The Sun.
London, England, 1840-04-24 00:00:00

PRICES OF STAMPS.

At a Post-office.--Labels, ld. and 2d. each.
Covers, lid. and 21d. each.
At a Stamp Distributor's, as above, or as fol

lows :
Half-ream, or 240 Penny Covers, 1/, 2s. 4d.—
Penny Envelopes, 1/. ls. 9d.
Qoarter-ream, or 120 Twopenny Covers, 11.1 s, 4d.
—Twopenny Envclopes, 1/. ls. ld.
At the Stamp-offices in London, Dublin, and
Edinburgh, as above, or as follows:
Two Reams, or 960 Penny Covers, 4/. 75.--
Penny Envelopes, 4/. ss.
One Ream, or 480 Twopenny Covers, 41.35. 6d.
Twopenny Envelopes, 4/. 2s. 6d.
Covers may be had at these prices, either in
Sheets, or cut ready for use. Envelopes in Sheets
only, and consequently not made up. No one,
unless duly licensed, is authorised to sell Postage

Stamps.
The Penny Stamp carries half an ounce (In-
land), the Twopenny Stamp one ounce. For '
weights exceeding One Ounce, use the proper
t number of Labels, either alone, or in combination
1) with the Stamps of the Covers or Envelopes.
Black wili be the colour of the Penny ; blue,
of the Twopenny Stamps. Two blue and three
red lines mark the peculiar paper on which the
covers are to be printed. The blue will be placed
towards the outer surface, and red towards the inner
1 surface of the letter. In the envelopes, a blue
line is placed towards the outside, between two red
lines on the inside. A water-mark has been used
for the distinguishing feature of the paper for the
i labels. A Crown will be placed on each label, and
the sheet which holds 240 labels, has besides the
words " Postage '' at each of its four sides.
Though each label is alike in design, it has a dif-
ferent lettering in its two lower corners—by this
means, the forger (should forgery be attempted,
which is most improbable) will be compelled to have
a different plate for every label, unless he sells all
marked alike, and thereby runs the risk of creating
an immediate suspicion against their genuineness.

Earl FITZWILLIAM, with that attention to his
duties which distinguishes him, has just published,
in the shape of a letter to the Bishop of PETER-
BOROUGH and the Clergy of England, an admoni-
tion to that body on the subject of the Corn-laws.
It begins thus :

Milton March 99
" And the famine was sore in' the land-. ' 1840.
Such, my dear Lord, and Reverend Gentlemen, were
/ the accents which tirst fell from Your lips, l when, this morn-
ing, you opened the Holy Book
Nwtoudeclaarrek whatto ~,our assem-
bled flocks the oracles of God,
......" And it came to pass when they hadru eaten pthe follows
which they had brought out of Egypt, their father said unto
them, Go again, buy us a little food."
Were ever words more fraught with practical wisdom,
I addressed by a father to his children, more calculatedt
penetrate to the inmost recesses of the human heart ?
Were ever words more worthy of a statesman addressed
by a ruler to his people ? And under what circumstances
have they this day been delivered to the assembled congre-
Ka-
tions of England ? We can all figure to ourselves the
feelings which these words must have excited in the hear.

ors, when they first fell upon the expectant ears of a
crowded congregation, assembled to bear the word of God,
and listening with anxious expectation to the first accents
which fell from the lips of their minister.
Well may we conceive the feelings with which these
passages of Holy Writ must have been listened to by the
hundreds, and by the thousands who have heard them this
day. But can we, laymen, conceive the feelings of those
by whom they have been uttered ? No, Reverend Gentle-
men, that power of conception is reserved for you. If,
while the lips uttered these sounds, the visual ray of the
mind glanced with the celerity with which the rapid mo-
tions of mind outstrip the sluggish movement of matter,
and at a moment brought into one focus—the people's
misery—the law of the land—and God's word—surely your
sympathies must have been awakened, your hearts melted,
your understandings enlightened. —" And the famine was
sore in the land." If we are not experiencing actual fa-
mine, are there not hundreds and thousands, and tens of
thousands, in our streets, whose condition test:fies that we
are on its borders, and that our people arc suffering many of
its evils ?
And what says the law ?—Does the law, like the inspired
patriarch of old, say, " Go again, buy us a little food ?"
Does it not rather say, " Let the famine continue ?" Does
it not at this moment refuse the gifts which God in his mercy
proffers ? Does it not reject the beneficence of the Creator,
and shut the gates of the Divine mercy on your country-
men ? Let me then entreat that your prayers may be
offered for the conversion of our legislators, that, through
God's grace, a new light may be kindled in their minds—
a new flame animate their hearts. I invoke your aid, not
because I am urged on by unreasoning enthusiasm in the
cause, not because I feel without reflecting—but because
those conditions, which I have long foreseen, are now come
fearfully to pass; because I see my countrymen in distress,
and my country in danger.
Will the Clergy attend to this admonition—will
they offer up their prayers for the conversion of
our legislators ? No. They will, on the
con-
trary, stimulate tue ignorant and deluded rustics to
petition for the continuance of the law which makes
the " famine sore in the land," because it enhances
the relative value of the tithes.

