The Sun.
London, England, 1842-01-26 00:00:00

litt ,mauls

LONDON
WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 26, 1842,

we published yesterday in our First Edition, a
full account, extending to several columns, of the
splendid ceremonies which too Christening Wind-
sor on the occasion of the Christening of the
Prince of WALES, and though our report was not
sent off from Windsor till after two o'clock, The
Sun, containing all the particulars, was distri-
buted over the metropolis in less than three hours
after her MAJESTY and her guests had left
the Chapel. We mention not this for the
PirPose of self-praise (though The Sun was the
only paper which gave, in the First Edition, an
account
of the proceedings) but chiefly to point
out the facilities and advantages caused by the
invention of railroads. Formerly the Journey

from Windsor to London was accomplished by
the ordinary conveyances in three hours; now
it is accomplished in three quarters of an hour by
means of steam. Indetendent too of speed, there
is almost no limit to the number of passengers that
can be conveyed. Thousands now can be conveyed
with nearly the same facility as tens, and, if due
caution be observed, with infinitely more safety
than in former times. The events of yesterday
placed these facts in a striking light, for among
the vast crowd that flocked by railway to wit-
ness the ceremony, we believe not one accident
occurred. The event altogether passed off most
auspiciously, and we trust this circumstance
will be an omen of good to the Illustrious
Infant—the Heir Apparent to the Throne—
and to the country which, under the bless-
ing of PROVIDENCE, he is destined to govern.
It was gratifying, considering the distress which
prevails, to see the affection evinced by the
people to the reigning family. Everywhere
marks of respect were exhibited in the metropo-
lis, and all accounts from the provinces agree in
announcing the same loyal, demonstrations
throughout the United Kingdom. There is but
one cause of regret. The name given to the
Prince of WALES is, we may say, universally
objectionable. All expected that he would have
been christened by the name of his grandfather,
rendered so illustrious in English annals by the
deeds of the EDWARDS, and the public will not
be satisfied till assurance is given that when he
mounts the throne he shall have the title of
EDWARD VII.

The Christening of the Prince of WALES,
henceforth ALBERT EDWARD, is a national event.
It will be recorded in all our books, and be the
theme of comment hereafter. It is an epoch in
the life of one of those beings whose biography
is the history of nations. Accordingly, it has
for some days excited, and will, for some time
to come, excite the interest of the public.
If the ceremony were merely to give a name
to a child, it might be appropriately inscribed in
the parish register, and, for dignity's sake, he
might have a page to himself. It is much more
than this. Christian names were, we believe,
first given to converted Heathens; they were the
marks of the admission of barbarians into a
more civilized and advanced community; and
their sponsors, like the witnesses with which
our remote ancestors were wont to be prepared
to repel accusations, were those who pledged
themselves for the continuance of the Pagan in
Christianity.
But whether such be its origin or not, it is
appropriately described at present as the admis-
sion of a child, or a Heathen, into the community
of Christians. The great importance of yester-
day's ceremony to the people springs from the
fact that the young Prince is by it enrolled un-
der the banners of CHRIST, and is to be guided
in all his actions towards the people by Christian
morality. Christianity has accompanied civilisation

in its progress, and is endeared to mankind as

the sign of humanity ; and to make the Prince
of WALES a Christian is to vow for him a life of
mercy, love, and justice.
Under such an aspect we certainly could have
wished that the ceremony had been performed
by other agents than the clergy of the State
Church. If they are the successors of the
Apostles, their lives are totally at variance with
the moral precepts of the Gospel. The Standard
has lately informed the world that no faith can
be placed in two-thirds .of them. Oxford nio-

rality is, in fact, a bye-word. A more selfish,
worldly set of men—a set of men more un-
Christian in their greediness, more intent on
preserving power and dominion, to the injury of
the community, more opposed to its moral im-
provement, does not exist ; and after-ages may
regret that the Prince had not been introduced
into the Christian community under more fa-
vourable auspices.

The clergy of the State Church, we cannot
forget, make it the first duty of the Prince to
preserve their power and property, and use
Christianity for their own aggrandisement. It
would seem as if they lay hands on him to make
him the instrument of priestcraft. Unfortu
nately for the community, his christening makes
him a sectarian, and separates the infant, who,
till now, was united to the whole family of the
nation, from the majority of the people. When
he comes to the Throne he will reign over
Christians of many denominations, and the clergy
will try, henceforward, to make him exclusively
the member of one sect, to narrow his heart and
fill it with jealousy of those who do not profess
his limited creed.

We are not, at the same time, aware of any
means, according to custom and precedent, by
which all the denominations of Christians in the
empire could have been made participators in
the ceremony. The invention of those means is
the business of sagacious and far-seeing states-
men. If they are always to follow routine, of
what use are those high and commanding facul-

ties with which they are said to be endowed?
Any well-dressed mutes, to walk in procession,
would answer that end as well as men of great
talents. Statesmen are to make precedents suit-
able to the wants of the age. The Sovereigns of
England ought no longer to be sectarians, and
their Ministers should devise means for making
all the ceremonies of State conform to the new
character which the Monarchs have been com-
pelled to assume since 1829.

