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

THE SUN, LONDON, THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 11. 1841.

hence, at tli; moment, and not because of ma-
chinery—whiclr would enable our people to buy
food from America in cheap abundance--employ-
ment is very scanty, and wages very low. When
the population has been starved down to the
means of supply, which are in the landlords'

hands, when two or three fertile seasons inter-

vene, then again, and not till then—unless the
law which limits the supply be altered—will em-
ployment increase and wages rise.
Having thus, at greater length than we wished,
explained what we consider the causes of low
wages, we must add a word or two on the means
of limiting the distress caused by a change in
employment consequent on a change of ma-
chinery. That distress we must, however,
remark, must at all times be much in- I
creased by, any and every law which limits
the supply of the means of subsistence,
and overstocks every employment with hands or
candidates. The displaced people can, under
these circumstances, find no other employment,
and the low condition to which the body of the
labourers are reduced and kept, allows them no
time to turn round, or to deliberate, or to learn a
new occupation. They must at once find another
employment, or the extreme poverty, which is
the rule of their lives in a community in which
the land is all appropriated, and the power of
making laws is in the hands of the landlords,
crushes them with an iron necessity, and makes the
change which might not otherwise be injurious,
utterly ruinous. The postmasters, for example,
who have been displaced by the use of railroads,
are injured people; perhaps their place in the
scale of society is lowered, but they are not
ruined and. starved. Their sufferings, though
great, are trifling compared to those of the
handloom-weavers, who are starved outright.
Thus the general pressure of the population on
a limited supply of the means of subsistence, the
result. of Corn-laws, makes the changes which
are brought about by invention and improve-
ment utterly disastrous to those whom the inven-
tions displace.
The fact that such changes do cause great dis-
tress, has been known for upwards of 200 years,
when the copyists at Paris, and other places, re-
sisted the introduction of printing, becatise it
deprived them of work; but no Legislature has
thought of providing a remedy. Were a land-
lord aggrieved by a railroad being made through
his property—were a clergyman exposed to a
small diminution of income by ceasing to bury
people in his monopoly of consecrated ground—
were a place abolished as useless, the Legislature
would take care to provide compensation for place-
holder, priest, and landowner; but when a
great body of handloom-weavers •or buckle-
makers are thrown out of employment, by
a change of fashion or improvement in ma-
chinery, those who bad monopolised the land and
had the power of making laws, told them to trust
to themselves, and refused them any relief. The
same principle ought to have been followed both
for landowner and labourer, and the invention
which took away the employment of the one,
should have been made to provide him compen-
sa.tioa, as it was made to provide compensation
for the land it took from the other. So much

consideration, however, for the la downers' slaves
was not to be expected, and all kinds of artisans
have been left to struggle against such changes

as they could, while they were loaded with the
landowners' heavy shackles. A Legislature in
which their interests were represented would
probably empower a Judge or appoint a Commis-
sion to give, upon a fair view of the case, a rea-

sonable compensation to all those who might be
injured by successive social improvements.
They benefit the whole community through
all time; their authors only get a small share of
the general advantages, and therefore the in-
surance or compensation, or whatever it might
be called, if any were necessary, when all
trades and occupations were free, should be
paid by the whole community. It could better
afford to give 1,000,0001. to the hand-loom wea-
vers than 10,0001. a year to the heir of-a Lot d
Chief Justice of the King's Bench. The ter-
rible manner, however, in which the law-making
landlords have wholly neglected to provide for
the evils which fall on the industrial part of the
community, must convince every man that on this
very useful and important part of economic le-
gislation, nothing good can be anticipated from
our present Legislature.

We believe there is nol a man in this wide
empire who has ever considered the question of
municipal government but is firmly convinced
that about one-half of the revenues of the city of
London would suffice, if properly husbanded,
for the municipal expenses of the entire metro-
polis. The corporation is renowned, time out of
mind, for guzzling and corruption. A part of its
income at present, out of which it provides civic
feasts, and makes presents to very worthless
statesmen, is derived from a heavy tax on coals,
which falls with great severity on the poor. All
the shivering wretches of the metropolis are
mulcted of firing that the civic functionaries may
make their pasteboard shows, and feast on turtle.
To old civic hospitality, provided by the contri-
butions of the Aldermen and Mayor, out of their
own wealth, we make no objection; but hospi-
tality paid for by a tax on the fuel of the inhabi-
tants is an offence against policy and morals.
Such, however, is not the opinion of Lord Chan-
cellor LYNDHURST, who is reported to have said
at the LORD MAYOR'S dinner—

I witness with pleasure your ancient ceremonies ; I
rejoice to see you surrounded by your own insignia ;
above all, I rejoice to
.see that you still continue to pos-
sess that extensive property which you have always so
liberally and so bountifully administered.—(Cheers.) I
further rejoice that you still retain those important privi-
leges, the claim to which we have this day recorded in
Westminster Hall—privileges which you have upon so
many occasions used for the advancement and support of
the great principles of our Constitution.—(Loud cheers,)
There was a period when, indeed, I despaired of these
things ; but tie storm has blown over, and you have sur-
vived its effects.

