The Sun.
London, England, 1842-01-25 00:00:00

THE SUN,
_LONDOV, PUESDAY, JANUARN 25, 1842

Baronesses received writs of tttithlons to be pre-
sent at the churching—testival of the Queen
his mother.

ALTERATIONS IN CHRISTENING SINCE PhirE
EDWARD'S TIME.—The first liturgy of Ring
Ed-
ward was materially different in Ito tom from
that now used, and antherised by the book of
Common Prayer, the ibrm of consecrating the
water anew aid hot then form part of the office,
as the cal in the font was changed and MP-
sectatea, but once a month. What was called the
thane immersion was then In use ; it is now dis-
continued. By the first common prayer of King
Edward, after the child was baptised, the god-
fathers and the Vodmothers were to lay their
hands on 4t) had the minister was to puton him
the white vestment commonly called the Chr ,y-
-mien% and to say, " Take this white vesture as a
token of the innocen which by God's grace, in
this holy sacrament of christening, is given unto
thee, and for a signs Whetchy thou art admo-
nished, so long its thou livest, to give thyself
to innocence of living, that after this transitory
life thoti mayest be partaker of the life everlast-
ing:' This was done in imitation of the primitive
Church, but it is now discontinued,
CHRISTENING Arnold MOUNTAINS.—On
the birth of Edwittii. H., by Eleanora, consort of
King EdWttedi.., and who bore him in the 'Eagle
TovretWeCarnarvon Castle, he was shortly after
thristened,not among the damasks and draperies
of gorgeous chambers, but amid the rude and.
rocky fastnesses of Wales. Sheathed in armour,
the supporters of his sire stood around him at the
ceremony, and the chiefs of the _ land imprinted
their reluctant kiss of homage on the cheek of
the young Plantagenet, who could speak no word
either of French or English.
CHRISTENINdS AT WINDSOR, 'WOODSTOCK,
KENSINGTON, &c.—Edward the Third was chris-
tened with great splendour four clays after his
birth, in November, in the chapel of St. Edward,
Windsor. The ceremony was performed by the
Cardinal Arnold, and though the Prince had se-
ven godfathers, the name of not one godmother
is recorded. Queen Isabella and her French
nobles urged that he should be called Louis, but
the English nobles, always averse to a foreign
name, insisted on its being Edward. Subse-
quently Henry VI. was christened at 'Windsor :
his godfathers were his uncle, John Duke of Bed-
ford, and Beaufort, Bishop of Winchester. Jac-
queline, Countess of Hainault, presented him at
the font, who was known by the familiar nick-
name given her by Henry V. of Dame Jake.
Edward VI. was christened in the chapel of
Hampton Court;, Charles 11. in the Chapel
Royal of St. James's Palace; Richard 11. in a
foreign land; Edward the Black Prince in the
Bowers of Woodstock, where Edward 111., his
father,, resided in almost domestic retirement
with his Queen Philippa, who was not only his
Royal Mother, but also herself his nurse. Her
present. Majesty, Queen Victoria was christened
at Kensington Palace.
who
was OF GEORGE IV.---Pepys_,
was present. at the christening of the last Prince
of Wales, gos Sips of the occasion in one of his
letters thus :—" Our next Monarch was
christened last night, George Augustus Fre-
derick ; the Princess, the Duke of Cumberland,
and Duke of Meeklenburgh, sponsors; the cere-
mony was performed by the Bishop of London.
The Queen's bed, magnificent, and they say in
taste, was placed in the great drawing-room ;
though she was not to see company in form, yet
this looked as if she intended people should haVe
been there." The attendants on his loyal
Highness on this occasion were Goverr.Cssi may.
Charlotte Finch; deputy governess, Mrs. Hen-
rietta Coultsworth ; wet nurse, Bite. Scott; dry
nurse, Mrs. Chapman.

