The Sun.
London, England, 1841-05-22 00:00:00

THE CRISIS.

We see by the Votes of the House of Coin
mons that a considerable number of petitions,
against any alterations in the Corn-laws, is pre-
sented, but each petition is signed by very few
persons. They are in general presented by some
High Churchman and Tory, such as Sir ROBERT
INGLIS, the Member for the University of
Oxford, Mr. PAKINGTON, or Sir THOMAS Ac-
LAND. Many of these petitioners come with pe-
titions for Church Extension, from which circum-
stances we infer that the clergy of the Esta-
blished Church are the real manufacturers of
these prayers for the continuance of the bread-
tax. There is no doubt that they are actively
engaged in bolstering up that tax, and nothing
that we may say can add, we believe, to their
hostility. We do not, however, understand their
policy in uniting with the landlords, and so
bringing on the Church all the animosity which
the people must necessarily feel for the cause of
poverty, hunger, and starvation. The clergy-
man should be the poor man's friend, but he
unites with the landlords, makes himself the
enemy of the poor, and causes the Church to lose
all hold of the affections of the people.
It is a favourite maxim of Sir ROBERT INGLIS
and the High Church party that the Dissenters
have acquired their houses and lands subject to
Church-rates ; that they gave so much less for
them on account of the rates; and therefore Sir
ROBERT and his friends say the Dissenters are
unjust for wishing to increase their property by
throwing off the tax. The same argument holds
good as to tithes. The great majority of the pre-
sent race of landlords have acquired their pro-
perty subject to sharing it with the Church. In
fact, the landlords when they purchased the land
purchased only nine-tenths of it, and gave so
much less for it. They are not owners of the
whole but only of nine parts, and the tenth part
belongs to others. We are not defending the
institution of tithes, but they seem as valid
(gnoad the landlords) as the ownership of the
soil, and the landowners have no more right to
complain of not having the tenth part which
they never purchased or inherited, than Lord
WINCHILSEA has a right to complain that Sir
EDWARD KNATCHBULL'S estate does not belong
to him as well as his own.
At the same time the landowners do complain
of it, and what is more, they maintain the Corn-
laws, in order to relieve themselves from tithes,
or take from the people an equivalent in the
shape of a bread-tax, for that which never be-
longed to them. So general have their doctrines
on the subject become, that our readers will have
seen in our extract yesterday, from the Journal
des Debats, that the French paper, in speaking
of our Corn-laws, justifies what it calls protec-
tion for agriculture against foreign productions,
on account of the landlords having tithes to pay.
Mr. RICARDO advocated a fixed duty on the
same account; and the writer, whose pamphlet
we referred to ten days ago, avowedly takes up
Mr. RICARDO'S opinions. In the same manner,
Mr. HODGES defended the Corn-laws a few nights
ago in Parliament, because the tithes still
exist, though they had been commuted, which,
however, put an end to many incidents of tithes
injurious to the landlord, while it still left him
merely minus the tenth part of the estate. The
argument, therefore, that the landlords should
tax the people's bread, because they are subject
to the payment of tithes, means that they are to
wring from the people by law an equivalent for
that tenth part of the produce of the land which
never belonged, and does not now belong, to them.
They might as well tax our bread because they
have to pay jointures and annuities to their
dowager mothers and lady sisters.
We are aware that the clergy, whose income
in part depends on the price of corn, have a
trifling interest in keeping up the Corn-laws, but
we are surprised that they should make common
cause with the landlords, who treat the claims of
the clergy as an incumbrance from which they
compel the people to relieve them. They admit,
by supporting the Corn-laws, because the land
has to pay tithes, that they have not as good a
right to them as the landlords have to their
estate. To us it seems as if the landlords made
a cat's-paw of them, or they made a cat's-paw
of themselves to drag the landlords' chestnuts
out of the fire. Be the cause avarice, ignorance,
or sheer folly, the bulk of the clergy, we believe,
make common cause with the landlords in their
endeavours to uphold the bread-tax.
We thought that the Church was unpopular
enough without affixing on it this additional
stigma. It stands in the way of popular educa-
tion; it stands in the way of general harmony
and unanimity; it is openly opposed to perfect
freedom ; the Catholics and Dissenters are op-
pressed in its name ; it is considered a public
nuisance; and now the landlords represent it,
and the clergy confirm the landlords' representa-
tion, as the cause of the Corn-laws. They are
kept up, it is said, to enable the landlords to pay
tithes. For the sake of the Church, bread is
made dear and the people starved. So the
Church, and with the Church the religion which
it professes to teach, and the morality which it is
supposed to inculcate, are made odious by being
associated with the accursed bread-tax.
If it be curious to see the clergy lend them-
selves to this manoeuvre of the rent-owners, the
conduct of the latter towards the Church is as in-
consistent. They represent-it as mortal to the

