The Sun.
London, England, 1841-12-09 00:00:00

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LONDON:
THURSDAY, DECEMBER 9, 1841.

" The main support, we are told, which her
Majesty the QUEER DOWAGER has had through
all her trying illness has been her own unalter-
able fortitude. Her spirits never' sunk." On
reading such a notice, the contrast between the
situation of the QUEEN DOWAGER and that of
thousands of suffering mothers and wives of
the lower classes is forcibly brought to our
minds. Her Majesty was supported by her own
unalterable fortititde and all. the comforti which
unbounded wealth Tani -the iYiosl assiduous at-
tention of; we prestime;l ite'vdted doinestics
would supply. Her unalteritaci .fortitude in
bearing the inflictions of an insidious diSease, so
surrounded and so attended, was: well supported
by the highest medical skill continually em-
ployed in devising and applying means"to soothe
her sufferings, procure her sleep, and lessen the
wearisomeness of being confined to bed: Grateful
changes of linen and diet were never wanted.
Even a change to a pleasanter apartment was
made. Some hand was• always ready to smooth
her pillow, and give her whatever she desired.
Some eye was always watching even to prevent

her asking for what she might desire, and to pro-
vide and recommend whatever would lessen the
irksomeness of disease, and minister to her con-

venience. Her own unalterable fortitude had
all the support which human power could supply,
and that it gave not way is the subject of de-
served eulogium.

What then must be said for those suffering
wives and mothers of suffering England, who
are a prey, like the QUEER DOWAGER, to disease,
and who have no physician, no servants, no bed
perhaps, and "perhaps no food, or so little as
merely to keep them alive without ever satisfy-
ing the cravings of hunger, and that begged from
a harsh relieving-officer, or supplied by the cha-
rity of friends? Many of them, too, while they
are hungry and sick themselves, surrounded by
children clamorous for food, and seeing, at the
same time, their husbands and sons unwillingly
idling away their time, unable to help them.
Many of them, under all these difficulties, find
support in hope, that emanation of the Divinity,
and through all these crushing difficulties they
struggle with unalterable fortitude, and set a
noble example to those who, surrounded with
all the helps of art, whine and fret, and tease
all around them whenever they are subject to
the least restraint.

We read a few days ago an account of an in-
quest held at Manchester, on a man who had
died from want, and his wife's evidence recounted
sufferings which needed much fortitude to bear
them. Driven from his employment, he had
asked relief from the parish. He was sent to
the stone-yard, where his want of skill exposed
him to a serious accident. On his recovery,
his repugnance to the toil and his appre-
hension of further accidents, induced him to strive
for an independent subsistence. His wife begged
a donkey for him from her relatives, and, though
sick and weak, he did what he could, by.carrying
sand, to get a few pennies. Exposure to the
weather, and want of sufficient food, soon ex-
hausted him, and then the wife and mother had
nothing but what she could, as it were, extort
from the relieving-officer, or obtain from charity.
He repulsed her more than once; she still per-
severed, forced herself into his presence, and
begged for the life of her husband. One friend
gave her a little tea, another a few potatoes, and
boiled them for her because she had no vessel of
her own, and others gave her a couple of slices
of bacon. So she struggled on, day after day,
till her husband died, declaring that he wanted
food. Then came the Coroner's inquest, and her
struggles and her endurance were made known
to the world—a picture of what thousands and
tens of thousands are now suffering in this dis-
tressed and distracted nation. Her fortitude,
though it carried her through all these scenes,
could not master hunger, as the fortitude of the
QUEEN DOWAGER, surrounded with all the ap-
pliances of wealth and Dr. DAVIS'S skill, mastered
disease.

