The Sun.
London, England, 1826-01-28 00:00:00

LONDON JOURNALS.
DA I LY

Rxtracts from the Morning Papers, Jan. 28, 1828.

[MORNING POST.]
If any thing had yet been required to convince
the world how certainly party virulence degrades
And stupifies the minds of those who yield them-
.selves to its influence, that conviction would have
been rendered complete by the conduct of the
Party Press, on the present lamented illness of
the venerable Chancellor. Good taste, manly
feeling, commonly—any one of these qualities,
If the party had possessed it, in however small
a degree, would have forbidden the attacks by
which that upright and enlightened Judge, that
wiseand indefatigable Statesman, is at this moment
of affliction daily assailed. Of good taste or manly
feeling we will not speak ;—from the direct influ-
ence of these we certainly expected little; but we
did expect thnt the party would so far have calcu-
lated on the existence of these qualities in the
community, as in common policy to have all-
stained from gross and frequent outrages against
them. The public can no longer, we think, have
any doubt in which class of feelings the peculiar
hostility of this party to the Lord Chancellor
ought to be placed. High and patriotic feelings
combine well with the noble and generous quali-
ties of our nature, and are in truth inseparable
from them ; whilst motives and feelings, which
are merely personal and selfish, have a clear and
natural affiuity to whatever is base, grovelling,
and ungenerous. This test is infallible and uni-
versal ; it is intelligible alike to the most philo-
sophic and the most untutored mind. Ask the
ignorant boor, ask the intelligent and refined
man of the world, ask the recluse student, to
what class of principles he would refer tl►e con-
duct of a party which, when the object of its
hostility was confined to n bed of sickness, could
not repress its gaiety, but converted the occasion
into a theme of daily jocularity, and an oppor-
tunity of renewed insult. Can it be doubted for
a moment, that from each of these different men
you would receive the same unhesitating answer ?
It would be felt at once by all, that self-interest
might employ the weapon which public spirit
might disdain to touch.

[THE TIMES.)
The distresses endured by industrious and de-
serving journymen in the silk trade, will, we sin.
• cerely hope, be assuaged, in the first instance, by
the voluntary efforts of the upper classes of their
countrymen, whose charity on such occasions
“ never sleepeth ;" and next, as the crisis felt in
every branch of commerce passes away, by a
fresh demand for the labour and ingenuity now
unfortunately suspended. It would be wrong,
however, to quit this important subject without a
,remark or two, in addition to those with which
we yesterday troubled our readers. The silk-
manufacturers complain, that the consumption of
their fabrics has sensibly fallen off, from the
public expectation that foreign silks will be ad-
mitted under the new act of Parliament. We
already stated one fact to show, that the indiffe•
reece of purchasers to the home.made article was
the fault of the manufacturers themselves. They
bought the raw material at u mad price, and before
they could sell the manufactured article at a profit,
,their, customers must be as mad as they were.
But there are causes co-operating with the foolish
extravagance of the dealers in wrought silkS ;
there has been at work also tt very foolish cun-
-oiing, which was aimed by the silk•manufacturers
,against the community, but has served u very
..different purpose from that for which it was re-
sorted to. The tendency to stagnation in the
,silk-trade has been powerfully aggravated by the
'unfair assertions made by members of that body
assembled at the London Tavern ; when, in the
teeth of their own solemn testimony before Par-
liament, they assured the world that they were
not able to make op goods within 60 per cent.
of the French manufacturers. Now this de-1
claration must have been true or false. If it
be true, that with an equal duly on the raw
material, and with the vantage-ground of su.
perior capital, the English silk goods cannot
be made 'Wallis, sixty per cent. of their French
rivals, the plain answer of common Sense is
then, We the people of Engined are not such
idiots as to pay yon, 'Alm confess such an utter
incapacity for your own business, u bonus of
af3O per .cent. for continuing a trade which you
can never bring to perfection. The argument is
One for opening our ports at once to the cheaper
and better silks of Lyons, and for relieving our.
selves from an iniquitous tax, levied upon us by
a handful of clumsy monoplists, for their selfish
advantage. If they tell us, that with a monopoly,
-they will have leisure to improve, and be enabled
hereafter to meet the more skilful and industrious
Frenchman, we reply, that it is an immodest and
indecent delusion. They have had a monopoly
for ages past, as rigorous as unjust laws could
make it ; and have they employed it for
fisfs • benefit of their customers ? have they
improved and perfected their silks ? By their
own account the contrary hits happened,—still
they are 6t) per cent. behind their neighbours.—
Monopoly, therefore, is it bad school for those
who live by it; as it is a cruel tax upon those
whom it coerces; and on both grounds ought to
lire demolisher!. But is it true that the English
silk goods are so shamefully inferior to the
french ? We assert that they are not so ; and
that such a representation of the fact was alto-
gether dishonest. Do our readers recollect a
!Attire made some time ago of a large quantity
of wrought silks, on the allegation that they were
of French manufacture ? The goods laid hold of
were the property of Me3sts. Souther, de Rouilly
and Co., French Manufacturers, established in
this country, alld employieg English workmen.
The British
manufacturers who were parties to
the seizure, got together some of their friends,
who declared rather positively that the goods were
French, and could slot lw manufactured in this
country. The Customhouse Officers, if we do
not mistake, were inclined to an opposite opinion,
or were at least doubtful upon the matter ; but
question was cut short by the proprietors
themselves, who brought up (from Manchester
or Macclesfield) certain silk weavers, natives of

rthis country, who declared on oath before the
Magistrate, that these French goods were the
workmanship of their own E►►glish hands and
machinery. This was felt by every body at the
time to be a most striking adventure ; but it was
nothing more than what had been long since un-
questionable, the t of the silk goods bought on the
south coast for French, and recommended on the
pretext of being smuggled, three-fourths were
the produce of English looms, and made in suc-
cessful imitation of the Foreig►► article. It appears,
therefore, that monopoly has not only failed, if
we believe the manufacturers, to improve their
power of rivalling French skill, but, if we credit
our own experience and senses, has not succeeded
very eminently in refining their morals. We beg
of Mr. liuskisson, accordingly, that he will per-
severe iu his enlightened and useful undertaking.