The Sun.
London, England, 1840-05-25 00:00:00

THE JEWS AT DAMASCUS.

Messrs. Solomons and Simpson, Elders of the Con-
gregation of Jews resident in Portsea, on the 4th inst.,
applied to Lord Palmerston for information relative to
the treatment of their brethren at Damascus ; and his
Lordship with the utmost promptitude transmitted the
following reply :

Foreign Office, May 6th, 1840.
Gentlemen—l am directed by Viscount Palmerston to
acquaint you, in reply to your letter of the 4th instant, that
his Lordship has already instructed her Majesty's Ambas-
sador at Constantinople, and her Majesty's Agent and Con-
sul-General in Egypt severally to make representations to
the Porte and Mehemet Ali, respecting the persecutions
which the Jews of Rhodes and of Damascus arc stated
recently to hare been subjected to. I am, Gentlemen,
Your most obedient humble servant,
LEVISON.
Messrs. Solomon and Simpson, Portsea.

CORN.LAWS.

MR. ACLAND'S SECOND VISIT TO SAXNILIND.

HAM.

Undaunted by the brutal conduct of certain Tory
farmers, Mr. Acland, the Anti-Corn-law Lecturer,
paid a second visit to Saxmundham, on Thursday last,
and, notwithstanding the frequent showers, numbers of
agricultural labourers were seen entering the town from
all quarters, and repairing to the tnarket-place, where,
however, the space occupied a fortnight previously by
Mr. Acland, was covered by sheep-folds and their fleecy
tenants. This being the first time the ground had been
so used, the conclusion that the sheep were brought
there in prevention of the lecture, or as an annoyance to
the lecturer, was a very natural one. The market
continuing until about half-past seven, that hour had
been fixed upon for the commencement of the proceed-
.
nags ; and when temporary hustings were erected on a
new site in the marketplace, the assembled hundreds
collected around it—very many of them being provided
with good sticks, and not a few declaring that on this
occasion foul play should not be tolerated. As soon
as the Lecturer's locality became known, half-a-dozen po-
licemen took their places in front of the hustings for
the purpose of keeping an open space, and about fifty
others of the force were shortly afterwards marched into
the neighbourhood, and were formed in military style,
until, precisely at half-past seven, Mr. Acland took his
elevated standing in the centre of enthusiastic and de-
termined friends, when the main body of police, under
the command of an Inspector and Superintendent, en
tered the crowd, and formed two deep within the circle
around the hustings.
Mr. ACKLAND, without in any way adverting to the
disgraceful affair of the 7th instant, began by informing
the assembled multitude that he appeared before them
to invite their peaceful, yet earnest consideration of
the great question of Corn-law repeal ; to give them
such information on the subject as might the better
enable them to form correct conclusions, and aid in the
effort now making throughout the country to obtain
justice. He then entered on the question whether it was
right that a Christian people, in a Christian country, and
under a Christian Government, should be restricted to
a short supply of food. There were more people in the
country than the agriculturists could provide food for,
from the soil under cultivation : there were but two

loaves among three persons, and the landowners being
the law-makers, they enacted a Corn-law to prevent the
third loaf being brought i❑to the country, and which
law operated as a Bread Tax upon every consumer of
that chief necessary of life. The Christian was taught
to pray to God that all men might receive their needful
daily supply of food, end our Christian Legislature,
after so praying, shut their prayer-book and opened the
statute-book, whereon they inscribed a law precluding
the possibility of the poor man getting by his honest
labour the sustenance essentially necessary to his
strengtbful and healthful existence.

