The Sun.
London, England, 1840-03-27 00:00:00

by a leprosy. We should scout their conduct at
any time as errant and mischievous quackery, but
to be now so engaged, when a disease is preying on
the vitals of the State, when starvation is -leading
on rebellion and revolution, is madness. We have
no sympathy with the pursuits of the Commons.
The Tory Journals complain of the Liberals
because they oppose the Bill on the ground that
it is Lord STANLEY'S. If they were to do so we
should praise them. To snub that arrogant change-
ling, who fancies himself a great statesman because
he is a great talker—" the heir of all his mother's
tongue," is the duty of every reflecting moderate
Member. Whatever such a HOTSPUR proposes
should always be looked on with suspicion. Of
Catholic Irishmen he is the open and declared
enemy, as he is the open and avowed servant of the
Anglican bigots. All the M embers for Ireland,
therefore, should rise against him when he interferes
with its concerns. He has merited the suspicion
and the enmity of the Irish, and common sense cau-
tions them not to trust their opponents. They do
right, therefore, in resisting Lord STANLEY'S Bill.

Those Journals which have asserted that the
Anti-Corn-law party bring no evidence of their as-
sertions, and only seek by unfounded representation
to get up a clamour, are now likely to have more
evidence than they will like. Last year the House I
of Commons, under the influence of the landlords,
refused to inquire into the facts of the case. This
year the Delegates are going to inquire for them-
selves, and publish their inquiries. Their blue-
books will not be protected by privilege, but their :
reports, widely circulated in The Sun, and other
truth-spreading Journals, will effect as much public i
benefit as if they were printed by Messrs. HAN-
SARD, and had the certificates of the SPEAKERS
of both Houses. At their meeting yesterday,
the Delegates examined an agricultural la-
bourer from the neighbourhood of Taunton ;
and his evidence, though not given on oath,
will be as valid all over England as if it were
taken before the LORD CHANCELLOR. We
will not abridge that man's examination here ; we
earnestly implore our readers to peruse the account,
to be found in another part of our Paper, which
WILLIAM HALMAN gives of the condition to
which the bold peasantry of England are reduced
under the Corn-law. 'Whoever else may prosper
under it, the English farm-labourer starves. Al-
ready his condition is as bad, or worse, than that
of the lumper-fed Irishman, who can enjoy life on
his poor fare, while the Englishman is daily
exhausted by continuous and unbroken toil.
The evidence to this important circumstance will
now be laid distinctly and authoritatively before the
public, as well as the evidence to the other evil
effects of the Corn-laws, though the landlords, in
the arrogance of their hearts, supposed that they
had by" their votes burked the investigation for ever.
Mr. BAINES'S speech supplied an excellent
illustration of the fact, that a high price of corn at
home causes a great diminution in the consumption
of manufactures. We recommend the illustration
to the Post and Herald, and those Journals which
continually require proof upon proof of the assertion
that the Corn laws are mischievous. Mr. BAINES
also explained the true bearing of some late statisti-
cal returns ; and his speech ought to convince the
most sceptical that the Corn-laws are as inexpedient
as they are unjust.
That great distress now prevails in many parts
of the country, notwithstanding the Corn-laws,
which if good for anything should always insure us
an ample supply of food, is certain. We yesterday
mentioned that great distress prevails in Edinburgh—
how is that, if the Corn-laws be so universally be-
neficial ? Our Journal has teemed, in fact, with
evidence to the miserable condition of the people in
all parts of the countr). Why is this, when the
Corn-laws secure us, as is said, an ample supply ?
" Oh," say the Tories, and the bread taxers, " the
harvest failed, you are suffering from a visitation
of Providence. " We say that the assertion is
false. The harvest of the Manchester spinners has
not tailed. The fields of the Bolton men have not
been blighted with barrenness. At Wolverhamp-
ton and Birmingham the yield was as great
last year as the year before, and might have
been much greater—might have been indefinitely
greater, but the landowners of England arrested the
industrious hand of our skilful people ;they put the,
cotton mills on short time—they shut up the fac-
tories—they blew out the furnaceS, and closed up
the mines. Abundant evidence that the godless
lace of avaricious law-makers have effected all this
mischief, will be, or has already been, brought
before the public, and a vote of Parliament will
have no power to shield them from public indigna-
tion. They are mistaken, grievously mistaken, ii
they deem Parliament to be omnipotent. It can-
n3t reverse the laws of rig ht and wrong,
it cannot change the essential characteristics of the
human mind, and their results must be to consign
the wrong-doing landowners to general execration.
We oppose these laws because they are vicious
in principle, not because we have a peculiar in-
terest in manufactures, which we have not ; they
were passed from bad motives—they aim at an
improper object. In the landlords' avarice they
have their origin. The intention in passing them
was to tax all the eaters of bread to enrich the land-
owners. They are contrary to the principle on
which laws ought to be made, for they impose a
heavy penalty on the many for a small benefit to the
few. They arc a violation by the legislator of the
poor man's rights of property, and endanger all the
institutions of the country. They inflict poverty
on all classes, disable them to bear the
present load of taxation, and threaten the
empire with ruin. If the evils which society
cannot now throw off be not caused by the Corn.
laws, their existence allows all the blame to be
thrown on them, and thus they enlist all the vast
discontent and all the vast distress which now pre-
vail against the landowners and the clergy, who, by
advocating these laws, give most terrific auxiliaries
to their opponents.

