The Sun.
London, England, 1842-08-03 00:00:00

(itiC -SUM

LONDON:
WEDNESDAY MORNING, AUGUST 3, 1842.

Our paper of yesterday recorded the last meeting of
the Anti-Corn-law Conference ; and we cannot witness
its separation, warmly as we welcomed its assembling,
without saying one word of its conduct. It has, we own.,
rather disappointed us. We expected from it, as we
think it once promised, an organized plan to.resist the
Bread-tax. The members had proclaimed that tax to be
iniquitous ; they had shown, with an overwhelming
force of facts and arguments, that it is ruinous ; and
we anticipated that they would have followed their prin-
ciples and facts out to a just conclusion, and refused
obedience to such a law. We believe that they might
°have evaded or overturned it, but they had no heart for
such work. They knew that they would gain no support
for measures which took the hue bf disobedience, and,
when they had said their say, their task was at an end.
We do not blame their caution ; it is evident that the
Conference is not well supported in the country. It
has not spread its roots far and wide through the land.
We see in the provincial papers that employers of labour
are bent on reducing wages. The turn-out of the col-
lime, caused by such a general reduction, is one
example, but it is by no means the only one. The
Middle classes, it is plain, prefer making common cause
with the landed aristocracy to promoting the welfare
of the people. Instead, therefore, of making a vigorous
and united effort to procure the repeal of the Corn-laws,
they are struggling to save t:neir fortunes at the expense
of the working classes. such being unhappily the views
and conduct of the mi,adle classes in the manufacturing
districts, it is pi-An that the Conference would have
found no sufficf,ent support in carrying out the vigorous
measure it e'ace hinted at, andit prudently confined itself
• -to explaie:mg to the public and to the Parliament the pre-
sent condition of the manufacturing districts. We re-
peat the .t we do not blame the Conference, but, never-
theleas, we are disappointed at the meaningless results
of retell expense and trouble.
'The members of the Conference are not singular in
being apprehensive of bold and vigorous measures. There
are other classes who have been buffetted, deceived, and
insulted, and yet, fir a reason somewhat similar to the
fear of the half ruined manufacturer, they bear such con-
duct with patience. We all remember the Duke of RICH -
-moen's threat against Sir it. PEEL. Sir Hone RT has abated
the agriculturist's protection ; Le has allowed corn to be
groend in bond, which, in principle, annihilates it ; and
the proud Dukes and Squires, even though prices are
falling, have scarcely murmured their disapprobation,
much less turned out their Premier. He has run counter
to their expectations on the question of education, and
still he is as quietly obeyed and followed as if he had never
deceived a hope. The landowners, like the middle classes,
dread any thing like agitation or commotion, and they
submit to be gulled and snubbed by a clever official man
rather than run the smallest risk of endangering the
Government. Like travellers in the Alps, they quiet
all their emotions, and almost suppress their breath, lest

they gon themselves the avalanche of revolution.
.They re mean and tame, because they know that the
Arste they are intent on supporting is no true thing.
If
t e sales of cotton,- says the Liverpool Times of
bfi,yesterday, confirming the accounts of revived trade
'''s‘hich we have already borrowed from the Manchester
'Guardian and the Leeds Mercury—" the sales of cotton
-week were very great, and the improved feeling
‘ll
ationgst the commercial classes still continues." The
weather is'reinarkably fine; all the "accounts from the
country sPeak favourably of the harvest; and we would
fain hope, therefore, that the protracted suffering of the
community has reached its extreme point. Amendment
is about to commence with the bountiful harvest, and
plenty— the great source of gladness—which has latterly
been denied to us, though not by Providence, is again
to lessen the distress of the people.
We give no credit for this to Sir R. PEEL. He has
not bestowed sunshine and fertility on the land. We
owe him nothing for the harvest,. be its amount what it
may; we are only indebted to him for a law which has
lessened that plenty, the approach of which lightens up
the countenance of the people. Till the year 1842 the
curse of inflicting dearth and starvation belonged to
other law-makers; now, it belongs exclusively to him, and
:,will cling to him to remote posterity. But for his law
.• the food at our command might at this moment be

increased to the extent of 1,500,000 quarters ; and but

for him organising and leading the monopolists on to
:victory, it is impossible to tell to what extent abundance
would now be the lot of our yet starving people. To
him we are indebted for that stagnation of trade, which
was caused by his uncalled for plan of revising the
whole tariff. In February the nation was in distress,
and be sharpened its agonies by stopping trade, in order
apparently to make the little relief he was ultimately
to give. more sensible. For the improvement which we
hope is coming, the nation is, we repeat, in no wise
indebted to the Parliament or to him, who guides its
decision.

Except the inhabitants of the United States, there
never was perhaps a people more intent on promoting
their .own welfare than the English. The go-ahead
• —iole is almost as active here as on the other side
amide. From the Prime Minister himself to
lest agricultural labourer, there is a strong
improve the condition of the individual. To

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