The Sun.
London, England, 1842-06-10 00:00:00

ett

LONDON
?AIDA Ir id 01 NINO , J:1; NI: 10, 1842.

irre Willi: we understand both Mr. GLADSTONE'S
trithsetk and his morality, but we do not agree with
-,ither. The former is of the Custom-house, where
notoriously two and two do not make four ; and the
latter of college, where it is equally notorious that oaths
are bi much disregarded as ever they were at the
Custore-house. 'When the advocates for a reduction of
the duty on wool had made out on Wednesday evening
,-,:tat we thought a very strong case, the Right Hon.
Gentleman, turning, round to his friend, Mr. BECKETT,
assured him in his most sincere and blondest tones; and
stss.ured all the gentlemen on the Tory benches, that the
woollen manufacturers bad a full compensation in the
reduction of duties mule by the tariff, for the tax on
wool which is to be continued. "There is," said the Right
Host. Gentleman (we do not pledge ourselves for the
words, for unfortunately we believe no report has been
preserved of the nice pieoe of jesuistry) "a reduction of
40,0001. on vegetable oil, and a reduction of upwards
• of 60,000/. on drugs and. dye stuff, making, with
other reductions a sum of nearly 130,0001, (the
TimoN report, 'says. 150,'7001.), almost , the whole
of which will be a relief to the woollen manufacturers."
It immediately occurred to us that all the manufac-
turers of the empire use drugs, and dye stuffs, and ve-
getable ell, as well ti-S—the woollen" Manufacturers, and
that they could not poseitAy obtain more than a small
ehtre of the reduction. Mr. GLADSTONE, however, made
the assertion, and no doubt it was received as gospel by
'the country gentlemen who voted, in spite of Mr:
Brcxerres.Telancholy speech, to ruin the woollen trade.
On et nsulOug the tariff, we find that the whole amount
of the :evenue 'obtained last year on vegetable oils, is
less than 70,000/., and that of .this no less a sum than
40,tt0OL is paidonulii a oil. It is rather too bud in Mr.
FlnAncroNE to put dowu to the advantage of the manor

fibowirars the money which is paid on the oil consumed
rLe lirench cooks and for the salads of the gentry.
Anofber large sum of 20,0001. was paid on pa._
fauit oil; part of which is employed in their lamps.
It tiy,, whole duty now.-levied on vegetable oils werett
he repealed, it would be a •gro inaccuracy to say that
th rim now paid was the measure of the benefit.con-
folmsl en the woollen manufactures by repeal ; but the
• ta6-1; is, that the duty im• olive 61, is only reduced
nil, importethrom foreign
one half, and the duty on palm
e•Juntriw..;, itt not reduced at all. Of the. 60,000/. there-
lerivd on these two oils, there will be at
mo.st a reduction of 20,0001., and the greater portion
;het 'Till be a boos to -the noliiiity and gentry who
imiulp in fribrres. Yet Mr. GLADSTONE could solemnly
assure the country gentlemen that the woollen manuitc-
tuter:.s.eronhl he benedted to the extent of nearly 49,000/.
OR dice. rttlUC tiOrt of the duty- on vegetable oils. Will they
no; rotont such - a poor attempt to beguile theta ? In
Nx3raing politicians. they have-net ceased to be men of
scistr aerl spirit, and have not, we hope, consented to
/Care their consciences regulated by Oxford morality,
at.ld their votes dictated by Custom-house arithinetia.

