The Sun.
London, England, 1846-01-30 00:00:00

establishment of district asylums for the houseless poor '
in the tn-tropolis, confided to them by the statute of the
7th and Bth of Victoria, c. 101 ; and also to inquire into
the effects of any asylums supported by voluntary sub-
scriptions which may have been formed for the same
purpose ; also (pursuant to previous notice) a Select
Committee to investigate the subject.
Lord ASHLEY moved for leave to bring ;in a Bill to
reduce the hours of working of young persons in fac-
tories to ten hours in the day. Two years hail elapsed
since he brought the subject before the House ; but
events had since taken place that illustrated the
truth of those principles he had then propounded ;
and the question was now narrowed to this—Would his
proposition be carried into effect without injury to trade
or detriment to the wages of the labourer. The Noble
Lord then went at considerable length into what
had taken place during the last year in the manufac-
turing districts, for the purpose of showing that the
shortening of the time of labour had been attended
with no injury to trade, while it improved the wages
and the physical condition of the labourers and their
children. Their physical and mental condition had
been so improved, that they did not appear to be
the same race of human beings. He alluded to
these statements with great satisfaction, be-
cause they gave him great hopes for the future.
Great benefit had also been effected in the manufac-
turing districts from the half-holiday system. Among
all these improvements, none had been effected with
respect to children whose ages varied from thirteen to
eighteen, they were still called upon to work twelve
hours out of the twenty-four. He thought the House
would admit that this was a subject well worthy of its con-
sideration, and that was the great object he had in view.
Without the House adopted some such measure as that
he proposed, he was sure the manufacturing labourers
would never desist in their perseverance to obtain it.
It was the tenth time he had brought this subject before
the House, and he trusted it would be the last. It was
honourable to the operatives of this country, that, endea-
vouring to procure justice, they had never used the words
of menace, or a vindictive expression. The Noble Lord
concluded by moving for leave to bring in the Bill.

Sir J. GRAHAM, on the part of the Government,
would not, on the present occasion, offer any opposition
to the Bill. In his opinion, however, what had passed
since 1844 showed that there was no necessity at the
present time for legislative interference between the em_
ployer and the employed. He thought the Noble Lord
was entitled to great merit for the arrangement that
had already taken place ; but he thought that some
thanks were due also to the Government. By these
it ensures no man could work in a colliery, linen,
!Ilk, or flax manufactory more than twelve hours in the
day. He admitted the magnitude of the subject, and its
importance to the parties interested particularly; but
the public must also be considered. He thought the
proper course would be to postpone the opinion of the
House upon this subject until a decision had been come
to on the question brought forward by his Right Hon.
Friend at the head of the Government on the subject of
corn.

Sir J. STRICKLAND thought the operatives themselves
would be satisfied with an Eleven Hours' Bill; and if
guch was the case, it would be unwise, at the present
moment, to inter fern between
.the employer and the
employed.

Mr. TRELAWNEY thought the Bill would be of no
good ; that it was, in fact, a meAsure to rob Peter to
pay Paul.
Lord J. MANNERS approved of the measure.
Mr. HUME objected to the measure. He believed
that all the arguments of the Noble Lord could be easily
met and answered. He considered the course proposed
to he adopted by the Right Hon. Bnronet at the head of
the Home Department waa the correct oue.
Mr. B. ESCOTT believed that many hundreds of opera-
tives had been ruined by the measures of the Noble
Lord, and he should be able to prove that, when the
proper time came for discussing the Bill. He believed
the Noble Lord was maintaing a mistaking philanthropy.
Mr. COLQUHOUN believed the Noble Lord was correct,
and trusted that he would persevere in his honourable
and humane course.
After some observations from Mr. ROEBUCK, Mr.
BRIGHT, Mr. FIELDEN, Mr. WAKLEY, and several other
Hon. Members, leave was given to bring in the Bill.
The remaining orders of the day bei:ig disposed of,
the House adjourned at Half-past Ten ,'Clock till
Monday.

