The Sun.
London, England, 1840-09-03 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 3, 1840.

a public meeting, to be held on the 14th inst., of I
course to beseech the Government to remit the duty
to the hop-growers. Tf it be not remitted, said the
deputation, most deplorable consequences would
ensue, both to planters and labourers.
Whether it be remitted or not, we know most
deplorable consequences will ensue. " Where there
was a fortnight's hop-picking," writes a friend,
" last year, there will not be two days this year
for the labourers." Now it is well known that on
the hop-picking the labourers throughout the hop
districts depend to pay their rent, and to provide
for the wants of winter. If they have little
or no hop-picking, the farmers and land-
owners will get no rent for their cottages,
and they will have to provide for their
labourers. But the labourers will not have this
year above one-seventh of their ordinary earnings.
Already we hear from those extensive districts, the
wealds of Kent and Sussex, the cry of agricultural
distress; and the mAn who is to bring it before
the public, Mr. DARBY, is one of those who are
most strenuous in supporting the Corn-laws, and
even in demanding additional duties on foreign
productions. A very few words will show how
the Corn-laws operate against the hop-growers.
The restrictions on the importation of all the
produce of the soil, stimulate them to extend the
growth of hops, the cultivation of which is almost
exclusively carried on by hand. The plants have
to be hoed, and the poles to be stuck in the ground
by hand. The bines are tied, the gardens are
weeded, the fruit is gathered all by hand. All
the expense of the cultivation nearly goes in
wages for labourers, and requiring so much
manual labour it calls into existence a numerous
population, who must be supported whether the
crops fail or not. In proportion to his capital,
few persons expend more on wages than the hop-
grower, and whatever enhances wages and prices,
enhances his expense. Of course, therefore, his
expense is increased by the Corn-laws, which raise
.he price of everything, and the same laws stimu-
ate the hop-growers—in expectation of obtaining a
igh price for hops, in return for their expense—to

lay out large sums in extending the cultivation. A
blight comes, as this year, and the hop-growers are
plunged into distress, one-third of which, at least,
is caused by the increased expense of cultivation
occasioned by the Corn-laws.

At the same time,'inost of the hop-planters are
also corn-growers, and the advantages they derive,
or suppose they derive from the Corn-laws should
make them bear with patience this little evil conse-
quence of their own beloved enactment. At any rate,
they have no right to obtain relief from the Treasury,
for loss, which is mainly caused by their own
wrong. Let them be contented with plundering
the bread-eaters, without evading their holiest share
of the public burdens. It grieves us to see an
opposition of interest between the different classes ;
but as such an opposition is caused by the Corn-
laws, we must at once tell the Treasury that the
bread eaters of the towns will never forgive it, if it
remit to the landed interest, which is prospering,
as is said, at the expense of every other interest,
a single farthing of the tax which is due. The
tax, we must remind our readers, now sought to be
evaded, is due on the hops of last year, which
have all, probably, been sold and paid for six
months ago, not on the deficient growth of the
present 3 ear.

The great importance of railways, and the great
danger which attends them, induces us to copy
from the Times, and place it prominently before
our readers, a further portion of the leading article
of that journal on this subject, which appeared
yesterday :
But what, after all, is a deodand of 5001. to a com-
mercial company trading upon a capital of millions ?
The public interest requires a very different kind of
check, which we hope, but hardly expect, to see sup-
plied by the machinery of the new Act for the regu-
lation of railways. Let inspectors be immediately ap-
pointed, and let those rules which are most necessary
for the public protection be immediately made, and
guarded against violation by such penalties as the ex-
isting state of the law may enable inspectors or ma-
gistrates to enforce.
Some of those rules are suggested by the evidence
in the present case. Let no company be allowed to
open any portion of new road until both lines of rails
are completed and fit for use ; nor even then till the
construction of the road has been thoroughly examined
and approved by the public inspectors. Let no com•
pany be suffered to run engines in opposite directions
on the same rails, except occasionally at the stations,
for the purpose of turning. Some limit should be
fixed to speed, having regard to the construction of
the engine and the width between the rails ; and a
heavy penalty ought to be imposed on the company
for every case in which this limit is exceeded. No
person should be suffered to act as engine-driver till he
has gone through a stated course of probation, and no
train should be allowed to start till the driver had been
furnished with a printed copy of general instructions ap-
plicable to the whole of the line to be traversed, and
a written copy of any particular instructions which,
upon special occasions, it may be found necessary or
expedient to issue. If rules such as these had been
in force previously to Thursday week, we are persuaded
that the lamentable accident on which we have been
commenting would never have occurred. If the Act
for the regulation of Railways does not warrant such
rules as these, no time ought to be lost after the com-
mencement of the next Session in applying to Par-
liament for further powers.

