The Sun.
London, England, 1851-11-22 00:00:00

SATURDAY

solutions that will show the autocrats of the world that
when England pronounces upon any question she will
keep that question alive, and that in keeping it alive she
will not allow any power in Europe to contravene her
will.—(Cheers.) Remember that the greatness of Eng-
land reposes on the manly resolution of her people. Now,
gentlemen, in bidding you farewell, let that farewell be
connected with the declaration of the most warm senti-
ments of gratitude to you. Be assured, gentlemen, that
if, with the aid of God, my country once more become
free, which I confidently believe soon will he, let me
assure you that the name of Southampton will be en-
graved on the golden table of the history of Hungary,
as a name out 01 which its liberties have grown up, and
millions have been restored to the blessings of social
order.—(Loud cheers.) Southampton will be a name
eternally dear to my country, and handed down from
generation to generation as a central object of affec-
tion. Why should it not be so? For, after, it was
the welcome I first received at Southampton, which
was the electric spark that lit up such a deto-
nation throughout England.—(Loud cheers.) How-
ever warm may have been the subsequent welcome of the
people of England, there can be no doubt that it was in
the great heart of Southampton we first found consola-
tion and sympathy.—(Loud cheers.) We found it in
him to whom for three successive times you intrusted
the chief honours of your municipality; a position which
I hold to be very glorious, because it has not its root in
party motives, but in the confidence of his fellow-coun-
trymen.—(Loud cheers.) And also I hope you are
united with me in acknowledgment of the happy circum-
stance that in Southampton you have a representative
of your younger brother, the United States of America.
—(Loud cheering.) Let him stand as the vanguard for
the realisation of that unity between the two countries
which will be the sure foundation of the freedom of the
idea
of Therefore, gentlemen, let me personify the
of England and the United States, by giving you the
health of the Mayor of Southampton and the Consul of
the United States.—(Kossuth resumed his seat, appa-
rently much exhausted, amidst the loudest cheering.)
The MAYOR having returned thanks,
Mr. CROSICEY said that Brother Jonathan begged to
return his thanks for the great honour which had been
done him on this occasion. His health had been pro-
posed by a man who was universally allowed to be the
greatest statesman and warrior of the age—first in the
arts of peace and in the heartslof his fellow-countrymen.
—(Hear, hear.) When Kossuth had come to these
shores, he (Mr. Croakey) felt it to be his duty, as the
representative in Southampton of the United States, to
co-operate with the authorities of the town in their de-
monstration of good feeling and sympathy. He had
done so, then, as a matter of duty, but now he was im-
pelled by principle and affection. It had always been
his wish to bring about a goood understanding between
the two countries, to reconcile prejudices, and to in-
crease communication and commerce. With those
views, he looked upon the fact of Kossuth'a going to
America as a fitting medium by which the affections of
the two countries might be drawn closely together.
America, which was only 76 years old, had no old tradi-
tions, but she had long looked upon England as her na-
tural enemy.—(Cries of " Oh.") If any remnant of
that feeling still remained, he hoped that Louis Kossuth
would be the means of dispelling it. On the other hand
England had looked upon America as the republic of
disorder.—(Cries of " No, no.") It had been so in for-
mer times, but now Brother Jonathan had proved that
there could be as good government in a republic as un-
der a monarchy. Liberty could be enjoyed under a
republic, and, as he was happy to add was proved by
the case of England, under a monarchy also.—(Cheers.)
Holding as he did an official positioa, he could not ex-
press the feelings of his heart as freely as he might wish.
He had colleagues in other parts of Europe whose posi-
tion he might compromise. All he should say, then, to
Kossuth was, that America sympathised with him,would
" hear him for his cause," and " be silent that she might
hear." He (Mr. Croakey) believed that cause to be a
just one; but there was no one more able to speak to it
than Kossuth himself.
The next toast was " PoJaud," to which
Lord DUDLEY STUART rose to return thanks, and he
created much amusement by addressing the Mayor as
Admiral, he being by usage admiral of the port. He
said he thanked them for the toast they had pledged and
the manner in which they had pledged it, and he took
that opportunity of expressing the great satisfaction he
had felt at bearing his share in the great demonstrations
in favour of the illustrious Kossuth.—(Cheers.) His
illustrious friend had come amongst them, and every eye
watched him, every ear listened to what he should say.
