The Sun.
London, England, 1842-08-27 00:00:00

give au outline of What appears -to us to have'
been the feelings which led to the outbreak.
There were great general discontent and a
conviction of possessing great power. We ex-
onerate no parties nor, classes from the charge
of having caused those feelings. All parties,
without designing it, have so wrought- for their
own purposes as to contribute to this general
discontent and generarconviction. Some have
committed injustice ; others have held our Corn-
. laws. up to odium; others again have openly,
and perhaps not improperly, fanned the
xne of discontent. Journals of all kinds
~.'.,liave aided to bring about the result.
Some have vilified the Poor-law ; others
have condemned the Corn-law; others the
new law for registration ; but all have contributed
to generate discontent, in conjunction with a no-
tion of power. .Exonerating none, neither can we
blame any, except that great and nume-
rous party which, constituting the majority of
the ruling classes, has resolutely persisted in
Maintaining, in defiance of remonstrance and
warning, a great, though long established system
of injustice.
In making these observations, we have, we
think, clearly defined the extent to which the
Anti-Corn-law League has contributed—in corn-
ion, we admit, with ourselves—to excite an un-
easy state of mind, without, in the smallest de-
gree, wishing to provoke a turn-out for wages.
.
have assisted in- generating discontent, and
luttnaking man believe that he was more power-
ful than the work of his hands, or the idols that
he Worships. In stating that, we are far from
taking an apology for-either the League or our-
apves; on the contrary, it is honourable to the
Teague. To set forth the evils of an institution,
and place them distinctly before the people, is
'the legitimate and proper way to procure its re-
i,()lrcu• Blame belongs not to us, or the League,,
Out to those who frame and maintain the unjust
iip,,Vire are far (says the Liverpool Times, a journal with
'• 'Yell we agree), from denying that recent discussions
11the subject of the Corn-laws have not had a mis-
iZevous effect on the peace of the country, and it is per-
PI:Ns the
designedtO to benefit a particular class at the ex-
t"se of the community, that they sec one portion of the
very in deadly opposition to another; and rouse the
iczong Worst passions in the minds of all. This is itself
additional reason for desiring the repeal of such
a". It would indeed be difficult to over-estimate the
mischief produced by discussions such as those which
,
ve lately occurred, in which the landlords on one hand
have been represented as tyrants, and the manufacturers
on
- the other, have been described as unprincipled
Schemers, striving, under the pretence of humanity, to
destroy the prosperity of the landed interest, and at the
-"441e time to force down the wages of their own labourers.
That is a just view of the influence which
the League may haVe had; and, acknowledging
,44 influence to that extent, the League should
ueldly set at defiance those calumniators
t_lie seek to make the community believe
* ,
'",at the Members of it, planned the turn-
"t3 which was chiefly directed against them-
!elves. We have never liPeen anxious to de-
fend the League, because that implies a conscious-
--
.I.l.tse of wrong. The League needs no defence.
It has struggled nobly, manfully, patiently, at
Peat expense of time and money, to obtain a
Pet and righteous end. We 'do not copy an ar-
ticle which appears in the Anti-Bread-Tax Cir-
e4lar, though itis a complete vindication of the
,vague, because all rational men praise and bless
48 exertions. Very soon it will find the best
Vindication in the price of corn, and the discon-
tent of the farmers. Already that price has fallen
• 8° low that it has become profitable, it is said, to
export wheat to Belgium. Already the farmers
gin to be alarmed, and when they piteously
implore, and the landlords ostentatiously grant,
cZ4IB, they most probably will before Christmas, a
action of rent, the League will be completely
Iludicated by its present opponents in the face of
the whole world.

