The Sun.
London, England, 1839-02-26 00:00:00

TEE SUN, LONDON, TUESDAY,-EVENING EDIT

neither said, nor meant to say, and he is not re-
ported to have said, that 1,500,000 persons were
actually employed as labourers in the cotton ma-
nufacture, and in the receipt of wages ; but
1,500,000 persons, including masters End their
families, were directly dependent upon—not all
' labouring in the cotton manufacture for subsistence.
Having thus perverted Mr. VILLIERS' state-
ment, the Standard proceeds to argue upon it in
this fashion .;
" Next Mr. Villiers is made to state (by nobody but the
Standard) that there are 1,&00,000 persons receiving
wages to the extent of 17,000,0001. yearly. Well, let us
try this by the rule of three. This gives 111. 7s. per
annum, or 4s. 4d. to each per week ? In all their wan-
derings into the cheapest countries in the civil Fed world,
the manufacturers have not shown zny country where
labour is obtained or can be obtained cheaper than this I"

To find out what each person actually gains of the
1500,000 persons dependent on the cotton trade, the
Standard ought to have subtracted from the num-
ber the infants and the aged past labour, and those
who are unable to work from other causes, and it
ought to have added the profits of the masters, as
well as the wages of the men. But it would not suit
the Standard's purpose to be either ;ref.:mate or true,
and, therefore, it first misrepresents Mr. VI LLI arts'
statement, and then builds on it a false conclusion.
Such a proceeding is quite in accordance with the
usual tactics of the Standard, but its errors will, no
doubt, be repeated as gospei by all the landowners
and parsons in the kingdom.
In the pamphlet published at Glasgow in 133 G, the
average price of cotton is stated at 7d. per lb.; since
then the price has fallen, and Mr. JOHNSON, in the
table we published on the 22d instant, gives it 61d.
to 61d. for 1837 and 1838. The Standard, how-
ever, taking Mr. VI LLIERS' calculations, which
apply to the present time, assumes 10d. per lb. as
the price of cotton, " which gives," it says,
' " 19,170,000/. for the raw material, which, added to
•17,000,0001., the sum stated to be paid in wages,
is 36,170,0001, or 2,170,0001. more than the
whole produce of the trade, exclusive of all other
expenses attending the production of the various
articles." This is another specimen of the Standard's
tactics. Taking the price at 7d., the price of the raw
• material will be somewhat less than 13,500,000/.,
showing, not 2,170,0001., with the 17,000,0001.
more than the whole produce of the trade, as the
Standard says, but 3,500,0001. less. False state-
ment the second of the Standard. The rest of
the statements of our veracious Contemporary in the
same article are of the same description—deductions
from false or perverted data, and well calculated to
mislead those who follow the Standard, and never
examine the falsehoods assumed as the basis of its

reasoning.

In the House of Coalitions, last night, Mr.
DUNCOMBE gave notice that on Thursday he
would move a resolution to the effect that no re-
strictions should he placed on houses of theatrical
entertdinment within the City of Westminster, that
are not placed upon similar establishments within
the City of London. Mr. DUNCOMBE, it seems,
is sadly puzzled to understand why Westminster is
to be annually visited with a gloomier Lent than
any other part of the kingdom. The Hon.
Gentleman is not much of a theologian,
it appears, or he would . know that where
wickedness most abounds, there should be chiefly
exhibited the sackloth-and-ashes habiliments of
repentance. Why should London not enjoy privi-
leges, which, according to the canons, cannot be
extended to Westminster ? Has London the sins
of a Parliament and P Court to answer for ? When
does London exhibit the spectacle of hundreds of
Representatives betraying the interests of their coun-
try and their constituents to advance their own—of
Bishops clothed in purple and fine linen, preferring
seats in " high places" to the pulpit of the village
Church, where a starved curate is fain to stay the
cravings of a starved peasantry with the husks of
God's word—of Peers weighing their selfish grati-
fications against the wants, physical and moral, of
millions, and discovering the latter to be as dust in
the balance against the former ? These are enor-
mities not witnessed in London, with all its ma-
nifold haunts and ramifications of crime. The
paunches of the Aldermen are not to be com-
pared in insatiability to the Hells of the West
End ; nor are there any who will contend that
the avarice of the Stock -Exchange is so injurious
to the public morals as the prodigality of St.
James's-street, May-Fair, and the Quadrant. And
as according to the Divine law the sins of unre-
-1 penting fathers are visited upon their children, so
by immemorial usage the transgressions of an
unreclaimed Episcopal Bench, Peerage, Court,
and House of Commons, are annually laid
upon the heads of those scape-goats of the
Imisdeeds of the Aristocracy—the Patent Thea-
tres. After this elucidation of " the wisdom
of our ancestors," in sanctioning, for time
out of mind, the practice of starving actors in Lent
to expiate the peculiar sins of the City of West-
minster, we trust that Mr. DUNCOMBE will see
the necessity, in moving the withdrawal of his
motion on Thursday, to make a handsome apology
to the House for having ever thought of bringing
it forward. What would become of religion if we
were thus on all occasions to uncloak hypocrisy for
no better reason than to prevent the starvation of a
handful of obscure fellow-creatures ?

