The Sun.
London, England, 1841-11-23 00:00:00

.•---.

.

No 1,5,355

LONDON, TUESDAY, NOVE;vIBER 23, 1841.

IN order to afford a further opportunity to the
OWNERS of UNSTAMPED EXCHEQUER BILLS
to have their Outstanding Securities Examined and Stamped,
Notice is hereby given, that on FRIDAY NEXT, the 26th inst.,
any Persons desirous of having Bills Examined and Stamped
may deliver them in at the Exchequer between the hours of
Ten and Four, when such Bills will be Examined, Stamped,
and returned to the Holders, on Saturday, the 27th.
AMOUNT cf EXCHEQUER BILLS RECEIVED and
EXAMINED to the Evening of FRIDAY, Nov. 19.
Number of Bills 31.134
Value
• 111 ON TEA GLE, Comptroller-General.
Exchequer, Nov. 20, 1841.

OYAL POLYTECHNIC INSTITU-
_ VON, REGENT-STREET.—MORNINGS and
EVENINGS except SA'. URDAY EVENINGS.
The GREAT FIRE of the TOWER of LONDON, with
the Military Signals and Music, in Two beautiful additional
Pictures, are just added to other changes in those remarkable
Scenes, the DISSOLVING VIEWS. Varied LECTURES,
ORRERY, MICROSCOPE, DIVING BELL and DIVER,
and 2,000 Works of eminent Art, Science, and Ingenuity.
A VIEW of CANTON, elaborately finished by a CHI-
NESE ARTIST, and other COSIIIORAMIC VIEWS, are
added in the Evening Exhibitions.
Admission to the whole, One Shilling.
Opens at Half-past Ten o'clock in the Morning, and Seven
o'clock in the Evening.

FORGE AND MILL AT LIVERPOOL.
TO BE SOLD OR LET, those spacious and
eligible PREMISES, situated in Oxford-street, Vaux-
hall-road, called the VAUXHALL FORGE. The Machi-
nery is completely fitted, and wi:h Working Tools ready foe use.
e Works comprise Shingling and Drawing-out Hammers,
Pudling, TBalling Mid Furnaces, and a Chaffry, a fourteen and
eght-inch Train of Rolls, and a Guide Train, three Pair of
Shears, two Cranes, and whatever is required to Manufacture
uses and Bars. The whole is driven by an Engine of 40-horse
power, to which two Boilers arc attached.
There are excellent Office Rooms, Scrap House, Smiths'
and Join: rs' Shops, Lodge, Weighing Machine, &c. &e., form-
ing altogether a complete estal;islinn-nt. There is always an
abundance of good Scrap to be had on the spot at a reason-
able ;.te.
Liveipool is allowed by competent judges to be one of the
st situations i❑ the Kingdom for manufacturing a superior
descriction of iron. •

ycur earth as brass. I will smite you with blasting and
mildew.' To execute these judgments is the prerogative
of the Most High ; and, when. His just judgments are
abroad, let the nations of the earth learn righteousness.
Wasting rains, and storms, and hurricanes, and
parching suns and wild tornadoes, are the ministers of
His vengeance ; they execute his stern decrees, and it
is for the children of men to humble themse!ves before
Him, and repent them of the sins whip h have provoked
his anger. We arraign not the Providence of God.
We presume not to call in question his ever-righteous
acts. Ile v..eld the elements of nature either to
bless or chastise mankind. He can blot out the hopes
of the husbandman. Ha can blacken and melt the
reen stalk till it is consumed in the slime of death. Ile
cdn break and flatten to the earth the tall and stately
reed that sustains the fall ripe ear, or send the blight
which withers the bloom of the shaping fruit. He can
fill the land with the cry of the famishing and the la-
mentations of the desolate, instead of the song of the
reaper, and the shout of the harrest-home. He can do

RAILROADS.—TR AVELLERS to LON-
DON by Railroads, or otherwise, will find the most
ample accommodation on reasonable Terms, •at EVANS'S
GRAND HOTEL, King-sheet and Piazza, Covent-garden.
Bed and Breakfast,. One Guinea per Week; Coffee Room
Dinners, 2s. Fine Sherry and Port at ss. per bottle.
Admittance at any Hour.

