The Sun.
London, England, 1841-11-22 00:00:00

!4'

LONDON
MONDAY, NOVEMBER 22, 1841.

The discussion, day after day, of the Corn-laws,
which is forced on our Contemporaries by the
eondition of our trade, and the increasing
happily) distress of the people, must be it war-
rant/ to our readers, that by continually dis Cu-
ssing those laws for upwards of three years,
,We
have had a correct conviction of their vast influ-
ence on the public welfare, and have only done
our duty. We may say the same of those en-
lightened politicians, Mr. WOLRYCHE WHIT-
MORE, Sir WM. CLAY, Mr. HUME, and Mr.
VILLIERS, who, for several years, on various
occasions, have unsuccessfully attempted to
force the subject on the attention of Par-
liament. Whatever blame may be clue to the
Whig Ministers, if any—for they had to con-
sider their party and their means of retaining
the Government in their hands—for not be-
fore taking up the Corn-laws, none can be
thrown on the Radical party, which more
often brought forward the question without
_meeting adequate support from the country or
Parliament, than neglected any opportunity to
enforce their viers. Now the Corn-laws have
beCome the one engrossing question for poli-
ticians, which absorbs all others, and will con-
tinue to do so till the laws be repealed, or till
the denial of justice provoke some terrible cala-
mity.

The present distress, which is felt in Spital-
fields as severely as at Manchester, brings the
mr.lplq subject to a short issue. The people want
C 4'
r: . kel WilEitd Provision-laws are passed
~11:relsirlijelt\food from being imported for
'lnotr, Ilse-. Tifeye'ftre expressly intended to
ti1ii,011......r, 11,;-..ie from buying corn and
oilSetet- .id ' .43 from any other per
1 ---
Wlis—Atukte/,' rmers of England ; • they
-±\:`N:
v a F

are expressly intended to prevent the
farmers of the United States, of Russia, of
Prussia, and of Germany, from growing food re-
gularly for our people, and with greater effect
than most laws they have answered this end,
and have effectually kept a great quantity of
food from our people. This is the plain and pal-
pable cause why the people want food; and why
should we look beyond this, or puzzle ourselves
about prices, and wages, and foreign tariffs, to
find out the cause of their want of food,
and of their great distress ? If they have
not food, and plenty of food, it is clear
that they can have no comforts and no
luxuries, because these are only sought for
after food is obtained, and they will at all times
be sacrificed to obtain it. To seek for any
other cause of distress than the decree of the
Legislature, designed to keep food away from the
people, is a mere idle waste of time. Ingenious
men may thereby show a great surplus of econo-
mical learning, but it only serves to make dark
that which was light, and perplex, under an
enormous mass of words, that which was per-
fectly plain.
Of course, when the supply of food is limited,
the number of people is limited by that supply.
To limit the number of people stops enterprise,
checks invention, and arrests improvement, for
all these are invariably the consequences of an
increase of population. We talk vaguely about
time adding to human knowledge and skill,
but time is a mere abstract term, and the real
source of extended knowledge is the greater
number of human beings who exist, or have
existed, in time, and who add, or have added,
their observations to the common stock. To arrest
the progress of population, by limiting the growth
and the supply of food, is, therefore, to arrest
the progress of civilization, and to doom the peo-
ple to all that poverty, misery, and crime, which
are the known attendants on a declining or station-
ary population. The Corn-laws, then, are more dis-
astrous than famine, earthquakes, or pestilence;
and, supposing public utility to be the basis of
the moral sentiments, the authors of those laws
far more deserve to be visited by the indignation
and wrath of the public than highwaymen or
murderers.

