The Sun.
London, England, 1841-07-22 00:00:00

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M ORNING SUN.
THINGS TOO HARD FORA MA-

(Prom the Notieeniformist.)
Commerce, drocp,—trade is sta.rnant—our manufac-
tures one by one are falling into
.decay--capital returns
no profit-industry finds no employment—the revenue
steadily declines—the expenses of the country increase.
The national resources seem to hare lost their
wonted elasticity. Improveinent, hoped for, expected,
patiently- waited for, not only does not come, but gives
no promise of coming. Men try to suck consolation
from the thought that things cannot be worse just as
starving people have been known to seek nutriment in
old shoes. We fear the scanty pittance of comfort de-
rived from this source will be soon wrested from them
by inexorable facts. The bankruptcy list may be longer
—markets yet open to us may be lost—mills and fac-
tories may be given up as worthless—thousands who have
strained every nerve to maintain a footing of credit and
respectability may be compelled to yield to the iron
rule of necessity—and millions who have contrived, one
scarcely knows how, to keep life within their wasting
wasting frames, may find even that to be no longer
possible.
The present unprecedented depression of the staple in-
terests of the country is neither recently nor suddenly
produced. The causes which brought it to the present
pass, are not adventitious. What they have done an are
doing, they will continue to do with frightfully augmen-
ted power. Trade cannot flourish whilst manufacture
languishes—manufacture cannot live but in close de-
pendence upon commerce—and commerce crippled by
absurd restrictions cannot win back markets from which
foreign competition has driven it. Prosperity will not
drop down upon us from heaven—the age of miracles is
passed. It was long before monopoly fairly beat
down the energies of an enterprising, industrious,
and, by position, singularly favoured people—but having
done this, recovery is impossible so long as monopoly is
upheld.
Sir Robert Peel takes office to uphold monopoly.
Flushed with electoral triumphs, his party display all
the confidence which would be justified only by the sup-
position that their main obstacle has been surmounted.
They undertake the task of governing this country, every
interest of which (saving agriculture, whose turn of ad-
versity is approaching), languishes nigh to dissolution,
on principles, the real meaning of which is that relief
shall not be administered ; and they fancy have suc-
ceeded when they have got a Parliamentary majority. A
Parliamentary majority ! Yes ; they have got one, and it
is all they have got. Meanwhile the great unvarying
laws of the social and economical world will go on steadily
operating, uninfluenced by their majority.
We have little faith in the patriotism of the middle
classes—not much in their enlightenment. Neitheir of
them has done much to avert the present crisis. But
necessity will teach them some useful lessons—and
growing distress will do much to embolden their political
aiews and spirit. The continuance and increase of pre-
sent embarrassments will drive all classes to ask them-
selves—" Why is it thus ?" Soon the eyes of all will
be fixed upon the boasted majority who hold in their
hands the power of relief and selfishly refuse to give it.
They will begin to reason thus—" we have all the ele-
ments of national greatness and prosperity—industry,
skill, enterprise, influence—roads, canals, rivers, the
ocean—we have coal and iron—we can avail ourselves
of immense natural advantages—we might trade with the
whole world—and we are bidden by a Parliamentary ma-
jority, to forego it all and perish."
Can Sir Robert Peel and his majority obliterate from
men's minds the conclusions firmly fixed there by the
report of the Committee on the Import Duties ? Can
he persuade them that any retrenchment of aristocratic
extravagance would be an evil infinitely more serious
than national beggary ? Will he be able to chain up
thought, or cut off the connection between thought and
will ? Or is he fond enough to suppose that universal
distress, produced by known removable causes, will not
generate discontent, or that discontent can embody itself
in no form which his majority will be unable to cope
with ? In one word, can he make human nature other
than it is ? If not, what does he and his party propose
to do ? -Just to sit upon the valve of the engine and
whistle until the boiler butsts.
It is rumoured that the Tories, fearful of trying the
experiment of increased taxation, will cut down expen-
diture, and make it square with the present income of
the country. What then ? This will not remove his
difficulties. A steadily declining revenue is not the com-
plaint with which he has to deal, but only a symptom of
it. Taxation is as nothing in comparison of monopoly.
Give us leave (mark that ! the nation is under necessity
in this matter of asking leave), give us leave to trade,
when, where, and in what articles we please, and our
national debt would not only be more manfully, but
easily and with cheerfulness. Our interests can stand
up under this burden ; but they cannot suffer a privation
of natural sustenance too, We are not crushed by ex-
ternal pressure alone ; but by the combination of ex-
ternal pressure with internal weakness. Trade and com-
merce are gasping for proper aliment—lightening their
load will not meet their case. Not the back but the
stomach craves attention.
Here then is Sir Robert's main difficulty. Ireland is
a fleabite to it. All the great interests of the empire
are sinking gradually but surely into decay—the Hon.
Baronet comes forward and declares, " I will take the
government in hand on the principle of withholding.
relief." A population rapidly increasing—the means of
employment daily slipping out of their hands—an im-
mense amount of capital vested in manufacture sinking
into annihilation—incorporated property of all kinds,
shippin,,, railroads, canals, mines, becoming in conse-
quence °depreciated in value—the middle classes hardly
able to keep bankruptcy at bay—the working classes
already suffering as much as nature can endure—will Sir
Robert Peel be able to master this unusual and terrible
combination of difficulties ? Yes ! when he and his
majority can chain the Hellespont. We said some time
since he would have to deal with things rather than with
political parties—and we predict, without pretending to
second sight, that things will beat him.
ANTI-COR

N-LA VirTE A PART Y A T
SALFORD.
An Anti-Corn-law tea party was held in Salford Town
Hall on Monday evening last, for the purpose of form-
ing an Operative Anti-Corn-law Association in Salford.
About 400, a great proportion of whom were ladies, sat
down to tea. Mr. William Morris occupied the chair -
and, amongst other gentlemen present, were Josep
Brotherton, Esq., M,P, ; Mr, Alderman Brooks, Mr J.
Kay, jun., constable ; Mr. W. Lockett, &c. The room
was tastefully decorated with flags and banners, bearing
appropriate inscriptions.
Mr. W. J. BIRCH moved a resolution to the effect,
that an Operative Anti-Corn-law Association should be
formed in Salford.

