The Sun.
London, England, 1828-05-01 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

It should appear from a speech of the Duke of
Wellington a few nights ago, and one of Mr. Peel's
on Tuesday night, that a more ardent spirit of op-
position has been kindled iu their bosoms on the
subject of the Catholic Question than was thought
to exist some time ago. Certainly, since the moot-
ing of the Dissenting Bills, there was even an opi-
oion that Government was disposed to come to
terms on the subject of emancipation. This influx
of repulsive zeal is said to have been derived from
a high quarter, where there was till recently
only a degree of passive dissatisfaction. What,
then, has rendered the passive dissatisfaction at-
:ive ? The Person, it is said, of whose arrival
and the cause we have before spoken : and
the, concession to the Protestant Dissenters is to
be compensated by a more fixed opposition to
the Catholic claims. We have no doubt but
that the great body of the English people, if they
could have had their choice, ,vould have pre-
ferred that the concession and opposition
should have changed quarters; and if both Dissen-
ters and Catholics could not be gratified by the full
enjoyment of their rights, concession should have
been made to the latter, and opposition to the
former. There is no nation of Non-Conformists as
there is of Catholics. On the subject of taking ad-
vice, too, the object of every man's life, and parti-
cidarly that of a King, being to be loved—to be re-
spected—the person advised should always ask the
person advising, " it by this method, which you
'counsel me to adopt, that you have become so loved
and respected as I see you are ? If it is, I will fol-
low your counsel, and then I shall stand as high in
public esteem as you do! and we shall both be loved
:and valued alike!"—Tinges.

The principle of a fixed duty on corn was nega-
tived on Tuesday night, in the House of Commons,
by a considerable majority. We have stated our
opinion of the Bill stow in progress through Parlia-
ment, that we think it can inflict no great injury or
mischief on the people of England, at least no sud-
den mischief, provided Ministers adhere honestly to
Their engagement •of suppressing small notes. It
cannot, however, he denied, that it is opposed to a
liberal system of policy, and that if not repealed, it
may ultimately be found to retard the general com-
fort and improvement of mankind. Mr. Irving said
that corn-laws existed in other countries as well as
this, and, together, with France, instanced Spain
and Portugal ! Pretty examples to follow ! Spain
;and Portugal ! Why may we not have the-Inqui-
sition, also, like Spain and Portugal ? And as to
_France, its commercial concerns were for many years
under the direction of Buonaparte, whose en-
iightenei mind in these matters strove to exclude
English manufactures and merchandise of every kind
from the whole continent ; and when he was not
Lord of the ascendant, French politicians were too
much occupied in the concerns of the Revolution to
study the operations of the commercial laws. But
r is very certain that the foundation of all free trade
must be laid in a free trade in the necessaries of life. It
s erroneous to suppose, that a year of scarcity in Eng-
'and, proceeding from unfavourable seasons,
is likely to be a year of searcity throughout the corn-
growing countries on the Continent; the very reverse
has generally been, in point of fact, the case, and is
steely to be so in future; for the atmospheric phe-
,lomena of this country are so affected by its insular
-,;ituation, as to produce a different state of weather at
:the same season from that which is observed in the
rest of Europe : so that we may infer, in contradic-
tion to what Mr. Peel asserted, that " a free trade