The storm thickens, the war waxes hot, and
wrathful contentions in Parliament are taking
the place of that dull, peaceful, wordy display
which showed that the House was uninfluenced
by the strong feelings which pervade the com-
munity: The Tories, we hear, have resolved to
to oppose the Bill for renewing the sugar duties.
They mean to stop the supplies unless they—virtu-
ous high-minded patriots! are allowed to adminis-
ter the affairs of the country. Be it so. We
desire nothing better. The country, tired of the
present state of wretchedness, without any hope
of relief, will hail the contest with delight. Worse
it cannot well be ; and by every a;itation,
it must throw off some of 7. the feculent
matter, which scattered now through the mass,
impedes the healthy action of every individual.
We hope that the Tories have screwed up
their courage boldly to arrest • the march
of the Government in the way of im-
provement. They will only give a greater sti-
mulus to the people to rise up to its aid. If the
Tories would stop the Supplies to obtain power,
they would dethrone the QUEEN.

We recommend to the attention of tradesmen,
as well as legislators, a letter on " Usury-laws,"
given in another column. It is written by a
gentleman who, from his professional duties and
the attention he has paid to the subject, is well
qualified to judge of the ruinous effects of the
present system of money-lending. The public,
indeed, have no idea of the numerous cases of
extortion which are practised daily, and which
are still increasing. The Marquis of LANS-
DOWNE, therefore, deserves great credit for
having taken up the question in the House of
Lords, and obtained the appointment of , a Com-
mittee to investigate the changes caused by the
modification of the Usury-laws.

Our readers will perceive, by a Report in an-
other part of The Sun of this day, that a great
public meeting has been held in Sheffield—
one of the most important manufacturing
towns in the north. At this meeting—which
was attended by upwards of eight thousand
resolute Anti-Monopolists—the spirit in fa-
vour of Ministers was as alert and energetic
as could be desired. There was no waver-
ing—no vacillation—no unworthy distrust or
timidity exhibited—the different speakers seemed
to vie with each other in their determi-
nation to uphold, by all means in their power,
the Government course of policy. And such as
is the spirit displayed at Sheffield, so is it gene-
throughout the provinces. Every where, we see
indications of a calm, settled determination of
purpose that, when the day of struggle comes,
will sweep all opposition before it. -

Madrid Journals, of the 13th instant, have
reached us. They bring no news of interest.
Nothing was decided about the new Cabinet.
The British Ambassador, Mr. AUSTIN, had dis-
missed the English Consul at Carthagena, who
had been guilty of insulting the Spanish flag.
The funds had not improved by ESPARTERO'S
election to the Regency. The Five per Cents.
were at 27i for cash.

The French Journals of Thursday have all
reached us. The following is a summary of the
latest news from French Africa :
The Government has received a telegraphic despatch from
General Beaugeau, dated Algiers, May 13, which, as it will
be seen, is a confirmation of that which we gave on Tuesday,
under the date of Toulon, 17th: " The expeditionary corps re-
turned on the 9th to Illidah, having &posited a large convoy
at Medeah, and another at Miliana. Several slight combats
have taken place. On the 3d it was attacked under Miliana,
by 9,000 foot and 10,000 hore. This small army was put
completely to the rout, and left 400 dead on the field. On the
4th the whole of the enemy's cavalry was driven beyond the
bridge over the Chelif-el-Kantara, which the French crossed.
On the stti our cavalry beat at Beny- Zug-Zug, on the left
bank, 4,000 horse, commanded by Abd-el-Kader in person.
Four squadrons of his regular cavalry experienced considerable
loss, having left 184 on the ground and nineteen prisoners.
This victory delivered up to us the tribe of the Beny-Zug-Zug,
who lost all their tents and moveables, part of their cattle, anti
eighty-two women, who have been breught to Algiers, where
they are well treat d. We had 140 wounded and eighteen

