The Sun.
London, England, 1844-04-23 00:00:00

impeaches and whose official character he impugns.
I call on him, or rather I call. on the House to com-
pel the Hon. Gentlemen, to b' specific in his allega-
tions ; and I challenge the Hon. Gentleman to any
inquiry before any tribunal." To which Mr. FER-
RAND replied—" I expect that to-morrow the Right
Hon. Baronet—for he is on his trial as well as my-
self—will be able to explain to the House in what
manner he became possessed of that report which he
drew out of his box, and which he used against me
almost immediately, if not immediately, on my re-
suming my seat in the debate on the new poor-law.
" Mr. HoGG—I hope that I shall be permitted to
bring the report to which the Hon. Gentleman has
referred, and to read that report to the House; and
if it should not be liable to the imputation which has
been cast upon it by him, I hope the House will call
on that Hon. Gentleman to disavow that which he
has uttered, or to require him, in any manner you
please, either before this or any other tribunal, to
bring his proofs ; and I will be satisfied, if he should
raise a doubt or suspicion as to my integrity, to
submit to the consequences. If, on the contrary, he
should fail to do so, I hope the House will visit him
in the manner he deserves."
Lord JOAN RUSSELL made some very pertinent
remarks on the real question at issue, and Sir R.
PEEL utterly denied the language which had been at-
tributed to him; and the subject then dropped.
Now, are we not justified in calling such a scene
humiliating to the character of a British House of
Commons, when a mere mountebank's exhibition shall
occupy the time of Parliament, whilst claims of high
moment press for consideration ? And are we not
justified in calling such humiliation deserved, when a
Government holds office, which it obtained by imple-
ments that it now despises, and would gladly get rid
of, but which cling to, and parasite-like, will ulti
mately destroy it? The PEEL Government came in
on the sliding-scale—they got to the top easily—
they are now on the descent, and they will gradually
slide down, until they reach the very lowest abyss of
popular odium.

