The Sun.
London, England, 1842-01-07 00:00:00

(Mg _Atit.

LONDON:
FRIDAY, JANUARY 7, 1842.

The official accounts which we this day publish
of the capture of Amoy and the success of the
British arms in China, fully bear out all
the statements from private sources of informa-
tion which appeared in The Sun of yester-
day. Sir HENRY POTTINGER appears to
be a Plenipotentiary of the right stamp,
and in Admiral PARKER and Sir Huon
GOUGH, his Excellency has found kindred spirits
in decision and in gallantry. Amoy was taken
in four hours, but it is quite clear, from the
official reports, that had the state of the fortress
been known to the Commander-in. Chief it would
have fallen in two hours, or even less. It is by
storming the Chinese works that our brave fellows
may expect to carry them ; and in the next
engagement that takes place there will be less
cannonading, and a speedier appeal to the
bayonet. The capture of Amoy is of very
great importance to us. The anchorage
in the bay is excellent, the harbour is
large, deep, and well•sheltered, and the sur-
rounding country very healthy. By occupying
theisland of Koo-lang-soo, the British may, at any
moment, take possession of Amoy, without the
risk of weakening the force on board the ships,
by withdrawing the number of troops necessary
to garrison so extensive a city. The Chinese
fought well—some of them with the energy of
despair ; but they were no match for the disci-
plined troops under the command of Sir H.
GOUGH.

But though beaten, the Chinese, in their re-
port to the EMPEROR, a translation of which we
have quoted from the Canton Register, claim a
complete victory over the outside barbarians. A
Bombay Correspondent doubts the authenticity of
the Chinese report, but to us there appears no-
thing at all doubtful about it. Had the writer
confessed to defeat he must have died under
the torture, and he preferred a lie which might
gratify the Imperial vanity, to the loss of his
own life. The truth, however, cannot be long
concealed from the EMPEROR, so that before
the squadron will have reached the mouth of
the Peiho River, his Celestial MAJESTY will be
fully sensible of the mistake he made in coming
to a rupture with the English.

The Burmese Monarch Tit ARAWADDIE is
amusing himself with pageants at Rangoon, so
that nothing more is to be dreaded from that

quarter.

In Central Asia we regret to state that our
affairs wear an ominous appearance. Per-
haps the only great act of Lord AUCKLAND'S
policy, of which from the first we disapproved,
was the restoration of SHAH SOOJAH, and already
has it proved to us a most unfortunate business.
The SHAH was a coward, a tyrant, and a fool,
and lost his throne because he deserved to lose
it. To afford him a safe asylum in British
India Was highly creditable to the British

name but to restore him to a throne occupied
by a sagacious popular Prince, at the immense
and almost impassable distance that Cabool is
from the seat of the British Government in

India, always appeared to us exceedingly ill-
advised. Already, besides the loss of twenty-five
officers killed, and an equal number carried
off by the climate of Cabool, the SHAH
SOOJAH affair has cost the Treasury of India
from twenty to twenty-five millions sterling—a
sad set-off against the recent success of our arms
in China.

It is not denied by the Tory Journals that the
" public distress has had some influence on the
revenue, and if it have not produced the whole
or any considerable part of the Excise decrease,
it has prevented an increase." But there is little
doubt that the distress of the lower classes is the
main cause of the falling off in the revenue.
They contribute little or nothing to the Assessed
"Taxes," and this branch of the revenue is
flourishing, but they contribute a large propor-
tion of the Excise duties, in which the deficiency
is the greatest; we must, therefore, tell the land-
lords, who in general have the disbursement and
enjoyment of the revenue, that they cannot have

their funds both in meal and in malt, cannot
both levy a heavy tax on the necessaries of life
for their own especial use, and taxes on luxuries
and comfbrts for the use of the State.

At the conference of the working-classes held
at Manchester on New Year's Day, from which
emanated that excellent Address to the Radical
Reformers of Great Britain and Ireland which
we published in our afternoon edition yesterday,
a considerable body of facts were brought for-
ward to illustrate the present condition of the
working-classes, some of which we shall quote to
show its effects on the revenue. It is scarcely
necessary to remind the reader that in the majo-
rity of cases people do not limit their consump-
tion of bread and meat till after they have limited,
or totally put a stop to their consumption of to-
bacco and spirituous liquors. At that meeting
there were Deputies from various parts of the
kingdom, and Mr. JOHN ADAM, weaver, from
Forfar, gave in a report of the working-classes in
that town., of which the following is an extract :
There were visited in Forfar 510 families, consisting
of 1,727 individuals, nearly all of whom were employed.
After deducting for rent, fire, and light, they had only
the following sums per day, respectively, on which to
subsist, viz.:-40 individuals, from 6d. to Bd. per day;
61 from sd. to 5f d.• 116 from 4d. to 414.; 247 from 3d.
to 311; 567 from id. to 111; and 118 from id. to Id.
The greater part of the last number are single women,
employed as winders. Only 42 of the entire number are
unemployed. In 1836, the population of Forfar was
8,780; the number of cattle killed was 825, which gave
an average allowance, per diem, to each individual, of
1 ounce 13f drachms. In 1841 the population was 9,605;
and the number of cattle killed, 483, which afforded to
each individual an average daily supply of 151 drachms.
The consumption of other necessaries, bread, clothing,
&c., diminished in the same proportion.
That is the condition of the people in a remote
part of Scotland; their condition in the heart of
England was thus described :
In Nottingham the working classes were in great
distress. He (Mr. Murray) had counted 117 stout,
healthy men, engaged in " making a hole, and filling it
up again." They were employed at the forest in remov-
ing a bank of red sandstone, in order that they might re-
ceive parish pay. Eleven of them were harnessed to the
gravel cart, like beasts of burden. That was not a suit-
able occupation for human beings. The children in the
workhouse of Nottingham died so rapidly that a coro•
ner's inquest was held to ascertain the cause. It was
then found, that, in consequence of the crowded state of
the workhouse, the mortality was five-fold greater in it
than outside.

