The Sun.
London, England, 1841-01-12 00:00:00

ZI

LONDON:
TUESDAY, JANUARY 12, IE4I.

A diversity of opinion connected with adverse
conduct in different classes, lying at the bottom of
most of our disputes, and leading to confusion, re-
volution, and anarchy, seems now prevalent in
society, and worthy of public notice. Believing
with AKENSIDE, that "action treads the path in
which opinion says it fdlows good," we conclude
that action will only be just and proper when
opinion is correct and true, and that our internal
policy consequently will never be good till our
theories of Government are well founded. The
public can only hope for an approximation to una-
nimity, for agreement and peace, by first discovering
the true pi inciples on which social institutions
ought to be framed. At present, however, there is
not merely a difference, there is a complete contrast
in the views of different classes, and to that we pur-

pose now to direct attention.
No inconsiderable portion of well informed and
reflecting men, such as Mr. MARSHALL and Mr.
STANSFELD, of Leeds, contend that the suffrage
ought to be more extensive. The Chartists affirm
that it ought to be universal. " Universal," say
all the men of property throughout England, say
all the opulent members of the Protestant Church ;
universal, say the lordly owners of the great facto_
r.ce of Manchester and Glasgow ; universal, say the
ship-owners and great merchants of London " Uni-
versal Sufliage I what, would you give the power of
making laws, or of choosing those who are to make
lAws, into the hands of the priest-ridden, lumper-fed
peasantry of Ireland, into the hands of the tattered
inhabitants of our crowded alleys and closes, who
know not how to read, and are not worth sixpence
b-yond their labour I To talk of placing the power of
making laws for this great empire, with its vast
commerce, of the ramifications of which these persons
never heard, and with complicated relations, both
internal and external, which they cannot possibly
co:nprehend, 's truly absurd." " Not more absurd,'"
reply the Chartists, the inhabitants of our alleys, and
the poor ragged peasantry of Ireland, " than for you
gentlemen of Manchester and London, than for
you country squires and opulent Protestant par-
sons to claim the exclusive power of making laws
for us, with whom you have no sympathy, on
whom you even look with aversion, of whose affec-
tions, joys, and sorrows, you know nothing—to
whose habits of living you are strangers ; you
might, with equal propriety, pretend to make laws
for the Hindoos as for us Catholic Irish, or the
hard-working, half-starved weavers and spinners,
who dwell in garrets or cellars, and crowd into
I
narrow and confined alleys for warmth." This s the
real point at issue between the classes. The rich
and the intelligent shudder with horror at the very
idea of the poor and the ignorant making laws ;
but the poor, and perhaps they were the ignorant,
now declaim, with equal vehemence, against the
rich and the intelligent exclusively making laws
for them.

How are these classe', how are their conflicting
opinions, their adverse interests to be reconciled %
Why should property legislate for numbers, or why
should poverty make laws for wealth ? We pretend
not to answer the question, but it puts the diffi-
culty before the public which must be surmounted
before there is the smallest chance of again bringing
the different classes into all harmonious obedience
to the law. Custom we admit is entirely in favour
of property making laws for numbers. That has
hitherto been one principle of our Constitution, and
property has not been consided safe unless it re-
tained the power of making laws. It has, how-
ever, used the power harshly and unjustly. The
condition to which industry is now reduced,
its COntradlitiriguiAcd from
property, has gene-
Med neW ideas and new thoughts in those who ,

have no property, or comparatively little ; and they
now generally contend against the ancient custom—
the ancient principle—of property having the exclu-
sive power and privilege of making laws. This is
for them a comparatively new idea, but it has al-
ready taken deep root, and grows and spreads every
day. We believe that there is not the smallest
chance of rooting it out from the minds of the mul-
titude. But it must be rooted out, or property
must give up its ancient privilege, or there can be
no hope of ever again seeing the classes live to-
gether in their ancient harmony. We have indi-
cated the source of the difference of opinions be-
tween the different classes—it is for practical
statesmen to consider whether they can dry up the
source, or what must be done to prevent the con-
flicting actions which will arise from such conflict-
ing opinions ?

