The Sun.
London, England, 1841-05-24 00:00:00

THE TIMBER DUTIES.

On Saturday a meeting of the noblemen and
gentlemen connected with the British North
American Colonies, took place at the Colonial
Club House, St. James's, to consider the measure
proposed by her Majesty's Ministers for the
alteration of the Timber Duties.
The Earl of MOUNTCASHEL, having been called
to the chair, begged to' disclaim on the part of
himself and the meeting all party motives in the
course they were taking. They excluded from
their consideration all party feeling, and it mat-
tered not from what body of men the measure
emanated=whether Whig, Tory, or Radical—
they were prepared to resist with eqttal
zeal and equal decision any measure calculated
to interfere with the interests of the colonies which
they represented. Some persons affected to
doubt that the alteration of the timber duties
would prejudice the colonies. In his humble
Mst.erialgra-
opinion, the change would be productive of cer-
tain ruin to those whose property was vested
there, and not only that, but it would very seri-.
ously interfere with the general commercial IT.s
l
lations of the country.motherpu
a stopThe
to Ministerial
measure
emigra-
tion tothe if
threead oi) adopted, for the vessels whichhich, would
bring home timber arc those which affom d the
greatest facilities for emigration. It would also
be a source of positive loss to the mercaLt le
and s'lipp n~ interests of this country
and would throw a vast number of
,British
ships and British seamen out of employment.
Sir DUNCAN AUDOWA LL said, that having• lons
resided in Canada, he could as
sure the meet:ix •
that. were the proposed m , '
Lasure adopted, it
would prove most disastrous in its consequences
to that colony—so much so, that he would not
consider the property he i
possessed in t worth st
single sixpence. Sir Duncan concluded by mov-
ing two resolutions in opposition to the proposed
alteration in the timber duties.
The resolutions were
unanimously adopted,
and the meeting
separated.
[The resolutions were, of course, unanimously
adopted; and had a resolution to
hang up by
the heels every enemy of monopoly been pro-
posed, we have no doubt it would have been re-
ceived with the same approbation, had these mo-
nopolists been in an atmosphere which publi.c
opinion could not disturb.] . - ,

ANTI-CORN-LAW TEA PARTY......-There vOR
a very nuakrous and spirit-stirring meeting in the Corn
Exchange, on Thursday evening last, eight hundred
ladie3 and gentlemen being present, including a number
of Clergymen and Ministers of various denominations ;
and many of the addresses were of the most deeply
interesting character, and distinguishel by great elo-
quence. We hail prepared a report of the proc e links,
thneglinsertion of which we had been compelled by a pr.3s-+
sure of other matter to postpone to our Wednesday's
numb c r.—Manehestcr Guardian.

EVENING EDIT lON

THE ME CAST.

The debate of eight days on the Sugar Duties termi-
nated in the defeat of Ministers by a majority of 36,
which was rather under the expected number.

Previous to the division Lord John Russell intimated

his intention of bringing the whole of the financial pro-
ject under discussion ; and though he does not appear to
have said anything distinct as to an appeal to the country,
yet he gave the clue to an arriere pensee in the remark,
that the expectant successors of Ministers did not cer-
tainly enjoy the confidence of the country to such an ex-
tent as to justify them in taking the Government, and he
proceeded to say that the results of the single contests
on which they relied were no tests of the sense of the

et,untry.
On Thursday all doubt as to the intentions of Minis-
ters was removed by the Chancellor of the Exchequer's
notice, that on Monday he would move the annual Sugar
It may perhaps be requisite to explain that the sugar
duties expire early in July, and that it is necessary to
renew them before a dissolution, as there would not be
time for a new Parliament to pass them.
Here is the opening of a great scene in English his-
tory—" the be?inning of an end"—the beginning of an
end of the pillage of the people—the beginning of an
end of the sacrifice of the interests of the many to the
profit of classes—the beginning of an end of the inju-
rious restriction of commerce—the beginning of an end
of the crushing burdens on the springs of industry—
the beginning of an end of enhancing the price of the
poor man's bread, and by the same impolitic means con-
fining the market for his labour.

Without decrying what has been done since the pass-
ing of the Reform Bill, we rate it all as not comparable
in importance with the great measures of relief now
proposed. If not the first, they are destined to be the
noblest fruits of reform.

