The Sun.
London, England, 1829-09-08 00:00:00

SPiltiT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS,

Some attention—more, probably, than the
thing, on its own account, deserves—has been
drawn of late to the Spanish expedition against
conquer
An
oneqoicer. attempt..mexicovl,ith4 on
4,000 men,
mhetprt
l,awot:if ldSspai
eettin.
to
imply an unusual ignorance or disregard of his-
tory by those who direct her government. We
do not mean an ignorance of ancient history, or
of modern history, taken in a large sense, as
comprehending that of the last three centuries,
or of Europe generally, or of America generally,
or even of those three or four States which have
had colonies and have lost them, whether by
foreign conquest. or by successful revolt ; but we
intend to say, an exemplary ignorance of the co-
lonial history of Spanish America—of that of
Spain herself—of the last fourteen or fifteen years
of the reign of Ferdinand VII. This might be
thought inconceivable ; yet if the accounts from
Cadiz, and from Vera Cruz, and elsewhere be true,
we can hardly doubt the curious fact that Ferdi-
nand VII. has either forgotten or has never heard
the most remarkable circumstance ofhis own sur-
prising story—viz., that he has already tried
with more than 60,000 soldiers to retain pos-
session of Mexico and the rest of Spanish Ame-
rica, but has been driven out of every part of
that immense continent, of which he now pre-
tends to subjugate the most important and war-
like portion with about 3,500. The population
of Mexico is underrated at 7,000,000 souls.—
It is split into factions we acknowledge : the
Government is unsettled,—the troops are ill
organized,—the militia, however numerous, is
reluctant to serve, and not disciplined for very
effectual service,—the taxes are unproductive,—
the establishments, military and civil, not half
paid, and the State, we believe, insolvent. It
has doubtless been on representations of this na-
ture, that Ferdinand or his Ministers have felt
themselves justified in ordering another expvdi.
don against Mexico ; that is to say, if they
inquired at all, which appears not quite mani-
fest, with regard to the condition of the coun-
try. But there was something more to be con-
sidered. Ferdinand ought to have asked him-
self whether all the factions which vex the
new Republic, however varied or attached to
pat.chiefs,ty
far
(r)emn
Ivo th r
ich iet subdivisionsl tsh he
lovillatgerveeart
him to expect assistance or forbearance in any
project for the restoration of the Spanish autho-
rity over America—viz. the party of the whole
Mexican people, by which that authority Wa3
within these seven years unrelentingly and coin•
pletely overturned. The Government of Mexico
may be jealous of Santa Anna, and Santa Anna
of it ; and for this mutual jealousy, as between
two domestic factions, there may be abundant
cause ; but is it likely that Santa Anna, who is
said to have the command of Vera Cruz, and the
parts adjacent,—is it likely, we say, that he, ad-.

initting his ambition to be boundless, would
favour the intrusion of a third power in the
pcoe rusnotirly owf
itlhe e old r
eits despotic Government,
immediate
policyinto
would
b
to supersede, by creatures of the Spanish
Court, every man of distinction who now exists
in Mexico,—to annihilate every function and au,
thority which have grown out of the separation
of the republic from old Spain,—to re-enact the
ancient system of restraints, monopolies, and fis-
cal exactions,—to repudiate every pledge of
honour and of law, the validity of which was
connected with the birth and growth of the re-
, public,—to fill every office with retainers of the
Cabinet at home, on whose perfect royalism the
King and his advisers might flatter themselves
that they could reckon,—and to commence a
course of proscription and persecution against all
Mexicans who have attained to eminence during
the late contest, or since the termination of it,
like that by which the whole flower of the
Spanish people has been punished with death,
or driven into exile throughout Europe, for
daring to assert the national right to a Govern-
ment of law, in contradiction to one of violence,
and toask at the hands of Ferdinand some security
for person, property, and peace? It is possible, no
doubt, that through intrigue or bribery a flu:-
tion of obscure names, and limited numbers,
may have been gotten up in Mexico, for re-
storing the Spanish yoke ; but that such a
scheme should have made proselytes to any ex-
tent among the people, or have created materials
for undermining the independence of Mexicb.
and laying the country at the feet of Spain, is
hardly to be conceived but on an hypothesis
more unfavourable to the civilization of the

Mexicans than we have yet had grounds for
entertaining. If the handful of men just sent
from the Havannah should succeed in getting
possession of Vera- Cruz, they can scarcely gar-
rison it with less than half their number ; and
to advance into the country with what remains,
would, if the people be not gained over, display
at once more enterprise and more folly than has
yet been imputed to Barrados. If they do
not leave the coast, what object has there been
to induce or justify the expedition ? The log-
book of M. Barrados and his proceedings will
not, perhaps, be very voluminous.—Times.

