The Sun.
London, England, 1841-08-09 00:00:00

titt o§utt,

LONDON:
MONDAY, AUGUST 9, Is4l.

It has escaped no Journalist's observation, we
!V(hCh !, that Sir ROBERT PEEL'S difficulties will
be ine reased or lessened as the harvest is scanty
or al►u ndant. It is a proper punishment for him
that I its fate should depend on the unjust law he
has s ,old himself to defend. The following pas-
sage from the Spectator places the matter in a
grap hie light :
TI is weather-glass is the magic mirror of the states-
man. Every morning does Sir Robert Peel, " the pilot
that is to weather the storm"—that is to take the helm of
the-e rank, ill-found vessel, with sealed instructions, in
the fl ;xi: of the blackest clouds—every morning, before
his pilc.tage begins, does he consult the lowering sky and
the r eiLrograde finger on his barometer ; his counte-
nance reflecting the sombre aspect of the heavens, his
sighs of future trouble echoing the wind that beats
again' ;e, his window and tells of the bleak corn-fields
and t heir spoiled abundance. The first week in August
sets i n like the last in November, with gusty winds and
drifting rains : consolatory people in the country send
in wu )rd that all is right with the plentiful crops, if
there be plenty of ripening sun ; and a glance at the
leaden_ sky betrays all the mockery of the " if." The
glance. may well unnerve the boldest heart. The Whigs
leave office with the cry of " cheap bread" in their
mouths ; the Tories come into office with dear bread
threatened in the weather. The antithesis, however ac-
cidental, however little to be imputed to them in the
way of blame, is startling, practical, undeniable. But
the praise or blame of the matter is of secondary mo-
ment—the consequences are the thing to be dreaded.
To have driven out the Whigs, in order to devise mea-
sures of relief for a distressed and discontented people, was
a victory sufficiently thankless ; but to encounter—with
a deficient revenue, taxes failing in productiveness, and
trade suspended in many places where those dependent
on trade crowd the thickest—in such circumstances to
encounter a war with the elements, and to front the ad-
vances of a hungry people, is a fearful complication of
evils. Such is the prospect offered to Sir Robert Peel
by the summer sky. There is only one chance left for
him—and surely he is not the man to shrink from a des-
perate recourse justified by desperate circumstances ?
He might as well withstand the rush of man and beast
to the water after a march in the desert, as stand by the
Corn-laws in the face of the people pressed on by hun-
ger; he would be trampled down without hope or mercy.
lie must abandon what he could not keep though he
perished in the struggle—sliding scale, details, and all.
He will find no help but in repeating the expedient to
which the Ministry of 1826, including his faithful col-
league, the Duke of Wellington, and himself, resorted—
suspcnding the Corn-laws; leaving their ultimate fate to
be decided by and by.

Our Contemporary pushes the matter too far,
probably, when. 'he suggests that Sir ROBERT
may, as in 18'26, suspend the law ; but that was
done when the Parliament was not sitting, and
Sir ROBERT will, probzbly, be as well aware of
the necessity of taking some measure before
the Parliament separates, as when it again meets
in January or February. At the same time, the
state of the weather must, at this moment,
harass any and every Minister who has any wish
to see the country peacefUl and prosperous.
When we are told so continually of the na-
tional independence caused by the Corn-laws, it
seems proper to remind the Tories that those
laws make the Government dependent on the
weather, which is proverbial for fluctuations.
Sack is the consequence of interfering with the
food of the people, by which all the responsi-
bility of providing for them is assumed by the
Legislature, and its organ the Executive Govern-
ment. What folly ! what madness! Man is
horn to trouble, doomed to labour and poverty,
and, by interfering with his food, the stupid,
but ambitious law-maker, makes himself re-
£ponsiblc for "all the ills that flesh is heir to."
The word "independence" does not mean a com-
plete freedom, and perfect unrestrained latitude
of action. A man cannot fly like a bird; nor
could a Tory Government, though clothed with
the most absolute power, tansport all our people
to France or the United States. Tudependeree,
therefore, implies a restrained freedom, accord,
ing to which individuals and nations walk wisely
within limits strictly imposed on them. To us it
seems clear that the Corn-law, instead of ex,
tending these limits, creates a new and arbitrary
boundary, narrowing both the national freedom
and the Government's sphere of action very-
much ; and thus, in the proper sense of the
word, increases the dependence both of the na,
tion and the Government.
Of the nation,—because it continually a
ply of food obtained from our s the
rule, restrains and limits our peono "
.e to the sup-
rAvn soil, of course
keeps them always pin-ched. for food, and
when the harvest fails, as of late it has been
scanty, finds them 'without any surplus to fall
back on, and redilces them, as at preset,*
state of almost desper. famine. to a
e can it get f:oni, •
P.dy other country iNO supplies
dependent on
it to tal(e the corn which that country
and tliereafoiraerge it grows,
and offercompelled to go a begcrin
gold to those who are ing
nowise depend,nstarn in
on it for the means of saving
ita under_fed
an
pplied Population from all
far from
the horrors of an Bind. ostaii famine. The co_rn-
tionai freedom, impossiesgotnnei't sartiThe:regny ad
trhenua-
b

One of the results of the Census, already well-
ascertained, is a deterioration of the condition of
our people. Badly off as are the manufacturing
population, the agricultural population in most
of the southern and western counties is worse off;
but lower than them there is a lower depth oc-
cupied by the Irish peasantry, who flock over to
England and Scotland, and beat down the popu-
lation of Great Britain to their level. It is stated
of Glasgow, of Paisley, and of Manchester, that
the people are now worse lodged than they were
ten years ago. The influx of Irish into those
towns has had a disastrous effect on the condition
of the English and Scotch. Is this a just retri- ,
bution? Let us see.

