The Sun.
London, England, 1841-08-12 00:00:00

MORNING SI'N.

SIR ROBERT PEEL-AND THE
CORN-LAWS.
A Correspondent of the Morning Chronicle, under the
!ignature of Diogenes, gives the following excellent de-
;liption of visits made to the City incog. by Sir Robert
r el
;_fThe factory, where you may inspect this " Jim Crow"
rttar east, and on your way thither you might as well
t quire in the City about the present stato of the Com-
rade, and the working of the sliding scale, before you
fat on the Blackwall Railroad. Suppose you called, in
the plain garb of a man of business, on some of the
Feat merchants, the Barings, the Larpents, the Huh-
bards, and proposed to them to join you in an importa-
tion of wheat from abroad. You might tell them that you
had plenty of money, knew the country well, were aware
of the state of the crops, and sure that wheat was wanted,
and that it was, therefore, the proper time to bring
; but I will wager my existence that you would meet a
refusal in such words as these :-Thank you for your
'nnfidence, but must decline the business-don't enter
°a such neck-breaking affairs-the Corn-trade is na-
turally full of hazard, but with the present system it is
hazardous five times over, sure to burn our fingers- the
moment there is the least chance of want, up jump prices
abroad, higher than here, in anticipation of a low duty ;
and-when they hale got the duty down in September,
they will knock the prices down, and punish those who
are too late with their cargoes-:hey always have some
„OW stuff in store for that. We shall be caught in a
double trap-high prices abroad, and a high duty here :
we are not clever enough for such business ; if there
gas a fixed duty, there would be a chance, but now there
is one. Thank ye for your confidence, but must de-
eline it.
Leaving these cautious, solid, and wealthy merchants,
I.would have you go to the Bank, and get there five one
thousand pound notes, and then proceed to Mark-lane,
luzinating the while a little on the low duties in Sep-
tember, and the strange circumstance that they
nil% import wheat, though they agree with you
that it is wanted. When you get to the Corn-Exchange,
talk boldly up to the stand of some Corn factors, say
essrs. Kaye and Emm, mighty shrewd people they-up
everything. Pull out your five hank notes, you are
!are then to pass for a respectable man, and they won't
askk your name. As Mr. Raumer says that you look very
Filch like an honest German, you might pass yourself off
2r One, and whisper in their ears, " I vent to make a little
vestment."
" You can't come at a better time," says
" it's all up with the crops and no mistake." " Vell,
'at do you recommend?" " Why, beans to be sure, man.
g.e have just a parcel on board the Sliding Scale, Captain
from Egypt, off Atkin's wharf, at 225." " Vell, but
.1 beans ?" " Why, they must have them to mix, and we
are working the duty." " Vell, but my mind vas made up
, veat----tat haf you cot?" " There's a cargo of Odessa,
at 535,, including freight, a capital sample. not yet passed
Gibraltar,' and may just he in for the shilling duty; and
If you give us two shillings more, the seller warrants a
six-and-eightpenny duty by the 23d September!" "Put
the dooty be down Sooner-there's shust now such
4,,great vent of veat ?" " Pooh, nonsense ;" says Kaye,
t▪ he averages can't` be worked found sooner ; besides,
It don't suit them to have the shilling duty before the
shipments from the Mediterranean are on the coast ?"
• Put, yon't"cle noo Ministers alter dem dooties, ven dey
4ee flat no veat is entered for consumption ?" " Stuff !"
:!•3's Kaye, " they are a pack of asses-and you know
:V_r Robert Peel has distinctly declared that he prefers
the present sliding scale." Hearing your name pro-
it°llneed, you colour up, and, apprehending discovery,
you, in an agony of your soul, cunningly pop out, " Vat
z
ass Sir Roppert Beel must pee,"-decline the bar-
VII: button up your notes, and, with a hasty bow,
de amongst the crowd, bet not fast enough to save
Your auriculars from the pleasing titillation of " to be
sure he is !"
, If these two experiments should not satisfy you, that,
under the sliding scale, wheat does not always come in
*hen
A people want it, you might direct your steps to some
meep calculator about the Royal Exchange-some man
after your own heart, who does not mind principles,
Is▪ .
delights in figures and statements-some great com-
mercial or political arithmetician, who would govern
e world by statistics and the rule of three ; who
utreats men as he would halfpence, and, provided he can
handle his nine numerals with their naughty sister,
and can show the averages to have been good averages
for ten or a hundred years, does not care one straw whe-
ther death has reduced the number of consumers to the
extent of the supplies, or commerce has accommodated
the
„, „supplies to the wants of the consumers. These men
:lslgures in the City are a strange set, and have the
Vity to prove almost everything with their statements.
ell they want to prove that an article must fall, they
you a long account of storms and overwhelming
tom
from the coast and the west, from Russia and
.1 3 Buenos Ayres ; but when they are for the rise,
their figures are all like a capital 0 zero is the only
f)'lptier they can write, blight in the fields, rot amongst
te sheep, epidemics killing the calves, unlimited demand,
~a,nd a total cessation of production are at their disposal ;
;4eir paper is patient, their imagination only fertile in
barrenness, and their ingenuity wandering amongst deso-
lation. You must, therefore, be a little on your guard,
101,d take nothing for granted but what can be proved by
Parliamentary returns ; but go over with them the his-
.tery of the corn trade since the end of 1837.
