The Sun.
London, England, 1828-04-02 00:00:00

or THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

Pestle are not content with the new Corn '
though they -are not clamorous against it.
This we believe to be an accurate representation
of public feeling on the subject. We, though
the measure does not coincide with our ideas of
justice or policy, have said nothing to inflame
dissatisfaction. The truth is, that the honest
and legitimate ends of legislation have .been
totally unobserved in the concoction of the re-
solutions. The objects sought have been to
trim between interests,
.to conciliate parties, to
disarm opposition by the argument= ad ho-
minem, and to attract supporters of all colours
and complexions t whereas the only just mo•
tive for imposing a tax upon any article, is reve-
nue : and we are convinced, that if Ministers had
only studied this,--if, without regard to factions
of any description, they had only considered
how the Treasury should derive the greatest be-
nefit from the impost upon imported grain, they
would have acted most humanely towards the
people, even the agriculturists, (the foreigner
in that case paying the tax),---they would have
been able to ease other burdens, and would have
rendered the whole British State—perhaps, also,
foreign States--the most essential service. The
measure at present is an ugly misshapen monster
in legislation : it cannot be relied on to supply a
scanty market, or to help a waning treasury. It
is observable that all the reasonings on which these,
and indeed other resolutions, have been founded,
are guided by calculations of how little bread the
people can eat,—upon how little they can live :
whereas it is notorious that the consumption of
an article is always regulated by the abundance
of it. The people will eat less bread by one
quarter, when corn is 808., than when it is at
60s. The same money, or nearly so, will be
spent for bread in both instances ;,but how dif-
ferent will be the condition of the consumers,
and that of their families, when the price is at
the lowest sum ? Nay, it is a iotorious fact,
that the London bakers--(observe, we do not
say that they sell the greatest quantity of bread),
but that they receive more money fbr bread sold
when the price is low, than when it is high ; so
that the return to the farmer must be greater also
in the former case, besides the relief afforded to
the poor-rates. A humane Legislature, there-
fore, would make abundance in the markets and
sinhps the first object, from whencesoever that
;Abundance sprung. Now, the farmer may, as
indeed he must, acquiesce in this statement ; and
lte may say that he has no faith to find, provided
the consumer be supplied in each case with corn
of native growth only. " But the hardship falls
upon him when his crop is so scanty, that in or-
der to pay rent and taxes, he ought to have 80s.,
and the price is reduced to 60s. by imported
grain." And in that case, we beg leave to
ask, suppose a prohibition existed against im-
portation, and the price were kept up for his
advantage, as he supposes, who pays him
the difference ? or rather, how is the differ-
cam obtained between the 60s. and the 80s.
for corn of native growth ? It is, after much
suffering on the part of the poor, wrung out of
the rates, which the fiirmer himself tells you fall
exclusively upon the land. The poor suffer a
great deal before the odd 20s. a quarter can be
screwed out of the meagre hands ; in which
hands it will have just been placed by the over-
seer, out of a rate settled after much brutal squab-
Wing at a late vestry. Another circumstance,
also,. is not undeserving of attention. There are
a set of men who pretend to fix what they call
a remunerating price for their corn. Now to
put an end to all such impertinence, we beg
leave to say that the people of England cannot
afford to remunerate gentlemen for their farming;
and still less can we take them for judges of
what is a remunerating price. In the exporting
countries of Russia and Poland, the labours of
the field are performed by boors—serfs—villains.
—Ged forbid that such should be the case in
England ! but they ought to be perfermed, or
directed, by farmers—farmers by education and
profession. There ought to be no such men as
bailiffs living in ease out of farms ; these ought
to be the tenants of small farms. And if such
were the case throughout England, it would be
found that corn might be produced at one fourth
less than its present expense, and that all other
articles of agricultural produce, particularly milk,
hgs, and butter, would be much more abundant.
owever, let the Bill pass, if so it please Parlia-
ment ; it is an embarrassed and impracticable
one ; but probably we shall not care much aboUt
it, if GovernMent does but adhere honestly to
its professions of extinguishing the small note
circulation.— Times. .

