The Sun.
London, England, 1842-09-01 00:00:00

rtie .111,11/4

LONDON :
THURSDAY MORNING, SEPTEMBER 1, 1E42

The members of the Anti-Corn-law League
scarcely show vigour enough, we think, in
returning the blows of their antagonists.
They are fiercely accused by several Journals
of having caused and fomented the out-
break, and in general they content them-
selves with denying and disproving the
charge. They use their shield admirably,
but they may scarcely hope for victory unless
they also use their sword with equal effect.
They may tire out their enemies by their passive
fortitude, and in the end boast of the many
blows they have withstood. By such a policy,
however, they must incur damage, and their
greatest merit will be to escape annihilation.
They ought, we think, to change their course,
and become the assailants.
We, for our parts, were willing to forget the
past, and, taking things as they at present
stand, do our best for the future. But
the Tories will not allow us. They will
hurl forth daily their criminations, and
will doggedly persist in reviving and nourishing
all the hateful passions that keep classes asunder.
They must, therefore, be distinctly told that
they are the mischief makers, and it must be
distinctly brought home to them, that, under the
guise of order, they are promoting discord by
the unbridled gratification of their own selfish
lusts. For years they have had, with a slight
interruption, the legislative and executive powers
in their hands. The vast discontent of the
people, therefore—their social deprivations, and
social misery, are justly chargeable on the To-.
ries. Were the people well off and contented,
Trades' Unions, Leagues, Associations, and De -
magogues, would be as powerless as is Sir ROBERT
PEEL'S Corn-law in the face of an ample harvest.
Those who, by their Corn and other unjust laws,
generate the social misery, and the social di
content, are the real authors of the outbreak,
and ought to be branded as public incendiaries.
The month of August was supposed to be, pe-
culiarly auspicious to any kind of insurrection i►,
the North, because it reminded
,the thronged
hives there of the Manchester Massacre. Tne,
were about to do honour to the popular hero or
that day when the turn-out began. - Now, than
massacre was exclusively the work of the Tories.
It was begun, continued, and ended on Tor •
principles. So deep did it penetrate into the
minds of the manufacturing classes, that mans
years of subsequent prosperity fid'ed to oblite
rate the impression. It may be said even to have
deepened with time and reflection. The Parlia-
ment which defended it became generall:l
odious, and forfeited from that moment the cha
racter of protector of the people. The urgeri
demand for Reform in 1830 is mainly to b(
traced to the defence of the Tory massacre o
1819. The same party which then did so :•nuci,
mischief is now again actively at work, using,
the same tools. It both calumniates and im-
prisons, and would be more ruinous now than
then, but fortunately for us it is shorn of somt,
of its power.

Again, in 1839, that party was extremely ac.

tive in the manufacturing districts. The old
spirit might operate in new men; the Ministers
of that day bad imbibed it, and acted on the
principles of Toryism. The Whigs, from a new-
born zeal to be efficient Ministers of the Crown,
forgot their duty to the people. They allowed

themselves to be unduly influenced by the terri
fled Tories of the manufacturing districts, and
sacrificed the principles of liberty to a desire to
propitiate their political opponents. They set
the constables and the police into motion some-
what according to the present fashion of Sir
JAMES GRAHAM. They put down meetings, like
the Tories; •and threw men into prison, like the
Tories, on account of their opinions. From their
Toryism, Chartism gathered strength, and be-
came rife in the land. First, then, the odious
tyranny of Toryism, in our own day, led to Re-

form, and next to Chartism ; and still the Tories,
undaunted by disaster, and untaught by ex-
perience, are pursuing the same career. Fac-
tions may be annihilated—they cannot be.taught.
The next step in the progress of Toryism will
probably be Revolution; and if that come, we
shall owe it to the men who daily abuse the
Anti-Corn-law League because it opposes and
struggles to overturn their mischievous legislation.
What they did in 1819, in 1839, and at every
period of our history, they are now doing—
straining the law to their own purposes. It is not
enough for them that they have the making of
the law, unless they can also administer it. They