In 1838 wheat advanced in price from the very
first day ; the Winter was dreadfully sovere ; the spring
linfavourable ; the summer late, cold, and wet ; and
prices had reached 70s. to 80s. in the beginning of Au-
gust. There was dearly it' million of quarters of- wheat
1 the bonded warehouses, but none was entered for
consumption, even on the 7th of September, because the
for ag p
ere was one halfenn under 735.-sa 725. 1 lid.
was this all, for by the y 26th of October of this -the
first of a succession of years of famine-the duty was
again as high as 225. Bd. Of this horrible, this infamous
.state of things, you, the great statesman of the age, as-
'pt to guide our youthful and humane Sovereign, and
control her subjects with your paternal sway, said
"l,ost complacently, on the 15th March, 1839, " But when
n"e pressure came, was there any serious difficulty in pro-
!,9rtno• a supply ?" Ye Gods ! was there any thing but
has
difficulties of the sliding scale ? There
443 been a• pressure for six months-an extreme dearth
for three, and a famine for six weeks. It was as noto-
'„,,ens- as the sun in heaven ! And you talk in the House
Lt Commons only of the average of nine years ! What are
.`' weeks of famine in the average of nine years, ending
.1,4 September, 1838, as you coolly say, nothing-abso-
lutely nothing ! To him, whose every single morsel
which he pokes with his golden fork between his teeth
'ec,sts more than a hardworking man's pay for a day,,six
'weeks of famine are of course nothing ; they. go in the
vtrage, and that, for die nine years ending in Septem-
nr, 1838, was not more than 545. and odd pence per
Inarter of wheat, as you observed ; but to the humble,
~,.4,4(1 overworked hind in Dorsetshire, with 6s. 6d. a
"eek, and a sleeping berth in the hay-loft ;to the
'Poor sempstress whose thousand stitches can earn her .
at the utmost one penny in the hoer (as I live, this
is
the truth) ; to the widow laundress, who, up at
three every morning, labours through weeks, months,,
'sadtl years, and takes in washing at a ' penny
e piece, to preserve to herself and her poor orphans a
time of their sire was just sufficient to keep them from
the parish and the workhouse; to market, fish, and chair-
'Women, to weavers and factory girls, to all the thousands,
,t)', millions, who keep their accounts in pence and far-
ngs, to whom a shilling's expenditure would be ruin,
to whom a pound is an inconceivable and unattain-
able possession ; to these one week's dear and bad
read acts as a disastrous catastrophe, and six weeks
,„.". famine are an eternity of pain, anguish, tor-
":re, disease, and ofteu death. The six weeks'
arvation is the iron that enters into their soul,
t'and the balm of your nine years' average of fifty-four
Shillings will by no means heal the wound, restore health
and strength once lost, replace the rags pledged or sold,
and cure the ills of minds and bodies smitten by the in-
ainblis system which I have feebly described in my
seventh letter, saying " That it gambled with the
People's wretchedness-played hazard with your half-
'Penny averages-and had found in the life and death of
artillions a legitimate and fertile mine for diabolical
UPeculation and infamous profit !"
