The Sun.
London, England, 1841-04-26 00:00:00

Zite o§nn.

LONDON:
MONDAY, APRIL 26, 1841.

We have of late been highly gratified by the
Times. On Wednesday it denounced the Con-
servatives, and. on Saturday it wrote a bold arti-
cle against Lord CARDIGAN. It spoke of his con-
duct as diabolical, and it demanded his dis-
missal from her MAJESTY'S service. The Sun
had preViously taken a similar view, though it
was impossible for us to urge. it with all the ve-
hemence of the Times. Our Contemporary, on
that point, is at present quite a Radical, and,
with his assistance, we may hope to see Lord
CARDIGAN retire or be dismissed from the army.
On Saturday, too, our Contemporary took the
skle of the humble classes against,the upper
Old adopted sentiments which we have
of late elide?voured to make familiar to our
we have, on two several
readers. For exa:o2le,
occasions, lately insis4,4 on the .fact that the
:
upper classes know little o." nothing of the lower
classes, for whom, neverthele_gs) they persist in
making laws. Our Contemporary said—
too seldom
The lines of demarcation are too strong,
passed. One order in society knows nothing of, L. (almost)
cares nothing for, those ranks which lies beneath The
splendour in which men in the very first rank in Englani
shuts out of sight the whole condition of the humbler classsn
and the multiplied occupations and engagements of a Parlia
mentary leader render it impossible for such a one, however
kindly disposed, to seek out a personal knowledge of the poor
by his own personal investigations.
Bence it follows that men of this class are driven to form
their ideas of their fellow-men, ay, even of their poorer neigh-
bours, often pining and dying within sight of their splendid
habitations, from the theoretical portraitures of political eco-
nomists, or the dressed-up " reports" of some hired and tu-
tored " Commissioner."
And this abstract way of viewing " the poor," as if they
were merely one element of a large calculation—one of the
data upon which a theory was to be built, necessarily tinges
with a cold and unfeeling hue every part of the Parliamentary
discussions on these subjects. The truth is, however odd the •
assertion may seem to many persons, that the only rational
way of considering " the poor ' is to make them the chief °b-
eet of every plan, the central point of every system.
Our Contemporary, then, not only. insists on
the fact of the legislators knowing nothing of the
poorer classes, but also insists .on the propriety
of those legislators making the poorer classes,
of whom they know nothing, " the chief object of
every plan—the central point of every system."
The Chartists could not carry their doctrines
further. They insist on legislation being directed
for the benefit of the poor, and they desire to
possess the power of making laws only to carry
that object into effect. Our Contemporary by
implication condemns the Constitution, and the
Tory mode of working it, for that is founded on I
a basis which excludes the poor from considera-
tion, and the Tories emphatically use it to promote
exclusively class-interests. Lest any doubt
should exist as tothe extent to which our Con-
temporary carries his doctrine, he adds—
It is not on Poor-laws merely that a wrong strain of
thought prevails.
The style m which the Corn-laws are dis-
cussed iu the House
of Commons is
the
equally erroneous, The
question is made to turn u
lords or the farmers: viler rat interests of the land-
onl y safe and rational way
of dealing with the subject is to ask, what are the interests of the
millions?
The public will, we think, be much sur-
-nents in the Times.
prised at such Radical sentiments
Not care for the landlords or the farmers! What
‘‘NV.ilhlatwilwill
Breeches-pocket Farm er RICHMOND BARIN G say to that?
or
Farmer Bucx-
INGHAM say to that? Not care for the eyes of
society, and think only of the toiling millions!
The whole House of Peers, and one-half Of the
" Absurd
House of Commons, will cry out,
about law-
Why do we trouble ourselves
why
making?" they will naturally say. " do we
waste our time, when we might be so
much more agreeably occupied, by attending
night after night in the House of Commons or
Lords, but to take care of ourselves and our
friends? and to expect us to take care of the mil-
lions is out of the question." The sentiments
the Times might suit the Chartists, but they will
be at once rejected as contrary to all principle
and all practise by the Tories. Our Contempo-
rary, in fact, by these sentiments declares himself a
Chartist, and he looks to the Chartists for his
immediate reward.
The sudden change is remarkable and suspi-
cious; and would be, were-it not for the pending
Nottingham election, inexplicable. The last
paragraph of our Contemporary's leader, how-
ever, like the postcript to a lady's letter, is the

most important part of the whole :-
--The increase of the number of such men as attend to the
poor in the Howe of Commons, would be one of the greatest
advances that could be made towards a restoration of the good
feeling and cordiality which are now sensibly diminished. if
not totally lost. And it is, when considered in this point of