No clamour can be more absurd than that
which has been raised against free trade, as the
cause of the distress existing in various branches
of industry. In another column will Le found a
very able article from the Manchester Guardian
or Saturday last, accounting for the fall of profits
on some of our staple manufactures to the ordi-
nary level of profits throughout the country. We
yesterday alluded to an article on the subject in
the Leeds Mercury, in which nearly the same
views were take►. No one fact seems to be bet-

ter established than that the quality and cheap-
ness of all our staple manufactures effectually se-
cure to them the home market. The people of
this country are very unreasonable. They have
the advantage of the most extravagant Govern-
ment in the whole world. They have enjoyed
the gratification for above a hundred years of
constant accounts of British prowess in all parts
of the world. The consequence of all this is an
amount of taxation which could be borne no

where else, and which the wonderful improve-
ments in the way of machinery could alone
enable us to bear. But, in proportion
as we are more heavily taxed than the
people of other countries is the temptation,
now that peace has rendered
ttlii.:l:t ,r: i
eicountries
easy of access and secure, to remove capital to
toliceli,n;
in
his is happily Political
E
observedeonom by
iotfsealfp. roifi,thheassamaecoiistattendency
the employment of capital in Yorkshitroe,
principlethat would prevent
if equalizeitd d
not yield as great a rate of profit there as in Kent
or Surrey, regulates its distribution among the
different countries of the world. It is tru that
the love of country—the thousand ties of society
and friendship—the ignorance of fiveign lan-
gploia;tedsrmde ar
id the
our desire to have our stock em-
ployedown inspection, would mak,: a
greater difference in the rate of profit necessary to
occasion a transfer of capital from one cumin y