The proof of the increase in the price of pro-
visions, given by the Noble Lord, we must quote
for the instruction of Lord AsmsuaToN, who
stated on March 20 that he was surprised the fluc-
tuations had been so little—only in times of great-
est scarcity between 60s. and 665. Let Lord
ASHBURTON ponder over Lord FITZWILLIAM'S
statement, and blush for the error which his selfish-
ness dictated :

Of all proofs of the price of provisions, public con-
tracts, made upon open tender, arc the best. Those
which have just been made in the Poor-law Unions pre-
sent a vast body of indisputable evidence on this subject.
That evidence establishes, beyond a doubt, an increase in
the cost of human food far beyond what is exhibited in the
averages as stated in the Gazette. In the Peterborough
Union, my dear Lord, the increase per cent. in the price
of bread, as compared with 1836, is enormous. The con -
tract recently made is at 7id. the 41b. loaf ; in March,
1836, one contract was made at 4d., another at qd., show-
ing in the former instance an increase of 87A- per cent. , in
the latter of 57 seventeen-nineteenths, or, at a medium,
72 per cent.

Lord ASHBURTON might rely on the averages,

though they would not bear out his purposely made
remark ; but of the averages Lord FITZWILLIAM
justly remarks :

If, however, you conclude that the legal average of corn
affords at all times the true criterion of the price of human
subsistence, you will entertain a very unfounded opinion.
In common times it does ; but there are times when it
does not, and the present is one of them. If you look at
the price of that corn, out of which human food is manu-
factured, you will find that it -exceeds the average, far
more than the highest price exceeds the average in ordi-
nary seasons.
The truth is, that the last harvest w's, in most parts of
England, and in the whole of Scotland and Ireland, so

unfavourable to the preservation of the crop, that a large
portion of the corn hitherto brought to market has been
totally unfit for use. The averages, therefore, have been
moderate ; not because corn is plentiful, nut because it is
bad; and the very circumstance which ought to make us
desirous to obtain foreign wheat, throws fresh obstacles in
the way of obtaining it. You are, of course, aware that
the duty fluctuates with the average, and that a low aver-
age causes a high duty. Observe—a low average causes
a high duty, but a bad harvest has caused a low average,
and, by consequence, a high duty; so that, at the very
moment when, owing to the badness of the harvest, y e
most need foreign corn, we have so contrived our laws as
to hinder its entry into our markets. This you trill ob-
serve is the result of ingenious legislation—the pride of
man leads hin, to think that he can, a priori, devise expc-
dients for all contingencies—new contingencies arise, h's
ingenuity is vain, his contrivances are baffled—a just re-
tribution upon his pi ide.
If he would but have let things alone, if be would but
have trusted in God's providence rather than in his own
fancied forethought, these baleful consequences would
never have ensued. They are the result of unwise legis-
lation, of an injudicious attempt to regulate the price of
provisions by law, instead of allowing it to be determined
by supply and demand in a free and unfettered market, in
which she entire bounty of God is opened to the enjoy-
ment of all his creatures. If the market were free and
unfettered—unencumbered by the lumber of legislation,
the probability is, that prices would neither be extrava-
gantly enhanced by local scarcity, nor would an abundant
harvest depress them so as to deprive the farmer of the
just reward of his industry.
We must confirm the Noble Earl's observation
by quoting a passage from a Morning Journal of
yesterday :
The London returns were, on the 25th of March.
725. 10d. ; on the 31st of March, 68s. 10d. ; on the 7th
of April, 665. 5d ; and on the 14th of April, 725. 4d,
Now, the two low weeks originate is a quantity of Irish
and Scotch wheat snld in Mark-lane at 445. to 464.—n0t
for human food, but for pigs and poultry uses. The sup-
ply of this stuff having ceased, the average at once jumps
up, although the general prices have fallen.
In Bristol, last week, 1,000 barrels cf Irish wheat were
returned at 255. per barrel—they were bought at this price
free on board in Ireland, yet they go into the Bristol
averages. This parcel of wheat is even worse than that
used here for pigs' meat—it will appear as a sale of 600
quarters, at 425., and thus the duty on human food is now
regulated by that for swine 1 And this happens in the
year 1840, amongst the enlightened and free-born people
of Great Britain
The latter part of the paragraph we have quoted
from Earl FITZWILLIANI is true wisdom. On no
point do our legislators so much require admonition
as to leave things alone, as to trust in GOD'S Pro-
vidence, and not impiously and blasphemously to
conclude that they know better than the ALMIGHTY,
and can regulate by their fancied forethought the
affairs of mankind, together with the seasons and
the markets, in a manner far superior to His wis-
dom. Seldom, very seldom, indeed, do we meet
with any passages in the writings or speeches of
our legislators, so sensible and so refreshing as the
concluding words of the passage we have just
quoted. Were there ten Peers like Earl FITzwIL-
LIAM, peradventure the Peerage might yet be
saved ; but we fear that the number is much less,
and that they will bring down destruction on them-
selves by that pride which makes them suppose that
they can devise expedients for every contingency,
and can rule the world.
In what way the advanced prices affect the con-
dition of the labourers, is exemplified by the fol-

