The Sun.
London, England, 1831-07-08 00:00:00

ti anspoi t of antic; to the Poles—paid no attention to
the cornplaints of the Polish 'Government, that Austria
had disarmed and sent into eiOtivity a brave band of
Polish patriots, 'under the command of General Dwernicki,
who had been compelled to seek a momentary asylum
--and satisfied itself by calling the Polish revolution a re-
volt which had diSruibed i3airqe. it was no less in-
different to the int`orests of liberty in the South of Europe.
There in Italy, it looked on unconcerned at the armed in-
tervention of Austrit, in the States of the Pope, of the
Duke of Modena, anti the Duchess of Parma, against the
people, and in favour of the cruel oppressors, and said
Italy was too far removed from Great Britain for it to
afford its aid. It affect' d not to be aware of the intrigues
and conspiracies forming at Edinburgh by the Ex-Royal
ramify, of France, against the new order of things in
Prance; and instead of forming an alliance offensive and
defensi7e with the latter country against all the despotic
Sovereigns of Europe, it complimented and flattered those
most whtth were the least popular, and stated, by its acts,
that it could not encourage the dangerous doctrine of the
Sovereignty of the People. It spoke of peace as the greatest
of blessing., and paid no attention whatever to the great
cause of civil and religious liberty all over the world. It
threw into the scale of despotism absolute monarchy, and
anti-influence, and talents, and the Poles were left unaided
to the tender mercies of a cruel Emperor—the
Italians to the yokes of iron of Austrian Princes—the
Spaniards to the oppression of Ferdinand and the Inqui-
sition—and the Belgians to dissatisfaction, division,
and civil war, by ordaining a separation of provinces from
Belgium, which desired to be united to it, and by forcing
away by the force, not of reason or humanity, but of
cannon and bayonets, the inhabitants of Limbourg and
Luxembourg from Belgium, and the whole from France.
This political
" Riddle remained a riddle, till, at length' "-
I conclude this page of history with a vacuum which I
will not attempt to supply. I yet hope against hope. I
yet hope that there will he " till at length"—and the re-
mainder of the sentence I most leave to Lord Grey, and
the middling classes of society in England to fill up. Shall
the sentence be " till at length the British n Ltion, by pe-
titions, remonstrances, and addresses, at meetings and in
societies, expresses itself so loudly in favour of the cause of
liberty in Poland, that the Cabinet was compelled to inter-
fere"—or shall it read " till at length Poland was exter-
minated—the Inquisition was re-established in Spain—
Don Miguel re-established his throne in blood—ltaly was
reduced to subjection—Germany became once more the
abode of petty oppressors and unprincipled tyrants ; and
then began a revolution of war to the knife against liberty,
civilization, and the happiness of human nature !"?

I pause for the reply. No faults of Louis Philip will
excuse Casimir Perier; and no faults of William the
Fourth (if he be faulty) will excuse Lord Brougham and
Lord Grey.
You might have freed fall'n Europe from the unity
Of tyrants, and been bless'd from shore to shore."

I shall return to this charge. I shall over and over
again re-urge this subject on the consideration of the
middling classes in England. It is not enough to be
happy one'elf; we are bound to make others happy. It
is not enough to say " we have a Reformed Parliament,"
whilst you are fettering, by your cold indifference, the
patriots of other climes. It is not enough to say, France
acts yet more basely and with yet more ingratitude. Her
condemnation will nit be your praise. She is new in re-
presentative and national institutions. She under-
stands but little of that Temple of Liberty which is
created on the sure basis of popular sovereignty. Not that
I would diminish from the reproaches which are so justly
heaped on the French Government by the enlightened
and pitriotic of all nations. That Government has acted
and continues to act most culpably, but that culpability
will form no real excuse for the indifference and coldness
of the British Government to the great contest now going
on in Europe between the oppressed and their oppressors
—the People and Despots.
To-day our election commences in Paris ! We are in a
state of excitement not easy to lie described—but all is
calm and order. To-day we are occupied in forming our
13ureaux—choosing cur Presidents, Secretaries, and Scru-
tineers—and then we proceed to vote for Deputies. In
Paris the elections will not be Ministerial, though it is
generally thought that Casimir Perier will be returned by
the First Arrondissement. Should he be defeated in this
measure, he will fret himself to death ; and should he
find his foreign policy unpopular in the New Chamber, he
will retire. He promised the King, when he came into
office, that the elections should be perfectly free and unin-
fluenced. He has not kept his word, and the King
knows it. If the Minister had acted with the same im-
' partiality as did M. Martignac at the elections which took
place during his Administration, it is certain that lie would
have been left in a minority. The Gazette de France,
which, though Royalist, is written with a talent far surpass-
ing any other Journal in this c.iuntry. (I speak without re-
ference to its politics), invites its readers to appr'ze it of
the number of voters in each Arrondissement who shall
not attend at the elections, in order that France may see
by how few a number of electors she is represented ; and
it adds, " it is curious, after a liberal revolution, to be-
hold a nation of thirty-three millions of people, re-
presented by a number of electors so small in amount, as
to be able to perform military marceuvres in a space not
larger than one half of the Champ de Mars." Whilst we
cannot but smile at the Gazette being an advocate of uni-

