The Sun.
London, England, 1841-03-10 00:00:00

Cbt

LONDON:
WEDNESDAY, MARCH 10, 1841.

In the House of Peers, which met last night as
usual, Lord KENYON presented petitions from
Wales against -the new distribution of Church
property. There is no chance of contenting any
class by any distribution of a revenue which, in
its origin and appropriation, is essentially unjust.
The Earl of ABERDEEN made a speech 'on the
supposition that the Rev. Mr. CANDLISH had
been appointed to a new Professorship in Edin-
burgh College, but when he had finished, and
made an inquiry on the subject, the Noble Earl
was informed that the appointment, though con- I
templated, had not been completed. When it
was ascertained that Mr. CANDLISH was one
of the sturdiest opponents of the law, the offer
made to him had been withdrawn. It would
be surprising if the press had been the means of
informing the Ministers of the mistake they had
been led into, which seems probable, for the
Edinburgh paper stated that Mr. CANDLISH'S
appointment was completed. A timely notice
of its impropriety has, however, prevented that.
The Rev. Non-Intrusionist is therefore disap-
pointed.

Their Lordships passed the Copyliold Enfran7
ehisement Bill through a Committee, and then

adjourned.
In the House of Commons the S.wern Navi-
gation BHA was referred to a Select Committee,
after a division of 74 to 40.

Mr. VILLIERS, on presenting a petition against
the Corn-law, gave notice that he would renew
his motion on the subject after Easter. We hope
it will be kept alive in Parliament, for assuredly
it will not die in the country. A report, in fact,
prevails that Ministers mean to make the esta-
blishment of a low fixed duty a Cabinet measure.
We trust that this report is true, for any and
every change will tend to break up the present
system; and the proposition for a fixed duty will
lead we believe—indeed we are sure it will, if
the agriculturists comprehend their own inte-
rests—to the total abolition of the tax on bread.
They are, we
verily believe, the first race of
jolterheads who, ever expected to gain advan-
tages by lessening the consumption of, and de-
mand for, their produce.
A great number of petitions were
1.,-T)reel,sented,
or srper
and amongst them a novel one from
proprietors of Exeter, complaining
jury
done to their property by the publication of the
Newspaper Stamp Returns, and praying that the
practice might be discontinued.
Some little discussion ensued on leave of ab-
sence being moved for Mr. INGHAM and Mr.
W. O. STANLEY. The Members who stay in
town seem rather to envy the freedom which the
holiday-seekers enjoy. The leave of absence
was granted.
In answer to Mr. FRESHFIELD, the CHANCEL-
LOR of the EXCHEQUER stated that on Jan. 5 an
officer was sent to Dartmouth for the purpose
of preparing to carry into effect the recommen-
dations of Commissioners that Dartmouth should
be the port for the departure and arrival of the
mail packets.

Mr. F. KELLY moved that the petition of Mr.
REEVES, a surveyor of taxes, who complains that
his pension is not adequate to his services, be re-
ferred to a Select Committee.
Mr. PARKER resisted the motion, because the
Treasury had followed in the case of Mr. REEVES
the principles it had invariably followed.
After a short debate, the House divided, and
MT. KELLY'S motion was rejected by 38 to 27.
Returns of the expense of the Canadian and
Syrian wars, were ordered on the motion of Mr.

Mr. MILES obtained leave to bring in a Bill to
give Justices power, in Special Sessions, to en-
force penalties for breach of promise of mar-
riage &c
•

Mr. LABOUCHERE moved the appointment of
a Sleet Committee on the Railway Bill, which
was ordered.
At Half-past Seven the House adjourned.
Such a quiet Session of Parliament as the pre-
sent,
has certainly not been known since 1828.
Probably the sound of war scares trifles out of
the heads of Hon. Members, or
makes them
ashamed of eascussing them. Certainly the want
of interest in the not the Parliamentary discussions is
consequence of a want of
many matters of great and pressing public
imr,ortance, which Ought to engage the
ttttention of the Legislature. In our
recollection the discussion of Parliament was

never less commensurate to the public wants. In
fact, if we are not mistaken, it is the greatness
of the latter which keeps the Members silent.
War cannot lightly be spoken of. The vast
discontent of the masses can neither be
overlooked nor remedied. Financial difficulties
stare the House of Commons in the face, and
demand skill and energy to overcome them.
These are matters which cannot be trifled with;
they weigh, we believe, on men's hearts, and at
present tie their tongues. Were the gentlemen
at Westminster more loquacious, we should
deem the difficulties of the Government less
overwhelming than their comparative silence
makes us suppose them to be.

