The Sun.
London, England, 1844-12-16 00:00:00

SPIRIT of the PUBLIC JOURNALS.
FROM THE EVENING PAPERS OF SATURDAY.
GLOBE.—About half a dozen of the Post's " gentle-
men agriculturists" assembled yesterday afternoon at the
Freemasons' Tavern, for the purpose of " agitating" for
the repeal of the malt duty. Mr. A. Spottiswoode, the
Queen's printer, was selected by the meeting as
an appropriate chairman for the occasion ; and Mr.
at. Biker, the paid agent of the Essex Pro-Corn-
law League, was the chief spokesman of the day.
The Chairman declared his innocence of all know-
ledge relating to the object for which the persons pre-
sent had assembled ; " but there were, no doubt, several
gentlemen, present who were acquainted with the sub-
ject • and he trusted it would be discussed with that
good temper which was essential to its proper under-
standing. The object, he believed, was to do good to
those who naturally looked up to the landowners and
farmers for support and assistance ; and he would only
say, that the class to whom he referred had not hitherto
received that fair protection to which they were en-
titled." Mr. Baker undertook to:support the Chairman's
deficiency of information ; and, certainly, if the number
of topics (he introduced were to be regarded as a fair
criterion, we should reverence the man as a locomo-
tive cyclopedia of political economy. " That one small
lead shold carry all he knows," or rather talks about,
may well excite " wonder" in the minds of the
Essex farmers. The repeal of the malt duty was
the theme of Mr. Baker's eloquence; the object to
attain which he endeavours to incite the farmers to
agitate. If Sir R. Peel would but take off the malt
duty it would rectify the blunders of his tariff ; atone
for the injuries inflicted on the agriculturists by the
newly-adjusted sliding-scale; and make up the losses
sustained by the currency : in fact, Mr. Baker, like
other empirica, has discovered the panacea which, if
applied to the agricultural distress, will render the farmers
fat and flourishing, and their labourers brisk and blessed.
Among other matters, of equal- probability, Mr. Baker
suggested the following as inducements to " the gen-
tlemen agriculturists" to agitate for malt-tax repeal:—
"In former times the farmer found his labourers in
good home-brewed ale, and paid better wages to his
men. No doubt the rate of wages was the first con-
sideration,
but it was equally true that the discontinu-
ance of the old allowance of good strong beer had pro-
dueed much dissatisfaction amongst the labouring
classes. That he conceived to have been one of the
main incentives to that moral disturbance which had
produced the commission of those horrid outrages un-
happily too frequent in the agricultural districts. That
discontented feeling was, 'he believed, fairly traceable
to a reduced standard of wages; and in no little degree
to the discontinuance of ' the labourer's customary
allowance of beer. The labourers were not only
worse paid, but they got worse beer, and less of
it. . . . . If the malt duty were abolished, the
labourer would no longer have occasion to resort to
the beer-shop, for he would be enabled to brew his
own beer at a fourth of the price which he now
paid." Beer at one penny per quart—one fourth of
the price which the labourer now pays for it, when he can
get it—is one of those illusions with which agricultural
labourers may be cheated, but which- wilt certainly im •
pose on no one else. No man capable of adding two and
two together can arrive at such a conclusion. Mr.
Baker, we presume, is capable of doing so. His asser-
tion, therefore, cannot be the result of ignorance
and, if not of ignorance, what then ? The utmost
reduction of price which beer would experience, even
to the labourer—if his condition were so improved
as to enable him to brew fur himself and family—
Would be somewhat less than one penny per quart.
Mr. Baker's observations evidently had reference to
a letter of Mr. Tower, of Weald Hall, which cppeared
in the Chelmsford Chronicle of yesterday, and which pro-
pounds a notable scheme for retaining the duty on malt
to the general consumer, but •rdinqui.,hing it so far
as beer fur farmers and their labourers is concerned.
Were it not an illustration Of the extremity to which
the agricultural protcctionlAs are driven for expedients
by which to uphold their falling cause, and the des-
prate efforts they put firth to preserve themselves
from the golf toward which their insane and cruel
policy is fast impelling them, Mr. 'l'ower's scheme
might be a 1 owed to pass into oblivion without
remark. As a scheme for upholding rents, and thus mi-
nistering to the landlords' interests at the expense of the
general community, it may be worth while to expose its
surdity. Mr. Tower balongs to that unfortunate class
of oliticians who advocate " Protection to Agriculture,"
an yet call themselves Whigs. Mr. Tower, in the letter
ai uded to, proposes that " Every occupier of la Id, get-
ting his living chiefly thereby, and not being rated at
snore than X— a year to the assessed :taxes on carriages,
horses, dogs, and male servants, should be allowed, on
payment of a small fee, to register his p:ivate brew house
at the Excise-office nearest his residence. Bond should be
given to insure that the beer should be drunk on, and
slot sold to bs carried off, the premises. The Excise
officer, should, on i eceivine notice, attend and citify
the quantity of malt mashed,e on which the duty would
be repaid, the quantity brewed at any one time not being
leas than bushels." This " P. otecion-to-Agriculture"
advocate goes on to say—" All the benefits to the la-
bourer anticipated by the farmers, would be rendered
available ; the promised check to the corruption of the
beer-shops would be obtained, aid no other interest
materially affected or disturbed by its operation."
This sage would not " check the corruption of
the beer-shops," but would set up a fresh beer-shop
ix the house of every little farmer throughout
the land, and one " licensed to consume upon the
premises"--that is, a beer-shop of the kind which
et now requires a certain rating, and the signature
of six, or a majority of inhabitant rate-payers, to
obtain. There would be very little necessity to give
bond that the beer should be consumed on the premises.
