The Sun.
London, England, 1849-12-17 00:00:00

011
eibieL) TIT it
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LONDON, MONDAY, DECEMBER 17, 1849.

There is one portion of the prolix and verbose
document recently issued from No. 17, Old Bond-
street, deserving of especial notice. It contains an
admission that the proprietors of the soil have not as
yet suffered from the adoption of Free-trade principles,
that there is still a competition for the occupation of
land, which has, in some instances, prevented the
reduction of rent. Although we may not adopt the
general reasoning contained in the report we are
fully entitled to act on the confession of those who, in
that particular at least, must be regarded as unex
ceptionable witnesses. Rents, then, have not been
reduced. The fermi are still retained by their occu-
pants, and whenever any tenements fall out oflease are
otfered for letting. There is a fair demand, nay a
strong competition for a preference. It is true, that
there is an attempt to qualify this important admis-
sion. It is said that the "retention of farms by the
occupiers is attributable rather to the fear of having
to wind up their affair=, and to submit the sale of their
stock at the present low prices, and to the transfer-
ence of their interest in improvements, than to any
hope of profitably carrying on their business under
the present policy. If, however, the prospect were
so gloomy and hopeless as the Protectionist orators
endeavour to impress upon the public, would
farmers be contented to carry on their business
nut only without a hope of gain, but with the certainty
of great and increasing losses, by which their entire
capital must be speedily sacrificed, without some
determined and combined effort to induce the lords
of the soil to reduce their rents in proportion to the
general depression of the times. We do not believe
that English yeomen are so obtuse and thick skulled
as such a statement would imply; were it really well
founded they would endeavour to realise their assets
at any price, and carry the remnant of their capital,.
their skill, and industry to some more favoured land.
But it is not merely those who were engaged
in agricultural pursuits !previous to the abolition of
the " sliding scale" that uphold the present rentals:;
there are plenty of persons ready to enter on such
occupations whenever a favourable opportunity
offers. We are told, however, " that it arises from The
abandonment of other trades, under the discourage-
ment of native industry, which is universally felt,
and (they add) it will, in too many instances, be found
that the present competitors for farms have neither
the experience nor the capital requisite for the pro-
fitable and continuous occupation of land." All
other trades and callings, then, are at least
as badly circumstanced as that of the
farmer. Persons are ready to enter iato operations in
which they have but little experience and inadequate
capitals, simply because no other branch of industry
opens more favourable prospects. The relief then,
which is unanimously acknowledged to be essential
for all classes, must be extended to traders and
manufacturers as well as to agriculturists. A partial
assistance to the latter, which could only be afforded
at the expense of all the others, would only
increase the competition for land, and drive
a larger number even of unskilled persons
to the cultivation of the soil. Is this
what is required or desired by the tenant-farmers ?
Is this the relief for which they are so urgent ? We
believe not. It might possibly increase the rent•rolls
of the territorial aristocracy, but it would not improve
the position of those who earn their daily bread by
the sweat of their brow in any description of indus-
try. The remedy to be effectual must be general,
and must apply to all without exception. It must be
such as to lighten the general burden of taxation, and
to give abundant and remunerative employment to all
who are able and willing to work. Let the
agriculturists learn this great truth. Let them no
longer endeavour to benefit themselves exclusively at
the expense of the rest of the community. Let them
learn the advantages of union, ofli zealous and cor-
dial co-operation of all who are dependent on their
industry for their subsistence. The real source of all
their sufferings, the films et orige of the universal
calamity, is the want of a sufficient representative
and measure of value, a circulating medium adequate
to the wants and exigencies of the nation. The very
life-blood of industry is wanting. ;The extraordinary
" appreciation" in the value of money, which has
taken place, by which the purchasing power" of the
pound is at least doubll what it formerly was, has
acted as a check to production. The pressure of
taxation and of every fixed payment is increased in
the same ratio. The farmer must give one hundred
quarters of corn to liquidate a demand which fifty
would formerly have satisfied—the manufacturer
two pieces of calico in place of one—the labourer a
double quantity of work. Grievous injustice has
been rendered to " the Many," and the only
persons who have prospered are the money-
brokers and usurers, and those who are
living upon fixed incomes. What would a reduction

