The Sun.
London, England, 1842-12-15 00:00:00

price to the farmer for his wheat. On this price the I When ESPARTERO had fully succeeded in putting
landlords—the authors of these enactments—calculate ' down the civil war, he was naturally grateful for
and fix their rents ; and on this price the farmers the assistance so cordially rendered by England,
make their calculations, and contract to pay those and showed a preference to the English connection.
rents. But it turns out that the Corn-laws do not '
ensure this price. The rents have been adjusted on Thisa roused the jealousy of France. Queen
'
fallacious supposition : the two contracting parties, CHRISTINA then became the favourite, and an
therefore, cannot both be satisfied, and the weakest attempt was made to excite a civil war, to destroy
goes to the wall. The landlord exacts his rent, and the Constitution, and bring Spain back to its
the farmer is ruined. former state of pupilage under France.
Mr. GREG confirms his statement by a succinct That plan also miserably failed, but
history of the objects and effects of the Corn- the EX4IEGENT was still cherished at the
laws of 1815, 1822, 1828, and 1842, and concludes French Court, and her partisans thronged around
" that the Corn-laws induced the farmer to con-
her at Paris, ready en the first appearance of re-
tract to pay rents which, except in years of volt in any part of Spain to join with the enemies
scarcity, the price of wheat will not enable him of the REGENT. This was an unjust policy
to pay." Now the effect of a duty for revenue towards a country with which France
being the same as a duty for protection, the far- was at peace, and which really had given
mer will be as much deluded by such a duty as no just cause of' offence to Louis PHILIPPE.
by the existing duty, and will in consequence Next comes the outbreak at Barcelona, and
promise to pay a higher rent than lie will be though we are willing to acquit'the French Go-
enabled to pay. Mr. GREG proceeds to show vernment of all blame in concocting a mad
that home consumption will prevent the farmer scheme of this kind, it cannot be denied that the
from realising the price he anticipates from the agents of France are using every possible means
law : to turn it to advantage. The journals, both in the
By dint of looking always at the intention, and interest of the Ministry and the Opposition, are
never at the operation, of legislative measures, a stirring up the French and the Spaniards against
great number of our farmers have come to believe, England, and even accusing our Government of
that low prices are the effect of foreign competition,
a wicked design to destroy Barcelona in order
and that high prices are the consequence of that com-
petition being shut out. Now, how stands the fact ? to put down the manufactures of Catalonia. If
Why, that it is impossible to point to a single year of they succeed in this plan, the darling object of
low prices, in which there was any perceptible import France will be gained, the cry against England
of foreign produce; or to a single year of great may be too strong for the Government of
foreign importation, which was not also a year of ESPARTERO, and the country be again plunged
high prices. The years 1834, 1835, and 1836, were into a civil war. CHRISTINA and her adherents
years of low prices, and of great distress and discon-
will then be let loose to encourage-rebellion, and
tent among farmers, the average of wheat being
'
under 455. a quarter ; yet the import of foreign wheat prevent the:QuEEN s marriage with any other than
was only 122,175 quarters. The years 1838, 1839, a BOURBON. The conduct of the French Consul
and 1840, were years of high prices, and compara- throughout the whole affair has been extremely
tively of farming prosperity, the average of wheat suspicious, and though we cannot concur with a
being 675. 2d.; yet in those years we imported the Contemporary in describing him as the cause of
enormous quantity of 7,858,500 quarters. Of this the bombardment of Barcelona, and of the in-
we say nothing more at present than that it undoubt-
surrection itself, we must do him the justice
edly establishes the fact, that low prices of wheat in
to say that he has given a turn to affairs which
England are not, and have never been, the effect of fo-
will be highly acceptable to his employers. Our
reign competition. For five months .at the close of
1835, and the commencement of 1836, the price of Government, we trust, are taking active mea-
wheat ranged under 365. a quarter; at which price sures to rebut charges of such a serious charac-
no foreign wheat could have been imported from any tee, not only against the British Consul, but the
country in the world, even had the corn trade been country.
perfectly free, instead of being burdened as it was
with a duty of 50s. a quarter. And in 1839, in spite
of an importation of 2,681,400 quarters, prices never
ranged so low as 665., and averaged above 70s. The
fact beyond all question is this—and it should be im-
moveably rooted in the understanding of every farmer
—that low prices are owing to abundant harvests, and
not to the admission of foreign corn; and that high
prices are owing to defective harvests, and not to the
exclusion of foreign corn ;—since in the former case it
is never admitted, and in the latter case it is never
excluded.