Now, he had been among them one month—an eventful
month, having been watched by powerful enemies, and
he (Lord Dudley Stuart) would venture to say with his
reputation not diminished, but immensely increased.—
(Loud cheers.) In saying that he did not mean to say
that every one in this country agreed with all that had
been advanced by their illustrious friend, but it was not
necessary, in order to admire a man, that we should
adopt every ono of his opinions. The people of England
had spoken out in his favour, and he (Lord Dudley
Stuart) believed that the Government had been anxious to
obey their bidding. But it was very well known that
when the people of England had made up their minds, if
the Government were not prepared to go with them,
that Government would very soon have to go out of
office. The Noble Lord concluded by adding his good
wishes for the prosperous voyage of the exiles.
This toast terminated the proceedings of the dejeuner,
and shortly after, as the Humboldt did not appear at her
appointed time, Kossuth and family repaired on board
a small steamer, is which to wait for the arrival of the
American vessel, as the Jupiter's heavy draught of water
required that she should return at once to port. The
company on board gave Kossuth a tremendous farewell
cheer, and the Humboldt having arrived about nine
o'clock, he repaired on board, and proceeded on his voy-
age to America.

—We cannot conclude our report without offering our
acknowledgments to the Mayor of Southampton for the
marked attention which the representatives of the
public
press received at his hands throughout the entire of these
demonstrations.

EVENING, NOVEMBER 22, 1851'

SPIRIT of the PUBLIC JO URNALS.
TIMES.—The fruits of the recent Papal policy in
sending to Ireland a Legate a Latore, and holding
under his auspices the Council of Thurles, are beginning
to be gathered by the branch of the Roman Catholic
Church more particularly affected by these pontifical
operations. The first effect of those ill-advised pro-
ceedings was to give additional point and significance to
the rescript affecting this country which so immediately
followed them ; the second was to produce a violent re.
action in favour of the educational system which the Popo
attacked; and the third is now manifesting itself in the
effusion of a spirit of bitter discord and reviling within
the precincts of the Roman Catholic Church itself. It
is the fashion among persons haunted with a morbid
fear of the prevalence of Popery to invest the priests,
in their imagination, with an almost superhuman per-
spicacity and dexterity, which enables them to
turn events as they rise to the account of
the Church, and to baffle with apparent ease
the most unfavourable conjuncture of circumstances.
Let those who are impressed with such apprehensions
review the course adopted by the Pope in Ireland, and
imagine, if they can, how, had he implicitly obeyed the
promptings of the worst enemies of his creed, he could
have contrived to do himself a greater quantity of mis-
chief in a shorter period of time. It was in his power,
by uniting cordially with the Government in support of
the Queen's Colleges, to gain for his own religion a large
portion of the credit of the successful experiment; or,
had he stood aloof, he might at any rate have escaped
censure and disrepute. But, although fully apprised of
the strong tendency of the Irish mind towards educa-
tion, he has chosen to stake his influence on his success
in putting it down, and to submit to the nation the al-
ternative of not being educated at all, or of setting his
authority at defiance. To the honour of the Irish people,
the contest is no longer doubtful; not, we presume, that
they love the Pope less, but that they love education
more. But the ultramontane party is not yet
satisfied with the demonstration it has given of
its utter inability to cope with the mixed system
of education, whether administered in schools or
colleges. It has shown that it is utterly unable to shake
existing institutions ; it is about to show that it is
equally unable to establish any of its own. Unfortu-
nately for themselves, the pious founders have received
just enough support towards their Catholic university to
oblige them to go on with the scheme, and not enough,
I even in a pecuniary point of view, to hold out any rea-
sonable hope of a successful termination. It is a delu-
sion, with just enough reality in it to prevent its being
abandoned altogether. Hovering on the confines be-
tween existence and nonentity, it would have been in-
finitely easier to deal with had the support which it has
received been either more or less. It is entering into
that state which usually precedes the failure of favourite
Irish projects, either in Church or State. Ireland being
