The Sun.
London, England, 1840-09-04 00:00:00

raging'; rime of any kind, sets the unthinking folly 1
and the cruelty of the lawmaker in a clear light,
because it shows him applying the same prohibition
to an action by which society is sustained and nou-
rished, and to an action by which it is terrified
and devastated. A greater evil possibly it could
not produce, than to lead acute and clever men,
like the writer in the Guardian, to jumble toge-
ther house-breaking and importing food, and to in-
fer similar consequences from violating the law
which punishes the one, and prohibits the other.
We have now said so much in defence of what we
formerly said, but we beg it may be remembered
that our remarks then were in reply to some con-
temptible and silly denunciations of these innocent
but fictitious sales of corn. If our defence have
startled some of our Contemporaries, it has met
with unqualified approbation from others ; and
such consequences, pro and con., deduced from the
Corn-law, will do more than statistics to get that
unrighteous law set aside.
In reply to the statistics of the Merthyr Guar-
dian, we shall briefly state, that the cheap bread of
the years 1835 and 1836, existed in conjunction
with the Corn-laws. They kept down the popu-
lation to the supply of our own country, and when
a fruitful harvest came there was more than the

thinned and starved population could pay for. At
the same time the law prohibited trade to a certain
extent with other countries, and prevented that
healthy enterprise, even when prices were low,
which is essential to prosperity. To quote France
against us is a proof either of gruss ignorance or a
mocking spirit in the Guardian. France has very
severe Corn-laws, and a system of import
duties on all kinds of food which amounts almost to
a prohibition. France is more cursed with
restrictive laws on trade than England. So the
Factory System of the United States, to which our
Contemporary refers, is the child of prohibi-
tion. To spite the English for the ab-
surd conduct of our rulers, the American
Government laid heavy duties on our manu-
factured articles, and the misery mentioned by the
Boston Quarterly Review quoted by our Contem-
porary, is the result of a prohibitive system which
is the counterpart and complement of the Corn-
laws. To know what is the result of free trade,
we refer the Merthyr Guardian to an excellent
letter from Switzerland, in the last number of the
Anti-Corn-law Ci,cular.
We must state in conclusion, that The Sun is
not answered, for The Sun has never contended

for anything so foolish as that all distress existing
at all time was the consequence of Corn-laws.
Neither has The Sun contended for low prices, but
for free trade and for justice. Our Corn-laws are
the most immediate and powerful cause of our
present distress. If they were removed, we are
well aware that other causes for privation and dis-
tress would then present themselves, which we must
next remove. But the Corn-laws, as the mos,
prominent, immediate, and ruinous, require to be
first repealed, and in that sense standing first, may
be justly described as the great cause of the national
*distress.

Some of the Tory Journals have recently quoted
with approbation a letter of Col. THOMPSON'S to
the Chartists of Leicester, and published it in the
Leicester Journal. With all the talent for which
the Gallant Officer is distinguished, and with all
the animosity he feels—from perhaps a good per-

sonal reason—to the Whigs, he attacks them with
great vehemence, and recommends the Chartists to
join, at the elections, with either Whigs or Tories,
who will contribute to elect Chartists. We doubt

the morality and the policy of the Radicals or the
Chartists, udder any circumstances, or for any pur-
pose, uniting with the Tories, to whom they are di-
rectly opposed, and who are their decided enemies.
W hat the people want, is not so much votes in the
House of Commons, as good laws, and they will
injure themselves more by a sacrifice of principle in
voting for a Tory than they will gain by placing a
Radical in the House of Commons, though he be
as undeniably a man of great talents as Colonel
; THOMPSON. Such advice, leading the Chartists
to support those who pant for an opportunity to
crush them, is to us inexplicable on any other prin-
ciple than that we recently quoted from the
Northern Liberator, the principle of hastening on
evil as the road to amendment.
As the Tory Journals, quote and praise Colonel
THOMPSON'S letter, the Tories must be willing to
accept the proferred alliance. They have been for

some time cajoling the Chartists, and making tools
of them to elevate the Tories to political power.
The Chartists and the Whigs have been brought
into collision by the accident of the latter having to
administer Tory laws ; but the Tories are by nature
and principle the decided enemies of the rights of
the people, and must and would use the political
power Colonel THOMPSON is willing to assist them
in getting to crush the Chartists. After the Whigs
were turned out, the Tories and the Chartists
would fight, and the former would not be weakened
by the office to which the duped Chartists might
help to raise them.

If the Chartists would act foolisly by forming
such an alliance, what would the Tories do ? Act
criminally on their own principles. They reproach
the Liberals or Radicals of the House of Com-
mons for sacrificing their principles to support
the Whigs ; but the Whigs and Radicals profess
similar principles, and go the same road, though
the latter wish to go faster and further than the
former. The Chartists and the Tories, however,
are opposite poles of politics. They go in different
directions. Between them there is nothing but
repulsion. They have nothing in common. An
alliance between them is an alliance of deadly
foes to give a triumph to the Tories and
injure the Whigs, who have done much, it
not as much as we wish, to promote reform.
In fact, we have frequently reproached the
Ministers for not going far enough ; but, holding
many principles in common, we cannot forsake
them, and forsake our own principles, in order to
spite them, and place their enemies and our ene-
mies in office. We agree with the Scotsman, and
support the Ministers on the ground which that
Journal states in the following passage :
It is absurd to expect that men encumbered with the
responsibilities of office, and obliged to govern for all
par, ties should act at once upon the views of Reformers
out of doors, or attempt to force any great measure
upon the Legislature, until it has acquired a strong
basis in public opinion. For example, the Bollot and
the repeal of the Corn-laws—measures which we, in
common with a large and increosing number of Reform-
ers, regard as important—are as yet in a state of pro-
gression, and, resisted as they at present are by Tories
and Chartists, as well as by many Refoimers in the
middle ranks, the Ministry could not stake their ex-
istence on them without in fact betraying the country
into the hands of the Tories. Although, therefore, we
differ from Ministers on many points —although we ad-
vocate larger measures of reform, in the hope that these
will eventually gain ground and triumph, we should cer-
tainly deem it the height of absurdity to withhold our
support from men who move at least in the right di-
rection, and who on certain questions have shown
themselves in advance of the people. How ruinous
would it be to the Liberal party to reject the co-ope-
ration of all who, in their T
views of reform, happen to
fall short of a precise point . With regard to Lord
wJobhonmßwue ssselbl
ou ld himself,
h avewe
emeuns
moret say thereproud areto honour
the manner proposed,
Reformersandb we
, e are sure that this feeling
oenrn
men
i
is participated in by
1
as well as the part
enerally. His exer-
tions in abolishing the vile Test
Acts, and in carrying
that great measure of reform which,
with all its defects,
is still a mighty boon to the people,
he has taken in almost every
question where any im-
portant principle has been involved,
have rendered his
country,
name illustrious among the benefactors
of
It will be a :no uru fu I day for the friends
ofhis freedom
when services like his cease to be appreciated

The article of M. MIGNET, the historian on
Eastern questerti, pulilibhed iu the Revue de,