The Sun.
London, England, 1847-09-07 00:00:00

Q'lTtinnA

LONDON, TUESDAY. SEPTEMBER 7, 1847

If we mistake not, the year 1847 will, in after ages,
be celebrated as the year in which the first practical
step was taken for the permanent amelioration of the
condition of the human race by securing to industry
its just reward, and by rendering wars so contrary to
the material interests of every human being as to en-
tirely do away with them. On the 16th of Septem-
iser,lB47, there will be held at Brussels a Free-trade
Congress (the first ever assembled), at which delegates
from every civilized nation of the world are invited
to attend. The members of the Belgian Association
for the Liberty of Commerce, on whose invitation
this congress is about to be assembled, will hence-
forth be numbered amongst the greatest benefactors
of mankind. Their invitation to the Free-traders
of all countries, which will be found in another column,
sets forth in a sufficiently succinct manner the
motives by which the members of the Belgian Asso-
ciation have been actuated in convening this congress.
oBy assembling at Brussels the individuals who,
from their exertions and position, are at the head of
the politico-economical movements of the world, the
Belgian Association for the Liberty of Commerce
apprehended it should take the shortest road for re-
ducing the difficulties, and destroying the prejudices
which continue to be opposed to the extension of the
commercial relations between different countries;" and
" therefore took advantage of a meeting at Brussel,
for the extension of reformative punishments (c.mgre4
penitentiare), and of the fortunate coincidence of an
exhibition of the products of Belgian industry, to call
together the present congrei,s of the friends of political
economy and statistics. Its meetings will take place
four days before those of the meeting on reformative
punishments ; that is to say, on September 16." The
Free-traders of South Lancashire (on this as on
every other occasion, the first in the field when-
ever there is work to be done) have deputed
their representative in the British Parliament, W.
BROWNE, Esq., M.P.,to be also their reprt sentative at
the Brussels Coligrebs. We earnestly call upon the other
Free-traders of the British empire to assemble in their
districts, and to follow the excellent example set by
South Lancashire. Let the West Riding depute its
RICHARD COBDEN to do for the world what he has
already done for England. Let Colonel PERRONET
THOMPSON, the patriarch of Free-trade, who by his
Anti-Corn-law Catechism struck the first blow at mo-
nopoly, be deputed for some other large district ; and
let the manufacturing capital of England, Man-
chester, send her answer-to the invitation by the re-
presentative of her choice, JouN BRIGHT.
It is to be hoped that this is but the commence-
ment of a world-wide agitation on the subject of
free trade. But a short time remains in which to
elect delegates to the Congress and to give them in-
structions, and we trust that one of those instructions
will be to invite all the free-traders of the Continent,
through their representatives assembled at Brussels,
to send delegates to attend a second world's free-
trade Congress, to be assembled either in London or
Manchester, in September, 1848 ; and if the Congress
should assemble in London, we call upon the corporation
of the City to follow the example of the civic authori-
ties of Brussels, and to place the Guildhall at the dis-
posal of the Committee of the Congress. We shall
watch the proceedings of this Congress with intense
interest. We regard it as the commencement of
a great movement for the regeneration of the
human race—a movement which cannot but be
successful, as it works its ends by moral means
alone, and against which all theefforts of tyranny and
monopoly,which work by brute force, must, for that very
reason, be powerless. A congress of Free-traders as-
sembling every year would be more effective for
good, than could be all the effete and worn-out Go-
vernments of the world for evil. It would be impos-
sible for any Government to persuade two nations,
each sending representatives to such a Congress, to
go to war with each other. Like the Amphyctionic
Council, such a Congress would be a court of arbitra-
tion, to which nations could satisfactorily refer for
a settlement of their differences. It would con-
stitute, in fact, a federal union of all
the countries of the earth. All honour to the Belgian
Association for the great work they have commenced,
and ra•ty success attend them in their earnest endea-
vours to promote the best interests of their fellow •
• creatures.

A guerilla warfare may yet afford the Mexicans
the most terrible venweance for the unprovoked inva-
sion of their territories. Even while we are assured
by the intellizence which reached Southampton on
Sunday mornim by the Great Western, that no
serious itnpoliment interposed between the American
forces under General SCOTT and the capital of the
Mexican Republic, we are satisfied that a recourse to
the plan of indiscriminate blau4hter, common to the
in
guerilla captains, would result the
utterdiscom-
fiture, if not in the total annihilation, ofthe vam-
glorious assailants. SANTA. ANNA, who.
still
the
exercise of a military and civic dictatorship, has more
than the opportunities afforded to ZUMALACARAGUI.
If, with these opportunities, he combine the enter-
prise and audacity of that adventurous bandit, he
must bring dismay and confusion into the ranks of
his antagonists. In all essential respects perhaps
Mexico is better adapted for that species of defence
than the Spanish and Portuguese peninsula. Geo-
graphically it presents to an invading force many a
spot suited for a Thermopylae and an Arbela. `Vera
patriotism and courage among the characteristics of
its inhabitants, it would be altogether impregnable.
Among its mountains there are localities where an
army might be crushed by the stratagems resorted to
among the T 3 rolese passes, when ANDREW Horzu
wa tha chieftain over his countrymen ; and among
its t.:Tnts and pcl,l2l:Als citia i,s ri.2c4 SB:%lXlealy