The insult offered to the British Flag in the Gulf
of Mexico was again brought before the House of
Commons last night, and we now notice it only to
call attention to one very remarkable fact connected
with it, as serving to expose the system adopted in
the administration of the Navy. The Express
packet, to whose flag the outrage complained of was
offered, has arrived in England under the command
of Lieut. CROKE, the Officer who experienced and
protested against the outrage ; and yet the Admi-
ralty is without any detailed information upon the
subject. Why ? Because it would be informal—it
would be contrary to precedent, to receive any
communication from an inferior officer, when there
is a superior through whom it may be officially
filtered I To obtain the truth by the simple pro-
cess of a direct communication with the individual
best able to furnish it, is an idea not to be enter-
tained by the Board. Now, mark the official rou-
tine of business in operation. Lord INGESTRJE
puts a question to the Secretary of the Ad-
miralty concerning a circumstance reported to have
taken place in the Mexican Gulf. The Right Hon.
Gentleman knows nothing about the matter, but
Parliament being impatient, he sets about obtain-
ing the necessary information. This he could
have by writing to Portsmouth or Falmouth ; but
the observance of official precedents being all-im-
portant in Whitehall, he finds himself obliged to
send a packet to Mexico for Commodore Dou-
GLAS'S Report. It so happens, however, that
the insult to our flag was offered before
the appearance of the Gallant Commodore in
the Gulf ; so that it rests with him to send an-
other packet back again to England for the neces-
sary information, which only Lieutenant CROKE
can supply ; and thus, rather than depart from an
usage most convenient for superior officers, but
often unjust towards men of a thousand times
greater professional merit, the circumference of the
globe is nearly thrice travelled to obtain information
less correctly than it could be got at the fireside I
We are not here attempting to prejudge a question
which is yet very fat from being definitely settled.
We are merely showing the simple working of that
aristocratic system of administration, the ramifica-
tions of which are injuriously felt in every branch of
the public service.

We learn from the report of the proceedings of
the National Convention (yesterday) that Mr.
FROST has been dismissed from the Magistracy ;
and it is said that the Government is preparing to
prosecute the Convention. The Tories will be gra-
tified, and the country will weep.

13,r the arrival of the Liverpool steamer at Fal-
mouth, from the Tagus, we have received Lisbon
Papers to the 19th inst. inclusive. On the 13th,
Viscount SA DA BANDEIRA, the President of the
Council, delivered a long speech in the Cortes, in
support of the paragraph in the Address to the
Throne, recommending the total abolition of the
Slave Trade. He protested that nothing could be
more unfair towards Portugal than to insist that the
Government was not most anxious to put a stop
to a traffic utterly disgraceful to any civilized
country. It was true that Portugal appear-
ed somewhat passive hitherto, but the reason
was that her energies were so crippled by domestic
calamities, that she could not do more than strug-
gle to maintain her own independence. During
the last sixteen years, the Government of Portugal
had devoted all its attention to the prosperity of
Brazil, to the utter neglect of the African colo-
tries. This gave an indirect encouragement to