unable or unwilling to carry it out herself, the projectors,
according to the national custom, are seeking for foreign
assistance. Just as the Seikhs were expected to fight
the battle of Young Ireland in the plains of the Pun-
jaub, just as Republican France was to second the
efforts of Smith O'Brien, jest as America is now to pro-
vide the steam communication between Galway and
New York, even so she is expected to contribute whatever
may be wanting to launch this hopeful speculation into
efficient competition with the handsomely endowed
and firmly established colleges. As an emissary of this
hopeful mission to obtain money for one of the few pur-
poses for which Ireland does not require it, and to over-
throw one of the few institutions of which Ireland has
really reason to be proud, Dr. Cullen and his associates
have selected a certain Rer. Robert Mullen, who seems,
to judge by the specimen which he has given us of him-
self, to bo possessed of a fund of 000 l and unbounded as-
surance, which no reception that our American neigh-
bours can give him will succeed in abating or discomfit-
ing. A simple parish priest, he may fairly be taken as
a sample of the democratic sect in the Roman Catholic
Church. For his immediate superiors he evinces about
as much respect as the Californian clerk whose " diffi-
calty" with the judge under whom he served we recently
commemorated. " The Irish bishops," says this eccle-
siastical leveller, " aro divided now between Rome on
one side, Clarendon, Lord John, and the murdering
Whigs on
,the other. Those bishops and priests
who are favouring those godless institutions
are apathetic in reference to the founding a
university for the Catholic youth of Ireland, are, as
much as in them lies, scattering what is of God, and
favouring Antichrist. Through pride, obstinacy, servi-
lity, and political partisanship, they rebel against the
Pope, and betray the interests of Catholicity." It is not
for its own sake that we quote this miserable tirade. It
matters little to the English public with what particular
species of falsehood and slander this emissary of discord
and ignorance goes forth to prosecute his unholy mis-
sion; but we call attention to such language in order to
show what manner of men they are whom Dr. Cullen
selects from the whole body of the Irish clergy to bear
his message into distant lands, and in what spirit they
go forth. It is quite evident that the mission of this
extremely free-spoken gentleman is not so much the col-
lection of money as the systematic defamation and slan.
der of one-half of the prelates unfortunately placed under
this most arrogant and incapable man. Because there
are yet found in Ireland a number of bishops unwilling
at the bidding of an ignorant intruder to renounce opi-
nions which it has been the labour of their lives to pro- at
pagate and establish, the inferior clergy are encouraged open
publicly to denounce them in the most unmeasured lan- 18'
guage, and casting aside all respect for their years, their
virtues, and ecclesiastical position, to hold them up to
the hatred and contempt of their own congregations.
Failing to coerce the Irish laity into his miserable sys-
tem, Dr. Cullen recklessly stirs up against his brethren
the dregs of the clergy, careless of the scandal, pro-
vided he can obtain some revenge for the signal repulse
which he has sustained. Thus, while the people are
flying from Ireland with an eagerness which even the
approach of winter can hardly abate, while the efforts of
Protestant missionaries are crowned with a success
equally gratifying and astonishing, while the feelings of
those in England who are prepared to do much to con-
ciliate Popery are incurably alienated from it, do we
find the ultramontane party, blind to tbeir present
weakness and coming annihilation, striving to dis-
credit the most respected of their own faith, and to
sow dissension amid the ranks of a Church already
too weak to stand its ground before its present anta-
gonists. If anything were needed to confirm the Irish
people in their resolution to stand by their new
educational institutions in spite of all the efforts of
Rome to reduce them to a state of ignorance similar to
that of Spain, of Naples, or of her own States, it would
be the indecent treatment which such men as the vene-
rable Dr. Murray—of whom it is impossible for Pro-
testants themselves to speak or think without respect—
have to endure from the emissaries of a man forced upon
the Irish Roman Catholics for no other reason, as it ap-
pears, than his marked hostility to everything which the
wisest and mildest of his predecessors had laboured to
establish. Let but Dr. Cullen go on as he has begun,
and we do not despair of seeing the Pope as much de-
spised and detested in Ireland as in his town dominions.