French soldiers are unquestionably among
the bravest in the world; but the immense dis-
proportion between their loss and that of the
Arabs exceeds human credibility. In the above
paragraph we have an account of three separate
engagements, in two of which the Arabs lost 584
men, while the French are reported to have only
eighteen killed. Be it remembered, too, that
the Arabs are a brave race, and that they are
fighting for their country and their religion.
The non-recognition by England of the
sovereignty of France over Algiers, begins
p create much uneasiness in Paris. The
Duke DE VALMY, Baron D'HAvssEz, and
Count DE GUERNON-RANVILLE, have pub-
lished declarations to the effect that the Mi-
nisters of CHARLES the Tenth never gave any
pledge to England to evacuate Algiers. The
first named of these personages insinuates, that
as England always protested in the strongest
manner against the occupation of Algiers, she
would not have remained so long passive had
not the revolutionary Government pledged itself
to abandon it.
Galignani's Messenger formally contradicts
the report of a disagreement in the French Cabi-
net. The Souvr-a-UIZOT Ministry is represented
as unanimous upon every question, and as resolved
to stand or fall together.
The defeat of the English Ministers upon the
Sugar question, is announced in all the Paris
Papers of Thursday. It produced no effect upon
the funds, as it was known that an appeal would
be made to the country.
The Tonlannais of the 16th inst. states, that a telegraphic
despatch was received on the preceding day from Faris, direct-
ing the authorities to remove the ex-Caicf Ben Aissa from the
hulks to the fort of Lamalgue. This celebrated chief, sen-
tenced to twenty years hard labour, is not to undergo that pe-
nalty, and the rich costume which was taken from him when
he was lodged in the Bagne had been returned to him.
The same Journal announces that the ships forming the new
Levant squadron, under the orders of Rear-Admiral Lassuse,
were to sail in the course of the ensuing week. These were
the Inflexib:e, 90-gun ship, and Santi-Petri, 84, and the fri-
gates Minerve, Didon, and another expected from Brest.
Admiral Roussein has suffertd a confession to escape him in
the Chamber of Peers, which is a fatal blow to the Ministry
of M. Thicrs. He said that the fleet was recalled to Toulon
because it would have been imprudent to leava it on the coast
of Syria, where the exasperation of the two fleets would have
produced an inevitable collision. Thus, what Al. Thiers and
his friends has hitherto denied in the amber of Deputies is
confessed in the Chamber of Peers. The fear of a collision
made the warlike Ministry shrink. What reason can M.
Thiers have to reproach M. Guizet ? France has been mysti-
fied ; this is clear. The Ministry wanted the fortifications of
Paris, the purchases of horses, and the twelve regiments 01 the
Dukes of Orleans and Nemours.— Gazette de Frahce.
The Editor of the Gazette de France having appealed from
the sentence of the Court of Assize of the 30th April, con-
demning him to a fine of 5,000 f„ received yesterday a new sum-
mons to appear before the Court of Assize on the 21st of May.
M. Eugune Roch, a naturalist of Wurtemburg, who is
settled at St. Louis, the capital of the State of that name, has
lately made a very interesting discovery, of which the following
account is given in a letter of the 16th of February from Boor:-
vile, in the State of Missouri :-
6, M. Roch, being lately in the little town of Occola, on the
Osage river, learnt that an ancient tradition, very generally
spread among the native tribes, that there formerly existed a
race of gigantic and terrible animals, which committed great
ravages, but that at length they all perished in a dreadful con-
test with each other, and were buried by the Great Spirit near
a stream, now called Oschety. M. Roch caused search to be
made in this place, and at the depth of about twenty
feet he found two skeletons, one quite perfect, the other
nearly so, of an animal of gigantic stature, and hitherto
unknown. These skeletons are oetween sixteen and seventeen
feet high, 34 feet long, and 8 wide. The Tibia are 4 feet
long, and 40 inches in diameter. The upper jaw projects
15 inches below the lower jaw, and is armed with two tusks,
each curved at the lower extremity ; the head including these
two tusks weigh eleven hundred pounds. M. Bach has given
them the name of Missourium. and has sent the skeletons to St.
Louis, where he has a tine Museum of natural history. He
intends to publish a detailed description of them.—Le Com.
, mace.

RELEASE OF POLITICAL PRISONERF.-Air. Thomas
7 00,000 persons,
Duncombe is to present a petition to the House
of Commons) signed by for the
release of persons confined for political offences. If
the present time be appropriate for performing an
act of mercy, or we might even call it an act
of justice—and when can such an act be =appro.,
priate?—we hope that the prayer of the petition may be
complied with. The offence, of these people was very
slight, if it were an offence at all; their punishment hi&
been heavy, their.sufferings severe ; and for the sake Of
mercy, and even for the sake of justice, they canWt be
ton 500UreleaSel
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