The Sun.
London, England, 1822-04-01 00:00:00

rock, though at ten times the expence of labour '
at which it can be raised elsewhere. To protect
the proprietors of the soil of such rock, from fo-
reign competition, a duty must be raised on fo-
reign food equal to ten times the amount at
which it can be bought. This is an extreme
case, no doubt, hut the principle is the same.
It is impossible not•to see that the principle is
fraught with ruin to an industrious and densely
peopled country. Where, we would ask,
are its limits ? Shall protection merely be af-
forded for an extent of cultivation equal to the
raising food for our present population ? If our
population increases, we must either obtain by
improved processes an additional quantity of food
to supply the additional population, from the
land now in cultivation, or we must take land
into cultivation which cannot at present bear the
expence of it. We must in this last case go on
increasing our protecting duty, in order to 'meet
the additional expence of cultivation which this
bad land will require. The evil would cure itself
at last, by the impossibility of the population
receiving any farther increase from the de-
struction of the industry of the country, un-
able to support the extravagant price of
food ; and swarms of paupers would remain
to punish the holders of the land. In the
mean time, however, the effect of the system,
in so fur as it can be operative, is to transfer the
property of the rest of the community to the
pockets of the landholders. If protection could
be carried so far as to indemnify the holder of a
piece of land in Dartmoor for the expellee laid
out in its cultivation, it requires no very great
penetration to see that an additional rent must
be paid to the holders of the different degrees of
more fertile land. The poorer the land that can
be cultivated, the higher the rent of the good
land. An East Lothian Proprietor, who now re-
ceives six or seven guineas an acre, might come at
last to receive 9.0 or 30. Such is the principle
of the Agricultural Committee ; and as it would
seem to have received the sanction of Ministers,
the country must, we are afraid, be prepared for
its ultimate adoption by Parliament. We trust,
however, that every exertion will be made, in
the mean time, with a view to defeat, if possible,
the object which the landholders have in view.

[BRITISH PRESS.]
We have already adverted to the important
motion of which Mr. Canning has given notice,
for the restoration of the Catholic Peers to their
places in the House of Lords. The explanation
to which it gave rise, relative to the general ques-
tion, is highly satisfactory. Mr. Plunkett's an-
swer to Mr. O'Gorman, excited an apprehension
of an understanding among the leading friends of
the measure unfavourable to its discussion in the
present Session of Parliament. For that appre-
hension, it now appears, there are no grounds.
The Right Hon. Gentleman candidly stated that
his mind was not made up upon the subject ; that
in considering the present time unfavourable, he
had no information to guide his judgment that
was not within the reach of every Member of
the House; but he did not think it advisable to
bring the question forward without a moral cer-
tainty of success. So far then as the business
has been disclosed, the objection to immediate
discussion is confined to Mr. Plunkett himself ;
and instead of its being the general opinion of
the friends of the measure, we have hi the same
debate Sir John Newport and Mr. Tierney, ex-
pressing themselves decidedly against delay.—
Mr. Canning may be also presumed to coin-
cide with these two zealous and steady friends
of the measure, the motion of which he has
given notice being in fact an essential part
of the main question.. As the opinion
of Mr. Plunkett must have a great influ-
ence upon the public mind, it becomes the
more incumbent upon those who think it militates
against the success of the cause to state any ob-
jections to which they consider it liable. In the
performance of this duty we candidly confess that
the objection to the present time does not appear
to us to be one of a decisive character. An ob-
jection to the time is one that will be contempo-
raneous with the proposed agitation of the ques-
tion at any future period to the remotest posterity.
It will be just as competent to a Member to
make the objection next year as it is now. No
time can be so favourable that we may not ex-
pect a future opportunity more favourable, and
if this objection is to prevail, the question may
stand over for ever. To stop is to abandon the
measure.
,By pausing, it does not become sta-
tionary—it roust be retrogressive. It has been
hitherto impelled by the force of truth and reason
against ignorance and prejudice, and the exertion
once suspended, it is carried back by the stream.

[MORNING HERALD.

The conclusion of 'Wednesday's debate in the.
Chamber of Deputies is of some interest—espe-
cially the speech of General Gerard, recently
elected one of the Deputies fOr the city of Paris.
The General in his speech lays open the great
cause of the disaffection which has shown itself
in the French army, particularly among the non-
commissioned officers. The estimate of the Bud-
get, which called forth his observations, was that
for defraying the expenses of the war department.
It was with difficulty that he could obtain a hearing
----evidently, and indeed avowedly on the mi-
nisterial side—from an anticipation that his
speech would have a tendency to inflame
the passions of the soldiers ;—or, in the
words of his opponents, that it would be
" a provocation to revolt." The following is
the substance of a few of the most important
fragments of his speech that reached their desti-
nation—the ears, not of the Deputies, but of the
Journalists : " Seeing," said he, " that the esti-
mate amounts to 180,000,000 (francs), have we
not a right to ask whether France has any army ?
whether she has her place among the nations of
Europe ? I dare not 'trust my indignation to
answer the question. Does the soil of France
no longer produce defenders of the country ?
(M. de Corcelles.—" It seems not—since we
borrow red jackets [Swiss] from our neigh-
bours.")--The French soldier has no taste for
the service when he is taken out of the great
family of the nation, and made an instrument in
the hands of power for the oppresAon or terror