The Sun.
London, England, 1842-12-16 00:00:00

Ett tut

LONDON :
FRIDAY MORNING. DECEMBEt 16, 1842.

When we find the landlords themselves avow-
g that protection mast he given up, it would be
nothing better than fatuity in the League, and
in all those who have struggled for the repeal of
the Corn-laws, to ccept any terms short of un-
conditional free trade. Besides the instances of
Messrs. ACLAND and DICKINSON, to which we
have already adverted, and besides the tone of
the landed gentlemen at nearly all the agricul-
tural meetings, D. GORING
we find Mr.
speaking out thus at the Steyning Agricultural
dinner:—

He would tell them that, no matter when, come it
would, and come it must—corn would be admitted

free, and on lezislatire protection they could not depend.
—(Hear, hear.) But if their landlords met them—
if they iemselves stood firm in their own position—
if they would cultivate their kind, and exert them-
selves, he could assure them solemnly, from what he
knew himself, there was no land upon the Continent
—no farmer upon the Continent—no capital upon the
Continent, that ever could compete with them.
Mr. J. A. SMITH also said—
Mr. Goring had told them that they could no lon-
ger rely on legislative protection. It was not for
him to say whether he was right or wrong in that
opinion, but he was sure that Mr. Goring, and others
that expressed the same opinion, were acting the
kindest and the truest part towards the farmers of
England, when
than on
them rather to rely
on themselves than on any legislative protection.—
(Hear, hear, and cheers.) He was sure that Mr.
Goring spoke the words of truth and wisdom, when
he told them that, as in every other profession of life,
whether it be the manufacturing or whether it be the
agricultural, capital, intelligence, and industry, car-
ried the day.—(Hear, hear, hear.) It was to these
three great elements of success that this country
owed its proud pre-eminence. It was to these ele-
ments that the English farmer would owe his success,
if success was hereafter to attend his exertions.—
(Hear, hear.) It was his firm and conscientious be-
lief that, whether in manufactures or in agriculture,
monopoly was an unsound principle.—(Cheers.) He
thought that when they relied upon their own intelli-
gence, skill, and industry, they relied upon something
positive and practicable, they relied upon something
unchanging and certain ; but when they relied upon
legislative protection, they relied upon what they had
found to be dependent upon party spirit and party
feeling—(Hear, hear, and cheers)—utterly unsound,
unworthy to he trusted. That was the bane of a
country's prosperity.—(" True.")
Now while this progress towards just senti-
ments is so rapid in the landlords, and we have
sufficient reason to justify us in asserting that it
is still more rapid in the tenants, the progress of
the League towards power is still more remark-
able. An the great towns of the empire are re-
.
spouding to its call. The metropolis has almost
ceased to be the centre ofpolitical opinion, which,
for the present, is at Manchester. The public
eye is turned to that town and to the meetings
of the League. Glasgow has followed the
example of Leeds, Halifax, Huddersfield, &c.,
and given its powerful support to the League.
Edinburgh promises to do the same; and though
party politics may make/ the Members of the
City of London take a side opposed to the gene-
ral sentiments of the town popula'ion, they can
only fora short period keep themselves out of the
general. stream. All the town population, and
all their Members, will demand repeal.
Some journalists say Sir ROBERT PEEL wil
not again alter the Corn-law and the Tariff for
ten years ; others say he will continue for a
session or two longer to inflict decay on our
trade, and starvation on the people, for the
sake of legislative decorum ; but if the bulk of
the town population declare against such a
course, and the agricultural population are com-
pletely lukewarm on the subject, or even join in
demanding that the question be now set at rest,
will any person tell us how, in face of this
growing public opinion, Sir R. PEEL can carry
on the Government ? He may, by the help of
his dissolving party, rub through one more un-
easy and unquiet session ; but if he can find no
expedient to improve trade, no means to give
food and employment to the people, and no
miraculous good fortune should intervene, lie
must know, unless he repeal the Corn-law,
jthat
his Administration will, a few short months
hence, be quenched for ever by universal in-
dignation. Such being the prospect, we hold
with the League that now is the time to redouble
its exertions, and that nothing short of total and
immediate repeal, settling the question for ever,
releasing the great business of supplying the
nation with food from the influence and control
of party politics, and making the circumstances
