The Sun.
London, England, 1839-01-25 00:00:00

both dismantled and destrorcd 1 We beg leave, in
conclusion, to assure the deeply disappointed and 'nor-
ti Red Globe, that we have, as far as possible, " ascer-
tained the truth of the communication," and did not
mention it without being well acquainted with the party
making it, and having a well-grounded moral convic-
tion that time will demonstrate the accuracy of our

statement.

The Corn-law agitation goes on bravely, and both
sides work it well. Too wide, too long, and too deep,
it cannot extend, for it involves the character of the
Legislature and the peace and prosperity of the coun-
try. It will have been seen by the exclusive report of
the Manchester Meeting which appeared in our paper
of yesterday, that Lords BROUGHAM and DURHAM
are concerned in it as well as Mr. POULETT THOMSON,
a Cabinet Minister. By our extract from the Chro-
nicle of this day it will be seen also that Lord
JoHN RUSSELL mingles in the fray and avows
that some alteration of the laws would be advantageous,
though he is for a " moderate fixed duty." On this
point we are happy to see that the Morning Chro-
nicle, catching at length a gleam from the bright and
bold spirit %which has been evoked in the north, differs
in toto from his Lordship, and declares " that an end
must be put, once for all, to a system which
is fast undermining the foreign commerce of the coun-
try. We quite agree with our Contemporary,
particularly in his concluding observations, " that the
time for trifling is gone by, for the country will now
be satisfied with nothing less than justice." We
are sure it will not, and Ministers and the land-
owners may give up at once all idea of maintaining
ever so moderate a fixed duty on corn. Who
ever heard of men tolerating half a felony ? And
since by common consent the Corn-laws are now
treated as question of right or wrong, of rob-
bery or no robbery, there can be no haltind
in any middle course. We strongly recommen_
the observations of the friendly Chronicle to the Mi
nisters and to the public.
The meetings are now pouring in on us so fast, that
it is impossible for us to comment on the different
speeches, or point out the numerous passages which
are particularly worthy of attention. We are little re-
quired to do so, for generally, the proceedings are so
interesting, that they need no recommendation, and are
better read in the full report than by extracts. We
cannot omit, however, to say, that the letter from
Sir S. STIRLING, quoted be Mr. R. H. GREG, and
which we insert to-day, will reward the trouble of
perusal. We do not repine at the proofs it affords of
the prosperity of other countries ; we are glad to see
their prosperity ; we know that from a poor people
nothing is to be obtained, and that from an opulent
nation we can at least get its superfluities ; but we wish,
as we cannot possibly exclude other countries from a
knowledge of our arts, that we should be permitted also,
by the abolition of the Corn-laws, to share their advan-
tages. We are pre-eminently a commercial nation, and
wilfully to exclude ourselves from the advantages .of
other countries, is a great wickedness, precisely similar in
character to that of an individual wilfully chopping off
his hand, or rendering his legs useless. Beseeching
our readers to study the earnest and eloquent speeches
of the Manchester gentlemen, we must connect one
striking fact mentioned by Mr. GREG, with the deep
distress of one class of our labourers.
For several years past the hand-loom weavers have
made many loud and just complaints, and, in fact,
numbers of them have perished from sheer misery.
Now Mr. GREG stated that the export of our manu-
factured goods to Russia was gone. He particu-
larized velveteens, of which, in 1834, he said, " w e
shipped 345,000 yards ; in 1835, 177,000 yards ; in
1832, 23,000 yards ; in 1837, 8,000 yards."
But while this diminution has been taking place
in the export of velveteens, the export of cot-
ton yarn has gone on increasing. The reason of
this difference is that a much larger portion of the la-
bour of spinning than of weaving is performed by ma-
chinery. The article on which most labour is ex-
pended has been gradually made in Russia, because
weaving could be performed cheaper there than in
England. Thus we can trace to the Corn-laws en- '
hancing the price of the labour of weaving, and at
the same time prohibiting us from importing coin from
Russia, the wietchedness and decay of our hand-loom
weavers, as certainly as we can trace the motion of one ball
to the blow it has received from another. Another fact,
made palpable from the statement is, that the whole of
our weaving would have been carried off but for the
invention of the power-loom, which, mighty as it is,
and beautiful as are its works, has not been able
wholly to resist the ruinous effects of the landlords'
suicidal plunder.
Ever since the prosperity of England became con-
spicuous, ever since civilization began to make a rapid
progress, the towns have absorbed the surplus of the
agricultural population. There the serf found pro-
tection, and there he attained opulence. There
the farmers' sons, whom the land could not support,
have followed professions and become wealthy citi-
zens. The Corn-laws, however, prohibit, pro tanto,
the growth and increase of a town population, and
they stop up, therefore, the drains which carry off
from the land the surplus people. The Corn-laws
check emigration into towns, and are the cause
of the distress suffered by the agricultural labourers.
They obviously attempt to arrest a particular course of
society, which for centuries has been undeviating, and
thus they inflict on all classes incalculable evils.
We must, in conclusion, remind the Herald, that
it would be more decent to refute our observa-
tions on the Corn-laws than merely to abuse
them. It feels their force, we presume, by saying
nothing against them but that they are idle and igno-
rant. We are aware, however, from seeing that our
remarks, those, for example, on the silk trade, find an
echo in the Common Council, and at Derby, at a meeting
on Monday, that they are effective. Our Contemporary
who seems angry that he is not listened to, would
have more weight with the public if he were not,
whether ignorantly or designedly we say not, to
assign to the cotton manufacturers the whole value
of their produce, omitting to deduct from the
profit the small sum of several millions, which
they pay in wages, and if he were not so blinded by
a stupid zeal, as to say that there is a contradiction
between 'Mr. J. B. SMITH'S assertion that the
farmers will not use improved machinery, because
the Corn-laws protect their monopoly, and Mr.
CLAY'S, that those laws are clogs on the farmers
enterprize. Verily our Contemporary's brain must
lave been dreadfully heated when he discovered, in the
lifferent modes adopted by these gentlemen of illustrat-
ng the same effect of the Coro-laws, a contradiction.

We see from the Irish Papers, that a quarrel has
taken place between Mr. O'CONNELL and the Übe-
ral portion of the Press in Dublin. At a dinner
given to the Honourable Member, he took occasion to
make scme severe strictures either on the Editors or
the Reporters of the Liberal Papers, who have hitherto
been his best friends, in the course of which the Re-
porters left the room, and consequently only a miserable
outline of the speech is given. Mr.O'CONNELL is full
of indignation that the Reporters should not sit quietly
and hear his abuse, and announces his determination
to conquer them, as he conquered the London Press.
We know not which Of the two parties was originally
in the wrong, but the course which Mr. O'CONNELL
adopted at the dinner was anything but gene-
rous or manly ; he was invited ac a guest ;
all around him, of course, were friends ; they would
hear nothing against him; and he seizes this opportu-
nity to pour out abuse against a few individuals who
could not reply without disturbing the meeting. One
of them, it appears, made the attempt, but he was im-
mediately shouted down by Mr. 0 CONNELL'S friends.
This is certainly a strange way of creating indepen-
dence and self-respect among a people whom he has
so often described as enslaved and trampled on by
Saxon intruders, and whom he professes himself
anxious to place on the same footing with Englishmen.
In England at all public meetings fair play is seldom
lost sight of, even in the most violent party debates,
and the public are ever inclined to take the part of the
weaker side ; but it appears a different rule prevails, in
Ireland. On this occasion, too, the doctrine
was advanced that Mr. O'CONNELL had created