The Sun.
London, England, 1839-10-05 00:00:00

these to facilitate the operations of the Govern-
men:, and contribute to the peace of society.
According to what the Tories have done in op-
position, they would seek to place the whole educa-
tion of the people in the hands of the Anglican
priesthood. Considering the tenets recently
broached by the PUSEYITES and the PHILLPOTT-
ITES, and considering, too, the character of the Re-
vivals in Scotland, the attempt to increase the
power of the Established priesthood would be a
fresh spring of religious discord.
Would the Tories conciliate the working classes ?
Not if they acted in office as in opposition, my
Lords WILTON, BUCKINGHAM, and LONDON-
DERRY having loudly blamed the Ministers
for not having used more coercion in put-
ting down the Chartists. Their just causes
of political discontent would be aggravated by in-
sults, and to religious broils would be added, by the
Tories, a servile war.
Such a calamity might be prevented by wise,
economical regulations, but the Tories are to a man
pledged to uphold the scoundrel Corn-laws. The
chances are, if they were in office and we
had a favourable season, that they would
require an additional protecting duty, and
would raise it to 40s. They would add to the
national hunger.
They would lessen taxation perhaps ! Why
they complain of the relief the Whigs have given
us. They demand that a portion of the national
debt should be paid off, and while they would in-
crease the expenditure in providing churches for
the English and Scotch, and soldiers for the Irish,
they would require a heap of fresh taxes to raise
the price of the Three per Cents., and gradually
pay off the national debt. Our restricted currency
is a great subject of complaint. PEEL is the igno-
rant author of it, and PEEL and the Tories would
stand by PEEL'S Bill.
if at home they would add to our discord and
increase our taxes, what would they do abroad ? To
be consistent they must set about restoring Don
CARLOS ; they must snub Louis PHILIPPE,
and revive the national animosity of the French ;
and they must introduce their• dear delightful
friends, the CZAR and his Cossacks, into Constan-
tinople. They would, of course, insult the despised
Yankee Republicans, insist on governing Canada
by the sword, and fuse the heated spirits of
the Colony and the Republic into a com-
mon alliance. Such would be the deeds of the
Tories, if they were to carry out, when in
office, the principles they profess in opposition.
Great reason, therefore, has the nation to pray that
the Lord would preserve it from the Tories.
To us it seems proper thus to point out the re•
sults of the Tory policy ; which is a more fitting occu-
pation for the Liberal press than to waste its strength
in attacks on known and long-tried, though perhaps
for the moment erring, friends to the Liberal cause.
Nor is it any objection to say that the opinions we
have adverted to are only embraced by the fanatics
of the party ; for if they do not constitute the Tory
creed, they are adopted by so many of the party
mouth-pieces, and are so conflicting with opinions
professed by other mouth-pieces, that if they did not
lead to the results we have stated, it would be
because one part of the faction would neutralize the
other. It would then be powerless, and no section
of the divided and factious crew weu!d be strong
enough to carry out its principles or carry on the
Government. They would perhaps agree in no
one point of their ultra policy, except in common
with the Whigs, and, greatly to the chagrin of the
Times and Mr. OASTLER, they would be united to
maintain the New Poor-law.

The working classes object to apply for a re-
peal of the Corn-laws, because it would not perma-
nently improve their condition. They say that it
would only benefit the middle classes, increase the
rate of profit, and not augment wages. Such ap-
pears to us a very short-sighted view of the question,
and we shall state why.
First, and foremost, the repeal demanded is an
act of justice. It is the abrogation of one iniqui-
tous law, and will, if accomplished, surely lead to
the abrogation of other similar iniquitous laws. To
get rid of a mass of iniquitous laws is the great ob-
ject, and ought to be the great duty of the working
classes. Here the middle classes offer their aid to
get rid of one ; here is a case in which the two,
fighting together for justice and honesty, are certain
to be triumphant, and the working classes stand
aloof, and will not join the middle classes in striking
the first blow at the great system of legislative
fraud of which they justly complain.
Secondly—lf they get rid of the Corn-laws they
will then be able the better to contend against the
capitalists. We do not run away with the notion
that the capitalists are of an angelic nature, and
will not squeeze out of the labourer every farthing/
they can. They have done so at all times, and
will continue to do so. The working classes,
therefore, must help themselves, and they
will be better able to help themselves after
they have, by the aid of the middle classes,
swept away the dishonest law of the landlords
than now. At any rate, one contest at a time is
enough, and they will do well to wait till the land-
lords' iniquity is corrected before they enter into a
second contest.

But thirdly—These two parties, the capitalist
and landlords are now at issue ; and if the labourers
assist the former in putting an end to the unright-
eousness of the latter, are they so ignorant of human
nature as to suppose that the latter will not help
them, if necessary, to combat the former ?
Let them be assured they will, and that no
means can be found so efficacious for getting good
wages from the capitalists as to begin by putting
an end to the unrighteousness of the landlords. At
present the old race of squires and landlords are
bursting with frog-like envy at the wealthy bulk of
the cotton-lords. Half—ay, more than half their
exactions—the Corn-law itself, is the offspring of
their envy. Let the working-classes, therefore,
first aid the cotton-lords to get rid of
the Corn-law, and they may rely on the
landlords helping them in turn, if necessary,
to put an end to any unjust privileges, or any power
of oppression possessed by the cotton-lords. On
these three grounds, first, that the abrogation of
the taxes on food is itself an act of justice and
goodness ; secondly, that it will be time enough to
deal with any oppressions exercised by the capital-
ists, when this master-piece of legislative disho-
I nesty is put down ; and thirdly, because then
the working classes will have the landlords
on their side, we call on the working classes
to begin diligently, vigorously, and even fiercely,
but always, if possible, legally, to procure a total
abolition of all the taxes on food, levied to put
money into the pockets of a particular class, and not
to supply the wants of the State.
We make the distinction, because there are cer-
tain taxes, as those on coffee, sugar, tea, &c., now
part of the food of the people, which are levied for
the public service ; we exclude these, but we in-
clude that tax on sugar and coffee which is levied
by the exclusion of the sugar and coffee of foreign
countries, to put Money into the pockets of the De-
merara—the cruel and avaricious Demerara—and
other West India planters.

Wc direct attention to a letter on the Corn-laws,
which sets in a clear light their disadvantages to all
classes. Nothing seems wanting to the instruction
it conveys but to add the remark that the general
rise of prices which is there pointed out is the con-
sequence of the laws having compelled the people,
in the first instance, to bestow more labour in pro-
curing the necessary supply of food than would
otherwise be required. That additional labour is
the source of the additional price which affects
everything and reduces the value of the landlords'
nominal income. They cause an immense and
wanton waste of the national resources, which all lie
in labour, not in land, without in the end altering
the proportional relations in which the less quan-
tity of wealth is distributed.