A more open and undisguised defence of core
ruption was never made. It tells us, that as
long as Lord LYNDHURST is Chancellor there
shall be no reform of the corporation of London.
The people freeze that Aldermen may guzzle ;
and the LORD CHANCELLOR praises this as boun-
tifully administering property. That is a speci-
men of Tory morality. When such are the
sentiments Of the keeper of the conscience of
the State, what can the nation expect from a
Tory Administration ? The corporation of London
needs reform as much as did the corporation of
Dublin; but the Ministers, whose duty it is to
effect it, rejoice that all its abuses have escaped,
to keep a Tory Administration in countenance,
and give it strength. The LORD HIGH CHAN-
CELLOR avows his partiality for oppression and
injustice.

The Commission issued by the direction of Sir
ROBERT PEEL, to inquire concerning the conso-
lidation of the revenue offices, is now published
and runs thus :---
WHITEHALL, Nov. 9.—Her Majesty has been pleased
to appoint the Right Hon Granville Charles Henry
Somerset, (commonly called Lord Granville Charles
Henry Somerset), the Right Hon. William Ewart Glad-
stone, William Bingham Baring, Esq. (commonly called
the Hon. William Bingham Baring), James Milnes Gas-
hell, Esq., and Alexander Pringle, Esq., to be her Ma-
jesty's Commissioners for conducting and inquiry into
the details of the establishments of the several depart-
ments of Customs, Excise, and Stamps and Taxes, with
a view of ascertaining whether the existing establish-
ments are more than adequate to the efficient discharge
of their several duties, and whether arrangements can be
safely made, consistently with the due collection of the
revenue, for diminishing the expense Of them, and to re-
lieve the trade and commerce of the country from any
inconvenient delay.
So far as this goes, it deserves praise; but it is
something like inquiring how a gentleman's es-
tablishment can be reduced when his house is
on• fire. The people complain, not the mer-
chants, (for they are as yet Comparatively well
off); and the Tories propose to give relief, not to
wille n g
rejoice relieved
inconvenient
the people, but the merchants. They chiefly
will be benefited by the " trade and commerce
greater
facilities
nr
delay:'ofthe Country The b
for dispatching business at the Custom-house.
I We do not grudge them all the convenience
they can receive : we say, in fact, that every ob-
•
stacie put la the way of transacting their busi-
,

ness, which is not indispensible for the collec-
tion of the revenue, ought to be removed. The
revenue, in truth, is collected to protect com-
merce as well as other portions of industry, and
when collecting it injures commerce, its purpose
is lost sight of.
At the same time, considering how much the
mercantile classes in London, Liverpool, and
other places hive stood aloof from the anti-
bread tax agitation, how little they have done to
aid the bulk of the people in procuring redress,
we can but suspect that this unasked relief to

trade is intended as a reward for paSt supineness,
and a bribe for future acquiescence in those
!aws which grind the people to dust. If so,
the Commission, . which seems likely to pro-
duce very little saving to the public,
may have the pernicious effect of widen-
ing the separation that now exists between
the working and .the middle classes. The latter
will be pleased at this little mark of attention,
they will find their affection for a Tory Admi-
nistration increase, and they will be anxious to
show their attachment by opposing, where they
have hitherto stood neuter, the demand for
cheap bread. Measures like this, which confer
a trifling advantage on the opulent only, have
long been favourites with our Legislature. They
evince its partiality and deference to the few
whom, alone, it considers; and they rather ex-
asperate the many by; resisting their prayers.