We have seen what the country could do under the
disadvantage of the rotten Parliamentary system, to
carry reform, which was but the means for such great
ends as those now before us ; and remembering how
complete, notwithstanding the greatest disadvantages,
was the victory for the machinery of good government,
how confidently should we now reckon on the result of a
far less arduous struggle for the great practical objects
for which reform itself was so eagerly sought. There
are large faults still in the representative system, but
what are they compared to those, in spite of which the
people returned a decisive majority against the borough-
mongers, fighting in their own holds for the life of the
abuse in which they trafficked ? How much easier,
then, is victory in the present conflict, with the greater
power which the Reform Act has placed in the hands of
the people.
In all the general elections since '33 the public have
been apathetic. They have now, for the first time, a
great object to strive for, and the improved electoral
system will be worked with a vigour and earnestness
which have not, as yet, been applied to it.
Ministers have done their duty nobly. They have taken
a st.l) involving mighty consequences, with the courage
which can only be derived from a sense of right. They
have confided in the people; it now only remains for the
people to do their duty to themselves.
The entire absence offanfaronnade—the calmness and
simplicity with which great purposes have been signified
by the liberal chiefs, in contrast with the proud boasts
and the contemptuous menaces of the champions of the
monopolists, reminds us of the fine passage in Scripture
descriptive of David's preparation for the combat with
Goliath—

" And he took his staff in his hand, and chose him five
smooth stones out of the brook, and put them into a shep-
herd's hag which he had, even in a scrip ; and his sling
was in his hand, and he drew near to the Philistine."

We shall see anon how the first smooth stone from the
sling will smite the broad forehead of the giant.
With prophetic bodings, Sir Robert Peel concluded
his speech with this admission of the potency of the ap-
peal of Ministers to the country—
" He did not deny the power of such arguments, and
that the use of such appeals coming from men in the po-
sition and with the authority of the Noble Lord, would
give them an overwhelming potency. Yet, at the same
time, it could not be denied that such arguments might
easily be prostituted in a conflict between opposing in-
terests. By such arguments, it might be easy to rouse
the excited passions of a populace against what were
called class interests ; and very possibly in the collision
which took place between opposing interests, men might
be able to gather up the fragments, and to Combine them
into the elements of an increased party strength."
The question now is, how will the Tories meet
the motion of Monday! Will they, in order to
cut off the Government from the succour of a ge-
neral election, and in the hope of breaking it up
at once, oppose the Sugar Duties Bill, which they
themselves, if in office, must pass as a matter of course ?
To oppose the renewal of the sugar duties would be
nothing less than refusing the supplies, an extreme step,
which the whole of the Tory party are surely not reck-
less enough to be prepared for, and which would cer-
tainly re-array, on the side of Ministers, the Whig
Members who have deserted it on the question of the
reduction of the foreign sugar duties. The consequence
would be, the restoration of the Ministerial majority.
But let us for a moment suppose the contrary event—
that the supplies are refused ; the Government, inspired
with a courage equal to the rectitude of its course, should
not be daunted or deterred by this blow of the monopo-
lists ; it should, in default of a Sugar Duties' Bill, sup-
port the national credit by an Order in Council levying
the duties, and then confidently appeal to the country
against the faction which both refuses relief to the suf-
fering people, and the necessary supplies to the State.
This would doubtless be a strong step, but it
would be called for by an extreme necessity,—it
would be the extreme resource of a just Govern-
ment against the extreme violence of an interested fac-
tion. The idea of a coup d'etat is startling, we know, but
for what do the prerogatives of the Crown exist if not
for exercise upon such an occasion as that imagined, in
arrest of the factious triumphs of the banded mono-
polists, and in protection of the most important interests
of the people ? The country, in a general election, would
give judgment on those who had combated so resolutely
and so boldly for its good, and on those also who had
gone to the extremity of refusing the supplies, and leav-
in.. Ministers no other choice than recourse to an Order
in Council or the surrender of the country's cause to the
monopolists who happen to have a majority in the exist-
ing Parliament.

-But we cannot believe that the Tories as a party will
venture to go the length of refusing the supplies. They
will hardly dare to place themselves in the double odium
of starving out the Government, in order to continue
starving out the people and the manufactures. They
will surely not be frank enough to raise the standard of
starvation in all its branches—starvation of the Govern-
ment for the starvation of the governed. they cannot be
so very candid as to adopt means so congenial to the
end, so accordant with the object.
If they do not attempt this mad forlorn hope, which
wopld shock the best ideas and the prudence of the best
men of their party, the field is open for the discussion of
the whole project of Ministers, which should be fully ex-
pounded, and made thoroughly understood, before a dis-
solution, and then it will be for the country to give judg-
ment on the great cause of the public versus the mono-
polists.
Upon this all-important appeal the lines of Swift may
be addressed to the people—
" If, then, oppression has not quite subdued
. At once your prudence and your gratitude ;
. If you yourselves conspire not your undoing,
And don't deserve, and won't draw down your ruin;
If yet to virtue you have some pretence ;
If yet you are not lost to common sense,
ASSIST YOUR PATRIOT IN YOUR OWN DEFENCE,

That stupid cant, He went too far,' despise,
AND KNOW THAT TORE BRAVE IS TO BE WISE."
—Examiner.

