The Sun.
London, England, 1841-10-28 00:00:00

Ott

LONDON:
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 28, 1841.

We took up a pamphlet, recently published
by RIDGWAY, entitled, " The Sliding Scale, or
a Fixed Duty," by the Rev. CHRISTOPHER NE-
VILE, expecting and hoping to see the Chris-
tian spirit predominate in a work written by a
minister of the Church. We remembered how
much has been said about the clergy having lent
their aid to support an enactment which swells
their income, at the expense of the health, mora-
lity, and lives of the people. We know, from the
meetings at Norwich and other places, how un-
popular they have made themselves by their
practical disregard of the principles which they
inculcate on others, and we expected, at least, to
find in the Reverend Gentleman's pamphlet some
attempt to explain or justify the conduct of the
clergy. We have been much disappointed. The
pamphlet is confined exclusively to a narrow
pounds, shillings, and pence view of the Corn-
law, and never by any chance diverges into
the high moral and universal considerations
which are connected with the abolition of that
suicidal restriction on the trade, civilization, and
well-being of mankind.

The objects of the Rev. Mr. NEVILE'S pam-
phlet are to show, first, that, for nearly =2OO
years, the landowners, in whose hands the legisla-
tive power has been placed, have acted on
the principle of impeding the importation
of corn, and of levying, as at present, a tax on
the people's provisions to fill their own pockets.
Two hundred years' prescription hallows this
system to the mind of the Rev. Gentleman, and
converts wrong into right. He deprecates a
change to free trade in corn, not because it
would be a departure from justice, not because
it would inflict a serious injury on the toiling
millions, but because " it would seriously affect an
enormous amount of capital" "invested in the soil
under the system of protecting duties." Because
the landowners have plundered us for 200 years
and more, they are to be allowed, according to
the Reverend Gentleman, to plunder us for ever.
Such is the morality taught by the Reverend
CHRISTOPHER JNEVILE.

Secondly, the Reverend Gentleman criticises
I the contradictory arguments of some Anti-Corn-
law writers and speakers, and goes at consider-
able length into prices, rent, cultivated and un-
cultivated land, &c. &c., with a view of showing
' that those who propose the repeal are as ignorant
what will be its effects as those who made the
law thirteen years ago were of its present conse-
quences. The Reverend Gentleman proves,
at least, that he knows no more than
,)thers, for he supposes that " a reduction of
rent of 20 per cent. would actually stop the cir-
culation of no less a sum than 9,400,0001." He
implies, therefore, that the extortion of the
landlords creates a sum of wealth equal to their
increased rent. But they only extort, they do
I not create wealth; and the sum which the aboli-
tion of the Corn-law would keep from the land-
lords would be circulated by the body of the
consumers. It is an idle dream to suppose that
the abolition of the Corn-laws would lessen the
national resources; and if it increased them, as
we believe it would, there would be more, not
less, circulation than at present 7
The Rev. Gentleman, in the third place, de-
fends the sliding scale as better than a fixed
duty. We will allow him, undisturbed, to con-
tinue that contest with the advocates of a fixed
duty. We must, however, mention that he pro-
poses a modification of the sliding scale, and
another system of taking the averages. " When
wheat was at 705.," he says, " foreign wheat
was to be admitted duty free; when it was 695.
the duty to be ls., and so on increasing a shilling
as our prices decreased to 515., and there
to stop. The duty would then be 205., at
which duty wheat would be imported
under any depression of price at home." The
averages, the Reverend Gentleman pro!
poses, should be made up by returns " taken
from the grower, and the buyer from the grower,
only. The same sample of wheat could never
be returned twice over, and these two parties
would be a mutual check on each other." With
such details, with the bearing of poor-rates and
the value of tithes, the Rev. Gentleman appears
to be intimately acquainted ; but his pamphlet
does not contain one word of the influence of
that law he discusses on the welfare of the mil-
lions. He seems ignorant that both sliding scale
and fixed duty are as murderous as war or pesti-
lence. He looks at the subject only as it may
affect the wealth of a few thousand land and
appear itetey l.
e
tithe owners, and the rest of the community is
as much forgotten as if these few thousands con-
stituted
The
pamphletthew ho
ies
ev onfaecrh
its statistics, for they stsovableuaebrlreo,nneoout
sf_or
not for its political economy, for that is shallow
and preposterous—not for its recommendations,
r for they are consistent neither with the stern
principles of justice, nor the expediency of com-
promise ; but for the insight it indirectly affords
us, at this critical and agitating time, into
the mind- of the ruling classes. It is there
s
plainly and legibly printed, from beginning to
end, in every page, in every paragraph, in every
sentence, that all they think of, all they care
for, in matters of legislation, all they have
thought or cared for during the last 200 years,
has been how to enrich the aristocracy, and how
to maintain the wealth of the priesthood. If,
perchance,' the national welfare coincided with
that, as for a large
portion of the 200 years when
England was a grain exporting country it might,
no great harm accrued from embodying their
selfishness into laws; but when they do not co-
incide, as they have not coincided of late, the
aristocracy and the prieshood give effect to their
own selfishness, and secure their own ascen-
dancy at the expense of the rest of the community.
The thing is natural enough, and easily ex-

