The Sun.
London, England, 1845-04-07 00:00:00

flløruing IflL

LONDON, MONDAY, APRIL 7, 1845.

THE QUARTER'S REVENUE.

The official returns of the Revenue for the year
and quarter, ending on Saturday, the sth inst., like
those of the preceding year and quarter, are highly
satisfactory. In all the principal departments, with
the solitary exception of the Property-tax, there is a
considerable increase on the year. In the Crown
Lands and Miscellaneous there is a decrease, but
the revenue from these sources is of an uncertain and
accidental character, and forms no test whatever of
the trade, commerce, and wealth of the country.
At one season, for instance, Sycee silver, varying
from half a million to a million sterling, is received
and classed under the head of Miscellaneous ; at an-
other not a penny is paid into the Exchequer; and
the Crown Lands vary in a similar manner, though
not to such an extent. The following are the items
of increase on the year :—Customs, 718,602/. ;
Excise, 344,784/. ; Stamps, 242,8001.; Taxes,
25,275/. ; and. Post-office, 57,000/. The de-
crease is : Property-tax, 252,439/. ; Crown
Lands, 22,500/. ; and Miscellaneous, 67,183/. ;
thus showing an increase on the year, including im-
prest and other moneys, and repayments of advances,
of 1,752,788/., and a decrease of 342,062/., leaving for
the year a total increase of 1,410,726/. The increase
on the quarter is equally satisf ctory, notwithstanding
a decrease in the Customs to the amount of 201,941/
This may be attributed entirely to the anticipated
new tariff, as the least possible quantity of articles
paying Customs duty would be taken out
of bond till the reduction and abolition of
duties would come into operation. In the
Property- tax there is also a decrease on the
quarter, amounting to 87,148/., and 30,000/. for
Crown Lands—making a total of 319,0891., while in
other departments the increase for the quarter is—
Excise, 64,7961.; Stamps, 103,450/.; Taxes, 1,260/. ;
Post-office, 4,0001, and Miscellaneous, 373,7241.;
Total, with imprest and other moneys, and repayment
of advances, 891,2541., leaving an increase on the
quarter of 572,165/. It thus appears, that with all
the reductions in the Customs already in operation,
the revenue of that department still goes on increasing,
as well as the revenue of the Excise, the Post-office,
• and the Taxes ; and we may, therefore, confidently
trust that when trade is left still more free by the
abolition of duties on at least 400 different import
articles, with the reductions'of duty on glass, auctions,
&c., the result will be the same. The next half year,
however, will be looked forward to with great in-
terest. The new system will by that time have a
fair trial, and we fondly cherish the hope that the
monopolists will then see by the result the errors of
their policy, and support the reforming Minister in
putting an end to all exorbitant and ruinous duties.

The House of Commons has at last spoken out about
the question of the Oregon territory, and with an
unanimity which can leave no doubt that all parties are
resolved, at every hazard, to maintain our indisputable
rights. These rights were admitted on all hands, and
the extravagant claims of the American Presi-
dent, made in his first inaugural address, and
maila too in such insolent language, met
with universal reprobation. Lord JOHN RUSSELL
showed, that in whatever point of view the question was
looked at, our right to the greater portion of the Oregon,
including the Columbia River, was unquestionable. If
it rested on ancient discovery, England had a claim far
superior to that of the United States; if on treaty, the
United States had no claim whatever; and if on
modern discovery, the discovery of the Columbia, made
by regular otlicers of the British navy, and the subse-
quent settlement of the adjoining country by British
settlers, gave England a title which could not possibly
be displaced. Sir ROBERT PEEL was no less impressed
with the fact, and (a rare feature in the speech of a
Prime Minister) spoke his sentiments es openly
and as firmly as the leader of the Opposition.
" I feel it my imperative duty," said the
Prime Minister of England, " on the part of her
MAJESTY'S Government, to state in language the most
temperate, but at the same time most decided, that we
consider we have rights respecting this territory of
Oregon which are clear and irresistible. ' We trust still
to arrive at an amicable adjustment—we desire to effect
an amicable adjustment of our claim ; but, having ex-
hausted every effort to effect that settlement, if our
rights shall be invaded, we are resolved—and we are
prepared—to maintain them." This spirited announce-
ment was responded to by loud cheers from all
parts of the House. The language of Lord A BER-
DEEN in the other House was equally explicit and
determined, and when he asserted our rights, with
the utianimous resolution of the Government to
maintain them at all risks, the Peers cheered with
as much
fervour as the more excitable Commons.
The question is now brought to a fair issue. The Ameri-
cans make claims incompatible with British rights: ne-
gotiations may be still going on, fur since the accession
of Mr. Pome, our Government have received no intelli-
gence on the subject, but if they have been renewed, and
unfortuuately should turn out unsuccessful, Great 'and
unfirtuuately should turn out unsuccessful, Great Brit
has only one alternative. We have submitted too long
to the vain boastings and warlike threats of American
senators ; we have even scarcely adverted to the hos-
tile pretensions of the late President, and treated
these, and the wild and rabid effusions of the statesmen
from the " Far West " with equal ceremony; but in
that respect England has only shown her moderation
and her power, and her enemies in any part of the globe
will find that her frightul silence " has not lost
any of its terrors. But there is another Power
besides this country that has affairs of import-
ance to settle with the Americana. The occupation

