The Sun.
London, England, 1839-01-12 00:00:00

no public meeting, because the hostility of the
unenfranchised classes is dreaded ; and if the property
of the manufacturers cannot succeed, physical force
will not, on their own conditions, be on their side.
For the public meetings, which formerly were the or-
gans of public sentiment, the manufacturers are now
unhappily obliged to substitute meetings of Chambers
of Commerce—a modern, Frenchified institution, un-
known to the Constitution.
We observe this alienation of masters and men
with deep regret, as tending to ensure for a
time the continuance of the dominion cf the vampires,
and ultimately hastening on a violent revolution. Some,
perhaps many, of the disappointed manufacturers
threatened with ruin, will in that case form the same
opinions of the Legislature as the unenfranchised
classes, and will unite with them for obtaining Uni-
versal Suffrage, &c. The Chartists are everywhere
excellently organized ; and need but very little coun-
tenance and assistance from persons of pro-
perty to attain their object. If, therefore, any
considerable body of manufacturers should be
driven by the indifference of the Government,
or the obstinate rascality of the landlords, to make
common cause with the Chartists, the Parliament
itself will be endangered, if not overthrown. Not the
Corn-laws are now on trial, for they have been con-
demned long ago, but the Ministers and the Legisla-
ture ; and if they should not, from a sense of what is
due to the public welfare, put an end to the Devil's
laws, they will next be vehemently assailed, and most
probably destroyed.

We cannot conceive any conduct more praiseworthy
than that of the Chief Magistrate of a great commu-
nity, who, in addition to his official duties, and in de-
fiance of many interested parties, and possibly also
disregarding the wishes of many of his colleagues, uses
his name, influence, and authority, in behalf of the
suffering poor and the fatherless, and those " who have
none to help them." Notwithstanding the many
liberal men, the WOODS, and WA ITIIMANS, and
Kays, who have filled the office of Lord Mayor of
London, but little attention has hitherto been paid to
the interests of that class. Till the present LORD
MAYOR came into office, the helpless poor in the
streets were chased like thieves from one district to
another, or dragged before a Magistrate and committed
to prison because they could not find elsewhere relief.
Now not an instance of this sort occurs ; and why ?
Because the City Magistrates carry the provisions of
the much abused Poor-law into effect, and compel
the Guardians of the Poor, or (as they may sometimes
be more properly described) the Grinders of the Poor,
to do their duty. The Stipendiary Magistrates, piqued
that their jurisdiction was abridged, generally dismissed
all applications for relief, with the laconic reply, that
the New Law gave them no power ; and the parish
functionaries, whose profits and patronage were also
somewhat abridged, were not backward in increasing,
the odium raised against the new system. The pre-
sent LORD MAYOR, however, has discovered, for the
benefit of the poor, that he has the power to order
relief ; and he has also discovered, what none of the
city Solons, Whig or Tory, ever before discovered,
that the high price of coals inflicts great suffering on
at least a tenth part of the whole population, and that
the cause of all this suffering is a cruel combination,
of which Aldermen, Members of Parliament, and
many of the richest of his fellow citizens are members.
lie is, as might be expected, assailed by all those who
lived on the oppression of the poor. They have
opened upon him like a nest of hornets, from the north
and from the south ; and in the public Papers, and in
letters with names, and in many without names, he is
denounced because he interferes with the rules of the
trade for the sake of gaining a little fleeting popularity.
From what occurred, however, at the Mansion-house
the other day, we are glad to find that his Lordship
views all these attacks in their proper light, and is
only the more convinced that he has made the attack
in the right quarter, and that it is his duty, as Chief
Magistrate, not to rest till he has broken up a com-
pany of conspirators, who, year after year, have
pocketed annually not less than a million sterling of
the money of the inhabitants, and robbed the Corpo-
ration of no small portion of the coal-tax by diminish-
ing the supply. If coals were sold at a moderate
price, probably. fifty per cent. more would be con-
sumed, and consequently the coal fund would be in-
creased to that extent. We are convinced, however,
that until the subject is taken up by Parliament the
evil will never be thoroughly eradicated. There are
so many interested in evading any regulations for the
good of the public, that the only effectual remedy is to
pass an Act declaring the trade free, and allowing
every ship-owner to import coals without the incum-
brance of any of those functionaries whose only care
has hitherto been to raise the price for their own sor
did purposes.

Our readers will perceive, from our report, that the
Court of Queen's Bench granted a rule nisi for a
mandamus, on the application of the Parish of St.
George, Hanover-square, to compel the Justices of
Middlesex to quash a county-rate, made on the 27th
October, 1836, pursuant to the decision of the Court
of Queen's Bench in last Michaelmas Term.

The increase in the expenditure of the county-rate
of Middlesex is so great, that the quarterly-rate to be
made on Thursday next (the county day) will be five
farthings in the pound, estimated to produce within a
fraction of THIRTY THOUSAND POUNDS. Are the
Churchwardens and Overseers of the metropolitan
parishes all asleep ?

Madrid Papers to the 3d instant have reached us

his morning. By a Royal decree the province 01
Andalusia was declared no longer in a state of siege.
In the sitting of the 2d, M. PITO PIZARRO brought
forward his budget for 1839, the discussion of which
was postponed. Several letters were read from Gen.
CLONARD and the Government, relative to the events
at Seville, and among the rest one from General
NARVAEZ, announcing that he had gone into
exile to a foreign country, to escape the attempts
upon his life directed by ESPARTERO. In this
letter NARVAEZ truly states that Spain is vir-
tually without a Government—all the legislative
official, judicial, and royal functions of the kingdom
being directed by a vindictive and ambitious traitor to
the QUEEN and Constitution. It was supposed that,
acting under the advice of the British Ambassador,
NARVAEZ had taken refuge in Gibraltar.
ESPARTERO was at Logrono on the Ist inst., but
too much occupied with Cabinet intrigues to trouble
himself about the prosecution of the war. Mr. PETER
BORTH WICK was about to pay a visit to his old friend
Don CARLOS. The interview was expected to be
very touching and impressive, as PETER was to appear
in the garments in which he first essayed the perform-
ance of Othello, at the Surrey.
On the 19th ult. General O'DONNELL, by com-
mand of ESPARTERO, ordered the expulsion from San
Sebastian of all fathers and mothers having sons in the
service of Don CA rams. Their goods were declared
forfeited, with the exception of their personal attire I
And this to weaken an enemy whom the cowardly and
traitorous Commander-in-Chief has the means of de-
feating in the field, did he but dare manfully to take
it ! Never was there such a set of contemptible
scoundrels as the officers of the Spanish army exhibit
at this moment. They wear swords but to enable them
to plunder the defenceless.

The Paris Papers of Thursday, received this morn-
bring the continuation of the debate in the