The Sun.
London, England, 1841-05-17 00:00:00

Kfb/t Atn.

LONDON:
MONDAY, MAY 17, 1841.

The theoretical principle of Government is,
that it is a contrivance to increase the public wel-
nire- Of course the public means all the indivi-
duals of the nation, and it will not be denied that
tll6r welfare requires that they should obtain
the largest possible supplies of food. Nobody
kluw supposes that food will be too abundant, or
that there will be a universal glut either of that
(31' any other useful article. In fact the great
difficulty, which may be called the curse of
rather it be not his blessing, being as
Ilutch in conformity with his nature as the
gathering of honey is to that of the bee—the
great difficulty is to get food ; and the deficiency
Of food, or the difficult;
of getting enough, ac-
co
rding to the most accredited theories, is the
great cause of all the vice, crime, and misery in
the world. It is plainly and palpably, therefore,
the duty of every Government to facilitate as Illuch as possible the exertions of the people in
obtaining food for themselves, and it violates its
duty 4iost grossly when it impedes thus' exer-
cmsi- It then incurs the terrible responsibility

of causing all the vice, and misery, and crime,
which result from a want of food.

The excuse or the pretext for the Corn-laws—
though it is a false pretext—is, that they, in the
long run, ensure the people a greater supply of food
than they would otherwise have. But sugar, like
corn, is an article of food very nutritious, and it
might be used as a substitute in considerable
quantities for other food. No pretext is made
by those who oppose the Ministers' plan for
the reduction of the duty on foreign sugar,
that it would lessen at any time the quan-
tity of sugar or food which the people could
obtain. On the contrary, they resist the
alteration because the market would be over-
whelmed with sugar. They will not allow
the law to be altered, because it will give the
people too much sugar, and at too cheap a rate.
The Legislature, in this case unblushingly, and
for the benefit of a few members of its own
body, actually stops the supply of food. The
statement of the Tories is, if the law be
altered, or if the discriminating duty be
abolished, that the people will get plenty of food,
and they most scandalously interfere to prevent
the people from obtaining it. This is a most
shameful violation of the duty of the Legislature,
and instead of being the discourager of vice, and
punisher of crime, it is the great cause of all the
crimes and all the misery that are caused by the
scarcity or the deficiency of food.
As for the nonsense it pleases some gentlemen,
in the utter forgetfulness of their duties to the
people of England, to talk about the blacks—
dooming those of the West Indies to cultivate
sugar. and hoping to relieve those of the Brazils
and Cuba from cultivating it—we must take the
liberty to tell them, that if, by their measure,
they could relieve the whole black race from
the slavery to which they are subject in
almost every part of the world, that would
not exonerate them from their duty to the people
of England. They receive power to promote
the welfare of our people ; that welfare is pro-
moted by allowing them to have an ample sup-
ply of food; and the Legislature is the traitorous
assassin of the people it is bound to protect and
cherish, when it withholds from them that large
supply of food which the Brazils and Cuba are
ready to send them. Weep Lord SANDON, weep
Lord STANLEY, weep Mr. GOULBURN, and weep
Sir A. GRANT and Dr. LUSHINGTON in conjunc-
tion, over the sufferings of the slaves •—reproach
the planters with cruelty, send out ships-of-war
to stop-the slave trade, and when you have wept
and declaimed at others, look at home ; see the
people confided to your care perishing of hunger
—see yourselves actively at work to keep food
from their mouths, and acknowledge yourselves
to be more extensively criminal than the plant-
ers and the active agents of the diabolical slave
trade !

