The Sun.
London, England, 1841-07-05 00:00:00

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LONDON:
MONDAY, JULY 5, 1841

We direct the attention of our readers to the
excellent speech of Lord SYDENHAM, delivered
at the opening of the first Parliament of the
United Provinces of Upper and Lower Ca-
nada, which will be found in another part of
The Sun. It is the only important communica-
tion brought by the Great Western, which ar-
rived on Sunday night at Bristol.

Whatever may be the immediate result of the
elections, as to the House of Commons, immea-
surable good must ensue for the public. A most
important question of practical legislation was
the basis of the appeal made to the electoral
bodies. Heretofore they have been called upon
to decide some technical and unimportant point,
such as the invasion of the King's prerogative by
the House of Commons, some claim of a reli-
gious sect, such as that of the political supre-
macy of the Anglican priesthood, or some ques-
tion of constitutional doctrine, such as the right
of representation, which was never carried out
in practice. But now they have been summoned
by the Qu EEN'S Government to consider whether
or not they will submit to be taxed for the be-
nefit of individuals and classes. The State is
costly, and weighs heavily on the people. They
can bear the burdens imposed on them no longer.
It has become with them a question whether the
State, which has to be sustained by enormotis
taxation, be worth the immense sum it costs.
Those who administer the State declare that a
large portion of these burdens—now so much
complained of—is not levied for the State, but,
by it authority, and under the cover of its name,
for the benefit of individuals and classes. On
this practical question, then, whether the people
will submit to be taxed for the benefit of some
cla,seS as well as for the service of the State, an
appeal has been made to the public.
This question is, as it were, new to the bulk of
• the peo not before been told people. They have by
authority that the Legislature taxes them both
for the general benefit and to promote particular
interests at the expense of the general good. They
-have not before been solemnly informed that the
Legislature has made, -and now upholds, laws to
plunder some for the benefit of others. They
hive not before had the whole system of legisla-
lation decried by competent aufirority. They
are now, however, solemnly assured by the Exe-
cutive'Government that the Legislature, forget-
ting its high functions, forgetting all its duties to
the people, has passed laws to tax them, in order
to enrich Its own members and their friends.
They hare been told this, too, at a time when
they feel very sorely the preslure of the taxes
on them; and thus one of the most important
questions of Government is thrown to them for
decision, connected with their immediate in-
terests. They are informed in the same sentence
that the Legillature has not merited their confi-
dence, and that they may have a cheap abund-
ance of all the good things of life by overruling
its unjust decrees.

109 true that this question has not been placed
very clearly and precisely before the public. The
dentinciation of past legislation is clear enough ;
but the mode of ► elief in future is much obscured
by the proposition to repeat in another form the
injustice which is denounced. But that will be
cleared up by the ensuing debates in the House of
Commons. Whether Mr. COBDEN, Mr. ROEBUCK,
Mr.Vimanns,and other gentlemen who entertain
similar opinions, be on the Ministerial or Oppo-
sition sides of the House, they will be sure to
inform the public that it is absurd to take a great
deal of trouble and rains merely to change the
name and form of our burdens. Profiting by
the admission that the present monopolist taxes
are most unjust and most injurious, they will
.N inilke RA: Wrest that to continue em in any
shape' •orf. • is equally injurious and u, just ;
anzi;supportq. by the public, whose interest is
deep)y concerned, they will be: able to bring into
complete disrepute all taxes levied, not for the
State, but for the purpose of enriching one clans
at the expense of the public.
•
In the approaching Parliament these gentle.

_
men will form, we presume, a class apart, as
they have a special mission. It will be their !
great business to bring forward on all ccasions
the doctrine that the people ought only to be
taxed for the service of the State, and to prove
that they are now heavily taxed for the bene-
fit of individuals. They will expound and.
defend the doctrines of free trade, and
make the public familiar with them.
Whatever others may do, they will steadily
and perseveringly promote the abolition of the
Corn-laws. Now, sending into the House of
Commons a body of men pledged to these
principles, and bound to take every opportunity
to enforce them, together with the admission, by
the highest authority, that the present system is
erroneous and unjust, seem to us great gains for
the popular cause. Suppose Sir ROBERT PEEL
be Prime Minister, he cannot wipe out of the
public mind the knowledge that has now been
implanted in it. He cannot prevent those gen-
tlemen from increasing and enforcing that know,
ledge, and he cannot, therefore, prevent that
progress which must soon turn him out, with the
whole crew of monopolists, or compel them, as
they have before been compelled, to eat the dirt
they have of late vomited at Tamworth and else-
where, which their scribes call political wisdom.

