The Sun.
London, England, 1844-03-19 00:00:00

and grealier than the demand, no matter what the
price of bread may be, the rate of labour will fall in
the market. If, on the other hand, the demand be
greater than the supply, let bread be ever so cheap,
the wages of the labourer will rise. We see grain
cheap in America, and the rate of wages high. We
see it dear in Ireland, and the rate of wages low.
How is this ? merely because the supply in the one
country is less than the demand; in the other the
demand is not equal to the supply. There is only
one reason for connection between the price of food
and the. rate of wages—namely, that wages must bear
some relative proportion to the amount required to
enable a labourer to exist—to live as a Christian is
out of the question, but to exist is necessary. Expe-
rience proves, and always has proved, that cheap
food and plentiful harvests raise wages in price
and money ; whilst they increase them manifold, by
the additional comforts, and means of obtaining com-
forts, which they give to the labourer.
It is easy of proof that the wages of the farm-
labourer are actually lowered by the corn-laws, and
that the protection afforded to the grower of corn,
operates to depreciate the price of labour, and to
lessen the sum paid, to the man whose time is occu-
pied, in working to raise that very corn. The corn-
laws restrict the demand for manufacturing industry
—they prevent the call for additional labour in
manufactures—they stop the employment which
would be given to a large proportion of our
rural population, in the pursuits of commerce—
they throw back the farm-labourer's family upon
the soil, and compel them either to starve in
indolence, or to compete in the market with their
fellow-labourers on the land. Thus the wages of the
labourer are depressed, the supply of farm-labour
kept up beyond the demand, the possibility of chang-
ing the nature of employment by the poor man pre-
vented, and the farm-labourer compelled to starve
upon the very ground whose fertility gives no return
to him, save that of witnessing the prolific produce of
fields, which he alone is neither to benefit by, nor to
enjoy.

Earl FITZWILLIAM, on presenting a petition las
night to the House of Lords from Glasgow, praying
for a searching Reform in the Irish Protestant
Church, took the opportunity of enunciating some
stern, wholesome truths respecting that same Church,
which as might have been expected, called up the
Duke of WELLINGTON, who filled with a holy horror
at the idea of the Establishment being subjected to
the slightest process of purification, emphatically con-
jured their Lordships to pay no attention to the pes-
tilent doctrines of the Noble Earl, adding—by way,
we presume,. of giving incfeased effect to his exhorta-
tion—that the Protestant Church had existed in Ire-
land for nearly three hundred years, during periods
of conflict, rebellion, and massacre. We must frankly
confess we do not see the force of this ducal logic, and
are wholly at a loss to understand the principle upon
which an acknowledged grievance is to be kept up
that has no other argument in its favour than that of
mere antiquity. If such reasoning is to be allowed
to possess any cogency-, it should have prevented the
Noble Duke from striking off the manacles from the
limbs of the Catholics, seeing that their chains
had been worn for ages. The same reason
should have prevented him from granting
relief to the Dissenters, for their wrongs too
were of ancient date ; and should have induced
him also to oppose, tooth and nail, Lord STANLEY'S
project for emancipating the West Indian negros, for
no man can doubt that black slavery is another in-
stitution as old as the hills, and sanctioned by the
wisdom of our ancestors, for Heaven knows how
many generations ! If the venerableness of a griev-
ance is to be urged as a plea in favour of its con-
tinuance, and if this plea is to be admitted, an end is
at once put to all prospect of national improvement ;
we must consent to stand still while the world
about us is in motion, and idly and stupidly to lag
behind, while more active and enlightened nations
are pressing forward to the goal. The Irish Church
being an acknowledged grievance, and of the most
oppressive character—for none but Tory bigots,
and interested parsons, deny this fact—it becomes
the duty of Government to reform it without
delay, the more especially as it has been an incubus
on the energies of Ireland for three hundred years.
Its age, so far from being a sound argument in its
favour, is the soundest of all arguments against it,
and we hope to live to see the day when this shall be
held as valid reasoning, even in the House of Lords.
Trace half the evils that oppress the sister-country
to, their source, and they shall be found to
have their origin in the Protestant Establish-
ment—an establishment which is an insult to the
people, and a living record of their humiliation. So
long as this gigantic nuisance lasts, there never can be
any sure guarantee for the tranquillity of Ireland
from one year's end to another ; and no sane man can
doubt that it supplies Mr. O'CONNELL with his most
cogent and successful argument in favour of a repeal
of the union. The Bishop of EXETER was of course
enraptured with the Duke of WELLINGTON'S
strenuous exhortation in behalf of the Irish Church,
and boldly told their Lordships that " among
the many great services which it had been the lot of
that illustrious man to render to his country, he be-
lieved from his heart that he had never conferred on
it a greater service than by his declaration that even-
ing on the subject of the Church of Ireland." The
Rev. Prelate remarked in addition, that Parliament
had no right to " despoil"—as he whimsically phrased
it—the Establishment in question ; but this is not the
fact, for Parliament has as much right to deal with
its temporalities, by way of improving its efficiency,
as Ministers had to deprive the Bishop, despite his
ghostly protests and maledictions, of the rich rectory
of Stanhope.

A Morning Contemporary contains an article on
the subject of our political relations with France,
hich, to say the least of it, is penned in a very per-
verse and crotchety spirit. After adducing the evidence
a some convenient anonymous gentleman to prove
that there never was a stronger feeling of national
hostility than that which the French entertain at the
present moment towards the English, our Contem-
porary goes on to remark—" Their Government may
mean very well towards us, but the French people do
not, and who can tell how soon all the powers and
resources of the nation may be put in action against
us ? We therefore say that if our Government
sees nothing to excite / its watchful attention in the
gathering elements of French force, our Government
ought to be warned to attend better to its duties.
The pretence, that our safety lies in the sound public
opinion of France, is as great nonsense as ever was
written." Nonsensical as this "pretence" may appear
in the eyes of the quick-witted, eagle-eyed Post, we
are among the number of those who place great faith in
it, and who hold it with the force of a strong moral
conviction that there is an enlightened public opinion in
France, daily increasing in soundness, energy, and
intelligence, but which already is quite sound and
strong enough to prevent the likelihood of any serious
rupture with this country. Doubtless, there are many
jealous, discontented, inflammable people in
the neighbouring kingdom—sturdy Republicans, and
soured ultra-Democrats, who would gladly see a
flame kindled between France and England, in the
fond hope that their own political views would be
assisted by such an "untoward" event as a war ;
but these, though a noisy set, constitute the minority;
by far the more numerous, and respeetaebllel.,knanodwiin-
fluential portion of the French people are strongly in
favour of the maintenance of peace, w
that while they could not gain much, they would risk
all by an outbreak between the two countries, and
might in the end see themselves consigned over once
again to the tender mercies of some such fierce
democracy—the most exacting of all despotisms—as
enslaved and demoralised them during the memorable
Reign of Terror. Time was when Paris was France,
and Club-law the law of the nation; but though it is not
to be denied that the opinions of the capital still exer-
cise great influence in the provinces ; yet that influence
is no longer paramount ; a rich, steady, thinking, power-
ful middle class has sprung up in all the towns in the
kingdom, who are quite capable of forming a sound
judgment of things for themselves, instead of taking
their impressions from the political coteries of the
metropolis; and this class—the " Bourgeoisie," as
Mr. L. BLANC calls them—are to a man opposed to a
war between France and England. Besides, it
must be borne in mind that our neighbour is now,
what she never was before, a commercial, as well
as an agricultural, country; since the battle
of Waterloo her commerce has increased tenfold,
and continues yearly on
.the increase; and these are