The agitation for the repeal of the Corn-laws

is going on well, despite the little aid it has
received from those who are bound, by their
situation, to be the leaders of the people. On
such an occasion we naturally look to our repre-

sentatives for counsel and advice. Mr. O'CoN-
NELL, however, is the only one we are ac-
quainted with who has shown himself sensible of

the importance of the crisis, and has done his
duty on the occasion. He has addressed more
than one letter to his countrymen, expressing his
opinion of the present state of affairs, and ad-
vising them how to act. Why should not the
Members for' England, and particularly the
Members representing the great manufacturing
districts, and more particularly still the Members
representing very remote constituencies, now ad-
dress their countrymen with that weight of au-
thority which belongs to possessing the confi-
dence of such vast and intelligent bodies of men?
Mr. RAIKES CURRY, the Member for North-
ampton, is one exception. He has drawn up
a paper for his constituents, the great use of
which, it is properly said is, that it stamps im-

portant truths with local authority. We want
such conduct to be imitated wisely and judi-
ciously, not blindly imitated on a large scale.
Messrs. M. PHILIPS, GREG, BA INFS, and
WARD, for example, may make very useful
speeches in Parliament, but a letter from each
to his constituents, embodying, perhaps, some of
his arguments in favour of the proposed mea-
sures, and suggesting what they should do to
strengthen the hands of the Liberal party in Par-
liament, would be more efficacious than a speech.
We advise them to think of this, and put their
shoulders to the wheel, which wants as yet to be
forced round.

As for the Metropolitan Members, with the
exception of Mr. HAWES and Mr. GROTE, who
have each made a good speech, and Mr. B.
WOOD, who has attended a public meeting, the
metropolis might as well be without them. Where
are they ? Do they take no interest in measures
which are the commencement of the most im-

portant change that ever was begun in
the policy of the empire, or perhaps
of the world? After having legislated for ages
on the principle of first favouring one branch of
human industry and then another, it is at length
found out and avowed in Parliament, that the
system is unjust, is wicked, is injurious to the
nation ; and it is proposed to commence a system
in which no taxes shall be ]aid on for the encou-
ragement or protection of any one particular
branch of industry, but only for the service of the
State. The principle of the change is to substi-
tute impartial for partial legislation, just laws for
the fancied expediency of interested and selfish
men; and this last change finds no other advo-
cates or impugners in those gentlemen who are
honoured with the confidence of the electors of
this mighty metropolis, the heart of the empire,
than those we have mentioned.

The measures proposed have a subordinate,
but a more attractive interest. They go to
cheapen sugar and to cheapen bread, and make
the trade in both steady. They go to
remove restraints from the sources of supply, and
extend the markets for own production, in-
creasing our abundance, and increasing the
means of obtaining it. They are of great benefit
to all traders and all consumers, and the princi-
ple on which they are founded, carried out to its
proper conclusion, would be more fraught with
blessings to mankind than all the Reform Bills
or Constitutions that ever were penned.
Though we should recommend a large reduc-
tion of the sugar and timber duties, as more be-
neficial to the people, and equally productive to
the revenue—though we demand, and ever shall
demand, the total repeal of the Corn-laws—yet we
cannot shut our eyes to the immense advantages
of bringing foreign sugar and foreign timber into
something like competition with colonial sugar
and timber, and to the immense advantages of
abolishing the whole system of corn averages,
and all the frauds connected with them, giving
some stability to the corn trade by a fixed duty ;
and these measures being of such intrinsic im-
portance, even if they did not involve the fate
of a Ministry, should elicit from our representa-
tives some tokens besides a speech in Parliament,
that they take that interest in them which their
importance commands. The people justly ap-
preciate these measures, have in general pro-
nounced very sound opinions concerning them,
and are taking a proper course to give effect to
them. But their efforts would be encouraged,
and perhaps more judiciously directed, were their
representatives, who must know and see more of
the political game in the House of Commons than
the constituencies, to state their opinions, and co-
operate with the electors. These are not times for
neutrality, neither will indifference or ignorance
find fitvour with the people; and those, whether
now in Parliament or not, who wish to enjoy
public confidence, must unite cordially with the
people, and show that they understand and are
interested in the very important subjects which
the measures of Ministers have made the leading
and popular topics of the day. Representatives
and constituencies must now work together, and
the former have no time to lose.

The whole of the Paris Journals of Friday and
-Saturday have been received, together with advices