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

SPIRIT of the PUBLIC JOURNALS

FROM TILE MORNING PAPERS OF THIS DAY.

TIMES.—We recur to-day ' to the articles of
impeachment against Lord Ashburton's treaty.
The first objection which we dealt with yester
day, though insufficient, was yet sound as far as
it went. It was true that certain concessions
had been made, though. not true that those con-.
cessions were sufficient to put us out of humour
with the treaty. We proceed now ti..- the
attempted cry against the two articles which
bear reference to the slave-trade—a cry to which
we cannot give the same modified acquiescence,
Let us see first what they are. The first •stipu
lates that each party shall maintain on the coast
of Africa a squadron of not le: than. eighty
guns, "to enforce separately and respectively
the laws, rights, and obligations, of each of
the two countries, for the suppression of the
slave-trade," the two Governments stipulating,
meanwhile to give such orders to the officers in
command as shall enable 'them to act in concert
if necessary. By the second, "the parties to.
the treaty agree that they will unite in all be-
coming representations and remonstrances with
any and all of the Powers within whose domi-
nions such markets are allowed to exist, and
urge on such Powers the propriety and duty of
closing such markets at once and for ever." On
these stipulations our Whig Contemporary pours
all the indignation it can muster, as a degrada-
tion beyond precedent of the British nation,
which is depicted as " going to beg another to
help bee' in " representing" to Spain and Portu-
gal the "propriety and duty" of fulfilling their
engagements to itself—as a cession of the ex-
pected right of search—a step backwards in the
road of abolition, and so on. Now, on the part
of Great Britain, it does not of course pretend to
be any step at all ; but in its bearing on the
United States, the first article is a plain prac-
tical stipulation, which, if' the American Govern-
ment will but appoint a
proper person to the
command of the African station, may be'produc-
tive of the highest advantage,
This, we believe,
the present Executive is inclined to do. And it
is much to invest all future Governuients with a
permanent responsibility of this kind, of which
any evasion will be openly and deeply dis-
creditable. And the second (though it has
not, much in it) is yet, as far as it goes,
"a step" on the part of America in • the
right direction ; and though a mere pro-
fession, not leading to any immediate result,
might prove of importance as shaming that
Power from interference between us and any
third party towards whom we ourselves were
authorised by treaty to use more effectual means
of persuasion than " representation and remon-
strance." And further, every American decla-
ration against the slave trade, if it does nothing
else, at least strengthens the hands of those of
her own citizens who are engaged in earliest in
its suppression. To say with our Contemporary
that by this article " we go and ask the United
States to help us to complain" is absurd. We
are actively engaged ourselves in pursuit of an
object. The United States will co-operate with
us to a certain .point, but no further. Is it
" degrading," is it " imbecile" or useless, to
enter into a mutual pledge which, while it
excludes nothing, secures that co-operation as
far as it offers itself ? Is this the way that
successful politicians pursue their objects? Do
they refuse the pledges of independent allies
because they do not go so far as • they
themselves could wish ? Did Mr. O'Con-
nell refuse, or would he have been wise in
refusing, the alliance of his protege Lord Nor-
'Hanby, because that Noble Marquis did not go
the whole length of repeal? The existence of our
more stringent engagements with other Powers
—with Spain, and Portugal, and the Brazils—
instead of aggravating, excuses the inadequacy
of the declaration in which we have joined
America, because they witness that the views of
England are not confined within the words of
that single declaration : they preclude that ex-
elusive mterpretadon which might otherwise,
though unfairly, have been attached to our-as-
sent to this certainly insufficient article. Our
Contemporary observes truly, that "we might
send missions enough to Wasbiogton before our
good brother Jonathan would make" any such
engagement as it suggests. True. Nor have we
any right, if we had the power, without a gross
and arrogant interference with national indepen-
dence, to compel such terms. But the argu-
ment seems to have lost its way in our Contem-
porary's columns. It shows the expediency, not
of rejecting, but of accepting those engagements
which he will make. In a matter so plainly
optional, he is even less likely to bullied than to
be drawn into compliance with our wishes.
CHRONICLE.—.If no immediate good from
the Peel policy is to be found in the manufac-
taring districts, where else are we
to look for
