelled right of petitioning, and for the stand
he has made, and will make again, in this sacred cause.
When the newly-passed Standing Orders come to be
read over at the commencement of next session, will
be the proper time for Mr. `WALLACE again to fight
the battle, and we cannot doubt he will do so effectually,
for by that time the income tLx will have had a
trial ; and we shall be greatly surprised if the constitu-
encies do not pledge their representatives to vote with
Mr. WALLACE in favour of discussing their petitions for
its discontinuance, from day to day, when so instructed,
in place of laying them on the table without one word in
behalf o f their contents, and then seeing them coolly thrust
into a bag, for such use as the Committee may see fit to
put them to. Like Mr. WALLACE, and the band who
have supported him on both occasions, we solemnly pro-
test against the new-fangled notions o.ir Tory-Whigs
have adopted, and shall continue steadily to advocate
the inalienable right of the people to the full, free, and
complete exercise of petitioning their own House of
Parliament, and having their wishes enforced by their
representatives.

From Madrid the latest news is of the 6th inst. On
that day there was some discussion in the Second Cham-
ber about a commercial treaty with England. M. GON-
ZALES, President of the Council, said that the Govern-
ment, feeling the great interest attached to this question,
were not disposed to bring forward a special project
of law on the subject, until after a thorough
examination of the effect it would have on the dif-
ferent interests in the country, and this examination,
although prosecuted with the greatest assiduity, was not
yet completed. The Government, he said, had not yet
discovered the means of reconciling the many conflicting
interests connected with the question, but they would not
relax their exertions to bring the matter to a solution,
A M. ZEUMAN, a German swindler, who was said to
be on a secret mission from Prince METTERNICH, has
been order,A to quit the Spanish capital in 24 hours.
Madrid Bourse, on the 6th, was 28i, for cash.

The Freud' journals received yesterday are barren
of news of any interest. In the Chambers the closing
business of the Session is rapidly progressing to a con-
clusion. A report was read in the Chamber of Deputies
on Wednesday, on the subject of M. GOLLIERY'S foolish
project for the circulation of the Debates. It occupied
two hours, and was finally thrown aside, by the refusal
of the Chamber to appoint any time for discussing it.
M. Callier Aid-de-Camp of the Minister of War, set out
by yesterday's post for Oran.
The Committee on the Colonisation of Algeria, having ter-
minated its investigation, and availed itself of all the documents
useful for the plans of the Government, has divided into four
Sub-Committees, each specially charged with important
labours. I.he first is the Sub-Committis which is to
inquire into and report on the state of property,
of which M. Laplagne Barris, Peer of France, is President.
The second has to inquire into the state of the inhabitants, the
civil law, justice, legislation, and municipal organisation; Count
Gasparin, Peer of France, President. The third has for the
subject of its labours the public security, salabrity, draining
villages, enclosures; Lieut.-General Count de Tehrsmur, Peer
of France, President. The fourth has far its share produc-
tion, cultivation, commerce, and tariff of customs ; Baron
Charles Dupin, Peer of France, President.
The Toulon journals of the 10th centain several letters from
Algiers and than, which announce the presence of a great
number of Moroquese in the Beylick of Tlemecen.
_ _

The Meteore steamer had just left Toulon for Algiers with
extraordinary despatches. It seems that it departed in conse-
quence of the arrival of a telegraphic despatch.— Commerce.
110 UItSE—PA nts, WEDNESDAY, APRIL 13.

rust Highest Lowest t.ast
Price elle.. Prig., Price.
French 5 per Cents ...... ..... 118 50 ... Mit 55 ... I'S 40 ... 118 55
414 per Cents lO7 50 ... 1 7 50 ... 107 50 ... 107 50
4per Cents. ......
3 per Cents Bl el ... si, 05 .„ 61
4ank 01 trance
Litaitte Banat 1.0001. SI area 0.25 ...11•2 t ...1005 ...1e25
5,11010 :oases 5040 ...5040 ...5040 ...5040
delitan sank
1811 lt 53 73 —.1033 75 ...1, 53 75 —.1053 75
Belgian 5 per Cents
5 per Ccntt., 1840.,, 104% ... 104% ... 104% ... 1114%
Dutch 7% or Cents.
tp•sttrt A Mitt %e ... iN .. 25% ... 16
Passive 5% ... 314 ... 5 ... M‘
Meapolitan
Roman ..... 105% ... 105% ... 10514 ... 105%
RAILWAY 31-lARES.
_ _

St. Germain .......... ........ gli 5(1.7.7317i0 ... $l7 50 ... 117 50
Veriailles.L../3 216 25 .. 216 25 ... 215 ... 215
Rouen 523 75 ... 5r3 75 ... 523 75 ... 223 75
urlean•
Strasburg to Bale. 23.1 75 ... 233 75 .. 232 50 ... 232 50

MR. GLADSTONE'S PROPOSED COLONIAL TARIFF.—
British North America, scarcely raising sufficient corn
or meat for home consumption, cannot victual her ships
so cheaply as the United States ; freights from the
northern ports of the Republic to the West Indies
will consequently be much lower than from New Bruns-
wich or Canada, and freight in the conveyance of so
bulky an article as timber is an important constituent of
price to the consumer. Under the new Colonial customs'
tariff the northern colonies will lose the transport of flour
and meat to the West Indies, which enabled their ship-
owners to keep down the freight of timber ; but now that
the new tariff will deprive them of that transport, and
take from American timber all protection in the colonies
of the West Indian Archipelago, the lower freights of
American ships will transfer the export of timber from
British North America t, the United States, will de-
prive British colonial navigation of freights to the yearly
value of 200,0001., and British colonial trade of annual
exportation of timber to the amount of 700,9001., will
destroy the colonial capital invested in that shipping, and
in the mills and other establishments for the preparation
of wood for the -West Indies.—Morning Herald. [This
statement is Worth attending to for its admissions. In
consequence of bounties on timber-cutting, &c., as has
been over and over again proved, the colonists are
induced to neglect agriculture ; and of that the
consequence is, that they cannot victual their ships
so cheaply as the inhabitants of the United States.
Our bounties then inflict a mortal injury on the colonies.
In spite, too, of all the encouragement given to our des-
titute labourers to go to our colonies, which should pro-
vide them with labour at a cheap rate, the Americans
undersell our people. All the excuses of an old and new
amity which are usually put forth to justify cur suicidal
policy, and account for the success of the Americans,
fall to the ground in this case, for our colonies have an
abundance of land, and arc quite as newly peopled as the
American States. The system of Government, the ex-
travagant meddling system of Governrnen t,which prevails
in the colonies, and the comparatively cheap and free
system of the United States, are the causes of the dif-
ference, and why our colonies do not thrive as fast as
the United States. This is the Tory system, alike mis-
chievous to the colonies and the mother country, but the
Tories themsel7es. have been now compelled to deal it a
blow under which it reels, and from the effects of which
it will never recover.]
An on dit has currency in the beau monde which
creates the greatest sensation amongst the fair members of the
aristocracy. We allude to the rumoured intention of her Ma-
jesty to give a fancy ball. The 12th of May is said to be the
day fixed upon for this new fete at this Court.
We find the following in a letterfrom Nuremberg,
given by the Journal de Franefort The King has ordered
that some distinguishing mark shall be put upon the house
which was occupied by Palm, the bookseller, who was shot b 3
order of Napoleon, for having preferred death in the cause atilt,
honour and liberties of Germany to an infaranus-denunciation. •