Some of our Contemporaries, who have a wish,
if possible, to render the subject obscure, endea-
vour to prove, from the late population returns,
that the manufacturers have nothing to com-
plain of, and that the fault is their own dishonest
or inhuman competition. At the same time
the Standard admits that " the increase of po-
pulation " (the source of national greatness, and
the sign of national welfare) " bears an exact
proportion to the commercial prosperity of the
nation." Have they not, therefore, a right to
complain ? and have not the people a right to
blame those laws which, like the Corn-laws,
impede our commerce with Germany, Prussia,
and the United States, and, of course, impede
prosperity, and stop the increase of the people?
Compared to this view, all the other presumed
consequences of the law, or of repealing it—such
as raising or lowering rent, placing a few acres
of land more or less under the plough, impover-
ishing or enriching a few thousand landlords—are
trifles of the least possible consequence. The
law withholds food from the people; the law ar-
rests the progress of population; the law stops
civilization ; the law dooms a portion of the
people to death ; and a large number of those
whom it fails to starve it dooms to po-
verty, misery, and crime. It is no longer
a question whether the law be good or
bad, and it is idle now to discuss it. The question
is, how can it be maintained in the face of a
starving and indignant people, and how long will
they submit to the cruel oppression ? We have
seen it eloquently stated in that excellent journal,
the Nonconformist, that the people display a
noble self-denial by foregoing plenty of food,
which, by coalescing with the middle classes,
they could command, in order to obtain their
political rights. But of what use are political
rights, compared to food, to starving men ?
The hunger in Spitalfields, Manchester,
and Paisley, ought to satisfy the probably
well-fed leaders of the Chartists that it is
impolitic as well as unrighteous to seek,
if by that means even it can be obtained, univer-
sal suffrage at the expense of the prodigious suf-
fering to which the manufacturing poor, from the
continuance of the Corn-laws, are now exposed.
It is no longer for them a question of voting or
not voting, but a question of life or death and the
Chartists will act most cruelly—as cruelly as the
landlords, without their excuse—if they do not
relieve their suffering fellow-labourers, by at
once making common cause with the rest in
demanding the total and immediate repeal of the
Corn and Provision-laws.

The fire at Woolwich, the attempt to set fire
to the Horse Guards, and the various acts of
incendiarism in the country, beget a suspicion
that the Tower was burned by design. Out of
that grows the suspicion that the Royal Ex-
change and the Houses of Parliament were both
wilfully burned—that Plymouth Dock-yard was
designedly set on fire—and now, as far as we can
learn, the suspicion is general that we live sur-
rounded with would-be incendiaries. The ques-
now asked is, which is the next building to be
destroyed? and a prayer follows for the safety
of Buckingham Palace and the Museum. We
are far from saying such suspicions are well-
founded ; we continua to believe that some
of these fires may have been accidental, but it
implies a horrible condition of society that such
suspicion can be for one moment entertained.

There is no portion of the people not in-
terested in the public buildings. They are the
property of the people. With several of them
are associated many traditionary feelings, which
the lower classes cherish as warmly as the upper
classes, and which they are more slow to discard.
Sad and desolate must be their condition, and full
of terror the condition of the other classes, when
suspicions can be entertained that amongst the
people are to be found a number of willing incen-
diaries.

The only appropriate epithet for the state Of
society which such suspicions imply is horrible,
and for this horrible condition our rulers are
answerable. We do not confine the term to the
present Ministers, and to the members of the
Legislature ; we embrace in it the aristo-
cracy, the clergy, and the upper classes, and
we lay on them the responsibility of this
horrible condition of society. If they know
that they are unable to prevent such wickedness—
that it is, as they say, natural to the heart of man
—why, in the name of common sense, do they
assume the power of making man other than he
assume
in
refusing
18 • As long as their ambition or their avarice
Prompts them tooe exclusively
the
multitude
guidance
all
society,
share of it, so long will they be exclusively re-
sponsible for every evil in its condition.
They will not be able in this case to make the
Press their scape-goat,
On other occasions, when
untimely
mpeeolyplienhsuarvreecbteioenns,
driven
res-constituted rulersnelf
by oppressions into
have been able, by artful management, to throw
the blame of the public discontent on the Press,
The Press,
which has reprobated their doings.
however, discusses laws and politics, not the
art of setting buildings on fire. It has pointed
out the errors and the mischievous d •
esigns of
Tory legislators, and may, therefore, have roused
the people to oppose the Legislature; but it has
never in any shape, orform, or degree, advocated,
approved of, or recommended the incendiarism
of the national buildings. If a desire to perpe-
trate such crimes exist, it must be the sponta-
neous consequence. of the peculiar condition of
the people, and has never been generated or
fanned into force by any public writer. The
law-makers will not, on this occasion, therefore,
be able to escape the responsibility of causing
the present horrible condition of society by
throwing the blame on the Press.

