The Sun.
London, England, 1838-10-02 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

The following is an extract from a letter received from
one of the principal commercial houses in Dantzic, dated
the 24th of September last :
" Since our last a parcel of 130 lasts finest mixed wheat,
weighing 61i pounds per bushel, has been sold at 455. ed.
per quarter on board. This transaction is to be considered
equally important as if 1,000 lasts had been sold at a time
when we are plentifully stocked.
" We have confirmed excellent weather, but harvest being
finished of wheat it can only prove beneficial for spring corn
and for sowing work. They write us from Cujavia, we must
anticipate an advance of prices of old fine dry wheat. The
yield of the crop in our province will be less than half the
quantity of an average crop. The quality of the wheat is as
poor as we ever have seen it before—say damp, sickly-
looking, and not fit for shipment. It is not worth
while to touch such stuff, if even obtainable, at low
prices. In all the farms which produced fine quality in
former years the wheat is grey, dark, and ordinary, of a
faint appearance, smutty, flinty, and of a withered, shri-
velled grain. Sprout is generally complained of, and the
weight is 54 to 57iIb. per spudt ; and even after most careful
turning in the open air, the weight could not be screwed fur-
ther up than to 59 and 59f1b., and the wheat kept as hard as
old stale wheat of which turning has been neglected during
years. All the wheat has been harvested in a state of imma-
turity—it has been favoured too little by sunny weather during
its growing. Rye and spring corn is plenty, but partly damp.
From Plock they state that although the latter occupations of
harvest had been favoured by fine weather, the result of the
crop is a very bad one, both in respect to quality and quantity."
The above, and an extract from a Dantzic letter, dated
the 17th of September, in a former Number of the Chro-
nick, may be said to complete the estimates of the Polish
crops. So miserably bad are they, that it has been
doubted, by persons conversant in the trade, whether
50,000 quarters of wheat will in all be shipped from
Poland next year. It was, we understand, rumoured
in the beginning of the present year that the Rus-
sian Government intended to prohibit the export of
grain from Polend on account of their own wants,
in case prices should continue to advance in this country ;
but as prices rose more rapidly in Warsaw than in Dantzic,
it was not thought necessary to have recourse to the prohi-
bition. The Poles sent very little down the stream past
Warsaw. To prohibit the exportation of any article or
produce from which the nobility of Russia and Prussia de-
rive their incomes is not a matter which can easily be
brought abeet. The nobles must have cash as well as the
Governmre. e and the sale of grain and other raw produce
is thei- o:iiy resource. In Prussia it would be very diffi-
cult, if not impossible, to prohibit the exportation of grain.
The power of the part;es interested is too strong to be
overcome by the Gov ernment. Great alarm, we learn, pre-
vails among the linen manufacturers of Silesia at the ad-
vance in the prices of grain, and discontent is openly mani-
fested in all the manufacturing towns of Prussia on that
account. The manufacturers even petitioned the King to
prohibit exportation, but it could not be accomplished. In-
deed the belief of well-informed persons is, that the Prussian
Government would rather wish the permanent extension
of their agriculture, than foster their manufactures by
temporary expedients. The accounts from the north of
France received yesterday state that the Government has
taken alarm at some small purchases of wheat made in the
ports of Dunkirk and Rouen, and has hastened the time
for imposing a duty of about ss. per quarter on the ex-
portation of wheat. This result would soon hare been come
to, without the interference of the Government, from the
working of the French Corn-law ; but the fact shows the un-
easiness of the French Government at the prospect of
any wheat going out of their country. The example of
Belgium, where the export of wheat is prohibited, has been
followed. The prices in France are rising, but no atten-
tion is directed to the fact by the French Press ; it is a sub-
ject never mentioned. Such arc the fruits of the short-
sighted avarice of our Corn monopolists. They have so
contrived matters that it is believed by the best-informed
persons that, so far from there being wheat in store in any
part of the world available for exportation to this country,
two millions of quarters could not be purchased at any
price, and this would only, at our present rate of consump-
tion, give us a supply for eight weeks. Great uncertainty
yet prevails respecting the nature of the crops of Scotland
and Ireland, which are only yet partially secured. But,
however this may be, the prospect is already sufficiently
discouraging. However, evil which is anticipated is gene-
rally less disastrous than it would otherwise be. To pre-
vent any class from starving, recourse will, no doubt ,be had,
as on former occasions, to the coarsest food. We have
always foreseen that the aristocracy of this country, in their
blind cupidity, would delay the settlement of this important
question till the arrival of some such crisis as that to which
reflecting personsare looking forward.—Morning Chronicle.