hated the Whigs for nothing so much as fur su-
perseding them to some extent, and controlling
them ill the administration of the law. What an
outcry did they make about the Whigs appoint-
ing a popular magistracy under the new Corpo-
rtion Act, and how speedily did they set abuut
placing Tories in the magistracy whenever they
returned to office ! The law, in fact, is such a jumble
that, in the hands of a cunning Magistrate, it may
serve any purpose. A piece of parchment, a
custom, or a decision of the Judges, requires a
living spirit to interpret it, and the Magistrate or
the Secretary cf State may make it speak what he

thinks, and what he desires. The Tories thus dis-
guise their desires in the forms of law, and in its
name they give effect to their own passions.
In truth, what they call the law, and what they
Ino:o th;th {I: ie

tll., j;; rp)!l
sacred forms. They make a law to give dim-

selves wealth and power, and they execute
alter their own fashion, to attain t
same end. Their perversion of law to tW-
complish their own objects, their inakii:g
ti:e Constitution a mere instrument for
securin2 them wealth and power, is the
chief cause of the contempt into which the Con-
stitution and the law have fallen. By their con-
tinued injustice they are the authors of the public
discontent and of the late insurrection. Of their
faults it is now the duty of the League and its
supporters to remind them, instead of allowing
them to escape front their enormous responsi-
bility by defending the League from their attacks.

It is impossible to read the Tor 3 journals with-
out perceiving that they contemplate making
most important changes in society. They are
by no means contented with its present condition
and to carry out their principles, they must
frame a number of new laws. They think popu
tar assemblies endanger the public peace, and
they must propose some enactments to restrain
or suppress public meetings, if they cannot
covertly, by the help of the police and
the law as it stands, put them down.
They object to the growth of manufactures—
they eNpressly declare that it is not desirable to
make England the workshop of the world, and
they must take measures to prevent the growth
of a manucturing and town population. They
contend strenuously for making the master ma-
nufacturers support the workmen, whether they
have any employment for them or not and they
openly demand a law to regulate wages. The
Parliament cannot possibly continue to restrict
the supply of food without being driven into the
most coercive acts for the suppression of public
meetings, for the limitation of population, and
for the regulation of all the employment and
the rate of wages throughout society. Such
being the logical results of their principles, Mr.
COBDEN, on Thursday, very properly pointed
them out in the following passage:—
When they have put down the people, they will still
have the far greater task to perform of finding• them em-
ployment and good wages.— (Applause.) I say it is their
duty ; and why ? I would not say of a Government
like that ot' Switzerland, which has no custom-houses,
that it was the duty of a Government to find employ-
iti:,nt for the people ; but I say it is the duty of our Go-
vernment, who have undertaken to meddle by law- with
every branch of commerce, and every pursuit of industry
.in the country.—(Applause.) They cannot complain,
therefore, that they are bound to find employment for
the people. There is not a single article in which we
deal that is not wrapped up, like a mummy almost, with
Acts of Parliament—(Applause and laughter)—we can-
not move a hand Or foot in commercial transactions with-
out being hampered by custom,' laws ; nor can we take
any steps towards exchanging the articles we produce for
those of other countries vs ithout coming in contact with
protective laws and prohibitory duties.—(Applause.) I
say, therefore, it is the duty of the Government to find
employment for the people ; and when they have put
down these tumults, I say it is as nothing compared with
the duty which they still owe, with the magnitude of the
task which they still have to undertake, of finding em-
ployment and subsistence for the people.—(Applause).
That must be done.

That passage is now especially worthy of pub-
lic attention, because there is a great dispute in
society as to the extent to which legislation
should proceed. From Ci Tn-laws have already
proceeded a responsibility in the Legislature to
employ the people, and soon the Tories must
proceed to limit their numbers, and regulate all
the rewards of industry. They are, in fact, re-
ducing St. Simonism to practice in England, and
will determine by law every man's remuneration.
Such a system worked by a benevolent despot
would be intolerable, but worked by a Legis-
lature consisting of more than a thousand per-
sons, and set in motion by a still more numerous
tribe of journalists, and idle meddlers with other
persons' affairs, will become a perp9tual inter-
ference with private affairs. Life, which the
ALMIGHTY gives as a blessing, -will be converted
into a curse. And let not the opulent and the
noble suppose that they will escape. They may
at present direct the system only against others,
but they must in turn submit to its fetters.
They cannot feed the monster without becoming
its prey. We do not now allude to the conse-
quences of this meddling system for the first
time, but as we see it growing and extending it
is necessary that we should again place some of
its inevitable consequences before our readers.