lowing passage :
In the spring of 1836, as I have already stated, a
contract was made for the supply of bread in the Peter-
borough Union at the rate of 4d. per 41b. loaf—the con-
tract just made is at 71d., and for flour 2s. 10d. the stone.
Now, if 40lbs. of bread is the consumption of a labourer's
family of moderate numbers, 40d., or 3s. 4d., would sup-
ply him at the prices of 1336, and, if his wages were then
lOs. a-week, he would have 6s. Bd. left for other pur-
poses—at the present price, (73d.) he would require 75d.,
or os. 3d. fer bread, leaving him 4s. 9d., if his wages are
Up., and ss. 9d. if 123., for other purposes. Thus, if
he has even 12s. a week, he will have 1 Id. less to spend
upon other articles, but if he has only I Is., he will have
Is. lid. less to spend than when his wages were lower,
and bread was lower. If any labourers still remain at
los. a week, their surplus for other articles will not ex-
ceed 3s. od,
re
This rise of wages, however, is by no means the ne-
cessaryf
sultolhhe m
arise in the price of bread ; it is highly
and the
honourable
to
more
voluntary. pralobylee,r,bewchaeursenvietr
hinst habsebeneepnergfeivcetlny,
" The squires of Norfolk had dined," says Mr.
es might, or gave it
rise and fall
Burke, " when they as their opinion,
of wagwiththatth
et the
marketrat e.
of provisions."
Temporary wages have, in truth, no connection with
the price of provisions, though permanent wages have.
We will quote yet another passage, and take
leave of the Noble Earl,
returning him the sincere
and hearty thanks of all Anti-Corn-law men for his
liberal and enlightened views, and
still more for
the great moral courage he must possess in express-
ing such views in the face of his aristocratic
brethren. But boldness springs from a conscious-
ness of rectitude. If the Noble Earl be flouted by
his brother landowners, and by the writers on their
side, who mistake arrogant mockery for discrimi-
nating wisdom, he will be honoured by all the
good and the wise,
and almost worshipped by the
half-starved people, whose cause he so eloquently
and pathetically pleads :--
Under such circumstances, however, the pressure of
dear provisions operates with tremendous severity, and the
guilt of the Corn-laws becomes the more striking, because
they are probably cnc of en- ( f that state

