The Sun.
London, England, 1841-05-06 00:00:00

CORN-LAWS.

This day is published, price 25.,
QTA TE EN TS illustrative of the POLICY
L. and PROBABLE CONSEQUENCES of the proposed
REPEAL of the Existing CORN-LAWS, and the Imposi-
tion, in their stead, of a Moderate Fixed Duty on Foreign
Corn when entered for Consumption.
London : Longman, Orme, and Co.

THEATRE ROYAL, COVENT GARDEN.
UNDER the MANAGEMENT of MADAME VESTALS.
THIS EVENING. MAY 6
Will be repeated the New Comedy, in Five Acts, entitled
LONDON ASSURANCE.
Sir Harcourt Curtly, Bart., Mr. W. Farren ; Max Hark-
away, Mr. Bartley; Mr. Charles Courtly, Mr. Anderson;
31r. Adolphus Spanker, Mr. Keeley; Mr. Dazzlz Mr. C.
Mathews ; Mark Meddle, Mr. Harley ; Grace Harkaway,
Madam, Vestris • Lady Gay Spanker, Mrs. Nisbett ; Mrs.
Pelt. Mrs. Flumv.
Alter whisk will be repeated, the Grand Romantic Fairy Ex-
travaganza, entitled
BEAUTY AND THE BEAST.

Beauty, 31adarne Vestris ; The Beast, Mr. W. Harrison ;
John Quill, Mr. Harley ; Dressalinda, Miss Rainforth ; Mar-
ermilda, Miss Grant ; Queen of the Roses, Miss Lee.
To-morrow, Lc%don Assurznce, with Beauty and the Beast.

Doors to )-e ot.rned at hali-past Six—the performances to
commence at. Seven &Clock.
uress Boxes, is. ; Second Prico, 3s. M.; First and Second
ircle, ; gecond Price, 2s. Gd. ; Pit, 3s. ; Second Price.
2;.: dalkry la.
Tic', es ant places for the Boxes to be taken of Mr. Grogan•
at the Itox-office, from Tea till Four, where Season Ti..-ittets
ca.iv ne had .:2on application.
Vrivato BP,Sk A to be had sciely of Mr. Aare Ns, bookseller,
s'7. New Mond-street.

ROYAL SURREY THEATRE.

ENfOILIt THE MANAGEMENT OF MR. DAVIDGE
AND MR, WILLIS JONES. . .

Tao/ most pavrerful attraction ever offered. Third Night of
:laude Duval, supported by Mr. .1. S. Balls, and the ac-
knowledged hest Company in the Metropolis, with an en-
tire change of Pieces.
THIB EVENING, MAY 6,

_ .
will he acted an Historical and Domestic Drama, entitlrd
CLAUDE DUVAL, THE LADIES' HIGHWAYMAN.
With entirely new local and h! autiful Scenery, extensive Ma-

. . -
chinary, &c. .
Claude Duval, Mr. J. S. Balls.
After which, t'te Comedy of
WILD OATS; OR, THE STROLLING GENTLEMAN.
Rover. Mr. .1. S. Balls.
To conclude with the Romance of Diablerie, entitled
AI'OLLYON, THE GREAT FIEND.
Apollvon, Mr. 0. Smith,
The Last Week of his Engagement.

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LONDON :
THURSDAY, MAY 6, 1841.

