The Sun.
London, England, 1844-02-05 00:00:00

time has arrived when active measures' ralist
be taken for the protection and relief of the industry
of the country, unless we are prepared to surrender,
without a struggle, the comfort and happiness of all
the productive classes.
We have long waited for some party in the State
to arise,•who would propose to rescue our suffering
people-from the cruel bondage in which they arilield
laws passed, as we have reason to believe, without the
knoW).edge of their consequences by those who teased
them. Partial efforts have been made, having refer-
4nce to class, age, or sex. The 'Anti-Corti-lavv.
League would free the manufacturer from the
oppressive burden of a corn-law which throws him
out of all chance of engaging in fair competitiob
with the cheaper-corn-consuming manufacturers of
the Continent. Some benevolent individuals have
exerted themselves greatly to protect children from
undue toil in- the unwholesome atmosphere of mills
and factories. Successful• efforts have been made to
withdraw females from the degrading and demoralising
labour to which they are subjected in mines and
collieries. Rival parties are anxiously endeavouring
to promote the moral and religious education of the
children of labourers and mechanics, in the hope
that a better spirit, superior moral habits, and is
higher degree of intelligence may be cultivated in
the rising generation, than are manifested by their
fathers in the present. But these evidences off' diva-
tisfaction with existing things, and of a laudable de-
sire to correct the evil, are all limited to .a con-
fined sphere of action They are insufficient to
meet the exigencies c f the time—to destroy that
many-headed saute 2 which lays. waste our un-
happy country. We hoped to have seen some great
principle advanced, which should-combine these iso-
lated desultory plans for relief in one general design,
to secure the universal advantage of the common*
wealth.

Disappointed in this, we turn to our fellow-coon,
trymen of every degree, and • ask 'them to join us in
forming a society which, entertaining no schemes of
private advantage, but devoted solely to the public
good, hopes, by the corrective aid of, the Legislature,
to remove the evils which an unfortunate act of
legislation has created.

