The Sun.
London, England, 1844-03-18 00:00:00

111116,
il4r trieltAill niu;

LONDON, MONDAY, MARCH IS, 1844.

What a Quixotic age, is the one in which we
live—how full of philanthropy, and desire to remedy
evils that afflict our- fellow-beings—and yet how
curiously does this Quixotic spirit, this philanthropic
longing, show itself; each man appears to take care
of that with* which he has -no natural concern, and to
meddle with•that- which ought, of right, to be looked
to by others. Lord ASHLEY legislates for factories,
Mr. COBDEN exhibits 'the condition of the • farm-
labourers ; and the House of Commons, during the
past week, has witnessed the Member for an agri-
cultural county decrying the unjust labour which the
manufacturing poor have to undergo, whilst the Alem
ber for a commercial town 'has been seen exposing the
misery, the wretchedness, and the deplorable condi-
tion of the agricultural population. The Honourable
Member for Dorsetshire quotes Stockport as hi:
authority, whilst the Member for Stockport esta-
blishes his assertions by reference to Dorsetshire.
This is, after all, not a natural state of things. It
would be a far more 'rational and just pursuit for my
Lord ASHLEY to imiirose, or Tabour to improve, the
condition of the farm-labourer on his own estates and
in his own neighbourhood, than to ramble abroad to
exercise that benevolence of disposition which cannot
rest,- which must in any case be attempting to do
good, but which might be so beneficially exercised
on his own neighbours, and in his own locality. He
reverses the old adage " that charity begins at home,"
and his charity goes far a field, before it can find
objects upon which to exercise its benign in-
fluence. Now, in peint of comfort, of intelligence,
of social condition in every possible way, the manu-
facturing populati9 of. gni country stands immea-
surably beyond the agricultural- population. Go into
their houses, compare theiriliabitations, and you will
at once admit, that the manufactUring labourer is
better housed. LoOk, at their Clothes, their house-
hold furniture, and the appurtenances-to their houses.
Test their ability to'read and write; their moral and
intellectual capacities, and then you ' will indeed
wonder that Lord ASHLEY did not at once devote
himself to the worst fed, the worst provided for, and
the least enlightened class of society, rather' than to
one which stands pre-eminently forward in com-
parison with the farm-labourers.
Why is Mr. COBDEN compelled to detail to the
country, by means of the House of Commons, and
through the Press, the condition of the poor farm la-
bourer, which is to be found in the reports of the
very Government Commissioners, and which he proves
by reference to hooks published by the House of
Commons, • and whose authority is indisputable ?
Why be, not in self-vindication, for' he has all
along challenged inquiry, and has avoided all conceal-
ment, but in order to rend the film asunder, which
those who support the corn-laws have thrown around
the agriculturist population, compelled to expose a far
worse state of society, than any which., the manufac-
taring districts can:show ?; Solely'and simply, because
the, landowners:wish to gain credit for a humanity they
do not possess, to obtainfavonr with the znanufactnrers
.by making ;some of theM believe that by Time Bills,
they will gain.the same wages 1.4 ten heurs' labour,
that they-now'get r for' twelVe; and thus they seek, to
divert the. attention 'of. the 'Working man from the
fact, that. the high' price he is compelled to pay for
his dailylbread, is' the' real
~ecret 'of-the -
ti-
nned labour which they A44:10 '&00 If bread
was cheaper, less Imigth of: tabour- would be required
to earn the money to buy it, and Anis Atop of 6e
corr.-laws would be the simplest -and, ta;Jet. Cifeeival
Short Time Bill. This the monopolists full wellknOw
but the knowledge •is inconvenient,, ,
tiOn awkward ; they wish to keep up the ,price „f
bread ;.and so, without regard to the condition"of the
agrienitural labourers, their serfs of the soil, they
try to get the , -manufacturers' Wages kept
up by artificial means, Whilst they le:aye
the natural means; a reduction in 'the price of food,
untried. Wages have. '44": relation to the price of
bread ; that fallacy 'has long since been exploded ;
but if the labOurer has .'to earn a loaf of bread by
time works the dearer the price of bread the longer
he must work. *TiniS corn-laws are to the labourer
Long Time Bills, and legislation to abridge the hours
of labour, unaccompanied by legislation to lower the
price of bread, is all a farce.