Oa another than from one province of the same
isauutry to another. But this love of country
has its limits. The love of gain is t no less
poWerful and constantly operating principle ; and
if capitalists are once assayed that their stock
can be laid out with tolerable security, and with
considerably greater advantage in Foreign States,
an efflux of capital to a greater or less extent
will certainly take place. The rate of taxation
has, throughout this discussion, been supposed
to be unvariable. It is plain, however, that
when it is increased, such increase must either
immediately fall wholly on profits or wages, or
partly on the one and partly on the other. If it
falls on profits, it must maim an equivalent de-
duction from then' ; and if it falls on wages, it
must proportionally depress the condition of the
great mass of the people. There are limits,
however, and those not very remote: to the
power of the labourer to pay taxes ; and when-
ever these limits have been attained, they must
entirely fall on profits. It has, therefore, been
most justly and truly observed by Dr. Smith,
that a heavy taxation has exactly the same effects
as an increased barrenness of the soil, or an in-
creased inclemency of the heavens." Holland
is a well-known instance of a rich country
ruined by heavy taxation. The condition of the
labouring classes cannot materially differ in the
different countries of this part of Europe. The la-
bourer must receive enough to enable him to work
and rear sucessors. All the processes for
abridging labour soon pass from country to coun-
try. It is obvious, therefore, that it is of im-
mense consequence to a man, possessed of ca-
pital, whether he shall employ it in one where
taxes are high, or in one where taxes are low.
AR far as the labouring classes in this country are
concerned, their condition is evidently affected
by the labour market being everywhere glutted ;
and as that glut is chiefly occasioned by the in-
flux of the Irish, in consequence of the facilities
of communication, it is obvious that till the
English, Scotch, and Irish find the same level,
the condition of the former must constantly de-
cline. From the comparatively backward and
depressed state of Scotland, there has been an
improvement in the condition of the labouring
classes of that country, at a time when the con-
dition of the labourers in England was expe-
riencing a decline. Hence Scotch writers, who
merely describe what has taken place around them,
are prone to describe the improvement they have
witnessed as universal throughout the Empire.
We have been led to make this remark by a
very interesting publication we have just received
from Scotland, " Rural Recollections on the Pro •
gress of Improvement in Agriculture and Rural Af-
fairs, by George Robertson, author of the Agri-
cultural Survey of Mid-Lothian, and other simi-
lar publications." Three parts are already pub-
lished, and the author announces a fourth. Mr.
Robertson details a number of changes which
have taken place within his own remembrance,
which extends so far back as 1765. Speaking
of the price of labour, Mr. Robertson says,
" Previous to the year 1750, and for a hundred
years farther back, or more, the wages of an "or-
dinary labourer was a half merk Scots (6 2-3;1.
sterling) a day ; and of a mason, a full merk, or
13 1-3 d. Wages from that time began to ad-
vance by slow degrees, so that about the year
1765, a common labourer got 7d. a day in win-
ter and Bd. in the summer season ; the wages of
masons improving at the same time to double
these sums. In this ratio the wages of the re-
spective parties continued advancing till about
the year 1815, when a common labourer got
Is. Bd. a day, and a mason 3s. 4(1., at which
rates respectively they continue to the present
time, sometimes a little more, sometimes a little
less, but more generally at these rates than at
any other. The wages of a full grown plough-
man about the year 1765, was 1/. 10s. by the
half year. About the year 1770 it was twenty
pounds Scots (1/. 13s. 4d. sterling), and soon
afterwards it advanced to 21. sterling. From
this time forward the advance was more rapid,
and the wages were no longer calculated by
Scots money, but by sterling, which, by the year
1800, were as high as 5/. ; and from that gra-
dually increased till about the year 1815, when
they had attained to 101. by the half year. This
great advance seems to have arisen from the
effect of the previously long-continued war,
which created a demand for all idle hands,
and so left the fewer for industrial employ-
ment. Since that period the wages of farm-
servants have somewhat declined, being more
generally
from 71. to 91. in the half year, to-
gether with board and lodging. The wages of
women servants by the half year was, about the
year 1765, eight pounds Scots, or 13s. 4d.
sterling, which rose soon afterwards to nine
pounds Scots, or 15s. sterling. From thence-
forward they advanced gradually in much the
same ratic, as those of the men, so that they are
now from 31. to 4/. sterling by the half year ; and
have been so for nearly twenty years past. . .
• • • • Dating from about the year 1745,
a period from which the commencement of agri-
cultural improvement is very generally traced (or
a year or two more or less), there has been a
gradual advance in the price of land produce,
slowly at first, but ultimately increasing more
rapidly, till at last, in the present times, it has
advanced to more than sixty per cent., at an ave-
rage of the different species of bread corn ; that
is, from the year 1745, to crop 1827. But in
the same time, the rate of wages, from the
greater demand for labour, has increased upwards
of one hundred per cent. on an average of these
years, and which, in the last twenty or thirty
years, has risen two hundred per cent., or three
times the rate in former times immediately pre-
ceding the year 1745, as will be seen from the
prices of corn and rate of labour in the subjoined
tables. This greater advance in the rate of
wages applies to all labourers in husbandry,
and (with an exception. as below) to every
description of mechanics, whether in town or
country The exception alluded to
is, indeed, of a very numerous class, namely, the
weavers or manufacturers of woollen, linen, or
other fabrics. These, in the course of the last
thirty or more years, have alternately been
sometimes in a state of the highest prosperity,
earning from twenty to thirty shillings a week,
and at other times in the lowest state of adver-
sity, not getting more than a fourth part of these
respective sums, or even less, as many of them,
as at present (May, 1829), are devoid of work
altogether." Fi °ln the tables given by Mr.
Robertson, it appears proved that the Scotch
labourer receives at present considerably more,
measuring his wages by meal, than he received
formerly. But the same thing did not take
place in England. There was the same ten-
dency to emigration for the sake of higher wages
to England all the time, which is now observed
from Ireland to Britain ; for high wages could
not exist in England, with an easy communica-
tion, while improvement was going on in
Scot-
land, without bangingng
about an equalization in
.
condition. There is, however, sufficient evi-
' deuce to chew, that 'while the Scotch were risisig

to the Engla level, the condition of the Eng-
lish labourer, measuring his wages by produce,
was becoming all the time worse.—Morning
Chronicle.