WP have to Apolog-iNe to Mr. Wtt,sos i'vrrEs. - We
cfid hint an injteetiCe -; heard him point out the inju-
ri,'ns oonmeque•nocs to the la,huurers in Lancashire of tha
cotton, and we concluded that he would con-
ei.,:tntly confirm his speech by his vote. The published
lists of the divisions have undeceived its. Air. WILSON
rtITBN rated to keep ou those• taxes which we heard
him ssy had. 'a. petnicious influence on the wages of
when a law-maler, with his
.eyes open,-
vote tot%intlieting• injury:ol the People; „.hat
azi
froinYiegizictlin 104; can the I. "•2.ire. cotton•sipiwors e?:peet frout the representatives
• so.riebdulrilicii4trio, of 3.110 stritl.;,-some ofwltiehi
••••••jes zie•erolmr,with soraothing- iiko spiteful regret, their

own woollen and other manufactures which the want of
coal there have sent to the west and the north—when
their own representative votes to inflict an avowed in-
jury on their industry? The Lancashire men well de-
serve to have cotton taxed as long as they send to Parlia-
ment such enemies to their industry as Mr. IVn.soN
PATTEN.

The proclamation in Tuesday's Gazette,' concerning
light sovereigns, has caused some consternation in the
trading classes. Those amongst them who carry on a
ready-money trade, are prodigiously annoyed by being
obliged to weigh every sovereign they receive. Either
they must offend their customers and lose trade, or sub-
mit to loss. In cases where they have to make daily, or
frequent payments, particiujiirly to public offices, such as
the Excise-office, the Post-bffice, and the Stamp-office,
they are exposed to great inconvenience, and are some-
times actually prevented from completing their business.
In consequence of these difficulties and annoyances, the
complaints are, ve believe, universal, of the suddenness
with which the change has been ordered.
Why, it is asked, should they who till Tuesday, had
received the sovereigns that are in circulation in good
faith, be saddled with the loss of, perhaps, twenty per
cent. on all the gold coin they may have in their pos-
sessio❑ ? Besides that, they are exposed to the greatest
inconvenience in making their payments. The money
they haft hoarded up to pay poor rates, a`nd queen's taxes,
to pay the brewer, and the miller, and the cum dea!er, is,
all at once become non-current, and they must seek other
means to make their payments. Why should not
the Government have given more time, and why not
take on itself, or impose on the Bank of England—
which enjoys the privilege of annually borrowing some
18,000,000/. from the public, without paying any interest
for its use—the obligation of renewing the coin? The
Income-tax will fall heavily on many classes, but this sud
der restoration of the currency, will mulct all the holders
of a score or more sovereigns, which happen to be light
to a greater extent than the Income-tax. Add to this:
that restoring the currency to its full value will, for the
moment, embarrass trade and lower prices ; and nu more
impolitic measure, perhaps, supposed to be of a trifling
nature, could at this moment be adopted.

At the same time, we are, well aware that were the
Government to restore the coinage to its full value at its
own expense, it would only enable the sweaters to im-
mediately make a large profit on the new issues. Now
it throws that expense on the public, and will probably
confer an equal benefit on the sweaters. They will soon
get to work again ; for if every sovereign must hereafter
be weighed before it can be taken in business, the Royal
stamp ceases to be of any use. Business might as well
be carried on by lumps of unstamped bullion. The very
purpose and end of coining bullion, and converting it
into money, is to give it free circulation, and enable
people to take it by tale, instead of by weight. We can-
not believe, therefore, that the practice of weighing
every sovereign which circulates can long be continued ;
whence it follows, whoever may now be at the cost of
restoring the coinage, that the sweaters will soon gather
all the advantages into their sacks.

There is one -part of the empire which will not expe-
rience any inconvenience from the proclamation. Nearly
ill the sovereigns in Scotland are in the hands of the
bankesu, and are not liable either to be clipped or
sweated. One pound notes are there yet suffered to cir-
culate by the Legislatere ; and there the traders are not
exposed to the inconvenience to which we must submit.
The sovereigns in the hands of the bankers—always
ready to be given out on demand—serve as a standard
of value, and are kept perfect by not being exposed, as
they are here, to the battering and bruises of use, and
the clippings of rogues. By and by, probably, if not
now, the people of England will begin to regret that they
aliowed a parcel of theorists and meddling" legislators,
under the influence of a monetary panic, to deprive them
of small bank notes—of bank notes of any amount, how-
ever small, which commerce might find it convenient to
issue. Commercial promises to pay, the representatives of
produce coining to market, are as certainly a step in
civilisation, common to nearly all mankind, as the prior
use of coined money which those promises ought in a
great measure to supersede. They are like power-
!ooms or self-acting spinning mules, destined to super-
sede the more clumsy inventions, to answer the same
utd, which previously existed ; and it is, in fact, no
.wore rational for the law-maker to interfere and sup-
press paper promises to pay, than for him to put down
other inventions which facilitate production. The pre-
sent annoyance and expense caused by the gold coinage.
which are likely to continue, affording a harvest to
rogues, and giving honest men much trouble, will pro-
bably awaken some sorrow in the public for having toe
readily lent an ear to those who promised them great
advantages from substituting the Royal coinage for
commercial promises to pay. •

