epinitittd of tijc VITO.

REFUSAL TO PAY TAXES.

Tmsas—We can excuse the associations or meetings to urge on the Government the necessity of redeeming its pledge. We can forgive some intemperance of language in men who are suffering from fiscal exactions, and we can smile at stile conceit of those vain and ignorant spouters who, " when two or three are gathered together" for the re- dress of grievances, are always sure to be "in the midst of them," to eXasperate public dissatisfaction, to diSplay their rhetoric at the expense of their judgment, or to cover their selfishness with the cloak of pa- triotism. But we have no toleration for deliberate breaches of the law, and cannot grant to any individual, or any set of individuals, the power of repealing taxes at their pleasure. Neither the Association of Marylebone nor the .Associatien of Westminster, nor all the anti- tax associations in the Metropolis put together, with tattle patriotic pawnbrokers at their head, have the. right of erecting themselves into the British Parliament, and dictating what taxes they shall pay, and from what taxes they shall be exempted. This may appear a useless truism, but it is a truism which seems to be denied by the mischievous and arrogant persons who are endeavouring to obtain a " bad eminence," by putting themselves at the head of the present movement. If they claim the privilege of resisting one tax imposed by the authority of .Parliament, they destroy the principle of submission to the law, ou which every other impost is levied. If they can repeal the house-duty by inerely refusing to pity it, what is to hinder any other person. or class of persons, from repealing, by a similar process, all the other direct taxes of the State ? But it is superfluous to argue further against the admis;ion of a principle which would conduct directly to the justification of every breach of the lam, and lead us, through dis- obedience to Government on a question of finance, to all the horrors of civil anarchy.

MORNING CHRONICLE—At present we understand the arrears of As- sessed Taxes are remarkably low thoughout the country in general ; and even in the Metropolis, where so large a proportion of them are payable, the •arrear is not greater by seven thousand pounds now than it ever was at this period of the year. The number of individuals who are holding out, must therefore be_ very inconsiderable. But were Govern. ment to allow themselves to be intimidated, and there were a fair pros- pect that something might be gained by delay, the number of defaulters would no doubt rapidly increase. There is, therefore, a heavy respon- sibility on the Government at this time. If, through any relaxation of vigour, they were to allow a few individuals to beard them, and thereby to afford a demonstration that the law was a dead letter, we should hold them guilty of gginost serious dereliction of duty. But we have no doubt they are sufficiently impressed with the necessity of discharging their duty with firmness and resolution. At piesent, that duty is easy ; for hitherto no respectable tradesman has been seduced by the invita- tions of :any of the Associations to allow his goods to be taken in exe- cution. The first campaign in Marylebone has not, to be sure, been so successful as it might have been ; but,.thank God, the law of England is not to be in abeyance' because an. officer hai over.deligate nerves. Matters will be better managed another time. Most nersons. possessed

of property will hesitate before they countenance an attempt to set at defiance the only security for property.

STANDARD—The plain truth of this story is, that the Government has suffered a defeat in the attempt to enforce the law,—a defeat by a paltry mob it may be, but, on that very account, a more disgraceful defeat, and one more dangerous to public order. Were not the Administra- tion the most unpopular that ever ruled, with the classes that constitute the real strength of the country, such a defeat from such an enemy never could have befallen it. Who ever heard of any thing like this under any former Administration, even in the parts of England ordi- narily the least amenable to the laws ? The principle, and the appli_ cation of it, are altogether novelties in our social system. As the Morn. ing Chronicle has well remarked, "hitherto an habitual obedience to'the law has been the characteristic of Englishmen ; " and how much of truth, and what a noble testimony.to the excellence of the institutions under which the mind of England had been formed, is there comprised in this short admission. The people were habitually obedient to the laws ; but men who are free, never will be permanently or habitually obedient to bad laws, or under a bad system of government. The people were ha- bitually obedient to the laws, until the Whigs, by deceiving and de- bauching them, next, by insult, taught them to become disobedient. What degree of punishment, then, is not due to those who have wrought such an awful depravation of the public mind ! But our present more fitting consideration is not of the punishment of the men who have wrought so much evil—though Heaven forbid that the hour of. their punishment should not arrive !—but with the means best adapted to avert its progress We confess that we can see no hope of ever bringing back the people to their former habits of obedience , under an Administration like the present. It is perfectly impossible that Lord Grey's Government can take any course, in the present difficulty, which must not make things worse. If the Government yield, as their own organs confess, " all lawful authority is at end." If they attempt to enforce the law, as these same organs exhort them to do, they will set every natural instinct, even every generous feeling of the unthinking part of the people, in array against the very foundations of lawful authority. There is nothing so pure or so good which may not be made, for a time, odious to the greater part of mankind, by the agents and instruments of its exercise. What is purer or more glorious than justice ? Yet what is more revolting and unpopular than criminal justice, pun- ishing guilt, no matter how atrocious that guilt may be, upon the