Sir, your new acquaintance, the man of figures, in
l'Et.ntures with a visitor of a congenial mind, will tell you
h high glee that on the Ist of January. 1830, the
ave;•age price was 78s. 2d., therefore far beyond a famine
Price. lt remained so till the 22d of March, when only
t 79,900 quarters of wheat, or ten days' consumption, had
been entered. Now, after this did we, or did we not, want
the,' supplies of nthforeig rain ? The averages fell, and
by te 2d of August, when e harvest began, the price had
'eeeded to 2s. under famine rates, nameli,.to. 68s. 2d., and
the duty, was only 16s. Bd., with an a damn of 800,000
_quarters entered at duties averaging above 10s. Bd. But
L'°Y the 20th of September the duty was again down to
Giese
Bd. and and the prices up to 71s. 10d. ; therefore, in
glese 'seven weeks there must have been an enormous
want of wheat, but the entries were only 26,000 guar-
te."&. so that, whilst famine during the harvest dro_ve up
Prices, next to no wheat was supplied by the aid of your
blidimg rule. But between the '2oth of September and
23d o,' November prices fell to 60s. ; the wants, there-
"ore, I suppose, were not so pressing ; the duty again
rose to 20s. Bd., but the supplies were creaseind by
600,000 otarters, at an average duty
.of 10s. sis
the history of the year 1839, when, in consequence of
the rnodera,*e crops of 1837, and the decidedly bad ones of
1838, the pe
wople of this country endured unheard-of suf-
ferings .„d inense pressures ;_ the prices constantly
ranged at what wo ,12oth agr,e (and it is th e nly thing
111 which we agree) to call famine prices. The duties
Were maintained at an average rate of al ova 10s. The
corn trade ruined every one engaged in it-the supplies
were chiefly poured into Ow markets when the duties
were high, and were small \vilen they were low-the
Bank was obliged to borrow money in Paris to avoid
stopping-and yca ridiculed the solemn warnings and
predictions of Mr. Mark Philips, Ll ecau s e not sustained
Y offieal documents ! Our man of figures will give you
all these details with a glow of delight ; for what does
lie care for distress or prosperity ? To him men are as
figures, and figures idols to be worshipped ; his accounts
are correct, his statements accurate, his averages good
averages, and he is charmed to find that the returns
!from ''hospitals, poor-houses, and bills of mortality, con-
'firm, by a proportionate increase of wretchedness, the
gum of his calculations to a minute fraction.
In 1840 we begin with an average price of 665. 10d.,
receding by the 14th February to 645. 11d., but being on
the 24th April up to 695. 6d. ; good wheat constantly
above 705., or what you call famine prices, but only
-17,800 quarters of foreign wheat entered for consump-
tion. Our want now became probably urgent, for an
additional 320,000 quarters, or one week's consumption,
were entered up to the 31st July at a duty of 16s. Bd.
The.pressure now grew insufferable, and by the 4th of
,_
Ptember, as usual, the prices were up to 715., the duty
down to 2s. Bd., but all the while only 42,000 quarters
Were supplied to satisfy these wants. From this day,
llowever. the wants apparently diminished, prices fell,
and duti es rose ; on the 11th of September, that is to
say, with:m one short week, we had the enormous quan-
tity of 963,000 quarters entered at a duty of 6s. Bd. ;

-
on the 2d of October it had grown to 1,280,000- quar-
ters, with the duty at 16s. Bd. ; on the 20th of October.
with only 20,000 qUarters more, the duty was 225. Bd. ;
and by the end of the year, good wheat being still at
705., or a famine price, the duty was (I blush to write
it) twenty-six and eightpence. Read that, you states-
man, you lover of your country, you leading star of the
human race, you, who in your speech of the 15th of
March, 1839, sneer at the " cold-blooded economist re-
garding money as the only element of natural happi-
ness ;" you advocate for slipping and sliding rules, which
wheel and jump about more than ever Jim Crow did,
but which, instead of convulsing us with innocent sport,
threaten to convulse the political stability of the empire,
to exterminate every notion of common sense and huma-
nity, and have spread more destruction, misery, and
mischief than a hundred battles ! Surely a fixed duty
of 1 or 5 or 8 or 10 shillings would not have teazed and
worried farmers, merchants, dealers, millers, bakers, and
consumers, as this silly, childish, cruel gairie of slipping
and sliding evidently did, and inevitably must do'?

POLITICAL , LOAN TRACT
SOCIETIES.
TO THE EDITOR OF THE SUN.
SIR,—By inserting the suggestions of your Cor-
respondent " Ballot" on the above subject, you
have conferred a favour, not only on the writer
of that letter, but also on the public. It is a sub
ject which, at present, has been scarcely thought
of; but, nevertheless, it is one of paramount im-
portance. I perfectly concur in the sentiments
of your Correspondent, and have long thought
that if the political regeneration of the people is
to be effected, it must be by such means, in com-
bination with the other departments of the press
now in operation.
Hitherto the people have been appealed to
more as mere corporeal or animal beings than
as rational and intelligent agents. Their passions
have been roused without their judgments being
enlightened. So long as such a system continues
they will remain the victims of caprice or cor-
ruption, and alternately be driven from one
extreme of the political to the other' ac-
cording to the passing circumstances of the
moment. Formerly this pernicious system
might be inevitable—when the whole of the
people were shrouded in the darkness of ig-
norance there was no way open to their
affections, except through their inferior propen-
sities. Now a new state of society has arisen,
demanding a totally different mode of tactics for
developing and wielding its energies. The
schoolmaster has walked abroad, and in his
benevolent tract has dispensed to the
millions the acquisition of the art of read-
ing, and the elements of many other branches
of knowledge, from which have sprung
a disposition and a capacity for thinking. This
new element in the constitution of society has
been too much lost sight of; if not entirely ne-
glected, by politicians. It is true we have a
daily and weekly press, unprecedented for its
talent and extent, and that the spirited and un-
flinching support which The Sun has given to
liberal principles, has done much to dissipate the
ignorance of the people. Still there are great
numbers of men who never see these excellent
mediums of political intelligence, and who are
even ignorant that such a paper as The Sun exists.