corn would secure ns against the possibility of
high prices" Nay,—what is of more consequence
to the farmer.—it would also secure us against the
possibility of inordinately low prices, provided the
principle were general ; for it is now well-known, that
the price of grain has for some time been higher
throughout the south of Europe than here in Eng-
:and : to which south of Europe we should have
been both exporting our own grain and carrying that
of the northern regions, if the lamentable prohibitory
,:ystem haA not prevailed. It is obvious also, that
when Parliament legislates for high prices in the
article of wheat or bread, they ought in reason to
,:tscore corresponding wages to the labourer. The
landlordi will take care to fix corresponding rents
fir themselves. But Parliament cannot, by g.ny
legislative enactment whatever, oblige the farmer
o employ and pay high wages to a prescribed
?lumber of labourers : the thing is impracti-
cable. Neither can the farmer pay a high rent,
however it may be nominally fixed by lease, if his
barns be unproductive, or corn unreasonably low,—
The impossibility, therefore, of effecting these lattim
objects, should teach senators. the wisdom not to I
attempt the first ; for the first without these is im-
politic and erne]. It is very certain, as Sir Thomas
Gooch said, " that the landed is not a separate in-
torest ;" but it is equally certain, that this gentle-
man and others, with this declaration ineeisaittly in
their mouths, still continue to act as if they tho,iight
;t a separate interest. The manufacturers need not
depend on the home market for the bread they eat,
unless an unwise Government to ruled the matter;
uor need they depend exclusively upon the home
market—that is, upon the landed interest—for the
purchase of their goods. But what would become
of the corn-grower, if be had not the great mann,
facturing towns and districts; to supply ?—if he
could only dispose of his produce to the scattered
population of the country and villages? Then, in-
deed, half the lands would go out of cultivation. It
is only by a thriving state of the manufacturing iatp-
rest that.the landed' interest an thrive. 'through
moderate prices manufactures will flourish, the ma-
nufacturing tribes multiply, require wore food for
their support, and end at once in both increasing the
produce of the land, and raising its price by the
greater demand.—lbid.

As far as we can understand the Duke of Wel-
iirqton's system of governing, as indicated in the
iceasonlngs assigned by him 'for consenting to the
irepeal of the Test and Corporation Acts, it is this,
that the Executive should, above all things, study to
preserve the tranquillity of the country ; that it
should leave a free course to the manifestation of
public Opinion, without throwing itself in agitated
questions into either scale; and when an alteration
of the existing state of things is demanded, that it
should only yield to the demand when, after an csti-
mate of the strength of the respective parties, that
demanding the innovation is the strongest in,point
of numbers awl influence, do that more inconve-
nience would result front the refusal than from con-
cession. The following passage in a speech of his
grace's, on Monday night, will, we thing, bear us
071 t in the conclusion we have drawn:;—"l will as-
sure the Right Rev. Prelate who, sits behind me
(the INhop of Durham), that if he supposes this
is only an incipient measure, and that an inten-
tion exists to. follow this measure by others on
the same subject of a similar nature, I ant no
party to any such • plan. I supported the measure
on the same ground as the Right Rev. Prelate, not
because I wisn to destroy the system of law which
existed before—nesther, I must say, do I approve of
it ; but, because I considered that, under all the
circumstances of the ease, it was necessary to pass
this Bill, in order to preserve the peace of the
Church, and the religious pee of the country."
Again, in another speech delivered l,y his Grace, on
the same evening, he observed, " in a Bill intended
to give relief to Dissenters, and to enable them to
viler Corporations on taking a prescribed declaration
A is not fair to introduce a new enactment against
Roman Catholics. There is no person in this
I-lonse whose opinions are more formed and decided,
after long reflection upon the subject of the Catholic
Claims, titan my own—there is no man more deter-
mined than I am until I see a great change indeed in
respect to tlud question to oppose them. But I like-
wise say, that there is no man more determined than
I am never to give my vote for any thing which shall
be like a fresh enactment against Roman Catholics."
We cannot help thinking there is a great deal of
siodnd sense in this system of his Grace. All Go-
verment, as is well observed by flume, rests for
its .support on opinion. Even the despot 1/111€t have

