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

the public reason, and all that has been said
against it has been wafted all over Europe. En.
joying more than any other nation of Europe the
freedom of the press, and having attained to a
greatness almost unexampled, the conduct of
Great Britain has great moral influence over the
rest of the world. She is reputed one of the
wisest of nations. By the wisest statesmen of
this wise nation, after the principle of protection
had been assailed as we have described—in the
teeth, too, of a great and powerful party—it was
maintained and enforced. Not contented with
preserving it throughout the tariff, Sir R. PEEL
established for the first time a whole system of
differential duties, thus informing every State of
the world that it was his solemn practical con-
viction, and the conviction of our Legislature,
after much discussion, that the principle of pro-
tection, that is, plundering by law, was the sure
and certain means of promoting national great-
ness. On that principle so confirmed, the Zoll
Verein is acting, and by enhancing the duties on
mixed woollen and cotton goods, it follows the
example of Great Britain, and protects its native
industry.
W e might take the opportunity to taunt the
Morning Post with the fickleness and caprice of
the monarchial Zoll Verein, and to borrow from
this secret proceeding a confirmation of our
opinion that the manufacturers may rely more
securely on a democracy than on a monarchy ;
but when we see the best interests of our coun-

try, and, we believe, of mankind, endangered by
commercial restrictions, we have no spirit for
newspaper contention, though we fancy we
could snatch a triumph. We pass rather to con-
sider how these attacks on our national prospe-
rity and greatness by a virulent faction at home,
and by envious foreign nations, can best be re-
pelled. The faction can only be put down by the
growth of sound knowledge, and no day now
passes which does not teach the public, by im-
pressing on them painful facts, the folly and
cruelty of this commercial nation cutting off
sources of trade. We look to the progress of
knowledge for a speedy triumph of the principles
of free industry, and no sooner will they triumph
at home than they will stifle folly abroad.
It is obvious that the best and surest means of
counteracting German, French, and American
tariffs, is to set free the trade in corn, and to take
off the duties on wool, cotton, and every other
raw material which enters into manufactures, so
as to enable our people to ,produce articles
desired abroad at the smallest cost. BONAPARTE,
at the height of his power, could not keep Eng-
lish goods out of the Continent. FREDERICK THE
GREAT, when he had nothing else to do with his
armies, could not put down smuggling. The
United States, Germany, and France, have all
extensive frontiers; and if, by abolishing our own
mischievous laws, we set our manufacturers en-
tirely free, we may rely on the smuggler spee-
dily redressing the wrongs which protecting
tariffs inflict on the whole family of mankind
A bold and a just policy—but that our states-
men are not capable of; for they are unfortunately
allied with foreign Governments in maintaining
a kind of police against the people, and would
rather aid them, we are afraid, in stifling trade than
in setting it tree in opposition to their ignorant
decrees—a bold and a just policy would dictate
the assembling of Parliament before Christmas,
instantly to abolish the Corn-laws, and al_ the
duties on raw materials ; to establish in earnest
and effectually the great principle of freedom for
industry, which would speedily compel every
other nation to act on the same principle. Such
a bold course, honest to our own people, and just
to foreigners, we cannot anticipate ; and we must
content ourselves, therefore, with having pointed
it out as an effectual cure, operating both by its
example and its direct effects, for those systems
of mutual and revengeful damage which at pre-
sent statesmen in all countries seem bent on up-
holding.

We observe with regret, from Mr. COBDEN'S
and Mr. BRIGHT'S statements, at a meeting of
the Anti-Corn-law League, held at Manchester
on Thursday, that the prospect there is darker
than ever :

" We have been suffering," said Mr. Cobden, "now
in the north of England six years. It is six years
since that revulsion occurred, which has led to a de-
pression greater, of longer continuance, and of far
more intensity, than has ever been witnessed by the
oldest resident in this neighbourhood. But, bad as
has been our condition before, at the end of these six
years, our prospects are worse than they have been in
any previous year.—(Hear, hear.) It would seem as
if the American tariff that had just been passed was
to he the last feather to break the camel's back. It
found us almost in a prostrate condition, and it has
utterly prostrated the energies of this district."
Another feather has since been added, by the
increase of duties in Germany, which, if possible,
will add to the gloom and suffering at Manches-
ter. The League, however, seems resolved not
to despair. It proposes to raise 50,0001., and we
presume it will succetd ; it is sending its tracts
and its lecturers all through the country, and
confidently expects that the Corn-law will, be-
fore long, be abolished.
Both Mr. COBDEN and Mr. BRIGHT referred
to gentlemen, Members of Parliament, who had
voted for the Corn-law, and yet said they knew
,that it could not be long preserved. One of these
gentlemen had the honesty to confess that lie
voted because his estates were mortgaged. "He
said he believed that rents would be as high in

ten years with the Corn-laws repealed as they
were likely to be ten years hence with the
Corn-laws in being; but fur the first three or four
years rents would go down; his own would fall
below the amount of his mortgages, and he should
be ruined." We have no doubt many other
Members vote from similar motives; but would it
not be more honest and more humane in them to
vote the other way, and appeal to the Legislature
to make a fair adjustment of such incumbrances?
The Income-tax, by making them known to the
taN-gatherer, may enable such gentlemen to get
over their reluctance to made a confession, and
induce them to advocate a plan by which justice
may be done to them, to their creditors, and to
the suffering people. It is horrid to think that
the Corn-laws are to be maintained for a few
months or years longer, to the ruin of our trade,
and the starvation of many people, because a few
landlords are in debt, while they themselves
know that the law is unjust and cannot be long
continued. If the League has many such con-
science-stricken supporters amongst the land-
owners; and we believe and hope it has, its
spirited exertions will soon he crowned by success.

We have given at considerable length the
public dispatches and correspondence relative to
British affairs in the East. Embracing as they
do such a vast surface of country, extending from
China on the East, to Afghanistan on the West,
a distance of nearly six thousand miles, the
events are of a multifarious character, but on
the whole are
satisfactory. Since fresh instruc-
tions had been sent out to India new vigour has
been inspired into the Governor-General. He
was to leave Allahabad towards the end of
August, and proceed by Delhi to Simla,
and thence probably to Ferozpore for the
purpose of inspecting the troops collecting in that
quarter, and also for communicating more speedily
with the English Generals in Affghauistan. The
army of observation, which will amount to fifty
thousand men, is placed under the command of
Sir CHARLES NAPIER, an Indian officer of some
standing and repute, who, we trust, will rival his
namesake, and render the name as celebrated in
India as it is on the Syrian coast. It ap-
pears that the selection is highly approved
of by the army in general, and that
great confidence is placed in his military skill
and judgment. For what purpose this army is
ass.t.mbling no correspondent can tell, as Lord
ELLLNBOROUGH, to the surprise of many, keeps
tl; esccret wonderfully well, but it is generally be-
lieved to have two objects in view—to give moral
strength to the operations against Caubul, as well
fIS to watch some expected movements in the
around the frontiers of which it is
chiefly to be collected. Fortunately for
all these movements, the rest of our posses-
sions in India, as well as the adjoining
States, are quite tranquil. We regret that affairs
in China display much less vigour, and that
wing, no doubt, to the want of troops, Chousau