The Sun.
London, England, 1844-12-21 00:00:00

MECHANICS' INSTITUTE.

On Wednesday evening, Mr. Clarkson discussed
the project of connecting the Mediterranean with the
Red Sea, by means of a canal or railroad across the
Isthmus of Suez. The time chosen for the lecture
was most opportune, as the above subject occupies a
prominent place not on'.y in the English, but the con-
tinental papers, and has called forth many able
pamphlets. Not that there is any novelty in the idea,
but it seems at the present moment to be taken up
with more earnestness than on any previous oc-
casion. The canal that was used in bygone times
(and of which considerable traces remain) to
connect the Red Sea with the River Nile, sug-
gested to Bonaparte nearly half a century ago the
practicability of a navigable canal being constructed
from north to south, a distance of about 70 miles ;
and he accordingly ordered the engineers who ac-
companied his expedition to Egypt, to survey the
ground, and to furnish plans, &c. Copies of these
plans and a vertical section were exhibited by the
lecturer, together with a large and distinct map of
the localities under discussion, which rendered the
different bearings of the subject intelligible. Mr.
Clarkson gave a history of the navigation of these
parts, from classical authors, and pointed out, very
distinctly, the principal geographical and topographical
details connected with them. The advantages that
would accrue to Europe in general, and to England
in particular, by effecting a communication between
the two seas, are obvious enough ; and, therefore, i
was the lecturer's object to put his auditory in pos-
session of the information absolutely necessary to
enable them properly to appreciate the merits of the
contending plans now under discussion. For having
done this in a most lucid and efficient manner, he de-
serves the thanks of every friend of the Institute.—
Cambridge Independent Press.

MELANCHOLY DZATII FROM TAKING LAUDANUM.
—An inquest was held in Whitehaven, on Monday, the
17th inst., before Win. Lumb, jun., Esq., on view of the
body of Jane Temple, who came to her death in the
following melancholy manner:—lt appears that the un-
fortunate sufferer was ill on Friday last, and her
mother sent a boy of about eight or ten years of age,
to Messrs. Randleson and Foster's shop with a teacup,
for sonic tincture of rhubarb, which the boy obtained,
but, on returning home, spilled it, in consequence of which
a girl, a year or two older than the boy, was sent upon
the same errand. The girl stated distinctly that she
asked for the tincture of rhubarb, which she obtained,
as she supposed, and returned home with the cull. The
mother administered a dose of te supposed tincture,
and she fell asleep. When she choke the dose was re-
peated, but as it did not produce the desired effect,
Mr. Clark, surgeon, was sent for, and on examining
the cup, he at once discovered that, instead of
tincture of rhubarb, the unconscious mother had ad-
ministered two doses of laudanum to her suffering
daughter. Mr. Clark applied the usual remedies. His
efforts to preserve lifa were unavailing, and she
died soon after. The jury, after a careful investi-
gation of the ease, returned a verdict of " Accidental
death, caused by laudanum having been administered
by mistake for tincture of rhubarb." At the request
of the jury, the Coroner severely reprimanded
Messrs. Randleson and Foster's shop-boy for the careless
manner in which he had sent the poisonous narcotic from
uurder'H shop. (lad the usual and neces!.ary pre can-
tiou been taken of labelling the cup containing the drug
with the word "poison," the melancholy cirounastanoe
would, in all probability, have been prevented.

