The Sun.
London, England, 1844-05-22 00:00:00

left to the re,pective Governments interested in the I
mutter.
No business of the slightest interest took place in
the House of Commons. Mr. PETER BORTHWICK
moved for a Committee of Inquiry into the operation
of the Anatomy Act; and while he was speaking,
some Member moved that the House be counted, and
there being only thirty-one Members present, the
House adjourned at Half-past Five.

The accounts of the canviis for the free trade can-
didate in South Lancashire are cheering, but it
would be premature to pronounce upon the chances
of success. Whatever may be the result, the free
traders are certain of gaining one important advan-
tage—accurate knowledge of their friends and their
enemies. If any who have hitherto professed them-
selves zealous advocates of the Liberal cause are
found paltering with monopoly—and we know not
whether there are any—it will be advantageous to
the future progress of the League to have their masks
taken off, their false pretences exposed, and their
avowed enmity substituted for the mockery of friend-
ship. On the other hand, those who have hitherto
stood aloof, or who, from party connexions, have op-
posed the popular cause, but who are now found
ready to join in the efforts made for the emancipation
of industry and the abolition of restrictions on food,
deserve to be received and regarded as friends, and
the gratitude which is their due may be safely looked
upon as extending beyond the present election. The
day of retribution to deserters, and of reward to ad-
herents, cannot, in the course of things, be very
distant.

Free trade belongs to no party, it is neither Tory
nor Whig ; and may therefore be exposed to the
avowed hostility of the one party, and the secret en-
mity of the other ; but no consideration of temporary
support, no hopes of victory by an alliance based on
compromise, should induce the free traders to swerve
for a moment from the course which they have hi-

therto pursued. The League must put forth all its
strength—every member of that body should feel that
he has a personal interest in the struggle; and every
free trader of South Lancashire should look upon
himself as individually pledged to the country for the
assertion of sound principle. There must be no
waverers—there must be no regard paid to the omi-
nous shaking of heads on the part of men hackneyed
in electioneering, who fear that their craft is in dan-
ger. There must be no heed paid to the whispers of
disappointed placemen, or of aspirants to office who
may wish to regain power by the people, without
the slightest intention of using it for the people. This
election is peculiar in its character; like that at the
time of the Reform Bill, it places in issue one fixed
and definite principle, and must be kept free from all
other associations. It is gratifying to find that free

traders have a candidate of such eminent personal
claims as those of Mr. Bnowx—the first merchant in

the greatest mart of the civilised world. But the
principle which he represents is so infinitely more
important than the individual, that the man is alto-
gether lost in the cause. We shall not imitate some
of our Contemporaries, and enter into a comparison
of the respective merits of the rival candidates ; we
shall not weigh Mr. ENTWISTLE and Mr. BROWN in
our balance ; we see nobody and nothing in the con-
test but monopoly on one side and free trade on the
other. South Lancashire has to decide whether it will re-
tain restrictions on its own industry, shackles on its own
energies and a corroding canker on its own prosperity ;
or whether it will have free scope for the skill, enter-
prise, and intelligence by which alone it can retain
the proud position to which it has been elevated by
the continued exertion of these noble qualities.
South Lancashire has to decide between the markets
of the world open to its productions, or those markets
closed to starve its operatives, for the pleasure of
Buckingham squires and West Indian proprietors of
sugar. South Lancashire has to decide between
itself and those by whom its name has been
studiously maligned, its interests ostentatiously
sacrificed, and its wealth haughtily threatened with

annihilation. The electors have to choose between

everything which men ought to hold dear, and every-
thing which men ought to hold in detestation. It
was said by our Divine Master, "It is not meet to
take the children's bread, and cast it to the dogs ;"
but every elector of South Lancashire who votes for
a monopolist virtually takes the bread from his own
children to feed the hounds of titled monopolists ; he

starves the cottage in one county to supply the kennel
in another. Never was there a contest in any
electoral district where "life and death, blessing and
cursing," were so clearly set before the voters ; great
will be their honour if they choose aright, but still
greater their disgrace if they abandon their duty to
themselves and to their country.

