The Sun.
London, England, 1822-02-14 00:00:00

. .
horse, they will at least be careful to put it on
the right place.
I am completely Borne out in this by a late
patriotic Member, who stated in the House onenight; when NAPOLEON, that, great promoter of,
our agricultural interests, was, at Plba, that hiS
farming neighbours in Bedfordshire live begin-
ning to say, that the best thing for the farmers
would be " to set Boncj up again."
Buts Sir, the long and th short of a short
story is; that. the wAtt produced HIGH PRICES;
that high pikes produced high rents, encouraged
enclOsures, and threw many small farms into one,
destroying the yeomanry, or thrusting them into'
Work-houses, and Changilitg our corn farmers into
corn mantifactniers and corn speculators ; that
high prices filled odr farm-houses, villas, I ought
to say, with wine; spirits, piano-fortes, gigs,
curricles, close Carriages, hUnters and bits of
blood--all very well for those whO could afford
to pay for them—but MIMI PRICES' Ito Icing&
exist !—then the fabrick built upon them must
tumble, yet still the country will not be ruin-
ed. As rents rose; so must they no* come
down: The large farms produced by high
prices nitist be reduced to the scale of low
prices. Those who cannot now afford to drink
wine, Must drink beer.. If the ladies who read
novels and made a noise on the piano-fOrte
have no fondness for the chdrn, and no taste for
Milking the cows, or feeding the pigs, or carrying
their butter arid egf,si to market,
~Why the land
must come, in Strialfer pdrtions; into the hands of
those *ho Can do these things. • The bucks must
give up their bits df blood for a little wholesome
wbrk iu the corn fields: in short, Sir, LABOUR,
instead of being any longer the servant of money,
must again become a principal part of farming
capital, agrepable.to the system of the " Good
old times !"

I will add, that the farmer has a right to :par.
ticipdte iii the enortnOut profits of the chiller,
factor, and baker, or else that the: public might to
enjoy the advantages of .cheap Corn—that the
corn trade sill improve when all the bread of
London is baktd of flour instead of' potatoes—,
that a reduction hi the number of brewer.'S drug-
gists will naturally improve.the market Both for
malt and hops, much more than any niditction of
Malt-tax--and that the tillers of the soil will be
better of when they cannot afford tb attend ge-
neml meetings! t.

HOW all this is to be deftri with Icastsuffering,
and niost convenience; shall be the subject of an-
other commUzlicatioti from sour's,

IGNOTUS.

ST. VALTfkt'SDAY.

The origin of the custom observed on this day
haS been tritich controverted : but it certainly is
indispiitably of very ancient date. The practice
of 44 Chbosing a Valentine," as it is called, on
this clay, is too well known to need much expla
nation. Formerly the usage was to consider the
first person of the opposite sex seen on the day a!!
the Valentine for the year. This custom; it seams.;
posterity has not approved, and we believe it is
generally given up. The custom Of sending
anonymous letters, decorated with designs !rri-
lilentatical of affection; to any female who may
secretly be the object of a youth's ambition, is
used instead, and certahtly is the more agreeable
mode df celebrating this day. Tlie origin of-this
custom is very obscure ; such as I elm gather
concerning it is as follows :—There Were is °
Valentines, one who lived in the
.year of chit
Lord 270 ; the other in 800; the first of these
waS a preslayter.of the Church, and some authors
affirm, a Bistibp ; while others sdy hes renounced
his creed because he was not mthle a Bishop; all,
however, agree in assigning itifri the palm of
martyrdom, tinder CLAuntus the Second at Rome,
A.D. 271. Ile was imprisened twelve Months,
and afterwards was; beheaded : and it as we
are asstired,• for the sake of perpettiding his
virtue arid MiraculoilS poWers that he was en-
rolled among the first tnarirS Of the Church.---
" To abolish the heathen, improper, superstitions
custom of boys drawing tie names of girls hi
honour of their goddessFflt to %TA, or J uNO, on
the 15th of February, several zealous pastors
substituted the names of Saints in billets given
on that day ;" and Valentine is alleged to have
been conTiCuous in overthrowing this etistoin.
Certain. it is, that in the Papal tloininions patron
Saints are • chosen on this day, and hence, per—
haps; one Jess absurd custom of choosing lovers,
or Valendqies, for the year. The latter Valen=
tine, who %%IS the SiYth Bishop of Rome, and
died in the year',B9.7, is thought by setae to have
been the first wild changed the heathen practice
of drawing for girls, ecci; cod as he did esta-
blish the annual usage of the poorer ClePtgy
drawing lots for their pattoi:: for the ensuing
year, he seems to have sorneratioi for the honour
assigned him. But it is difficult to
..dine to ally',
probable conclusion, even if the matter were',
worthy fiirther research : our custom might have
sprung from either of the before-mentioned
soUrces, or rte may merely have continued, with
proper alterations, from our superior religious
advantages, the Lupercalia of the' it =MIS : and
St. Valentine's day being the one immediately
preceding the ancient day of the Lupercalia, or
Februata, as it it was at first called, the practice
may very easily have changed its title, as it had
in part ids rites i and even the .most strict of our
religious ancestors may
.leave submitted without
repining to a Change from a barbarous Pagan Ce-
remony to one that seemed consonant to pature,i
which at Mt' season of the year prompt] the
feathered tribe to choose theirniates,particurail
in Warm climates, her the etistota
arose, giVeS, as it were), (red? animation to
the refrOVated world. A.