➢ir. Alderman BROOKS said he could purchase beef in
Monte Video for 9s. 4d. a cwt., and it would pay him
to bring it over to England, and sell it at led. alb
But our laws absolutely prohibited the importation of
beef.

Mr. WARREN, the President of the Manchester Ope-
rative Anti-Corn-law Association, said, 191 b. of sugar
might be got in Hamburgh for 6s. 4d., which cost in
England 19s. He urged them to unite, and use every
endeavour to repeal the laws, which were evidently so
injurious to them.

J. BROTHERTON, Esq:, M.P., said a tax upon corn was
different from a tax upon sugar or coffee, or any article
produced by a foreign country. Supposing we imported a
certain quantity of tea, which was worth a shilling a
pound, if a tax of a shilling a pound was put upon it, we
should only have to pay 2s. for the article. But it was
not so with regard to corn. Assuming, for the sake of
argument, that we consumed fifty millions of quarters
of wheat a year, a tax of 10s. a quarter upon it would
be 25 millions. Now, if we imported two millions
of quarters of foreign wheat at a duty of 10s. a quarter,
we should have to pay into the Treasury one million of
money; but the effect of having a tax upon an article
grown which was in this country was not merely
to tax
us to the amount paid into the Treasury, but iti!ad the
effect of raising the price of all the wheat grown in this to
country 10s. a quarter : so that, in reality, we
had
pay a tax of twenty-five millions ; and w
the distinction between a sliding
scale
duty, Lord Winchilsea was all kit
by means of an
horrified andeshould see
a fixed
idea of taxing the bread of the people,
Bs. duty upon corn ; but, according
ss.a
quarter. With scale, the duty at that time was 255. 2
would show us how we
re-
spect to the article of sugar, h
were plundered. A sample el' foreign sugar of fair qua-
lity, had been sent to him by a person in the room, which
might be purchased, exclusive of duty, at 2i-d. a pound,
The West India planter's had procured a tax of 635. per
cwt. to be laid on foreign sur, while their own
to
was only taxed
the amount of _4s. per cwt. In 1831
this country
imported from the West Indies 4,600,000
cwt, of sugar,
.for which we paid them five millions of
money, exclusive of the duty ; and the consumption
averaged 201 b a head-21b a head less, by the by, than
the allowance in the workhouse, In 1840, only 3,600,000
cwts. were imported ; but what did we think we had to
pay for it ! We paid five millions for 4,600,000 cwts.
but we had to pay nine millions for 3,600,000 ewts. So
that we paid
four millions more for one-fourth less ; be-
cause we could not receive it from other places, foreign
sugar being charged with a duty of 635. a cwt. We
must be astonished that such laws as these should have
been enacted ; but the fact was, it was a Tory principle,
that the people had nothing to do with the laws but to
obey them.
The resolution was carried, and almost every man pre-
sent intimated his intention to belong to the association.
The proceedings terminated about eleven o'clock.

ENCOUNTER WITH A BOA-CONSTRICTOR.--•
In the Surrey Zoological Gardens are several serpents, amongst
which is an enormous boa, measuring upwards of twenty
feet in length, and weighing more than two hundred
weight. It is usual for the keepers to bathe them occasion-
ally, and by every means to endeavour to tame them, and
from time to time it is no uncommon thing for one of the
men in the habit of doing so to go into their room, or sage,
and clean it, whilst two large constrictors lie coiled up in- a
corner. Those who have been at the gardens must know
that the serpents' room is near the pond, and that they are
enclosed in divisions of about six feet by four, with plate.-
glass fronts, for the purpose of exhibition. Their food—live
rabbits—is put into these rooms by a sliding pannel, which
one of the keepers, named Blackburn, was in the act of doing,
when the enormous boa sprung at him and seized him by the
arm. The man leapt backwards, and drew the serpent partl„.
y
out of the cage, which immediately spun round him like a win
lass, and made one coil. Had he effectedanother, Blackburn
would have been inevitably killed, and perhaps partly swallowed
before it was discovered, he being at the time alone, and without
but by pressing the throat of
any one immediately near him ;
the powerful creature, and by more than usual strength, he was
the preserved. Having shut the slide, on reachingother
keepers, from the conflict in which he had been engaged, the
poor fellow fainted ; and on being taken home, was found to
be very much discoloured from the powerful pressure of his,
terrific antagonist. The same constrictor, in full action, would
squeeze a buffalo into a shapeless mass, and swallow it most
easily. The keeper, however, is now doing well.
His Grace the Duke of Northumberland has
granted a site of land in the village of Shilbottle for a.
Wesleyan Methodist chapel, with the stone requisite for
the building.—Durhani Advertiser.