The Sun.
London, England, 1841-08-04 00:00:00

RAILWAY SUN

IS NOW PUBLISHING,
PRICE ONLY SIXPENCE.

TO COMESPONDENTS.

W. H. is informed that the six weeks' averages which
govern the duty on corn are regularly published in
The Sun.

HIGH WATER AT LONDON BRIDGE THIS DAY. •
Ildurning...... 4 minutes after 3. Evening minutes after 3.

The public is of opinion that it has not done what
is right, and the public of the next generation
will not obey its laws.
Wre treat the laws of former Parliaments in the
same manner. It is one' of the remarkable cir-
cumstances of modern times that every inquiry
into any particular branch of law, whether
the criminal, the civil, or the ecclesiastical,
whether made by individuals like Mr. BENTHAM
ox Sir SAMUEL 'Rom'LIN, or made by Commit-
teei'of Parliament 'or Commissions of Inquiry,
have one and all ended in the conclusion—not
sparing the
.Clinrch, Which was investigated by
Sir R. PEEL'S Commission—that the law or in-
stitution inquired into was erroneous or defec-
tive, and required revision. That Conclusion,
general as to• our own laws, few or none of
which are considered to be based on justice, is
rendered still more striking and general by a si-
milar conclusion having been adopted in other
countries. During some ages blind and besotted
reverence of ancient institutions was the .creed of
politicians; of our own age it is a remarkable cir-
ctithstance that they have all been exposed to a
.clOse scrutiny,' and upon that scrutiny they have
one and all been condemned. Those who ex-
pect to maintain bad laws in spite of that gene-
ral . principle, must suppose that they can turn
back the.course of society. _ _

.Such,a -general fact should make our Leg6la-
tors adopt as a principle of conduct that the
rubbish of ancient and worn-out laws should be
gradually cleared away. The reverse is the con-
duct 'of the Tories. They profess a determina-
tion to preserve them all. They call themselves
Conservatives, signifying hoarders and guardians
of law-rubbish; and_ they avow a determination
to maintain laws that are manifest violations of
all the principles of political society. Now we
must solemnly warn the Tories that they cannot
continue to do. this without placing in jeopardy
the whole fabric of political society. A majority,
however numerous it may be, cannot carry them
safely to the end of such a career. The united
declaratiOn of all the Parliaments that ever ex-
isted cannot make wrong right, or make men
reverence evil ; and the proposed attempt of Sir
ROBERT PEEL and the Tories to uphold mono-
poly will end, if he be successful in Parliament,
in speedily overthrowing the authority of Par-
liament itself.'

Why the Tory Journals delayed so long as
August 2d, to notice a dinner given by Sir JAMES
GRAHAM to the electors of Dorchester as long
ago as July 22d, we can not tell, but we presume
they were ashamed of the renegade. Sir
ROBERT PEEL'S empty piece of twaddle was
published with express baste, but not a single
reporter from either Times or Post was sent to
report what Sir JAMES said; and our Contempo-
raries were indebted for his meagre speech to a
provincial journal. They hardly treat their third
hero fairly, by wholly consigning him to a pro-
vincial paper, and not publishing his oration for
ten days.
We regard Sir JAMES GRAHAM'S spe'e_ch as
worth very little notice. He pointed out that
the Ministers had been defeated in some manu-
facturing as well as in agricultural districts, and
that their scheme of a fixed duty on corn had
not been favourably received. The Right Hon.
Baronet also defended the Corn-laws against his
own former and bitter attack on all such laws,
and, knowing the weak powers of his own argu-
ment, he was successful against himself. The
Tory and monopolist GRAHAM defeated the
Whig and free-trade GRAHAM, he being no ex-
ception to the general rule, that when men are
young they are ingenuous, and prefer truth to
interest, and that as they advance in life they
get corrupted by the world, and prefer interest
to truth.