Apply to the Owner, Jeha Waring, Lydia Ann-street, Li
verpool.

MR. THOMPSON'S LECTURE ON
THE CORN-LAWS AT EDINBURGH.
This Lecture, on account of the importance of' the
subject, we give at as great length as our limits will ad-
mit. The Church in which it was delivered (Bristo-
street) was well filled by an audience admitted by
ticket. JOHN DUNLOP, Esq. (a landed proprietor) was
called to the chair.
Mr. THOSIPSON rose amidst much cheering, and said
—My Fellow Citizens—l can with truth assure you,
that nothing less than a strong sense of duty could have
induced me to place myself in the situation which I now
occupy. I rise, for the first time in my life, to deliver
a lecture on the Corn-law of Great Britain. In taking
up this subject there is much to embarrass the speaker,
however disinterested his rnotiaes, however simple and
uncompromising his Prinerplei. The knowledge that
his motives are those of patriotism and benevolence—
the belief that his principles are sound and righteous—
the conviction that he is supported by a large number of
the most enlightened and virtuous of his countrymen—
thesa considerations may animate him to the attempt,
but cannot render him insensible to the difficulties of
his position. I look, however, with confidence to those
around me for sympathy and indulgence.—(Cheers.) I
do not set myself up on this oecesion as an oracle ; I
come to declare with simplicity and candour the conclu-
sions at which my own mind has arrived ;.and to give,
as far as I am able, my reasons for adopting those con-
clusions, and to submit both to your candid judgment.
Though I claim to be sincere, I make no pretensions
to infallibility. I shall be happy, certainly, if your ver-
diat is in favour of' my propositions in the main ; but, at
the same time, I am ready to receive, with meekness
and gratitude, any information calculated to correct the
errors into which I feel myself liable, in connection with
others, to fall on this and every other great national
question.—(Hear, heir, hear.) As all I have to
say must, for the present, be comprised within
the compass of a single address, I shall not we try you
with historical retrospections or lengthened quotations
from authorities, however high and venerable ; still less
shall I offend you with personalities, with attacks upon
the motives of those who differ from me, or seek to em-
broil you in the strife of mere political parties. My ob-
ject is truth—my sole aim and end the good of my suf-
fering, fellow-subjects. In my humble co-operation with
my excellent friends in the cause of the repeal of the
present Corn-law, I am actuated by a desire to render
some service to the poor—to be the advocate of the
rights of industry.—(Cheers.) I can assure you I have
not rushed into the conflict on this question from a
love of novel'y, or a thirst for notoriety. I am not
conscious that I have any eye to self-interest or popu-
larity. At no period of my brief life have I ever felt a
stronger wish to be at liberty to fix and concentrate my
attention upon one subject, and that of another though
kindred kind. Various considerations, however, have
combined to urge upon me the duty of doing what lies
in my power to aid the present very general effort for
the extinction of the existing imposts upon the food of
the people.—(Loud cheers.) The principles on which
I advocate the total repeal of the Corn-laws are soon
stated. I have heretofore often appeared before you in
this place to denounce the monopoly of human freedom
—(Loud cheers)—l now appear before you as the no
less determined enemy of the monopoly of human food.
—(Cheers.) I would have all men free, I would have
all men fed.—(Cheers.) I am therefore a friend to a
free trade in the necessaries of life, and to free trade
gelerally, in the most enlarged meaning of the word.
It seems to me both reasonable and right that the la-
bouring man should be at libe.ty to barter the fruits of
his industry for the products of every part of the earth ;
and that a-wrong is done him, when kris made to pay
a higher price for the food that sustains him than that
which is absolutely necessary.— (Hear.) I believe all
protection, as it is called, for the benefit of particular
interests to be needless, and worse than needless, to be
injurious to the community at large—(Cheers)—and
that an unrestricted commerce with all the nations of
the world is the system most in accordance with the
laws of nature, the designs of Providence, and the hap-
piness and welfare of mankind.—(Loud cheers.) By
reading, observation, and reflection, I have reached the
conclusion, that the very interests sought to be pro-
tected, are themselves injured by the operation• of the
restrictive system, and that in seeking the repeal of the
Corn-laws, I am no less the friend of the landlord and
operative.—(Cheers.)
throughr a ive . —the farmer, than I um the friend of the manufacturer
