The Sun.
London, England, 1841-05-21 00:00:00

FIELDEN making a complaint of want of order on the
part of the SPEAKER. The Hon. Member stated that his
motion to aljourn the debate on Lord J. RUSSELL'S re-
solution on Tuesday, was duly seconded, that he was
asked to withdraw it, but declined, and that the SPEAKER
ought to have put it.

The SPEAKER explained that he understood the mo-
tion was not seconded, and therefore he did not put it. Sir
LNGLIS confirmed the SPEAKER'S view. No doubt
the confusion was very great, and Mr. FIELDEN and the
House were satisfied by the explanation. The Hon.
Gentleman, however, amused the House by threatening
to print the speech which the House would not allow
him to speak. _ _ _

Then came the announcement which the crowd had
assembled to hear. The CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER
gave notice that he would on Monday move for a Com-
mittee of Ways and Means to grant the annual sugar
duties. We mentioned in our Evening Edition yesterday
that Ministers would probably do so, and we assured
them that doing so would be an unerring sign that
Ministers mean to dissolve the Parliament. What steps
the Tories will take we cannot tell, but we presume that
they will not oppose the passing of the Sugar Bill, or
venture to stop the supplies.
Lord JOHN RUSSELL then, in the midst of the most
profound silence, moved that the House do adjourn to
Monday, and, saying nothing more, the astonishment was
great, till it _dissipated itself in laughter and cheers.
In reply to the Earl of DARLINGTON the Noble Lord
announced that he would bring forward the Corn-law
question on the 4th of June.
Lord G. LENNOX gave rise to a brief discussion, by
moving for a Committee of the whole House, to take
into consideration so much of the Report of the Naval
and Military Commission as relates to the Marines;
but being assured by Sir H. VIVIAN that the Govern-
ment was anxious to do all in its power for that gallant
corps, and several other Honourable Members hav-
ing spoken in praise of it, the Noble Lord with-
drew his motion. The principal subject of his com-
plaint was that the officers of Marines were not placed
on a level with the officers of the other services.

Some motions that are briefly mentioned in the de-
bates having been disposed of, and the Vaccination Bill
having gone through Committee, the House adjourned
till Monday.

The question of a dissolution naturally occupies
public attention. The Whigs cannot now do
otherwise than dissolve. The public expects that
of them. They would disappoint their friends
and destroy their own character were they to
take any other course. They have thrown the
gauntlet to the monopolists, the monopolists have
taken it up, and the Whigs cannot run from the
lists without being for ever stigmatised as cravens.
After the announcement of last night, however,
there is no fear but they will appeal to the
people, and make them the judges of one of
the greatest questions that ever men had to de-
cide. The period of the dissolution is not fixed,
though it cannot be far off; but a dissolution is
unalterably decreed.
The Tories object that it is unconstitutional for
a Ministry to appeal from a Parliament which
has been called under its auspices, and should it
do so they threaten it with punishment. The pub-
lic, not the Tories, will decide the propriety of the
dissolution, as well as the question of monopoly
or no monopoly, and we have a firm faith in the
justice of its decision. Circumstances dictated all
constitutions, and must now, as at first, overrule
all human laws. The course of nature is not
suspended by our artificial regulations, and they
must give way to it. The men of the present
age have not forfeited or given up their right to
judge and to act as circumstances dictate; and
they have all the powers and. privileges of their
ancestors. If an act were unconstitutional, i. e.
contrary to what those ancestors did, and circum-
stances commanded it, that act would be fully
justified. While we deny that the proposed dis-
solution is in any respect or degree unconstitu-
tional, we contend that circumstances justify lt,
and that the Ministers would not be true, either
to her MAJESTY or the people, were they not to
dissolve the Parliament.

Since the present Parliament was called to-
gether an entirely new set of circumstances
have grown up, and now divide the different par-
ties. In 1837 the Corn-law agitation was un-
known. A series of somewhat abundant seasons
then gave the people, previously starved clown
to the capabilities of the narrow skill and t
mited capital of the agriculturists, plenty o
food. The high prices, the dearth of 1838 and
1839, which is the real source of Corn-law agita-
tion, had not then come into existence: The
present Parliament was consequently elected
without any reference to the retention or the
abolition of the Corn-laws, now the corner-stone
of party policy. Is it proper that so important
a question should be settled by a Parliament
summoned without any reference to it, and,
therefore, not representing the opinions or the
interests of the contending parties on that ques-
tion, which is one of life or death to multitudes?

Again, the price of sugar only rose so inordi-
nately as to check consumption, and impede the
expected increase in the revenue, within the last
three years. That circumstance has forced the
Ministers to propose a reduction of the discrimi-
nating duty on sugar, which keeps the supply
short, and their proposition has brought before
the public an entirely new view of the discrimi-
nating duty. It was laid on years ago, for the
conunercial purpose exclusively of giving an ad-
vantage to the slave-grown sugar of our colonies
in our market. But since that time slavery has
been abolished in them, and the purely commer-
cial or fiscal duty has been clothed in the at-
tributes of pure morality. In consequence
of the people of England having purchased the
redemption of slaves in our own colonies, it has
become an incidental effect of the discriminat-
ing duty that it is supposed, not only to encourage
the consumption of sugar grown in English colo-
nies, but to discourage the growth of sugar by
slave labour. The reduction of the discriminat
ing duty is now resisted, therefore, because it will
encourage the slave trade. At the time the pre-
sent Parliament was assembled, slavery, under
the attenuated form of apprenticeship, still ex-
isted in our own colonies, and, consequently, the
very important question on which the Ministry has
been defeated was then totally unknown. It is
right, therefore, before the Ministry give up,
that it should learn what the electors think of
this novel idea of limiting the food of the people
of England, fur sugar is food, in order, as is sup-
posed, to sappress slavery and the slave trade.
We do not say much of the Timber Duties,
because they are more a question of a mere fiscal
nature, and they had been discussed in all their
present bearings, before the existing Parliament
was assembled. They are of great importance
to our shipping interests, and our manufacturers;
an alteration in them is required by the wants of
commerce, and the principles of civilization. At
the same time they du not affect so closely the
bulk of the people, nor stand. on such high
grounds of moral principle as the Sugar and Le
Corn-laws.

new
n
One very important, and at tl
novel, feature connected with thesele same time
tions, is the great principle of monopoly, o-u •
or enso-
monopoly which they involve, and wilich is
now, perhaps, for the first time, mooted in Par-
liament by authority. The Ministers have been
compelled to moot that question by the march 01
events, including the recently discovered impos_
sibility for the industry of the nation to sustain
the Government, and at the same time to nourish
that large body of vampires which furtively suck
its blood. The conduct of Ministers, though
dictated by circumstances, has roused the whole
of the monopolists to unite in one body to op-
poc them. A totally new feature is now made ap-
parent, for members of the Legislature openly
and scandalously avow that they have used,
and will use, the power of making laws
to tax the people for their own benefit.
Whoever may be at the head of the Govern-
ment ought to ask the people whether they
sanction that new constitutional principle. Shall
legislation be based on a principle of avowed
plunder? That is so great a novelty in the his-
tory, not only of our own country, but of the
world, that any Ministry would deserve to be
impeached which should undertake the Govern-
mentaware of oi
until after the nation, having been made
fact, shall have resolved to be go-