the slave trade, by enabling corrupt functionaries
to convert such colonies into slave depots, and
tacitly allowing pirates of all nations to carry
on the trade itself under a flag, which in reality
they had no more right to hoist, titan an Algerine
corsair would have to raise the. flag of England,
Portugal derived no advantage whatever from the
trade, as the built of the traders were all foreigners,
and such as were not, belonged to a class of persons
who take good care to keep themselves out of the
reach of the administrative authorities. With re-
spect to the very general belief that England paid
large sums to Portugal to abolish the Slave Trade,
his Excellency assured the Cortes that it was a
mere delusion. True, that according to the stipu-
lat ions of the Treaty of Vienna, Great Britain paid
Portugal 300,0001., but that was as an indemnit y to
the Portuguese Government for ships improperly
declared prizes by British Court:-; of Admiralty.
With regard to the abandonment by England of
part of a,loan of 600,0001. due by Portugal in con-
sideration of a Treaty expressly abolishing the Slave
Trade, his Excellency observed that without any such
consideration the Portuguese Commissioners, Count
Po RTO SA NTo, and the Duke of PAMELLA, offered
to guarantee the Treaty, provided Lord CA sTI,E-
REAGH would consent to abandon the Treaty of
Commerce of 1810, by which Portugal was a loser,
but this his Lordship positively declined. It was
therefore a delusion to suppose that Portugal was
not as voluntary a party to the Treaty for abolish-
ieg the Slave Trade as England herself, though
her maritime weakness at present did not allow
her to adopt those decided measures of prevention,
which were so easy to so influential a naval
power as Great Britain. However, the Portu-
guese Government would not he wanting to itself
in any measure, consistent with the dignity of an
independent kingdom to abolish a traffic disgrece-
fill to humanity. These sentiments were well re-
ceived by the Cortes ; and we trust will receive
the sanction of the Chambers.

We regreat to leatn that there is no appearance
of an increasing harmony among political parti2s
in Portugal. By many, another revolution is
dr....aded. As for the Senators, it is impossible
to bring together the requisite number to form
a House—so little interest do the Portuguese aris-
tocracy take'in the functions of a legislator. The
following' extract from the Lisbon correspondence
of the Post, contains all the general news to be
found in these Papers :
From the accounts presented by the Lisbon Milting
Company, up to the 31st of December last year, it tip-.
pears that their outlay was 108 contos, without making
any allowance for the wear and tear of their ships, and the
ingress was only 40i contos, scy the proceeds of the fish
and sperm oil, so that our Newfoundland merchants need
not be under any great alarm regarding the injury which
this Company will do their trade with Portugal before the
end of 1841.

That great outlaw of the north of Portugal, Thomas
Congos:es, was killed at Yalladerea by some labourers
sego were in his pursuit ; no less than eight shots'eutered
11,i3 bodr.

Excliarges on England 551-, paper money, 43 par to
(Ls., and trade very dull. The city continues ti aLquil at
the time of closing this letter. Two slight shocks cf an
e:',-thquake were felt here, at three a.m., en the 14!h,
and one a.m., on the 16th, the heat on those days had been
excessive.