There was in the Times of yesterday a very good article
on the subject of duelling in general, and especially in re-
ference to the punishment of two persons who were found
guilty of wilful murder in consequence of being upon the
ground when the late fatal affair took place at Wimbledon-
common. But our Contemporary has been considerably
too late in coming forward with a common-sense view of
this matter. If instead of following us at the distance of
three weeks be had co-operated with us when the tide of
popular prejudice ran strong, some good might hare been
done in bringing the popular mind to reason upon this dif-
ficult subject. But it is ever too much the custom of our
Contemporary to watch the popular sentiment and to fall
in with it, rather than to oppose that sentiment when it
runs counter to the cause of truth and fairness. There
was something very horrible in the Wimbledon-common
duel, which naturally enough impressed the popular feeling
with indignation, and a certain obscure panting after ven-
geance. And, with the usual wisdom of the popular body,
the feeling which arose against those concerned in slay-
fug Mr. Mirfin made itself manifest in wholesale, head-
long, unreasoning hostility to all duelling, and all
persons in any way concerned with it. The Times then
was totally silent ; but now, when two persons have be-
come the victims of that excited feeling, and pity has taken
the place of a thirst for punishment, and it has become
evident that the convicted persons are visited with a se-
verity far beyond the ordinary custom of society, our Con-
temporary comes forward and floats with safety and with
triumph upon the recoiling wave. This may be in one
sense clever management ; but it is not very creditable
either to the courage or the integrity of a " public instruc-
tor." We are not ashamed to confess that we were less
cautious, and we encountered a storm of obloquy in conse-
quence from those whose minds were heated not only by
the exciting details of the recent catastrophe, but by news-
papers, anxious to show off their common-place philosophy
at a time when they knew it would be peculiarly accept-
able. We did not hesitate to put ourselves in fee way
of being pelted on the one hand with the ponderous wordi-
ness of pedantic solemnity, and on the other with the
flippant sophisms of affected theorists, who think the
customs of the world are to be judged, and set right, by
the elaborate fancies of utilitarian dreamers. We regret
that at such a time when the assistance of the Times would
have been really useful, upon the side which it now advo-
cates, that assistance was not afforded. We have been

abused in all manner of newspapers, in all parts of the
country, for haying defended and approved of, the practice
of duelling. We never did any such thing, but always
gave our readers to understand that we looked upon it as
a lamentable necessity, arising out of the established cus-
tom of society, and the civilization (such as it is) prevailing
among us. There are thousands of injuries which no law
can redress—which it would be torture unutterable to
endure without seeking some mode of redress—and which
the custom of society points out to be redressed in one
particular way. Nay more ; it is certain that whatever
the law may say, society does look with scorn upon the
man who under certain circumstances, does not seek for
that mode of redress which the law denounces ; and
while this is the case it is most unjust for society, or that
which represents its feeling in the public press, to take
credit for a sympathy with the law which is not really felt.
It is very well that the law should be what it is, because
cases now and then occur (and perhaps the late affair
at Wimbledon-common m ly be one of them) in which
some of the persons concerned are without such excuses as
should hinder the penalty of the law from falling upon them
in all its dread severity. But (society being what it is),
to add to the state of the law the storm and outcry of
indignant and indiscriminate reproach, and especially
while judicial investigation of a particular case is yet in
progress—this is certainly a very perilous course for
such a 3 desire to use justly and fairly the influence they
may happen to possess. If the custom of society can be
changed in this matter of duelling, let it be changed ;
for undoubtedly such a mode of arbitrament is directly
repugnant not only to those dread commands which wa
ought all to strive and endeavour to obey, but also to mere
reason. Yet, rude and Barbarous and repugnant to reason
as this check upon brutality. of conduct and behaviour must
appear to be, when tnemaically contemplated,yetsince
the practical operation of the check is as unquestionable as
any other palpable circumstance in the affairs of society, it
will be highly expedient (since we cannot change broom,
nature) nature) to seek for some other praitc. tica\lvciltiletcrkesipnecitts
to the
before we utterly dispense with
persons said to be sentenced to a year's irrinrisonment in
Guildford gaol, it certainly does seem a case of severity,
for upon their trial no evidence was given to show that they
either promoted the duel at which they were present, or
that they were persons of ferocious habits, and likely to
join in an affair which they hoped or expected shouldend
in the death of a follow-creature. If evidence. of that kind
had been given, we should not say one word in their be-
half.—Morning Post.
