The Sun.
London, England, 1844-04-06 00:00:00

/be perfected in my, time, though I am not a
very old man, but I trust t 3 Providence that Lord
Ashley's years may be spared—and if they are,
he will conduct and complete it before he arrives at
my age." This prediction was pronounced by the
admirable patriot and philanthropist thirteen years
ago, when the speaker was about fifty years old.
Who doubts of its literal fulfilment ? Lord Ashley
has ten years before him of the term allowed ; and
if ever the prayers of. millions were answered, they
will be ten years of success and happiness.
FROM THE MORNING PAPERS OF THIS DAY.
POST.—It is curious to observe, that while in
matters of mere discussion the French are much
more given to abstraction than we are, yet, in the
affairs of government, they are precisely the con-
trary. In these respects, it appears to us that our
foreign neighbours have the advantage of us. In
their common conversation, even about trifles, they
are accustomed to use a kind of brilliant and expan-
sive logic which throws an interest around matters
that, with us, are dull as ditch-water, or a Whig lec-
ture on education. But when they come to think of
matters of government, they take into account the
personal feelings of the people concerned, and deter-
mine their policy accordingly. The French have
plenty of people who talk political economy with as
much cool unconcern as any English disciple of
Adam Smith, Ricardo, or Malthus. They have pro-
fessors at their colleges who lecture upop:the benefits
of machinery and of cheapness almost as well as Mr.
Labouchere, Mr. Gladstone, or even Sir R. Peel.
But, in the Government, and in the Chamber, men
place themselves in the situation of those who are to
be affected by any proposed piece of policy, and they
refuse to be charmed by any abstract•rules of right,
however seductively scientific they may appear to be.
It is an undeniable abstract truth, that coal andcotton
thread can be had cheaper from England than by the
employment of French labour in their production.
But the French legislators do not much trouble
themselves with that consideration. They bear in
mind that a good deal of French capital and a great
many French people are employed in providing fuel
and cotton goods for French consumption, and they
SPIRIT' of the PUBLIC JOURNALS. i say to themselves, "We . must take care of these
FROM THE EVENING PAPERS OF THIS DAY. 1 French interests. We should have very little grati
GL OBE .—Notw ithsta nding the vaunted numerical \ tulle for making fuel a little cheaper and cotton
strength of its majority, numerous and formidable goods, perhaps, five or ten centimes in the hundred
difficulties surround the Government, which seem ; lower in price than they now are. But the ruin of
rather to increase than to diminish. These have i the wood and coal men would be a very serious affair,
chiefly arisen from the party which placed Sir Robert ; and they would make a very angry noise about it,
Peel in his present pi sition, and are traceable, partly, . and many villages would be reduced to pauperism if
to the tend( nsy of his party to be dissatisfied with the ; the cotton manufacture were taken away from them
measures of a Ministry which has been invested with by English competition. We will not be the destruc-
office through their means, but principally to the tion of
_these poor people, for they are French,
raised hopes of the Conservatives. These the dis- ' and have a right to protection at our hands."
