The Sun.
London, England, 1845-11-07 00:00:00

zrzwaxrz AND LZADENNISMX.

Full average supplies of each kind of meat were on sale,
while the general demand ruled inactive, at our quotations.—
Beef from 2s 4d to 3s 6d; Mutton 3s 4d to 4s 6d ; Veal,
35 10d to 4s 10d; and Pork, 3s 8d to 6s 4d per Blbs.

THE CORN-LAWS and RELATIONS

WITH AMERICA.

Next in magnitude and public importance to that all-
absorbing topic of the day—how are we to avert a famine?
—is the present position of our relations with the r nited
States, whether we view them politically or commercially.
We have often heard of foreign quarrels being encouraged
for the purpose of diverting attention from domestic dissen-
sions; but, in the present case, we fear that the well-founded
apprehensions of calamities at home are excluding from due
appreciation the dangers to which we are exposed abroad.
We are led to believe, from information on which we are en-
titled to rely, that, notwithstanding the importance of the
" food question," which has occupied the deliberations and
divided the opinions of the Cabinet in their recent
meetings, the state of our negotiations at Washing-
ton, in regard to the Oregon territory, has been a ques-
tion scarcely less perplexing and embarrassing. Certain
it is, from all we can glean of public opinion in the states,
and from all we can learn from private sources of the views
of the Cabinet at Washington, and of their power to control
public opinion, even were they disposed to do so, in order to
effect a friendlyl settlement of this questions-,and it is with
reluctance and sincere regret that we make the avowal—
there appears at present scarcely a chance of such views being
entertained in the pending negotiation at Washington as will
or can meet the acceptance of an English Cabinet. Nor are
our fears on this score lessened when we refer to the apparent
precautionary preparations which the recent activity in the
various Government dock-yards would indicate against
apprehended clanger; nor when we refer to the fact
that our cruizers stationed on the west coast of South
America have sailed to the north with sealed Lorders.
The approach of the meeting of Congress, when as a matter
of course the President in his message will be under the ne-
cessity of declaring the views of his Government in regard
to this now exciting question, renders it a matter of necessity
that our Ministers should be decided as to their policy. How
far Mr. Polk may, in his message to Congress, change the
tone of his inauguration speech, we will not venture to say,
but it is certain that the events which have since then oc-
curred in America have been such as rather to increase than
subdue the popular appetite for "territory." It has seldom
happened that an English Cabinet has been called upon to
deliberate upon two questions of such vital importance to
the country—famine, with all its social consequences, at
home, and war, with commercial disruptions serious
as could well be both in their nature and extent,
abroad. We protest most earnestly that we are desirous to
avoid creating unnecessary alarm, but seeing the danger, we
feel that we should be most remiss in our duty to the public
if we shrunk from following the present evidences which are
before us to conclusions which, sooner or later, appear inevi-
table, unless something be done materially to alter the tone
of public opinion in America with regard to its relations
with this country. However far separated, at first sight, the
two grave questions may be which at present engross the
attention of the repeated. meetings of the Cabinet, a little
closer investigation will show that they are not only nearly
allied in their origin, but that the difficulties in each case
can be best met by the same course on the part of
this country. Looking to America, it is highly
instructive to observe the origin and growth of
the popular excitement with regard to Oregon,
and by whom such recklessness is displayed as to the con-
sequences which may result to the peace of the two coun-
tries. No one, even in America, pretends to cling to their
asserted right to any portion of the Oregon territory from
the intrinsic value which they attach to it as a possession;
on the contrary, the tenacity with which they adhere to
those rights, and the propensity which they evince to increase
their pretensions, appear more dictated by a hostility to their
rival joint occupants than by any estimate of the value of
the country. This appears even more evident when we ob-
serve by whom these feelings of hostility are most evinced.
It is exactly in proportion as parties are alienated from
England, by an exclusion from a beneficial intercourse with
us, that we find them intemperate and reckless as to the
consequences of a quarrel with respect to Oregon. It
is not the cotton growers of the eastern or southern
states, nor the commercial classes in the middle and
northern states, that we find heedless of the conse-
quences of these disputes. The intemperate tone which pre-
vails on this vexatious question excites no less anxiety in
New York, New Orleans, and Boston, than it does in London,
Liverpool, and Glasgow. Singular as it may appear, the
meetings and violent resolutions in regard to Oregon are
chiefly confined to the great agricultural statesof the Union
to the growers of wheat in the west, and of Indian corn in the
south; and to that large portion of the public, and the press
which are enlisted in those interests. Countries and commu-
nities which are bound together by mutual interests will not
lightly hazard an interruption to their intercourse. The road
to mutual concessions, and the adoption of any fair and rea-
mrnable proposition for the settlement of disputes, are com-
paratively easy, where it is the interest of both par-
ties to avoid a quarrel. New Orleans would see its inter-
course cut off with New York with less regret than
it would that with Liverpool. Manchester and Glasgow, as
far as their interests are concerned, could view a bombard-
ment of New York as little less injurious than that of any
part of our own country. But our policy of protection to
agriculture at home has cut off our communication with the
large agricultural classes in America; and we are now reap-
ing the bitter fruits cf that policy in the condition to which
our prospects are reduced of the means by which the country
is to be fed for the next twelve months, while we have
alienated from English sympathies that large class in the
United States with which we should be most closely associated
in mutual interests. The difficulties of the Oregon question in
America, and of the " food question" in England, may well be
considered in relation to each other in their origin, and more
so as to the means by which they can be most successfully
surmounted. Sir Robert Peel should feel no small consola-
tion from the fact, that the two great evils which at present
threaten the country, and which so much perplex his coun-
cils, can be best averted by one and the same policy. He
nced have no hesitation as to the course to pursue with regard
to the one difficulty, lest it should aggravate the other; there
need be no fine balancing of so much good m the one case
against so much mischief in the other. England, and
Ireland in particular, are notoriously deficient of the neces-
sary supply of food to last till next harvest. If we look
round me everywhere, the United States is the only
country from which any important supplies can be
obtained. An opportunity, consistent with our urgent wants,
presents itself to the Minister to give the corn-growers in
America as deep an interest in the maintenance of peace as
the cotton-growers have now. It is a fact to which we are
enabled to speak, that the chief difficulty which the Ame-
rican Government now feel, with regard to the policy which
will be practicable in respect to the Oregon question, arises
from the views taken by that very class whose interests in
favour of an unbroken peace between the two countries, a
common regard to our own present necessities should lead us
to conciliate. Cat any Man seriously believe that any
great party in America, who had st real interest in the
continuance of the peace of the two countries,
would interpose objections to any mode by which
such an honourable adjustment could be effected of such a
questions as that now pending between the two countries?
But Sir Robert Peel must make up his mind, if he will allay
fears at home, and dissipate the antipathies against us among
the agricultural classes in America, to abandon for ever his
long-cherished principle of a sliding-scale, which has ever
proved especially harassing to the corn-growers in America,
and which had, in many respects, the appearance of being
especially directed against them. There never was an occa-
sion when a minister had it in his power to avert so much
danger, present and future, by a single act, as Sir Robert
Peel now has, by a repeal of those restrictions of our trade in
grain which have endangered the best interests of the coun-
try equally at home and abroad.—Chronicle.