The aristocracy, under almost every form of' govern-
ment, and in all ages, have claimed for their order peen-
iar privileges, honours, as well as exemptions from taxes
and duties imposed upon the rest of the community. The
only exceptions, perhaps, have been in republics, and
these fur a limited period. When the ruling, the wealthy,
and what may be called the official party, became strong
and brought the plebeians under their power, they,
agreeably to the propensities of human nature, began to
take care of themselves, to throw all the heavy burdens
upon the vulgar, and those who could not resist
their authority, and to cover their selfish pur-
poses and unmerited privileges under the pretence
that in some great emergency theyhad rescued the State
from the brink of ruin, and that no honours or rewards
could be too great for the saviours of their country.
The :barons of England claimed great merit in this
respect, but all they did was to humble the KING,
and increase their own power, if we except some
trifling advantages which they claimed for all
classes, but which they rarely afterwards en-
forced. Self-interest was the prime mover—self-
interest regulated their future conduct ; they raised
themselves to the rank of demi-gods, disdained to take
oaths like other people, because their word of
honour was stronger than the oath of plebeians ;
they would be tried for flagrant crimes only by
men of the same rank, who had an interest
in screening a compeer:; declared their honours and
their judicial and senatorial rights perpetual, and for
one tax which they laid upon themselves they laid
twenty on the rest of their fellow-subjects. In France
these principles were carried to a still greater extent
even than in England, solely because the middle classes
were more depressed, and, consequently, less able to
resist their unjust pretensions. Like madmen, the nobles
thought the power of their order would last for ever;
they had embarked with them in the same system of
oppression all the high dignitaries of the Church, and
in time the whole of the clergy. Religion and the
sword ruled the destinies of the country, till,
some sixty years ago, the people, indignant 'at such
mockery of justice and abase of the sacred truths of the
Gospel, burst forth like a volcano, and swept the united
race from the face of the country. What has been the
result? During all the revolutions which France has
undergone the crimes of the nobility arid clergy have
never been forgotten or forgiven; they have been re-
garded as outcasts, and even to the present day the
stigma still adheres to both orders. The iron reign
of NAPOLEON made an outward change : nobility was
made hereditary, and the Church, to a certain extent,
was raised from its low and deplorable condition; but
when the hand of the despot was removed, and the
influence of foreign powers which crushed the national
voice, it again broke forth, and demanded that
the Peers should enjoy no rights inconsistent
with those of the people. The hereditary peerage was
abolished, the KING was restricted even in the creation
of temporary Peers, and all classes became alike sub-
ject to taxes. The great revolution led mainly to this
result, but the second, called that of July, completed
the work. Would it not be prudent for the Peers of
England to take a lesson from their neighbours and be
wise in time ? Why should the possessors of land have
any exclusive privileges, and why should the great body
of the people be enormously taxed for the benefit of
one class?--for amid all the arguments of the monopo
lists the main argument is, that the abolition of the corn-
laws will reduce their incomes. The fact has been inad-
vertently admitted by the most strenuous advocates ofthe
obnoxious impost, and all rational men know that the
interests of the tenants and their labourers have no-
thing to do with the question, that these classes are
brought in as ignorant auxiliaries and that the rent-roll
guides the whole movement. The discerning public
cannot be deceived by such shallow pretences, and the
Peers, for they are the prime instigators in the affair,
will yet find that by persevering in their opposition they
will only excite further investigations, and that the
offers of the Duke of RICHMOND and Lord BEAUMONT
will be accepted by Mr. COBDEN and Mr. HUME. The
former has repeatedly attempted in vain to
ascertain, by means of a Committee, the real amount of
burdens on land. His request cannot now be denied with
a good grace; and while the new tariff for corn con-
tinues in operation, there will be ample time to
carry the inquiry into full effect. But an inquiry
into the burdens alone will not do. The exemptions can-
not be omitted. There must be a balance-sheet, and the
legacy duty alone will throw a vast weight into the scale
against the landlord. That enormous and unjusi tax is
universally reprobated by
all, except those who are
exempted from its op, rations. It is calculated
that, within a period not exceeding the span
usually ellotted to human life, the whole
personal property of the country goes into
the public Treasury. From this grievous tax the Peers
and metre wealthy le.ndowners are enerally exempted.
They rarely have 'much personal property, and their
entailed estates pay nothing. The amount thus im-
properly diverted from the Treasury is enormous. Take,
for example, the landed property of one of the Cabinet