Mr. THOMAS DUNCOMBE, who is one of the mos
manly, straightforward speakers in Parliament
made some apt and stinging comments last night on
the ultra-discreet conduct pursued by Lord ASHLEY
as regards the Ten Hours' Factory question. " The.
Noble Lord," he observel, " was goitig to let the
Bill slip through the House, until it was about being
passed. Then, he would, as it were, take a flying
shot at it. But as it was about to pass, when he
went to discharge his second barrel at it, he would
find that the game was gone. That would be the
result of all the discussion that had taken place, and
of the decision which the House had come to, that
women and children should not work for more than ten
hours. The operatives thought that his Lordship and
the House had been trifling with their interests, and that
the whole thing was a delusion from beginning to end."
Stung by the truth and force of these strictures, the
usually bland and gentle advocate of humanity
started up in a towering passion, remarking that he
" thought the operatives of England were quite as
fit judges of what was for their own good, as the
Hon. Member for Finsbury ; and he also thought
that they had among them ten times more justice
and ten times more candour than he could pride him-
self upon." The exasperated Nobleman then went
on to read " three lines of a letter which he had re-
ceived that morning," which, he said, was written
by authority of 'the Short-Time Committee of Lan-
cashire, and which approved of the course he had
adopted, as being the best, under all the circumstances,
that could have been taken. It is a remarkable circum-
stance, that whenever a Member of Parliament wishes
to justify himself with the House or the country from
any charges that may have been brought against him in
his public capacity, he never fails to find a letter in
his pocket, written by competent authority, and ap-
proving of all that he has said and done. 'What is
more remarkable still, this exceedingly lucky and con-
venient epistle never fails to reach him on the very
morning of the day appointed for his justification.
We have observed this, not once but a hun-
dred times, and have often admired the considerate
interposition of Providence in furnishing embarrassed
Members with such epistolary Godsends as may tend
to help them out of a scrape, just at the fitting sea-
lson. The late Mr. I.luslossoN used to be specially
Favoured in this way. . Whenever he had a measure
to bring forward which he thought might subject
him to animadversion, he invariably contrived to find
a letter in his coat-pocket, penned by some able, prac-
tical individual, who had devoted his whole life to the
subject, upholding all his views, and insisting that his
measure was the very identical measure which was most
wanted at that particular crisis. Good men, it has been
said, are always special favourites of Heaven; and this,
we suppose, is the reason why Lord ASHLEY, like Mr.
Husrussox before him, has received, just in the nick
of time, an official letter, whose avowed object is to
absolve him of all stains, and to show that, as respects
the Factory Bill, he has acted with the prudence
Ind sagacity of a SOLON. Doubtless this epistolary
white-wash will not be without its effect on the
minds of many who have previously entertained doubts
of the absolute wisdom of his Lordship's proceedings-
But there are many, also, who will be apt to regard
it in no other light than as as an ingenious ruse, got
up for the sole purpose of helping the Noble Lord out
of a dilemma. For our own part, were he to receive
a dozen letters, instead of only one, approving of the
course he has thought fit to pursue on the Ten Hours'
measure, we should still continue to entertain pre
cisely the same opinion that we now do, respecting
thatcourse—still continue to think it tame, impolitic,
and most shamefully acquiescent. .Possessed, as he
.vas, of the full confidence of the overtasked opera-
tives and their families—knowing, as he did, the great
interest they attached to the measure which he, of his
own accord, had brought forward in their behalf—see-
ing, as he could not fail to see, the great importance
of even the half-victory he had already gained—Lord
ASHLEY should not have yielded one inch of the vant-
age ground he had secured ; he should have clung with
bull-dog tenacity to his resolution; he should have
fought the battle foot to foot, hand to hand; and if
finally crushed, he should have been crushed in the
attitude of dogged resistance, not of abject retreat.
But, instead of adopting this bold, energetic line of
conduct, which would have secured him the sympathy
of his friends and the respect of his enemies, he has
allowed himself to be scared by the very noise of his
own creating; and has let slip an opportunity, which
may not occur again for years, of giving a decided
impetus to the cause of the poor factory slaves.
Tere is clearly nothing more to be done with the
question in Parliament. The generous impulses of
the House have given way to considerations of expe-
diency; Ministers have carried—or are about to carry—
their point in triumph ; and so long as they remain
in power, it is vain to hope for any remission in those
hours of excessive labour, which are now slowly and
surely drawing hundreds of women and children to
an untimely grave. Many factory operatives are
living—vegetating rather—at this present moment,
who will be rotting in a workhouse cemetery long
before the period when Lord ASHLEY makes his next
humanity flourish in the House of Commons.

Now, that the trials at the Old Bailey are over,
and sentence has been pronounced, after a verdict
which, we must confess, appeared to us inevitable
from a perusal of the evidence, we may express our
hope, that something will be done to prevent the
recurrence of such crimes as those of which
FLETCHER and BARBER have been found guilty. It
is far better to suppress the crime, and take away the
incitement to it, than to punish guilt, and wreak
vengeance on the offender. There can be little
doubt that men who in the common transactions of
life shall be scrupulously honest, and in all matters
between man and man shall punctiliously regard the
strict line of honour, when the question comes be-
tween an individual and the Government, totally over-
look the necessity of doing as they would be done by,
and defraud the revenue without the least qualm of
conscience. The ingenuity exerted one day to bring
over a box of cigars free from duty, shows itself upon a
larger scale upon another occasion ; and whether the
object be to deprive the Custom-house of its enormous
dues, or to rescue from the hands of the State
money which it only acquired for want of a claim
by the right owner, the moral turpitude in the minds

a a large portion of men shall not be distinguishable.
What right, say such men, has the Government to
unclaimed dividends, or to the stock whence they are
derived? Why should the public take that which is
the property of individuals ? And from these in-
quiries, thus made or suggested, spring the first in-
citements to share in the plunder.
The remedy we should suggest is, that whenever