The Sun.
London, England, 1842-12-19 00:00:00

HIGH WATER AT LONDON BRIDGE THIS DAY.
morunig...... 37 minutes after 2 I Evening 5B minutes after 2.

LONDON :
MONDAY MORNING. DECEMBER 19, 1842.

Every day brings us evidence that sound and
ust opinions are making rapid progress iu the
agricultural districts. It is of great importance
to convince the farmers that the fall of price, of
which they complain, is caused by their own
mutpal competition, and by the diminished
means -of their customers. That truth once
mastered, they will be sensible that there are
other causes which affect prices than those
enactments of the Legislature on which tlfe
farmers have been brought up to rely. They
will' probably. see that if they follow the advice
now so bounteously poured out by the landlords
to under-drain, to employ more labourers, and
to improve their tillage, while the manufacturers
and the town population remain in their present
condition, they will only ruin themselves.
Every shilling they now lay out in improving
and extending- tillage will be an additional
obligation on them to sell their crops almost as
soon as they can be gathered next year, and will
increase their dependence on the monied classes,
and,•on their landlords, unless, in the mean-
time, the manufacturers go most rapidly
ahead, and the demand for their produce rapidly
increases. They cannot export it, that is clear,
till the price falls so low as to be ruinous under
their present charges. They must sell, therefore,
to the town population, and if these remain im-
poverished and unemployed, while the farmers are
all exerting themselves under the influence of
agricultural societies, and the advice of interested
landlords to improve tillage, it is clear that the
price of their produce, by dint of their own com-
petition, will fall ruinously low. To show them,
on far better authority than ours, how the matter
works, we are about to cittote a passage from the
speech of the Earl of HARBOROUGH, at the meet-
ing of the Isle of Wight Agricaltural Society, held
on Thursday last. The Noble Earl said—
He had been taking a tour into the manufacturing
districts, and had had convQrsations with the most
sensible people he could fall in with • and he was glad
to find a great alteration in opinions. Even partnerss
in the same firm differed, with regard high prices
and low prices. That was not the case some time
ago, when the cry was Down with everything, that
they might have cheap bread and cheap meat." He
could assure them that thousands. in the manufac-
turing districts were without a any even to give
for Meat. In some places it was frightful to see them.
Mills that used to be full qf
work,
way whatever. were now not
employed in any
Formerly the people
in those places wanted nothing but to beat down
prices. Now they were beginning to be wiser. The
mills that were at work belonged to persons of great
capital, but the smaller mills, that worked only for
orders, were shut up. From what he could make out,
he thought they were remarkably well off in the

islan& • The price of their meat was higher than it
was in the north, because they consumed all that they
wanted amongst themselveg, In, the north the la-
bourers were habituated to eating meat, but here they
were not, and if their wages were much higher, he
did not think they would eat mutton, for they were
fond of their bacon, which was a very good thing for
them. In the north every labourer eat meat. Wages
were lower than they had been for along ; they
were 2s. a day. In Yorkshire they were 2s. 3d. a
day; but they were higher there because they were
near the manufacturing towns, and good agriculturat
labourers were difficult to be got. From the distress
that existed in the north, the demand for meat hadfallen
and a butcher that generally averaged seven bullock;
every market day, now did not average two. If meat
were a penny a pound, the distress amongst the manu-
facturers was so great that they could not buy it. The
distress was frightful.—(A Voice—" They want more
employment.")
The Noble Earl is quite correct in ascribing,
' the present fall in the price of meat to the inabi-
lity of the manufacturing population to buy
meat, the consequence of which is, as the Noble
Earl knows, that the oxen from Lincolnshire,
which used to be sent to the manufacturing
towns in Yorkshire, arc now sent to Smithfield,
where the competition with the Hampshire and
Sussex stock beats down the price of all. The
Noble Earl is wrong, however, in accusing the
manufacturers of ever having wished to sacrifice
everything to cheapness. That is the slang and
unfounded charge of the Tory journals. The town
population were first made sensible of the evils of
the Corn-laws by a great rise of prices, and they
naturally inveighed against that exorbitant price.
Gradually the still more mighty evils of restricted
trade, want of employment, want of wages, in-
creased poor-rates, augmenting destitution and
crime, and much actual starvatinn, became mani-
fest;. prices fell without giving relief, and then
the inanuacturers, without relaxing their hosti-
lity to prices artificially forced up by the law,
urged against the law these graver charges.
They never wanted mere cheapness; they
wanted plenty, they wanted brisk trade,
they wanted free trade, they wanted justice,
and were only led to demand low prices because
high prices was the primary effect of the unjust
law. As the Noble Earl has seen the real cause
of the decay of the agricultural interest in the
destitution of the manufacturers, we hope that
he will relax his hostility to that repeal of the
Corn-laws which would give work and wealth to
the manufacturing districts, and that in another
session we shall not find Lord WORSLEY one of
the foremost and most distinguished opponents
both of a reduction of duty and of total repeal.

