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

rtg 2--' I=4

LONDON:
FRIDAY MORNING. SEPTEMBER 9, 1842.

It is one of the misfortunes of newspaper editors,
which is sometimes an affliction fin. their readers,
that being intensely interested in the events and
work of the day, they sometimes fbrget facts
which they ought to remember, and run counter
to principles to which they have given their
assent. We feel that this is our own case, and
we aro, not therefore inclined to measure the
conduct of our Contemporaries by a very strict
rule. Nevertheless, we must say of our Tory
brethren that they have lately, in their con-
fusion arising from their leaders deserting their
principles, disregarded many well proved facts,
and tried to subvert the best established prin-
ciples. The leader of the whole tribe reached
the climax of this absurd course yesterday, when
he boldly threw off his allegiance to general
rules, and claimed to substitute for them the
fierce momentary will of any scribbler, or any
active, bustling, busy Magistrate. " General
rules," said the Times, " are very good things in
their way, but it is a mere narrow pedantry to
make them masters instead of servants." The
Times then sets up its own will, or the will of the
Magistrates, or their notions of temporary expe-
diency, as superior to general, moral, and poli-
tical rules, and declares that those guides of life
are the servants, not the masters, of living men.

That man shall not steal—shall not bear false
witness—shall not murder—are general rules.
Will the Editor of the Times say that he is to be
master over them, and they are to be servants
of his varying caprice ? It is a general rule that
honesty is the best, and, indeed, the only policy.
Is this, too, to be trampled under tbot ? It is a
general rule—dear, we think, to the hearts and
understanding of Englishmen—that prosperity
and liberty go hand in hand; and is obedience
to that to be treated as mere pedantry, because
there is a momentary disturbance in one part of
the country ? Is all the gathered experience of
our ancestors, embodied into the general rule
that freedom is essential to the welfare of
England, to be disregarded because the opu-
lent classes feel considerable momentary alarm
at the conduct of the multitude ? A doctrine
more destructive of all stability in society—more
adverse to true Conservatism—more fatal to all
morality—than the doctrine that general rules,
deduced from the observation of ages, and clothed
almost with the sanctity of laws of nature, are to
be the servants of the being of an hour, we have
never met with. No Radical, eager for change
—no avowed despiser of the wisdom of our an-
cestors—no scoffer a:, a regular and well-ordt red
government of the universe—could frame a doc-
trine more congenial to his hopes and his per-
sonal ambition.

The Times applied this perverse assertion to
rebut the general rule that Legislators and Ma-
gistrates should not interfere between master
and men, to regulate their wages, and compel the
former, as that journal has proposed. to give
workmen employment at all times. But
we know no general rule which ex-
perience has more amply confirmed. Every
such interference has injured trade, injured
the masters, and injured the men. In our
country it carries injustice on its face. In its
present furor of benevolence, the Times may
demand that the Legislature should compel some
particular class of masters to give a higher rate
of wages ; but let the power of regulating wages
on the principle of benevolence be conferred on
the Houses of Parliament, composed exclusively
of the master class, and it would soon be ruled
by law that no labourer should have better than
workhouse fare. For months and years the
Times has been railing against the New Poor-
law, becluse it has reduced the allowance of
paupers to benefit the opulent class, and now
it would place in the hands of the Legislature,
notwithstanding its horror of centralization, the
power of dealing with the labourer as with
paupers, which would soon reduce the former
to the condition of the latter. Both theory and
experience, if they be not one anti. the same,
combine to prove the solidity of that general
rule which the Times would set aside, and, to set
it aside more effectually, would make all general
rules bend to its will.

