The Sun.
London, England, 1842-01-06 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, THURSDAY, JANUARY 6, 1842.

ter, without deducting the decrease, is 622,0041.,
and composed chiefly of an increase of 414,3681.
in the Customs; of 21,87f1. in the Stamps; of
123,2391. in the Taxes ; and of 29,0001. in the
Post-office. But we know, by various reclama-
tions in the public journals, that the collector's
screw has, of late, been unsparingly applied to
drag in the Taxes more speedily than usual. That
may account for some of the increase in Taxes.
The great increase of the Customs is partly
accounted for by the temporary derangement
caused to commerce in the quarter ending in
October, owing to the party disputes in that
period, which made people keep back their com-
modities, and which has probably increased the
quantity of goods taken out of bond this quarter.
In fact, of the increase, no less a sum than
270,3941. arises from the Sugar duties, which
explains at once the effect of the agitation con-
cerning the Sugar duties in swelling the
revenue this quarter. In the Customs
department, also, the screw has been em-
ployed. An examination has lately been
made of all the goods in bond, and wherever any
deficiency has been found, the duty on that de-
ficiency has been called for. We believe that
by this means the Customs revenue has aen
unduly swelled, and that we have no right to
assume its increase in the present quarter as an
index to its permanent improvement.

We have stated above the whole increase of
the Quarter's revenue, but from this we must de-
duct the decrease. The Excise, usually considered
the best test of the people's prosperity, has fallen
off in the quarter almost as much as the
Customs have increased. The apparent de-
crease of the Excise is no less than 277,0961.
which does not show the whole decrease. About
the beginning of the quarter now ended, an im-
proved system of collecting the Excise duties
was adopted, the principal feature of which is to
make all the collectors and all the hankers pay
in Excise dues at a much earlier period than
formerly. Whereas the bankers and collectors
were then allowed to keep the money in their
hands three weeks or a month, they are now
obliged to remit it to the Bank of England in a
week or ten days. The consequence of the alte-
ration is, that the Excise revenue for this quar-
ter consists really of two weeks more revenue
than the corresponding quarter of last year,
Now, we cannot estimate that at much less than
one-sixth of the Excise revenue for the quarter,
or 600,000/. ; and to ascertain the total decrease
of the Excise for the quarter, we must add this
sum to 277,096/., which makes a total actual de-
ficiency in the Excise on the quarter of some-
where about 877,000/. The effects of the poverty
of the people, and of their resolution to avoid
the use of intoxicating liquors, begin to tell
forcibly against the revenue.
Deducting the decrease in the quarter, as
shown by the returns, from the increase, the ap-
parent increase is 338,549/. ; but when we take
from that the two weeks' more Excise revenue
which has been crowded into this quarter, we
shall conclude that there is a real decrease of
about a quarter of a million sterling. With such
an evidence of the state of the country, we are
not surprised at the rest of the Ministers visiting
the Duke of BUCKINGHAM at Stowe, in order to
coax or to frighten him into an abandonment, or
a great modification, of the Corn-laws.
We shall not, however, obtain an accurate
view of the actual decline of the revenue, and of
the actual deprivations of the people, unless we
take into consideration the probable increase of
their numbers. During the last ten years the
increase of the population has been at the rate of
14 per cent., and the revenue ought to augment
in the same proportion if no deterioration took
place in their condition. Now, as the increased
rate of taxation, levied in 1840, only came into
operation for a part of the financial year ending
with January, 1841, while it has been in opera-
tion for the entire year now ended, it follows
that, man for man, the people have yielded less
to the revenue, though it shows a larger sum in
1841 than in 1840. Either the population has not
increased during the last year, or their comforts
have been materially diminished. Both effects,
as they generally go together, may have taken
phice; and for the sufferings and misery of the
people, as well as the decline of the national
greatness, of which the Revenue Tables are the
proof, the monopolists are answerable.

