The Sun.
London, England, 1841-12-24 00:00:00

LONDON:
FRIDAY, DECEMBER 24, 1841.

We drew attention yesterday to the fact that
the law, by being perverted to be an instrument
of injustice, is losing its authority over the minds
of the manuthcturers. Mr. BRIGIIT, of Roch-
dale, openly defended the violation of the law.
Now, while the sufferers in the North are be-
ginning to find out that we have many bad laws
which ought to be disregarded, writers in the
South are observing that many, and the most
important part of society, spring, up and flourish
without any laws at all. On the one hand many►
laws are denounced as bad, on the other the ne-
cessity even for good laws is practically denied.
The Nonconformist on Wednesday said—

To the efficacy of what enactment recorded in, the
Statute-book are we to trace that deep concern to vitalise
religion which, just a century ago, startled and terrified
a sleeping establishment ? The myriads of Sunday-
schools which, if they do nothing more, scratch up the
surface of a virgin soil before trampled down and neg-
lected, rendering it capable of receiving some of the
seeds of truth—what legal authority coerced them into
being ? Chapels, which though too few for the wants
of our British population, arc yet, taken in the gross, a
vast number. By what tax was the amount produced,
necessary to defray the expenses of their erection ? And
the ten thousand ministers of various denominations,
who nroclaim week by week their several views of re-
velation and its bearing upon the duties and destiny of
mankind. Llow do they find support ? What !is all
this to be regarded as pure unmixed evil and absurdity,
because, forsooth, they who have done these things did
them of their own mind, and were not compelled thereto
by Act of Parliament ? They are egregious triflers who
say this ; fops,who have yet to learn that there is within
man's heart a power which, when evoked by religion,
beggars their own parchment-begotten power, as the will
which moves the muscle of the living man does the gal-
vanism which convulses that of the dead one.
The whole of Dissent, with its almost countless
schools and meeting-houses, and its infinite ad-
vantages,
has not only come unbidden and un-
regulated into existence, but has grown and flou-
rished greatly to the advantage of society, in
spite of law and legislators. The same obserta-
tion is strictly true of the Press, the great utility
of which to society, though it has been thwarted
by meddling lawyers and
in every possible way,
ignorant cduntry gentlemen, was Yesterday thus
happily described by the Times:—
Liberty of speech on these (national) subjects .15 the
essential characteristic of a free country._ and. to have a
press above the, reach of corruption which uses that
liberty, is the greatest possible sdlegua rod against the dis-
honesty or the incapacity of those
by irbont it is
ii and the
ggolviersnueet
Public opinion, speaking unreservedly.yyitr:
i
organs, is the life and soul of responsil 11j
light which is thus poured in upon the machinery of
every department of civil and military administration is
a surer antidote to abuse than a thousand Reform Bs.
We are apt to congratulate ourselves upon those me-
chanical improvements which have enabled a man to
breakfast at London and dine in Liverpool, and cross the
Atlantic in a fortnight. We perceive the multiplication
of points of contact between man and man which is thus
occasioned, and the vast increase of power and other ad-
vantages which are brought in consequence into the com-
mon stock. But it requires not much reflection to show that
the change effected in the constitution of the political
world through the instrumentality of public journal',
fearless except for their reputation, and provided with
organised resources like those at our own command, is
not less avonderffil, nor the results less salutary to man-
kind. Opinion has acquired, through these means, not
only new powers of expression, but unlimited opportu-
nities of information. The statesman or the private
citizen, without leaving his home, is enabled to see what
passes all over the world. Ile is at once in London and
in New York, at Canton, at Warsaw, and Constanti-
nople. No agent or oiticer, either of this or of any
forcign ro,-,wer, can carry on an operation or course of
comhtet ain:ctiro- the public interests in secret ; and the
consequf,nee is, that the representatives of this and other
countries act as in the face of day, with the tear of a
searching and univileail criticism beiiwe their eves.
This is the system— this admirable and useful ma-
chinery fur the circulation of that moral power which
ree;ulates the pulses of the world, but admirable and use-
ful only when left to its own natural and unimpeded
movements—this it is which an attempt was made to
crush in our persons by the trial which took place on
Tuesday last.