The presentation of a petition by Mr. James
Grattan, last night, for the introduction of Poor
Laws into Ireland, gave rise to a discussion on
a subject to which the public attention cannot be
too much directed. The petition was from the
Silk Weavers in Dublin, and Mr. Grattan stated,
that several Meetings had been held in Dublin,
and in the South of Ireland upon the subject.
There are, we believe, few who have studied with
attention the domestic history of England, who
will not readily admit that these laws constitute
the best security which has yet been discovered,
for preserving society from the all devouring
poverty which must necessarily result from the
allowing free scope to the principle of popula-
tion. 'he celebrated Sir Matthew flak, in his
" Primitive Originations of Mankind," has the
merit, as far as we know, of having been the
first modern writer, who saw the- tendency
throughout all the animal world to excessive
multiplication, and the necessity of " a preven-
tion of that excess and redundance which would
happen by their numerous increase to the detri-
ment and" surcharge of the inferior world."
Having shewn how the inferior animals are kept
down, he iHfers, "there may seem to be collected
reasonably, an analogical inference of the like
means of the correctives of the generations of
mankind ;'' and though a pious and humane man
he did not hesitate to find these correctives ill wars
and violence, as well as in plagues, famines, and in-
undations. " Wars," he says, "seem to be. in a
manner a natural consequence of the over-plenti-
tnde and redundancy of the number of men in
the world ; and so by a kind of congruity and
consequence morally necessary when the world
grows too full of inhabitants, that there is not
room one by another ; or that the common sup-
plies which the world should afford to mankind
begin to be too few, too strait, or too narrow for
the numbers of men ; that natural propension of
self-love, and natural principle of sell-preserva-
tion, will necessarily break out intQ wars and in-
tfrnecions to make room for those that find
themselves • straitened or inconvenienced. So
that as when the channel of a river is over-
charged with water more than it can deliver, it
necessarily breaks over the banks to make itself
room ; or when the very brutes or animals find
themselves oppressed and straitened in their
provisions and, supplies, by the redundance of
their numbers, one necessarily preys upon an-
other, or destroys another to preserve itself; so

wars among mankind are a kind of necessary
consequence of a redundance of mankind, and
will by a kind of natural necessity make itself
room, and give itself ease by the destruction of
Others if it can get power and opportunity to do
it." He goes very philosophically through the
' catalogue of disasters which Providence brings
•to the aid of human violence. It does not seem
to have occurred to the Learned Judge, that
the " propension of self-love and natural prin-
ciple of self-preservation" might receive .a differ-
ent direction, more in accordance with humanity
iind civilization ; that persons of property might,
through the working of laws for the relief of the
necessitous, be forced in self-defence to have re-
Ourse to measures to keep down the numbers of
the labouring people to the level of the means
for their subsistence, of a much more effectual
nature than the brutal remedies which he details.
'rom the more perfect knowledge of the laws of
vegetation that we now possess, and the facilities
Of intercourse between province and province,
and nation and nation, famines, in the old ac-
ceptation of the word, can never take place, and
the drainage of the soil, the improvements in
towns, and habits of cleanliness, have also, it is
probable, secured us from the recurrence of
plagues. Nations, too, have begun to discover
hat the supposed interests for which they for-
Merly made war upon each other, were almost
always illusory ; and as the laying down the
naked principle of the necessity of slaughtering
each other for slaughtering's sake is too revolting
cor a civilized age, the means must be found in
ivilization itself' for guarding against evils which
would destroy civilization. The Poor Laws of
nglanl, while they breathe the spirit of hu-
Inanity, and contribute to peace and tranquillity,
Compel at the same time the rich and influential
part of society, from a regard to their own preserv-
ation in the station in which they are placed, to
place a powerful but indirect check on the exer-
cise of the principle of population, by the limita-
tion of the number of cottages, and by a variety
Of other means of the same tendency. Without
the obligation of guardianship of the poor, with
the guarantee which the necessity of self-preser-
,ation affords against redundancy, the discoveries
if modern times, moral and physical—the moral
discovery, for instance, that nations are inte-
tested in the well-being of each other, and have
no conceivable motive for war ; and the physical
discoveries by which countries have been ren-
dered more salubrious, famines have been ren-
dered impossible, and the average of life has
peen greatly prolonged, would be a curse instead
f a blessing to mankind. We have in Ireland
an exemplification of the evils of a state of so-
' iety in which the correctives to which we have
lluded have not been called into action. The
wirers of the soil, freed from all responsibility,
are suffered the wretched beings on their estates
o multiply in such numbers that the means
f dealing with the redundancy can hardly
e discovered. And the misery of these
oor creatures is driving them in shoals to
his country, and interfering with the beneficial
peration of our own domestic arrangements.-
-hat then are we to do with regard to Ireland
or the people of England have a right to insist,
nd will insist, on security against the destruction
_ _