The news from China, brought by the Over-
land Mail from India, is such as the now well-
known diplomatic and military character of
Plenipotentiary ELLIOT prepared us to expect.
Negotiation, like a wounded snake, was d
ging " its slow length along" at somethinz
short of a snail's pace. Up to the 7th of Febru-
ary the blockade of the Canton River continued,
and on the 30th of January a circular, signed by
the Plenipotentiary, forbad British subjects from
proceeding to Canton. On the previous day the
Plenipotentiaries had a long interview near the
second Bar of the Canton River, to settle all
differences, but though nothing was concluded
Captain ELLIOT did not consider it inconsistent
-with his duty to order the British troops to eva-
cuate Chusan—thus resigning the only hold which
England had upon the fears of the Court
of Pekin ! But ruinous to British interests,
as were the terms upon which Plenipo-
tentiary Ewor offered to patch up a peace
with China, it does not appear that the
Celestial Government will now accept them.
They know too well with whom they have to
deal to entertain further fears of him. It was
accordingly reported that the EMPEROR, finding
Chusan evacuated by the British, would not ra-
tify the treaty ceding Hong Kong to the Queen
Hof ENGLAND, and that, to blind foreigners to tl; e
nefariousness of this transaction, the Imperial
Commissioner KESHEN would be disgraced for
having listened to such a proposal. On the 10th
of February, it was rumoured at Canton that
KESHEN'S successor was actually on his journey
from Pekin to that city, and that he was empow-
ered to declare the negotiations between Cap-
lain ELLIOT and that sagacious functionary null
and void.

The upshot of the whole affair may be easily
predicted. We shall soon find that we have the
whole bu 3iness of the opium dispute to com-
mence over again. Why then persist in suffer-
ing the nation to be dishonoured in the person of
the least competent man in the United Kingdom
to sustain, in such a contest, the glory of our
flag? Wily not at once recal Plenipotentiary
ELLIOT, w hose continuance in such an office, after
the proofs he has given of incapacity, is as dis-
graceful to. the Government as it is injurious to
the best ii iterests of our fellow-subjects in India
and China? Able and competent men are not
wanting -.to bring the dispute with China to a
speedy, at kid for England, a glorious termination.
This will lie ver be effected by negotiations in the
first insta: The Chinese, like all Asiatic na-
tions, must first be drubbed into the mood to lis-
ten to rerzon. When well trounced they will
become ra.ti onal and just, in proportion to their
fears. ha d Plenipotentiary ELLIOT known
this, and ke pt it steadily in view, Commissioner
LIN would. never have seized a single ounce of
opium. The way to abridge negotiations with
Chinese C onunissioners is to erect for the Pleni-
potentiaril .!s a tent of piled muskets, and for
chairs of .state the breeches of a couple of pieces
of cannon,

The news from Central Asia is gloomy. Our
Indian territory is tranquil, but in Affghanistan
and the Punjaub, we are likely to have plenty
to do to r3aintain that ascendancy which is ne-
cessary to enable us to counteract the intrigues of
Russia in those quarters. Herat is again me-
naced by Persia, and it is discovered that
the Shah. Sot:JAR 00L-MOOLKI, to whom
we gave a Throne, is plotting against
as. This state of things requires the ut-
most vigils ice on the part of the Indian Go-
vernment, wJeli cannot, without the hazard of
da-gers, abandon any of its
still greacer positions
in Central Asia. Ever since the death of the late
Shah of PETVI.I the Government of that country
has manifested a degree of contempt for Great
Britain which it ivould not have dared to exhibit
unless countenancel by the Cabinet of St.
'Petersburgh. The repeated demands of our
Government for redress have been made in vain,
so that to other matters in hand we may have
SOOn to add a war with Persia. For these events
the Government at home is no way responsible.
'They arise out of a state of things which it was
not in the
Power of the Government to modify
-without producing
still greater evils.