Give Hodge a comfortable ,fire, beer at three•farthings
a-pot cheaper than ho can got it at the Tom-and-Jerry
up the street ; and the Legislature need be under no
apprehension of his seeking the bosom of his family
as long as " Master" will let him have another pint.
The landlords have done all that men could do to-
wards destroyine' the peasantry. They have made
them dependent by bad poor-laws, and desperate !by
bad game-laws ; they have starved them by exacting
high rents, and left them in the grossest ignorance and
brutality. And now a scheme is propounded by a
member of the class which has so signally failed in
duty to the labourers, to complete the ruin they
have caused, by proposing a plan by which the
labourer would be encouraged to spend his earnings on
his master's premises, in beer brewed with malt the
growth of his master's land, and consequently for his
master's profit—in order that his master may be better
able to pay his landlord the high rent which must
otherwise be reduced. The family of the labourer will
be little disposed to thank the projector of this notable
- exhibition of landlord wisdom. Their present wretched
supply of food and raiment would be still further dimi-
nished by the amount expended on ale allowed to be
" drunk," free of duty, OR the master's " premises."
STANDARD.—The deliberation of the Board of
Heads of Houses and Proctors at Oxford, upon Mr.
Ward's "Ideal Church," and the Tract No. 90, have
come to a close, and the result will probably appear
on Monday, in a very - ably written paper. Mean-
while let us state what •we believe to be a faithful
abstract of the Board's decision. The opinion of the
Board, to be submitted to a Convocation to he
holden on the 13th of February, is in the form
of three propositions :—First, to censure the false doc-
trines in Mr. Wird'-s book, more particularly that doe-
trine which relates to subscription to the Articles of the
Church. Secondly, to strip Mr. Ward of his degrees in
the University, should he not submit and retract.
Thirdly, to make provision that in future the
Articles shall,. be honestly subscribed, that is in
their plain grammatical sense, without evasion or
mental reservation, but as far as the effect can be
be secured juxta animum imponentis. The Board has thus
faithfully and courageously discharged its duty the Uni-
-varsity, the country, and the Church. More than submit
the matter to Convocation it had no power to do, and we
think that it acted wisely in allowing two months for the
person whose fate is to be decided, to prepare a defence,
if he can; to reconsider his errors if he has enough of
sense and candour remaining ; or, not an improbable
event, boldly to follow to Rome so many of his brother
sectarians as have gone before him. The friends
a the Church and of the Protestant faith, who
sire members of Convocation, must not neglect
the advantages offered by this comparatively long
notice.. Let them regard the 13th of February as a
day siscried to their first of social duties connected with
religion, and in time make all necessary arrangements to
ensure that they can bo at Oxford upon that
day. With such notice as they have, no ex-
cuse less than the physical impossibility of the journey
can justify their absence from Oxford, on the 13th of
February. So far, the University has shown its deter-
mination to protect the purity of the Church, and to
restore its peace. We have little doubt that the ccurse
-which the Bishops are about to adopt will be as unam
keiguoua and as energetical.

Married, on Thursday, the 12th inst., at the old
parish church, Cheltenham, the Rev. John Charnock;
vicar of Oldfield, near Ripon, Yorkshire, to Harriet
Dorothea, second daughter of the late Vice-Admiral Sir
Robert Tristram Ricketts, Baronet, of the Elms, Chel-
tenham, deceased. The bride was given away by
ThomaaWright, Esq., of Cheltenham, surgeon. The
Lappy pair, after breakfasting with Lady Ricketts, at the
Elms, departed in a travelling carriage and four for
tudley, near Ripon, to pass the honeymoon.
Ma. WARD'S CASE.—OXFORD, FRIDAY EVENING.
—We have just heard that the Hebdomadal Board of
the University, at a meeting held,tey-day, have concurred
in three statutes to be submitted to Convocation on the
13th of February, 1845.:—0ne, condemnatory of the
principles of subcription to the Articles, advocated by
31r. Ward ; a second, degrading him from his degrees
bis refusal to submit t...) a recantation ; and a third,
intended to secure the University from fraudulent sub-
scription in future.— o.kford Chionicle.
THE FrsuEntEs,—lminctise quantities of soles
(says the Eastern Counties Herald) are weekly imported
into Hall and dispatched by railway. One day during
the past week 57 Nu:Wakes,' weighing together five tons,
were dispatched by train ,for the London market; and
the day preceding. four tons had been forwarded to the
loorne destination. Contrary to the general redo, thal
•;.;-6hen we have largo exports, Hull is ill-supplied with
h, the opposite is now the csse, fo • the fisl,nion,rers
1 Ave their stores abundant!' suppliedi
with the
tihe.take is extraordin ( ve,ztel consi4ned to the
o'd-established house eaft.7l,'ll9lill (Lite Ask( w, Todd, and
Johnson), delivered on, Lenuta last 2,040 Fain, the
actual fishing for which had on3:ly occupied twenty four
.ltours. From 50 to 70 vessdealty, T.2.oln.teYnarmouth, ltarns-
13y
making
the fishing
g Ste, and other ports, may.
all, the
grounds at sea off Yarmouth..
fishermen have their produceteueladaeya.rlier,Tth_lle unirket.
4,.11 that is landed in Hail on one before five o'clock
in the afternoon, is in London early in the
,morning
the next day ; besides which two or three •days are
t.tved in every voyage by coming to this port instead of
Jturasgate.