CITY-CHRISTENINGS.—The importanev Which
was of old attached by English
nary cbristeni gal•le'!
g., may be F;rotilt to ordi:
ed from two in-
stances related b Stowe,
daughter of a Knight s.: the year 1561, a
id Alderman of the City
on being christegp
'
is thus described 1—" Ii fair
maid carried ''the child' to the tlitirch, in a white
satin go.-Nn. theinantle of crimson satin, fringed
it'
gold or . inches broad. The Master of
the Rolls and :Tiny Lady White stood sponsors,
and afterwards there was a splendid banquet at
home." The ,secciid: christening was concluded
with " a great, banquet, consisting of wafers and
hippocras; Freiieh, Gascoigne, and Rhenish
wines, in gref4t -plenty, and all their servants
had a banquet in the halt, with divers dishes."
THE ABSOLUTE CH aistENtris OR ANABAPTISTS.
—Queen Elizabeth had so violent an antipathy
to the people of this sect, that, upon their first
arrival in this
,kingdomi in the year 1560, she
commanded them instantly to quit it. The Ab-
solute Christeners have in 411- ttea stood so
staunchly by their principles, and 'boast from
this cause so many martyrs, that their Mar-
tyrology " forms a large volume in folio. Bayle
wittily nicknamed then! " Waterlandians."

LITER AT Uliti- - -
EDINBURG H REVIEW; No; CL,
I oVntah; twidon, 164 it.
th'en-inst among the great prose writers of the
seventeenth century, - stands Thomas Fuller—a
man whose works, after having achieved as ex-
tensive a popularity as was compatible with the
turbulent character of the age in which they were
written, have of late years fallen into a state of
comparative oblivion. Few now care to read the
" Holy War ;" and the few who do,- read it, we
suspect, rather as a task than as a matter of in-
clination. The " English Worthies" is scarcely
treated with more respect, yet where shall we
find a work fuller of fancy, wit, information—
though not of a very comprehensive order--or
quaint and various imagery ? The .truth is, the
genius of Fuller is anything but the genius of the
present day. It has hardly indeed one point in
common with it. It is as far removed as possible
from decorous common-place, and taxes thought
even in its wildest wit, wherein- is often couched
the subtlest wisdom. The majority of •us now
read almost exclusively for ,amusement; and
books to be popular with us, must be devoid of
distinctive character, just as men who aspire to
be attractive in Society, must have nothing
marked or out of the way about them, whether
as regards manners or modes of expression. Ori-
ginality has lost its charm in our eyes; else
wherefore is it that Mr. Carlyle, one of the most
original of modern thinkers, has been struggling
upwards' of twenty years against unmerited neg-
lect; and is even new—whatever his admirers
may say to the contrary—read and appreciated
only by the select Few? The great drawback to
Fuller's popularity in the present day is, we ap-
prehend, not so much the themes he discusses, as
the manner in which he discusses them. We
resent his exuberant wit and fancy, as quaintness,
conceit, impertinence, and what not; though
this wit and this fancy formed the delight of our
ancestors. And well may such have been the
case, for Fuller's vivacity is a fountain that never
dries up. Even where, to a superficial reader, it
may seem forced and far-fetched, it is as cordial
and natural as the. man himself. Indeed irs..all
his works, the head takes its cue from the heart
—the understanding is delighted to borrow its
best hints from the sensibilities. *Of few contem-
porary writers can this be said, with the excep-
tion, perhaps, of Sir Thomas Browne, whose
works correctly mirror his shy, dreamy, sensitive,
arid moody—not to say hypochondriacal—nature.
The works of Fuller seem to have been penned
under the cheering influence' f a sunny southern
atmosphere ; his thoughtS are buoyant, mercu-
rial, though by no means deficient in strength.
and robustness; and his animal spirits never de-.
sert him, even in ,the remotest regions of phans.
tasm and speculation. In Sir Thomas Browne,
on the contrary, we everywhere trace the influ-
ence of a chilling, northern climate. His ideas
struggle through cloud-and gloom into imperfect
sunshine; he is fond of reminding us of death
and the grave; takes prodigious pains to assure
us that life is but a span; and even goes out of
his way to find fault with the great mystery of
procreation, and to vent such idle sneers, as that
woman is but " the rib and crooked piece of
man 1" We can imagine him writing his curious
and erudite " Religio Medici" with a pen dipped
in a November fog.