Here a respectable farmer (Mr. John Rouse Cooper
of Westleton,) who had entered the circle, observed
that such was not the case with their labourers, who
were well paid and well fed.
Mr. ACLAND denied that it was so. He would not
enter on the question of v% hat wages they received, for
there might be a difference of opinion as to the average
but he would ask the gentleman how much beef and
mutton the farming labourers got with their bread ?
Mr. COOPER admitted that they got ❑one ; but it was
said that pork was cheap enough.
Mr. ACLAND replied he knew that fact, and could
account for it. The poor peasants unable to keep
their pigs for their own support, and being under the
necessity of selling them, pork was cheap ; the condition
of the agricultural labourers would always be ascer-
tained by the price of pork in the market. It was
matter of notoriety to those who heard him that the
people were at this moment in a miserable condition ;
what was its cause ? There were more men than the
farmers could profitably employ. This was proved by
the insufficiency of their wages ; and how could
their condition be improved, save, by an in-
creased demand for their industry ? Such demand
could not be expected from the agricultural employer,
who was restricted by the limited extent of the
soil, and who was therefore unable to help those
who were nevertheless taught to rely wholly upon the
broken reed of agricultural employment. Happily the
commercial enterprise of this commercial country,
although crippled by landowners' laws, was elastic—

and the means of providing employment for the in-
dustrious labourer equally so. The produce of this
country, was at a discount everywhere else ; that of
manufacturing industry at a premium, the wide world
over. It was thus manifest that there was no help for
the farm labourer, but from such an increasing demand
for our manufactures as should absorb the surplus
labour of agricultural districts ; yet the Corn-law said
in effect to our industrious operatives, " you shall not
sell your labour to any but Englishmen—though the
foreigners should bid a price for it above that which
you can otherwise obtain ;" and it further said, "you
shall not buy your food of any but Englishmen—
though foreigners should offer it at a price below that
which you must otherwise give for it."
Hero Mr. Cooper asked several questions in suc-
cession, which Mr. Acland answered in their order—a
course which, most desirable as it was, gave the re-
mainder of the proceedings more the appearance of a
discussion than a lecture. We can only shortly advert
to one or two points.

Mr. COOPR supposed that manufacturers only
wanted the farm-labourers when it suited their conve-
nience ; to return them to their parishes when they had
no further use for them.

Mr: ACLAND observed, that of the many thousands
of farm labourers removed under the Poor-law Amend-
ment Act, to the manufacturing districts, every one of
them had first been pauperised by their agricultural
friends, now so extremely anxious for their welfare.
When trade was destroyed by the Corn-law, (as now,)
what right had the parishes to grumble if those they
sent away as paupers came back to them as paupers ?
But the fact was that even now, in all their distress, those
poor fellows preferred to remain in our towns without
employ—almost wi:hout food—and in the hope of better
times, rather than return to their parishes ; and, as
they expressed it, to certain and perpetual pauperism.
He stated this fact on his personal knowledge ; and he
could add, that these poor fellows found their earnings
in the manufacturing districts double and treble the
amount of their previous receipts.
Mr. COOPER objected that much land would go out
of grain cultivation if the Corn-law were repealed.
Mr. ACLAND replied that land brought into cultiva-
tion, and kept in cultivation for the benefit of the land-
owner, at the expense of the bread-eater, could not too
soon go out of cultivation. It was from the tax on the
poor man's loaf that the costly manures thrown upon
our poor soils, to fit them for grai❑ cultivation, were pur-
chased.

Just as it became dusk, a stone was thrown from the
outside of the crowd at the Lecturer, and struck his hat.
There being some consternation, Mr. Acland observed—
" I don't mind such trifles as that,"and resumed his argu-
ments, which we regret we cannot give at greater length.
We can only add, that at the conclusion, Mr. Acland
announced a second lecture for last evening, in the same
place, commencing at seven o'clock.
With the solitary exception stated, the most admi-
rable order was maintained throughout, the multitude
were delighted, and the rationalism of mind was made
gloriously triumphant over the irrationalism of brute
for ce.—Stifolk Chronicle.

SHIPPING INTELLIGENCE.

(LLOYD'S.)

BRISTOL, MAY 22.—Arrivcd the John Brown, Agliss,
from Odessa. Sai!ed the Mary White, Lorrimer, for
Quebec; Lotus, —, for ditto ; George Ramsay, Wor-
dal, Miramichi.

