The Sun.
London, England, 1841-10-13 00:00:00

'Ott ‘dfttv.

LONDON:
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 13, 1841.

When we made our brief observations on the
revenue on Monday-, we were under the impression
that the bulk of the corn imported last year was
not entered till after the close of the quarter
ending in October. On looking back, however,
to public documents which we could not then
lay our hands on, we have ascertained from the
Parliamentary paper, No. 383, ordered to be
printed on 'Tune 7, 1841, that the duty paid in July,
1840, on wheat and wheat-flour was 4,976/. ;in
August, 63,1401.; in September, 038,120/. ; and
in October, 11039/., muking a total of 307,184/..
A small portion of this, but not above 16,0001.,
might have been paid in the summer and winter
quarters, bat we are disposed to believe that it
was all paid between the sth July and the 10th
of October. Now, we are not accurately in-
formed of the amount of duty paid on foreign
corn during the late quarter, and we will not
imitate our Contemporaries by indulging in con-
jectures when we shall no doubt soon be fur-
nished by some of our Ministerial Contempora-
ries with an accurate account. We know, how-
ever,t the bulk of the importations in the

autumn

r last year paid an average duty
that ',the

and we also

the importations in the month of Septem-
ber just passed took place at the low
duty of ls. and 2s. Bd. We are induced,
therefore, to agree with our Tory Con-
temporaries, and aCknouledge that the duty
paid on foreign corn in the quarter just passed
did not equal the amount of duty paid on foreign
corn in the corresponding quarter last year. We
are willing, also, to recognize, in the increase
of the Customs for the quarter just ended, a slight
improvement in our trade; and willing to hope
that the diabolical Corn-laws have not yet
wholly crushed the - natural energies of the
people. We derive from this circumstance the
consolatory belief that it is not too late, much
and grievously as the subject has been ne-
glected, to restore prosperity to the nation, by
doing justice to the people.
The Times of yesterday properly observes,
that the constant growth of population will na-
turally occasion a continual advance in the pro-
duce of fixed imposts. That Journal recognises
in that passage a natural source, independent of
all legislation, for the continual increase of na-
tional wealth. In fact, that is the main, if not
the sole, source of increased wealth, and the
character of almost every enactment may be
determined by ascertaining its influence on the
growth of population. If we could possibly sup-
pose that the Corn-laws promoted health and
prevented mortality, as is now said—if we could
believe that to lay restrictions on trade was the
way to promote national wealth, the Corn-laws
would find no warmer advocates than we should
be. We are disposed to test every enactment
by its influence on the growth of population;
and that the Corn-law curtails the supply of
food, makes it much smaller than it otherwise
would be, and so limits the increase of popula-
tion—causing all the deplorable evils, all the
vice and crime, which are the known and invari-
able consequences of arresting the progress of
population—is undeniable. Now that the Times
is sensible that the source of national grzatness is
the natural spring of population, we may expect
that it should unite with us in endeavouring to
procure the abolition of an enactment which im-
pedes the supply of food, and exposes our popu-
lation to dearth and pestilence.

The statement of the Times is of importance,
as acknowledging a natural, as contradistin-
guished from a legislative, source of national
prosperity, which ought never, for one moment,
to be lost sight of in forming our opinions of
any system of Government. If the population
increases at the rate of two per cent. every year,
which is not equal to its actual increase in the
period immediately prior to 1837, the revenue
should increase at least in an equal ratio. Sup-

pose it was 50,000,0001. in 1820, and no taxes had

been abolished, it ought, in 1840, to have been
70,000,0001. In fact, it ought to have been
greater, because ingenuity and skill increase
with population, and wealth naturally augments
in a compound ratio.

There can be no manner of doubt, with our

improved machinery, that the 24,000,000 people
who now inhabit our empire produce consider-
ably beyond a third more than the 16,000,000
produced in 1820. Thus the wealth of the na-
tion and the produce of the revenue should in-
crease even faster than the increase of popula-

tion, were no causes at work to deteriorate the
condition of the people, and force them to a
worse and worse kind of subsistence as they in-

crease in numbers.

