The Sun.
London, England, 1842-09-17 00:00:00

uLiCt S tt LW,

Lila

system is not based upon any sound principle.
Now, every improvement in the system of the
Government is for the especial advantage of the
working classes. They constitute the foundation
of the social edifice. The weight of every btirthen
finally rests upon them. If wars are carried on,
it is they must fight the battles of their
country, and whiten the Waterloos of
the world with their bones. Neither honours,
nor dignities, nor the spoils of conquered
provinces, are for them. All abuses,
all excesses, all crimes on the part of the Execu-
tive, are sure causes of increase of suffering, and
privation to them, and of wealth and honour to
the aristocracy, and all connected with them.
On the other hand, a just and pacific Govern-
ment cannot exist m ithout benefiting the great
mass of the people. Hence a policy of peace
must ever be, as regards the people, a sound
policy in an old country like England; and hence
our desire to see it now advocated as an article of

e national creed by the whole of the British

Press. The time for it is peculiarly favourable,
and we sincerely trust that advantage will be
taken of it by real Reformers of every creed
and party, to advance what all who reflect must
feel to be the real interests of the human race.

The middle classes are getting uneasy about

the Income4ax. Sir H. PEEL, as collector-
general of the obnoxious impost, is by no means
the favourite he used to be in the Tory coteries.
Even the Post no longer thinks him, the clear-
headed methodical statesman that his friends
were in the habit of telling the world he was.
His taxation schedules are puzzles for the
cobweb brains of the most erudite black-
letter lawyers; and as to the merchants, they
are ready to die of absolute bewilderment. As
the lawyers are the last persons in the world to
profess ignorance of what they are expected to
understand, they are employed by everybody
who can afford a fee to fill up schedules.
In this way the Income-tax is the creator
of another tax, fully as obnoxious in it-
self. We are therefore not surprised to
hear a good deal of grumbling in all quarters,
with here and there the expression of a dogged
determination to resist it altogether. On the part
of persons engaged in trade the injury which it
will inflict is incalculable, and in that quarter we
are prepared for a general outcry as soon as the
Premier's army of collectors make their appear-
ance. The storm which is now brewing will
then burst in earnest. The late strike will be
nothing to it. PEEL'S puzzles, as we may deno-
minate the Income-tax papers, are now only
simply bewildering, but the case will be differ-
ent when they come to be practically unravelled.
The Income- tax is not a question of simple
taxation only. It is one of its great grievances
• that it is also, a question of national perplexity.

Nobody knows what to do about it, or in what
way to prove that he ought not to be affected by
it. Now, granting it was necessary to tax the
people, what possible branch of the public ser-
vice is benefited by puzzling and bewildering
them ? The Chinese and the Affghans will not be
conquered the sooner for JOHN BULL being in
such a quandary as not to know whether he
stands head or heels uppermost, while making a
compulsory confession of the value of all his
goods and chattels to the Chancellor of the Ex-
chequer; and if they will not, why put him to
this mental torture, and exhibit him as a fool to
the whole world ? It is worse than an injury—
it is an insult to the common sense of the middle
classes.. They are saddled not only with
a most obnoxious, inquisitorial impost, but with
endless legal expenses, because the Government
chooses to employ boobies with no more brains
than bats to draw up income schedules.

Three members of the House of Represen-
tatives at Washington have addressed a letter to
the PRESIDENT of the United States, praying his
Excellency to solicit from the British Govern-
ment the liberation of upwards of a hundred
American citizens, now suffering inVan Diemen's
L►nd the penalties of joining in the rebellion in
Canada. To this letter the Secretary of State
has returned an .answer to the effect that the
PRESIDENT will lose no time in complying there-
with, and that Mr. WEBSTER would himself
urge Lord ASHBURTON to press the subject upon
the consideration of the British Government.
Such an appeal we sincerely trust will not be
made in vain. The honour and'independence of
the British Government has been sufficiently
vindicated by the transportation of these prisoners
to a British penal colony. For the purposes
of example no good can be gained by a further
prolongation of their punishment ; whereas their
liberation at the present moment will be appre-
ciated as a national compliment by every State
i❑ the Union. We can afford to spare a few
rogues, and not be thought a jot too merciful
either. By all means, therefore, let them be
given up as soon as their liberation is prayed
for by the Federal Government. Should they
find their wav back to the neighbourhood of
Navy Island they will be in nu humour for join-
ing another invading expedition. Con the con-
trary, their experience of the unpleasant conse-
quences of rebellion will be profitably taught to
tileir quondam Sympathising associates.

