The Sun.
London, England, 1842-08-17 00:00:00

made and enjoyed irNIT City. Every feature of the
Tory system is yet re ained, even to the corruption
by which Tories obtain an ascendancy in Parliament,
and yet there is great distress, great discontent,
and an alarming outstand amongst the people. When
the Tories left office they left a rebellion in the agri-
cultural districts ; they have scarcely had time since
their return to office to cheat the hopes they inspired
when they find a rebellion in the manufacturing dis-
tricts. Toryism, therefore, cannot help us, out of our
difficulties. In truth the evils complained of are the
consequences of our political system, and that requires
investigation. Heaven has been bountiful to us. It
has endowed our people with unsurpassed skill
and unwearied industry. Our land is fertile, and
teems with mineral wealth, as our seas teem with fish.
Our commerce and our colonies enable us to supply
our wants from the whole globe. With advantages
such as no nation ever before was blessed with, a
great multitude of the people are sorely degraded and
distressed, and their grievous discontent continually
causes alarm and insecurity. Into these circumstances
a solemn investigation) is required ; and if the out-
stand of the manufacturing labourers lead to that, it
will not be without a beneficial result.

An Evening Contemporary, whose remarks we in-
sert, tries to throw the, whole blame of all possible
dissatisfaction and discontent on the Whigs. It was
they, according to the Standard, who taught the
people to be dissatisfied with the law, and to seek
their objects by violence. They must have caused,
then, the progress of society, and the increase of
knowledge, for it is these which have made old insti-
tations and old laws unsuitable to our present con-
dition. We have, however, of late been boastingly
reminded that our commercial code was first reformed
by the Tories, and Sir ROBERT PEEL disparaged
what he left of our criminal code by what he
altered. For the last twenty years there has
been a regular and continual retreat from old posi-
tions, as they were successively invaded by popular
knowledge. How could the people continue to re-
verence laws which they were practically taught
were erroneous and unjust? Both parties have equally
;lifted the boundaries of the law andthe Constitution,
and moved them away; but the Tories have set the
bad example of seeking to maintain a false position
by violence, till they have roused threats of violence
in attack, and then they have fled. They have
been the men to have recourse to force, and by
yielding they have taught the people the art of
conquering the Government. It is, however,
not at all desirable at present to bandy accu-
sations between Whigs and Tories ; the condition
of society has become troublesome and alarming, and
it is now the business of every patriot to use his best
exertions to restore peace, concord, and prosperity.
Without blaming either party, or any individuals,
and without specifying the immediate causes of the
existing evils, we lay it down as an incontrovertible
fact, which must be the foundation of all improve-
ment, that the labouring classes of the community
are too heavily burdened. They work too hard, and
are too little rewarded. They are not only exposed
to great physical privations, but they see others re-
lieved from them at their expense. They bear, in
truth all the burdens of society, and are scarcely al-
lowed to taste its benefits. Laws which are for them
fetters, are privileges for others. While the salary of
every servant of Government is fully assured to him—
while the income of the priest is made as certain as the
return of the seasons—while the rent of the landlord is
subject to very little variation, except to increase—while
the owners of the national debt are guaranteed their in-
come, and every monied man gathers in his interest with
mathematical certainty, the reward of labour is not
sure from day to day; and, squeezed down by profit,
rent, and taxes, seems continually growing smaller,
or is kept at that pittance which barely supports
existence.. These are facts ; they may be in the
order of nature ; they may not be the consequence
of positive enactments ; but the consequence is the
existence of an immense mass of poorly fed, badly
lodged, and incompletely clothed labourers, who are
filled with discontent, and whose discontent is a per-
petual source of uneasiness to others.
If they be in the order of nature and irremovable,
let that be demonstrated, and let the Legislature
bend its exertions to lessen the evils as much as pos-
sible ;if they be not in the order of nature, but the
consequence of positive laws, it follows that some bad
laws are the causes of the national trouble. All
classes are deeply interested in demanding a solemn
investigation into this point, for the landlord is
alarmed furilis_rent, the priest for his tithes—the
e ipitatist foris Limner" man tor nis in-
teiest, the moment the labourers begin to stir in pur-
suit of their rights, or even cease to labour ; and they
seem incapable of fancying or finding any remedy
for their own apprehensions, but the establishment of
a complete military governrhent, which must, in our
judgment, be *fatal to the commerce, the prosperity,
and the liberty of England. It is now the duty of all
these classes, not only to inquire, but to take an in-
creased share of the national burdens, and allow
labour to have more social advantages. If they con-
tinue rapaciously to extort all that can be extorted
from the labourer, expecting to keep him for ever
toiling hard, and obtaining little or nothing, it re-
quires no reach of sagacity to predict continual com-
motions, national decay, and ultimately national ruin.

RUMOUR THAT HER MAJESTY HAD BEEN AGAIN
ATTACKED.—Yesterday a rumour was extensively
circulated in the metropolis that another attack had
been made on her Majesty. The " Court Circular"
explains on how small a foundation it rested. A
man, who it seems could give no good account of him-
self, but otherwise had nothing about him to excite
suspicion, had, in company with some workmen, it is
supposed, found his way into the Castle. He was
found there, and sent up to town, that his case might
be investigated.