of four or five millions of taxation effect for the
country, when a small increase in the value of the
precious metals would more than counterbalance any
benefit that might arise? The various fluctuations
in the value of money—the continued " apprecia-
tion " in the value of the pound sterling which has
taken place during the last thirty years, and which,
according to the Times, the great organ and oracle ,
of the bullionista, is still on the increase,
have involved all classes, with a single ex-
ception, in one common ruin. This, then, is
the great grievance to be remedied, the over-
whelming evil that must be averted. A vast and
comprehensive measure of reform in our monetary
code must be introduced : money must be produced
as well as other commodities. Hitherto the population
of the country has been steadily increasing, while
money has not only not increased but has diminished
very considerably in consequence of the undue re-
strictions imposed by the Acts of 1819 and 1844. We
are therefore scrambling amongst ourselves, each sus-
pecting that his neighbours have got more than their fair
shares. The manufacturer thinks the profits of the
agriculturist must be reduced, while the latter reci-
procates the ill-feeling and will accept no relief save
at the expense of his rival. Can they not for once
perceive that their interests are identical, and that
they are really in the position of the family described
by LOCKS, as " pulling a short coverlet," some of
whom must starve, " unless the father of the family
(the State) provide better, and enlarge the scanty
covering." Let all, then, zealousy, energetically, and
boldly apply for the required relief. Let them no
longer sacrifice themselves and their families to gratify
the currency quacks, or witness the destruction of all
that renders life desirable, in order that Sir CHARLES
WOOD may be enabled to declare that " the currency
was never in a healthier condition."

