The Sun.
London, England, 1842-03-07 00:00:00

THE LANDLORDS AND THE
POOR-LAW AMENDIMNTACT.

(In continuation of a former article.)
TO THE EDITOR OF THE SUN.
SlR,—Thus the moral qualities of the mer-
chant, mechanic, and labourer, had received no
check, but had sooner improved and advanced,
during the season of prosperity created by the
war; and notwithstanding the great debt we had
incurred, in the support of our own armies, and
navy ; and in subsidies for the support of fo-
reigners; its transitions, its • enterprize, and
alarms, sooner called forth fresh energies; and
after twenty-six years of peace, instead of
being, as we are, in a state of despondency,
debt, and heavy taxation, we might hare en-
joyed continued prosperity, and been materially
relieved from the latter; since we had the ball
in our hands, had we kept it in motion, and
wisely, not relinquished its possession; bUt the
moral and material condition of the landloerd
having deteriorated, has prevented it.
If the landlord had not speculated too lavishly
upon war prices, and had not run into expensive
and profligate habits; but had practised common
prudence and thrift, all his schemes would have
been profitable and successful ; and when prices
were higher than ever known, large and princely
fortunes might have been secured, which were
wasted in prodigality and splendour; and even
the tracts of poor land which were at this time
forced into tillage at great expense, by the ap-
plication of highly improved husbandry, would
have still continued profitable, and he might
have fulfilled all his engagements : but the
habits of the squires had become altered ; in
consequence of which, confiscation, or mortgage
of their property occurred, and poverty has been
called upon to redeem it.
It should not be lost sight of In comparing the
state of the morals, of poverty, and wealth, that
our achievements and victories, by sea and land,
were the work of the former; how often has not
the Duke confessed his infirmity as a General, and
his incompetency to circumstances, over which his
army triumphed with ease and alacrity ; in
short, the Duke would have been no great man,
but for his great army; not in. numbers, which
were always defective, but in soul and love of
country; of which,in him we have ever had but
faint signs, and his Paisley sympathies will not
aid to establish, or improve his humanity. Upon
this theme, of the noble instances of honest, in-
domitable union and devotion by a nation
hemmed in by a rapacious enemy; burying its
intestine feuds; and which. won every battle, as
if by the blow of a single arm ; upon such de-
votion in defence and love of country, we could'
dwell with enthusiasm and admiration ; if that
country was not Great Britain.
The morality of poverty is largely drawn
upon, and has always been faithfully answered.
How must we speak of the morality of wealth?
Let us throw a veil over it, lest poverty should
be corrupted by, and imitate, its baseness ; and
ingenuousness be. abashed. The struggles
of =wealth, and its miseries, are against,
and produced, by the poison administered
to it, through the fags of vice, ava-
rice, and hypocrisy. The carrying of the
Reform Bill, was a display of moral power une-
qualled ; nor should be forgotten the moral in-
fluence so recently exerted by the masses, on be-
half of the Dorchester labourers. But it is not
lesirable that political causes and conditions of
s')ciety, should often exist, to provoke such moral
demonstrations; for, however tempered, they in
this country have always hitherto been, by wis-
;tom and judgment, they are to be regarded
Is convulsions of the body politic, over which
its healthful functions may lose their proper in-
itience.

Thus the moral position of the landlord, and of
the Corn-laws, in relation to poverty and la-
bour, and tg the -Poor-law Amendment Act,
has been disregarded; but their fiscal and
financial relations, have been freely dis-
cussed, and their relations to the rent-
,flvner' and the merchant carefully appreciated.
The boon given by the Poor-law Amendment
Act to the landlords, .to the palpable robbery of
poverty, is- perhaps larger than the Corn-laws,
And comes under this category. The outcry,
servilely raised against the Poor law, can have
no merit, unless accompanied by a demand
for freedom of commerce, and trade in corn,
which would enunciate a moral, politic, and
well understood - principle ; and if asserted,
would neutraliz", if not remove, , many of its
-errors.' Poverty would quickly discern that it
has the greatest interest in the repeal of the
Corn-laws, and restrictions On commerce, which
would enlarge the sources of productive Bower,
and give him more employment; and would
treat with contempt the senseless outcry raised
against the New Poor-law, which, although no
doubt effected in bad faith to lirt), is, and
was always intended, when properly enforced, to
he a law for his benefit and protection; and if it
gives privileges to the landlord, of which he has
been robbed, it is in consequence of a tacit
compact, well understood on his part, to con-
cede these points; and which, notwithstanding he
cruelly and ironically rails against the New
Poor-law, with the audacity of plunder
and dishonesty, .he refuses with a grasp-
ing and monopolizing hold. In this, the land-
lord
is treacherous, and his aim can only be
to create a servile social war; since he enjoys an
inevitable monopoly in the very nature of his
property in land, without artificial laws, or pro-
tection ; as from its island boundary, in extent it
becomes less and less, as population extends more
and more.—Your obedient servant, A.

