The Sun.
London, England, 1838-12-19 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 19, 1838.

rest. LOUIS PHILIPPE has lived sixty years
in the world to some purpose, since he can teach a na-
tion to be at once bountiful to an ally in distress,
without incurring any loss on his own part, in cases
where men and money are only needed. We will not
attempt to specify " those succours" which the RE-
GENT has received from France within the last year.
Were we to do so we should find them of a very left-
handed description. Of course it must be taken as one of
the instances of French sympathy that the Princess of
BEIRA WE'S per:nitted to cross the frontier with young
CARLOS ; and that arms, ammunition, clothing, and
.provisions in abundance, are clandestinately conveyed
from France to every town and village in Spain north
of the Ebro. For an ally to enrich an enemy whose
spoil we may carry off', if we are able, may, in the
opinion of French politicians, be only an indirect way
of enriching ourselves.
All the other questions of Foreign policy are mated
of in terms equally vague and inconclusive. The para-
graph respecting the Hollando-Belgic question satisfies
us, however, that all fears of a rupture in that quarter
are utterly groundless. The reference, too, to the dif-
ferences between France and Mexico is more pacific
than we were prepared to expect after the recent re-
infcreement of the blockading squadron in the
Gulf. The evacuation of Ancona, and the con-
solidation of the French power in Africa, are
among the common-places of European gossip.
We are, however, delighted to learn that France is in-
ternally in a state of increasing prosperity ; and that
whatever be the faults of her rulers, her population
steadily advances in the cultivation of those arts which
are essential to the happiness of a great nation.

FRENCH FUNDS.—PARIS, DECEMBER 17.
Fire per Cen U.. lOf 67,C. SOc 70c. Latest Prices-.109f. 90c.
Four and a Flaq ner Cents. 1060 tOc.
four per Cents., In2f.
l'l,ree par Cents.. 70f. 40c. 45c..... .....
Bank Actions, '2,7lrf.
A cnte fie Napes, 9:)f. 40c 1.5 c. 30c.
Roman Five per Cents., 101—
Spanish Actives, 113%14.
Belgian Five per Cents., 100%.
Belgian Bank, I,tlo 0 1,1-‘5O 1,16t,f. 1,15,1 Ditto 1,1400
EYCHANCifi. 018 LONL.N.— ,e- .owitn, paper.2.lo 27%c.; money,2sf 25e
llree months, paper, 25. 15c : rr,,,,,,,v. 25'. 12%,.

Ditto MI Mc.
Ditto 2,71, 1.

Ditto 101

Letters and papers from Madrid, of the 10th inst.,
announce the formation of another Cabinet. We ob-
served on Monday that ALAIX's Administration, as
then appointed, would not stand another week, and we
were right. The following is the new official list,
copied from the Gazette :
M. Evaristo Perez de Castro (the present Ambassador of
Spain in Lisbon), to be President of the Council and Minister
for Foreign Affairs.
General Alaix, Minister of War.
M. Pio Pita Pizarro. Minister of Finance.
Hompanera (a Deputy), Minister of the Interior.
M. Arrazola (a Deputy), Minister of Justice ; and
M. Chacon, Minister of Marine.
We have no other news from Spain of any interest.
Everything there is stationary for the present.