The concern of Parliament for the public safety
ought not to be fettered by any provisions which may
have been unguardedly introduced into any of the
Railway Acts already passed ; and we think there are
some grounds for complaining that, in framing the
clauses of Lord Seymour's Act, too great regard was
shown to private, and rather too little to public, inte-
rests. We shrewdly suspect that if the Directors of
any Railway Company are disposed to offer an obsti-
nate resistance to suggestions proceeding (under that
Act) from the Board of Trade, or from the public
inspectors, it will be found impossible, without some
further improvement in the machinery, to ..xereine any,
control over their pmccedings.

All these suggestions are worthy of considera-
tion, and to several of them—one agreeing with a
suggestion of our own—we give our cordial appro-
bation. 'We think, however, that some doubt may
arise as to one leading principle of our Contem-
porary's remarks. He would have Government in-
spectors, he is anxious for more legislation on the
subject, and he requires other machinery if the
Directors of railways offer obstinate resistance to
suggestions from the Board of Trade. If we hesi-
tate in demanding further legislation, more inter-
ference of the Board of Trade, additional inspectors,
etc., etc., i: is not from any slackness in a desire
to see the public duly and properly protected
against danger, but from a doubt whether such be
the best means of attaining the object.
The necessity, for example, of having a skilful
and approved driver, who has been brought up to
the business, in which our Contemporary agrees
with us, is a point which has been quite overlooked
by our legislators. So we believe has the neces-
sity for a spare driver always to accompany the ac-
tual driver been also overlooked. In fact, railways
are altogether a novel mode of conveying passen-
sengers, improvements in the management of them
may be expected evei y day, and it seems
quite unapprop! iate, therefore, to make minute rules
for the guidancu of those who own them.

Before a man sets up for a legislator on rail-
ways (the humblest individual may suggest what
is useful), he should make himself minutely ac-
quainted with their economy. He should live on
a railroad for at least a ear. No one of our law-
makers will, or can, submit to such an apprentice-
ship. The consequence will be, that any laws they
make will be either the crude suggestions of their own
ignorance, or the one-sided suggestions of some half-
informed and interested persons, who will be under
no responsibility for what they recommend. Over
the Legislature, if it make bad laws, the public has

only a remote control, and the laws cannot be im-
mediately altered: over the Directors of railways
it has an immediate control, and their regulations
may be, if necessary, amended from day to day•
Ihe public can inflict no inconsiderable degree of
punishment on them, by abstaining—though at great
inconvenience, from using any particular railway, and
the control over them by the public is more direct, im-
mediate, and powerful, than over the Legislature.
At the same time, the Directors, or their servants,
are always on the spot, are always learning some-
thingnew about their own operations, and we
th therefore are, on the whole, inclined to look to the
Directors rather than to the Legislature, for the
due and safe transmission of passengers.
We know that the Directors are supposed to
have an interest adverse to that of the passengers ;
t
while the Legislature is equally supposed to have
nothing in view but the public good. It is, how-
ever, plain that the same accident which, by run-
ning a train off the rails, wounds or kills the
breaks the car-
passengers,
loss.e
strictly s
c a
The safe besidesally
damatheges
Railway
e engines,
riags deodand which may be
levied, and,u
coincidente
with h
the
Company great pecu-
niary
conveyance of passengers is
pecuniary interest of the
Company, and so far as that is concerned, the
public should rather rely on the foresight and self-
interest of the Directors, than on the regulations
of the gentlemen at Westminster. There are some
other points, such as conveying passengers
within a promised period, and in carriages
sufficiently guarded against the weather, in which
the interference of the Legislature, or rather the
law, to compel the Directors to fulfil a specified or
implied contract, may be necessary. On such
points, the Directors may have an interest adverse
to the public ; but, as to conveying passengers
safely, their interest and that of the public is the
same, and to that we would leave the guidance of
their conduct.

As b the other supposition, that the Legisla-
ture has nothing in view but the public good, and
may therefore be more trusted than the Directors
to proide for the public safety, we are constrained
to deny its accuracy. With the Corn-laws every
clay bringing home to us a conviction that the Le-
gislature, protected by this supposition and embol-
dened by impunity, sacrifices the public welfare to
the presumed advantage of its members, killing,
crippling, and maiming every year more people than
railways will destroy in a century, we cannot place
any confidence in its professions of consulting only
the public good. One or two busy Directors
of railways, particularly if a few Peers
or Bishops—no unlikely matter—should have a pe-
cuniary interest in the concern, might procure the
passing of some laws' which should exonerate the
Directors from the consequence of their own negli-
gence, or save them from the fines of an enlightened
Coroner's jury. We cannot, therefore, go along
with our Contemporary in advising the public to
look for protection from the Legislature, and we
should rather counsel them to look for it to their
own energy and to the control they can, through
the pecuniary interest of the proprietors of railways,
exercise directly over them.
Another consideration which weighs with us is,
that betwixt the Legislature and the Directors—
betwixt the inspectors of the former and the ser-
vants of the latter, the responsibility will be
divided, and we would have it weigh exclu-
sively on one. Allow either the Legislature or
the Directors to control, direct, and manage the
whole, but do not endow both with a
iwbohilriidctheyr, i
sasontoott
bhh
la::
m; tehoweripmutnhbeal inc i
acci-
dentl mit
ea
ty
. e 4 )bt
he neit Di unablee.oteiireneu togCrtsrr esS supAmdognaneys
ference of the Inspector may make the Directors
Inspector may direct one thing,
' suppose that they may sleep, and accidents will
then be sure to occur. We lay it down, therefore,
as a principle, that there should be undivided re-
sponsibility, and as the Legislature cannot possibly
be charged with all the details of railways, we
would place that responsibility on the Directors.

