The Sun.
London, England, 1841-10-18 00:00:00

r,e.yr;it

LONDON:
MONDAY, OCTOBER 18, 1841.

We copy from the Spectator an article on the
Census of 1841,-which shows that there has been
decrease in the agricultural or rural population
since 1831 of 72;i per cent., and an increase in the
town or manufacturing population of 1-2 per cent.
It follows, according to our Contemporary, that
the increase of the town or manufacturing popu-
lation has been caused by families and parts of
families moving from the agricultural districts to
find employment and a living in the town dis-
tricts• In fact, as every one knows, this iScontinu-
ally occurring, and the majority of rural families
send One or more of their members as clerks
• ,
merchants, attorneys, porters, or servants, accord-
ing to their rank, to ake their fortunes or find a
subsistence in towns. Some few persons who make
fortunes in trade or manufactures retire to the
country ; but the number is very small compared
to those who in the m2rning of life leave the
country for the town. To stop up the channels of
trade, to impede the growth of manufactures, to
limit the employment and the means of subsist-
ence is, our Contemporaryconcludes, to keep
down the people to a limited number by starving
them.
In that conclusion we entirely agree, and it is
one to which we have already and very frequently'
directed attention. We have
withoutso,
Bare this shesi-
tation, stigmatized the lacis
fect as murderous or very criminal laws. Those IN ho
are at all acquainted with what has been said by
our ablest political writers on the subject, must
be aware that to curtail the means nrem„,
k-oying,
feeding, and increasing the population, is really
to inflict on society "all the ills that flesh is
heir to." To allude t? them all we must draw
up a dismal catalogue, that would only terrify
the reader, and even bring political science into
discredit, because that power which the human
being has of adapting himself, even to artificial
circumstances, and almost of educing good from
evil, serves at all times to correct the errors and
blunders of statesmen, and palliates the mighty
injustice they inflict on the people. There is,
however, one principle which, from its effects
In corrupting the mind, deserves to be briefly
adverted to.

Why do we look for generous and noble deeds
to the upper, or gentlemanly classes, and "J.' I.
8
any
thing mean or pitiful doubly
]mean and P:tl-
f"l when practised by one of them ? Clearly
because they are abundantly- supplied, and comparativelyl!rt-
at their ease. Why, again,
do excuse, so far as we can excuse
them, m
--eaHness,
takiness, pettyfogging, overreaching, or
ng Petty advantages, and all the low and
sordid. pursuits of hucksters, pedlars, and such
fort of persons? Because they are poor, and plead
the necessities of their condition. Prosperity or
affluence is that condition of individuals and
of society from Which the generous and en-
nobling virtues spring ; while want, or compara-
tive destitution, or the apprehension of want, is
the parent of hard-heartedness, meanness, and
low, despicable vice. From
distress, flow a whole catalogue of crimes. All
see prosperit before them, are
y
classes, as they
filled with hope, cheerfulness, kindness, and ge-

It has been our frequent business to call atten-
tion to the existence of such laws, and when we
add thereto the many other causes which exist
in our institutions for corrupting the heart of
man, we see with admiration and wonder that
society is still lleM together, and the busy hum
of our congregated and. most ingenious, orderly,
and quiet millions still prevails, instead of Eng--
land being a wilderness resounding only to the
war-whoop of the wild man. We have a Legis-
lature which claims obedience on the pretence
of protecting the people, and cares only for en-
riching the aristocracy or securing the wealth of
the parsons. We have a Church which preaches
doctrines that it never practises. The Legisla-
ture and the priesthood combined act on the
principles of rapacity and hypocrisy. Fortu-
nately their power is not equal to their wishes,
or, following their example, all honesty would be
extinguished.

In a book just published, entitled " A Plea for
Imprisoned," grounded upon extracts from
the Prison Reports,* we find such cases as these :
" In a dark cell, at Ipswich. I found a prisoner lying
upon the floor, who had been there for several days upon
bread and water. His offence was for making a noise
in the night. For that the turnkey had verbal orders
to put him into the refractory cell, and there he was
placed. In the same prison I found seven youths in so-
litary confinement, who had been committed for refrac-
tory conduct in a union workhouse. They were first
placed upon bread and water, but since they have been
allowed a quart of gruel in addition. They had no
books, and they never had been visited by chaplain or
surgeon. One of them was sentenced to four months'
(120 days and nights) solitary imprisonment ; another
to two months ; and another had been confined for seven
weeks. The sum of their offence was refractory conduct
in a workhouse."

What a horrible punishment for such an of-
fence. Why, a murderer could scarcely be
doomed to anything worse than four months' so-
litary imprisonment. Talk of the crimes of the
people, what are they to the deliberate crimes of
the State ? The man was relieved cf half his
punishment by the accidental arrival of the In-
spector. " The poor clown was in fact shut up
for only 49 days, without human intercourse,
without the access of the surgeon for his bodily
ails, or chaplain for his imbruted mind." A book
was published some time back, called the
" Crimes of the Law," but it will he very in-
complete if it do not also give us the crimes of
the Al agistrates, the crimes of the Legislature,
and the crimes of the Priesthood. The misfor-
tune is, that these classes think themselves the
standards of right and wrong, each in his sphere,
and that what they decree and what they do
is necessarily just and perfect. Hence their ar-
rogance is unbounded, and without a blush or a
doubt they perpetrate, as we have shown, almost
unbounded mischief.

