The Sun.
London, England, 1822-01-24 00:00:00

[MORNING HERALD.

The discnssion of the new provisions against
the Press in France commenced_ on Saturday in
the Chamber of Deputies. In no, previous de-
bate had there been more violence, intolerance,
and petty squabbling—with, however, occasional
gleams of eloquence and feeling. The report of
the project (or Bill) for restraining the Journals
was presented by M. de Martignac. Its chief
contents have already appeared—and the amend-
ments of the Committee are so immaterial that
the French Papers scarcely specify them. The
only novelty in the speech of the Chairman was
the complacent vanity with which he besought,
the Chamber, as it valued the repose of Europe,
to protect not
_France alone, but, all other Euro-
pean nations and Governments, against the resist-
less sway which would be exercised over them by
the' dominant graces and universality. of the
French language, if the French Journals were
Left unrestricted. He even found means to com-
pliment the wit and fancy of his countrymen in
urging the most fatal and revolting provision of
the new law—That which renders a Journal
-liable to be suppressed upon the ground of its
6 6 spirit and general tendency ;"---for, said he,
there is a quickness and ingenuity of allusion
and apprehension in the French mind and lan-
guage, which would elude the grasp of any
law, however strict, that rested only on specific
and defined offences. We would tell him, what
he must very well know, though he and his
party haie neither the wisdom nor the magna-
nimity to act upon it, that there is another trait
of French character and society, which even this
provision cannot keep down—it is the electric
circulation of satire and social scandal, in all the
forms of epigram, lampoon, and song—from which
the Lieutenant of the Police and the Bastille
could not shield the King, Ministers, mistresses,
and Courtiers, under the old regime, and which
will be now incalculably stimulated by the new
prohibition.

[BRITISH PRESS.] .
The Paris Papers of Sunday last contain, as
we had anticipated, the Report of the Committee
appointed by the Chamber of Deputies to in-
quire into the new project of the law for the re-
gulation of the journals. M. de Martignac, who
on this occasion communicated to the Chamber
the sentiments of the Committee, argued very
energetically in favour of the proposed measure ;
but the value of his conclusions- can best be esti-
mated from the character of the premises which,
in the commencement of his speech, he con-
ceived his naked assertion sufficient to esta-
blish. He laid it down that the existence of
journals was in no respect necessary for the
maintenance of public liberty, but that they were
a species of luxury which the imaginary neces-
sities of the people rendered it advisable in the
Government to suffer. ." They are," as he says,
64 useful auxiliaries, convenient mediums for pub-
lication, and have become, either from the nature
of our Government or the force of habit, a kind
of want which ought to be satisfied."—Such is
the extent of utility which M. de Martignac
allows to the public journals, and it is very pos-
sible 'that, degraded and oppressed by the
absurd and timid jealousies of successive go-
vernments, the Journals of Paris may offer
to this gentleman's mind no higher notion of
the national advantages of an independent
daily press. But having thus disposed of the
good which may be derived from the journals,
he proceeds to descant upon the enormous
evils with which the sufferance of this dangerous
luabtry is, in his mind, necessarily attended.—
Upon this point he assumes it as a. principle, that
because, forsooth, private interests are involved
in the existence of every Journal, therefore " the
interest of such. enterprises [the establishments
of Journals] is necessarily in opposition to the
general interest." This is not very unlike what
old Partridge would call a non sequitur. The
same conclusion might with as much fairness
be derived from a view of any other specu-
lation or enterprise in life. The fitting out
of a ship for a commercial voyage involves
private interests ; so does the establishment
of a manufactory, the building of a bridge,
or the cutting of a canal ; yet who would
be hardy enough thence to infer that such
proceedings must necessarily be opposed to
the general interests ? The Reporter says,
that the interests of society consist in good
order and peace, while those of journals
depend upon disquietude, alarms, curiosity, and
expectation. If we were to say that this asser-
tion does not hold universally true, we should
advance just as far as M. de Martignac has done ;
but what would either party gain by an acknow-
ledgment of the truth of their respective asser-
tions ? It matters nothing avhat may be the
interests of journals, unless indeed the press be
fettered, for while the press I's free, the journals
cannot. control the destinies of their countries,
they become merely ancillary to the expression
of public opinion, and by enabling society to
form correct impressions upon every matter of
public concern, they will most effectually mili-
tate against the danger of the country or the Par-
liament hieing surprised into the adoption of sen-
timents which may tend to the injury of the
general body.
[MORNING CHRONICLE.]
A Lisbon.packed arrived yesterday with let-
ters and papers to the 11th inst., ten days later
than those brought by the one which reached
Falmouth on Saturday last. The regulations for
the establishment of the National Bank had
been published, and Messrs. A. F. Machado,
J. da Costa Ba-ndeira, and J.S. de A rank), named
as Commissioners for the management of the
whole concern, till a meeting of the share-
holders takes place for the purpose of electing

