The Sun.
London, England, 1838-11-15 00:00:00

WITH WHICH

THE gc TRUE SUN" IS NOW
INCORPORATED.

LONDON
THURSDAY EVENING, NOVEMBER 15, 1838.

The speech of King LEOPOLD, at the opening of
the Belgian Chambers, on Tuesday, will be found
in another column. Though wanting in distinctness,
like all Kings' speeches, we learn with pleasure from
it, that Belgium steadily advances in prosperity and
civilization—that the public spirit which encourages
the intersection of the country with railways is not
negligent of the cultivation of a taste for the fine arts
—and that the Government is equally desirous of im-
proving domestic institutions, and extending the com-
mercial relations of the Belgian people. Some disap-
pointment will doubtless be felt at the tenor of the
paragraph in the speech which states that the Hol-
lando-Belgic question is not yet definitively arranged.
Timid persons may be led to fear that more is meant
than meets the eye in the allusion to the terms upon which
only the KING will sign a treaty with Holland,
—the more especially as his MAJESTY is resolved
to keep up his present war establishment. We en-
tertain no such apprehensions. In the official lan-
guage of a constitutional monarchy so recently esta-
blished as that of Belgium, and under circumstances,
too, so savouring of foreign tutelage, nothing can be
better calculated to put the national Representatives in
good humour with themselves and their country than
now and then a swaggering paragraph in a Royal ad-
dress, by way of harmlessly offering defiance to al
Europe. When Belgium has become more familiar
with her position, and when she has learned that
by having recourse to arbitration the most powerful
nations best consult their true dignity, she will not
require to be informed by the SOVEREIGN that he is
prepared to resent, by force of arms, a violation
of the national honour, to which England, France,
Austria, Prussia, and Russia, must be jointly
consenting parties. We suspect, however, the Ilia
cause of the delay in the arrangement of this question
to be, a design on the part of Louis PHILIPPE to
reserve for himself the distinction of being the first to
announce the adjustment of all differences between
Holland and Belgium. His Most Christian MA-
JESTY, in our opinion, reserves it as a pet paragraph
in his speech to the French Chambers, convoked for
the 17th of December, by way of set-off against the
announcement of the evacuation of Ancona, and the
disastrous state of affairs in Spain. A Royal speech,
recounting the achievements of MONTEBELLO in
Switzerland—of the French squadron in the Mexican
Gulf—of the emissaries of Count MOLE in the
Peninsula—and winding up with the evacuation of
Ancona, would not be palatable to many Members of
the Chamber of Deputies, notwithstanding the Court
servility of a large majority of that body. We there-
fore suspect that the " NAPOLEON of Peace" has
reserved this savoury morsel of gratifying intelligence
to assist the announcement of the birth and future
glories of the Count of PARIS, in reconciling the
Chambers to the rest of the entertainment to which
his MAJESTY has invited them.

The corn averages continue to rise, and those pub-
lished to day rule the price of last week at 725, 11d.
Last Thursday the average was 695. 5d., and the rise
of price in the week is therefore 3s. 6d. In the London
Market 4,288 quarters were sold at 745. 2d. 9 • in
Essex, 3,430 at 70s. 11d.; in Yorkshire, 12,948, at
723. 2d., all of which were no doubt bona fide
sales. The weevely wheat from the granaries, and
the ill grown grains of the present ycar bare probably
now been in some measure disposed of, and the price
is rising to the Guildford price, that of good wheat,
which this week is 775. 6d. The average of the six
weeks is 675. 6d., and the duty is 18s. Bd., while
the actual price we are paying for wheat in
London is 745. 2d. The markets, therefore, must
rise considerably higher than 735., before corn comes
in at a nominal duty, or it must be at that exor-
bitant price for six weeks before the people can eat
one morsel of untaxed bread. Corn does not come in
free of duty the instant the price reaches 735., and not
till it has been at the rate of 735. during six weeks.
It is quite possible, therefore, that the price of corn, if
it continues to rise at its present rate, may be 90s. a
quarter in the Metropolis before the duty is ls. ; and
that prices will continue to rise we have no doubt.
The accounts from the North this week state, that the
winter has set in unusually early, and prevented the
farmers in the high lands from getting in their crops.
We copy a paragraph to this effect from the
Glasgow Chronicle, and believe that it is gene-
rally true. Over and over again it has been
stated that no great additional supply can be got
from the Continent of Europe. The last accounts
from Odessa, whence we might perhaps get some
wheat, state that prices were rising there, and had
caused some embarrassment to the operations of the
Russian armies. It has been conjectured that the

