The Sun.
London, England, 1824-04-23 00:00:00

[NEW TIMES.]

The present time will form a marked epoch in
the history of Political Economy. Capital and
Labour, the two great counterbalancing weights
in the machine of social industry, both begin to
develope new powers, or at least to exhibit new
and peculiar applications of the power which
each inherently possesses. Capital and Labour
—Rich and Poor—these are distinctions which,
for each other's benefit, must ever exist—hut
yet it is curious to observe the efforts which
each makes to enfranchise itself from the do-
minion of the other. We would point to
two circumstances in illustration of what we
have here observed—the proposed formation
of a West India Company, and the Meeting of
the London Mechanics' Institution to hear their

first Lecture on Chemistry. " The sight of
eight or nine hundred artificers," says a cotern-
porary, " thus collecting after their daily toils
are over to listen to the voice of science, is some-
thing new in this metropolis." It is indeed new,
but it is a necessary step in the progressive de-
velopment of the social system. The labourer,
who, was anciently (as he still is in our Co-
lonies) a mere slave, the animated implement
of his employer, is now free, and conse-
quently intelligent, and therefore aims daily
at higher advances in mental attainment. With
the labour of the country mind is more and
more mixed and identified, and therefore the la-
bour becomes in the aggregate a more valuable
part of the national wealth. At this we most
sincerely rejoice ; for it has ever been our constant
aim to promote the true interest and to advance
the real respectability of the lower classes of society.
At the same time, it must not be supposed that any
institution can render the labourer independ-
ent of the capitalist. Individuals may change
places in society, but there must always be ar-
tificers and mechanics, and these must neces-
sarily look for pay and support to a class more
wealthy than themselves. On the other hand,
the accumulation of capital in a free country leads
to a competition which constantly diminishes the
relative value of the separate masses. These
masses, therefore, have a tendency to run toge-
ther, and to form legal or actual monopolies of
various kinds. Hence the numerous Joint Stock
Companies which of late have been projected, and
of which the most promising rest on capitals of
several millions in amount. The proposed West
India Company, to which we have alluded, ap-
pears to possess great claims to public confidence.
Report states its capital at three millions, its
Chairman to be Mr. Baring, and its Committee
to be composed of the senior branches of the first
houses in the City, both as general merchants
and as West Indian merchants. Mr. H. Man-
ning, of the respectable firm of Manning and
Anderson, has hitherto taken a prominent part
in the direction of the undertaking, and has ju-
diciously endeavoured to connect in its support
the leading mercantile interests not only of Lon-
don, but also of Glasgow, Liverpool, and Bristol.
Mr. Manning, in his letter (elsewhere given)
says, that the intended West India Company
is not to trench upon or interfere with private
establishments—meaning, we presume, that it
is not to take any unfair advantage of parties
already engaged in any particular course of
trade. If it succeeds, however, it must even-
tually supersede many minor establishments ;
and hence only can the shareholders derive the
large and permanent profits which they doubtless
hope to make. Capital thus acting in vast accu-
mulated masses must necessarily produce a great
change in the nature and effect of trade in gene-
ral. Within certain limits the change may be
beneficial, but it certainly requires to be watched
with roost careful vigilance by our Statesmen.

[MORNING CRIRONICLIE.]
The proceedings the Court of King's Bench,
yesterday, in which we were concerned, afford
a striking proof of the benefit of a Free Press.—
The moment the remarks on the condition of the
children employed in the manufactory of Mr.
Banks, appeared in The Chronicle, the plate was
beset with people who, either in the discharge
of official duty, or from motives of humanity, felt
themselves called on to investigate into the circum-
stances of the case. Great improvements took place
almost immediately afterwards ; the children were
no longer permitted to sleep three in a-bed ; the
house was better ventilated ; a schoolmaster was
appointed, &c. Sce. The children appeared in
Court yesterday, and we had an opportunity of
seeing them. T hey had a healthy appearance,
and some of them had even an air of hilarity,
which sufficiently proved that they were well
fed, and not over wrought. Is the benefit
confined to the particular case ? No.---The
publicity which the affair has received, must
necessarily have put every manufacturer with
whom destitute children are apprenticed out
on his guard. The lot of hundreds, per-
haps thousands, of poor creatures may have
been ameliorated, they may hare been not
merely raised in physical comfort, but prepared by
moral and religious instruction to fill a respectable
statioc in after life, in consequence of the lesson
which the notoriety given to this affair by the
Press, could not fail to teach. Let us put Mr
Bankes entirely out of the question, and suppose
some other manufacturer in his situation, and no
Press to draw the eye of the public to the poor
little things placed so long under his controul.
Let us suppose, too, some humane Magistrates
should, in consequence of some rumour, feel
it their duty to inspect their condition---
What then ? The 'affair lies entirely be-
tween the Magistrates and the manufacturer.
The Magistrates may say, We, individually,
will not be parties to the binding any appren-
tices to you. But application may be made to
other Magistrates who may not share their re-
luctance.—The manufacturer may fight every
inch of ground with the Magistrates who find
fault with him ; but the moment the public eye
is upon him, he is unnerved. In the meantime, even
supposing the Magistrates should succeed in com-
pelling him to alter his treatment, their artillery is
expended on him alone. No lesson is given to others.
It is our firm and decided opinion, that without the
exposure of the Press, our large cities, instead of
being what they are, models of correctness and
good order, would literally be sinks of abomina-
tion, in which cupidity and selfishness and vio-
lence sv.ild reign without controul.—The Press
is truly the foundation of all our virtues. All
who are in office, from the Judge on the Bench
to the lowest servant of the public, act
with a perpetual consciousness that many eyes
are constantly upon them. All other Tri-
bunals are kept in check by the one great
Tribunal to which the Press is Minister.—
Conscious as we are of the importance of the
functions which we have to discharge to the cause
of virtue and improvement, we shall never he-
sitate, when exposure becomes a duty, to en-
counter the indignation which it may call forth
in those who are affected by it. We hold in
abomination the wanton invasion of domestic life,
we detest calumnious attacks, dictated by a

malicious wish to give pain, or to feed a prurient
love of detraction ; but the exposure of abuse is
not calumny, and the interested or wicked can
alone seek to confound them.