versal suffrage, we cannot hut feel that the. present syatem
of representation is not national, nor does it accord with
the principles of our Jury revolution. I have much to s:sy,
hut must proceed to look after the elections, and will write
you to morrow.

Your obedient servant,

O. P. Q.

IMPERIAL PARLIAMENT.

HOUSE OF LORDS, JUI.Y 7.

The Earl of HAItEWOOD presented a petition from
Leeds, in Yorkshire. praying that the attention of the
House might be given to the distress prevailing in Ireland.
Lord SKELNIERSDALE presented petitions from pro.
prietors of corn mills in Liverpool and Warrington, com-
plaining of the injury which they sustain in their business
in consequence of the large quantity of foreign flour im-
ported into this country.

Lord ROCHDALE presented a petition from the pro-
prietors of corn mills in Chester, to the same effect.
The Archbishop of CANTERBURY postponed from
Friday to Monday next the second reading of the Tithes'
Commutation Act.

On the motion of Lord WYNFORD, the Common
Law Courts' Bill was read a third time and p issed.
Lord WYNFORD moved au amendment to the Stand-
ing Order relating to Divorce Bills, to the effect, " Before
the second reading any Divorce Bill, the proceedings in the
Ecclesiastical Court should be laid before the House."_
The motion was agreed to.

TRUCK SYSTEM'.
Lord \VIIARNCLIFFE now moved their Lordships,
that two Bills which he had laid upon the table, having
for their object to prevent the practice of paying wages in
truck, should he read a second time. He felt it his duty,
in entering in'o his objections to that system, to state his
belief that, if the House did not interfere, the whole ma-
nufactures of the country would be so carried on, and that
instead of money wages, the universal practice would be
to pay the manufacturing workmen in goods. It was
worth while to consider how that practice had grown up.
Many laws had been passed to put it down, but without
effect. On looking to those Acts, he found in all of them
something calculated to render them nugatory; and he
was satisfied that, in order to counteract the practice, a
law of great severity was necessary. The system ori-
ginated in various causes, and in some cases it was impos-
sible for the masters to avoid it. But it had now gone to
too great a length, and was in many instances kept up only
by the avarice of the masters. It was, however, to be
considered, that some system of the kind would naturally
be resorted to immediately upon the return to cash pay-
aunts, because, for a time, the difficulty of obtaining
money was so great, that many persons of small capital
could not have carried on their manufactures otherwise
than by paying in truck. But at length the ava-
rice of the manufacturers got the better of their
honesty, and truck became almost the universal
system, when it was found so greatly to in•
crease their profits. When a man agreed to work for a
certain suns of money, at the end of the week the master
took advantage of the workman's state of dependence, and
compelled him to take goods nominally worth the amount
of the wages, but, in fact, at such a price, that he paid
only ninepence for the shilling. The workman, being
often compelled to take goods of no value to his family,
must immediately sell those goods (and of course always
at a loss), in order to procure necessaries. Now as some
masters employed three or four thousand men, their profits,
by means of truck, must be enormous. He (Lord
Wharncliffe) had often been at a loss to account for the
Sale of the products of labour at a price less than the usual
cost of producing them. But, on considering the system
oftwh it
cur
hus
uctkahl,e hecmocould
wptarrsaocdee,u,
act.
b, h.
nleegda anomaly to
sell t that system, by
eem.lhno s et
haart t itcv s bme
al on‘yv
manufacturers made 14,0001. or 15,0001. a rYon the
' goods sold to their workmen. Thu, the .a
temptation
rfitto
the masters was so great, on account ofsuch
that if a law were not passed to put dowpno
the
system, truck would become the universal mode of
payment of wages. If such a system continued, to what