For several years the Times has day after day
been writing down the New Poor-law, Mr. O'CON-
NELL, and the Ministers. Has it succeeded ?
Are the Ministers turned out? Has Mr. O'CON-
NELL lost the confidence of his countrymen, and
is the New Poor-law repealed ? To each of these
questions the answers must be No. The Times,
which once boasted that it could stifle a regiment
of Guards with its wet sheets, as they came
from the press, has completely failed in
each and all these objects. To possess
power is to provoke envy and excite malignity.
For one friend that a 'Minister rewards he disap-
points twenty, and makes a corresponding number
of enemies. It is in the nature of things, therefore,
that any and every Ministry must gradually become
weak and be at length destroyed. That the present
Ministers have survived so long, and to many per-
sons so unexpectedly, is mainly due to the furious
and ungenerous hostility of the Times. In like
manner, its abuse of Mr. O'CoNNELL has continu-
ally recommended him to the Irish, and has pre-
served his influence. Its own bitter and unmea-
sured hatred compels it now, day after day, to de-
vote column after column to Mr. O'CONNELL'S,
as we think, foolish proceedings to obtain the repeal
of the Union, while the Journals of his party out of
Ireland take little or no notice of them. So, too,
its persevering comments on the New Poor-law
seem only to make its merits better known, and to
force it into more general and energetic operation.
It may be very skillful, but in attaining its political
ends it is singularly unsuccessful.

We call attention to o. leader we have extracted
from the Advertiser of this morning, and the Times
of yesterday, on the vast advantages of investing
capital in British India, as the British India Anti-
Slavery Sugar Company
are preparing to do. This
is the true way of getting rid of slavery and open-
ing new markets for British manufactures.

Our extracts from the Paris Journals of Tuesday,
and the accounts which we publish of the military
preparations making by the Sublime Porte to co-
operate with the Four Powers against MEHEMET
ALI, should the Viceroy persist in rejecting the
ultimatum of the London Conference, are not likely
to diminish the interest excited by the complicated
state of the Eastern question. Not that the lan-
guage of the French Press is more warlike than
previously, or that there
is anything very extra-
ordinary in the military preparations of the Porte to
take part in a struggle which involves the itde-
pendence of Turkey. But every day which now
passes in which nothing has been done towards the
pacific settlement of
this question—every arrival
from Constantinople and Alexandria which brings
no intelligence of a cessation of hostile preparations
—every commurication from Paris which repre-
sents the French Government as determined to
stand aloof from the other Powers, instead of either
frankly joining them, or assuming the functions of
sr
a mediator between the PACLIA and the Four
Powers, increases the interest with which we re-
gard the probable result of an appeal to the
wtoicrlde.
Theattributed Revuetothe
det
pen
of ivll
eu il
x onmdesi,GliT
in
E,
along
a
the
philosophical historian of the first French
Revolution,
iHigßs,enaunmderattleie M.
at great length the diffi.
intimate friend of
culties of executing the Treaty of London. This
is a work of supererogation. England never

imagined that the Treaty could be executed without
difficulty. Obstacles the most formidable present
themselves at every step, but they were all fore-
seen, and what precautions were possible taken to

MARLBOROUGH-STREET.
(THIS DAY.)

Insreetor Beresford, of the C division, on laying
before Mr. LONG, the presiding. Magistrate, the sheet
containing the names of nightly disorderlies, informed it
him that he had a young female in his charge, volunta-
rily so on her own part, and about whom he wished to
have Mr. Long's advice. On seeing from her com-
plexion that she was a country girl, and so young, he
inquired of her when she came to the station-house
who had sent her there ? She replied " I came by the
up lumber train on the Southampton Railroad, expect-
ing to find a person, as I had previously been pro-
mised, but no one was there. I waited for some hours
hut finding no one accosted me, and being a stranger
and without means of communicating with my friends
and having a distrust from what I had read of the true
friendly- feeling about London, I merely asked a female
o,hom I met in widow's weeds ; she told me I had
utter apply to the first police-station I came to, and I
did so."

