The Sun.
London, England, 1841-01-26 00:00:00

has influence over those over whom the people
unfortunately have no influence, and he will bring
the Legislature into a conflict with the commonalty.
Then the feelings which this self-willed, arrogant
aristocrat excites will be directed against the body
which he influences, and the authority it exercises
will become as much hated as the man.

That there may be no mistake as to Lord STAN-
LEY'S objects—as to the party with which he acts,
and as to the motives by which they are all ani•
mated, he announces his intention to Mr. EMER'
SON TENNENT, says he is in the hands of Mr.
TENNENT'S friends—the BA TESONS and the
VERNERS—hints that he is the servant of their bi-
gotry, and his letter is made public by being read at
a meeting of ORANGEMEN, and amid the clatter of
breaking windows, in order to show their animosity
to the leader of their Catholic countrymen. Some
men would shrink from such associates and such
avowals. Lord STANLEY, who on leaving office in-
sulted his patron Lord GREY, will stoop to anything,
except separating himself from Oxford bigotry, to
spring back into power. Associated with defeated
Orangemen he is now in his proper place, and we
trust the Liberal party will never again be insulted
and injured by his aid.

We cannot expect that the landlords should em-
brace the doctrines of free trade, when they are re-
pudiated by the Liberal Journals. Nor can we
hope that Ministers, though urged by some of their
friends, will take any step to remove commercial
restrictions when their supporters out of doors cla-
mour for new restraints. In general we have had
no abler helpmate in enforcing the repeal of the
Corn-law, and no more enlightened advocate of free
trade, than the Morning Chronicle, but every
now and then something appears in that
Journal more hostile to free trade than

the writings of the Herald or the Post. In fact,
the latter is, on money matters, almost a free trader,
and is a convert to the best principles of political
economy, before that science was degraded into a
jumble of subtleties by a. short-sighted, but clever
financier. The Chronicle, however, in its lucubra-

Lions dated from the City, is the most determined
enemy we know of to free trade in money. Our
Contemporary seems to be divided against himself.
He knocks down restraints in his leaders, and puts
them up again in the next column. Yesterday, for
example, he said :
Under the system of free banking and competing is-
sues, so strenuously supported by some writers, we
should find the verification of the proverb, " that which
is every man's business is no man's business ;" and gold
in this country would soon be reckoned among articles
of vertu—scarce and curious. There cannot be much
doubt that things would come to this end by the means
of an issue of paper money, checked by no other instru-
ment than that of weekly exchanges between the banking
establishments. The Crown and Parliament must have a
real right of interference and control in the operations of
the Bank of England ; and, that as the Bank notes
are issued as a representative of coin, the nation
has a right to see, through responsible officers appointed
by the Crown, that their convertibility into coin is se-
cured by the retention of an adequate quantity of gold
in the coffers of the issuers. The abrogation of the pre-
sent system, however, by the substitution of a free trade
in paper money is quite another affair. It would be a
regular jump in the dark, and no ono could tell the con-
sequence.
The people of this country will not run the risk, they
like to look before they leap ; and we are satisfied that
after taking a proper glance of the precipice they will
draw back at once, and firmly refuse to destroy them-
selves by the attempt. _ _ .

What is this but the advocacy of the inter•
'erence of Government with the exchanges of all

things, and consequently with the whole course of
trade ? What is it but a total want of a reliance
on the private pursuits of individuals, as the best
means of securing public prosperity, such a reliance
being the main pillar of free trade ? What is it but
a setting up of the dictates of the Legislature above
the discretion of individuals in the management of
their own concerns, which ADAri SMITH showed
was the height of folly ? The regulation of the
exchange is no man's business, but it is the busi-
of dealers in bullion to send it where it is most
valuable ; and whether the Government interfere or
not, they will always, if allowed, make what pro-
fit they can on such transactions, and so regulate

the exchange.
To have a free trade, too, in paper money, we
are told, would be a jump in the dark, and no
one could tell the consequences. That is just
what the landlords say when we ask for free trade
in corn. Every abolition of a restriction must be
a jump in the dark. Every law is. To trust to the
private interests of individuals must always be, for
the Legislature, a jump in the dark, for it cannot
regulate them. The supply of provisions for the
metropolis is, for the Legislature, a jump in the
dark, but the provisions are supplied. According to
the new doctrines of the Chronicle, to trust to the
merchants, manufacturers, and bankers of the empire
would be a jump in the dark ; but till that jump be
made, and till the Legislature learn to mistrust it-
self, notwithstanding the perpetual clamour orhalf-
ignorant people for its unceasing interference, and
learn to trust the private interests of the people,
things will not go well in England. We regret
to see our able Contemporary fighting in this man-
ner the battle of the landlords and all other restric-
tions, who have the warrant of experience for
their system, for they have unhappily seen it, and
can well say that to set trade free is to take a jump
in the dark.

'We refer our readers to the report- of the meet-
ing at Leicester for the abolition of Church-rates.
The speech of that consistent and unflinching
Reformer, Mr. HUME, deserves especial attention
for the sound advice it contains, and the just cen-
sure it casts on certain Dissenters, and on Mem-
bers of the House of Commons calling themselves
Liberal. But for the apathy of one party and the
selfishness of the other, the Bill introduced by the
late CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER would
have passed into a law, Church property would
have been better managed, and an end put
to those unseemly squabbles in churches and chapels
about this obnoxious and unjust tax on Dissenters•
The Government, it is true, were not to blame
mi this score, but they were to blame in not using
every exertion to remove the causes of their failure,
to extend the suffrage and purify those smaller
boroughs now as rotten as Old. Sarum. We there-
fore do not view their defeat without some mixture
of gratification, because it must convince the people,
of Leicester, and Leeds, and other large towns, who,
are now crying out for Reform, that with such a,
House of Commons, or any one returned under the-
present state of the electoral franchise, no redress,,
not even the removal of this miserable impost cant
be rationally expected. Let them, therefore, rally
their forces, not for petty skirmishes against
Church-rates or partial grievances, but against the
great grievance, the defective state of the represen-
tation. Till that is removed they will find tits
clergy, the aristocracy, and those who thrive b: /
corruption too many for them.

Mr. O'CONNELL'S reception at Leeds whict-..., i
notwithstanding the efforts made to excite a pirejp,-
dice against him by some of the more misguide&
Chartists—was in every respect a ttiumpliant one,.li
ri
will, we hope, help to disabuse him of the strange i
notion he has lately taken up, that the majority oi. i
Englishmen are indifferent to the welfare of Irelana..i
Never was a public man listened to with mo iv;
respectful attention by an immense assembly ; al :ill
never did his cursory references to the Ares, 3nt
condition of the sister country elicit more he: La+.
felt sympathy. Much of this was of -course ov in;
to his own impassioned and persuasile eloqu' nice ;

,R•'_