A Correspondent justly complains of the an-
noyance inflicted on the public, and the injury
done to religion by the ranting preachers that on
Sundays infest every open space around the me-
tropolis. They consist chiefly of young men
who ".disfigure their faces," quote Scripture in-
coherently, and shout to the utmost pitch of
their voices, like Bediannites, causing not a little
alarm to timid women, and great offence to sober
Christians. There is another class, however, of
a different character, whose object is evidently
mischievous.,, They are generally persons of
doubtful morality, and . professed infidels, •
who seem anxious to unsettle the minds
of the young by encouraging disputation -
on religious . subjects, and casting ridicule on
everything sacred. Some of these lie under the
suspicion of collecting crowds, in order to afford 1
their assodiatcs an opportunity of committing
robberies, and the public should therefore be on
their guard when the dispute runs high, as that
is the moment chosen for effecting their purpose.
If two or three of these schemers were sent to
the treadmill for a month, they perhaps would
•not come out of prison better men, but .to a cer-
tainty the neighbourhood of the metropolis would
be greatly improved by their absence. As for the
young aspirants to theological fame, they should be
handed over to their friends for the first offence,
and duly warned that by pursuing such a course
they.will find themselves one day either in Bed-
lam or the Penitentiary. If this field-preach-
ing by laymen is to be suffered at all it should be
placed under proper regulations, and no one
allowed to " hold forth" from a tub or a truck, or
any of the different ready-made pulpits in use,
without a license from a Magistrate, granted on
the attestation of respectable householders as to
character and soundness of mind.

A. Leedspaper contains an excellent article on the
ignorance of the upper classes, in the course
of which it observes :—" We do not mean
to say that the upper classes are ignorant of their
alphabet. Many of them, we believe, are what are
called learned men. They are acquainted with the
dead languages, and dabble in philosophy and meta-
physics at Oxford arid Cambridge. But so far as
the heart and soul are concerned, we believe
the upper classes are just as little edueatea,
take them all in all, as the working classes,
whom they denominate the ignorant lower orders."
These animadversions ara as just as they are severe,
as every one must acknowledge, who is in the slightest
,degree acquainted with the system pursued at our
fashionable public schools. At these institutions the
useful branches of knowledge are almost uniformly
sacrificed to the ornamental ones ; little or no atten-
tion is paid to the modern languages, to arithmetic,
politics—we use the word in its more enlarged
sense—history, finance, or those various arts
and sciences which bear upon the great busi-
ness of life ; Greek and Latin are the only
studies in request ; and -provided a lad has distin-
guished himself at school and college by his nice ac-
quaintance with the metres of the choruses of, the
grvk dramatists, by his facility in manufacturing.

he%:iineter., , . : ', ..itiuneters, awl writing L; is
themes on the death of BEwrus, and so forth, he is .
considered every way qualified to play the part of
legislator. What though .he be as ignorant as a horse.,
.of the legal institutions of his country,. and know no-
thing more of commerce, than that it is a certain some-
th:ng that fills the breeches pockets. of John Bull—is
he not a dab at longs and shorts ; can he not
throw off, at a moment's notice, an Alcaic
or a Sapphic stanza; and prove, in indif-
ferent Latin prose, that TARQUINIUS SUPERBITS
was no better than .he should have been ? and
thus accomplished, can 'it be doubted that he is
the very man to 'legislate safely for the people ? It
is really high time that this absurd system of educa-
tion should be put an end to ; and the upper classes
taught that something more is necessary to constitute
a statesman, than just a mere showy knowledge ;of
the classics. It would not be amiss, Indeed, if thos.
among them who have already reached the years of
discretion, were all to be put to school again ; and
competent masters appointed to teach her MAJESTY'S
Cabinet—more especially Lord STANLEY-the rudi-
ments of a useful, practical education.