The Earl of HARBOBOUGR'S remarks throw a
clear light on the effects of Sir ROBERT PEEL'S
policy in abolishing the prohibition .on the im-
portation of cattle. The Premier grasped at
that little relaxation because it had not been
mentioned by the Whigs. He could say that
was his own. He taunted them with not having
thought of cattle, and boasted of his great
achievement on that head. Short-sighted, igno-
rant statesman ! He ought to have known that
the condition of the manufacturing classes was.,
such that their consumption of meat was nearly
at an end, and that the price would fall whether
he allowed foreign cattle to be brought in or
not. To gain a triumph over an antago-
nist, rather than promote the public good, be
only slightly altered the Corn-law, and
he did away with the prohibition to import
cattle. Now, poor man, be has to bear, amongst
his uninformed agricultural friends, to *hose
ignorance and prejudices he has pandered, all the
blame of the whole reduction of the price of
cattle, as if it had every farthing been caused by
a few lean cows brought from Holland and
Spain- He has suffered in character and
popularity, and the good cause of free trade
has in some degree suffered from his
alliance. His injudicious relaxation has
brought additional unpopularity on free trade
amongst the agriculturists, by making them at-
tribute their sufferings to his relaxation of the
restrictive system, whereas all the blame of them
really belongs to those restrictive laws which
have deprived the manufacturers of trade, and
disabled them from purchasing beef and mutton.
We can trace in this case, as in many others, a
distinct connexion between the adoption of a
party policy and the loss of popularity and repu-
tation. So always was it, and so will it ever
be, and so shall cunning men always find out in
the end—at least whenever they apply their cun-
ning to national affairs—that they overreach
themselves.

We must now quote from the report of the
same meeting, which we find in the Hampshire
Independent, some observations of the Rev.
WALTON WHITE. They were, it is true, but
the echo of Mr. H. D. GORING'S speech of the
previous week, at Steyning, but being spoken in a
district purely agricultural, and much eulogised
by the agriculturists present, they are a strong
additional evidence of the progress of sound doc-
trines. Very soon there will be no person—
nei ther agriculturists nor manufacturers—favour-
able to the Corn-law ; and if Sir ROBERT PEEL
does not repeal it, he will have the demerit of
upholding a law which he knows to be unjust
and mischievous, against the voice of the whole
empire.

The Rev. Walton White said they knew they must
depend on their own exertions in future. They could
not look forward to protection.—(Hear.) The principle
was broken down, and they would go on until they
returned to first principles. It would have been well,
perhaps, for them, if these first principles had never
been departed from, for in that case they would not
have been in the difficulties in which they now found
themselves. It seemed to him that the principle of
protection would in every way gradually be with-
drawn—(Hear)—and that all classes of society, in all
pursuitS, whether in trade or agriculture, would be
left to their own exertions. He had no fears for agri-
culture ; he believed that all eventually would he well.
Capital, intelligence, and industry must be successful,
and
,:ivould succeed better in agriculture than in any
zoaty.faill:beTdheemyanodhefora agricultural productions
notctions
liable to those revulsions which. extended to trade;
and when they returned to first principles, those changes
which from time to time caused panic and alarm, would
be at antu end.
Returning to first principles, means returning
n in
Re
to the natural laws which regulate the production
prize, and sale—the demand and the supply of
all commodities. It means totally repealing the
Corn and all other laws restricting trade, and
it means the overthrow of our present mis-
chievous system of meddling with, and attempt-
ing to regulate, everything. It tells menlthat the
cure for panics is reliance on the natural laws
which regulate society. To find a clergyman
espousing and recommending such opinions to
agriculturists will be as useful to his class as it is
creditable to the individual. It redeems the body
from the accusation of having defended the Corn-
laws because they were supposed to increase the
tithe-rent charge. We are not without hope that
more of the clergy will follow this example, and
be anxious, by their conduct, to clear themselves
fr.mi the suspicion of heartless sordidness which
now weakens their influence, and inflicts irrepa-
rable damage on the Church.

The tribute to Sir John and Lady Pirie for
promoting, during the late Mayoralty, the public
welfare, the charities, and the benevolentinstitu-
tions of the City, we are glad to see has not been
proposed from any party or political feelings, but
solely from the esteem and gratitude entertained
by the public in general for their services. Mr.
Grote, the late Whig Member for the City, and
Mr. Masterman, the present Tory Member, are
two of the joint treasurers, and the subscribers
belong. to all parties. This is creditable to all,
and renders the gift doubly valuable.

His Imperial Highness the Archduke of Austria
has, during his sojourn in this country, received the
most marked and distinguished attention from noble
individuals, as also public bodies; and, on the occa-
sion of his last visit to Windsor Castle, to take leave,
was honoured by his Royal Highness Prince Albert,
who accompanied his Imperial highness from thence
to Mivart's Hotel, where the illustrious party were
also attended by Lord Liverplol, the Marquis of
Exeter, Sir E. 13owater, &e
Trio WEATHER.—For the last ten or twelve clays
the season has assumed more the appearance of spring
than the advent of Christmas. The typhus fever is
raging to a fearful extent in the neighbourhood of
Huddersfield, and several cases have already termi-
nated fatally. On Wednesday last the heat of the
sun was so powerful that ladies were seen walking in
the neighbourhood of Huddersfield with their parasols
up. Several birds' nests have been found, and some
with young ones in them, in a healthy state.—Leeds
Mercury.

S~~

THE SUN, LONDON, MONDAY _EVENING, DECEMBER 19, 1842.

f Just ready, with characteristic Illustrations by Leech,
.Ai. WASSAIL BOWL for CHRISTMAS.
By ALBERT SMITH, Esq,
Richard Bentley, New Burlington-st-eet.

Just ready, in post Bvo., with characteristic Illustrations by
Leech,
THE SECOND SERIES OF

THE INGOLDSBY LEGENDS;
Or, MIRTH AND MARVELS.

By THOMAS INGOLDSBY, Esq.
Richard Bentley, New Burlington-street.

THE WEATHER.—SUN OFFICE, DEC. 19.
THEItMODIETEE, Lowest, 39 ; Highest, 47 : Noon, 43.

BAROMETER, 30.55.-WIND, W.

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