The Sun.
London, England, 1839-03-09 00:00:00

ANTI-CORN LAW DELEGATION.

A letter from a farmer, near Rye, shows with con-
siderable point the evil wi.ich exists in the monopoly of
the Corn-laws, whereby one class is permitted to profit
by the exclusive possession of privileges, and inflict in-
jury on the rest of the community. The writer justly
observes that, after so many monopolies have been
broken up, it is extraordinary that the landowners
should be permitted to retain theirs ; and he instances
for encouragement the abolition of several commercial,
political, and ecclesiastical ones, which once seemed
likely to last for centuries. He states that the Corn-
laws tend to make the farmer the mere creature and
slave of his landlord ; for, in consequence of the uncer-
tainty of prices, rent is always varying in its pressure,
and relief from it is always granted by the landlord as a
charity, instead of a rigjt ; so that the farmers are kept
in constant subserviency and fear, and are virtualy
nothing more than the political serfs of the landowners.
It is therefore the interest of the rest of the commu-
nity to rid themselves of this political weight in their
race for civil liberty, as much as it is their duty to free a
large portion of their fellow-countrymen from their gall-
ing chains of servitude. Only let prices be certain and
steady, and farmers would gradually rise to be a higher
class of men, having as much independence and intelli-
gence as the inhabitants of manufacturing towns. Those
who suppose that the abolition of the Corn-laws would
bring down the condition of the farmer and labourer,
ought to show what is their condition now. The
Farmer's Friend, as the Duke of Buckingham styles
himself, knows perfectly well how completely the agricul-
turist is in the hands of the landowner, and there he
must remain as long as the Corn-laws exist.
The finality gates of the Reform Bill will be thrown
open, whenever the repeal of the Corn-law is effected ;
and the Serfs that have so long been held in bondage by
their task masters, will join in the general cry for in-
creased civil and mental liberty.

THE WEATHER IN THE COUNTRY.—It ap-
pears from the reports o four country Contemporaries that
snow, sleet, hail, ice, and frost, have been general through-
out the provinces. A somewhat similar severity in the
temperature to that experienced by us in the metropolis is
felt throughout the country.
TORY CLERICAL EXCLUSIVISM.—The sys
tem of exclusive dealing on account of political opinions,
to which we lately had occasion to advert, as put in prac.
tice towards a respectable tradesman of this city, in conse-
quence of his recording his vote in the Town Council in
favour of a petition for a repeal of the Corn-laws, appears
to be gaining ground in a luarter where, from the preva-
lence of superior education, and it might be expected, of
extended and enlightened views, such a practice ought
naturally to be repudiated. Some of our readers will be
surprised that neither any public announcement of the ap-
proaching meeting of the Clergy of this Archdeaconry,
nor of the Sermons to be preached for the benefit of the
Church Missionary Sobiety, is allowed to appear in our
columns. We are also laid under the ban of exclusive
partisanship.—Worcestershire Chronicle.