In their personal habits not less than in
the strUttire of their minds, a marked dif-
ference exists between these two celebrated
contemporary 'Writers. Browne was a recluse
stitdeit4 of shy and nervous temperament,
tiVerse to social intercourse, and living in a fan-
tastic
world of his own, wholly apart from the
bustling, everyday world about him. The strife
of parties, the {lace religious differences which
convulsed all England, even the great Civil War
itself, made no impression on him. He swore
neither by King nor People—by High-Chtirch-
man nor Puritan—but pursued the even tenor of
his way, unfettered and unbiassed by aught of
political prejudice or religious schism. He seems
to have regarded life as a sort of dream, from
which he should only wake in death. For
Fuller this dreamy, secluded mode of existence
had no charm. Though he read and wrote much,
and thought more, yet he loved the stir and
bustle of society. He was of the world, worldly;
but his-practical shrewdness never blunted his
fine sense of humanity. In times of great temp-
tation to aspiring spirits—and Fuller was by no
means without ambition—he preserved his cha-
racter unsullied. Too moderate for the Royalists,
too little of a fanatic for the Patriots, he yet con-
trived to extort the respect of both parties; and
the chaplain to the Royal army found, after the
King's death, one of his most efficient friends in
the chaplain tri the Lord Protector. Lilco Sir
Thomas Browne, whom in this point only he re-
sembled,
he was a firm believer in witchcraft.
This, however, is scarcely an impeachment of
his sagacity, for witches were the bugbears of his
day; and it falls to the lot of few great men to
be, like Milton, wholly beyond their age.
In the Number before us, there is a clever
biographical sketch of Fuller, whose sole fault is,
that it is too enthusiastic in its panegyric. The
author of the "English Worthies" was certainly
not a prodigy of wit, as the Reviewer intimates;
for quaintness and conceit are not wit, though
with many readers they are apt to be mistaken
for it. We mean not, however, to deny that Ful-
ler possessed this quality in a high degree, for
his eccentric pages are often Hefted up with
flashes of the brightest wit; but the grotesque-
ness of his ideas and the fertility of his imagina-
tion are still more remarkable. Of all the prose
writers of the seventeenth century he is the one
who most startles by the unexpectedness of his
thoughts, and the language in which he developes
them. The perusal of his works acts as a sort of
shower-bath Ott the reader's mind. Though not
acquainted with the whole, yet We have read the
majority of them with attention, and—with the
the solitary exception of Sir Thomas Browne's
gisutaigleellensot
,p, i
nt coecOofifeoz.oryeroattiposition in the lan-
sublime `c ttrnsliurial," the fifth chapter of which
writings that can
be eoMpared to them, We are aware that We
may be here reminded of Milton 1 but we must
plead guilty to the bad taste of neVef being
hays
ing been able thoroughly to relish his prose Tread
tiseg, init*liht!ttinding the splendid passages in
which they abound.i To tetiii`n to our theme.
From the . RevieWer s biographical sketch, we
legit that thernas X' tiller was born in Northamp-
tonshire in the year I&,s. At twelve years of
age he was sent to Cambridge, and after taking
the usual degrees, was appointed minister of St.
Bennet a, Where he soon became a popular
preacher. In 1631 he was made Prebendary of
Salisbury, about which time he perpetrated a
volume of small poesy, of which the less said the
, tthileit'talttleegramths
better. All literary young men write verse , it
it is the Weakness of their age; but in none, save
the gifted Few—alas,. how fewl—does the poeti-
cal teMperarnent ever rise superior to the force
•otberWiki ho tiontititted through life .a_ poet,
Of adverse circumstances. With Fuller it was
though his ablest words itOre all written iti prose.
btit his Wife. died.
