The Sun.
London, England, 1841-08-07 00:00:00

LONDON :
SATURDAY, AUGUST 7, 1141.

The Morning Post, which is the accredited
organ of Sir ROBERT PEEL on the subject
of the Speakership, and is chosen to con-
vey to the public as much as he pleases
to make known of his secret and pro-
found meditations, was yesterday wrathful be-
yond measure against the advocates of the re-
peal of the Corn-laws. Its wrath will probably
be increased to-day, after it has seen that its
great coadjutor in Toryism, and its rival in Sir
ROBERT'S good graces, the presumed 'organ of
his commercial policy, gave yesterday the place
of honour to a communication recommending,
and emphatically enforcing its recommendation,
that a speedy reform should be made in the
Corn-laws. The Times, as we stated last Thurs-
day week, is a sort of free-thinker amongst the
Tories, and we then quoted a passage in which
it did homage to the principles of the Whig bud-
get. The letter which, appeared in it yesterday,
confirms the schism between the Tory journals,
and demonstrates that this united and homoge-
nous party is `split into violent factions, wrath-
fully contending for the most opposite principles.
The anger of the one Journal and the recom-
mendation of the other, are convincing proofs
that the good cause of Corn-law repeal is making
rapid progress. Nor are the arguments by which
the bad cause is defended less an indication of
the same •fliet. For example, the Standard last
night made it out that rent forms part of the
cost of producing corn. In Great Britain rent is
increased by the Corn-laws ; and „the Corn-laws
are kept up because it costs more to grow corn
In England than in other countries, or because
rent is high. Titus, according to Pro-Corn-law
logic, the Corn-laws are the parents of the fact
which Corn-law advocates say makes Corn-laws
necessary, a conclusion to which all Anti-Corn-
law men assent. They assert that were there no
Corn-laws rent would not be so high, the cost of
obtaining corn would be less to the consumer,
and there Would be no presumed necessity for
the Corn-laws. Our enemies are evidently fall-
ing into confusion preparatory to a rout, while
they are boasting of a victory.
The acquiescence, however, of the Times in
the necessity for a speedy alteration of the
Corn-laws, substituting a moderate. fixed duty
for the sliding -scale, awakens other reflections.
It is so opposite to the declarations and views of
its party, that it must be dictated byfqn over-
whelming conviction. All the accounts received
from the manufacturing districts are most
gloomy, and they all concur in this, that what
has yet happened is nothing compared to
what is about to come. In the ma-
jority of cases paper currency represents
hopes rather than realities. It is to
be liquidated by future production. As hope
fails, and future production is checked, the
means of liquidating much of the paper afloat
disappear. Hence people say, and we arc afraid
on good grounds—for the majority of the elec
tors have decided in favour of injustice, hope
has in many cases come to an end—that there
are large masses of paper afloat which will never
be redeemed. A partial cessation of worl: in thc
manufacturing districts is looked on as the be-
ginning of extensive and numerous bankruptcies.
Hence, gloomy as are the actual accounts from
the manufacturing districts, the anticipations are
still more gloomy, and in many cases border on
despair. This state of things is forcing the
Tories, even before they are in office, to repudiate
the principles on which they have broken up the
Goy ernment.

Such a circumstance must generate great
trust of the Tories, whether their conduct be the
result of ignorance or mere factious ambition.

We charge them with the latter. That great
distress existed in the manufacturing districts, and
had existed, for some time, was known long be-
fore the budget was brought forward: Nume-
rous and striking instances, both of distress and
discontent, such as the condition of the hand-
loom weavers and the prbyalence .Chartism,
were known to the whole community. To them
was added the deficiency of the revenue, which
was of itself enough to ensure from any reason-
able opposition, a calm and proper consideration
of aify plan suggested by the Ministers as likely
to lessen the distress of the people, and contri-
bute to fill the public exchequer. Such a plan
would have been deserving attention at anytime,
but it particularly claimed that from the House
of Commons, under the present painful circum-
stances of the country. _ _ _