It is perfectly possible to refute the most cogent ab-
stract reasoning by applying it to practice, and the
belief in Papal infallibility has more to dread from the
experimental demonstration of its absurdity it is now
affording than from all the sneers of scepticism or all
the weapons of controversy. Doctors may differ, but
who can believe that Cullen and M'Hale are the friends,
and Murray and Blake the enemies of the Irish people?
HERALD.—The struggle between Rome and Eng-
land becomes daily more keen and deadly—the impunity
which has been conceded to the Papal emissaries, both
in this country and in Ireland, has stimulated their ef-
forts and increased their audacity. In vain has the Le-
gislature enacted measures to restrain the one and chas-
tise the other; the executive power looks on with indif-
ference or secret pleasure, and busies itself, through the
instrumentality of its Irish Viceroy, in devising means
to obtain once more the confidence and support of the
very party which has sworn the destruction of our reli-
gion and independence. Strong in the conviction that a
tottering Cabinet, whose only hope of existence depends
upon their alliance, neither can nor will put the laws of
this realm in force against them, Wiseman, Cullen, and
Whale have reached that height of arrogance and inso-
lence which induces them, not only to deride and defy
the law in their own persons, but to,issue a proclamation
in which it is broadly and clearly declared that to accept
or enjoy privileges conceded to all British subjects by a
solemn Act of the Legislature entails upon those who
make use of them no less a punishment than everlasting
perdition. The public must be aware that when the
Act of Parliament was passed for the purpose of sup-
pressing secret associations, exceptions were made in
favour of certain societies or brotherhoods of ancient
origin, and which were known to be not only totally un-
connected with political movements, bat especially estab-
lished upon the principle of extending feelings of
benevolence and good-will amongst men. The society
of Freemasons was particularly named in the enactment,
its existence sanctioned, and certain clauses introduced
into the Bill with a view to secure to it all its privileges.
It is unnecessary to repeat that this ancient and time-
honoured institution is principally known to the British
public through the many and interesting establishments
for humane and charitable purposes it maintains out of
its own funds, and for the kindly feelings it encourages
amongst its brotherhood. Of this latter fact many
strange and even romantic proofs could be afforded our
readers if space permitted; but, in truth, the character
of this society needs it not; its public acts of benevo-
lence, and the rank, character, and station of the men
who belong to it, afford the best evidence of the truly
excellent and philanthropic principle upon which it is
founded. That ,a body of men distinguished by the
practice of such truly Christian virtues should become
obnoxious to any class of Christian ministers may well
appear extraordinary, but our surpril will cease when
we oome to reflect that the absence of religious die-
stinctions is the groundwork of their system, and
its main object to unite in the general cause
of humanity and personal good•will men of all
political and religious persuasions. This rule,
which strikes at the root of that isolation which
superstition and intolerance require as a condition of
existence, has naturally called forth the champions of
this repulsive and degrading school, and the Roman
monk, Dr. Cullen, as its mouthpiece, issues a proclama-
tion, to which we have before directed the attention of
our readers, in which he clashes this respectable society
with the cowardly assassins and villains of those conn-
gregations which he edifies by his own teaching
structs but too well through his own priest—an' and
d
con-
signs its members to the very lowest of th°
the kingdom of darkness which have eeBne rue! lostiedi bi yn
Rome for the proper classification,,
f
the due levy of those pecuniary penalties, h:ch, with an
. folders, and for
ingenuity that might excite the admiration and envy of
every sheriff's officer in rho empire, she has so managed
it that neither the quick nor the dead can possibly hope
to escape the demand. Many of ourbj readers may n
tact,pos-
sibly feel incredulous upon this
su
readily imagine that Englishmenecmt;awye can
well in
hesi.
ts.to to believe that in the middle of the nine-
teenth century such principles should not only be pub-
licly upheld, but that the punishment of eternal per-

913
20,114
3,388
6,571
8,390
6,513
5,418
2,432
1,564

dition should be declared authoritatively against all
who Presume even to question them. That such things,
however, are possible, we can convince the most scepti-
cal by simply quoting some further portions of the lan-
; guage of this Bishop in his recent anathema. He says:
" All persons joining the society of Freemasons are
subjected to the penalty of excommunication, cut off as
rotten branches from the Church of God; and if they
die in this deplorable state (ix., if they die belonging to
the society of Freemasons), they are doomed to eternal
perdition." Such is the language of the man styling
himself head of the Church of Rome in Ireland, directed
against a body whose existence and privileges have been
confirmed by our laws, containing within its ranks some
d
s t sdistinguished
iiutaain n
of the noblest, most exalted, and truly Christian men in
wt hoirskesmopfimr ea' r cayll which,a n even
dy forcountryy e
t this
ht
si as
noblebo
stupidu ndi n
pge ir effortsn.