The whole of the Paris Journals have
reached us, but their contents are of no
political interest. On Monday a stock-
broker, named BONNET, was declared a de-

faulter on the Paris Bourse. The report
circulated was that he had fled from Paris,
but whether in the direction of London
or Brussels was not stated. The funds experi-

enced some depreciation in consequence. There
is not much news from Spain in these papers,

and from the little there is, we learn that the
country was generally tranquil.
Preparations-are being made at the Royal Foundry in
the Faubourg du Roule, for casting M. Cortot's colossal
statue of Immortality, which is to be placed on 'the
summit of the dome of the Pantheon. The model of

this statue was placed on the steps of the Chamber of
Deputies during the procession with the remains of the
Emperor Napoleon.
M. Victor Hugo obtained some time since, as our
readers may remember, a verdict against M. Monnier,
administrator of the second Theatre Francais (Odeon),
and M. Latte, music-seller, for having published a French
translation of an Italian adaptation of Lucrece Borgia,
which was considered as infringing his rights as the
original author. At the same time certain detached
morceaux from the piece were ordered to be confiscated
and destroyed. On an appeal to the Royal Court of
Paris, heard on Saturday, the latter part of the sentence
was quashed. M. Victor Hugo was in Court, and a great
crowd of persons pressed in to see him. The illustrious
academician, in forcing his way through the throng, had
his pocket picked of his purse.
The Courrier de la Gironne of Bordeaux quotes a-Ma-
drid letter, stating that wh€n Rubini arrived at Calme-
naz his escort of thirty men were surrounded by the pea-
santry, who imagined him to be a superior officer of the
Christino party, whom the soldiers were going to deliver
up to the prompt justice of Espartero, and were deter-
mined to rescue him, in the hope of a reward. In vain
did Rubini protest that he was no prisoner. Mis guards
were dispersed, and he was detained. The Cure of the
place at length convinced his flock of their error, and
lent the great vocalist his mule, upon which he made his
entrance into Madrid. For this good service he promised
to return and sing a mass in the church. As Calmenaz
is near Madrid, the congregation cannot fail to be nu-
merous and wealthy, and the collection proportionably
liberal.
A letter from Lille, in the Constitutionnel, states that
a man in that place had met with his death by swallow-
ing a live mouse ! He was in a public-house, and the
mouse having just been caught, he laid a wager that he
would swallow it alive. He did so, but immediately
afterwards was attacked by violent convulsions, and in
three hours was a corpse.
A cruel murder was committed a few days agn at
Epfig, near Strasburg, on an elderly female, who lived
by herself, and was believed to be in possession of a
good deal of money. Some villains broke into her house
at night, and killed her by blows on the head from some
heavy instrument, by which the skull was driven in.
The authors of the murder have not been detected.

The King, on the report of the Minister of Marine,
has granted decorations of the Legion of Honour to a
surgeon at St. Pierre, and an Gtfi?,er of a fishing vessel,
attached to St. Pierre and Miquelon fisheries, in conse-
quence of the account given of their services by the
Prince de Joinville in his dispatch, after inspecting the
French fisheries of the Newfoundland and North Ame-
rican station. _ _ _