We I)ave high authority for our respect for

general rules. Dr. PALEY entitles one of
chapters. " The Necessity of General Rules,",4l)d
in that chapter he writes—
" You cannot permit one action and forbid another_
without showing a difference between them ; cone''
quently the same sort of action must be generally 1)0'
mitted or generally forbidden." " The assassin knocked
the rich villain on the ;:tad because he thought MO;
better out of the way than in it. If you allow this it
cuse in the present instance, you must allow it to 80;1
who act in the same manner and from the same motive
that as you must allow every man to kill any ort
meets whom he thinks noxious or useless, which, in the
event would be to commit every man's life and safety td
the spleen, fury, and fanaticism of his neighbour—a (hr.
position of affairs which would soon fill the world lOti
misery and confusion, and ere long put an end to httlilllA
society, if not to the human species."
So the Times, contrary to the general rule ihat.
private contracts between men, such as those
give wages on the one hand for work on Ike
other, should be enforced by the law, but hot:
otherwise interfered with, would have the lad',
interfere with all private contracts_to gratify its
peculiar apprehensions, recently acquired, :.1.136°
butties and coalowners. If we allow the intgri
ference in this instance we must allow it in alli
when men act in the same manner and the same
motives ; and the Legislature must regulate 9.11.:
contracts, even those which the Times makes wit.l
its reporters, compositors, and customers. SO
an extension of the power of the Legislature',
from whom already a vast deal more is demande4;
than can be accomplished, would soon " fill the
world," to borrow the language of PALEY, " NO,
misery and confusion, and, ere long, put an eat;
to human society and the human species."
We do not advert to this subject in any narre7f
spirit of criticism, but to make our readers aware
at once of the desperate lengths to which the 4
anti-free trade party is driven. They first inteo
fere with the price of food ; next they propose
interfere with wages, and to arrive at that 00,
they tire obliged to teach the superiority of theft
own foolizth speculations to the general moil
rules which have been fbrmed by the experieb,
of all ages. A few editors of newspapers 100
embrace these extraordinary doctrines, and knef
little or nothing of the wonderful system of, pr°' •
duction which has grown up amongst us withl
these few years, are now writing up a Soff,4
crusade against manufactures and mativfacturol
Their proceedings are most erroneous and -nl,ot,
mischievous; and we refer to the monstroq
doctrines of the Times to prove the incorieo
ness of their principles, and to put the publico
their guard. Follow the treachery of the rigai
and the Post, and all general rules will soot]:
banished from politics and morals, except-13
rule that men must be blindly obedient to 4.
Tories.

There appears to be no truth whatever in the
E
Standard's report of the death of the KING, .9,
HANOVER.

