The Sun.
London, England, 1826-07-26 00:00:00

to the prosperity of the Ceram countries on the haat of the
Rhine. What, Germany has to expect from the Dutch Govera-
anent may be inferred from the strange assertion brought for-
ward in that Note, that the town of Gorcum, twelve leagues
from Rotterdam and twenty from the sea, is to be con-
sidered as the limit between the sea and the river. The Fos-
pect of the vintage is extremely favourable on the Rhine; all the
vines have blossomed at once, which is highly important to the
goodness of the wine ' • and they are covered with larger quantities
of grapes than we have ever seen even in the best seasons. Pipe
'fives have risen from 38 a 39 florins, to 54 a 55 florins per
hundred.

It is not lying since the diffusion of intellectual cul-
tivation an:iong the working classes formed a very gene-
ral topii of discussion, and many and fearful were the
predictions and forebodings of some as to the conse-

quinices which might eventually result. We heard
much of the lower orders being raised out of their
proper sphere ; and being made discontented with the
condition in which Providence had placed them. Our
ears were assailed with declamations against the spread
of knowledge, as likely to excite the working classes to
every species of insubordination : and Mechanics'
Institutes were denounced as nothing less than schools
of radicalism and sedition.
The diffusion of intelligence, however, quietly, went
nn, and the operatives in nearly all our manufacturing
districts, became imbued with at least some notion of
the rudiments of science. During a period of public
prosperity, we certainly heard nothing of the voice of
sedition or tumult ; but we were warned that a time
might come when distress would call forth the latent
spirit of insubordination. The opportunity has since
arrived, a crisis of distress altogether unexampled, has
been brought on, and what has been the result ? The
operatives have had numerous motives and incentives to
Insubordination and tumult ; motives and incentives, we
do not hesitate to saygreater than those which at any for-
mer period may have worked upon their minds ; they
have, moreover, by no means been left to themselves;
emissaries and agents of the most wicked principles,
have been trying every art to inflame their minds, and
yet we may safely assert, that there never was a period
of public distress attended with so little offence against
the public peace ; never, under such circumstances,
was subordination less violated, or the spirit of sedi-
tion less manifested. So much, then, for the boasted
predictions of the enemies of popular illumination; but
we must confess we are inclined even to go further,
and to ask with no small degree of confidence, is not
this state of things in a great measure to be ascribed to
the very cause from which such opposite results have
by some been predicted ? For, is it not, we would ask,
one very natural, and general effect of creating a desire
for knowlete., and a love of intellectual pursuits, to
withdraw men from the vortex of political agitation ?
and doe not the cultivation of the mind naturally lead
to halite of greater reflection and calculation ? does it
not teach the individual to loo); to the consequences
of, his actions, and enable him to judge of their results,?
Thus, surely, the more enlightened the operatives be-
come, the more able will they be to understand what
is for their real good. It is by teaching them to re-
flect, to reason, and to calculate, that they will
learn to look to remoter consequences : that they
will see the absurdity of many of their hitherto most
deeply rooted prejudices ; that they will better under-
stand their true interests, and not be liable to be made
the dupes of every noisy and designing demagogue,
nor he led, by destroying the very means of their sup-
port, to involve themselves in more irretrievable ruin.