Lectures, too, have been instituted, and have
aided, in a good degree, the newspapers in
supplying the public taste for information.
But it will be obvious, on a moment's reflection,
that these are extremely inadequate to meet
the exigencies of the case we are deploring.
Amongst other causes which render them only
partially applicable, may be mentioned, disin-
clination on the part of many to attend, want of
time with others, and not unfrequently the want
of means. The only feasible plan, at the pre-
sent juncture, calculated to meet the evil, is to
furnish them at their homes, without cost, with
the materials for thinking.
The religious world, being wise in their day
and generation, have long taken advantage of
this new feature in society, and are spending an-
nually considerable sums of money in the dis-
tribution of their tracts. Why has not this
been done, ere now, in the political world?
Every true Christian and philanthropist must
be desirous to inform the mind and im-
prove the condition of the people for this
as well as for a future state. Indeed, it is a
short-sighted policy, and one subversive of their
own aims not to do so. It is an indisputable fact
that ignorance, famine, and misery, form but a
barren soil for the growth of exalted virtue or
pure religion.
Nor do I see any formidable obstacle to its
adoption. Only let a tithe of the money now
squandered at elections, ostensibly to promote
'the people's good, but which operates solely in
debasing their mental and moral character, be
appropriated to this object, and the desired ame-
lioration will be attained. Without a moment's
delay, " Political Loan Tract Societies" should be
formed throughout the land. These Societies
should immediately engage competent persons
to.write a series of plain and common-sense
Addresses, appealing to the popular understand-
ing and feeling, upon all political questions
which affect the well-being of the community.
Let persons be appointed, gratuitous if possible,
in every town, village, and hamlet in the king-
dom, to distribute them to every house. It may
be predicted, almost with absolute certainty, that
were a plan of this kind established, and ener-
getically prosecuted, that by its influence the
salvation of the country would be achieved.
Should you, Sir, deem these hints worthy a
corner in your valuable and independent paper,
their insertion will oblige your obedient servant
and constant reader, R. J.
Leicester, August 10.

SYNOD OF ARGYLL.
(From the Edinburgh Advertiser.)
The Synod of Argyll met at Campbelton on Wednes-
day the 4th inst.
The Rev. Duncan M'Nab, of Campbelton, and Dr
M‘Naughton, of Arran, were respectively proposed to fill
the Moderator's Chair, when the latter was unanimously
elected.
The Rev. Mr. M'Leod was elected Clerk.
• After some routine business, the Committee on Over-
tures reported that two had been submitted. The one
signed by the Rev. Mr. M'Crea, and others, was in sub-
stance as follows:—" Whereas great evils have arisen to
the Church from her disobedience to the Civil Powers of
the country which are ordained of God; and whereas she
still retains the Veto Act, out of which all these evils
have sprung; it is hereby overtured to the General As-
sembly that the Church abandon her present position,
and that she suspend the said Act and return to that
obedience to law. and orderly conduct in the mainte-
nance of which, in times past, she has enjoyed so
many blessings." The second overture was signed by
Dr. M'Kay and others, and was to this effect :—" Whereas
the Church has been brought into great trouble and pe-
rils by decisions of some of the Civil Tribunals of the
country, injurious to the spiritual rights and independ-
ence of the Church and people of Scotland ; and whereas
a Bill has been proposed to be introduced into the
beenLegi
s-
lature by his Grace the Duke of Argyll, which has
approved of by a great majority of the General Assem-
bly as calculated to secure these rightsis overtured
to the Synod of Argyll that the Synod record their high
satisfaction of the said Bill, and that they appoint a
Committee to draw up resolutions to be laid before his
Grace expressive of their sentiments of satisfaction with
the Bill, and gratitude to that Nobleman, to whose house
the interests of the Church of Scotland have been in
former times so dear."
After considerable discussion, the Synod decided tliat
the overtures be taken up separately, and that Mr.
M'Crae's be taken up first.
It was then moved and seconded that the Synod ap-
approve of the overture, and transmit• the same to the
General Assembly.
Dr, Milimt moved that the overture be dismissed,
which was seconded.
A long discussion followed, after which, on the vote
being taken, 20 voted transmit and 20 against, when the
Moderator gave his casting vote in favour of transmit.
The Synod afterwards proceeded to the consideration
of the second overture, when, after a long discussion, 21
voted approve of the said overture, and 20 dismiss.
The other business being disposed of, the Synod closed
its sederunt, and fixed to meet at Inverary in August
next year.