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

We will now borrow a long passage from Mr.
WILSON, which will show how, and by whom, the
benevolent provisions of nature are contravened:
From 1833 to 1836, notwithstanding a reduction was made
in each year both in the Customs and Excise duties, yet the
receipts rapidly increased, even in a greater ratio than the sup-
posed increase of population, showing that the consumptive
ability of the community was also as rapidly increasing; but,
as we have already seen, from that period to the present time
we have experienced a great falling off.
So striking a change in the condition of the country, indi-
cating so great a diminution of the command of the great ne-
cessaries and comforts of life, cannot but excite much anxiety;
and we are surprised that a greater effort has not been used to
arrive at a satisfactory solution of this melancholy fact :—some
will no doubt be content to say that from 1833 to 1636 com-
merce and trade were particularly prosperous, labour greatly
in demand, and wages good, and that, consequently, the peo-
ple possessed a great power of purchase and consumption ; and
that since 1836 the contrary has been the case. Such has no
doubt been the fact ; but this distinction could not have ex-
isted between the two periods without some primary cause,
which we have no doubt will be found to arise fr,Jrn the great
difference in the price of food during the two periods alluded to.
In 1834, 35, and 36, the whole cost of wheat to the com-
munity, calculating the consumption at sixteen millions of
quarters annually, at the average price of each year, was-
-1834 s. £36,933,333
1835 ............ 31,400,000
1836

107,133,333
While, in the three following years, by the same calculation,
the cost was--
£44,666,666
1838
1839

£152,,665
showing a difference in the cost of wheat alone of upwards
of forty-five millions during the latter three years, as com-
pared with the former, which sum must necessarily have been
abstracted from the channels of expenditure in which it had
previously flowed, and, by diminishing the demand for all
other articles to the same amount, at once embarrassed and
curtailed commerce and manuractares, and diminished the re-
venue derivable therefrom.

The high price, arising from the Corn-laws,
is clearly the cause of the deficiency of the re-
venue, of the people being deprived of the ne-
cessaries and comforts of life, of many of them
being starved to death, and of the progress of
population and national greatness being impeded.
The passage points out, also, the cause of fluctu-
ation. Confining the supply of our people to a
narrow space, when the whole world is at their
command, necessarily exposes them to the enor-
mous fluctuations in the price and quantity of
food, and in the demand for other articles indi-
cated by the above passage. The extent of inter-
change will be in proportion to the commodities to
be interchanged, and the fluctuations of commerce
must, to a considerable extent, follow the great
fluctuation of the harvest in our island ; while in
the whole world there are perhaps no fluctua-
tions, but a steady increase. Prices were low in
1834,1835, and 1836, and then commerce spread
all her sails. Prices were high, as the crops were
short, in 1837, 1838, and 1839, and poor com-
merce, assailed by the landlords' storm, was
almost reduced to bare poles. The worst of the
matter is, that commercial men, who adapt their
canvass to the landlords' weather, are blamed by
ignorant observers for those changes in their
conduct, which are made necessary by the Corn_
laws. The aim of commerce is to diminish
fluctuations. The business of the inC:rchant is
to buy when and where commodities are cheap,
and sell them when and wher they are dear.
His exertions, when left free, tend to neutralize
the variations of the seasons, reduce to no-
fluctuations in the condition
thing those terribl
of society—worse, probably, than positive and un-
varying pri-iation—which it has hitherto appa-
rently been the delight of our legislators to cause.

