The Sun.
London, England, 1841-01-08 00:00:00

WALSALL.

(From the Morning Chronicle.)
We scarcely know how to believe the implication in Mr.
Gladstone's speech, at the Wolverhampton Conservative
Association, that he is supported by Wesleyan Methodists
and other Dissenters. Mr. Gladstone's wealth has on it
the stain which these classes have been accustomed to
hold most in abhorrence—that of the tears and blood of
slavery. He may not, like his brother, defend the Chinese
mode of making war by poisoning wells, but the Anti-
Slavery religionists of this country nave commonly regarded
money derived from the enforced toil of the scourged limbs
of ,iur fellow human beings as a poison sufficient to pollute
the well-spring of religion itself. Few Methodists, it is to
be hoped, are so weak as to be cajoled by being flattered,
from such a quarter, as "the tried and best friends of the
Constitution." They need not be told, by the son of a slave_
owner, what " the venerated John Wesley himself, if he
were alive," would think of " our revered Establishment
as it is now constituted." There can be little
doubt of the feelings of the Patriarch of 'Methodism
had lie lived to see the formation of a papistical party in
the Church ;, lie would not have heard calmly of "the
crimes of the Reformation ; strenuously would his voice
have been upraised against the Puscyite priestcraft that
makes void the Gospel by the exaltation of forms and cere-
monies; nor would he have forgone his Protestant faith
and simplicity for all the siphistry of all the Gladstones.
The deservedly " venerated John Wesley" was practically
a most energetic Church Reformer in his day, and the
modern symptoms exhibited in the Establishment would
have ❑eutralized none of his ardour fur the vitality of re-
ligion.

Mr. Gladstone is a Church Extensiunist. fie deside-
rates an increase of churches adequate to the increase of
the population. We all know what this comes to—an in-
defitete plan of taxation. Is it conceivable that there
should be Dissenters in Walsall prepared to advance this
object by their votes ? If so, they must be deeply in love
with slavery and apostacy. In Mr. Gladstole's brother's
book, on " the State in its relations with the Church," the
notion of other religionists than those of the Estab-
lishment being equally fit fur the functions of civil office is
scouted as belonging to " the false philosophy of Liberal-
ism." \Vill Mr. J. Gladstone carry his hoaxing up:ei
Methodists and Dissenters so far as to disclaim tile ideati-
fi

Lcation ? We repeat, that we cannot credit his having
found or made, amongst Nonconformists of any class in
Walsall, so foul a traitorousness as his speech implies, to
the cause of religious liberty.
Ilut Mr. Gladstone prett nds even to be a Reformer.
He draws upon electoral gullibility for credence in the
readiness of the Tory party •‘ to repair and reform the
glorious Constitution." Is this honest or manly ? la a
Conservative Club the naembers may wink at each other,
over their wine, at the cleverness of such professions; but
beyond that uncle they are delusive and fraudulent. It is
against Reform that Mr. Gladstone's vote is wanted.
Should he b, returned lie will vote with, and take his seat
by the side of, men who have frankly avowed that they
bate the very name of Reform. A similar declaration
would have been more creditable to himself.

Why should Mr. Gladstone be a Reformer, when, ac-
cording to his own avowed views of the present state of
things, "the interest, the comfort, and the welfare of the
poorest subject aro equally protected and studied with
those of his more fortunate neighbours ?" If so, nothing
i; left to improve or amend. Mr. Gladstone's political
doctrines do ❑ot hold together. tic fishes with different
baits for different classes. He avows himself at once a
Reformer and an Optimist. However, we may congra-
tulate his poor supporters in Walsall on being so well off
as he describes them to be. We should like to see their
laces as they vote such falsehoods against themselves at
the hustings.
The great practical assertion of a vote for Mr Glad-
stone will be, that the poor have a preference for dear
bread. Every vote will be a petition to keep on the tax
upon food. Every elector who supports him does so at the
expense of his wife and family. He gives away a portion of
their meals. He votes the bread out of his children's

mouths. And should he pocket Tory money for bis suf-
frage, let him not suppose that it is clear gain. He will
refund in bread-tax. Bribing must run high, and the Par-
liament come to an untimely end, or he may pay back

much more than be receives, especially if his family be
large. We say nothing of the t ffect of his conduct upon
others : nothing of the desertion of those who toil, and who
have a moral right to the bread, untaxed, which they earn
by the sweat of their brow ; nothing, of the unrepresented
millions on whose scanty subsistence this infamous impost
is laid ; nothing, of the diminution of employment to the
manufacturing workman by the food monopoly, which is
driving the products of British industry out of the conti-
nental markets: let a sordid soul and a scared conscience
give the go-by to all such considerations; we say still,
that the elector who, even for a bribe, helps to rivet the
bread-tax is eventually the plundered party, while cajoled
into believing himself the plunderer.
At this \Volverhampoaii Club, which did its best to
grace and strengthen Mr. Gladstone, a curious caution
was given by Lord Dartmouth. His Lordship remarked
that " another of the terms which was particularly agree-
able to Englishmen was that of cheap bread." It is agree-
able to most Englishmen, but not qu►te to all. To the
toiling classes it is naturally very agreeable. To the trad-
ing and commercial classes it is agreeable also. But to
Mr. Gladstone and his party it is not agreeable. To
every elector who polls for Mr. Gladstone it is not agree-
able ; or his vote is a falsehood before Gud and man.
Whether cheap bread be agreeable to him or not, is the
point on which the voter has to cap, ess his opinion by his
suffrage. And so, Lord Dartmouth strives to mystify the
matter by adding, ‘• But if they found that under that
pretence was concealed an attempt to render the coun-
try dependent on foreign nations for subsistence,
then there was another reason for cautious procedure."
Oae of the London Tory journals suppresses this portion
of his Lordship's speech ; justly ashamed, we presume, of
its imbecility. DO not the workmen of Wolverhampton
Pod Walsall know that not free trade, but monopoly, is
the cause of dependence? The labaurer can earn a large
loaf from the foreigner. No, it is argued, co❑ must not
take it; you will be dependent on the foreigner for sub-
sistence. And will those who so persuade him against this
dependence sell him food at the same rate? Not they,in-
deed; nor at less than 30 per cent, in addition. Will they
grew corn enough for him at anti rate ? If they can, they
will not ; they want no more of his manufactures; he
may starve, while the land lies untilled to the ex-
tent of millions of acres. Such is the case at this very
moment, and has been for years. The growth of corn is
below the average consumption. And those who keep up
rents by a monopoly price and a vo►untarily insufficient
produce, have the effrontery to tell the manufacturer not
to be tricked into dependence on foreign nations for sub-
sistence 1 These are the doctrines which the electors of
Walsall have to affirm or deny by their suffrages. Tne
Tories really expect them, by voting for Gladstone, to im-
precate the curse of dear bread on themselves and their
posterity. The eyes cf all England arc on them also;
and " England expects every man to do his duty."