The Sun.
London, England, 1844-12-21 00:00:00

LETTERS ON THE CORN-LAWS,
No. XII.
(From the League.)
LETTER FROM SOME OF THE WOMEN OF
ENGLAND TO THE NORWICH WEAVER
BOY. LONDON, Dec. 2.
It may be generally supposed that the women of
England who contribute to the Anti-Corn-law League
Bazaar, or at least those who raise their voices in ad-
miration of the principles and proceedings of that
League, are the only ones who approve of free trade, or
disapprove of unnecessary and undue legislative
inter-
ference with the affairs of the nation. Such a supposi▪ -
tion would, however, be erroneous. There are English-
women, and to their number we belong, who deprecate thi▪ s
interference, who are most anxious to see free trade and
direct taxation introduced, who see the whole bearing of
these matters upon the sufferings which they commis-
aerate, but who still are prevented by every feeling of
duty and humanity from upholding the principles of
the League, the evident tendency of which is to let
doctrines of political economy supersede those laws
which God first wrote upon the heart of man, and after-
wards revealed in language which admits of but one in-
terpretation. These laws teach us to love our fellow-
creatures as ourselves, and most forcibly enjoin charity;
but that word has in the gospel a far more extended
meaning than that in which it is usually employed ;
and we do not there see it used as giving some
classes of our fellow-creatures an exclusive right to our
love, while, at the same time, we are allowed, not only
ourselves to hate and revile other classes, but even to
teach the poor and ignorant to do so likewise. The
gospel is a doctrine of love—of love so comprehensive
that even the sinner is embraced in it, though sin is ab-
horred and reviled ; and we are taught in humility not
to judge others, that we may not ourselves be judged. It
teaches nowhere to denounce, though throughout it
teaches us hew to reform. It tells ns who is blessed; it
is man who has added who is cursed.
The members of the Anti-Corn-law League may be
the propounders of sound doctrines of political economy:
but we do not see that they are on that account to ar-
rogate to themselves all the virtue in the community,
and to denounce every opponent, not only as ignorant
upon the subject (so far they would be justified), but as
an object deserving the hatred and execration of man-
kind. What will be the benefit to society, if, to ensure
triumph in the struggle for free trade, hatred between
class and class is to be not only nourished, but incul-
lated ? What will be the advantage of bread in every
mouth, if there is to be hatred and jealousy in every
heart ? Is it with feelings such as these that justice is to
be worked out, or when obtained by some is to be ex-
tended to others ?

We are aware that the members of the League are so
little conscious of the tendency of their own speeches or
writings, that they indignantly repel every accusation of
the kind here brought against them ; yet to every un-
biassed observer such is their tendency. The answer
which these gentlemen make to the materialism of their
doctrine is, that it is not their mission to preach the
gospel. We admit that it may not be their mission to
preach it, but it is their duty to follow its precepts; and
only when free trade is advocated in terms which are
not at variance with the laws of God enjoining peace and
goodwill among men, can the advocates be joined by
those who do not allow that any human necessity can
supersede the necessity of obedience to those laws.
We know that religion is in our day looked upon as a
Sunday business only—a thing having nothing to do with
the business of the week days; and as such, perhaps, it is
excluded from the week-day labour: of the Anti-Corn-
law League. As men passing judgment upon public
measures, and advocating a new system of administra-
tion, the members cannot, however, pretend to be exempt
from the consideration of all other state matters but those
the study of which they have made their peculiar avoca-
tion. They ought to know that every citizen, though
bound to do his best to correct errors of government, is
likewise bound to do it in a manner that shall not subvert
public order. Now, though we heartily wish to see the
corn-laws abolished, we cannot agree with those who
think that this cannot be done without pulling down the
aristocracy of the land, thereby virtually subverting the
constitution of the realm ; nor do we see the intimate
connexion between the aristocracy exclusively and the
corn-laws. The aristocracy of Great Britain is not an
exclusive class, for centuries separated from the body of
the nation by an insurmountable barrier of onerous pri-
vileges ; it is, on the contrary, continually being re-
cruited from the middle classes, which in their turn re-
ceive numbers from the classes below ; and it is in fact
only in the precedency of rank that the main distinction
between the aristocracy and the wealthy members of the
other classes of the community consists. The corn-laws
are connected with the prejudices of the landed pro-
prietors ; but surely these are not exclusively members
of the aristocracy ; and, even were it so, the advocates
of free trade have nothing to do with them in that
capacity ; they have merely to combat their erroneous
opinions as to administration. Administrative mea-
sures can never be meant to be more than
temporary, and ought to be repealed as soon as they are
discovered to be pernicious. Not so constitutional laws :
these are part of the life of the nation ; and none but the
nation, in its entireness, can lawfully make any change in
them. We do not see that there is in England any call
or any disposition for such a change ; and it is therefore
with profound grief that we see the Anti-Cora-law
League, while following out its legitimate ends, sowing
the seeds of unholy things. Besides, we think that the
Anti-Corn-law League, if working honestly for the abo-
lition of the corn-laws, and for nothing else, is rather
defeating its own object by attacking with such virulence
the class with whom the power of abolishing them, in so
great a measure, rests. If the League, however, prefers
carrying its point by brute force, and is only trying to
get up a masked democratical movement, then, to be sure,
the means used may be efficient, though they, as well as
the end, are criminal. And then it will remain to be ex-
perienced whether in England, as in France at no very
distant period, the poor, after having been deluded by
the middle classes into the belief that, by destroying
what was obnoxious to the latter, they would be work-
ing for their own happiness, when discovering the decep-
tion,* will not turn upon their former flatterers, and
exercise upon them the principles of hatred and revenge
instilled by them.
SOME OF TLIE WOMEN OF ENGLAND.
RE