in the cause of suffering
secutor, who hesitates not to assume one of the attributes
of omnipotence, and to pronounce a judgment of eternal
punishment upon his fellow-creatures, dares to invoke
the sacred names of civil and religious liberty, and with
transparent hypooracy to profess himself an advocate
of freedom of conscience. This Dr. Paul Cullen, who
thus arrogates to himself a right of declaring publicly
that statutes passed by the Queen, Lords, and Com-
mons of this vast empire are only calculated to people
the kingdom of Satan, and who would, if he possessed
the power, introduce into these realms the impious and
abominable Roman canon law, is a natural-born subject
of our Sovereign; yet although uttering—usque ad nau-
seam—professions of loyalty, some persons are found so
unreasonable as not to place implicit confidence in his
desire to render unto Caesar what belongs to Caesar. He
has, we believe, up to this moment declined taking the
oath of allegiance. We were at a loss to understand the
motives of his conduct, and it was only by an exami-
nation of that Romish canon law we have already al-
luded to, that we have been enabled to discover the mo-
tives which have induced him to decline this public act
of fealty to his native Sovereign. We find in this collec-
tion, under the head" De jure ju7ando," that bishops
" should not take any oath of fidelity to their temporal
Sovereigns unless they hold temporalities of them." The
refusal of this priest to take the oath is now accounted
for, and his obedience to this canon in enforced by an-
other law of the same infamous code, which under the
head, " A recta memor quotiens heec est ;" dist. 19, 20,
All
the 24, promulgates this truly dreadful doctrine: "
the decrees of the Bishop of Rome must be
keptbyh
per-
petuallyte of every man, as God's wordspoken
mouth of Peter • and whosoever doth not receive them,
neither availeth him the Catholic faith, nor the four
Evangelists; but he blasphemes the Holy Ghost, and
shall have no forgiveness.' Dr. Cullen would be better
employed in an endeavour to reconcile these debasing
and blasphemous canons with Scripture and Christian
charity that in passing sentenee of perdition upon his
fellow-subjects, and disturbing the peace of kingdoms, in
a hopeless effort to introduce the frightful code from
which we have made the above exeracts.

3,258
901
170
763
20,293
4,554
13,028
8,462
6,042
7,326
2,409
2,132

Now, let u
of life or brsana
fefive hundr.eda
pot eight
foer
lochplyofthis principle to any other rank
hofashfcighwt
life—what
hundred a year, and that he
trade. Suppose that a man
for house-rent, which is something like a necessary
would he say if, by some combination
of builders and landlords, he were suddenly called
pays 50/.
on to pay 1001. a year? Let any bead of a family,
in whatever class of society, who expends on
any given commodity one-eighth of his income,
discover that he is pillaged of one-half of that eighth
by an unnatural and immoral statleitiesorfaltrfaadeet— in
nhouthld
we not have plenty of leagues, meetings, resolutions,
little simplyit wn
rci will
nsbee-
remonstrances, protests, and stt4iroouifn.ggvofleraerlayii
impos-
sible
cruel
bsoirbbjeleweciitnuegdabu u thatitrirs:usdice.h; abTu stateot ai t
man
n things
tou
the
article is an
sbgheeuuveenernrd;cirteeybduwothanetyttbeehaeerrbphrioeetowprie,ssry,fsos,rin2eddtxe.oteoodrihem
affectingS state
question absolute ;
an d , necessary
int
the
ef life. It i
who are most deeply
and feeling on mattersvitallys
men
of public opinion
and concerned in this
in-
terests, we may almost say their rights and
fault if they allow the that it will be their own
beer trade to continuepresent condition of the London

Tax LATI LADY WARD.—The Ostend steamer of
yesterday morning
brought over the mortal remains of
Lade Ward, who died at Schwalbach, in the duchy of
NaEsa 1, on the 14th inst. They were accompanied by Lord
Ward and her Ladyship's father, Mr. Hubert de Burgh,
who have been in attendance on her during her painful ill-
ness. The remains were forwarded last night to llimley,
near Dndley, in Staffordshire, the burial-place of his Lord-
ship's family, where they will be interred on Tuesday next.
