The Sun.
London, England, 1831-10-26 00:00:00

countrymen. Desperate efforts, we know, are
making by the Boroughmongers, to return a de-
tested Anti-Reformer for Cambridgeshire. Mo-
ney is flying about iii all directions ; a fresh tap
of lies is broached ; promises, never meant to be
kept, are put forth by the hundred ; every en-
gine of corruption is set in motion ; in short,
the I3oroughmongers are resolved to make a
stand in Cambridgeshire. Be it so ;it is their
last ditch, and the sooner they die in it the bet-
ter. They have our most anxious, our most
disinterested prayers for a speedy death and no
resurrection.

Freeholders of Cambridgeshire, it is your
bounden, your sacred duty to resist to the utmost,
the machinations of these men. You are bound
to do so, as men, as citizens, as fathers, as hus-
bands, as patriots, nay, even as Christians.
Would you brand your posterity with the stamp
of infamy—of servitude ?—then support the
Boroughmongers. Would you bind your country
to the chariot wheels of despotism ?—then sup-
port the Boroughmongers. Would you be slaves
yourselves, tax-ridden, priest-ridden, allowed to
breathe only at the pleasure of your task-mas-
ters ?—then support the Boroughmongers. But
you cannot—you will not—you dare not do so.
Your free British spirit will rise in judgment
against you. Your instinctive, unerring sense of
what is right, of what is due to yourselves, your
families, your country, will forbid the unholy
alliance. Remember, the Duke of CUMBER-
LAND is at the head of the Boroughmongers !
Is not this quite enough to decide you ?
But if you really desire—and who can doubt
the fact ? —to be of service to your fellow-citizens,
you must be quick, instant in your operations.
The urgency of the season admits of no delay.
lime presses ; you must decide and act at one and
the same moment. Be just, then, to yourselves,
and generous to your countrymen. Form your-
selves into clubs, committees, and associations ;
grudge no expenec, hesitate at no labour, shrink
from no difficulty, that may enable you to secure
your triumph. Resolve to be victorious, and
you will be so.

The French Peerage Bill is now in the hands
of the Chamber of Peers. The jurisdiction of
that body, however, may be considered as more
nominal than real in a question to which they
are in fact, rather parties than judges. It is
said in some quarters that the French Peers
will follow the absurd example that has been set
them in England, but the better opinion seems
to be, they will not dare to risk the instant re-
sentment of the Chamber of Deputies and the
nation, by rejecting the measure which comes
to them rather honoris mail, than in respect of
any real influence they possess either in the
Legislature, or over public feeling.

The alteration in the French corn laws may
be considered a great step in their commercial.
policy, when we reflect on the remarkable in-
sensibility to the arguments for a liberal system,
that has hitherto characterized their commercial
legislation. The abolition of total prohibition
upon importation—the subjection of exported
corn to a variation of duty—the substitution of
two great divisions of the kingdom for a multi-
tude of small ones, for the ascertainment of
prices ; the replacement of a duty by mea,ure,
by a duty by weight ; are all changes of a highly
beneficial tendency, which we should not have
been sorry to see carried much farther, by the
establishment of an entire freedom in the corn
trade, subject to such fixed duties as, for the
purposes of revenue only, might have been
deemed necessary to be continued. It has
been long a matter of complaint in the pro-
vinces, that duties upon rates determined for times
of plenty should so long have been continued,
though it has been for some years notorious,
that the dearth of the crops has been gradually
increasing. The complaint against the corn
duties has probably, however, been exceeded by
that against the duty on the importation of
cattle, which under pretence of an encourage-
ment to agriculture, had been gradually en-
creased from 12 to 55 francs, in spite of the
warmest remonstrances to the contrary, that
were made to the Government from Alsace,
and other provinces the most interested. A
late petition from Strasbourg placed the hard-
ship and impolicy of this cattle duty in a very
strong point of view.
A vote of eighteen millions of francs has
lately been granted, for the relief of the poor,
by giving them employment upon public works.
Such a grant may, perhaps, tranquillize, for the
present, some districts ; but it cannot be sup-
posed that it can afford any permanent relief' to
the lower orders. It was well remarked by M.
OD tLf,oN BArtRoT, that mere giving on these
occasions is a very imperfect relief; and it must
be confessed that the plan bears a very near ap-
proach to the principle of our poor laws, which
profess to give permanent relief when it is out
of their power to bestow more than ephemeral
alms. As the French Government have the
management of the public roads, there was, so
far, a good opportunity of giving subsistence to
the unemployed poor, but, as a general measure,
it is 1101 N well understood, that the employment
of the poor upon public works is a very fallacious
scheme as a remedy against pauperism, and so
the majority of persons who have paid attention
to the state of Ireland have already convinced
themselves. Upon the whole, the alleged ne
cessity of this grant does not augur well for the
condition of the lower orders in France, who,
by all accounts, have of late suffered grievously
from the stagnation of trade, and the general
want of employment, of which the Revolution
and its subsequent scenes have, unhappily, been
the unavoidable causes.

Brussels Papers of the 22d inst. have been
received. It will be seen that LEOPOLD is dis-
posed to accede to the treaty proposed by the
Conference, and has accordingly submitted the
matter to the Chamber for their sanction.' The
question is now to be debated by them :
BRUSSELS, OCT. 22.—There Was a Council of Mini-
sters yesterday afternoon.
The King, by a decree of the 21st, appointed M. Syl-
vainVan de Weyer, Commissioner to present to the Cham-
bers, together with the members of the Council of Mini-