The Tories, however, far from giving the Mi-
nisterial plan calm and due consideration, rallied
all the monopolists to one cry of alarm ; and,
without taking its bearings into consideration,
without even allowing all the propositions to be
brought forward, they crushed the scheme that
was to relieve the public distress and add to the
public revenue, on the miserable and factious
pretext that it might interfere with negro eman-
cipation. We never defended the details of the
budget ; we have throughout said that the duties
both on colonial and foreign sugar should be
much more reduced; that insfead of the duties
being raised on Canada timber, they should be
lowered on Baltic timber, and that the tax on
corn should be totally abolished. We are not
at present disposed ".to to defend the details of the
budget more than when it was brought forward ;
but we unhesitatingly affirm that it was the duty
of the Opposition, under the circumstances of
the country, to have taken all those details into
its consideration, and to have shown that the
Ministerial calculations were erroneous, and the
Ministerial expectations unfounded. The Oppo-
sition, however, factiously rejected it in tote, for
reasons wholly foreign to its merits in relation
to the present condition of this empire.
And what now do we see ? The journal which
led the Opposition--the journal which speaks the
sentiments of the larger number of the Tories—
the journal, wanting whose aid they would
not have succeeded, and will not now be able to
carry on the Government—that journal tells us
that the most obnoxious part of the Ministerial
budget must be speedily passed in order to save
the country from a bloody convulsion. Three
months have not elapsed since the Tories would
not allow the question to be discussed in Parlia-
ment, and by not allowing it to be discussed they
defeated the Ministers. In the meantime they
have obtained a majority in Parliament; they are
secure, they think, of being in office; • and now
they most impudently tell us that there is no hope
of the Conservatives being able to govern the
country unless they adopt, and speedily adopt,
the Ministers' plan for placing a fixed duty on
corn. Such extraordinary proceedings seem to
us equally alarming fbr the morality of public
men and for the future welfare of the country.
Events press on us, and the public welfare is
immediately at stake. To preserve the Govern-
ment and the Constitution—no longer resting on
unshaken prescription, and having no basis in
reason—it is indispensable that public men merit
and obtain public confidence. Here, however, we
have the Tories arresting all public business, re-
fusing all relief to the people, and breaking up
the Ministry,, because they would not alter the
Corn-laws, and in less than two months de-
manding that alteration as essential to the
safety of the State. We care not how high
the rank, how great the distinction or the
talents of those who pursue such a course
of conduct ; we say that it is scoundrel
policy, and the men who practise it are scoundrel
politicians. We care not either how numerous
be those who approve of such conduct. If the
great majority of the bulk even of the nation
shall give its sanction, which we do no believe it
will, and the conduct we have stigmatized is
only that of a few leaders, who have made the
many their dupes,—but if the bulk of the nation
should sanction such a course of conduct, it could
not make it other than a scoundrel policy ; and,
like all scoundrel conduct, it must be ful-
llowed by great evil. To disorganize the
whole Legislature in the month of June,
because the Corn-laws must not be al-
tered, and in the month of August to declare
hat only the alteration of those laws can save
the country from convulsions, is such untrue, in-
sincere, and unfaithful, or such fatuous conduct,
that the approval of the bulk of the community
would be a certain indication that dishonesty had
completely mastered the public mind, and that
the dissolution of society was at hand.

The Tory Journals assail the Manchester Con-
, ference of Ministers with great vehemence,
, thereby testifying to its utility. We feel assured
that the observations of our Contemporaries will
only make the ministers of all denominations
more zealous to fulfil the solemn task they have
undertaken. To rebuke men in high places is
the duty of ministers of religion, which they must
now perform with reference.to the Legislature, or
the nation will perish in the midst of bloody con-
vulsions. It is supposed by our law-makers that
there is no other law than their will. The moral
law written in man's heart, the law that is older
than the ages of nations, the law which the Legis-
lature is constituted to support, the law of pro-
perty—for property existed before Legisla-
tion, and the circumstances which gave
birth to it—exist and modifiy property at this
moment as they at first created it ; all these are
overlooked by the Legislature, and it continually
violates the law and right of property, which it
is constituted to protect. To recal the Legisla-
ture to a sense of its duty is the business of the
ministers of religion, and to execute this business
with effect the Conference of Ministers at Man-
chester seems likely to be efficacious. They are
beginning wisely by collecting numerous proofs
of the turpitude they propose to brand, and we
have not the smallest doubt that they will end
successfully.
We have seen a list of two hundred and fifty
gentlemen who have already announced their
intention of attending the Conference, and it con-
tains the names of some of the brightest orna-
ments of the ministry. It is expected that five
hundred or more will assemble, and the inha-
bitants of Manchester are prepared to give them
all an hospitable reception. The ministers of
every denomination and from .
every quarter are
invited, and all feasible and proper means have
been used to convey the invitation to every part
of the country.
Should a discreet and orderly spirit preside
ov
eporrttlliveir deliberations, numerous as they will
to
Conference
renowned
is
cal le
d
be, the Conference will becocmoenmfe
o
the moralitycor
l awnsd,
are the only safe
in history than any of the General Councils. We
write a
t- a
religion, not
of
lightly. The
prove
thatievously by
basis for legislation. It will,
theretbre, if it do anything, teach men not to
rely on their fancies and conjectures, which
they dignify with the name of expediency,
and they will establish! legislation on a new
and safe foundation. No unimportant task
have these ministers, who are to reconcile
Chartists and Socialists to society. Undertaking
as we have no
and beginning their labours,

doubt they will, with an appropriate prayer,
they will be guided by the wisdom they will sup-
plicate to a just conclusion. No one of them
will, we trust, engage in the great work they
have in hand, without a clue and thorough con-
viction of its present and future importance.

The Tory journals have lately boasted verY
much of the new plan of the Bishops to raise
money by voluntary subscription, to set up
Bishoprics in the Colonies. No doubt it is as
striking an example as is generally met with of
the piety of the Church, which mainly consists
in the congregations paying enormously, and
in the parsons, who dispose of the wealth, liv-
ing splendidly. In this instance the true spirit