The Sun.
London, England, 1838-09-10 00:00:00

LONDON :
MONDAY EVENING. SEPTEMBER 10, 1838.

It is said by some of the speakers at popular meet-
ings, that the observations made of late on the subject
of the Corn-laws are designed to divert the attention
of the people from the discussion of the more impor-
tant question of the Charter. Following the lead of
some of the most forward and least scrupulous of
those orators, the Speclalor of Saturday asserted
that " there is an attempt on the part of the
Ministerial Press to divert the attention of the
working-classes from political changes to the over-
throw of the Corn-laws. " The fact is," says our
Contemporary, " that the desperate Whigs throw the
anti-Corn-lan• cry amongst the people as a tub to the
whale." Now, as our Contemporaries call Vie Sun a
Ministerial Journal, and under this name, on this
topic, the people have been told to shut their ears to
the Ministerial Sun, we think we are bound to de-
clare, t!iat so far as we are concerned, the as-
sertion that the Corn-laws are agitated by us
with any view "to divert attention from poli-
tical chair ,es," or to " ward off the hostility of tire
working classes from the Minister's," is totally without
foundation.

No person, we think, can inaAe such an assertion
who r.collects our course on the question, and remem-
bers the peculiar circumstances which have given it an
almost overwhelming; momentary interest. For the
last six months, and before any agitation attracted
public attention to the People's Charter, we have
continually called attenti.m to the subject. It is four
months since tire then unfavourable state of the season
made us warn the public to expect a short crop.
During that time we have more than once had con-
troversies with the Herald on the question, and now it
is obviously far less public writers than tire actual state
of the harvest—the high price of bread—which attracts
to it and rivets public attention. It is now the question
of the day : circumstances, not theories, force it into
notice ; and those who :ce!; to divert public attention
from it, are chargeable with sacrificing considerations
of time and place, or the present a propos, to their
own pet crotchets and foregone conclusions. At any
Tate we will not hesitate to stigmatise it as scandalously
unjust, to say that The Sun, which has warmly and
zealously directed public indignation ar,ainst the Corn-
laws, has done so in order to make a diversion in
favour of the Ministers.

The Contemporary we have alluded to states very
correctly that the leading \Vhigs have refrained from
taking any part in the anti-Corn-law agitation. In
fact, the Whig noblemen, and the bulk of the Whig
landlords, are as much opposed to Corn-law a tation
as the Tories ; and it is because nearly the
whole 2 of
the landlords of all parties are united in sus-
taining those laws, that it is especially incum-
bent on all the other classes to take this favourable
opportunity of using their united Exertions to Led rid
of them. Unless they unite, as the landlords of both
parties are united,
the devil's laws will remain in force,te
limiting the national growth and prosperity by h
landlords' narrow convenience, and accustoming the
people to want and poverty, and incipient starvation,
begetting in them habits of willing privation,—cutting
off our foreign trade, and nourishing into greatness our
foreign rivals,—swelling the idle aristocracy, and
the pampered hierarchy, with extorted wealth, into
pomp and arrogance, and debasing industry into paupe-
rism which humbly begs permission to live from the mis-
ehevious do-nothings, who are the lords of the soil and
the lords of the Legislature. We can overthrow their
power, as certainly, by abolishing the Corn laws, as by
any change in the Constitution ; and while there is no
chance of accomplishing the latter the former invites
us to achieve it. It would fill us with grief to see
this great opportunity slighted, and would make us
doubt, more than anything that has happened within
our recollection of political events, that improvement in

he great hulk of the working classes, in which we are
devoted and fervent believers.
Some of those who advocate an alteration in the
Corn-laws recommend a fixed duty, and some recom-
mend a duty to he gradually diminished. But we say
with the Glasgow Argus, let us have unconditiona
• re'teal We want the total abolition of the Cotu-laws,
t
and we want the supply of the subsistence of this
vast community, of which the landlords are not ac
qualified with a tithe, removed from under the
controul and regulation of their starvation laws,
and replaced, as the Brighton Guardian expresses
it, under the laws of God. Long enough have the land-
lords wantonly revelled in the spoils of the rest of the
community ; long enough have they arrogantly shut
their ears to the humhle prayers of the industrious
classes ; long enough have their velg,ar extravagance
and vicious indulgences been fostered at the expense
of the plundered and suffering people ; and we are for
at once taking from them, so far as that can be done by
a complete and total abolition of the starvation laws,
every sixpence they receive by taxing the food of
the nation.

The question of confining individuals as lunatics on
a mere surgeon's certificate, as brought before the
public in the case of Mr. PATERNOSTER, excites, very
deservedly, much public attention. We publish two
of the letters we have received on the subject, and are
happy to learn that Mr.PATERNOSTER'S case has been
taken up by a persevering, influential, and powerful
individual, accustomed to the investigation of prison
secrets. We have now a confident hope that what-
ever justice requires, and the law allows, will be done
OR Mr. PATERNOSTER'S behalf.

