The Sun.
London, England, 1846-01-06 00:00:00

1115 LL, JAN. 5.

STOCK ExcitaNGE.—The sales are—Hull and Selby (5 per
cent. guaranteed), 1021/s—Ditto, Half Shares, 21—North
British, Half Shares, 7t/—North Wales. 4—Armagh, Cole-
raine, and Portrush, IN—Dudley, Madeley, and Iron Bridge,
21:2—Hull and Barnsley Junction, 47s.—Leicester and Bir-
mingham, 27s.—Sheffield Potteries and Crewe, 235. 6d.—
Shropshire Union, 2/. 9s. 6d.--Yorkshire and Glasgow
Union, 214. . .

COMPENSATION TO THE LAND-
LORDS.
(From the Sentinel.)
Speculative politicians are hazarding all sorts of con-
jectures as to the course Sir Robert Peel will pursue on
the opening of Parliament. None hesitate to affirm that
he will attempt some modification of the sliding-scale, if
not a total repeal of the corn-laws ; but whether that
repeal will be immediate or deferred, unconditional or
conditional, has led to a great diversity of opinion. We
will not add to the list of unprofitable " guessing ;" nor
do we believe that anything' authentic will transpire till
the Legislature is assembled. But whatever mystery
may involve the intentions of the Minister, the demands
of the landowners are clear enough ; if they cannot re-
tain their monopoly, they will insist on compensaf;on for
its surrender. The indemnity of twenty millions paid to
the West India proprietors for the manumission of their
slaves, is a precedent on which they rely. The subject
deserves some comments.
The agriculturists have contended that special bur-
thens are imposed on land, that is to say, burthens that
do not fall on any other description of property. This
has been denied, and repeated challenges have been
given in Parliament to adduce evidence in support of
the allegation ; those challenges have been uniformly
declined ; nay more, when the Liberals have brought
forward specific motions to appoint a Committee to in-
vestigate the nature and extent of the special burthens,
the agriculturists themselves, shrinking from the proof
of their own assertions, have voted against all inquiry;
from which the fair inference is, that they knew well
that they had put forth an untruth. This, however, is
certain, that agriculture is exempted fropa very many
i imposts to which all other property s liable, such as
insurance on stock against fire, legacy and probate
duty, &c.
Again : the landlords have always contended, that
the corn-laws were not imposed for their benefit, but
for the benefit of the tenant-farmers. Be it so ; then,
if a moneyed compensation were voted for the repeal of
the corn-laws, it ought to be handed over to the tenant-
farmers.

The general subject, however, must be looked at under
comprehensive views. The time is passed when the
common sense of the people can be juggled by sophisms.
Every fallacy of the landlords has been laid bar; ; the
game of deception can no longer be played. The aris-
tocracy should learn, that "honesty is the best policy:"
and now that they can no longer find shelter in fraud,
let them place their faith in truth. Their ideas of " pro-
tection" are as base as they are ignorant ; they are
base, because they seek to be protected at the expense
of their fellow citizens ; they are ignorant, because no
selfish legislation can endure longer than the selfishness
remains undetected. The prime error of the landlords
censists in a false view of their real position, which has
made them seek relief in remedies totally inadequate to
their exigencieQ They may yet be saved from all the
dangers that menace them, sou tnat, wo, WILII 11.11UUL
but they will not be rescued by half-measures or class
I,Tislation. They must make common cause with all
the prow,.-,:.,a °lasses, form an alliance with them, and
work out such a reform as win tmetively secure both
the interests of property and labour.
What is the heavy drag on industry? Obviously tax-
ation. Its leaden weight presses on all of us. It has
pressed on other nations, and was the real, however re-
mote or disguised, cause of the French Revolution. What
does high taxation imperiously demand ? what does it
render absolutely just'? Clearly high prices. As we
desire to avoid vague expressions, we must observe, that
when we use the epithet " high" as applied to prices, we
specifically mean just such an addition to the natural or
wholly untaxed value of commodities as will be equal to,
and express the amount of, taxation levied on commodi-
ties. If the tax on a commodity be five per cent., five
per cent. must be added to its natural value ; if fp:ty per
cent., then fifty per cent. must be added to the natural
value. This is the just, the legitimate protection that
the Legislature owes to every class of producers. to the
agriculturists as well as to the manufacturer. Now, how
is this to be effected? for this is the problem to be solved.
Let us hear Sir James Graham ; we quote from his
pamphlet on " Corn and Currency :"