Some Tory writers, in their zeal to uphold the
Corn-laws, object to the exertions which are
continually made to lessen the cost of producing
commodities. They overflow with tirades
against cheapness. They are desirous of keeping
at the highest the trouble and difficulty of
clothing and feeding the people. They may be
right in this view, but they are opposed to the
wishes and exertions of mankind in all ages. At
every perisd and in every country, men have
desired to be fed and clothed by the least
trouble, and to that end have thought, devised,
planned, and executed. They have even com-
mitted many crimes to attain their object. The
whole detestable scheme of slavery grew from
the wish of some men to be supplied with the
necessaries of life with the least possible labour.
The substitution of agriculture—and the con-
tinual improvements made in that noble
art—for hunting ; the premiums given for new
discoveries and inventions, which produce more
by less labour; and the modern employment
and extension of powerful machinery—itself the
result of a wish to abridge labour, are all speci-
mens of the general desire and general exertions
to lessen the cost of production. If such a wide
induction, though we have stated comparatively
few instances, does not prove that the Tory
writers alluded to are writing and wrangling
for a despicable party purpose, against a law of
nature, as exemplified by the continual opera-
tions of the mind in all stages of society, then is

the use of the words " Law of Nature" alto-
gether, erroneous, and no such law can exist.
In obedience, however, as we say, to this law
of nature, and certainly in conformity to the
general disposition and general struggles of man-
kind, the machine-makers and manufac-
turers, the inventors, discoverers, and pro-
jectors with whom our country abounds,
since the first happy application of steam-power
to lighten human toil, have exerted themselves

most assiduously and most successfully to devise
and bring into use machines for abridging
labour in manufacturing clothing, instruments,
and utensils, necessary or useful to man. They
have succeeded so well that they have stimu-
lated all the other nations of the world to imitate
them ; who, thereby confirming our general
position, practically rendered a profound homage
to that pursuit which the ignorant and factious
Tories describe as pernicious. We do not say
that, in the eagerness to get money, schemes
have not been tried, and projects urged, which
are valueless ; we do not say that no man has
been too eager to promote his own interest at the
expense of others; but we affirm, on the whole,
that this striving and struggling to lessen the
cost of production, by extending the use of ma-
chinery, is in accordance with a law of nature;

and has been eminently honourable to our coun-
trymen, and beneficial to mankind at large.
One necessary consequence of the continual
struggle to lessen the cost of production has been
a continual lowering of the price of all the
goods which our manufacturers have to sell.
The price of cotton twist, of calico, of cutting
instruments, &c., &c., and, unfortunately, the
wages of labour, as we are continually told, have
fallen from 50 to :200 per cent. within a fevryears.
That this hasbeen eminently beneficial in all cases,
except the fall of wages, we have not the smallest
doubt; but, whether beneficial or not, it is the con-
sequence of that general struggling after im-
provement in the means of production which we
have described as a law of nature.
The fall of wages, under these circumstances,
is of much importance. We do not consider
it to be the consequence of the introduction of
machinery, for the effect of that is to give man-
kind more for less labour, and consequently to
augment its rewards. It is the consequence of
the mode in which, under the existing right of

