The Sun.
London, England, 1839-05-28 00:00:00

STATE OF SICILY.

(EY A SICILIAN
" PALERMO, May 4 —The state of Sicily is a true
anomaly if compared with that of Europe, such as it is
in our days. Figure to yourself a country rich in soil,
favoured by the first climate, productive in vegetation,
in which the ground has no wants but to produce, and
in which all the elements of riches and prosperity are
abundant. Fancy, at the same time a country in which
there is not a single high road, a country without
canals, without any convenient means of com-
munication, without any settled agriculture, and
almost without commerce, and you will understand
both what it is and what it might be. Fancy, again,
desart countries, for the most part uncultivated, villages
which might be taken for the habitation of wild beasts,
and imagine all the miseries which human hopes can
experience, and you will have a proper idea of that
Sicily which nourished Italy, which at three epochs
shone prominent for civilization, and which among its
cities reckoned the noble Syracuse, in which 2,000,000
of inhabitants lived at their ease. It must be owned
there is a kind of mysterious hand which hovers
over Sicily, which opposes all spirit of enterprise,
and seems determined to paralyse all the efforts at-
tempted, in the hope of arriving at a better state of
things. In acting thus, does the Government follow a
stated system, or does it allow it to go on in complete
indifference to the fate of a people who never receive
any impulse salutary to their interests ? It is certain
that the acts of the authorities have a capricious cha-
racter, in which may be perceived a want of regard for
the public childishness, and sometimes even an incredi-
ble ignorance of facts.
" You will therefore perceive that things have here
an habitual stamp of uncertainty and irregularity. In-
deed, nothing seems foreseen—nothing is determined—
nothing is certain, except the perishing state of the
country, Laws, police measures, movements of troops,
decrees, all go on from day to day, without any
good regulating principles, or well-considered views.
The arrivals and departures, even of the steam-
boats, from Naples to Palermo, are subject to the
caprice of the authorities ; sometimes one or two arrive
in a week, and sometimes 15 or 20 days elapse without
one making its appearance, and without the inhabitants
being able to guess why they are deprived of the letters
and news which they expect. The Government, either
from system or from indifference, is an incessant cause of
disagreeable interruptions of the general communica-
tions which are now so easy in all other countries.
If the Neapolitan Government persist in its present sys-
tem of blindness, we may presume that in some twenty
years hence moral and physical decrepitude, as well as
depopulation, will have made great progress, and that
still later Sicily will be nothing but a rock for unfortu-
nate vessels to be wrecked upon.
" It must not be supposed that the Government is
not strong enough to adopt a more extensive and freer
course. It might, without danger, assist, facilitate,
satisfy, and encourage the development of manufactures
and agriculture, instead of restraining them, and thus
injuring the public interest.
" The people pay no attention to politics, and revo-
lutionary ideas inspire more horror than they excite
sympathy. The people do not dislike the King because
he is a King ; they think it no crime for the nobility to
hear the names transmitted to them from their ances-
tors. Even among the few persons who desire a con-
stitutional Government, there is great moderation—they
wish the Crown to possess wide and unassailable rights.
The events which pass in France are not of a nature to
make many revolutionary proselytes. France possesses
that liberty which men called upon to live in a
social state may demand, a state which imposes
necessarily the sacrifice of a portion of liberty ; but
France is the plaything of passions, which no hand can
entirely suppress ; that same France is not less on a
volcano. Property there is unsafe, religion laughed at,
the press without shame, literature an ignoble monster,
which has ruined taste, sentiment, and manners ; in
fact, tranquillity slumbers there under a terrible night-
mare, cradled as it is by an armed minority."

THE STATE OF THE CORN-LAW

QUESTION.

(From the Glasgow Argus.)
For many years desultory attacks have been incessantly
made upon the bread-tax. Here and there a solitary
writer kept up a running fire upon it. From time to
time great communities like Manchester or Glasgow
would raise their voices and emit a portentous bellow
against the enormity. And occasionally a Member of
Parliament would provoke discussion of the subject.
But there was no organisation, no continuity of action
in the war waged against the extortion.
This year has produced at least organisation.
The discussion of the Corn-law question, in the
Manchester Chamber of Commerce, was followed
up by the great Anti-Corn-law Festival in
Manchester, and that by the meeting of Anti-
Corn-law Delegates in London, which has resulted
in the Anti-Corn-law League. This League embraces
as yet only a part of Great Britain ; nor do we seek to
shut our eyes to the fact, that the zeal of some of its
shallower members may cool and evaporate ; but there
are among the Leaguists some devoted and enduring
souls, who will keep the sacred fire burning.
The assault made this year upon the Legislature, was
only a partial failure. It has put the maintainers of
the Corn-laws in a false position. By refusing to en-
tertain the question in the mode pointed out by
constitutional precedents, they have excited a suspicion
that they have reason to dread discussion. By as-
signing different and contradictory reasons for refu-
sing to entertain the question, they have raised
suspicion to certainty. The bold and somewhat un-
common course pursued by the Anti-Corn-law
politicians has awakened public curiosity. The
organisation of the League is a lever, the public curiosity
is the fulcrum : the enemies of the Corn-laws have all
that the ancient philosopher asked to enable him to
move the world—if they do not move this world of
abuse to some purpose, the fault will be in their own
slothfulness and timidity.
The appeal to the Legislature—the battle within the
walls of Parliament—must be renewed next year, and
year after year, until the repeal of the Corn-laws be
carried. In what form we are to make our next ap-
proach to the doors of the collective wisdom must be
determined hereafter. The form we adopted this year
was suggested not long before it was carried into execu-
tion. " With time comes counsel," says the German
proverb, and " where there is a will there is a way,"
says our own. Between this time and next year a plan
will be devised.