honest course pursued by Sir Robert Peel, as leader ' To us this appears very reasonable, because it is
of the Opposition, contributed to inspire, which, as • founded on good feeling towards those whom French
Minister, he finds himself compelled to discourage 1 legislators are under a natural obligation to befriend
and disappoint. Ever since the present administra- ias much as they possibly can. Again, look at the
tion was installed, each successive session i difference between the respective Governments of
has atlbrded fresh illustrations and proofs England and France in regarchto holders of the pub-
of the disappointments, distractions, and con- lie debt at a larger interest than that which is current
sequent growing disaffection of the Conservative in the market. Our worthy Mr. Goulburn, who is
party. One or other of the interests into which it is really as good a man as can possibly be, nevertheless
divided has been in alarm and agitation. Those who f looks upon the holders of the Three-and-a-Half per
looked to the Minister their own hands had made for .1 Cents. as mere abstract recipients of a larger interest
increased advantages, in the shape of added po ever, or 4 than the Government need pay them, under the exist-
more stringent protection to their exclusive interests, ins
y_ his means, have been doomed to deplore his state of the money market. He troubles himself
b not with considerations of the inconvenience, perhaps
broken promises, and are provoked to denounce his 1 the misery, which many holders of this stock may
breaches of faith with them. The new tariff, and suffer from the reduction of their incomes. Probably
the improved sliding-scale of the first session, dis- I this idea never occurs to him, nor was it so much as
palled delusion from the agriculturists. Though even hinted at by any one of the si;c hundred and
the benefits to the consumers of beef and I fifty-eight legislators to whom the proposal for re-
bread were found to exist only in the fair speeches duction was lately submitted. It is all the same to
of Sir Robert Peel, whose sole object was to check them whether the holders of the Three-and-a-Half
the popular dislike to his income tax, the landed per Cents. be poor widows or opulent proprietors, or
interest saw, with alarm, their corn-law disturbed, and mere trustees, without any tie of affection to those
the other restrictive duties upon the admission of for whom they administer their trust, or sticks and
foreign agricultural produce diminished. They heard stones, which indeed have generally about as much
in the House of Commons principles enunciated with feeling of their business as trustees have. The Go-
approbation by Sir Robert Peel, and his fidus Achates vernment and the Legislature care not one straw who
at the Board of Trade, which, practically applied, or what may be the owners of the Thiee-and-a-Half
would accomplish the destruction of protective duties. per Cents. ; they only consider that this stock may
They remembered the Premier's character for facile re- be paid off, and another stock, at a lower rate of an-
nunciation of principle; and they dreadedlest he should terest, established in their place, and upon that ab-
be induced to betray the agricultural protection cause, street fact they set to work, and the stock is reduced
as he had formerly that of Catholic exclusion. The accordingly. But in France there is a large amount
following session saw the Canada Corn Bill, which ! of stock, bearing the interest of five per cent.,
would admit American corn, via Canada, at a small 1 which the Government has certainly an abstract
duty, passed into law : thus, with characteristic chi- 1 right to pay off at 100, though the market price is
chane, introducing the commodity by the back door, ' 120, or to convert into another stock bearing a less
thus opened, while the front gates were barred ard interest, and yet the Government will not do so, be-
bolted w;th an affectation of determination truly laugh- cruse it takes into account the- circumstances, of
able. These measures have sadly shaken the faith of the holders of the stock, and the injury which
the agriculturists in Sir R. Peel's sincerity of inten- ' the " conversion " would be to them. " These
tion, and have induced the formation of associations people," say the Government, " have a stock which
for the protection of agriculture. The landowners thus iis worth 120 in the market. If we were to adopt a
hope to preserve their rents from the ruinous reduc- policy which would depreciate it to 100, it would be
tion, which they fear would follow the diminution or a revolution! These people could not bear to be thus
entire abolition of the import duties of corn of foreign deprived of one-sixth of their capital, and one-fifth of
?rowth. They avow •their renunciation of confidence their annual income, by an economical stroke of
in Sir Robert Peel. They make no secret of the policy." How opposite this is to the English govern-
course they will henceforth pursue. The Duke of mental mode of thinking and reasoning about the
Richmond's expressive threat is now the motto of the same sort of thing we need not say. In this country,
landlords :—" We made him; and, if he stir another between the governors and the governed, there is no
step in the path of free, trade, we will show ourselves such thing as sympathy or community of feeling. No
strong to depose and destroy, as we were to exalt and one dreams of it. The relative positions—especially
support." The declaration of Sir Robert Peel, in the in regard to matters of finance and profit and loss—
present session, that he "does not, at present, con- are rather antagonistic than co-operative. The Go-
template any further alteration in the Corn-laws," vernment has no sort of feeling with the people, to
though it has somewhat quieted the apprehensions, prevent it having its work done on the cheapest pigs-
has by ne means restored confidence to the alarmed bible terms, and the people have no sort of feeling
landlords. A kind of armed truce is kept up; which with the Government to prevent them from resisting
'will be converted into open hostility upon the first all manner of taxation and payment so far as they
indication of an intention, on the part of the Ministry, may do so with safety. These are elements of the
to legislate upon the protective duties. political status in quo which are worth the attention
STANDARD. The intervention of " Good of the political philosopher.