Vox et praterea nihil is the very proper definition
of most ebullitions of popular enthusiasm. Such,
however, we would gladly believe, will not be the
nature of that sympathy which, at the present mo-
ment, the sufferings of the great multitude have so
very generally excited. We would fain believe that
at last (GOD knows it is time) some simultaneous
effort will be made—for without some effectual effort
all the fine talking in the world is useless—to render
the real practical condition of the people of England
somewhat commensurate with that theoretical glory
and civilization of which we boast. Since the first
outbreak of that awful epidemic which so recently
filled the land with mourning we have repeatedly
expressed our opinion, that the plague would ulti-
mately prove a blessing, and such it has already
declared itself. Never before have the sorrows of the
working classes found such ready listeners in high
places—never before have the denizens of squares
and terraces cared to inquire about the
ventilation and cleanliness of the courts and
alleys of the metropolis. These subjects, formerly
unmentioned to ears polite, are now the theme of
fashionable conversation. At this auspicious moment
the Morning Ckronicle has published a series of reve-
lations of London life—revelations so marvellous, so
horrible, and so heartrending, that few histories can
equal, and no fiction surpass them. "Honour to
whom honour is due," say we, and we cordially
congratulate our Contemporary for the good service
he has rendered to a cause in which we have always
heartily engaged—the cause of the English people,
and more especially the English poor. These reve-
lations, as we have said, are appearing at the right
moment. The sorrows of the people are the theme
of general inquiry, and here we have those sorrows
truthfully and touchingly pourtrayed. The unfor-
tunate needlewomen, and the yet more " unfortu-
nate" class whom the sad epithet especially
designates, have here—their sufferings overcoming
shame—themselves given utterance to their griefs.
The account of that meeting of a body of these
women to reveal the sad story of their sins and
sorrows, to which we alluded some short time back, is
wholly unequalled in our experience of historical or
fictitious horrors. It is a chapter in the history of
our own times which, however much we may blush
with indignant shame at its perusal, we cannot but
feel thankful has been so publicly revealed. We have
already referred to one means which a wise philan-
thropy has suggested for affording an immediate and
effectual relief for this terrible destitution and de-
gradation,—we mean Mr. SIDNEY HERBERT'S pro-
posal to promote the emigration of females to the
colonies. Here there are so vast a multitude of
women with no honest means of supporting themselves
save needlework, the labourers so greatly exceed
the number actually required for the labour that, as a
natural consequence, prices are lowered to the merest
fraction. In place of a fair day's wages for a -day's
work the hapless sernpstress toils with almost super-
human industry some eighteen or twenty hours day
after day at the gain of a few pence, which will
barely sustain life, while a multitude of her less for-
tunate companions, unable to obtain even such
employment, have no choice but starvation or " the
streets." It is hardly necessary to recapitulate these
horrors, but it is impossible to consider them without
concluding that if the claimants for work were fewer
the remuneration must be higher. While the towns
of England are thus thronged with starving, unem-
ployed women the colonies are suffering from the
scarcity of female emigrants. There are no unem-
ployed underpaid work women there. Let us then,says
Mr. SIDNEY HERBERT, redress this unequal balance !
Let us send these idle hands where work is abundant,
let us send these starving wretches where food is
plentiful, and honest existence possible. The
suggestion is so well-timed and so well-adapted
to the emergency that it has met with
almost unanimous approval. The proposition may,
at first sight, appear somewhat harsh—it may appear
a cruel kindness to condemn to eternal expatriation
women whose hearts, perhaps, cling to the country
of their birth, and whose frames are hardly qualified
to encounter the perils of emigration. But, be it
remembered, it is proposed to send out only voluntary
applicants, and can we doubt that such applicants
will be numerous ? What unknown privations in
the voyage, or " the bush," can compare with the
horrors daily experienced here ? No reluctance, we
may depend upon it, will he testified by the majo-
rity. " Anywhere, anywhere out of the world !" is
the cry of many a desperate heart, weary of the
monotonous misery of life. Many a poor wretch, whose
corpse has been taken up from beneath the " Bridge
of Sighs," might "have lived to a good old age and
died with children's faces round her bed," had some
friendly hand, in the yet innocent days of her perilous
poverty, done for her what we are now called upon to
do for others like her. In the words of the adver-
tisement, with which our readers are already
familiar—

" It is proposed to take- measures with a view to abate
the double evil—to supply the colonies with the popu-
lation which is the crying want of society there, and at
the same time to redress this increasing grievance of
the mother country; to rescue from penury and misery
those who emigrate, and by diminishing the unnatural
excess of female labour, to better the condition of those
who remain."

The benefit will not be exclusively conferred on
the (comparatively) few who will be transmitted to
other lands ; but the condition of those who remain
will be necessarily improved. The destructive com-
petition now going on—a competition productive of
starvation and sin—will be materially diminished by
the reduction in the number of labourers. The
scheme appears so admirably well adapted to the
grievances which it proposes to remedy, that we
cannot wonder that the committee already formed in
its behalf comprises individuals of all politics and
parties. In the same list we find Baron ROTHSCHILD
and the Bishops of LONDON and OXFORD, Noble
Lords of the west end and the merchant princes of
the east, the Marquis of GRANBY and Lord JOHN
RUSSELL. The name of the Noble Premier is a
happy addition to the list—not so much for
the Ministerial sanction which it confers upon
the scheme as for the happy augury it affords
of the good intentions of the Government.
If Lord J. RUSSELL and his colleagues, although
only in their individual capacity, take part in this
benevolent committee of management, we shall
assuredly be justified in anticipating from them next
session some further official recognition of the crying
wants of the community. In the meantime the
" Fund for Promoting Female Emigration" appeals to
the sympathies of the benevolent ; nay, more, it has
claims on our attention for the sake of common
justice and humanity. Many have talked largely
on their compassion for the poor, many have
wept over the lyrics of HOOD, or shuddered at the