But the interval must not be given to sloth. The
skilful husbandman prepares the soil, by repeated
ploughings and harrowings, long before seedtime. The
favourable state of the public mind must be rendered
available.

This the men of Manchester—and they as yet single-
handed—are doing nobly. Their lecturers are carrying
the war into the enemies' quarters. Arland is fighting
the battle nobly in the South ; Smith and Shearman
in the North-east. The threats of brute force, the
hysterical affectation of contempt on the part of the
bread-tax-eaters proves at once the success of this
sytsem of tactics, and how sincerely the extortioners
feel it. The system must be kept at work ; the ques-
tion must be made in appearance as in reality a question
between the nation and the bread-tax-eaters. Nor must
the men of Manchester be left to fight the battle alone.
Money—the sinews of war—must be contributed from
every place which understands and appreciates the im-
portance and urgency of the question. This is a matter
in which Glasgow dare not lag behind. The centre of
Scottish commerce—the scene of the labours of Adam
Smith—must bestir itself. Subscription papers to-
wards the support of Anti-Corn-law lecturers, have
been for some days in circulation ; we trust that they
will be worthily filled up. There can be no excuse for
shabbiness. The merchants of this city have again and
again expressed their enmity to the Corn-laws ; they
see the missionary system of attack upon these laws in
full force ; if they fail to subscribe adequately there is
only one way of accounting for the failure, they would
" reap where they have not strawed ;" they would share
the advantage without paying their fair share of the price;

TILE NEW NOVELS.—Mr. Cothurn, of Great
Marlborough-street, has just published the following po.
pular new works of fiction, which can be had at all the
Libraries: —l. Fair Rosamond; or, the Days of King
Henry 11., by T. Miller, author of " Royston Gower,"
&c., 3 vols. 2. The Banished, edited by James Morier,
EFT, author of" Hajji Baba," &c., 3 vols. 3. The High-
land Inn, 2 vols. 4. The Phantom Ship, by Captain
Marryat, R.N., 3 vole. 5. The Fergusons, by the Hon.
E. Phipps, 2 vols. 6. The Youth of Shakspeare, by the
author of " Shakspeare and his Friends," 3 vols. 7. The
Romance of the Harem, by Miss Pardoe, 3 vols. 8. Pic-
tures of the World at Home and Abroad, by the author of
" Tremainc," &c., 3 vols. ; and 9. The Only Daughter;
a domestic story, edited by the author of "The Subaltern,"
3 vols.

MELANCHOLY SUICIDE OF MRS. STAMMERS.
—On Sunday morning the family of Mr. Stammers, the
Barrister, who, it will be remembered, was one of the
Counsel for Medhurst, tried at the Old Bailey for the
manslaughter at Hayes, were plunged into a state of alarm
and subsequent grief upon the discovery of the unfortunate
lady of Mr. Stammers being found suspended by a cord to
a beam in the kitchen, and quite dead. Mrs. Stammers, it
seems, was a very early riser; she was generally the first
who rose in the morning, and the consternation of the
servants when they discovered a mistress whom they had
all beloved was a corpse may easily be imagined.
ACTIVITY IN AGE.—Peter Powell, of the
parish of Tillington, in this county, aged 104 years, has,
with the assistance of a boy, killed during the late season
upwards of one hundred bacons and porkers. The old
man's faculties are unimpaired ; and the strength and elas-
ticity of his limbs so good that he walks once or twice a
week to Hereford, and back, a distance of ten miles, with
apparent ease.—Hereford Times.
There have been more potatoes planted in
Cheshire, which supplies principally the great markets of
Manchester and Liverpool, this spring, than has been the
case for many years, caused, no doubt, by the present
scarcity of that indispensable article of food, and the unu-
sual length of time afforded by the dry season in getting
the land into suitable condition to receive the sets.--Laver-
pool Chronicle.

PRICE OF SUGAR.

EFFECT OF MONOPOLY.