The Minister of the Interior has sent to the Prefects
of Departments copies of a set of regulations for the
several prisons within their respective jurisdictions, with
regard to the food, clothing, and bedding of the prison-
ers, according to which their treatment throughout the
kingdom will, from January Ist, be placed entirely upon
the same footing; except in cases wherein express orders
shall be given by the Minister himself.
The Havre Journal relates that a great crowd was
collected on Thursday evening round a person, in the
Rue de Paris, near the Hotel de l'Europe, who was cry-
ing out " murder," and uttering incoherent expressions.
He entered the hotel, but was soon afterwards taken in
a coach to the lunatic asylum. The unhappy patient is
a French merchant established in America, but tempo-
rarily resident in Havre. He had for several days pre-
viously given signs of mental alienation, and, in one in-
stance, made a bargain with a hatter for 500 hats, before
the state of his mind was observed. Several attempts
were made by him to throw himself into the docks, and
it was on being defeated in one of these, that the
paroxysm, which led to his confinement, came on. He
has relations in Paris, some of whom were hourly ex-
pected at Havre.
The Correctional Tribunal of Brussels tried, on Satur•
day, the persons who mutilated the statues in the Park,
on the night of the 17th ult. M Cauty was sentenced
to imprisonment for three months ; M. Barrett for two
months, and M. Shergold for one month. They were
each condemned to pay a fine of 100 f., and jointly and
severally 115 f. to the city by way of damages.
Claude Gaspard Jugland, the Nestor of Savoy, and
probably of the whole of the subjects of the King of
Sardinia, died a few days ago at Belleeote, in the Taran-
taise, aged 111 years, 8 months, and 20 days. He re-
tained his health until nearly his last hour, and was re-
marked throughout his long life for his equanimity,
gaiety, and simplicity of mind and habits. He enjoyed
a pension from the King's privy purse.
The mint of Paris, which until now had not been able
to procure the whole of the medals forming the numis-
matic history of Napoleon as General, Consul, and Em-
peror, that is to say from the battle of Montenotte to
1815, has just completed this rich collection, which was
deficient by a hundred medals, of which the dies, en-
graved mostly in Germany and Italy, were not to be
found in France.
" At present," says the Temps, " there are not more
than between 2,500 and 3,000 men employed on the
whole continuous wall of the fortifications, instead of
20,000, as there ought to be, if the Government meant
to fulfil the promise it has given of executing this part
of the works simultaneously with the forts. In a few days
all the masonry work must be suspended on account of
the winter,"
• A rogue on the prowl, two nights back, observed a
young shopwoman at a warehouse in the Rue de Riche-
lieu, folding up a large piece of silk handkerchiefs. The
temptation was irresistible. He entered the shop, leav-
ing the door half open. The young woman politely re-
quested him to shut it. "Oh !" replied the audacious
fellow, " that will be of no use, for I shall not stay a
minute !" and, suiting the action to the word, he grasped
the piece of silk, dashed away with it, 'and was out of
sight before any one could be called to pursue him.
Two evenings ago, in the Rue de la Mortellerie, a
quarqtook place between two journeymen masons and
three iedmontese organ players. The latter almost
immediately drew thei;knives, and fell upon the masons.
One died immediately of the wounds which he received ;
the other was removed to the Hotel Dieu, in a hopeless
state. Only one of the murderers has been arrested.
A duel with pistols took place a few days ago at
Soissons, between two officers of the garrison, arising
out of a quarrel at the dinner-table. They were placed
at a distance of 70 paces, and one of them received the
ball of his adversary, and died of the wound on the fol-
lowing day. Everything had been done, but in vain, by
the seconds to bring about a reconciliation.
Amongst some visitors who came a few days ago to
see the bridge recently put up by Messrs. Seguin, at
Triel (Seine-et-Oise), was Madame Montgolfier, aged
107 years, widow of one of the brothers Montgolfier, the
xronauts. Notwithstandin her great age, Madame
Montgolfier walked to the bridge with great ease. She
g
is the great grandmother of the two Messrs. Seguin.
Numerous workmen are stated by accounts from
Epinal, to be leaving the department of the Vosges for
Algiers, to settle there as colonists, on the new system
proposed by General'Bugeaud.
The Municipal Council of Strasburg, on the 2d inst.,
voted a.grant of 1,000,000 f. towards the formation of the
railroad direct from Paris, and appointed a Commission
to confer with the other towns on the line, and also with
the Government and the Chambers.
On Wednesday last there was cast at Nantes, in the
presence of the Bishop and a large assemblage, including
numerous ladies, a peal of eight bells for the Cathedral
of that town. The operation was completed in 16 mi-
nutes. When the moulds were filled the company gave
repeated cheers. The Bishop then solemnly blessed the
bells, christening the first in the name of the department;
the second of the town; the third, of the proprietors; the
fourth, of the foreign merchants; the fifth, of the general
traders of the town; and the sixth, of the Corps d'Etats
et .Metiers. The remaining two were old bells recast,
and, therefore, retained their ancient names.
The Minister of Finances has given a decision, by
which the Britannia steamer, which was given up by the
English Company in compensation to the Phenix Com-
Fany, for the loss of their boat, has been declared a
rench vessel to all intents and purposes, a point about
which a legal difficulty had existed. This steamer is
about to be put on the London and Havre station by the
Phenix Company.
Tarascon, according to a letter of the 2d inst., was
still under water, and inaccessible but by boats ; -so-that

the mail was forced to go round by Avignon, on which
road the floods had sensibly abated. At Arles the
breaches made at Boulbon were still open, and there
was nothing to prevent the plain from being overflowed,
but the water continued to run off. Many of the dykes
at Avignon were broken, but the water was sensibly
receding. All the necessary measures had been taken by
the authorities, and the soldiers were assisting the people.
The Mare des Pyrenees of the sth has the following
article:— _ _ . .

