The Sun.
London, England, 1841-05-17 00:00:00

Davis, three children, and servant, John Blunt, James Dorler,
J. M'Muitrie, F. A. Huntingd..n, H. Escher, V. Delawttey,
R. Johnson, Jos. Connah, E. Gaudelet, Miss Hudson, Mr.
and Mrs. Airy. F. Host elequin, S Newton, Mr. and Mrs.
Storms, Jos. Harvey, D. S. Kennedy, V. Guiliett. L. Duval,
L. Puetannes, C. Maurog, Mr. Plactde, W. F. Dalrymple,
D. E. Stewart, A. Dalerme, Emlin Physick, B. B. Atterbury,
Jos. and Miss Lituen, Mrs. Inglis, R. and Mrs. Watson,
Elwell, Mr., Miss, and Master Randolph, A. S. Eiley, S.
and Mrs. Cochran, J. Williamson, Mrs. and Miss Agnew, J.
D. Robinson, W. A. Bradley, J. B. Broanhead, W. Paton,
Dr. A. 11Lrch, J. A . Bradley, Mr. and Mrs. Stahlkriecht,
A. Dufriche, C. Contan. T. H. Farish, Miss 'Anis, H. Far-
man, Mrs. and Miss Wilkins, W. Cammack, J.; Collinis, A.
Collins, F. Pattison, J. Pattison, G. Constable, M. Wilson.—
Total 97.

The theoretical principle of Government is,
that it is a contrivance to increase the public wel-
fare. Of course the public means all the indivi-
duals of the nation, and it will not be denied that
their welfare requires that they should obtain
the largest possible supplies of food. Nobody
now supposes that food will be too abundant, or
that there will be a universal
.glut either of that
or any other useful article. In fact the great
difficulty, which may be called the curse of
man—if rather it be not his blessing, being as
much in conformity With his nature as the
gathering of honey is to that of the bee—the
great difficulty is to get food and the deficiency
of food, or the difficulty of getting enough, ac-
cording to the most accredited theories, is the
great cause of all the vice, crime, and misery in
the world. It is plainly and palpably, therefore,
the duty of every Government to facilitate as
much as possible the exertions of the people in
obtaining food for themselves, and it violates its
duty most grossly when it impedes those exer-
tions. It then incurs the terrible responsibility
of causing all the vice and misery and crime
which result from a want of food.

The excuse or the pretext for the Corn-laws—
though it is a false pretext—is, that they, in the
long run, ensure the people a greater supply of f)od
than they would otherwise have. But sugar, like
corn, is an article of food very nutritious, and it
might be used as a substitute in considerable
quantities
.for other food. No pretext is made
by those who oppose the Ministers' plan for
the reduction of the duty on foreign sugar,
that it would lessen at any time the quan-
tity of sugar or food which the people could
obtain. On the contrary, they resist the
alteration because the market would be over-
whelmed with sugar. They will not allow
the law to be altered, because it will give the
people too much sugar, and at too cheap a rate.
The Legislature, in this case unblushingly, and
for the benefit of a few members of its own
body, actually stops the supply of food. The
statement of
,the Tories is, if the law be
altered, or if the discriminating duty be
abolished, that the people will get plenty of food,
and they most scandalously interfere to prevent
the people from obtaining it. This is a most
shameful violation of the duty of the Legislature,
and instead of being the discourager of vice, and
punisher of crime, it is the great cause of all the
crimes and all the misery that are caused by the
scarcity or the deficiency, of food.
As for the nonsense it pleases some gentlemen,
in the utter forgetfulness of their duties to the
people of -England, to talk about the blacks_
dooming those of the West Indies to cultivate
sugar, and hoping to relieve those of the Brazils
and Cuba from cultivating it—we must take the
liberty to tell them, that if, by their measure,
they could relieve the whole black race from
the slavery to which they are subject in
almost every part of the world, that would
not exonerate them from their duty to the people
of England. They receive power to promote
the welfare of our people; that welfare is pro-
moted by allowing them to have an ample sup-
ply of food; and the Legislature is the traitorous
assassin of the people it is bound to protect and
cherish, when it withholds from them that large
supply of food which the Brazils and Cuba are
ready to send them. Weep Lord SAN DON, weep
Lord STANLEY, weep Air. GotimatußN, and weep
Sir A. GRANT and Dr. LtieHINGTON in conjunc-
tion, over the sufferins of the slaves —reproach
the planters with cruelty, send out ships-of-war
to stop the slave trade, and when you have wept
and declaimed at others, look at home; see the
people confided to your care perishing of hunger
—see yourselves actively at work to keep food
from their mouths, and acknowledge yourselves
to be more extensively criminal than the plant-
ers and the active agents of the diabolical slave
trade !