The Sun.
London, England, 1838-08-15 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 15, 1838.

all our mutual transactions. We will not allow the
corn of Germany, and the United States, or the sugar of
the Brazils and the Havannah—the coffee of St. Domingo,
and the timber of Norway, to be brought into the country ;
we will not, therefore, allow the Brazilians, the Ha-
vannaliese, the Norwegians, &c., to trade with us,
and of course, our foreign trade decays. But let us
not blame others, let us blame our knavish landlords for
making, and our foolish people for submitting to laws which
strangle the national prosperity and starve the people.
We are sure that our foreign trade, is not as flourishing
as it might be, and for that our suicidal starvation
laws are wholly in fault. Lord LYNDHURST pointed to
the German commercial league, as something which had
done us injury, and which our diplomacy might have pre-
vented. God forbid such an attempt should have been
made. The great object and effect of that league
is to put an end to many of the trammels which
did exist to the internal communication of Germany, in
consequence of its being divided into so many States. A
greater blessing could not be conferred on that country by
its Sovereigns, and it would have been a crime in England
to have impeded or prevented so admirable a work.
The consequence is, that our goods, once entered
within the league circulate freely over all the countries com-
prised in it, instead of having to pay a dozen different Cus-
tom-house duties, and their consumption has increased.
The rate of the tariff at which they are allowed to enter into
the league is another question, and as long as we set the
example of making war on the industry of Germany by those
Corn-laws which starve our own people, so long we are
deprived of all right to complain, even if the commercial
1 league were wholly to exclude every English commodity.
We pass now, not, however, having exhausted the other
topic, to the decay of our influence. We had a great in-
fluence with the Continental nations, probably when we
were engaged in fighting their battles, subsidising all the
Powers of Europe, and incurring that vast loadof debt which
now burdens us in the race of contending nations. It ought, in
our estimation, to be a subject of rejoicing that we no longer
have the influence ;:caused by such a profligate and enor-
mous expenditure. If, however, it be said, that the ex-
ample of England, that her manners and her institutions,
her arts and her inventions, have less influence
in Europe now than before, we assert that never
in the whole courso of her great and glorious history
was her influence so all commanding as now. She leads
the march of civilization. She is not at war, and no linger
exerts the influence of arms, she lives in blessed
peace, and exerts an influence over the progress
and welfare of other nations, which is not equalled
by any Power that is, or ever was in the world.
Do Mr. URQUH A RT, the Glasgow petitioners, and
their mouth-piece in the House of Peers, wish to
substitute for this God-like and beneficial influence, the
paltry, petty, mischievous intrigues of negotiators, and the
more ruinous influence of subsidies and the sword ? We
stop, because we see that these topics will occupy us and
.he public during the vacation.

The Education Bill of Lord BROUGHASI has met with
the fate of all its predecessors. At the commencement of
the session he introduced it with a short speech, and last
night, in a still shorter speech, he mond that it be post-
poned for the present. Short as the latter speech was, how-
ever, it contained matter of great importance, and will be read
with interest by all who are anxious to remove the greatest
source of crime and the greatest stigma of England—

the ignorance of the lower classes. It appears that his
Lordship, amidst all his official and Parliamentary duties,
has not neglected the great object of his life, but during
the excitement caused by the debates on slavery and the
Canada question, has carried on an immense correspond-
ence, and received numberless deputations from almost sll
sects and parties,relative to his Bill for the general education
of the people, the result of which warrants him in stating
that, they have come to an agreement on the great features of
the measure. The Catholics and Jews being the least
numerous parties, have properly waived their objections to
the use of the Bible in schools, on the condition that their
children are cot compelled to attend when the authorised
version is read. Even Lord LYNDHURST, the leader of
the opposite party, seems favourable to the plan of esta-
blishing a Board for carrying Lord Baouottast's system,
both as regards general education and Charities, into effect,
and in this Lord LANSDOWNE, the representative of the
Governmetit on this great question, fully concurs. If the
heads of the Church evince a chartable disposition, and
yield a little to religious prejudices, as all other classes
seem inclined to yield, we shall have to record next see-
sion a triumph much greater than the emancipation of the
Negro Slaves—the emancipation of millions of our fellow-
creatures from the greatest of all thraldoms—ignorance
and vice.