Now let us !apply these principles to the.pro-
posed fixed duty. At present the farmers ge-
nernily are pledged to the high rents they have
been induced to promise by the law. Those
rents are paid not only on the corn and meat
they consume in their own family, but on all
that is consumed by their labourers and by the
poor in the workhouse, and on all that is con-
sumed by the animals necessary to carry on culti-
vation. The proposed duty is expressly to keep
up those rents to a certain degree. At the same
time the farmers are called on to lay out a great
deal of additional capital in extending cultivation.
Every shilling they may so lay out will pay the
higher rent. The more they lay out the more
corn they will grow, and the more certainly will
the price fall to its natural level. They
never can recover with a fixed duty the sums they
are asked to lay out. Just now, of all times then,
when so much is to be done to the soil, a fixed
duty, enhancing all present expenses, which
could not secure a future remuneration, would be
most injurious to the farmers. Before they can
lay out their capital with advantage, certain of a
future remuneration, all their burdens and ex-
penses, such as the price of seed, poor-rates,
wages, and rent, must be reduced to the lowest
possible figure. The design of the fixed duty is
to prevent that, and therefore to prevent the
future; prosperity of the cultivators of the soil:
Such a consequence is influential enough to
make us say that now, in particular, a fixed
duty, however small, ought not to be imposed.
We shall probably consider some other bearings
of the proposed duty hereafter.

It is not often that we feel called upon to
sound the praises of Sir ROBERT PEEL, his pre-
cious Income-tax having by no means strongly
prepossessed us in his favour; we must, how-
ever, in common fairness observe, that he has
shown much good sense and liberality in the
conduct he has pursued relative to the national
statues voted last session by Parliament to
the memory of three illustrious Naval Heroes,
recently deceased. We are told that he
has confided the execution of these sta-
tues to three sculptors from the capitals of the
three kingdoms; that Mr. MACDOWALL, of
Margaret-street, Cavendish-square, has been
selected by him to model that of Lord Ex-
MOUTH j Mr. STEELE, of Edinburgh, that of
Lord DE SAUMAREZ j and Mr. KIRKE, of Dub-
lin, that of Sir SIDNEY SMITH. We understand,
moreover,, that the Right Hon. Baronet " has
announced his desire to discontinue the old
practice of giving a monopoly of all great orders
to artists of great name, and to make the patron-
age of•this kind at the disposal of Government
available for bringing forward men whose fame
has not yet risen to a point commensurate with
their genius." In coming to this determination
Sir ROBERT PEEL has acted with not less judg-
ment than liberality. It is high time that mo-
nopoly should be put an end to in the Fine Arts,
as well as in other matters; and that struggling
genius should have a reasonable opportunity
allowed it for the development of its powers.
Why should the lucky Few only bask
in the snug, warm sunshine of Government pa-
tronage; and the ill-starred Many be left to
wither in the " cold shade " of neglect and ob-
scurity ? The temper of the times demands a
totally different course of action. It demands
the throwing down of all those barriers which
have hitherto obstructed the road of the un-
befriended artist to fame ; that a clear stage and
no &your should be allowed to every one who
enters into the arena of competition ; and that
genuine, undoubted merit should be promptly
and spontaneously recognized, whether it be
displayed by an R. A., or by one who can boast
of no such distinction. Monopoly and Favour-
itism are the two great malign influences under
which this country has laboured for years, but
we are now fully awake to their injurious cha-
-1
racter;
week passes
evheorm hei moresbugtr
ojwo
ionnrg
Bldeues
ltsel
retmvo
ii
nun
csa
et
siaoml
the mischiefs they have wrought have
the oppressive burdens. Give fair play
;otor ae
snsl
to genius,
d
and there will be no want of artists capable of
sake
oknneogotl
off
realising our most sanguine 'expectations ; but
hitherto, the energies of hundreds of gifted
spirits
have been cramped, subdued, and frozen, from
the humiliating conviction—founded on rational
grounds—that toil, struggle, aspire as they may,
there is but a slender chance of their win-
ning renown in the world's eye, unless
Luck, in the shape of an influential pa-
tron, steps in to befriend them. Had
it not been for Monopoly and Favouritism, we
should now have possessed a National Gallery
worthy of an opulent and enlightened kingdom,
instead of that mean, discreditable heap of lit-
tleness which affronts the eye of taste in
Trafalgar-square, and which resembles nothing
so 'intich as one of those fine, fillagree castles
which we sometimes see stuck upon the snowy
surface of a Twelfth-Cake.

The insurrection at Barcelona, though speedily
put down by the energy of ESPARTERO, begins
to excite feelings of rather an unpleasant cha-
racter among our neighbours across the Channel
France, though she has inflicted so many
evils on Spain, still considers that un-
fortunate country under her especial protec-
tion, and is jealous of any other Power, but
above all of England, interfering with the Go-
vernment of the QUEEN. During the Carlist
war, though pledged with England to support her
against the intruder, the French Government
showed great reluctance in the cause, even at first;
and latterly rather aided than opposed Don
CARLos, with a view, as some assert, of making
terms with the party most hostile to England. 1

Madrid papers to the sth have been received.
The Gazette announces that since the departure
of the REGENT 3,000,000 reals have been for-
warded to the army in Catalonia, independent
of sums and supplies furnished by the Intendents
of provinces. Accounts from Seville appear in
the Madrid papers, stating that on the 28th about
twenty persons raised a disturbance in the streets
by singing revolutionary songs. In the course
of the night the authorities called out the troops,
and got ready the artillery, and on the following
day the town was perfectly tranquil. In other
parts of the country tranquillity prevailed.
The Three per Cents. were done at 22 at va-
rious dates, and the Five per Cents at 26 9-16ths
at 60 days. The titulos of the foreign converted
debt sold for 181 for the 20th inst.

