The Sun.
London, England, 1841-05-04 00:00:00

MORNING EDITIGN

SPIIIITIof the PUBLIC JOURNALS

FROM THE DAILY PAPERS OF YESTERDAY.
CHRONICLE.—The sensation produced by the Govern-
ment notice of Friday night on the Corn-laws is rapidly ex-
tending through the country. Everywhere it is the signal of
excitement and determination. By the monopolists it will
ever be forgiven ; and by the people it will never be forgot-
ten. Ministers have fairly thrown themselves on the nation
for support in the assertion of a great national right and inte-
rest. The response will soon be heard in thunder. The un-
taxing of the people's bread is a prospect full in view ; and the
people will spring towards it like lions on their prey. The com-
plaint of the Times as to its Tory leaders is their want of sympa-
thy with the poor. We leave there alone with their lamentation.
It is their exclusive possession. Their title to it is confirmed by
the hideous yells which greeted Lord John Russell's announce-
ment of his motion for a Committee of the whole House on
the Corn-laws. The description by the Times of its own
Party is amply confirmed. The purpose of untaxing the poor
man's bread excites their infuriate hostility. All pretence,
affectation, or decent show of sympathy was, in that moment,
thrown to the winds. It was an exhibition of human nature
horrible and humbling ; and happily one which is rarely to be
witnessed. But it marks what the people should feel. Its
intensity is the measure of their gratitude. Were there
no other evidence, it would suffice to show that great in-
deed must be the good which could call forth that fierce an-
tagonism. In proportion to that first ebullition of rage will
be the cunning, trickery and determination with which the
great measure that occa-ioned it will be opposed. Only by an
overwhelming display of its will can the nation ensure the
blessing which Ministers have placed within its grasp. They
have magnanimously committed themselves to a deadly con-
ilict with the hitherto paramount interest of the Legislature.
'They are no longer partakers in the crime of a monopolist
Blass which has never yet allowed any Minister to be indepen-
dent of it. The die is cast. They go with the people for cheap
.bread. They side with the manufacturer and the operative, the
tenant and the labourer. They are for the many against the
few ; and their judgment is with God and their country. And
the voice of the country will be upraised ; it must ; in tones
which wiil strike terror into the foes of justice thus
claimed and asserted. The Corn-law question may be settled
now, It will be settled if the people bestir themselves. Two
years ago, Sir Robert Peel declared the uncertainty to be an
intolerable evil. Very recently, indeed, the Times reiterated
the assertion, and estimated the uncertainty so highly as to
put it amongst the benefits of a Tory administration that it
would bring the question to a settlement, although in a mode
diametrically opposed to its own avowed opinions through a
quarter of a century. Better it should be settled on the
wrong side (was substantially the declaration of the Times)
than not settled at all. Better, that is, the confirmation
of the oppression than the continuation of the struggle.
We are rescued from this most forlorn alternative. Set-
tlement and justice, settlement and untaxed food, settlement
and invigorated trade and commerce, are offered to us. Mi-
nisters cannot carry their proposition, snarls out the hard-
eriven objector. Can they not? Then never let that ob-
jector say one syllable on behalf of the people of Britain ; for
with them it rests. If they will, the bread-tax is already vir-
tually abolished. As we urged on Saturday, this is no time
fur dallying. There is but " one little month" for the people
to utter their voices. Let petitions be signed in every parish
and. hamlet. Every person whose name is not appended is in
ties, same position as if he stole a slice from his neighbour's
19 af. " He who allows oppression, shares the crime."
'Zile decision rests with the country. No Member of
_Parliament should be indulged even with the affectation of ig-
norance of the wishes of his constituents. On former occa-
eions the House has refused—contemptuously refused, to en-
tertain the subject. It will refuse again, even though the pro-
position emanates from the Government. unless there be a
strong aria general admonitory demonstration by the people.
Petition, then; petition everywhere, the million: of bread-
eaters, for bread untaxed by the monopolists. The wails of
the metropolis are placarded with notices of the religious
gatherings held during the present month. The " May meet-
engs " are at hand, Success to their devout and rhilanthropic
undertakings. But what is that religion of which no
Tart consists in the solemn supplication " Give us this
clay our daily bread ?" Now is the time for all who
repeat the Saviour's words without hypocrisy to evince their
sincerity. The question is whether daily bread, given by
heaven, shall be allowed by man to reach those who earn it..