Table showing the ex-duty price of West India Sugar
in Mincing-lane, and comparing the same against that of
foreign Sugars :
London, May 25.
The Gazette last night quotes the averi.ge Per Cat.
price of British Plantation Muscovado
Sugar, exclusive of duty, at 4ls. 4d.
The actual quantity sold in the week ending the 20th
inst., on which the above price is computed, consisted of
459 hbds. 19 tierces and 20 barrels—and not of 900
hhds., as estimated in the market.
The produce of the Refineries in London working
Foreign Sugars under lock, is being sold for exportation,
deducting the charges of shipping, as follows

Per Cwt.
Refined, equal in qualiry to double refined ...... 34?. OJ.
Bastard
Treacle
The produce of the Refinerie; in London working West
India Sugar and Molasses is selling for home consumption,
deducting the duty, as follows:
Refined, equal in quality to double refined, at 595. Per Cwt.
Bastard
Treacle
The British public, therefore, pays to the West Indian
the enormous excess of 255. per cwt. for refined ; 18s. per
cwt. for bastard, and I9s. per cwt. for Treacle, more than
foreign nations pay for articles of an exactly similar qua-
lity and appearance, which are moreover manufactured in
the same parish in London with those supplied for home use.
While the comparison was made between the prices of
British Plantation and Foreign Museovades, the West
Indians plausibly argued, that the superior quality of their
Sugar commanded the increase in the price of it ; but now
that both descriptions of Sugar are brought by the process
of refining to the same condition, that crafty mode of shuf-
fling out of the question is set at rest by undeniable proof,
The fact, then, that this nation, at present rates, is paying
an indirect tax through the monopoly on Sugar alone,
equivalent to 4,500,0001. per annum, stands glaringly
prominent.
Since our last 7,695 hhds and trs., 18,150 bags of Mau-
ritius, and 8,673 bags of Bengal Sugars have been exported
at the Custom-house—together equal to 11,000 hhds.
There are at present several sugar ships in the
Downs, amongst them the Asia, from Bengal, with
7,000 bags on board, the largest cargo of Sugar which
has ever entered the Thames, so that when the wind per-
mits them to weather the North Foreland, we shall have
•as large a quantity of sugar to be reported as that which
is in the course of landing. The delivery from the docks
of this port has been unusually small this week; it will
certainly be 1,200 hhds. less than in the corresponding
week of last year, which proves that a laudable economy
in sugar pervades the country.
Last week we demonstrated by figures that the West
India planter, paying one shilling sterling a day wages to
the Negro, and defraying all other costs, could without
loss afford to sell his sugar in Mincing-lane at the
average ex-duty price of 21s. per cwt. ; and we promised
at the same time to analyze the charges of producing sugar
in and bringing it from the Phillippine Islands—with the
view of showing that the Manilla planters would by selling
their sugar at 21s. per cwt., gain a clear ss. on each cwt.
so sold.

Although labour is considerably cheaper in the Philip-
pine Islands than it is in the West Indies, yet the la-
bourers in the former do not raise half the quantity of
sugar which the negroes in the latter produce.
A labourer in the Manilla receives about 4d. ster-
ling a day, for which he produces 12 cwt. of sugar
in the year, which confers a value on the sugar of Bs. 4d.
per cwt. The proceeds of the Rum, as in the West
Indies, countervails the incidental expenses attending the
manufacture of the sugar ; the package, a mat, costs
less than 2d. for each cwt. of Sugar ; the charge of ship-
ping is Is. per cwt. ; the freight, although the distance is
double the voyage from the West Indies, is usually under
3s. 6d. per cwt., and the charges for insurance, dock dues,
management, &c., in this country do not exceed 2s. 61
The net cost of the Sugar, to the grower, when exposed
for sale in Mincing-lane, is consequently 15s. 6d. per cwt.

ATROCIOUS MURDER BY ONE
OF' THE ROYAL ARTILLERY AT THE
BARRACKS AT WOOLWICH.

(FURTHER PARTICULARS.)
The excitement occasioned in the town of Woolwich
by the cool and deliberate murder of Sergeant-Major
Shepherd, of the Royal krtiilery, is in no small degree
heightened by its being a garrisoned town. During
yesterday not a street could be passed but groups of
persona were conversing anxiously together about the
foul deed, and Woolwich has not been in such a state
of confusion since the brutal murder of Elizabeth
Browning, landlady of the Britannia public-house, by
Patrick Connell the Marine.

At nine o'clock on Sunday night Mr. Watts, the
High Constable, demanded the prisoner, and he was
marched under a strong military escort to the office of
Sir John Webb, who is Director-General of the Ord-
nance Medical Department, and a Magistrate of the
county. A short examination took place, and three
witnesses, who saw the murder committed, were ex-
amined, but their evidence furnished no additional par-
ticulars of importance.
The prisoner being called on for anything he might
wish to say in his defence, replied—" I have ❑othing
to say." He was then remanded.
The prisoner is stated in the orderly-book to be a
native of Lymington, and was enlisted at Winchester
on the 3d of May, 1838, when he represented himself
to be eighteen years of age. He refuses to disclose any
particulars respecting his family. It is said that a cor-
respondence has already taken place between Sir John
Webb and Lord Bloomfield, on the propriety (should
the prisoner be convicted of murder) of taking means to
induce the Judge who tries him to order his execution
to be carried into effect on the spot where the crime was
committed. The reason assigned for this departure
from the ordinary rule is, that the sight would act as a
lesson to the other soldiers stationed in the garrison.
A communication has been made to the Secretary-of-
War embracing the principal facts of the diabolical act
by the Commandant.