The Sun.
London, England, 1842-09-24 00:00:00

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LONDON :
SATURDAY 'MORNING. SEPTEMBER 24, 1842,
-- - -

The mutual cut-throat system proceeds rapidly.
To meet the American tariff, which is the result
of Our Corn-laws, it is proposed, we see, to close
the ports of our AVct India-islands against Ame•
riean shipping, and to levy a duty of Id. or 2d.
ler lb. on American cotton. The, first me•=sure
would subject the West Indians, already com-
plaining of decay, to a great additional charge.
They must have the supplies of food and lumber:,
which they get from the United States; and if
their vessels be prohibited front importing. them,
the West Indians must pay a higher freight, and
the charge of shipping and re-shipping, and pro-
bably the expense of an additional voyage. So
these schemes to bring the Americans to their
senses will inflict a serious injury on the %Vest
Indians, to whom we must already pay some
three or four millions a year for the injury we
have, as they say, under the advice of some such
meddling madmen, already inflicted on them.
Of the same kind of wisdom is the proposition,
sanctioned by the Tories, to levy an additional
duty on American cotton. We should like to
know whether the merchant who makes the
suggestion has any interest in East India
shipping or East India cotton 1 One un-
disguised object of the proposed tax is to pro-
mote the cultivation of cotton in India, so that
our shipping may be employed in bringing the
necessary supply just as in the case of timber—
from a diztan,e five times as great as the place
whence it could be obtained. This proposal finds
favour with the hardware interest, because it suf-
fers from the American tariff. Already our cot-
ton manufacture is struggling under many disad-
vantages: add to them this proposed increase of
the duty on the raw matorial it works up of ld.
or 2d. per lb., and the lora of the manor of Man-
chester may soon send his ploughs into Moseley-
street. Both these suicidal prrprisals are sug-
gested by men out of Parliament. Foolish and
wicked, therefore, as is our legislation, it would
,Fepoi that the folly of Parliament men is more
than matched by the folly of some of the public.
Two plans intended to injure another State, and
wore certain than these to injure our own people,

we never by any chance heard of. Let them be
acted on, and the enemies of England will not
have any occasion to wish for her decay and de-
struction.

Though the West India Mail Packet Company
has our cordial good wishes, we are by no means
of opinion that it should be stimulated, by Go-
vernment support, to continue a ruinous specu-
lation. At the meeting on Wednesday, Captain
SWEENY, of the Royal Navy, plainly stated that
it was impossible that the Company could suc-
ceed; and it is rather too much for the public to
throw away 240,000/. a year, in order to enable
the Company effectually to ruin itself. We are
quite aware of the ungraciousness of making
objections to employing the public money, when
such a grand project is on foot as maintaining, a
steam communication with the West Indies ;
but we are of opinion, that steam commercial
navigation can be as little profited as agriculture
by Government bounties, and, therefore, it be-
comes our duty to advert to the consequence of
so employing nearly a quarter of a million of the
public money per year.
If the decision on this question be left to the
Company itself, or to City Correspondents, it
will be settled only in one way. The money will
be supplied till the Company be insolvent, and
the Proprietors lose their property; and ulti-
mately the public, through its organ the Govern-
ment, will have to pay the whole expenses of
continuing the project. It is not right, however,
to leave the decision of such questions to the
parties interested. The public has suffered al-
ready very much from believino•, that corn-
growers and land-owners were the best judges of
the legislation which would most promote the
success of agriculture ; that ship-masters and
ship-owners could make the best laws for navi-
gation ; that iron-founders and silk-weavers were
the only reasonable judges of legislation for ma-
nufactures; and that merchants alone could know
any thing of the laws which ought to be made
for trade. The public has confided in these se-
parate classes, and each of them has made, or
recommended, laws, which begin by fleecing or
injuring the consumer, and end by injuring the
producer whom they were intended to benefit.
The public, which pays the money, is deeply in-
terested in the question, and has a right to insist
that the Government shall not expend its pro.
perty except most economically and most usefully.
Government has a duty to perform, and is no
more warranted, because:a project looks showy,
to devote the public money to it than a woman
is warranted in wasting her husband's substance:

in purchasing handsome but unnecessary dresses.
The Government must have no caprice. It must
act exclusively for the public good. Extrava-
gance brings families to ruin, and though nations
are not so easily ruined as families, they can but
be injured by a course which is fatal to indivi-
duals.

In this particular case, the Government has
not only to consider the merchants and West
India proprietors, who will be benefited by the
rapid transmission of letters, but it has also to
consider the other classes who contribute to pay
the money. Altogether, probably, nearly half a
million a year is expended in keeping up com-
munication with foreign countries, all the
advantages of which are reaped almost exclu•
sively by the mercantile classes. Some of them,
like Mr. IRVING, the Chairman of the Company,

may be so extensively connected with our colo-
nies that it is for their advantage even to lose
something as proprietors of such a Company,
provided they obtain by the loss the means of
rapidly conveying passengers, parcels, and letters
to the West Indies at the public expense. Such
considerations should make the Government and
the public extremely cautious how they apply
the public money to encourage or promote this
private speculation.
The duty of the Government is to provide the
means of communication with the West Indian
colonies in the cheapest and most effectual man-
ner. Now it has been proved that the plan pro-
posed and adopted by the Company and the Go-
vernment is not the cheapest nor most efficacious.
It has been proposed to send all the commu-
nication to the West Indies by the Halifax
steamers, instead of sending two lines of steamers
across the Atlantic ; and it has been proposed

