The Sun.
London, England, 1842-09-09 00:00:00

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LONDON :
riZID >Y monNING. SEPTEMBER 9, 1842.

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It is one of the misfortunes of newspaper editors,
which is soinetimes an affliction for their readers,
.that being intensely interested in the events and
work of the day, they sometimes forget facts
wh:ch they ought to remember, and run counter
to principles to which they have given their
agseet. •We feel that this is our own case, and
.we aro not therefore inclined to measure the
conduct 'if our Contemporaries by a very strict
rut Nevcrthele6s, we must ay of our Tory
brethrea that they have lately, in their con-
fus:on arising from their leaders deserting their
disregarded many well proved facts,
and tried to subvert the best established prin-
ciples. The leader of the whole tribe reached
the climax of this absurd course yesterday, when
he boldly threw off his allegiance to general
rules, and claimed to substitute for them the
fi,--..ree momentary will of any scribbler, or any
act:ve, bustling, busy Magistrate. " General
rules," said the Times, "arc very good things in
their z; 3y, but it is a mere narrow pedantry to
make tlim masters instead of servants." The
Tinzes then sets up its own will, or the Will of the
Magistrates, or their notions of temporary expe-
.diency, as superior to general, moral, and poli-
t:cal rules, and declares that those guides of life
ark• the servants, not the masters, of living men.
;;;,,, man shall not steal—shall not bear false
witoci;s--shall not murder—arc general rules.
"Will the ~,Tditor of tio Times say that he is to be
master over `hem, • and they are to be servants
of Us ry caprice? It is a general rule that
3„)„,sty is the :)est, and, indeed, the only policy.
too, to be :raa;pled under foot ? It is z 1
?.:ei;oral rule—dear, sve think, to the hearts and
ur,tle rstanding of En,iiishuica—that; prosperity
and •liberty go hand in • hand ; and is obedience
to that to treated as mire pedantry, because
there is a momentary disturbance in one pArt of
• country? 1.4 all the gathered experience or
.ncestors, embodied into the general rule
',ha; fveedom is essential to the welfare of
.IZ-;,,.:and, to be disregarded becanz.'i the opu-
lent elacses fecl considerable momentarj alarm
rt, the muduct of the multitude? A doctrine
more destru ve of all stabiiity in society--more
adverse to '.rue Llonscrvatism—more fatal to all
than the doctrine that general rules;
.•dnceil from the observation of ages, and clothe:]
tioe swoctity of laws of nature, are to
;;0 servitniA of the being of an hour, we have
nut with. No Radical, eager for change
--'l(v,":ced despiser of the isisdorn of our an-
--e;:s—no scoffer at a regular and well-orthred
?-ovette-nent oy the univerz:c—could frame a due-
inoc:! oongeuial to his hopes and his per-
son:ll .

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Tnie
.2imes applied this perverse assertion to
reonr. the general rule that Legislators and Ma"
,-;;T,t,es should nut interfere between master
nnd.:ae::, to regulate their wages, and compel the
is that journal has proposed, to give
workmen employment at all times. But
we know no geniiral rule which ex-
perience has more amply confirmed. Every
,each interference has injured trade, injured
the masters, and injured the men. In our
count,:y it carries injustice on its face. In its
present furor of benevolence, the Times may
demand toit the Legislature should compel snini,
partieniar of masters to give a higher rate
power of regulating wages
of wages ; but lt.r the
on tile :nincipie of imcnevolence be colerred un
composed exclusively
zhe Houses of Parilarne;l:t.
would soon be rtilvd
of the master class, and
by law that no labourer shout.fl have better than
-workhouse.. fare. for months and years the
ha; been railing against the New Poor-
law, because it has reduced the arlo7auce of
paupers to Imefit the opulent class, and now-.
it would place in the hands of the Legislature,
notwitstanding its horror of centralization, the
-power of dealing with the labourer as with
paupers, which would soon reduce the former
to the condition of the latter. Both theory and
experience, if they be nut one ant'. the same,
combine to prove the solidity of that general
rule which the Times would set aside, and, to set
t aside more effectually, would make all general
;rules bpod to its will.
We Nave high authority for our respect for
general rules. Dr. PALEY entitles one of his
chapters " The Necessity of General Rules," and
in that chapter be writes-
-44 You cannot perniit one action and forbid another

without showing a difference between them ; Conse-
quently the same sort of action must be generally m per-
mitted or generally forbidden." "The assassin knocked
the rich villain on the head because he thought him
better out of the way than in it. If you allow this ex-
cuse io the present, instance, you must allow it to all
who act in the same manner and from the same motive ;
that as you must allow every man to kill any one he
meets whom hr thinks noxious or useless, which, in the
event would be to commit every man's life and safety to
the spleen, fury, and fmaticistn of his neighbour—a dis-
position of atfirs which would soon fill the world with
misery and confusion, and ere long put an end to human
society, if not 0) the human species."
So the Times, contrary to the general rule that
private contracts between men, such as those to
give wages on the one hand for work on the
other, should be enforced by the law, but not
otherwise interfered with, would have the law
interfere with all private contracts to gratify its
peculiar apprehension:, recently acquired, about
butties and coalowners. If we allow the inter-
ferencQ in this instance we must allow it in all,
when men act in the 'same manner and from the
same motives and the Legislature must regulate
all contracts, even those which the Times makes
with its reporters, compositors, and customers.
Such an extension of the power of the Legislature,
from whom already a vast deal more is demanded
than can be accomplished, would soon " fill the
world," to borrow the language of PXLEY, " wit It
misery and confusion, and, ere long, put an end
to human society and the human species."
We do not advert to this subject in any narrow
spirit of criticism, but to make our readers aware
at once of the desperate lengths to which the
anti-free trade party is driven. They first inter-
fere with the price.of food next they propose to
interfere with wages, and to arrive at that end
they are obliged to teach the superiority of their
own foolish speculations to the general moral
rules which have been formed by the experience
of all ages. A few editors of newspapers who
embrace these extraordinary doctrines, and know
little or nothing of the wonderful system of pro-
duction which has grown up amongst us within
these few years, are now writing up a sort of
crusade against manufactures and manvfacturers.
Their proceedings are most erroneous and most
mischievous; and We refer to the monstrous
doctrines of the Times to prove the incorrect-
ness of their principles, and to put the public on
their guard. Follow the teaching of the Times
and the Post, and all general rules will soon be
banished from politics and morals, except the
rule that men must be blindly obedient to the
Tories.

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