The Morning Chronicle does the Americans an
injustice by representing their obstinacy, in re-
sisting our claim to examine their vessels, as
incompatible with their professed desire to put
an end to the Slave-trade. The truth is, that
England has frequently asserted her maritime
superiority in such a rude manner, that most na-
tions, and particularly the Americans, suppose
it is a duty to check her. Unfortunately for us,
our naval officers are brought up in such an
arbitrary school as respects the rights of our
own seamen and mercantile marine, that they
have been extremely apt
.to forget all the cour-
tesies due to the mercantile marine of other
nations; in them arbitrary habits are engen-
dered and maintained by the mode employed to
procure men for the fleet, and those habits
make them treat foreign merchant vessels in an
arbitrary manner. During the war, when Ame-
rican merchant vessels were partly manned by
British seamen, they subjected every American
vessel they met with to a most rigid scrutiny;
and their conduct at that period excited against
them in the American sea-ports a feeling of in-
dignation, which it will require more than one
generation to efface. It is the recollection of that
conduct which now makes the Americans perti-
naciously, and justly, refuse to concede to us the
right of visiting ships bearing their flag.
We see by the American papers, and by the
recently published correspondence, that the
American shipmasters and shipowners still com-
plain of the rude and unjust proceedings of our
officers. Whether the complaints in the present
instances be well founded or not, they are so con-
firmed by former practices that they will be uni-
versally believed in the United States, and will
make it impossible for their popular Government
to concede to us the privilege of visiting American
vessels during peaCe;rbe Americana may very pro-
perly object to our right of search, and may still
have a great inclination to suppress the Slave-
trade; but of the two evils we have no doubt the
Americans would prefer the eternal existence of
the Slave-trade to allowing their ships to be
overhauled by our men-of-war.

If they sanction the examination for the mere
purpose of ascertaining that a vessel bearing the
American flag is a bona fide American vessel,
they sanction a rigid examination of the vessel
herself. The papers may be simulated; how is
that to be proved? By examining the crew; by
ascertaining that the cargo of the vessel corre-
sponds to the manifest ; by tracing her route in her
log-book; in short by subjecting her to a complete
search. If that be not done, papers will be at
''once produced to 'correspond to the flag, and
merely , to prove that they do correspond
will be Of no use whatever. The Americans are
well aware of the insults and injuries they would
subject themselves to by admitting our claim to
visit their ships; and the Morning Chronicle
does them a grievous injustice when it represents
their resistance to that claim as grounded on an
eagerness " for the gains of unrighteousness."
It may be true that their resistance to our de-
mands may screen every pirate on the seas
who chooses to hoist an American flag, and
if so it will be the consequence of our own for-
mer proceedings, which have made it impossible
for the Americans to admit our claims. By
committing injustice on our own people we have
bred up officys in arbitrary habits, which have
made them arbitrary to other nations, and
their consequences, now debar England from
following out her humane wishes to suppress the
Slave-trade for ever.

Another portion of hie account rendered by
the Deputation from the Short Time Committee
has been published. In this Mr. GLADSTONE iS
"described as saying, on_October 29th,
It was impossible to direct the attention of Govern-
ment to subjects of graver importance than those which
the Deputation bad brought before Lord Wharneliffe

and himself. " you may," said he, " rest assured that I
will devote my best attention to them, in conjunction
with the Cabinet, and with an earnest desire to discover
and adopt those measures which may be best calculated
to put a stop to the evils you have described." .

Two long and dreary months have'passed since
that interview, and nothing whatever has the
fair speaking Mr. GLADSTONE done to remedy
the, evils described by the Deputation, than
which " the Government could not have its at-
tention directed to a subject of graver import-
ance." Mr. GLADSTONE pronounces a severe con-
demnation on himself; he promised two months
ago, in conjunction with the Cabinet, modest
youth ! to devote his best attention to the evils
which the Deputation brought before him, but
which neither he nor the Cabinet has done any-
thing whatever, during these two months, to
lessep or relieve.

The reports of this Deputation appear first of
all in a Tory paper, they are drawn up altoge-
ther in a Tory spirit, and are obviously written,
published, and commented on by the Tories,
with a view to exalt the present Ministers, and
decry the Anti-Corn-law party. The Manchester
Guardian entertains a similar opinion :
Looking at the general spirit of the report (says that
Journal) made by these Yorkshire deputies, their praise
of Sir Robert's heart, their flattery of his " do-nothing"
policy, and their tame echo of the measures urged by
Oastler and Stephens, we cannot help suspecting that
the pompous display of the important conference, in the
Tory journals, has been done mainly for the purpose of
persuading the aristocracy, that, after all the agitalion
of the working classes, they have no objections to starve
a little longer, if Sir Robert Peel and his colleagues
should determine that their doing so will be for the bene-
fit of the nation.