of things which has been productive of sach extensive dis-
tress in the commercial word. As a body you may not be
generally aware of this distress, but the ministers of every
manufacturing town and village in England know, feel,
and deplore it. Its intensity admits net of exaggeration—
it has exceeded that r.f the panic of 1825-26 ; and if in
some quarters the prospect brightens, there are others in
which no glimmering of light is as yet perceptible. Money
may be somewhat less scarce, but employment is not more
plentiful. There are villages in the West Riding of York-
shire, in which the whole population may be said to have
been for weeks and months unemployed. To revive em-
ployment by any direct operation is not within the compe-
-1
tence of Parliament. Legislatures are poor movers of in-
dustry—the best they can do is to leave things alone—not
to aim at prosperity by regulation, but to let each man_
each class of men—pursue their own objects in their own
way, without let, hindrance, or temptation. The Corn-
law, on the contrary, is constantly meddling with the
transactions between buyer and seller; one while alluring
them by temptations, at another deterring them by threats;
sometimes exciting hope, sometimes fear ; but never leaving
either party to his own unbiassed calculations. There is a
weekly interference with the market ; every Wednesday
new conditions are imposed in every market, upon every
farmer and dealer in England. Mischievous as this sys-
tem is in ordinary times, it becomes doubly so when the
course of the seasons occasions a rise in the price of corn.
It prevents that gradual and equable flow into the market,
which is the result of perfect freedom, and which is the
only true corrective of those advances, which occasion so
severe a pressure upon the poorer classes of your flocks.
We cannot ensure to them constant plenty; it is wicked to
hold out any such expectation. Vicissitude is the common
lot of humanity ; prosperity and adversity visit alternately
the rich and the poor—pauperum tabernas, regumque tar-
res—but we may abstain from courses which aggravate
these vicissitudes, and it is one of the greatest duties of
legislators to practise this abstinence, instead of perpe-
tually interfering with weights and counter-weights, and
vain endeavours, either to adjust the balance of commercial
intercourse, or to maintain the profits of some favoured
section of the community, at the level which is assumed to
be essential to their welfare.

At the meeting of the National Association at
Dublin, on Saturday last, Mr. O'CoNNELL said
that one part of his future policy would be this :

Ireland, in the first place, should have the same freedom
of conscience conceded to her in religion which is enjoyed
by Englishmen and Scotchmen.—( Hear.) The revenues
of the Church in England are paid to the ministers of the
majority—the revenues of the Church in Scotland are paid
to the ministers of the majority, but in Ireland to those of
the minority of the people ; and until this is altered we
cannot have justice. Who, indeed, expects it from an Im-
perial Parliament ? Why, Plumptre has a notice of motion
on the books of the House to take away the paltry 9,0001
a year from the College of Maynooth. Let it not be sup-
posed that I am displeased at it, for I declare that if I were
in the House when it came on I would second it. So im-
pressed am I with the correctness and efficacy of the volur-
tary system, and so much opposed to all compulsory pay
ment, that if I be in time for the motion, when it comes on,
I will second it—but certainly not with the same motives
which actuate the mover.—( Hear, hear, and cheers. )
If Mr. PLUMPTRE should not make the motion,
we are inclined to say, that Mr. O'CONNELL,
ought. Such an example of repudiating State
support would be followed by most beneficial
effects. It would make the Dissenters of England,
the really and conscientiously religious part of the
population, look with less aversion than at present
on their Roman Catholic fellow-citizens, and it
would strengthen that voluntary system, which
alone can and must in our community, where many
forms of Christianity prevail, be substituted for the
Established Church. Mr. O'CONNELL cannot,
we believe, pursue a safer course than thus to
make common cause with the Voluntaries, as they
are called, now very numerous in every part of the
empire, and by their help beat down the arroriant
Establishment, which is not less inimical to nil, v
classes of Dissenters than it is to the Catholi...; of
Ireland.

On this point Mr. O'CONNELL will certainly
have justice on his side. No Englishman] we are
sure, would for a day tolerate the existenc4 of an
Established Church which should be the Church
of only one-tenth of the population ; and how can
any Englishman ask or expect that the Irish should
Submit to such an outrage ? The Scotch have
proved that they would not submit to such a
Church, and they cannot assist in forcing such a
Church on the Irish without branding their brave
and honest forefathers, who forced Episcopacy to
evacuate Scotland, as rebellious-ruffians. How deep
is the feeling which is now gathering in:England '
amongst Dissenters against the Church of England,
may be ascertained by the Report which we yes-
terday published of the meeting at Leeds, and if
Mr. O'CONNELL be disposed to strike an effecual

blow at that gigantic nuisance the Church Establish-

anent of Ireland, the spirit which is now abroad
in England and Scotland will insure him a com-

