The Sun.
London, England, 1839-10-17 00:00:00

'3/4L1./I),C

LONDON:
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 17, 1339.

We regret to observe that the accounts from
Manchester of the state of the cotton manufacture
are of a gloomy description, nor is the manufac-
ture likely to improve by the recent intelligence from
the United States. The financial derangement in
that country, our best curitomer, which is now

making itself manifest by banks stopping, and by a
general apprehension, will not augment the demand
for the staple products of our manufacturing dis-
tricts. At the same time while the workmen are
threatened with half wages the corn crop has been
short, and the price of bread is almost at a starva-
tion point. Winter is rapidly approaching ; the
mass of cur population is politically discontented,

. .
angry both with their employers and the Govern-
ment ; and if their discontent and anger are during
the winter to be much enhanced by wanting both
food and fuel, England will be in no enviable con-
dition.

Her landowners, may, however, be indiffe.

rent to her sufferings ; for, with high rents,
well paid, something in their banker's hands,
and a little fear of a population driven to reckless
despair by their ignorant and insatiable avarice,
they will hie them off to Italy, or France, and in
one of those well dragooned lands, excite the envy
of the petty princes by their munificent expenditure.
,
It is generally said that a manufacturer is a citi-

zen of the world, that he can transplant his capital
to every country, and be alike at home, and alike
make his fortune in all. In truth in the great
majority of car,es he belongs to his machinery and his
workmen ; he is only one part of a great system, and
to wrench himself from that is to doom himself to
destruction. Some few opulent manufacturers may
send their children abroad ; now and then one of
themselves may take a flying excursion to the Con-
tinent in the summer, hut not one of a thousand
can be absent six months from his place of business,
without incurring great loss and being exposed to
ruin. Not so the receivers of rent. Their income
is totally independent of any exertions of their own.
They form no part in the complicated system of
modern combined labour ; they are merely the re-
ceivers of its products, which they can consume as
well in Italy, perhaps, many of them think better,

than in England. Beginning, indeed, to be rightly
appreciated by their countrymen, no longer enjoy.
ing, that respect which they once merited, looked
on almost universally—for neither tenants nor la-
bourers love them now—as a race of useless,
selfish plunderers, and being themselves sen-
sible of their present condition, many of
them may even think it comports with their safety
to flee from the misery they have caused. At any
rate, the mere landholders, not being at the same
time land occupiers, are not bound to their estates
as the manufacturer is bound to his mill, and they
may, and many of them will, spend abroad—adding
no little to the sufferings of the people—the wealth
they unjustly extort by a Corn-law. The country
could well spare them, but they cannot let go their
hold of the country, and while they enjoy the sunny
climes, the gardens, the mansions of Italy—while
they pass their time agreeably in its galleries and
casinos, they will leave their proxies, their influence,
and their orders behind, to uphold the noxious laws
and institutions which they fancy are their welfare,
but which are certainly the damage of their coun-
rymen.

There is another point in the article of the
Morning Herald, which we yesterday copied, and
to which we yesterday adverted, that seems to de-
serve notice. Not that we wish by any means to
be involved in a controversy:with our able Contem-
porary, but as he has misunderstood the spirit of
our observations, and we think misrepresented them,
others may be liable to the same misapprehension.
We suppose; too, that we may have failed
to express ourselves fully and clearly, and
therefore we shall give a further explanation
Of our remark on Monday, that " farmers
must pay the higher wages, and increased profits
which are given to all the artizans and masters
whose services they require, either directly, or in-
directly." Our Contemporary has made us say
that the Corn-laws secure higher waaes and in-
creased profits to artizans and mjters, which
requires us to add one word on the subject.
Precisely the same argument applies to the ar-
tiarlS as to the agricultural labourers. The poi