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

crease the mass of human subsistence. The ob-
ject of the- landlords' legislation is to make food scarce
and dear, and thus to counteract the continual
strivings of all other pains-taking men, and so oppose
the course of human improvement. We quite agree
with the Globe in its conclusion that if this conduct

be not alt!red, if the Corn-laws be not abolished, if
the landlords do not cease by legislation to thwart the
course of society, a great, a dreadful, and bloody
revolution must and will ensue.

We cannot quit the subject without adverting to
another article in the Chronicle, which will be found
amongst our extracts from the Journals. Agreeing
with our Contemporary in most of his observations on
Lord DURHAM'S answer to Mr. PROUT, and espe-
cially approving of his Lordship separating himself
from those who seek to attain their objects by vio-
lence, we cannot go along with the Chronicle in in-
dicating a sensitive abhorrence of discussions at meet-
ings of the people on the right of property. We
would not weaken that right by an expression of
alarm ; but it is too much the fashion for our Legisla-
ture to violate it, as it exists in the people—and the
Corn laws are a case of such violation—and then to
decry all attempts to remedy a gross injustice as an
attack ma vested rights, and particularly the right of
property. Such a right is far too well founded for
those who understand it to dread the severest and
closest examination ; and those who would stifle ob-
servation on it only imply a consciousness of er-
ror. We do not wish to see the cant of re-
ligion introduced into politics, and the opinions
of some persons set up as an infallible rule, from
which there must be no deviation, and into which
there must be no inquiry ; a sort of tabooed or
sacred ground on which no unauthorized person must
tread. Prove all things, and hold fast by the good, is
our motto, and on this principle we are no more adverse
from having the right of property exposed to public
investigation, than the assumed right of the landlords
and of the Legislature to violate it whenever that -en-
riches themselves or suits their fancied expediency.

The annual election of Common Councilmen takes
place on Friday next, when the householders will have
an opportunity of questioning, admonishing, and pledg-
ing their representatives. For many years these elec-
tions have been little better than a farce. Some good
members have been returned, but the great majority
are men of that stamp who long usurped the Commons'
House of Parliament. Speeches have been made
against abuses in the Corporation, reforms proposed,
Aldermen abused, and Lord Mayors censured, but
the result has been the same. The City Government
has generally been victorious. There has been the
same wasteful expenditure of the public money—
jobbing as notorious as any ever practised under Tory
misrule, and as thorough apathy to any radical reform,
or rooting up of the numerous abuses that still prevail
, in almost every public department. For all these the
citizens have themselves only to blame. What can
any Government do if the people will not bestir
themselves ? and had the citizens of London ever such
an opportunity of getting rid of heavy taxes, in-
jurious monopolies, and a corrupt system of corpora-
tion rule, as at the present moment ? Ministers are
ready to bring forward a measure for reforming the
Corporation, and all they want is the public voice,
and the aid of the parties aggrieved. If St. Thomas's
Day passes over as usual, if the same men are re-
turned without solemn pledges to support Reform, the
Court of Aldermen will, next Session, get a Municipal
Bill passed, securing all their privileges, all those
things called vested rights, and all the power they at
present possess in distributing the vast sums levied
on the inhabitants. What with corporate pro-
perty, and rates, and fees, they have under their
controul annually half a million sterling. Many
of the members have an interest in the coal mo-
nopoly, which, according to the calculation of Mr.
HANNEN and others, raises the price of coals 15 per
cent., equal to an annual tax of 800,0001. They have
innumerable appointments, and other means of serving
friends and favorites of which the public know little
and can the inhabitants of London be so blind to
their own interests as to leave corporate reform to a
body who have such powerful reasons to keep things
as they are ? This coal monopoly alone ought to open
the eyes of the public. To serve the men of the North
and the South, for they have a mutual interest, a duty
of 7s. .the ton has been laid on all coals brought by
land, and clauses have been smuggled into railway
bills for the wicked purpose of keeping up a tax,
one half of which would be sufficient, without any
Corporation property or any rates at all, to de-
fray the whole expenses of the Ctty of London.
This certainly is a glaring monstrosity in a civilized
and intelligent community, but it is a fact, about
which there can be no dispute„; yet the inhabitants,
complaining of the window tax, the assessed taxes,
and others of a trivial nature, sit quietly under this
enormous load, imposed upon them by the negligence
or the active agency of their City Parliament. We
look forward with some curiosity to the proceedings on
Friday, and expect, at all events, if the citizens care
nothing about their own interests, they will care for
the poor, and use their influence to remove a tax which
at this season of the year presses so heavily on our
half-starved population.

The Earl of DURHAM'S reply to the temperate
and convincing explanation by the Deputies of the
Westminster Reform Society, will be found in another
column, and we rejoice to see the frank and candid
spirit which characterises his Lordship's letter to Mr.
PROUT. The original address of the Society was
wholly unobjectionable, but the proceedings of some
individuals at the meeting of the Association rendered
it difficult for Lord DURHAM to accept the Address,
till the explanation of the Deputies had removed the
inconsistent observations made by those individuals
respecting their own motives and object of using his
Lordship. The Noble Earl has now distinctly shown
that he will not submit to insult, nor allow his real sen-
timents to be misunderstood or misrepresented. Lord
DURHAM has drawn a line of demarcation between
the real Reformers and the visionary Destructives.
The latter class represent no numbers. In truth they
are a few self-created leaders, ignorant of the ends of
good government, and most of them chiefly influenced
by a vain desire for self-importance. Our brother
Reformers thoughout the Kingdom are, however,
awake to the designs of these mischievous personS.
The result of the correspondence between Lord DUR-
HAM and Mr. PROUT will tend to define the objects
of the various sections of Reformers, and to unite
them in a common cause for practicable amendments
of the representative system. The Westminster So-
ciety in their address stated to Lord DURHAM the
political principles of their Association, via.;

1. Household Suffrage.
2. Triennial Parliaments.
3. Voting by Ballot.

Lord DURHAM, in his original acknowledgement of
the address, distinctly stated that in those "principles"
" I entirely concur." Under such circumstances, of
the similar political principles of the addressers and
the addressed, we congratulate Reformers on the ami-
cable and honourable result of the proceedings of the
Westminster Reform Society.

The Hon. Mr. Fiennes and Mr. Richmond are
still at Brighton.