The Sun.
London, England, 1838-09-13 00:00:00

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LONDON, THURSDAY EVENING, SEPTEMBER 13, 1838

EAST INDIA HOUSE, SETT. 12, 1828.

WORKING MEN'S ASSOCIATION

THECOURT of DIRECTORS of the EAST
INDIA COMPANY do hereby give not:ce,
That the QUARTERLY GENERAL COURT of the said
COMPANY appointed to be held at their House, in Leadenhall-
street, on WEDNESDAY, the 26th September, at Eleven o'clock in
the Forenoon, is MADE SPECIAL, for the purpose of laying
before the Proprietors, for their approbation, a Resolution of the
Court of Directors of the sth September, granting the sum
of
Five Thousand Pounds to the Estate of the late Mr. William Fra-
ser, upon the grounds therein stated.
The Report required by the By Law Cap. 9, Sec. 4, together
with the Documents upon which the said Resolution has been
formed, are open for the inspection of the Proprietors at this House.
JAMES C. MEL \ILL, Secretary.

TO THE PEOPLE OF ENGLAND, IN REPLY TO
THE OBJECTIONS OF THE PRESS.
FELLOW Coueneveree,—Having great faith in the inherent
excellence of humanity, and believing that more of the mental
and moral incongruities of men are to be attributed to erro-
neous convictions, than to interested perversicns of truth and
justice, we should belie our opinions were we to make any
foolish attack npon the Press or its conductors.
We rather lament that such a powerful instrument towards
man's political and social redemption should be constrained by
interest or party, to shut out truth from its pages, and make
error a marketable speculation; or that men, so competent
to direct aright the public mind, should be employed to mistify
and mislead it.
But we think that the many notorious changes and conver-
sions recently witnessed, the skilful balancing of opinions,
the-fear-to-offend and desire-to-please disposition which have
characterised so great a portion of those papers who call them-
selves " liberal," should open the eyes of all those who desire
to see the Press as consistent in practice, as it ought to be honest
in principle.
Such eccentric courses, and such conduct, in men professing
liberality of sentiment and honesty of intention, can only be
contenanced by the public's disregard of all principle, or the
private encouragement of those who maintain their fraudulent
position by unworthy means.
We would be the last to restrict the freedom of thought
or the most unbounded expressions that could be given in op-
position to our own opinions, as we consider truth can only be
elicited through the severest test of mental conflict; but when
in the same paper, we perceive the most ultra political prin-
ciples set forth in the strongest language to-day, pertinaciously
defended by the most cogent arguments to-morrow, and the
most sweeping condemnation and invective bestowed on them
the day following, we confess we do not think it free discus.
Sion, but direct apostasy.
We are induced to put forth these observations from the
conduct of a great portion of the Press ever since the recent
agitation that has commenced in favour of the " People's
Charter and the National Petition," embracing, as they do,
the principles of Universal Suffrage as well as the other es-
sentials, to what we believe to be a just representative system.
Without, however, individualizing any paper, or noticing their
scurrility or abuse, we will proceed to answer some of the
objections they have urged against us, or our principles.
They say that we are " adopting and imitating the mischie-
vous conduct of our oppressors, in seeking to make men free
and happy by means of legislation !" What, we would ask,
but legislation has made the difference between democratic
America, despotic Russia, and pauperised and oppressed Eng.
land ? If the will of the American people, expressed through
their Legislature, has raised them from such poor and hetero-
geneous origin, to become a nation " better educated than any
other under the sun—where two-thirds of the adults are pro-
prietors—while most of the others have the prospect of becom-
ing so," what, we would ask the gentlemen who make these
admissions, is there in the character of Englishmen to prevent
them from realizing similar advantages, were the same political
a;
to
d existepa
ot si fpi uel
n r democracy"tyAmerofic a
that country
a nd
rights conferred on them as on their American brethren?
They say our ignorance and poverty should preclude us
, da s
from the Franchise. We beg to refer them back to the
bu
k preceded
allt hi
et sm results,their ee
irrwhichti theytael