Russian Government may find in this circum-
stance a pretext to prohibit exportation. In order
therefore to ensure us a sufficient supply till next
harvest, prices must rule high ; and bets, it is re-
ported, have been laid in the City, that before
Christmas the price of the four-pound loaf will be
fourteen pence. Perhaps the landowners look at these
with szltisfaction, and, encouraged by
the submissiveness of the people, say with the Marquis
of CHANDOS, " things arc now going on well ; pray let
them alone."

But in our opinion, when wheat is at 745. 2d, per
quarter in London, a::d the duty is 18s. Bd., things
are not going on well, and it is our business to say so.
The working classes, whi'o they have put forth an
address scouting the very idea of submitting to leaders,
have in fact suffered some leaders, who have their own
purposes in view, to make them neglect an excellent
opportunity for getting rid of the Corn-laws. Though
they may not believe us—and prefer, as the Herald
assures us, its doctrines, that the abolition of the
Corn-laws would not increase wages—they may, per-
haps, listen to Mr. FIELDEN with some attention.
In a letter to the Elitor of the Times, published in
that Journal this morning, Jr. FIELDEN says,—

" However opinions arty ‘!,11"r m to the best means necessary
f.n- the relief of the suff.,ing roar or, the land, at the loom, and
in the factory, there can be but one opinion among ill well-
dispcsed members (..t Fouirty, that relief in some way
or other ought to be innnAia'ely extended to them.
" It is the state of r.rt.tched poverty to which this class of
working people is reduced, by having only half of what their
forefathers had in r( turn fif th,ir labour (on the land, at the
loom, and at many other cenp:tiens), and the fear entertained
by others who are better pai I for their labour of being re-
duced to the same state of clesli:ution, th.A has induced many
very reluctantly to comli:-,e to prevent their wages from being
further reduced. In fact ireple are almost in a state of
despair, and unless si.m,:tl,irg be speedily done to pl.!ce the
under-paid and over- worh4:abolrers and artisans cf England
in a better condition, I very mooch fear there can be no secu-
rity for either life or propety fir any length of time."
In submitting to tile Corn-laws, however, there is
a guarantee for the contirmance of this wretchedness,
of which Mr. FIELD EN scorns not to be aware. If
the quantity of food cannot keep up with the growth
of population, populltion must be starved down to the
level of the food. Such a starvation process is ac-
cordingly now going on, and it falls on those who work,
whether at " the land, or the loom." As it takes
effect, as in this country for some years past, society
rubs on, in pain, 50rr0..7, and wretchedness. The
sufferers gradually become habituated " to half what
their forefathers had," and cease to struggle for more
they come even to suppor.c, like the Irish, that they
have no claim to anything better ; they remain con-
tented with the lowest description of food and the smallest
quantity of it, till, broken down in physical constitution
and spirit, they }kid themselves to despair, and
society becomes such as we now find it in Ireland.
Every day which the English artizans and labourers,
with the Irish at their bor living on Lumpers, and con-
tinually pouring in on them in thousands, submit to
the starving process of the Corn-laws, tends to recon-
cile them to their degraded condition, and permanently
to fix them in it. To tame both men and animals, no
process is so efficacious as stinting their food : and those
are short-sighted friends of the working classes, who
recommend them to submit .to the regimen of the
Corn-laws, from supposing that, if they get plenty of
food, they will become contented slaves.

