The Sun.
London, England, 1842-02-26 00:00:00

TO CORRESPONDENTS.

The spirit which dictates the letter of the " Sheffield Knive-
Hatters," is extremely creditable to them ; but, independ-
dently of the present demand on our columns, which would
preclude us from inserting it, the remarks on a local Con-
temporary render it quite inadmissible.

We ha're not room for the communication of a " Free Trader,"
and it is therefore left for him in the Office, as he desired.

Tiff; NV RATHE —Noon, FEnnumir 25.
ROYAL GALLERY OF SCIENCE, ADELAIDE-STREET
Thermometer... 41 1 Highest 46 1 Lowest .
Barometer 29.71.—Wind W.—Freezing Point .22 Deg.

HIGH WATER AT LONDON BRIDGE THIS DAY.
Merning......2l minutes after 2 !Evening

LONDON
SATURDAY MORNING, FEBRUARY 26, 1842.

Mr. CIIRISTOPIIER'6 in,)tion was brought forward last
night in the Committee, discussed, and withdrawn. The
motion was treated with contempt, as a mere make-
believe, by all sides of the House, and the lion. Member
confirmed the general impression by his conduct. Sir
ROBERT PEEt.'s scale was subsequently put to the vote,
and carried by 306 to 104. Mr. AGLIONBY, and probably
some other Liberals, voted with him, as his scale is the
best they can get.
In the course of
_his short speech Sir ROBERT PEEL
made-the House understand that he is already in great
difficulties with his sliding scale. lle explained to the
House last night, that the millers had been worrying
him, because he had fixed too low a figure for flour, and
they predicted, after his Bill came into operation, the
country would be so inundated with flour that they
would have nothing to grind. Then the barley-growers
declare that he has given them 2s. per quarter too little.
All the Irish gentlemen; and all the growers of oats, call
on him to do something more for that grain, or Ireland
wiU be unfairly dealt with. He did not say that the
horses had complained about the tax on beans being too
low, or that the maltsters complained of the taxation on
barley, but he said enough to prove that the task he
has undertaken, of giving an equal or at least a satis-
factory- protection in the pike of commodities
to every producer in the empire, is far more tian human
power can perform. As the country declines he will find
demands on the bounty of the State ; and if the Right
lion. Gentleman neither gives up his scheme nor gives
up his office—and he dropped last night some hints and
some threats to the agriculturists—though he devote
night and day to the work, he will never duly apportion
protection amongst all his monopolist friends, to say no-
thing of the other interests which acquire a claim on
him for his concessions to them. Sir ROBERT spoke in
rather a subdued tone ; he is willing to re-consider his
scheme of the averages ; he is afraid of his friends ;
and- spoke so feelingly of the party, comprising all
classes, who are moderate and approve of his scale, that
we thought lie was bidding for their support to protect
him against the extremes on both sides. Is he already
tired of his thankless task ?

-...----
It is charged against Mr. COBDEN and others, by Mr.
kEnRAND, that they work their mills and bleaching es.-
tablishments day and night. The House of Commons
cheered this as if it were a great enormity, and yet that
House very often sits till 2 or 3 o'clock in the morning,
and employs clerks and printers all through the night.
Its votes and proceedings, though it do not rise till finir
o'clock, are printed and dispersed through the town next
morning by ten o'clock. To print them men must work
all night. _ .

The debates of the House employ reporters printers
readers, boys, &C., &C., all through the night, and
greatly to the satisfaction of the muLitude of land-
owners,
who yelled with delight at Air. COBDEN'S r -
sinned crue:ty, are laid on their breakfast table Pa:d
despatched by the early mails - all over the country, by
working at night. What would Mr. WALTER think if
his co-labourers were to denounce him for printing the
Tines by night ? We, who notice the proceedings of the
Commons, labour through the greater part of the night,
and as we go home in the grey of the morning we see
policemen, cabmen, and watchmen, who sewn to keep about
the same hours as ourselves ; and the Members, and
clerks of Parliament, engine-drivers, mail-guards, eoach-
men on long stages, and an immense number of lab, mr-
''rf all kinds—not to mention the sailors who keep
v`v;aotrt: the soldiers woo are on guard—perform night
,7 en as day work. With all due respect to

Mr. FERRAND, therefore, and to the Gentlemen of the
House of Commons, many of whom keep men out at
night in the most inclement weather to watch their pre-
serves—from all these examples of work carried on at
night, we cannot hold it to be :the least reproach to Mr.
COBDEN, or any other man, that he works his mills at
night as well as by day. All that is requisite to make
working by night just, is, that it should be voluntary,
and those who submit to the inconvenience should be
proportionably rewarded.