Ministers, and see what he and his family would have paid
to the public revenue had Peers been treated like hard-
working tradesmen. Suppose the estate has changed hands
twice within the last thirty years, and that it is
worth 7,000,0004—a very mickrate calculation. Even
descending from father to son, the legacy duty
would amount to 150,0001, and had it descended to
distant relations, the sum would have been one million
and a half sterling. But property changes hands
by descent or will much oftener than twice
in thirty years, .and this circumstance, con-
sequently, would make a vast difference in the calcula-
tion. The family, during that period, has succeeded
to two other estates—one of which would bare been
classed in that clause of the Legacy Duty Act by which
ten per cent. is charged, and the other five per
cent. Each of these estates is large, and
perhaps, taken together, they may give a rental of
somewhat less than 80,0001., some say 100,0001,
but we rather state the case hypothetically, and leave
our readers to reckon the amount which the family has
thus saved by one exemption alone. They will find that,
according to the average of human life, a family pos-
sessing so much landed property must save an enor-
mous sum in thirty years by this unfair immunity.
When the burdens on land are taken into account, facts
like these cannot be kept out of view.

Immethodical and formless as the opposition of the
Protectionists appeared to be on the first blush of their
discomfiture by Sir ROBERT PEEL'S secession from
their principles, the necessity and peril of their position
has driven their plans to a most precocious development.
This single fortnight between the mere exposition and
the veritable discussion of their downfal has imbued them
with such a wonderfully vivifying impulse, as to force
their schemes of antagonism to a premature growth.
What originally appeared to be a vague and un-
systematic antipathy to the Ministerial statement, has
now budded forth into some kind of shape, however
much void of symmetry : the rage of the landowners,
previously a creature of chaotic bitterness, has " taken
limbs unto itself"—but those limbs are sinewless, and
thewless, and utterly destitute of moral force. All the
earnestness of will is there, but without the power of
action : the Archimedean standing-place is there, but
without the leverage wherewith to move the political
fabric. In the Upper and the Lower House, in the
agricultural districts, and in the metropolis, the great
mouthpieces of monopoly are breathing vengeance
against Sir ROBERT PEEL for what some designate his
cowardice, and others his chicanery, and others his pro-
fligate inconsistency. Not only is Stamford in all the
effervescence of chagrin, and not only do " the powers
that form" in the vicinity of that borough growl with
something between malice and disappointment against
their representative, Sir GEORGE CLERK,. 411 t similar
sentiments, though of extra acidity, boil up in the
bosoms of the protectionists in Oakham. A still more
marvellous fury is goading sundry of the inhabitants of
Newark to expressions of the bitterest discontent :
and in divers other quarters—in nooks and
corners as obscure and remote as Welchpool—the
first feelings of prostration are gradually sub-
siding, and in lieu of them feelings of the
most acrid, and at the same time of the most impotent
rage, are gurgling in the hearts and bubbling
through the lips of a vanquished but braggart
class. Through the medium of oratory the flames
of agricultural agitation are evidencing them-
selves, and are crackling somewhat lustily, though
unhappily for,no recognisable purpose whatever. Yet,
so repeatedly have the same materials been consumed
over and over again in precisely the same manner—so
charred, and blackened, and tinder-like had they become
through constant use, that the fire of opposition would
either smoulder away to insignificance, ur be at length
irretrievably extinguished, but for the interposition of
some powerful political bellows. That bellows is his
Grace the Duke of RICHMOND, who, in his capacity of
President of the Central Agricultural Society, was yes-
terday instrumental in breathing something more vivi-
fying than usual into the principles of which he is so
uncompromising an advocate, in the shape of some very
valiant resolutions and very hopeless recommendations.
The first resolution declares the Society's " alarm at the
proposed measures for establishing free importation ;"
while the second utters its firm opinion that such mea-
sures would excite a revolution so terrible as "to in-
volve not only the agricultural but the other productive
classes of this country in certain ruin." It would, we
canjecture, require some great metaphysical ingenuity
to ferret out the argument, the influence, the applica-
tion, or the utility of these two vastly important and
amazingly logical declarations. The deduction con-
tained in the latter is so miserably non-apparent ;
the announcements are so manifestly founded upon as-
sumptions ; and the whole originates so clearly and
ostensibly in the dark and murky principles of self-
interest and self-aggrandisement, that it withers away
' in its proportions, until it becomes in the estimate of
every sensible thinker something very little short of
nothingness. The subsequent recommendation, how-
ever, is equally shallow and equally preposterous ; it is
addressed to the country in general and the local Pro-
tection Societies in particular, advising them severally
and collectively—
" That they do immediately form committees, of not more
than twelve gentlemen, to wait upon the Members in their
several districts, who were elected on protective principles,
and press them either to reject the proposal of Sir Robert
Peel, or at once to resign their seats, and appeal to their
different constituencies for a sanction of the change in their
political opinions."
Hitherto we have laboured under the impression that
an English constituency was capable of conducting its
own affairs, and scrutinising the conduct of its own re-
presentative, and duly estimating its own consistency,
without the interference of any extraneous or infinites-
simal force; but, thanks to the Duke of RICHMOND
and his adherents, our erroneous notion is dispelled;
we clearly perceive, according to their mot,le of
drawing inferences, that the case stands quite otherwise,
that hot is cold, and that white is black. All Hon.
Members may, therefore, now expect some twelve da‘ a
of delightful dunning, and pestering, and importunity;
besides the additional pleasure of arguing with men
as capable of comprehending a self evident proposi-
tion as of seeing commerce conducted with
scales of an equal balance. Assuredly the character of
opposition adopted by these lovers of exclusive protec-
tion is proportioned to the littleness of their policy.
Like the Abyssinians mentioned by BRUCE, they would
cut their dinner from the living flesh of the animal
they rode—they would satiate their appetite for emolu-
ment from the life-blood of their count, ymen—they
would extract wealth for themselves from the property
of the country.