In another part of our Paper will.be found the
Report of a case lately decided by Lord JEFFREY,
in the Court of Session, in which it was attempted
by the executor of a testator to withhold payment
of a bequest to a Religious Society, on the ground
that the doctrine which the legacy was avowedly
intended to propagate, being what is called Unitarian,
was contrary to law. Lord JEFFREY has set the
question at rest in a way that if it be not very
palatable to the narrow-minded bigot who is fet-
tered by a State-established creed, or to the still
more inexcusable zealot who, not so fettered, de-
nies to other men the privilege which he claims for
himself—the privilege of forming his own religious
oi,inions without let or hindrance of any de-
scription—will, we trust, teach both these classes
of religionists more moderation than they have
been accustomed of late to exercise towards their
ftllow-Christians, the Unitarians. The former
class act in conformity with their professed princi-
ples. They hold it to be the duty of every man to
adopt the religious doctrines prescribed by the
State, and they therefore conscientiously hate, and
as far as they dare, persecute, all who do not adopt
them. They in fact deny the right of private
judgment in matters of religion as much aS the Ca-
tholics do, and naturally regard all who exercise it
as usurpers and rebels. They are at least con-
sistent in their uncharitableness. ,But what shall be
said of the latter class when they, with all their ab-
horrence of the intolerance of the Church and all their
clamour about religious liberty in the abstract, ac-
tually outstrip Churchmen in the race of religious
persecution ? Surely such persons " know not
what spirit they are of." They seem not to know
that the right of private judgment carries with it a
perfect immunity from all consequences of a tempo-
ral nature—that it not merely absolves the indivi-
dual who exercises it from responsibility to civil and
ecclesiastical tribunals, but that it is the sacred
shield which ought to protect him from suffer-
ing the least inconvenience, either in his civil
or social capacity, for the religious opinions
which he conscientiously holds. It matters not
what those opinions may be—that is no part
whatever of this question ; they may be the most
remote that it is possible to conceive from those
which are generally reputed orthodox ; the
right to hold them without molestation of any sort
is nevertheless inviolable, or religious liberty is but
an empty sound. Touch this right, and you de-
stroy it, for the moment you attempt to fix a limit
between the implicit faith required by the Catholic
Church and the utmost latitude of belief, or
even no belief at all, you recognize an autho-
trii,taattivvee
riyn tperripilreeitpaitei ono
fo
nSfaciri lb)
tr‘e,,,
tand:le atslsi smapitl
iooput
of which by the Church of I Rom.° constituted the
ground, as indeed it formed the only justification, of
the separation of the Reformers of the sixteenth
century from her communion.
who
ofthat uponthe
supposed Unitarians
heresy
It may, therefore, not be inexpedient for the Pro-
testant, particularly if he belong to any dissenting
e denomination,
rt
i because a
evens
heretics,
refuses them the name of Christians, to keep in
remembrance that lie is violating the very funda-
mental principles of religious liberty by practically
punishing the exercise of the right of • t
playa e judo-ment which he professes to hold sacred ; subvertin,
the foundation on which the Reformation was esta-
blished, and virtually conceding to the Church of
Rome the grand principle for which she has always
struggled—the exclusive authority to interpret
Scripture. We say virtually conceding this right ;
for if it is to be vested in mortal man, the Catholic
Church has a paramount claim to its possession.
In connection with this subject we beg the atten-
tion of our readers to a letter, in another column,
from a correspondent at Bath. It appears that
some Saints of that very saintly city have compelled
the proprietor of the Bath Chi-ankle to discharge
his foreman, because he was a " Unitarian in reli-
gion and a Radical in politics." Was there ever
such inquisitorial tyranny as this heard of ? What
a scandal ! what a disgrace to the men calling them-
selves Christians, who could be guilty of such an
act ! To send their emissaries into our workshops
to smell out heresy, and then to ruin the objects of
their treachery Talk indeed of the persecution of
the Romish Church, why these men of Bath, had
they dared, would have burnt their victim at the
stake.

The Paris Journals of Sunday contain no news of any
political interest. The Opposition Journals in noticing
the complaints made in England of the violation of the
British Flag, in the Mexican Gulf, by the Corvette com-
manded by the Prince DE JOINVILLE, taunt the Govern-
went
with this, the first fruits of the system of promot-
ing boy Princes to commands to which they are inade-
quate from their youth and inexperience. Had the insult
wantonly offered to cur Flag by the Prince, led to a war
between the two countries, France would have reason
to curse the system of Royal favouritism which has
prevailed in the military and naval services since the
accession of King LOUIS PHILIPPE.
Madrid Journals of the 17th have been received.
A split has taken place between ESPRTERO and his
protege, General ALAIX, for some time Minister of
War. In consequence of this Count CLONARD, the
prosecutor of CORDOVA and NARVAEZ, is, by Royal
Decree, dated the 16th, dismissed from the Captain
Generalship
of Andalusia, and subjected to surveillance-

it of

GLASGOW, FEB. 23.-1. he mai yesterday
morning, did not arrive till mid-day, and when we went to
press, the evening mail had not arrived.
Mr. Bolam has conveyed to the authorities,
through his solicitor, an intimation that it is nct his inten
von to
apply for the' removal of his trial. The case, there_
fore, will come before a Newcastle jury.—Gateshead
Observer.

There is no truth in the statement that one of
the tigers exhibiting at St. Jamey's Theatre ate up the
panther last week.