As the Sugar Duties Bill is not yet passed through th(
llouse of Commons—it was read a second time on Wednes•
lay—and as it yet remains in the power of that House ti
lo justice to the people of England on this subject; and, a:

above all, it is in the power of the House of Lords

refuse its assent to a measure which tends, exactly like
the Corn-Keeping-Out Bill, to withhold food from the
people, we have collected in another place, a few testi-
monies to the utility of sugar. How many Members of
the House were aware when they voted to renew thost
lades on Friday night that they were giving another
vote to deprive the people of a most wholesome and
nutritious food, we cannot possibly tell ; but- we are
much afraid that the great majority of the voters wert
wholly and completely ignorant of many of the valuable
!iroperties of sugar, and the many uses to which it may
be applied. As iu other cases they took hold of one
small point, the fag-end, as it were, of an im-
mense coil, namely, the possible influence of the
sugar duties on slavery, about which the wisest
and most learned amongst them can know nothing ex-
sept by conjecture, and on that single point—they being,
ve are afraid, almost as ignorant of the many bearings of
the whole question as neeroes—they run at Sir R. PEEL
and Mr. GLADSTONE'S tail to give another vote for
shutting out food from our starving people. Yet those
who did so vote shall be angry, and make a great out-
cry, that they are branded by the Anti-Corn-law League
with the crime of murder ; but it has been customary
with the law of England to inflict the same punishment
Ln those ill-omened masters and mistresses who have
withheld food from their apprentices, as on those equally
ill-omened wretches who have cut the throats of theii
victims. It has made no difference between a BROWN-
RIGGE and a Goon, and we know not why the Anti-
Corn-law League should make any difference between
the Emperor of MOROCCO, when he sallies forth in his
vidlow or murdering vest, and that Legislature which
'oreibly keeps food from the people.

It is a fact, that the people of Paisley, Burnley.
3toctkport, Manchester, Leeds, &c., &c., are at this mo-
ment in deep distress, hungering for food ; it is a fact,
*hick we state on the concurrent testimony of several
,minent writers, whose authority we have quoted, that
" SUGAR CONTitINS MORE NUTRIMENT (of animal life)

LN A GIVEN BULK, THAN ANY OTHER KNOWN SUB.
iTANCE ;" it is also a fact that our warehouses contain,
At this moment, a considerable quantity of foreign sugar,
in bond ; arid it is equally a fact that a much larger
pantity might be imported in a few weeks, from various
places, to supply the cravings of our people with whole-
;ome and nutritious food. It is a certain fact that the
[louse of Commons, sometimes called a paternal Legisla-
fare—called by its flatterers the fathers of the country—
Lfter having passed a law to keep corn away from the
people, have just come to a resolution that not one grain
if that succulent and nutritious food shall our people
obtain, unless they pay a tax on it which is nearly three
times the value of the article. We believe that
twenty shillings a cwt. would pay the average cost of
bringing sugar to Europe ; the average price now does
not exceed twenty-five shillings, and on that article
„he paternal house of Commons has voted a prohibitory
ax of 635. Mr. M'Cur.a.ocn says—though he is not,
perhaps, thoroughly imbued with a conviction of the
vast utility and importance of sugar as food, and though
he speaks only of a duty, scarcely one-third of the
prohibitory duty voted on Friday night—" to levy a tax
245. on a necessary of life, costing only 225., or 358.,
tlcluding Bs. per ewt. freight and charges, is obviously a
most oppressive proceeding." What then must be the elm-
-acteristie of a proceeding which levies a duty of 635. on
hat same article, when the people are actually starving,
and when, but for this law, great plenty of that usefui
rood might be immediately obtained ? We wonder not ai
:lie people losing patience under such legislation. Can any
thing exceed the crime of a Legislature, trusted by the
tropic., when all its members abound in plenty, coolly
looming a great number of the people to death by with-
lolding from them accessible food?

