The Sun.
London, England, 1841-11-15 00:00:00

Q7ttv .‘ttit,,

. . Tow.nnia
MONDAY, NOVEMBER 15, 1841.

The Tories seem to be at their wits' end to
know what to do. The distress is appalling;
and they have taken office to prevent the proper
remedy being applied. A report now prevails
that they are about to adopt the schemes of some
theorists, and send the people abroad, whom they
will not allow to feed themselves at home.
Amongst the remedies for the existing distress,
it is said; in thccity, " the Government has de-
termined to raise a large sum of money
by loan :to 'be applied to emigration." The
funds have fallen per cent. in conse-
quence •of the -report ; and the project is
likely to meet With so much approbation that
the Tory Government, however much op-
posed to it formerly, may be encouraged to make
the attempt. The scheme will be acceptable to
many classes, including a considerable number
of our own friends and our own party; neverthe-
less, we must at once state, that if brought for-
ward now, and by the Tories, it shall have our
hearty opposition.
They propose it now to stifle the demand for
justice. it is suppused that, if the people be mo-
mentarily supplied, nothing further will be heard
against the Corn-laws, and the landlords may
quietly continue in the enjoyment of their plun-
der. Ti ose who are beguiled by such a supposi-
tion will sacrifice principle :o momentary expe-
diency, and the permanent prosperity of all
classes to temporary ewe,. The ultimate safety
or the empire can only he secured by founding
our legislation on principles of justice, and a
better beginning couldnotPossibly be made than
by abolishing the landlords' tax on the people's
bread.

It may at the same time be doubted whether
the project, if carried into effeet: would give even
'ate nci,i,iniorpaoriyin,i relief.
ofTo
-Istent Journal;
crotchetvne"' n
d
cynicis-m--which, unable to shut out- the truth;
rTl.setil ineo
states in one place that civilization increases
life, and of course increases the means of feeding
it, and in another that employment and plenty
are to be found in barbarous co
untries.—tlhat
Journal says that the hope of being sent out of
the country- would at once go far to alleviate the
misery of the people. But the proposed Irian
Would be - employed for the first six or twelve
months jn .unproductive labour; for, till the
people were transported to the colonies, and bid
cleared the land, they could produCe no food, and
till that period the scheme could give no relief
whatever. On the contrary, it would raise prices
without increasing the supply of food, and might
increase the distress. The emigrants would have
to be provided for out of the common stock during
many months ; and the loan that enabled them
to live till they could produce something like
money, given away as charity to the idle, would be
an injury to those who were not participators in the
relief.

No scheme of state emigration can give
prompt as.iistanee to the emintry, or 1.).t. of per-
manent advantage to it. To suspend the Corn-
laws by an Oder in Council, or to abolish that
1-iw, would give instant employment and relief
to the greater portion of those who now pine in
idleness and wretchedness. To transplant them
t) Canada ar New Zealand %voted be a great
pain to them. They know nothing of the sea,
and look en it with dread, like most people who •
are not familiar with its Nvonders. Their occu-
pations are totally different from those they
would be required to perform in a new colony,
and they would soon repent the delusion which
led them to leave England for ever. At present
there are a great many colonial land-jobbers in
t'le metropolis. The shares of land companies
are numerous, and those. who recommend emi-
gration should be called on to prove that they
are not interested parties.

There are, however, higher considerations

~hau these c,iinectecl with 1... e
great evil of thellayds the hostility between the
different classes. The minds of the working men
are soured by long suffering, and we want a re-
medy for that great social disease_as much as for
poverty and distress. It becomes of great im-
portance to ascertain, therefore, in what light
the people would regard this emigration. If
they should look on it as a continuation of the
..policy by which they are habitually oppressed,
it will probably increase their exasperation, and
add to that estrangement which is the threaten-
ing evil of the day.
At several times great exertions have been
made by individuals to induce the people to
emigrate as a means of relief, but though their
sufferings have been great, and in some cases
they have emigrated when supplied with the
means, they have not petitioned in great num-
bers to be enabled to emigrate as they have peti-
tioned for the repeal of the Corn-laws and the
extension of the suffrage. Some few hand-
loom weavers, but only a few preferred such a
prayer and the refusal they received will at once
convince the people that it is not for their in-
terest, but for the interest of the aristocracy that
it is now proposed' to send them from their na-
tive land.

The industrious people will probably say," This
is another scheme to injure us. We are making
the aristocracy uneasy, and now they mean to get
rid of us. We are to be treated as the white men
treated the red men; we are to be.driven from
the land of our fathers to make room for our
oppressors.. That the plough of Europe•should
cut
.up the Indian's hunting grounds seems na-
tural and ordained.; it substitutes millionS of
civilized men for a few wandering savages ; but
we do not see why we, the possessors of the arts
of civilized life, should give place to those who
possess them not, but claim to be our masters.
Our several arts belong to a great system of di-
vision of labour which has grown up in this civi-
lized country; we are nothing without our looms,
our forges, and our workshops; we and our tools
and instruments belong together, and we know
nothing about cultivating the wilderness; we
are civilized men performing our shares in
that system of production which embraces
the whole commercial world; here is our
home, here are our arts, here are the means of
practising them, and we will not suffer ourselves
to be wrenched away from all that is valuable to
us ; we will not learn new arts and new habits
because it comports With your fancied expedi-
ency. Rather give us the rights we demand ;
give us a full share in the power of making
taws; give us the abolition of the bread tax; give
us the means of quietly protecting our industry
from your rapacity ; give us freedom of com-
merce, for we mean to abide in the land which
GOD has given us.