" We have received news from Madrid up to the Ist
of this month, at night. The most perfect tranquillity
had not been interrupted in that city, and nothing gives
reason to fear that it would be at all disturbed.
" The two brothers, Fulgosio, were condemned to
death, but had not yet been executed. The execution '
was doubtless delayed till the Regent should confirm the
sentence: as in the case of Brigadier-General Quirogi.
Fries. It was hoped at Madrid that the Duke of Vic-
tory would put an end to the effusion of blood.
" The whole road from Madrid to Irun is perfectly
safe, and the mails traverse it without the slightest ob-
stacle."
The persons who left Madrid with the Regent
and who have not accompanied him to Saint
Sebastian, left Vittoria on the 3d at night, to
go to Pampeluna where it seems they have orders
to wait for him. This would lead to the conclusion
that the Regent does not intend to make a long stay
at St. Sebastian : from which place he will shortly go
to Pampeluna, and thence, as it is believed, proceed to
Sarragossa, and thence to Barcelona. Immediately after
the arrest of Messrs. Altima and Crano. the Deputies
of Guipuscoa to the Cortes, the family of the latter
waited on the Regent, at Vittoria, in order to obtain
from him that the terrible measures of transportation
with which those two gentlemen are threatened might
not be carried into effect. Hitherto we do not know
that they have obtained anything; perhaps the presence
of the Regent at St. Sebastian may contribute to avert
from these two Deputies the application of such a mea-
sure.—Constitutionnet
BO URS&—PARTS, MONDAY, Nov. 8.

f itst Highest Lowest Last

Price Piice. Prick ii•li.
French S per Cents ll5 90 ... 115 90 ... 1 5 80 ... 115 80
4% per Cents ..... ..... 105 50 ... 10, 50 ... 103 50 ... 105 50
4 per Cents lO/ Nu ... leo 90 .. 1 0 90 ... 1,41 90
3 per Cents... ......
Loan
... 81 5
41,01 of trance
Latlitta Bank 1.000/. Shares 1(42 50 ...104.1 53 —1042 50 ...1042 50
%nem'. S:. arcs 5090 ...5090 ...t MO ...5090
Re's/lan Ilanl7, 1851 755 ... 755 ... 7:5 ... 755
Belgian 5 per Cents.
5 ter Cents., 1810 102% ... 102% ... 102% ... 15'2%
,p.dcush Active l'2 ... 0.% ... '22 ... 22%
Passive 5 ... 5 ... 4% ... 5
Nea,olitan lO5 P 5 ... "5 90 ... 105 8.5 ... ;05 90
Romer, ex. div .... 101% ... 102 ... 101% ... 10.
P.AIi.W A V SHARES.
vercaille.. L. 13 ... 2.0 . 200 ... 200 ... 200
Montpellier to Cette •5O ... 250 ... 230 ....50
itrasuuretolialcobares red 241 25 ... 231 25 ... 231 25 ... 231 25
A USTI:IIA N FUNDS.—VIENNA, OCT. 30
Five per Cents. bletalliques
Foust per Cents
Three per Cents.
dank Shares l5lB
--Allgerricine Zeireng. Nov. 4.

THE USE OF BURNING THE TOWER.—NO
thing, it is written, is made, and, we presume,
done in vain ; and accordingly, after reading the
following paragraph, we are at no loss to discover
the use of bUrning the Tower :
" Amongst those present during the day were ob-
served—tlie Ladies Seymour, the Lord Chamberlain, and
a party of ladies ; the Uon. Captain J. 8., Home ; Mr.
Hall, the chief Magistrate of Bow-street ; Mr. Cotting-
ham, of Union-Hall ; the Earl of Chichester, &c., &c.'

Ladies and gentlemen of the above description
are greatly in want of a sensation. They seek
for pleasures, and would give anything for a new
one. To look at the yet smoking ruins, to stare
with terror at the tottering walls, to wonder at
the vastness of the destruction, to be squired
or to squire through all the nooks and crannies
of the dilapidated fortress, to hear from the lips
of firemen of perilous escapes and fortunate
rescues, to examine the broken doors of
the jewel-house, and, perhaps, hear from Mr.
and MyS. Swift the sparkling narrative of

their ywn exploits and dangers, to see, hear,
and admire on the spot the effects of the fire,
must be a prodigious pleasure to a multi-
titude of persons in search of a sensation, and
supplies a rational explanation of, we think, the
final cause of the destruction of the Tower. It

was burnt down to be a ten days' wonder to
those who might otherwise die of ennui. They
Ivill be wanting to themselves if they do not,
now that we have pointed out to them the pur-
pose for which great public buildings are de-
stroyed, take care that they be not burned in
vain. We recommend them to give the beadles,
watchmen, firemen, and police-officers liberal re-
wards to keep a sharp look-out for fires, and in-
form them when any take place. They may as
well have all they can get; and if it be dilightful
to see the ruins of the burned Tower, it would be

ten times more delightful to see the Tower
burning. There is much inscrutable in the ways
of combustion and conflagration, but a diligent
inquiry would probably explain the mystery to
others as it has done to us. The Tower was
burned to create a sensation.