The Sun.
London, England, 1845-12-18 00:00:00

SPIRIT of the PUBLIC JOURNALS;

FROM THE MOENLNG PAPERS OF THIS DAY.

TIMES.--The announcement of the approaching and in-
evitable repeal of the corn-laws is already travelling fast and
far over the world. The widening wave of public excite-
ment is en cling nein(' the globe: Vr'hcrever men labour, or
congregate, Or cotiterse, this coming change intrudes upon
the common occupations of their lives, and they lift up their
heads to be spectators of its accomplishment. The repeal of
the corn-laws will prove to be an event of the utmost im •
portance to our foreign relations. Its effects at home have
doubtless been exaggerated by the fears of its opponents and
the hopes of its friends; for, in a state of society constituted
like that of England, no single event, however important,
produces a decisive or permanent change on the great inte-
rests of the country. Bat with reference to our intercourse
with foreign states the case is different. The immediate ob-
ject of the measure is to promote the interchange of commo-
dities with foreign nations, and to bring the multifarious po-
pulations of the earth to one great market. Such a result as
that is the greatest to which a statesman can aspire, for it in-
cludes the questions of peace and war, the progress of improve-
ment, the destruction of prejudices, the spread of civilisation,
and the diffusion at home and abroad of a larger measure of
prosperity and knowledge to mankind. At this moment,
therefore, we turn our eyes with the deepest interest to our
allies, our dependencies, our competitors, our customers, and
even our adversaries in all parts of the habitable globe, in
anticipation of the effect which this event must produce upon
our relations with them and upon their own social condition.
At this very moment the ;passions of the American demo-
cracy, and especially of the western states, are probably in-
flamed with extraordinary violence by the language of the
man to whom their votes have intrusted the destinies of the
Union and the peace of nations. We have lately received
evidence, though not yet of a formal official character, that
Mr. Polk, in resuming his diplomatic intercourse with the
republic of Mexico, has thought fit to designate England
as " the common enemy." It is needless to disguise our
expectation that the message will be framed in very
intemperate language with reference to this country
and to the Oregon territory ; and to such language
the Ministers of the Crown, whoever they may be,
will know how to reply. But the vigour of their
reply will be heightened by the contrast offered by the
policy of the two States at the present moment. A more
memorable spectacle has scarely eccurred in the annals of
free nations. A more signal contradiction has never arisen
between the two great systems of constitutional monarchy
and of popular government., On this side of the Atlantic the
greatest aristocracy and landed interest of the world are gra-
dually surrendering long-cherished convictions and the tena-
cious prejudices of interest to the influence of more enlarged
views of the public welfare, and to the demands of public
humanity. The vast majority of those who have earned the
respect of the people of England by their talents, their
patriotism, and their public services, far more than by their
illustrious descent and their princely fortunes, are slowly, and
sometimes reluctantly, but nevertheless steadily, arraying
themselves on the side of truth, and acknowledging no law
but the general interest of the country. Here, in this state,
where party traditions are so deep and strong, party opposition
has already been reduced to the desperate struggles and the in-
effectual protest of a faction, and the opponents of years are
startled to find themselves at length enlisted in the same cause.
Nor is this unanimity of wise and good men dictated solely by
the pressure ufa present calamity at home. This cause is that of
peace and of civilisation at home and abroad, now and for the
future. In the United States, on the contrary, the Execu-
tive Government formed by the ascendancy of the Demo-
cratic party, seems ready to sacrifice every great interest of
the Union, and of its neighbours, to the miserable exigen-
cies of its own existence. Its whole conduct to Mexico is
an aggravated copy of the policy of Russia towards the
Ottoman empire, at the worst times, and before the rest of
Europe interpcsed to preserve the remaining dominions of
the Sultan. The American Cabinet mainly rests its popu-
larity, and its hopes of renewing power at the expiration of
four years, upon the reckless pursuit of worthless and unlawful
objects; and the people whose pride it once was to be known
to the rest of the world by their trading pursuits, their love