the opinion of those through whose assistance he is
enabled to coerce the body of the people. The
' Duke of Wellington, in like manner, says—lf I
wish my Government, to be strong, I must have
opinion on my side; if lemploy-the force of Go-
vernment in supporting the weakest side, I give an
advantage to my opponents. But, by opinion, his
Grace does not . mean the opinion of the greatest
number, but the opinion of those who command or
influence the votes of the two Houses of Parliament.
—His business, he conceives, is not so much
with the soundness or policy of the measures
themselves, as with the power and influence
of those who advocate them. Mr. Huskisson
tried a different system, and the result was
not, certainly, by any means such as to en-
courage any Minister to tread in his footsteps. Mr.
Huskisson endeavoured to carry certain measures,
not because they were palateable to those who pos-
sess political power, but because he thought they
would promote the prosperity of the country. Here,
however, he failed, because the motive which deter-
mined those who had the power to decide was not
the good of their country, but their own separate
advantage : and having seen the impossibility of
being in office on any other terms than those of sub-
serviency to the men who have the power of em-
ploying or dismissing him, he is now actually lower
in public estimation, notwithstanding the honesty of
his former intentions, than if he had never gone out
of his way to benefit the public ; a lesson to all States-
men to be on their guard against acting on any such
principle as the public good, except in so far as the
public good is believed by those who possess poli-
tical power to be compatible with their separate
good ! The Duke of Wellington carries into poli-
tics his strategical principles. He says, it is of no
use to me that the cause is good, if I have not a suf-
ficient force to fight with. My force is the Aristo-
cracy of this country (the opinion of the majority of
a body is the opinion of the whole). If they sup-
port me, I can go on smoothly—if they do not sup-
port me, I shall struggle with impossibilities. I
shall be cutting blocks with razors. My own opi-
nion is nothing, except in so far as it may influence
those who have the power ; and when those who
have the power are determined Oa a certain conclu-
sion, the expression of a contrary opinion by me
would not influence them, but deprive me of the in-
fluence I possess. It must be owned that this sys-
tem of his Grace, when a man has sufficient indiffe-
rence to act on it, is the easiest one for a Government.
His Grace says, I assented to the demands of the Dis-
senters though personally far from favourable to
them, because the state of opinion left me no choice.
I shall, in like manner, have no objection to concede
to the Catholics what they claim, whatever my own
private opinion may be, if the state of public opinion
renders it expedient for me to do so. If then, we wish
to know what prospect there is of carrying the Ca-
tholic Question under his Grace's Ministry, we
must inquire into the state of opinion of those who
command the votes of the two Houses of Parlia-
ment. He professes to leave a free course to opi-
nion, and to be governed by that of the strongest.
There is no question, we conceive, bat that the
Aristocracy of the country are gradually becoming
more and more favourable to the Catholics. The
state of the vote at Oxford, as admitted by the
Member for that University, shows how rapidly opi-
mok is gaining ground, when even in that Eccle-
siastical Corporation so large a minority should be
on the side of the Catholics. At present, all the
influential men among the Lawyers—all the men
who are not either ignorant of the state of the ques-
tion, or who live in past ages—are certainly favour-
able to the Claims. There 'is, therefore, no reason
for despondency, if the Government keep really neu-
tral. It is impossible that the Aristocracy of the
country, who mix with the world, and, like other
men, are influenced by what they see and hear,
should not be affected by the opinions of the clever
men of the age. Those who, from a regard for con-
sistency, are wedded to the side they have once
espoused, will gradually quit the stage. The young
generation are more disposed to analyse questions
than the generation above alluded to. As we think
favourably of the claims of the Catholics, we natu-
rally think that. they must gain by whatever improves
the character of the influential part of society. The
march of intellect will reach even Dukes in time.—
ilforning Chronicle.
The following is an extract from a Report lately
published in Liverpool respecting the Tea Trade :

The following t4b)e, exhibiting the comparative prices
of English and Dutch Teas, in 1772 and 1827, will af-
ford a very curious and a very instructive exposure of the
Company's evasions of the Statutes made for the protection
‘Of the public :

Bohea,”i
Congow.