and
Ca
lohnegersseies
.)rlo'fhayteaarsv,ici andou s t o system,whi which
acted
a variety of other systems have been conformed, can be
the
uponpe
t
at once reversed, without inconvenience, and without
loss in particular cases, I neither maintain nor expect ;
but I am thoroughly convinced that the fears so loudly
expressed by agriculturists and their advocates, are ge-
nerally without foundation, and that they, in common
with all other classes, would soon rejoice in the benefits
conferred by a system of unfettered interchange,—
(Cheers.) It cannot be denied that the Corn-laws is
the question now uppermost in the minds of the people
of this country,. and that the attempt would be vain,
even were it justifiable, to turn the attention of the peo-
ple to any other question. The peace of the country
demands its settlement.—(Hear, hear.) Were it not
so, it is one which in its own nature deserves and impe-
ratively requires consideration. The causes of stagna-
tion and decay in various branches of trade—of bank-
ruptcy among merchants—of idleness, of pauperism, de-
moralization, and ripening disaffection among the hum-
bler classes—of anxiety and alarm among all, should
surely be inquired into ; and as the existing Corn-lag
is alleged by many to be one of the most fruitful sources
of the evils and miseries which are obvious to all who
will open their eyes, it ought to be immediately and tho-
rougly investigated, both in its principle and its work.
ing.—(Hear, hear, and cheers.) What is the Corn-
law of this country ? Divested of the mysterious and•
delusive phraseology in which many are in the habit of
defining it, it is a law to make the bread of the people
dear.—(Hear.) Bread, like every other commodity,
can only be made dear by making it scarce. The Corn-
law, therefore, is a law for rendering the bread of the
people scarce.—( Hear.) And what is bread ? It is
emphatically called the staff of life. It is the prime
nourisher of man. It is the peculiar aliment for which
there seems to be an universal appetite. It is the pro-
vision which God himself has made for the supply of his
children's wants. By the lips of His Son he has taught
us to pray, " Give us this day our daily bread." Nor,
does lie forget to answer the prayer. He has placed us
in the midst of a world capable of yielding from its sur-
face sufficient for the wants of every living thiaig ; and
the promise He has given to us and our children is—
bile the earth remaineth, seed-time and harvest
;kt ' shall not cease." If there be any who seem
to be delivered from absolute dependence upon this par-
ticular kind of food, they are the barbarous and un-
tamed children of the wilderness ; but man, as he ad.*
vances in civilization and refinement, becomes more and
more sensible of his need of bread. Without it he lan-
guishes and decays. What is the duty of man as
taught him by the Word of God, by the instincts of
his nature, and even by the example of the inferior ani-
mals .It is to feed his offspring, to nourish and support
those who are placed in a position of dependence upon
him.—(Cheers). What is scarcity ? What is famine ?
By whatever cause produced, it is one of the the most
fearful evils with which a people can be visited—terri-
ble in itself, frightful in its physical effects, most lament.
able in its social and moral results. See its effects on
board the vessel, tossed upon the ocean, far from port,
its stores of food exhausted ; hunger at last converts
civilized, brave, and generous men into ferocious can-
nibals.
" At length one whispers his companion, who
Whispers another, and it thus goes round,
And then into a harsher murmur grows,
An ominous, and wild, and desperate sound;
And when his comrade's thought each sufferer knows,
'Tis but his own, suppress'd till now 'tis found;
And out they speak of lots for flesh and blood
And who shall die to he his fellows' food." ,
This, it is well known, is not the fend, of a poet, per-
petrating a libel on the species, to heighten the effect
of his fictitious narrative, but the stern testimony of
faithful history, demonstrating the truth that hunger
will transform men, before humane, and kind, and po-
lished, into the greedy butchers and devourers of their
nearest and only associates. Look at the family where
famine enters--look at the foi tress or city besieged—
survey the province or district visited by drought—
think of the scenes that have been. witnessed in India.
What is famine when sent by a Just God? It is a
punishment, a grievous curse, a punitive visitation.
" He tuna') the fruitful field into barrenness for the
wickedness of them that dwell therein." In His righ-
teous displeasure he says, If you will not yet, for all
this, hearken unto me, then I will punish you seven
times more for your sins. I will break the pride of
your power, and I will make your heaven as iron and