Among other public bodies admitted to 'O.
presence of the SOVEREIGN at Dalkeith Palacit,
was a deputation representing the Church e.
Scotland, consisting of' some thirty members °i,
the late General Assembly. According t'e,4
former precedent, which, considering the bite et'
duct of the dominant portion of', the Chur6l(
eiwould have been more honoured in the brew
than the observance, they presented an addi ,$.
to the QUEEN, in which they attributed the toll'
advance of tie Scottish nation in civilization,
mercial enterprise, the peaceful arts of induct,,
and loyalty, to " the power of' divine truth 3
pressed on the heart by the faithful prefOring4
the word, accompanied by the inestirnio,l
advantage of a sound practical educatil
based on the Holy Scriptures." Now, mak!, ,
di
every allowance for the inestimable blessi, .
conferred on Scotland by her admirable .sy ,ii.
of Church government and parochial school"
is only fair to state, in justice to other pa ;..;
that the Church cannot exclusively claim'..'
merit of the vast improvements which ,il‘,
,01)
taken place in that country, since the accesP 4'..'
of the house of BRUNSWICK. The learned 074,,i
who enlightened the community by t 1.1,11
writings on every useful branch of science -IP;;'',
philosophy, the practical agricuituri .t, the.in4i°.4,
trious merchant, and, above all, the wise, ,lard
lators who established the parochial schocil4)ol„iti
by the passing of the Union Act, opened theiva,
of the English colonies to Scotch enterpril
must come in for no small share of the hou9:4
which the Church would attribute to 'her eS4.
turns alone. But independent of' these cireSt'
stances there were great men in the Church 1
007',
the accession of the present line of kings.
preached the word in season and out of seto
and, notwithstanding all their exertions,- id,
Scotch remained a lawless and turbulent pp;
rebelling not unfrequently against their
reign, and committing deeds of atrocity toi!;:4
one another, not surpassed in modern tit:.
And besides allowing the ministers of 4
Gospel all the merit which they 45.0,
the praise must be awarded, not. to ,tP4to'
sect which unfortunately has thrown the 00. i..
ligious community into such disorder, and 0
nevertheless, complacently regard themselve,to,
the only " faithful preachers of the word; ,:oi
to the great majority who, during the perieutot
ti.cse vast improvements, had supreme 001110.,,.
in ecclesiastical matters. Among the more ~.i. f
tieguished of' these in latter times were H 000.74
SON, BLAIR, and HILL, with others whose DlO'ep
it is needless to recount; and how are thel/39
that now tread in their footsteps treated bY ef
present majority of the Church? The histOt.o
the three last General Assemnlies affords .d:
of
melancholy answer. Many of' them have. Ile.,
deposed for obeying what they conscientiouslY'
lieved to be the law as established by Church 11, .0,,
State,. great numbers have been suspendeiho
threatened with suspension, for sympathising °.i.
their suffering brethren, and thus the very men i#
whose ecclesiastical policy such a just tribut°.
paid, are all but thrust out of the Church. ' el
referring to the address, we were curious 0 60
in what way the present leaders would exPriS
their loyalty,after they had been pronounced i .
the Supreme Civil Courts in Scotland And *"„*.f
land guilty of a breach of the law, and were Pvtit.
a little delighted to find on the first perusal --tito
their " aim was to inculcate the indisPeOis.
duty of allegiance to the Supreme power of ti)
a,/,.
State." On reading it, however, more carefif`4
we discovered in a sort of parenthesis a strNd
reservation, by which all this professed loys'iii
was only conditional and subservient tolieo
" paramount obligations, privileges, and be.ftit
of the Gospel," which, when translated': ;1:10:
plain„ intelligible language, means their °s.
acts of Assembly. They boldly told the Qt it
they reckoned these paramount to all othersyrof ,
would give allegiance to the sovereign power 0)
the State, only so far as it was consistee
with the law which they had laid down for the 0
selves. Sir ROBERT PEEL probably wished eh
act a generous part on an occasion of s°ol
general rejoicing, and was anxious to avoid be
collision with the ministers of peace, but be' ve
refused his assent to the address, he would 11,111,0
been justified by the law of the laud, and bY `iii,
established practices observed in all corniutir
cations between the Sovereign and people. •

The speech of Lord DENMAN on the stl)
at the York Assizes, preparatory to pronouncljej
sentence. upon upwards of 150 persons coniritel
of being guilty of riots during the late operatlq.p
strike, was in many respects worthy of they It'ecl
character of that eminent Judge. He afflcta
no alarm—indulged in no exaggeration of-fil, of'
or appearances—and exhibited no warrottlo.4
temper unsuited to the high duty which be, 10,0
called upon to discharge. 'There were one or.tio
points in his speech, however, singes got
of observations which evidently did.
.„,y
••may
cu his Lordship, though they :4f,
done so to the prisoners at the vivo
;.!hiding to the conflicts of the people li'o;a
the poiier and constabulary, the Nohle;tue
Learned Lord observed, that, "forgetful 01410
lain and undeniable truth that the civil 10)
p
are even more for the protection of the %le.
orders than of other classes, ignorant P:r•
assembled against them, and the oP.r
alts
tunity was selected by wicked men of 1:0,0
ing, their mean malignancy upon t..
whose vigilance they had reason Cudtio
like." Now, we can assure the
-400
Judge that the forgetfulness o f h