The Sun.
London, England, 1828-05-02 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS,

In making some observations, in our paper of
Wednesthiy, on the ot4ie.l returns of exports and
imports for the last three years, we were perfectly
aware that the mode of preparing these returns was
not new. We were, likewise, as well aware as any
of our contemporaries, that the striking difference
in the nominal amount of exports and imports in
tlpe same year, arose partly from the impossibility
of striking the real balance within the year, and partly
from the different manner in which the value of each
was ascertained. Our chief object in drawing at-
tention to the great apparent excess of exports over
imports, during a course of years, was to impress
upon Government the duty of making some change
in the plan of snaking up the accounts or strikin,
the balance, by which the conventional value might
snore nearly represent the real price. It. is perfectly
evident that on a long series of years our general ex-
ports and imports must nearly balance each other ;
but by the present senseless mode of estimating
their amount in pounds sterling, it would appear
that we must have been exporting more than we
have imported by many millions every year, or, in
ether words, must have been losing many millions
a year ever since the peace. An Honourable Mem-
ber of the House of Commons, two or three sessions

ago, though a commercial 'nun, seemed so convinced
of this fact, from being misled by those official state-

merits, that. he predicted from it the speedy ruin of
prosperity. Surely the alarms of such a man (who
exclaimed that we had lost more then 200,000,0001.

on our trade within the last IA or 13 years,) corn-.

bined with a regard to g-encral information, afford
sufficient motives to make a change in the present

absurd practice.— Times.

It is no more than natural that men of business
should ascribe an exaggerated importance to every
system of a change in the political relations cf this
country. On changes in the price of goods and in
the rates of insurance, the fortunes of the mercantile
,community so much depend, that every department
of the public service, military, maritime, and civil,
is ‘vatchel with never-sleeping vigilance, for mate-
rials on which to build a speculation respecting some
contingency, immediate or remote, that may affect
the sale, the purchase, or conveyance of merchandise.
Considerable alarm, it appears, though altogether
altogether groundless, has been telt or pretended, at
a partial extension of the contract!, for naval stores
by the Admiralty, which has taken place within
these few weeks, and at other apparent preparations
for an increase of our squadrons in certain seas.
There need be no mystery about the matter, and un-
questionably no alarm. The, Turks have exhibited
such a brutal obstinacy in resisting the really kind
and long-sighted counsels of those of the Allied
Powers whose chief solicitude wee.; to prevent the
total destruction of the Ottoman Empire, that it is
not at all surprising if England and France should
have at last resolved to despatch to that mast .of
Turkey an armament so irresistible.) provided with
instructions so comprehensive and so peremptory,
for a forcible execution of the treaty of July 6,
that nothing but utter madness can induce the Grand
Seignor to stand out another moments Report has
carried the amount of our maritime preparation so
high as to 20 or 25 sail of the line, part of which,
however, it is not impossible may be destined
to the coasts of South America, where hosti-

lities are not yet terminated between. Buenos
Ayres and Brazil, where, consequently, the com-
merce of Great Britaiu might still be exposed to
molestation. As for uneasiness respecting the ob-

•
ject of these provisional armaments, there need none,
,--1 s we have already hinted. The Allies tire) we arc
led to believe, of one intention with regard to Tur-
key, in so far as Greece is concerned. And should
war break out between the Turks and Russians to
the northward, it is manifest that a country of such
ccimplex and wide-spreading interests as England
must be near the spot with an /ornament of observa-
tion, for the defence of her own subjects from the
insult, which might otherwise be offered th'em by one
of the belligerents, 9r both. At present the cool pre-
varations of this Government are of a nature to re-
move, instead of raising distrust, and to inspire
Englishmen with confidence and tranquillit—ibid.
Lord Darnley, who possesses a 'considerable estate
in Ireland, moved last night for the appointment of
R Select Committee, to inquire into the state of the
digressed population of Ireland iv;th a view to the
introduction of a modified syslin of Poor Rates.--
His Lordship drew s very moving picture of the
condition of the wretched natives of Sister
Kingdom; and appealed to the Assembly as Chris-
tians bound to relieve the destitute, and as land-

holders deriving their luxuries from those who were
perishing of want in the streets and highways.—
" Did their Lordellips (he said) boost themselves
'ihe disciples of the mild and benevolent Jesus, who
went about doing good, end, denouncing those who
neglected the first duty of Christianity—to feed the
hungry and clothe the naked—yet abandoned their
fellow-countrymen in the last stage of misery ? The
House he was addressing eonsisted almost exclu-
sively- of landed proprietors, who either directly or
indirectly drew their comfort* and their luxttrie,
from the very bones and marrow of these wretches ;
and the least they could do 'co to vote for an In-
quiry." As Christians And as landholders !
Christianity in the Bible is one thing, and Chris-
tianity in Ireland another ! In the Bible Chris-
tianity eetteinly means feeding the hungry and
elothing the naked; but in Ireland it means the
snatching the morsel from the famishing man, and
stripping from the necessitous his last garment. Lord
Plunkett admitted in Parliament, that the very ex-
istence of the Christian Religion in Ireland rested
on the amount of money which the Church could
obtain by means at variance with the doctrines of
Christ. Christianity in Ireland means the giving
nothing of your own to others, and the stripping
others of what is theirs—it means the science of
closing your own hearts, and opening your neigh-
bour's purse—it means the best mode of throwing
blown the simple and tinwary, and keeping them
'down when they are down. The Christianity al-
hided to is admirably adapted for Irish landholders,
whom it furnishes with additional means of deriving
comforts and luxuries from the bones and marrow of
those whom they consign to the death of hunger.
It is only in a civilised country, possessing commerce
and manufactures, and gradations of society, that
landholders are not tyrants and scourges. In the
history of civilization, the first important step is to
interpose some restraint on the owners of the soil
in behalf of the wretched serfs who eultirtcte it.
The domestic History of England is the hieitity of
• the efforts of the ,42rown to defeat the ettempts of
the landholders to prevent the improedetent of the
country. We place no reliance 'at' the Chris-
tianity oe the humanity of Irish Landholders.
We would always, indeed, rather appeal to
their selfishness than the humanity of any class
of men. But then there is such a thing. a,
ignorant selfishness—as mistaking one's true interest.
We do not, for instance, quarrel with Lord Limerick,
who stoutly opposed Lord Darnley for not' being
eufficiently selfish; we dare say he has a very earnest
desire to attend to self; but we quarrel with him for
sot being sufficiently acquainted with the true in-
t_erest of the owners of land. "No less (said his
Lordship) than seven-millions had been raised last
year in England, under Poor Lairs, and the engrafted
litigations for removals and settlements had cost only
the sum of 600,0001." True--and there were Wu
Poor Rates in Ireland, not one farthing.. Wretched
landowners of England—happy latelowers of Ire-
:arid ! But the landowners of England must have
something for themselves, after lie-poor are provided
for; and the question is not vt-h. :her they pay some-
thing to the poor, but whether, if nothing had been
paid to the poor, and they had been left to die on
the roads as in Ireland, the sums pocketed by land-
owners teould have been ac great as they now are.
If a man pays fifty pounds, to have three hundre
he is better off than if he paid nothing to receiv,
one hundred. The rent of Ireland is said to he
eight millions a year ; hut do the owners receive
this nominal amount ? Can eight millions be pos-
sibly extracted from a nation 'iThich does not m