The Sun.
London, England, 1833-11-09 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

Franklin tells a story of an Indian, who'
accompanying an Albany merchant to church
conceived that he was the subject of the
preacher's discourse, and left the church. There
is one man who beats the Indian hollow—and
that is 1"r. Cobbett. In commenting on the
resolutions of the proprietors and occupiers of
land in the hundred of Gallow, in Norfolk, we
observed " that the labourers have been taught
that they were indebted to the fires for the im-
provement of their condition, and their not
being reduced to the level of the Irish ; and it
is not astonishing that they should, on every
occasion of dissatisfaction, have recourse to
similar means of intimidation." On this the
Honourable and polished Member for Oldham
exclaims—

" But now, thou sneaking and cowardly cockchafer,
what dust thou mean by saying that it is no wonder that
the labourers set fires, ' seeing that they have been taught
that they were indebted to the fires for not being reduced
to the level of the Irish ?' If they ' have been taught,'
somebody taught them ; and then, thou base literary pol-
troon ; thou most wretched of all the tools of the hypocri-
tical Whigs ; thou dastardly lump of Scotch and German
carrion, kneaded up together ; then, I say, why not name
that somebody ? It is not for roe to say, and I will not
say, whether I do, or do not, think, that the fires pre-
vented them from being reduced to the infamous level of
the Irish ; but this I will say, that, rather than see them
reduced to that state, I would see the island sunk to the
bottom of the sea; and to prevent them from being
reduced to that state, every possible exertion of mine shall
be made.
" You say, that great pains have been taken to in-
flame their minds.' Well said, old Instigation ! 'Tis
not the heart of their minds, you fool; it is not the
cramming of their heads, that produces the mischief, but
the keeping of their bodies uncrammeel with falcon and
bread. I can no more persuade them that bacon is not
bacon, than you can persuade them that cursed potatoes
are bacon and bread. Infl ime their minds, indeed ! This
puts one in mind of Goodman's Confessions, which the
hunting Parson and the busy Magistrates of Sussex got
from him: That Mr. Cobbett's lecture did so infl ime
my mind.' Oh, no; there is no inflaming it is all
hunger, cockchafer ; and th which you suck up out of
the taxes, is partly the cause of their hunger."
As there is but one great man in the world in
the opinion of the Hon. Member for Oldham,
and that great man is the Hon. Member himself,
he naturally enough supposes that every person
is on all occasions full of his prowess. He would
even begrudge the devil the share of the mischief
for which he commonly receives credit. We
know not what influence Mr. Cobbett attributes
to himself in producing the incendiarism. We
assure him, at the risk, perhaps, of giving him
mortal displeasure, that we were not thinking of
him when commenting on the resolutions of the
Norfolk owners and occupiers of land, but we
had in view the evidence before the Committee
of the House of Commons. Several witnesses
attributed the height of wages to the incendiarism.
It was distinctly said, over and over again, that
the farmers were intimidated. This lesson has
been taught to the labourers, who have long been
aware of the prevalency of the belief that they
owed to the fires the refusal to employ Irish la-
bourers, and the general intimidation of the
farmers. Before the publication of the evidence,we
more than once stated in the Chronicle that the
general belief in the country was, that farmers dust
not, for the fires, lower the wages of the labourers.
We never attributed the fires to Mr. Cobbett,
though we are aware that he was prosecuted for
using language tending to justify the labourers in
their outrages. If he supposes that he is entitled
to credit for the incendiarism, we can only say,
that we do not believe his capacity to do mis-
chief so great as he thinks it is. However, if
be show us that he has really been instrumental
in instructing the labourers to fire ricks as a
means of raising their wages, we shall willingly
retract our opinion. There has been a fire in
Perthshire, on which the Sage of Oldham
jumps to the conclusion that the Scotch
Labourers share the feeling of the English :
" SCOTCH FIRES.-The following, taken florn the
Glasgow hronicle, will show that they can set fire in
Scotland, as well as in England ; and that the ' heade-
hashon' does not prevent such things altogether, at any
rate. I repeat, that it is the duty of the Parliament to look
into the cause ; and that it will be useless, and even mis-
chievous, to indulge in railing against fire-setters, and to
threaten them with the effects of rewards, and with
banging. A Scotch farm-yard is a dreadful scene,
indeed, when the ricks are on fire. The setting
fire to one, sets fire to the whole. It is useless to
talk about anonymous letters and malignant motives..