a resideut and Directors. Owing to this act
of the Cortes having passed into a law, the
discount on the paper money, which six weeks
ago was at twenty-three, had diminished to sin-
teen and fifteen, and the effect on the cif), here
has been to raise the Exchange on Lisbon from
50 to 512, and it is expected to rise rapidly.—
Considerable amounts of paper money continue
to be cancelled and burned in presence of the
witnesses appointed by the Government. Pre-
vious to the establishment of the Constitutional
system in Portugal, the fishermen were liable to
most burdensome exactions. When, after ex-
posing the,mselves to great dangers at sea, they
reached the port, no sooner were their boats
drawn to the shore, than a number of servants
from Convents of Friars, home privileged cor-
porations, &c. clocked round them and de-
manded their share, and frequently one half
of the fish was carried away in this manner, with-
out the fishermen being allowed even to expos-
tulate. This abuse has long been a subject of com-
plaint, and it caused the comparatively high price
at which fish has always been sold iil,Portugal.
The Cortes have now, however, decreed, that all
fish caught on the shores of Portugal shall only
pay local duties to the amount of eight per cent.
and they have exempted the fishermen from all
other demands whatever. The Sardinas, how-
ever, a species of large sprats, on which, owing
to their great abundance, the common people
chiefly subsist, had been freed from all duties,
and the fishermen exempted from being pressed
as soldiers, &c. The importation of all foreign,
salted, or fresh fish, had also been prohibited,
except cod fish,which, by the treaty with Great
Britain made in 1810, could not be prohibited.—
On this' article, however, an additional transit
duty of 10 per cent, had been imposed on all
quantities passing into the interior of the country.
By order of the Cortes, the Finance Minister,
M. J. 1. da Costa, had laid before them an esti-
mate for, the current year, in which he states
that the receipts will be 7233 contos of reis, the
expenditure 8830 contos, and the deficit 1607
contos. Private letters mention that the frigate,
Don Pedro, had arrived at Lisbon from Bahia,
with the prisoners on board, who had been im-
plicated in the commotions to which we alluded
a few days ago, at Bahia. One of the prisoners,
understood to be a Colonel, and aperson of dis-
tinction, leaped overboard on reaching the Tagus,
and was drowned.