The Paris papers are chiefly occupied with re-
marks on the bombardment of Barcelona, and
abuse of the English Consul, Mr. PENLEASE.
There is little new in these remarks. The follow-
ing extract, however, from the Journal des
Debats, is worthy of notice, as it probably ex-
presses the opinions of the French Government
respecting the conduct of ESPARTERO, and the
course of policy which Mr. PENLEASE considered
it his duty to adopt. It displays nearly as bad a
spirit as that which
inspires the Radical and Re-
publican papers, and in plain terms intimates
that Mr. PENLEASE was rather glad than other-
wise at the injury done to the most industrious
city in Spain. This is a most wicked and, we
believe, most unjust imputation on the British
We feel repugnance," says the Minis-
terial s
ul :"—"
journal,W ain associating ourselves in the
Con
systematic declamations incessantly poured out
against an allied country, and we regret that the
conduct and the language of the English
been
to those satisfied with refusing an asy-
lum Consul at Barcelona force us to abandon
our reserve. Had her Britannic MAJESTY'S
Consul
who most required it, without
exposing the motives of this conduct, it would be
sufficient to blush for him and his country at the
interpretation he gave to his duties; but he
should not be allowed to throw blame indirectly
on those who understood and executed their
mission more nobly, more courageously, and
more honourably than he has done. This
somewhat more than scrupulous respect for the
doctrine of non-intervention will appear perhaps
extraordinary to those who are acquainted with
tsoftoEnglisipolitics, and persons will
believei that the British Consul
beheld without too much regret the calami-
aeles tempted ha
calami-
ties which have afflicted the most industrious
city and the most manufacturing province of
dSeplaiicna.cy ofTbe English Consul, by an excessive
diplomatic conscience, has sinned
against the imprescriptible
.rights of humanity,
in order not to err against the rights of neutrality.
We trust that the English Government will
mark with its energetic reprobation, the lan-
guage of its agent, and we are convinced, for the
honour of the English nation, that it will feel
nothini,r, but shame at the conduct of its repre-
sentative."

The attack on ESPARTERO is equally unfair
and ungenerous,
and shows that the failure of
the revolt
viewed
in certain quarters with
i s
re-
gret. "Is it not melancholy," says the Journal
des Debats, "to think that this lamentable
disaster could have been avoided by the most
trifling concession, since everybody was submit-
ting, and the leaders of the revolt were quitting
the place?? What title to glory, what security
for his personal power, does the REGENT hope
to obtain by this act of merciless vengeance,
which is regarded by persons of all opinions as
an act of Vandalism as odious as it is impolitic !
What secret hatred will it not excite ? PHILIP 11.
and the Duke of ALBA never treated the revolted
towns of Flanders as ESPARTERO, VAN HALEN,
and ZURBANO have just acted towards Barcelona.
The REGENT would not yield anything to repen-
tance, nor did he even receive the suppliant
deputies. Certainly, when the noble Spanish
people raised one of their fellow-citizens to the
Chief Magistracy of the State, it was never ex-
pected that this Chief would display more pride
and rigour than a King by divine right. Who
knows even if this bombardment of thirteen
hours, suspended as if to let the mortars cool,
would not have been resumed some hours after,
bad not news arrived at head-quarters of the
rising of Catalonia and the advance of the Na-
tional Guards to succour Barcelona? At mid-
night
the REGENT suspended the firing until
morning) and sent to demand submission.
Stunned by
the first disasters of the bombard-
ment, and supposing themselves without succour,
the inhabitants yielded, the more so, as they
were threatened with a renewal of the bombard-
ment at four in the morning. No shadow
of an amnesty was offered to them. On the con-
trary, they are treated like the town of an enemy's
country Which has been seized on after a long
siege and a sanguinary resistance. The unfortu-
nate town is afflicted with a contribution of
2,000,000
of douros (10,000,000 of francs); and,
in virtue
of a decree of General VAN HALEN, is
declared in a state of siege under exceptional ju-
risdiction.
The Government promises nothing
on its side in the way of oblivion and pardon, but
the decree
terminates by inviting the inhabitants
to forget the past, and to fraternise with the
troops. IL will be seen that there is nothing re-
assuring for any persons now that the chiefs of
the insurrection have taken to flight, and every
inhabitant may dread being taken up as one of
their accomplices. Let us hope, however, that
the bombardment will suffice for the punishment
of Barcelona, and that humanity will not have
to liNaent rigours from which the insurgents
themselves
abstained during their reign."

The latest news from Barcelona is the follow-
ing telegraphic dispatch in the Messager of Mon-
day night :

" PERPIGNAN, DEC. 9.—The shops were closed yes-
terday at Barcelona. In default of chiefs, 200 soldiers
and militia have been arrested, and several of them
shot.

" The Cyclops steamer has towed away the For-
midable, and an English frigate has also left.
"The French Government _steamer Gusendi left