Lond. prices.
1772.
)00.
7 4

(Dutch prices. Lond. prices. Dutch prices.
1 1772. 1827. 1827.
2s. lid. 8-16 Is. 711. Os. sd. 2-5
3 II 2 5 8-10 1 0 9-10
6 8 11-16 -t 11 2 7i

Average, 4 0-4.- II 1 11 .2 11 9.1011 4 47-100
From this statement it appears that the Company's Teas,
since 1772, have fallen i❑ price about 25 per vent. only,
whilst those of the Dutch have fallen about GG per cent.
Thg prime cost of the Company's Tea in China, on an
average of 31Ver41 years, according to their own showing,
is Is. 41. per li.. They are sold at their sales in London
at an advance of 92 porggpf, The advance on Dutch and
American Teas, beyond tho pi-44 ig China, is only 4S per
cent. estimated by a comparison of II;g Canton with the
yew York and Antwerp statements.

i-Qm this it would appear that the present price
of Tea let tiicJJand is one half less than the East
India Company's p;ives. The question may arise
here, are the Company's 'seas better in quality than
the Dutch Teas ? We have often li,;ard United States
k 1 e say that the English Teas are wery superior
to the Caired States Teas ; and that this arose from
the Last 11.4;5. Company having a preference over
every other nation ;I, the Chinese market. If, how-
ever, Dutch Teas are a; g,Q9cl as East India Cm-n-
-inny's Teas, then, according to th,c above statement
wea;o: paying much more than we ought to pay,
and much nApre than we should pay were the trade
to China thrown i,p,en. For instante, according to
the above steement, th,t: price of East India Com-
pany's Teas, with the duty of 190 per cent. added,
would be as under : s, d.
Bohea

Congou . 4 I
Hyson 0 0
While Dutch Teas, with WO per cent ;duty added,
would be only

Bobea
Congou
Hvson ') 3
We will recapitulate them—
_

Dutch. East India Company.
a. d. • S. d,
&Ilea 0 11
Congou 9 1
0. 4 11
Such aidilsn 5 3 4
difference as this, however,opencl to ex-
-0
ap:iadnapteioritliaopris
stohme
epatrtasotf p India Director•, under saonnyne;
feigned signature, might give us reason for :loch a
difference in price. To throw trade with-1
out giving the East India Como? en
this
amplecompen-
sation or time would obviously rietn) andut-ijt3twhat •
we think the public would not expect,
or
Par-
liament agree to; for NV e ought alwaysto t bear in
iu
mind g
that the East India Company, at great risk
and expellee, and time, have raised wonderful em-
pire in the East Indies; and that, in order to sup
Dort that empire, the exclusive trade to China %;
probably indispensable to the Company. If that
trade were taken away or interfered with, the East
Ind;a Company's financial means might be impaired;
and the coi,-,seyienee might be that the Government
would take into its keening the East Indian Empire.
The question then wapiti Prise--would the East
Indies be more valuable to England utuler the go-
vernment of the Government than it is at present
under that of the East India Company ? It appears
by the Report that China contains about 150 mil-
bons of people : now if this trade were thrown open,
~here would be a large population to trade with—a
population of twenty millions interchanging commo-
dities with 150 nnlllons !—rather a startling propo-
sition though, so far as exchange of labour for labour
is concerned, DI art individual respect. This looks