motion, at the arbitrament, and by the hands of those persons who have themselves prompted the guilt which is to be punished? When we see the suggestor of a crime in the character of prosecutor, judge, or exe- cutioner of the wretch whom he has seduced into guilt, are we not pre- pared to loathe even justice itself from disgust at its ministers? We do not hesitate to say, that a kindred feeling of hatred to all eivilgovern- meat must be necessarily excited by any attempt on the part of Lord Grey's Administration to vindicate the authority of the law ; and how awful in its consequences must be the kindling of such-a feeling ! We have under our eyes at this moment, and in the very case before us, evi- dence that a mightyand.a freepenple,.like. the people of England, are in a far greater degree gdverned by habits and feelings, than by the decrees of

courts of justice, arid the parchment provision of legislative acts. The laws have been, hitherto, strong ; not from ,Dx, inherent essential force

of law or legislature, but because obedience to the law, as the Morning Chronicle has told us, was " habitual." Neither is there any inherent or essential strength in the Monarchy ; but the Monarchy has, with a mo- mentary:interruption, subsisted for ten centuries, because respect for the monarchical form of governMent has been habitual. We have seen how readily the habit of obedience to the laws ialiroken. Let the mind of the people be Made indifferent or hostile to the monarchical form of government, and respect for that form will be dissiPated, even more easily than habitual obedience to the laws has been destroyed. We re-

peat it, the Grey Cabinet, or the Monarchy, must fall; for in no' way can Lord Grey's Administration act, in which its conduct must not make the Government itself an object either of aversion or of contempt.

WHIG MINISTERS AND THE LAW OF LIBEL. STANDARD—We felt, and we still feel, that it is scarcely possible for any man to be written down •(to. borrow Bentley's phrase) except by himself, or to suffer permanently from libel, except his own conduct give warrant for the charges alleged against him. Thus feeling, we have ever contended for the utmost latitude of criticism upon the con- duct of all who offer themselves to public notice ; confident that the small temporary inconvenience which any innocent man could suffer from such permitted latitude of criticism, was immeasurably over- balanced by the gain to the public in the exposure of cheats and hypo- critical pretenders. This feeling and this conviction were, we believe, common to all the thinking men in the country. By those who took Whigs upon their profession, it was anticipated that one of the first measures of Whig government would be to strike off the remaining shackles of the press ; and to bring the laW back to that liberal and common-sense principle, that none should be punished for writing, the direct and designed effect of which was not to excite to crimes, or which did not inflict actual practical injury upon some unoffending per- son, who had not, by his own indiScreet conduct, chaP caged the danger of ;hat injury. This is what was generally expected from a Whig Ad- ministration. We, however, knew Whigs better. We had recently had experience of the conduct pursued in this respect by a Whiggizing- Tory Administration. We knew that the Whigs only clamoured against the weapon of libel prosecutions, while it was wielded by the hands of their opponents; and that, instead of destroying when it came into their own possession, they would wield it more mercilessly than ever it had been employed by their abused predecessors. The event has proved

that we were right. The Whigs have been three years in power ; and though within that time they have found opportunity to change the constitution of the country, and begin the subversion of all. our great institutions, they have not touched the libel laws, in. order to reform them—no, not with the tips of their fingers.

THE LIBELS ON LORD DURHAM.