The accounts from Madrid of the 22d inst. are of an
unsatisfactory character. The proposed marriage of the
QUEEN with the` ount DE TRAPANI is exciting great op-
position, and will either break up the Ministry or lead
to the dissolution of the Cortes. Scarcely any party in
the country seems to approve of it ; the chief supporters
of the measure being Queen CHRISTINA and NARVAEZ, who
are encouraged in their scheme by the Court of France.
We learn from some of the journals that the Deputies
who had resolved to protest against the marriage re-
mained firm in their purpose, and that several of them
are generally supporters of the Government. The
Tiempo states that the text of the resolutions is nearly
as follows :—" The undersigned Deputies, strongly con-
vinced that the marriage of her MAJESTY with the
Count DE TRAPANI would be fatal to the country, to
its institutions, and to the consolidation of the monarchy,
pledge themselves to appoint a Committee from their
own body to confer with the Ministers, and demand from
them a formal promise that they will not consent to
such a marriage." The 7 iempo adds that more than
fifty Deputies have already signed this resolution. It
would appear, therefore, that there is little chance of
obtaining the approbation of the Chamber of Deputies
for such a marriage, as the Progressist party would
have only to add their votes to those of the dissidents of
the Ministerial party to.defeat the project.
The Universal states, that so far from there having
been shown any disposition on the part of some of the
Deputies who had resolved to protest against the mar •
riage with the Count DE TRAPANI to retract, they had
all remained firm, and their number was being hourly
increased.. The Ministers held a Council, at which they
are reported to have resolved that they would reject the
message which it was proposed to send to'them, to re-
fuse any information on the subject of the marriage, to
dismiss all public functionaries who should take part in
the manifestation, and to dissolve the Cortes if the
majority should persist in the course that was pur-
sued. That journal adds :—" Most animated discus-
sions have taken place in the Council of Ministers re-
lative to the message and the Trapani pretensions.
It is not doubtful that the discord existing between
the Ministers will end in a modification of the Cabinet.
We are in a complete Ministerial crisis, and may
Heaven prevent its results being detrimental to the
country and the throne! The Deputies who have
signed the message are more than ever determined to
persevere in their project, and the difference of opinion
that separate the Opposition and the Majority have
vanished before the immense importance of an affair
which concerns till parties and all society." The affair
altogether forbodes some serious movement, but -
mention of it has yet been made in *'• - no
Phare de Bayonne of .the or.. ~.e Cortes. The
when we wo,•- • says :—" At the moment
-stun, informing
to press we received a letter from
mforming us that the Spanish Cortes have been