Well on paper ; and most would say, what an im-
mense market would be here opened for our manu-
factures ! forgetting all the while that expor-
tation of manufactures depends on importation
of some commodity. If we import tea to the
amount of 3,000,0001., we mast export produce
to the amount of 3,000,0001. in payment; but if, in
consequence of throwing open the trade, we were
to export manufactures to the amount of 6,000,0001.,
and import, in payment, a double quantity of
tea—say 6,000,000/., instead of 3,000,0001.—and
only 3,000,000/. of tea were wanted, or could be
consumed, we should have in the importers' hands
a surplus of tea to the amount of 3,000,0001., which
importers would not know what to do with. It is
very easy for manufacturers to say we have sent out
6,000,000/. of our goods to China, and we have got
back 6,000,004. of teain return, but it is quite another
thing to sell. the tea for 6,000,0001. of money, ex-
cept, while this process of increased export and im-
port were going on, English tea-drinkers had got
into the custom of drinking a double portion. A
mania seized the people of Manchester and Glas-
gow, a year or two since, to export in one year cot-
ton goods to the amount of 80,000,000/., and Mr.
Robinson mentioned this in a speech as a mark of
singular prosperity ; but such quantities of cotton and
other raw commodities were imported into this coun-
try in payment for the 30,000,000/. of goods export-
ed, that prices came down accordingly,and the Man-
chester and Glasgow men lost as much by their im-
ports as they gained by their exports. If, inconsequence
of throwing open the tea trade, the people of this churl-
try were to consume, and be able to pay for, two cups
of tea instead of one, then the increased exporta-
tion and importation might answer the purpose of
the importer and exporter; not else. Now we are
not quite certain whether, if the trade were thrown
open, two cups of tea for one would be drunk; hut
if not, what would become of the increased expor-
tation question, which at present dazzles the ima-
gination of not only manufacturers, but Lords and
Commons ? It is very easy to talk and to write
about exportation and importation, but quite another
thing to try the experiment upon a double or any
other scale, and to profit by it. Merchants to their
cost, often know that it is better to send out and to
receive back one ship-load than to venture upon
two ; and the same reasoning that will hold good
upon a small scale will upon a large one. Now we
would recommend Lords and Commons, when in
Parliament they make speeches, in glowing colours,
pointing out the benefit of exporting British manu-
factures to this, market and that market, to bear at
the same time in mind the question of importation,
in order to payment, and the sale of and payment
for, the articles imported. If they do sot, their
speeches will have reference to one side of the ques-
tion only. Here follow further extracts from the
Report to which we have alluded :
The Company has lately sent Teas direct from China
to Canada. The results of this speculation afford
matter of curious illustration. Your Committee have
before them the 11.:.count of one of these sales, which took
place at Quebec in the raontli of September last, and it
enables them to exhibit the following comparison with the
Company's sale prices, in London, of a correspoding
period.
Sept. 1827. Quebec. Sept. 1827. London.
Hyson Skin 2s. td. 4-10 per lb Ss. 3d. 1.10
Young Hysoii 3 7 6-10
Hyson
Best Solid-mow
Inferior ditto 2 0 8.10
Congou 2 2 4.10 -10
Bohea -1U
Pekoe -10
Gunpowder 4 10 4-lU

This statement exhibits an average difference of 9 8-10 d.
per lb. in favour of the Quebec sales; or, in other words,
the London prices exceed those of Quebec by 211 per
cent. All English travellers of intelligence
will readily acknowledge that they have been struck with
the superiority of the American ever the English Teas.
This must of necessity be the case, even bad they been
originally of the same quality, for this obvious reason, that
the American Teas are fresher; because the East India
Company are compelled, by law, to keep a whole year's
consumption in store, and sell no Teas, therefore, except
such as have been for twelve months in their warehouse.
" It is a vulgar error, and one of pernicious ten-
dency, to imagine that the consumption of Teas in this
country is general. One-third of au ounce a day is con.
sidered a moderate allowance for the consumption of a n
individual. At this rate the consumers of Tea, supposing,
as we have already done, the consumption of Tea to be
28,300,000165. amount only to 1,240,548, or little less
than one-sixth part of our computed population:—Morn-
ing Herald.