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We find no news of interest in the French 11:d
journals of Wednesday, the whole of which we .10ro
have received. The Debats and the National
.."
have articles on the German Commercial Union 0
—a subject which has recently obtained much
3,
attention in France. We quote the following
,-'1 I
extract from the article in the National:— e i
:;
" The German Customs' Union possesses a very" - )::,11))
small extent of sea coast—from Stralsund to the Vis- :til 0
tula. All this space belongs to Prussia, and it is only
...1.1 6
through it that the goods of the Union can arriv!"; ,'in
directly at the sea. The Cabinet of Berlin has made':, 437,)
extraordinary efforts to concentrate in this narrow '.; ,4 :0
space all the foreign trade in the Union. Ports have ,1;`,7,0
been deepened, canals and roads opened, and the ~i ?),").
course of several rivers turned and improved. By the ,:- 4jl
Cologne railroad, which passes through Westphalia, ..„74!"),
the capital will be put in communication with the
Rhine ; on the east, another line proceeds towardS'l,oordi
Saxony, by Magdeburg and Halle, and will Milts :,,00-
45.
her with the centre of Germany ; and, on the north, 0 4
railroad is to proceedto Stettin, which will carryiO the- 0`
re
Baltic all the commerce proceeding from Berlin. Ait
l
But, notwithstanding her energetic efforts, Prussia.: /19
feels that complete success is rendered impossible by.,a-Pd
the very nature of circumstances, for would it not be .!0
in fact sovereignly absurd that, in order to be ex-
ported by the sea, the produce of the east, the south- , :lti
east, and the centre of Germany should be obliged '' hi
to go round by the Baltic, and submit to the al'?
fiscal burdens of the Sound ? On this account iilloi
Prussia has long sought to open, for her own coin- ;i154
merce and that of her allies, a more considerable ~, --
issue by the Baltic, and - another issue by the-17i'
North Sea. Hitherto she has failed, for Hamburgb, -,4:;‘,4
Mecklemburgh, and the German part of Denmatli .li
which touch the sea, and to whom this position or
,ngof
,- ,
sures great advantages, have refused to allow the,l
w: g
selves to be hemmed in by the Union. Not being
able to obtain her ends directly, Prussia proceeds bi.
other means, and proposes a railroad at their common
expense, expecting that, when this line shall have
been cut, the south-west of Mecklemberg,the southern
extremity of Holstein, and have united Hamburgh t°
Berlin, these three Powers will not be able tomain;
taro.. their neutrality. The complete . accession 0'
these States may, therefore, be looked on as a matter
of certainty before long, and Prussia will then hal
perfectly attained the object which she has pursue
‘'
with so much energy and sagacity."
The Debats contains some remarks on the late or' -
donnance of the King of Prussia for convoking the.
~
Committee of the Provincial States , which is the
devoid of interest. After quoting the passage of th!
ordonnance which declares that the present mePatir„ ,
~
was required, in order to effect a "point of union
for the opposing interests of the States, the Debais
proceeds thus : ." It is in fact this want of Onit!
which is the weak side of the Prussian monare7,;
The different province's which compose the kingd°,"
have naturally divergent tendencies, and soraetiar:ft,l4
even opposite ones. The interests of Rhenan 50 '
Catholic Prussia, for instance, are not the same's°
.r
those of the Eastern and Protestant part of the king- ,
dom. In this respect, therefore, the creation 012015)
Committee of the States, in place of being. a '91'4;41
towards a representative Government, would rate ,IY,:dt
have the effect of strengthening the Royal aut„fli 70
rity. The mode in which the Committee is for%r; tilli
certainly serves to correct that tendency to .01,y,of(Jj:
causation of interests which is almost inbereet:lrei4
,the elective system ; but as the Committee- I.'l EPI
else
exercise the functions of deliberating, without,han; pv.;dti
sessing the right of voting., it is nothing' e
t,OO
more ready instrument of government,in the Kind;
fOliji
hands. This is the only point of view in which`'gie ,I;ii
establishment of a Central Committee of the norif °., if
can [possess a political character. By itself, it'll! dot,
~,,,i,
thing else than an administrative measure, for it nly 7)
invested with any legislative faculty, being 'silnAtb. -,,'
and purely a consulting body, charged at most A., ,'.
~
the task of shaping out laws, whilst the power of e";!, ,
ciding on the carrying them into execution rests ~,f
elusively in the hands of the King. This discretionowildt
power of the King is not in conformity with tbe c
ideas ; but that does not prove that it may n°,0,.. ,4
very wisely placed. We prefer, for our mar Ing►
.
lil‘