manding success,

Mr. O'CONNELL is well aware that the inter::•st
of. the Tory party centres in the Church, and he
can take no more effectual means to r eaken that
party than to attack the Establishment in Ireland.
For its behoof Ireland has long been denied tnu-
nicipal government. For its behoof the Tories
wish to disfranchise the Catholics and destroy their
legal political influence ; and if it be demolished,
the citadel of Tory misrule will be destroyed.
Never before was the time so favourable for an
attack—never before was an attack more poise-
veringly provoked. The Anglican priesthood and
their tools began the crusade against the Catholics,
and degraded the Church into a mere instrument
for usurping political power. They have described
Dissent to be blasphemy, and have invoked again .t
it the arm of the law. They have invited tl,e
nation, by their arrogant demands, to inquitt
the utility of the Church ; and the fruit and corn
with which they have said it enriched the land,
however fair their outside show, have proved to be
rotten, and, like a mildewed ear of wheat, to be
only a heap of dust. While they have thus pro-
voked an attack, and thus forced their worthlessness
on the public attention, they have presumed to
make themselves the obstacles to all improvement.
The Rev. THOMAS SPENCER says, in his pain
phlet, " The Pillars of the Church of England "

Would you remove any abuse? the Church is in danger :
for that abuse is claimed by its secular or political friend
as one of the pillars on which it rests ! Would you make:
fools wise and drunkards sober ? the Church is in danger :
for ignorance and intemperance are essential to its sur-
port ! Would you banish its sectarian bigotry, or bumble
its self.sat;sfiecl infallibility? you risk the banishment and
humiliation of the Church itself Would you abolish
Church-rates, which wrong the Dissenter ; or repeal the

Corn-laws, which rob the poor? the Church would be an-
nihilated : for these constitute the Church I Nay, more;
if you let alone the Establishment, if you shake not ti,e
pillars of ignorance and intemperance, of bigotry and in-
fallibility, of Church-rates and Corn-laws, still it will
of itself, unless by Church extension, you erect more pil-
lars ; unless, leaving the wealth of the ecclesiastical trea-
sury untouched, you persuade the State to Appropriate the
property of Catholics and Dissenters to this purpose. The
voice of Scripture is, " What doth the Lard require of
thee but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk hum-
bly with thy God?" Whereas the ultra-Protestant
Churchman requires that you support laws that are
unjust ; that you imprison for conscience' sake, which is
unmerciful ; and that you claim superiority over all othar
Churches and sects in the world, which is any thing but
humble. According to him, to obey the Divine command
would put the Church in danger ; and if this be so, Let the
Church fall

All who advocate the removal
r t
h the
fhce Church
uurrseceah w
abuses m
aernietidieeisvecesrriybo desc as
ribed
Church evil,
th
he
uer ric h
a
e m i
re
e hey w
ho dn
s tof th eCh
iur
ee h t
y butand who use it as a shield to protect every abuse ! They
drive into the enemy's ranks-
1, All who desire a system of national education with-
out regard to sect or creed ; and these are the wise and
the patriotic of the land.
2. All teetotallers ; and these are two millions.
3. All who maintain the unrestricted right of private
judgment in matters of religion ; and these arc all genuine
Protestants.
4. All who are reviled by ;the Protestant Reformation
Society on account of their creed; and these are the eight
millions of Catholics of the empire.
b. All Church-rate abolitionists ; and these comprehend
the Society of Friends, all consistent Dissenters, and a
large number of liberal Churchmen.
6. All Corn-law repealers; and these include all
chants, manufacturers, and operatives, who understand the
evils that oppress them ; all wise landlords, who can fore-
see the dangerous consequences that must follow, if the
present system be continued ; all enlightened patriots and
philanthropists, who have sagacity to penetrate into the
causes of poverty, and benevolence to seek their removal ;
and all Christians, who believe that to withhold corn
the people and to keep back the hire of the labourer, by
taxing his food, are contrary to Scripture.
7. All political Reformers; who, finding the Church
standing in the way of every reform, desire its removal, in
order that they may obtain an extension of the Suffrage,
and
a Reformed Parliament, as the only ratans of obtain-
ing equitable taxation and just laws.
What a catalogue of allies for Mr.O'CoNNELL
But some are forgotten. The colonists who can-
not make roads in their country, nor pay their ov ti