The Paris Journals of Monday have all been
received. They are filled with accounts of the
celebration of the KING'S fete and the Christen-
ing of the Count de PARIS, of which ample de-
tails will be found in another part of The Sun.
The infant Count, who is just two years and eight
months old, performed his part in the ceremo-
nies with great good humour. Though there
were three Cardinals present at the baptism, the
Royal neophyte did not, like Madame JIJNOT'S
daughter, take a fancy to the head-gear of any
of them. He contented himself with affection
ately kissing his nurse two or three times, to the
edification of sundry husbands, wives, and
lovers who were watching his every move-
ment. Kissing will, therefore, be fashion-
able in Paris this summer. When the
sword was presented the Count said. to
the Municipality " Merci," (thank
" maiden speech which," say
nic
s a
Mu 21pals,1
ite,„.,
i
" deeply affected the Metro')
We do not wonder at it. r•fhe Parisian Atunici.
-tearted race, and a monosylla-
bicvery full of pathos, must have
pals
s are
pee a
ci tien:lo er
touched them deeply. The Itfoniteur should
have told us that all preSent were dissolved in
tears at such a rare instance of Royal precocity of
intellect. The Prefect of Police of course
swooned away, and required the attendance of
the Court physician, although the Moniteur says
nothing about it. The Parisians are above me-
diocrity in comedy, but in farce they are un-
rivaled. Th^.'lr travesties of sentiment are the
most la
):Ighable things in the world. Take as an
the following extract, from the address
°,4: the Municipality of Paris, read to the KiNo
by the Count DE RAAIBETEAII, Prefect of ow
Seine :

chief of a dynasty, who lin saved h ,
;.,. country from so trimly
What a grand spectacle in that
evils, and has done it so mv.,:a good;-7
the iiiie timiiy, in which
every virtue is +:,..ught and transmitted by example; the
Prince, on cathedral ! :'ne King, the
whose brow valour sits radiant over pitcticions
sap-
' -ity ; the young mother, whose noble, penetrating, and
gracious looks reveal the destiny for which Providence has
gifted her ; the Royal infant, bending his young head under celestial grace :—all this, Sire, was holy and beautiful ! It will
• be easy for him to be just and strong. Happy infant, whose
career Rill have been smoothed by so much wisdom, and who
' will find ad near to him powerful and noble lessons of instruc-
tion ! Sire, deign to permit the Comte de Paris to accept the
sword of the city of Paris, and may this souvenir ever be a
pledge of union 'between the Prince and the city:
A sword a pledge of union 3 A. pair of tailor's
scissors a pledge of the indivisibility of broad-
cloth! And then the picture of the Duke of
ORLEANS, with " Valour siting radiant over
precocious intellect on his brow !" So the radi-
ance of valour outshines intellect in the heir-
apparent, The Duchess too, 'f whose noble,
penetrating, and gracious looks". proclaim hey
.
" every inch a Qucen;" is comprunentedi not, for.
her virtues but her air of dignity. The " bend-

population has gone on increasing year after
year, since 1831, at the rate of 360,361 persons,
we put down after him the whole population of
1836 at 26,158,524; 1837, 26,518,885; 1838,
26,879,246; 1839, 27,239,607; 1840, 27,599,968.
The years prior to 1836 are unnoticed, because
in them considerable alterations and reductions

were made in Customs and Excise duties. Sub-

sequent to 1836, no alteration of any importance
was made in the duties, till the CHANCELLOR of
the EXCHEQUER levied the increase of 5 per
cent. in 1840. On these premises, as the revenue
of 1836, from Customs and Excise, was
36,392,472/., Mr. WILSON says it ought to have
been respectively—
In 1837 £36,938,363 but wa5...... £33,958,421
1838 37,484,254 34,478,417
1839 38,030,145
1840-- 38,567,036
The last year includes the additional duty of
5 per cent. " From the calculation," says Mr.
WILSON, " it appears clear that if the population
have increased in the same ratio that it did be-
tween 1821 and 1831, and that if each individual
in the community possessed the same command
of the necessaries and comforts of life which
he did in 1836, then the nett produce of the con-
sumption revenue in 1840, without any additional
rate of tax whatever, should have been at least
3,000,0001. sterling more than it has actually been,
notwithstanding an increased rate of five per
cent. which the community have paid on every-
thing consumed." From our emendation of Mr.
WILSON'S principle it follows that the increase in
the revenue should have been greater than he
states, and the real falling away of national pros-
perity is more alarming than he imagines. In all
statistical calculations we must always bear in
mind that nature has implanted in man a power-
ful spring of prosperity and of increase, capable of
surmounting even all the hardships of savage
life and all the severities of the most rigorous
climate. Consequently a nation is not prosperous
when its resources do not increase, or increase
only slowly,—they ought, consistently with the
wise provisions of nature, to increase rapidly, and
the more rapidly the further a nation is advanced
in knowledge and skill.