The Peers did not meet yesterday.
After the presentation of numerous petitious in the Com-
mons, Sir R. INcras gave notice that on the 18th he should
,call the attention of the House to Church Extension.
Mr. Aluwrz give notice that on the 13th he would move an
Address to remove the Etrl of CARDIGAN from her 31A-
azsTv's service.
Sir G. CLERK for Lord SANDON, announced the words of
the Noble Lord's motion on Friday, to the effect that the
House is not prepared to support her MAJESTY'S Government
in proposing a reduction of the duty on foreign sugar.
Lord JOHN RUSSELL met this anomineetnent with another,
to the effect that if the House did not go into a Committee of
Ways and Means, and Lord SANDON'S motion were put fr,,m
the Chair, he would move a resolution that it is practicable to
supply the present inadequacy of the revenue by a judicious
alteration in the protecting and differential duties, without in-
creasing the public burdens, and at the same time giving relief
to the industrious classes. On those questions the House and
the country will now have to decide. If the Tories carry
their views into effect, they will give another proof that the
Rouse of Commons is thoroughly regardless of the interests of
N =.lllvmeeple of England, and must be purged by
C(
C....q4*--t :i6:, TAM DUNGANNON, Lord JoSIN RUSSELL
'47 '#:..lPt :1461" '4( "111/113 fnnds in the hands of the Eccle.
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siastical Commissioners had yet been applied to augment the
poorer benefices.
'l he House was occupied through the greater part of the
evening with the County Coroners Bill in Committee, and the
majority of the House seemed more eager to disfranchise the
present race of electors of coroners than anything else. They
were generally successful. After a protracted discussion,
on the various clauses, and several divisions, the Chairman re-
ported progress. At Half-past One the House Adjourned.

The value and importance of the Ministerial
propositions are proved by the fury of the Tories.
If they were not calculated to benefit the people,
all the corrupt and sinister interests would not
so zealously combine against them. In
all quarters, however, the corruptionists are
mustering all their forces, and employing
all the arts with which they are so fa-
miliar to get up a powerful resistance to
the Ministerial scheme. Whether they shall
succeed will depend on the people. If the latter
are in love with dear bread and cramped trade, if
they are resolved to.pay a double price for their
sugar, to foster the luxury of West India plant-
ers, if they wish to strengthen and fatten the
vermin which now prey on them, and if they
are contented to have their hands pinioned,
that they may be the more easily plundered,
they will do right not to give themselves the least
trouble to resist the corruptionists. If, on the
contrary, they wish that the propositions of the
Ministers should be successful, they cannot too
soon exert themselves, for the host of corrup-
tionists is enormous, their zeal fiery, and their
combination formidable. To oppose them there
are only truth: justice, and the people ; hut these
in the long run, prevail over all their oppo-
nents. To ensure their present success, the
people have no time to lose, nor exertions to
be thrown away.

The Whigs and the Liberals were the active
agents in putting an end to the slave-trade, and in
emancipating the slaves. Through the whole
contest, which was begun by CLARKSON, and ter•
minated by the Whigs abolishing that trade in
their short administration in 1806, the Tories
were the advocates of the abominable traffic.
From that time till the second administration of
the Whigs in 1833, when they also achieved slave
emancipation, the Tories in the Government were
the steady opponents of measures to promote slave
emancipation, and the Whigs in opposition were
the zealous promoters of such measures. Who are
now most anxious to put an end to the slave trade,
Dr. LUSHINGTON or Dr. LEFROY, Sir F. Bux-
TON Or Sir G. CLERK, Mr. O'CONNELL Or Col.
PERCIVA L, Lord J. RUSSELL Or Sir R. PEEL?
Again the Whigs are active in their work, and
are sending out an expedition to the Niger,
which is an evidence of their zeal, if not of
their discretion. Thus from the beginning to
the end the Whigs have heen the constant, sin-
cere, and steady friends of negro freedom, while
the Tories have been its secret or open enemies.
No sooner, however, do the Whigs propose a
measure to give a little relief to the over-taxed
people of England, without inflicting the
smallest injury on the black resident population
in the colonies, however much it may affect the
rent of the white estate owners who live in Eng-
land, than the Tories oppose it on the ground
that it will encourage the growth of slave-
grown sugar, and keep up the slave-
trade. This is of a piece with the
whole conduct of the Tories. Plunder the indus-
trious people by law, is the single unvarying article
of their creed, while they prostitute the hallowed
names of liberty, humanity, and religion to ob-
tain that end. Their conduct answers two pur-
poses, it degrades the general morality, and fits
men for slaves, and puts pelf into their own
pockets.

