The Sun.
London, England, 1841-07-16 00:00:00

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LONDON:
FRIDAY, JULY 16, 1841.

Some of our Liberal Contemporaries are now
beginning, though it be rather late, seriously to
attack the Corn-laws. They are endeavouring
to show that it is bad husbandry to cultivate too
many white crops, and that consequently the
Corn-laws, which give a bounty on the growth
of white crops, is injurious to agriculture.
We are not disposed to enter the lists with our
friends; but our view of the matter is different
from theirs. Our Contemporaries write as if the
importation of wheat alone were prohibited. But
the importation of cattle is entirely forbidden,
and in proportion as the wealth and taste of the
people induce them to consume meat, the pre-
sent laws must be, at least, an equal encourage-
ment to the cultivation of green crops and the
fattening of cattle as to the cultivation of white

crops.
Such considerations, however, even if the ar-
guments of our Contemporaries were well found-
ed, seem to us more to concern the business of
the farmer than the great public weal ; and for
our parts we regret to see a question of the high-
est moral importance degraded into a question
of fattening a few head of cattle, or growing a I
few quarters of wheat more or less.
Of one thing, too, we are quite sure, namely,
that the Legislature as a body knows nothing
whatever of the best means of promoting agri-
culture, and therefore for it to attempt that by
legislation ought not to be tolerated. It is
also quite plain that all the arguments of
our Contemporaries being directed against
attempting to stimulate the production of
wheat by a protecting duty, tell with equal
force against that fixed duty of Bs. of which
they are advocates, as against the sliding scale,
which has given only a protection of less than
65., of which they are the opponents.
Our Contemporaries, with these arguments,
seem to us to have come too late to the rescue.
The public mind has ripened, far beyond
the influence of their feeble and watery sunshine ;
more masculine and bolder thoughts have seized
the minds of men, aye, and of women too ; and
the petty puerilities of a shilling or two diffe-
rence in the market-price of wheat in different
countries, or of a few acres more or less being
cultivated with one crop or another, are dis-
carded for the broad principles of justice. The
Legislature is scarcely authorised by public Opi-
nion to inflict death fbr great crimes, and it
never can be authorised, therefore, to starve a
single human being, much less thousands of hu-
man beings, every year, in order (if such were
the result, which it is not), to extend the culti-
vation of wheat, and increase the landlord's rent.

et
When an individual, or a class, is endoLveNv ex-
elusively d
elusively with the power of making law
men can gratify their most selfish or their most
• savage lusts, by going through the form of writ-
ing a few words in a book, or promulgating an
order, or getting up a mock debate, it would he
the height of folly in them to seek their gratifi-
cation by any other means than that of using
this convenient instrument.
If, for example, the Emperor NicHoLAs be
anxious to banish any particular nobleman to
Siberia, from crossing his path in love or war, he
may charge him with some offence, and legally
keep his rival out of his way till the end of his
existence. Now, for NICHOLAS, who possesses
this legal means of gratifying his evil passions,
to sally forth from bi,s palace with his sword, fol-
lowed by his guards, in order to seize such a
supposed rival, and transport him by his own
bodily strength, and the strength of his tbl-
lowers, would be considered madness. He can
gratify his lusts after a certain methodised and
organised manner; but they are not the less
lusts, nor is he the less wicked, nor are his ac-
tions less evil.

If, for example, the gentlemen landowners of
England can, by passing a certain law, extract
from each man a portion of his income in the
price of his food, would it not be silliness in them
to go to the actual work of picking pockets to
attain the same end? If the Anglican clergy be
endowed by law with a large portion of the an-
nual produce of industry, and are elevated into
the dignity of dictators to other men ; if they, by
being so endowedwith the produce of othermen's
labour, are enabled to live in ease and comfort,
and to wield a vast portion of political power
's ithout exactinT RiPat 471-11' ;:ng out. spiritual ana-
thimias; if,:•• = ecclesiastical courts to
compel m 4.,iiey their behests, what need
have they • of personal exertions to attain the
same end? If they were to use violence would
they not be regarded as mad, like the Emperor
NtcnoLAs, in the
case above cited. A dominant
individual, or a do
rainant class, which can attain
its ends and gratify its
wishes by making laws,
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