THE LATE MURDERS AT SEA.
It is to be regretted that the pressure of poli-
tical circumstances on the public mind during
the last fortnight has diverted attention from one
of the most awful crimes committed within the
memory of man—we mean the murder of six-
teen unotfending British subjects by a portion of
the crew of the American emigrant ship William
Brown. It appears that this ill-fated vessel,
• freighted with our own poor people, and bound
front Liverpool to Philadelphia, fell in with an
• iceberg. on the night of the 19th April last, in
lon. 49 deg. 39 min. W.,
lat. 43 deg. 30 min. N.,
and sunk in about two hours after. She struck
ut ten by the log, and being stove in, filled and
settled, and went down about midnight. Pre-
vious to her going down the captain, the lieute-
nant, a lady, and live sailors took to the jelly-
boat; and the mate, eight of the crew, and
thirty-three of the passengers embarked in the
long-boat. Three-and-twenty persons went down
with the ship. Peace be with them. In the
course of the night the captain bore off for
Newfoundland, and the mate steered for the
south. What became of the cowardly captain,
who took so much care cf himself as only to re-
ceive a sufficient number of hands into the jolly-
boat to man her, is not clearly stated; but it is
supposed he perished, together with those in
that boat. But in the long-boat a tragedy was
enacted that sickens the heart to think on.
" Finding she was likely to sink," say the ruf-
fians who survived, " the mate consulted with
the crew;" and the result cannot be more
strongly' stated than in his own words—the cold-
blooded villain. " On counting the passengers
sixteen were missing." Sixteen had been mur-
dered during the .night—thrown overboard by
the mate and the crew, after consultation—for
murder it was, and nothing else. The survivors,
consisting of a few helpless women and the mur-
derers, were rescued the next morning by the
Crescent packet ship, from New York to Havre
de Grace, and brought to the latter port, where
they were placed in the hands of the police.
But here comes the most strange part of the
transaction. The murderers, for we can call
them by no other name, were taken before the
American and British Consuls, and being ex-
amined privately, were discharged—free men. By
all the laws of nature and nations homicide is jus-
tifiable only when an aggressor is on the point
of taking away the life of the party assaulted;
and it has been held by the ablest jurists that
not even the prospect of starvation at sea is a
sufficient plea for taking human life, though the
form of ballot may have been gone through be-
fore the sacrifice. According to Puffendorf (Law
of Nature and Nations, book 2, chap. 5), " the
time of making an unblameable self-defence is
set within such Ivry narrow bounds as to be re-
duced almost to a point or instant :" and yet self-

defence is the only ground that these wretched
ruffians could rest on. It is surprising that Mr.
Gordon, the English Consul at Havre, and Mr.
Beasley, the American Consul, should, in the
first instance, have conducted the inquiry with
closed doors; and in the second, that they should
assume not alone the functions of Judges in the
matter, but also of Jurymen. It was decidedly
the duty of the former to make an effort to bring
the mate and crew to trial, if not in England, at
least in France, the hapless victims having been
our fellow-subjects. But what did he do instead?
He wrote a letter to a Havre newspaper—a
French newspaper be it bornei n mind--and, in
conjuction with Mr. Beasley, made the following
statement :

" In all this affair we have not been able to
discover any act deserving censure upon any per-
son whatsoever."

Gracious God ! not " any act deserving cen-
sure" in the wholesale murder of sixteen innocent
helpless persons, who, in strict right, had never
ceased to be under the protection of those that so
inhumanly destroyed them ! "No act deserving
censure !" Does Mr. Gordon mock us ? Does
he think to bolster up such a sacrifice of human
life by a few fine words? Does he think the
people of England will be satisfied with his ipse
dixit? or that he will not be held accountable by
public opinion for the escape of the cowardly,
cold-blooded assassins? Do we live in the 19th
century, and in a Christian country ? In all this
affair, tbrsooth, he is not " able to discover any act
deserving of censure." On the part of the survivors
and friends of the unfortunate creatures immolated
to the ease of a crew of ruffianly Americans—
on the part of the people of England, we de-
mand of the Government that it institute an im-
mediate inquiry into this terrible tragedy, and
that justice be done to all parties. It may be
convenient for the American Consul to screen
those of his own nation; but what could be the
motive of Mr. Gordon ? Doubtless he is a mer-
chant, and, as far as we can learn, engaged ex-
clusively in the American trade; but we cannot
for a moment suppose a bias on that account.
At all events, the case is one which cannot be
passed over, and we therefore again repeat our
demand for justice. We want no more ; and the
people of this country will be satisfied with no-
thing less.—Observer.