The Sun.
London, England, 1842-09-22 00:00:00

they transfer themselves or are transferred to the
towns, they are contented with a similar or some-
what better lot, and thus the condition of the la-
bourers in the rural districts has deterniined in a
great measure the condition of the labouters in
towns. In the country we find the soil owned
in great masses, and the labourers without pro-
perty ; in the town; there are- many rich mer-
chants and great factory owners, and the bulk of
theworking artisans are nearly as poor as agricul-
tural labourers. This condition attic labouring
classes, with all its consequences of occasional
deep distress and thorough. destitution, is not the
fruit of any species of industry, for it is common
to agriculture and manufactures. It is the con-
sequence of the distribution of property, and only
those who will not give themselves the trouble to
discriminate, or who wish to confuse and con-
found the public, will ascribe it to manufacturing
industry, however extensively carried on.
The great distinction, we think, between
manufacturing industry and agricultural industry
is, that the thriller is carried on by many per-
sons in conjunction, while the latter is carried on
by single individuals, or by pairs. Whether a
man beats with a hammer on an anvil, or guides
a horse along a furrow, does not seem of much
consequence ; but he who beats with a hammer
generally does it in a workshop in conjunction
with several other persons, while he who " drives
his team a field" may see nobody but his mate
the whole working day. In our judgment, that
is the great and essential difference and distinc-
tion between manufacturing and agricultural in-
dustry. To dwell in a town implies to live and
work continually with .one's fellew-creatures—to
dwell in a rural district implies living in a great
measure in solitude.

What is the leading consequence of this es-
sential distinction, for we can only look at lead-
ing consequences ? It nourishes amongst agri-
culturists a surly sense of individual self-sutii-
eiency, which is miscalled independence. A
peasant seldom needs much help. The plough-
man and his mate, or the waggoner and his mate,
can perform all they have to perform without
any assistance. The hedger or the ditcher may
work' the" whole day in solitude. The ar-
tisan, on the contrary, is continually need-
ing the aid of others, or he works
in conjunction with them. . The.
.shoemaker or
the tailor, for example, rarely cuts out his own
work, and one man rarely completes a whole
garment or an entire shoe. his the work of se-
veral hands. The same principle pervades the
whole circle of manufacturing industry ; the
weaver can do nothing without the spinner, and
the dyer must wait- till the weaver has prepared
the web he is to dye. So in casting, to quote
another illustration—and every art or manufac-
ture, yields its own—one man makes the wooden
model, another the mould in sand, a third pre-
pares the metal, and a fourth perhaps guides it
gliding molten red, when all is prepared, into the
destined hole. Each and all of these men looks
for the aid of others to get his daily bread. The
consequence is that manufacturing industry ge-
nerates in all engaged in it a deep practical sense
of the dependence of man on man, which is at
the bottom of all toleration and all justice.

The theme is very extensive, and we feel the
impracticability of doing justice to it in the com-
pass of a newspaper article ; nor should we have
ventured on it were we not compelled to read,
almost daily, the silliest diatribes possible ofig-
norant journalists, and ignorant, but most pre-
sumptuous, preachers against the manufacturing
industry, not only of the country, but of the
human race. It confirms our view to know
that religious toleration and the love of justice
have strengthened in mankind as the manufac-.
turing and towVpopulation have grown on the
agricultural an scattered population. That
Test Acts and penal laws have been abolished
amongst us are no hap-hazard or chance conse-
quences of the fine speeches of the heaven-born
orator; they arc the result of that general sense
of dependence of man on man, and of that gene-
ral love ofjustice which have grown up amongst
us with the extension of our town population and
our manufacturing industry.
Let us add, in conclusion, that this sense of
mutual dependence, caused by men habitually
working together, begets a power of combination
to achieve other things besides the production of
cloth or iron, though that be the most essential,
which should render a town population the pride
of the politician. Venice, Genoa, Florence,
Pisa, Antwerp, were all manufacturing towns,
and each in its turn made a great figure in his-
tory, conquering large territories, or nursing the
arts into gorgeous splendour. They achieVed so
much by the power and habits of combination,
which were forced on their crowded people. And
has not the same power of combining multitudes
to the attainment of one end now groVin up and
been for some time one distinguishing character-
istic of Great Britain, enabling her to achieve
great conquests abroad and mighty works at
home, surpassing. both in the extent of her em-
pire and her internal conveniences, all previous
nations? To rail against manufacturing industry
is to rail against the means of making men feel a
sense of mutual dependence, and becoming affec-
tionate, friendly, and just. It is railing, too,
against the best means of teaching men how to
combine their exertions for the attainment of a
common end, and so achieving greatness bath in
arts and arms.

We call attention to a letter on the Parochial
Assessment Act, which was passed to secure a
unitbrmity of rating. When it was under dis-
cussion, Mr. POULETT SCROPE stated, we think,
that such an Act could not be advantageously
passed till the Poor-law Commissioners had been
called into, existence; and to secure its well-work-
ing the Act was'in a manner placed under their
guardianship. Accordingly it was enacted that
no valuation for rating was to have any effect
till the Commissioners had approved of it. In
the present case a valuation was approved of by
them which a party appealing against was en-
abled to set aside. The same valuation was re-
newed, and then the party, on applying to the
Commissioners for assistance, was informed that
their approval applied' only to the form of the
document. We publish the letter chiefly to make
the public aware of the fact, as this is perhaps
the first case of the kind that has occurred ; and
to inform all ratepayers who may rely. on the
Commissioners, that they have now, as before,
no other redress for an unequal valuation but the
costly and troublesome one of an appeal.

The value of a successful appeal, after the cost
and trouble of making it have been incurred,
may be learned from our Correspondent's coin mu-
nication. The Magistrates in petty session
quashed the rate on account of inequalities in the
valuation ; but the parties who had made it,
within a month, made another rate on the same
valuation or rentals, and that rate was approved
of by one Magistrate residing in the parish, the
rates on whose property had been previously ob-
jected to, and by another Magistrate residing at
a distance, the two gentlemen acting separately'.
Thus a rate which two Magistrates, acting to-
gether in petty session, set aside, two other Ma-
gistrates, acting individually, one of them a party
much interested in the question, restores ; and
the person who Extecessfully appealed against the
first rate, must. go through the same vexatious
process again— since the Poor-law Commissioners
declare that flu: question is every way beyond
their jurisclictio a—with a chance, if he attempt it,
of being defeat ed
The case ill, •
injustice which astrates something more than the
may. be perpetrated under a
voluminous co
rol.intended. to prevent injustice.
A Magistrate.. r
in a parish in which his own
property lies, ,
the objector t, ) reerve ions a rate which is thought by
that Magistrate's pro-
per.y unjustly, and to
of'otlt erg. It press unjustly upon the
propertye.
happens, we are informed,
that the Ala,s,risti
)rateai!i i,
.is. .s by far the largest land-
owner in the and he is connected by
.am
son
marriage t with_;le i
r the
gestates a
otherr e
held a
landowners. All the
nweilBl, and some
of his tenants 1, filling the parish offices, made
the rate, and . got the valuation made, which is
objected to c n account of
its inequalit
eans of his sown tenants, he, and I Y. B3r
m e alone,
ini
fact, gets tin
,! valuation made, ordains the rate