The Sun.
London, England, 1830-10-30 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

The National, a French Liberal journal, contains
in its Tuesday's publication a letter from Frankfort,
in which Prince Metternich is accused of stimulat
ing, by means ►-f his secret police, the peasantry of
that part of Germany to tumults and revolt, in order
to afford a pretext for sending Austrian troops to
repress them, and at the same time to crush the
growing spirit of liberty along with the demand for
popular reforms. The Austrian Commissioner to
the Diet is said to have insisted on the necessity or
urgency of establishing such a concert among the
• different Powers composing the Germanic Confede-
ration, that a disturbance in one state might instantly
be quelled by the joint forces of the whole. This
desirable object might be attained by a letter from
each Ambassador to his Court, exposing the dangers
of the present crisis, and asking instructions to act
according to the emergency of each particular case.
His Excellency then proposed the formation of an
army composed of the troops of the Elector of
Hesse, and the Grand Duke of Baden, with greater
contingents from the Kings of Bavaria and Wur-
t imberg. After the formation of this corps, any
state threatened with tumults or insurrections might
apply to the Diet for its assistance in, restoring au-
thority or maintaining order. Such a confidence had
the Emperor of Austria in the wisdom and mode-
ration with which such a force would be directed,
that according to the representation of the Ambas.
*odor, his Imperial Majesty would have no scruple
to ask its assistance to suppress disturbances in his
own hereditary dominions—in Bohemia or the
Tyrol. The Members of the Diet are said not to
have relished this project, which they foresaw would
be employed for the aggrandizement of Austria, ra-
ther than for the security of Germany. It was par-
ticularly objectionable to the King of Bavaiia,
whose consent was the most necessary, ar►d there-
fore it was abandoned. Having been foiled in this
point, Prince Metternich is said to have proposed
to the Diet to annul by its decision all the conces-
sions wrung from the King of Saxony, the Elector
of Hesse Cassel, and the Duke of Brunswick, by
the valour and perseverance of their subjects. In
this project the Prince likewise failed, as the King
and Grand Duke in question did not wish to be re.
leased from their engagements to their people by a
foreign invasion, and probably thought the time
gone by for changing political opinions by Austrian
bayonets 1-75nrer,