of Texas is a flagrant breach of good faith. It is repro.
bated by all civilised States ; and Mexico, weak and
disorganised, will not fight her battles alone. Though
she has neither fleet nor army that could make any great
resistance, she can furnish letters of marque to the ships
of other nations, and neither brave hearts nor willing
hands will be wanting to curb a power dangerous
to every peaceable and well-governed State. We have
no wish to enter into the quarrel; we would avoid it, but
only with honour. " Our honour," said Lord ABER-
DEEN, is a substantial property, which we shall never
neglect, and fearlessly leave the judgment to
posterity." Even Mr. HUME, the watchful, the
trustworthy, and prudent guardian of the public
purse—an office which he has now filled for
little short of a quarter of a century—on Friday night
cast economy to the winds, and with a patriotic spirit.
withdrew his motion for the reduction of the army. The
crisis is one of fearful importance, but it is not of our
•seeking, and confident of the justice of our claims, and
the integrity of our purpose, we are prepared to meet it.

It is not the least of the many grave chjectioni which
the experience of their operation every day establishes
against the Game-laws, that the taint of their original
institution affects their admini,tration, even at the pre
sent day. The Game-laws were, especially, a class-
maie code for class objects ; and wherever country
juries are impannelled to try cases arising under them,
it but too often happens that their verdicts appear to
have a class bias. The framers and affirmers of these
oppressive statutes were ever the great landed pro-
prietary, nobles and commoners, directly intereated in
providing for their favourite sports, and reckless of the
extravagantly penal consequences to which, in their
anxiety to protect and encourage and preserve for their
own use and pleasure the game upon their lands, they
subjected all persons who might be convicted of infrac
tions upon their enactments—committed in the absence
of " qualifications" that could belong only to individuals
moving in classes of society elevated above those
of the poorer and lower sort. To classes, only,
equally fortueate, could the propei ty in, and rights
over game, which were to be protected, belong.
Does this community of class interests stop here? \Ve
doubt it. Country jurors who are to try indictments
for Game-law offences, sit, as it were, on glazed boxes.
They know well enough that their deliberations are
transparent. They seem to think themselves ever in the
presence of the great man, at the great house in the great
park. It is well known that they are returned on the
panel ; shall they be astute to connect the evidence
with the guilt of the accused? or shall they show rather
a disposition to give to the acts proved against the men
placed at the bar a construction, if possible, which shall
remove them out of the reach of these penal enactments?
The tendency to propitiate those above them by affect•
ing sympathy with their prejudices, pursuits, and modes
of thinking, in reference to such pursuits or prejudices,
is natural, in an advanced condition of society, to its in.
ferior sections, in all countries. But e e believe it is
most decided as actuating the lower ranks of an agricul-
tural community to gratify the assumed expectations of
a landed aristocracy. We are far from imputing to
juries, thus composed, at country assizes, for example,
any absolute intention or purpose of giving a verdict,
under any circumstances, contrary to their honest and
conscientious views of the evidence that may have been
tendered to them ; but we are arguing from the every
day's experience of the unconscious bias acting en the
impressions of such men—and the result of it—which is
their practical, albeit unconscious, fallibility as jurymen.
Cases to exemplify—and, we must add, to corroborate
—our apprehensions on this score are of constant occur-
rence. Take, however, for a single and signal example
the case tried at the present Chester Assizes, where
some culprits were arraigned as reputed poachers for a
very formidable attack upon certain keepers iu the em
ploy of a Mr. BROOK. The evidence, in this instance,
was much of the usual character in these cases. The
men were undoubtedly contemplating, under the usual
temptations, the commission of the usual offences of
poaching, when they were interrupted by the vigilance
of the keepers. A fierce affray ensued, in which either
side sustained serious injuries. The Learned Judge,
both in the course of the examination of witnesses, and in
his summing up, directed their special attention to some
remarkable and important facts which clearly inferred
(his Lordship observed) that the first " blow, or that
provocation, out of which all the ensuing violence must
be considered to have flowed—had been given by one of
the party of the keepers, not of the poachers." His Lord-
ship intimated, in significant and very intelligible terms,
that if the jury saw this point in tha same light with
himself, they would, of course, by their verdict, give the
prisoners the full benefit of so important a consideration.
What did the jury do? They threw overboard altogether
the suggestion which the Learned Judge had thought
it his duty so emphatically to present to them, they re-
turned a dry and unqualified verdict of " Guilty ;" and
the Learned Judge, having no option under this verdict,
upon all the counts of the indictment they had to try
sentenced the prisoners to about the highest penalty
which could be awarded against them under the existing
law—namely, transportation for fifteen years 1 Now
the Game-laws, being clearly in the nature not of crimes
against the moral or Divine law, but offences against
mere municipal and conventional laws of artificial pro-
perty, are precisely those illegal offences to which the
accused are clearly entitled to plead—where they are inr
a condition to do so—the prior and higher law of ou
common nature in their defence—viz., the law of self-
preservation. The wise and benevolent Judge saw all
the force of the fact incidentally proved that the keepers
committed the first violence. The jury either could not
or would not recognise this all important fact in their
favour. Thanks to their verdict, the prisoners received
the same full measure of punishment as if their case had
been one of unmitigated atrocity. Did we need one ad-
ditional argument to those we have so often urged against
;here iniquitous and unequal laws, we should find it in