We have often had occasion to notice the method in
which the whole tribe of the economi,ts—including, under
that term, the journalists and cssay;s,,,
who paraphrase
month by month, week by week, or day by day, the dog-
mata of the great apostles of political economy—we have

often bad occasion to notice the method in which that noisy
and impudent school of rcosoners conducts its arguments
in favour of free trade. But. we have rarely seen all the
peculiar graces of that school—its shufflings, its equivoca-
tions, its tendency to forget, when convenient, its own pre-
mises, its instinctive habits of evading reasoning, which
cannot easily be answered—more fully illustrated than in
the reply which the Globe of Saturday proffered to furnish
to the Herald's observations on the relative tendencies of
the agricultural and manufacturing systems, which England
has, at different periods, witnessed. The following
passage is characteristic of the monkey school of
reasoners—that school of which the Globe is the most
distinguished ornament—and in which grin and chatter
and all the other monkey-like indications of self-suffi-
ciency are the habits that recommend to eminence :
"The absurdities to which are driven the thick•and-thin or-
gans of exclusive landed ascendancy would be amusing if they
were not humiliating. The Herald makes the Globe admit
a palpable decline in the amount of national happiness since
the beginning of the reign of George the Second.' And the
Standard reiterates the assertion which forms its sole argu-
ment on the Corn-law question, and which it hugs with the
fondness felt for an only child—that all countries which im-
port food must decline from that cause. This the Standard
calls presenting a win's view Lquery, a view wide] of the
question—a sort of width of view not uncommon in the same
quarter.
Is my Lord well, that he doth talk so wide
" The twin assumptions founded on by the Corn-law advo-
cates are—first, that it is practicable to remain wholly inde-
pendent of foreigners; secondly, that any degree of depen-
dence of foreigners necessarily involves the total destruction of
our internal resources. The utterly untenable nature of both
these assumptions is evident at a glance. Supposing we had
srid, what we never did,—nor Mr. Hallam, whom we quoted—
nor Mr. Malthus, whom he quoted—that increasing trade had
drawn after it declining happiness----still, if that increase were
a necessity, in the present distribution of property, and con-
stantly-increasing population—what remedy r
The name of a respected evening contemporary is mixed
up with that of the Herald in the choice effusion, which we
have just quoted. We do not presume to fight the battles
of the Standaid. The eloquence and logical power of our
Conservative contemporary need no extrinsic aid, even in
a struggle much more formidable than any which the
Whig-Radical journals are c:ualified to wage. We ven-
ture, therefore, to reply only for ourselves. The Globe,
it will be perceived, denies having admitted " a pdpable
decline in the amount of national happiness since the be-
ginning of the reign of George the Second ;"—and yet,
subsequently, our Ministerial contemporary, indirectly re-
iterates the admission in question, by adverting to it, as " a
necessity." True, thee " necessity" is advanced, hypo
theticaily ; but the hypothesis is never, afterwards, dis-
turbed. If that hypothesis do not shadow forth the truth
—the truth, at all events, is cruelly withheld by the Globe.
The following sentences, moreover, bear out our inter-
pretation of our Whig contemporary's previous state-
ments :

" What would these fanatics for starvation have of us?
Would they have us retain to the purely agricultural state ?
Would they have us independent of imports ?"
We have never protested against "increasing trade."
We have never contended for the establishment of a state,
in which England should be " independent of imports."
But we have protested against the extension of a false system
of trade. We haveprotested ag.linst a system of commercial
legislation, which tends to an extreme, the opposite of" in-
dependence of imports"—:in extreme which tends to ren-
der us absolutely dependent on foreigners—which has,
already, enabled for..ign consumers to fix the prices of
most of our manufactured commodities, and of which the
boasted consummation is to be,—the infliction of artificial
sterrility upon the soil of England ! Would the friends
of native industry—" the fanatic? adverted to by the Globe
have us to return to the purely agricultural state ?"
We, as participating in the fanaticism in question, venture
to answer, that the admissions of the Globe itself, furnish
sufficient reasons, at all events, for not receding further
from the agricultural state than we have already done.
The admissions of our contemporary furnish, in
truth, very strong reasons for maintaining the Corn laws.
The mode in which our Whig antagonist has shuf-
fled out of the various positions in opposition to agricul-
ture, which he successively assumed, is curious. In the
first place, the Globe enlarged on the benefits conferred by
the factory system on OU7 labouring population. The
land, it was alleged, had " thrown off" immense masses
of labourers, who, but for our factories, must have been
vagrants or beggars: We denied the accuracy of this as-
sumption. We proved that the land had never " thrown
of" any portion of its population, until a most unfair sy s-
tem of taxation was devised, and brought into operation—a
system of taxation, having for its object, the repression of
agricultural enterprise, and the advancement, by unnatursl
means, of foreign trade. Did the Globe venture to answer
our statements ? No. Our brisk contemporary was,
simply, mute on the subject of the advantages,_ ascribed, in
the first instance, to the factory system! But then, we
were told that the condition of the agricultural classes is
wretched when compared with the condition of the manufac-
turing operatives ! Here, again, we joined issue with our
anti-agricultural contemporary; and we proved that whether
the amountof remuneration, or the sacrifice of ease and com-
fort, be regarded, the condition of the agricultural classes—
deteriorated as it has been by the spirit of false legislation
which has for upwards of a century postponed the interests
of agriculture to the interests of trade—is yet incomparably
less miserable than the condition of at least nine-tenths of
those who participate in the blessings of the vaunted
factory system. Does the Globe venture to reiterate its
assertions in regard to the relative advantages of the agri-
cultural state, and our manufacturing state—based on such
economical principles as now prevail ? No. The Globe,
in the true spirit of Whiggery, shrinks from avowing its in-
ability to maintain its positions—and takes refuge in the
assertion that the Herald desires to witness the re-
establishment of " a beggarly system of agriculture."