From the remarkable silence of Mr. O'CONNELL
since the close of the session on the question of Re-
peal, we began to entertain the belief that he had re-
solved to give up agitation for a time, and see what
that great reformer, Sir ROBERT PEEL, would do for
Ireland. He has surprised his friends here by the
New Tariff, the New Corn-law Bill, and his ominous
speech on the noble principles of free trade ; and he
may still more agreeably surprise his political enemies
n Ireland by some great and comprehensive mcasfre
for consolidating the union between the two countries.
Mr. O'CONNELL, it would appear, however, is not much
inclined to trust to the present Government without
helping himself, and he accordingly commenced the
Repeal campaign at Drogheda on Sunday last, in a
long and stirring speech. The meeting was held in
the open air, and was attended, according to the re-
ports, by an "immense audience," who enthusiasti-
cally cheered the eloquent and skilful orator. We
have always maintained that Ireland has yet many
grievances to be redressed, and have ever lent our
humble assistance in advocating her just claims
to be placed in all respects on the same footing with
Great Britain ; but between granting her just rights,
and granting Repeal, there is a wide difference. The
history of the Irish Parliament, certainly, cannot be
urged as an argumefs for repeating the experiment,
and the vast and beheficial changes which have been
made in her laws and institutions within the last 15 years
ought to hold out hopes for the future, and bid the
friends of Ireland not despair of the Imperial Parlia-
ment. Two of the great evils complained of are the
unfair proportion of the public debt with which she
is burdened, and that crying grievance—a Protestant
Established Church in a Catholic country. In the
latter complaint every impartial man must concur,
for a more absurd, a more dangerous, and a more un-
just measure, never was forced on any people. So much
cannot be said against the amount of the debt, for
it must be kept in mind that Ireland is less'taxed
than any other portion of the United Kingdom, ex-
cepting the Channel Islands, and that the whole of

the extensive English Colonies are thrown open to
her inhabitants. Scotland does not complain of her
portion of the debt, but with praiseworthy industry,
makes up for what she considered a bad bargain at the
time, by sending forth her sons into every colony,
occupying in not a few of them even a
greater share of power than her richer
neighbour, and thereby enriching herself by that
very Union which was to cause her downfal.
Why should not Ireland do the same ? She has tre-
ble the population, her inhabitants have the same
activity and spirit when their exertions are directed
into the proper channel, and it is, therefore, absurd
in Mr. O'CONNELL to abuse the Executive for giving
situations to Englishmen, and declare to the multitude
that if they had the Repeal, " there should not be a
Custom-house officer, or any man in any situation in
Ireland, but an Irishman." There are some other
minor grievances of which he complains, but how these
can be remedied only by an Irish Parliament, we
have never yet been able to discover. If the peace-
able state of a cou.Ary is a proof of good government,
we would say Ireland can have no reason to com-
plain. Contrast her condition with that of England
at the present moment. Here we have a discontented
population, one-half of the operatives out of work,
and a still more violent cry from miliions for the
Charter than there is in Ireland for the Repeal. Mr.
O'CONNELL, too, with his ten thousand followers, was al-
lowed to meet in the open air to consider their grievances,
and though policemen were present, not one pulled
him from the chair, or knocked down a single Irish.
man. Can the same be said of England ? Here the
people are hunted by the military, assaulted by police-
constables as if they were thieves and pickpockets,
and any attempt to get up an open air meeting is re-
garded by the authorities as little better than high
treason. In England Mr. O'CONNELL would not
have been allowpd to finish a long speech in these
strains :

Oh ! glorious land, vLith Ow finest harhours—the
roost spe:Ldid ,itAarie:s—the ;Mist extensive rivers—the
greatest inland navigation, and the most capacious ports
in the world—land of the religious, the temperate, the
generous, and the brave, arise ! let your sons be com-
bined ; let them avoid secret societies ; let them struggle
for your rights in open day ; let them rally for old Ire-
land ; and let their cry be—" Old Ireland for ever !"
('rrpmenfinus cheers.)

i.t~.

of weakness, as a manifestation of bad feeling, in the