The Sun.
London, England, 1841-05-20 00:00:00

length at bay. The present is no servile war for an
agragarian or Spencean division of property, but a peace-
ful constitutional movement for the free use of our own
legs and arms. Let all plunderers and monopolists
tremble ! Lt t the parasite classes fear ! They feel
that a blow struck at one is a blow at all, and that in a
country where no privileges arc accorded to idleness,
and no trammels imposed upon labour for their behoof,
abuses cannot long exist. A magnate of their order
said before of Reform—" If this Bill passes, England
will not be a place for a gentleman to live in." To all
such we can easily conceive that the Grand Material
Reform contemplated by Ministers is a hateful scheme :
but to the masses of the people it is " as manna in the
wilderness." Their cry is not revolutionary spoliation
and robbery, but the honest, manly, independent cry of
old Samuel Johnson—" Better stand in our own shoes
than in our neighbours, after all, better in no shoes than
in those !" Monopolists and anti-monopolists are now
the distinctive divisions of the nation.—Cheltenham Free
Press.

THE PROPOSED ALTERATION IN THE CORN-LAWS.
—The natural effect of the bolder and better course of
policy adopted winthin these few days by Government,
in proposing to bestow oft the people a real and sub-
stantial benefit—something worth struggling to obtain—
is beginning to become everywhere unequivocally ap-
parent. The heartless apathy and mistrust engendered
by the meaningless and fruitless character of the politica
of the last few years, is rapidly clearing away, and the
old " Reform" spirit is awaking throughout the lend in
something like its former strength. Hundreds upon
hundreds of petitions have already been sent up in ap-
proval of the proposal to untax the bread and sugar of
the people, and everywhere is heard the din of prepa-
ration for the momentous struggle which is so nigh at
hand—for it is now a matter almost of certainty that
the Ministry, when defeated on the Budget, do no in-
tend to resign, but to appeal to the country by a disso-
lution. The struggle will be a keen and a doubtful one,
and the aid of every friend of free trade and good Go-
vernment will require to be taxed to the utmost...—Ber-
wick Advertiser.

While vast prospects are expanding before us abroad
what is our condition at home ? Hourly threatened by
the accession to power of a party opposed to all im-
provement in our institutions at home, and from whose
rule we have nothing to expect but domestic confusion
in Ireland. The country, however, must perform its
duty. Ministers are engaged in the most arduous
straggle, and unless supported by all classes of Re-
formers, must inevitably fall and make way for men
whose conduct in tho government of Ireland would
endanger the happiness and greatness of the empire, in
order to secure to themselves and the Orange party the
ascendancy. The contest is now not between rival
Statesmen, but between abuses and reform. Let the
country look well into the result of supporting the
present Government or its enemies.—Cambrian.
We sincerely hope the nation will be true to itself
on this occasion, and, by thousands of petitions,
strengthen the hands of Ministers, who, in this instance,
have redeemed many of their by-past delinquencies, and
shown that they both understand, and are determined
to act on, such an enlightened principle of legislation,
as shall prove to the world that they rightly appreciate
the true and substantial interests of the empire, and are
fully aware of the inspolicy as well as injustice of any
longer sanctioning a system which sacrifices the well-
being of the many to the rapacity of the few. Even to
fail in such a good work will be to them, and to the Li-
beral cause, a signal triumph, as it will reveal to the
dullest capacity who are, and who are not, the real
friends of the people.— Welshman.

WHAT ARE WE FIGHTING FOR ?—lt iS most im-
portant that every man in the empire should well un-
derstand what it is for which he is called upon to
fight : be should be satisfied that his exertions are re-
quired for no shadowy or uncertain good, but for real
substantial benefits which he will sensibly feel in his
pocket. There is nothing like figures on such ques-
tions as these. We propose to show the middle class
man and the working man what each of them will
gain by the proposed revision of the Import Duties.
Let us take the case of a tradesman who has a family
of six children, and keeps two servants. His weekly
consumption of sugar averages at least llb. per head,
or 101bs. per week. On this article alone he would save
by the altered duties no less than 61. 10s. per annum. In
the article of bread, taking his consumption at 1.5 loaves
a week, he would save by an alteration in the Corn-
laws about 61. 10s. per annum. In the article of
butcher's meat, taking his consumption at 401bs. per
week, he would save, by an alteration in the provision
laws, no less a sum than 171. per annum. If he builds
a house, he pays some 201. or 301. for his timber
more than he will pay if the duties are revised.
On a multitude of minor articles, such as coffee,
treacle, rum, wine, &c., he pays a very heavy tax in
the shape of protective duties. Thus, on the three ne-
cessaries of life vve have named, a man of the middle
classes will save, by a revision of the Import Duties, no
less than :14/.per annum, or about one-twelfth of an in-
come of 4001. a-year. Now let us take the case of a
working man. To him the saving will be much greater
in proportion to his income, and it must not be con-
cealed that the main object of the proposed changes is
.to improve the condition of the poor. Suppose a
working man to have a wife and four children, and to
to earn 10s. a week. He consumes about 10 loaves,
2.lbs. of bacon er otber meat, 11b. of sugar, and lib. of
coffee. On these articles he is forced to pay, by the
present law, taxes as follows ; on his bread Is. Bd., on
his bacon 4d., on his sugar 3d., on his coffee Gd., in
the whole 2s. 9d., or nearly one-fourth of his entire in.
come. Now, mark how unjustly these taxes fall ; the
middle class man pays only one-twelfth of his
income, but the poor man pays one-fourth
of his ; while the rich man is not taxed
by these duties to a hundredth part of his
income. Here we have a practical reversal of the
scriptural maxim " to whom much is given from him
much shall be required," for these most cruel and iniqui-
tous laws take most from those who have the least. It
will be seen from this, that the question so soon to be
submitted to the electors of Great Britain is emphati-
cally a poor man's question—it is whether the labourer
shall be relieved from taxes to the amount of a fourth
of his little earnings. And it is also a very important
question for the middle classes. To be deprived of one-
twelfth of their incomes by a law made, not for the be-
nefit of the country, but for the enrichment of a few at
the expense of the many, is to them also a very serious
grievance. Relief from such a burden is surely an ob-
ject worth fighting for. 'We say nothing at present of
the other considerations, as the ruin that impends over
commerce, and, consequently, over themselves, if the
system of monopoly be continued, and which should
rouse all the industrious classes to unrelaxing exertion
to secure the benefits offered to them, for these we must
:treat of in another article.—Somerset County Gazette.