Our intelligence from America, and especially the
Philadelphia correspondence of a Morning Contem-
porary, continue to present the Oregon question as
the engrossing subjeot of political speculation in the
United States. It had formed the prominent topic of
discussion in Congress, during some days paSt, on the
28th ultimo, and the shape in which it was then in 7
troduced before that body, was a resolution, moved
by a Mr. SEMPLE, "to-give notice to Great Britain
to abrogate that portion of the treaty of 1818 which
provides for a joint occupation of the Oregon." This
resolution, if ''''''''''''' • reported, is' very 'strangely-
worded ; but grammatical precision is, probably, un-
worthy of statesmen- who•are.committed to the " go-
a-head":policy; so. 'popularin the States at this mo-
ment. -It maybe iiieSiinied,-li4WeVer, that Congress
is not meant .to .be .called upon.to desire us-to abrogate
the stipUlations •of-a- treaty (as -Mr. SEMPLE'S words
might lead: ' one to mfer), bat that it is to instruct
their Government to intimate to our's their own in-
tention of adopting. that course. The account we
quote from"p'resents- an amusing picture of that cre-
dulous excitability, and that -big talking, which to
subjects of old-established Powers . of the first rank
and power, • sound' so oddly, that the momentary dis-
position to feel indignant is merged in enjoyment
at the absurdity .of the language. The original mover
of the resolutions was also the leader in a career of
extravagant' Vaunting, and of garbled statements of
facts,—vvherever, these would hive told, if fairly stated,
against the territorial claim of the States, through which
career it seems impossible. to prevent our western
" brother" from running, when anybody has pre-
viously entered upon. it. This political temperament
renders him in many respects like his own high-
pressure engines... He cannot be • content with the
legitimate working Of I his own energy and powers.
These can doso much, that, without any more substantial
reason or rrecessity—he will •compel.them to do more.
He increases 'the pressure, and steams along at "an
..........
awful rate to..the..well7lielovf4 music of his own
incessant paddling.— He _ puts..on. a further pressure
still. From a just and manly confidence in the re-
sources of his country and his own personal powers,
he expands into 'vain-glorious boasting; from ear-
nestness he rises into arrogance ; from arrogance into
insolence; and when he finds he makes "strange way"
by exalting the pretensions of the Republic and its
citizens, he, betakes himself to disparaging those of
every other nation and its subjects. At length, he is
apt to overdo the thing, and an explosion takes place,
which is likely to be more harmful to his own craft
than
.to those of his neighbours.
A Mr. ATCRESON, in supporting the resolution in
question, declared that " the whole of the Western
States*were unanimous in not relinquishing one inch
of Oregan." It will be time enough to prove this de-
, termination 'when they haie got the territory.- He said
"t 'question‘ery reason,
themselves
Nas one of national honour." For
N'e
precludedhav
shown,ealreadlconieiann
litiheg. what-
should feel
is not their own ; and what, 'being our's, upon the same
principle, we .never can -concede; lle complained,l
first, "that in the Oregon, subjects of the United States'
we re dragged before I.lrltish tribunals, and second, that,
"British laws now extend' aver the whole region."
A man of calmer judgment could scaredyshave sug-
gested so strong a case of presumption against any
possessory or paramount rights on the part of the
States,—so much in favour both of the one and
the other, on the part of Great Britain,—as these
two facts to which he has helped us. This gentleman
felt the weakness of his case, and therefore changed
the ground on which he supported the resolution into
this plan for a war with England : " The West has
no more reason to desire war than the East or ths
South. But ifever war do come, it had better be with
England than any other country; as a remembrance of
former wrongs would only make us strike the harder,"'
This is artless in an orator, who should better ctinceA
the animus of his tirade ; but here comes the high pres-
sure, and the explosion or his accumulated fully:—
" He thought a war would 'result to England in the
The. ussisn which happily exists between England I 1088 Ol Canada and the West Indies.' Let - but one
ought to be a subject of no ordinary con- I drop of American blood he spilt in ,Oreand
gon, , you
itilitullstion,fO still the friends of liberal institutions will have haVe war to the knife,, 'and the knife
-- • llMer:SVas 'such .a union more desirable than at the Ito the handle.'" " The two "steani-frigates';:;aod ,
reiti4t remarAbre epoch of constitutional govern- I the one building, and the iNi,o srna4 steanier'2l(ive

- Since Mr. COBDEN entered the House of Commons
facts have not been allowed to be kept hack, and fic•

tions put forth as truths in the way they formerly used
to be. The principles of free trade are beginning to be
_ _

felt and understood, and the condition of the farm la-

bourer is now, in vain attempted to be identified either
with the corn laws or with the interests of their sup-
porters, for if cheap bread be of importance to the
manufacturing labourer, it is still more so to the

ploughman, the peasant, and the farm labourer.
We shall pursue this iubject in our neat.