giagedhamtcsi
e,t
or whether they are not the consequence of obtaining them ?
Granting that a number of our countrymen are in poverty
can these gentlemen show, by any valid reasoning, the absolute
necessity for their being so, especially in a country blest by
nature with such abundant resources? Nay, can they trace the
existence of that poverty to any other source than corrupt and
exclusive legislation ? Granting, too, that ignorance to a great
extent prevails, to what other cause can it be attributed than
to those who have legislated to keep knowledge from the
people? And, therefore, it is not as immoral as it is unjust to
make the effects of corruption a pretence for upholding the
cause of it? We would call upon any reflecting individual
to take up the history of his country, and to investigate the true
cause of all the wars, the superstitions, the oppressions, and
the persecutions; which leave so many stains upon our national
character. He will also find it to be an exclusive and corrupt
Government, and will find that in proportion as the spirit of
democracy has forced its influence on the Legislature, so has
the venomous influences of the public been abated.
Warned, therefore, by the experience of the past, and cheered
by the exaseple of modern democracy, whether in Switzerla"tl,
Norway, or America, we think every lover of his species ought
to exert his influence to remove that prolific source of evil—
corrupt Legislation. It is not so much by forms of Govern-
ment that evils are generated or removed, as by the principles
of exclusive or responsible representation—the former acts for
itself, the latter for the people. Therefore, according to our
humble abilities, are we seeking to remedy the evils we com-
plain of; and we believe the most effective means will be those
we have embodied in the People's Charter.
We are told that " Universal Suffrage would produce uni-
versal confusion," " that the people would only substitute
noisy demagogues for an idle aristocracy," " and that, there-
fore, we had better suffer the ills we know of, then fly to
others that we know not of." Those who talk of suffering
present
ills, we presume, are not among the suffering classes,
and they only expose their own selfishness and heartlessness in
showing such a disregard for the misery of others. As to the
kind of men we should choose, if Universal Suffrage prevailed,
that will need experience to test it ; but where it has been
tried by the descendants of Englishmen, such " demagogues"
as Washington, Jefferson, Franklin, and others equally effi-
cient, seem
to cast a doubt upon the prophecy. The " con-
fusion" too, likely to flow from removing corruption, would, by
sae test, be proved more imaginative than real. America
theha
had
er adventurous and speculative race to begin with, inter-
mingled with fanatics and convicts from Britain; and for the
last half century the poor and oppressed of all the
countries of Europe have sought and found an asylum on her
hospitable shores-7-6e greedy speculator, the ruined bankrupt,
the broken-down ,
insolvent and the felon pursued by justice,
have transferred their vices to her soil ; but her salutary laws
and institutions, springing from Universal Suffrage, have en-
abled her to reform, instruct, end purify the mass; and in de-
spite of that black remnant of kingly dominion—" slavery,"
she is the most prosperous and free of all the nations of the
earth.
We have been gravely assured that " the best test of intel-
iieence is property"—" that the outward mark of ascertaining
the existence of propel ty is house-rent"--" that a still surer
indication of property is direct taxation," and " that therefore
the present electoral body is a guarantee for fair legislation."
While we, in the truthof
part, admit some of these proposi-
tions to
the extent that wealth will give the means of know-
ledge, we deny that property is any fair criterion for intelli
gence We know of hundreds of
rich
fools, and thousands of
.
housekeepers whose knowledge does not extend beyond their
counters, and who are no more qualified to judge of any man's
political capabilities than the most ignorant plcughman, whose
common sense would not at least be. subject to such influence
as the fear of losing a wealthy customer. If wealth alone
formed a " sufficient guarantee for just government," the be-
nevolent portion of mankind would not for so many years have
been striving to rescue the enslaved negro from the mercenary
grasp of the wealthy planter of India; and the southern slave
owner of America; nay, further, if intelligence alone were