on which the farmer has to depend as certain as
the laws of nature—ought to satisfy it.
Such, too, being the prospect before us, we
hold those Whig journals which promulgate
tales of its being Sir ROBERT PEEL'S intention to
propose a fixed duty, and bring forward argu-
ments favourable to such a duty, to be at present
far worse enemies of the cause of the repeal, than
the discomfited and baffled monopolists. They
seek to snatch from the energetic men of the
north the fruits of their victory, and make a
garland of them for the brows of the Whigs.
We disposed the day before yesterday of one of
their fallacies in favour of a fixed duty : here is
another, derived from the very sane circum-
stance, namely, the vast difference of price
which has taken place under a sliding scale, and
an interrupted trade :
"As matters stand," sap Mr. Hubbard, in his
" Notes of a Traveller," " it was a sound measure pro-
posed by the late Administration to impose a fixed
duty of Bs. per quarter on wheat, and proportional
duties on other grain ; because, if we do not levy it as
import duty, Prussia and the other exporting countries
will levy it as export duty, and bread will not he
cheaper to the British consumer by the same amount
of duty going into the Prussian Exchequer, instead of
into the British. We are told, indeed, that this would
be contrary to the interests of the landholders in Prus-
sian Poland, and the districts which supply Dantzic
and the other Baltic'ports with grain for exportation,
and therefore no such export duty would be imposed.
But this is the mere ipse dixit of political economists,
looking at the Continent with English eyes."
It is not the ipse dixit of economists looking at
the Continent with _English eyes, but Mr. LAING
judges of a free trade in corn by the trade as it
has existed under a sliding scale. Far be it from
us to affirm that the Governments of Prussia
and Russia will not levy an export duty on corn,
`or what observer of their successive follies
would guarantee them against the commission of
any absurdity ? but we will be bold to affirm that
if they levy any such duty they will effectually
exclude their grain from our market, and inflict
misery on their own people.
Throughout the country at present the lan-
guage held by the agriculturist& is that they have
nothing to fear from foreigners. That is ex-
pressly stated by Mr. H. D. GORING, in the pas-
sage • already quoted. Lookin9; to the excel-
lence of our inland communication, the supe-
riority of our implements, the Open nature of
our climate, which allows us to work out of
doors at almost all seasons, the great energy
and industry of our people, the results of
the liberty they enjoy as compared to the con-
! tinental nations, and. looking to the vast capa-
bility of our soil,* 4Ft:,....convincecl that Mr. H.
D. GORING is right,''andlhat, tinder a free trade,
reducing
2 oat the Outset the farmer's expenses
perhaps
per cent.,' the price of agricultural
produce would in general rate very little higher
here-than in Prussia and Russia. As we have
already said, and as we find Mr. COBDEN said at
Nottingham, if there were no tax on corn, its
price would at no time be higher here than
on the Continent, adding the expense of carriage.
Only in seasons of scarcity, should we require
large importations. In favourable seasons there
would be little or no difference in price. To
levy a duty on corn exported from either Russia
Or Prussia, would not, as Mr. LAING supposes,
ourt would
market. merely ex-
cludeco m compel e
Russia
o
or a yPr thatus Prussia duty,
No country, be it remembered, has a mo-
nopoly of food. It is not, like silk or tea, the
produce of a comparatively narrow space. Man
does not live by bread alone, and a small differ-
ence in price gives a peculiar direction to both
cultivation and consumption. All the world will
supply articles of food. It; therefore, the two
countries mentioned were to levy a duty on corn
exported, our produce and consumption would
adapt themselves to that duty, and we should, in
proportion, grow more grain, and import from
those or other countries more untaxed cattle,
cheese, butter, salted meat? cocoa, sugar, &c. &c.
The greater cost, too, in bringing flour from Ame-
rica than from Dantzic, with a free trade, would
not be such as to enable Prussia to levy a duty
on grain exported, without throwing the whole
trade into the hands of the Americans. The
notion, therefore, that our people would have to
pay the duty levied by Russia and Prussia on
eacoorted grain, which is put forward to con-
vince the League and the public to favour the
Whig Bs. fixed duty, seems to us to be un-
founded, and we trust it will have no effect in
making the League and the public compromise
the great principle for which they have been and
are contending. As the day of triumph arrives,
and it cannot be long postponed, the League
must be on the watch that All the advantages of