IA ith which their most valuable institutions are
threatened from irruptions from Ireland. We
are now come to the point when a stand must
lie made. In the seventeenth number of The
Festminster Review, just published, there is an
rticle on Emigration, in which this subject is
mulled in a masterly manner by a writer, in
vhom we can withoUt difficulty recognise one of
the first philosophers of the age. " Destitu-
ion, famine, and disease (he observed), are
f' oure4 into the towns of Great Britain, to tax
he compassion of the middle classes, and to
well the previous burthens on their income,
y throwing a large number of their own
be
on the poor rates ; of the middle classes,
be it remarked, who, having no power to controul
t
its cause, are not assisted by experience to pre-
Fent its recurrence. Yet the burthen of relief
alls almost entirely on them. For in the present
state of society it cannot be borne that human
I)eings should perish on the high road, or in the
treets. It is not now a question whether the
acknowledged humanity of the middle classes is
41ways well directed. It admits of great doubt
whether any objection founded on the allegation
that charity encourages improvidence, is valid
against the expediency of preventing the extre-
mities of destitution. Society has fears other
lmn the actual fear of starvation to controul and
irect the actions of its members ; and such it is

incumbent on it to try before it gives free course
to physical necessity. Motives applied to the
moral part of men's nature may raise them from
a state of brutal debasement ; the present fear of
starvation has usually the directly opposite ten-
dency." The writer, speaking of the Emigra-
tion Report, nakes some observations that imply
a belief that that document would produce an
impiession on the ruling classes of this country,
on which some recent Parliamentary proceedings
furnish an instructive commentary. " It
needed (he says) time authority of a Parlia-
mentary Committee, to bring this melancholy
prospect under the notice of the ruling classes, so
little cognisant, and unhappily so little careful
of the great interests of the labouring people.
"[he stirring
,appeal of their Report can hardly
be read without emotio;t even by the most
thoughtless, the most apathetic. A flood of evils
hardly less wide-spreading and destructive than
the consequences of barbarian conquest, is sweep-
ing over • our country—the degradation of our
people by commixture with a foreign race, lower
in intelligence, lower in habits of order and self-
restraint, lower in ideas of comfort and moral
independence, lower, in short, in all the qualities
which . eonstitute civilized man. For who is
there,-not blinded by natural prejudice, who does
not perceive, while he deplores the fact, that ow-
ing to a tong series of moral and political causes,
the most injurious possible to the development
of human nature, the Irish are what we have de-
scribed. them to be, compared with the inhabi-
tants of thisisland." The writer does not hesi-
tate to propose, as a guarantee, that emigration
from Ireland shall not fail of benefitting Great
Britain, the " coercive repression of the
" The most obvious
Irish immigration;
of the measures which suggest themselves
for putting the proposed measure into exe-
cution is to require a certificate, signed by
the proper authorities, from every Irishman land-
ing in England, stating his profession, and the
purpose of his visit, so far only that it is not to
gain his living by manual labour. All those
who were not furnished with such
The
should be prohibited from landing. The same
end (he observes) might be attained by an indi-
rect method, as effectually and more simply, by
imposing a tax of so much per
,head on every
passenger landing from Ireland, to be levied on
the master or owner of the vessel bringing the
passenger over." Sir John Newport, Mr. Mati-
nee Fitzgerald, and other Irish Members, de-
precated the introduction of the English Poor

