The Sun.
London, England, 1844-03-16 00:00:00

brienin

LONDON, SATURDAY, MARCH 16, 1844.

No business was done in the House of Lords last
evening; but Lord CAMPBELL made a few remarks on
the affair of the Rev. Mr. MARSH, which show the
case of Bishops. He said the Bishop of PETERBOROUGH
on a former evening had stated that he could not
interfere, because the offence had been committed out
of his diocese, but on referring to an Act of Parlia-
ment he found that the Bishop could bring the case
before the Court of Arches.
The Bishop of PETERBOROUGH thanked the
Learned Lord for the information, and excused him-
self for not carrying out the law to its full extent on
the ground that the delinquent's mother resided at
the parsonage, in a delicate state of health, and any
agitation might have been fatal. The Bishop made
some other remarks, which showed the most kindly
disposition towards his frail brethren. He concluded
by saying, that the greatest care was taken in
examining the character and qualifications of the
candidates for the sacred ministry.
The House adjourned at an early hour.
After the presentation of petitions in the Commons,
Ca-ut. POLHILL gave notice, that on Mr. TURNER in-
troduning a Bill for the Abolition of he
should move an amendment to the effect that the pre-
sent laws are sufficiently stringent.

Mr. S. CRAWFORD gave notice, that on an early
(Jay after Easter, he should move for leave to bring
in a Bill to extend the Parliamentary Suffrage.
On the motion of the CHANCELLOR of the Ex-
ctrEQunß the Three-and-a-Half per Cent. Annuities
Bill, and the other, Bills connected with the reduction
of the interest on the different Stocks, were read a
third time and passed.
Sir ROBERT INnias put several questions to Sir
11:MIERT PEET. about idolatry in India, and especially
inquired whether steps had been taken to stop the pen-
sion to the idol of Juggernaut.
sir Ron;,wr PEEL said, that on the arrival of the
next Indian isJail he should be able to inform the
Hon. Member for Oxford of the steps taken by the
Government of India on the subject, and would lay
all the correspondence before the House.

After questions from Mr. BELLEW, relative to the
exclusion of Roman Catholics from juries in Ireland,
to which Lord ELIOT gave no satisftictorx answers,

Mr. WALLACE put the six questions relative to
railways, of which he had given notice, to Mr.
GLADSTONE. They are briefly given in the Parlia-
mentary report, and it is needless to repeat them, or
the answers, as they cannot be made shorter. We
may infer, however, from the Right Hon. Member's
:statement, that he is satisfied with the present system
of railways.

In answer to a question from Lord J. RUSSELL,
Sir J. GRARAM said that, on Monday next he vcould
give notice of the day when he would introduce a
Bill relative to the Irish franchise.
After some observations by Mr. ESCOTT, on the
illegality of fees taken by clerks of the peace from
defendants, in which Sir JAMES GRAHAM concurred,
the House went into Committee on the Factories
Bill. On the second clause being read, Lord
ASHLEY moved an amendment, to limit the time
of labour to ten hours in the day, and en-
tered at length into the hardships of the operatives
in cotton manufactories. A long discussion ensued,
w:hich was terminated by Mr. WAEnuitTom moving
that the Chairman report progress. This motion
was ag•Ned to; and, after disposing of the other busi-
ness on .the paper, the House adjourned at One
o'Clock.

As it is probat;le that, by this time, the remarkable
speech of Mr. CoDD:on of Tuesday evening last, on
moving " for a Select Committee to inquire into the
eft:lets produced upon the interests of tenant-farmers
and
_farm-labourers by protective duties upon im-
ports:, will have been largely read and deliberated
upon by
t.lia public at large, and the agricultural in-
terest in pa. vticular..... ; we are induced to address our-

