The Sun.
London, England, 1842-12-31 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, SATURDAY MORNING, _DECEMBER 31, 1842

TO CORRESPONDENTS

An " Old Subscriber" is informed, that we never in-
sert marriages or deaths on anonymous authority.

THE WEATHER—SUN OFFICE, DEC. 80.
MERMOMETER, Lowest, 50 ; Highest, 56 : Noon, 55
BAROMETER, 30.25.—W1ND, W.

NOTE.—The number 32 on the Thermometer denotes
the freezing point, and 55 temperate. In Barometers
fair is usually placed opposite 30, and rain at 29.

HlOl-1 W ATER AT LONDON BRIDGE THIS DAY.
Morning 18 minutes after 1 !Evening 40 minutes after 1.

LONDON :
SATURDAY MORNING. DECEMBER 31, 1842,

Before our next impression the new year will
have commenced, and we may therefore now
briefly run over the leading events of 1842, as
they recur to our memory.
In the beginning of 1842, the public were
eagerly anticipating Sir ROBERT PEEL'S pro-
mised measures of relief, and hoping much from
his great reputation. The close of 1842 wit-
nesses the country more deeply plunged in dis-
tress and misery than at the commencement.
After a whole year of additional suffering, there
is tar less hope of relief from him than when the
year began. His eagerly expected measures
have ended in universal disappointment. He
has unsettled everything, and destroyed all the
sanctity of prescription, without satisfying one
clamorous or discontented party. The bulk of
the laws now restricting trade, which inflict so
much misery on the community, can boast of
only a few months' existence. To the unmitigated
distress of the manufacturing classes is now
added the almost equal distress of the agricul
tural classes; and all which they can rely on to
protect them against the ever increasing dis-
content of their opponents, and against that
free trade which many of them dread, are
he ill-concocted enactments of last session. Pau-
perism is increasing ; there is no demand for
money indicating an increase of trade; bank-
ruptcy is extensive ; crimes are numerous; the
Minister has been tried and found wanting;
there is, at the end of the year, increased distress
and increased difficulties, and no longer any con-
fidence in a single public man.
There was much discontent among the people
when 1842 began, and it is not lessened at its
close. Sir ROBERT has not soothed the Chart-
ists, nor gained the middle-class manufacturers;
and he has alienated the farmers, and many of
the landlords. His increased taxation, particu-
larly his odious Income-tax, has offended and
disgusted a great multitude of the warmest sup-
porters •of every Government. The recent Con-
ference at Birmingham, however divided
and unsuccessful, shows that there is no
abatement in the hostility of the bulk of the
people to our present institutions, while their
fearful outbreak in the autumn has'taught the
Government and the upper classes that they have
at least the power, and may not want the will,
if their present feelings continue, to do an im-
mense deal of mischief. There has been no pro-
gress in the year 1842 to reconcile the bulk of
the people to the Government; and 1843 begins
with a still heavy, lowering aspect of contention
between the mass of the population and the in-
stitutions which are patronised by the ruling
classes.
Nor has that other great combination which is
opposed to the leading principles of the party at
present in possession of the Government, been
weakened or dissipated in 1842. The Anti-Corn-
law League is stronger, bolder, more confi
dent, and nearer success now, than at
end of last year. Its numbers and its funds haVe
increased. Its principles have been consecrated
by the chosen Minister of the monopolists, who
has been unwillingly obliged to praise those
whom he was placed in power to condemn and
subdue. Though the League cannot yet boast of
having obtained any practical relief; it has made
a most rapid progress in gaining public opinion
over to its cause. Aided by the distress of the
agriculturists, and by the continued distress of
the manufacturers, on whom the Legislature
has conferred no advantages whatever, it is fast
becoming completely master of the public mind.
The farmers begin to listen with respect and
friendship to its admonitions; the landlords
show, by their abuse and their vacillation, that
they dread its power. Though its progress to a
triumph has been dearly obtained by a long
continuance of sufferings, which hearkening to
its advice would have avoided, there is no
longer any .doubt of its ultimate and com-
plete success. So far as argument is con-
cerned, the total abolition of the Corn-
law is settled, and we have the gratification
of believing, at the close of our labours•for the
year, that no power in the land can long with-
hold a legislative sanction from the opinions and
plans as to the Corn-laws, which The Sun has
steadily and zealously advocated. The success
of this cause, however, will be a triumph ob-
tained, by the force of truth and facts, over the
monopolists and over the Government, which
was constructed to he their instrument, and that
success will give additional power to its other
opponents to effect, in spite of its opposition, still
greater changes. Though we deeply deplore the
suflerings which delay has caused, we find for
them some compensation in believing that in the
end, and probably before the close of 1843, the
destruction of the monopoly will be thereby the
more complete.
If our home affairs offer us no other consola-
tion at the close of 1842 than the hope that mo.