Published by Mitchell, Bond-street.

The Mooning Post of Saturday admitted that
there are many alarming symptoms in the social
condition of Great Britain. "It is fearful," said
our Contemporary, " to behold an enormous mass
of people whose means of existence are scanty or
precarious, and who have thrown (Wall restraint
of reverence for that which is placed above
them." It is of some consequence, too, that
the Tories have opened their eyes to the
fearful condition of society ; and to make
them still more aware of this fearful condition,
we must direct their attention to the excellent
paper in another part of The Sun, signed "J. W.
MAssm." It will perhaps astonish them to learn
that the youth in the manufacturing districts
have in several cases only been prevented from
forming themselves into bands of robbers, and
taking what they want—as the landowners take
away the property of other men without having dis-
tress to plead—by the entreaties, remonstrances,
and prayers of their seniors. It is not,. however,
to be expected that the seniors will long be obeyed,
if distress continues; and those who rely ex-
elusively on a police to keep order and protect
property will find that they labour under a great
mistake.. When hacked by the great majority
of the population the police is an efficient force, I
bUt it will avail nothing against a hostile and
starving multitude.

As the Tories have found out that society is in
an alarming condition, it may be expected
that they should propose a remedy. The
Post accordingly suggests more Church. It
differs entirely from the Norwich people, and
asserts that fewer pigs and more parsons would
heal our disorders. The remedy recommended
by the Post has been tried so often, and failed,
that we should be inclined to try the opposite
method7-diminish the parsons and increase the
pigs. It is quite certain that, since the Ministry
of Mr. PERCIVAL, the Church has been the fa-
voured protegee of the State. She has had
everything she has asked for. Great grants of
money, and laws to put down her opponents. She
has been almost mistress of the State. The result is a
condition of society which even the Post feels
to he alarming. The Church has been amply
tried, and the disease increases; it is only reason-
able, therefore, to try another renzedy. By
more pigs the Norwich man meant food, pork
being Mr. HEWETT'S favourite dish; and we
seriously recommend, as the cure for the pre-sent
alarming condition of society, an increase of food.

We have more confidence in the legislative:
wisdom of Mr. HEWETT and his like, touching
food, than in the Earl of RIPON. The mob broke
into that Nobleman's usidence in 1815 because he
was the active man in passing the Corn-law. The
mob resisted the passing of that law to the best of
their ability, though their means of resistance
were uncouth.
,Now, at present, there is scarcely
an impartial man in the empire who will not
admit that the mob in 1815 were much wisAr
than the Earl of RIPON, and that, had their ad-:
vice been followed instead of his, the country
would have been spared the calamities which the
continuance, of Corn-laws for twenty-six years
has caused.

But when the masses see this ignorance in the
law-makers, when they see the law-makers sub-
jected to the common passions of our nature,
and acting from the meanest and most despicable
motives,—when they see them guilty of the
grossest oppression, how can the masses continue
to reverence those above them ? The Post implies
that the people alone are to Llame for having
cast off the restraint of reverence ; but may it not
also be the case that those above them no longer
deserve reverence? The nobility were the leaders,
the priests were the teachers of society; but now
they neither lead nor teach the people, they only
vex and oppress them. Let the nobility and the
priesthood again resume their ancient duties, be
again the guides and instructors of the people,
if that be possible, and the people will reverence
them quite as much as they deserve.

The Paris Journals of Friday and Saturday
hu~e all n received. In Friday's Moniteur,
the find the ibllowing tqlegraphic despatches
with news from the Spanish frontier:—

TouLoN, OcT. 12.7-The Maritime Prefect to th
Minister of the Interior.—A reaction has manif"st:l
itself in Barcelona; the Ayuntamiento and the Pro-
vincial Deputation have taken possession of power. The
Captain of the Mel6.agre has sent for the Cerf, which is
at Port Vendres, to assist him in receiving the nume-
rous unhappy persons who take shelter under the French

flag. _
PERPIGNAN, OCT. 12.—The Prefect of the Eastern
Pyrennees to the Minister of the Interior.—On the 9th
inst., at Barcelona, at the departure of the diligence, the
National Guard under arms demanded arrests and the
do
Manylitiono
f the citadel. It expressed a distrust of the
troops. arrests have taken place.
PERISIGNAN, OCT. 13.—The General commanding
the, 21st Military Division to the Minister of War.—The
c
stitutionnd of Barcelona of the 11th inst. announces
the departure of Van Haien for Arragon, and his being
replaced, ad interim, by General Zabala. The Junta of

nerosity, while the reverse dispositions are the •
consequence of the apprehension of sinking in►
the scale of society, or of falling' into poverty.
As the one or the other disposition prevails,
there will be general happiness or general
misery. A law, consequently, or a series of
laws, which limit the resources of the com-
munity, and keep all classes, or the great.
majority of the industrious classes, in a/on-
tinaal state of apprehension, fearing for their
fortunes, or fearing for their subsistence, tends
to con-upt the heart of man, and make him prac7
tice, though he can never prefer, mean vies
ii#tead of generous and noble virtues.