A case occurred at the Chester Assizes, on
Thursday last, which illustrates, in a very
striking manner, the mischievous and demo•
ralising influence of the present system of Paro-
chial Law. A handsome young fellow, called
Josiah Thornton, having enjoyed the favours of
a soft-hearted damsel, coming from the neigh-
bourhood of Matlock, the fruit of their amour
attracted the attention of the Overseers of that

township, the mother and her baby becoming
chargeable. A search was immediately set on
foot after the delinquent father, who was appre-
hended; and proved weak enough, much to the
satisfaction of the parochial authorities, to em-
brace the alternative of marrying the girl, which
had the effect of purging his fault, and exone-
rating their parish. He was attended from the
ale-house to the altar by the constable and over-
seers ; and although under the age of consent,
was married by license in the most expeditious
manner possible. Unluckily, however, Thorn-
ton was engaged at the period of his
apprehension in wooing in an honest way
another woman, and matters had proceeded so far
that his banns with her were in part published.
He could not bring himself to abandon the
mistress of his chaste affections, and two days
after his forced marriage with the frail fair one
he deserted her, and espoused her rival. By
this act he became guilty of bigamy, for which
crime he was tried and convicted. His sentence
was two years' imprisonnent and hard labour.
Ihe case was said to be one of great aggrava-
tion ; but, with leave of those who so term it,
we should rather blame the system of compul-
sory marriage than the luckless lad whom it has
led into disgrace and suffering. If the sacredness
of the nuptial tie be an essential part of the
social system, individuals must be left sponta-
neously to contract that tie, and free from all
other bias than their own inclinations. The law
which holds out either menace or temptation to
marriage, and then punishes a breach of the
forced obligation, is an instrument of cruelty and
tyranny. As a restraint upon illicit connexions
among the peasantry, the system of forcing
marriages is worth very little ; while, so far
from diminishing the parish burdens, it aug-
ments them, inasmuch as it compels a couple
to consort together, and to proceed with the
great work of propagation as long as they are
able, who would most probably, if left to them-
selves, have been satisfied with their first con-
nexion. Indeed, the tendency of marriage to
increase the population is so manifest, that pa-
rish officers never concern themselves to bring it
about except when the man happens to belong
to another parish, in which case the burden of
maintaining the offspring is transferred by the
ceremony from the parish of the woman to that
of the man. It is from this contest between

different parishes, as to their respective liabilities,
that much of the mischief of the Poor Laws
springs. If the evils so occasioned were cut
off, little would remain that is not deserving of
all esteem and commendation.—lbid.