that the mails shall be carried from Halifax to
St Thomas's by another steamer. By this means
a voyage of '2,500 miles might be saved, and little
or no delay be caused. Supposing the sugges-
tion thrown out in this journal of transmitting
the mails through the United States be rejected

as impracticable, the plan of sending a steamer

between Halifax and St. Thomas's will be a
much less costly mode of distributing the let-
ters than by sending two great steamers instead
of one across the Atlantic. Our impression, in-
deed, continues to be, that it would be in all re-

spects wise—notwithstanding the American ta.
riff —as promoting commercial intercourse be.
tween England and the United States, and be•

tween our colonies and the United States—to use
the means already in existence in the United
States to convey our mails the whole distance

between Boston and some extreme southern
point of the Republic. We believe that a

steamer passing from Halifax to St. Thomas,
even calling, as is proposed in the Liverpool
Times, at some ports of the United States, would

not pay its expenses while the United States
offer us the means to send mails a large part of
the distance at a small expense.
England is already weighed down by public
charges. Her Government costs a great deal
more than it is worth, and he is the best friend
to its continuance in safety, who urges economy

upon it in every possible way. To keep up corn
munication with the whole Western world is un-
questionably a good thing- but it will be best
kept up by employing only one line of steamers
betwixt Halifax and England, and sending all
the mails on from Halifax. By adopting such a
means of communication the public money
might be saved, and the West India Mail Packet
Company be kept from ruining itself.

COURT CIRCULAR.
WINDSOR, FRIDAY.—His Imperial Highness the
Archduke Frederick Ferdinand of Austria reviewed
the 2d Regiment of Life Guards this morning in the
Great Park. His Royal Highness Prince Albert ac-
companied the Archduke to the review. In atten-
dance on their Imperial and Royal Highnesses were
le Chevalier Marinovich, le Chevalier de Koechel, le
Capitaine Duninont, le Comte Caroly, General
Wemyss, Colonel Bouverie, and. Sir George Quen-
tin. The Illustrious party afterwards returned to

the Castle.
The Queen and Prince Albert enjoyed their usual
morning walk. Her Royal Highness the Duchess of
Kent arrived from Frogmore Lodge, and visited her
Majesty in the forenoon.
Their Royal Highnesses the Prince of Wales, and
the Princess Royal, were taken an airing to-day.
His Royal Highness the Hereditary Grand Duke
of Mecklenburg Strelitz arrived from Kew, on a visit
to her Majesty to-day.
Their Serene Highnesses the Prince of Leichten-
stein, Sir Robert Peel, the Earl and Countess Dela-
warr and Lady Elizabeth West, and Captain Fitzroy,
arrived at the Castle, on a visit to the Queen.
The Earl of Liverpool took his departure from the
Castle.
Her Majesty has a dinner party this evening at the
Castle. Her Royal Highness the Duchess of Kent,
Lady Charlotte Dundas, General and Lady Isabella
Wemyss, Right Hon. Sir W. Fremantle, Sir George
Couper, Bart., Mr. G. E. and the Hon. Mrs. Anson,
Colonel M'Douall, and Major Draught, will join the
Royal dinner party.
The following will also be present :—Her Majesty
the Queen Dowager, his Imperial Highness the
Archduke Frederick Ferdinand of Austria, his Royal
Highness the Hereditary Grand Duke of Mecklen-
burgh Strelitz, their Serene Highnesses the Princes
_of Leichtenstein, his Royal Highness Prince Ester-
hwa_zayr ,r Sir R7bedyrt Peel, Earl of Aberdeen, Earl and
Countess of D
E. enbigh Earl
Countess Mount Edge-
Earl and Countess De la
cumbe, -Misses Pagetzeltern, and
novie hStanley,Chevalier
Bar
lier deiotilo9l,e
ehebi-
Captain Dumnont, Count Ca'roly, Captain Fitzroy,
Mr. Ormsby Gore, Major-General Wemyss, Colonel
Bouverie, &e.

Her Majesty will hold a Privy Council at half-past
two o'clock this afternoon, at Windsor Castle.
Their Royal Highnesses the Duchess of Cambridge,
Prince George and the Princess Augusta of Cam-
laccompanied by the Hereditary Prince of
nburgh Strelitz, and attended by Baroness
dt, honoured the Haymarket Theatre with their
eidc
okf geel

presence on Thursday evening. The Illustrious party
afterwards returned to Kew.
Letters from Hanover, dated the 19th inst., were
received in town yesterday. His Majesty the King
of Hanover arrived in that city from Dusseldorf on
the 17th inst.
The Earl of Aberdeen arrived in town yesterday
from a visit to her Majesty at Windsor Castle. Ge-
neral Sancho visited the Noble Earl at the Foreign-
office. His Lordship had an interview with Sir R.
Peel ati his residence in Whitehall-gardens, and in the
evening returned to Windsor Castle.
The Rev. Dr. Austen, Bishop of British Guiana,
had an interview with Lord Stanley yesterday, at the
Colonial-office. Mr. Hughes had also an interview
with his Lordship yesterday.
The Earl of Ripon arrived in town, on Thursday
night, from his seat, Norton, Leicestershire,
Mr. John Thornton, Deputy Chairman of the
Stamps and Taxes, had an interview with the Chan-
cellor of the Exchequer yesterday, at his official re-
sidence in Downing-street.
Sir Robert Peel left town yesterday afternoon, on a
visit to the Queen, at Windsor Castle.