Laws into Ireland. The people of England,
however, are entitled to protection" from Ireland.
We should be glad to learn from the Irish land-
holders, in what way they propose to deal with
the evil which afflicts their country, without de-
teriorating the condition of the people of Eng-
land. Mr. Secretary Peel observed, " that it
was impossible not to see that the case of two
countries in the relation of England and Ireland
towards each ether, one country admitting the
claims of the poor from the other, casual if they
happened to be so, or with a permanent settle-
ment, if the claimant had obtained it ' • and espe-
cially when they observe how their relations had
been altered of late years by the improvements
made in steam navigation ; it was impossible not
to see that this was a very peculiar situation."
Mr. Peel, however, objected to the poor laws,
though he admitted " there were circumstances
in the relations of the two countries, and with re-
spect to the burdens which the poor of Ireland
brought on the property of England which de-
serve consideration. But Mr. Croker (lid not
hesitate to observe, " that it was his conviction,
that the state of England and Scotland was such,
owing to the emigration from Ireland, that it
would soon become necessary for these countries
to take some decided step to afford Ireland a
permanent relief. How that was to be effected,
unless it was to be by some modification of the
Poor Laws, he could not tell." Mr. Monck
contended (as Lord Liverpool did), that if the
Poor Laws had been introduced into Ireland,
they would riot have seen that country in its pre-
sent deplorable condition. The great evil of
that country was the excessive competition of la-
bour, and the consequent low wages. But how
was this evil introduced ? It resulted from the
minute partition of land, the great encouragement
of population ; and he asked those who objected
to the Poor Laws, whether they were not the
only partition now between the preservation of
English Comfort and the introduction of Irish
misery ?" We believe there is not one English
Gentleman who is not convinced, from personal
experience, that were it not for the Poor Laws
the country would not be habitable. No Eng-
lish Gentleman will declare himself against the
Poor Laws in Parliament. They have been of
late years abused, but, good God, what are the
abuses here, compared with the destitution and
misery of Ireland ? But these very abuses are
closely connected with the absence of Poor Laws
in Ireland, and the excessive population thereby
occasioned ; because the place which would be
filled by English labourers in our great towns is
filled by Irishmen, content to work at a lower
rate than Englishmen will submit to, so long as
they have parishes between them and Irish'rni-
sery. Towns are necessary to drain the rustic
population, which has always a tendency to ex-
ceed the numbers required for rural employ-
ment. When, therefore, Mr. William Lamb
said, " that he was not unwilling to agree that, as
a principle, it might be wise to apply Poor Laws
to Ireland ; but he thought that before they were
so applied, it would at least be right to see the
abuses into which they had fallen, rectified in
England ;" he was giving expression to what was
little better than an absurdity. The exclusion
of the Irish poor is necessary to the removal of
the abuses in England, which arise solely out of
red und an cy.—Morning Chronicle.

It is quite clear, from what passed in the
House of Commons on Monday night, that the
account we previously gave of what had taken
place in the Lobby on the night of the second
reading of the Marylebonc Select Vestry Disso-
lution Bill was correct, and that it was the inten-
tion of the Select, if they could have accom-
plished it, to have put an extinguisher upon the
Bill on that occasion. Fortunately, however,
for the parish, all the canvassings, the boastings,
the hole-and-cOrner underhand dealings of this
immaculate body, were not only unavailing,
but not a soul could he found to say one word
against the principle of the measure, which has
been thus assented to nemine contradicente.—
Whether the Marylebone Vestry is doomed to
the fate of those on whom the poet pronounces
the pries demcntat remains to be seen ; but it is
impossible not to be struck with the hardihood
of assertion which some of their advocates
have recourse to when they affirm that
this body has the approbation of the ma-
jority of the parishioners. This is rather
" too bad." But, if it be really a question what the
sentiments of the parishioners are upon the
subject—or if', in fact, the Select have a single
advocate beyond themselves and their own im-
mediate dependents and hangers-on—how conies
it that they do not show themselves ? How
comes it that the Select are left in the lurch to
petition by and for themselves, and not a single
voice is heard from among their crowd of
admirers, to help them over the stile upon the
occasion ? It is not that we care two farthings
about this particular body that we take so warm
an interest in this subject, but from the strong
and growing objections which we feel to
this Select Vestry System altogether ; which,
in the parishes of the metropolis especially,
nurtured under the job-protecting and irre-
sponsible mantle of local Acts of Parlia-
ment, goes on, year after year, increasing
the evils of' non-representative taxation, and
paving the way in these parochial districts
to the abrogation of every salutary principle which
distinguishes the British Government from one
of mere despotism. Let the result, then, of the
present struggle in this parish be what it may,
the thanks of the public will be eminently due
to those who have had the courage and the per-
severance to bring the abuses of this abominable
system before the Legislature ; and Parliament
will be more regardless both of its own privileges
and of the rights and liberties of the people than
we can suppose it to be, if; now that it has the
opportunity, it does not take some steps to with-
draw from these anomalous bodies that power
which alone should belong to persons freely
chosen by and accountable to those whom they
have the power to tax.—Morning Herald.*