:Neither Church extension on the one hand, nor Church-rate
abolition on the o her, strikes so deeply into religious principle
as this does. Sect and denomination differences are compara-
tively on the surface. Let congregations, church and dissent-
ing, aid with their petitions, as they did for the abolition of
slavery. Slavery was a monstrous evil, but starvation is a
worse. Those who in their multitudes demanded mercy for the
negro, should yet more sternly insist on justice for the poor.
During this brief interval, it will be incumbent on all the Anti-
Corn-law Associations, from the great Manchester League to
every parish club, to redouble their exertions. Instead of the long
campaign before them, there is an impending crisis. It is "now
me never." Should the recent notice be received in any way
which can be construed into apathy or indifference, the
golden occasion is irretrievably lost. The associations
truest put forth their strength to the uttermost ; and let
the people join them so as to show their force. Let them
enrol their names as they did in May, 1832. "He that
is not for us, is against us." There can be no neu-
erality on such a question as whether manufactures are
to be annihilated, and the nation permanently sub-
jected to an impost on its food for the profit of a class
interest. And let it be remembered that all Anti-Bread-
Tax Associations and Committees are also preparatory arrange-
ments for the election contests that may speedily ensue. Their
work ends not with petitioning. They are a Grand Jury find-
ing true Bills for the tribunals by which Parliamentary
responsibility must be made more than nominal. If petitions
will not avail, votes must. A spirit will be roused on which the
Carlton Club may expend its million without making an im-
pression. We have argued this Corn-law question long enough.
The pressure on those who find work for the multitudes is be-
coming too strong and threatening for prolonged rea-
sonings. The season of action is arrived, and it
cannot come more favourably for the national inte-
rest. The announced purpose of the Queen's Mi-
nisters is as the setting in of the tide. Let it rush on, and
sweep away before it all the defences of this inhuman mono-
poly. If Ministers be hut adequately supported ; if that na-
tional enthusiasm which their determination must produce be
but evinced in time by a people awake to their own most vital
interests, we cannot but augur the happiest results. In their
present position, they can sustain no Parliamentary defeat that
would not be equivalent to a victory. And we should like to
see the list of those who would dare to take office on the ex-
press grounds of disfranchisement for Ireland, and perpetuity
to the bread-tax.
TIMES.—If humane and reflecting Englishmen could only
be familiarised with one half of the practical barbarities which,
even in the best conducted factories, are inseparable from the
present system of infant labour, we feel persuaded that not
another month would elapse ere this monstrous national dis-
grace were sentenced to complete extinction. We are none of
your fancy philanthropists ; we have no taste for overcharged
pictures of any sort; nor do we forget that there is hardly a
better way of perpetuating an abuse than by giving its advo-
cates the advantage of being able to show that its evils have
been greatly exaggerated. Opposed, as we are, however,
to the false sensibility, as well as to the stupid
impelicy, which would unduly magnify any grievance that
really deserves redress, we are prepared to show—
from an infinite variety of authentic evidence—that the
labours imposed upon children in the manufacturing dis-
tricts (sanctioned, we blush to say, by a British Legislature)
are generally attended with a systematic sacrifice of human
life, compared with which the carnage of cannibals, or the im-
molations of Juggernaut, are almost tantamount to mercy.
Apart altogether from the testimony of the better Class of fac-
tory owners, and factory inspectors, and factory victims, which,
though varying in its inculpatory character according to the
interests or intelligence of the witnesses, uniformly represents
the cotton-mill as a dismal instrument of infant torture, we
would ask any parent in civilized Europe to say whether
children from nine to twelve years old. can be subjected
to the confinement and labour of factories for twelve or
even ten hours a day, without involvirg a course of
privation and suffering at which humanity must absolutely
shudder? Talk of spending twenty millions for the eman-
cipation of the West Indian slaves—talk of forming
juvenile reformation schemes at the Cape of Good Hope—
talk of philanthropic devices for the protection cf the abo-
rigine'i in British colonies—talk of organizing fine civiliza-
tion societies for Africa, and jobbing expeditions to the
Niece. on a grand enterprise of beneficence—we say it is
an slitter disgrace to the display gentry who have de-
mon red for these humbug humanities, that, while mustering
in thousands to perform the sentimental on behalf of
dovabtful and visionary projects, the wretched condition
of the factory children, pining and perishing at their
haen door, and hurried in a frightful ratio to an early tomb,
s never wrung a tear from their pharisaical eyes, nor
quickened one dormant sympathy in their benignant
breasts ! As far as regards the shameful indifference of
'Dissenting Ministers to this object, we cannot say that we are
-much surpmed at it. Considering pr
edilection
for exclusive
for such foreign or domestic labours as bear more directly upon
their own sectarian aggrandizement, we did not expect that
any interests apart from those which are strictly denomina-
tional would for a moment receive the slightest place in their
regenerated hearts. But with respect to the Buxton party,
who are composed of a sort of Church and Quaker coalition,
we certainly did anticipate, notwithstanding the heavy mill.