There is only one passage of his speech that
we think worthy of remark. The,Right Hon.
Baronet said " that more was expected from
human legislation than it could accomplish," " if
it was expected by human laws to provide for
Providential calamities." He also said, that "to
pretend to make a country altogether indepen-
, dent of the evils arising from an insufficient
supply, was the pretence of quacks and empirics."
" He would have man look with humility on all
the efforts of legislative wisdom, and look up for
reliance on him who is the giver of all good."
Such is the language ascribed to Sir JAMES
GRAHAM; what is his conduct and the conduct
of his colleagues
They insist by their laws on providing
against Providential calamities, and the pre-
text of the Corn-laws is, that it secures the people
in the long run against them, by bestowing on
the people a greater supply of food than Provi-
dence would bestow, if Sir JAMES GRAHAM were
not to interfere with its dispensations by that
kind of legislation which proceeds from quacks
and empirics. They pretend, also, to lessen the
evils of one country being dependent on an-
other, though that is the result of the wisdom
of Providence, which he tells us to rely on,
and is opposed to his separating, anti-social, anti-
human legislation, which he't‘n the same breath
tells us is no better than foolishness. It is a
pity that Sir JAMES can no more be consistent in
pronouncing two consecutive sentences, than in
discussing a subject at two periods of his life.
In one sentence he tells us to rely on Provi-
dence, and in the next he vaunts to the skies
the miserable drivelling of the landlords, which
aims at perverting the order of nature and the
mutual dependence of nations.

According to report, Lord FRANCIS EGERTON
has proposed to raise a troop of Yeomanry, ready
to meet some expected resistance to the laws.
The gentry and the Tory Journals pretend to be
apprehensive of danger to the upper classes of
society, and they take precautions and make
laws to ensure their own safety. In the mean-
time, however, they perpetrate on the lower
classes the very evils they pretend to dread. They
exterminate the people. Population, under
favourable circumstances, naturally doubles it-
self every twenty-five years. Our community is
placed under most favourable circumstances. It
is the complaint of the Tories that "our produc-
ing power is too great." To our trade the whole
world, except as our own laws limit and restrain
it, is invitingly open. Our vast Colonies, to reach
which costs no more - than to move a New
England family to the Far West, are as great a re-
source of unbroken and virgin soil for our people,
as
States. iS Possessed by the inhabitants of the United
We surpass them, it is supposed, in
agricultural and manufacturing skill, and there-
fore are we naturally placed under more favour-
able circumstances than the United States, which
double their population every twenty-three years.
In our circumstances every short-coming of
the natural increase
mofupsto
r their effect,
pbuelasetitodno,
wthne
tgoeurmn j
la
al v
sw socialb prosperity,which
have
fo
and very oftueosntf
have for their object, to keep down the number
of the people. For example, the rough inde-
pendence of the poor Catholics in Ireland, has
long been a subject of bitter complaint, and ex-
ertions have been made by the landlords, as in-
dividuals, and in Parliament, to prevent their in-
crease. The landlords seem to have succeeded.
• instead of doublinn• in o
The population, years, the
natural rate, or even increasing 16 per cent., as
they did in the 10 years previous to 1831, have only
increased, according to an account published in
yesterday's Chronicle, • at the rate of 5 per cent.
ears. during the last ten yea . In the county of Car-
low the population has decreased. We_ know,
then, by the result, that a process is at work by
which the people are prematurely cut off and
prevented from multiplying as fast as they ought,
and as fast as they would, were industry left en-
tirely free.
If we could suppose that the check which the
increase of population has received, were accom-
panied with an improvement in the condition of
individuals, it might be endurable; but we believe
it to be a general law that as population declines
the condition of individuals becomes worse.
The inhabitants of the manufacturing districts
are rapidly falling into the most disheartening

poverty, and though they have not increased so
fast as at former periods, their condition has been
much deteriorated. We lately laid before our
readers the census of Paisley, from which it
appeared that the people of that town are worse
lodged in 1841 than they. Were in 1831. Of the
manufacturing districts in general, the Rev.
Baptist NOEL says—
" It is shocking to look down into the cellars, which
are tenanted by destitute thousands, in the poorer parts
of Liverpool and Manchester. The town missionaries in
these two towns, who, living entirely among the poor,
probably know more of their circumstances than almost
any other persons, not excepting even clergymen, assured
me last year that the distress which they witnessed in
visiting among the people was wide-spread, and intense
beyond description. How could it be otherwise ? I saw
some mills closed, others were working half-time, and in
the store-rooms of several I saw immense piles of goods
heaped up to the very ceilings for which the manufac-
turers could flint no profitable sale."

