The Sun.
London, England, 1841-07-13 00:00:00

CONDUCT OF THE LEGISLATURE.

" For centuries, the Government has laboured to fetter
and mis-direct the industry of the people. Instead of
confining itself to its true task of defending its subjects
from foreign and domestic violence and fraud, it has
taken on itself the task of rendering them, or of render-
ing certain classes of them, rich. It has dictated to
them what they shall produce, and to whom they shall
sell, and what they shall purchase, and to what markets
they shall resort. It has considered the whole body
of consumers as a prey to be sacrificed to any class,
or to any section of a class, that chose to ask for a
monopoly. And when one class has complained of
the privileges granted to another, it has bribed
it into acquiescence by allowing it to inflict a
further injustice on the public. In order to benefit the
class engaged in exporting supplies to the colonies, it
prohibits or restricts the direct trade between the colo-
nies and foreign countries. In order to induce the colo-
nies to submit to these prohibitions and restrictions, it
prohibits or restricts the importation into the British
islands of foreign colonial commodities, the public suf-
fering by each set of rules ; first, by being confined to
the market of the British colonies ; and secondly, by
those colonies being stunted, and that market rendered
still more unfavourable by the restrictions laid on the
colonies. To benefit the lumberers of Canada, and the
owners of some old vessels fit only for the American
timber trade, it imposes duties from 500 to 100 per cent.
on the best timber, bcause it is the cheapest ; duties not
only not productive, but positively injurious to the re-
venue. To reconcile the shipowners to the additional ex-
pense of about 15 per cent. thus imposed on British ship-
building, it impoSes higher duties on the same commo-
dities wen imported in a foreign than in a British ship.
To benefit the British tanner, it subjects foreign tanned
leather to a prohibitory duty ; and it purchases the si-
lence of the manufacturers who use leather for their ma-
terial, by imposing prohibitory duties on almost every
foreign commodity, of which leather forms a part. The
favourites, of course, of the Legislature, have been the
landowners, the class to which they themselves belong.
The importation of cattle, sheep, swine, beef; lamb, mut-
ton, and pork, they absolutely prohibit ; and on grain,
they impose duties which, on an average, raise the price
of bread 20 per cent. ;—which cramp our trade, which
convert our customers into our rivals, which lower wages,
and, what, is perhaps a still greater evil in a society con-
stituted as ours is, render employment uncertain.
" If this has been the conduct of the rulers of this
country, we repeat the question, what is likely to be the
conduct of their subjects if such a reverse as we have
alluded to should occur ? When they are told, and told
with truth, that the Government has ventured to assume
the direction of manufactures and trade ; when they are
told, and truly told, that it has used this monstrous usur-
pation for the benefit, or the supposed benefit, not of the
many, but of the few ; when they find, that of all the
monopolies which it has conferred, that which it en-
forces most rigidly, and maintains most pertinaciously,
is the monopoly of food ; when they find that this is the
monopoly. which inflicts on them the most suffering, and
gives, or is intended to give, to the governing class the
greatest immediate profit—are they likely to endure it
as a misfortune or to resent it as an injury ? If they
resent it, we repeat, what form is their resentment likely
to take--sulky submission, or fierce struggles for re-
.dress ? and, in the latter alternative, to what degree are
they formidable ?
" These questions scarcely require an answer. The
manufacturing population " of Great Britain consists of
many millions of persons concentrated in towns, or in
districts as populous as towns, accustomed to political
discussion ; with their own leaders and their own press ;
organized in combinations, with executive, deliberative,
and corresponding officers ; with funds for the separate,
purposes of each distinct society, and for the general
purposes of the united societies ' • and trained, by a long
and successful contest against the Combination-laws, to
elude or to defy the authority of the State. Such a
population is formidable even in prosperity ; it would
become doubly formidable in adversity, even though that
adversity arose from causes involving no blame to the
Government. But if it were miserable, and could trace
its misery directly to the Legislature ; if it could accuse
the governing body, not of error, but of oppression and
robbery ; if it felt itself sacrificed to the rents of land-
lords, and to the profits of sugar planters and timber
merchants—what limits can we assign to its passions or
to its violence ? Are we sure that our wealth, our poli-
tical greatness, or even our Constitution, would come
out safely from such a struggle ?"
" Our first act was to establish a Corn-law. We say
to establish a Corn-law ; for that which previously
existed had, from the altered value of money, become
nominal. By the memorable law of 1815, the law to
which our subsequent calamities and our present dangers
may be traced, the importation of wheat was absolutely
prohibited when it was under the famine price of 80s.
a quarter. Butcher's meat we absolutely prohibited,
whatever might be its price. Next to meat and bread
indeed, in as far as the majority of our populationis:cbn-
ii.xt to bread—the most important article of food