The Sun.
London, England, 1841-12-25 00:00:00

SPIRIT of the PUBLIC JOURNALS.
FROM THE EVENING PAPERS OF YESTERDAY.
GLOBE.—The Chronicle of this mornieg observes,
We confess it gives us pain to see a respectable
Paper like the Herald pointing out two distinguished
individuals—the one almost by name, the other by cir-
cumstances which could hardly be misunderstood—as
implicated in the Exchequer bill fraud. The Globe of
Wednesday observed, 'the matter cannot now be left where
it is; and our Contemporary, the Herald, if it does possess
the names of the parties pointed at, is bound to give
them to the public without hesitation or ceremony, no
natter who or what the parties may be.' From an
article in the Herald of yesterday, it appears to us that
that paper has only gone too far already.' We are
much of the same way of thinking upon this point
as our Morning Contemporary. As, however, our
previous remark may be liable to some misconstruc-
tion, we may perhaps as well state somewhat more
at length our view of the duties of journalists, as
regards the propogation of reports of the above nature.
Whatever may be thought of the present state of the
I iw of libel, it does not appear to us that any iniquitous
quality which there may be in that law, affords the
,lightest apology for shrinking from supporting a
charge which has once been put forth in such a man-
ler as to point evidently at individuals. The law of
ibel may furnish very good reasons for abstaining from
ndividual illusions ; and indeed, independently of the
law of libel, we think such allusions should never be
published on no better authority than mere unsup-
ported rumour. It is, indeed, said that journalists
alto happen to ob'ain early information of whatever re-
ports are abroad, must not be withheld from communi-
cating them. But this privilege evidently must have
its limits; for a mere flying verbal rumour acquires an
ulded appearance of authority from the " form and
iressure' of type, and circulation by a respectable news-
paper.
oTAND A RD.—We have copied from the Man-
chester Courier a long and very able article, exposing
most satisfactorily and most usefully the " enormous
.its" of "the League." There is one part of this
trtiele which we must acknowledge with gratitude,
and which we recommend earnestly to the public
attention. We allude to the passage in which
the Manchester writer demonstrates the necessary
antagonism between the particular interests of
the manufacturing class, and the interests of the na-
tion. Our excellent Contemporary quotes Adam
Smith in support of its proposition ; and Adam Smith,
.vho certainly was no enemy to manufactures, speaks
clearly aad strongly upon the point ; as our Con-
temporary truly retnat ks, more strongly than
even the Quarterly Review, the Standard, the
Morning Herald, or the Morning Post, or any
other of the defenders of the agricultural interest
has ever spoken. The truth is, that it has been the
giving too much weight to the representations of ma-
nufacturers that has led the national policy astray in
every instanee in which it has gone wrong. Take the
single case of Ireland. What is it that has con-
demned that important part of the United Kingdom
to poverty and ignorance, and all the melancholy con-
sequences of poverty and ignorance, during nearly
a century and a half? The destruction of her trade
and manufactures upon the suggestion and for the
benefit of the manufacturers of England. Had the
same pains been taken after the revolution of 1688
to foster and protect the trade of Ireland that was
taken to destroy it, that country would be now the
strength of the empire, instead of being confes-
sedly " the chief difficulty" of every administration.
Swift saw this, in a hundred places in his writings ;
he predicts the evil that England was preparing for
herself, by sacrificing the prosperity of Ireland to the
cupidity of English manufacturers. Swift, as zealous
a Protestant and as earnest a supporter of the British
connection as any of us, did not scruple to expose him-
self to obloquy and persecution as a Jacobite rebel, in
proclaiming the truth, that only by rendering justice to
tha industry of one division of the empire, could the
security of the whole be provided for.
COURIER.—The plan sketched by Mr. Christo-
pher, pretty plainly, we believe, indicates the principle
which Sir Robert means to adopt as the basis of his
new bill—namely, the reduction of the extremes of duty
within much narrower limits than the present scale allows,
and the fixing of a maximum and minimum amount. Mr.
Christopher considers the object of whatever alleviation
short of the present law, may be proposed, should be to
settle the price of wheat at some point between 565. and
655. per quarter ; and this he proposes to secure by a
minimum duty of ss. when the price reaches or exceeds
the latter limit ; and a maximum duty of 20s. when it
fells to or below the former limit—the intermediate
range being so gradually regulated as to discourage, if
not prevent, gambling speculation, and all those frauds
which disgrace the present system. A different mode
for taking the averages must, of course, be introduced
simultaneously with the proposed change in the duty-
scale. The great temptations to tamper with and fal-
sify the averages, as well as the facilities for doing so,
consist in the vast extent of the sliding scale as at pre-
sent constituted, ranging, as it does, from the absurd ex-
treme of 533. to Is., and from the abruptness of its de-
scent at that end where regular gradation is most neces-
sary. The fact of confining the range to the limits pro-
posed, would of itself have a most beneficial tendency
in repressing the falsification of the sales, now resorted
to, for " working up " the averages to the required
point, both by greatly diminishing the premium, and
enhancing the difficulty of the operation. Combine
this with an improved method for taking the averages,
and we have no doubt but that gambling in corn would
soon become a very profitless and troublesome game,
and consequently be abandoned for some other specu-
laion. It must be borne in mind, that Mr. Chris.
topher, on the occasion alluded to, has dis-
claimed all pretension to the character of
" a pilot balloon," wishing to be understood
as merely speaking his own sentiments. We hava
strong reasons for believing such to be the case,
and that whatever points of identity may be hereafter
found to exist between the Government measure and
that adumbrated in Mr. Christopher's address, will be
attributable not to any preconcerted arrangement be-
tween the parties, but to the fact of a coincidence of
opinion en a subject which has engaged the attention of
all enlightened men for some time past. For ourselves,
se have long laboured under the conviction that no
other mode for adjusting the question on a sure and
satisfactory basis was open to any Government, but by
contracting the range of the scale, and fixing at either
end a point of maximum or minimum duty. Such a
plan appeared to us to combine all the requisites and
desiderata of sound legislation, serving, as far as human
legislation can extend, to steady the prices of corn, and
in ruling the introduction of the foreign-raised article
on terms the reasonableness of which none could justly
object to.