The Sun.
London, England, 1839-10-14 00:00:00

this year, and it is clear the price obtained
for either a short crop, foreign corn not being ex-
cluded, or a good average crop, never can pay the
expense of cultivation. The farmer is re-

duced by the Corn-laws to this dilemma. With

the rise in the price of corn, his expenses increase,
and the selling price of corn, in order to enable

him to obtain a profit through a succession of years,
must go on year after year increasing. As that is
impossible, sooner or later the circumstances of
_ __

- -----------------
1835 will return, and return with additional ruin

to the farmers. For this there is no remedy,•
but
reducing the cost of cultivation by the abolition of
the Corn-laws to the cost of cultivation on the
Continent.

We invite the attention of our readers, particu-
larly those of them who are connected with the
banking, trading, and commercial interests of the
country, to a most important communication, which
we insert in another column, from "A Joint Sufferer"
in the bankruptcy of CHAMBERS and SON, the late
bankers in Bond-street. It will be seen that our
Correspondent conveys information of the utmost
value to the creditors at large, through the medium
of questions which he thus publicly puts to the
assignees and solicitors under this disgraceful Com-
mission of Bankruptcy,—disgraceful, not only to
the active parties engaged in the proceedings, but
also disgraceful to the Court of Bankruptcy for
permitting such an expenditure of the realized
assets of this immense estate.

If this Commission of Bankruptcy is to be al-
lowed to linger on under the present management,
which has avowedly, on the authority of the official
assignee, received upwards of two hundred thou-
sand pounds in hard cash, without a single fraction
of that enormous sum being appropriated as a
dividend to the unfortunate creditors of this estate,
then we are of opinion that the Court of Bank-
ruptcy itself requires an immediate and most
searching reform.

From what was elicited at the public meeting of
the creditors of CHAMBERS and SON, at the
Opera House, on the 28th ultimo, it appeared that,
at the lowest computation, there are estates and
property, not yet squandered away from the creditors
to the amount of nearly two hundred thousand
pounds,—a sum fully equal, even now, to pay
fiftten shillings in the pound to every one of the
persons who were creditors of the firm of CHA M-
B ERS and SoN when they stopped payment in
1824.

We think a public meeting of the creditors
should immediately be called to require full and
satisfactory answers from the present assignees and
their solicitors to the important queries which our
Correspondent, " A Joint Sufferer," this day puts
to them. Such a meeting would enable the
creditors to obtain much valuable information on
subjects in which their interests are so deeply con-
cerned.

We are sincerely sorry to have to state, on the
authority of letters from Havannah, that the infernal
slave traffic was never carried on to a much greater
extent than it is at present. The monsters asso-
ciated in this traffic invariably claim the protection
of the Portuguese and United States authorities,
hoist, when chased, the flags of these Powers, and
are provided with papers which sufficiently prove
that there must be some collusion between them
and the Portuguese and United States' Consuls,
By the West India mail, received on Saturday,
we learn that her Majesty's sloop, Pickle,
having given chase. to a slaver, of the human cargo,
consisting of 500 i•:dividuals, 322 were thrown
overboard and drowned by the wretches in com-
mand before her capture ! The remainder were
brought to Havannah, where the mixed Commis-
sion Court having given them their liberty, they
were carried, at the request of the Planters, to
Jamaica, where all but eight accepted engagements
as day-labourers. On the 4th "of July her Ma.
jesty's schooner, Pickle, fell in with a suspicious
ship, and fired into her. After a chase of six
hours the vessel hoisted Portuguese colours, and
ran on shore. Lieutenant Holland sent his boats
to capture the slaver, when the crew was seen
throwing the Africans into the sea. On the boats
of the schooner nearing the vessel, the crew
jumped into the sea and swam ashore. The
slaver proved to be the Sierra del Pilar, with
one hundred and eighty slaves on board, most of
whom were in a most emaciated condition. A letter
received at Jamaica from an officer on board her
Majesty's ship Electra, dated 4th April last, states
—" We arrived at this beautiful place, after a tole-
rably good passage of 56 days. On the 25th and
26th of March we captured two slavers from the
ccoaars9intl,weith 480 slaves on board. The brigantine
gave us a twelve hours' chase, and did not
heave-to until the shot went over her. This inhu-
man traffic is carried on to such an extent, that
60,000 Africans are said to have been landed on
the coast of Brazil during the last six months ; and
unless the British Government send out a number of
fast-sailing vessels, the trade will increase."
We do not expect that these facts will meet with
much consideration in Portugal, but we feel confi-
dent that they will make a deep impression on the
mind of nine-tenths of the people of this
country.
We are sure that no abolitionist can read them

compelled to import it, as we are every deficient
harvest, prices fall so much that the farmer does
not get remunerated for his short crop. While
such circumstances exist, it cannot be expected
that large sums should be laid out, at our present
prices, in agricultural improvement. There is a
certainty, because the cost of cultivation is so much
higher here than on the neighbouring Continent,
that such improvements cannot ultimately be pro-
fitable.

But in what does the cost of cultivation consist ?
We answer the price of labour, the price of seed-
corn, the price of every thing in which labour is
employed that the cultivator has to buy. And why
is labour higher priced here than abroad ? Because
corn is dearer. Why is corn dearer ? Simply be-
cause the Corn-laws make it so. If they were not
in existence corn would be about the same price
here as on the Continent. Thus the high price of
corn caused by the Corn-laws is an effectual bar to
profitable agricultural improvement. Now as we
cannot possibly exclude at all tim.s the cheaper
grown corn of the Continent, would it not be for the
interest of the farmers, and ultimately for the inte-
rest of the landlords, to allow corn to be grown
here, by the abolition of the Corn-laws, as cheaply
as it is grown on the Continent.
At present the price of wheat is somewhere about
70s. It was about the same price, or rather higher,
last year. A great outcry is made against the
farmers for not raising wages corresponding to the
price of corn, and in many districts they have
raised wages. But whether they raise the wages
of their own men or not they must pay the higher
wages and increased profits which are given to all the
artisans and masters whose services they require,
whether directly or indirectly. The consequence
is that they are now cultivating their fields at an
expense tantamount to wheat at 70s. a quarter.
They must realize that price or a greater price
next year to cover their expenses, and obtain the
ordinary profit. But either an abundant harvest, or
the admission of foreign corn, should their own crops
be short, would prevent their realizing such a price,
and thus the high cost of cultivation caused by the
Corn-laws, while it is impossible to exclude foreign
corn, and impossible to prevent an abundant har-
vest, will infallibly cause agriculture to be an un-
profitable occupation. We believe a great breadth
of land was last year cultivated with corn at a
great cost, owing to the high price of corn,
and a still greater breadth will be cultivated