RUSSIA.

UKASE TO THE HOLIEST GOVERNING SYNOD.

The Empress Catherine IL, of sacred memory, our
most beloved grandmother, following the wise pre-
cepts laid down by our immortal ancestor the Empe-
ror Peter the Great, the founder of the present great-
ness of the empire intrusted by God to our rule, ob-
serving in the very beginning of her reign how little
it behoved the clergy to he weaned by worldly cares
from their real and holy duties, and, considering that
the management of extensive estates could only prove
a burden to them, whilst it produced no advantage to
their serfs, ordered such estates to be transferred to
the direction and government of the Exchequer, pro-
vidiAg at the same time for the maintenance of the
clergy regular salaries, according to a scale sanctioned
by supreme authority. In the sequel, the western pro-
vinces have been re-annexed to our empire by the just
dispensation of Divine Providence, in which, owing to
peculiar temporary circumstances and insuperable ne-
cessity, the estates and immoveable property were left in
the hands of the clergy until further inquiry into the sub-
ject. Now, however, when all vestiges of a foreign and
temporary rule in that part of the country have totally
disappeared,, when those provinces-have been again
so closely and so inseparably reunited to Russia that,
in the year just closed, it has been found of unavoida-
ble urgency to introduce laws uniform with these of
the rest of our dominions ; when, lastly, merciful God,
conferring innumerable blessings on our dear father-
land, has given us means to consolidate it and advance

it to a higher stage of good government, it has ap-
peared meet to us to emancipate the clergy also in the
western governments from avocations inconsistent with
its calling. having, therefore, decided upon carry-
ing into effect in those provinces enactments intro-
duced for this ptirpose in other divisions of our empire
by our great ancestors, we have, at the same time, de-
termined to give a fresh proof of our anxiety for the
amelioration of the condition of the clergy. Where-
fore, having appointed additional provisions over and
above the income of church property now to be
transferred to the administration of the Exchequer, as
well for the maintenance of the clergy as for the
better organisation of establishments belonging to it,
in order to raise and to secure to them an advanta-
geous existence for the future, we order as follows :-
1. All immoveable property heretofore belonging
to the orthodox clergy in the western provinces shall
henceforth be transferred, and remain under the ma-
nagement and direction of the Ministry of the Crown
Lands, with the exeption of the property in the hands
of the proper parochial secular clergy, which does not
enter into the present composition of cathedral chapters.
2. Scales and regulations for dioceses, cathedral
chapters, and monasteries, are to be drawn up ac-
cording to the wants of persons and establishments,
and with due regard to the dignity of the first and the
rank of the second, and submitted to our approbation.
Hence, as the actual income from the church pro-
perty m the western division of our empire has been
found insufficient for an easy and respectable mainte-
nance of the clergy and its establishments, we appoint
for that purpose additional provisions, which shall be
explained by corresponding orders given to our Mini-
ster of the Exchequer and the Crown Lands.
(Signed, prppria menu) NICHOLAS.
St. Petersburgh, Dec. 25, 1841.

The following distinguished persons have travelled
by the Brighton Railway during the last fortnight :—Baron
and Lady Park, Lady Freemantle, Sir Thomas and Lady De
Todford, Hon. Mr. and Miss Stanley, Sir Isaac Goldsmid,
Captain Armstrong, Dr. Holland, Sir James and Lady Clarke,
Lady Norbury, Colonel Bentinck, Lady Elizabeth Parsons,
Captain Lucas, Duchess of Beaufort, Hon. Nlr. Melville, Sir
George and Lady Cooper, Earl of Carnarvon, Earl of Porches-
ter, Hon. Dudley Ward, Sir Walter and Lady Farneombe,
Count and Countess Aulaine, Earl of Aberdeen, Sir Hesketh
and Lady Fleetwood, Hon. Charles Murray, Sir Robert Peel.
Hon. Mrs. Nlolyneux, Lord 3lountcharles, Sir Edward
Bowater, Sir Bellingham and Lady Graham, Sir Roger and
Lady Palmer, Lord Monson, Earl and Countess of Dunmore,
Lord Rivers, Lady Clinton, Sir Horace and Miss Seymour,
General Wellesley, Lady Jane Peel.
Since the failure of the Tortnes Bank the woollen
manufactory at Harbertonford has declined working, in conse-
quence of which a great number of persons are out of employ-
ment, and many families in that populous village are destitute
of bread,—. !ratan gimes.