We direct the attention of our readers to a peti-
tion from Manchester, printed in another column,
on the subject of reform of the Universities of Ox-
ford and Cambridge. ' Mr. CHRISTIE'S motion on this
important subject, which was deferred the other even-
ing, is to be brought to-morrow. 'We are informed
that the Manchester petition has been drawn up by
Professor NEWMAN, of Manchester College, (the
learned translator of " HUBER'S English Universi-
ties"), Dr. VAUGHAN, and Mr. JAMES HEYWOOD ;
and among the signatures, which we have not space
to print, are those of Mr. HYDE GREG, the late
Member for Manchester, Professor KENRICK, and
the Rev. Dr. BEARD.

At a meeting of Roman Catholics which took place on
Monday in the Concert-rcom adjoining the Princess's
Theatre, for the purpose of adopting measures to ex-
tend the operations of the Catholic poor-schools in
St. John's-wood district, Mr. O'CONNELL, who was
in the chair, after making some pertinent and forcible
remarks respecting the gradual spread of education
both in Great Britain and on the Continent, proceeded
to observe :—" But turn to France and to the state of
public instruction in that country. He considered
that more diabolical conduct had never been pursued
than that which LOUIS PHILIPPE had adopted in the
case of the French University. It was equalled
only by some of the monstrous atrocities of the
French Revolution. It would appear that he was
determined that none but infidels should educate the
people of the kingdom which he ruled. But such
disgraceful conduct was not surprising, when it was
pursued by one coming from the class that fomented
and brought about the revolution. From the bishops
and clergy of France, however, LOUIS PHILLIPPE
would meet with the most uncompromising opposi-
tion." This constant abuse of the KING of the
FRENCH comes with a very ill grace from Mr.
O'CoriNELL, whose great boast of late years has
been, that he is a lover of peace and order, and
a sworn enemy to all war. If he be really in earnest
in his boast—if it be something more ,than a mere
empty flourish of words intended to tickle the ears of the
community, he should entertain sentiments of the
sincerest respect for LOUIS PHILLIPE, who, whatever
may be his other faults—and we are by no means
blind to them—has at least the merit—and a merit it
is of a high order—of having maintained peace in
France, and consequently in Europe, for a troublous
and excited period of fourteen years, despite a thou-
sand difficulties, and in the face of a thousand hazards.
Had it not been for the decided check which this
sagacious, but not very high-principled, Monarch put
upon it, the headstrong republican spirit, so prevalent
in France in the memorable year 1830, would have
made the tour of Europe ; convulsion and anarchy
would have followed in its train ; the antagonist mo-
narchical and aristocratical spirit would have been
roused to the utmost; after a sanguinary though perhaps
protracted struggle it would have prevailed as a mat-
ter of course ; and the cause of well regulated, consti-
tutional
ftnafilfy reedom would have been thrown back at
least
years. For rescuing Europe from the
horrors of such a warfare, which, as being a war of
principle, would have called forth a host of reckless
and fanatical passions and prejudices, LOUIS PHILIPPE
deserves the thanks of every wellwisher to the cause
of liberty and humanity ; and by none should he be
held in greater esteem than by Mr. O'CorneeLL, who
is always deprecating the shedding of blood, and
assuring his hearers, both in England and Ireland,
that that revolution is purchased at too extravagant a
cost that is purchased by the loss of human life
in war. For our own part, we are no very excessive
admirers of the French KING ; we think that he has
in many instances wantonly abused the powers en-
trusted to him by a confiding people; played fast-
and-loose with their liberties ; and gone far beyond
the limits assigned him by the Constitution ; still, we
cannot forget that he was placed in a situation of pe-
culiar difficulty ; and that if he had indulged, instead