Week Last RI r;
ending NAME OF RAILWAY. week. z, '' ~:
~.
o
U 4..
Doc. 14 Arbroath and Forfar •..• • • . ..... •• • 114 145
13 Birmingham and Gloucester • •• • • 2,067 1,594
- Brandling Junction ..••••••• • • • • • • • • - 789
14 Bristol and Gloucester .. •••••• • • • • • • 980 -
13 Chester and Birkenhead .•• • • ...... • • 432 314
12 Dublin and Drogheda• 636 581
17 Dublin and Kingstown ........ ••• • • • 467 601
15 Dundee and Arbroath ..... • •
14 Durham and Sunderland .•• • • • ..... • • 309 604
14 Edinburgh and Glasgow . • ..... ••• • • • 1,835 1,734
15 Eastern Counties and North Eastern.. 4,020 3,239
14 Glasgow, Kilmarnock, and Ayr •.• • • • 1,365 1,091
14 Glasgow and Greenock••
14 Grand Junction
14 Great North of England .. •.••• • • • •! 1,526 1,321
14 Great Western . ....... ..... ...... • • 14,845 12,940
13 Liverpool and Manchester • • 4,490 3,505
14 London and Birmingham .
15 London and Itinckwall. 606 610
14 London and Brighton
17 Londoa and Croyd0n...
19 London and Greenwich .•• • • .... 386 692
16 London and South Western ......• • • 4,579 4,840
15 Manchester, Bolton, and Bury ••• • • • 603 696
13 Manchester and Birmingham • • .... • • 2,814 2,552
14 Manchester, Leeds, and. Hull Assoc• • 5,672 5,179
14 Midland Counties
14 Newcastle and Darlington ...... •• • • 1,002 -
14 Newcastle and Carlisle
15 Newcastle and North Shields.. ••• • •• 314 30
13 North Union and Bolton and Pruden 1,317 841 16 Paris, Corbeil, and Orleans ...... .• • • 4,325 3,852
16 Paris and Rouen ........... •••• • • • • 4,162 3,005
14 Preston and Wyt-e.................. 303 229
14 Sheffield and Manchester ...... 579 470
19 South Eastern ......
14 Taff ............. ••••. • • • • 4,145 2,58..14 06
809
15 Ulster . .. .., ..........
15 Yarmouth and Norwich ...... •••• .. I 611 691
251 -
14 York and North Midland .
... •

---
STATISTICS OF DRUNKENNESS.—A very curious
document has been lately drawn up on the origin, causes,
results, metaphysics, philosophy, and physiology of
drunkenness. One of the most curious chapters is that
which contains a table of the various circumstances to
which inebriety may be attributed. The report divides
intoxication into several heads, including the muzzy,
which is a sort of minor branch. Among the muzzy,
six cases out of ten may be traced to spasms, and that
one nineteenth arises from birth-days ; that among
confidential clerks inebriety is rare, but when it occurs,
pickled salmon, or the arrival of a friend from the
country, are found to be the most usual causes of the
malady. Drunkenness has also been known to srizse
in some instances from taking up a bill ; but as the
latter is an operation which persons given to intoxica-
tion seldom perform, the number of cases to be attri-
buted to this source is very insignificant. A wi!'e's
birth-day has often been known to lead to a total pros-
tration of the husband ; but it is a remarkable fact, that
the day is frequently mistaken in these instances, and
such is the power of imagination, that a man has been
known to drop down into the gutter eight or nine times
in a year, through having fancied that the birth-day of
his wife occurred repeatedly in the course of a twelve-
racnith.—Punch.