'ln 1638 he became a Benedidc,
a year or two after marriage, and t:;2.4
to London; Where he . Obtained the Lecture-
ship of 'the Savoy: In 1640 he he repaired_
published his -
lebrathti I: :poly Witri"- Wh'ith imillediately pro-
cured him both L':aiiiiy rind thine:. In the fol.,
lowing year he preached. in NireWt.l?rtOer Abbey,
on the anniversary of the King's inaugilfdtiOn;:.
and soot' tiftef refusing 'to take an oath to the
Parliament; he repdife4 to Charles at Oxford,
by whom he Was Well received' At 'the siege of
Exeter; it bete he `vas present, he Wit§ of great
acistsiitsetaniski.
of l-v
it
ttihe
th King,the
d oa 1
inidi the
the courage of the loyal
entire overthrow of the Royalists, Fuller ma-
naged ''.
lAtlfstetirth
to Charles the Second.
to keep o
storation was appOinted
chaplain extraordmar3..
tment for in 1 •
601 just
This was his last apPoln L,
party ; and on fici.ti
,?,,,e.,
Mount-Pisgah view of a
as he had Obtained a
Bishoprie; he died—greatly, no doubt, to his
mortifiCatiliti; fbr Bever did man enter with
keener relish intil till the social enjoyments of
life. In person Fuller wad stout---" inclined to
has told ' ' •
himself MI. HIS phy-
corpUlenee," as he.::,
i re '
siognotily iffig cheee,ding y. p possessing.. Ile
• had light, flaxen haft
..
Lair ! bright, blue, la,urhing
ex i til ''' -
eyes, and, a frank open P,, 6l-1 f.d mute_
tiatio, tiv Uojerct I.,htlim:PtiOttes to One tit the
' t I amts tillfist intellect •:_.,:.
most prominent e
of Fuller was firOstl. eh ful,
As the temperament
innocence of his wit, fiet;e6l:4,ed
and 4 Ole* for the
necessity of his nature—ons- all
by what illiF., l/4e oiled a,.....
circumstances.
Wit.
in
subjectai at all tinidi iititri,r,_..„_.es
one or other of its' maltitaankvtra.
e_rsap__,.. was sure to be
the attire of his thoughts and: is?
not even
e With the kindest.
heart in' the Wert)ds lit /Wait „ithveat'recite al
cala-
mitous story without invegtl a
jest waeriengehof thenatural
tarau-1
didrotni Ii WOW seem
. as II
and that he is not Meorne to be
expression orb dli otin t4O
----iliiris. Ist, condolence and his lamen-
wondered at for mingo es
ate Other me for accom-
Wiens with merriment, than,
~ n
..
sighs. An eintaph in his
tears and
panying them with
a sort of epigram not, free
hand would have been and and his ordinary pulpit dis-
from
grotesque humour
convinced, have often contained
courses must, we are
ctried the gravity of his audience.
passages which severely
we may remark,
In confirmation of all we have said,
that he actually finds it jpossible to s his viva-
cioussuppress
the most tragical parts of his
pleasantry even in
most rueful tidings in so droll
" histories," and. tells the defiance.
at
a manner as sets all gravity
,refrain from laying before the
odd specimens w© canno a
"lamentable accident" which
reader. He thus recountsof
Catholics at Blackfriars :
befel a congregation ..
cline to the middle, the day to
" The sermon began to to
;the Sudden the floor fell down
the end thereof .; when.on .lt charitable
whereon 'they were assembled. .
_gave no
f__
d, but cracked, broke, and ell
warning groan beforehand,
ere
all
Oil ill 01 instant. .210 Y w
killed, morebruised,

frighted. Sad- .sight„ to behokl...the- flesh and blood of '
different peisons mingled together, and the brains of one
On the head of another ! One lacked a leg ; another an
arm ; tt third, whole and entire, wanting nothing but
breath, stifled in the ruins." Was ever such a calamity
so mirthfully related ? But one of the most singular
instances of the peculiarity in question, is contained in
his account of the capture and execution of the principal
conspirators in the Gunpowder Plot.
Whewell's Philosophy of the Indtv,,tive
Sciences" is au able, analytical notice of one.
the profoundest scientific works of the day. The
Reviewer is often severe on tlitt subject of his
criticism, but on the whole he does it justice. He
particularly condemns Mr. Whewell's paasion
for coining new words," and, alluding to his
of the strange term. " Idiopt," slily observes, (
et is a term not wanted, and is one which, when
submitted to the eye of a compositor, will in-
fallibly part with one of its most essential let-
ters." In " Ruppell's Travels in Abyssinitii
the Reviewer speaks with becoming respect of
a very entertaining, not to say instructive, work.