The list of buntings in the county of Kent, whlch
. we have copied from the Kent Herald, and the strik-
ing and affecting observations on the condition of
the peasantry its that important county, which we
• have inserted from the same source, are calculated
to fill the mind of every man with equal affliction
and alarm. In one week Messrs. Knight, Aldridge,
Ash, Castle, Lord Darnley, Mr. Dawson, the Stew-
ard of Lord Sondes, have had corn stacks, barns,
farm buildings, live stock, in one or two instances
dwelling-houses, totally consumed by fire, the work
of nightly incendiaries. During the same short
period very many thrashing-machines have been (le.
• stroyed, threatening letters conveyed to many indi.
viduals, and the whole of East Kent thrown into It
state of indescribable anxiety and terror. This will
be called by every body an unnatural and most
frightful aspect of affairs, in an agricultural commu.
nity like that of the county referred to. Viighael
•. indeed it is, but not now .unnatural, inasmuch as
crime is the inevitable coesequence of desperation
---of that horrible feeling which has been produced
• amongst a large proportion of the lebourers of Eng-
, land, by a long course of improvidence amid abuse of
• power in those at whose merry it has been the
policy or necessity of the British Government and
Parlietnent to place them. The tentleneies of the
national condition for the last hell century have
been, to make the rich man richer, and the
poor man miserably poorer, than at any nen-
authenticated period .of .our modern . history.. The
rich man of the present day can command a much
greater amount of the marketable goods of life
than his predecessor [of fifty years back ; and rich
men, besides, have become more numerous than
formerly. The humble labourer, on the other hand,
has experienced a fall of wages, and a progressive
loss of comforts, without example in the recants
of English privation. His weekly wages will not
at this moment buy him much more than half the
quantity of corn which, in the cottage of his grand-
father, was the consumption of the week. %Vali
the positive increase of wealth and poverty, not only
has been widened the distance between the two
extremes of society, but the sympathy between all
who possess something and all who possess no pro-
perty but their labour, has sensibly and mournfully
diminished. Instead of being fairly fused and incor-
porated, the people of this United Kingdom may
now be said to lie in strata one above the other, and
the pressure of the superincumbent masses on the
lowest has become altogether intolerable. When
politicians, therefore, speak of a necessity for
putting down" the disturbers of the public peace,
and for augmenting in every way the coercive power
of laws and Magistrates, and still further manacling
the poor, they but propose a dreadful aggravation.
of the very principle which has done the mischief.—
The " disturbers" are already too far down. It is
their grievous prostration which torments them, ied
the weight they bear, which leaves them no room
to turn without agitating and convulsing all
above them. The English labourer ought to
be raised, not lowered. When the small far-
mer was destroyed, that his acres, with those
hitherto cultivated by a score of Ida bre-
thren, might all merge in one large occupancy,
taken by an agricultural capitalist at an enormous
rent, we do not deny that a larger amount of pro-
duce may have been raised from a the same land,
and on somewhat easier terms : moreover' that the
manufacturing and town population may }lave been
multiplied by these unholy means, and the healthful
inhabitants of green fields, and vigorous performing
at country sports, been a great deal more than demi-
mated. But what has been the moral effect of this
march of avarice under the name of political eco-
nomy ? Why, it has destroyed our people. It hits
annihilated the wholesome link between the man
who drives his own carriage and him who guides
his master's plough. It has demolished the old
English farm-house, where the iellittlt of fifty or
sixty acres gave bed and bouillond half-yearlywagess
to the labouring servants who drove his carts and
wrought his fences, and spread his manure, and
harrowed in the aced, and mowed the hay, and
helped to reap and stack, and threat the corn.
That race has been destroyed, among whom, in the
language of the Kent Herald, " the farmer was
nnee looked up to by his servants as their friend,
and almost their father. They formed, tie it were,
a part of his family, generally seated at the seine
board, and partaking, to a degree, of the comforts
of a common home. All this has passed away.
An insuperable barrier has been raised between the
parlour' and the kitchen." The servant hag pot
been recognized wry more demo as a labouring
on the estate. The master has heroine a gentlemen,
and the servant hiss 'intik into a brute; slave."" We
do not know that the degeneracy of our apizidturel
system could be painted in colours more powerful
than these, or more true. The farmer is now, or pits
tends to be, a gentleman. The farming Fervent is a
miserable outcast from the fa times. dwelling,—an
ill-paid, half-starved, heartless, end exasperated slave.
That the poor lews,--or rather their modern admis
nistration—beve done • meets of this, is probable.
But the cause abosetremioned is ef far teperiee
foree; and another cause may be added, whiat basl
origin in the seine perversion of science as the!
formerrs-we meats the preatice of reducing the poor
islrattrer to the tenantry of a itrArti, without the
comfort of a garden; thereby de r tr g 1
the condition of a wretched room-keeper, ',ll."l"St.
ito
Gileiesu cocepelled to buy. every egg, u'eeFeearbbi,lig
potatoe, from the Olopkeepc:r, at an 01.'2(70'
per eent. on the price for sshaili the purchaser could
shave raised theta, This -isolation of the peasant
htbourer is now proilocing its pestilential cense,
eprences. Instead of regarding those above
with hope, or gratitude, or affliction, lie scowls at

every man but a pauper like himself with ferocious
hatred, and fosters no appetite but for revenge. A
terrible proof of this revolted spirit has been ex-
hibited throughout the recent conflagrations in Kent.
It is asserted positively, that although numbers—in
some cases hundreds—of the class of labourers
were looking on at the destruction of stacks and
buildings, not a man of them would lend his hand
to extinguish the flames; but all stood by, with an
appearance of apathy, or of savage exultation and
triumph. He must be a short-sighted and shallow
mortal who can babble about the wickedness or
danger of such a state of mind among the agricul-
turel labourers, and not at the same time allow the
profligate cause of the evil—the heartlessness or
carelessness of their rich employers.—Times.