THE EGYPTIAN RAILWAY.—The authorisation of
the Sultan for the construction of the Egyptian Railway
was brought to Alexandria by the Austrian packet of the
4th instant. The works had already been commenced.
The railway is expected to. be opened at the close of 1853.
Mr. Stephenson some days since was at Marseilles awaiting
the arrival of his yacht Titania to set sail for Alexandria.

~.-• \
- ,
• "
••
.:j
'•
•

~5
-
THE HIGH P
(Prom the Morn
So the brewers mean tempffo; de-
fault. They offer no defence—the fact is not con-
attempts to
tested—it is not for an instant disputed that, whether
barley is twenty-four or forty-four shillings a quarter,
beer remains at the same price. Nobody
deny that these gentlemen are robbing the public to
the amount of about 100 per cent. It is a fact which
remains uncontradicted, that they have doubled their
gains in four years, whilst every other interest has
had to make sacrifices for the common good, in a
general lowering of prices. It was certainly not for
the private benefit of Messrs. Barclay and Perkins
that statesmen abolished the corn-laws. We must
say that, in this matter, the beer consuming millions
and the barley-producing thousands are pillaged
merely for the individual gain of the Twelve Tyrants
of London. All that the poor'ought to save by the
low price of barley is intercepted by the associated
dozen of London brewers. This immoral combina-
tion is monstrous—so monstrous that it cannot find a
single defender.
But it is said that the beer trade is open—that
there is no chartered and guaranteed monopoly—that
anybody who chooses to pay for a license may brew
if he will, and beard Barclay and all his butts. This
is true theoretically ; but let a pensive moralist,
" whene'er," like Dr. Watts, be "takes his walks
abroad," cast his eyes on the extant public- houses of
London—let him read those pregnant inscriptions
flaring in
count, as we have done, the brewers' houses against
all directions in purple and gold—let him
the free houses—let him enumerate the gaudy in-
signia of " Whitbread's Entire," " klanbury's Entire,"
and the other " Entires," against the modest sign-
boards that only promised unnamed beer—and then
let him think of the capital which would be required
to face a dense and compact monopoly which has
actually planted itself, at least three dee , in every
street of the metropolis.
Besides the merel commer-
cial difficulty of the speculation let him consider
what likelihood there is of licenses being got for just
double the number of public-houses already in exist-
ence—for unless a cheap beer-house is opened for
every brewer's house nothing is done. It may, then, be
true that the present monopoly is not lelizd—that
the awful Twelve have not any actual patent ; but
we are as completely at their mercy, practically
speaking, as ever was the consumer in the days of
protective and prohibitory duties. As a fact,- we
must either take Barclay's beer at Barclay's price, or
go without beer altogether.
The present state of the London beer trade is
about the boldest defiance of political economy which
the world has yet seen. It baffles all analogy ; it
is the crucial instance which shows that sheer inso-
lence, contempt of public opinion, and an organized
outrage upon common sense and common justice, will
occasionally falsify all calculation, derange all natural
adjustments of supply and demand, and trample upon
a natural law. Everybody knows that the commer-
cial security against high prices is in competion ;
and whether in diamonds or in cab-fares, sooner or
later the public will get their article at the proper
price. It will of course be so with beer in the long
ruu, for the compensating and levelling power of
justice, truth, and public interest will at last beat
down even such an anomaly as the London beer
trade. As in bread, so in beer7--the poor
man will get his rights some day ; but the
giants of Chiewell-street, and Bankside, and Brick-
lane will not relinquish their grasp upon his purse
without a struggle. It takes some time before the
consumer can satisfy himself that he is cheated to
such an incredible extent. It really requires some
patience and consideration to apprehend the astound-
ing fact, that, though the price of bread always follows
that of corn, the price of London beer is always the
same, and is never altered by fluctuations in the value
of the raw material. We must repeat it—reiterate it
—reproduce it. Rhetoric cannot make it more im-
pressive—its unadorned massive force is what tells—
in the simplicity of the fact consists its power. It
can be repeated over and over again. It is of no use
to discourse about it, to put it in different lights, to
turn it round—it has but a single aspect.
