The Sun.
London, England, 1842-01-17 00:00:00

EVENING SUN

SPIRIT of the PUBLIC J OURNALS.
FROM THE EVENING PAPERS OF SATURDAY.
STAN DA RD.—The day of election for a Profes-
sor of Poetry has been definitively fixed for Thursday,
the 27th inst. The polling will commence at ten
o'eleek in the morning, and will continue throughout
the day. It was originally understood that the election
would have taken place on the 26th ; but it has since
been decided that the day should be altered to the
27th, and a formal notice has been issued to thet
effect. We have already written and published much
on the great question to be tried, but we could .not
with a safe coascience relax in a case in which we
firmly believe the clergy of England and the University
of Oxford to be upon their trial. The election, we
are informed by a. correspondent, must, according to
usage, be made in a manner to preclude the identifica-
tion of voters. Much as men ought to 'dislike secrecy
in any public act, the appeal to the Ballot in the present
case is so far fortunate, as it obviates the main objec
tion ()Were() to a contest, namely, that it would
place friends in =nicest opposition. For our own
part, we have no tenderness for friendship in such
matters. It a friend perversely or stupidly takes a line
which we believe to be sinful, we regard the tempera
inconvenience to which he may expose himself b 3
such conduct as kind and wholesome chastisement,
necessary to bring him to a sense of his sin,
and which, therefore, it would not be the part
of friendship to divert. Ou the other hand,
men ought not to be ashamed to act right, who-
ever may act wrong. But be this as it may,
all oVjection on personal grounds is removed
by the form of the election. Much, however, has been
said, and by men entitled to all respect, of the evil of
any contest, however carried on ; but one consideration
seems to be lost sight of by such as hold that a con-
test can be avoided. The public, including the whole
body of laymen in the Church, have a right to
know the opinions of their religious teachers, and
the bias of the University at which their chil-
dren are to be educated ; and these they can now
learn in no other way than by a clear, unequivocal de-
cision of the question now in issue. If Mr. Williams
and his friends beat a charnade—we care not under
what pretest, because we know them well enough to
know that nothing but a certainty of ignominious defeat
will cause them to retire—if Mr. Williams and his
friends withdraw, or if they be signally defeated, as we
trust they will be, upon a poll, the clergy of the Uni-
versity will preserve that glorious character which has
been theirs for centuries. But (we will imagine no-
thing so terrible as a Tractarian triumph) a compro-
mise would be utterly fatal. The character of the
clergy and of the University is, we repeat it, the pro-
perty of the country—a property which many of us
look upon its- the most precious of all our national
possessions ; hut this character has been aspersed by
sectarian enemies. Oxford is, we will not say sus-
pected, but accused, of favouring the Romanist schism.
TLe accusation was brought openly in the House of
Commons, and boldly repelled as far as it could be by
the testimony of individuals ; but now Oxford is called
upon to render her own testimony in reply to this accu-
sation, and silence on her part will amount to a plea of
guilty, and to a disavowal of her Parliamentary defenders.
GLOBE.—In all the interminable discussions to
which the subject of the Corn-laws has given rise, it has
been customary for the friends of the present system to
maintain, that if provisions would be purchasable for
less money, through a reduction of the taxes on food,
there would be a corresponding, or "even a greater
diminution in the wages of those classes to whom the
dearness of provisions is now the cause of so much
misery. Without now entering into the merits of the
question whether an alteration in the Corn-laws would
have the effect of diminishing the income of a
manufacturing operative so much as to leave him as
badly off as he is at present—a conclusion that has
been over and over again shown to be absurd—we may
a Is.the advocates of dear living whether there is not in
this country a frightful amount of distress among in-
dividuals whose scanty earnings could not be injuriously
affected by the proposed measure for making bread
cheap ; and who, while they gained as much or more
than they can do now, would be enab'ed to obtain a
much larger quantity of food for the same amount of
money ? The ingenious disputants who deal with no•
thing less lofty than commerce and agrictilture, the ma-
nufacturing, the trading, or the landed interests, with the
statistics relating to each, as the only worthy subjects
of their elaborate and sometimes radio mystical essays
on political economy, would feel it to be an affront to
their dignity were we to begin to talk to them about
washerwomen, watermen, cab-drivers, charwomen, and
those industrious individuals by whom mangling and
ironing are done, or messages and parcels carefully de.
livered ; but we can assure those gentlemen who de-
clare that cheap food will profit nobody, that if they
would only walk into the humble apartments of the
thousands of individuals belonging to the classes we
have named, it would be found that in: many cases
wretchedness might be relieved, in all comfort increased,
and in none earnings•diminished, by a reduction in the
cost of the ne3essary articles of nourisment.
COURIER.--The system of fraud, falsehood, and
murderous excitement against the --higher and more
respectable orders and leading interests of the empire,
unrelentingly pursued by the boisterous and disreput-
able chiefs of the Anti-Corn League, and the venal
press at their command, not lass Ihul mouthed than
themselves, has bad the natural effect of bringing,
a bad cause into such utter contempt that not an
Anti-Corn-law meeeng has taken place for som,
time past which has not proved a miserabl,
failure, so that now by common consent all suck
gatherings are ranged in the category of farces
unworthy of the slightest notice. From tumultuary
a.semblages, formidable in some respects as the engines
for an unprincipled faction to work with, they have
dwindled indeed into hole and corner conclaves, of whose
wherefores and' whereabouts nothing would ever he
heard but for reports drawn up, or reporters subsidied b)
themselves, with which, in default of better matter, or
any decent matter at all, Whig-Radical journals are con-
tent to cram their pages in the dull and pacific times of
a Conservative Government. To this happy dearth of ex-
citing news we owe, as may be supposed, the report o!
the sayings and doings of an Anti-Corn-law conference
lately 1141 in Edinburgh fur the special exhibition of
some of those. Reverend, but not revered, humanity pre-
tenders, who now seem all holy fire and fluster about
the riff,rings of the poor, although when their
pious aid and . consolaiion was sought in the hour
of utmost n el, and in behalf of the infant as
'well as the adult poor,
.victims of factory iniqui-
ties of the deepest dye, during all the dismal night
of anguish and suffering which preceded the Fac-
tory Bill, these mercenary shepherds were found
blind and deaf to the cries and tortures of an in
nocent flock, among whom the wolf was left to
indulge his ravenous appetite nneheckA. Alas !
for the miserable flock ; they have neither the
power to ply, nor to withhold clerical gifts
and sa'aric', whilst their enemy, the wolf, is quite
a la hauteur de see position, and understands how to
work all the springs of the voluntary systeth to his own
special use ead carnage. Tne same wolf which silenced
the clerical sympathies of the voluntary school in behalf
of the factory child and the Factory Bill, now sounds
loud the bLst of war linst the agricultural poor, and
In ! " black sprits and grey," with " drum ccrlesi title"
and " eager for the fray," are up and stirring in town
and village, exciting °nu class of the people to the de-
t •uct ion of another class, and preaching the abominable
(loco ine that or ly by the annihilation of theagriculturnl
population can the manufacturing operatives hope to
achieve their daily bread.