of peace, and their renunciation of the hackneyed crimes of
intrigue and ambition, are now hurried along in a course of
aggression which can :only terminate in war, unless it be
effectually resisted by the Senate of the United States. Let
the nations judge between this picture and the other !
POST.—Notwithstanding the acuteness of an Evening
Contemporary, and its very interesting discovery that the
Morning Post would be willing now to accept of a moderate
fixed duty, in lieu of the present sliding-scale, provided a
Government could be formed with that policy in view— not-
withstanding all this, we do in reality remain of our old opi-
nion,that the Whig scheme of 1841 was a foolish one then,
and won't do now. The fact is that, however romantic and
impracticable the notion may seem to be to the modest gen-
tlemen of the Liberal school, we go not only for the whole
protection of British industry , which the present law allows,
but for something more. It is not less protection which
would satisfy us, nor a continuance of the present, but
only a more real and effectual protection than that
which now exists. We do not say that this is a matter
to be effected all at once, or by one Act of Parliament.
We do not say that no Government should be trasted
which did not promise to increase the scale of pro-
tecting duties. Much has yet to be studied upon the difficult
question of the best means of fully developing and fairly re-
warding the industry of the people. This, however, we say
is clear, that neither the one nor the other is done as it
ought to be under the system of law and government which
now exists. We say, also, that in our opinion no Govern-
ment will be fully worthy of the earnest support of this
nation, which does not adopt as a principle that it is right
for the Government to do all it can towards more fully
developing the industrial capabilities of this nation, andturn.
ing the reward thereof more towards the pockets of those
who do the work, than hitherto it has been turned. Amongst
men who call themselves "Liberal," the great object always
seems to be to serve the interests of the owners of capital.
Now, we would protect those interests too, but we would not
do so at the expense of the working people. We would
not depress the millions that the hundreds might make a
better per tentage on their capital. We do not think
that the welfare of the capitalists is best promoted by
those who try to make them more rich by a process which
impairs the security of the general framework of society. A
man with eighty thousand pounds in a country where peace,
security, and good feeling reign, through the general com-
fort and contentedness of the population, is in very truth a
richer man—an owner of a more valuable property—than the
possessor of a hundred thousand pounds among a people
whose condition is fast driving them to despair. Our delibe-
rate opinion is, that, having regard to the increase of know-
ledge in the art of producing food and clothing in this
country within the last thirty years, the people ought in all
reason and justice to be better off than they were thirty
years ago. The population has increased, but it has not in-
creased in anything like the same proportion as the increase
of productive power. We say that were the nation managed as
it ought to be, the people at large would share in the benefits
which may be furnished by the new discoveries in the arts
of production. The very reverse is notoriously the
fact. It is notorious that as the national means of feeding
and clothing have become greater in proportion to the
population, the state of the population has deteriorated.
The mass of the people cannot now pay the taxation which
it paid without perceptible difficulty thirty years ago.
Luxury has made great progress. There are classes who
live in a much more profuse, though not more virtuous
manner, than they did thirty years ago, -but the working
people do not live nearly so well. This fact, in a
nation which has been all the time advancing in wealth, is
in itself a condemnation of the system which governs the
reward of the people's industry. During the last thirty
gdeeenpelryally regret
apptrh ov at
e, mercantileyears the system which is called " Liberal," and which we
nuking peopleprogress. sci
continuallymanufacturing
During all that time the protection of British industry has
been in various ways undergoing diminutions The nation
ntaukiri
has been getting richer—the masses have been growing
poorer. If this go on, the end will be either the complete
debasement of the British working people, and the ruin of
Britain in that way, or the rage of the British people rising
into revolution, and producing ruin in that way. In either
case, the Liberal system, which regards wealth and not the
welfare of the people, must bring national ruin.