But we showed yesterday, and have now
shown, that the length of time which has
elapsed since these representations were made
to the Ministers, together with their admission
of the importance of the subject, and the great-
ness of the evils, convicts them of the grossest
negligence or the grossest duplicity. If they
meant to assist the Short Time Committee, why
have they not done it ? if they did not, why use
such delusive phrases? They may choose be-
tween negligence or duplicity, but of one or
other they must stand convicted. Poison, like
bread, when cast on the waters, is found after
many days; and that which the Tories cast out
now returns to their own hands. The " engineer
is hoist with his own petard," and we are delighted
to see him sprawling in the air. Lord Aut.
LEY'S protegees have blown up Lord ASHLEY'S
patrons.

To institute a fair comparison between the
Revenue of 1840 and 1841, we must remember
that the Budget was brought forward, in 1840,
on the 15th of May; consequently, during up-
wards of four months in that year, the increased
rate of taxation then proposed was not paid.
Mr. BARING, as our readers will recollect, then
laid an additional per centage on the Customs
and Excise duties of 5 per cent. Now, taking
the Customs' duties at 20,000,000/. (they are up-
wards of 19,800,0001.), 5 per cent. is exactly one
million sterling ; but as this 5 per cent.
was not levied on the four first months
of the year, the Customs revenue of the year
1841, ought to have exceeded that of 1840 by one
third of 1,000,0001., or 330,0001. The actual in-
crease, forced up as we have explained, is only
145,245/., whence it follows that the Customs re-
venue, instead of having increased as the Times
falsely represents it, is worse than the revenue of
1840 by 185,7551.

Of course, the same reasoning applies to the
Excise duties. The increase was first levied on
May 15, 1840. Taking them at 12,500,0001.,
the increase for the year at 5 per cent. is
625,0001., and for the four months, or one-third,
is 208,3001. The Excise duties in 1841 ought to
have been more than the !Excise duties in 1810
by that sum, whereas, they were only greater
by 6,3561., whence it follows that .the Excise
duties fell off in the year, even according to the
returns, offoreed and almost extorted pay-
ments of '201,914/.

Let us further add, that had the population
increased in 1841, in the proportion of one-
tenth and four-tenths per cent., and the re-
venue increased in proportion to the popu-
lation, the increase of 1841 over that of 1840,
independently of the above considerations,
should have been somewhere about 650,0001.,
whereas it is put down only at 506,0951., which
is another proof that the revenue is rapidly de-
clining, while the people are suffering.
It is impossible to take these facts into our se-
rious consideration without being alarmed for
the state of the country, particularly as we learn
from the Morning Post that Ministers will re-
gard it as their first duty to bring the revenue
up to the expenditure, or increase the taxation;
while the same journal honestly confesses that the
monopolists who have seized the Government,
do not know how to deal with the national dis-
tress. It talks,indeed, of putting down manu-
factures, but it admits that the Tamworth quack,
after having 'pocketed his fee for five months,
knows nothing about curing the national dis-
orders. rady f
e ros .r
theli He only
knows how to make the people
noxious services of himself and his
fellow-monopolists. _ •

An advertisement appears in The Sun this day
on the subject of the Corn-laws, to which we
call the attention of our readers. The time is
now come to make a great struggle for the abo-
lition of this oppressive tax, and we confidently
trust that the Association will find their unwea-
ried exertions duly appreciated by the public.

The Paris Journals of Tuesday have all reached
us, but a letter which we elsewhere insert from
our Paris Correspondent, contains a summary of
what is most important in theirpolitical columns.
The following are extracts from them :

The National states that the Royal Ordonnance for
the reduction of the army has been carried partially into
effect, and that on the Ist inst. each battalion in the
army was reduced by one company, the officers, &c.,
being distributed among the other companies. •
The Sentinelle of Toulon has an account of a conflict
which took place in that town a few days ago between
some French soldiers and Spanish refugees, waiting their
departure for Africa, in which several on both sides were
wounded, the Spaniards suffering most.
The young Spanish Princes, sons of Don Carlos, and
Prince Luitpold, of Bavaria, have arrived at Naples, from
'Romeo, 11%be two Coinser are lodged in the Royal Palace,
the latter'hag taken up his residence at an hotel.
The National states that the man Bauer, who was
arrested a few days since, as we mentioned, had nothing
to do with Qucnisset and his accomplices. He was
taken into custody, it says, in consequence of information
sent from Germany, and the only papers seized at his re-
sidence were several copies of a German Liberal Journal.
Rubini has returned from Madrid to Bordeaux. On
passing through Bayonne the "King of Tenors" gave a
concert, and with his usual generosity handed over the
proceeds, more than 3,000 fr. to the Bureau de Bien-
faisanee.