The agricultural system of England never was " beg-
garly." All the manufacturing capital, of which the
Globe is so proud, was raised from the soil—nay,
was diverted (as we proved last week) from the cultivation
of the soil, by the influence of a series of most unfair Le-
gislative enactments. Had our system of taxation been
honest the agriculture of England would still have re-
mained in the ascendant. Not that we should have re-
mained without manufactures and commerce ! Quite the
reverse ! We should have enjoyed the benefit of extended
manufacturing and commercial systems, based on sound
principles, and dependent on the extension of the field of
agricultural industry. Under the operation of sound fiscal
principles we should not have witnessed, as we do at this
moment, in England, vast tracks of uncultivated land, vast
masses of " surplus capital," together with a " surplus po-
pulation," comprehending nearly a million of hand-loom
weavers in a state of semi-starvation.—Morning Herald.

On Friday night, between the hours of eight and
11 o'clock, a very daring and extensive robbery of jewellery
and other valuables was effected at the residence of Madame
Bouchet, a French lady of considerable fortune, rTsiding at
SS, Welbeck-street, Cavendish-square. It appears from in-
quiries made, that on Madame Bouchet retiring to her cham-
ber, a little before 11 o'clock, she discovered that her boudoir
had been broken open, and jewellery, consisting of diamond
brooch-clasps, pearl carings, finger rings of different descrip-
tions, with many other valuable articles, had been carried off.
Information of the rubbery was immediately conveyed to the
station-house, and Mr. Lincoln, the superintendent, and Mr.
Anderson, of the D division, set about tracing the robbers.
It is supposed that they entered by the area door at the time
the family was at dinner. The value of the property stolen
exceeds 500/. A reward of 501. has been offered for the
apprehension of the thieves, who, it is believed, are known to
the police.

with thine
They repaired
Jews, it was observed by them as a strict fast.
Saturday last, being the day of atonement . •
inwti
tiro, theain e
ciS
untilynag Synagogue
na
the
hsei x
c c o'clockning
ment, after w six
hich tire, departed. litheornutortnalknitgwhane7ntohueyrirsles--
this man was
had the misfortune to kill a eerson in a duel ;
" ant of
DuELs.—You know that my father in his youth
his friend they fought with regret; that insane I) •
honour" constrained them. The mortal blow which deprived
the one of life destroyed for ever the repose of the other.
Since that time the -pangs of remorse have never left his
heart ; often in solitude he is heard to weep and groan ; he
imagines that he yet feels the steel, pushed by his cruel hand,
entering into the heart of his friend ; be sees amid the shades
of night Isis pale and bloods corpse ; he beholds with shudder-
ing the fatal wound ; he starts
forward to staunch the flowing
blood; terror seizes hirn, he cries out, the bloody spectre
never ceases to pursue hirfe—Roesseau.
The pilchard fishery last week has been entirely un-
successful. Shoals are seen, lest only about twenty hlids. of
small ones have been taken. Where the seines have been shot,
the fish enclosed hare Droved to he only sprats. Mackerel,
however, have been taken in abundance. Last Thursday,
Friday, and Saturday, more than 150,000 were sold daily at
Newlyn and Nlotsselsole, at Si. to 10s. the 120.—This week
less were taken, and the price has been 12s. To the honour
of the fishermen it should be said, to avoid breaking in upon
any part of the Sabbath, they never drive on Saturday or Sun-
day night. The mackerel now taken, though small are fat and
excellent, and the poor are generally salting them for their
winter's stock in lieu of pilchards—Falmouth Express.
We are assured that the negotiations with Prussia
for prolonging the iron railroad cf Amsterdam and Ainheim
as far as the frontiers, and then through the Prussian domi-
nions to Cologne, proceed favourably. An association of con-
siderable bankers in Germany is said to have declared itself
ready to undertake this promising enterprise. It seems that
they only wait for the publication of the law respecting iron
railroads in Prussia.
A Mr. Crabb, of Southampton, has undertaken the
task of reforming the gipseys; n:s success, we fear, is mere
than doubtful.
In the year 1763, 7.. man under sentence of death
permitting cee 'his lege to
be u
and a new styptic tried upon it, but he died before
the trial off,
ialeould be made.