PLY TO "SOME OF THE WOMEN OF
ENGLAND."
Ladies,--The perusal of your reply to the writer of
;here letters will, in one respect, afford high gratifi-
cation to the advocates of the Anti-Corn-law League.
You apprise us that the desire, in your sex, to see the
labourers' bread untaxed, and the ports open for the
admission of that food of which multitudes are in
want, must not be measured by the number of those
who contribute towards the proposed Bazaar, or who
(at our meetings, I presume) " raise their voices in
admiration of the principles and proceedings of that
League." Beyond this body there is, you tell us, a
wider atmosphere of female sympathy in free trade
principles. You vouch for the fact as yourselves be-
longing to the number who occupy that position. The
soundness of your reasons for standing thus aloof I
shall discuss presently. It is just first to observe that
those who do not stand aloof are so numerous ; they
shed such a halo of grace and beauty around our cause ;
they blend so becomingly the unobtrusiveness of wo-
men's nature with her keen and courageous moral sense;
their very presence has so purified the movement
i
from the common coarseness of party strife n politics ;
the wealthier of them have given so liberally to our
funds, and the poorer have so cheerfully imposed
exertion and privation on themselves to become con-
tributors; their suggestions as to the Bazaar plan, first
in Manchester, and now in London, have been so ju-
dicious, and their co-operation so efficient ; and, bring-
ing into our agitation whatever of peculiar truthful-
ness, delicacy, compas don, and piety, constitutes their
distinctive character, they have so imprinted on it the
mark of a holy and Christian work, that it is gratify-
ing to learn there are more of their sex who will re-
joice in their triumph, although they do not aid in the
needful means for its attainment. It is something to
have the good they do appreciated; especially by
those who leave the previous exertion unparticipated.
You approve the principles of free trade, and yet
withhold your countenance from the League. You
will not contribute even to the Bazaar, which is, at
any rate, free from the offence given you by other
proceedings. Allow me, then, to ask what else you
will do, to promote your own principles and satisfy
your own consciences? You behold the production,
by monopoly, of " sufferings" which you " commise-
rate." What is your process for their alleviation ?
Are you content to stand by as inertly as if you were
utterly indifferent to the wretchedness of which you
know the source and the remedy ? Is it a sufficient
excuse for doing nothing, that those who are doing
something speak sometimes erringly ? If the very
devils confess Christ, is that a reason for practically
denying Christ ? Are you willing to remember the
injured poor in your prayers, but to remember them
nowhere else ? What is your intelligence worth, or
your sympathy, if it shun the company of the like-
minded, and adopt for itself no other course of action ?
Christian women, you cannot be at peace with your-
selves, if you prolong this moral incongruity.
You accuse the League of letting the doctrines of
political economy supersede the laws of God. And
whose laws are the doctrines of political economy ?
What are those doctrines but the exposition of provi-
dential facts ? They teach mutual dependence,
mutual service, and common interests, in all the
tribes and nations of mankind. They exhibit that
wisdom which in varied climates and remotest
regions has stored up the materials of useful ex-
change and friendly intercourse. They identify the
objects of individual pursuit with the means of
universal enjoyment. They abate the pride of
wealth, and render industry honourable. They show
how to replenish the world and subdue it, by making
the wilderness a garden, and not the garden a wilder-
ness. They interpose the strongest obstacles to the
ravages of warfare ; and, as with the voice of angels,
raise the season-song of " Peace on earth and good-
will among men." Were there no revelation, political
economy would suggest a religion. Were there no
Christianity, political economy would shadow forth
some faint outline of its divine benignity.

* We use the term deception, because we cannot but
see that, although much benefit would accrue to the
country from the introduction of free trade, the blissful
state of utopian felicity which is held out as a lure to the
poorer classes would be far from attained. Suffering
will be the lot of mankind until the laws of Christ reign
in all hearts ; and woe unto the land if one of these laws
is to be set aside, were it even to facilitate the introduc-
tion of a more perfect hu►nan code than has ever yet been
6 known.