:investments of the Darlington and Durham Friends, that
:something like a decent consistency would have impelled
them not to confine their philanthrtorge, but to take
to mere plat-
form parades in favour of savage
a prominent lead in extirpatingge that s
wholesale sys-
tem of infant slaughter which demands their inter-
ference at home. In this, however, we have been painfully
disappointed. The sympathies of the Buxton party are too
sublime and generous to be occupied with anything so tamely
common-place as the sufferings of factory children. What
ad ,
for
exclusively concerns them are the hardships of negro cherubs,
care,
s i v e
tt hh e m
and the misdemeanours of foreign
t Onlyhey
Sale of Guinea abduction ;n
fent population of the manufacturing districts may be handed-
over to the tender mercies of demons. We hold up these
self-perfuming coxcombs to the contempt of the en-
tire kingdom, ; and, by God's blessing, the
great work
.of Factory Reform shall speedily triumph in spite of
theme On this subject, as on every other, the conduct of the
'Whig%During
too, has been infamous. their ten years' te-
eof office, and long before they got it, they have inces-
santly Prated about the necessity of emancipating negroes,
Papists, Dissenters, parochial rate-payers, hulk convicts, and
what not; but with reference to the crying abominations of
eaill-infanticide, as demonstrated by the evidence of their own
facto" intProrss particularly by Messrs. Stuart and Horner,
one thingohe byethe RePorts of Parliamentary Committees, not
the cotton shambles, ee"
ha Ley done totvaids arresting the butcheries of
evasions, which, till this is '
pt indulging in regrets, promises, and
of a single substantial improvement. our, have been utterly unproductive
Mr. Christopher, in tone debate --
P°ST.—We
°bserveallusion to some remarks of
Thew, Mr. Handley, one
shire; and hitherso a thick
oef.bate of Friday night upon the
santhe Members for South Lincoln-
said " he could assure the Hon. itvliin supporter of Ministers,
"be the. Representative of all Lincolnshire,her, who had assumed to
neglect his duty to his constituents
that question (the Corn-law question
that he should not
and the country when
House. ' That question, we now ) came before the
to inform 111 r.
Handley, and other gentlemen be
tette substantially before the Houuseated a'
he is, will
wheti Ministers are to propose theiren Friday next,
pursuance of the financial schemeresolutions, in
for of the Exchequer. It is not to be ofs the Chancel-
House of Commons will for the mere conveniePP°sed that the
stultify itself so completely as to deal with anee of
Ministers
finance by instalments, voting upon one fraction Ministers
finance of
system-this week and reserve another fraction of nti!ntegral
sistem for consideration five weeks hence. No, ne same
Handley; much as it may cost you to cut with o,
Mr.
friends the present Ministers of the Crown, cut with them old
seust,,and on Friday next, too, at the you
. very latest, or cut fo
r
ever
ever with the electors of Lincolnshire,
for be assured
that; -your constituents,ti and every other agrieult 1
ura
eons tuency in Great Britain, will regard that _ as thekr_foe who does not resolutely, and from first to risant
......,_:,,,,
... t'oppok the whole scheme with which the ruin of British agri-,
re r ss. _ cultwe bas been inseparably interwoven by its authors. If
e.ese the agrieuttFtssl interest in the House of go
1,„:7, re._ Masten tee a single resolution Commons permits
Cee: ;,-. . badtet of it ii 7
1...! : ' the Welfare of htu•
,a_ Canatilan f *-4..Vi, ~,--.:. . at the Sante -wine at the shipping 4'. ..:'-- or be it a reioktionwhich
„,.., :, . assails the
ed . e_. interest Of our West India colonies \iz
c..,
• --- - 1 in. conformity with the
testi ution which directly strikes at
fellow subjects, and aims a blow
interest of Grekellritain
struggling and shattered
1 for the promotion of the
N._