The Sun.
London, England, 1841-01-04 00:00:00

EVENING EDITION

selves,

Household Suffrage. The Chartists are opposed
to us, we admit, to a great degree, but they are mor,

opposed to the Leeds Reformers. Looking at dies(
elements of stipport, and looking also at the cleat
and undoubted justice of our cause, and of the cer-
tai❑ benefits of abolition, while many persons are
convinced neither of the justice nor of the expedi-
ency of the reform advocated at Leeds, we are de-
cidedly of opinion that there is a much better pros-
pect of obtaining the total and immediate abolition
of the Corn-law from the present Parliament
than the great organic changes recommended by
our friends. On these grounds, as a question of
prudence, we recommend all democratic Reformers to
throw aside for the moment all other objects, and
unite all their exertions for the abolition.

The Leeds Times asks, " allowing that we do
lay aside for a time all other schemes and projects,
and zealously endeavour to carry the abolition of
Corn-laws, we would just ask, whether there be
the slightest probability of success ?" We answer
a great probability. The question, since last Ses-
sion, has made immense progress in the country.
A flood of light has been poured on it by new
facts, and by the evidence of Mr. J. D. HUME
and Mr. WGREGOR, before the Import Duties
Committee. By the diligent exertions of the
Anti• Corn-law League, by their lecturers and
journal, a great portion of the knowledge already
possessed has been diffused through the country.
Many persons in the agricultural districts begin to
take a right view, and those who take a
wrong one tremble for their beloved iniquity.
It is impossible for the Ministers—responsible
as they are for the revenue and the prosperity
of the country—to resist the force of the evi-
dence given by their own subalterns, and of the
facts which have transpired in the last year as to the
averages ; and Lord WESTERN, in his recent letter
to the Chelmsford Agricultural Assnciation, hints
that Ministers may propose the abolition. We may
look, therefore, for considerable support from their,
in spite of Lord MELBOURNE'S unfortunate de-
claration. Already, too, the materials for the agi.
tation of this question are in operation; day by
day the evils of the law are made known by the
great sufferings of some one class, or the departure
of some one branch of trade ; and we are decidedly
of opinion that, with this additional evidence, and
with the scheme of agitation already on foot, the
abolition may be wrung even during the next Ses•
sion, from the Parliament as now constituted.

Certainly to accomplish this, the democratic Re-
formers must repudiate all other measures. They
ought to frown down any man in their ranks who
should propose to struggle for anything else till
abolition be achieved ? They must at the same
time take the broadest ground, and shrink not
from any of the consequences of their principles.
Hitherto this great question has been too little
debated on the grand and comprehensive principles
of free trade, and of denying in lobo the right
of the 'Legislature to tax any one class for the
benefit of another, which lie at the bottom of our
demands. It has been too much treated as a
matter of trade, and too little as a great moral and
political question. More has been said of the dimi-
nution of the masters' profit than of the curtailment of
the labourer's wages, while the enormous horror that
this murderous law annually puts multitudes of the
lower classes to death by the slow and painful pro-
cess of starvation, has been almost kept out of sight.
Little or nothing has been done, at least not enough,
to make the labourers see and feel that this concerns
them, while a great deal has been done, both by
our friends and our opponents, to convince them
that the masters only will be benefited. Make
them know and feel that not only their wages,
their comforts, their little luxuries, but their very
existence, and the existence of their wives and little
ones, depends on the abolition of the Corn-law, and
they will join, we believe, in the demand for that as
cordially as they ever exerted themselves to obtain
the Charter. The Abolitionists are already powerful
in Parliament, and powerful out of Parliament.
They have truth, justice, and morality on their
side ; and we have a thorough confidence that they
must prevail. Our hearty advocacy of this
course, and of this cause, is dictated by no
wish to found an association or place our-
"by urgent and repeated remon-
strances," at the head of a movement, but from a
sincere and well-weighed conviction that no other
measure would tend so much to make the bulk of
the people prosperous, and restore internal tran-
quillity, or so much elevate the national morality,
and improve our political system, as the abolition
of the aristocrats' tax on the poor man's food, be-
cause that is an immoral, unrighteous tax, which
violates the first principle of society—the principle
of mutual and equal protection.

Our approbation to the proceedings of the De-
putation of the Anti-Corn-law League at Walsall
was given on the supposition that those gentlemen
were quite sure of returning a right man. When the
first statement reached us it was announced that
Mr. FOSTER, Jun., was sure of success, and we
cannot conceive a man being a Tory and a hearty
Corn-law Abolitionist. Now it appears that Mr.
FOSTER declines to stand, that the League are not
prepared with a candidate, that they have to send
about and propose one who has no local connection
with the borough. Their interference can only be
justified by success, and if their interference should
lead to letting in a Tory and a Pro-Corn-law man,
they will do as much mischief to their cause as we
anticipated benefit from a Member being elected by
their instrumentality, to carry out their principles.
Now that they have begun they must spare no ex-
ertion to succeed, on pain of being generally con-
demned.

The approaching Session of Parliament is looked
forward to with more indifference, than any Session
we remember for many years. There seems to be
no hope on any side. Nothing is expected from
Parliament. An excellent opportunity is thus
afforded to the leaders of both parties, to show how
much superior they are to popular clamour ; and
that, though deaf to its demands, it is no sooner
stilled, than they devote their energies to promote

the public welfare. We should rejoice to see
Ministers propose the modification, if not the aboli-
tion, of the Corn-laws ; and rejoice to see the Op-
position take up the import duties, and propose the
assimilation of the duties on colonial and foreign
sugar, and on Canadian and Norway timber. Sir
ROBERT INGLIS may earn for himself great popu-
larity, by moving for the abolition of the Eccle-
siastical Courts ; and Mr. HAWES may win back
public favour, by removing some of the nonsensical
restrictions of the Police Act. There is plenty of
work for the Members if they wish to benefit tke
public ; and unless they make some exertions to
keep alive attention, Parliament may die of that
most fatal of all diseases for public authority,
public contempt. The Members will not be able
to find a single excuse, we believe, in being assailed

from without ; they will be allowed, unawed, and
probably almost unasked, to pursue their own
course ; they will have a full opportunity of doi►►g
what is right, and if they neglect it the blame and
the responsibility will belong to them.

The Paris Papers of Friday and Saturday have
been duly received. The iVioniteur of Saturday
is filled with the New Year's day Addresses, pre-
sented, according to immemorial usage, to the King
of the FRENCH. Copies of these addresses, and