We are not particularly friendly to the exer-
tions of Messrs. FOWELL BUXTON, LUSHINGTON,
and Co. We deem it more worthy to put an end
to slavery at home than slavery abroad, We deem
it even dishonest to take a single farthing from
the taxed people of England to carry into affect
a romantic scheme for civilizing Africa. We not
only deem it to be dishonest, we know that the
whole scheme of the anti-slavery party has been
unsuccessful. At the expense of much treasure
and much blood it has engendered and increased
the evils it was meant to prevent. The Tories,
however, appeal to that as the justification of
their opposition to the reduction of the sugar tax,
and make this unseemly waste of our blood and
treasure a justification for continuing to impose
an unjust burden on the people.
Last night Sir G. CLERK announced in the
following terms the amendment which Lord
SANDON is to move on Friday :

Resolved, that considering the efforts and sacrifices which
Parliament and the country had made for tie abolition of the
slave trade and of slavery, with the earnest hope that by our
exertions and example we might be able to lead to a mitigation
and final extinction of this evil in other countries, this House
is not prepared, especially with the present prospect of the
supply of sugar from the British possessions, to adopt the mea-
sure proposed by her Majesty's Government, for the reduc-
tion of the duty on foreign sugar."

The Tories are all at once, then, most sensi-
tively alive to the evils and horrors of slavery
and the slave trade, and have no other object in
resisting the proposed reduction of the duty, but
to promote freedom and humanity. All the
planters, and those who kept whips and thumbi-
kins on their estates, as long as possible, who
compelled pregnant women to labour at cane
hoeing, or
,at the tread-mill, till they fell ex-
hausted, and flogged them till they could not
stand, will, with a view to mitigate the evils
of slavery in the Brazils and Cuba, vote for that
resolution ; many landlords will probably join
them. They will vote to keep up the price of
sugar, which is so detrimental to the farmers,
and they will still call themselves the farmers'
only friends. The hypocrisy of politicians, and
of all those classes who seek to enrich them-
selves by protecting or discriminating duties, is
truly sickening.
An excellent illustration of the fudge habi-
tually practised was afforded last night by the
people of Antigua petitioning, through Dr. Lustt-
INGTON, against the introduction of foreign sugar
into England. They pray that slave-grown
sugar may not be allowed to enter the limits
of the British dominions. Will the reader believe
that these Antigua people use slave- grown
sugar themselves, and use it because it is cheaper
than their own growth ? Here is the proof of
our assertion. The following passage in Mr.
WGREGOR'S evidence before the Import Duties
Committee has already been quoted in The Suit :
The difference in respect to refined sugar, strictly speaking,
is likewise intended to protect the refineries in this country,
inasmuch as the British colonies are not allowed to refine
sugar. They use foreign sugar refined in bond here, Bra-
zilian and Cuba slave-labour sugar. All the refined sugar
used in our sugar colonies is foreign sugar refined in bond
acd sent from England. It is sent to the West Ildics, to,
British North America, and to Australia. To all the. British
colonies, • I believe. They are a"together suppl;ed with fo-
reign sugar, the produce of slave labour, and r. fined here in
bond. All the other colonies, not sugar producing colonies,
are supplied from England. We compel our other colonies to,
take sugar from us. The refined sugar is all, I believe, from
this country. Those colonies confine themselves to use sugar
from this country. They have no means of getting refined
sugar, unless it be smuggled from the United States.
Sugar is allowed to be imported from the s•igar• producing
colonies to our other colonies, but the difference of price be-
tvieen colonial and foreign sugar being more than 100 per
cent. they come here, and consequently t urchase foreign re-
fined in bond. The produce of slave labour being cheaper,
the sugar refiners who have been with me on the subject,
have stated that it is all slave-labour sugar that is refined to go
to the colonies. That sugar goes to the West India Islands,
whim slavery is abolished, and to the North American colo-
nies, and to our colonies generally. It has always been the
practice to supply the American colonies with sugar refined in
bond in this country, but not with foreign sugar refined in
bond un' it the last few years.

