The Sun.
London, England, 1841-09-03 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON'', FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 3, 1841.

as wellnow as he will know it tilen. On this sub-
ject there can be no secret, and such an excuse
is sheer fudge, worthy, we believe, of Sir ROBERT
PEEL, but wholly unworthy of any straightfor-
ward sincere man. To put off the remedy for the
public distress and the means of retrieving the
revenue till February, adds insult to ;the injury
he has already so unpatriotically inflicted on the
i nation.

Does he mean to take refuge in the assertion
now almost daily made by his journals, that le-
gislation cannot remedy the distress? Why, then,
does the legislature meddle with trade ? That
will be a just excuse when there does not exist
on the statute-book a single impediment to
commerce. We, who demand perfectly free
trade, might make such an excuse ; but, for
the meddling Corn-law maker to allege it,
is to acknowledge, however powerful he may
be for mischief, that he is impotent to
achieve any good. For Sir ROBERT PEEL
to allege such an excuse, is to degrade his
own art, and to teach the people that it is folly
to expect the least benefit from legislation. It
is an idle excuse. Wherefore is he Prime Minis-
ter if lie cannot promote the public welfare ?
But, on whatever pretext, it is intended, we un-
derstand, to put off effective legislation till
February, which will postpone all relief for
nine months from the introduction of the Whig
Budget, in order to gratify Sir R. PEEL and the
Tories.

We are well pleased to reflect, also, that this
cunning man, had he been sincere, upright, and
intelligent, might have attained his present high
station without discredit. Had he hastened to
take into consideration the Budget of the Whigs,
he might, without any difficulty, have demon-
strated its inefficiency; he might, at the same
time—for it is idle to say that he re-
quired official information—Mr. HumE would
have made no such paltry excuse—have sug-
gested better measures. He might have proved
to the whole public that he knew more of the
matter than the Ministers, and he might have
been carried into office as a patriot statesman, in-
stead of the leader of a band of monopolists. The
cunning man has overreached himself. By sa-
crificing the public Welfare to his personal ambi-
tion he has earned the contempt of all right-
thinking men, and ensured, we believe—for it
would be an eternal reproach to England if such
a rotten structure could stand—the speedy over-
throw of his power.
If it be said he had not the power to effect this
good, and that he was not bound as a Member of
Parliament to make any such proposition, we
reply that he had the power to prevent the Mi-
nisters achieving their proposed good, and that
he was bound as an individual Member of Parlia-
ment not to do that unless he offered something
else. That he had the power to stop them threw
on him the responsibility of instantly doing bet-
ter. But avowing mercenary motives, as well as
bad ambition, he excused himself from being a
patriot by alleging that he had not received a
fee. Judged by the words of his own mouth,
England's preseni Prime Minister is as sordid as
he is cunning and ambitious.

According to the reports of the Tory journals,
we must add Sir HENRY HARDINGE to the four
Commoners whom we yesterday mentioned as
forming the Cabinet. His appointment will not
alter its character, or redeem it from being aris-
cratic and boroughmonp,;ering. Sir H. HAR-
DINGE, as a politician, is the Duke of NORTHUM-
BERLAND'S man, and sits for the borough of
Launceston. This Gallant Officer was once
pointed out by Blackwood as the person who
might be relied on to put down Chartists, Radi-
cals, and Repealers by the use of the sword.
GOD grant that his entrance into the Cabinet as
Secretary at War may not be the forerunner of
commotions which some men are apt to provoke
when they expect in them to shine.

The duty on wheat is now down to 6s. Bd. per
quarter, and as the average of the week ending
August 27th was 765. ld., while the average of
the six weeks ending at the same date is 71s. 4d.,
it is quite certain that next week, the average of
the six weeks will be above 725, if it is not above
735, and the duty will be down to 2s Bd., if not
to is. Under the present law nearly all the
corn which we shall import from the Continent
this year will come in at a very low, if not a no-
minal, duty; and the protection promised to the
farmer will, in point of fact, turn out next to
nothing.
The averages haie been worked up on the ex-
pectation that the crop would be very deficient,
and the scheme to effect it was laid and begun
to be carried into execution before the recent
fine weather, which will rescue a large part of '
the harvest, and make it much more abundant
than was expected. It is probable, therefore,
and we hope the farmers will look to this, that
the prices they may obtain fur their wheat will
not be commensurate to their expectations, and
perhaps not equal to the expense of growing it.
They may depend that they play this game with
the chances much against them. If they hasten
to send their wheat to market—which, however,
it is difficult for them to do—they only reduce
the price by their own efforts. If they wish to
hold it, they must look to the monied man who
speculates in corn for assistance, and he will be
sure to make his profit out of them. To make
the corn market a place of gambling—to attract
to it large monied capitalists in the expectation of
making great profits—must be injurious to the
farmer, who has neither time nor money to en-
able him to compete with the sharp gentlemen
who have both, and work the market to their es-
pecial advantage. We should not be surprised
to find the farmers grumbling before the begin-
ning of the next year.

t h
aTthe labouring
th
enelv
o e
eucplaatsisoens would do
s whieh arisew el to b
n tohes observe
pro-
gressr of society are always better paid than the
old ones. Agricultural labour, and hand-loom
weaving, with all kinds of mere unskilled hod-
carrying toils, are worse paid than joiners, gas-
fitters, engineers, &c. &c. The fact and the ex-
planation are both equally clear. The old arts
are overrun with candidates for employment,
the new arc not, because it takes time to learn
them, and perhaps to reconcile men to the ex-
ercise of them. It is a fact, then, that wages are
always protanto higher for practising new arts
than for practising- old ones, and. it is a principle
that such must always be the case. The labour-
ing classes, therefore, are as much interested as
any other class, if not more, in promoting in-
ventions which give rise to new arts. We have
already pointed out to them that, in the mann-
acturing districts where the new-arts have arisen.,
and where machines have most come into use,
the whole quantity of employment has much
increased, wherefore they have no need to fear
a lessened demand for labour from the multipli-
cation of inventions and machines. On these
several accounts it is the duty and the interest of
the labouring classes to promote to the extent of
their means the progress of society. They are
especially called- on to assist in removing every.
obstacle to augment the supply of food, and
generally to, .the increase of wealth, for on that
depends the progress of population, and on the
progress of -Population depends all improvements.
Our readers already, we are sure, see where we
would land. The Corn-laws impede the progress
of wealth and population, and the working
classes have a strong interest in procuring the
repeal of them. That more new arts and higher
wages may come into use, let the labourers
combine to put down the aristocratic restraints
on the increase of food.

According to the Seventh Annual Report of
the Poor-law Commissioners, which appears else-
where, the effect at first of opening. workhouses