In testing any legislative enactment, therefore,
like the Corn-laws, it is not enough that its ad-
vocates can show no positive decrease in the na-

tional prosperity; they ought to be able to de-
monstrate that it has not checked the natural in-
crease of people, that it has not deteriorated their
condition, and that the wealth of the country and
the revenue of the State have augmented in a
compound ratio. The natural and healthy condi-
tion of society is rapid increase or great prospe-
rity; and where we find it replete with want, po-
verty, misery, and crime, those are impious as
well as ignorant., who, to exonerate the rash and
rapacious lawgiver, ascribe the national suffer-
ings to causes which he cannot control. He as-
sumes the power to regulate society, and he
thereby makes himself fearfully responsible for
all the sufferings of the people.

The advertisement department of a newspaper
s not usually consulted to supply matter for a
eading article. On casting our eye, however,
over our first page yesterday, we found an ad-
vertisement headed, " PENDRELL'S Patent
Flexible Pen-holder," which immediately inter-
ested us, because we have felt occasionally in-
convenienced from holding the inflexible stick on
which steel pens are fixed. The advertisement
goes on, "to ensure ease and comfort in the use of
steel pens, now in such general use, W. P. has,
at great trouble and expense, constructed a pen-
holder possessing four great requisites—cheap-
ness, durability, neat and elegant appearance,
and flexibility." We need not, however, repeat
the advertisement, giving Mr. PENDRELL double
publicity for his single payment, for our purpose
is answered when we have placed Mr. PENDRELL
before the public as the representative of a class,
which is very numerous, and most skilful, and of
which the unceasing business is, to devise means
to promote the "ease and comfort" of their fel-
low-creatures. A greater part of the advertise-
ments which are published every day, like Mr.
PENDRELL'S, are intended to inform the public
where they may obtain ease and comfort, food
and clothing, and luxuries.
In that circumstance we trace a principle of
kindness or benevolence actively at work. It is
man contributing to supply the wants of
man, and even anxious to make himself
particularly useful in supplying them. When a
certain class of gentlemen write about destroy-
ing our marts of trade, it is right to observe
that this principle of kindness or benevolence
is the principle of trade, and is common nearly
to all dealers in almost every commodity. They
all strive to provide for us useful things. It is
not confined to dealers; it extends to manufac-
turers. Mr. PENDRELL is a manufacturer; and
the great mass of the manufacturers, whether
they make gossamer-like veils for the fair sex,
which merely add to their charms without giv-
ing them shade or shelter, or whether they ma-
nufacture dreadnought cloth to protect the
rougher sex from the storms they must brave,
the great mass of manufacturers consider, day
after day, and night after night, how they can
make their various productions more usefill,
more attractive, and more agreeable to their
fellow-creatures. Neither is this desire confined
to those who manufacture for the body; it per-
vades the whole of the productive classes, and
is as conspicuous in authors who study how to
write agreeable or useful books, in artists
who rack their brains to illustrate and adorn
them, and in newspaper proprietors, who spare
no expense nor trouble to get information
from all parts of the world, as in the humblest
maker of serge or camlet. Of all the labours of
all the classes engaged in manufacture arid trade,
the living principle of existence, therefore, is to
devise or produce something useful or agreeable
to their fellow-creatures. The principle of uni-
versal benevolence, therefore, would seem to be
involved in the system of manufacture and trade,
if it lie not at the foundation of them.

(Whether this principle also lie at the bottom
of all civilization, or not, it cannot be denied
that the progress of trade and manufactures, and
of civilization, have gone hand in hand. When
the historian of navigation traces it from Egypt
to Greece, from Greece to Carthage and Rome,
from Carthage and Rome to Venice and Genoa,
from the Italian Republics to Portugal, Holland,
and England, he also traces the progress of
civilization. The two are inseparable, and it
is not from national prejudice that we say
that the civilization of England is as much supe-
rior to that of France as her trade and manufac-

tures are more extensive. The same principle
of universal kindness or benevolence which we
trace in Mr. PENDRP.LL'S advertisement is con-

spicuous in the behaviour of every retail dealer,