plicable. Every man and every class prefer.
himself or itself to others. The priesthood and
the aristocracy deem themselves, not the sculp-
tured outside ornaments, but the foundations and
solid- framework of society. But for them the
whole community of mankind, the diVisiOn of
the_ sexes, their union by marriage, the birth of
faMilies; the increase of population, the divi-
sion of labour, the invention of arts, the
progress of science, the extension of trade
and all political contrivances, would not
exist; and there would only be an aggrega-
tion of individuals, and no society without their
care, skill, and guardianship. Having such a
high opinion of their functions, in which they
are too often countenanced by other men,
their selfish aggrandisement by legislation
appears to them synonymous with the welfare
of the whole; and they practically conclude, if
rents increase, and tithes become more valuable,
that society prospers, and civilization advances.
That they -embody their own selfishness into
laws is therefore quite natural, and the pamphlet
of the Rev. Mr. NE;7 LE is valuable because it
proves that they also embo-,fiv it into their rea-
soning, and while they write tout society at
large, they think only of themselves and their
class.

We have copied from the Globe some account
of the person who is implicated in the issue of
fit3se Exchequer Bills; and we regret to perceive
in the tone of our Contemporary's remarks an
inclination to extenuate Mr. SMITH'S crime, be-
cause he was laot well enough paid. That gen-
tleman had a handsome income of 600/. a year,
and the Globe tenderly describes him as having
" had recourse to forgery as an expedient," be-
cause his hopes of obtaining 7001. had not been
realized. The Globe takes arms with our oppo-
nents, and by implication condemns that eco-
nomy in employing the public money, which
seems to us both honest and essential to the
national safety.
Far from extenuating the crime of a person
with 6001. a year, we think that there are at
present no worse criminals than those who, hav-
ing an income more than sufficient for all the
wants of life, commit offences against the right
of property which would not be excused in a
starving hand-loom weaver. No extenuation is
admitted for those who plead hunger and ex-
treme poverty; and neither can it be admitted
for him who is exempted from both. The onlY
excuse we can imagine is, the example of the
law-makers, who, being intrusted, like Mr.
SMITH, to issue bills on the people, or make
laws for the public service, issue them for
their private emolument, and are honoured, not
punished, in proportion as they
.accumulate
wealth.

Our Contemporary has also found a new mea-
sure for integrity, which extends and dimi-
nishes with the funds with which a man is
intrusted. A porter, with 30s. a-week, who
makes away with the property intrusted
to his use, may plead, like Mr. SMITH'S advo_
cate, that his " payment was not proportionate
to the extent of the integrity required."
Such a plea will be of no avail at the Old Bailey,
either for the porter or Mr. SMITH, whatever
may be its effects on the readers of newspapers.
Till this brilliant discovery, integrity appeared
to us a part of the soul, indivisible and inex-
pandible—as much required when a man is in-
trusted with a shilling as with a million sterling.
Henceforth integrity will expand with the
amount of money, and the humble classes will
experience the additional mortification of being
just as much below the rich in virtue as they are
in wealth.

,The Paris Journals of Tuesday have been duly
received. They bring some interesting news
from the Spanish frontier, confirming the sup-
pression of the insurrection, and the arrival in
France of most of CHRISTINA MuNoz's parti-
zans. In addition to the correspondence be-
tween the ex-Regent and the Spanish Minister,
published in our columns of yesterday, the Itlo-
niteur Parisien has a concluding letter from the
Minister to the ex-Regent's Secretary, from
which we make the following extract
All that is said in your Lordship's communication on
the events of Barcelona and Valencia, on the origin of
the actual government of Spain, on the legality of its
measures, on the accomplishment of the Treaty of
Bergara, and other similar things which I have no need
to repeat, seems to me to constitute anew manifesto on
the part of her Majesty.• If it is such, I do not know
whether it ought to be made by the medium of a private
secretary ; but what I do know is that if, after the Spa-
nish people and army have just demonstrated their
loyalty and devotedness, this manifesto needed any
answer, it is not to me that the honour of making one
would belong. The Government, the Cortes, the Spa-
nish nation in fact, will settle what is best suited to
their interest and dignity.

One of the French Journals states that on
Monday M. OLOZAG A went to St. Cloud to de-
mand from the KING the removal of Madame
MuNoz from Paris.