We see it stated that a conference is to be held
in London to consider the affairs of Spain.
France and England are to be the active parties to

theconference, which is to do for Louis PHILIPPE
what his own intrigues have failed to accomplish.
Neither any portion of the Spaniards nor their
Government has asked any of the Powers to
interfere with Spain. They abhor and repudiate
all such interference. They are ready to shed
their blood to keep Madame MuNoz out of
Spain, and to escape the grasping influence of
the wily tyrant at Paris. They have selected
their own Government by themselves; they have
interfered with no other people, and have
molested no person's rights. For England to be
a party to any such conference—for England
to attempt to interfere in any way with
Spain in conjunction with Louis PHILIPPE—
is quite uncalled for and unwarrantable. We
hope, therefore, that the report is untrue, and
we console ourselves by believing, if it be
not untrue, that the Governments of France and
England will have so much business to attend to
at home that they will be compelled to leave
Spain to take care of herself. If they look at
their own subjects, society being in a distracted
state in France, and the people starving here,
they will see a much more pressing case for
their exertions than Spain, even were she in the
very height of a revolutionary fever.

The letter of the Provost of PAISLEY will be
read with painful interest. The distress in that
place continues to increase. From the returns
referred to in the letter, it appears that on the
oth of November the number out of employ-
ment, together with those dependent on them,
was 7,884; on the 13th it had risen to 8,841, and
is now 9,701 ; thus increasing at the rate of about
1,000 per week, and forming one-fifth part of the
whole population, which, according to the last
census was 48,125. In the towns of Johnstone,
Kilbarchan, and Barrhead, similar distress pre-
vails, without the slightest prospect of relief ex-
cept from the hand of charity. Unfortunately,
however, Paisley and Spitalfields are not the
only places where the poor are driven to the
last extremities. Every manufacturing town
more or less suffers from the same cause. Men,
ashamed to beg, are dying of want in the richest
country of the world. Such a state of things
cannot be allowed to continue. The rich must
come forward liberally in every district, as they
are now doing in London for the distressed
weavers of Spitalfields. Let this example .be
imitated, and then the poor of the land will
look forward to the dreary winter months
without the dread of starvation. We rejoice to
learn that the best feelings on the subject prevail
in the City, and that the Spitalfields Committee
have every prospect of support in their humane
endeavours to relieve the sufferers.

The .211oniteur of Friday contains the follow-
ing telegraphic despatch from Bayonne, with
the latest intelligence from Spain:—

Van Halen entered Barcelona on the 15th. His
troops occupied all the posts without resistance. The
city and the province have been placed in a state of siege.
" The Regent was still at Saragossa on the 14th.

" The meinbers of the Radical Junta of Barcelona em-
barked on the night of the 13th, for London, passing by
France.

" The demolition of the citadel has been interrupted.
" The Regent has published a proclamation directed
against the Exaltados."
The fugitive Junta landed at Marseilles, but the
French Government ordered them to re-embark
for London, as by their abuse of France, they
had rendered themselves unworthy of French
hospitality. The following is a copy of the Pro-
clamation of General Espartero, alluded to in
the above telegraphic dispatch :

