The Sun.
London, England, 1841-07-17 00:00:00

' practical conclusions, and of much inspiring hope.
Though the several classes of manufacturers,
Dissenters, Roman Catholics, and Chartists, who
most suffer from the present system; have, as it
were, instinctively to some extent combined
against it, the great question at issue has not
been placed before them in so precise and con-
vincing a form as to make them heartily and zea-
lously unite to give extension and effect to the
system of freedom. Aided as they have been by
some enlightened, disinterested, intelligent, and
conscientious statesmen, resolved to ttet on right
principles, and.trust the consequences to infinite
wisdom, they have been, it must be admitted,
very completely beaten in the present election
contests. Some zealous Christians have, and not
without reason, distrusted the factory masters ;
the Chartists, from good cause, have been
very suspicious of the Whigs; some who
are driven by their interests to advocate
freedom of trade, are, by their prejudices, opposed
to freedom of religion and civil freedom ; others,
who are friendly both to freedom of religion and
trade, have been frightened at the extensive de-
mands of the Chartists, and they have not sup-
ported the former lest that might lead to a com-
pliance with the latter;—on these and many
similar grounds the different classes who are fa-
vourable to the system of freedom have .rot
zealously co-operated to obtain present success.
At the same time the bulk of the monopolists,
whether of trade, of Church emoluments, or of
exclusive civil privileges, have been taught, both
by instinct and reason, that they are all deeply
concerned, not as men but as selfish monopolists,
in the maintenance of the present system, and
they have closely united and zealously co-
operated to obtain a victory on the Corn-
law question, as the means of securing
all other monopolies, trading, religious, and
civil, from attack. Hence the bulk of the
landowners and the priesthood, and the bulk
of West and East India and Banking interests,
with the bulk of the monopolists of trade, from
the Governor of the Bank to the licensed vic-
tualler, have all made common cause against the
system of freedom on its present salient point.
They have accordingly obtained a triumph which,
for the welfare of mankind, we hope will be tem-
porary, and which we cannot but regard, seeing
the immense interest they have at stake, the im-
mense power they possess, the unacquaintedness
of the multitude with the great stake at issue,
and the consequent want. of union and co-opera-
tion, as the forerunner of their complete defeat.
The Tories or monopolists have fought for their
existence, they have brought forth all their re-
sources, they have fought with the energy of de-
spair and the instinct of self-preservation, and
all they have gained is a majority in the House
of Commons. At the same time the weakening
of their resources is the strength of their oppo-
nents, and the character and wealth they have
squandered at the elections will be as weapons in
the hands of their opponents in future contests.
But our principal hope springs from the fact
that the present local contest is part of a world-
wide system, which interests the whole human
race. A majority in the House of Commons is
not a majority in the world at large, and in all
time. It may withhold the assent of that body
from the doctrines of free trade, but it cannot
abate one jot of their truth, or of the force they
will exercise over the convictions of mankind.
It will not revive trade, nor give food to the fa-
mishing operatives. It will not make Christian,
and zealous, and moral men conclude that the
Corn-laws are just, nor lessen their exertions to
procure their abolition. It will change the con-
victions of no man, for they follow facts. The
material world, whatever may be the ethereal
theories of dreamy students, domineers over the
mind of man, and moulds it in the long run, and
in the last resort, by its own laws. The distress,
decay, and ruin, therefore, brought on many in-
dividuals by unjust legislation will be sure to
produce a general conviction against the great
system of monopolies, restrictions, and privileges,
of which the Corn-laws are a part, and in the
end, overthrow it. The desperate exertions of
the Tories—who now plume themselves on suc-
cess—will hasten that event. Their assertions
conLeze IlitS rUffsetl men: to-think. For the sake-
of temporary success, the Tories have appealed
to the multitude, and have kindled desires and
passions they cannot allay. Believing that truth
and goodness, that justice and honesty, are on
the side of the system of freedom, the contest
which has caused it to be examined, whatever
its present termination, must help forward its
final success.

The organs of the Ministry that is to be, declare
that Sir ROBERT PEEL must govern on Conser-
vative principles, and they ask that the conduct
of the Tories in opposition should be accepted
as a proof of what the Tories will do in
office. We are willing to assume the one as the
index to the other, and to draw from it at once
a warning for the country.
At the elections in Ireland several riots have
taken place, and it has required all the soothing
arts of Mr. O'CONNELL, and all the police force
at the command of the Government, to preserve
the peace. Much of the irritation has been
caused by the assessors and other authorities
connected with the elections disfranchising the
people by shoals, and by the display of an in-
sulting Orange superiority. It will be easy
enough for Tory journalists to say that the law,
whatever it is, ought to be respected; but the
law in Ireland, made by a dominant and arro-
gant sect to serve sectarian and party purposes,
is a standing insult and injury to the bulk of the
population. That law the Conservatives in office
are steadily to maintain and enforce ; and the
present disfranchisement by assessors not being
irritating enough, Lord STANLEY is to pro-
vide a measure to make it more extensive
and perpetual. When he and his mischievous as-
sociates, an angry party rabble, hungry for
office, who are miscalled politicians, have lashed
the Irish into rebellion, by insults and injuries
inflicted in the name of religion, he will gra-
ciously- consider, he says, whether the disfran-
.chisements have been carried too far. If the con-
duct of the Conservatives in office be the same as
the conduct of the Conservatives out of office—and the language now used by their journals towards
the Catholic priests, justifies the worst suspicions
perNce of Ireland is not worth six months'
purchase.
In oppositiOn, the Conservatives have steadily
set their faces against relieving the people bye monopoly. They
abating an iota of any on
upheld the sugar monopoly, they refused to al-
low the timber monopoly to be meddled with,
and they would not even
n.
eorlisten to any discussion
of the monopoly
Conservatives and
synonymous terms. The
victory
monopolists
has been are, in
fact,
gained for the Tories by a union
of monopolists of all kinds, and they must sup-
port in office the unjust principles which have
carried them thither.
They are the declared and avowed enemies of
every extension of the franchise, and opposed to
every measure for giving local government to the
people, or extending their privileges. They are
to take office on the principle of opposing the
wishes, coercing the opinions, and Picking the
pockets of the bulk of the people. In opposition,
they have invariably favoured injustice, and, pur-
suing the same career in office, they must govern
the country on the rascally principle of making
and upholding thievish laws. In opposition, the airn
of the Tories has been to plunder, coerce, and

oppress the multitude, and their Government,
should it last six months, will be an eternal op_
probriurn to the nation.

" They are no longer to govern," we are told,
"by the principles of the Tory party prior to
the Reform Bill." In detail that is impossible
but those know very little of the Tories who ima-

gine they have undergone any change. Can the
Ethiop cast his skin? Circumstances may be
different—there may be now some other im-

provements to be opposed; monopoly may now be
the curse of the land, as the boroughmongering
representation was the curse till 1831 ; but now, as

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