LETTERS ON THE CORN-LAWS,
No. XII,
(from the Teague.) , ,•- ---
LETTER FROM SOME, OF ti-is WOMEN' OF
ENKILAND TO THE NORWICH WEAVER
ItOY. LONDON, Dec. 2.
It may be generally supposed that the. women of
England who contribute to ,the AntiTrn-law League
Bazaar, or. at leest thOse who raise their voices in ad-
reire.tloii of the principles and proceedings of that,
League, are the only ones who approve of free trade, or
disapprove of umecessary and undue legislative Inter
ference with the affairs of the natien. Such a supposi
tion would, however, he erroneous. There are English-
Wothen, an-1 to their number we belong, who deprecate this
interference, who are most anxious to see free trade toed
direct taxation introduced, who sees the whole bearing of
these matters upon the sufferings which they commis-
aerate, but who still are prevented by every feeling of
duty and humanity from upholding the principles of
the League, the evident tendency of which is to let
doctrines of political economy supersede those laws
which God first wrote Upoh the heart of man, and after-
wards revealed itt language which admits of but one in-
terpretation. These laws teach us to love our fellow-
creatures as ourselves, and most forcibly enjoia charity;
but that word has in the gospel a far more ettencled
meaning than that In which it is usually employed ;
and te do not there see it used as giving some
classes of our fellow-creatures an exclusive right to our
love, while, at the same time, we are allowed, not only
ourselves to hate and revile ether claeees, but even to
teach the pear end ignorant to do so likewise. The
repel is a doctrine of love—of love so comprehensive
that even the sinner is embraced in it, though sin is ab-
horred and reviled ; and we are taught in humility not
to judge others, that we may not ourselves be judged. It
teaches nowhere to denounce, though throughout it
teaches us hew to reform. It tells us who is blessed; it
it than who has added who is cursed.
The members of the Anti-Corn-law League may be
the propounders of sound doctrines of political economy:
but we do not see that they are on that account to ar-
rogate to themselves all the virtue in the community,
and to denounce every opponent, not only as ignorant.
upon the Subject (so far they would be justified), but as
an object deserving the hatred and execration of man-
kind.
What will be the benefit to society, if, to ensure
triumph in the struggle for free trade, hatred between
class and class is to be not only nourished, but incul-
lated ? What will be the advantage of bread in every
mouth, if there is to be hatred and jealousy in every
heart ? Is it with feelings such as these that justice is to
be worked out, or when obtained by dome is to be ex-
tended to other, ?

little lVwritings,are
thaw
conscious
at atrhoe
ofy tthathine indignantly
iehe members
gondaenntcltendency of
o repel
t hoef
their
rtvheo erwyi
aLeaguespeeches
euesoahtairrosen
osoorf
the kind here brought against them ; yet to every un-
biassed observer such is their tendency. The answer
which these gentlemen make to the materialism of their
doctrine is, that it is not their mission to preach the
gospel. We admit that it may not be their mission to
preach it, but it is their duty to follow its precepts; and
only when free trade is advocated in terms which are
not at variance with the laws of God enjoining peace and
goodwill amorg men, can the advocates be joined by
those who do not allow that any human necessity can
supersede the necessity of obedience to those laws.
We know that religion is in our day looked upon as a
Sunday business only—a thing having nothing to do with
the business of the week days; and as such, perhaps, it is
excluded from the week-day labours of the Anti-Corn-
law League. As men passing judgment upon public
measures, and advocating a new system of administra-
tion, the members cannot, however, pretend to be exempt
from the consideration of all other state matters but those
the study of which they have made their peculiar avoca-
tion. They ought to know that every citizen, though
bound to do his best to correct errors of government, is
likewise bound to do it in a manner that shall not subvert
public order. Now, though we heartily wish to see the
corn-laws abolished, we cannot agree with those who
think that this cannot be done without pulling down the
aristocracy of the land, thereby virtually subverting the
constitution of the realm ; nor do we see the intimate
connexion between the aristocracy exclusively and the
corn-laws. The aristocracy of Great Britain is not an
exc:usive class, for centuries separated from the body of
the nation by an insurmountable barrier of onerous pri-
vileges ; it is, on the contrary, continually being re-
cruited from the middle classes, which in their turn re-
ceive numbers from the classes below ; and it is in fact
only in the precedency of rank that the main distinction
between the aristocracy and the wealthy members of the
other classes of the community consists. The corn-laws
are connected with the prejudices of the landed pro-
prietors ; but surely these are not exclusively members
of the aristocracy ; and, even were it so, the advocates
of free trade have nothing to do with them in that
capacity ; they have merely to combat their erroneous
opinions as to administration. Administrative mea-
sures can never be meant to be more than
temporary, and ought to be repealed as soon as they are
discovered to be pernicious. Not so constitutional laws :
these are part of she life of the nation ; and none but the
nation, in its entireness, can lawfully make any change in
them. We do not see that there is in England any call
or any disposition for such a change ; and it is therefore
with profound grief that we see the Anti-Cora-law
League, while following out its legitimate ends, sowing
the seeds of unholy things. Besides, we think that the
Anti-Corn-law League, if working honestly for the abo-
lition of the corn-laws, and for nothing else, is rather
defeating its own object by attacking with such virulence
the class with whom the power of abolishing them, in so
great a measure, rests. If the League, however, prefers
carrying its point by brute force, and is only trying to
get up a masked democratical movement, then, to be sure,
the means used may be efficient, though they, as well as
the end, are criminal. And then it will remain to be ex-
perienced whether in England, as in France at no very
distant period, the poor, after having been deluded by
the middle classes into the belief that, by destroying
what was obnoxious to the latter, they would be work-
ing for their own happiness, when discovering the decep-
tion,* will not tarn upon their former flatterers, and
exercise upon them the principles of hatred and revenge
instilled by them.
SOME OF THE WOMEN OF. ENGLAND.