selves, again, to some of the more prominent among
the multiplied topics which it embraced. It is out
of no disparaging estimate of the very able speeches
delivered on the same occasion by those who fol-
lowed the Honourable Member for Stockport, that we
shall limit these observations to his address. The
points to which we would now direct the attention of
our readers, were so ably and succinctly put, and so
cleverly argued by the Hon. Mover, that, after touch-
ing upon these, our limits would leave us no oppor-
tunity for enlarging upon the skill and intelligence
with which his motion was seconded and enforced,
To Mr. COBDEN every candid mind must concede the
praise of having irresistibly demonstrated the propo-
sition involved in the terms of his motion. To have
shown, then, (and despite the majority of 91 against
the appointment of the Select Committee, we will
venture to add) to the conviction of the House of
Commons, that these protective duties upon imports,
with reference more especially to corn, wool, and
other agricultural produce, are at once illusory and
prejudicial to the very interests they purport to protect
—is successfully to have broken ground before the
stronghold of monopoly and vicious legislation, from
which it is indispensable to the welfare of the
country to dislodge, forthwith, the powerful influ-
ences which have so long occupied it, to the detriment
of our national prosperity.
We are glad to observe that the Minister, upon
whom the official duty devolved of opposing Mr.
COBDEN (Mr. GLADSTONE himself would not term
his own speech an answer), did all justice to its tone
and spirit. These were, however, not more praise-
worthy than the matter which the Member for Stock-
port had concentrated in the illustrative facts and
statistics on which he rested his motion. The speech,
in any House of Commons differently constituted,—
with any Administration of sounder political prin-
ciple and more enlarged judgment, than those to which
it was delivered,—must have bespoken for it the con-
currence of all parties with whom mere party consi-
derations were still subsidiary and subordinate to
the consideration of their country's good. A brief
retrospect of the topics which this speech urged with
most force, may suffice to prove that we are not
claiming too much for it.
Mr. COBDEN set out by honestly avowing that he
meant to speak as the advocate of the agricultural
interest especially. In that character, if the House
would grant him the Committee for which he would
move, he would show the utter fallacy of that fro-
tection, embodied in the duties he referred to, which,
instead of being, as it purported to be, a benefit and
an advantage to, was, in itself, a fallacy, and operated
to the serious injury of, the tenant-farmer. Far from
admitting that this so-ealled " protection" to our do-
mestic agriculture had ever worked properly or bene-
ficially to it, it had turned out, he maintained, from
the first, a rank delusion. He then referred to the
" first Corn-law" Committee oflBls ;—(a sort of con-
ventional error, this, which creeps, we perceive, into
late corn-law discussions ; seeing that the " corn"-
law on which the subsequent cora-trade-regulating
statutes of the reigns of GEORGE 111. and GEORGE
IV., were passed, was the 22d of CHARLES 11., passed
in 1670). He showed that in the deliberations and
report of that Committee of 1815, it was held that the
British farmer could not obtain adequate protection,
unless he got 80s. a quarter for his wheat. But
in addition to the adoption of this principle into the
legislation that ensued, he asked Mr.BENETT, of Wilt-
shire, whether it was not at that period a favourite
theory with the landed interest, that wheat could not
be profitably grown in this country until the farmer
got 965. a quarter, or Bs. a bushel for it ? Her MA-
JESTY'S Government in 1844, however, were not will-
ing to concede a higher rate than 565. the quarter ;
but before such a Committee as he called for, he
would undertake to bring many old farmers who
would state, that, after 1815, tenant farms had been
valued after this assumed rate of 80s. for the quarter ;
whereas it was declared and established in 1821, in
the resolutions publicly agreed to by one of the sub-
sequently formed agricultural societies, that wheat
was then realising no more than 435. Now
the effect of the alterations made since the
last corn-law of all, under the Government of
Sir ROBBRT PEEL, had been this : on the ground
assumed that the price of wheat must be 565. under
the new protection, rents were fixed in reference to
that rate. Let the Committee be appointed, and he
would produce before- it an individual occupying his
own land, who was rated in reference to this price—
the selling actual price of wheat in the market being,
at the same moment, only 475. the quarter. When
this party complained of the wrong he suffered from
being thus over-rated, he had the singular satisfaction
of learning that the principle on which the rate had
been laid was "probably" the Right Hon. Baronet's
erroneous assumption of the price of corn under this
" protecting" law.

Thus far we have been much struck with the
coincidence of Mr. COBDEN'S conclusions on
the utter inefficiency of corn-law attempted pro-
tection, with those we had found in a little
tract put forth by the Society for the Emancipa-
tion of Industry, entitled " An Appeal to Farmers
and Landowners." The conclusions in both instances
are alike; the statistics and the process of induction
from them, though dissimilar and various, are not
conflicting : and thus we may note a very remark-
able and important coincidence between the advo-
cates of a revision of our monetary system and the ad-
vocates for the repeal of our corn-law system.
Indeed, when we came to Mr. COBDEN'S very powerful
allusion to the apologetic plea of the Premier for in-
ability to control the profits of trade or the wages
of labour, we ai'e free to own that we indulged, at
first, in the hope that the Hon. Member for Stock-
port was about to visit, upon the same head, the more
palpable delinquency of his inability to arrest the
paralysing operation, on all the industrial energy of
the kingdom, of the Currency Bill of 1819. For
the results of that disastrous measure, the Right
Honourable Baronet can plead, " in arrest of
judgment," no present inability. His own per-
versity, his want of personal knowledge and ex-
perience, on the subject of that monetary system and
all its relations—and his dogged refusal to let in the
light of practical information and admitted sagacity
upon the one-sided labours of his famous Committee—
(although remonstrated with on these points by his
own father, and others among the highest fiscal,
financial, and mercantile authorities in Great Britain) ;
precipitated all the mischiefs, the stagnations of
trade, the panics of the money-market, and the con-
vulsions of commercial credit and confidence, which
have since followed upon one another, at unequal, but
at certainly-recurring intervals.
" The Right Hon. Gentleman told me," said Mr.
COBDEN, " he could not regulate the wages of the
labourer, or the profits of the manufacturer or
trader ;" and then the Hon. Member acutely asked " if
he could not guarantee any fixed profits, how could
the House possibly fix the price of agricultural com-
modities?" Nothing could be more forcible than the
manner in which he applied this answer to rebuke the
overweening notion which the House is apt to enter-
tainm e nt.
of On
the a same ui occasion,future
of
. reasoning
e we
of its power to perform this impossible
shallachieve-
ment.
o p
avail
prove
o v e
how
our-
selves
asoning to
incontestibly the establishment of a gold standard
of value, which left the manufacturers equally
with the farmers, without the power of adding
gold or natural price of commodities, the • •
element of cost which would have represented the
taxation charge of producing those commodities was
the primary and fatal cause of the subsequent—Ml
but hopeless--derangement of the market of labour,
and the fearful diminution of wages to an almost
destitution-minimum.