~ =~:

quote from the Norfolk Beacon (U.S.), of the same
date as this discussion), comprise the stock in trade—
so far as the " steam arm " is concerned—with which
this Bobadil would venture a collision with the " one
hundred and eleven war steamers," which the same
paper, in commenting on the inconsistency and folly
of the war party in Congress, reminds him that we
possess. The emancipated negroes in our West
India Islands, we calculate, would like nothing better
than to settle accounts for their less fortunate brethren
in the Southern States of the Union, with their re-
publican, freedom-prating, humanity-outraging op-
pressors.

The resolution seems to have boasted the support,
also, of_ Mr. HANNEGAN and Mr. BENTON. And to
be sure, they must have ent zed into a copartnership
of intrepid allegations, which none but " whippers of
nine-times-their-own-length-in-wild-cats," would
have ventured .on, in a Legislative Assembly. Mr.
lIANNEGAN who " was not to be terrified by 1,000
Hudson's Bay Trappers,"--" then alluded to the
murder of 400 or 500 Americans." (A mere
casualty, we suppose, in Jonathan's estimate
of the value of human life ; just worth
" an allusion," but not grave enough to make him
particular whether the number murdered was
four ou fire hundred. Then we have an off-
hand interlocutory, thus :—) " Mr. BENTON.—
Yes : many of them my own friends." Mr.
lIANNEGAN, unwilling to be behind hand with.
Mr. BENTON, after this handsome intervention, pro
ceeds :—" Yes ; 400,—0r 500 Americans " (he would
not for the world be more precise than Mr. B.)—
`` who have emigrated to that country have disap-
peared :—No one knows how, no one knows where.
The Hudson's Bay Company alone could tell." (l 0
Were it not that in a subsequent period of the de
bate, the good sense and moderation which were dis
played in either speeches were such as should redeem
the character of Congress from the disgrace of this
balderdash—very ridiculous, truly, but not the less
unprincipled—we should blush, indeed, for the legis-
lative bOdy which could tolerate, or dismiss, without
indignant repudiation, such gratuitous and scandalous
falsehoods as these. How it might very well happen that
400 or 500 American emigrants might not be again
seen by their countrymen after emigrating to Oregon,
—without this atrocious imputation on the Hudson's
Bay Company, of their wholesale murder—may be
collected from a remark in the speech of Mr.
DAYTON, of Ohio, against the resolution :—" The dis-
tance of Oregon was 15,000 miles by sea, and 5,000
by travelling routes by land ;"—the land journey, be it
observed, lying across the desolate and wide-spread
valleys interposed between the Mexican frontier in the
parallel of 42 deg. N., and the Rocky Moun-
tains; or across the howling wastes of their
bleak and barren range, over which our en-
terprising MACKENZIE—who, of all Europeans,
had first trodden their lofty solitudes,—forced his
way from the North-Eastern regions of the same con-
tinent to the Pacific: The truth is, the Americans are
nettled at the inimitable management, the steady
forts, the sagacious feeling, the undaunted enterprise,
and the brilliant success of our Hudson's Bay Com-
oily, in exploring the great peltry country within
and beyond the Oregon ; and in not merely following
up the animals, like back woodsmen, for indiscrimi-
nate and instant destruction, as they retreat before
them, .but, in securing—by all proper means, such
as "preserving," the best hunting-grounds, &c.—fu-
ture annual supplies of the furs in which they trade.
The question of priority, or preference of right to
the disputed territory, we shall be better able to illus-
trate, in the course of a day or two, by a review of
Tuom's clever and interesting pamphlet,- en-
titled " The Claims on the Oregon," &c. In the

meanwhile, our readers will not be -displeased to
peruse an extract or two from the debate to which
we have been alluding. They are from the speeches
of Mr. CHOATE, of Massachusetts, and Mr. 'DAYTON,
of Ohio ; and are exceedingly illustrative both of
the character and relations of the contested region,
and of the feelings with which the war-cry, so openly
excited by the' partisans of " appropriation," is re-
garded by the sound sense, and sober judgment, of
other Members of Congress.
Mr. CIIOATE, of Massachusetts, said—
' "The resolation of notice which Mr. Atcheson wished to
notice,give
this Great
wße shallriti take possession e
is, in that twelvettn
tothllrefrgoemn
territory. The claims of both . countries will then conic in
collision—bloody collision—upon the desert plains of Oregon.'
'England had no more idea of an agricultural colonisation of
Ore 'on than she had of colonising the top of St. Paul's
churc ; but only
wished to, protect the Hudson's Bay
'and other. English hunters; and these, as animals were be-
coming scarce in Oregon, were fast moving northwards to-
wards the Russian territory."