TORBAY, NIAY 21.—Off port, tho Quiver, Pundt, from
Madeira, sailed 12th inst.
TUSKAk.—Off port, the Horatio, —, from Barbadoes.
CORK, MAY 20.—Off port, the Nerva, M'Kellar, from
Trinidad.
LRkwicK, MAY 18.—Sailed the Corinthian, Davidson,
for Quebec.

BRIDLINGTON, MAY 2l.—h has blown a gale from the
North-Eastward all yesterday and to-day.—The Astrma,
Richardson, from Newcastle to London, came into the
Bay this morning, with loss of topmasts.
SHIELDS, MAY 20.—The Daridow, Patterson, from
Sunderland to the Baltic, put in here yesterday with loss
of topmasts.

VESSELS SPOKEN wrrn.--Earl Durham, Liverpool to
Halifax, N. S., sth ult., let. 44, ion, 39, with loss of top-
masts and head of mainmast ; Columbus, Soderburgh,
Cctte to Rio Janeiro, loth ult.,lat. 4 N.,10n. 21; Ythan, of
Newcastle,for Pictou, 17th inst., lat. 49, lon. 10, by the
Princess Victoriai, arrived in the Downs. St. Vincent,
Dawson, London to Sydney, N.S.W., 6th ult., lat. 0,
io W. and had been dodged for two days by a sus_
pieni 23,
slooking hermaphrodite schooner, in lat. 4, lon. 22.

From a return just presented to Parliament, it
appears that the expense of the trial, for forgery, of the person
claiming the title of the Earl of Stirling, amounts to 2,56,v,
The thermometer in this town, on Wednesday
night last, stcod within two degrees of the freezing point—.
viz, 34 degrees. The latter end of last month it stood at 74
degrees ; making a difference i 0 degrees.—Manchester
Guardian.

THE IMPROVEMENTS AT BLACK-
FRIARS BRIDGE.

At the Court of Common Council, held on Thurs-
day, a report was brought up, from which we extract
the following paragraphs with regard to the improve-
ments at Blackfriars-bridge, which is about to be closed
for a time, in order to be completed.
" Your Committee continue to lament the unsuc-
cessful result of tho proposed measure for widening
the bridge, agreeably to the design of which a model
is deposited in the Guildhall Library, and by which,
for the sum of thirty-two thousand pounds, and with-
out extending the foundation, the piers would have
been rendered as wide and commodious as the New
London-bridge.
" That with respect to the lowering of the foot
and carriage way of the bridge, and the lessening of
the acclivities thereof, mentioned in our report presented
as far back as the 7th day of August, 1835, and agreed
to and sanctioned by the Court on the 24th day of Sep-
tember, 1835, and subsequently on the 27th day of
July, 18:37, upon a further report being presented by
us, and the contract for the performance which,
with other work, having been sealed with the
City seal on the 20th day of January, 1836, the
same has been proceeded in ; and the trustees of
the Surrey-road having readily assented to co-operate
with us so far as the same may be within their limits,
we have great satisfaction in being enabled to state that
notwithstanding the difficulties and obstructions which
we, your Committee, as well as the engineer and con-
tractor, have had to encounter in the progress of such a
work, the whole will be completed, with the repaving
of the carriage way of the bridge, for which a contract
has been entered into, and the bridge entirely thrown
open and appropriated to the public use before the ex-
piration of the present summer.
" We beg leave farther to certify that although an ad-
ditional coffer-dam was constructed and a new close pa-
rapet, in lieu of the repair of the open balustrade, at a
cost of 15,0001., the whole of the works comprehended
in the contract will be executed under the original esti-
mate of Messrs. Walker and Burges, who were employed
for that purpose, and that the same with the alterations
in the approaches, the improvement at the mouth of the
River Fleet, and the raising of the landing-place, a plat-
form on the East side of the bridge, as also the repairing
of the carriage-way over the bridge, will he completed at
an expense considerably below the sum authorised by
the Act of Parliament to be raised for the substantial
repair of Blackfriars Bridge."
The Committee individually and collectively deny in
the strongest terms that there has been the slightest
ground for the rumours of delay or negligence towards
the public accommodation.