The cause, be it what it may, is one and the same all over
the kingdom ; and, until that cause be removed, the farm-
house is next to a dwelling in the infernal regions- There
is one remedy, however, he the cause what it may ; and
that is, to keep all the fellows in the parish well crammed
with bacon, bread, and beer, anti let them have a bed to
lie down upon ; and then I will engage to eat every man
that you shall find awake after seven o'clock in the even-
ing, at this time of the year. Hogs are all asleep as soon
as it is dusk, and foxes prowl about all the night ; the
first are supplied with plenty of food ; the latter are com-
pelled to forage for themselves. However, the Govern-
ment and the Parliament will do as they please; and, of
course, they ‘s ill take what comes without complaining."
There is certainly some force in the recipe for
preventing fires by night, as men crammed
with bacon, bread, and beer are more disposed
to sleep than to prowl about. It is easier, how-
ever, to give the receipt than to find the requisite
quantity of bread, beer, and bacon.--Morning
Chronicle.

An apple of discord has been thrown among
the Journals by Mr. Poulett Scrope, and a con-
test has arisen relative to that proposition in his
pamphlet which attributes the distress of the
English farmer, in a great measure, to the corn-
petition of the Irish corn grower, who in con-
sequence of the want of poor-rates in Ireland, is
enabled to undersell him in his own markets.
There is no doubt that poor rates must keep
wages from falling below a certain standard, and,
consequently, enhance the cost of production.
It is well it is so, or the starving multitudes of
poor who could not, in the present unhappy
circumstances of the country, be employed,
joined to those who found that the wages of
employment could not procure them the common
necessaries of life, would be driven to despera-
tion, and the peace and property of the country
would he continually endangered. There is no
doubt, however, that the farmer pays a heavy tax
for the great object of public security of which
the poor laws are the bulwark. Mr. Scrope
says, " In England a farmer is forced by law to
pay from 35. to 10s. an acre poor-rate, while
the Irish farmer pays no poor-rate at all. Is it
wonderful then that the latter should beat the
farmer out of his own markets ?" It is upon
this principle that we have opposed our theorists
of free trade, who enable the foreian ma-
nufacturer to beat the English manufacturer
in his own markets. Why is he able to
do so ? Because the heavy taxation of this coun-
try enhances the cost of.