We call the attention of our readers to a valuable
commun'c ition in another column, fram a most re-
spectable gentleman in Kent, on the subject of the
outrages in that county. The possessors of pro-
, perty are in utter consternation. Our correspon-
dent justly remarks, that watching is in a great mea-
sure inoperative in the country, from the dispersion
of the property to be watched. We also refer our
readers to an article extracted from the Kent Herald,
on the same subject. No man who has looked with
any degree of attention at what has been going on
in England for many years, can be astonished at
this. Our astonishment is at the patience which
' the working classes have manifested. We are not,
however, of the number of those who believe that
the working classes'of England are in a worse con-
as far us physical enjoyment is concerned,
than the same classes in other countries, or even
than they were at any former period. They receive
better wages than the Scotch, and fur better wages
than the Irish. Different districts, however, differ
very much in this respect. In some districts the
' labourer is tomtit better off than in others. Still,
taking the labouring population of England as a
whole, we have no hesitation in saying that they
are better housed, better fed, and better clothed
than the working population of any part of the West
of Europe. The Russians may, perhaps, have food
and fuel in greater abundance. But man " lives
not by bread alone." Our correspondent says,
those who always opposed the education of the
people now plume themselves on their sagacity,
deeming, of course, the education of the people the
cause of their discontent. But there is a long tale
to tell on this subject, and they tell only a very
small part of it. The time is not very remote when
the people throughout the country were as ignorant
as any Aristocrat could possibly wish them to be;
but the Aristocracy of that day left them to the en-
joyment of a wild liberty, and did not hamper them
as they do now, with vexatious restraints of all kinds.
In those days the Puritans (who were the middle
classes) were not held it; greater abhorrence by the
gentry in general than by the lower orders. "In
the valley where I lived," says Richard Baxter,
in his Autobiography, " the reader read the Common
Prayer briefly, and the rest of the day till dark night
almost, except eating time, was spent in dancing
under a May-pole and a great tree from my father's
door, where all the town did meet together. And
although one of my father's own tenants was the
piper, be could not restrain him nor break the sport ;
so that we could not read the scriptures in our
family, without the great disturbance of the tabor
and pipe, and noise in the street I Many times my
mind was inclined to be among them, and sometimes
I broke loose from conscience, and joined with them,
and the more I did it the more I was inclined to do
it." So long as the English could be amused with
pipes and tabors, and dancing round a May-pole,
there was little danger of their plotting the over-
throw of the Constitutions in Chinch arid State. But
who made them serious? Answer that, Enemies of
Education! Let us hear the Kent llerald:-
4, The fact is that the labouring cl asses have been long
borne down, oppressed in every way by their superiors—
and by the system uplu Id by their superiors.
They have been gradually thrust down, and trampled on,
despised, driven to starvation, misery, and despair The
tendency of the whole social arrangement in England for
many years has been to fester and protect the great
properties at the expense of the poor and industrious The
pressure has worked through the middle orders, and de-
scended at last with its full weight upon the lowest.
"The labourer has been literally ground dawn to the very
dust. Every law, every tax, every consequent change in
manners, has been prejudicial to him. The consolidation
of estates, the destruction of small farms, the enclosure
of common lands, the heavy impositions on the neces-
siries of life, the temptations and ferocious inflictions
of the accursed Game Laws, the vexatious tyranny
exercised by the rural magistracy—the ever-memorable
I Unpaid,' the canting, Itypocritic interference with his
few remainine pleasures under the pretence of teach-
ing him religion and morality, form part of the list of
those ' unfavourable circumstances' (as, Mr. Owen
would say) which have made him what he is. The
bond which once attaehol the agricultural labourer to
his employer, has long, too, been severed. The farmer
was ones looked up to by his servants as their friend,
and almost their father. They formed as it were a part
of his family, generally seated at the same board and
partaking to a degree of the comforts of is common home.
All this has passed away. An insuperable barrier has
b,..en raised between the parlour' and the kitchen.'---
The servant has not been recognised any more than as a
labouring animal on the estate. The master has been a
gentleman, and the servant sunk into a brutal slave."

- We have already said, that we do not believe that
in as far as regards food, raiment, and lodging, the
labouring classes are worse off than they were.—
But the rest of the picture of our Kentish Contem-
porary is drawn after the life. Never was a country
so pestered with canting as England has been pes-
tered. In the times of the Puritans, the canters,
who would

