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

THE SUN, LONDON. SATURDAY, JtINE 5, 1541.

SPIRIT of the PUBLIC JOURNALS.

Pecrst THE DAILY PAPERS OF YESTERDAY.
CHRONICLE.—The debate on the motion of want of confi-
dence must have enlightened Sir R. Peel on several matters—aeove
all, on the truth of the good old maxim; that " hones, y is the bast
policy." The palpable dishonesty of attempting to cheat two con-
flicting interests into a belief that he is favourable to each, has
over-reached itself. The frionds of free frade say, why, if yr u are
not against us, oppose the measures of Ministers without offering
any of your own ? The friends of monopoly say, why, if you are
really on our side, speak as If your only object was to keep a loop.
hole open for throwing us overboard ? The whole nation says—
For very shame's sake, speak out like a man, and tell us what
you really mean; and do not stand for ever trimming,
and balancing, and equivocating between the fear of displeasing
monopoly, and the fear of losing Manchester. As Mr. Handley
well told him, the heaviest of the agriculturists of :Lincoln is not
dull enough to be deceived by his clumsy device of a sliding scale,
by which he may at any moment, when it suits his interests, let
protection to the farmer slip through his fingers. If he means to
protect the farmer, why not say so? If he means to sacrifice the
Brazils market to the interests of the West India planter, why not
say so ? If he means to put on a house.tax or an income tax, why
not say so? For one reason, and for one only—that he looks to
the petty temporary interests of party, and is guided by no more
exalted motive than the wish to catch as many votes as possible.
at the next election.
TlMES.—Within the last month the Ministerial Journals have
been incessantly engaged in describing the abolition of the Corn.
laws as a great act of justice, more important than the Refbrm
Bill, and necessary to the completion of that measure They have
stigmatised the system which Lord Worsley and Mr. Harriley
are pledged to uphold, as an "accursed,"" inhuman" "monopoly."
and those who hold Lord Woraley's and Mr. Handley's opinions,
as " hardhearted monopolists" who "condemn the starving work-
man to hunger," " a comparatively small class, who derive all their
importance from that manufacturing industry which they have low
laboured to :paralyse," "foes of justice," men who are " in the
same position as if they stole a slice from their neighbour's
loaf," and who, in praying for their daily breed, "cannot
repeat the Saviour's words without hypocrisy" (a thought of
which the original invention is due to Lord Morpeth), supporters
of a " worse and more monstrous evil than slavery"—" ell-
garchists"—" parties whose object it is to plunder the people of
England"—" enemies of the working population." All this, and
much more, has been said of them by the most i nfluential org ins
of the Government which they support : and Lord J. Russell
himself, the leader of that Government, has oven accused them
of "intercepting the beneficent designs of Provi,ence." Ncver.
theless, such is the incomparable gentleness of their disposition,
that even this language excites no irritation in their minds, but
they continue to honour with their confidence, and assist to main-
tain in power, those who regard them, and speak of them, as little
better than demons in human form.
MORNING ADVERTISER.—We do not trouble ourselves to
speculate on the issue of this debate. Whether it be for or against
the Government, another contest, more decisive, remains behind ; a
contest in which the whoievation will be engaged, for the mainte-
nance of public interest. Well might Sir Robert Peel apprehend
agitation, with the avowal, on the past of else Government, that
the safety of the State requires the abolition of monopoly ; for this
orderly people, who are even servile in their attachment to their in,
atitutions, good or bad, when the Government defends them, are as
ready to reform and correct when it denounces them. There is,
too, in cheap bread, a solid and immediate advantage worth con.
tending for; an advantage too that will be confessed by all the
people, in spite of the attempt to persuade them that dear bre:.d is
an excellent thing, and cheap bread an evil of the deepest dye. The
people are well aware that whether bread be dear or cheap it is of
no use to them unless they have the means to pay for it ; but they
readily recognise that if we make goods for the foreigner, to 'ex-
change for his bread, the additional trade thus created will occa-
sion a greater demand for labour, and give them the necessary
means of profiting by the greater abundance.
MORNIN(s POST.—Reluctant as we certainly are to come to
any such conclusion, we yet cannot avoid the conclusion, that Mr
Handley's peculiar manner of addressing the House on Wednes-
day night—partly frolicsome and partly blustering—was assumed,
for the purpose of diverting attention from the treachery of which
he was conscious. He must have been aware that he was betray.
ing those interests to which he has been hitherto supposed to have
a strong attachment. Except as a supporter cf the agricultural
interest, Mr. Handley is in public life a mere nothing. Because he
was understood to be sincere in this support, the uncouth and noisy
habits of his advocacy were pardoned. It was considered that he
could not help being disagreeable, and that even his violence might
stand excused, as being an excess on the right side. Much as
men are said to lack self-knowledge, there are none but mere fops
te which fraternity Mr. Handley dces not belong) who are without
tolerably just notions upon the real nature of their position in so-
ciety, whether political or social, and the real grounds upon which
they are received or tolerated. We are, therefore, of opinion't hat
Mr. Handley was pretty well aware of all we have just been sa)ing
about him.
HERALD.—The present Administration in its gasping state,
proffers to every interest the destruction of that which justly, or
