The Sun.
London, England, 1839-01-02 00:00:00

LONDON :
WEDNESDAY EVENING JANUARY 2, 1839

As the time approaches when an impression must
be made on the Legislature in favour of abolishing the
Corn-laws, it is natural that public writers and prac-
tical men should turn their thoughts to the means by
which it may be accomplished. We have not been
supine or negligent on this point, and have used our
best exertions to stimulate our countrymen to meet and
pronounce, in the names of righteousness and the
public welfare, a solemn and universal condemnation
of the existing system. Without such a condemnation
the stupid, selfish landowners, will, we believe, never
put an end to the frightful system of curtailing
the supply of food and starving the people. They
pride themselves, we are aware, on being proudly
insensible to clamour, and on taking a calm and
unperturbed view from the heights of patriotism,
of the public welfare ; and may possibly, therefore,
from the purest benevolence and most consummate
statesmanship, abolish the Corn-laws without being
asked. The working classes generally are resolved to
leave them to the influence of these generous:and lofty
sentiments ; and have declared, generally and solemnly,
which is for us one of the worst features of the times,
that they will not petition for the abolition of the
Corn-laws, berause it is of no use petitioning such
a Parliament as ours, and will only present one
more petition, that for the National Charter, and
then will .help themselves. But whatever may be
their conduct, it is the duty of the Legislature to
abolish the Corn-laws as a scandalous violation of
property, and alike injurious to morality and national
prosperity. Of the inherent wickedness of those laws
no man can doubt, and the Chamber of Commerce of
Manchester—if national greatness means any thing—
has clearly demonstrated their injuritZsness. The
bulk of the population is hungry and exasperatt,',l,- and
though it might be impossible now to increase
the quantity of food, the obstacles to its increase in
future ought to be removed. As Colonel THOMPSON
says " the people may or may not know what hurts
them ; but as it is certain they know they are hurt,
it would be the part of wise doctors to take down the
mischief if they can, without waiting too long for the
patient's opinion of his disease." The working classes
are determined, it is said, to leave the landlords to
their own lofty meditations : to the middle classes the
Glasgow Argus recommends the following, plan of
operating on the public and the Legislature :
" Let numerous bodies of merchants, manufacturers, and
traders, in London, Liverpool, Birmingham, Manchester,
Sheffield, Nottingham, Leeds, Glasgow, Dundee, Belfast,
&c., form themselves into associations ; let these bodies peti-
tion simul!ttneously for leave to be heard at the bar of the
House of Commons, by counsel, against the Corn-laws, and
for leave to support their allegations by evidence at that bar.
With low mutterings of the discontented masses in the distance
—with the incessant recurrence of seasons of mercantile dis-
tress—with the prospect of an insufficient supply of grain for
the year before us—with Sir Thomas Lethbridge's letter to his
agricultural constituents—with a Ministry possessing so narrow a
majority, the requestfor a fair bearing will not dare to be refused.
Battle will thus be joined on the explicit question, ought the
Corn-laws to be perpetuated or not ? in the face of the public.
The precision of the terms will prevent hedging and shuffling.
The place where the investigation takes place will ensure atten-
tion to the proceedings. The examination of witnesses,
night after night—the incessant reiterated discussions upon
the relevancy and irrelevancy of evidence, &c., will ripen
the public mind. The public opinion, thus awakened and
formed, will be brought to bear in its full intensity upon
the members of the legislature, who will be forced by their
eager constituents to act in a straightforward manner. Around
this central attack—converging towards it as to a centre—pub-
lic meetings to discuss the subject, petitions from all and any
classes against the Corn-laws,itinerant lecturers upon these laws,
will work with tenfold effect. By this means, the whole force
of impassioned public opinion will be roused, and concen-
trated and directed against the master nuisance of our age and
country.
" Tbis is not mere speculation ; the experiment has been
tried before, and successfully. At the 394th page of the first
volume of the collected Speeches of Lord Brougham, will be
found a history of the Orders in Council, and the means by
which their abrogation was obtained. Our sketch of an attack
upon the Corn- laws at the bar of the House of Commons, and
its effects, is a literal counterpart of the narrative of the over-
throw of the Orders in Council. * * a 4,

What has been once done may be done again."
Such a scheme would tell admirably on Parliament,
but in the first instance there must be money collected
to begin it, and more public meetings held to give im-
portance to the proceeding. Unless supported by the
public, such tactics would be set down as selfish or
factious, like the opposition of the town-clerks to Mu-
nicipal Reform. We do not, therefore, agree with
the a'isgaw Argus in deprecating public meetings
to procur: the abolition of the Corn-laws, which
we think cannot be too numerous, nor can Anti-Corn-
law Societies be too soon formed. The lectures already
delivered have beer; too advantageous not to make us
ed. Most of the farmers, we
wish to see them exterh:.l.
believe, in Scotland are
posed to the Corn-laws.
Cr)
All the most intelligent of then; certainly are, and we
should not despair to see a number pf farmers in Eng-
land converted to the same way of thinking by some
judicious lecturers like Mr. PAULTON anzl Mr. REID.
It is not for their interest to pay additional rent on all
that is consumed or used by their families, in their
business, and by the poor ; it is not for their interest
to have our markets always so much higher than those
of other countries, that whenever the crop is short they
lose the advantage of a proportionate rise in prices by
the introduction of foreign wheat, and when it is abun-
dant they can find no vent for it, and the price falls
far below what remunerates them. They have been
great sufferers by the variation in prices, and have in
fact been impoverished and degraded into dependent
paupers since the Corn-laws were enacted. It might
not, therefore, be impossible to gain the support of the
farmers by judicious lectures, and we should like to
see the trial made. Too much agitation cannot, in
fact, be excited; and we hope all means will be tried.

We are glad to see that Colonel THOMPSON has
published, in a separate form, at a very small price,
the Corn•law Fallacies which have appeared in The
Sun, with a dedication to the Manchester Chamber of
Commerce, and an Appendix, consisting of extracts
from his letters to his Hull constituents. Colonel
THOMPSON justly takes some credit to himself for