A Contemporary, speaking of the account of lin-
' ports and Exports for 182(1 and 1827, which we
gave yesterday, says—
That a great and beneficial augmentation has been ex-
perienced in our foreign trade, is unquestionable; but that
the account itself has been made out -on fallacious princi-
ples, or in'a most slovenly form, is obvious from the plain
consideration, that an excess of our exports over our im-
ports with the whole world, has been alleged in regard to
both years alluded to, namely, for 1826, an excess of
14,000,0001., and for 182'7, of 18,000,0001. ; in two years
32,000,0001. Let us ask, how is it possible that such a state-
ment can be true? Nothing is more palpable than that
with any one particular country there may exist a large
" balance" of trade, as it is called, either favourable to
Great Britain or the reverse; and the balance may be
trimmed or adjusted by remittances of coin direct, or by
an opposite awl indemnifying balance between Great
Britain and some other country which likewise traffics
with that just mentioned. But it is equally absurd to
suppose that a general exportation of goods from Great
Britain to all parts of the world, could exceed her imports
for two successive years, and in so immense a sum as
32,000,000/. sterling, as it would be to imagine that the
Thames could discharge into the sea twice the quantity
of water which it receives from tributary streams and
fountains.

The error into which our contemporary has fallen
in supposing that the statement is false, because its
results do not answer his general position, " that
the whole exports and whole imports of any country
must exactly balance each other," arises from two
causes. Before, however, proceeding to point them
out, we will endeavour to show that if the present
statement is false those which have preceded it are
equally so. The table which we gave yesterday
pointed this out with sufficient clearness. In the
year ending sth January, 1825, the total imports of
Great Britain were 36,146,4181., and the total ex-
ports 58,218,6631., giving a difference of above
twenty-two millions. In the year ending sth Jan.,
1826; the !lifference was thirteen millions. How
does our contemporary account for these differences ?
There are, as we have said, two causes for our con-
temporary's error-Ist, The exports of one year
are never equal to the imports of the same 'year,
this plain reason, that the returns are not all
made with 4; twelve months. And it must be very
obvious that in mr,ny cases 'accounts, especially in
years of speculation, when cosiisigiments have been
rashly made, may not be closed in two or three
years, and in many cases not closed at all. 2d, The
principal 504:17:e of our contemporary's error is his
misreading of the rari.: of the document in ques-
tion. It contains not the declared or real value of
the goods imported or exported, but their offrig/
value, The latter is entirely conventional, and
adopted for gr#atiq ease in the ascertainment of the
'ludas and drawbacks. This conventional mode of
estimating the value of goods we believe,
agreed on so far back as 1696, antl ha respect tp
quantity, not to price. From this, it is obvious,
that no estimate of the money value of any article,
or number of articles, can be formed from the
4eepunt in question, nor from any account similarly
drawl; tip, )nor can any accurate comparison be made
between goods of 4 .gis,,,:irpilar kind, as goods im-
ported and goods exported for ;,he wooq part are, A
very accurate comparison may, however, 14 inati;
tuted between the imports of one year and. the
imports of another, or between the exports of one
year and the exports of another, and therefore we
are justified, as indeed our contemporary, who
quarrels only
with the account, allows, in saying that
a very extraordinary inc:re4sp in our foreign com-
merce has taken place during the past year,—Neui
Times. • •

TICK 'NAME,—_A name given in ridicule or
contempt : from the French, nom de pique, iu which lan-
guage 7ii9uP is a movement of the head to mark a contempt
for any person or thing.

IMPERIAL PARLIAMENT.

HOUSE OF LORDS, Arm 30.

On the motion of the Earl of SHAFTESBURY, the
amendments introduced by the Commons into the Promises
and Engagements Bill, and the Records Variance Bill,
were agreed to.
Several Private Bills were forwarded through their re-
spective stages.
The Earl of MALMESBURY moved for an account of
the weekly returns of British Corn furnished by the In-
spectors in. the different towns in the United Kingdom,
with the prices, according to the imperial measure, from
the sth of January, 1827, to the sth of January, 1828.
A greed to.
On tke motion of the Earl of SHAFTESBURY, leave
wag given to the Earl of Roseberry to attend the select
Committee of the Commons, to be examined on the subject
of the Scotch Law of Entail.—Adjourned.