The Sun.
London, England, 1844-12-02 00:00:00

IPIRIT of the PUBLIC JOURNALS.
DOE TES EVENING PAPERS OF SATURDAY.
GLOBE.—" A good man struggling under misfortune
is a sight for the gods." So said an ancient philoso-
pher. But the world had not then seen a great corn-
saereial country struggling under a Tory Ministry.
Our modern instance beggars in sublimity the ancient
apothegm. As, however, a good man so struggling
saay be supposed to find in an occasional glance at the
more fortunate eonditioa of his neighbours the con-
soling assurance that his lot is but an exception,
and probably as temporary in duration as it
as partial in extent, so may we yet occasionally
look abroad, and, in the brighter prospects of
other nations, find promise of an Improvement in our
own. In the progress of sound principles of commercial
economy, especially, we have an interest greater than
that of any other people. Every step of that progress,
wherever made, must be a gain to ourselves. We have
been led to these observations by a consideration
of the present position of parties in the United
states, as developed by the approach of the period
appointed for the election of a new President. It seems
to be one of the necessary consequences of a democratic
election, conducted as that of the American President
is, that it should generally result in the choice, not of
the man whose talents and energy best fit him to govern,
but rather of he against whom the fewest objections can
be urged ; and so to place at the head of the republic
rather one in whose opinions the majority concur most
completely, than one in whose ability they have the
greatest confidence. This may mainly account for the
.exclusion of such men as John Caldwell Calhoun, and
the election of Mr. Polk, when the representation of the
democracy of the United States is in question. But
such men, wherever their particular place may be, always
have their weight ; and speculating, as circumstances may
now warrant us in doing, upon the probability of Cal-
houn taking an important part in the American Go-
vernment daring the next Presidency, it may be inte-
resting to the British public to review shortly his past
career, and mark what it promises for the future. Our
present purpose is to do this, and we take as our chief
authority a volume published in New York about twelve
months ago. It purports to afford a complete view of
his political life down to that time, " together with a
selection from his speeches, reports, and other writings,
subsequent to his election as Vice-President of the
'United States." Born in 1782, it appears that lac entered
Congress in what has been called the War Session of
1811, and immediately became a leading member of
the party which preferred war to a submission to the
restrictions IV() were then attempting to enforce upon
American commerce. In 1817 he became Secretary of
War, which office he held until 1825, when he was
elected to the office of Vice-President. It is chiefly
from this period that we must view him as a commercial
reformer, and a determined opponent of the measures
by which America has shown a disposition to imitate
the restrictive and destructive commercial system of the
old world. We find his speeches abounding in argu-
mentative and eloquent denunciations of the protective
system, as applied to the produce and manufactures of
the United States, and his growing influence constantly
exerted in favour of the adoption of those enlightened
principles of commercial policy which have at length
become so prevalent that they have even insinuated
themselves into the Conservative Cabinet of England.
Would that their inconsistency with all else they find
there were not productive of quite so much vacillat-
ing and blundering legislation—that our sapient rulers,
blinded by the light of principles to which their
vision is unfitted, would consent to stand still where
the only alternative must be floundering into mischief
'But to return to our subject. The opinions of Mr.
Calhoun have been so clearly and freely expressed in
favour of liberal commercial arrangements between
the United States and this country in particular,
and are throughout so uniform and consistent, that
we can have but little difficulty in anticipating the course
to be taken by any Government of which he may happen
to be a ineutber. His untiring opposition to the Tariff
Bill of 1828, followed by similar but more powerful
efforts against that of 1842, have suffi !iently attested
Ills character as a commercial statesman. His spetch
in Congress on the latter, made in August, 1842, may
be taken as a complete manifesto of the views by which
be is liitay to be guided in the conduct of any nego-
tiation between the two countries in which he may
bear a part. After describing the particular effect of the
restrictive system upon the American trade in cotton,
end also upon some other branches of native industry,
ha reverts to a more general view t f his subject, and ob-
serves that " this Bill (the Tariff Bill of 1842) would
affect them all alike ; cause them to sell less, arid give
more for what they buy, and to fall back on their
own resources for supplies ; or abandon their pursuits,
to be followed, .finally, by impoverishment and loss
of custom to those with whom it originates. The
.hole tendency of the measure is to isolate country
fi.oca country, state from state, neighbourhood from
neighl,ourhood, and family from fa m 15-, with di-
minished means and increasing poverty as the
circle contracts. The consummation of the sysrt m, to
use an illustration of a deceased friend, is Robinson
Crusoe in goatskin.' " Yet there is no want in Mr. Cal
houn of that salutary caution for which Conservatism
claims so much merit. " I am not ignorant," he gond
miss, " that it is the work of time and of great delicacy
to pass from the artificial condition in which the country
tias long been placed, in reference to its industry,
by a mistaken and mischievous system of policy. Sud-
den transitions, even to better habits or better condi-
tions, are hazardous, unless slowly afected. With this
jeapreasion, I have ever been adverse to all sudden
steps, both as to the currency and the s 5 stem of po-