all !ll's, and he has often done it. But, to man it be-
leno not to usurp the prerogative of his Maker. It is
for him to succour and to help his fellow-man. It is for
par.ints, rulers, legislators, and' sovereigns, to care
for those committed to their charge—to take all wise
and proper means to provide bread enough and to
spars. It is for them to imitate the conduct of Him
who is good to all, and whose tender mercies are over
all his works—who openeth his hand and supplieth the
want of every living thing—to whom judgment is a
strange work. Who hath commanded us to deal our
bread to the hungry, and to satisfy the afflicted soul,
and to bring the poor that are cast out into our house.—
(Loud applause.) For wise and good ends we are
placed under a law of mutual dependence—of man on
man, family on family, community on community, nation
on nation.—( Hear, hear, and great cheering.) If I
have not wrongly interpreted the designs of the benefi-
cent Ruler of the Universe, he intends that, while asso-
ciated under different forma and names of Government,
men should yet be united in sympathy and interest, ex-
changing the diversified products of their soil and in-
dustry, communicating and receiving all useful know-
ledge, each contributing according to his opportunities
and advantages to the general stock of human science
and human happiness, and thus be all linked together
by innumerable bonds in the harmonious society that
becomes children of a common parent. In looking at
the different countries of the world, we shall find none
that combine all the advantages which nature has pro-
vided for the comfort and welfare of men, and none
that are wholly destitute of them. One country en-
joys a rich soil, fruitful in all agricultural produce ;
taother possesses mines of metals and coal, which fit it
for the production of manufactures. The different
kinds of food and fruits are peculiar to different coun-
tries and climates. The materials out of which the

