The Sun.
London, England, 1842-06-27 00:00:00

tints, who give the tone to the majority of the House
of Commons, hear with no dissatisfaction and no dis•
pleasure these tales o diminished profit, lessened cm:
ployment, and starving multitudes` in the manufac-
turing districts. It is a maxim of English law, and
of common sense, to infer motives from effects, and a
man who slays another, unless the contrary be clearly
proved, is held to have done it -froin design and
malice. In like manner, the manufacturers are suf-
fering distress, the people are starving, the Legisla
ture has been informed over and over again, that such
is the fact, and was warned long before hand that
such would be the consequences; and it must in reason
and conscience, therefore, be held to design and will
the terrible calamities which now weigh on the people.
If the Deputation, therefore, have nothing else to say
to the Members of Parliament, but that their wishes are
in rapid progress of fulfilment—that the hated, because
somewhat independent and free-thinking manufac-
turing population is dying out—that our towns are
becoming depopulated—that the unruly and irreli-
gious mechanics are subjected to the pains of hunger,
they may spare themselves and their fellow citizens
the trouble and the expense of coming to London to
bring such gratifying intelligence to the • admirers
of a rural, obedient, and priest-ridden population.

They expect, perhaps, to work on Sir R. PEEL'S
sense of responsibility. He has graciously admitted
them to an interview, and heard what they
had to say,; and if that impression had been made on
him, in conjunction with a doubt whether he would
get the Income-tax, it might have had some effect.
But statesmen look'
,at the people too much in the
character of mere creators of wealth, and now that
Sir ROBERt PEEL is likely to get an ample supply
for the Government from the Income-tax, and hopes to
see commercial prosperity restored by the tariff, his
sense of responsibility, will, we fear, sit lightly on
him, and the Deputation will not induce him to pro-
tract the session of Parliament, in order " to abolish
that law which denies the people the right to exchange
their industry for food." We grieve that it should be
so, but he has been too much accustomed to hear as-
sertions that " the people are made savage and despe-
rate," " discontented and disaffected," "that society
seems on the very verge of dissolution," to be much
influenced by them while he sees the multitude, laying
aside Chartist and other political meetings, humbly
supplicating relief, eager to get it from soup kitchens,
and only a little querulous that it is given rather in
meal than in money.! Sir R. PEEL has passed, or is
sure speedily to pass, all his measures, and when he has
pursued his own course, almost to the end of the ses-
sion, in spite of his landed friends, he will not, we be-
lieve, now depart from it to gratify his political oppo-

nents

If the meeting of the Anti-Corn-law League,
which we have announced, is to pursue the same
tactics, and the members have no more forcible argu-
ments to urge than the decay of the manufacturing
towns, they may as well remain at home. They have
urged such statements year after year for four years,
and have never made the least impression either on Sir
It. PEEL or the Parliament. Why play such a foolish
and losing game over and over again ? Why beg
that as alms which they ought to demand as a right?
Why make themselves pitiable and ridiculous to their
opponents and oppressors year after year ? Why talk
of great wrongs and grievances, and of rights, and
then humbly sue for their own as if they were
the lowest of beggars ? Not by such means did our
ancestors establish rights and redress wrongs, and why
should this generation have more respect for a corrupt
and packed Legislature than they had for a crowned
and vigorous King.
As we said on Friday, it is not the executive Go-
vernment, but the Legislature, elected by venal and
bribed electors, by intimidated and trembling tenants
at will, or constituted by a jobbing Minister, as it
suits his party, to elevate some sycophants to the
peerage—as we have already said, and must repeat,
it is not the executive but the legislative body, formed
in the most corrupt manner, which is the source and
cause of the grievous sufferings of the people ; and we
cannot understand why this corrupt body should be
more intensely honoured than ever were the noblest
of our monarchs. It has, in spite of all remonstrances,
and in the teeth of all knowledge, lately passed an Act
to tax the people in their food, in order to swell the
rent-roll of the landowners. Sikh an Act is a
flagrant violation of its assumed duty. It is
a mere robbery of individuals, in the prostituted
name of the State, it is a complicated wrong
inflicted by those who claim honour because
they protect the right of individuals ; and if the
League, like the Deputation, have nothing better to
say or do than merely to tell the Legislature that its
Acts have accomplished the objects for which, we be-
lieve, they were passed, we counsel them not to put
themselves to the expense and trouble of meeting in
London. They may better employ their time, and
any money they can spare in relieving the terrible
distress in their neighbourhood, and effecting, if pos-
sible, that much needed, for safety, reconciliation be-
tween.masters and men.

NEWSPAPER STAMPS AND ADVERTISEMENTS.-FrOM
a return laid before the House of Commons, it appears
that since the reduction of the stamp duty on newspapers
in 1837, the number of newspapers published in the
United Kingdom has been nearly doubled. In 1836,
when the stamp was 4d. for each paper, the total number
of stamps issued was 35,576,056 ; and in the year ending
MarCh 31,1842, it had increased to 61,495,503. In the
former year the amount of duty was 443,2781., while in
the latter it was 253,7791., showing a gradual increase
since 1837, when the duty was 217,4801. The number
of advertisements in 1836 was 1,432,612, and the duty
103,2481. ; while in 1841 they had increased respectively
to 1,778,957, and 128,3181. The increase in the number
of stamps issued has taken place chiefly on papers pub-
lished in Great Britain, as will be seen from the follow-
in; returns .—Stamps for Irish papers in 1836, 5,144,582;
in 1841, 5,986,639. English papers, for the same years,
27,777,036, and 49,674,855. Scotch papers for the same
years, '2,654,438 and 5,388,079.

DISTRESS AT LEEDS.
TO THE EDITOR OF THE SUN.

Stn,—Herewith you will receive a copy of a requisi-
tion to the Mayor, already signed by about 200 of the
most respectable shopkeepers and other tradesm: n in
Leeds, nearly one-half of whom are Conservatives.
All parties have united to make known the alarming.
state of trade, and the unparalleled distress that pre-
vails in the borough, but it is not the intention of the
requisitors to discuss, or recommend any particular re-
medy ; they will merely content themselves by stating
facts, and making known the real state of their trade,
in the hope that something will be done immediately,
for this state of things cannot continue much longer ;
soniething must be done.
The meeting will be convened by circular, on Wed-
nesday or Thursday next.
The Magistrates have a meeting this day to consider
-what can be done relative to the distress that prevails
in.the borough, and the subject will be brought under
the notice of the Town Council some day next week.
Not less than 4,040 heads of families in the township
of Leeds are receiving parochial relief at the present
time, and, calculating five to a family, we have upwards
of 20,000 persons receiving parochial relief, being about
one-fourth of the population in the township ; and the
other townships in the borough are in no better condition.
I remain. t'our's respectfnllv,
WILLIAM WHITEHEAD.
175, Briggate, Leeds, June 24, 1842.
[The requisition to the Mayor has been received.]