A singular, and, for all true patriots, a melan-
choly change has of late years crept over the
mind and policy of England. There was a time
when it was the boast of her sons, speaking of
her free institutions, that she was the wonder of
the world and the envy of surrounding nations.
Latterly all respect, all love, all reverence for
these institutions has come to an end, and there
is one almost universal anxiety to imitate, and to
rival in multiplicity and minuteness of regula-
tion, the despotisms of Russia and France.
We reproach no one party with this as a pecu-
liarity, for all parties seem to act and feel alike
on the subject. If, to quote an example or two,
the metropolitan police, an imitation of France,
was introduced by Sir R. PEEL, the centralized
management of the poor, following his practices,
and those of Holland, was recommended by the
Whigs ; while the Radicals claim the merit of
a completed police Act, and a multitude of abor-
tive attempts to fetter our limbs and our minds
under the pretext of taking care of our health,
our morals, and our lives.
Having got so far in our race after foreigners, we
shall no doubt, bye and bye, adopt their pass-
port system, and their system of 'taking an ac-
count of all the movements of every individual.
In fact, it is somewhat unjust to insist as we now
do on the Government protecting every indivi-
dual against every possible evil, and at the same
time refusing to it the authorised means of
watching over and curbing those wick& spirits
who are the immediate cause of disorder. We
regret this departure from the localizing and
even individualizing system of our Saxon ances-
tors, and this imitation of the centralizing system
of France, itself but an imitation of the system of
old imperial Rome, which placed the whole
world in subjection to one tyrant.
One of the most extraordinary specimens of
this anti-Saxon, un-English spirit of imitation,
which we have yet met with, appeared in yester-
day's Morning Post. It seems to us the
last stage of grovelling, misplaced worship
of an idol, which time and experience have
proved can give no aid to man. If there be
one part of human exertion and skill for which
England is, and has been, for ages superior to
all the States of the Continent, except Holland,
and the Hanseatic towns at one time, while they
were free and independent, it is the extent of her
trade promoted.by comparative freedom. While
the Elbe, the Danube, the Weser, the Seine,
the Loire, and the Garonne, could not boast of
a single steam-vessel belonging to them, there
was scarcely a river in England but was crowded
with steam-vessels ; and they had been sent all
round our coast, and even across the At-
lantic almost, before they became familiarly
known on the Continent. We refer to this fact,
as the example of that commercial activity and
enterprise in which England has for ages sur-
passed all other nations but her own free-born
children in the United States.

Nor has this commercial activity been in-
consistent with agricultural improvement.
On the contrary, with the probable ex-
ception of some parts of Belgium, of Lom-
bardy, and of Tuscany, all of which, however,
were indebted originally to commerce or manu-
factures for their agricultural prosperity, Eng-
land is as much superior to the despotic States of
tlie Continent for her agriculture as for her
commerce. Most of the useful arts, and even
some of the fine arts, have here obtained a like
ascendancy. We cannot think that the absence
of crime and the general security of person and
property on the Continent are such as to warrant
us in having recourse to the police system of des-
potic States; but we are sure that our commer-
cial and agricultural success, in comparison to
theirs, is sufficient to make us all start with horror

at any proposition to adopt their commercial
system. The writer in the Post, however deeply
in love with restrictions, says—

" On the Continent of Europe we behold the Governments
doing all they can toencourage profitable industry, both
agricultural and manufacturing. * * * * They have
resolved, and we think they have very wisely and patrioti-
cally resolved, to encourage their own manufacturing in.
dustry, rather than that of Great Britain ; and, therefore,
we feel confident that, it peace continue, they will not aban-
don their present policy, no matter what alterations Great
Britain may make in her commercial tariff."

On the principle here expounded the writer
stimulates the Legislature to imitate the Go-
vernments of the Continent in encouraging, as
he supposes, the industry of our people, by lay-
ing restrictions on its exercise. The best encou-
raffement is to allow it to obtain its proper reward.
The farmer cultivates the ground beyond the
supply of his own wants, in order to obtain the

luxuries which trade supplies, and in proportion
as they are cut off the stimulus to his exertions
is deadened. Every encouragement for one
branch of industry is a restriction on another,
with a tax in addition to enforce it. We cannot
believe that legislators are so well acquainted
with the relative value of different branches of
industry that they should say this can be advanta-
geously impeded, and that promoted. We are
decidedly adverse to this blind plan of imitating
the policy of the French and the Russians, and
experience justifie* our aversion.
Suppose, for example, our cotton manufacture
had been regarded by the Legislature of the
last century as an exotic, making us dependent
on a foreign State, and the Legislature had done
all in its power, instead of leaving it to its fate
happily for us, to prevent its growth, and encou-
rage some other branch of trade—suppose that
it had succeeded, and then Lancashire, instead
of now containing about one million of inhabi-
tants, and being cultivated in every part, and
everywhere intersected with roads and canals,
would have remained one of the least improved
counties of England. The cotton manufactory
came late into existence, and is therefore unin-
cumbered with a multitude of restrictions which
legislation previously fixed on other trades. In
this
into.esl3eet greatnessi it is like s
withouttea steam n
theavi navigation;-which
tliZITh of li3eghishlaa-s
grown
tivei •
potection. Both these branchesof
have contributed eminently to Britain's present
greatness; but both would have been
nipped in
the bud had the Continental system been applied
to them. At the same '
time they contribute
of
much to the extension
agriculture and the
value of its produce. Without steam navigation
the London market would be inaccessible to
many parts of Scotland. Without the cottoni
manufacture the farmers of Ireland and
Lanca-
shire would receive nothing in exchange for their
It is obvious that products.the success of
these and similar branches of trade,
,foreign
and domestic, affords the best encouragement for
agriculture, and to lay restrictions on them is
really to deprive the agriculturist of markets,
customers, and payment for his labour.
This leads us to expose a mistake in the Post,
which no writer, looking beyond the dead letters
he was transcribing, could have fallen into.
Our Contemporary puts down a long array of
statistical figures, and comes to the conclusion
that from the land we raise 216,000,000/. an-
nually, while manufacturing industry yields only
148,000,0001., and foreign trade only 48,000,0001.
But how is the value estimated? Is not a very
large proportion of the 246 millions exchanged
for manufacturing produce, which is the sole
measure of its value ? But for the manufacturing
produce, the agricultural produce would have no

. .
value; but for the demands of the manufacturer,

and what they supply in exchange, it never would
be produced. The value put down by the Post

is not measured by use, but by exchange, and
is, in fact, derived from the commerce and the
manufactures which the Post places in opposi-
tion to it.

Again, the Post separates our foreign from
our home trade,but the slightest reflection ought
to satisfy the Post that one cannot flourish
without the other. A great part of our home