We have been diverted by the following tame- .
dote :—" Constancy and fidelity are not to be
found among the Abyssians. Ruppell saw at
Ategrat a female only seventeen years of age,
who had been seven times divorced, and was on
her way to Gondar to be married for the eighth
time! " What an inordinate appetite for matri-
mony this young lady must have had! " Phre-
nological Ethics" exposes in a right spirit the
absurdities of the Phrenologists, one of whom,
Mr. Combe, has; it seems, actually adduced a I,
case of a man's self-sufficiency. having been J,
sensibly abated by a blow on the organ of self.
esteem ! That organ having been knocked in,
the fellow. as a matter of course, became gra-
dually modest! What an invaluable discovery
for parents is here ! No need after this of a
moral education ! A child, the instant he ex-
hibits a vicious bump, has only to have that
bump flattened by his affectionate father with a
poker, to be made as virtuous as needs be. We
suppose this is the reason why Irishmen are so
proverbially bashful. Before their organ of Ittf-
pudence can hate had time fully to develope itself,
it is knocked in by a shillelagh in a faction fight!
The " Pictorial History of England" is a lengthy
and elaborate notice of one of Mr. C. KnWit's
most recent publications. In this notice the Re•
viewer assures us that our peasantry were happy
and thriving under the Anglo-Saxon dynasty—
an assertion which we must take leave to doubt, •
for how could they be happy—no matter how
rude or ignorant—who dared not call even their
thoughts their own ? We are always sceptical
as respects the happiness of uncivilised tribes,
especially where the distinctions of %rade are so
broadly marked, as was the case in England
during the reign of the SaitOn Kings. The pea-
sant was then but a mere serf; and slavery is in-
compatible with happiness, unless indeed the
slave can find music in the clank of his chains.
In remarkinc, on " Lord Alvanley's Pamphlet
on the State of Ireland,'.' the Reviewer.leans
with great favour to his Lordship's plan of pay-
ing the Irish priests, and remarks that the wis-
dom of such a scheme might be illustrated by
the successful result of similar measures in
Canada, Belgium, and Prussia. lie adds, with
reference to Lord De Grey's system ;if policy,
" with higher pretensions of impartialii7 than
ever were put forward by his predecessors, !te
has acted more slavishly than any of Iris prede-
cessors ever did, in the spirit of that exclusive
and anti-national party by whonri be is sur-
rounded. The object of the article eitthled
" Financial Measures of the Late, andlntentiolva
of the Present, Ministry," is to show that by the
change of Government the country has gained,
in the first place, an addition of five millions to
the national debt; secondly, the probable impo-
sition of additional taxes to the amount .of three
millions a year-, and thirdly, the continuance of
monopolies and protections, by which commerce
will remain crippled, and manufacturers will be
exposed to new obstructions from hostile tariffs!'
We close our remarks by an extract from an
agreeable review of Mr. Catlinto recent work on
the North American Indians:—
On the banks of' the Missouri, two hundred tam be-
low the fort, Mr. Catlin ltreded among the tribe of the.
Mandans, with whom he lived come time ; hero;; by
the grace of his mysterious art, hi high veneration.
among them, admitted to all their eeremonit4, treated
as a brother by the highest medicine men'—hrt fact
taking the degree of Doctor among them, or, in their
own phrase, ' Big double medicine,' The.le Mandans are,
or rather, as we must say were, the most polished and
advanced native nation to be found in North America ;
they were milder in their manners ; received strangers
with less suspicion ; and had always been known as
the hospitable and polished Mandans.' Mr. Catlin'it
account of this people is exceedingly picturesque—ex-
hibiting a mode of life which could by no possibility be-
come what an European would call civilized—but yet
dignified and agreeable • rich, with all necessary and
many luxurious articles of existence ; and well adapted
to call into existence, and rear to perfection, those
powers of mind and body which their position de-
manded. -Witness their careful system of instruction for
their children, who are every morning trained in all the
discipline of Indian warfare ; all armed with a small bow
and grass arrow, and distributed into two armies, who go
through the manmuvres of a battle. When any one is
struck by an arrow lie is obliged to fall, and the con-
queror rushing up snatches away his mimic scalp-lock,
which he exhibits afterwards in 'proof of his victory.