A person present in the office stepped forward and
:ated that he was a eheesemonger, residing in Silver-
seet, Golden-square, and that from the account that

iio had heard, was ready at that instant to take the pri-
soner into the service of his family, feeling quite satis-
fied that her statement was correct.

Inspector Beresford said that he knew the party in
question was a moral man, and had a large family, wi-.ich
for many years he had brought up in unquestionable
respectability.

Mr. LONG said he was most happy that the unfor
,tinate girl had come into such good hands.

LLOYD'S SHIPPING-(THIS DAY.

LONDON, SEPT. 3. —Wind this day, at noon, mode-
rate, southerly breeze, and hazy weather.
PLYMOUTH, SEPT. 2.—Wind E. N. E.—Off port the
Druid, Thomas, from Dominica.

SWANSEA, SEPT. I.—Arrived the Alexander, Deans,
from Cuba.

DARTMOUTH, SEPT. I.—Off port the Minerva, Innis;
From Para.

DUBLIN, A VG. 31.—Arrived the Betsey Black, Jones,
'rom Trinidad.

STOCKTON. AUG. 31.—Arrived the Pollock, Huntley,
from Quebec; Caroline, Brown, Miramichi ; Queen of
the Isles, Madgwick, St. Andrew's, New Brunswick.
HULL, SEPT. 2. Wind variable.—Arrived the Hope,
Bennington, from Riga.
DEAL, SEPT. 2. Wind W. S. W.—Sailed the Sir E.
Paget, Campbell, from Bombay ; Catherine, Berry, New
York.

LIVERPOOL, SEPT. 2.—Wind variable.--Arrived the
George, M'Grindell, from St. John's, New Brunswick.
Sailed the Chalco, Dickenson, for Monte Video; Mary
Ellen, Joy, Bahia; Broad Oak, M'Kay, ditto; Louisa,
Snow, Boston. The Cora, from St. John's, New Bruns-
wick, to Milford, was spoken with off New Harbour, wa-
terlogged, having struck on Sable Island Bar, and was en-
deavouring to make a port.

A British schooner from Granada was lost on Grand
Key tl►c 29th of July ; crew drowned.

THE MARKETS.-(THIS DAY.)

COLONIAL MARKET.

There was little business done by private treaty, and the
public sales were unimportant. Holders, however, dig-
played firmness, and former rates were supported. The
imports were to a fair extent from all quarters. Some
important public sales were declared.
TEA MARKET.

Pries fair for Free Trade, but the market presented
a tranquil appearance. Some auctions were declared,
which caused the consumers to operate with caution. Com-
pany's Congou dull 2s. 3d. for cash.
TALLOW MARKET.

There was a fair business done, and former rates were
fully supported ; for Russian, 525. 9d. to 535. was asked
for first quality. The supply of Home produce is small.

HArM.ARKET.

There was only a moderbte supply ; the demand was
good and prices firm. Clover Hay, 41. 10s. to 6/. ;
Meadow ditto, 31. 103. to 5/. ; Straw, 1/. 13s. 6d. to 1/. 16s.

MONEY and COMMERCIAL NEWS

CITY, TWELVE O'CLOCK.

LIVERPOOL COTTON MARKET, WEDNESDAY.—The
sales to-day are 4,000 bags, out of which 200 have been
taken for export prices steady.
LIVERPOOL SHARE LIST, SEPT. 2.

Eastern Counties
Grand Junction 219

London and Birmingham, quarter

_
Shares _
26-1-

South Western 54
North Union 791-

South Eastern
Our market continues to wear the same depressed
character which has prevailed the ►ast week. The
proposition of the Eastern Counties Directors to issue
new shares at 181. dis., 251. paid, has caused this stock
to deolitso ; and wo (dose sellers at 131 dis. A better
feeling prevails in South Western, in consequence of
the increase in the traffic.

Arrivals this morning.—French and Ostend mails
Ship letters from Para.
We have received the Antwerp papers of the 2.1 o
September.

BOURSE OF AMSTERDAM, AUG. 31.—Although the
liquidation of the national funds was calm and without
variation, the prices acquired a new firmness. In Ar-
doin's Spanish there was not much doing, but they con-
tinued firm.

Accounts from Berlin of the 25th of August state
that the Government, on the advice of the Council of
Posen, has issued an ordinance which may be regarded as
a first step towards the emancipation of the numerous
population of the Israelites of that country. The first
article states thAt the free-born or naturalized Jews
are admitted to fulfil the functions of members in the
municipal councils of the town and the localities where
they are domiciled ; their election or nomination for the
offices is subject to the same conditions as the Christians.