" So far from urging the Government to bring sepa-
rately under the view of the Legislature the questions
of Currency and Corn, it was the decided interest of the
landowners to have insisted on a careful revision of both
these subjects conjointly. They are in themselves inti-
mately blended ; it is absurd to talk of price without re-
ference to money; and it is impossible to alter the quan-
tity of money without affecting prices. Disjointed
discussion on these two vital points is the precise cause
of the dangerous conclusions now sanctioned by Parlia-
ment, which threatens with ruin and degradation the
whole class of existing proprietors."
Be it noted that we have not cited the opinion of a
Leaguer or free-trader; it is the Conservative Sir James
Graham who speaks, himself a large landed proprietor,
a gentleman of undoubted talents and matured expe-
rience.

We have said, that high taxes require high prices, and
Sir James Graham tells us " it is absurd to talk of price
without reference to money." Now, if we have a de-
scription of money, purposely designed to keep prices
low, it is clear that the real protection of which we
stand in need, is protection against that species of
money. Our standard of money is gold and the sove-
reign contains just such a number of grains as comports
with the natural or untaxed value of gold, and expresses
it.. But this sovereign is the measure of all taxed com-
modities ; they therefore must necessarily conform to
that measure. Now this gold is exempt from the laws
of supply and demand ; its value is not allowed to rise
when it is scarce, nor to fall when it is plentiful, while
all other commodities, of which it is the measure,therefore,
between subject to these conditions. All equivalency,
profits, low wages. Here is
de-
stroyed.
the producer of taxed commodities can never add the
tax to his selling price, for there is no money in this
country in which such tax can be expressed, since
the
The measure
consequenceand thee t
h thingsi
this
arramnge measured
is,
ai,s
that
gold, the standard measure, is not permitted by the
endo t u againstntuntil
the
thefore
Legislature to express taxation, but no more than
natural or untaxed value. Hence low prices must
producingignee
classes
sse thats
seew e
be permanent and universal,—low corn, low ca-
lico,
nlaotwionaclotetonnem, enemy—the enemy of all industry ;it is
this great truth, they will remain, as they now are, the
doomed, blind, slaves of capital, of bankers, usurers,
loan-mongers, and monenobbe h'
rs—t e oligarchy of
Mammon.
Do the landlords, then, seek
nageeadinstthat
protection enemy,
a
compensation ? Do
they desiderate such high prices as will enable them to
pay high taxes and their mortgages ? The remedy is
in their own hands. It is a physical and fiscal impossi-
bility for them to realise high prices in a currency studi-
ously designed to keep prices low ; therefore, they must
change the currency, and adapt it to the exigencies of
existing taxation. They have been experimenting,
scheming, and devising for the last thirty years—ever
haunted by their "special burtheus," proceeding from
blunder to blunder, from equivocation to equivocation,
from compromise to compromise. Surely it is time to
cease this miserable tinkering: they ought to be heartily
sick of the knaves, fools, and quacks whom they have
lauded as "statesmen," and who have failed to make the
working classes self-sustaining, and could find no better
means of preventing the paupers, otf,pring of their own
bad government, from devouring landed estates, than in
carcerating them in union workhouses.

MARY HOWITT'S " CITIZEN OF PRAGUE."—Frede-
rick the Great and the Empress Maria Theresa are the
two principal characters in Mary Howitt's romantic his-
torical novel just published under the title of " The
Citizen of Prague." We can thus readily account for
the chief incidents of the story being of so unusually ex-
alted a character. We are initiated into the secrets of
the Imperial Cabinet—we behold the ceremonies of the
most magnificent of Courts—we witness the imposing
array of the bravest armies in the world—in fact, we are
allowed to see all that the great conqueror and the great
empress chose to display in a contest that threatened
the entire continent with desolation. But these gra.nd
materials are skilfully woven into a story, which gains
from much humbler objects it principal source of interest.
In contrast to these royal delineations the work abounds
with pictures of social life, the most domestic, the niost
touching, and the most truthlike that can be conceived.
In short, Mary Howitt has succeeded in that very diffi-
cult task which aims at pleasing all classes of readers.