OAT -F BRIT A RY 26, 183

METROPOLITAN POLITICAL
SUMMARY.

The Morning iteralti, inthka,emirte of a leading article
on the new Eoglish Pocr law Bill, says !--," The Bill is
only an embodiment in one shape of those principles which,
in many shapes, have of Etc years expended their forco in
diminishing the influence of the territorial aristocracy of
England. The new Poor-taw is, crap!ratically, a money-
mroger's measure. Its object is to lower wages uni-
versally. We trust soon to see a real amendment of
our Poor-law system." Speaking on the subject of
the Ministerial Bill brought forward last night in the
Commons, for regulating the Ecclesiastical revenues of
England, our Contemporary observes, in a perfect trnra-port
of orthodoxy. " Parliament is nothing more than the guar-
d:an of Church property. Any appropriation of Eccle-
siastical resources to other than spiritual purposes would,
undoubtedly, constitute as frightful a breach of the duties of
guardianship, as ever came under the cognizance of a
C,urt of Equity, or of law." The Hera !d has a third ar-
ticle on Mr. Fox Maule's Factory Bill, which he declarer
to be an improvement en the present one ; but adds that
the evils of the system lie deeper " than the new Bill is
aPe to reach."

The Morning Chronicle, speaking. of Viscount Dun-
gannon's speech last night in opposition to the Ecelesias-
teal Reform 8711, observes shrewdly enough, " Whet M.
Von Raumer was in this country, he dined at the Archbi-
shop of Canterbury's, where the plate and the attendance
exrited his especial wonderment. But though they have
Archbishop of Canterbury in Prussia, and the plate of
a:I the Clergy in that kingdom would not perhaps be equal
to a tithe of that t:f his Grace, they somehow or other
howcy,r astonishing it may appear to Lord Dungannon.
ntrive to have schools and education. Perhaps the
Viscount can tell us how it happens that, as we have
the richest Bi,hops in Europe, our schools should yet
remain to be established."

The Morning Post seems to be in an exceeding hum
to embroil Lord Durham with Lord Melbourne—in fact,
to get up a pretty '• skrimmage" between them, slily ob
serving " Parliament has now been sitting for three weeks,
and we think, therefore, that we cannot fairly be accused
of impatience or precipitancy, if we remind Lord Durham
that no part of 11;s boast of a triumphant refutation' has
yrt been realized."

The Times, in a leading article on the subject of Sir
Francis Head's Correspondence with the Colonial Office.,
observes, •• The main and incurable phrer.zy of the Mel.
bourne Government respecting the North American Pro-
vinces, has been from the beginning its eagerness to accept
for truth the fraudulent pretences of a band of irreconcile-
able traitors; and its real or affected incapacity to pene-
trate the mask of a prepared and org;inised
The Times has another article, which will be found in
7/te Sun of this day.

The Morning Advertiser, commontimi on the debate
which took place in the Commons on Friday nizia, on
the Affirmation Bill, has the following just remark
There is no right more worthy of being held in sacred
inviolability by an enlightened people than liberty of con-
science, nor can a more deadly injury be inflicted on a
wyll constituted mind than fiat of controlling, by a species
or moral torture, more unendurable- than any physical ap-
pliance, the course indicated by its solemn and deliLrate
convictions."

THE MARKETS.- (THIS DAY;)

HUNGERFORD MARKET.

Supplies good, and a fair business done ; prices much as
last quoted. Fish.—Turbot, 7s. to 10s., and 205., and
higher ; Cod, 2s. 6d. to ss. and 10s. each ; Soles, 10:1.
to 3s. 6d. and 4s. per p: it ; Lobsters, Is. to 4s each.
Meat.—Beef, 7d. to Bd. and Bid. ; Mutton, 7irl. to 81-d• ;
Veal, Bd. to 9.1. ; Pork, 7id. to 84-d. Vegetables it fair
suiply, and most kinds in season, at the market prices as
pre% iutv4y quoted.

HAY MARKET.
Supplies of Hay, Clover, and Straw good ; the demand
brisk, and former prices supported. Hay, 70s. to 955.,
100 s., and in some cases higher. Clover, 80s. to 1004.,
lan-i 110 s. Strew, 325. to 42i. per had.