This all-important part of society, which keeps
dishonest governers in order, which is the life
and soul of responsibility, which is the surest
antidote to abuse, which gives a man übiquity,
and places him at once in London and in New
York, at Canton, at Warsaw, and at Constan-
from owing anything to legislation,
tinople, far
has only to complain of its absurd and cruel

trammels. The article from which we have
quoted the above passage was written to demand
an improvement in the Libel-law, which exposes
the conductors and proprietors of the Press to be
severely mulcted and imprisoned for performing
those important and essential duties which the
Times describes. " It is," said our Contempo-
rary, " a disgrace to a free country, that, for
stating plain facts, and offering temperate re-
monstrance, the conductors of the Press should
be liable to that species of legal annoyance and
persecution to which we have been subjected."
All that law and legislation have done for the
Press is to degrade, by its penal laws, one of
the most useful occupations of society, and to
make the performance of its essential duties irk-
some and dangerous.

When we have convincing evidence on the one
hand that some laws, like the Corn and Provision-
laws, inflict indescribable mischief on society, and
proofs, on the other, that some of the most im-
portant parts or limbs of society flourish with-
out any laws, at least we may demand of the
gentlemen who are soon to assemble at West-
minster—and we go no further—that they should
be extremely cautious not to inflict new and un-
necessary enactments on society. To repeal
laws is, in the majority of cases, to remove res-
trictions and restore society to the healthy in-
fluence of the natural laws, which regulate its
birth and its growth. Like removing ligatures
from the body, the abolition of bad laws allows
every limb of society to assume its proper form.
They mean, it is said, to propose some modifica-
tion of the Corn-laws; let them learn a little mo-
desty and a little forbearance by the humi-
liating confession of failure, which such a proposi-
tion implies.
There is no reason to apprehend that they
will be over-modest. Our selfish and incorri-
gible Corn-law-makers are not to be daunted by
any failure, and seem only to be stimulated by the
confession of blunders to blunder anew.
Mr. CHRISTOPHER, for example, while he ad-
mitted that "it is impossible for human inge-
nuity to devise any system that shall regulate
the price of corn, because the farmer is obliged
to cultivate the land at certain seasons, and it is
only in the hand of the Almighty Power that
guides the whirlwind and directs the storm to
decide whether we shall have a good harvest or
a bad one." Yet he proposes to regulate this
price which cannot be regulated, and to fix the
price of corn as nearly as possible between 565.
and 655. It makes the heart sink to know that
such inconsistent, meddling, selfish men have
the regulation of public affairs, and the making-
of laws for society, of the immense phenomena
of which their minds do not take in one thou-
sandth part.
Thus Mr. CHRISTOPHER presumes to found an
argument in favour of plundering the people, on
the asserted fact that the price of wheat has
varied less in England than in all the countries
of Europe, since 1815, except Sweden. In them,
however, communication is difficult, and the
peculiarities of one province cannot correct those
of another; while in England communication is
very much facilitated, and there is little differ-
ence of price between Brighton and Inverness.
Everybody knows, too, that wheat is the staple
food of England, and rye of most of the other
countries which Mr.CHRISTOPHER enumerates. In
them wheat is more an article of commerce and
speculation than, as it is here, of general consump-
tion. Had Mr. CHRISTOPHER compared the
variations in the price of wheat in them to the
variations in the price of tallow here, he would
have made a fairer comparison. But that might
not have served his personal views, and to the
selfishness and ignorance of his class, truth, as
well as the public welfare, are sacrificed.

Our readers are aware that his Majesty of
HANOVER, whose dominions skirt one side of the
Elbe for a few miles, levies a heavy toll on all
ships and goods entering that great artery of
Northern Germany. As a justification of this
toll he neither keeps up lights, buoys, nor bea-
cons, nor in any way facilitates or improves the
river, the navigation of which is impeded by
banks which might be removed. He has no ex-
cuse nor pretext whatever for levying the toll,
except that it has been fbr many years sub-
mitted to.