We have on two or three occasions lately, par-
ticularly on the 28th ult., directed the attention of
our readers to the order and decency with which
the great body of the electors of the United States
had voted in the late election of President. There
are no religious tests in the United States ; there
are some restrictions as to residence, but none as to
property ; the greatest approach to Universal Suf-
frage that ever was known exists, and the result was
the collection of 2,400,000 votes without a riot or a
scuffle. Having reminded our readers of these facts,
we now beg them to turn to another part of The
Sun, where they will find amongst our extracts an
article from the '1 imes, the latter part of which de-
scribes an election at Newfoundland. There the
poll was closed without making any return, the
Magistrates were unable to suppress the riot,
one of them was knocked down and his skull frac-
tured, and two houses were destroyed. But we
need not repeat the impressive lesson narrated by
the Times, except to close with its moral : such are
the results of a " community of enfranchised Pa-
pists under a Protestant Monarchy."
Before the Papists could be enfranchised they
must have been enslaved. There are Papists in
the United States ; they have never been enslaved,
and they are as orderly as the Methodists or the
Episcopalians. Papists have more freedom in the
United States than in Newfoundland. It is not,
therefore, freedom, hut the pre-existing slavery
which is the cause of their turbulence under our
Protestant Monarchy. In the Protestant Mo-
narchy the Judges, the Commanders, the chief offi-
cers are most probably Protestant. In the United
States little or nothing is said about a man's reli-
gion. Under a Protestant Monarchy the Papists
are provoked by present inferiority, and a sense
of past wrongs, into an attempt to imitate their
oppressors, and obtain power by coercion. In the
Republic they are not excited to such outrage by
any sense either of present inferiority or past de-
privation
; and in the United States an election for
the Chief Magistrate is conducted with the greatest
order ; in Newfoundland the election of a Member
of the House of Assembly terminates in a bloody
riot.

These events teach us that the mode to avoid
such riots is to do no wrong. Do not exclude the
Papists, do not condemn a great body of the people
by political exclusion to inferiority and degradation,
and all the incentives to outrage and riot, which
grow from such exclusions, will have no existence•
But the statesmen of a Protestant Monarchy, and
the public writers of such a Monarchy, have sup-
posed, and still suppose, that the only way to avoid
outrage, is to degrade a large portion of the people
by law on account of their religion, or on account
of their poverty, and so excite anger and
discontent. They set the example of having re-
course to violence to obtain their ends, and they
reckon, but without their host, that their example
will never be followed. Untaught by the results
of former vicious intemperance and vicious coercion,
which always led to riot and outrage, our ultra-
' Protestants, or ultra-political knaves, are even now
engaged in demanding the re-enacting of those
restrictive and degrading laws, from which alone
have flowed the evils they weep over. The worst
consequence of their vicious system is that, after
it has degraded the people, it has a pretext for con-
tinuing the degradation. The evil perpetuates it-
self, and increases with time. It should be stopped,
therefore, at the outset, and no temptation of pro-
mised advantages should encourage men to begin it.
The contrast between the election of the Presi-
dent of the United States, and the election
of a Member of the Legislature for Conception
Bay, Newfoundland, reflects no honour on the
Protestant Monarchy, and no disgrace on the
Republic, which has no State religion. New-
foundland has the benefit of our institutions and
our example,—the United States has framed her
institutions according to her wants. The United
States are peaceable, with 14,000,000 of people ;
the little community of Newfoundland is split into
factions, and the people crack each other's skulls,
in all the rage of intolerance, during a contest for
political power. Whether the Protestant Monar-
chy or the irreligious Republic be the better
Government of the two, we must leave our readers
to judge.

It is plain, from our Correspondent's letter from
Walsall, and from the first number of the Walsall
Letter-Bag, which has reached us, that the Anti-
Corn-law party are prosecuting the contest at that
place with great spirit and great success. It de-
lights us to see that a Non-Electors' Committee has
been formed to influence the electors in favour of
Mr. SMITH by all legal means. We hope that
their example will be followed by the women, who
have much at stake in this contest, and ought not
to be silent or inactive.
We know with what reluctance they mix in po-
litical matters—we are aware of all the just repug-
nance there is to ask them—but in a contest like
this, in which life or death, abundance or starva-
tion, are involved, they ought to encourage their
husbands, brothers, and friends to vote for the
anti-bread-tax candidate. Let them remember that
infants of both sexes are now exposed to severe
toils—in the agricultural distrists, weeding or pick-
ing up stones—inthemanhuicfahettiulerriengis distrists,t
no oritehtesr,
piecing and knotting_irom w
chance of relieving them, but by obtaining good
wages and plenty of food for their parents. The
condition of the children of Britain should move
every mother's heart to exert herself to insure the
success of Mr. SMITH at Walsall.
We see, by our Correspondent's letter, that
there is one class of tradesmen who fear the COllSC-
quences of the repeal, and he properly recommends
that the League should direct its attention to the
point. It should endeavour to prove to the
tradesmen, that though the receivers of rent may
and must suffer for a time, yet the farmers will
benefit. They will have less to pay for seed corn,
for every thing
they have to buy, and for every
thing they consume, and will, very speedily, if
not immediately, benefit by the repeal. There is
no reason whatever to suppose that the quantity
of Our agricultural produce will be less after the
repeal than at present ; that the farmers will not
have as much or more to give in exchange for
the production of the manufacturers as now ;
and no reason therefore to suppose that their cus-
tomers will suffer by the repeal. The farmers
have been made the victims of the landlords'
cupidity, and it might perhaps be as well if the
League should give them an assurance that it will
stand by them in endeavouring to obtain any rea.
sonable compensation for losses, should any be