The Sun.
London, England, 1826-10-10 00:00:00

SPIRIT Or 111-fir,,PUBLIC .IMTRNAtt.

]lave just read a touching petition to His
Majesty from the distressed inhabitants of Frome, in
the. West of England, who pray on behalf of more
than 60,000 of their unemployed brethren, the joi.tr-

neymen of the woollen manufacture, fbr some small
glimmering of royal beneficence and protection. When 1
these poor men beseech their Sovereign " to impose
" restraints' on all recent and injurious inventions, '
a means of superseding machinery by manual toil, it
is needless to say how widely they mistake the nature
and capes of the visitation under which they suffer.
Whatever tends to lower the cost of production in
any country, whether with respect to the necessaries
of life or its indulgencies, constitutes a direct encou-
ragement to trade, and an eventual extension 4f the
market for skill and industry. The cure, therefore,
which the journeymen of From and its vicinity so-
licit at the hands of their most gracious Sovoteig,n,
is a nostrum which would fail of its effect. But what

is that to the purpose ? the patient's malady less
real, because the proper treatment of: it lies beyond
his reach Is a man less likely to expire of hunger,
because be unconsciously importunes his friend for.
poison instead of wholesome aliment ? Let the men
at Somerset implore His Majesty to take measures
for lowering the price of bread and meat, by a pre-
, stiotts reduction of those dreadful imposts which form
the true and paramonnt. obstacles to a restoration of
'nut national prosperity ;' and they will speak a lan-
guage which must find an immediate echo in the
enlightened judgment, and humane disposition of the
King. But our poor countrymen, who are shrewd and
intelligent in the use of their natural reason, may
answer, with much appearance of justice,'. that the,
taxes which press upon them cannot be reduced, so
long as the Parliament stands pledged to maintain a
voluminous list of military and civil establishments,
and to execute ii variety of " indispensable" under-
takings, sufficient, in fact, to require the whole sum;
and more than all, that can be reckoned upon as the
result of our system of taxation, however prolific its
amount. The sufferers ought to frame their petitions,
theretine, with a view to engage the Royal attention
in an inquiry into the nature and necessity of those
multifarious objects, for and through which they have
no doubt a general idea that the money raised in taxes
ice consumed. We can ourselves, supply them oc-
casionally with materials for such a prayer to the So-
vereign. here are, we grieve to say, plans for em-
ploying the revenue extracted, from the poor, of Eng-
land in manifo)d but circuitous imposts upon every ar-
tide of human Convenience and enjoyment, to which
the people themselves arc blind, from the ignorance
appertaining to their humble condition, and from the
indifference groWing out of hard and desperate want.
Pf many of these, schemes of expenec, it is easy to
imagine that our gracious Monarch is also retained in
a state of ignorance, equal to that of the most op,
pressed and broken-hearted (Aids subjects, by the dex-
terous artifices of men in power, who well understand
what would 'be their own fate, if even by accident a
remote suspicion should cross the mind of a Prince, so
generous,' that there are hourly wasted in wreckless
prodigality, mime more than sufhcierlt, if well employed,
to save whole thousands and ten thousands of brave
but prostrate Englishmen, with Limit. wives and infants,
in whom the .!t.)ll3iliol.ll4letifi of life. ituelf is prematurely
quickened by the agonies of lion.ger. The I(ing can
know 'nothing of these abominations. It is therefore
to gain for our petitioning fellow-subjects an alliance
so powerful, and a sympathy so dOlightfili, as that of
their common friend and filthier, that we present them
with a copy of a document, believed to be
an ,official, .but seemly credible document, professing
to be an estimate of sums .expended and to be
expended, on the building, repairing, and adorning
Of a number of Royal Palaces. The malice ofthose with
whom spelt, projects have originated, will be seen at
once to ..derive immeasurable aggravation froM the ex-
pedient 'of connecting the name of our excellent Sove-
reign With the ruin of his people, at a time so Awful
that svhich imw threatens to overwhelm both him.
and the community: We repeat that it is quite dread-
fill to reflect on the stratagem of devising jobs for mi-
nisterial'creatures, and palming them upon the nation
at' so' many Methodic of diverting, the Royal cares, or
of animating the ennui of an existence which, on this
side the ~rave, can have no new ocenpation, but that
of preparing for another. How must it rouse the
virtuous indignation of his IVlajeety to learn that in his,
Stains, behind. his back, in defiance of his inevitable
displeasure, and contempt for his tender affection
towards a broken-down people, there, are persons who
place to the account of lus' Royal pleasure an outlay
of 'snore thin' half a million sterling, for throwing
down, bedding up, carving, gilding, decorating pa-
laces, excavating hills, elevating valleys, making earth
and water change places, with a hundred other extra,
ordinary tnetnrncirphusa if these were days . for
lavish protuaioa-...-as if this day, on which live hundred
thousand people are starving, was a fit one for the
utter demolition of five hundred thousand pounds.---
Ninety thousand pounds have been_ expended on
Buckingham Palace ! and there is called for, in addi
tion, the sum of one hundred and. sixty-two thou-
sand pounds I There is, besides all this, another
palace, and near the same spot. A grand house,
appears, was projected. by one, whose name we
bold sacred, as a residence for the Duke
of Yank. 'flu. illuitrions Duke borrowed -money-
frrsin a friend.; to enable him to commence this
palate.' the loan was absorbed in little snore than
the foinidations of die edifice' and where was another
loan to be obtained.? Alash nowhere. The illus.
.triona Ilersonagt, Lifter a long course of anxiety and
of bodily suffering, increased, we have no doubt, by
sharp neenthaes of mind, w recourse at :length to
that expedient which seldom fails where Royal dim-
tresses are to be mitigated. The Cabinet was appealed
to: ti,e " dead weight wee taken ow the shoulders of
the Heir d it W
that the labour
Prestimptive, an AS agreed
which he. could not execute should he accomplished
for hint, This vast Corinthian building was bought
from his Royal Highness, that it might be given to
him. It was anerely taken off Ins hands, lint as the
was,grat cleared. off,. and
the mortgage
history goes)
tiovernment, for the
the. house Nits to be finished by
purpose of being forthwith restored to the Heir pre,
‘ u_
erown, ,
aumptive-:' theii, as the account goes,
the interest of
his Royal Highness in the lease
front the
hOught from hiin, that 'Aliniatera tniOt bay° aNJ"
.n-
-t 4)
grant 1441) leave to live in the habitation, from the ei
harrass m—
and thus Ins
uient, of which they relieved hi
Royal Highness is on his legs again.
Other debts are
said to have heiqi discharged with money
glees out of
the public treasury,. for these overanortgaged pre-
idises. And what addition has been made thereby to
the half million voted for the; palaces,
properly speak-ing, royal, we shall doubtless hear, before many weeks
have elapsed. We repeat, however, our firm convic-
tion, that when these proceedings ere fairly submitted
to his Majesty, and placedlin proper
.juxta-position,