The Sun.
London, England, 1841-10-29 00:00:00

PUBLIC OPINION.

The Morning Post is full of righteous indignation at the
tone adopted by the Opposition Journals, observing :
This is the time they take for shouting in the ears of the
populace, that the landlords desire to starve them--that
the landlords are deliberate plunderers, murderers, and
worse than murderers ! This is the time that, for the
furtherance of a mere party purpose, they aggravate
every bad symptom of the times, and endeavour to en-
graft public ferocity upon private distress ! Such con-
duct deserves stronger reprobation than words can ex-
press. It is in the highest degree criminal, and though
it may not be so in such a sense as to be touched by the
law, every man who detests moral crime as well as legal
crime ought to give his aid towards abating the nuisance,
of so vile an opposition to common justice and the com-
mon safety."—lf a vile opposition to common justice and
the common safety be manifested anywhere, it is among
the Tories who, though perfectly aware of the existing
state of the country, refuse to trouble their heads about
a remedy, but coolly rest content with letting things take
their own course. As for the Opposition Journals, they
but adhere strictly to their duty in speaking of things
as they are ; and declining to shut their eyes to the des-
titution of the working-classes, in order to further the
party interests of the Monopolists. The rage of the Post
at their free-spoken truths is the best proof that they are
acting rightly.
Speaking of the state of affairs in Canada, the Herald
says :—" Until Canada—now within a shorter distance
of England than Edinburgh was from London a century
ago—be thus made an integral portion, or constituted
into outlaying counties of the United Kingdom, it is in
vain to anticipate any great advancement of its prospe-
rity. The commercial greatness of Canada and the con-
version of its physical conformation into the means of
increasing the defence of the British empire, can only be
established by the completion and construction of such
enormous public works as are quite beyond the grasp of
a mere dependency. The improvement of the naviga-
tion of the St. Lawrence, and the navigable communica-
tions of the great inland seas, must be regarded as great
national works, essential to the prosperity and safety of
the empire."

The-Times has an article on the subject of the prover-
bial delays in Chancery, in the course of which it ob-
serves :—" It is curious to look back at the antiquity
and continuity of the evil. It was the fashion of the
Liberals, in the latter period of Lord Eldon's Chancel-
lorship, to lay the fault upon his habits of hesitation: and
for two or three years, while the agitation of the subject
could be made to answer a political purpose, and to annoy
the Ministry through the sides of the Chancellor, the
patriots took up the grievance ; not, indeed, with any
view to relieve the pressure of the evil, but for the pur-
pose of inculpating their political opponents—just as the
manufacturers of distress in the north of England have
lately been getting up their statistics of poverty and pri-
vation, without contributing a fraction to assist the suf-
ferers : so much more ready are their sympathies than
their sixpences. But the grievance of the Court of
Chancery was vastly more ancient than the days of Lord
Eldon."---No one doubts that the delays in Chancery
were a subject of complaint long before the days of Lord
Eldon ; but he did nothing to reform the evil, notwith-
standing that at one period of his career, he possessed as
much, and perhaps more power to do so, than any Chan-
cellor whether before or since. To all proposals for in-
quiry he invariably turned a deaf ear ; and it was not
merely to " answer a political purpose," as the Times
hints, but to promote a great public good, that he was
so often urged by the Opposition to take the matter into
his serious consideration.

The Chronicle says:—" The Times of yesterday com-
pliments Sir Robert Peel, for the interest he feels on the
subject of popular education. The time is happily
chosen. Such praise is like vitriol in a green wound.
But the education required for bettering the moral and
intellectual condition of the poor is not likely to be ob-
tained in schools where a corrupt vote is payment from
the parent, and to sign a petition procures a boy's expul-
sion. By the Leeds report it appears that in that town
alone there are upwards of 15,000 children who do not
go to school at all, besides allowing 10,000 for such as
are too young, or are unavoidably prevented. The fact
is a frightful one. It could not happen, were the poor
properly cared for by the Legislature. It is a horrible
disgrace on a country, possessing millions per annum for
educational purposes."—Were the Tories to endeavour
to correct this state of things, and propose some scheme
of national education, we should have little faith in its
efficacy, for it would be sure to be conceived in a nar-
row, sectarian spirit, and be productive of far more harm
than good. It is not by a Tory Ministry, such as we now
see at the helm, that a really useful and enlarged system
of national education will ever be carried into practice.
The York Courant observes, with reference to the re-
cent spread of incendiarism :—" This is what we ask
for, and what we think the signs of the times require,
and that which it is the immediate and solemn duty of
the Government to attend to—that they should make an
inquiry into those things—that they should not shut their
eyes to the alarming indications of discontent to which
we have alluded, but that with all diligence and since-
rity they should set themselves upon the work of seeking
out the cause, and devising a remedy."
The Worcester Chronicle contains the following re-
marks:—" Despite the remonstrances of starving mul-
titudes, the Tories prorogued Parliament without show-
ing the slightest indication of compassion for the pre-
valent distress, or of an intention to devise, at an
early period, measures for its relief. It would seem that
this Tory neglect of the prayers of a long-enduring
people has stung them into madness. The counsels
of rage have superseded the calm dictates of reason and
reflection. Swing went out with the Tories ;he returns
to welcome their advent to power with bonfires raised of
homesteads and corn-ricks. While it gives us unfeigned
sorrow to notice these atrocities, we cannot conceal our
belief that they are owing in no small degree to the cold
neglect with which the popular cry of distress has been
met by the Tories."
MONEY—TRADE—COIVIIMEERCE.
At the adjourned meeting of the masons lately em-
ployed at the new Houses of Parliament, held on Wednes-
day at the Craven Head, Drury-lane, the sums sent in by
different Societies 'for their support, consisted of 501..
from a Society of Carpenters ; 10/. from the Pimlico
Carpenters ; 50/. from the Carpenters of Grosvenor-
square ; 751. from a Masons' Society of London ; 30/.
from a Society of Tailors ; 10/. from a Painters' Society;
201. from the Hope Friendly Society; 10/. from Captain
Ackerley; making a total, up to the present moment, of
2r
a 51615. o; cii veittihesaanndumßboeke.osf. weekly subscriptions from seve-
Sir Watkin Williams Wynne, and his late distin-
guished visitors recently subscribed 480/. to alleviate the
distresse
s of the unemployed miners in Ruabon and
Wrexham.
At Port Natal, Cape of Good Hope, about 4,000 Bri-
tish subjects occupy a large tract of country, on which
three towns have been founded, and a regular Go-
vernment organized. The cape colony would greatly
improve, if means were provided by G.vernment
for the gradual influx of 2,000 or 3,000 emigrants an-
nually, by which capital would follow, and the revenue
of the colony increase.