REPLY TO "SOME OF THE WO
ENGLAND."
Ladies,—The perusal of your reply to the writer of
these letters will, in one respect, afford high gratifi-
cation to the advocates of the Anti-Corn-law League.
You apprise us that the desire, in your sex, to see the
labourers' bread untaxed, and the ports open for the
admission of that food of which multitudes are in
want, must not be measured by the number of those
who contribute towards the proposed Bazaar, or who
(at our meetings, I presume) " raise their voices in
admiration of the principles and proceedings of that
League." Beyond this body there is, you tell us, a
wider atmosphere of female sympathy in free trade
principles. You vouch for the fact as yourselves be-
longing to the number who occupy that position. The
soundness of your reasons for standing thus aloof I
shall discuss presently. It is just first to observe that
those who do not stand aloof are so numerous ; they
shed such a halo of grace and beauty around our cause ;
they blend so becomingly the unobtrusiveness of wo-
men's nature with her keen and courageous moral sense;
their very presence has so purified the movement
from the common coarseness of party strife in politics ;
the wealthier of them have given so liberally to our
funds, and the poorer have so cheerfully imposed
exertion and privation on themselves to become con-
tributors; their suggestions as to the Bazaar plan, first
in 'Manchester, and now in London, have been so ju-
rdicious, and their co-operation so efficient; and, bring-
ing into our agitation whatever of peculiar truthful-
ness, delicacy, compas ion, and piety, constitutes their
distinctive character, they have so imprinted on it the
mark of a holy and Christian work, that it is gratify-
ing to learn there are more of their sex who will re-
joice in their triumph, although they do not aid in the
needful means for its attainment. It is something to
have the good they do appreciated; especially by
those who leave the previous exertion unparticipated.
You approve the principles of free trade, and yet
withhold your countenance from the League. You
will not contribute even to the Bazaar, which is, at
any rate, free from the offence given you by other
proceedings. Allow me, then, to ask what else you
will do, to promote your own principles and satisfy
your own consciences ? You behold the production,
by monopoly, of " sufferings" which you " commise-
rate." What is your process for their alleviation ?
Are you content to stand by as inertly as if you were
utterly indifferent to the wretchedness of which you
know the source and the remedy ? Is it a sufficient
excuse for doing nothing, that those who are doing
something speak sometimes erringly ? If the very
devils confess Christ, is that a reason for practically
denying Christ? Are you willing to remember the
injured poor in your prayers, but to remember them
nowhere else ? What is your intelligence worth, or
your sympathy, if it shun the company of the like -
minded, and adopt for itself no other course of action ?
Christian women, you cannot be at peace with your-
selves, if you prolong this moral incongruity.
You accuse the League of letting the doctrines of
political economy supersede the laws of God. And
whose laws are the doctrines of political economy ?
'What are those doctrines but the exposition of provi-
dential facts ? They teach mutual dependence,
mutual service, and common interests, in all the
tribes and nations of mankind. They exhibit that
wisdom which in varied climates and remotest
regions has stored up the materials of useful ex-
change and friendly intercourse. They identify the
objects of individual pursuit with the means of
universal enjoyment. They abate the pride of
wealth, and render industry honourable. They show
how to replenish the world and subdue it, by making
the wilderness a garden, and not the garden a wilder-
ness. They interpose the strongest obstacles to the
ravages of warfare ; and, as with the voice of angels,
raise the season-song of " Peace on earth and good-
will among men." Were there no revelation, political
economy would suggest a religion. Were there no
Christianity, political economy would shadow forth
some faint outline of its divine benignity.

