The Sun.
London, England, 1844-06-20 00:00:00

"RESIGNATION OF MINISTERS.

" SATURDAY EVENING.—The Cabinet Council has just
broken up, and it is said the decision of resigning was come
to unanimously.
" Sir Robert Peel forthwith proceeded to the palace, and
had an audience of her Majesty. The official announce-
ment of the fact will, of course, be made to both
Houses of Parliament on Monday. The cheers with
which the announcement of the defeat of Ministers was
hailed, last night, from the Conservative benches, left no
doubt on the minds of Ministers as to the feeling of the party
towards them. Thus, in two and a half years,having falsified
every pledge they gave whilst out of office, the Ministry that
boasted of a majority of One Hundred in a House caged by
their antagonist; now retire without sympathy or honour."
The Mail goes on to enumerate the delinquencies of
Sir Robert Peel, as head of the Government, which
produced the event on which it congratulates the Con-
servative party and the country in the strongest terms.
The Sugar Duties—on which the adverse vote was
given against the Government on Friday night, and was
the proximate cause of the supposed resignation of the
Ministry—is treated as a mere accident of which the
Conservatives availed themselves to convince the Go-
vernment of the fixed determination of the party which
raised it to office, to enforce a policy more in confor-
mity with the principles and pledges of Sir Robert
Peel, when leader of the Opposition in the last Par-
liament, and on the faith of which he was entrusted
with power. A more unequivocal party proclamation of
entire renunciation and repudiation of a Ministry, has
seldom been embodied and issued than the article in
Monday's Dublin Mail, to which we have alluded.
That Sir Robert Peel did not resign, as the organ
of the Irish Conservatives supposed he had—because,
in its view, he was shut up to that only course con-
sistent with his position—will be a source of disap-
pointment ; but will not mitigate the hostility with
which his course is viewed by the party, nor in-
duce its organ to qualify the condemnation of its po-
licy, which it pronounced over its imaginary grave.
We may remark, that yesterday, in the hurry conse-
quent upon analysing the division of the preceding
night, we stated the number of ultra free traders who
voted with the Government as eleven. That number, on
a division, reckons as twenty-two—the exact majority by
which the vote of Friday night was reversed, and the
Government saved from inevitable disruption. The
actual number was, however, thirteen. Thus, but for

the Anti-Protectionists--who in this case voted for

the Government scale of Protection, as likely to advance
the abolition of all protection—the Government would
actually have been placed in a minority of four; and
would at this moment have been out of office ! On the
principle which was constantly put forth by the Tory
Journals while the Whigs were in office, that they were
kept in by the Irish Liberals, and not by a majority of
the entire House of Commons, Sir Robert Peel is the
minister of, the Anti-Corn-law League ; the leaders of
which preserve him in office by their votes ' • and to
whom, we trust, he will evince his gratitude by adopting
the free-trade policy they advocate.
STANDARD.—The alliance of West Indians, Whig-
Radical aspirants to office, and disappointed Conserva-
tive self-seekers have discharged their bolt, and we ima-
gine that they are little gratified by the result. The
first have obtained the satisfaction of knowing that they
have definitively placed their interests in opposition to
the discontinuance of the property-tax. The Whigs
have put another bar on the door that excludes them from
office, and the Conservative self-seekers have learned
how very inconsiderable a fraction of the Conser-
vative party they constitute. The wretched mismanage-
ment of West Indian affairs from the day in which the
short-sightedness and jobbing of the managers drove the
Duke of Buckingham and Chandos in disgust from
among them, this wretched mismanagement has led
to a course of blunders and calamities quite beyond
belief until the subject is inquired into ; but
it must be always so when great and varied interests
are confided to the care of mere traders. Such
men care for nobody but themselves, and they deride all
provision for the future. The interests of the British
empire could hardly be in worse hands, if confided to the
care of " the League," than the hands in which the West
Indian interest have been so many years. Like the
Leaguers, each of the West Indian managers thinks only
of the present time and of his own private interest.
" How shall I improve my returns for the year?
How shall I make my West Indian estate bring a better
price in the market ?" These are the questions he
asks himself ; but of anything for the common good, or
for the future prosperity of the colonies, he never
dreams. It is very well known that many of the West
Indian managers have invested large sums in the pur-
chase and cultivation of estates in Cuba—all cultivated
by slave labour. And at this very moment some of the
most distinguished West Indians, as they are called,
are negotiating fora loan of half a million to in-
troduce disguised slaves—for they will be no more—
into Trinidad and Demerara, so as to prevent, by the
advantage of the start, and of a fresher and a bet-
ter soil, the possible recovery of Jamaica and the
other old colonies, under any circumstances, how.
ever favourable. These mismanagers are, in truth,
the very worst enemies of the great body of
planters, and whatever tends to destroy their
influence, is a benefit to the great body of
West Indians. The disease under which the West Indies
suffer, and have been suffering for nearly forty years, is
a steady and by no means slow decline in the supply of
labour. This decline has not been caused, and can-
not be checked, by any financial arrangement. It
has been in progress while the West Indies
had a perfect monopoly, even to the exclusion of
the other British colonies ; it has been in progress
while sugar was protected by a differential duty of three
guineas the hundred weight ; and if it is now proceeding
at a more rapid rate, the acceleration is the effect of a
natural cause, the necessary operation of which every
one must see. As the negroes become fewer they get
higher wages, and with higher wages they become rich,
and the land becomes of less value. As they become rich,
however, they purchase small scraps of cheap land, and
cease to be labourers. Thus the labourers are still
more reduced in number, wages necessarily rise still
higher, and the same process is repeated again and again
and again, and must continue to be repeated until there
shall scarcely be a labourer in the colonies to be had
for hire. The advantage derived in this re-
spect to the great body of planters, is the
exposure of the truth, which the faithless
managers would keep out of sight. The British
tropical colonies are of immense importance to
the British empire, pecuniary considerations altogether
apart, and they are of not less importance to the liberty
of mankind. We must, therefore be careful not to
lose them, or let them sink into that state of ruin
to which they are rapidly descending, and to which
projects like that of Mr. Miles would only hurry
them more rapidly. A permanent supply of bona fide
free labour must be found for them. Until the
colonial population shall be doubled, the colonies will
not be in a secure state. Now this supply of labour may
be had promptly, and with little difficulty, by the estab-
lishment of settlements on the African coast, to serve as
entrepots, and thus will the accursed slave-trade be effec-
tually destroyed. It is not at present a contest be-
tween free labour and slave labour that is carried
on between our colonies on one side, and Cuba
and the Brazils on the other, it is a contest of
insufficient and overpaid labour against abundant and
unpaid labour, and the result is inevitable. But who
will pretend that if the negroes in our colonies were in
sufficient numbers to compel them to work at the wages,
and at the rate at which Englishmen work, any slaves
could compete with them? To obtain for the West
Indies this abundant supply of labourers is the object to
which Parliament must direct its attention.

TlMES.—Nothing could be more misplaced than the Pre-
mier's tragic remonstrances on Monday night at the conduct
of his uncertain and desultory supporters. To read his ex-
postulations, one might imagine he was addressing rebellious
children, or an ungrateful dependent, or faithless spouse. All
the favoar, all the confidence, is on his side. " Have I not
made you what you are," he seems to say, " a prosperous and
united family I+ Have I not taught you, and trained you;