" Spaniards—On the 18th inst. I addressed you with
a soldier's feelings, and with the authority of the first
Magistrate, charged to watch over the happiness, pros-
perity, and liberties of Spain. I announced to you
my departure from the capital, with the view of
stifling at the birth, a fatal and perfidious revolt,
which threatened destruction to all. The patriotism of
the army and national militia, and of every Spaniard
worthy of that name, transformed my expedition
into a march of triumph. The designs of the ene-
mies of justice were frustrated by the loyalty and bravery
of patriots. Between revolt and victory there were but
a few short moments, and those who fancied t 6 raise
the.mselvocon the ruins of the nation fell first. Spain
hailed with enthiisiasui• this triumphant day, and gave
herself„up to the agreeable prospect of the consolida-
tion of a peace always so much desired, and now more
than ever, when fresh sounds of discord burst upon her
ears, announcing an attempt on the laws and on the dig-
nity of the Government. Thus were our pleasing illu-
sions replaced by bitterness.
" A handful of turbulent men, enemies of the public
repose, allowed themselves to be carried away at Bar-
celona by a remarkable act of violence, rendered more
odious still by the circumstances which -accompanied it.
In contempt of the laws, they destroyed a public
monument, the property of the nation ; they abused
the confidence which had placed in the hands of the
national militia the guard of walls which have been
destroyed by them ; they have despised the voice of mili-
tary authority which called for the disbanding of the mili-
tia; and, finally, they have furnished the scandalous sight
of deciding by brutal force what was the peculiar attri-
bute and deliberation of the Cortes and of the Govern-
ment. The citadel of Barcelona threatened neither the
property nor the liberty of the population of that indus-
trious town. Could suspicions be entertained of the pre-
sent Government, whose observance of the laws is their
first rule of conduct ? Was not this fortress confided to
the patriotism of the national militia ? Was it
noble thus to profit by the absence of the brave
soldiers who had gone to shed their blood against
the enemies of the country ? Spaniards, this act was
accompanied and followed by other acts of violence in
which a Junta, calling itself one of safety and vigilance,
constituted itself master of property, and created itself
as an arbiter of the destinies of a whole province, and
usurped the functions of the powers of the State,
at the very moment when the Government was watch-
ing, with the greatest solicitude, over the observance
01 the laws. These events have been heard of through-
out Spain with disapprobation. The Regent would
be wanting in duty to the nation and to justice if he
left unpunished violations of the laws, and if the princi-
pal and guilty instigators were encouraged to commit
fresh excesses. Have confidence, Spaniards, in the jus-
tice which animates a Government cemented by the laws.
The arm, always raised for the defence of the Consti-
tution and of public liberties, well knows how to re-
press all the excesses produced by the abuse of that same
liberty.
(Signed) " THE DUKE OF VICTORY.
(Countersigned) EVAOST SAN MIGUEL.
" Saragossa, Nov. 9, 1841."
The Report of the Peers on the treason of
QUENISSET and his accomplices is the subject of
fierce contentions in the columns of the Paris
Press. The Opposition Papers laugh at the Re-
port, while the Ministerial Journals are moving
heaven and earth to prove that it does not in
the least exaggerate the danger that threatens
France. Hear what the Court organ, the
Presse, says upon the subject :
"It is pretended that the smallness of the number of
the adepts of these under-ground sects and associations
ought to prevent our feeling alarm. The Report, it is
said, mentions only about sixty of them, and there are
not 1,200 to be found in all Paris. Persons who talk
in this way may, if they please, console themselves
with the reflection that there are not 1,200 political
assassins in Faris. But unfortunately the disclosures
of the Report have but raised up a corner of
the ♦eil which conceals the extent and projects
of secret societies. Is it to be supposed that
this plot, which is fostered by the Communist and
Radical publications, this permanent plot, which has its
seat in the bosom of secret societies, had its only or its
principal establishment in the public-house of Colom-
bier ? Is it not evident that the conspiracy now before
the Court of Peers is but a fraction, and that a ♦ery
small one, of a more general conspiracy ? Is it not en-
dent that there are ramifications established between
these various subversive associations ? The anti-social
propaganda, which is revealed to us by the present pro-
secution, is not confined to an obscure corner of one of
our faubourgs. There were only 60 persons at the meet-
ings of which we hear, and there were not 60, perhaps,
surrounding Quenisset on the 13th September ; but how
many were there on the 12th May? Were not the same
associations at work on the 12th May ? was not the
same anti-social object aimed at ? and were there not the
same oaths, and perhaps the same secret chiefs ? If the
Report of M. de Bastard does not expose the whole of
the odious truth, it shows, at least, plainly and clearly,
the intimate connection of the parties engaged in the
attempt of the 13th September with those who were con-
cerned in all the preceding attempts."

Does the Court really want the heads of a few
of the poor wretches now before the Peers ? It
really looks like it; but suppose we admit the
statement of the Presse to be true, can a greater
libel be written upon the ORLEANS dynasty ?
Of what use, then, are the September laws,
and the laws against Secret Societies ? What
has France gained by the Revolution of July
if such be her present social condition ?
If the Peers have only lifted a corner of
the veil that covers the moral gangrene
that pervades the social system of France,
the much-talked of London Conference of
the Great Powers will find more to occupy their
attention in France than in Spain. In recog-
nising the mischievous principle of interfering
with the internal administration of other States,