licy which is now the subject of our deliberation, bad
s; I believe them both to be." How Mr. Calhoun is dis-
p d to apply these principles to international policy
ose,
stray gsithered from the following passage from a
letter of I:ti.q. published in the Times in September, 1843,
and having direct reference to a commercial arrange-
ment between England and the United States :
" I am for free traae—free trade an both sides, if it
tan be had, but if not, en one aide. It is good in part,
Jut better in whole, for the interest of both countries;
find my advice, as far as I have an opportunity of
giving it to my friends, is, to pusii, without the least
relaxation, for decided action on the part of Congress
at the next session ; but, at the same time, to throw no
discouragement on tho attempt to arrange the duties by
mutual agreement ; and I hope they will take that
course. It is, I hold to be, the most certain mode to
attain the object they have in view—to strike off the
shackles of commerce." How will the fine drawn di-
plomacy of Lord'Aberdeen deal with such views as these?
No need here for a subtle distinction between ab-
stract propositions" and " practical measures" from Sir
R. Peel, or for a cunningly devised Bill with a circum-
bendibus in it from Mr. Gladstone. It is all plain sailing.
If Mr. Calhoun could carry his party with him we
should have nothing to do. America would reform her own
commercial policy, and leave us to struggle out of the
meshes of restriction and monopoly as we best could,
and as the growth of our common sense should dictate.
As it is, we shall probably have far more offered than it
will please the Solons of Downing-street to accept. The
very plainness and frankness of the offer will scare them
from a ready acceptance of it ; while the absence of all
need for their favourite weapons in negotiation will pro-
bably make them unwilling to do anything. Let us hope
that the deficiency of our Tory Cabinet may be made
good by the better sense of the Republican one.
STANDARD.—We have it upon the highest of all
authority that " fearfulness" is a sin of the same class
with " unbelief," and indeed they seem to be sins closely
connected, if not identical. We never remember to
have met with a sincere Christian, who either in con-
versation or in writing, admitted the possibility of any
limit to the advance in material happiness or moral
improvement of the human race. Such men exalt
all their views, and, looking upward, they can better
judge of the boundless perspective before us.
Adam Smith, the founder of the modern school
of political economy, was an infidel, and though an acute
and observing man—who could reason justly from what
he saw—he, us an infidel, was unable to extend his
view far into the future. He therefore drew his in•
ferences by an induction from temporary phenomena,
and time has demonstrated the fallaciousness of
many of his deductions. Most of his followers have
participated in this error of defective induction ;
would that we could acquit them all of having shared
in its cause—his miserable want of belief. We
believe that the happy prospects of a Christian nation
-which, in proportion to its Christianity, will be a moral,
humane, and just nation, are absolutely without limits ;
and, with this opinion, we have the most confident anti-
cipation of the glorious destiny of England. We have
seen, even in the lifetime of the youngest man amongst
es, what, in the judgment of such reasoners as Smith and
Malthus, was an impossibility—nearly a duplication of
'he population, accompanied by reduction, in the proper-
tio`n of nearly one-half, of the money price of provisions,
while; concurrently with both, the amount of realised
rtv in the country has been enormously augmented.
irre views of Smith and Malthus were correct, this is
a miracle as repugnant to the laws of nature as that mi-
racle of mere (at which one of them at least would
scoff) exhibited on the shores of the Sea of Gallilee.
And such, if we Way say it without irrever.nce, are the
miracles best suites..l to protect a practical and spe-
culative age from the sins of fearfulness and unbelief
—the sins to which such an age is the most exposed.
We cannot help thinking, too, that we see traces of a
like miracle in progress in the attention now universally
bestowed upon the condition of the labouring classes—
an attention which, if it be firmly fixed for a very few
Tears, will, we have little doubt, negative the opinion
!bleb' so generally maintained, that the condition
of ,tose classes is unimprovablo to any great ex-
tent. If the produce of the earth has
more ttban kept pace with the duplication of
the people, and the accumulation of wealth
has far exceeded both, what reason is there to suppose
it impossible that the mass of the people can be admitted
to a fair share of the common blessing ? Diffi-
culties there no doubt are in the way of such
a distribution ; difficulties, the force of which we are
not disposed to underrate. But we will not,
after what we have seen, admit that these
difficulties are insurmountable, if approached in a Chris-
Sian :spirit, and with a fixed, constant, purpose to do
-whatever can properly be dome for the improvement
or the condition of our labouring countrymen—above
sal Singing from us the sin of " fearfulness." The de-
terk `cation of the condition of the labouring classes
is a theme upon which many good men expatiate
with a feeling of compassionil that does them
honour, but this theme been urged, perhaps, too
far. If 't has been urged L
has
beyondthe limits of truth,
as we t pink it
sometimes,yto;exaggerate
for been,
fr it has
passed the
bounds of sound pom
an evil
can follow,
and policy
nothing good
fs ono mean S of making the cure seem despereaTteil
the labouring clasies ha*.
That the co. Idition of
some ex' at since the war, seems to
deteriorated to
final s LaPe, be capable of proof
a,,1 that the new poor-law,
in its ori . .
was calculated to aggravate the
~
evils of that dett erioretion, we should be the last to deny;
but we are by n a means certain that, as compared with
She period antec ;dent to 1793, tt9ro has
been any 6Ql3'