Friday" has caused all our Contemporaries of the ADVERTISER.—The "Young England" party
daily press to have the start of us in observing upon has made some addition to its strength by the recent
the auspicious revenue returns of the 4th of April, decision in Cambridge in favour of ' monasteries and
1844. There is no aspect in which we can contem- similar institutions' —a decision to which we have
• plate this index of the national progress in which it already directed the attention of our readers. • The
does not present occasion of pride and hope. The design of these worthies is to aid in Parliament the
empire whose securities in Three per Cents. are cause which Pusey and his disciples are promoting in
within a shadow of par; whose revenues are largely what is called the Church, and both together are
increasing annually ; the nation, one section of which, longing for the return of those monkish institutions
and one section only—though that is the most impor- which nearly three }Mildred years since bad ceased to
tant—contains classes at ease, if not affluent, possessing darken the face of England. Purblind as these men
incomes to the extent of much more than two hundred are rendered by the system of which they are the ad-
millions sterling the year (of this the income-tax of voeates, they seem to be ignorant of the change which
five millions and upwards is the proof)—the empire time has wrought in the social condition of our
that affords such evidence of credit, industry, and country, and of the absolute impossibility of its ever
wealth, has little to fear from war in a stage of the returning to the institutions which "Young Eng-
World's history, when war is made principally by land" contemplates with such fond affection. Menu-
money. We have rated the income of persons pos- factories put monasteries out of date, and railroads
sessing 1501. a-year and upwards at much more than traversed by steam-engines at the rate of thirty miles
200 millions ; and upon that point the evidence of the an hour will not very happily consort with sleepy
property-tax is conclusive ; but is this evidence ade- monks, who
quate to the exhibition of the whole truth ? By no "Soundly sleep the night away,
means. The property-tax scarcely extends at all to And just do nothing all the day; .
Ireland (and, by the way, let this be recited Who eat, and drink, and sleep--what then?
in the next schedule of Irish grievances, that Why eat, and drink, and sleep again."
under the heads of property-tax and assessed taxes, That man must be strangely unobservant of the facts
which do not reach Ireland, Great Britain pays which are subjected to hii every-day observation, or
twice as much as the whole Irish revenue), and it as strangely ignorant of the facts of English history,
certainly is not collected to its full amount even in who needs to be told that the age of monasteries,
this island. It was said of the income-tax previous when the country. had a spare population—when the
to 1816, that Glasgow paid, as we recollect, six alms of the baronial hall and the convent were mffi-
times as much as Manchester. Is there any reason cient for those who had to beg—when the mind of
to suppose that the Leaguers of our day are more the whole population, with but few exceptions, bowed
. honest than their fathers thirty years ago ? Pre- to the sceptre of Romish domination, differed alto-.
. viously to 1816 the millocracy had but one motive to gether from England in the present age, when the
understate their gains—the desire to save so much whole country is thickly peopled—when a spirit of
tax; now they have another; and if possible, a more independence animates the humbler classes, and ren-
powerful motive, in the necessity of showing that ders them anxious to receive their support, not from
their profits are so low as to require the sacrifice the hands'of some mitred abbot, but from the labour
of the happiness, health, lives, and morals of the lof their own hands ; and when the minds of men have
labouring classes to . save these profits from dis- t claimed that freedom which is their birthright, and
appearing altogether. We look with anxiety for in the exercise of which they profess convictions
the property-tax returns from the manufacturing strangely differing from each other, and from the
districts—these returns being general, and con-
ages anterior to the Reformation. The absurdity of
solidated, will cause no invasion of any one's privacy attempting to restore the institutions of the middle
by their publication, and they surely will supply an ages to the nineteenth century, renders it unnecessary
important element in the discussion of the great
that we should offer any serious arguments against it.