THE SUN, LONDON, FRIDAY MORNING, DECEM BER 16, 1842.

the contest are not snat&ed by those who, while
the League has been toili: g and sweating, have
been enjoying the sweets of repose, or amusing
themselves with the delights of literature.

The great grievance of the Income- tax is not so
much the amount of the rate, as the harsh, unfair,
and inquisitorial mode of assessing it. The vic-
tim is submitted to a cross-examination, like a
doubtful witness on a trial, or a prisoner before a
French Criminal Court, and when he ventures to
assert thathisre turn is more correct than thatgiven
by the assessor, he is virtually told that he is not
speaking the truth, and sometimes is dismissed
with the laconic rebuke, " No remarkz are allowed
here." This is a cruel and unjust way
of raising money, and we fear is attri-
butable, not so much to the Commissioners,
as to the instructions furnished from
head quarters. The Premier is using every
means to patch up the revenue for the present
quarter, and his agents are not very scrupulous
in-carrying his plans into effect. Attempts are
even made to get the second half-yearly pay-
ment by offering a discount of four per
cent. on the money if paid in advance.
When the meaning of any complicated
clause in the Act is doubtful, the Commissioners,
as in the case of commercial travellers, rather
lean to the side of severity than mercy, and the
assessors faithfully imitate the example. A.
Correspondent informs us that in one district
of the ►metropolis the assessors have actu-
ally laid on ten per cent. on the full
rental paid to the landlord ; thus making
the tenant pay on ten per cent. more than
the value; and, in sonic instances, fifty or a
hundred per cent. have been charged. Appeal
was made in vain, for the Commissioners
only replied , that the assessors had fixed
the value of the houses, thereby intimating
that these functionaries_ were better judges
of the fact than either the landlord or
tenant. Persons of the highest respectability
are insulted in -this manner, and robbed, that
Ministers at the opening of the session may boast
of their financial skill, and draw a glorious con-
trast betwceu themselves and the bun-
gling, impoverished Whigs. " Put money
in the Exchequer," is the order of the
day. If it can be got • honestly, good
and well, but money must be had. " Put money
in the Exchequer." If there were any general
combination on the part of the public to make
false returns, and if the Act were not sufficiently
stringent, there might be some excuse fur the Com-
missioners ; but no such pleas exist. The penalties
for offenders against the law are extremely
heavy, and no man in his senses, and least of all
persons of character and property, would run the
risk of detection and punishment. The amount,
too, which will flow into the Exchequer, ac-
cording to the opinion of well-informed parties,
will far exceed that anticipated by Sir R. PEEL,
and therefore the severity admits of no excuse on
the ground of an anticipated deficiency in the
revenue. The Minister calculated the amount
at between 3,000,000/. and 4,000,0001., but it will
probably exceed that by at least 2,000,000/. which,
taking into account the 5,000,000/. to be paid
by China, will furnish the Chancellor of the
Exchequer with more money than he can make
a (rood use of. We have learned on good autho-
rity, that so confidently is a much larger sum an-
' ticipated than that reckoned on by Sir R. PEEL,
that an off had been made to Government
by a wealthy house in the city to pay five millions
a-year, for the privilege of farming the tax.
Facts like these, we trust, will only make the
people more impatient under the burden, and
rouse them to cry out with one voice for its
speedy repeal.