The brewer is the true man of fate—the Stoic of
the nineteenth century—the great unmoved. His is
the region of the unchangeable—the fixed, stern,
crystalline spheres of being, which know neither
youth nor age. All institutions, customs, profes-
sions, modes of thought, credentials of truth, are in
these days of mutability, fluctuating, changing,
surging, rolling onwards, upwards, forwards, in
every direction—the price of porter alone is stable in
this universal flux of all material and moral things.
Metternich is down—Cobden is up—empires fall—
constitutions are given and taken away—Presidents
sit in the place of Kings—the corn-laws are no more
—church-rates tremble—parish beadles are laughed
at—the one thing immortal, immutable, and eternal,
is London porter. Beer is the sole symbol of perma-
nence, of everlasting rest, of solid repose—of Saturn's
steadfast iron reign. The realm of Silence and old
Night is reproduced by the Dii major= gentium—
the twelve greater deities of the sacred College of Ale
and Porter Brewers. Every other necessary of life,
every other commodity of trade, has fallen from twenty
to fifty per cent.—bear alone continues at war-prices.
In the crash of kingdoms, creeds, commerce, and
politics, the serene form of the great brewer, un-
changed and unchangeable, is the solitary symbol of
fixity.
Let not sentimental spinsters, who drink their two
or three glasses of sherry a-day—certainly without
ever dreaming that their favourite beverage can possi-
bly be too cheap—shrug themselves with philan-
thropic complacency under the persuasion that beer at
double its proper price is a sort of moral benefit
to the poor, as tending to prevent intoxication. If
the commercial interests of the empire forbid a Go-
vernment to introduce ethical checks on cheapness,
we are not going to allow millionaire brewers to wax
fat, and kick at the public, on high moral and religi-
ous principles. We do not see why the twelve great
brewers should put a million a year into their own
pockets because drunkenness is a filthy vice. We
are speaking of beer, not as the sot's luxury, but as
the labourer's necessary. We cannot forget how
large a portion of the artizan's weekly earnings goes
in beer. In the case of a family of the ordinary type,
consisting of a man, his wife, and two children, and
including three workers—viz., the married couple and
one boy—it has been shown that their joint earnings
are about 1/. Bs. weekly, and that, out of this,
they expend in beer 3s. 6d., or one-eighth of their
whole income. This, in point of fact, is London life—
this is the labourer's existence. It may be an excess—
labourers may expend too much on beer—but this is
not the question. It is of the fact we are speaking.
One-eighth of the wages of the London poor goes in
beer ; and the brewers, in their cupidity and greedi-
ness, compel the poor man, as regards this eighth of
his income, to pay just twice as much as he ought to
pay—for, if barley is half the price it bore in 1847,
then beer ought to be half the price too. In short, it
comes to this—of every three shillings and sixpence
which the London labourer pays for his beer, just one
shilling and ninepence goes to buy gold plate, and
race-horses, and hunting studs, and estates, and shares,
and equipages for the twelve great brewing companies
—their gains being exactly double of what, four years
ago, they accepted as a fair return for their capital
and skill, and good beers. Think of this, men of Lon-
don ! Think, when you pay precisely one shilling
and ninepence a week more than you ought to pay, that
and glory
you pay it not for a monarch, or an army, or a
esono
hurch, or an aristocracy, or a police—not for a war,
1 e n
Barclayce but
aonnd Perkins, for
in the,Truman,hu r
l
anorda pestilence—but
pelfPes
and Co., &c. A great consolation th.
ts---a patriotic
thought—that we are pinching wife and family, and
depriving ourselves of our fair amount of
coals,
blankets, and nourishing food, in order that we may
afford, at the trifling cost of
one shilling in every six-
teen, to keep twelve bloated
brewers in purple and
fine linen. We are certainly a wise and discerning
people.