We see by the financial papers published by the
House of Commoas, that the quantity of re-
fined sugar exported in 1839 was equal t) 573,3k8
cwts. of raw sugar, and of that, the whole which
was not foreign grown, amounted only to
10,470 cwts. Of that foreign and slave-grown
sugar so exported, not less than 9:2,004 cwt:.
went to our own possessions, and was consumed
there at less than half the price which our people
are allowed to consume sugar which is the pro-
duce of those possessions. No less than 14,452
cwts. were exported to the West Indies, and in
and h,
but the
the emancipated
ancipated blacks, the colorists of N ew-
foundland and Canada, may consume slave-grown
suaa
people of England, who are sup-

posed to have more money than they know how I
to spend, must not. 1 _

The worthy West Indians would send. to
England, of which market they have a mo-
nopoly, every particle of sugar they can
make or smuggle (for we believe it is by
no means uncommon for them to smuggle
sugar from Cuba, and ship it to Eng-
land as of their own growth) ; they them-
selves use only slave-grown refined , sugar,
and they actually petition to prevent the people
of England from obtaining any portion of the
same commodity. All the planters—the GRANTS
and the GLADSTONES-will support the prayer of
that petition, and will continue to tax, if they be
allowed, the people of England, on the pretext
of discouraging the use of slave-grown produce.
If they can possibly hope to succeed, how they
must laugh at the prodigious gullibility of the
the people.
The principle laid down in Lord SANDON'S re-
solution, and on which the Antigua people ask us
to act, cannot be carried out. It is impossible to
distinguish between slave-grown commodities
and others. Our own factory . children are
the most wretched of slaves. The working
classes of England are far worse off than
the negroes of the West Indies. Cotton,
tobacco, coffee, &c., are slave-grown products,
which we must and do admit. Nor is it possible
to make the political condition of any foreign
people, or their political principles, the bamis of
our taxation. No such absurd principle can be
acted on by any Legislature; yet on that absurd
principle, as illustrated by the A'itigua petition
and the Antigua practice, the Tories are to resist
the reduction of the discriminating duty on sugar.

The resolution to be moved by Lord SANDON
is a trick. It is solely intended to engage the
opponents of slavery in defence of monopoly.
The Tories dare not take their stand on the
Corn-laws, for which alone they raved and
roared on Friday, particularly my Lord SANDON.
They have pitched their standard on sugar, and
declared that they are to fight tbr freedoln
and humanity. They cannot succeed, fir
their professions and their conduct are at
variance, and they only render a profound
homage to principles which they have
throughout their political existence essayed to
crush.

Leaving their hypocrisy, however, to its own
punislunent, we wish to remind Lord SAN DON'S
constituents that were his resolution carried the
trade to the Brazils would go to decay. It is now.
comparatively little profitable, because we will
not take for our own consumption Brazilian
sugar, and the spirit of Lord SANDON'S resolu-
tion carried out would also exclude it from use
in our sugar refineries. The object of the Anti-
Slavery people is not to admit slave-grown sugar
into consumption at all, neither here nor in our
colonies.

