The Sun.
London, England, 1834-02-06 00:00:00

the distress be true, and not assumed and fictitious, they
must answer " No." Well, then, wbat resource is left
but a removal of the chains which confine and cripple the
corn trade, that all who are affected by them, whether
in the relation of buyer or seller, may have the free use
of their industry and capital, the former not forced, by
artificial expedients, to purchase dear bread, nor the latter
deluded by false temptations into agricultural enterprises
and improvident bargains, under the hope that the corn
law will be at hand to shield him from all competi-
tion. The landed interest is much given to exclaim that
there are taxes affecting landed property from which other
descriptions of property are exempted. When partial im-
posts are established anywhere, they are undoubted evils,
land ought to be at once redressed. Let the land, there-
, fore, he unloaded of its fiscal pressure, if any such should
be found to affect it exclusively, but divest it also of the
imagined counterpoise of that confessedly unprofitable,
cumbersome, and deceitful monopoly, which has brought
the farming interest to the brink of ruin. But let this
matter of agricultural sufferine. be real or otherwise, the
landlords have no right to murmur. The corn law was
their own child ; whatever may hare been its undutiful
conduct towards them, it has helped to half starve the
great body of poor consumers throughout England, and
although Ministers may flatter themselves that the con-
sumers are weak from the want of compactness, and of
the power of combining for a common end, we tell the
inhabitants of towns, and all men who understand their
own interest throughout Great Britain, that the main
object of their united efforts ought to be a repeal of the
law for monopolizing the sale of corn.— Times.

