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

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LONDON, WEDNESDAY, MAY 22, 1844.

Lord BROUGHAM brought a Bill into the House of
Lords, to amend the laws relating to imprisonment
for debt.

Lord BEAUMONT moved for copies of the corre-
spondence which had taken place between the British
Government and the British Consul at Tunis, relative
to the trial of a Maltese for murder. He considered
that a most unwarrantable interference had been
shown by the French Consul at Tunis. If such
interference was tolerated by this country, the trade
of England along the Barbary coast would soon be
at an end.
Lord ABERDEEN said he had no objection to lay
the correspondence before the House. The offence to
which those papers referred was a cold-blooded mur-
ler ; and the course which her MAJESTY'S Govern-
nent had pursued was in accordance with existing
reaties ; but he thought the question ought to be
left to the respective Governments interested in the

matter.
No business of the slightest interest took place in
the House of Commons. Mr. PETER BOraIINVICK
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 canvass for the free trade can.
didate in South Lancashire are cheering, but i

would be premature to pronounce upon the chances
of success. Whatever may be the result, the frel
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
aor Whig ; and may therefore be exposed to the
avowed hostility of the one party, and the secret en-
'nay 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. BROWN—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 on 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 Univeni-
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.

The Church Extension Society held its annual
meeting yesterday in St. Martin's-place, Trafalgar-
.quare. As might have been expected, there was a
pretty numerous gathering of Churchmen present on
the occasion, and among them was the Bishop of
LONDON, who, in allusion to the necessity of new
churches, which he said existed in the metropolis and
chewhere, remarked—" In the metropolis alone there
was an annual increase in the population of about
thirty thousand persons, and unless something were
done to afford spiritual instruction, there would
spread throughout the land a spirit of anarchy
which would shake the whole framework of
society. They were entitled to receive increased
contributions, for which a still more urgent appeal
must be made than that which has yet gone forth
from that Society ; and if they should fail, they
must look forward to the decay and downfal of
everything they held sacred. It was the duty of
every minister of a church to impress this truth on
his hearers, and to urge the importance of attending
to the spiritual welfare of the, poorer classes." The
true professional instinct betrays itself in every sen-
tence of the above passage. More Church ap-
pears, in the estimation of the Bishop, to be
a panacea for every evil, and unless this de-
mand be promptly complied with, he antici-
,
pates nothing short of general confusion