DEATH OF A RETIRED CUSTOM-HOUSE OFFICER BY
FIRE--On Wednesday Mr. Baker held an inquest at the
Bricklayers' Arms, Gloucester-street, Alile-end-road, on the
body of Mr. Frederick Greenwaller, aged eighty years, a
retired Custom-house officer, lately residing in Gloucester-
street. On Friday evening last he was sitting by the fire•
side, when a noise was heard as if a heavy body had fallen,
and when one of the witnesses went up stairs, he found the
deceased lying on the hearth with his trousers on fire. lie
was much burnt about the lower parts of his body, of which
injuries he died on the following day. At the time the acci-
dent occurred he had a great quantity of sovereigns in his
pockets, and on the mantelpiece was a bank note of consi-
derable value, which he placed in a box containing lucifer
matches. There was no evidence as to how the deceased set
himself on fire. The jury returned a verdict of "Accidental
death."

PUNISMING PATIENTS IN ITOSPITALS.—Testerday,
Mr. Wakley, M.P., held an inquost at the University Col-
lege Hospital, on the body of Emma Willing, aged five years
and a half, whose parents reside in Victory-place, Edmund-
street, Battle-bridge. On Friday last, during the momen-
tary absence of deceased's mother, a younger brother com-
menced playing with the fire, and in so doing ignited her
clothes. 'Hough the flames were extinguished promptly,
deceased was fatally burned, and having been conveyed to
the above hospital, she died in it the next morning. The
Coroner instituted minute inquiries amongst the patients to
ascertain whether or not deceased had been threatened with
punishment to still her cries, by any of the nurses or hos-
pital authorities. Finding that she had not, he expressed
might force from it. Verdict—
his satisfaction, and told the jury he made the inquiry be-
cause he had seen in one of our hospitals a birch rod hung
up on the bed of a juvenile patient who had undergone a
painful and dangerous operation. The child could not look
being abotit to remove from one resi-
upwards without seeing this instrument of torture placed to
c„hAeockcidtleinetcarlideseatthha.tnagonY
he wished to clear away a quantity
A PIECE or GOOD Leek.— Some days since a
the kiteheli and underground gentleman In this city,
dense to another, sent for a party whe was in the. habit of
purchasing books and other articles, and dealing in them,
what he conceived they
and telling him that 11.5
stn old iron box or safe,
of old lumber that lay in
cel-
lar, he had better look at them and seediatdhesow,anoudidfgrolvnei
one of the cellars, and
whichau
times,
e trhe etwiorho
ravt
tdrahml nc .
lain
Among
for
purchasedob;
isegaryears
idealerie them
neglected
rest
s accordingly,wfoarina
appeared intrinsically worth very little. He offered 1/. for
it, upon which the owner said he might have it, and directed
him to tahn it gitaY at once'. The aid of four' tient Whey were
in the house was obtained to remove it, but they were un-
able to carry it, and four more bad to be brought in, whose
.t,. , The original purchaser offered it,
united exertions placed it,_ on a car, and it was conveyed to
the purchaser's house In Mello*. lane. Btfone it was taken
34t1g0se'tiitthfuer that went away. The
tiff the car a pawnbroker, from Blackpool, saw the chest
On
.4 tiinbv flopr; left it in the
pirtynbroker would give
couple oi nights. On sending, nowevef, for the
andliftu
te proposedl.
o,tialn6d)and
a gst
go
hi,
ibei
lugj,cio-
uf
ord
ri t
weighty bargain was then taken off the car, but the pur-
chaser
lietronrilikinti to Pl 4
key, which could not be had when he bought it, it was found
by a label attached to it that the contents of the box must
have been worth more than 205., and accordingly a gentle-
man, on behalf of the owner, went to where it lay, but could
not open it from the rtssty state of the lock. The services
of a locksmith Were at length obtained, and when the box
Was opened it was found to contain plate and other valuables
„hose yarEnts reside in the above street. On
to the amount of, we understood, over 500 L—Cork Reporter.
DEATH FROM SCALDlNG.—Yesterday evening,
Mr. Baker held an inquest at the William the Fourth
Tavern, Bethnal-green-road, on the body of Julia Osborn,
tahgee dmtoirynoi
morning of
the• 4th inst., the deceased was
"-.6 was
sitting in front of a large fire on win,— placed a saucepan
of boiling water, and whileithe mother was littii4; the saucepan
Thursday, .
off the fire-grate, it slipped, and the contents fell over the
head, shoulders, and neck of the child, who expired on Satur-
day morning last. Verdict, "Accidental death."
The West Indiaman Duke of Manchester, William
Scott Murray, master, bouad to Jamaica, got on shore on the
Goodwin Sands on the 13th' instant, and is now on her way
back to the river Thames, to' discharge her cargo in the
West India Docks, preptusteo to the vessel going into dry
dock to be repaired.