nopoly, after having done its bravest and its

worst, totters to its full, affairs abroad present
themselves to us in a more cheerful light. At
the beginning of 1842, we were engaged in two

contests, and were alarmed lest they might not

be the only ones. A glorious peace has-put an
end to the war with China, and a great success
in Affghanistan has obtained fur us all we wanted

—the recovery of our friends, and a safe retreat
from that country. How much of the merit of
the final conclusion of these two contests belongs
to the Whigs, who say, that they made the

preparations which led to success, and how
much to the Tories, under whose guidance they
were actually concluded, we pretend not to de-
cide. In our eyes, both of them have deserved
so little at the hands of the community, that we
are willing to leave them both with a share of
the merit, to hide their otherwise great naked-
ness. To Sir ROBERT PEEL and the Tory Ca-
binet belongs exclusively the merit of settling
the boundary dispute with the United States,
and putting an end to all apprehensions of war
on that account. From them, too, we must not
withhold the praise of : having, to a consi-

derable extent, quieted France and Europe,

disturbed, at the beginning of the year, by the

somewhat restless policy of their predecessors.

At the same time the close of 1842 sees the flame

of disturbance kindled in Spain and rising in the
East, and the opponents of the Ministers declare
that in both quarters they have sacrificed the
honour of the country. On the whole, the fo-

reign policy of the Tories has, during the year,
been more successful than their home policy,
apparently because there they have not con-
travened any known law of Nature, while here

they have struggled, and struggled in vain, to
regulate prices, and have in doing it violated the

first princlples of all Government.
On the whole, we conclude that at the end of
184;2 the: Government is much weaker, the people

_ .
more discontented and in greater difticultie9, than
at its •commencement; and we infer that if the

same -policy and progress be continued in the

year which is now to commence, it will not close
without witnessing some great change, or some

greater disturbance than the outbreak of 1842.

It i
another place we publish an extract from
the Chelmsford Chronicle, giving an account of
the poor in the,Chelmsford Union Workhouse in
1841 and. 1842, which is worth notice as a spe-

cimen of what is at present going on in the.agricul-
tural districts. It is well known that the amount of
pauperism was much greater in 1841 than in the
years immediately previous, and the whole din-
crease
in the ielmsford Union between 1841
i
and 1842 is 20 o 211, or ,one-thirteenth. Cun-
sidering t'utt 1841 was favourable to pauperism,
that increase is great. But the able-bodied men
have increased from 15 to 27 ; the able-bodied
women from 28 to 38 ; the able-bodied lads,
between 7 and 15, many of whom should be able
to get their own living, from 30 to 46; and girls
of the same ages from 29 to 41 ; showing, on the
whole an increase of paupers amongst that popu-
lation, which in a prosperous condition of society
would find employment, of no less than 50 per-
sons out of 297, or an increase of pauperism to
the amount of nineteen per cent. in the working
population since 1841. If that may be taken, as
we believe it may, as an index to the condition
of the agricultural districts generally, it shows a
state of society which may appal the heart of
any statesman.

The account presents one or two other features
of interest. There are of infants and children
under seven years of age 17 less than in 1841,
indicating, we think, that the number of children
born is, and has been for two or three years
back, diminishing ; otherwise, with such an in-
crease of able-bodied paupers the increase of
children should have been considerable instead
of there being a decrease. It may gratify the
rate-payers to see in that fact the prospect of an
ultimate diminution of pauperism, but it will
afflict the statesman and philanthropist, who
know that there is no surer sign of misery than a
decay of population or a diminished rate of in-
crease. When that sign is exhibited, it is cer-
tain that many of the population are exposed to
extreme hunger, and are subject to extreme
distress.