Witness, too, the appalling ceremonies requisite for the
youths who wish to be nuMbered among the " braves ;"
—in which the aspirants, after four days' fasting and
watching, arc subjected to a course of voluntary torture,
the half of which no European could survive ; but
whose extremity only tests the young Mandan's powers
of enduring, and assigns the station, he is to hold among
the warriors. Every year this ceremony is performed,
at the period when the willow leaf first buds—for no
other record of the seasons is kept than such tokens of
nature—and forms part of a grand solemnity, supposed
by Mr. Catlin to bear some allusion to their traditions of
the fall of man and the deluge ; in which a representa-
tion of the evil spirit rushes into their village, and after
trying all his powers of , destruction, is paralysed and
expelled by the powerful rod of the chief medicine
man ;' the whole exhibition being accompanied by dances.

CORN-LAWS AND EMIGRATION

COLONEL TOICRENS.
We had prepared, some days ago, fa ;,`"rief and sligh
notice of Colonel Torrens' pamphlet, called th,, "Budget
No, IV." which other matter has prevented us using,
Sine then, the work has attracted so much atten:.ol'
from our Liberal Contemporaries, who latterly have gone
with us for repeal of the Corn-laws—the commendatory
twaddle of the Herald had no weight with us—that
we have been induced to reconsider the pamphlet, and
must now eXprOgs our satisfaction that, by the non-pub-
lication of our brief notice, we are enabled to place a
more extended analysis of Colonel Torrens' principles
before our readers.
Colonel Torrens, it must be remembered, has latterly
been a leading migration Commissioner, which has
probably given a bias to Ids mind. At any rate, he now
prefers schemes of onilgratioi2; that are at least
.profitable
to Commissioners, to the simple clan of doing justice to
the petyple, which can be profitable only to the commu-
nity at large, The present productilan is "A Letter to the
Right Hon. Lord Stanley on ColoniziZtion, considered as
a Means of Removing the Causes of National Dis-
tress ;"---it controverts some of the doctfilies of the
Anti-Gorti,law party, and has for its ded.'Wed ob-
ject to 'rove that the repeal of the Corti-laws
would not rettto*e the national distress, and ti:at
" the application of the title prrinciples of coloniza-
tion affords the appropriate remedy," We should have
done OPT best to refute the assumptions and conclusions
of this pamphlet before, had we not considered them—
till taught another lesson by the kindred writing of the
Chroatc/a and the Globe—to be so- transparently fallacious
as to be unworthy of a lengthened notice.
The Gallant Colonel begins by bestowing on the advo-
cates of Corn-law repeal some concessions they do not
alit, He concedes that in the present state of foreign agri-
ctilture, England could obtain large supplies of foreign
corn at lower prices than those at which it can, in ordi-
nary years, be produced at home; and that, were Eng-
lend tai abolish restrictions on importation, other States
would relax their hostile tariffs. But the case of the
Anti-Corn-law party and of the opponents of systematic
emigration directed by the Government, does not rest
on these or similar assumptions. They say, in-
deed, fat if the Corn-laws were abolished, foreign
agriculturists would grow corn for our markets, and that
in the then state of foreign agriculture, corn, or rather
food,: would be iiiimal.lant and cheap in all parts of the
world, and more abundant and cheaper in England than it
now is; but they do no!. saY were agriculture not to be
extended abroad titi we op, in ordinary years, get a
an at »
much greater or a much ebkiap.s.'
r supplyS. t esth present
relaxed their
,f,'„7 say, too; that whether other
of them grew from
tile tariffs or not—though as some
:.he abolition of
our Corn-laws, it is likely they would •.,
own restrictions, though the tariffs remai..... us they now
are; wolikl cause a great exportation of manufac.ll".:lo..
pay fof the food which would be impdrted. With the
tomary ostentation of princely pretended alms-givers, i
who prefer generosity toyustice, the Gallant Colonel, in
fact, misrepresents our demands, while he graciously pre-
tends to concede them, and deliberately withholds, on an
assumption of his own that he knows our wants better
than ourselves, those rights which we in fact claim, and
mean, we can tell Colonel Torrens, to have.
