The Sun.
London, England, 1841-07-13 00:00:00

CONDUCT OF THE LEGISLATURE.

"For centuries, the Government has laboured to fetter
and mis-direct the industry of the people. Instead of
confining- itself to its true task of defending its subjects
from fore'g i and domestic violence and fraud, it has
taken on itself the task of rendering them, or of render-
ing certain classes of them, rich. It has dictated to
them what they shall produce, and to whom they shall
sell, and what they shall purchase, and to what markets
"they shall resort. It has considered the whole body
of consumers as a prey to be sacrificed to any class,
or to any section of a class, that chose to ask for a
monopoly. And when one class has complained of
the privileges granted to another, it has bribed
it into acquiescence by allowing it to inflict a
further injustice on the public. In order to benefit the
class engaged in exporting supplies to the colonies, it
prohibits or restricts the direct trade between tho colo-
nies and foreign countries. In order to induce the colo-
nies to submit to these prohibitions and restrictions, it
prohibits or restricts the importation into the British
islands of foreign colonial commodities, the public suf-
fsring by each set of rules ; first, by being confined to
the market of the British colonies ; and secondly, by
those colonies being stunted, and that market rendered
still more unfavourable by the restrictions laid on the
colonies. To benefit the lumberers of Canada, and the
owners of some old vessels fit only for the American
timber trade, it imposes duties from 500 to 100 per cent.
on the best timber, bcause it is the cheapest ; duties not
only not productive, but positively injurious to the re-
venue. To reconcile the shipowners to the additional ex-
pense of about 15 per cent. thus imposed on British ship-
building, it imposes higher duties on the same commo-
dities when imported iu a foreign than in a British ship.
To benefit the British tanner, it subjects foreign tanned
leather to a prohibitory duty ; and it purchases the si-
lence of the manufacturers who use leather for their ma-
terial, by imposing prohibitory duties on almost every
foreign commodity, of which leather forms a part. The
favourites, of course, of the Legislature, have been the
landowners, the class to which they themselves belong.
The importation of cattle, sheep, swine, beef, lamb, mut-
ton, and pork, they absolutely prohibit ; and on grain,
they impose duties which, on an average, raise the price
of bread 20 per cent. ;—which cramp our trade, which
convert our customers into our rivals, which lower wages,
and, what, is perhaps a still greater evil in a society con-
stituted as ours is, render employment uncertain.
" If this has been the conduct of the rulers of this
country, we repeat the qUestion, what is likely to be the
conduct of their subjects if such a reverse as we have
alluded to should occur ? When they are told, and told
with truth, that the Government has ventured to assume
the direction of manufactures and trade ; when they are
told, and truly told, that it has used this monstrous usur-
pation for the benefit, or the supposed benefit, not of the
many, but of the few ; when they find, that of all the
monopolies which it has conferred, that which it en-
forces most rigidly, and maintains most pertinaciously,
is the monopoly of food ; when they find that this is the
monopoly which inflicts on them the most suffering, and
gives, or is intended to give, to the governing class the
greatest immediate profit—are they likely to endure it
as a misfortune or to resent it as an injury ? If h i
resent it, we repeat, what form is their resentnient_olrikeey
ly
to take—sulky submission, or fierce struggles
re-
dress ? and, in the latter alternative, to what degreefor
are
they formidable ?
" These questions scarcely require an answer. The
manufacturing population of
many millions of persons concentratedreatßritain consists of
in towns, or in
districts as populous as towns, accustomed ,to political
discussion ; with their own leaders and their own press ;
organized in combine t ions, with executive. deliberative,
and corresponding offie.erst; .slocviite),, i
with funds for the separate
and for the general
purposes of each ;
and traied by a long
purposes of the united
and successful contest sagod
tinst the Combinnation-laws, to
elude or to defy
itib
the authority y nthorit of the State. Such a
population is formidable even prosperity ;it would
become doubly formtdabkin adversity, even though that
5 involving no blame to the
adversity arose from eause
Government. But if it were miserable, and could trace
its misery directly to the Legislature iff i. accuse
the 4overning body'? nut of error,
_but o oppression and
,s
robbery ; if it felt itself s4"*ed to the rents of land-
lords, and to tke profits Ofssugar planters and timber
merchants—what limits can we assign to its passions or
to its violence ? Are we surp OW our wealth, our pOii.