One of the leading features of the Blandford
Agricultural, and of similar meetings, is, the
rewards which the noblemen and gentlemen
there assembled bestow on well behaved agri-
cultural labourers. They are summoned before
their masters, like little children at the school
breaking-up, and one receives a new coat,
another a couple of sovereigns, and a third
something else ; and a handsomely framed cer-
tificate is given to each to attest how much his
masters are pleased with his patient, toiling, obe-
dient conduct.
After dinner the Chairman has them intro-
duced to the company, in whose august presence
he compliments them, as worthy and deserving
persons; talks of the labourers being the
foundation of society ; assures them that
happiness is very generally diffused over all
classes ; and that if they only do their duty
they will be sure to be happy in their own
station.

Proceedings of that nature may be very
gratifying to the self-love of the noble-
men and gentlemen ; but we submit that
they are not calculated to improve either them
or the people. It is, on their part, an assump.
tion of moral and mental superiority, which by
no means belongs to them, and serves to nourish
in them a windy arrogance and conceit. The
very act implies a consciousness, •on their part,
of being much wiser and better than the labour-
ers and cottagers, and is a claim to direct the
conduct of other men, who have their own duties
to perform, in their own station. On the part
of the labourers and cottagers, it implies, and it
nourishes, a sense of self-degradation. They are
told that they are not as good as those other men.
who advise and direct them. The well-meant
patronage helps to destroy their sense of. inde-
pendence, the soul of all greatness and goodness,
and if it refines—which we doubt—it emascu-
lates their mental powers.
What would the noblemen and gentlemen of
England think if the cottagers and labourers
were:: o form societies for the-encouragement of
goo,. tmlact in the landlords, and to reward it?
y should they not form such societies, as
exen and gentlemen fbrni them to improve
the cottagers ? They are equally men. Their in-
terest and their welfare are closely bound up with
the good behaviour of the landlords ; and were
wreaths or ribbons, or stars of honour conferred
.on landlords by societies of farmers arid labourers
for putfing an end to game preserves—for living
in London and never troubling the tenants and
cottagers—for being content with the rent they
could willingly pay—for carefully abstaining
from asking for a vote at an election—for respect-
ing their independence—were rewards bestowed
for such good conduct, that might stimulate
some landlords to be equitable and respectful to-
wards their fellow men, albeit they are only
tenants and cottagers. The public did not need
certain recent events to convince them that the
BANtESES, the ASHLEYS, the STURTS, et hoc
genus, really require as much moral guidance
and control as the meanest of the cottagers who
were patronised at the Blandford meeting.
There is a great deal too much care taken of
the lower classes by their so-called superiors.
Those who 'claim to take care of them, claim, in
fact, to be their masters. They treat the pea-
santry- more like slaves or children than inde-
pendent men; and they make them childish in
their dependence. The Liberals are no more
exempt from the assumption of superiority than
the Tories, and are equally prone to treat the
labouring classes like children. This is an erro-
neous mode of proceeding. The first step to-
wards amendment is for the gentry to trust the
people, and distrust themselves more. The two
have totally different duties to perform; they
are placed in totally different situations; and it
is quite impossible that either one can be a rule
for the other. Let the gentlemen of England,
then, treat the labourers like free men, and they
will soon be rewarded by finding that the la-
bourers, instead of being, as at present, terribly
degraded, have acquired the virtues of their
new station.

We had the pleasure of meeting on Thursday a
body of men by whose active exertions the pulse
of our commercial greatness is kept in being—men
who embody in themselves the very spirit of
enterprise. Agriculture may have done
much for this country, but commerce has
done more. Without commerce England wopld
only be a land of cabbages! It is her com-
merce that has 'raised her to the proud
eminence which she holds—the first nation
for arts, for arms, for freedom—and the
parent of all, is commerce ! Why ,do people
say, "He is a very promising boy, but
be should see the world ;"—if they did not imply
in that sentence that " seeing the world," is
learning the principles of commerce ? England
is essentially a commercial country, and it gives
us especial pleasure in baring our testimony
to the meritorious exertions of gentlemen
travellers who have associated themselves,
for the support of their mutual independence,
by founding a Society which will benefit them-
selves, and be a protection to their families.
Such Societies arc well worthy imitation—and
deserve the best support of the public.