question which now occupies the public mind—What There is, however, in the present number of the Con-
is the income of the millowners 9 Surely this must gregational Magazine, a very talented article on the
be known, before it can be determined whether the suppression of the monasteries, to which, on account
people ought to be sacrificed. As et the only data of its appropriateness to the subject before us, we
that. the public have is their own byoasi that in about cannot avoid a brief reference. " Multitudes in this
twenty-five years they realised More than the
e country (observes the writer), delight to contemplate
purchase money of the fee
of -
th
United Kingdom. Now, if . the glorious remains of monastic architecture, as seen
their income lie in such runs as Netley or Fountain, Glastonbury, or
very great, though not quite so great as
the Tintern, and moved by peaceful scenes and hallowed
boast referred to implies, it is plain that they are . associations, are ready to say with Sir Walter Scott—
under no necessity of compelling women and
_
.' Here have I thought twere' sweet to dwell,
pefsons to work twelve hours, and to remain fourteenyoung
And rear again the chaplain's cell;
Like that same peaceful hermitage,
hours in the mill daily. If their income is
not great,
of what 'importance is their pauper-making and Where Milton longed to spend his age.'
This sensibility and taste have been wrought upon by
misery-extending pursuit to the nation, to justify the
sacrifice of the health, happiness, lives, and morals, ofi the pseudo-historians and novelists, who describe these
the labouring classes to its preservation. They may , foundations as having been the asylums of learning,
be like the person of whom the wise mans peaks— I the homes of charity, and the sanctuaries of religion;
" Who think life a plaything, and time a market for Fosetreas, to use the energetic language of John
gain ; for, say they, we must be getting every way, er, ' the proud piles were, in fact, raised to cele-
brate the Conquest, and
;" but
though it be by evil means
1 power of darkness over
were as triumphal arches the u
think, the people of Englarid will not endure such a I erseoctlesdo inf the
mem people. They
I
code of social morals, except upon the ground of extermination of that truth whichwas orial of the
invincible necessity. lire ought to have some know- life of man." The writer then alludes tog
given to be the
ledge of the aggregate gains, in order to determine as ; tary evidence which is being brought to lei ht byumen-
to the existence of such' a necessity. The considera- i ecclesiastical inquiries now going on, and which the
. shows
tion of the millowners' property-tax has led us away 1 " how awfully retributive were the • spohations of
from the more general view of the subject. The whole , in the
Bluff Harry, and how truly he was a "besom '
rateable income of the United Kingdom can hardly be I hands of the All-righteous One to
sweep from the
less than the enormous sum of three hundred millions earth those gorgeous dwelling-places of
sterling, a s
perfect security against foreign aggression, hypocrisy and sanctimonious crime." Did the Cam-
and a glorious means of softenin the condition bridge resolution,l •
gentlemen who passed the t o which
that of all classes of the people—and g
condition will we have referred, take in their discussion, the facts
be softened. England does not become less moral or recorded in "The Black Book," made at the in-
less humane as she becomes more rich, thanks to the stance of Cromwell, concerning " the vile lives, the
happy influence of our pure Protestant Christianity. abominable facts, in murders of their brethren, in
The moral health of the country improves with its sodomies, in whoredoms, in destroying of children,
wealth ; contrary, certainly,the
to -
experience of all in forging of deeds, and other infinite horrors of life,"
Pagan and Romanist nations.
The very humblest will, iof which the monasteries had been the eenes ? If
sooner or later, share in the commonb affluencel of the they did not, their judgment concerningthe desirable-
. nation. It may be now ; it may
hence ; but the result is inevitable • euhie few years ness of having monastic institutions restored, cannot
trust to be impossible, the moral feelsins what
fwe be of much worth ; and if they did,' they -deserve
the
country shall retrograde. " The blessed g of
the contempt and execration of the country to
re orm
said the excellent Michael Sadler, <, can hardly •
, which they are longing. to restore the institutions
which our forefathers were compelled to uproot.