What places the Irish in so low a condition,
economically speaking? The appropriation of
the land amongst a comparatively small body of
Protestant landowners, who have no sympathy
or friendly connection with the bulk of the
people. The further appropriation of the tithes
to a priesthood who do not teach the people,
and who have as little sympathy with them as
the landowners. Poor and degraded, without
any possible means of bettering their condition,
the bulk of the Irish peasantry cling with an at-
tachment almost unexampled to the priesthood
of their own faith and their fathers' faith. Re-
duced to a state of compulsory slavery by the
Protestant landlords and the Protestant priest-
hood, they have submitted to a species of volun-
tary slavery to their own priesthood, and are
doubly enthralled. Certainly, the blower-fed
Irish, the two millions of paupers mentioned by
Mr. O'CONNELL, are economically, if not morally
—for their warm-hearted affections have kept
them from being utterly debased--the most de-
graded people of civilized Europe. But it is
clear that the few tyrant landowners and
the usurping priesthood could not have in-
flicted, and could not now inflict, this sad de-
gradation on the Irish, were they not supported
by the people of Great. Britain. In fact, it is
their power which maintains the compulsory
slavery of the Irish, and is the parent of their
voluntary slavery. Now, however, they are
degrading our population to their level, and thus
are the people of Great Britain justly punished
for their conduct towards Ireland.
At present the course of the retribution is
plain. The English and Scotch enable the Pro-
testant landlords of Ireland to clear their estates,
and the people, whom the landlords by their aid
thrust off the land, come hither to swell the
mass of our own poverty. We incite the cupi-
dity of those landlords, by giving them an ex-
clusive possession of our markets for grain. We
tax our people's bread to enhance the Irish land-
lords' rent ; to obtain as much of that enhance-
ment as possible, they try to consolidate farms,
and to produce as large a net surplus as possible.
On the one hand, the price of the people's bread
is raised by the landlords' tax, and, on the other,
the wages of their labour is beat down by the
competition of the expatriated Irish, whom the
said landlords have excluded from their estates,
to get as large a share as possible of the tax.
The support, therefore , which the people of
Great Britain give to the oppressions of the Trish
landlords—the sanction they give, by th,-;, un-
resisting passiveneg.A, to the Bread-tax, do now
much contribute to produce that poverty and
dictrosq _.of which our peuptt: complain, They
suffer by their own fault, and it may be doubted
whether either individuals or nations suffer, in
the majority of
The le eases, without richly-deserving it.
Peop 'sf Great Britain uphold the oppres-
sion of the Irish, they tolerate the Corn-la 7
and they have their reward „5,
in deterio'r.ition aad
decay.

Bow-street law wifl p- ----
just;.ee, :a j become as notorious
as Jedburgli
case of Mr. 7v-"IonT3tAN,
n tikkr paper
rustices' justices 176(...
,pztittett has very
a station-house
on Satr:rda.y, to which a celPst,:r.teci
an authority
illustration
properly called public .atzt:storeis
on-house,
of this. A polietnati
authority to
drag a resptetable citizen off to
and, because he objects to go, he •
's fined 5s
That is Bow-street law. The police, like other..
servants whom we hire and appoint to protect
us
ar:, becoming our masters; and the Magistrates,
who should check their usurpations, compel us
to submit, by fine or imprisonment. Such
rime_
tices have a tendency to correct themselves, but
they first inflict a great deal of discomfort On the
public.

The whole of the French journals of Thursday
have reached us. They are still oceuPiP°
the affair of Toulouse, upon which
throw no new light. P.-,
our Paris CorrP%,
accompa--- '
trs-

with
nowever, they
following letter from
-eundent, and the extracts which
it, include whatever is of the least in-
...est in these papers :
(FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.)
Rims, AUGUST s.—The rumoured negotiations for a
Customs' Union between France and Belgium occupy the
Thublic mind, and seem to be not altogether unfounded.
at overtures have been made long ago is certain, but
what progress has been effected in the conducting of them
is not so clear. The design of France is avowed, and
can deceive no one. It is that of indirectly extending
her frontier to the limits of demarcation between Hol-
land and Belgium, with the facility of seizing on the
whole territories. aeKing Leopold the moment an Euro-
pean war should present a favourable Opportunity. It
is possible, too, that this design may be considered as,
an indirect method of regainiDg: swan of the influence lost

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