the constitutional system, such as we ourselves ro-ri, il f
sess ; but as far as forms of Government are c,„,,,i'"
cerned, what is truth on this side of the Rhine, fit,
be error beyond it. It is with Constitutions, ia, ' to.
as with certain plants, which only grow in a soiL,lcci be
perly prepared to receive them. Now it woul.,ise
unjust to deny that, under this uncontrolled ese',erf
of the Royal authority, Prussia has not made :_os
considerable progress towards liberal institute re.
during the last 25 years. In 1806, the career of 'col
form commenced by the abolition of serfs and fe,u 0
service, as well as by the suppression of the privily
of the nobility. In 1808, came the regulation es „a
lishing municipal liberties on the basis of election's:o,
allowing the government of towns by the burg the I
Then followed in succession the liberty of trades,,, to ,
admission of burgesses to the rank of officers, nn`.lat
high civil employments, and the democratic orgsili",
don of the Landwehr."
lib .:
The Debats attributes all those changes to the t the , -i
ideas which spread themselves through Europe a,_..'ivie,., I
time of the French Revolution. The German 'of'
reigns, it says, held out to their subjects hopes of cod.
plete emancipation, in order to induce them tos the ~,+
firmly against foreign invasion; but when once ,e;
..).
danger had blown over, they made every effort ten to
,r:
press the impetus which they had themselves giv,Aoofr
democratic ideas. It.then says,—" The ConstittuArth 4
promised by the Act of Confederation were C%!, ~
from, the Sovereigns with the utmost difficuitY,o , '
the late King of Prussia, for his part, never exec,lse•
the solemn engagement which he had made, to ePe jecip ji
tute States General. Something was indeed ,etsst
1 from time to time, but the establishment of a ban fliV
representation of the kingdom
_ was indefinitelioge,
journed, and the present King does not appear ,013 . ,
disposed to grant it than his predecessor. 1311. , 00
45
1 the exception of this breach of faith, Prussia ''-ofiti
reason to complain of the use made of the discretinf the
power placed in the King's hands, for she is one-civell•
best administered States in Europe, and it has +','
asserted truly enough, that the maxim of the rrneti:
Government appears to be, ' All for the peoll'C 5 ''!•"
~:'
nothing by the people.' " ' rif,l
The Moniteur Algerien says nothing of the 4
of Colonel Scott in the roads of Algiers, and our P.,0041'
terial journals of the South are equally reseriri ei„,, $.
A. letter on the subject, communicated to thr,,io•,,(,
zette du Midi, has the following passage : iffisr,
" Nothing is talked of here but the landingo,
English Consul, who arrived on bCard aiiier4.
man, and of his detention on board the Vessel starsbai
here, on account Of a position, which is 41,„rteoe:
and rather irregular. However, this arrest,./.llc,
quite recently, and without the knowledge,, 'infm'r',...
Guizot, lasted only a few hours, thanks to '"'„t.' tiro
John, the English Consul-General, who has rinn-050',,,,
plied for the exequatur of Louis Philip. The 'sjoitiet,
with the haughtiness with which you are actlu otbra;
came, and had the Consul released by his 00 fliii,
rity. It is presumed that the Colonel is g 047
Abd-el-Kader, and that he came to Algiers 0' ' ri
see the air of the country."—Commerce, 14th
. 4.
BOURSE—PARIS, WEDNESDAY, SEPT. 14 ft.
First Highest Lpsvesl' trk'jr
Price. Price. Price• . link
French Fives (et div.) 118 80... 118 90... 118 B°•' 989.4
3 per Cents 80 25... 80 25... 80 p'' 3#'ro
„ 3034.0
Bank of France
3260 -.3262 50...3260 • I
Laffitte Bank I,ooof 1035 ..1035 ...1035 '''l-'o_,
Belgian Bank 7BO ... 780 ... 780 "' 1;111
Belgian Fives lO4l ... 1044 ... 104 a '" i
_A-0
Spanish Active ... 214 ... 22h ... 211 ''. 11741
Boman
RAILWAY SHARES . 0„1.14#
Versailles, R.B ......
_;" 01!-
Rouen
Orleans. 582 50... 582 50... 581) :. 2PI
Strasburg to Bale 2lO ... 2(0 „. 208 75"'' 0.„.4
00'!'
........................... wo,
FIRE AT KENNINGTON.—On Thursday 0 e06;41
about half-past one o'clooki a fire occurred• a.jot , the
sive svadding manufnetoryf or Messrs. T- ••
~'Llo
Richards, situate in James-street lienningt°g* FW.6
, • th- vir
fire broke out in the wadding-room, and, from iteir
yen,
and inflammable nature of its contents, the 0'1',., e
speedily in a blaze. An alarm was imrnedilteA:att
sand messengers were dispatched to the
stations for the engines. Unfortunately. hove' eirel • '
found impossible to subdue the fire until the svi'so
building, with the valuable machinery-80,P'
tents, were destroyed. It is not at present,; i
known how the fire originated, and, to add: taiw
lenity, Messrs. Taylor, and Richards are nPfti 10 „0
This is the third time within the last tw"•
~/L131',V5
Messrs. Taylor and Cotnpany have been :rtlll.-7- -
similar disasters. aiffe
rio •