it? Are time agriculturists more at ease than
they were? Have ffey obtained
that cur
against change whet was represented, .by Sir
it. Peel lihnself,as so vitally essential to their sety
_i
in-
terests ? Why, just now they seem to be giving 1
away their cattle in a fright for the benefit of the
butchers. Two million quarters of
foreign corn
have poured in upon them, at an Bs. duty, in the
I. °nth of harvest. Time word 4i rent' has been
reiterated with significant emphasis. The
wretched labourers have been rendered yet more
wretched by competitive swarms of destitute ope-
ratives, added to those of the destitute Irish, who
are always upon them at harvest time.. The
small cloud of agricultural distress
is already on
the verge of the horizon. But the new Bill has
let in foreign corn to keep the people from
starving; and that fact must be reckoned
amongst time operations of the Peel policy'. We
grant it must ; and let us look at the fact, aided
by the tables presented by the Quarterly .Re-
view. Between April 28, when the new law
came into action, and September a, there
were entered for home consumption, at
ten of the principal ports of Great Bri-
tain, 2,457,931 quarters of wheat and wheat
flour, paying a duty of 974,0241., which
averages Bs. 4d., per quarter. The proposed
Whig duty of Bs. per quarter, was actually paid
on four-fifths of the whole quantity. The " pro-
tection" of the odd fourpence is what the agri- '
cultnrists have gained, and all they have gained,
by the fierce and costly struggle that displaced
the late Government and installed its successors.
They
.have paid dearly for their " most filthy.
bargain." Were the expenses of the late elec-
tions in their pockets, the money would be a
much better protection. What a bustle for a
paltryduty ! The whole amount, for
the
cost of a contested election in a large county.
year, tbur
wouldPennY scarcely more [than cover the
And the moral cost, in false promises and yet
more deceitful suppressions—in confidence de-
stroyedvated to ten-fold bitterness; in disgraceful exhi-
bitions cif
theanrimuloinsigtie engendered, -or aggra-
vated
and pestilential cor-
ruption amongst the many, is far heavier than
the pecuniary cost. The partisans must be made
of no penetrable stuff who can look back on the
means by which their Iburioenny victory was
achieved, and still regard it with complacency.
But although the difference be little to the win-
tiers, it is much to the losers, The Ss. duty was
proposed as a substitute for other taxation, the
Bs. 4d, duty is in addition to a heavy and new
taxation. The one would have been a relief, the
other is a pressure. The one would have been
levied instead of more onerous imp
other is the companion of' the lncome-tax. The
people would have had the benefit of time first,
tiny-, appendage
imposts, and the
but the other simply enlarges the resources of the
n try practically
Gd
does rtlllitenetal tie rienocteintoth
consist, but in the entire amount. With the
modified Whig bread-tax there would have been
no income-tax. With Sir Robert
, Peel's Income-
tax he ought to have foregone the whole of the
oration of a fixed duty and a
bread-tax. The fourp sticks in the
beam of the balance, arid throWs both ~ ,
c ritelmyfe"pci.Peuee e ,
weights
markets, or no
upon the people's scale.
ference is that which has
which will have toe paiil
Another material dif'
exist between the op been often proved to
elt IltLintAlee"s4:as°Claalbeult
markets, for manufacturing industry, It 6 not
sliding scale ; the difference of
the saving of the feurpenceo, hitt the
saving of'
time American trade, for which the manufacturersofconlin erce.
have struggled. What they want is the previous
knowledge of the duty
on iinporpg peril togetll
nesg of its amount, sb. 010 it
grateful to time Peel
'fire 0 itr.PoFe, is ini itlf Veirtilinty, The
able quantity irito the arrangements ents
mischief; is liq )4 w.trot 14,;?;-.! 1 it.l Whett 4 r.e,
presepts, t 9 Itself? the Witinnfl_ preisuro way
4!3 40111 movp tlip ty of a 6"11111 packet of
poison to a neartly-la en porter, but in that
packet there is death. Stilt Otero 4,4 it* the
ow have served the
(p‘orteriy Reviewer argoo,,l,lf4oVreN'Ziocilliu, unusual sup-
PIY Of food for the people, it is as-
Slimed, we should be very
e iod v 4 most
Polloy, That the 11714 Prqp",srit,i4aNlAhrlidt have
spread this sopply over We wonie Year, instead
Wails
of' concentrating it upon the
injures the farmer, and least benefits the eon.
Amer i. and that it w0i1144
large. by. the •
the regular trade
created, than by the food imported ; , these are
410 classes not less
provision
average duty
P°lo4 Oil which we Shall not .now poo twen,
We restrict ,oitrselVes ,t 9 tli© writer's
of food for
g people by the policy of Sir Robert
Peel. And
allow
us to oh. on what v 04444,00
NititeeMs'.4.-,Hvienre is a munificent
During I
on foreign corn has been ss. 7d.; in this year of
difficulty, distress, and starvation, the Peel policy
Nis rwoo it
~08.
.4d, During those fomrteen
Lie last fourteen years,