The Sun.
London, England, 1842-02-22 00:00:00

SPIRIT of the PUBLIC JOURNALS.

- FROM THE EVENING PAPERS OF THIS DAY.
GLOBE.—The, arguments oh the Ministerial side of
the Corn-law question will go down to posterity, if in-
deed they go down at all, as the most monstrous monu-
ment ever reared by class-ignorance on class-interest.
We say this quite dispassionately- ; for, in truth, we do
not think greatly better of some of the arguments put
forward in succession on our own side of the question.
There is a sort of Spanish arroganeeand superiority in our
own conceit over other nations, occasionally displayed on
both sides, combined either with strutting airs of inde-
pendence of foreign supplies (at' the very moment when
so many are cloakingstarvation in threadbare garments),
or with swelling boasts of becoming the sole workshop
and factory of the world • (at the very moment when rival
manufactures are every where meeting us in neutral mar-
kets)—there is, as it seems to us, a blindness to realities,
and a grasping at unrealities, which, to our apprehension,
are amongst those symptoms which mark the decline of
nations. Strike out all the nonsense from the speeches
on both sides about depending on nobody for our food,
and supplying everybody with our manufactures—strike
out all this arrogant nonsense, and groundless assump-
tion—and what will be left ? Few of the sentences
which call forth cheers; but all the common sense of
the subject.
The sort of pretensions which the
.landed interest set
forth as entitling them to exclude commerce would
justify a State-inquisition into their mode of ma-
naging their estates. We are, forsooth, to depend
upon , nobody but upon them for our daily bread.
Why are we to depend upon them ? How are
we to be assured that they have an interest in providing
us with abundance, or, if they have, that they act on it ?
Our simpler forefathers did look after every man's fields,
and every man's barns ; and if, with our vast population,
we are statedly to depend on home growth, we must look
after them. We must see that this landlord does not
sacrifice to political interest the encouragement (by
granting leases and otherwise) which he owes to his
tenantry, in order that they may have a motive for im-
proving cultivation to the utmost. We must see that ano-
ther does not devote to embellishment or amusement the
ground that is wanting for the supply of increasing
numbers—that he does not withdraw a rood of ground
from arable which is fitted for it. In Edward the
Sixth's days, and earlier, these were deemed matters
for royal proclamation. Our ancestors deemed the
gross produce as deserving attention as the net produce
of the soil, and abundance for -the people' at a cheap
rate, as " remunerating prices" for, the farmer. We
may smile at their simplicity, but we have followed the
worse part of their precedents. We have legislated ex-
clusively for prices, and cared exclusively for rents.
STANDARD.—Lord Aberdeen's presentation of the
Treaty ratified between Prussia, Austria, Russia, and
Great Britain, for; the . suppression of the slave trade,
calls attention to a subject of some serious consideration
—serious, not merely as respects the object of
this Treaty,. but the state of feeling upon the
Continent of Europe. It is probably known to most
of our readers that this Treaty- is little more
than an act of adhesion by. the other Great Powers
to a former Treaty ratified ' between Great Britain
and France eleven' years ago, and which, of course,'
is still in force' as regards the nations parties to it.
A few years since, however, Grea:. Britain and
France agreed to invite Prussia, Austria, and Russia, to
enter into the common engagement ; these Powers
promptly acquiesced, and a new treaty; comprehend-
ing the Five PoWers, was agreed upon, Great Britain
and France taking the iniatative. This is the treaty,
the ratification of which by Four Powers was an-
nounced last night by Lord Aberdeen ; but the name of
France is still wanting—of France, who would yield no-
thing by the treaty which she has not already yielded
eleven years ago, and who was herself one of the,,
movers in the transaction. Upon reasonable grounds'
this hesitation of our neighbour is difficult to be ac-
counted for. It is not pretended that Great Britain has,
with respect to France, or to any other country, abused
the opportunities afforded her by the treaty. of 1831.
And there is not the least.ground for suspicion that. the
French Government, or the. high-minded and generous
people of France, have a wish to protect the traffic in
slaves. Acquitting Great Britain, therefore, of having
given cause for hesitation on the part of France, and as
freely acquitting France of any sordid motive in hesita-
ting to ratify the treaty, we must, we fear, ascribe that
hesitation to a feeling from which even high-minded and
generous men are not always free—a feeling of jealousy.
COURIER.—The principle of putting leading ques-
tions to the Members of the Cabinet, with the view of
extracting information as to the precise nature of the
measures in preparation, or such replies as may enable in-
genious speculators to guess at them with any degree of
certainty, we look upon as extremely objectionable, and one
that ifyielded to would be attended with the greatest incon-
venience and injury. Mr. Stewart last night had the
modesty to inquire of Sir R. Peel what might be the
particular articles of foreign produce alluded to in the
Queen's Speech, the duties upon which it was intended
to modify ; and knowing, as he must in the present state
of the discussion on the corn question, how impossible it
must be for Sir R. Peel to name any specific day for his
general financial statement, he was unreasonable enough
to demand an explicit answer on the subject. All,
however, he took by his pumping questions was a
reiteration of the assurance before given, that he would
make his financial statement and disclose his reme-
dial measures with regard to the present unsatis-
factory state of the revenue at the earliest possible
opportunity. The government has,' in our opinion,
exercised a wise discretion in holding back till after the
Easter recess tlus poor Law Commission Continuance
Bill, a hill which, we are extremely happy to believe on
the assurance of the Home Secretary, will be in its cha-
racter no make-shift, but a full and complete measure on
the subject, and one that will contain many important
modifications of the existing law. What these modifi-
cations may be we have no means of ascertaining ; but
.we do most sincerely hope that they will be of such a
nature as the friends of humanity, and the adi,ocates of
the rights of the poor of this country to substantial relict,
can approve. •