The indications;
which are neither few nor
faint, of a further modification, if not total aboli-
tion, of the Corn-laws, remind us of those which
are said to precede the breaking up of the ice in
the Polar seas. First, cue iceberg, slowly and
reluctantly, as it were, detaches itself from the
main body—then a second—then a third—then a
fourth, fifth, sixth, and so on—until, at last, the
whole vast mass, weakened by so many disrup-
tions, and unable longer to contend against the
altered state of the seasons, breaks up suddenly
with a crash like thunder. Just so is
it at present with the Corn-law mono-
poly. First, an 1.,5;. 'COTT separates himself from
the main body of its supporters,--then
an ACLA ND—then a DICKINSON; and these
desertions, which, as a matter of course, will be
followed by others, will have the effect of
weakening the monopolist party to such a de-
gree, that the whole concern will have no
other alternative left than to break up, and that
at no distant period. The monopolists, antici-
pating this untoward upshot, are of course highly
indignant at the idea of any agriculturist pre-
suming to think for himself and quit their ranks,
and are specially wroth with Messrs. ESCOTT
and DICKINSON, both of whom, because they
have seen fit to exercise those faculties
of common sense with which nature has
endowed them, have been fiercely denounced as
traitors, apostates, &c., besides being pelted with
such choice Billingsgate mud, as those rarely fail
to have recourse to, who entertain an awkward
sort of secret misgiving that they themselves are
in the wrong. We congratulate these gentlemen
on the abuse they have sustained at the hands of
the monopolists. It is at once a voucher for their
good sense, and a testimony, however unsavoury,
to their libeiality. The speech recently delivered
by Mr, DICKINSON at Glastonbury will, we take
for granted, incense the Corn-law bigots more
furiously against him than ever, if only for these re -
marks—" The zeneral course of things was against
restriction, and he did not think those represent-
ing the agricultural interest could stop it; he
thought that the agriculturists should rather en-
deavour to lend themselves to the state of things
than to oppose them fruitlessly. He also advised
them to unite together, and to adopt improve-
ments for the increase of produce, in order to
meet the altered circumstances of the times, as
the best and most safe course to be pursued."
There is so much calm, steady common sense in
this advice, that, as a matter of course, it will be
rejected with contempt by the Somersetshire
monopolists.

The accounts from Madrid are to the 6th.
S alga& . had arrived, to replace
thosee r a l
which had accompanied the REGENT to
Barcelona. The
Several-fresh
National Guard appeared
animated by the best spirit, and the city enjoyed
hfaiecshh regi
perfect tranquillity.

The Cents. were done at 211 for
cash,
ha Threend ,2pe
2 at
t GO r
days ;
lat 60 days,and and the Five per Cents.
at 26
the certificates of the debt
bearing no interest at 51 for cash.

The Paris papers are still occupied with the
bombardment of Barcelona, but, with one ex-
ception, they contain nothing new on that sub-
ject. It would appear,
though they do not ad-
mit the facts, that the city had suffered very
little from the shells, the General purposely
causing them to burst in the air, or fall where
they could do little injury to life or property.
Notwithstanding this, the journals rave as if the
whole city had been destroyed, and the madmen,
who had killed and wounded a thousand of their
countrymen, were as innocent as babes. This
applies to the Ministerial as well as the Opposi-
tion journal. To the tbrmer the Quotidienne
makes a pithy reply, showing that ESPAR-
TERO only followed the example set by
the rulers of France. " ESPARTERO and
VAN HALEN," says that journal, " are only
practice in the Spanish manner the '
materialist
and atrocious doctrine of the Con-
servativesputting in
of France, contained in the words,
enforce the law. When all moral principle, all
rules of authority, superior to brute force, have
ceased in governments, it is clear that the only
maxim of order is the bomb. What other could
could be fund in the atheist philosopy of revolu-
tions? Is it not in virtue of this law that M
GEUZOT, the most pitiless of sectarians, gave the
order to cast Lyons into the Rhone ? Is it not in
virtue of the same law that he has got Paris sur-
rounded with citadels? Motintebanks and hy-
pocrites! you bewail destruction, you who give
yourselves the mission to destroy !"
.•
arl"- The proclamation of VAR HALEN on entering