Originally it was one of those tolls very nume-
rous on every river of Germany, which every
strong-handed robber-Baron, whose castle com-
manded a flowing stream, levied on those who
used the water. It was a tax or compensation
which they consented to pay to some robber,
rather than be stopped and rifled. Stade served
its original owners as such a castle, and far back
in the night of time some Sea King, having fixed
himself there, stopped all vessels entering the
Elbe and plundered them. To escape his depre-
dations they consented to pay something, and
that sort of exaction, under terror of being plun-
dered, has been continued by the successive
owners of Stade to this day.
Out of deference to the Elector of Hanover, as
long as he sat on our throne, Great Britain
submitted patiently to the extortion. When the
countries fell under different monarchs the Stade
dues were remonstrated against, but respect for
old usages forbad the Government putting an
end to the toll with a strong hand. Its vexa-
tions, therefore, were the subjects of a negotia-
tion which has now been several months in
progress.

Yesterday advices from Hamburgh informed
us, that new difficulties have arisen in the nego-
tiations between England and Hanover for the
reduction of the Stade dues: His Hanoverian
MAJESTY, it is said, is willing to decrease the
duties payable by the riverian states, but declines
to make any concession in favour of transmarine
countries; he will, in short, treat the impost
quoad the former as a river tax, and therefore
subject to the provisions of the treaty of Vienna;
while in reference to sea-borne commerce
his MAJESTY insists that it is a sea toll,
and consequently not cognisable under the treaty.
If this representation be correct, his Majesty of
HANOVER is resolved to defend his plunder by
a quibble, and the negotiator henceforth em-
ployed should be a man-of-war. Hanover has
no right whatever to this toll, except by our con-
sent, and the instant our consent is withdrawn
its right ceases. If it should levy the toll atter
a refusal and resistance, a vessel of war stationed
in the Elbe should secure its free passage to all
her MAJESTY'S vessels. It is unworthy of Great
Britain to meet such quibbling with any other
answer than a demand for the total abolition of
ioer:etol,l,,atalci is
nda positive refusal to pay it. Prince
ERNEsT relies, we presume, on his friends the
TEnglish persuaded that they will compel
merchants to submit to have a portion of
their property confiscated to swell his Exchequer.

A case which occurred yesterday in the Vice-
Chancellors' Court, illustrates the mode by which
the mistakes of professional men are made to
operate as a heavy tax on suitors. In the cause
t( Attorney-General vi
n.
at
abh
eee
toG
altered,trhe ee r
Courtlw Greenwich
It
an application was
gecisrtereait•othat he had writ-
tenßofaitlte,ay,,,
memory
It
voas allow
admitted
theo f aR de
down the words of the decree fromhad m
and that the Vice-Chancellor actually
used words which the Registrar had omitted.
They were of
great importance, for, as he had
stated them, they compelled the Attorney_
General to proceed by indictment, whereas
the words used left it optional with him so to
proceed. 'flue decree, as written and recorded,
was, in fact, different from the decree as pro-
nounced in Court; nevertheless, the application
to make the written record conform to the actual
decree was refused, because to rectify the ad-
mitted error " would establish a dangerous pre-
cedent." The Court could not possibly survive
the plan of correcting errors without additional
payment. The case must, therefore, be re-heard,
solicitors must be again employed, counsel again
feed, the clerks of the Courts even must be paid
again, because it would establish a dangerous
precedent in the Court of Chancery to do an act
of justice without making the clients pay for it !
Errors, it may be expected, will be in proportion

to Courts and causes, and thus, whether the new
Courts satisfy the suitors or not, they will be
sure to increase the emoluments of the legal

profession.