By the arrival of the packet ship Westminster at
Liverpool from the United States, we have received
files of New York and Canada papers---the former to
the 20th of August inclusive. The aspect of affairs
in the United States is represented in these journals
as very favourable. The harvests were everywhere
abundant, especially wheat ; although in some places
the Indian corn crops suffered greatly for want of
rain. The reported failure of the harvest in England
had inspired the Yankees with hopes of an excellent
market for their flour, of which they were pre-
paring a large quantity for exportation. As the
principal market for the surplus grain of the States is
South America we are not surprised to find that a
great outcry-has been.raised against the continuance of
the French blockade. All parties in the States are
agreed that the dispute between France and Mexico
ought to be settled by arbitration, and consequently
that France is guilty of a violation of the rights of
commercial nations in attempting to exact satisfaction
for claims which do not justify her in declaring
war, by means of a blockade.
For the state of the New York Money Market, and
the latest accounts from Canada, we refer our readers
to our extracts from the American Journals.

The following latest news from Canton is copied
from the New York Journal of Commerce of the
18th ult.:—

CANTON, APRIL 3.—From the 27th day of the 2d moon
(March 22) to the 30th H. E. Re, the fooyuen successively
visited the various temples and offered up prayers for rain. On
the Ist day of the 3d moon (26th ultimo) he deputed the
Kwangchowfoo to the Se-teangshan, the western woody hill,
to fetch some holy water. On the 3d day, at eight o'clock in
the morning, all the great officers went to the landing place
to meet the holy water. From the sth to the 6th of the moon
they remained in the great Budhist temple, erected an altar,
and again prayed for rain. The slaughter of animals for food
is forbidden.

(From the Canton Price Current. April 3.)
r)analets are in the same depressed state as before. Cot-
ton—Fey; sales have been made during the week, but prices
remain firm ; th..7e is now little, in the importers' hands, and
the prices, as far as foreigners are concerned. are nominal.
Cotton Yarn—There has not been much done in this of late.
Loog Cloths—Both white end Grey have rallied, and several
inquiries are being made ; they are now saleable at a small
advance on last week's prices.
Opium—More inquiry has lately been made for new
Patna, but without any improvement in prices. Of new
Benares there is now none in first hands. The reports
from the coast arc unfavourable as to the prices obtainabie
for the several descriptions of the drug, but the dealers go
on clearing, despite .se:zures and battles between them and
the Preventive Service by sea end land. Sanddwood—
The price for the first quality has declined a littla, and the
demand is dell. Strates Produce—We have bad no recent
arrivals to produce any activity or alteration in the mark.,t.
Woollens arc in the same depressed state. Exports—Raw
Siik Na-kin—Lip vards of a hundred hales aie just arrive, and
further supplies are daily expected ; but it is reported that tl e
finer qualities will farm .but a small proportion of them. Tv;
—The Tea Market is at present inactive, without any parti-
cular aleration in prices.

Madrid Journals of the Ist inst. have reached us
this morning. A report of an immediate change in the
Cabinet was then general, and was moreover regarded
in the best informed circles as worthy of credit. Senors
MoN and CAsTRO were to r:Aire, but tire names of
their successors had not transpired. The frequeriu
of Count OFALIA's interviews with the REGENT was
remarked as a symptom of Royal apprehension and
Ministerial instability. Great blame was cast upon
the Government fur not having taken tneasurea to pre-
vent the ravages of CABRERA in tire province of
Valencia. As the Gazette of the Ist, however
announces the retreat of that Chief in the
direction of the Ebro, the excitement on this !wad
may he expcete:l to have already greatly subsided.
The first instalment of the new loan contracted by the
house of RoTifsCHILD, has been paid into the
Spanish treasury. This timely supply will servo to
meet the more urgent demands of the army upon the
Finance Minister. Several arrests had taken place in
Santander in consequence of the discovery of a Car-
list conspiracy in that town. For a more detailed ac-
count of events in the Peninsula, we refer to the let-
ter of the Madrid Correspondent of the Times, which
will be found in another part of The Sun.

We have received the whole of the Paris Journals
of Friday and S iturday. At the meeting of the
Swiss Diet on the 3.1 inst., to consider the demand of
France relative to the expulsion of Prince LOUIS
NAPOLEON from the Swiss territory, a motion was
carried for the further postponement of all debate
upon the question till the Ist of October. The de-
clared object of this delay is to afford the Dimities
an opportunity of receiving full, clear, and final in-
structions from their constituents, although no doubt
it will have the effect of greatly irritating the French
Government.

The Nroniteur publishes a telegraphic despatch from
Perpignan, announcing that the Council of Revision
had annulled the sentence of the Court-martial in the
case of General BROSSARD, and had given directions
for a new trial.

The Journal des Debats publishes a long, and evi-
dently official article, in justification of the French
blockade of Mexico. The writer takes for his
text the Address of the British Mercantile Mexi-
can Association to Lord PALMERSTON, which
appeared in our columns last week. Notwith-
standing the great ability with which the Dehais
treats this question, we entirely concur in the justness
of the following conclusion arrived at by a Morning
Contemporary; viz.:—" That the interruption of the
Commerce of Great Britain with Mexico, by a French
squadron, there being no declaration of war of France
against Mexico, or of Mexico against France, is an
infraction of the subsisting peace
between Great Bri-
tain and France." There may have been more
diplomatic courtesy observed than there probably
would have been had the blockade been established,
especially for the injury of our commerce, but the re-
sult is very nearly the same. The absence of an in.
tention to inflict a direct evil is not a sufficient justifi-
cation of a system of international policy which must
inevitably productive of such an effect.
i following extracts from the Paris journals
In the
be