sufficient
• ,we should not have such a catalogue of bad laws to
complain of.
The great boast of England is " Trial by Jury;" but why
do we prefer the less intelligent jury to the more intelligent
Judge,,who fully knows the law, and is a more competent judge
of evidence? Simply because honesty is not always united
with intelligence. We have found out that wealthy and intel-
ligent Judges cannot even be trusted in a Court of Law, and
we are, therefore, pleased to submit to the occasional blunders
of an unbiassed Jury, rather than trust our lives to a designing
Judge. If men without responsibility were strictly virtuous,
a few intelligent individuals would be found sufficient to make
and execute the laws; but as they are not so, we must endea-
vour to make them honest by making them accountable and
responsible for their actions.
But we are told that " we are virtually represented,"—that
" our interests are identified with those who represent us."
This is very false philosophy ; man does not always pursue his
own real interests; if he did, lie would never commit so many
crimes and blunders as he does; on the contrary, lie pursues
an imaginary interest, as passion or circumstances determine ;
and hence the necessity for laws to regulate his conduct. So
with men collectively, so with classes—they uphold theinte-
rest of their class according to their power or inclinations, and
I't is only by a mutual reliance on, and responsibility to each
other, that oppression can be guarded against.
Land, labour,
and capital , are the great sources of wealth—
without land and labour
capital would be unproductive; with-
out capital and land, labour could not be employed; and
without labour both land and capital would be useless. Here
there is a mutual necessity for mutual interests; and being so
dependent each upon the other, justice demands that in all
the arrangements necessary for production and distribu-
tion, equality in legislation should prevail. But no, we arc
told " the capitalists dread the labourers, and therefore will
oppose giving them their rights." We would here stop to
ask ithese very consistent gentlemen, who talk of "virtual
representation," what just cause have English capitalists
to dread or to oppose the English labourer, more than
American capitalists have to fear the power of Universal
Suffrage in that countryct and ? The people there, find it is be
to prote
their interest encourage capital as the
best seed for future
production—they find it equally be-
neficial tlope their own o remove monopolies and dove
re-
sources, taking care that as the public cause is promoted
indi-
vidual interests shall not suffer—they know that knowledge
is the surest promoter of peace and order, and therefore seek
to extend it; they find that poverty is the most fruitful source
of crime, and therefore seek to remove it. Do the oppo-
nents of Universal Suffrage imagine that Englishmen
would be less wise in pursuing their own interests than
Americans are?
But there area class of reasoners who, when foiled by truth
and compelled to admit the *ustice of
principles, will fall back
upon that old subterfuge of terror, expediency. We are told
that, admitting Universal Suffrage to be just, " we must de-
monstrate its expediency." In answer to which we would say,
if the evils ofwhichn be traced to any
most classes complain ea

CONTRACT FOR CEMENT STONE.
DEPARTMENT OF THE STOREKEEPER-GENERAL OF
THE NAVY, SOMERSET-PLACE, SEPT. 11, 1838.
THE COMMISSIONERS for EXECUTING
the OFFICE of LORD HIGH ADMIRAL of the
UNITED KINGDOM of GREAT BRITAIN and IRELAND,
do hereby give notice, that en THURSDAY, the 20th Instant, at
One o'clock, they will be ready to treat with such Persons as may
be willing to Contract for supplying and delivering en the Wharf at,
Her Majesty's Deck Yard at Sheerness
200 Tons of SHEPPY DREDGED STONE, and
100 Tons of SHEPPY CEMENT PEBBLES,
To be delivered immediately.
A Form of the Tender may be seen at the said Office.
No Tender will be received after One o'clock on the Day of
Treaty, nor any noticed, unless the Party attends, or an Agent for
him duly authorized in writing.
Every Tender must be addressed to the Secretary of the Admi-
ralty, and bear is the left hand corner the words " Tender for
Sheppy Stone and Pebbles," and must also be delivered at Somer-
set-place, accompanied by a Letter signed by a responsible person,
engaging to become bound with the person tendering, in the sum of
1001. for the due performance of the Contract.

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