The Sun.
London, England, 1830-12-29 00:00:00

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face of the country has been covered with prisons '
and correction-houses. The progress of crime
has teen accompanied by the progress of .cants. We:
becate every year louder and louder in the praise
of our religion and morality, as we became less re-
ligious and less moral. Our correction-houses, to
appearance, were the abodes of Saints. There seemed
to be a general understanding in the nation that all
should wear a mask, which yet all should see
through. Mr. Cunningham, in his delightful Letters
on New South Wales, -tells us that the rogues he
conveyed to that penal settlement took care to be
constantly at their Bibles when they knew be should
see them. The war for putting dOwn Jacobins and
preserving our holy religion has, by universal ad-
mission, produced ►hese disastrous results. The
same Journal (the Norwich Mercury) observes :
" All classes are elevated to the fullest extent of, if not
absolutely beyond, their means, except the very lowest,
which are depressed beyond longer endurance. The Go-
vernment exacts too much for its expenses (2,000,0001. for
sinecures and pensions to wit); the purposes for which the
production-of three rents, in agricultural phrase, formerly
sufficed, are not, now to be met by five ; the landlord is not
'content to live upon his estate, in the bosom of his con-
nexions, where be is or might reign a prince in their affec-
tions ; but he courts the extended, though slight acquaint.
anceships, and the ruinously expensive pleasures of fashion.
able life in London or elsewhere; the farmer is no longer
satisfied with the moderate concern and moderate enjoy-
meat, which his capital and hiss occupation would com-
mand, while the labourer, oppressed and depressed alike,
is converted into the demoralized, the cunning slave, and
the despoiler of the property he is bound to protect, but
in which he has no sufficient share to keep him honest—
, no sufficient respect for its owners to keep him faithful.
And what portion in this perplexity does the priesthood
bear? Cut off hut too ofterafrom their charge by causes
which we have in another article to-day described, their
mediatory office of direction and of consolation is preter-
mitted by the distance interposed between themselves and
their flecks. Little square brick buildings have risen in
almost every village, in which not doctrinal differences
alone are originated and encouraged, but the total separa-
tion from the church, end something very like antipathy
wrought amongst the coarser and less instructed natures,
when lying under real or imaginary grievance, or when
rendered indifferent by distress or neglect. This is no ex-
aggeratO portraiture—it is exact, for it is taken from the
life."

For a great part of all this we have to thank the
Bank Restriction, and the depreciation which fol-
lowed in its train. During the progress of the de-
preciation the nation became quite intoxicated. Let
a man enter on any undertaking with borrowed
money, the nominal increase of the value of his
stock soon enabled him to pay off his debt, and to
become rich. Under such circumstances it was im-
prudence to refuse to speculate. Hence habits of
prodigality, the usual concomitants of sudden
wealth. Hence all the state and affectation which
has so poisoned English society, that men sacrifice
comfort in order to have the appearance of wealth.
Dr. Doyle, in his valuable evidence before the Com-
mittee on the State of the Poor in Ireland, describes
the effects of the depreciation on the Irish land-
holders:—

" I think," he says, "when prices were very high,
before the peace, landlords saw that the tenants could pay
almost anything for land, and hence they let their lands
very high, so much so, that many gentlemen in Ireland,
who, thit ty or forty year. ago, were not worth 1,0001. a
year, became worth 5,000/. a year. Then, when the
peace same, and the value of lands fell, those gentlemen
had establishments which, could not easily be reduced, for
we all know how painful it is for a man to descend from a
certain rank to another below it. They endeavoured. to
keep up those establishments. Many of them also entered
into marriage settlements, or borrowed motley, and so
created incumbrances upon their property that they could
not lower their rents, or let their land for its value.
These I take to be among the causes why rents are over
high, and the tenant overcharged."
In the correspondence of Mr. Pinkerton, there is
a letter from Mr. Dempster, who represented the
Aberdeen District of Burghs in four Parliaments,
dated 1789; he says, speaking of the mariner of
living in London •
" I remember the present Professor Ferguason boarding
and lodging most comfortably on a first floor, at eighteen
shillings per week. His victuals were sent up to him, or
the family table oPen just as he pleased. Our friend
Thorkelin, I presume, lives on very easy terms in London;
and to a man so spiritually employed as you (Pinkerton),
bodily considerations are not of much consequence. The
Spectator and Taller, and I believe half the Members of
Parliament in Queen Anne's time, lived an. Dr. Samuel
Johason lived many years in London for SOL a year. 1
once beard him detail the system and style of life. . .
1 knew David Hume when he had not above thirty pounds
a year to spend."
It is pretty clear that the English of these days,
and the English of the present have little in com-
mon, besides the language. People then studied
their circutnstanees more; and appearances less.
The rage, ever since we became so prodigiously
rich, is to•have what no man else has—to be ad-
mitted to parties from which others are excluded—
to avoid entertainments:to which all are admitted.
The agitation of the country has roused us out of
our trance. People begin to have a sort of vague
idea, that the laws will. only be obeyed when the
majority have an interest in obeying them, and that
it dangerous to press too heavily on those who
are on the ground. Many persons now bethink
them that we have all a common nature, and that as
in society we are all beholden to each other, no class
ought to be treated with contempt. The Revolu-
tion of July bus led to a variety of comparisons,
which would not have been made even a year ago.
We have heard lately of instances of clergymen re-
pairing with their wives in person to the cottages of
distressed parishioners with soups, and even meat,
and endeavouring to renew the old feelings, which
the war for our holy religion and its consequences
extinguished among us. Misfortune makes men
acquainted with strange bed-fellows. The appre-
hension of calamity softens the hearts of the proud.
We will answer for it, that Game Laws, and the
other delights of our aristocracy, have seen their
best days.— Morning chronicle.
We have just left ourselves sufficient space, we
believe, to point the attention of our readers to the
important meeting regarding Reform, which was
held a few days ago, in a somewhat distant corner of
the kingdom, and to recommend to theM a perusal
of the too brief abstract which we are enabled to
mpLeesteitii,tgeof
respecting
proceedings.
pec.tin gßefo There
rm in every
been
eiarypaeret
oma f ty
thei
dtißirminghamuise
distinguished
and o
r tie Edinburgheio! choauyieitruye,eanntipathrtoisceulacr)fly,
quenee, as well as sound sense, which guided the
speakers; but we think it will be readily conceded,
that the spirit of Reform was never more ably pour-
frayed, or its cause more eloquently advocated, than
be
r The
remembered,
northern by the movers and seconders of the resolutions at
thh
the St. Andrew's meeting.
teidi, not
ernP
long
ago part of
th
gndteornl' b was,y it
one of its representatives, with
beeing ktairur
satisfied with things as they were, and having
no feeling in favour of Reform ; but how has the
call been answered ? Has not the imputed stain
been wiped off, and the slanderer convicted of the
grossest misrepresentation ? Nay, is not the North
more likely to communicate a new impetus to the
South on the subject of Reform, than to receive a
kson, or to take un example from it ?-111orning
Advertiser.