* We use the term deception, because we cannot but
see that, although much benefit would accrue to the
country from the introduction of free trade, the blissful
state of utopian felicity which is held out as a lure to the
poorer classes would be far from attained. Suffering
will be the lot of mankind until the laws of Christ reign
in all hearts ; and woe unto the land if one of these laws
is to be set aside, were it even t') facilitate the introduc-
tion of a more perfect human code than has ever yet been
known.

You say that you can only join the free trade
tause; as sustained by the League; when it is " ad-
vottted in. tt4ibs. which pre !int at variance with thj
ikt la of Lind enjoining puce and good-will to Mei.°
If your requirement only related to the principles
on which the League is founded; and the olliects at
which it aims, no'hing ettild be more tensonablt.
In that case, I venture to affirm that your immediate

ei-operation may be challenged. But t if your re-
quirement extend to all the speeches and writings of
individuals, then nothing can be more unreasonable.
You are requiring perfection of humanity; and
making the absence of perfection the excuse for not
helping the effort for improvement. No large asso-
ciated body can stand such a test, whatever be its
objects, or whoever its supporters. There is no mis-
sion to the heathen or charity to the poor, no work
of truth or mercy, in the language of whose sup-
porters yott may not find some taint or flaw, and
go justify yourselves for passing by on. the other
side. You thus exonerate yourselves from all useful
service. You claim permanent leave of absence from
the warfare of good against evil. You plead a letter
of license from the labours of benevolence. And,
Strangest of all, the very terms of your fancied ex•
emption are taken from the precepts by which it is
most emphatically condemned; the commands for
practically evincing that universal love which would
leave no grief unsolaced, no wrong unredressed, no
want unrelieved.

Might not some of your charity be well bestowed
on those whom you deem too fervent in a righteous
cause ? You allow them to " denounce every oppo-
nent as ignorant." There has been little of rebuke
employed which such leave does not cover. Is igno-
rance a virtue in a legislator? Is it excusable, when
he is surrounded by the means of knowledge ? Does
it not become a fearful sin, when the interests and
lives of millions are dependent on his using his powers
wisely ? Should he be coaxed by soft words into
contentment with his pernicious blunders ? Is ch.i-
rity so enamoured of Barnabas, that it must needs
unchristianise Boanerges ? Have not both their
work in the world ? And would Felix ever have