The Sentinelle de 1 'Armee explains the rumour that
an army is about to be stationed on the Pyrenean fron-
tier, by stating that General Harispe's division, on the
western part of the line, is to be increased to 16,000 men,
and that of the General de Castelane's, on the eastern
part, to 14,000, making a total force of 30,000 men.
Extract of a letter from Bayonne:—" The Sub-Prefect
of this place set out on the 22d inst. for Sare, where
the refugees are arrived. Lieutenant-General Lahitte,
Inspector-Gcneral of Artillery, arrived on the 19th
at Bayonne, to review the troops of the gai rison and
the artillery. The 25th of the line is expected here from
Perigueux. A squadron of chasseurs has arrived here
from Pau, and another squadron has gono to St. Jean
Pied de Port. N. Bart, Prefect of the Hautes Pyrenees,
has arrived at Pau.

The Phare, of Bayonne, of the 22d inst., gives the fol-
lowing supplement :—" Several Generals, many officers
and soldiers, or peasantry, who had taken part in the
movement of which O'Donnell gave the signal, have come
into France for refuge, entering by Sare. At the
departure of the person who brought us this news
300 refugees of all classes had already arrived, and
were every moment being succeeded by more. The names
of the emigrant Generals are Urbistondo, Claveria, and
Lardizabal, and of the Brigadiers Larrocha, Gabarre,
and Hidalgo de Cisneros. On being informed of what
had taken place at Vittoria, O'Donnell gave orders for
his troops to evacuate the Citadel of Pampeluna; and,
consequently, Lieut.-Col. Izquierdo, O'Donnell's Aide-
de-Camp, and Ribed, the banker, followed by 200 men,
set out for France, and entered by the Aldudes. 'The of-
ficers and soldiers have all been sent by the authorities to
Mauleon. O'Donnell was himself expected at the Al-
dudes last night. General Firmin Iriarte, Commandant
of the National Guard of Bilbao, and two merchants of
that town, landed this morning at the Socoa."
The Memorial of Pau says :—" While Espartero's
secretary, Gurrea, was conducting Brigadier Norzagary
to prison at Madrid, the latter formed the idea of shoot-
ing the Secretary and making his escape, but Gurrea
observing that the prisoner kept his hands in his pockets,
and hearing the noise of the lock of a pistol, immediately
presented his own at the throat of the Brigadier, and
kept him in awe until he was searched. This was soon
done, and a pair of loaded pistols taken from him."
We have received the Barcelona Journals to the 20th
inst. The Constitucional states that on the arrival of
Don Francisco de Paulo at Bedons, on the 11th, where
he stopped only for an instant, he was received by a
cavalcade of young men, who escorted him to Urdos,
where the Alcalde and the notables of Canfranc, the fron-
tier town of Spain, were waiting for him. Immediately on
passing the frontier to enter Spain, Don Francisco found
an escort of 30 soldiers of the line and 20 National Guards,
whom, in acknowledgement of his reception, he invited
to a repast in the open air. The Constitucional says
that an officer of rank had been arrested for attempt-
ing to seduce some of the soldiery of .Barcelona, and
calls upon the Junta to be vigilant, adding that conspi-
rators are at work in Catalonia to bring about a coun-
ter-revolution. In the number of this journal of the
20th inst., we find an article against the French Go-
vernment, the furious temper of which may be
judged of by the following extract : " The French
Government," says the Constitutional, " constantly
moves on towards despotism. Italy sprinkled
with tears, Poland covered with tombs, and
Spain, which is reeking with blood, behold
with grief liberty expiring in the hands of France, of
that nation the most generous, the most liberal of the
universe. But liberty is more powerful than those who
attempt to stifle it."—The Constitutional mentions a re-
port that General Pavia was on board the French brig
of war the Surprise, and was going to seek refuge in
France. According to this journal a magnificent tablet,
with the names of the Halberdiers who defended the
Palace at Madrid in the night of the 7th inst., is to be
put up in the hall of the political Governqr of the pro-
vince at Barcelona. .;
BELGIAN P UNDS—BatataiLe, OcT, 40.•
Actual Debt, 254 per Cent. .. .. • 52)4
Rothschild's Lean, 5 per Cent. 101
Loan of Thirty Millions, 4 per 'Cent...."
Sper
..... 71 •
- (1240) lol*
Loan of City, 1V32, 4 per Cent. ........
Societyaf Commerce, 4*per Cent ..... 93
Rank of Belgium„ 5 per Cent... ......... ...." 72%
NationalSeciety.
Exchange on London (short)
—.Brussels Papers, Oct. 26.
AUSTRIAN FUNDS —Visuma OCT. 19
five per Cents. Eletalhques • 1°654
Four per Cents. . ............
98%
Three per Cent 5........••••••••• roe ••••••••••••••• ...........
Bank Shares -•••••• • ••••• ...... 110
..••• it 33

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