The proceedings in the Chamber of Commerce at
Manchester, particularly the speech of Mr. J. B.
SMITH, the President of the Manchester Anti-Corn-
law Association, and still more that part of it which
described the decay of our commerce, the falling off
in our exports to the North of Europe, by 7,400,0001.
since 1832, the decline of our manufactures at Wol-
verhampton and Birmingham, and the ruin of our
stocking-manufacture at Nottingham, seem to have
made, as they deserved, a profound impression on the
public. The Chronicle seems again resolved to take
up the subject of the Corn-laws, and regrets that it
cannot to-clay enter upon it. We quote a portion of
our Contemporary's remarks :
The Corn-laws will, ere long, become a dead letter, by
the inability of our manufacturing population to pay high
prices. Englishmen are at the head of large establishments
in every part of the Continent. According to Mr. Smith, our
exports to northern Europe, by far the most populous, civilised,
and wealthy portion of the globe, were less by 7,400,0001. in
five years after the war. In the cotton, linen, and woollen
trades we aro fast becoming merely spanners ; and the export
of cotton yarn was merely, be said, on sufferance, as the spin-
ning was increasing so rapidly both in Europe and
America. 'There is a great increase in the exporta-
tion of bar and pig iron and castings, and coal ; but
little increase in Birmingham, Sheffield, and Wol►erbampton
goods. It appears, too, that so rapid bas been the progress in
Germany of late in many branches of manufacture, that we
purchase from that country many articles, as scythes, bolts,
coffee-mills, &c., which we formerly exported to it.
The subject is of paramount importance.
There will soon, we foresee, be a formidable warfare between
the Squierarchy and the manufacturers. The sins of past
years will, if we mistake not, be severely visited on the present
time.

The Globe even goes further than the Chronicle,
and predicts that if we cannot get progressive improve-
ment, its sudden terrors being the offspring of the
speeches at Manchester, that we shall have a revo-
lution. We have used similar language for several
months, and if we have any feeling at such terms
being now employed by our merely Ministerial Con-
temporaries, it is rather of apprehension than of hope,
lest those who prefer faction to the public welfare, and
would rather goad the people by suffering, to be mad
instruments of change in their hands, should again
turn round and stigmatise the Corn-law agitation as a
tub thrown to the whale by the Ministers, and as only
intended to divert the attention of the people from
more needful and practical reforms. Sure we are, in-
deed, that the question of the Corn-laws must occupy
the first place in the discussions of the approaching
Session, for it is impossible that our Legislature can
see with indifference the decay of trade and the rapid
growth of poverty and of crime, which are caused by
the Devil's laws.

The Herald takes the opportunity of showing, and
we believe correctly, that in the year 1689, and sub-
sequently, the agriculture of England was subjected,
by a land-tax of 3s. in the pound, by county-rates
and poor-rates, and by landlords being obliged to
maintain the population born on their estates, to sun-
dry disadvantages, from which untaxed machinery and
manufacturing capital has been exempt. It is a fact,
that the economical policy of our legislation, subse-
quently to the time of CROMWELL, mainly influenced
by the vast prosperity of Holland, was directed to encou-

rage trade, navigation, and manufactures. But admitting
that the inference we draw from our past policy is
different from that of the Herald, on its statements
the growth of our manufactures, the increase of our
commerce and shipping, are the result of the acts of
the Legislature; and the Legislature is unwarranted in
now starving the population, and stifling the interests
it formerly nourished into existence, under the pretext
of giving a reciprocal protection to the landowners.
The fact is, that the alternate protection con-
ferred by the Legislature on the several branches
of industry, only alternately injures them all
and the agricultural interest, as witness the wage
of labour in Wiltshire, and the incendiarism
which is rife in the agricultural districts, confirming
Mr. FLETCHER'S remarks, at Manchester, which the
Herald impugns, is now suffering almost as grievously
from the Corn-laws as the Nottingham hosiers or the
Manchester Weavers.
We observe by the accounts from Scotland, which
we have received to-day, that in the Fife markets the
price
of wheat last week rose from ls. to 25., and
it sold according to its quality, from 70s. to
80s. per quarter. In Scotland, also it is said, that the
crop of barley is very short, which will add to our
misfortunes. The landowners seem to us truly male-
volent, and to act directly in the face of nature. They
augment the pangs of hunger, and make dearths gene-
ral, which nature, with a view probably to unite
foreign nations by the bonds of mutual service, makes
only partial. The course of human improvement—the
great end and aim of all mechanical inventions—the
reason why the merchant and the seaman equally
brave the polar ice and the tropical sun,
is just to make commodities cheap and in.