The fact that sugar is nutritious food, in a most con-
densed and convenient form for carriage, easily pre-
served, requiring no turning over like wheat, running;
' little to waste, not susceptible of alteration from expo-
sure to thn atmosphere, serves to explain a political fact.
Sir ROBERT PEEL, in the debate on Friday, sneered at
the idea of his conduct being influenced by deference to
the West India interest. He described that as the
weakest interest in the House, and as having no power
over him. But the vote to keep out sugar, was a vote
to keep otit fond ; it was keeping out grass to fatten
eattle,-and malt to make spirituous liquors ; it was keep-
ing out bread and potatoes, and was a vote most agree-
able to the banded horde- of food.. monopolists, to do
whOse bidding he has accepted office.: Ile was pleasing
t4ie landed interest, therefore,- as well as the Wesandia,;
interest ; and hiS statement, jesuitically true as to
words, was grossly &Ise as to facts. The letter was I

correct, the spirit wholly fallacious. It deluded the
understanding, though it fell fairly on the ear. It was
as big and as foul a delusion, as ever a statesman was
guilty of. Ms conduct in this case, proves his
thorough want of sincerity. Ho will allow cattle to
come in, of which there arc few or none ; and he will
not allow food for them and for man to be brought in,
which is plentiful; he will graciously permit a few hundred-
weight more of meat to come in a year or two hence,
and he obstinately shuts out the food, both of man and
animals, that lies ready stored up at our door.

We have not been in the habit of thanking GOD that
we have a House of Lords ; but we may now say that
the House of Lords cannot pass the Sugar Duties Bill,
when it goes up to them, without making themselves ac
cessory to the great crime of keeping food away from
the people. If they stiffer their judgment to be
overruled by any motive of deference to the arrange-
ments of the House of Commons, they will sink i n
the estimation of mankind to the level of those poor vic-
tims of lust who, when once caught in the toils of the
wicked, must do their bidding till nature breaks the in-
tolerable yoke.

THE LATE LORD CONGLETON.
The family of the Parnells, from which the late Noble-
man drew his origin, were, for a long period anterior to
the time of Charles 11, resident at Congleton, in the
county of Chester, but, in the time of that King they pur-
cased an estate in Ireland, and fixed their abode in that
kingdom. This estate went by the name of Rathleague,
which is situated in Queen's county, and is held by the
family to the present day.
Among the ancestors of the deceased, the most notable
was the Archdeacon of Clogher. author of the " Hermit,"
and who was Prebendary of Dublin in 170, and Vicar
of Finglas in 1716. This celebrated man was the friend of
Pope, Swift, Addison, Congreve, Steele, and all the literary
spirits of his day. Swift's- humour on one occasion made
a high man bow to the Doctor. Swift, it is related, in-
troduced the Archdeacon to the Lord-Treasurer Harley,
and, in his usual dictatOrial manner, insisted upon his
Lordship's going, with his staff of office in hand, into the
ante-chamber, where Dr. Parnell was waiting to receive
him. His Lordship good-humouredly- complied, awl
the three great men had a day's laugh at the facetious
ideas of the Dean.