A scene of an extraordinary nature took place last night
in the House of Common., in the progress of which that
assembly found itself compelled to resort to the extreme
measure of placing two of its Members, the Chancellor of
the Exchequer and Mr. Shell, in the custody of the
Sergeant-at-Arms. The public have long been familiar
with the imputation cast upon one of the Irish Members
of Parliament by Mr. Hill, upon the alleged authority of
a Cabinet Minister, and upon several of them by
Mr. Pease, upon his own personal knowledge, that, while
they were speaking and voting in the House against the
Irish Coercion Bill, they were strenuously urging his Ma•
jesty's Ministers to persevere in that measure which they
characterised as necessary, in their estimation, to the peace
and welfare of Ireland. The parade with which a con-
siderable number of the gentlemen to whom this grave
imputation might have been supposed to apply have
denied the charge—the progres'ive muster-roll of dis-
claimers promulgated through the Irish newspapers in
their interest—the letters of many of them to Mr. Hill
requiring him to exonerate them individually—have bad
the effect of keeping the attention of the public alive to a
subject which it may now be suspected most of the parties
concerned would, without much reluctance, if it were
still possible, permit to pass into oblivion. Too much,
however, had been said upon the subject in Ireland to
admit of silence in tfie House of Commons, and Mr.
O'Connell accordingly brought it last night in the most
effectual manner under the notice of that assembly.
He called upon Lord Althorp to verify or to contradict
the statement of the Hon. and Learned Member for
Hull. Lord Althorp unfortunately could do neither.
He denied that any Irish Member who voted against
the Coercion Bill bad urged his Majesty's Minis-
ters to persevere in that measure ; he also, by
plain implication at least, denied that the Honour-
able and Learned Member for Hull had the authority of
a Cabinet Minister for his statement ; but he affirmed that
some of the Irish Members had expressed opinions in
direct opposition to their speeches and votes upon the
question ; that this fact had come to the knowledge of
his Majesty's Ministers, that be personally believed it, and
would take the responsibility of that belief, as be must
decline to mention his authority. On being further
pressed by Mr. Shell, the Noble Lord said that the Hon.
and Learned Member was one of the persons upon whom
the imputation bad been cast. The excitement was now
at its height, and a scene ensued for an account of which
we must refer to our Parliamentary report. It ended by
the Noble Lord and the Hon. and Learned Gentleman
consenting to give tl e required pledges not to prosecute
the matter out of the House, and being therefore liberated
from the durance to which they had been committed.
We have not yet alluded to what is of much
greater importance to the public than any other
part of this extraordinary fracas—viz., the distinct un-
derstanding which universally prevailed, and upon which
the Speaker mainly rested his appeals to the Members
whose personal honour and integrity were most deeply
involved in the proceeding, that a full inquiry shoeithe
instituted by the authority_ of the House. And right
needful, indeed, it is that the whole disgraceful affair
should be sifted to the bottom, that the public shopld
know how much there has been of slander, and what was
its source ; how much there has been of treachery, and
what were its inducements; how far his Majesty's Mini-
s;ers, or the instruments they have employed, are justly
chargeable with the baseness of having availed them-
selves, for the purpose of obtaining votes in the House
of Commons, of the disgusting compound of slander
and treachery. There is fortunately, in this instance,
good ground for confidence that the inquiry will not be
merely formal or delusive, for every individual connected
with the transaction must deeply feel that he stands at the
present moment in a position which involves the entire
loss of reputation, and must be anxious accordingly to he
relieved from this situation, in the only way in which any
of them can be relieved, that i., by the result of a thorough
and satisfactory investigation. Mr. Hill, who made his
charge against an Irish Member for the vindication of his
own vote, and, in order to appease those of his constituents
whom that vote had offended, who expressly made it upon
the authority of a Cabinet Minister, has much to explain and
much that seems very difficult of explanation. He has to show
what the conduct of an Irish or any other Member of Parlia-
ment, and especially of a Member who must have ap-
peared to him to be acting a dishonourable and treache-
rous part, could possibly have to do with his own inde-
pendent vote upon the Coercion Bill, and thug to redeem
himself from the charge of having been governed in his
senatorial conduct by an authority any appeal to which
might have been expected to excite rather a sentiment of
repugnance and contempt in the heart of every upright
man. The Hon. and Learned Member has also to redeem
his veracity from the stain cast upon it by Lord Althorp,
who expressly contradicts his story in several of its
most important particulars. His Majesty's Ministers
have to meet the statement made by Mr. Hill, and
to meet it as it was originally made, that state-
ment being in substance that a certain Cabinet Mi-
nister divulged to him the fact that a Member of
Parliament bad voted and spoken in the House
of Commons in opposition to his conscientious and
declared conviction, and -that by divulging this fact
the Administration did really obtain one additional vote
in favour of an important measure. The Cabinet Mi-
nister, whoever be was, it may naturally be thought,
ought not to have beguiled the simple-minded Member for
Hull out of his vote by the mention of thisinetanee of
senatorial duplicity without some such expression of con-
tempt and abhorrence as might, perhaps, have guarded
the Hon. and Learned Gentleman from its too seductive
influence. The fact upon which Lord Althorp and Mr.
Hill are at issue is indeed of the highest importance to the
character of both ; and in Ministerial estimation an asser-
tion which proceeded from Mr. Hill bught to be at
least equipenderant with an assertion proceeding
from Lord Althorp; for did not Mr. Hill the other day
find favour and support among all the friends of the Ad-
ministration as the popular candidate for the office of a
Judge? Then there is that very unfortunate Irish Gen-
tleman, Mr. Sheil, who seems to be deserted by every-
body, and who yet, although his situation is not the
most pleasant or respectable, stands in a bet.
ter position by far than either of the parties
we have just mentioned. Mr. Sheil repudiates
the crime with which Lord Althorp charges him
upon the authority of some nameless person, whom Lord
Althorp says be believes. As yet the denial rests only
upon the personal veracity of Mr. Sheil ; hut then, on the
other hand, the imputation, it must be recollected, rests
upon much less than the personal veracity of Lord Al-
thorp, who merely speaks by hearsay, and who has a ques-
tion besides to settle with the Learned Common-Sergeant
that was to be, upon the settlement of which the public
will have to judge which of the two,has most clasely ad_
tiered to truth. The affair, as it now appears before the
public, presents an exquisite specimen of the character of
the reformed House of Commons. It is no doubt in-
volved in great confusion and obscurity, but thus much
is we think sufficiently ciear, viz., that the great, the
boasted principle of reform, a ❑umerous constituency, has
in this instance produced effects less advantageous than its
advocates promised, to the country, from its operation ;
that it has led some Irish Members to betray those whom
they were sent to represent, anal some Euglish Mem-
bers to make a dishonourable use of their dishonourable
example.--Morning Post.

On Friday last a very numerous meeting was
held at Kel,o, for the purpose of forming an association
for the protection and encouragement of :Agriculture, the
Duke of Buccleuch in the Chair. Various resolutions
were passed, declaring tie intention of the meeting to pre-
st rye inviolate the present state of the Corn Laws.