MONEY MARKET mid CITY NEWS.

FROM THE !HORNING PAPERS OF THIS DAY.
T I NIES. —lt is now stilted that the balance of
stock which it was supposed the Government broker
weal bring into the market has-been taken by the
• Bank, but of course nothing is known of the price
at which tl:e bargain %vaq made. The jobbers are
much (li4pleased at the negotiation, as it is stated to
have heen concluded without the itterventiOn of any
member of that body, who invariably act as the " mid-
dle men" lictiteon the brokers.
A &lane! e ter circular, reviewing the state of trade
in that district for the past year, observes that it
will he long remembered for its losses and embar-
rassments both to the spinner and manufacturer.
The yew's business, it appears, commenced with
heavy storks, which went on accumulating in con-
sequence of the small demand for goods, which in-
dueed several of the owners of factories to put their
works on short time in March, and this course was
adopted until the mouth of .May, when " short
time" became nearly general, it being supposed that
things had reached their lowest point. In June
there was more business, and it was hoped matters
had taken a hater turn. But in July depre,sion
returned, failures increased, and business continued in
the same un-.atisfatitory and languishing state through-
out the remainder of the year. In September an exten-
sive bas!neis was done for the Turkish and Alediterra-
nein markets, chiefly in coarse long cloths and domestics,
which relieved the markets of these descriptions ; and
in October a demand was experienced for twist for
Russia and the Continent, but these had little or no
effect in reviving business generally. The expecta-
tion of improvement entertained at the commencement
of the year was not without considerable influence
on the twist market, for prices advanced materially
by the middle of February, although they were not
long maintained, but. were on the contrary fireed
to a low point by
,the close of the yaar. Notwitkr
standing this, the exports as compared with, the previous
year showed an increase of 8,000,0001 h., being esti-
' mated at 115,000,0001 b. against 107,000,0001 h....„
,The
prineipalinerease was in the shipments to Germany,
and to China, India, Sweden `{d Norway, Italy, and
Turkey and Egypt. From the low prices current it is
stated the chief attention of the owners of mills and
factories had been directed to the working of them
as cheaply as possible, and caused the employment cif
fewer hands than formerly. However, much distress
had been avoided among the operatives, for although
they were working at wages poor enough, they would
have been pladed in a touch worse position bad the