The Sun.
London, England, 1826-07-15 00:00:00

[THE sett c~stt PRESS.]

It is expected that some specific measure will be
proposed to Ministers by the manuflicturing interest,
at the meeting of his Majesty's Council, which takes
place next week, to consider the best means of reme_
dying the existing distress. We are not of opinion
that merchants or manufacturers, or any class of men
practically engaged in any paiticulur bitliknes.4, are the
persons hest adapted to give advice respecting the
proper method Of conciliating differences of interests
in their own department. As to any proposition which
maybe made, of adopting partial measures fin- this
particular occasion, we should consider it eNtremely
futile and short-sighted, if not pernicious in the ex-
treme. If it be possible to trace the distress of the
country to the free trade system, and if it can be
shown that this system will continue to operate in the
sante way, the manufacturers should come forward at
once, and denounce the system, not in their own de-
partment only, but in every department. Por our
parts, we deny entirely the connexion of the distress
with free trade as a system, and we even maintain that
the re-enactment of the restrictive laws would increase
the distress. The adoption of 'the free trade system
was, no Liman, in part, the cause of the suffering in time
manufacturing districts ; but it produced that effect, not
from any thing in the system itself, but front the' tern-
porary excitement which arose in consequence of it.—
rhis effect is similar to what we witness every day
in common life. A man who has been, long confined
fides not at first know how to use his liberty. The
manufacturers, hastening to take advantage of the ex-
pected markets which were to be opened to them in
consequence of' the free trade system, employed labour
enough to supply the markets for two or three years
instead of one ; and that excess of stock must now be
disposed of, before employment can be obtained for
L f their workmen in the same line. There was also, not

many months ago, a groat abundance of capital, or
rather of credit, in the country. That , capital or
credit being, in fact, greater than, was necessary fir
the supply. of .the different wants of the people, was
employed m many cues in unprofitable speculations ;
and thus again the market was overstocked with goods
of all descriptions. A clearer proof coati not easily
he adduced that mere labour is not wealth if not ern-

ployed on things useful. if a map builds a house, he
doevir, in the expectation or a profit- on his money
superior to what be could obtain by placing it at in-
terest. The sum of money which he expends on
it is, therefore, less than would he required to ob-

taro an annuity equal to the rent of the house.-
When the house is built, therefore, be may obta

on its security a sum equal to that which heexpend-
ed upon it, and may from its rents pay both the in-
terest of his own money and that which he has since
borrowed, and, perhaps, obtain a small 'profit be-
sides. Nothing prevents him with the borrow-
ed money from building another house ; and it is
obvious, then, that he would have interest for his
original money, and, at the same time, would enjoy
the excess of the rents of both houses above the com-
mon interest which he could have had on his capital,
Having two houses, he might borrow the value of the
two, and might erect two others, and so on, in geo-
metrical progression, ad iyinitum, 'These houses
are as much wealth as gold or silver ; and it is no won
der if golden dreams have arisen from crude notions
of dm sort. Unfortunately, houses are useless with-
out tenants and the speculators in building, would
have done well if they had calculated more accurately
the l"blibilities of the increase of populaiion. This
effects of that ths' proportiOnate
"lance of building way serve as a specimen of the
been paid by the speculators to less important objects.
attenion which has
The increase of the means of s il: ' •
method by which
be rendered benefit:lA ;
. ,
operative, tile capital of the master, the measures of

the statesman, and the skill of the philosopher, ought
at this moment be directed, w. 411 an, energy propor-
tionate to that which has been exerted on less impor-
tant objects. However numerous the mistakes may
be in other departments, it is here that the fault lies
at present; and till something be done in this respect,
by employing the labour of the poor and the capital of
the rich in agricultural improvements, we see but two
alternatives—emigration, or hopeless dependence on
foreign countries. In writing tlms, we hope that we
aremerely to fill a few lines
of a n otjournal.onsidre Wed as writingconside consider ourselves as fulfilling a
ce
public duty in submitting our ideas to public exami-
nation ; and if they are founded in truth,- we shall re-
gret it as sincerely as any, should the people have any-
thing more to suffer before it acknowledges their accu-
racy.

[THE REPRESENTATIVE :3 s
There is • -
places disgusting In the
noise Lally
d'y
IN'lNts'6.ei `something
esktelleeipiti absurd slipjuarircillt epsuaei ap-ilerY
s making an actual,
riot about the impropriety of the widow of a Lord
Chancellor, a' Peer, an orator, a Knight of the This-
tle, being reduced to look for assistance through the
mediation of a' police office. We did not think any-
body, except, perhaps, the city people, so entirely stu-
pid as not to know the whole history of her Lady-
ship. There. is no reason, or no right, that persons
of her starve; and she, beyond
question, condition'
s'e4iii°tiltliedshod
to every sympathy. and assistance
psible ; but, if we are, called upon to assist'her as a
possible
Chancellor's widow, we must recollect how that
Chancellor got possessed of her, and call to mind,
perhaps, her general character and conduct—de vari-
ous tricks he played about her—his petticoat ad4n-
tures—his divorce scciieshis dotage, irhbecility,, and
absurdity, throughout. An evening paper yesterday
says—
"In the Mansion-house report, in our paper of to-day, is some
further account of proceedings taken °wan application from the
widow of Lord Erskine. The whole fakir is painful, under any
representation, as calling to mind the errors and misfortunes of a
?non to whom the country has reason to be grateful. But it is
just to Lord EiSkine's friends to call to mind that one part of the
statement first mule at the Mansion-house iii incorrect, either
through the fault of the reporter or the applicant. The impres-
sion produced by that statement is, th4t the applicant was living
happily with Lord E. up to the time of his death. The con-
trary is notoriously the case. Lord E. not long before his
death, wished to procure a divorce, in which, however, he failed."
Why, or wherefore, the comAy has reason to be
cc grateful" to Lord Erskine, is a question which we
shall not stop to discuss. We agree entirely with
Mr. John Cant Hobliouse, in rating that person at
the lowest rate possible; bus we beg leave to re-
mind the Paper from which ive° quote, that Lord
Erskine failed in procuring a divorce from the lady
now before the public, only br.,cause he thought fit to
retract all his own charges against her, and that
too in a speech made most irregularly in one of the
Ecclesiastical Courts. If we wished to revive old
stmies, we might tell some'. strange things; but we
do not think that time. private; life of ,public men is a
fair subject for newspaper animadversion iu times so
nearly approaching our own. If the last of the Whig
'Chancellors had been a Tory, we should have been
long since favOnred with all his foibles, in prose and
verse. As he was a Whig, he, of course, is not to
be touched, for fear of of ending the party which pa-
tronized the 71ftio-pentw Post Bag, Mr. Hones Pam-
phlets,, The Fiyige Fan,tily, and other such delicate
and veracious publications,