The Sun.
London, England, 1838-11-27 00:00:00

years we have been accusing it, and against which we have,
hitherto vainly, warned the English nation. And these
men, reviling every other class of British anre
-fkisibro diialesCe-iiirias;s'Ciat-eiTh-tlieiii, claim the Queen's
Ministers as the Vet!) 'friend; that rebellious Ireland can
confide Protestants,. then, continue to
suffer t4e:ea4lstefice. Wan Administration which-hesitates to
repudiate such a league,2 How much longer will Lord
„Melborne,be insensible to_the. infamy of a state like this?
How much longer will Great Britain forbear to insist on
this election between her and her alien enemy?—Times.
At length the manifestations of popular-opinion are ex-
'acting, as we Antitipeted; the attention of that portion of
the press which at -first treated them with indifferenee or
'contempt. The importance of these manifestations can
now no longer be denieiL bu,t their effect is .endea-
. vowed to be icripaii,d day:calumny, when less. direct
~means llaye proved iostafficipat to the .purpose of their
.opponents, and :aceerdingl the meetings which were at
first represented as too despicable in numbers to de-
serve notice, beyond the commemoration of their alleged
failure, are now stated and commented upon as of a cha-
racter most fearful to the peace of the country. However,
the true Reformers of Enebeel may suffer these calumnies
to sweep by them as the idle wind, which they respect not.
There never yet was an effective demonstration in fa-
vour of Reform which was not made the subject of similar
slanderous revilings. But the Reformers of England may
well challenge a judgeient of their intentions from their
general conduct, and defy the m alevolent accusations
of their enemies. Nothing is easier than to impute wicked
and criminal intentions, but nothing would be more unfair
than to condemn men from the bare representations of
their enemies, without reference to their own acts, and
collateral circumstances. By what party is a tendency to
violence most strongly exhibited ? Not by the Reformers,
but by the Tories, and a fraction al section of the Reformers
known as Tory Radicals, who, influenced partly by selfish
purposes, and partly by mistaken notions of the operation
of the New Poor-law, asso.iate themselves with proceed-
ings which all rational and well-disposedmen must condemn.
But accusation from same ua.rties may be expected, and
therefore excused as a matter of course. Not so, however,
the condemnatory attacks of others who have long acted
with, and even gone he on I those whom they now find it
expedient to assail. Mr. O'Connell's accusation against
the Reformers of Eaglend is, for instance, an anomaly
which we cannot understated ; especially when we reflect
that one of the most active Members of the Committe
composed of six Members of the House of Commons,
and six delegates of the people, appointed to prepare
the People's Charter, was Mr. O'Connell. We cannot
understand how a man can support Universal Suffrage,
and yet assert Annual Parliaments to be an imprac-
ticable proposition ; or how he can vote for the Ballot, end
yet refuse to coalesce with any party who desire the pay-
ment of Members of Peril ament. This is to adopt the
more extensive principles and Niggle about details. But
neither in these principles or details do we see anything so
extravagant or impracticable as Mr. O'Connell's own pro-
position to procure en addition of fifty members to the
Irish representation, by deducting a similar number from
the representation of Eeelen,l. We are pained to see dif-
ferences of this kin I an ade the pretext of keeping the Re-
formers of England and Ireland divided. There are many
points on which both parties could, in fact few, if any, on
which they could not, unite without a compromise of opi-
nion on either side. The English Reformers hare offered
their Irish brethren the right hand of fellowship, and even
pledged themselves, in case the combined effort should fail,
to assist in all the measuros now exclusively claimed for
Ireland. It is towards this great combination that all the
friends of both countries should exert themselves, nor can
we confide in the judgment and integrity of any man who
would endeavour to oppose it.—Morning Advertiser.
It is worth while to read the French newspapers to see
how nicely they can discuss matters of which they are pro-
foundly ignorant. Information is not necessary to their
disquisitions. It is the ingenuity of the argument about
which they trouble themselves, and not about such-matter-
of-fact affairs as the truth or accuracy of that upon which
the argument is founded. They will write you column
after column upon the qaestion whether the King should
reign only, and not govern, or should do both at occe, but
a question of rather a more substantial nature, viz., whe-
ther they have not been clwased by one who pretended to
place himself at the head of a republican system, but who
does in fact rule with all but absolute authority—that ques-
tion it seems not to occur to them to discuss. However, it
is not their forgetfulness of political realities to which we
now desire to allude, but to their confident way of assum-
ing (for the sake of the argument, of course) the reasons
of English superiority in manufacturing industry.