unjustly, may be suspected of interfering with its prosperity, and
by this sacrifice of each for all, hopes to clutch all into its grasp.
As to any general or statesmanlike views—any views, in short,
beyond those of retaining power—no, not power, for power is gone,
has long departed from the house of Melbourne—but the pay, and
patronage, which accompanies even the show, and shadow of power.
There are few so ridiculous as to imagine that they will find them
in the Whig Cabinet—none so inane as to suspect that they will
be found in the speeches of the Whig debaters.
COURIER.—Mr. Handley is in luck's way, that's flat.
After jogging on in easy, and, so far as public concerns, hum-
ble life, " the world forgetting, by the world forgot," for souse
half a century of age, he bursts upon us all at once in lull-
blown butterfly plumage, the gaped at of all eyes, and the most
ambitiously erratic of ail doomed and transitory moths. As,
inverting the passage, from the ridiculous to the sublime, there
is, we are told, but one step, so without intermediate stags of
preparation or transition, from a creeping chrysalis he has
spread his' wide insect wings to catch the gale of public noto-
riety. " Some are born great, some achieve greatness, anti
some have greatness thrust upon them," quoth the sage Maher-
lio ; we incline to believe, at cross purpose voting, Mr. Hand-
ley as richly entitled to class with the latter genus as his great
"cross-gartered" antecedent himself. His " greatness ' has
indeed been vigoroualy thrust upon him with all the merciless
mischief exclusively appertaining to the Conservative press
without, Conservative orators within Parliament. We are not
sorry to have taken our share in hailing toe sudden splendour
of the mid-day sun, if only fr,in the benevolent consciousness
of the darkling eclipse and instantan.ous extinction which
await it, when sinking and swamped, as so soon to be in the
cheerless fens of Lincolnshire.
STANDARD.—In our recent exposure of the miserable
failure of the attempt to excite a Corn-law agitation, we ga, e
the Metropolitan C .rn-law Association credit for telling the
truth in the advertisement published by them in the Morning
Chronicle, calling for more subscriptions. They acknow-
ledged in that appeal that they last year collected 1,000/.,
whilst they had, this year, they said, been unable to
raise more than 700/., notwithstanding the vast increase
of public excitement on the subject. This lachry-
mose howl for more money was followed by a threat of the
total failure of the conspiracy in case of further default on the
part of the people. We tave since been asseredsthat the sum
which these importunate mountebanks have received in Eng-
land and Ireland amounts to little more than 6001. ; which at
the rate of a guinea a-head (and we can hardly presume that
members of the committee would contribute less), w.ll
give to the cau e just so many earnest supporters out of
a population of nearly 30,000,000—a falling off from previous
mauilestations of nearly 50 per cent. If this be a proof of the
progress of the cause in public opinion, we trust it will con-
tinue to proceed in the same inverse ratio of success. Why,
looking, at the capital letters and notes of admiration with which
the accounts in the Morning Chronicle of recent " great meet-
ings" have been headed, a larger fund than this might reasonably
have been looked for from any one of them. There is scarcely a
charitable institution in London which, at its anniverasry
meeting cannot command a far larger share of the cash a, cl
sympathy of her Majesty's subjects than the Anti-Corn. law
Association ; and if it should hereafter be otherwise, any public
institution exhibiting so important a decline of itsfunds, will at
all events not date the increase of the interest felt in its con-
cerns from the precise period at which its subscriptions may
happen to fall off. The people of England refuse the Anti-.
Corn-law Association their money, because they do not care
one farthing about them or their objects, and because they
have in fact much better uses for it.
GLOBE.—Mr. Coltisahoun is very pathetic about Sir R.
Peel working without salary ; and certainly the bowels of most
ories must yearn at the recital. But, after all, the case is
not entirely unprecedented. Brougham, Romilly, Mackintosh,
Lord Grey, Lord J. Russell, &c. dil a good deal of work, in
their time, without salary, or much hope of salary. The
difference we admit to be a material one. The Whig
statesmen ultimately forced their measures on Tory Ministers.
The Tory statesmen have conformed to, and cobbled, the mea-
sures of Whig Ministers. They ha"e acquiesced, for the moat
parr, in passing (more or less &wiled) the measures of Govern
ment. Alost extraordinarily this is made a reason why they
should take their places. Public opinion has constrained thorn
(some of them, we grant, not unwillingly) to follow in the
wake of Whig policy, and assist in passing Whig measures.
They have done so as regarded Canada; they have done
so as regarded Ireland ; they have done so as regarded munici-
pal reforms, tithes, poor .laws, &c. Therefore the framers
of those measures ought to give place to them ; because, for-
sooth, they could not have carried them without their sup-
port and acquiescence. Why did they give that support and
acquiescence? In compliance with public opinion. All that
it proves, therefore, is that the Whig Ministry proposed
measures which the leaders of the Tory Opposition
could not but acquiesce in (with whatever reservations), if
they hoped to conciliate public opinion. And now they make
a merit of having assisted to pass those measures ; as if their
having been constrained (whether by enlightened public opinion
or their own) to afford that assistance—an assistance afforded ,
..against.the senseor neOSenee, of their .own pat ty--swere pot the
strongest testimony in fervour of the policy they attack; land did
not indeed stultify themselves by attacking that policy.

