The Sun.
London, England, 1835-11-27 00:00:00

The Times of this morning, in an article on the
subject of Sir FRANCIS BURDETT'S late twaddling
letter to the Member§ of Brookes's, says " the Roman
character of English Whiggery has long since va-
nished. A small horde of Foreigners, with a cun-
ning blusterer for its Chief, has rebuked the better
genius of the seventeenth century." This passage is
strikingly characteristic of the inveterate, not to say
the ferocious, Tory spirit of our Contemporary. That
party—as any one in the slightest degree acquainted
with its proceedings for the last half century must
know—have always made a point of legislating for
Irishmen just as if they were " foreigners," and
formed no portion of the populat:on 'of the United
Kingdom ; and here we find the Times adopting the
same notion, and giving expression to it in the most
haughty and contumelious manner possible. Yet this
is the Journal that takes credit to itself for its attach-
ment to, and constant advocacy of, Irish interests—
that was the first to rebuke Mr. O'CONNELL for
calling England the " land of the Saxon," and so
endeavouring to create a prejudice in the minds of his
countrymen against her ! After this insulting, unequivo-
cal burst of spleen, let us hear no more cant from our
Contemporary about his solicitude for the welfare of
Ireland ; for it is not in the nature of things that he
should entertain the same zeal for the interests of
" foreigners," as he entertains for those of his own
countrymen.

Mr. JOHN LESLIE—a Governor and Director of
the Poor of the Parish of St. George's Hanover-
square—has addressed an excellent letter to the indus-
trious working classes, on the operation of the Poor
Laws, as affecting the independence and comfort of the
labouring population. We have more than once had
occasion to mention,. in terms of high commenda-
tion, the laudable efforts of Mr. LESLIE to make
known to the industrious poor the best means of bet-
tering their condition. His several pamphlets in sup-
port of the Poor Law Amendment Act, are well
known as being among the most lucid expositions of
the working of the old system ; and we are glad to
find that the feelings by which he was actuated were
not the result of temporary excitement.
Mr. LESLIE attributes the evils of the old Poor
Law system in England and Wales, not to the Act of
ELIZABETH, of which he approves, but to the de-
parture from it in 1795. In that year the allowance
system was first introduced ; and to this system he
carefully traces the moral degradation of the working
classes in England. After detailing the principal
provisions of the statute of ELIZABETH, and pointing
out the evils which arose from a departure from them
in 1795, Mr. LESLIE refers in the following terms to
the Poor Law Amendment Act passed by the present
Government :

" The new Poor Law Amendment Act has been passed
to rectify these dreadful abuses, and it has already in many,
and ultimately will, in all the parishes in England, place
the Administration of the Poors' Fund in the hands of
Boards of Guardians of the poor, residing among you, and
to be elected by the rate-payers annually, instead of being
distributed, as heretofore, by Churchwardens, Overseers, and
Justices of the Peace ; and these Boards of Guardians
are now to distribute the Fund for the Relief of the Poor
upon Queen Elizabeth's plan, to prevent destitution, and
promote industry,
" You may be inclined to say, how comes it then, if this
be true, that there is so much noise against the new Poor-
law Amendment Act? In reply, I would remind you that
in 1832 seven millions of pounds were expended in the at-
tempt to relieve the poor, of which two-thirds, or probably
five millions, were given in money out of the work-house in
occasional relief ;' which money went to pay the exorbi-
tant rents of your cottages—was often, by the parents,
spent in beer-shops and gin-shops—and in the payment of
exorbitant prices for the little necessaries of life in the vil-
lage shops.
" This' Poor Law Amendment Act is death and destruc-
tion to these and all the other jobbers with the poors' fund,
who have prospered upon your wretchedness and misery ;
and hence there are innumerable.interested parties anxious
to cause a clamour against it. You must, therefore, be
upon your guard against the hosts of corruption which are
arrayed in opposition to the return to the principles of
Queen Elizabeth's plan to relieve the poor. You have a
most important duty to perform to yourselves and to your
families. These jobbers on the distresses of the poor, will
tell you—they want to drive you all into the new work-
houses, to shut you up for ever, and to starve you : but the
real intention of the change in the law is to restore the in-
dustrious labouring classes itp independence, to redeem them
from the horrible slavery into which the proceedings of
1795 have plunged them. So far from the withdrawal of
out-door money allowances increasing the number of in-
mates in the workhouses, which is so boldly asserted by the
opponents of the Poor Law Amendment Act, let me re-
quest your attention to the table which follows, upon which
great care has been taken to obtain accurate information of