The Paris Journals of Wednesday have all
been received. There is not a word about the
case of M. DUPOTY in the Liberal Press. The
Icational, instead of denouncing the infamous
proceedings before the Court of Peers, has a ge-
neral article upon a work published by M. Du-
VERGIER DE HAURANNE upon the interior and
exterior politics of France. The Commerce
has a long article upon M. ODILON BAR-
ROT'S letter to the Siecle relative to the fortifica-
tions of Paris, and. another upon a petition ad-
dressed to the President of the Council by the
shipowners of St. Brieux, praying for a redac-
tion of the French Navy as a measure necessary
for the encouragement of the merchant service.
This petition is also the subject of articles in the
Debats and Constitutionnel, but as the question
is but of local interest, we shall not now en-
ter upon any discussion of its merits. Neither
would we so particularly allude to it, except to
show to what uninteresting topics the French
press is obliged to have recourse to avoid dwel-
ling upon the proceedings of the French Star-
Chamber, the Court of Peers. The Paris Jour-
nals have had enough of fines and imprison-
ments, and these await the publishers of any
strictures upon judicial roguery which may be
brought, during the sitting of the Court, under
the notice of the President, Baron PASQUIER.
Whatever may be the immediate effects of the
terrible examples of political offenders, made by
the Court of Peers, the next revolution in France
will mainly stand indebted for its origin to the
outrages upon national liberty now in course of
perpetration by that base tribunal. The idea of
such a revolution may appear preposterous to the
Court ; but reflecting men, placed in a
situation to mark the signs of the times
more correctly than can be done within
the precincts of a palace, cannot but have
observed growing indications of a tendency
in the public mind to such a catastrophe. The
dynasty of ORLEANS has no more dangerous
enemy than the Court of Peers. By trampling
under foot all the defences of national liberty it
accustoms the French people to regard no insti-
tutions as sacred which they have the power to
set aside. From the moment the Court of Peers
shall have pronounced M. DUPOTY guilty of
participation in QUENISSET'S attack upon the
Royal Dukes, the Charter, the palladium of
French freedom, will be of no more value than
one of the ballads of that late eminent Grub-
street publisher, CATNACH.
In justification of the conduct of the Peers,
their only British apologist, the Post, urges
" the necessity of restraining, in some way,
those French political writers, whose pestilent
breath spreads the contagion of treasonable and
infamous doctrines throughout the land." Star-
Chamber prosecutions of the Press will never cor-
rect this evil. It is only to be done by removing the
abuses in the Administration, which call forth
the violent reprehensions of the press. The in-
stitutions of France are wholly unsuited to a free
people, and before the press can be made to
suggest reforms in the mild language common to
British journalists, they must be wholly re-mo-
delled. What, for instance, can be more op-
posed to civil liberty, than the whole passport
system ?

A Ministerial Journal of this morning says, " An ar-
rangement betwee❑ the Court of Rome and Espartero is
seriously contemplated. 'We are assured that the Inter-
nuncio of his Holiness at Paris has received overtures on
this subject."
Yesterday morning the King received successively
MM. Guizot, Martin du Nord, Mole, Sauzet, and de
Broglie.

Al one o'clock there was a Council of Ministers. The
decision of the Court of Peers will be pronounced this
evening, or to-morrow (Thursday), at the opening of the
Sitting.
The Arnionican of Brest, of the 18th of December,
says, the order to dismiss all the seamen of the class of
1834 has arrived. On the 21st the landing of the men
to be discharged from the Suffren' the Jupiter, and the.
Scipion will begin. They will be immediately sent ~to
their homes. Those from the Jena, Neptune, and
Triton, will be discharged the 23d, and in a few days
afterwards the same measure will be applied to the sea-
men in those belonging to the division.
Already 300 naval apprentices have gone on board in
place of those who are to be discharged, and as the sea-
men included in the permanent levy, begin to arrive in
considerable numbers, and as orders have been given at
L'Oricnt and Cherbourg to send to Brest the sailors who
can be spared at those two ports, it is probable that in a
short time there will be sufficient to fill up the vacancies
in the vessels at Brest.—Constitutionnel.

In the sitting of the Council-General of Agriculture,
held on Thursday, the sugar question was taken into
lengthened consideration. M. de Tocqueville was op-
posed to the beet-root or indigenous system as tending to
injure shipping interests. M. C. Dupin wished to see all
branches of national industry equally prosperous, and
was for promoting the interests of agriculturists at home,
as well as those of the growers in the colonies. He la-
mented that so much versatility should have been shown
by the Legislature on this subject, and that the measures
affecting the question should have been adopted rather
on the spur of the moment than after mature and well-
founded deliberation. M. G. de Beaumont complained
of the mode in which the duties on indigenous sugar are
collected. He observed that they were calculated only
on presumed produce, whereas they ought to be reckon-
ed according to the quantities actually made. He con-
ceived that the mercantile ports were not justified in the
complaints they had made of the depressed condition of
the colonial sugar trade, because, during the first months
of the year, they had imported more sugar than they had
done for a long time. It was notorious, he added, that the
trade was injured, both in the colonies and at home, by
contraband proceedings, and at Bourbon, in particular,
28 millions of kilogrammes of sugar had been sold in a
year, more than what the island had produced or could
produce. M.. de Larnartine was an advocate for the
equal prosperity of both systems ; he thought there
ought to be a perfect equality established for the two
classes of products, and that a just indemnity should be
allowed to the home growers, whose operations extended
over only 57,000 hectares (144,000 acres), of land. He
was for protecting the colonial interests. M. Desjoberts
would establish an equality of duties, and then if the
colonies could not support the competition, he would
allow them to select their own markets. No decision
was come to. The Committee of the Council on the
Sugar question is composed of Messrs. de Mornay, Ju-
lien Lefebvre, Leroi de Pommiere, de Tocqueville, de
Bethune, Saunac and Briffet.