•cis las

Lord BROUGHAM referred, in the House of Lor
night, to a petition which he had received on the subject
of Slave Emancipation, which stated that while the Wes,
Lai. Legislatures affected freely to concede liberty
to the negroes, yet that, under the pretence of pass-
ing police regulations, they sought by indirect means
to render the yoke of the coloured race as galling
as ever. This is a state of things for which we were not
unprepared. The planters have inflicted too many wrong•
on the Negroes ever to forgive them ; and therefore it
would be the excess of folly to expect them to carry the
new system into effectual operation. To-:sorrow we shall
otr;_r a few remarks upon this subject—in the meantime
thanking Lord BROUGHAM for directing our attention to it.

The Canada Indemnity Bill caused a long debate last
night in the House of Commons, and then was passed
through the Committee, without any amendments. Lord
JouN RUSSELL admitted the illegality of the ordinance, so
fir as Bermuda is concerned, but contended at great length
that the law intended to confer, and had conferred
the power on Lord DURHAM to pass the other
part of the ordinance. He did not, however, insist
on pledging the House of COUTIDO;!S to that view,
on account of the lateness of the scszion, and the
impossibility of coPecting such a number of Members as
would give force and dignity to a decision of the House.
He decided, therefore, on taking the law as it had been
do:dared by his opponents, and accepting the Bill of In-
demnity. We see on the same night, then, the curious
spgctaele of a Bill drawn up and passed through all its
stageS in the House of Lords without being read by the
Lords (the Schedule of Debtors Bill), and we see another
Bill passed by the House of Commotas which is at the same
time declared to be repugnant. to the opinion of him who
promotes it. This is legislation—the greatest effort of human
wisdom, and thus are made those laws which are supposed
to regulate the course of society, in the absence or in defi-
ance of the laws of nature. Lord JOHN RUSSELL man-

fully admitted, as we yesterday stated, that the terms of
the ordinance are not altogether to be justified, but he
defended, as we have done, their spirit and intention, at
great length. He spoke at one time of whoever might
have to administer the government of Canada, as if he ex-
pected that Lord DURHAM would resign, but at the close
of his speech his language seemed to imply a hope that the
Noble Earl will continuo to administer the affairs of the
Province, assured of the full support of Lord JOHN
RUSSELL, and the great party which follows him in the
House of Commons. It may not, therefore, be so certain
as we have ventured to anticipate that Lord DURHAM will
return immediately to England. He may possibly consider
that his honour is pledged to endeavour to restore Canada
completely to tranquillity, and may find in the rebuff he has
received from the Peers only a stimulus to be more zealous,
but at the same time more cautious.

We see, with deep regret, that two females, found
guilty of infanticide at Chester, have been left for execu-
tion by Mr. Baron GURNEY, who cautioned themnot to
entertain the least hope of the least mitigation of their
sentence. We join, however, with the Herald in express-
ing a fervent prayer, that her MAJESTY will not allow the
law to take its bloody course. If there be one crime com-
mitted by a human being which injures no one somuch as
the criminal, it is surely that of the mother who deprives
her own new-born infant, whose eye has never opened on
the light of heaven, of life, and thereby deprives herself of
all a mother's joys. There is in the cases, however, of the
two women a great difference, which makes us again com-
plain of the gross generalization of the law. Not,
however, to pursue that topic when it is in-
dispensible to plead in the first instance for mercy—.
thoug-h the errors of the law might make judges and law-
makers have seine tenderness fOr the errors—awful ones
though they be—of young and misled females, we only now