The Sun.
London, England, 1845-10-31 00:00:00

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LONDON, I RIDAY. OCTOBER 31, 1845.

In a leading article on the potato murrian, published in
onr impression of the 25th instant, we made the following
observations, and we repeat them here, in order to introduce
the important announcements, which seem to be justified by
the universally accredited rumours, of the determination that
has been arrived at by the Government, in reference to the
all-important subjects to which they refer. We wrote
thus :—" The danger of a lack of subsistence for millions
of our poorer fellow• countrymen is no longer a
figurative allusion—an imposing figure, to point the
indignant declamations of anti-corn-law eloquence. It

. is imminent—it is impending—it must be encountered.
' But with what Conseivative provision?" .. .. "We answer
i
thus—cheap and wholesome corn must replace dear and
' diseased potatoes. To let in cheap and wholesome corn for
this just, humane, and patriotic purpose, not a moment must
be lost in opening the only channel through which the
supply can be poured in a sufficient quantity, and at suf-
ficiently low prices." ... . " The Prime Minister must assume,
if he would avert responsibility for the impending
catastrophe which the advent of winter must other-
wise bring along with it, the grave political
responsibility of advising the Crown to issue an
Order in Council virtually suspending the whole ma-•
chinery of sliding-scales,and pivot prices, and price-adjusting
duties. He must make the importation of foreign corn free
for some weeks to come," &c., &c. From that day to the
present hour the aspect of affairs has indicated the approach-
ing fulfilment cf cur convictions; and some remarkable fea-
tures have especially attracted our notice. It is, therefore,
just five or six days ago since we ventured, in express terms,
to predict that the Minister would find himself com-
pelled to adopt a course of this nature in this
manner ; that is, by Order in Council. We proclaimed the
necessity that impended over him of witnessing, and even of
compelling the failure of that boasted corn-trade legislation, to
the perfect character of which he had pledged the reputation
of his own official sagacity and statesmanship, and, in order
to uphold which he has protracted the season of high prices,
with famishing wages for the whole of our industrial com-
munity, through many months and years of privation
consistent
hmisainotwennanpcaertoyf
and
and misery.
through
ir
he
elhl
elltasheeighways and by-ways ofonCh
adherents
inconsistent t h
rs
oc
political tergiversation and moral evasion. It is true
that in adopting the proceeding, by Order in Council—
of which now there can be little doubt—be must also adopt
the alternative which we assumed he would most pro-
bably resort to, as comprising one of those middle
t terms—one of those substitutions of expedients for grin-
, ciples which are so emphatically characteristic of what
he would call " his policy." Last evening the result of
the various rumours which had prevailed in the City on the
subject of the opening of the ports throughout the day was
considered to be authoritatively stated thus :—that foreign
wheat would be admitted for home consumption, under an Order
in Council, at 45., barley 25., oats ls. per quarter, flour 2s.
per sack. It was assumed that this " Order" would release
1,000,000 quarters of grain and flour in bond, in the United
Kingdom ; 170,000 barrels of flour on the way from the
United States, 150,000 barrels from Canada, 60,000 quarters
of wheat from the Baltic, &c. Thus the actual presence of
scarcityin the market of home-grown corn, and the ap-
proachinginfusion of bonded and foreign supplies to
a large amount into that market, are facts
brought prominently into public notice. On the
occasion already alluded to we remarked—" On the
other hand, (given the single condition of even suspending,
for a limited time, though we may hold that the suspension
should be permanent, of those corn-laws,) we have a certain
and prompt influx of grain," &c. But it appears that we must
not be restored to a healthful condition of corn trade all at
once. We are not to be trusted, even for a limited term,
with this unconditional suspension. Our iatural constitu-
tion is so robust that the " State Doctor," who has " been
called in," as he himself has phrased it, to give an opinion,
after being paid his fees, on the state of the patient, is ap-
prehensive of our redundancy of health. To let us alone
would make us too well. Our pulses are still too
vigorous. He is compelled to discontinue his perilous treat
ment of subjecting us to the paralyzing and life-ex tinguish.
g fl
tincturathe
willdtita..ies pre-
scribed
nin u e thenesa f
formulathe
insist
on
ol large
corn-laws;doses of
hn
in io
exhibiting his homcepathic remedies in the poison of small
duties. Well, we must be content. The reduced quantum
of these minute but noxious preparations will soon be ex-
hausted, and Jonzt Bum, may, and we think will, soon re-
gain his constitutional embonpoint, in spite of Dr. PEEL. A
preliminary condition to this perfect consummation must also
be the utter sacrifice of all his currency nostrums, which
we entertain strong hopes of yet seeing thrown out
of the window by the indignant good sense of the public. In
the meanwhile we cannot but marvel at the good fortune
which is so constant to Sir ROBERT PEEL, that, out of the
misery and distress of the country, it supplies him with new
sources of revenue. The failure of a harvest is an enormous
increment in the (temporary) prosperity of his finance. His
statistics of income, collated with those of expenditure, are
so much enhanced by how much misery and famine, ex-
tend their fearful ravages among the people. A failing
harvest and a potato murrain give him the oppor-
tunity of thus adjusting the decrease in the last