COURIER—A controversy is 'going on in the Public Press as to the propriety 'of the conduct of Lord Durham in instituting the prosecution of a Durban:1 Paper for libelling him. The Morning Chronicle, with other journals, defend his Lordship ; the Standard and the Morning Post attack him. We usually go with the former in our sentiments ; -nevertheless' we cannot now say with them, in this instance, that Lord Durham is right. The more worthless the calumnia- tors, the more gross the calumny, and the more pure Lord Dur- ham's character, the less reason there is for • his appealing to the law. The calumnies are, in fact, an appeal to the public as to his Lordship's character ; and we think it is rather slight- ing to the public to appeal from it to another tribunal. All the press of the country is open to Lord Durham to defend himself; and we think, not out of deference to the calumniators, but to the per- sons addressed; he should have explained any thing doubtful and denied any thing untrue. He should have satisfied his ultimate judges —for the public will yet be his judges—through the medium of the press, at least before be appealed to the law. Let us not be supposed to approve the calumny or to justify the libel ; but it is only the public which can put an end to libels. We do not rest the question on the liberty of the press—though at present that is of -almost-int-mite iffifoorfance and itis only by its own fermentation that it can throw off its own scum and work itself clear and strong. We do not rest the question on any thing formerly said by Lord Durham against prosecutions for libel; we merely say that his Lordship should appeal to. the same tribunal as his calumniators. • He can only be injured by the public believing his detractors ; and, therefore, it is the public belief alone that Lord Durham should seek to set right. We take it for granted, that his Lordship wishes only for fair and honest fame, and that no vindictive feeling would induce him to inflict any thing beyond general contempt on the poor and scurrilous libelled.

OPERATION OF THE CRIMINAL LAWS.

TRUE SUN—At the Old Bailey Sessions on Saturday, an indictment was preferred against a man for " breaking and entering a dwelling- 'house," &c. Mr. Justice Parke, it is related, in summing up• the evi- dence, ." observed that the offence with which the prisoner stood charged was a capital felony as the law now stood, and would continue to be so until January next. It was strange that if the Legislature thought such an alteration in the criminal law necessary that they had not directed it should take effect immediately. However, he had nothing to do but to administer the law as he found it." In this case, the prisoner was ac- quitted, on account of the inconclusiveness of the evidence. Had he been found guilty of the offence he was charged with, he would have suffered for it a punishment which, three months hence, the law itself will not allow. This punishment the law-makers have already condemned ; they have pronounced it to be too severe for the offence—and yet it is to be inflicted until next January. It is to be too severe, three months hence : until then, it is quite just and proper, and Judges are to suit their consciences to circumstances, and " administer the law as they find it." The course of justice is to commence with the new year, and not break in upon the legal arrange- ments of the present one. It is not decorous to introduce an improve- ment in October—or it is not worth while!

'` SPANISH POLITICS. `" COURIER—Every day's quiet, and every adhesion of a conspicuous man to the Queen Regent, is a proof of the wisdom of the Moderate policy which she has adopted, and which we have endeavoured to advo- cate. That the hostility of the Carlists should be so violently directed against the Constitutionalists, will entitle them to the Regent's favour; and the actual employment of " El Pastor" shows that she and her agents do not regard them with enmity. Perhaps she dare not yet openly recall them ; for the most absolute sovereign must attend to the prejudices of hii subjects, and their unostentatious and quiet return, in- dividually, may gradually pave the way for their obtaining some ascen- dancy in her councils. At least, we trust, that they will not he persecuted and proicribed, though it may not yet be prudent openly to encourage them. It is very true that M. Zea Bermudez is not to be trusted further than his own interest and views authorize. But what statesman is ? If, however, he have really and effectually broken with Don Carlos and his party, he will need the assistance of the Constitutionalists to maintain his power. That is in their power ; and so far he may be relied on and trusted, and no further. If he have broken with that party, his conduct is the happiest augury we have yet received of the Queen's success. No man knows Spain better than M. Zea Bermudez; and he would not, we believe; have sacrificed Carlos and lost the opportunity of governing Spain on Absolute principles under him, had he not been of .opinion that the success of Carlos was hopeless. His secession from the rigid Absolutists is, therefore, an indication of the gradual progress and ultimate triumph of Moderate and Constitutional principles.