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

4,0 r ea. .

LONDON,
MONDAY EVENING, MAY 5, 1828.

The Pamburgh steam boat has arrived with
Papers to the 3d of May :—Vienna, April 25,
Metalliques, 88i. A Courier had arrived at
Bucharest ; left Constantinople April 2, when all
was quiet there.

The Gazette de France of Saturday's date
says, that the Emperor of RUSSIA, at a late re-
vie-, of his troops, announced that he would
soon lead them to battle, which they received
with transports of joy ; but we much question
whether the EMPERoIt would so far forget him-
self as to make any such delaration before he had
joined the army. The thing would be entirely
premature as well as impolitic. Indeed, the
Messager des Chambres, now the organ of the
French Ministry, is of our ()pillion, and adds
that the Emperor of RusstA is resolved upon
adhering to the Treaty of the 6th July.

The Magnet packet has brought us Lisbon
Gazettes to the 20th ult., hut they contain no
news of any importance. Don MIGUEL is
making all reasonable approaches to absolute
Sovereignty :

T.ISTION, APRIL 16.
The Gazette contains two Decrees of the Infante Re-
gente, dated 12th April, Palace of Adjuda :-
1. Conaidering the representations made to me by the
Intendant-General of the Police of the Capital and of the
Kingdom, Jose Joequim Rodriguez de Bastos, I think fit,
in the name of the King, to release him from the said office
of Intendant-General of the, Police of the Capital and
Kingdom.
2; Considering the talents, zeal, and fidelity of the Coon-
eellor TOCeßarata Fieire de Lima, think fit, in the name
Of ite "King, to appoint him Intendant-General of the Po-.
lice of the Capital and Rlngdom.

,The Mtremburg.Correspondent of the 27th
ult., has been received this morning. The
King of SWEDEN had set out, on the 21st, on
his journey to Norway, and was not expected
to return till the beginning of July. It appears
thaot the Emperor NICHOLAS is resolved upon
making bis late conquest in Persia an integral
part of the, .Empirß.--and for more security is to
add it to his titles by the style of the provide of
Arinenia,- much in the same way that the King
of FllAlicE adds Navarre.

Bomliay Papers to the 24th December have
been received, but they contain little of import-
ance. The heavy gales from the South-East
had done much damage to the shipping.

Brur;scls Papers of the 3d inst. state that the
LORD HiDU COMMISSIONER of the lonian
Isles has declared the harbours of Navarin and
Motion in a state of blockade,

We are way to understand that his Royal
Highness the Duke of SUSSEX is far from well

Many of our readers wilt participate in the
sincere satisfaction which we feel at Mr. WIL-
BERFORCE'S health having enabled him to
appear at the General Meeting of the Anti-
Shivery Society, a full account pf which will be
found in our columns. There is nit. a ,human
being now on earth for whom we entertain snob
unqualified veneration and respect.

Amongst the wonders of this am's nzirabilis
may be mentioned the hardly credible fact, that
the " John Bull" has become an advocate 'for
the " Emancipation of the Papists" (we
quote his own words), " a tastasufe • which
it really seemi cruel and unjust to oppose.' The
odds are, in consequence, three to one that the
Bill passes in the Commons, and even betting
that it is not defeated in the Lords.

Various unsuccessful attempts have been made ;
to introduce ',alterations in the Corn 13i11, pro-
pose 4 by Ministers, most of which ),,ye conceive
to be inju.d.icious, and we sincerely rejoie.e.
th2refore, that they have generally been frustrated
by large.
.majorities. The two rival parties on
naturally propose opposite schemes.
is for towering the
this questiopnarty
The one bduty; e
other is for raising it. But it is 'expedient
to steer a middle course between these as
between all extremes. We, f the r.iea3ons
we stated at large in a former Paper,
y() not!
take the same. interest as others in the details
of this measure, because we have no confi-
dence in the principle on witiCh it is founded.
It is no doubt the most proper plan, the most
eligible compromise,. between, Apposite interests
that can be adopted. But considering as we
do the foreign supply of corn, about which the
whole question is raised, to be of little conse-
quence compared, with thc home supply, we (1°
not attach so much consequence as others do to
the measure.