property, the produce of the machinery is un-
equally distributed amongst capitalists and
labourers. The general rule for regulating wages,
since the abolition of serfdom in Europe, has
been what would supply the labourer and his
family with the bare necessaries of life. To
use the words of Mr. RICARDO, deduced from
and representing the practice in Europe—not the
laws of nature—" The natural price of labour
is that price which is necessary to enable the
labourers, one with another, to subsist, and to
perpetuate their race without increase or diminu-
tion." That at times some classes of labourers
have been successively and temporarily raised
above that condition, has been the consequence
of new discoveries and new inventions, which
have given higher wages to those employed in
carrying them out. For example, the demand
for gas-fitters, cotton-spinners, &c., as gas and
machine spinning came into use, caused high
wages to be given in those trades, and propor-
tionally gave an impulse towards a rise in every
department of business. The fall in wages,
therefore, or in the price of labour, has not been
caused, though latterly it has accompanied, the
noble efforts continually made to lessen the cost
of production. On the contrary, the meaning of
that phrase is, that man, by less labour, gets
more from nature ; and consequently a rise in
natural wages, and a lessening of the cost of
production have an identical meaning, or repre-
sent the same general fact.
The real cause of the fall in wages as
the cost of production has fallen, which, duly
considered, is a very singular circumstance,
is to be found in the laws of the land.
Natural wages are all paid by produce, and food,
being the most essential of all produce, influences
and determines all the rest. Men must have
food before they can buy muslin frills or orna-
mented books. All other produce must, in the
last resort, be exchanged for some kind or other
of food. Now, while all mankind have been
struggling in their individual capacity—for even
landlords have essayed to reduce the cost of agri-
cultultural produce—our community, in its cor-
porate capacity—or rather that part of it in whose
hands, for our sins, is placed the scourge of legis-
lation—has been making and enforcing laws to
keep up the cost of producing and supplying the
community with food. Our manufacturers strug-
gle to make cotton and hardware cheap for all
the world, but our statute law says that all the
world in return shall not struggle to make food
cheap for our cotton and hardware manufac-
turers. An end is thus at once put to reciprocity
of exertion and exchange. The plain and pal-
pable consequence is, that while cotton and hard-
ware have become more and more abundant, and
more and more cheap, the food which, in the
course of nature, should be exchanged for them,
to obtain which, in fact, they are manufactured,
has not become more and mere abundant, and
more and more cheap. The law has prohibited it
by prohibiting the reciprocity of exertion. In fact,
in relation to the increasing population, to which
the extension of our manufactures has hitherto
given employment, food, in consequence of the
supply being limited and cut off by the law, has
become scarcer and scarcer, and dearer and
dearer. There being less and less food to be
divided among an increasing number of manu-
facturers, their produce exchanges for less and
less. They receive less food, or less money to
buy it, which is the same thing, and the fall of
wages is the consequence of the statute law.
It interferes with the course of nature, and
decrees, contrary to the struggles of mankind in
all ages, that food shall not be obtained by Eng-
lishmen at a less and less cost of production.
This is the chief, but not the sole source, of
the present distress. In conformity to the law
of nature, our manufacturers have striven to pro-
duce useful commodities at the greatest possible
diminution of cost, and have been most eminently
successful. In opposition to the law of nature
our Legislature has decreed that food, the most
indispensible of all commodities,shall not be pro-
duced and had here, in England, at the greatest
possible diminution of cost. They have, as far as
they could, thwarted the laws of nature ; there is,
in consequence, little food for the increasing
people—hence little wages and general suffering.
There is, in consequence, comparatively little to
exchange for the produce of our manufacturers;
hence their lessened profits, decay, and great
distress. The statute law against making food
cheap and abundant is the curse of the community.
Some most important considerations arise from
this proof that our Legislature thwarts the laws of
nature. The circumstance has often been pointed
out, but the Legislature, from selfish and sinister
motives, refuses to alter its unnatural statutes.
That raises the question, whether men are to obey
nature, benevolent and wise, or to obey their
fellow men, selfish, tyrannical, and ignorant? It
raises the question in the minds of the suffering
millions, whether such a Legislature be not the
opponent of civilization—which has its root in
that desire for improvement which Corn and
Provision-laws counteract—whether it be.not the
antagonist of prosperity, the foe of peace, the
promoter of strife, the enemy of human power,
grandeur, and happiness ;.and whether it be not
the duty of men to root out and destroy such a
Legislature ? Do we say, raise the question ?
'We imperfectly represent the fact. Already the
masses have instinctively, as the adoption of
the Charter evinces, come to the conclusion that
such a Legislature ought to be destroyed. It
seems to them a complete nuisance which they
are called upon to abate, and they lack only the
power, which union can any day give them, to
carry their conclusions into practical effect.

We learn with satisfaction that several com-
tamuryniocfa
tten
As
aht
ia-vceo
rbn
leanw rseocceiievteyd,
rbe yc tmh
me
eSnedc
irneg-
the inhabitants of the metropolis to avail them-
selves of the opportunity offered by the opening
of Parliament on Thursday week, which is to be
done by her MAJESTY in person, to convey to
her their opinion on the subject of the Corn-
laws. We think the opportunity most favour-
able ; her MAJESTY goes in procession purposely
to see her people and be seen by them; and the
voices of perhaps half a million of persons would
have a more thrilling and powerful effect than a
whole cart-load of memorials placed before her
MAJESTY by the Secretary of State on a series
of bag-wigged deputations.
How often do we hear it said by the poor,
"I wish I could speak to her MAJESTY, I am
sure she would not suffer it." On Thursday
week every poor man, aye, every poor woman
and child, not only of the metropolis, but of
many miles round, may have an opportunity of
QUEEN how she can benefit the poor.
It et
si nimpossiblethe she can know or have heard any-
thing of the misery suffered by the starving
people of Bolton, Stockport, Leeds, Manchester,
Paisley, or her heart would bleed for their deep
distress, and she would command her Tory Mi-
nisters, on pain of her stern displeasure, and
dismissal from her 'councils, to find means to
relieve it. Her MAJESTY, though she be young
in years, is wise in council, and she is well aware
that her throne cannot be safe if her people be