Sometimes these poor creatures fall under their
heavy burdens, and, like MARY THomPsoN,whose
case we recorded on Saturday, they rush, un-
bidden, from a world which is to them an unal-
terable scene of misery. Then does the severe
law, made by the opulent and the much-at-ease,
heavily punish them if it can ; or the severe
tongues of censorious and rich neighbours,
rudely blame the weak creatures, because they
have not the unalterable fortitude of the QUEEN
DOWAGER. Then we hear from the much-at-
ease party a great deal of the consolations of re-
ligion, and great reproaches to MARY THOMP-
SON and others, that they have not fortified their
minds by reading their Bibles. But the religion
which can sustain the mothers and wives of the
working classes of England in their present deep
distress, must be something very different from
the holiday sentiment which might suffice to
sustain the unalterable fortitude of the well-at-
tended and much-soothed DOWAGER QUEEN.
The auxiliary to all possible worldly comforts
may be wholly inefficient, as the opponent of
want, beating back black and creeping despair
out of the heart, which is struggling amidst the
cries of famishing children, and an unemployed
and dying partner. In such a conflict religion
itself, however pure, deep, and holy, may be de-
feated ; and we would not have the much-at-ease
classes rely on religion to inspire the sufferers
with unalterable fortitude, unless their worldly
condition be improved. In truth, an education
more fertile in impiety, atheism, and despair,
than that to which the suffering working classes
are practically exposed, it is scarcely possible to
conceive; and what sentiments it will bring
forth in the rising generation, those who are
aware that the mind is not moulded by words,
but by facts, must tremble to think of. We find
some consolation from reflecting that private
charity is redressing to some extent public in-
justice. Individualsare infinitely superior to the
political system they support. They have learnt
humanity with time, that is the cruel emanation
of a semi-barbarous period, when laws were avow-
edly made to prevent an abundance of victuals.
If the nation be doomed to decay it will be the
fault rather of the head than of the heart, of
proud reason, so called, insisting on obedience to
barbarous laws and institutions, against which
the instincts of man testify and revolt.

A bank at Berwick has failed. In Berwick,
says the Gazetteer," there are no manufactures
of any importance. Its chief trade consists in
exporting corn, pork, eggs, and salmon."
Berwick is the sea-port of an agricultural dis-
trict, and is not exposed to the vicissitudes of
commerce and manufactures.

Within a few weeks, banks at Canterbury,
Chichester, Arundel, and Petersfield have
stopped, every one of which towns is in an agri-
cultural district, and in nowise dependent on
manufactures. It would appear from this, that
the agricultural districts begin to feel some of
that distress, which, for their advantage as is
said, has been so stubbornly inflicted on the
manufacturing districts. The fact probably is,
that most of these banks have been making too
large advances to their agricultural and landown-
ing customers, and the prices of agricultural pro-
duce, notwithstanding the starvation inflicted on
the people, have not answered expectations. Far-
mers and landowners, like manufacturers, have
been unable to pay. No increase of real busi.
ness has followed increase of accommodation,
and the banks have failed, as Michaelmas has
come round, without bringing their expected for-
tune* to the farmers and landowners.

We reproach ourselves for not having found
time, and space before now to notice and com-
mend an excellent "Address to the Inhabitants
of Kendal on the present State of Trade in their
borough, in connection with the Corn-laws."
With the exception of those instructive and
heart-rending statistics which,the Leeds Opera-
tive Society collected and published, we have
seen no account so complete and authentic of
the present condition of the inhabitants of any
town. It is drawn up by the Kendal Anti-Corn-
law Association, and does great credit to the
members.

" If," says a Correspondent, " such solid facts
be puured in from London and our provincial
batteries, the Cabinet, which has isolated itself
from the sufferings and sympathies of the people,
will either have to capitulate on terms of repeal,
or be drummed out of the citadel which they
have usurped on false pretensions of relief to the
country."
We can now only copy the following spe-
cimen of the facts, and recommend other Corn-
law Associations to imitate the example of the
Kendal A.:sociation:--
trnegs
1)p!
In order to prove the existence of this distress from
other sources. than th
e complaints
proceeded
to
make inquiries
o f
the
c labouring
people ththemosse
themselves,
we
tradesmen of whom they purchase food
amongstand clothing.
The first authority which we quote is that of the but-
chers, who acknowledge that about one-third less beef
is killed than was the case three or four years
ago, and that while they readily sell the " best part of
the carcass," they have difficulty in disposing of the in-
ferior parts, which are usually bought by the poor. The
labouring classes, living at this time upon food inferior
to what they formerly purchased, are compelled to fall
back upon the great resource of the Irish population,
potatoes.
But the distress is not confined to the poor. The
tradesmen are suffering from want of customers. The
arrears due to them for goods supplied to their destitute