hang a cat on Monday,
For catching of a meuse on Sunday,"
were a small minority. But hypocrisy has long been
taken under the protection of the Iligher Powers.
The Church of England Clergy are no longer the
learned men they used to be, but have dwindled
down to psalm-singers; and as they chiefly com-
pose the Unpaid Magistracy, they are incessant in
their endeavours to worry and harass the people.—
The discontent in a neighbourhood may always be
pretty accurately calculated from the number of
resident Magistrates. To do the higher Aristocracy
justice, the people do not complain so much of
them as of the busy meddling Parsons, and small fry
of Magistracy, who seek to distinguish themselves by
their zeal in giving effect to laws which, in ninety-
nine cases out of a hundred, are so foolish and
vexatious, as t o be only tolerable when allowed to sleep.
Thera are many countries in which the means of phy-
sical eejoyment are less abundant than England ;
but there is not imp Poetry in Europe—not one---
where the social ties have been so violently severed
as in England. The accursed distinctions which run
through Li.nglish society teach men to bete, envy,
and despise cad; other, and repress the characters of
lift. We have always shuddered, when in a great
roan's house at the West End of the town, to see a
dozen of big sullfrlooking fellows, between whom
MA their master avid raistress there could be no one
haling in common. In the feudal tips, the master
depand,ed for his security on his people, and it was
his interest to be kind to them. We are no friends
of feudalism, but th,rp was not such a moral waste
in it as there is this day in iingland. We ourselves
remember the time when in soti..e parts of this
island, a men in the employment of a gentleman
considered his tits:; E,tp secure as that of his master.
We confess we dislike cstretnely the disseverment
of Failing!' society. There is sets4Ahing excessively
glooiny ill the idea of living under the taupe roof
with human beings who care neither for your weal
nor your woe—to whom your elevation or your ruin
are alike objects of indifference. Our Kentish
Contemporary observes further—
That tl;re is little direct political feeling among the
perpetrators t.f the present excesses we are convinced,--
little even of personal vindictiveness, since the objects
of their attacks are almost promistNionsly taken. Some
unpopolar and arbitrary individuals have indeed been
; but others of mild and Merit character have
trot escaped. It scents, is fact, a war of poverty againgt
'property, of destitution against possession.. The poor feel
that they are-not permitted tip tiljoy, and they are deter..
"lined that the rich shall not. This is the natural feeling
tit ii"9tant, coarss-raindtsi, and ill-treated moo and it

seems to have spread wide, and taken deep root. If in,
there is no remedy in forcible or in conciliatory treatment,
without a change of the whole system. Absolute despera-
tion can neither be cajoled nor bullied."
The poor feel that they are not permitted to enjoy,
and they are determined that the rich shall not !
And punishment ! Here is the rub ; we have so
pestere►l these poor people with Penal Laws, for all
sorts of acts, that they have become quite callous.
It is the moral part of punishment which must al-
ways be the most efficacious. Among the simple
people of the flourishing districts on the borders—
districts cultivated like a garden—the sight of a
constable would produce more effect than years of
imprisonment and tread-mill in the justice-ridden
districts of the south. We have long raised our
voice against the system which has so long been
patronised by the English Aristocracy. That sys-
tem has been gaining ground ever since the Aristo-
cracy obtained the mastery in 1688. It was re-
marked by Carte, early as 1740, that the Aristo-
cracy had signalised their ascendancy at 1688, by a
regular series of encroachments on the inferior orders
which he specifies. The author of an Historical
Essay od the Englieh Constitution, published in
1771 observes that—

" From that time many of our laws, and especially
those respecting property, trade, and taxation, have be-
come partial laws; and have been made to operate in a
manner for the sole advantage of the rich in land. All
laws will be partial that are made by only one part of the
people ; or, in other words, by one class of the people.—
From this selfish principle proceeds the partial, arbitrary,
and tyrannical spit it of our Game Laws; so that now no
man can either fish or shoot without having a qualifica-
tion in land. Indeed all this tribe of laws are so pitifully
partial, mean, poor, and wretched, that they would dis-
grace the petty tyrants of Barbary.
" They have engrossed within a line of their own draw-
ing all the hares, wild-fowl, and fish, that are natives of
this kingdom ; and these laws have not only subvertedthe
natural right of mankind, but established their own with
a bitterness little less than cruelty; for they are guarded
and defended with the same selfish spirit that the most
niggardly miser would guard his treasure. So that a poor
man cannot entert.iin his longing wife with a gudgeon of
his own catching, without being guilty of felony ; or kill a
partridge without fine and imprisonment. Nay, more than
this, no man dare touch one of these prohibited bodies,
even when they are dead, under a penalty of five pounds,
without being first franked with the band of these qualified
engrosser.. From the same selfish principle procei d all
our taxes upon the necessaries of life, which so much dis-
tress the poor These are the
first law-makers that ever appeared in the known world,
that were so notoriously partial to their own interest as to
give five shillings a quarter, or one-eighth dint value, out
of 'the public money, for:the exportation of bread corn out
of their own country, the place of its growth; which has
increased their estates to double their former value, and
raised the price of all provisions that are the produce of
the land, to such an extravagant degree, that the poor-rate
is now become almost equal to the land-tax
_ _