The part taken by the French Consul during
the insurrection at Barcelona is still involved in
much mystery. Two Morning Contemporaries,
who appear to derive their information from offi-
cial sources, publish statements on the subject
directly at variance with one another—the Tory
journal describing M. LESSEPS as blameless,
while the Whig paper asserts that but for the
countenance he gave to the insurgents, there
would have been no necessity to bombard the
town. When two such judges disagree, we
will not pretend to decide; but we may
observe that one of the Barcelona jour-
nals still adheres to its first accusation
against the Consul, and asserts that his con-
nivance (co-operation) with the insurgents has
been proved beyond a doubt, and adds, " Can
there be a more ignominious recompense than
that derived from the provocation of disorders,
and shedding the blood of faithful soldiers and
misled patriots?" This important charge cannot
rest without further investigation, and it is the
duty, therefore, of the French Government, as
well as that of Spain, to institute the most rigid
inquiry. There can be no great difficulty in
ascertaining the truth. Were a commission,

consisting of French men and Spaniards, appointed
to repair to the spot and examine witnesses,
M. LESSEPS could clear his character at
at once, if he is innocent. For his own sake
he should demand such a course, and convince
not only the French Government but the other
Powers of Europe, that the Representative of
his- Sovereign did not in any way contribute to
such an atrocious and inexplicable revolt as that
which has disgraced Barcelona. We should re-
joice to see such a result, but in the meantime
must entertain suspicions, that there was a party
or parties in France, privy to the conspiracy.
The false telegraphic dispatches, the exaggera-
tions given in French Government papers, the
lying accounts of the great numbers put to
death by ESPARTERO, and the bitter animosity
displayed by newspapers in the interest of high
personages, excite doubts which cannot be re-
moved by mere assertion and angry recrimination.

Madrid journals of the 21st have been received.
No day had been fixed tin* the return of the
REGENT. The Patriota, a Ministerial journal,
contradicts in positive terms the reports re-
specting a disunion in the Cabinet, and declares
that, as regards the decree for the dissolution of
the Cortes, and on all the main principles of
Government, the Ministers are perfectly agreed.
' The accounts from Barcelona are without in
terest, for we attach little credit to the following
statement, which comes from Perpignan—a place
now celebrated for the manufacture of lying
dispatches. It appears in a Bayonne paper:—
A deputation from the principal inhabitants of Bar-
celona went on the 19th instant to the Captain-Ge-
neral to remonstrate against the war contribution of
12,000,000 reals, which was allotted on the 18th.
General Van Halen replied that those who refused to
pay would be sent to the galleys. The richest
men and merchants, among whom were a great
number who left the town at the commencement of
the rebellion, and whose houses have been destroyed
by the bombardment, have had most exorbitant sums
imposed upon them. M. Xifre, who was in France,
is put down for 10,000 duros (52,5000 No one has
yet submitted, and every one seems to be determined
to resist, and even undergo imprisonment rather than
pay. This resolution is encouraged by the unanimous
voice of the Madrid journals against the measures
taken at Barcelona as acts of military despotism. The
municipality has had the weakness to obey the orders
given to it by making the allotment of the 12,000,000
reals, and this want of energy has filled the whole
population with discontent.

The Gazette contains a number of loyal ad-
dresses, fbrwarded to the REGENT by the pro-
vincial deputation of Majorca, the municipality
of Pampeluna, the National Guards of Almaden,
Benimodo, La Ronda, &c., on the occasion of the
events of Barcelona.

The Three poi. Cents. were done on the 21st a
21i at 45 days, and the Five per Cents. at 26i
7-16 for cash, and 26 11-16 at 60 days.