At present the whole of the sugar refined in
bond for the foreign and colonial market
is slave-grown sugar. Let Lord SANDON
succeed, and the next step must be to
exclude slave-grown sugar from being re-
fined for exportation to our colonies. But sugar
is refined in bond for exportation, without refe-
rence to the market; and to prevent refining
slave-grown sugar for Antigua and. Gibraltar,
is to prevent it being refined for Charlestown
and Malaga. How can that which is destined
for Quebec, and must not be slave-grown, be dis-
tinguished from that to be sent to New York,
which may? The moral curse of slavery does
not impart a physical character to its produce ;
and to distinguish slave-grown sugar from free-
' labour sugar, after it has gone through the hands
of the refiner, will puzzle the most acute che-
mist. An attempt to distinguish them in that
state, must, however,be made, if slave-grown sugar
is not to be refined for the inhabitants of Detne-
rara and Jamaica, as well as fbr the inhabitants of
Petersburgh and Copenhagen, or the whole trade
of refining in bond must be given up. In either
case the refiners will be greatly embarrassed, or
ruined, and it becomes them immediately to
take the matter into their consideration. They
ought to resist the ridiculous and absurd prin-
ciple announced by the Antigua petition, and em-
bodied in Lord SANDON'S motion.

The Tories having little or nothing reasonable
to say against the proposed alterations in the
bread tax, the sugar tax, and the timber tax,
furiously assail the Ministers on account of the
time and mode in which they make the proposi-
tions. Let us say a few words on each branch
of these objections.
First as to the time. It is said, " Oh, if you
contemplated making an alteration of the Corn-
laws you should have mentioned it in the QUEEN'S
speech, and you only do it now because you are
defeated on the Irish franchise question, and
care not how much trouble you prepare for your
successors." Aye, there's the rub. The Corn-
laws cannot be stigmatized by the Government
without making it a very troublesome question
for those Ministers who insist on governing ex;
elusively in behalf of the landocracy and the
priesthood. ' How the proposed measures may
'affect the country is not for a moment considered
by the Tories; how they may affect themselves
is a pinching subject. They cry out bitterly be-
cause they are hurt, and we feel as much plea-
sure at their wailings as ever a mother felt at the
smiles and caresses of her first-born child.

But we shall grapple closer with the objection.
The Ministers had not made up their minds on
the opening of Parliament to meddle with the
Corn-laws. Their whole conduct and all their
opinions prove their unwillingness to entertain
the question. We give them no applause for
that, but it is a truth. They supported the bread
tax in its present shape as long as possible. They
engaged in the plan to change it at length most
reluctantly, and after the most overwhelming
evidence had been brought before them that it
was impossible to maintain the revenue and the
Corn-laws.

Last year they laid on an addition to all the
taxes. What was the result? The revenue was
three millions less than it ought to be. Accord-
ing to Mr. WILSON the new taxes yielded only
97,2701. According to Mr.VimaEas they yielded
530,000/. ; and, according to Mr. HUME, they
caused a decrease of 300,0001. The Ministerial
scheme, then, was a complete failure. How
were they to make up the revenue ?
Even if they had chosen to embrace the alter-
native of imposing direct taxes, there was no
chance that they could have carried them in oppo-
sition to the landowners. Diminish the expendi-
ture to any great extent they could not, for the
bulk of the empire was demanding more navy,
more army, more priests, more commissioners,
more laws, more interference, more Government.
We do not exonerate them from having unneces-
sarily expended the public resources. As Mr.
HUME said, having advocated economy, we have
a right to complain of extravagance; but only a
small section required frugality, and the great
majority of the nation demanded, and the majo-
rity of the representatives eagerly voted, a mag-
nificent expenditure.
It has been at length found in the months of
March and April of the present year, that the
revenue lagged most materially behind the ex-
penditure, and that it was impossible for the in-
dustry of the nation to answer all the demands
made on it by the State, by the landowners, by
the sugar planters, by the shipowners, and by
the whole brood of what are called protected
classes, who live nominally on trade or aTricul-
tare, but really on taxes wrung from the half-
starved people. This is the exigency which has
forced the Ministers most reluctantly to endea-
vour-to improve the revenue, by removing the
shackles from industry. , They are bound to look
to the State, and acting according to their duty,
they prefer the State taxes to the landlord's and
the planter's taxes.

" But why," say the Tories, "did they not
know all these things before, ascertain the
difficulty in which the State was placed in the