Besides John Parnell (now Lord Congleton), whom
Sir Henry had by his wife, Caroline Elisabeth, the
eldest daughter of Earl Portarlington, he has five other
children, two of whom are sons, and the other three
daughters. Of these ladies, the timrth child and eldest
daughter is married to the Right Rev. Charles Longley,
who has, since his marriage, been elevated to the bench
of Bishops, but who at that period was head master of
Harrow School.

The late Lard's father was always spoken of in high
terms of commendation. At the time the Irish volun-
teers formed themselves into those redoubtable bodies,
bent upon preserving themselves and their liberties, Sir
John Parnell, who was the zitaunchest among the 'lumbar,
was the Commandant of the Maryborough Volunteers.
His son possessed much of the figure, and many of
the mental characteristics of his father. Sir John was
plain, frank, and convivial : as a financier he was able,
4,nd educated with the view to a diplomatic station ; he
made no unstatesman-like figure in the Ministry of
which he formed part : his countenance was no less
benign than animated, and his eye, full and penetrating,
Ate his ability and talent.
One of the questions in which, when Sir Henry
Parnell, he appeared most conspicuously before the
House of Commons, was on the night of the 13th April,
1810, when he made his celebrated speech on a motion
for a Select ComMittee to inquire into the collection of
tithes in Ireland. On that occasion ha showed, with
true and eloquent earnestness, the grievances inflicted by
this system on Ireland. He gave it as a palpable fact,
'.hat" so great was the poverty of many thousand people
who pay tithe there, that if they existed in this country,
ander similar circumstances of indigence, they woud be
considered as entitled to parish assistance." His vioas
of the subject were high and honest.- He sought to
exonerate the peasantry—to get rid of the direct pay-
ment by the Catholic, Presbyterian, or Quaker, to the
Protestant clergyman, and lastly, to give the clergy a
,ust and fair equivalent. Notwithstanding his strenuous
speech on the subject, his party were in the minority.
Another night, on which he no less signalised him-
self in the House, was on the memorable occasion when
the Right Hon. Henry Goulburn made a motion for
leave to bring in a Bill to amend certain Acts relating to
unlawful societies in Ireland. This was on the 10th of
February, 1825. He was opposed to the measure. He
believed it to be one that would terminate in confusion
and rebellion. He reviewed the various cases of affray
,which were a.aid to call for such an Act, and proved them
to be justifiable cases, and such as originated out ,of no
secret societies, but the just feelings arising between man
sad man. He revealed the measures of the association
attacked, exposed the errors of his antagonist, and de-
'nonstrated the evils alleged to have been caused by the
anal-administration of Lord Wellesley.
In 18.24-,!,i, the Chamber of Commerce at Dublin, being
lesirous of having his opinion upon the then existing
Butter laws," he turned his attention to the subject,
and produced a talented pamphlet entitled " Observations
the Irish Butter Acts." The gist of his argument
vas to show that the then existing Acts were violative of
every sound principle of trade, and that most erroneous
pinions were entertained on the score ; but, like a man
:)f talent, while he proposed to repeal the existing regu-
lations, he advanced and provided others in their stead.
His treatise on "rinancial Retbrm,"published originally
by Murray, in 1830, will always rank as a sterling and
authoritative book. In draiiing up this valuable volume,
his own clear views upon the subject, together with his
active collating of the numerous Parliamentary accounts
and pamphlets upon the points he treated on, tended to
produce a systematic, enlarged, and copious work.
On Lord Oriel's retirement from public life, the subject
,if this memoir was not only the principal instrument in
carrying the Holy-head Road Bills through Parliament,
but continued to be, as long as there was necessity and
occasion, one of the most efficient of the Commissioners.
Fully impressed with the importance of rendering
.the
communication between Dublin and London perfect, he,
nntiredly, for twenty years, kept the subject in his con-
stant view—laboured to convince Government of the
grand utility of the measure—procured the consent of all
the numerous, and, in some instances, turbulent bodies of
local trustees on the line of road—arranged the sea com-
munication between Holyhead and Dublin, and finally
accomplished his purpose. His treatise upon " Roads,"
published by Longman, in, we believe, 1836, was the
result of much of the ;kill and science gained by him
during his application to this subject.
Telford was his intimate friend, and: acknowledged
him to have acquired "so perfect a knowledge of road-
:flaking in all its branches, as enabled him to produce
the most valuable treatise which has appeared in Eng-
land on the history, principles, and practice of that
species of national improvement." Such are Telford's
own words. About this period he became an honorary
member of the Institution of Civil Engineers.
A work perhaps not so generally known, but equally
excellent for the accuracy, and depth of research whicli
characterised it, was published by Ridgway, of Picca-
dilly, entitled " The History of the Penal Laws against
the Irish Catholics. from the year 1689 to the Union." It
reached a fourth edition in a very short period.
On the dignity of Baron being offered to him by the
Melbourne Ministry in 1841, he chose for his title the
ancient name of the seat in Cheshire, where his family
:rum the earliest times had been located. Congletun, in
xhich the demesne of the Parnells was situated, lies
leautifully in a deep valley, on the banks of the Dane
in that part of Cheshire which intervenes between the
Niacclesfielcl hills, and the flat district of Northwick
Hundred, partaking of the varied surface of the one,
and the rich soil and abundant timber of the other.
Ciongleton town, in which, also many of the poorer re-
lations of the Parnell family lived in former days, retains
;till many of those original timber buildings which they
tenanted, though now, for the most part, the western
end consists almost entirely of handsome mansions of the
merchants and other opulent residents, disposed among
pleasure-grounds on the banks of the river Dane. .