We copy from the 114i.rning Herald of this day a
letter from Constantinople dated the 4th inst., announ-
cing the march of a Persian army against Bagdad.
This intelligence, if true, is exceedingly important.
ALI PAcita, the present Governor of Bagdad, is a
a man of no abilities ; and as the city has not yet re-
covered from the dreadful ravages it sustained since
1830, from the almost simultaneous visitation of the
plague, the inundation of the Tigris, and the being
sacked by the Arabs, to whom the leading neighbour-
ing tribes are still hostile, it could offer no resistance to
a Persian army. DAOUD BEY, the former Pacha, had
put not only the city, but the Pachalick, in such
a complete state of defence, as to be able to
bid defiance to any enemy. He held constant commu-
nication with MEHEMET ALI, and was about to
declare himself independent of the PORTE when the
plague made its appearance in his c• pital, and in the
course of a few weeks swept away upwards of one
hundred thousand of the inhabitants. What the pes-
tilence spared the sword of the Arab destroyed without
mercy, and the ambitious DAOUD found himself in-
debted for his life to the fidelity of a poor cobler and an
old woman!
In another letter we find it stated that the Governor
of Herat has expelled the English Resident, Lieutenant
POTTINGER, from that city. This is also highly im-
portant, if true.

•
With so much gall we have one drop of honey. The
PORTE has actually yielded to the threats of Lord
PoNSoNBY, and dismissed GREGORIAS, the Greek Pa-
triarch, for his participation in the lonian Islands' con-
spiracy.

The French Journals of W ednesday are all occu-
pied with the debate on the ministerial confidence Bill.
In the outline of the first part of Tuesday's debate,
which we published yesterday, we left M. BECIIARD, a
Royalist Deputy, declaring that ho would neither syste-
matically support nor oppose the THIERS Cabinet.
The Hon. Deputy was followed by M. DE LAMAR.
TINE, the poet, formerly an ultra Royalist, but at pre-
sent one of the " .221," or MOLE section, who main-
tained that M. Tunas was not correct in saying that
there was no essential difference between the opinions
of his friends and his opponents. There was all the
difference between revolutionary instincts and liberal
ideas. He called upon the Left to explain why they
supported such a Ministry, and upon his own party not
to entail repentance upon themselves by giving it an
existence. M. ODILLON BARROT, as the organ of the
Left, contended that his friends supported the Tfituas
Cabinet because it was progressive in its ideas. Electo-
r-i 1 Reform was with it only a question of time, and by
supporting it he obtained for France a real Parliamen-
tary Government.
This closed the debate of Tuesday, On Wednesday
M. REmusAT, Minister of the Interior, was the first to
ascend the tribune. He complained that without cause
the Government, while exhibiting the greatest mode-
ration, was assailed with anger, and even with hatred.
lie
DR LA
next entered into various details to show that M.
the mARLtt c
TiNE' ;ientcrhe. This
charges were
euoftohuontdeesdty. e
rDeE_
CARNE next rose, and opposed the Cabinet, and ridi-
culede
sident DUPIN upon his legs, who claimed for the Left
Centre the main • triumph at the Revolution of July.