siderable deterioration. We need but to turn to the
pages of Goldsmith, Crabbe, and Southey for pictures of '
the labourers' condition in the latter part of the last
century, as melancholy as anything that the re lity pre-
sents in our day ; or if poets may be su,rected of
exaggeration, we have the evidence of pro e writers
in abundance to the same effect. From among
these witnesses we will take leave to produce one,
at whose name every English heart will glow with
admiration, gratitude, and love—Nelson—the brave,
the wise, and, above all, the affectionate. Truly
has Southey said of him, " England has had
many heroes, but she has had but one Nelson." This
is this great man's distinction, and is, it seems, ever
destined such to remain—he is not the bject only of his
country's gratitude and admiration, but of her love; and
with reason, his nature overflowed with affectionate
feeling •, he instantly attached himself to every one
within his sphere, he repaid one hundred fold in grati-
tude the slightest service rendered to him, and never had
an enemy but the enemies of his country.

THE LATE FATAL RAILWAY
ACCIDENT NEAR NOTTINGHAM

VERDICT OF THE JURY.

NOTTINGHAM, SATURDAY MORNING.
The adjourned inquest upon Mr. John Dean was re-
sumed yesterday at ten o'clock.
The room was crowded, and amongst those present
were G. B. Paget, Esq., W. C. Hutchinson, Esq., and
J. Ellis, Esq., Directors ; Mr. Clarke, superintendent ;
and Mr. J. Kirtley, manager of the locomotive engines.
After a very lengthened examination of several wit-
nesses,

Mr. Campbell addressed the jury on behalf of Mr,
Lightfoot.

The jury unanimously expressed their high satisfaction
with the very ready manner with which the Railway
Company had acted.

The jury adjourned for half an hour.
At eight o'clock, the jury again took their seats, and
the Coroner occupied an hour and a half in summing up.
The room was then cleared, and at one o'clock the jury
returned their verdict as follows :

" The jury, after a long and patient investigation of
the circumstances, feel compelled by their duty to return
a verdict of MANSLAUGHTER against Mr. Robert
Lightfoot ; and they cannot separate without expressing
their belief, that notwithstanding the management
for general transition by railroad, much might be
done, and ought to be done, to render railway tra-
velling more secure, and especially of second-class
carriages, and though they may not be so comfort-
able as the first-class, they may be as safe. And
they also intimate, that passengers ought not to be taken
along the wrong line of rails without their consent-
The jury further suggest that much more safety
might bo secured by the general introduction of
electrical telegraphs. There was also another point
which the jury think ought to be attended to, and that
is, that in future great care should be taken to ascer-
tain that all the company's servants are intimately and
perfectly acquainted with their several duties ; and the
jury cannot too strongly express their conviction that
Jonathan Raven has not sworn to the truth in his deposi-
tions, and that he is utterly unworthy of the confidence
of the Railway Company and the aervice of the public.
The jury further wished to remark, respecting Mr. Light-
foot, that they were exceedingly grieved, on account
of the many favourable circumstances in his case,
to place him in the painful situation in which they
have done, and nothing tett a paramount sense of
duty had compelled them to do so. The Coroner
wished to join also with every individual of the jury in
expressing sorrow on the occasion. There was an-
other thing which was desired to be recommended to
the Railway Company, and that was the situation of
Mrs. Dean, who, in the prime of life, has been sud-
denly, and in a moment, deprived of the stay of her
existence and of her support ; and the jury hope that
provision will be made for her by the Kailway Company,
so as to prevent her feeling, in addition to her heavy
loss, the sorrows of destitution and privation."