MONEY MARKET and CITY NEWS.

FROM THE DAILY PAPERS OF YESTERDAY.

TlMES.—Since the announcement that hostilities had recom-
menced with the Chinese the tea trade has been in an active state,
espe: fatly among the speculators, wh a operate upon the chances of
the market for a rise or fall, in the same manner es "time bar-
gains" arc carried on in the Funds. The advance gained in the
first instance was about lid. per lb., which brought the price of
Company's Congous (the speculative article) to Is. I Id. To-day,
when the details of the aceounts by the overland mail were pub-
lished, they had astill greater effect upon the market, for although
previously the speculators were inclined to place every reliance in
the facts stated, they being so circumstantial, and in accordance
with the view of the case generally entertained, still ►he very marked
contempt with which the Emperor of China has treated the Bri.
tish Plenipotentiaries leads to the belief among some persons
that there will be a protracted conflict before the dispute
can in any way be arranged. While this is the case on the one
hand, there are others whc; have of late watched the movements of
the market, and who still persist that the speculation is premature.
They notice the fact of the trade of Canton being still open at the
date of these advices, which was to continue till the Emperor's fur-
ther opinion was known, and they likewise contend that whatever
difficulties may present themselves with regard to a final settlement
of our rights with the Crtioese Government, the export of teas will
be sufficient to meet the wants of consumption, notwithstanding
any edict or prohibition that may be issued to the contrary. In
tact, this party believe that if we do not get teas on British we shall
on foreign bottoms, or through other sources equally available to
those engaged in their export. A conclusion of this ',lnd doubt-
less led to a great reaction in the market, which took place in the
course of Utz day, for whereas, on the first publication of our se-
cond edition, Company's teas rose to 2s. 3d. per lb., they declined
on change to 2s. per lb. for cash.
HERALD.—The following notice was posted up in the Bank
to-day : " Bank of England, 3d June, 1841.
" At a Court of Directors held this defy, _

" Resolved,—That until further notice the Bank of England
will discount bills of exchange and notes not having more than 93
days to run."
Although in respect of the rates of interest or discount no varia.
tion is observable in the terms of this notice as compared with the
last which appeared for the regulation of this portion of banking
business, yet an important alteration will be remarked in the ex.
tension of the dates at which bills will be admitted to discount ; as
by the former regulation discounts were limited to bills not
having more than sixty.flve clays to run, whereas by the
present notice a supplementary month has been conceded.
There are two reasons whY this measure of the Di-
rectors will be regarded with, satisfaction ; in the first
i 2
place as, pro Santo, evidence of the improved and improving posi.
tio of the Bank ;
inoZialop to the trading interests of the country, At a period of
and, in the second, as a very material accom-
szvere ‘prei.sure otherwise, arising from the depressed condition- pf
the inanufacturing trade which has naturally led- or compelled the
liarilariiiiirerests of the districts more specially affected to restrict