trembled before Paul had the apostle only told the
tyrant how much he loved him ? .Can we, in Chris-
tian sincerity, and consistently with moral integrity,
call bad things by good names ? Is there no dif-
ference between the righteous and the wicked—the
friends of the poor and their oppressors—those who
would secure to labour the full amount of its earn-
ings, and those who make laws to lessen that amount
and fill their own pockets ? Love the sinner as
much as you will, but do not hide from him that he
is a sinner. You can do him no greater mischief.
It is worse than being " angry with the wicked
every day.'
Is not your charity offended on the other side ?
Do you observe no falsehood, no calumny, no vitupe-
ration, on the part of monopoly ? Is the bad cause
purer in its proceedings than the good cause ? If
not, your disapproval, extending in that case both to
means and ends, must needs be much stronger than
your disapproval of the League. And yet your con-
duct tends to support, in preference, what you most
disapprove. For when the question is of repealing
an existing law, the motive, as derived from public
opinion, is exclusively formed by those who speak
out against the law. The quiescent are acquiescent.
Their silence tells for support. Their inaction is a
sanction. Not showing themselves for change, they
are reckoned as being against change. This is your
inevitable predicament. You become responsible for
the prolonged mischiefs, abhorrent to your principles
and feelings, against which you do not protest. The
muster-roll of monopoly includes all who do not erase
their names by some act of adhesion to the opposite
principle. Can you rest till you have done this ?
When one looks at the titled and wealthy sub-
scribers to the League, the notion of a " masked de-
mocratical movement" for " pulling down the aris-
tocracy " is almost too absurd for notice. Doubtless,
many members of the League have their democratical
partialities; as you, ladies, have your aristocratical
partialities. No political creed is imposed by the
League ; nor by the opponents of the League either,
who have from the first been not very scrupulously
anxious to enlist the extreme democratical party in
their cause. It is not by the League that any subsi-
dised alliance has ever existed with the Feargus
O'Connor Chartists, the physical-force democrats.
And if there be anything democratical in the present
plan for extending and purifying the county consti-
tuencies, it is only that sort and degree of democracy
which our Governmental system has sanctioned and
presupposed for centuries. The power to be thus
called into action has been, however dormant, the
people's privilege from the days of the despotic
Tudors. The mission of the League is merely to
make this part of the Constitution a reality. It
brings a "great fact" out of a dormant but conse-
crated principle.
There is some truth in your distinction, though it
is rather fine, between the aristocracy and the land-
owners.: Practically, the two classes are identical.
But it is not as an aristocracy that the majority of
our legislators tax the people's food ; they only do it
as traders in land and the products of land. You
may also be correct in thinking that the results of
corn-law repeal have been sometimes, and by some
advocates, overrated and utopianised. It would be
very strange were it otherwise. Results so natural
of this species of struggle for an immense good, ob-
stinately withheld, may be much more easily
and rationally accounted for than by your hypo-
thesis of the middle classes deluding the poor; an
hypothesis which serves to show how the extreme of
charity towards the selfish wrongers of others may
slide into the extreme of uncharitableness towards

the injured party.
I have thus endeavoured to avail myself of what
appeared to be your invitation to discuss certain reli-
gious objections to active co-operation with the League.
Their religious character entitles them to a respect
which could not else have been felt for difficulties that

tend to render all extended co-operation for redress of
grievances impracticable, and so to prolong the mi-
series which man inflicts on man by the abuse of
power and authority. The inertness of a portion of
the religious public on this question is a phe-
nomenon which you deserve thanks for helping
to explain. Explanation cannot justify it. Even
by passiveness and silence to encourage those who
grind the faces of the poor, and abridge their
pittance of daily bread, is a virtual renuncia-
tion of the gospel. To leave the industrious undor
injury, and the helpless unaided, when protest and
exertion may serve them, is not doing as we would
be done unto. There is no love in the allowance of
wrong, even to the wrong-doer. ISre should bear
and forbear with the mistakes of those who are
striving to obtain redress, as well as with the mis-
takes of those who refuse redress. The corn-laws
are a demonstrated source of vice, wretchedness,
crime, disease, and death. The path of Christian
duty is most plain. The League aftbrds oppor-
tunity for the discharge of that duty. It thereby
enhances the obligation, and devolves upon all a
deeper responsibility. Deepest of all should that
responsibility press on those who make a religious
profession. Neglected opportunities of good are
the sternest of accusing spirits. Nor will they be
silenced by carping at those who improve such oppor-
tunities earnestly, if not always (in your opinion)
unexceptionably; and who have, by their zeal, been
pioneers to clear the highway, through a wilderness
of ignorance, error, and indifference, in which Chris-
tian principle, moral duty, and human feeling, enjoin
you to unite and advance. There is yet time to
" enter into their labours," and accelerate their pro-
gress to the great result. To woman, as well as
man, applies the admonition emphatically uttered by
the Rev. J. Burnett, at a Covent-garden meeting of
the League—" Let every one solemnly charge his
(or her) own conscience with the high duty and
sacred obligation of carrying out this work to its full
and final completion."
A NORWICH WEAVER BOY.

OF DART-