The Sun.
London, England, 1845-12-29 00:00:00

JUSTICE TO SCOTLAND.

Scotland is deeply interested in the issue of the
present attempt to alter our commercial system. It
must affect the means of our population for better or
worse. They have pretty generally decided in favour
of one mode of concluding the crisis; but they have
not the means of enforcing their decision. A general
election must occur by-and-bye, and the old farce of
sending up fifty-two gentlemen to represent Scotland in
a House of Commons. to which England furnishes five
hundred members, will be re enacted. Glasgow, says
Sir James Graham, is the second city in the empire;
but Glasgow, he also says, practically, shall have no
greater influence in the Legislature than Harwich. At
the same time Sir James and his friends, like other
parties and the it friends, talk of appealing to the people,
as if the distribution of the representative districts was
not the greatest practicable satire of representation.
Mr. O'Connell demands for Ireland 150 members, in-
stead of the present number, 105; and this request is
characterised by greater modesty than usually mark»
his objects. Ireland, even by the test of revenue, is
fairly entitled to 150 members; but in Sc tland we pay
taxation on the English scale, and we should be-repre-
sented on the English basis.

There is a very common oversight in estimating
the proportions of revenue paid by the three divi-
visioes of the empire. England from the manner in
which the customs duties are collected, has credit
for large payments to the revenue that are really
contributed by Scotland or Ireland. There can be
no fact much more evident than that the duty on
two-thirds of the tea, and one-half of the sugar
consumed in Scotland or Ireland is credited to London,
Liverpool, or Bristol. The tame remark applies to
wines, to foreign spirits, and many minor articles, on
which, nevertheless, a considerable duty is paid. We
may therefore assume, that the customs returns furnish
no very obvious means of ascertaining the amount of
duty paid by each of the three kingdoms.
" The property and income-tax" does not supply any
better means of arriving at an accurate conclusion on the
subject ; for a considerable part of that tax paid in Eng-
land is in reality supplied by Scotland and Ireland.
Many Scottish and Irish landowners pay the sums levied
from their incomes in London, although the cause of the
tax, and the means of meeting it, are alike supplied by
Scotland or Ireland. We mention these circum-
stances to meet the possible statement, that as
England furnishes the largest proportion of revenue, it
should have a correspondingly large number of repre-
sentatives—a statement for which there is no ground in
reference to Scotland. We pay the same taxes that are
levied in England ; and if the wealth of a nation is
centred in any locality, as in London, it does not seem
very logical to charge the distant portions of the country
with !poverty, occasioned, if it exists, by that act of
centralization. Scotland kept its liberty against
steel to fall before gold. The corrupt nobility at the
period of the Union sold their country to supply
their wants. We do not say that the Union was
an impolitic measure ; bat we might have had the bar-
gain on better terms. The time that has elapsed since
the date of that measure has greatly changed the posi-
tion of the two countries. Notwithstanding many and
great disadvantages, Scotland has struggled forward in
agriculture, in manufactures, and commerce, to an
equality with the wealthier partner. The tonnage of
Scotland bears to that of England the proportion of their
respective populations. The number of persons engaged
in manufactures north of the Tweed is equal at least to
the proportion employed in that manner south of the
border waters.

When the empire was engaged in its fiercest struggles
for existence, the blood of the children of the mountain
land was fret ly shed on many fields where life was beaten
out in anguish, to vindicate the interests and the objects
of the commonwealth or its rulers. The day of danger
—the hour of difficulty—the moment of defeat—never
found her sons unwilling to bear their share of the trial.
In science they have achieved more than their nume •
rival share • and in literature far more than their
proportion of the empire's works since the union was
closed. In all respects we have a right to its revisal.
It is no inviolable document. Already it has been
broken and altered in several particulars. It must
stand or fall as men find it advantageous or other-
wise. For the interests and the good of all the con-
tracting parties, it should be preserved, but then it
should be amended. We have nut vowed fealty to its
frailties. We have not given our troth to its fail-
ings. We are not bound to abide by its faults. In the
councils of the State we have a right to insist that the
voice of Scotland shall be fully heard, and its influences
be fully felt. No argument suffices to persuade us that
a composition of fifty per cent. should be accepted
when full payment can be made. England returns
five hundred members to the House of Commons,
and Scotland fifty-two. Now, either we should rise
to one hundred, or England should fall to two
hundred and fifty. The justice of the de-
mand is palpable. A statesman's wits are not
requisite to sift it. A schoolboy with the multiplication
table on his tongue could solve the whole matter. And
even if the alteration merely conferred escape from in-
dignity it should be made; but a great reform is involved
in the change—a reform equally advantageous to Eng-
land as to Scotland, and which would directly tend to
terminate Government by a class for its interests.— Glas-
gow National.