The first of these assumptions is, that in " ordinary
years the agriculture of the United Kingdom yields a
supply of corn all but sufficient for home consumption."
" import a large
The conclusion from that assumption is,
quantity of foreign corn, and the immediate consequence
will be, that a large quantity of British corn must cease
to be produced." The assumption is false in fact, and if
true in fact, would not warrant the Gallant Colonel's
conclusion.
The importation of wheat alone into this country dur-
ing the four years ending with 1840 was 6,326,553
quarters. If we add 2,000,000 quarters for 1841, we
shall have 1,665,310 quarters as the average import
for the last five years, or about one-tenth of the whole
quantity of wheat consumed. A deficiency of one-tenth
the Colonel calls " an all but sufficient supply for home
consumption." But the public is painfully aware that
during those five years a great portion of the working
classes in !his country have been very insufficiently fed.

The lower classes are still more painfully aware, that
during those years they have suffered very great priva-
tions, as to clothing and fuel, and various enjoyments,
in consequence of the dearness and scarcity of food, and
that many of their relatives and friends have actually
been starved out of existence; yet, for the sake of build-
ing up an argument in favour of transporting the peo-
ple by the action of the Government, and against the
repeal of the Corn-laws, the Gallant Colonel assumes that
the people had, even without the corn imported, an all but
sufficient supply of food, the produce of our own agri-

culture,
'llse Gallant Colonel, drawing his inference from 1835
and it3`ei6,..may say that the last five are not ordinary
years; but througir the long period of fifty years' Eng-
land has contintattly imported considerable quantities of
. food, and the people,. particularly in Ireland, have at the
6xitte time been um-ter-fed. The very cheap years
1835 suet tau are ,extraordinary years, and the
last five years, as any person may satisfy him-
self by casting a glance over the quantity of corn
Imported every year for the lat,'!: fifty years, much more
deserve the character of ordinary Wars than the cheap
and abundant years, which are very few and far be-
tween. In fact, in those fifty years tl;ere were only
three in which wheat was not imported. Moreover,
we are justified in taking the latter years, because, since
1536, the population has increased, and the produce,
whith might have been all bat sufficient in 1835, is not
all but sufficient in 1841, which is the essential point.
The assufiaptiorf, therefore, that " the agriculture of the
United Kingdom yields a supply of corn all but suffi-
cient for home consumption" is false in fact.-
If it were true in fact, it would not warrant the Co-
lonel's assumption that "import a large quantity of fo-
reign corn, and the immediate consequence would be that a
large quantity of British corn must cease to be produced."
That implies that the dema-nd for corn would remain
stationary, and is not susceptible of increase ; for if the
demand increase, it may take up a 0 the corn now grown in
the empire, and the largest possible ,auantity that can be
imported. The cultivation of corn ill lingland is part of
a system of agriculture which extends over a period of
four or five years, and it would require at lest that time
before the most extensive importation could Ouch de-
crease the quantity grown at home. But we have already
seen that the people are under-fed, the certain conse-
quence, therefore, of abundance and cheapness would be,
that more food would be consumed though not a soul was
added to the population. At the same time, nothing is
more certain than that with abundance and cheapness
population increases very fast—so fast, it is said, that no
increase of food can keep up with it—consequently a
great additional demand for food would arise. The Co-
lonel's conclusion is not, therefore, just. The supposi-
tion that a large quantity of British corn must cease to
be produced were a large quantity of foreign corn im-
ported does not represent a probable future hypothetical
fact.