The Berlin papers state that a few days ago a duel was
fought, at Potsdam, by two officers, both sons of Prus-
sian Generals of distinction. One of the combatants was
dangerously wounded in the neck by his adversary's ball.
It arose from hasty words passed at the theatre more
than twelve months ago. A Court of Honour had de-
cided that the offence given was not sufficient to warrant
a hostile meeting, but the officer now wounded persisted
in fighting.

They write from Cronstadt that, on the 3d inst., the
gulf was entirely free from ice from the shore as far as
the eye could reach; an unusual instance of mild weather
at this time of the year in Russia.
The Popuisr of Barcelona of the 9th instant states that
a feud has arisen in Catalonia, which threatens to revive
the sanguinary conflicts of the old factions of the Caps
and Hats in Italy. The students at Barcelona in medi-
cine pharmacy, and surgery have adopted as a distinc-
tive !park of their profession grey mushroom-shaped
hats, with bands and loops of different colours, according
to the branches to which they respectively confine their
studies. The different journeymen have sworn to put
down this innocent distinction, and having insulted seve-
ral of the students violent conflicts have ensued. The,
journeymen have also adopted a hat of their own, made
much the same as that of the students, but white, with
larger flaps, bands, and loops. If this competition con-
tinues, the manufacturers who confine themselves to
making caps may leave off business.
_ _ _ _ _

The Diario di Roma of the 11th inst., shows that the
report of the Pope having been at the point of death,
was entirely false. On the 10th, the Pope was present
seated on his throne at mass, and on the same day, in
the chapel of the Vatican, gave the benediction of the
sacrament. The Diario informs us that Prince Leopold
of Bavaria, and Prince Frederick of Prussia had arrived
at Rome. Don Juan and Don Fernand, sons of Don
Carlos, were still there. On the 6th, the Pope received
the Grand Duchess of Mecklenburg Strelitz, and the
Duchess Caroline, her daughter. As a .sovereign
Princess, the Grand Duchess, who was presented by the
Prussian Minister, was received in the apartments to
which generally ladies are not admitted.

DUTCH FUNDS.—
Money, 11111
Amwrasnasi, Dec. 21.
Actual Debt, 2% per Cent
.litto, ditto 5 per cent.
Amort Syndic, 4% per Cent
90 91%
Ditto, ditto, 3% per c0nt........ 00000000
Commercial Company, 4% per cent....
Ditto (1835 and 1837) 5 per cent. .....
Loan 1837, 5 per cent. •.•.. 000000000000000 •.••••• 97 . iiiiii
Exchange on London, One m0nth......,, l2 0%
Two months .....
Hamburgh, One month 35 81%
Two months 35 59%
Dutch Papers, Dec. 22.
itELOIAN IS UNDS—liatissaLs„ Dac. 22.
Actual Debt,2% per Cent. . ..... ............ 52
Rothschild's Lean 5 per Cent ......... ..... 101
Loan of Thirty Millions, 4 per Cent......... 92

.
----------- 3per Cent
--•—•Thirty•strven
;$
Loan of City, 1932,4 per CentB44: 101
. 06%
Society ef Commerce, 4 iiPer Cent
Bank of Belgium, 5 per Cent 74%
National Society. • •••••••••••«••••••••••••••••••••
Exchange on London (short) . .....
...Brussels Papers, Dee. 22.