The conduct of the Government in appointing an
extraordinary Commission for the trial of the ope-
ratives apprehended during the late disturbances in
the manufacturing districts, appears to us fraught with
much danger. When it is borne in mind that
these poor men underwent the severest privations
b"fore turning out, in the hope of obtaining
" fair day's wages for a fair day's work "
"". that they excited universal surprise by
the extent to which they respected property—and
that they were hardly guilty of a , single outrage not
provoked by the wanton intermeddling of the police,
it will be difficult to discover any rational ground for
letting aside the ordinary forms of law in bringing
mto trial. There was nothing whatever treason-
vre---hardly anything seditious in the turn out of
• Int. operatives. They proposed to themselves no
,l'lolation of the laws for the protection of private
PruPe_, rty or social order. They sought nothing
:filinh the Constitution of the country, either in the
letter or the spirit, denies to all classes of British
'subjects. Any attempt, therefore, to wrest the or-
" --(Unary forms of law for the purpose of making
'2.' 1 amples of them, will hereafter be followed by con-
', 21eq aences little foreseen by her MAJESTY'S Ministers.
',•tt is quite clear that the people resisted the military
and the police as little as they could help, consistently
I,a With a regard to their own preservation. Had it been
''otherwise we should not have to record, day after
(18.3', the flight of tens of thousands of Englishmen
uefere a handful of police. Our countrymen are no
'N 'towards, and were their object resistance to the au.-
,tborities, Sir JAMES GRAHAM would have a very dif-
.t:"-Iferent tale to tell from what he has now to impart to
the members of the Extraordinary Commission.
Our people have all heard of the Barricades
of Paris, and were they to propose such an
example to themselves, they would not be
found less brave, or less skilled in the modes of
systematic defence and attack than their Gallic
l'eighbours. But it was with monopoly, not with
bludgeons and bayonets, that they sought to come
into collision.
If a Commission be appointed, the first criminals
'• Who ought to be put upon their trial are the Mem-
bers of the Cabinet, and the PEEL majorities in Par-
liament. These comprise the worst class of offenders,
the real originators of all the riots in the manufac-
turing districts.

. We have received several additional letters re-
sPecting the violent conduct of the police, most of
1%4)101 we are obliged, for the present, to postpone.
They all agree on the main points, and are una-
.
bunous as to the growing hostility of the community
to this military force. As a proof of this feeling
the charges for obstructing the police are rapidly on
the increase, having been doubled in three years.
Public meetings and public subscriptions for prose-
cuting the offenders are proposed, and in a short
tune we believe they will become so odious, and
consequently so useless for preserving order that a
law must be passed to break up the establishment or
change the entire system. One Correspondent says,
On witnessing an act of atrocity committed
by a constable, " I never was opposed to
the Government before." Thousands are actuated by
the same feeling, and should a serious crisis arise,
Sir JAMES GRAHAM will find this numerous and ex-

pensive body worse -even than a broken reed. English-
men are not yet so destitute of spirit as to submit,
like Russian serfs or Egyptian fellahs, to blows for
speaking or crying out against oppression; and woe
to the Minister that attempts to reduce them to such
a slavish condition.

We perceive from the Edinburgh papers that the
Commission of the General Assembly are to meet on
Tuesday, for the purpose of addressing Her MAJESTY
and Prince ALBERT, on the occasion of the Royal
visit to the Northern Metropolis, and that the course
pursued by that body when GEORGE the FOURTH
visited Scotland, is cited as a precedent. The cases,
however, are diametrically opposite. The General
Assembly in 1822 was a loyal, peaceful, and legal
Ecclesiastical Court, merciful and forgiving towards
their weaker brethren, obedient to the law, and
anxious for the promotion of pure morality, and
true religion. The Assembly of 1842 is egre-
giously defective in all these Christian virtues.
Their unfeeling conduct towards their unoffending
brethren, their numerous depositions of useful and
venerable clergymen, and the unseemly strife which
they excited in every Kirk Session, Presbytery, and
Synod, are known to all, and we need not, therefore,
Comment on them. But as regards the QUEEN,
there
h one part of their conduct which cannot be passed
. over without some mark of disapproval, and