Upon this subject the Journal des Debats is most
complacently oracular. " All those," it says, " who have
accurately examined the causes of the superiority of the
English in manufacturing industry, have perceived that it
principally depends upon this—that in Great Britain the
workmen are thoroughly practised in their business by a
long apprenticeship, whilst the masters and directors are on
their side also prepared for business before they enter into
it. It is in this way, even more perhaps than by the excel-
lence of their modes of communication, or the abundance.
of capital employed upon them, that English fabrics have
predominated in every market from which they have not
been shut out by prohibitory duties." This is very fine,
but what follows is much finer :--" Thus also it is that we
(the French) ought to endeavour to surpass them in our
turn ; and this we could do, for who can doubt that when
the incomparable vivacity of French intelligence, and the
genius of our nation—genius so eminently practical that no
other people know how as we do to pass rapidly from theory
to practice, and to execute that which has been conceived ;
who can doubt, I say," (here the editorial " we" is aban-
doned) "that when we shall have directed towards
the works of industry those fine qualities which distinguish
us, we shall obtain in that quarter the success which we
have borne away when we have directed them to the
labours of war ?" This is remarkably modest! The in-
ference which we English are expected to draw from this
is, that the French have not surpassed us in manufac-
turing industry only because they have never taken the
trouble so to do ; but they can surpass us whenever they
please to try, and come off successful by their "belles
qualites" as they have done in war. Now it occurs to us,
that however great the success of the French was in war
at one time, their failure was no less conspicuous at ano-
ther time. However rapid the advance of their arms, the
retrogression and defeat were still more rapid, and as
the defeat happened to be in point of chronology the
last, it ought to be as well remembered as the suc-
cess. The French, «e admit, have been very great
in war, but they who have had the enemies' troops
twice quartered in their capital within the memory
of even young men, ought not to write as if they had known
nothing in war but success. If it were possible for the
French to understand the humour of Shakspeare, we would
recommend to them Dogberry's mode of self-encomium :
" I am wise fellow, and which is more an officer, and which
is more a householder, and which is more as pretty a piece
of flesh as any in Messina, and one that knows the law, go
to; and a rich fellow enough, go to; and a fellow that hath
had losses ; and one that hath two gowns, and everything
handsome about him."

Now, if the French were to say " we are a nation that
bath been in war successful enough, go to ; and one that
hath had losses," it would, so far as truth is an aslYantage,le a
rconsiderab-le improvement npon the -wholesale boasting of
the Debats. In othei "respects and the Debats
have pretty much. the same style ofself-laudation.: But what
can exceed, the ingeniousfilistircjity cit. attributing &British
snperiprify in manetieturinvindustry to our system of
apprenticeship .? This is as if the superiority of our navy
were gravely set down,te-tim-acenant-of'the excellence of
the cloth whereof our ships'-sails eretnade, or the remark-
able effectiveness of our bayonet work upon the field 'of
brittle to':-our superior werkmanship in steel. Tint, inde-
pendently of the ludicrous smallness of the cause assigned
great anie.ffeet, even the:Frenel might have known;
tlia(the.apprenticeship sy&t: in was far more strictly attended
tq_n hu.o4-red.years ago, or, two liundzed, yearsrago,- •than it
is new. Some of the largest fortunes made in manufactures'
have beeu,
.made by.. pmons who ..never. were regularly
brought w. to the, busimak.,s;;, and though superior know,
ledge is-in the majority,of -instances one of the4OundAtions
of 'manufacturing
.sueeps, fyetrit isf-:not-the knoWledge
rirefrona regular education, but from the application of a
vigerous-geniuilia search of `improvement beyond that to
which" mannfaciiiring education has hitherto reached. It
would be presumptuous in any man, however conversant
with the subject, to s.ly with confidence that he knows what
are all the causes of the prodigious advancement which
Great Britain has made in manufacturing industry ; but
there are some greatly effective causes, which are obvious
enough, and they are such as—other things being equal—
France cannot hope to compete with. These are the
natural facilities for machine labour afforded by the
abundance of coal, and iron ore, and the moral qualities
of the British people, namely, great energy, unweary-
ing perseverance, and untiring patience in awaitin g the
beneficial result, To these are
to be added the grand
financial cause—the enormous capital which persons not
ashamed of industrious pursuits are possessed of. There
are, perhaps, twenty millions of pounds sterling, or five
hundred millions of francs, now sunk in railroad works
alone, from which not one shilling of dividend has yet been
derived, and yet no murmur of impatience, no sound of
alarm is ever heard upon the subject. But in France,
where they have been able to execute by sot sub-
scription about twenty miles of railroad, great alread
is the apprehension at the delay of dividends y
, the principal Journals of the kingdom are putting forth long
chapters of disquisition to calm the public mind, and to
prevent a financial panic. The French peopleeaff cannot be
great in commercial enterprise until they n
much longer for profitabl.: returns on their eapidtalt,otwha2lti
they sto be able to do at present. with regard to
em