ST. DOMINGO.-*The 'accounts in the American
Papers of the declaration of Independence by
the Spanish part of St. Domingo. are fully con
firthed.—T.he Declaration is dated from the" City
of St. Domingo in the Spanish part of. Hayti,
Dec. 41821, first year of independence." It is
signed by Jose Nunez de Caceres, President,
and Manuel Lopez de .Urneres,. Secretary, be-
sides the names of six other individuals. It com-
mences in the following style :,----" No more
submission—no more humiliation—'-no more obe-
dience, to the caprice and levity of the Cabinet
of .Madrid. In these few but- comprehensive
words is contained the firm -resolution which the
people of St. Domingo this day proclaim and
swear to." The Declaration then alludes to the ,
" ignominious bondage of 328 years," ' which
is described- as . a sufficiently, long and painful
lesson of what was to be hoped from-a "fanatical
loyalty to the Kings of Spain." The various
grievances and oppressions under which the co-
lony groaned during that period are subse-
quently detailed-, in somewhat, energetic terms,
and it concludes with observing, that " if
Spain recognises and approves . the Declara-
tion it. shall henceforth be considered and treated
as a friend ; but,. if it attempt to oppose the
Independence which has. been proclaimed,
they are prepared to defend it with their
lives, their fortune, and their honour."—The I
Constitutional Act, which is, also dated on thei
Ist ultimo, consists of 39 Articles, the first- of i
which declares the Spanish part of Hayti a Free
and Independent State. The form of Govern-
ment is to be Republican, but established upon
the most convenient principles of national repre-
sentation : meanwhile a Provisional Junta of Go-
vernment is established, consisting of the Captain
General, the Political Chief, and Deputies from
the five districts into which the Spanish part
of the island is divided. This Junta is to ar-
range the final regulations, and consolidate the
constitutional system. The fifth article pro-
vides, that a Deputation shall be sent, with
the least possible delay, to the President of the
Columbian Republic, to communicate what has
taken place at St. Domingo, and to convey the
wishes of the inhabitants to connect themselves
in strict union with the States which .actually
compose that Republic. or those that may here-
after belong to it. The sixth article decrees,
that another Deputation should be sent to the
President of the Republic of Hayti; in the French
part, proposing a treaty of amity, commerce, anti
alliance for their common defence, in case of any
hostile invasion. The remaining articles deter.
mine various political, civil, and municipal rights
' and privileges. ' Article 18 secures the liberty of
the press, subject to certain regulations and
penalties.
____—__

SIIOCKI`NC. SUICIDE. - Yesterday morning-,
about eight o'clock, Mr. G. Anderson, rope-
maker, of White-street and tree t, Borough,
went to the house of Mr. Shallard, in Devon-
shire-street, Newington, where (on account of
some family dispute) his wife and daughter re-
sided. On going into their-apartments he com-
plained of illness, and went down stairs into the
water-closet, where he was soon afterwards found
with his throat cut from car to ear. ,The un-
happy man was carried up stairs to bed, and se-
veral medical Gentlemen attending, the wound
was sewn up, but
.he died soon afterwards in the
greatest agony. Thirty sovereigns were found
in his pockets, and also a cord with a noose in
it, with which it is supposed lie intended to hang
himself, had he not succeeded in cutting his
throat.
We understand that the
.proposed alteration
in the running_ of the North. Mail, by which it
will start from. Edinburgh at 12 o'clock in the
evening, takes place in the course of a fortnight.
(Edinburgh Courant, Jan. 21.)

FOR THE SUN.

MODERN POLITICAL ECONOMY.
[LETTER IX.]