Sir Robert Walpole was the great father of corruption;
he has contaminated the whole nation with a venal spirit,
and made the generality of our boroughs rotten to the very
heart. The guilty Members now give continuance to the
act, and boldly open their hands to the bribes, and think
themselves no longer infamous. Hence perjury, bribery,
and corruption, are ditrus,d through the whole body of the
nation, by the same channel that contains the elective
power of the people."

- Causes of demoralization have been long in ope•
ration, and, as is natural, the effects become more
and more violent. Another extract from the Kent
Het aid shows the working of the system in a strik-
ing point of view. At Queenborough the rights
of humanity were outraged in a most scandalous
manner. What has happened ? The people have
at length overpoWered the Authorities.—There has
been a sort of Brunswick business there. Well and
truly sung the philosopher Goldsmith, who, having
.seen many countries, was fully aware of the social
disease of this

" The self-dependant lordlings stand alone;
All claims that hind, and aweeten life, unknown ;
------- As nature's ties decay,
As duty, love, and honour, fail to sway
Fictitious bonds—the bonds of wealth and law—.
Still gather strength, and force unwilling awe.
a N- a • a r
Each wanton Juike new penal Statutes draw,
Lao's grind the poor, and rich men rule the law."

The middle classes of this country must bestir
themselves. Instead of twaddling about the evils
of education, let them go to the root of the evil.
If they do not, there will soon be no security for
property. The only security is, when all are irate•
rested in the observance of the law.—liforn. Chron

The occurrences which continue to take place in
parts of Kent, are of a nature to excite much un-
easiness in the public mind ; and if it turns out, as
we too much fear to be the case, that the lenity
which has been shown to the convicted perpetrators
of the outrages in question has been but thrown

away upon them and their associates, there remains
but one alternative—viz., that the law should stretch
out its sterner arm, rind put down by punishment
that which mercy has failed to do. But when we
call upon the laws to vindicate themselves, and to
rescue the community from (burger, and themselves
from an imputation of being too weak to protect the
persons and property of the King's subjects from
lawless proceedings, such as those which we allude
to, we are not the less anxious that the origin and
the motives of such an anomalous state of things
should be diligently, temperately, and thoroughly in.
vestigated, and the wrongs, if there be airy, which
give rise to them, redressed. Lord Bacon has laid
down the maxim that the surest way to prevent
seditions is " to take away the matter of them. ;"
and in this case, however lawless and unjustifiable
these outrages are, they must, we suspect, have
a cause, which cannot too soon and too ef-
fectually be sought out, and, if possible, re-
medied. We do not believe, us writers n some
of the public Journals would have us do, that
the lawless acts which at present disgrace so
large a portion of the peasantry of Kent are
mainly attributable to their connection with smug.
filers, and that the connivance of the Preventive
Service has involved a large proportion of the popu-
lation in one description of lawless nets, which
readily leads the way to another. This may be true
to a certain extent, but not to the extent contended
for; and, if so, only proves bow little free trade has
done to protect the revenue, and to put an end, as
was promised, to contraband practices. But the
root of the evil, we apprehend, is to be found in the
pauperised state of the agricultural labourer=, not
only in Kent, but in many other of the southern
counties, arising from the inadequacy of their earn-
ings, in too many cases, to supply the necessaries,
much less the comforts, of life. Whether this
arises from the want of a remunerating price to the
farmer, from the want of a sufficient circulatiog me-
dium, from the Game Laws, from a misapplication
of the Poor Laws, or from all or any of these and
other causes combined, are inquiries which both
Governtnent, die Legislature, and the local autho-
rities throughout the country will do well speedily
and effectually to investigate. At any rate, two
things to us seem equally clear—that the lives and
properties of the King's subjects ought and must be
protected from the violence which has now un-
happily been so long going
on ; and that means
should be taken to prevent a recurrence of evils
which endanger the very existence of society.—
Morning Herald.