THOMAS HENRY LISTER., ESQ ,
LATE REGISTRAR-GENERAL. .
Mr. Lister; whose death we announced on Wed-
nesday in addition to the high official capacity which
he filled, was a litterateur of no ordinary pretensions.
Added to these circumstances, he was related by
marriage, on his own and that of his sister's side, .to
two of the first houses in the land; -he himself. had
espoused to a branch. of the old Clarendon
family, and his sister to Lord John Russell. -
The deceased Registrar was a man constant and
diligent in his studies ; those periods not occupied by
the business of his office were devoted by him to the
steady.pursuit of literature and the fine arts, and he
has earned no mean name by the productions which,
from time to time, his pen has bestowed upon the
world. The first work which made him known to
the public was " Granby," Which redounded much to
his tame. Few of our readers but are acquainted with
the merits of this excellent performance.
Mr. Lister, no less master of a good and vigorous
prose, had also essayed the heights of poetry, by ad-
vancing into the tragedial line. Shortly after he
had made himself known as the "Author of Granby,"
he produced a five-act historical play, under the title
of t‘ Epicharis," which was so far a favourite with
readers, that a call for a second edition was made
upon Messrs. Colburn and Bentley. This historical
tragedy, on the 14th of October, 1829, was repre-
sented at Drury-lane, and the four prominent charac-
ters of the play were supported by Young, Wallack,
and Cooper ; Epicharis, the Grecian freedwoman,
the heroine of the piece, was chastely and exquisitely
enacted by Miss Phillips. The tragedy of Epicharis
is founded on the history of Piso's conspiracy, as re-
lated in the fifteenth book of the Annals of Tacitus.
The chief work by which Mr. Lister became known
to the public was his "Life and Administration of
Edward, first Earl of Clarendon," which was first
published in 1838. A biography of this celebrated
man had long been wanting to our modern literature,
and Mr. Lister's book admirably filled up the gap.
The author, moreover, from his alliance with the ex-
isting house of Clarendon, had opportunities at his
disposal which other forerunners in the same line had
lacked ; for Mr. Lister married Theresa Villiers, a
niece of the present Lord Clarendon, who belongs to
ft branch
.of the house of Jersey., who, having inter-
married with one of the female descendants of the
Cheaicellor, was, on the extinction. of -his male line,
raised to the Earldom of Clarendon. The unpub-
lished papers which he had at his disposal were,