In the Limerick Chronicle of the 10th instant, we
find a long report of the proceedings at a public meet-
ing held in that city on the previous day, for the pur-
pose of hearing from Messrs. HAWLEY and HAN-
COCK, Assistant Poor-law Commissioners, an account
of the means by which they proposed to carry the
provisions of the Irish Poor-law into effect in that
district. The MAYOR presided, and the meeting was
attended by Lords CLARE and CLARINA, the Hon.
J. P. VEREKER, Mr. ROCHE, M.P., and most of
the influential gentlemen of the city and county of
Limerick. The Cominissioners severally addressed
the meeting at great length ; carefully explaining to
the gentlemen assembled the provisions of the Act,
and pointing out how, by allowing it to come
fairly into operation, not only would there be
no considerable increase in the present amount
of rates, but that a powerful stimulus would be
given to industry throughout the country. They
entered very minutely into the statistics of the
city of Limerick ; pointed out abuses in the applica-
tion of the funds set aside for charitable purposes—
abuses which only a general Poor-law Bill could re-
medy—and proved to the satisfaction of the meeting
that a rate not exceeding is. in the pound would cover
all the expenses ofthe establishment and successful opera-
ation of a complete system of Poor-laws, in a city more
noted for the relative numbers and excessive destitution
of its indigent inhabitants than any in Ireland. The
explanations of the Commissioners afforded great and
general satisfaction ; thanks were unanimously voted
to them ; and when the business of the meeting was
over, the noblemen and gentlemen present were
profuse in their offers to render them every
possible assistance. This is a good beginning ;
and we doubt not but that if the other Com-
missioners act as prudently as Messrs. HAWLEY
and HANCOCK have done in Limerick, the Poor-
law Bill will be established in Ireland in that spirit
of amity and union, which only is wanted to make it
one of the most salutary boons that ever was offered
to the Irish nation.

Out of charity to Louis PHILIPPE, one would
have supposed that on granting permission to the wife
of Dox CARLOS to pass through the French territory,
he would have exacted as one of the conditions a
solemn engagement to mitigate the horrors of the civil
war now raging in Spain. This would have been re-
garded as an act of atonement for the mark of favour to
the Pretender, but that no such condition had been
agreed to, the events subsequent to her arrival incon-
testibly prove.

The presence of this woman in the camp, in place of
fresh
impetus the tyrant, appears to have given a
impetus to his sanguinary disposition. Wholesale
executions now daily occur as matters of course, and a
line of barbarous and exterminating policy, unknown
in modern times, is systematically carried on, which
even this reckless Prince would not have Yen
tured to adopt, in defiance of any positive or
implied condition made with the French Government.
The obvious plan of these monsters now is to put to
death all the Christinos that fall into their hands, and
however shocked, we are not at all surprised at the
result, seeing that in addition to a disposition
naturally cruel, Don CARLos is now urged on by
a revengeful woman and a bigotted priest—the
most dangerous of counsellors. The sister of Don
MIGUEL, whose atrocities even Lord ABERDEEN
could not palliate, was of all persons in the
world, the most likely to recommend such an atrocious
system, under the vain hope that it would insure
speedy success; yet Louts PHILIPPE, knowing well
her character, allowed her a safe passage through his
kingdom, to heap new calamities on a people he had
solemnly engaged to dcGd. Out of evil, however,
sometime eometh good, and such we anticipate will be
the result of his crooked policy. The Liberal party are
now driven to madness by his desertion of their cause,
and by the cruelties of Don CARLos; they are forming
juntas, and raising
have no hope either for peace or
militia, to put down the imbecile
ythbeuyt
n themselves, and are evidently
persona
Govern
undergo s!:fr•ring in preference to sub-
prepared to tin(
•i , • dreadful
lmesanfte;t
,A.re n, ), mission tr, Zha t:s
-s been anticipated for the last
but it is only what 1,