The Sun.
London, England, 1841-05-10 00:00:00

EVENING EDITION.___

CORN-LAW CRISIS.

The following extracts from the Colc:trY
Papers will give some idea of the e.xcitezneat
which Lord John Russell's motion has created•

(From the Kendal Mercury.)
We " the people of Westmorland," were ver y glad'
not vory lone- ° ago, to have London news two or three day!
after date. Now, the London evening papers are spread
on the tables of our reading rooms by eleven o'clock the
following morning.
Under ordinary circumstances, the Ministers should
have resigned. - But new circumstances immediately
oros., which have sent the Irish Parliamentary voters,
Bill into a temporary oblivion, and fixed the attention 0'
the whole country—of the entire United King,dorn---cli
a question mightier, broader, deeper than the qualifica-
tion of Irish' voters, for it is a question concerning the
life and death of Englishmen and Scotchmen, as well as
Irishmen—a question that touches landlords, fanners,
masters, and servants—`which touches capital and profit,
labour and *Ages—a question, which, while it extends
its influence over the civilised globe, and follows British
commerce into the remotest seas, comes home to the

British artizan, and glistens in the eyes of his children,
when they mount his knee, and imploringly cry for
bread.

Last Friday week the Chancellor of the Exchequer
opened his Budget. But before he did so, Lord Jolla
Russell gave warning note of preparation, by hit an;
nouncement of an intention to move for a Committee (A
the whole House to consider the Acts relating to Corn'
This was like a trumpet blast in the House. Then came
the dreadful expose of the head man of the Exchequ r.
The revenue of the country was a great way below
expenditure—what was to be done ? New taxes

Oli, no ! New taxes in a country whose industry
has been so deplorably crippled, and which ought,
to be prosperous and to a certain extent happy'
Therefore, if no new taxes be allowable, what'
then ? Liberate the industry of the country ; 'l4/
longer shut it up within the prison walls of monopoly*
for the benefit of the Governors of the vast House of '
Correction—

" Open your doors, and let me gang free,
I darna stay longer in bonnie Dundee !"
is the mournful sOng of the Commerce of Great Rritain•
The proposals of the Ministry do. not amount---theY
scarcely come near—to FREE TRADE : but they are
approach ; and as we have all along advocated the exPe"
diency of a gradual approximation, in order that all 11,3 Y„
be protected, and injustice done to nobody, we calla?'
but rejoice, in common with the country, in the propos'
tion of Ministers. A fixed and moderate dut, on
aornrd
will lead to a steady and healthy trade in grain, 44.0
protection to farmers, and give employment to our Ina"
nufacturers. It will pave the way to placinc, our eon r
merce on a footing far different from the wild, fitful, ir-
regular condition in which it is at present ; and tho-agli„
we are far indeed from expecting a commercial mi
nium, we have at least a right to expect, that insti!ad or,j
our commerce being sacrificed to the plough, it should
be based on a system which will benefit plough sold conl7o
merce together.
us
We are not now going to argue the matter, We hale.
done so very recently and repeatedly ; and be the fate
of Ministers what it may, the step they have taken •nar.,,
given an impulse to the question, which not even wear',"
Tory administrations could check. It is debating, nll
over the length and breadth of the land ; every manu'
feels it to be a question vitally affecting himself, and
therefore roused to its consideration.
As to the miserable fallacy, that cheap provisions
ply low wages, and that it is no matter to a wor-l'ung
man whether the quartern loaf is a shilling or a six;
pence, it may he left to die its own miserable death. It
is fast expiring : the working man knows that in 18;5",,
and 1836, when corn was just half the price ol 1839 .anu
1840 (owing to abundant harvests), he had, more work
and better wages than he has ever had since. The
wretched argument means this, that the T.nore food a mail
has for his family, the more miserable lie becomes ; and
that is an vgnment which even a Feggar could answer,
for hAino* the difference between an empty and a futh
wallet.

We are more afraid about the result of the modificati,,
of the sugar* duties than about the Corn-laws. There
are a number of philanthropic individuals in this country,
with their heads and hearts so completely enlisted in the
Anti-Slavery cause, that they are willing to maintain an
injurious monopoly under the idea that they are prw
motingthe cause of humanity. We give them full credit
for their humanity, but it tAtust not run away with their
judgment. There are people at home to be benefited, 115'.
IA 45.1 as people abroad ; and by admitting foreign sugars',
at a rate of duty quite sufficient to protect the. Wo-,t
Indies, we not only take care of our own colonies, but I,y
opening commercial relations with slave holding cor.n.
tries, we are opening channels for pouring into them 'Jur
anti-slavery principles wider and.,broader than any ocher
we can at present command.
The battle commences —or rather commenced—c°
Friday night. All the great powers of monopoly are
gathering together, to defeat the intentions of the
Ministry. They may obtain a, temporary triumph : boy
never will the industrious classes of. this country rest
until they place their trade and commerce on,a footing,
which will keep them from wasting their energies in use-
,
less exertions—from " labouring in vain, and spending: •
their strength for nought."