this Chester poaching case. We now perceive that the
Game-laws, not only brutalise their victims by the des-
peration they excite, and unhumanise your preservers of
game by the premium they extend to the gratification of
tyra,nnic and irritable temperaments, but stultify and
obfuscate the rural solons who are called upon to admi-
nister them, whether as magistrates or jurors. When
will this moral and social nuisance bo swept from the
land by the long delayed besom of public indignation ?

The accounts from Madrid are to the 28th ult. The
journals are chiefly occupied with particulars of the late
conspiracy, which, however, are contradictory. The
number arrested is said to be much greater than was at
first stated, and according to the Heraldo, a Government
journal, the object of the parties was to bring back
ESPARTERO, and among persons of note implicated are
Senors DELGADO, PINTADO, HUERTOS, ARENAS, and
Toro.

Three per Cents., for cash 32k; for account, 34. Five
per Cents., for account, 25k.

The Paris journals announce painful intelligence
from Switzerland. Contrary to general expectation
the volunteers against Lucerne have mustered in con-
siderable force in several cantons, in opposition to the
Executive, and made every preparation to join a body of
about 4,000 men from Argau, consisting of volunteers
and refugees, who left that canton on the Ist inst. to
invade Lucerne. Civil war, in fact, has commenced,
and unless the Jesuits and the Government of Lucerne
surrender at discretion, the result cannot fail to be of a
most serious character. All the neighbouring powers
are fully determined to interfere by armed force, and
crush the civil war. The following is the latest particu-
lars furnished by the Journal des Dehats of the 3d
inst. :—" We have received intelligence that on the Ist
inst. the free corps of Argau, reinforced by volunteers
from the Radical cantons, and the refugees from
Lucerne, amounting together to four thousand men,
had entered the canton of Lucerne. They had
advanced beyond Surzee, a small town five
leagues from Lucerne, near Lake Sempacher,
and probably had gained possession of the city itself,
which had only 2,000 men to defend it. At Bale, all
the men from 18 to 25 years of age had entered the
Burgher Guard, for the maintenance of order and the
protection of the city ; but at Berne, the proclamation
against the free corps, instead of arresting the movement,
had only excited the people the more. The agitation
began to extend to all parts of the canton. At Nidau
two cannon had been seized. In the canton of Soleure
the same effervescence prevailed. According to the ac-
counts we had previously received, Lucerne was but in-
sufficiently prepared to resist invasion ; but it was ex-
pected that the smaller cantons of Schwytz, 'Uri, and
Unterwalden would come to her aid, and thus render the
succ..ss of the Radicals at least doubtful. A letter of the
30th ult. from Argau says The Government of Lu-
ce
ae
nr nt
oe nhsat
se arde
doofuebril de
(ei avi
tosupr irnogs
etcou
tconciliater
cpsahr t‘iveas irrna
ttss
of arrest are daily issued, and consequently we have daily
arriving in this canton hundreds of fugitives, almost all
armed. Two days ago the number of these fugitives
amounted to nearly 2,000, of whom 1,500 at least are
armed, and a great many have uniforms. The news
they bring can only increase the irritation of the neigh-
bouring cantons, which arc overburdened already with
emlgr,.ants. The different governments have taken all
the measures dictated by the conclusunt of the Diet ;
hail
but
nti hey
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ivlecnct
ualreadyre ventured
Stateu
of
ifind nAerngearug energetic themselves
uiaNncu 'da
measures;
ut
ecf
(tn,erdt, and
hese could e
overthrown
have ended in nothing, since the soldiery would havers..
fused to act, In this state of things it con Toked the