Of Halifax a carefully drawn up report stated,
Sixty-two families have been forced from their
homes into lodgings, where there are two, and three, and
even four small families in one small house of two
rooms, with scarcely a vestige of furniture. Some are
lying upon straw, on the cold ground ; others had been
without fire in their houses for two or three days, and
not a morsel of flour, meal, or other food in the house.
One poor woman declared she had not eaten a morsel for
two days. In one house, containing two families, was a
female, in a corner of the room, clothed in rags, near her
confinement, and actually famishing for bread.

Though the aristocracy, by drawing- their cur-
tains close, and shutting their double-doors,
may keep the complaints of the people from pe-
netrating into their clubs and drawing-rooms,
and may therefore remain in blissful ignorance
of what the people say and think, they must not
suppose, we can assure them, that such statements
can be made to crowded meetings of the work-
ing classes, and can be recorded by many of the
Journals, without having a considerable effect on
their minds. One consequence of such state-
ments is to make • them feel doubly indignant
against the bread-taxers, and hence the demand
for compensation for past injury, as well as a
guarantee against future wrong,, is becoming
quite popular amongst them. At that meeting
a Mr. WATKINS said—

If the large assembly which he had the honour to re-
present were polled through, scarcely an individual
would be found who would not assert the principle that
the people were entitled to receive compensation from
the aristocracy who had fattened themselves on their
sufferings. The propriety of making this claim was
not first suggested by young and inexperienced men,
who did not understand the matter—it was first proposed
by the father of the Anti-Corn-law agitation—the author
of the Anti-Corn-law Catechism—Colonel Thompson ;
and the claim was considered just and legitimate by the
Rev. Patrick Brewster, who, in a letter addressed to him
(Mr. Watkins) a few weeks ago, used these words :--
"I cannot help expressing my satisfaction that the work-
ing men getting up the meeting have the sense and spirit
to demand compensation. Would that the League had
the courage to join them in that claim !—it would sooner
bring your unfeeling oppressors to their senses."—
(Cheers.) Though that claim had been put forward by
a few, yet backed as it was by two men whom all per-
ties respected, it was surely entitled to the consideration
of the meeting.

His opinions were thus echoed :
Mr. Murray, of Nottingham, was of opinion that com-
pensation, in some shape or other, should be had. The
aristocracy had proclaimed to the world, through their
organs, that they were worth 3,000,000,0001. of money ;
and he thought that, as they had saddled the country
with 1,000,000,000/. of a National Debt, they should be
called on to liquidate it by paying 6s. 8(1. to the pound
for one year. He would forgive them all their bygone

robbery, if they paid that debt. They might discharge
it in ten years by paying Bd. to the pound on their
boasted capital. That was the compensation he would
demand from them ; and surely, after charging the
people 30 per cent. on their food beyond its real value,
they (the aristocracy) had no reason to grumble at the
proposition.
Such are the thoughts and such is the language
of the working-classes, dictated by their deep
distress ; and such thoughts and such language
are spreading further and wider, while indignation
against the law-makers is becoming more intense
every day. Unfortunately for them, science and
the statistical accounts which they order to be
collected for their own information or amuse
ment, justify the workmen's statements,
confirm those indications of decay and, distreas
which we find in the Revenue accounts. In a
paper on the increase of mortality, in that useful
periodical, called Facts and Figures, No. 4, we
find the following passage :
The rate of mortality throughout England was—
In the year ending 30th June, 1839, ono in 46.21, or
216 in 10,000 of the population. In the year ending
30th June, 1840, one in 44'28, or 225 in 10,000 of the
population ; showing an increase of 9 on 216, or 4'16
per cent. It was in 1839 1840
Leicestershire ....... lin 48'06
Nottinghamshire
West Riding, Yorkshire lin 44.11
Cheshire
Warwickshire
Staffordshire 1 in 53.04
Lancashire
The above seven counties lin 41.82
All England
In each 10,000 of the population the deaths have there-
fore been, 1839. 1840. Difference.
In the seven manufactur- 239 262 9.62 per cent.
e. in counties 3
In the remaining counties 206 209 1'45 „
In all England
In the counties of Leicester, Nottingham, and Lan-
caster, the deaths have been in each 10,000 of the
population : 1839. 1840. Difference.
Leicester
Nottingham 2lO 282 34.28 „
Lancaster 283 315 11.30 „
The extreme high rate of mortality in both years in
Lancashire seems to indicate that causes adverse to
prosperity came earlier into operation in that county
than elsewhere : the rate of mortality, then, has been
higher than that of the whole kingdom by 31 per cent.
in 1839, and 43 per cent. in 1840.
When we consider that the value of life among the
upper and middling classes has been decidedly improved,
as shown by the alterations in insurance policies, as well
as by general observation, how fearful must be the in-
crease of disease and mortality amongst the poor !
Fearful, indeed—it must be fearful; and the
people begin to be quite sensible that those who
call them " canaille," and the " swinish multi-
tude," have a serious and settled design on their
lives. They say that they are to be starved ont