- Should it be said that there is no necessity for night
work in factories and print works, we reply, that to
keep furnaces alight night work cannot be dispensed
with. Something of the same kind is true of large steam-
engines. It takes a considerable time to kindle the fire
and get the steam up, and much loss is incurred by al-
lowing the fires to go out. In print-works there are
chemical agents, which are continually undergoing
change ; there is, as it were, a power always at work ;
and when Corn-laws and other restrictions so limit
men's means of getting bread, and of getting wealth,
that their utmost exertions fail in attaining either, we
cannot be surprised at manufacturers desiring to econo-
mise the powers of nature, by using them by night as
well as by day. Neither, Mr. COBDEN, we presume, nor'
any other master, employs the same persons both for
night and for day work. He has relays of hands, who
keep watch and watch, as: it were, and are paid
accordingly. It is no more a matter of reproach
to him and other manufacturers that they work at night,
than it is to the proprietors of all the Morning Papers
of the metropolis. The empty reproach which Mr.
FERRAND hurled against the manufacturers excited
roars of approbation from the game preservers, whose
night watchers sometimes get knocked on the head.

We must, in conclusion, offer our own explanation cf
what Mr. FERRAND calls a quibble. lie stated, in the
first instance, on an anonymous authority, a great many
charges against the manufacturers; and, amongst others,
that Mr. COBDEN worked his mills at night. /0.
BROTHERTON took up this, and justly inferred that if
the anonymous authority were no better on other
points, it was worth nothing, for Mr. COBDEN never had
a mill in his life. In that we see no quibble, but a very
natural and just inference. It could not be supposed
that the person who gave this minute information was
ignorant of the difference between a mill and a print-
work, and when he made such an extraordinary mis-
take he was open to the suspicion that he knew nothing
of the subject. There was no quibble in this, but there
was astounding impudence in charging men with a
quibble in order to cover the retreat of presumptuous
ignorance. We hope that the time is not yet come when
loud-mouthed declamation in the House of Commons
is to be suffered to stifle the voice of modest merit.

The Bishop of EXETER had the first brush with his
friends in office on Thursday night, and we are not at all
sorry that he came off second best, for a more meddling,
wain, and arrogant priest has not sat in Parliament for se-
veral reigns. Possibly the conduct of the parties of whom
he complained was bad, and abuses existed in the
Crediton Union, but the misfortune or such a question
being taken up by a man like his Reverence of EXETER
is that people cannot give him credit for sincerity, and
are always afraid that, under the semblance of mercy or
justice, he has some sinister purpose in view. In fact,
Lord WHARNCLIFFE told him as much. The case had
been allowed to stand over since 1840, and is now raked
up at the time when the New Poor law was about to be
brought before Parliament. "My firm belief," said his
Lordship, " is that this case was got up, and that for
some reason which he would not particularize."
Dr. PHILLPOTTS was thus made a particcps crintinis.
It is gratifying to see the rebuffs these Tories get from
one another, in reference to this Poor-law. The 4,b-
-noxious measure was for a time imputed entirely to the
Whigs, and at elections in the North, and in Yorkshire
in particular, it was denounced by Tory candidates"; yet
now. comes forward the Tory President of the Council,
and shows himself as good a defender of the system as
Lord BROUGHAM himself.

This treatment on the part of his friends irritated, no
doubt, the gentle ecclesiastic, and made him have recourse
to such strong words as "monstrous and iniquitous disinge •
nuousness," and all but tell his Noble antagonist that he
had shown much ingenuity in shuffling out of the ques-
tion, but had not given thQ semblance of an answer to the
charges. The Bishop, however, is not to be put off in
this way, and we are much mistaken if he do not renew
the attack from some other quarter.

The Government exhibits a praiseworthy eagerness to
lose no time in bringing forward and passing a Bill for
the legalization of Presbyterian Marriages in Ireland. •
It is of the utmost importance to tranquillize the'
minds of the very intelligent body whose moral and reli-
gious feelings were so shocked by the recent decision of
the Irish Judges against the legality of mixed marring( s,
celebrated by Presbyterian clergymen. The Noble ;tic-
cretary for Ireland has obtained leave to bring in the Bill,
to the subject of which we are happy to learn that the
particular attention of the law officers of the late and pre-
sent Governments has been directed. We trust th•it
when the Bill has reached the House of Peers, Lord
BROUGHAM will take it under his especial protection,
and so extend its provisions as to include marriages ce-
lebrated by clergymen of all religious denominations.
The necessity that exists for such a Bill is a disgrace to
the Legislature of this country.

The French Journals intimate, and we are well dis-
posed to believe them, that the French Government will
not ratify the Treaty for the suppression of the Slave-
trade. French jealousy of England is too great to allow

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