With regard to the ultimate settlement of the
Oregon queStion, Mr. CHOATE thinks that it will be
determined by the preponderance of numbers among
citizens -of the United States,
_over every other class
of emigrants. What is stated of the Hudson's Bay

• •
Company- in the following passage, is also curious :
L
"The colonisation schemes of England. were directed to-
wards 'Australia, Nova Scotia, Canada, &c. " but not to
Oregon: But from the United States, emigrants WOUld pour
pverthe Pocky Mountains by thousands and tens of thousands ;
and even with the preSent joint occupation, now .that emi-
gration frOm this country to Oregon had become the rage,
the Hudson's Bay hunters and the few, English settlers would
soon melt into an American population, under the influence,
the infallible influence, of the United States emigration. The
'Hudson's Bay Company had recently bought out the Russian
Hunting Company ; they were, therefore, rapidly disappearing
from Oregon."

Mr. DAYTON, of Ohio, we are glad to perceive,
spoke under a deep sense of ,the moral responsibility
of the Federal Government, its functionaries and
citizens, for their -past - dealings with the aboriginal
" red men" of the New Continent, which does him
ihonour. It is an awful page—a blotted record—in

,the annals of civilised mankind, to which he lightly
but impressively alludes. We know but little, in
Europe, of the wholesale process of extermination

which has been carried on by the citizens of a State
Iprofessing its at'eaehment to the inviolable rights of
human freedom against the native denizens of the wil-
derness. •

" He (Mr. Dayton) doubted ;whether the Oregon territory
was the terrestrial paradise it had been described ; and he
thought that the sentiment in favour of emigration to Oregon
! was not so universal as had been stated. Gentlemen seemed
to have forgotten that there were 340,000 Indian *prriors• in
• that territorry. They, toe., had their rightS-L:rights that'
ought to be respected; but between an Anglo-Saxon irrup-
tion from the sea, -and another from the Rocky Mountains,
they were in danger.of being, crushed. They would defend
their hunting grounds—we must not forget that—we must
treat them withustice and humanity—their fate, and the
fate of all Indian- races, would lie heavily on our souls at
the last great day."

The case of the Reverend Mr. MARBII was again
incidentally referred to in the House of Lords on

Friday night, by Lord CAMPBELL, on which occasion

the Bishop of PETERBOROUGH " frankly admitted that
he had felt something like an unwillingness to pro-
ceed against a clergyman, when he was accused by a
person of ill-fame of an act committed four years
ago. The fact of the accusation was all he knew of
hc,case, at first, and when further inquiries were

made, he .was told that Mr. MARSH had paid a visit
to.: Al 4 unhappy female at Paris four years ago.
Under these circumstances, while there Was living in
the parsonage an aged and excellent mother, in a very
precarious state of health, to whom any agitation
might have been fatal, he had felt thankful, and he
was sure their Lordships would enter into his feel-
ings—he had felt thankful that there was an oppor-

tunity given him to be backwardin this case, until
something more came to light which would justify
.him in proceeding." We cannot at all sympathise
with the Rev. Prelate's expression of thankfulnesa for
having been furnished with an excuse for being
" backward" in investigating such an aggravated case
as that of the Rev. Mr. MARSH, in consequence of
his aged mother's delicate state of health. He should
have borne in mind—to the exclusion of all inferior.
considerations—that he was a high and responsible
dignitary of the Established Church, and as such,
that it was his bounden, his sacred duty to probe
the matter to the quick, the instant the crying scandal.
was first made known to him. " Fiat justitia, ruat
ccelum, ."should have been the stern and wholesome
principle he s-hoilld have taken as his rule of action.
In criminal cases, the law makes no attempt to shield
the delinquent or let him off easily, out of a tender
compassion for the feelings of those members of his
family who may he heart-broken by his exposure and
and his punishment, but adopts a lofty, uncompro-
mising course of proceeding without favour or affec-

tion. If such be the stern, moral course pursued by
the Law, surely it i 3 still more incumbent on the
Church to take an unfaltering, impartial view of such
cases of clerical delinquency as may chance to fall
under its cognizance; for the Law derives its autho-
rity merely from man, but the Church derives it—or
professes to derive it—direct from the DEITY, and
nowber do we find it ordained in Holy Writ that
th (•13m:shall have .the shield of protection thrown