The owners ofrent are graciously pleased to pro-
pose a small abatement in their tax on our bread.
One of them—who make the laws in his own
person in the Upper House of Parliament, and
influences his tax collectors, the farmers, to re-
turn the Members of the other—Lord WIL-
LOUGHBY DE ERESBY—has proposed a new scheme
for altering the present duties, by which he is
willing to remit' a small portion of the rent-
owners' plunder. Whereas the duty is now,
when wheat is 60s. per quarter, 265. Bd., this
Lord proposes to make it 20s. Bd., and to let in
wheat, duty free, when the price is above 70s.
We are grateful for his condescension in consi-
dering his slaves, and we are pleased to find
even the bread-taxers themselves suggesting al-
terations in their taxes. Their misgivings of its
justice warrants the heavier charges which
honest men, who do not profit by it, bring
against it.
The ground on which Lord WILLOUGHBY DE
ERESBY proposes this alteration is as follows :
I think that a fair remunerating price to the agricul-
turist would be, for wheat 58s. per quarter, barley 325.,
and for oats 245. From the best information I have
been able to obtain, foreign wheat, including all ex-
penses of freight, &c., can be purchased in England, in
years of average produce, at 365. a quarter, barley at
235., and oats at 18s. You will see by the scale, that
the duty added to these prices will make up the prices
which will, I consider, afbard a fair, but by no means a
large, profit to the agriculturist.
Now, we beg the people of England calmly,
but duly, to consider the basis here laid down
for legislation. " from the best information I
am able to obtain," says this law-maker, "foreign
wheat can be purchased in England at 365. a
quarter." When a Noble legislator tells the
people of England that they are to be hanged
if they murder a fellow-creature, or transported
if they steal a purse, the people of England will
comprehend and approve of his law, because
they know, as well as he knows, that murder
and theft are crimes. But when he tells them
that they must pay a tax of 20s. a quarter on
wheat, because foreign wheat may be purchased
here for 365. a quarter, he speaks about what
they have no knowledge of whatever. They
know nothing of the price at which foreign
wheat may be on an average of years purchased in
England. He introduces, therefore, an element
into his legislation of which the bulk of the
people can have no cognizance, and, as far as
they are concerned, he might as well say the
selling price will be 205., and the duty ought,
therefore, to be 365., as what he does say. In-
dependently of all other considerations, we pre-
sume to assert that this assumption on the part
of Lord WILLOUGIIBY DE ERESBY and his fel-
lows, of a species of knowledge which the bulk
of the people cannot possess, as the basis of a
most important law affecting their subsistence,
vitiates such a law from beginning to end.
But what does lie himself know about the
average price of foreign wheat? Mind he and
the other bread-taxers do not make his law for
the ten or twenty years which are passed ; they
are beyond his reach. He makes it to rule over
the destinies of England during the next ten or
twenty years. If he were to say that the sun
has risen at six o'clock on the 21st of September
for the last few years, and will rise at six o'clock
on the 21st of September for the next few years,
let us make some law regulating our calendar,
on that principle we should make no objection.
There is certainty in that. But on what ground
does he or any man presume to conclude, be-
cause foreign wheat, as he says, may have been
purchaseable in England at 365. per quarter for
the last ten years, that it will be at the same
price on an average of the next ten years? We
boldly affirm that there lives no human being
who possesses the least data for coming to such
a conclusion, and that a law based on such an
assumption, rests solely on the avarice and fear-
born fancies of such rent-owners and bread-
taxers as Lord WILLOUGHBY DE ERESBY.

Mark the term foreign wheat. That means all
the wheat grown out of England. Is it possible
for this Lord, however wise he may be, or all the
Lords of the Empire, to know or to guess all
the circumstances which may affect the prices of
foreign wheat? Can he tell what will be the
price of wheat, brought from the borders of the
Mississippi, and landed at Liverpool, ten years
hence ? Calk he, or any other Lord or Lordling,
assure this great and starving community, that
within that period there will not be as great a
fall in the price of wheat as there has
been, within a few years, in the price of
silk and cotton ? Does he know, or does
any man know, that the extension of ma-
nufactures on the Continent—to supply the
place of the relinquished English manufactures,
perishing in our submerged towns and razed
cities, as they are destroyed by Tory.
legislation—will not raise the price of wheat
there higher than it will then be in England?
tide say that no man, either here or abroad, can
tell what effect- the growth of population
and the extension of manufactures on the
one hand, and the increase of knowledge
and skill on the other, will have on the price of
foreign wheat during the next ten or twenty
years ; and that to make a law for either of those
periods on an assumption
h
chaseable in England ttli
ra i t may
ot
tcgh
that
period be im
ar-t
365., is one of the wildest and most visionary as-
sumptions for the basis of such an all import-
ant enactment that ever entered the head of
lrialtl, n enough to be plundered; but
who bad
opdlunder us not at the same time
ilnestulht those
and mock us, by such an extravagant and
ridiculous assumption of a knowledge it is not
given to man to possess.
This sapient legislator—and he is as good as
most of his tribe--after he has sketched out this
airy basis for a slight modification in his starva-
tion law, proceeds to exemplify his sense of jus-
tice, and of what is due to the millions who are
neither manufacturers nor landlords, in the fol-
lowing passage
In considering the protection which is thus proposed
to be given to the agriculturist, it is requisite to take into
any. calculation to be made on the subject, that
on on all
agricultural produce, except corn, the protec given
by 4 duties payable on the importation of such
articles does not exceed 14 per cent., whilst the
protection given by the present duties on the importation
of thirty-eight manufactured articles, according to the
annexed table, averages about 42 per cent. ; and it will
be found that if the whole of the protecting duties
given to the agricultural products is calculated accord-
ing to the usual mode of cultivation adopted, and by
w„„312 a corn crop can only be obtained every second
year, on the -,;s:ry best land, that the average of the agri-
cultural duties will "mount to more than 40 per
"ry of " No mo-
cent. How senseless, then, is tut:
nopoly."

so, because the Legislature has passed, in gross
ignorance, at some time or other, a series of
foolish laws to protect some manufacturers, this
legislator jumps to the conclusion that he must
make and support a law to tax the bread of all
the people, whether they are manufacturers of

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