-Our principles of action are few, plain, and incon;•
trovertible. We acknowledge the great law which
governs man's condition on earth—that he must earn
his bread with the sweat of his brow ;—but we refuse
to add to the primeval curse another of man's• crea=
tion, that, because we have incurred a great:debt in
carrying on wars for the security of the property of
the rich, and the preservation of the homes of all;
whatever prOPerty a poor Working Mail might acquire
shall'be taken from him to pay that debt, and he shall
have no home left him worthy of the name. We obT
ject to the labouring man, being burthened with the
task of providing all that wealth which others, who
do not work,' enjoy at his expense, while they allow
him, in return for unremitting toil,; less food and
clothing, worse shelter, coarser and harder fare, than
a West India planter allowed his slaves, or an Eng-
lish farmergiv'es.his horses. We are desirous of seeing
the industrious Workman
.partake of some of the.be-
nefits of those linprovements m machiOerY-Whielt have
hitherto added .so wonderfully to the lutdries of
the rich, but .have sunk. the poor into deeper poverty.
Of what valne is the steam-engine if it does tot
lighten thelabaur, abridge the honkS of toil, increase
the comfort's, and heighten the enjoythenti of the
great majority of the human family ? We will exert
ourselves to obtain for all working men a fair share
of the advantages derivable from our various me-
chanical iinprovements, so that every hard-working
Englishman may become possessed of greater com-
forts than men of his class formerly enjoyed. To of:
fect this, we shall urge that higher wages be given—
wages not merely increased in numerical.amount, but
able to command a' greater quantity of every useful
and necessary article. We pledge ourselves to prove
that this is attainable with the greatest facility, de-
pending for the, extent of its beneficial action solely
upon a vote. of the Legislature.
To the manufacturer we propose to ensure taxer
tion-prices • and in this respect we go beyond the
Anti-Corn-law League in our intention to provide
for his welfare. Our measures will procure his relief
not only from the pressure of the cora-law' froth
but fro
the pressure of every tax which operates tohis- disad.
vantage ; so that he will be free from all the fiscal
charges which at present militate against his ability
to produce goods for export at as cheap a rate as other
manufacturers in comparatively untaxed countries.
Having no fears of the consequences of a free trade
under a wholesome monetary system, we avow Our-
selves able, in carrying out our views, to relieve all
the springs of industry in• this country from the
burdens cast upon them by the greatness of our debt
and the weight of our annual taxation.
The agricnitUrist is equally entitled to receive
taxation prices for the produce of his land. Why
should a farmer be less worthily remunerated now
than he was in the days of the Tudors and the
Stuarts ? Why should he have received a price fta•
his corn during the late war proportionate to' the
amount of the taxation of the country, and since then,
with as heavy taxation; hare had a continual. decline
in his receipts, taking, the average of seven or ten
years, though they have been partially 'upheld by a
corn-law ? For more than 150 years before the es-
tablishment of the Bank of England, and Nhile the Go-
vernment of the country exercised its proper preroga-
tive of issuing all the taxationmoney of the realm, the
price of wheat at Eton College was ss. 6d. per .
bushel, and all this time the taxation of the country
was less than two millions a-year. For the next
century, from 1697 to 1797, while the Bank of Eng-
land furnished a circulating medium which inade-
quately represented taxation, the price of wheat at
Eton averaged only, ss. 3d. per bushel, and for the
first sixty-four years, only 4s. 6d.; yet, during this
century, The annual taxation was gradually, raised to
twenty millions. After 1797, when payments in geld
were suspended, the taxation was raised to more than
fifty millions a-year (notincluding property or income
tax), and the price increased as taxation increased,
till, for the fifteen years ending with 1819, wheat
at Eton was lls. 9d. per bushel.- We have now. a
taxation of more than fifty millions, and the price
of wheat on the general average is about 6s. per
bushel. What will it be when the corn-law is
abolished or converted into a low fixed duty ? . •
The corn-laW is not objectionable as. giving 'too
much protection to the agricultural interest ; its fault
is its partial character. But some will say, Is not
the manufaCturer also protected againitforeign compe-
tition in . this country by duties on-imported good's ?
-NoMinally he is, but not really; because he Makes
more goods than are required for home consumption,
which goods he sends abroad in exchange for such
articles as we import—without which exchange we
could not have them—and all such exports are neces-
sarily sold abroad for untaxed pricea. Now as he
would not sell them for so low a price abroad, if he
could obtain a higher, price at home, it follows that
the' foreign price becomes the governing prke
of . the home market, and so all protection;: s
lost. Whenever the farmer complies with the,Wfshes
of those who urge him to increase; 'by management
and skill, the produce of hii lead, he will become an
exporter, and his prices will sink, like those of the
manufacturer' to the continental level. There an
be no effectual protection for either class, except:that
which' may be' obtained from the employment of a
tax-representing paper-money.
To producers of all kinds, whether .agrietiltti•
rist, manufacturer, artisan, or labourer; we.. say,
" Believe not those who tell you that if
all • commodities rise in price,, all ,prodneifs
will' relatively be in no better condition than 'they were
befUre." They are self-interested or ilnaviie persani
who make this remark. By. adding tax...atii).o, ta'utt-'
tural or gold prices, that portion of the indirect46:xes,
which cannot be borne by the predective -classes .in
their productive capacity, will be carried on till it is
paid at lest by the consumers, whether industrieus
idle, in the degree in which their property is fairly .
chargeable with taxation., It is calculated that more than
thirty millions annually are:wrung frOM the hard earn-
ings of the poor, by means of extra toil and increased
privations, which nature cannot long endure.—lf`'to
this extent alone the poor are relieved, and the rich
are' made to pay the taxes they consented• to bear
when they were imposed,- but which the adoption' of
gold payments 'at a fixed standard has relieved them
from, and fixed cruelly and unjustly on the/ peOr
man, it Will be a 'gratifying result well worth the
struggle.
• Let all -who are dissatisfied 'With the:Condition' to
which they ate brought; and the-Anther injuriet the;
have toomuch . reason to dread, joinni in endeavour-
ing to obtain a return to GOvernmentl'aper
which is capable of deing justice to ail classes oftpro-
ducers,—Whicb will give a priCeAr corn` at all' times
proportionate to taxation, at all ."times remunerative the grdwer, 'without bing unfhir ,tO. any class' of
consumers.

The Society prop-oies-to proCUre the eonsent ()tithe
Legislature to the repeal of. The Currency Act of
1819, .which his wrought all this wrong and misery,
and to recommend an issue of oOvernment paper to
the amount of our annual taxation, being a return
to that ancient system (,f Exchequer money.'tinder
which this country flourished froM "the reign of
Henry I. till the reign of Queen ,Anno=a
period of 600 years. Under, this system, /when
it was less perfectly acted upon during the
late war, our country, was made happy at home
and respected. abroad. Under .thiS system, by the
good providenCe of God,
" It was once merry "England,
And it shall be so again.'?
_
Office of the Society,.22,Parliament-street,
February 1 1844;

• The South Eastern Railway. from Folkestone
Dover. will be opened to the public on Tuesday: Tlie event is
to be celebrated by a grand • entertainment to the, Chairpan•
Directors; and Engineers, at Dover, in the igtayloon.