TILE LONDON JOURNALS.

EXTRACTS Fllor, THE D MORNING PIPERS.
February 141 1822.

[NEW tIMES.]

Last night Sir R. Wilson made a motion for
the production of his Correspondence with his
Royal Highness the Commander-in-Chief and
Lord Sidmouth, on the subject of his removal
from the Army. Public opinion has been so long
settled liith respett to that just and necessary.
.;•
measure, that any attempt to render it the stalk-
ing-horse of party, and the means of exciting
poptilar feeling, must now prove altogether inef-
fectual. After a debate which presented little
novelty, the motion ~vas negatived by a majority
of 199 Co 97.

[MORNING CHRONICLE.]

When the dismissal of Sir Robert Wilson Wan
first announced; the supporters. of Ministers, in
order to allay the getteral feeling of it:dig-11;144mi
to which it gave rise, declared in the Most con-
fident manner that when the propei• time came,
it would be shewo to Parliament, in the most
satisfactory manner, that the conduct of the Gal-
lant General had been such as fully to warrant
this extraordinary measure of severity. Having
repeatedly, but fruitlessly, called for inquiry
into his conduct, Sir Robert has been under the
necessity of bringing the case before the Pooe
of Commons, and .he has done this in a siieedi
distinguished for clearnesS df statement, force of
argument, and a spirit of •manly catideur; that
could not ;ail to ,make a most powerful impres-
sion in his favour, even on the
.most determined
of his political opponents, for an account of whicii
we refer our readers to our Parliamentdry Re-
port of .last night. Now, then, was the time for
Ministers to come forward. lint it is as we
all along knew it would be. Ministers have
no case whatever; they entrench themselves
behind the prerogativ_e—they refer its to the
discretionary power of the Crown--_-..and they rid
themselves of responsibility by the usual expe-
dient of a majority, the mewls df obtaining which
for all subjects and on all occasions ate now per-
fectly well understood by the country. On a
division, the motion was lost by 199 to 97. - Mi-
nisters were unable to impngn, in any Manner,
the statement of Sir Robert Wilson, and they
did not attempt it. Lord Londonderry pursued
a more transcendental 'course. coolly ob-
served, " he could not feel with the Honourable
Member for Hertford, that in every case of the
exercise of the prerogative in which; oh the
shelving of the Ministers, a satisfactory explati-
tion was not afforded of all the circumstances.;
their conduct was to be inquired into, especially
in military_ matters ;q. and " that there was
something summary in the power of the Crown,
especially in military matters; where this sum-
mary power was more necessary than even in the
civil branch of the Govern:tient !" A Stantliiil army
has, he tells us, " become a necessary insttdment
fOr the prdti•etion of our liberties;" end the ofii.
cers. of that ariny may be dismisSed at pleasure
withou,t Cause assigned; in the same manner as
any other individuals holding places underGo:
verinneht tolf a civil oflice holder at pleasure
were dismissed, it was a question of confidence
and not of crime ; and the principle was not less
essential to the military than to the CivirS'ereice."
The matter is.now, therefore, phiceil on an ihtel-
ligible footing: We owe oor liberties to it stand-
ing army, and tile officers of that army are de-
pendent on the caprice cif Ministers--that is,
Ministers are the sole disposers of the protectors
of °tir liberties, and consequent of these liber-
ties theinselves. It is well that the tenure shodld
he tftortitighly understood.

. EsionNixo itEnAt,o.l
The tir'tiz.;civat (French Paper) of the
affirms, that the Spanish Goeertiment has just
Made an application to that of France for the re-
tholal from the Spanish frontiers of all Spaniards
vvll6 had taken refuge- ill France.—Letters from
Burgos state that the environs are still in great
fermentitaoiii The Magistrates of that city have
intercepted 40;000 i•PaN in new gold coin, VvhiChT
were brotight front !Madrid by a jiacre, the driver
of which was to deliver them to the inshrgents.--:
Letters froirt Murcia of the 9.dth say thgt pro-
vini.e has no't Yet submitted to the GoVernment,
but that the functionaries named by the, King
were shortly going to resume their employthents.
Meantime the Junta, which governed
ad i~lr'e-
rim, has appointed a deptitatlini to go to Madrid
fOr the purpose of justifying the inhabitanti Of
that Province. Perei, called the Valiant; Chief
of the band in the nOglihourheod of Corunn:e;
has been killed, while defending himself against
the troops thdt pursued hiM.

[MORSING POST.]
Sir Robert Wilson moved last night in the
House of Commons for the production of the Cor-
respondence which took Place last September,
between his Rnyal Highness the Commander-in,.
Chief, Lord Sidmouth, and himself, on the sub-
ject of, his dismissal from the army. lie 'prefaced
his motion by a long explAation, and as he.in.•
tended, a justification ''f liiS conduct. In'the
course of his defence,' ifowel... t, er; he admitted than
he had Publicly applied the epithet " disgrace-
ful" the conduct of the military, at the very
time. when'they •;•441.: At -Only employed in re:
t,l'aining the f)eople, and protecting the maidh
cif th,i Queen's funeral, 'but defending themselvei
from the fury of the mob. This language„ Which
had been proved to the satisfaction of the Co'ni-
rnander-in-Chief at the time,. and long before it
nus admitted by Sr:- Robert Wilson last night;