The commencing without finishing public
structures in this country seems not merely a
matter of occasional caprice, but may be termed
an architectural disease ; and throws not only an
air of ridicule over those who become probably
the unwilling agents in it, but is a source of real
loss and disgrace to the country. As proofs of
what we say, we need only enumerate Westmin-
ster Hall, Pimlico Palace, the new Post Office,
the British Museum, and the entrance to the
Palace at Hyde Park-corner, as indubitable spe-
cimens of that spirit of delay and incompletion
which results from undertaking at once more
than there are the means to accomplish. The
case of Westminster Hall is peculiarly striking,
and of the greatest importance to the country.
Will it be credited, that for seven or eight years
one half of the area of this great public struc-
ture has been occupied and disfigured by a
wooden shed, in which are deposited—not work-
men's tools or rubbish, as a passer-by might be
led to imagine—but a mass of public re-
cords, the security of which, in a com-
petent fire-proof receptacle, must be, one
would imagine, so obviously a public duty
as to admit neither of doubt nor delay ?
After several years of one, however, if not of the
other, the Lords of the Treasury proposed to
purchase the Guildhall of the Westminster Ma-
gistrates for the purpose. This, however, the
latter refuse to sell. Yet, will it be believed
that at the very rear of this spot, and on one
quite as well adapted to the purpose, a large area
has been covered with building, under the de-
nomination of a Parliamentary Mews, but which
is to this moment so totally useless as such, that
the stables are let out to individuals, and part of
the structure used, we believe, as a guard-house ?
Such a waste of public money as this, coupled
with such an obvious neglect of what ought to be
done, is, we hope, rare. It, however, as well as
the evil we at first adverted to, arises, we appre-
hend, from the old adage of " too many cooks."
While, in apparently the same department, one
person can do this and another that, continual
clashings and inconsistencies must arise, which
can only be put an end to by one head, as in Mr.
Pitt's time, taking the supervision and control of
all.—Morning Herald.
The interests of the national drama, as they
may be affected by the present condition of its
chief temple, the Theatre in Covent-garden,
have for some time past been the subject of
much discussion. If we have hitherto been
silent upon that subject, it is not because we
have been indifferent to a matter in which we
believe not only the amusements and the tastes,
but the honour, and above all, the moral feel-
ings of society, to be deeply involved. It is
because in the correspondence with which we
have been abundantly supplied, and in the la-
mentable exposures which have been more than
abundantly rehearsed, nothing has appeared but
conflicting private interests, obscure personali-
ties, and mutual recriminations, that we have
abstained from noticing a subject which we fore-
saw must sooner or later present itself for consi-
deration upon public grounds. That state of
the case is now arrived. We are no longer
called upon to consider how much of debt this
management incurred, or how much of ex-
travagance that committed—whether one actor
is paid too much or another _too little—
but whether the national drama, as far as it
depends upon the aids of costume, scenic deco-
rations, and machinery, and what are technically
denominated the properties of the stage, shall be
thrown back a quarter of a century in the pro-
gress of improvement. During that period which
has just elapsed, the Theatre, notwithstanding
ita recent difficulties, has perhaps made a more
rapid approach to perfection than in the whole
time of its antecedent history ; and the connec-
tion of Covent-garden now includes the result of
all that genius could devise, judgment direct, and

a magnificent expenditure achieve, to give effect
to the immortal literature of our country. The
danger that such a collection may be destroyed
or dispersed within three days of the tune at
which we write is a great public evil, and one
which nothing but the prompt and efficient in-
tervention of public spirit can now avert. At
the public meeting which takes place in the
theatre to-morrow, we trust that this single ob-
ject will be kept in view, until it shall he se-
cured in preference to all others. We can
entertain no doubt that such an example will
emanate from the highest classes in society as
must ensure a liberal and an ample contribution
from the public at large to meet the exigency--
But we repeat, that to do good its application
must be directed to a positive and permanent re-
moval of the stock of the Theatre from the dan-
gerous situation in which it now stands. If
money be required to relieve the house from its
immediate embarrassment, cannot the proceeds of
a subscription be applied to the purchase of the
stock by some private arrangement with the cre-
ditors, instead of committing it to public sale ?
The questions of managements, of patents, or
even that of opening the theatre for the season,
are all secondary and of minor import, compared
with this great and pressing necessity for Pre-
serving the Drama from a spoliation which an
age might scarcely see it retrieve. If the stock
of the Theatre remain the property of its present
owners, it is manifest that a month or a week
may place it in precisely the same danger from
which the public are now, we confidently trust,
about to rescue it.—Morning Post.

SECOND EDITION.
SUN OFFICE, Seven o' Clock.

THE LONDON GAZETTE

OF THIS EVENING.

Office of Ordnance, Sept. 7, 1829.
Royal Regiment of Artillery.
Second Captain F. Wright to be Adjutant, vice Romer,
appointed Garrison Quarter-Master. Dated Jan 8, 1829-
Captain E. J. Bridges, from unattached half-pay, to be
Second Captain, vice G. Jones, deceased. Aug. 4.
Corps of Royal Engineers.
Second Captain J. L. llulme to be Captain, vice Daw-
son, deceased. May 23.
First Lieutenant R. 11. S. Cooper to be Second Captain,
vice Huline, promoted. May 23.
Second Lieutenant R. Fenwick to be First Lieutenant,
vice Cooper. May 23.