re '1
[We recommend the following petition, drawn up
are assured, by working men at Lewes, to the considerti-
tion ottheir class throughout the empire.]
CHEAP FOOD ! FULL WORK ! HIGH WAGES !
In 1835, the price of Wheat, for the whole year, w 0
Thirty-nine Shillings and Fourpence per Quarter
whole cost of the Year's consumption (16,000,000 gnsr-
ters) was only 31,400,0001. leaving a large'smai to-be'e3.
pended in manufactured goods of all kinds, which go'
full empOyment to all.
DEAR FOOD ! LITTLE WORK ! LOW WAGES
In 1839, the price of Wheat, for the whole year, vAls
Seventy Shillings and Eightpence per Quarter the
whole cost of .the year's consumption (16,000,600 Quar-
ters) was 56,533,0001. ! ! ! leaving 25,000,0001. less to
spend on manufactured goods of all kinds than 5,n 1835,
which has thrown thousands out of employuient, re-
duced wageS, caused starvation, disease, and death ! •
To the Honourable the Commons of the United King-
dom of Great Britain and Ireland, 'in Parliament'
assembled.
The Petition of the undersigned Inhabitants of the,
borough of Lewes, in the county of Sussexl, and
its vicinity,
Showeth,—That your petitioners consider themselves
grievously oppressed by the operation of certain laws
called the Corn and Provision-laws.
That the avowed object and certain effect of these laws
is to make *bread sell at a high price ; and to prevent
all kimls of butcher's meat, if produced and brought
from foreign countries, from being sold at all.
That frdm a Report of your Honourable House, it
appears that a greater amount of money is taken from
the people by these laws than by all the other taxes
levied by Government, and that the amount has been
estimated nt fifty million pounds sterling per annum.
That ?Jur petitioners are severely suffering from the
want of profitable employment, which is felt alike by
workmen and their masters ; and the want of profitable'
employment your petitioners learn from the Reports of •
your Honourable House, is, in a great degree, owing ta.
the high price at which food is sold in this country, and.
which high price of food it is the object of the Corn and
Provision-laws to produce.
That your petitioners' wages do not by any means rise
and fall with the price of their food, as certain ignorant
and interested persons have often asserted, but appear to
your petitioners to be much more influenced by the de
mend which exists from time to time for the labour of
the workman and the production of his industry.
That in illustration of this opinion your petitions r
record with sorrow their mournful experience of the few
last years, during which the price of bread has doubled,'-:
while wages have barely advanced at all, and the con-
stoney of their employment has diminished.
Your petitioners therefore pray your Honourable House ='
forthwith to repeal the Corn and Provision-laws, and=
by so doing afford a free scope to the industry of your
petitioners, and remove from the ,legislation of the. •,'1
country the stria and opprobrium of withholding from
the people their daily bread. .•rf,
And your petitioners will ever pray. 'if°. •
Art,

I m (From the Liverpool Journal.)
IHE GREAT PROBLEM.—The great problem is now to:
be resolved, whether the people of England are really •
far enough advanced in moral courage and intellectual
cultivation to see the right object of good goVernment,
and to make efforts sufficiently strenuous to secure it.
Long and often has it been asserted that the Ministers,
were to blame for their timidity ; that they were behind(
the spirit of the age ; that they had but to put the4p-: ?I,
selves at the head of the movement towards free trade to
be borne along by the enthusiastic voices of the peoplo ;
that sordid monopoly would quail before the arouse
giant of public opinion, as it did ten years ago, na
o, o
similar occasion. Well, the Ministers have edone so. J.!
Tardily, but decisively at last, they have declared War •
with the three greatest mont)polieS with which this
country is cursed—those of corn, timber and sugar. They
have declared war with them, not in the abstract, but in '
degree. On the result, vast material interests depend—
interests to which even the existence of a Liberal Go-
vernment is subsidiary. It will decide whether, at the
same time, trade shall be revivified, the returns of capi—
tal and the wages of labour enhanced, and the revene • ,
augmented ; or, whether trade shall continue to dwinc le,
and the people to sink lower and nearer to the zer) of
misery, a vast portion of our population thrown on the
land, and other permanent property, for maintenance, •
and the deficiency in the revenue supplied by a direct
,;.; •
abstraction from every man's earnings, in the shape of
an income tax. In two words, the issue is national ruin,
or national prosperity.
(From the Carnarvon Herald.)
The most remarkable result of the step about to be . •
taken by Ministers, is the liberalizing effect it seems t
have produced upon certain Tory landlords. They bee
,in
to see that every restriction upon corn is neither m ire •
nor less than a tax ; and as a fixed duty upon for Agri
wheat would, to the extent of that duty, act as a tax
upon the consumer, they are determined to resist
to the very knife, " this attempt to iasten a
bread-tax upon the people." So says my Lord Win-
chelsea ! So say they all ! Heaven bless them ! How
kind they have grown ! They would, in sheer goodness •
of heart, rather sell corn to the people at eighty shil-
lings under protection, than allow them to have it at fifty.
under a tax. It is to hoped (in order that such charity
be properly appreciated), they will condescend too
explain how it is that a duty of twenty-three shillingsi,
when paid as a protection to the grower, is less a tar.;
upon the consumer, than six or seven shillings paid to •
the revenue ; since, unless better instructed, there may
be people silly enough to prefer paying a small sum to
Government, rather than a large one to monopolists..
(From the Lancaster Guardian.)
W e seek the abolition of the bread-tax, and nothing
else will satisfy the people. Let this be solemnly gua-
ranteed, and the electors of Great Britain will, we most
confidently predict, carry them triumphantly throug