The Sun.
London, England, 1830-10-07 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

We have inserted, in another part of our paper,
the report of the Committee of the French Chamber
of Deputies on the project or law fur reducing the
duties on the impartation of foreign corn. This
document is drawn up by M. Saint-Cricq, the Mi-
nister of Trade in the Martignac Cabinet. Though
making no pretensions to a discussion of the whole
law, it is so full in its explanations of its existing in-
conveniences, and so conclusive in its defence of the
projected modifications, that it requires neither com-
ment nor addition. As the object of the proposed
change is to permit importation on diminished duties,
the reporter of the commission was not bound to
say any thing Aiwa that provision of the French
corn-laws which prohibits exportation when home-
grown corn has reached a certain price. That price
is for the different classes of the departments two
franca the hectolitre beyond the rate at which im-
portutioti is freely permitted. Thus in the class of
departments where importation is permitted at 21
francs per hectolitre, exportation is prohibited at 26;
and in those where the limit of importation falls to
22, that of exportation is fixed at 21 francs. The
same ratio is observed with respect to the two re-
maining classes. M. de Saint Cricq mentions, as an
absurd consequence of the impolitic classification of
districts whose markets by the existing law regu-
lated the prices of importation, that in order to have
a cargo of foreign grain at Marseilles, the importer
found it sometimes profitable or necessary to go
round to some port on the west of Vrance to luau-
rdize his corn, and thence to return to the port
whence he sailed. " Ships," says he, " sail from
Marseilles loaded with foreign corn, which has not
been admitted into consumption, go to naturalize
themselves in an Atlantic port on paying the low
duty of 25c., and bring it back to Marseilles loaded
with charges greatly exceeding the duties at which
it would have been admitted at Marseilles." Our
own system of averages sometimes occasioned con-
sequences as ridiculous and as distant from the in-
tenti:ins of the Legislature.—Times.

It is rightly observed by the inhabitants of Bir-
mingharn, in their Address to his Majesty, that " it is
the general misfortune of Kings to be surrounded
by Ministers and Courtiers who are continually
withholding unpleasant facts from their itoyal Mass
tees knowledge, and who-e conduct is too frequently
imitated by their interested or servile dependents
throughout the country." This was ememplified in
the last session of Parliament, when Ministers, in-
stead of exerting themselves to relieve the distresses
of the industrious population of this country, were
only anxious to conceal from the Sovereign the me-
lancholy truth of the sufferings of his people. In
Parliament they affected to be ignorant of a state of
distress among the working classes, which, we will
venture to say, was never equalled at any former
time in this country, in the fifteenth year of peace
The paid advisers of. the Crown, whose bounden
duty it is to collect the most accurate information of
the state of the country, and to convey it, whether
of a pleasant or unpleasant nature, to the Royal
mind, resisted the evidence of facts, poured in upon
them (tom all quarters with the most heartless ob-
duracy, while their sycophants in the Press, imi-
tating their example, sneered at the misery which
was the bitter fruit of a vicious policy, and laughed
to scorn the petitions of the people. We appre-
hend that the time approaches when more serious
attention must be given by the individuals who are
intrusted with the administration of our affairs to
the complaints of those who form the strength and
sinews of the nation. The taunts and contempt
with which the supplicationi and remonstrances of
the working decreer' have been met, will, we
venture to predict, not be so lavishly bestowed
during the ensuing Session of Parliament, us they
had been .for the last two or three years. The
people of England are patient and long suffraing.
".Iliey are as loyal as they are brave, and, as long
as men in power express sympathy for their pri-
vations and distresses, they will show that the want
of exemplary endurance is not a fault of their chits
meter. Well would it have been for that fugitive
King, who has been compelled to descend from the
throne of a mighty nation, to seek an obscure
asylum in a private station on the English shores, if
hia Ministers had rightly informed him of the cons
dition and sentiments of his subjects, But they
thought it their interest to conceal the truth from
him ; and, by the habit of deceiving their Sovereign,
they, like all who habitually indulge in misrepresen-
mime deeeived themselves. The wretched men
who are now about to appear at the bar of public
justice in France, may fairly ascribe the destruction •
which has overtaken them, in the midst of their
power and grandeur, to the contempt which they
entertained for the people. In teaching their Royul
Master to despise public opinion, they learned to de-
spise it themselves, They thought it the highest
quality of statesmanship to be above tieing turned
Aside from the projects of their own selfish policy by
any adverse demonstration of public sentiment.
This was nut decision, but obstinacy—not firmness,
but infatuation 1 Their ears were closed, their
hearts were callous, to every disagreeable truth
which was uttered by the public voice, or they
would have taken warning from the bold awl honest
sentiments which the Chamber of Deputies con-
veyed to the throne only the year before they were
hurled from the lofty station which they had so
wretchedly abused. Instead of listening to truth,
they persecuted the Press for daring to utter it; in-
stead of attewling to the remonstrances of the
people, or their representatives, they sent legions of
spies and informers through society to entrap, de-
nounce, and proscribe ; instead of attaching the
popular affections to the Crown, they sur-
rounded it themselves with double awl triple
lines of foreign .hniasaries ; and in three days ell
these defence' of tyranny were struck down soul
utterly ennihilated by the irresistible re-action of the
public will. It is scarcely possible that such a less
sort us this oats be lost upon the Ministers of some
other countries where freedom of opinion has also
been persecuted, beramse Ministers found it more
difficult to confute their opponents by argument than
to silence them by the vindictive operation of the
law. Whether Or no, it is peculimly fortunate for
Great Britain to have at the present crisis a Sove-
reign who seems determined to hear and see the
teeth, by personally and unceremoniously going
asemig hirn subjects, end disdaining to shroud his
dignity In- the mysterious gloom of a haughty seclu-
iriole Such e ruler comet ho so easily imposed
upon by his Ministers as a King who only Wool
from them and their parasites how the world WWI
going on beyond the precincts of his own place of
luxurious retirement. 080. a Monarch, if this
ia,eitants of nirminghein sohmit in vein the me-
lancholy tide of the distresses whichs#ffeet the winlis
ing clussee, we shall be greatly disappointed. It is
with too much truth that they tell his Majesty
" the holiest worktneu, the pride and strength of
their country, redirect' in their wages and in their
employment, arid in the independence which the na-
tural and healthy demand for their labour produces,
become dispirited and broken down;" and that
" the industrious classes toil on, from year to year,
under the influence of disappointed hope, until their
capital is wasted away, and they are then urged on
by !messily until inevitable ruin ensues." It is thus
we sea that the classes whose sufferings had been
treated by arrogant placemen with flippant levity or
contemptuous neglect, turn (win the Ministers Of
the (Drown to lay the recitals of their distress at the
feet of hiss Majesty himseffss-and thus the Throne
beeomet, as it were, the last refuge of an etilieted
people. May it justify their expectatioos.—More-
pig fleraists

The garrison et Antwerp have, it seems, caught
the general spirit,aud have risen against the King's
Government. As thegreateryart of the garrison
are, we believe, Belgians, 'tile probable that this
strong place will $OOll *here the fete of the other
garrisons of Belgium. A nurniser of our country.
men arrived from the Netherlands yesterdNy.
Though, from all accounts, Belgium will soon be
rid of Dutch tioops, it does Hot hold Out u very in.
viting prospect tor ;how who showe that country