MR. EDITOR-The value of corn is not rept,
dated by the quantity of labour•necessary to. pro-
duce it on any soil ; that' is " The corn which' is,
produced with the greatest quantity of labour"-•-:
is NOT the regulator of its price. If Mr. Ri•
CARDO will content himself with saying that corn.
cannot be long cultivated unless it will gray for
the labour necessary thereto—it :is true of every
soil. It is impossible that the price of corn
.should be influenced by the cultivation of poor
soils ; neither is it true that these require more
labour than rich ones under the: plough (except-
ing poor cold clay soils). Poor soils give less
produce, and bear less valuable crops ; they give
less rent, and maintain fewer people, find keep
less stocks. They are, of course, in all
,respects
of inferior value; the farmers are poor who oc-
cupy them ; the labourers are poorer than in bet-
ter places s they work no harder, but they are
worse. paid and worse fed ; they endure more
privations, and the very genius of sobriety and
self-denial might be supposed to preside over
such plans, if it were not known'that-man is the
creature: of habit and necessity. In all this we
should do better to observe with satisfaction the
wonderful adaptations of custom, and, the patient
perseverance of industrious and uninformed peo-
ple; who indeed do some good to their Country
by raising, with unremitting exertions, more food
than they can consume. The principal blessings
they have of a temporal kind are two :—They
are safe from the disorders of rellexion, and free
from the follies of political economy.
High prices.of agricultural produce are not ne-
cessary that poor soils muN be cultivated; let all
the poor land-go out of cultivatiOn which has
been inClosed and occupied during the war ; but
it seems necessary that all the estates of poor land
which have been occupied as farms time out of
mind, should still remain of some value to their
owners. flow comes it to pass that a parish of •
10,000 acres, which 100 years ago- was worth
20001. per annum rental, is now worth nothing
'This is a question for a profound political eco-
nomist and statesman to boot. For what reason
has it come to pass that poor thin soils of open
fields, which never produced more than 20
bushels of barley per acre, and very
.little wheat
at all, and this before turnip culture was known,
and when sheep and wool were of little value ;
for what reasonS I say, has it come to pass that
these lands, which then paid .some rent, besides ,
maintaining the farmers, labourers, and artizans
of the villages, not forgetting the clergymen,
.will not now pay the expences of cultivation,
without any rent. at. all ? Corn was 'not. dear
when 'the lands maintained their oWners, the par- -
son, the- farmers, and the poor. • Grddnally, as
population and general improvement increased,
rents got higher, tithes were of more value,
labourers • were paid More wages, (but this
advance was slow, and scarcely perceptible
in an age) and within the twenty five-years
last past (ending with 1813) more alteration
was made in these.particulars' than in a century
before ; or than could have happened in a cen-
tury to come, had money continued of the same.
uniform value. It is iu the nature of things- (to
use a trite expression) that all the ciretsmstaaces
which affect property and value should proceed
together; thus the expendittire of the landlords,
the habits of the tenants,. the wages'of the:la-
bourers—and thus , the taxes of lhe State, the
debt and expenditure of Government—and, in
fine, every important and every trivial thing, be-
came accommodated to the. alteration in values,
and the apparent opulence of the people and the
nation. Through all this period all soils, rich as.
well as poor, progressed in the same relatiVe
manner ; and so did all other interests, and all
other business ; the consumption of manufactures,.
the consumption of foreign produce, the increase
of enjoyments, luxuries, &c. were attested by the
Customs and Excise, the Assessed Taxes, and a,
flourishing commerce. I say again, Mr. Editor,
all these things progressed and flourished toge-
ther ; *and let. Political Economists &fly consider
and answer me, why it is that now many, -or
most, if not all of them, fail ?—lt - suits them, to
fix on poor soils-as if giving up the cultivation
of them, and importing cheap corn (which would
enrich merchants only) would cure all our evils,
and bring all other things to rights. But lr say
Duty; and I say again that they'are more artful
than ignorant who have maintained such doc-
trines ; and furthermore they •are desperately
mistaken and deceived in their views. Corn is
not required to be high, that our poor lands may,
be cultivated; much of our imported corn comes
from soils not naturally rich, and the contrary sup-
.position is foolish ; we may neglect ottr own inferior
soils, and ruin their owners, and starve our people;
but bring corn from soils no better abroad, and
so feed the poor of other countries instead of our
own—which no Englishman (and especially an
industrious labouring man) ought to wish : I ex-
cept only Political Economists, who are void of
all feeling, and dealers in foreign corn, who are
wholly swayed by covetousness. I say once
more, that neither- the quantity of labour, nor
the quality of the soil, have any thing to do with
regulating 'the price of corn.;
,corn needs not to
be high that poor lands may be cultivated ; nei-
ther, as all thenorld knows, can the cultivatiOn
of poor lands support its price ; but all the pro-
duce' of the soil ought to be supported against
foreign competition duty free, for two reasons :
First, because our soil is cultivated by hired and
free labourers, and not by slaveS, who never
taste. of • the corn and cattle
,which they rear;
second (and let Political Economists look to this),
'because the national debt is founded upon good
prices, great consumption of taxable- articles,
competent circulation of money, and flourishing
,times for all. Our situation is only wholesome.
and safe When every sort of property is valuable,
when all industry is equally encouraged, when
all . burthens are equally distributed ; no single
'or separate interest is safe, when all others are
sacrificed, and no persons are so highly concerned
in the protection of agriculture as the national
creditorS. • These: persons, who. have been made
.to believe that the increased value of money and
.the low price of provisions would • double their

fortunes and plac=e ttitm in afluPticP. v, 1 End that
the force of necessity on the part of landlOrd; ai
farmers will cut off large slices from the revenue,
and the useless money which is accumulatitiSs
the market 'will become wholly unproductive:
I am your's, &c.
APEritrUS;;.'