Madrid Journals of the Bth have been received, but
they bring no news. Senor SALAMANCA, it was said,
was about to set out for London, for the ostensible pur-
pese of paying off the arrears due to the Spanish Le-
gion, but in reality, to try his hand at " raising the
wind" on the Stock Exchange. To the monied men,
therefore we address a very useful piece of advice—
"Rates attention a vos poches."
The Three per Cents. were done at 30 for cash, and
301 at 60 days, and the Fives at 22i for cash, and 221
at 60 days.

We regret to learn by accounts from Paris of Thurs-
day that the Spanish General RONCAU, by orders no
doubt from NARVAEZ, had signalised the capture of
Alicant by butchering many of the unhappy victims.
It appears that BONET, the leader of the insurgents, had
made a sortie from the town, but was unsuccessful, and
was made prisoner with a number of his followers. BONET
and twenty-five officers were immediately shot. 'I his
mode of celebrating the return of queen CJIBISTINA to

Spain is quite in keeping with the character of the nation.
This, however, is not the way to settle the affairs of
that distracted country ; and, judging from rumours on
the Paris Bourse, which are generally believed, a re-
action had already taken place at Madrid, and during
the absence of the QUEEN and her Captain-General an
insurrection had broken out against the Government.
The French Three per Cents. fell fully one per cent.
On Wednesday they closed at 83f. 15c. The principal
topic in the Paris papers is the policy pursued at Con-
stantinople by the British and French Ambassadors, in
reference to the execution of Mussulmans for changing
their creed. Both Sir STRATFORD CANNING and Baron
DE BOURQUENEY have remonstrated in vain against this
barbarous practice. They have since absented themselves
from Court, and are probably waiting for fresh instruc-
tions to take some more decided step to bring the
SULTAN, or rather his Ministers, to reason. The Liberal
press generally praise the conduct of France and Eng-
land, and urge on M. GUIZOT and Lord ABERDEEN
some decisive steps to defeat a new machination of
Russia to embroil the affairs of Turkey, and thereby form
a plea for military interference.
" The news from Constantmople," says the Courricr
Francais, "proves that a moral intervention is absolutely
required on the part of every Government which has not
taken up the determination of favouring the encroach-
ments of Russia. RIZA Paella is compromising the em-
pire and the young SULTAN, to the great joy of Russia,
which is playing the part of conservative, in order to ruin
everything. As to Austria, we have already characterised
the Mttternichian diplomacy at Constantinople. It is a
shame for Austria to league herself with prevaricating
and sanguinary Ministers, when a question of humanity
is treated of. We desire that the two Ambassadors of
France and England may be Successful ; but nothing
will be obtained but by a direct interview with the
SULTAN, and the interest of civilisation authorises its re-
presentatives to use an energetic language—the only one
which the Porte can at present comprehend." The lan-
guage of the National is equally energetic. We can
easily understand the policy of Russia in this affair, but
that of Austria is totally incomprehensible. The follow-
ing particulars, which appear in that journal, will be
read with interest :

" The intercourse of Christian Europe with Turkey is be-
coming strangely complicated. On one side, France and
England, who proceed together this time, for the benefit. of
civilisation, persist in demanding the abolition of this old
law of the kingdom, by which two or three Mussulmans,
converted to Christianity, have been put to death. On their
side, the chiefs of the Mussulman reaction, now at the head
of affairs, persist in upholding this law, andi causing it to be
executed. If the news, which have come to hand from Con-
stantinople, through the German papers, be true, the Ambas-
sadors of France and England display in this conjuncture a
rare and laudable energy. The Grand Vizier having re-
cently invited them, with the rest of the diplomatic body, to
a grand dinner, M. de Bourqueney and Sir S. Canning, re-
fused to attend. The Ambassadors of Prussia, Sardinia, and
Holland, acted with the same firmness ; they stayed away
on account of mourning. The Russian Ambassador got
himself represented by the chief Secretary of the Embassy,
and the Austrian Internuncio thought fit to attend in person.
This exception does little honour to Russia and Austria.
But whatever may be the weakness of Austria, and the in-
trigues of Russia, we indulge in the hope that the Divan will
be restrained by the perseverance of France and England in
the cause of humanity, and that the two Powers. who boast
of marching at the head of Christian civilisation, will not
hesitate to reduce to compliance, even by force, a degraded
Government."

The Committee appointed to examine the elections of
the five Legitimatist Members had reported, that four of
them had been duly returned; but, as a protest had been
made against the return of M. DE LARCY for Montpelier,
further investigation was necessary.