Thus misery is the check to the progress of
population, and the census, which tells us that
we are becoming stationary as to numbers, also
tells us that the condition of the people is becom-
ing worse and worse. They are exterminated by
misery. They are even now the prey to those
very calamities which the upper classes pretend
to dread. In the meantime the landlords, the
guilty authors of more human misery than ever
was inflicted in our times by the most savage
despot, are everywhere employed in improving
their estates, enlarging their parks, and building
fine houses. The people decay and starve ; but
game is abundant. •

'We learn with pleasure that the Conference of
Clergymen about to be held respecting the ge-
neral and increasing distress caused by the Corn-
laws, promises well, and that the prospects of
an efficient movement are brightening every day.
In another part of The Sun will be found an ex-
cellent address on the subject to the Clergy of
Scotland. Let them consider it well. This re-
spectable body are properly the guardians of the
poor in that country, they communicate with the
heritors in times of distress, and we would recom-
mend them also to communicate with other classes
less interested in making bread dear. The present
is a fit opportunity ; the county elections in Scot-
land have proved that the farmers, most of them
having long leases, trusted not for remu-
neration to monopolies, which bring ruin
on the many, and cannot be said to benefit even
the few. We charitably believe that a mistaken
idea of their own interests cannot have any in-
fluence on the humane and pious clergy of the
north, and that they will not lend their sanction
to this grievous tax for the sake of keeping up the
fiars.

The readers of The Sun will find in another
column a petition addressed to the QUEEN by a
number of merchants, manufacturers, and traders
of the City of London, invoking her MAJESTY'S
most gracious attention to the measures which the
welfare of the State requires her MAJESTY to sub-
mit for the adoption of the new Parliament.
The petitioners, like a vast number of their fel-
low-subjects, participate in that growing infide-
lity respecting the honesty of public men, which
the conduct of past Governments for the last
quarter of a century has so mischievously engen-
dered; and they approach their SOVEREIGN
as the only remaining sheet-anchor of the
nation. The late Parliament disappointed
their reasonable expectations; the constitution
of the new Hoitse of Commons fills them
with despondency. They see in public af-
fairs, without the interposition of the scep-
tre, a rushing from bad to worse. The
late House of Commons lost the confidence
of the country; the present cannot lose that
which it never had, though it may increase
the evil odour in which it stands be-
fore the country. With all deference for the
opinions of the petitioners, we think they
attempt to throw too heavy a burthen upon the
shoulders of Royalty. The QUEEN has performed
her part nobly, and if the people have not done
theirs it is too much to expect that her MAJESTY
will do it for them. The people may distrust
public men as much as they please, but while
they are true to, and have proper confidence in,
themselves, it matters very little whether the
leaders of Parliamentary factions be rogue
or honest men. Our admiration of the pa-
triotic conduct of the QUEEN, in taking part
with the people against the monopolists, is
unbounded ; nevertheless we look for no tri-
umph which the people do not mainly contri-
bute to achieve. At this moment they stand
greatly in need of help, but it is because they
shamefully neglected to help themselves.
If they persist in looking to the QUEEN for
the amelioration of the evils that press upon
them, let them meet by thousands, and, by the
adoption of countless addresses, strengthen the
hands of our Most Gracious Sovereign. The
petition of the citizens of London will serve as
a model for many others.

The ordinary mails have brought us the
French Journals of Sunday, the leading contents
of which an Express from Paris enabled us
to anticipate in the Afternoon Edition of
Monday's Sun. We have also received Ma-
drid letters and Papers of the 25th of
July, from whence we learn that the re-
ported appointment of Count FLAuna yr, as
French Ambassador to the Court of Spain, is by
no means in accordance with the wishes of the
Spanish Government. The intrigues of France
in the Peninsula begin to occasion the Regent
serious uneasiness.

The Journal de Lot et Garonne of the 25th of July
contains the following paragraphs :—" After having
given an account of the criminal attempts, the pretext
for which was the several re-assessments prescribed by
the laws, we are happy to be able to speak in due terms
of commendation of the good sense and spirit of order
which characterise the inhabitants of our department.
In fact, such complete tranquillity prevails, that one
would hardly imagine that the officers of the direct taxes
had already verified above half of the communes. They have
visited 178 of them containing 43,513 houses, and no-
where, not even in the most remote parts of the country,
have the proprietors or the tenants had any reason to
doubt the probity with which the agents have executed the
task assigned to them. The spirit which excites
people to contempt of the laws, would be unable
here to obtain credit among the people for the audacious
falsehood, that the officers rummage the wardrobe in
order to count the linen to tax it. This is a falsehood
as palpable as that a tax was to be levied on body shirts,
&c. The inhabitants of the towns and communes which
have not yet been visited, may judge of the nature of
these visits by the regularity of those which have already
taken place. The re-assessment has already taken place
in 130 communes of the departments of the Tarn ; it has
served to prove that in 12 several communes alone there
were 348 houses which had not yet been taxed.—Le
Moniteur.

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