The Sun.
London, England, 1826-11-23 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF TUE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

Sir Thomas Lethbridge has hrohen ground already upon
the corn question. He took occasion last night to present
a petition against any measure for effecting ft change in the
law, which, at the tame time,' by some peculiar effort of
consistency, he declared Ilia wish to have altered from top
to bottom. What the lion. Baronet might consider. an

improVement would be no doubt a. proteeifng duty of some
40s. per quarter. koppears that the agriculturists( are now
to drive the appointment of a new Committee,—to hives,
tigate and report upon the real " operation of the 'Corn
Laws,"and to supply materials for What Sir Thomas
Lethbridge calls a " deliberate" decision with regard to
them. In the apprehension of most impartial men, we be-
lieve that no dearth whatever of information is experienced,
—the reports of former Committees are still extant : that
of Mr. Jacob rnig'ht Mime, be 'suffered .to determine, the
judgments of those persons who have only the general
benefit of the country for their ,object, and are untainted
by exclusive and vulgar selfishness. The vicissitudes in
the value of labour and property, which, 'since ,the year
1815, have been simidtanethis with the monopoly of corn,
are surely matters not often questioned for want of evi-
dence satisfactory and ample. The ruin of two succes-
sions of farmers, whom their , landlords in many instances
refused' to succour, or indulge in their season of extremity,
iu On. record, without the intervention of a Parliamentary
Committee. So the gradual decline of the wretched agri-.
cultural labourer; frank wages pa which he could support a
family with comfort, and recruit his own strength for the
recurrence of daily toil, down to that dreadful condition of
abject poverty, mental despondency, and comparative de-
bility of person, in which ve now hvholil him. This too,.
lea feet co-existent With, and, in great part, attributable to,
the corn laws, which it needs only the' inspection of the
parish-hooks of 19 out of 20 counties in England to authen-
ticate, without troubling a Committee. If, again, the tnanu
facture:l of the kingdom lie looked at, with a view to the
operation' of the Corn Laws upon them, what is the now-
nowt result of this—that the high prier of bread had so
raised the price of British goods, us to give to foreigners
the summand of those markets Which, until the present
monopoly was established, had drawn their supplies of
Inandattured articles from England, while, at the same
time, the fluctuations in the generally excessive price
,Of ' bread, have tended to discourage prudent Men
from ' that fair course of, manufacturing speculation,
which might, under different circumstances, be law-
, fully and profitably' followed,, throwing the business
into the hands of pennyless desperadoea, who shared with
their associates of the worst order of country banks, a li-
,2entious harvest Iron? the plunder of and poor We
*loitild have preowned that circumstances like these, with
a multitude of others 'on which 'we cannot now expatiate,
might have shamed Sir Thomas Lethbridge out of the ex-
pedient of a new committee. Three years, the most dis-
astrous that the agricultural interest (meaning the land-
lords) Of- this country: have ever seen, were experienced
since the monopoly law of JEW; was enacted! Can Sir
Thomas Lethbridge deny the fact, and does it not satisfy
him, that if the accursed qstern has proved a scourge to
all-the rest of the community, it bps fallsn with'no light

hand upo►i those whom vehemently deprecate its abolition.
The truth, last night, was: not concealed from any body
that the proposal of a committee was nothing else than a
feeler thrown out to gain another year, during which the
counnittee would sit and examine witnesses, mid adjourn,