various kinds of clothing are manufactured come from
every quarter of the globe. The torrid zone supplies
articles which comfort and delight the inhabitants of
the frigid ; and the frigid, in return, furnishes mate-
rials which refresh the people of the tropics. Both
contribute to the wants and luxuries of the inhabitants
of the temperate zone, which is able amply to repay the
obligation. Tills is beautifully illustrated by Virgil :
"Here golden harvests wave, there vineyards glow,
Fruits bend the bough, or herbs unbidden grow—
ller saffron Tinolus—lnd her ivory boasts,
Spice wings the gale round Saba's balmy coasts;
The naked Chalybes their iron yield,
The powerful Castor scents the Pontic field,
While famed Epirus rears the equestrian breed,
Born for the palm that crowns th' Olympic steed;
In stated regions, from the eternal Cause,
Such Nature's compact and unbroken laws."
But I must not forget that it is argued by many, and
always professedly on behalf of the poor, that it would
be unwise and dangerous to be dependent on foreign
countries for our supplies. I have noticed that this is
almost exclusively the argument employed by those
who are interested, or deem themselves to be inte-
rested in restricting our supply to home produce.—
(Hear, hear.) Many who thus argue are rich, and are
surrounded by every article that can minister to a re-
filled and fastidious luxury. I Lave heard this argument
used at a time when the table at which we were seated
was made of foreign mahogany—when the wines on
the table were from half-a-dozen different parts of the
world—when the dessert was the produce of al nost
every clime—the figs from one country, the wapes
from another, the pomegranites from another, the
preserves from another, the olives from another, and the
apples from another—when the carpet on which we
tr)d was foreign—when the oil burning abov! cur head
was foreign—when the coffee that we sipp3d was fo-
reign—when the radiant gems, and rustling si:ks, and
rich brocades, and curious fans, and novel fashLns of
the ladies, were all foreign—when the music played
after dinner was foreign, the words foreign, the fair
performer the pupil of a foreign master—when even the
manners of the company were foreign.—(Laughter and
cheers.) But, the fast is, the present restrictions on
the importation of food render us far more dependant
on foreign countries—(Hear, hear,)—and place us far
more at their mercy, than we could ever be if trade was
free and untrammelled. Nor shall we ever bs inde-
pendent of speculators at home, and of the fluctuating
supplies which other countries may be alo!e at the
shortest notice to furnish us, until steadiness, regularity
and permanency, be given to our commerce, by the re-
moval of every impediment to a free interchange of
products.—(Cheers.) I have already said that I dis-
cuss this question with special reference to the welfare
of the poor. I have said that the object of the Corn-
laws is to make bread dear, and that this can be done
only by making it scarce. From the artificial scarcity
so created the consumers escape in proportion to their
wealth ; consequently the evil presses with continually
accumulating severity upon the humbler classes exactly
in the degree of their inability to sustain the burden.—
(Hear, hear.) These lams, too, operate with ever-
augmenting
force, owing to the natural, progressive,
and irresistible increase in the numbers of the
people. Let me endeavour to show a little more parti-
cularly that the Corn-laws, while they impose an almost
imperceptible and perfectly insignificant tax upon the
rich—a very moderate tax, however unjust in princi-
ple, upon the middle classes—impose a heavy and in-
tolerable burden upon those who are least able to sup-
port it, namely, the labouring classes of society, or the
great mass of the people. This must be obvious at a
glance, from the fact that these laws operate as a tax
upon the first necessary of life. Take a familiar illus-
tration. A labourer or mechanic earning 40/, a year,
having a wife and four children, will expend one-half
of his entire income, or 20/. a year, in bread alone, or
at least in bread and substitutes for bread. If we
suppose that one-half (or, make any deduction you
please, the force of my illustration is the same)—if we
suppose that one-half of these 20/. arises out of the en-
hanced price produced by the operation of the Corn-
laws, then the labourer and mechanic thus situated is
paying 10/. a-year for the purpose of propping up the
system of high rents and dear bread ; in short,
the labourer is paying an income tax of twenty-
five per cent., or double the highest rate which
was paid by the middle and higher classes of so-
ciety in the most extravagant years of the late
war, and all this without for a moment including
the charges to which he is subjected by th• fiscal regu-
lations necessary to the Corn-laws, or the innumerable
disadvantages under which he labours, all springing
from the same cause. The small shopkeeper, or better
class of artificer, with the same family, and whose in-
come is 80/. a-year, although he may be better clad
and housed, and use more tea, and beer, and spirits,
will not use more bread than the labourer having one-
half his income ; his earn-tax will, therefore, be also
101; but, instead of its beUlg one-fourth part of his
income, it will be but one-eighth part of it ; and instead
of being an income tax of twenty-five per cent., its
rate will be ot,: t,velve and a half per cent. It is ob-
vious that the consumption of agricultural produce, but
more especially of bread, the first necessary of life,
bears no proportion to iocomes. The family of six
persons, with five servants, and having an income of
1,600/. a-year, will not exceed 401. a-year, or less than
one-fortieth part of the income, instead of one-halt, as
in the case of the labourer and mechanic, or one-
fourth
of it, as in the case of the shopkeeper ; the tax
upon this income, instead of being, as in the case of
the labourer, twenty-five per cent., or, as in the case of
the small shopkeeper, twelve and a half per cent., will
be only two and a half per cent. It is unnecessary to
pursue the illustration. Whatever difference of opi-
nion there may be respecting the causes of our present
national embarrassments, and especially of the condi-
tion of particular portions of the labouring community,
it is undeniable that millions of our countrymen know
not the taste of wheaten bread. Though they till the
ground, and sow and reap the harvest, they are forbid-
den, by a wicked law, to be partakers of the grain they
have helped to cultivate. 'Their food consists altogether
of the inferior kinds of agricultural produce.—T(
areear.
wasting away )
Millions now are upon short allowance.
frominsufficiency of food. Hundreds of
thousands are on the brink of utter starvation. The
poverty and wretchedness that first overtook the labour-
ing masses, have reached the class above, a class that
must always, to a great extent, he dependent upon the
producing classes. The depression in their trade has
added to the embarrassment of the manufacturer, who
finds himself losing, at once, both the home and foreign
market. The consequences are inevitable. All suffer,
but most of all, the poor man—the man who depends
wholly upon his industry. for his daily bread—who
has always been confined in his enjoyments to the
commonest comforts of life, but is now deprived even
of those whieh are absolutely necessary to his existence. I
—(Hear.) The most conclusive evidence has been re-

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