The Sun.
London, England, 1839-09-27 00:00:00

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HIGZI WATER. AT LONDON BRIDGE TO-MORROW.
Morning...—. 27 minutes after 5. I Evening ... 55 minutes atter 5.

was opposed to it. They were impartial on the
Corn laws, and the great majority which opposed
Mr. VILLIERS' motion is an index to their duet
powerlessness on that question,. We cannot expect
that the Ministers will sttclitice themselves, and at the
same time strive against the spirit of the Constitution,
by proposing measures on which they are certain to
be defeated. In the present state of parties, there-
fore, it is vain to ask, and hopeless to expect any
of the measures, the Tyne Mercury alludes to, from
the Ministers.

At the same time there is a general opinion,
growing to be universal, that it is impossible far
the country to on go under the present system.
It is big with • famine, despair, and convulsion.
What then, is to be done ? This is the
all-important question which the whole peo-
ple are called on to consider. We have formed
our opinion ; they must help themselves. They
must strengthen the hands of the Reforming Mi-
nisters, and urge them on in that career. More-
over, they must coerce, if necessary, the landlords
and the Tories into acquiescence. How and on
what subjects is this to be done ? Calm reflection
is required to decide. The bulk of the people, be.
cause they are ignorant, do not care for education,
and they cannot be excited to exert them-
selves in its behalf. As long as the franchise is
limited as atpresent, the Ballot is exclusively a pro-
tection for the middle classes, operating in some
instances against the unenfranchised ; and no art
can persuade the working classes to stir for the
Ballot alone. To the extension of the franchise at
present, the bulk of the middle classes are opposed ;
and it has already been proved that without their
aid the working classes can effect nothing. Let
them read Mr. EBENEZER ELLIOTT'S letter in an-
other part of The Sun ; he knows them well,
and tells them the truth. In fact they have tried.
Their Convention was undisturbed till it had nearly
fallen to pieces. They had every facility which
their own circumstances and the circumstances of
society could bestow on them ; but their leaders
quarrelled, and the body effected nothing. Not
one of these objects, therefore—the Ballot, Edu-
cation, or the extension of the Suffrage, can serve
to unite the bulk of the working and middle classes
so as to enable them to impel the Ministers, and
prove to them and the Tories that there is an over-
whelming necessity peaceably and legally to carry
the required reform.
There remains only the Corn-laws. If we
cannot bring the working and middle classes
to act together on this one point, so as to
urge on the Ministers, and compel the acqui-
escence of their opponents, then is the cause
of reform and of justice, to be quietly and
legally obtained, hopeless. Then may the nation
look forward to a revolution, or the establishment of
a complete military despotism, to put down the
wishes of men's hearts for political improvement.
We cannot, however, and will not despair. The
weather is the ally of repeal. The demand for
more corn is extracting more gold from the Bank.
Trade is universally cramped. As prices are
rising, employment is becoming slack. Enterprize
is chilled, and almost dead. Under such circum-
stances when the working classes feel most se-
verely the pressure of the Corn-laws, and when the
middle classes have announced a determination to
agitate for a repeal of those laws, the former will
unite with them and zealously exert themselves to
achieve their own well being. If they read the
article which we insert from the Charter .they must
see that their opposition to the repeal is grounded on
revenge, a most mischievous and criminal motive.
If they act on that they will pinch themselves with
hunger, and starve their children and wives to pre-
vent others from acquiring a little more profit. Their
interest as working men, and their political feelings
as Chartists, require them now to unite cordially
with the middle classes to obtain a repeal
of the Corn-laws. Let us all then rally
around the standard of repeal, and let us not he
diverted from our object by any temptation. To
do one thing at a time is the way to do it well.
The most essential of all things is food. Let us,
therefore, zealously, one and all, first set about
getting plenty of food, let us set all the world, if we
can, to grow corn for us, and when that is accom
plished, when our people are well fed, but not be
fore, let us turn to other and less momentous sub
jects than securing the subsistence of our ever in
creasing population.

e have been unable, since last Friday, to return.
to Lord JOHN R USS ELL'S " Note on Transportation
and Secondary Punishments," to which we then
alluded, and we now find that we must content our-
selves, it is so long, with a comment on it, rather
than inserting it at length. The Noble Lord begins
almost by stating that recent inquiries have shown
that the punishment of transportation is far from
being that effective and reforming punishment it
was long considered." To show what was antici-
pated from transportation, and what it was supposed
actually to perform, the Noble Lord quotes the
following passage from a French author
No subject can be more curious or interesting both
to the soldier and statesman than the colony of Botany
Bay, so long despised in Europe. Never was there a
more conspicuous example of the omnipetence of laws
and institutions over the characters of individuals. To
convert the most hardened villains, the most daring rob-
beis,_ into honest and peaceable citizens; or industrious
agriculturists; then to operate the like revolution in the
vilest prostitutes ; to change them by infallible means to
faithful wives, and excellent mothers. Next to watch
over the rising population, to preserve them by the most
assiduous care from the contagion of their parents, and
thus breed up a generation more virtuous than the race
from which it sprung. Such is the impressive picture
which the English colonies present.
Then the Noble Lord proceeds to prove, by
several remarks, that this is altogether a fallacy,
and observes—

The positive effect in the penal colonies is most in-
jurious. The masters of slaves have the vices belonging
to that condition ; the slaves themselves lose all self-
respect. A society, contaminated in its infancy, and fed
with new streams of pollution in its progress, is created
by the express Acts of the British Parliament, carried into
effect by the Executive Government. •
This conclusion is to us doubly important, first
as a decided proof of the fallibility of politicians,
who long expected from transportation all that the
French author describes; and, secondly, because
there has been of late a strong disposition evinced
to put an end to capital punishments. Many of
them have been abolished, and nothing remains but
secondary punishments, the most effective of which
is now proved, by much concurrent testimony,
neither to reform the criminal nor prevent crime.
We do not say that this is any new discovery, for
PALEY long ago remarked that men return into
society from every punishment more hardened and
more depraved. But this fresh experience, and
every year that has passed since he wrote
has supplied similar facts, confirms his theory, and
makes us look forward with doubt and dismay as to
the probable fate of a community which relies for
protection and security on means that are now ac-
knowledged to be inefficacious. Since we cannot
rely on punishment, we should redouble our efforts
to remove all the incentives to crime. We ought
to be more than ever strenuous to promote moral
improvement—to place all the teaching of society
on a right and true foundation—to insist on the
Legislature itself following principles of honesty
and justice—and to remove from influence and
power all false teachers, and all those whose doc-
trines and example tend to promote those crimes,
which experience now proves no punishment is
adequate to check.

This conclusion, however, does not force itself
so powerfully on Lord JOHN RUSSELL as it has
done on us, and he seems still to rely on some
petty modifications of the existing systems, all of
which have been found very much wanting, some
new adaptation of the silent system, some new
gaol regulations, some improvement in the hulks, to
effect the desired object. We differ from Lord
JOHN RUSSELL on this point, and are convinced
that all his new contrivances, and the new contri-
vances of those who plan schemes of constraint
and torture, will never have the wished-for effect
till the moral education of the community be im-
proved.

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