tied e:saillitie, and adjourn again—delaying their report to
the emettl Session of l'a m rliaent, when the politic. Ba-
ronet might trust to the chapter of accidents for some
lucky mewls of securing his monopoly, until a general war
in Europe should present him with u full stieeeduneum for
it, in fresh loans, fresh inundations of paper, trebled prices,
and immeasurable rents. • Prom this worthy device of the
West Country Cientlemen, we hope the Ministers will
have enough of sagacity to preserve. us. Lord Althorp
took the right road when be :urged them to disclose their
plans at once to the .country, ;mei to tramitiolee the wow.
agiteted and uncertain temper of Mail Initulti.—Tiflics.
It is some eare ago, we believe, and et the tunic Whim
We OVeltSiOlitaly
,Itaw Cobbett's weekly productions, that
we regretted the injury which he did to the country, by
taking the constitutional side of any question which might
arise, and so fixing the reproach of his alliance upon re-
specteble men, to whom, in spite of all they could say or
do, he would unite himself; and we recollect •vva then,
made the following .comparition :—We likened the person'
above mentioned to an ugly bear, who hail served to
amuse a ship's company while the winds were boated, and
;be water smooth : but when &tiger assailed, and the
estsv jumped into the
:long-boat, in the hopes of saving
their ()wit lives and towing their ehattered vested to
place oi."NifeLY, they are all in danger of being stink by the
enormous v5".4910t anti anti-tricks of this brute, who Could
„„t be „gt„i„,,N.l from jumping overboard along with them.
A respectable Parr*" is in danger of suffering the same
mis-
chief from ii Similar ca,:`", Out the bear, in the preitteit
instance, iet the first that .itstputlently takes possession of
the long-boat ; and being )7.or* Ann usually ofensive,
from some prey which he lied lai,,nl been deVi:l4lll"ft, but
few hands, and they most unwillingly, 'Would enter ie.* with
and the: ship's pinnace was afterwards fitted out foe,'
the uwre.prudent owl steady seamen., The Papists have
. a node'', that there exists :t certain obduracy olheart,
which renders amen's conversion iinpossible, mid thet such
men may, therefore, ultimately be pardoned for. their he-
. resy, through infinite compassion. , There is also a moral
insensibility in some natures Which renders those who
possess it incuptible of the feeling of Arum T 0 no,
and to most others we believe, it would have ap.
Treated incredible that a matt stained .with the possession
rid' the funds of the poor Greeks, could have appeared in
airy country us the advoCate of popular rights, us the pre=
tended guardiait of a suffering. people's money--as an enemy
to the. invasion of a tiatiou's purse. Surely the people of
Englend only, say, in the words of the haeknied quotation,
" Non tali auxilio."-11id.
No public event, we can confidently affirm, has fur a
long time given more unmixed satisfaction to people of all
ranks and degrees than his Majesty's personal tippearance
on the openieg of the new Parliament. The extraordinary
events of the last thirty years,' which have produced revo-
. , lotions iii some countries, and convulsions in others, have
iis this mile tended in their result to sober down and con-
firm the right feelings end good sense of the inhabitants of
these kingdoms into a more staid and firm 'conviction
of
the iniatunable blessings of that Conatitution, Which,
ander ii Kingly Government, secures to the people the ad..'
yun:ta ex of a ClOVernment emanating from themselves,
and alike towered 'froth the arbitrary rules of despotism,
the grinainftf .tYranny,ef an oligarchy, and the factions do-
minion of ;mililiter demagogues. flowever we may: differ
among otirse.ves, ICIOI. however uuititelligible in strict
theory, the Ceitstitutiatt of these realms may to some ap-
peer to be, 110 0110 Wilo hall closely viewed it can fail to set
that, in its practical consequences,- it approaches nearer
to perfection in Government- than any ,aystero
,whieh the
Wisdom of mini has hitherto devised. Of this simian the
King is the central and grand orb, toward, whior the
vitties and al-lee:done of all men are direeted and we tat
m., fulsome eulogists of his present Majesty when we lee.
.inert, Lieu no King of this country.
everlkea niers com-
• otiona of a ?
sill his subjects it iv: ilk hap-
pines* and clot td 11
y pletely the affe
na course
0.
nat.
ure I '
trougat hfii
40.
he exercise of power than ho„ been
Mal"tY 'll° talc but • no man een look
the lot of 'Most other Soverelg,
4.,00Cti the mi. -
is Majesty At.reign
baelt to the period when h.
heequently as; King, Without
of power as Regent, end en
1' this ottary has been
pronouncing it. to be one wax,. „ way
,404.
smirked by e.eontinued series of netionat proi, .
'greatness which hag 110 t only never been eurpassed r
even equalled. Whatever difference of opinion may exist,
tas to particular measures, 011.1 i however we may' all regret
articular culamitiea and disadvantages, no man who is a
•Jispassionute;inletirer lifter truth, can hesitate to declare and
Oa, that the :Kites has, during every 1110111ellt of ftiki life,
,evinced the moat anxious desire to do every thingt in his
power to advance the public interests of the country, anti
to alleviate its local distresses. No wonder then that the
good sense and fight feeling of the country should be di-