We are rejoiced to see that there is an Intention
oo the part of the Corporation of London to take
up, and it is to be hoped, reform, if not overturn,
the present wretched state of our bankrupt system.
Mr. Bousfield, an attorneys we believe, of consider-
4ble eminence, having given notice of a motion that
" the (out do petition both Houses of parliament,
praying that the whole of the present fourteen lists
of Commissioners of Baukrupt may bit abolished I
anti, in lieu thereof, un efficient and regular Court 11,
constituted, to sit daily io matters of bankruptcy."
It is the common fate of most things, now-a.days to
increase in worthlessness and inutility, in proportion
us their defects are pointed out ; whereas it is the
obvious policy of those who have an interest in
maintaining them to profit by the
censure which is
passed upon them, by reforming what is pointed out
to be amiss. Now these bankrupt lists, both us they
are constituted and eluded on, have been an evil of

so lon,' standing, and of such general and obvious
complaint, that the public at large have good reason
to resent the silent indignity with which their re-
peated remonstrances have been received. The
prevailing evil is the utter incompetency of
so many of the persons who are appointed
—generally brietless Barristers, wholly igno-
rant of trade, and often not much ac-
quainted with the laws which they are appointed to
administer; but who owe their appointments gene-
rally to mere favouritism, and that often of the
worst kind—political or Parliamentary patronage.
We do not say that, of the seventy persons of whom
these lists are composed, there are not some, and we
would hope many, who were either originally com-
petent to the task, or have become so by experience;
but that the majority are not so is but too apparent
to any ene who has bad the misfortune to see much
of their proceedings. The mode too in which
they profess to carry on their business is also blame-
able in the extreme, being evidently framed upon
the sole principle of getting all the money they can,
in the shape of fees, in the shortest possible time.
The consequence is, that in all cases except those in
which the solicitors are men of goad sense and in-
tegrity, and do what the Commissioners ought to do,
the evils of insolvency are enhanced, instead of !
being mitigated, by the Tribunals appointed for its
adjustment. To be sure, the system works well
enough in some respects, the blunders and in-
competency of the Commissioners producing pe-
titions, briefs, and fees without number, through
the whole channel of equity, up to the very
fountain-head. That such a system must sooner
or later, he reformed admits of no doubt. That it
would have been reformed long ago admits of as
little doubt, were not the majority of those from
whom the reform should have come interested in
defeating it. The image-makers for the great God-
. less Diana, in modern as well as former days, know
too well the profits of their craft to part with them
voluntarily or without a struggle. We do not know
a more unexceptionable or more proper quarter, from
whom the attack upon such a system as this can
come, than from the Corporate Authorities of the
great trading capital of the Empire, the merchants
and tradesmen of which not only see and feel its
abuses, but actually pay for them ; with the addi-
tional disgust of seeing persons quartered upon the
already broken-down fortunes of bankrupts and their
creditors, some of whom hardly know a bill of ex-
change from a bill of parcels. What the species of
reform should be, which would most effectually re-
medy a system which so unequivocally calls for one,
should, of course, depend upon the judgment of
those best acquainted with the subject; but it seems
to us that a moderate extension of the present In-
solvent Court would enable it to embrace the whole
of the business of the Bankrupt Lists, in addition
to their own.—Morning Herald.