We do not 'think that the foreign supply,

whether it is admitted, or whetter it is with-
held, has any great influence on :,thet price ; and
having these views we are 'the; less disposed.
to differ with the ministerial,meaiure that has
been brought forward for one or two shillings of
higher or of lower duty. We- are Foiiiincek I
under the qualifications which ex
pressed, that though' it is a nugatory. scheme

it is still the best that under • all circumstances
can he proposed. When we say' it is nugatory,
we mean that the admitting or
.the withholding of
the foreign supply cannot materially influence
the rite, and it can neither lower it nor depress
it in any" considerable degree. And in proof of
this we may again state the notorious fact; that
when foreign corn could be freely brought into
this country, which was the case for 30 years
prior to 1815, the price was almost always high,
and that subsequent to the period when the ports
were skit, which was in the end of 1817, or
rather in 1818, and when we had the complete
• monopoly of the home market, the prices were
low. Corn fell in 1822 to the amaiing low
price of 38s. per quarter.
. Now, may we not fairly infer from these facts
that the foreign supply has not much influence in
regulating the price, seeing that when it was ad-
mitted the price was high, and when it was exclud-
ed the price was low.? There is no doubt that the
tendency of excluding foreign corn is to raise the
price ; and the tendency of admitting it is -to
lower it. But this cause is so insignificant, com-
pared with the great causes which are continually
at work in the home market, and which are con-
nected with the home supply, that it is never felt.
It is entirely lost amid other and more powerful
causes over which we have no controul, aSexpe-
rience shews ; for the
.price of corn has risen ex-
actly counter to all our artificial policy; it has been
high when it ought to have been low, and it has
been low when it ought to have been high. Such
being our view of the principle of the measure,
founded as we consider it on the most notorious
facts, which we stated in detail in a former Paper,
we do nut, as we said before, enter with a very
deep interest into all its details—yet when we see
Mr. BENETT, the partisan of the agricultural in-
terest, moving for high duties, we cannot help
asking him to look at the history of the Corn
Laws, and to say whether any extreme measure
of this nature, proposing prohibitory duties, ever
was, or evei can be, executed in this free country ?
We cannot have any measure that would ex-

elude corn at 60s. or at 70s. per quarter, when
it is wanted for our people at home. Such an

Act may be passed, but it never will be carried
into effect ; for, we appeal to experience, if when
corn has risen to a high price, the Privy Council
has not invariably interposed its dispensing

power as a shield to the people from the severity
of the law, and permitted the importation of corn
in defiance of Acts..of Parliament ? This has

always. been 'done, and it will be done again.
Let not the agricultural interest therefore trust
to Acts of Parliament, that go against justice
and expediency, for they never will, nor can be,
enforced. A moderate measure affords- them a
far better security, to which they may trust:
But when the artificial policy of prohibiting the
importation of corn is too generally strained, it
will give way, and supplies of foreign corn will
then rush in by an ordinance of the Privy Council.
Yet even in this there is no great danger. The
alarm for an inundation of foreign corn is a mere
chimera. Foreign corn does not exist in such
superabundance as to make any impression on
the markets of this country. JACOB'S last
report, which is replete with sound and li-
beral ideas, as well as with the most in-
teresting statistical knowledge, proves this. The
moment the British demand is felt on the
Continent the price rises ; and if it is low when
importation begins, it is soon. brought so near to
an equality as to obviate the slightest chance of
any overflow from the ill-supplied stores 'of the
corn countries in Europe.

ON these grounds, therefore, which we have
never yet seen' controverted, we consider the
present to be a. necessary and a desirable mea-
sure—a sort of central point, in which op-
ppsite interests meet and are reconciled—a
compromise to settle a long agitated question,
on which concessions must be made by both
parties for the sake of peace t and considering it
in this view we cannot expect that in its minute
details it will exactly square with all the preju-
dices and fealipgs which opposite interests have
conjured up. Suck perfection is not to be ex-
pected from any legislative measure,; but it may
lug on this account he the less deserving of
support.