" You have already pledged our industry and
:.he industry of our children to pay the debts con-
tracted to carry on your wars, and you now pro-
pose to pledge' it further to transport us weavers
and spinners to an untenanted wilderness. You
treat us worse than negroes. You gave our
money_to liberate them ; you now propose to
pledge our industry to continue us in slavery. If
we want to go abroad the United States of
America opens her capacious bosom and out-
stretched arms to welcome us. Her resources
are unbounded; her land is cheaper (about ss. GI
an acre) than yours (sold for 12s. or 205.) ; her
soil is various and fertile ; her institutions free
and economical. We prefer going thither, where
our brethren have established themselves to
going to New Zealand or the Colonies, whither
you send your thieves. That great country is
comparatively close to our shores, and if we•
meant to leave the land of our birth
we would go thither to escape your oppression.
But you propose to burden our industry and
the industry of our descendants by a loan, .of
which we must pay the interest, to send us to
some colony over which your power extends.
Your object, then, is not to benefit us, but to
keep us in a state of thraldom; and we tell. you'
plainly, that we will not emigrate to put an end
to your fears."
Something like that will, we apprehend, be
the language of the working classes; and we,
therefore, should expect that this emigration.
,-.111 way iiilittLer their minds and add
to the national difficulties. It is a poor substi-
tute for justice.
We have some doubts, too, as to the result of
now sending a large body of emigrants from our
shores. They will carry with them the hostile
passions and opinions that unhappily separate
the different classes. As men are removed
from the daily restraints of company—as
they live isolated—they acquire the manners
of savages, and their passions increase in
intensity. In a new colony much of the mutual
dependence of man on man, which is the result
of our complicated system of production, would
be at an end. Each one would act for himself;
and till his own land. Mr. WAKEFIELD'S plan
of planting an old community in the.wilderness
cannot conquer the necessity of providing for
subsistence, in which at first the bulk of the
community must be engaged. Now, as depen•
dence lessened and passion grew intense, it is
to be apprehended that the hostile passions and
opinions which the people will carry with them
might cause great dism-ders.

Before setting about colonizing on a great ex-
tent, it is incumbent' on the Legislature to esta-
blish harmony at home. It ought not to spread
our present discord over a new world. The Tories'
it is supposed, embrace the scheme to get rid of
Corn-law agitation. Let them put that doWn by
conceding Corn-law abolition ; let them do justice
to the people ; and if they then find they cannot
obtain subsistence at home they will save the
State the expense of transporting them. They
will emigrate of their own accord, and only those
will go who have the nieans or the will to suc-
ceed. To encourage or force our artizans to go
to an uncleared country would be the height of
cruelty, when, by an alteration of an unjust law,
they could live happily at home.

It appears that the ultra Tories and the mode-
rate Tories are beginning to quarrel irilreland.
Neither Mr. WEST, the Member for Dublin, nor
Mr. LITTON, the Member for Coleraine, has ob-
tained the seijeant's coif. It has been bestowed
on Mr. WARREN as a reward for professional
abilities, and refused to Mr. WEST and Mr.
LITTON to pay for political subserviency. The
Ultras, to which party Mr. WEST and Mr.
LITTON belong, are enraged at this. They allege
that their moderate friends won the battle by
their enthusiasm and their wealth, and they in-
sist on having a full share of the spoil. They say,
like the Duke of Richmond, we made you,
and -we can—unmake you; and if you do
not provide for us your Ministry shall soon
come to an end. This is nothing more than was
expected. It is impossible fbr Sir ROBERT PEEL
torim gratifye
Ministerhe whole
he
brood oof oorvreurpntmi oenni st d
t sf,o
uwnhdoes e
Fe
on all that is vile in politics must soon come to
an end, and Sir ROBERT PEEL, like ACTEON, will
be torn to pieces by his own dogs.

It is reported in the City, we
u a
At
t
the Ministry contemplate grantingnderstand, that
drawback
on all the Baltic timber used in shipbuilding.
least the shipping interest, whichbegins to feel
the general depression, and is generally
expects so much relief from its friend Tory,. Ti
plan seems probable. It is consistent with the
usual course of Sir ROBERT PEEL'S policy. It
will gratify some of his friends, and will disarm
some of his opponents. It endangers no Con.
servative interest, it confers no benefit on the
people it is a concession to a few opulent mid-
dle class men, and may be made with advantage
to the Tories. It will detach a few interested
persons from the large scheme of general com-
mercial reform and free trade, for which some
other men agitate,and it will strengthen the Go-
vernment to resist the demands of the people.
We have frequently adverted to the evil effects
of our present timber duties on ship-building,
and should be much rejoiced to see them abo-