production_, so greatly in
comparison with what it is in France and other
lightly taxed countries of the Continent, that
the foreign manufacturer can afford to undersell
his English rival in his own markets, and make
a fair profit beside. The state of things brought
about by the free-trade speculators in a country
whose productive industry is obliged to bear
more galling fiscal burdens than that of any com-
munity on the globe, has considerably increased
he other burden of poor-rates. The English

manufactuters, in order to counteract the effects
of taxation upon human labour, have recourse
to every aid that machinery can supply to dis-
pense with the labour of man. Hence vast
numbers are thrown on the poor-rates ; and by
the depression of the manufacturing interests
those of the agriculturist sustain additional in-
jury, because the home customers of the farmer
are thereby impoverished. They must live more
poorly and consume less of his produce. The
poverty of the farmer, in its turn, reacts upon
the interests of the manufacturer and shop-
keeper, for lie and his wife and family can afford
to purchase less of the goods of the latter, and
must dispense with many things upon which they
would lay out their money when they go to'
a market town, if they had it. Ireland has a
free trade in corn and cattle with this country,
and being, with regard to poor rates, and some
other matters, a less taxed country than Eng-
land, her produce can be sold cheaper in the
English markets than tile produce of the native
growers. Another evil, or rather the working
of the evil in another way, which we have often
noticed, is not too strongly put by Mr. Scrope
when lie says, " To make the difference still
more galling and unjust, a very large proportion
of our heavy poor rates is paid to maintain in
idleness the surplus labourers of our parishes,
who are deprived of the employment they would
otherwise obtain in London, and all the large
towns of the kingdom, by the hordes of starving
Irish that are driven over here from the want of
a poor law in their own country." This is a
serious additional burden to that which this
country has to bear in the support of its own
poor. Who derives the advantage from a state
of things which seriously injures the English
agriculturist, and reduces the Irish peasantry
to the lowest depths of degradation ? Un-
doubtedly, it is the Irish landlord—it is that
class for whose exclusive interests such states-
men as Mr. Spring Rice, and other Mem-
bers of the Whig Ministry, have been obstinately
resisting the demands of all the clearsighted and
disinterested patriots of both England and Ire-
land for a modified system of poor laws for the
latter country during the last three years. We
explained and advocated the plan for a com-
pulsory assessment, to give employment to the
Irish poor, which was proposed by Mr. Samuel
Robinson, of Clonmel, some time ago, but who
received very little encouragement from our
" enlightened" statesmen, who have at last
burdened the country with the expenses of a
Commission to do something just as wise as to
ascertain, by sundry interrogatories, whether the
law of gravitation, or any other law, operates
in Ireland as well as in this country. It may
not be inapplicable to the subject on which Mr.
Scrope treats to quote a passage from one of the
papers circulated by Mr. Robinson on the bene-
ficial effects of a judicious poor rate for his native
country. He says—" A compulsory poor rate,
for giving employment, must improve the condi-
tion of all the labouring classes, and, conse-
quently, enable them to consume a larger
portion of the produce of the country. That
produce is now, for the want of home consumers,
sold in the British market, at an immense
expense in carriage, freight, &c., all which is
deducted from the Irish farmers." But in our
opinion the English farmers lose still more by
this system, as, notwithstanding the freight, car-
riage, and other expenses of exportation, he is
still undersold. Mr. Robinson says the ex-
penses of exportation come ultimately out of the
Irish landlord. In that we cannot agree with
him. We believe he flourishes at the expense
of the English farmer ; but we are far from
going all the length with Mr. Scrope, in be-
lieving that an Irish poor rate would remove the
distress under which the agriculturists of Eng-
land labour. It would in some degree alleviate
it ; but the strongest argument for the establish-
ment of poor laws in Ireland is the wretched
state to which that country is reduced for want
of them, by the united operations of misery, agi-
tation, and agrarian outrage. Amply would the
landlords be repaid by the security a poor rate
would give their own property. In the words
of the writer whom we have already quoted,
" They would be no longer under the necessity
of fortifying their houses against the attacks of
a neglected and consequently distressed pea-
santry."—Morning Herald.
The Ultra-Radical party have now at length
a chief and leader. They had long felt the
want of one. They had always, it is true, in-
cluded many men ambitious, and some few able,
to undertake the office; but there was none
amongst them possessed of that rank and fortune
which might enable him to fill that " bad
eminence" with a willing crowd of followers. It
was not easy to find a Peer to head a crusade
against the House of Lords ; it was not easy to
find a man of property to advocate principles
that tend directly to the unsettlement and in-
security of all the property in the kingdom.
