The Sun.
London, England, 1838-09-04 00:00:00

feeble hope of success a few years hence. If, there-
ore, the repeal of the Corn-laws would be far less
lymeticial than we think it, we should still say it is the

part of prudent men to secure that benefit which is

within their reach, and not waste their time and
strength by a fruitless contest.• If, indeed, the repeal
of the Corn-laws would place an obstacle in the Way

of the Chartists, we should not dare to recommend it to
them ; but it would do more to further their ultimate
success than any other measure they can possibly

adopt.
If this were not so, we should, as the practical ad-
mirers of the great principle of the sovereignty of the '
people, nevertheletsaffirm that thequestion which united
the great majority of suffrages in its favour—if it had not
Universal Suffrage—which provoked the least opposi-
tion, ought to be embraced. We should then think that
one individual opinion ought to be sacrificed to the gene-
ral view, and that it would not only be expedient to en-
deavour to procure the repeal of the Corn-laws, because
our exertions were likely to be crowned with success,
hut because it is at all times politically right, on ,the
democratic creed, that the views of a great majority
should prevail over those of a narrow section.• The
Chartists, who are obstinately attached to their own
recently formed political views, are like the narrow and
limited Doctrinaires of the French school, who deny
the possibility of political welfare, except by acting on
their precise dogmas. In fact, they are bigots in poli-
tics, who would reduce all other men to their own
dwarfish standard.

To act with them is to lay down a narrow principle
of exclusion, and substitute the immediate will of the
few for the immediate will of the many. To go
for the repeal of the Corn-laws would invite all classes
into the ranks of the people ; and great respectability,
as well as great numbers, would be added to them.
Most likely the Liberal capitalists, and many of the
proprietary classes who stand aloof from the Chartists,
would be eager to unite with the people, and guide
them in their exertions to procure the repeal of the
Corn-laws, as the means of leading the people away
from doctrines inimical, as they conceive, to the peace
of society. We should as strongly recommend that
policy to them, as we recommend the working classes to
go first for a repeal of the Corn-laws. That alone we
believe can give the capitalists safety. They cannot
prosper in hostility to the working classes, and it is as
much their interest now to unite with the working,
classes to put an end to the Corn-laws, as it is their in-
terest to oppose the scheme of the Charter. The prin-
ciple of union, the principle of democracy,.the prin-
ciple of kindness and of brotherly love, all unite in re-
commending the repeal of the Corn-laws in preference
to Universal Suffrage and the Vote by Ballot.
Not to allow our readers to rise with a very incom-
plete notion of the advantage of the repeal of the Corn-
laws, we must add, that the insuring us hereafter cheap
bread, and plenty of it—that opening new channels
for trade—that extending the employment of our
people—that strengthening our commercial and
friendly relations with other countries—and that
spreading abundance and joy through all the manu-
facturing districts, are only a small portion of the
benefits which would result from the unconditional
repeal of the Corn-laws. That repeal would abate
the pride as well as the wealth of the landed aristo-.
cracy. It would prove that they have nothing out '
what they obtain by this sort of legal plunder. Half
the immoral examples they now set would disappear
with their arrogance and their bubble wealth. Mora-
lity as well as trade would he benefited by putting an
end to injustice. The repeal would, as we have ex-
plained, throw the Church wholly on thelandowners for
support. It would bring their selfishness into open conflict
with the selfishness of the priesthood, and those two
classes, now united to oppress us, would quarrel with
each other,and give the people an easy and a sure victory
over the two chief enemies of social improvement.
They would show each other to the world in their true
colours, and honest men would be benefited by the
rogues' quarrel. The consequence of that, we believe,
would be, to make the landlords instrumental in over-
turning the Established priesthood; and if they were
to be overturned, what an immense mass of hypocrisy
and moral fraud would be at once sti uck to the ground.
The whole revenues of the Church are now a perpetual
bounty for men to profess a belief in a certain law-
prescribed set of dogmas, whether they are con-
vinced of their truth or not ; and these reve-
nues are also a perpetual bounty to enforce
a belief on the people in the same dogmas.
If we did not know the effects of such a sygtem, it is
plain that devoting a large portion of the annual na-
tional produce to the belief in any dogmas, must give
rise to hypoctisy. Our land is overrun with cant and
hypocrisy, and the great majority of that would disap-
pear should the Established priesthood low their
revenues, as we believe they speedily would, by the re-
peal of the Corn-lAws. If Universal Suffrage were
in existence to-morrow, we cannot conceive anything
it could achieve of greater general utility than the
abolition of the Corn-laws, which has for us the ad-
ditional recommendation that it would sweep away
several Statutes, while the Charter, whatever might
be its ultimate effects, would, in the first instance,
add another long and complicated law to the mul-
titude with which we are already encumbered. The
abolition of the Corn-laws is a certain step in the
right path ; the establishment of the Charter, though
at present not to be achieved, is at best of doubtful
utility.

Our respected correspondent " Humanity'' has
sent us another letter on the treatinew of persons
insane, or presumed to he insane, which will be found
in another column. We have not space to-day for
any observat:ons on madhouse practices, brought so
prominently before the public by the inhuman treat-
ment experienced the other day by Mr. PATERNOS-
TER ; but we shall not lose sight of the subject.

We beg the attention of readers to the Reports
of certain Church-rate proceedings, which they will
find in another part of our paper. The transactions
e
at Bungay and at Durham mutually illustrate each
o
Bungay. Could a severeeoChurch-rate Law
been more
No where
rigidly enforced,
the odious
administration
, than in tohfethpaatrislof
law—
so severe, indeed, as to amount to the most malignant
and cruel persecution for conscience sake known in mo-
dern times—have stopped the progress of resistance,
and reconciled the people to the arbitrary exercise
of ecclesiastical oppression, in aid of ecclesiastical
cupidity, not a whisper would now have been heard
against the payment of the Church-tax. But what
has the actual result been ? In this said parish of
Bungay even, where the nearest approach to the
example of the Inquisition has been made—where the
dungeon has been resorted to as an instrument, if not
of conversion from the errors, at all events of punish-
ment for the sin, of dissent—what has been the result
in this stronghold of bigotry ? Has opposition to
Church-rates ceased ?Is it even mitigated ? Has
a single convert been made to the Church, or a single
enemy disarmed of his resentment towards the
Establishment? Quite the contrary. The feeling of
aversion to the established system has been increased
—embittered to an incalculable and irreconcileable
degree; and to crown all, after so many scandalous
seizures and forfeitures of private property, the eccle-
siastical authorities find themselves losers even in a
pecuniary point of view !
The lessons of experience are the most valuable of all
lessons; and we trust that both Churchmen and Dissen.