The Sun.
London, England, 1842-06-06 00:00:00

ROYAL SURREY ZOOLOGICAL GARDENS..

The Nobility, Gentry, Subscribers, and the Public, are respectfully
informed that
ON MONDAYS, TUESDAYS, AND THURSDAYS,

GRAND EVENING FETES will be given, in which will be em-
bodied all those popular lin te r tainmen ts that have given to this favou.
rite place of recreation its peculiar celebrity, with additions and in-
troductions, which render them more generally attractive.
The MENAGERIE has been enriched by many valuable and im.
portant acquisitions in the classes of both Quadrupeds and Birds.
Feeding Time Five o'clock.
The Colossal VIEW OF BOME has been repainted, and in sonic
instances remodelled, with a Mechanical Tableau d'action, repre-
senting the Pi oewaion of the Papal Troops, Guards, and Roman
Nobles, to the Castle of St. Angelo.
The BAN 0, includes some of the most eminent Performers, con-
ducted by Mr. Godfrey, and the Programme of the PROMENADES
M °MICA LES selected from the noblest works of the great Masters.

The ILLUMINATION of ST. PETER'S, the CROSS of FIRE,
and the ,GIRANDOLA of ST. ANGELO. with all the gorgeous
Spectacles and magnificent introductions that have called forth ac-
darnmations .f delight and admiration on each evening of their ex.
hibition, terminating with the triumph of pyrotechnic splendour,
the CASC ADE of BRILLIANT FIRE, SIX I Y FEET in height.
The Gardens are open Daily from Ten till Dusk. The Evening
Fetes, with the Promenades Musicales, Illumination of Et. Peter's,
Girandola of St. Angelo, &c., will he given on Mondays, Tuesdays,
and Thursdays. Admission One Shilling.

All Advertisements of a Disgusting Character,
or Immoral Tendency, are excluded from
the Columns of " The Sun."

''s.,,

no means of calculating the sum of prosperity which this
prohibitory tax has destroyed, nor is there any statistical
process by which it can be arrived at.
.We leave it to
the imagination of the reader, merely observing that it is
one of those short-sighted laws, the offspring of cupidity
and ignorance, which were enacted when the grovelling
and malignant principle of what in politics is known
as the mercantile system, dictated the actions of law-
makers..

Taking this enlarged view, we will not dwell on the
loss to our manufacturers on the profit of the articles
with which the increased quantity of sugar must
have been purchased, nor the loss of employment
and wages to our artisans, who would have prepared the
means of buying it, nor should we have adverted to
those losses were it not that, in a limited degree, they
take place under the present system, and make the
4,000,000/. we annually pay more than is requisite for
the sugar actually consumed, represent only a portion of
the Mischief really caused by the differential duty.
We enter not into the question of: lavery, because the
law was not made with any consideration of that subject,
and had no influence on that question during the many
years that it existed before slavery was abolished in our
own colonies. It was working mischief before as well
as since that period. The favour shown to our colonies
was expressly intended to promote the cultivation of
sugar by slam, though from a singular change of cir-
cumstances and views, it is now upheld as a means of
checking slavery, and encouraging the cultivation of
free labour sugar by the party which opposed with all
its might the emancipation of slaves.
It will be well, however, to remember that Sir R.
PEEL, who on Friday induced the House of Commons to
renew this prohibitory law, professes himself an advo-
cate for the abolition of prohibition. He has proclaimed
himself also a convert to the principle that every
man, and every nation, ought to buy in , the
cheapest market ; he is to make up to us the income
tax, he says, by numerous reductions of small
amount ; he has put an end to the prohibition of
cattle, of which he knows there are none to come
in; and he renews, or enacts, a law, which nearly doubles
the price of sugar, and keeps out of our market the tens
of thousands of cwts. which are lying in bond, and
might enter_ into consumption to-morrow if he pleased.
Must we not conclude, therefore, that his free trade pro-
fdssions, by whi-.1 he has caught some foolish Liberals,
are mere humbug, and that he really cares nothing about
free trade, or about the people whom this new law, next
in atrocity to the Corn-law, will contribute to starve?
The Lords have, on sundry occasions, professed them-
selves the enemies of prohibition, but we find them, by
their subserviency to the House of Commons on a ques-
tion of a tax, enacting a most mischievous prohibition,
and lending themselves to commit a grievous injury on
the people of England.

It was generally admitted in the House of Lords on
Thursday that the majority of the working population
of this country are in a very distressed condition.
Even the Duke of WELLINGTON contended that the
prevalence of distress was such as to justify a Royal
begging-box appeal to the charity of the nation.
Words cannot describe the extent of the people's mi-
sery and despair in most of our large manufacturing
towns. We have repeatedly described the state of
things in Spitalfields and Paisley. The following
Memorial, addressed terthe members of the Govern-
ment by the inhabitants of Stockport in public meet-
ing assembled, conveys, we are assured, but a very
faint idea of the wretchedness which prevails in that
once-flourishing borough :
We, your memorialists, in public meeting assembled,
would hereby approach the members of her Majesty's
Government, and humbly, but truly, represent the truly
deplorable and distressed condition of the people of this
once flourishing but now fastly declining borough of
Stockport, and pray your gracious consideration of the
same, and that it may pleaze you to order and devise
some plan of immediate and permanent relief.
The beginning of your memorialists' distress may be
dated as far back as October, 1836 ; it has been in-
creasing ever since the above date, but bas marched
with fearful rapidity and severity on your memorialists
during the last eighteen months.
Some idea of the appalling distress existing in this
borough may be gathered from the following statement
of facts, which we, your memorialists, submit to your
serious and deliberate consideration.

There have existed in Stockport numerous sick
and burial societies for a long period ; there were
few individuals of the working classes but what
belonged to some one or other of these societies ;
there were also funeral societies, for assisting to inter
children, and many were the numbers that belonged to
these societies ; but since the depression of trade and
consequent want of employment, many who were once
members are now unable to maintain their membership
(although the periodical payments of the members were
very small) ; so that numbers who have been overtaken
by sickness, and some who have died, have been cut off
from the benefits themselves or their friends would have
been entitled to ; and it is no unusual thing for those to
be buried out of the poor's-rates, or by subscription from
benevolent individuals, who would, if trade had re-
mained good, have had the solace of considering that the
expenses of their funeral would be borne by funds partly
created and supported by the means they enjoyed when
work was plentiful, and they were in health to follow the
same.

411, fr u
^ 1= 4.0110 L , •
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