That truly amiable politician, Lord Durham, has
now stepped forward to seize the vacant Presi-
dent's chair. His late speech at Gateshead
was undoubtedly a sort of bidding in the
Radical market for the leadership, and
the tone of the Examiner and the other
Papers of that party shows that they are
ready to close with his Lordship's offers, and
to put themselves under his command. That
speech, we must say, awoke us from a very
agreeable illusion. We had hoped and believed
that Lord Durham, on resigning the Privy Seal
and being created an Earl, had finally retired
from public life. 'When we heard of his new
dignity, our regret at the disgrace to the Peer-
age, implied by the promotion of one of its
most unworthy members, was drowned in our
rojoicings that our old British Constitution would
be relieved from the attacks of one of her fiercest
assailants. We had hoped that Lord Durham
(as was once said of Pulteney, when he was
made Lord Bath) had "sunk into insignifi-
cance and an earldom." We had hoped that
the castigation of unruly horses—or the disci-
pline of disobedient servants, quarrels with neigh-
bours, or prosecutions of newspapers, or other
such congenial employments, might henceforth be
sufficient to employ his Lordship's active mind.
We had, alas . flattered ourselves too soon.
The sick Earl, whose feeble grasp was so lately
unable to sustain the Privy Seal, is now again
in the field, up, stirring, and eager ; and a party
in the country which, whatever be its other faults
or deficiencies, cannot at all events be accused
of wanting energy and courage, is now discip-
lined and ready to do the bidding of that bold
bad man. It seems indeed hardly an exagge-
ration to say, that the Radical standard has
been raised at Newcastle, as much as in
times scarcely more critical. A very dif-
ferent standard was hoisted at Nottingham.
The principles and the party of Lord Durham
belong, we fear, to an epoch of which the pre-
sent but too frequently reminds us—the epoch
of Charles the First. In the ranks of the
Ultra-Radicals we see A motley assemblage of

designing knaves and deluded fools—of
btiefless lawyers and hungry adventurers, who
use the evil and excited passions of the multi-
tude as a lever for their own advancement—of
iheorists who wish a real Government to move in
squares and parallelograms according to some
paper projects of their own ; or of the honest but
misguided men who were taught to expect great
practical benefits from the Reform Bill, and
who, disappointed in these, are now told
to push onwards and expect these be-
nefits from a further subversion of established
institutions. At the head of all appears the
lordly democrat, the proud and arrogant patron
of equality, with professions of freedom on his
lips, with indictments for libels at his side ; in
one hand a new earl's coronet, in the other a
cap of liberty ; the supporter of Mr. Canning as
sufficiently liberal in 1827, and the contemner
of Lord Grey as not sufficiently levelling in
1833. Such are the crew, and such is the
captain of the gang ! The views of these men
are well known. Happily for us their force, if
unassisted, is as contemptible as their designs.
But should they ever be backed by the force
and influence of Government we will not dis-
guise from our readers that we should tremble
at the probable result. Is then any such " unholy
alliance" to be feared ? Were we to look
merely at the weakness and compliance which
Lord Grey has always manifested towards his
favourite son-in-law we should answer " Yes."
But will the aspiring genius of a Stanley consent
to stoop beneath the dominion of a character
and intellect so far inferior to his own ? Will
the sagacity of Lord Melbourne, the moderation
of Lord Lansdowne, lean upon this broken
reed ? And may we not hope that the majority
of time Council are far more disposed to rejoice
in their emancipation from their late imperious
colleague than once more to encounter the out-
breakings of his fierce :Ind fretful temper ? "Lord
Durham," they will say, " may be formidable as an
enemy. But may Heaven deliver us at least from
his co-operation !" If such be not their feeling, we
trust and believe that it will be the feeling of the
country. We trust that any such renewed connec-
tion between Lord Durham and the Adminis-
tration would at once dissolve another far more
important connexion—that which has so unhap-
pily bound so many even of the industrious and
upright and reflecting people of this country to
the party of this Administration. They could
scarcely gain one adherent from the Ultra-Radicals
without losing ten of their own ; and in that
paint of view perhaps such a connexion would
prove in its results a most happy and auspicious
event, as uniting au immense majority of the
nation in one firm and powerful bond with the
steady and consistent friends of the established
Constitution on the side of the Conservatives !
—Morning Post.