Whether the Speech from the Throne contain any
meaning or not, we trust that the Address of the
" great Council of the Nation" will be neither vague
nor unintelligible. It is not by the concealment of
truth that the evils of nations are to be remedied.
Last year the Government and the Ministerial Jour-
nals denied the existence of great and extensive die-
tress. We maintained the contrary opinion—we
supported our arguments by facts; and we earnestly
called upon the Government to attend to the com-
plaints of the people, and, if they could not imme-
diately remedy them, at least to soothe their feelings
by expressing sympathy for their situation, and to
encourage their hopes by promising to make every
possible exertion for the alleviation of their suffer-
ings. But the Government listened not to those
who gave them independent and wholesome advice,
but to their " fawning parasites," who suppressed
unpleasant but useful truths, and described the
eountry as increasing in prosperity, with an assur-
ance unequalled in the annals of obsequious false-
hood. Well do we recollect that Paper, which calls
itself the " leading Journal," sneering at the cala-
mities of the manufacturing and agricultural classes,
and predicting that what was described to be dis-
tress would disappear with the " peeping forth of
the crocus and the primrosev" This was in the
winter. Well, the spring came, but hope did not
blossom in its sunshine for the industrious classes.
On the contrary, there was an aggravation of the dis-
c tress, hut the people were patient and loyal; and al-
though in some places they had to yoke themselves to
waggons, like the beasts of the field, to earn a liveli-
hood, and in others to live worse than the swine
which their forefathers fed, still they bore their pri-
vations with a meek endurance, and fortitude sup-
plied the place of content. It was then the Journal
in question, with the view, no doubt of fulfilling its
own predictions, spoke with ineffable merriment of
the " pest distress," and congratulated the Govern-
ment on the prosperity of the country. From that
time to the present, the distress, which was described
us past, has gone on increasing, and the continued
decline in the revenue ever since is a pretty evident
symptom of it. What proves, beyond all dispute,
the misery of the people, is the uninterrupted falling
off under the head of Excise. The heavy taxation
upon the necessaries and comforts of life, along with
the want of means, in consequence of the failure
of employment, or the low state of wages among
the industrious classes, compels them to consume so
much less of those necessaries and comforts us makes
is serious difference to the revenue. It was expected
that the last quarter's account would have exhibited
an advance under this head, as the natural result of
the additional consumption of exciseable articles
produced by a general election ; but even with the
advantages of this stimulus, the decline of the re-
venue was shown, by that account, to be still pro-
gressive. We lament that in many places the people
have displayed a tendency to acts ofinsubordina-
tion ; but while we deprecate the guilt of those who
resort to acts of violence, for the purpose of obtain-
ing redress, we cannot consider those who refused
to listen to their complaints as guiltless. A wise
Government will not act like the silly ostrich, that i
thinks to escape danger, when the hunter is n hot
pursuit, by running its head into the sand, and thus,
by closing its eyes, hope to ensure its security. It
will, on the contrary, look the danger in the face,
examine its cause, and take every step that prudent
courage suggests to remove or overcome it. We
therefore think, if the Government be capable of
deriving wisdom from its experience, it will no
longer, by concealing the truth, endeavour to blink
the great question of the difficulties of the country.
If it should do so, however—if it should put one of
those unmeaning speeches in the mouth of the Sove-
reign, which, though professing to give a true picture
of the state of the nation, both in its foreign and do-
mestic relations, evades or mystifies the subject—
we do hope that Parliament will perform its duty,
and, instead of making its Address an " echo" of
the Minister's speech, will tell the Goveniment
plainly what the evils of the country are, and the
necessity for measures of immediate relief.—Morn-
ing Herald.
Accustomed as we have been for years past to
the blustering language and ridiculous exaggerations
of Irish demagogues, and willing as we are to make
every allowance for the terms in which they usually
speak of England and Englishmen, we really were
not prepared for the Billingsgate harangue which
appears in another column, with the signature of
Themes Steele. Every one will remember the
name of this individual, as being somehow or ether
connected with the joint.steck concerns of 1825, the
results of which not having, we presume, proved
very satisfactory, he has taken to the trade of agita-
tion, and, as will be seen from the article to which
we refer, commenced with the red-hot and Vega-
wad spirits of Clare. On this last matter we
should not have deemed it worth while to pass a
remark,inasmuch as it is merely done in imita-
tion, or by the orders, of the great Dan, who,
finding his oratory at fault at St. Stephen's, has'
returned it to its own native moss as the snore
proper element ; but we have a right to ask
this Mr. Steele on whet authority, or for what
ream!, he dares to compare the resent Lord
Lieutenant of Ireland to " one of those poor
peasants, whom he would consider fitted far no
higher function in the Scale of society than that of

eating tripes for a wager against a bull-dog, or car-
rying guts to a bear." As little do we know for
what reason the people of Ireland should consider
" Thomas Steele" as their " true friend." His
name is unknown even in modern Irish history, and
but for the worse than Billingsgate address, which
we publish in another column, would, in all proba-
bility, have remained unknown. He has done no
good to her, so far as we are aware ; and had he the
means, we are quite confident that he is now bent
on doing her serious injury; but thanks to the better
star of Ireland, the sallies of such orators are not
likely to be of much avail in rousing a spirit of in-
surrection. We should, indeed, pity the people, as
infinitely beneath contempt, who could listen for a
moment to the infamous language of such a dema-
gogue.—. Morning Advertiser.