'he French Government have finally come to
the resolution of suppressing the manufacture of
beet-root sugar in France. The Illoniteur and
Globe (Ministerial journals) have announced the
fact. The latter adds a report that the plan in-
cludes, besides an indemnity to the beet-root
growers, a diminution of the duties on foreign
sugar. The memorial of the delegates for the
colonies, which we stated yesterday had been
presented to the Council of Ministers, is signed
by Baron C. DUPIN and M. JOLLIVET for Mar-
tinique; Dount DE CI-lAZELLES and DESMIRAIL
for Guadaloupe ; Admiral BAUDIN and M. DE
LA BATIE for Bourbon; and M. FAVARD for
Guiana; and concludes thus:
The council of the delegates of the colonies demand
expressly in their name the suppression of the beet-
root manufacture, on paying an indemnity, as the most
suitable means of reconciling in a spirit of justice
the interests of the colonies and the mother country.
But if it be impossible to carry into effect the condi-
tions of the exceptional state thus demanded, in that
case the colonies claim equality of conditions between
the two national manufactures, that is, the applica-
tion of the rules of general legislation with respect to
trade and produce.
The Debats gives the French Government the
credit of having produced the late favourable ar-
rangement in Syria. Possibly the other Powers
had also some influence, for we cannot help
thinking that England has as much authority in
Turkish Councils as France ; hut a good act has
been accomplished, and we do not quarrel with
the French for claiming their share of the merit.
" While the Opposition journals," it says, " were
reproaching the Government with abandoning
the Christians of Syria, and allowing our influ-
ence in the East to dwindle away at Constanti-
nople, the Government was acting with efficacy.
The Porte has at length yielded to wise counsels,
and has seers what are its veritable interests; it
has adopted the only means of putting an end to
anarchy and bloodshed, by permitting the Ma-
ronites and the Druses to have chiefs of their
own nation. Syria, we tryst, will at last have
repose, and the inhabitants of this unfortunate
province will have occasion to bless the peace-
bearing intervention of the King of FRANCE.
This is another mission of humanity that we have
fulfilled. We know well, however, that the Op-
position will not change into compliments and
eulogiums the unjust reproaches which it ad-
dressed to the Government a short time back.
The Ministry has been successful; our repre-
sentative, M. DE BOURQUENEY, has attained the
object of his mission. His clever efforts have
triumphed over the prejudices and the pride of
the Porte. He has obtained for the Maronites
and Druses what has been so often refused; the
success is complete."

The France gives the following statement re-
specting the parties to be elected into the Privy
Council, and the amount of their salaries:—
We know, from good authority, that the Council
of Ministers, under the presidency of the King, was
engaged yesterday and the day before in deciding
upon the number to be contained in the list of Minis-
ters of State. It is fixed at present that it should be
confined to ten—[the Constitutionnel states twenty]—
and the selection is partly made. The ordonnances of
their nomination will probably appear in to-morrow's
Moniteur. Count Mole will stand at the head of the
elect. He will be followed by Messrs. Thiers, Dupin,
Pasquier, Barthe, Portalis, and Marshal Sebastiani.
The Cabinet is said to be decided in its choice of the
other candidates. It is much regretted in high quar-
ters that his holding the office of Intendant of the
Civil List of the House of Orleans excludes the Comte
de Montalivet from being one of the ten. We are
further told that the salary of each-Minister of State
is to be 15,000 E, and that a credit of 300,000 f. will be
required from the Chambers for the expenses of the
installation, and the services of the current year."
The same journal states that M. PIAU, the
Editor of the Commerce, made his appearance on
Wednesday before the Tribunal of Correctional
Police, to answer the charge laid against him of
having violated the laws of the Press, by pub-
lishing a distinct afternoon journal, called Feuille
Commercial, Supplement au Journal le Com-
therce. He was defended by M. PHILIPPE
DUPIN, but the arguments of M. GOUIN, the
King's Advocate, maintaining that they were two
distinct journals, inasmuch that each could be
subscribed for separately, and there* liable to
separate deposits of caution money,lind subject
to all the other pro Visions of the law, prevailed,
and the Tribunal condemned M. PIAU to a
month's imprisonment and a fine,of 200 f.
General BUGEAUD, offended at the doubts cast
upon his successes in Africa by the Corre-
spondent of the National, has addressed the sub-
joined letter to the Editor :

--- -
Your Correspondent denies the results of this
campaign ; he might as well deny that the sun shines
at Algiers in the summer, and that it rains there in
the winter. It is notorious that never was there a
result more complete and decisive, or obtained at a
cheaper rate. Two little combats sufficed to bring
under subjection the Government of Ben Salem, with
the exception of two or three Kabyle tribes in the
mountains of the Jinjura. I have appointed Mahhi-
el-Mu in the place of Ben Salem, and the whole
country has accepted the Tryv chief without hesitation.
Tell your Correspondent, if you please, that if he is
in the least desirous of being made acquainted with
the truth on this subject, he has only to consult the
thousand inhabitants of parts who daily frequent the
market of Algiers. Is your veracious Correspondent
ignorant that almost all the principal men of the east,
to the number of sixty, came to Algiers escorted by
150 horsemen ; that they there received investiture
at the Government palace in the presence of all the
civil and military authorities, and as many other per-
sons as the room would contain; that since that time
there has not been the slightest commotion in the Re-
gency, and that an active and daily trade is going on
with it ?

In another letter addressed to the Editor of
the Siecle, be states that it is not just to express

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