The Sun.
London, England, 1841-07-29 00:00:00

THE TORTES CAUGHT IN THEIR

OWN (CLAP) TRAP.
(FROM A CORRESPONDENT.)
HULL, TUESDAY.—During the election for this town
we had repeated over and over again the absurd
lie that cheap bread meant low wages. The Tories
incessantly dinned this into the ears of their au-
diences (where they durst face any), not that they
persuaded any thinking working men that such
would be the fact, for their fallacies were generally
exposed before their faces and they laughed at. It was
not the low wages fallacy that gained the election, but
hard cash, with—worse—intimidation the most extensive
ever practised here. Well, the Tories are beginning to
have their cuckoo cry realised in a way they had never
anticipated. One instance, and a significant one it is, oc-
curred yesterday. The workmen and " lumpers" em-
ployed by one extensive firm in the timber trade went to
their masters and told them that at the election Sir John
Hanmer assured them that if bread were cheap they
would have low wages, but that good wages would attend
dear bread. Now said they, "We have come to you—who
might and main supported the Tories—to test the princi-
ple thus avowed by them. Bread has last week increased
4d. to 6d. a stone in price. Now is the time for you to
show that your Honourable friends are in earnest in what
they said—We want a- small pittance a day more to
enable us to purchase the dear bread—we ask sixpence
a-day increased wages." What answer did their consci-
entious Tory masters make ! They refused to advance
them a single stiver, they might starve upon dear bread,
for no more money would they receive. Therefore about
100 men left the yard, determined not to work until they
received a money equivalent for the difference in the
price of their bread. These timber merchants are deeply
engaged in the Canada trade, and of course vehemently
opposed to the Ministerial plan to admit good timber
from the Baltic. The " lumpers" in.their employ (ever
employed in discharging their ships) have threepence per
hour wages; they are not employed by the whole day, but
only by the hour, and they cannot work more than nine
hours and-a-half a• day (that being the period the officers
of customs are on duty, and of course ships cannot dis-
charge in their absence), thus they receive 2s. 40. per
diem, or 14s 3d. a week, even supposing them to be em-
ployed every working hour in the week, which is very
rarely the case.
How will the Tories keep up the Corn-laws when
these men come to suffer from want during a long and
severe winter, for out of 14s. a week in summer, and
bread verging upon 3s. a stone, they cannot save for any
contingencies. They say now . they would be much
obliged to Sir Walter James to furnish them with even
some of the black bread of the foreigners he so much de.
rided at Hull. It would be a luxury compared with the
privations they dread they will have to encounter now
that the wages bubble has burst, and they have the re-
fusal of 6d. a-day more to keep their families from starving.

BADEN, JULY 18.—The sentence on Spontini
has been pronounced, and condemns him to six months'
imprisonment with hard labour ; but it has been remit-
ted by the King, who granted him leave to travel for
several months. It was to be foreseen that the King
would act in this manner ; for though the Tribunal, ac-
cording to the law, could not do otherwise than condemn
Spontini, there can be no doubt that he had no intention
of deviating. from the respect which he owes to his King,
but
was misled by a certain want of tact to his well
known public declarations. We hear that Count Von
Bedew,
the superior attendant of the royal theatre,
means to make no change, during the nine months' ab-
sence of M. Spontini, in the performers and the organi-
sation of our German opera ; this is certainly not a very
agreeable prospect for the frequenters of the theatre, for
iour opera has not been in so deplorable a state as it now
is, at any time during the last 25 years.

LITERATURE.
SCOTT'S MISCELLANEOUS PROSE
WORKS.
Cudell, Edinburgh, 1841.
In addition to his far-famed " Letters of Ma-
lachi Malagrowther " " Provincial Antiquities of
Scotland," and "Old Mortality," each of which
is comprised in one cheap half-a-crown Number,
we have here the first part of Sir Walter Scott's
"Life of Napoleon," which is devoted exclusively
to the rise and progress of the Revolution up to
the period of the trial of Louis the Sixteenth. In
this portion of his work nothing is more remark-
able than the keen, sarcastic powers which the
author shows when discussing some of the prin-
cipal events and actors in the Revolution. He
was imbued with a perfect scorn and hatred
of this great national outbreak, and these feel-
ings are constantly escaping him. Of all the
leading personages who figure on the• stage
during the years of ferment, 1789 and 90—indeed
down to the time of the Consulate—there is
scarcely one on whom he condescends to bestow
a good word, with the exception, perhaps, of
young Barbaroux, in whose fiery and romantic
character he seems to have found much to ad-
mire. However delightful the style, and ani-
mated the descriptions, we fear the " Life of
Napoleon" will not be among the enduring
works of its author. In correctness of facts it is
surpassed even by Hazlitt's, who, in general, is
anything but a correct writer.