Colonel Torrens may possibly say something. about an
efficient demand, meaning that there must be besides
stomachs craving for food the means to pay for it. It is,
however, certain that foreign. corn will not be given to
us. None, therefore, will be imported unless it can be
paid for. Will there be means to pay for it, and also
for that which is grown at home ? Now Col. Torrens
tells us, at p. 86, that all commerce is barter, and, of
course, the commerce between town and country, as well
as the commerce between different political States, is bar-
ter. The means, therefore, of paying for agricultural
produce is the *produce of manufactures which is bar-
tered for it. At this moment the complaint of our ma-
nufacturers is, that they cannot find a market for their
goods. They produce more than they can barter for
food. The people at home do not consume their goods,
and they cannot export them with a profit. They want
to barter their goods for foOd, and the law will not allow
them. In that fact lies the proof, that there will be
means to pay for an increased quantity of food as well As
stomachs to crave for it.
To make up the proof, indeed, Colonel Torrens is an
ex "silent auxiliary. A great part of his pamphlet is
ts,ken up in proving that the supply of manufactured
goods, and power of supplying them, has increased much
faster than the demand, or the supply of agricultural
frotlace ; and all the arguments on which he delights to
dwell in favour of our unliiritecl power to manufacture,
are all p*bors on the principle ti at all commerce is bar-
ter, that with the increase of craving stomachs, which
is certain, there will be an increase d the means of rea-
sonable and just payment for any quantity of food, how-
ever great, which can be imported from Abroad and
grown at home.
Is Colonel Torrens, howeVer, so very blind as not to
see thiit both assumption and conclusion involve a petitio
prittetipt 7 Both are drawn from circumstances which
exist under the present Corn-law, and which would not
exist were that law abolished. In ordinary years, that
law keeps down the population, by disease and death, to
a, number somewhat above the number which the. agri-
cateral produce of the country can sustain. Population
is, in fact, annually cut down to the law-limited supply
of food, hlstead of the supply of food being made co-
extensive with the possible increase of population. Col.
Torrens may well, therefore, assume that in ordinary
years population will not get much ahead of our own
supply. The impious law will not allow it. A modern
theory says, be as industrious as men may; let themim-
prove never so much in skill and ingenuity, let there au;;-
merit their productive power to any conceivable limit,
they never 'can supply food enough for the rapid and ever
more rapidly increasing children of men. In spite of
this theory an impious law cuts off our supplies of food,
annually' starves the people down to the short quantity it
will allow them to get, and Colonel Torrens is
the man to kindly defer to this law and its
consequences, and assumes them as the basis of a great
system of future policy. lie lays it down as a first or
natural principle, that our own agriculture yields an all
but sufficient supply, and that were a larger supply made-
accessible to our people they could not consume and pay
for it. When men professing to be profound thinkers,
and devoting their ripened years to discussion and me-
ditation, can embrace such a transparent fallacy, we need
neither wonder at the " conceit" of Scotch parsons, nor
blame the rash Chartists for false assumptions and er-
roneous conclusions.
The object of Colonel Torrens' pamphletis to reason
against the expected advantages of a free trade in corn,
by showing that the power of producing manufactures in
England exceeds the demand for them abroad, and con-
sequently that the repeal of the Corn-laws would not re-
lieve the distress of the people. To .prove this very
large and very important proposition, which would show
that England was destined to suffer for all time from a
plethora of productive poWer, Colonel Torrens does not
go beyond our own country and our own times; and,
what is more singular, does not go beyond a period dur-
ing which the Corn law has been in existence :
" The data," he says, "from which I have argued, are
furnished unfortunately by the history of the cotton ma-
nufacture of the country. After the first great improve-
ments in the cotton trade were effected, a considerable
period elapsed before the reduction in the cost of pro-
ducing goods was followed by a corresponding increase
in their supply and diminution in. their price." " This
prosperous state of trade might have continued to the
present day, provided the capital and labourers employed
in foreign countries in raising, for the British market,
the cotton wool, and the other raw produce, which are
at once the equivalent and the component parts of the fi-
nished goods, had increased in an equal ratio with the
ine7ease which took place in the capital and labourers
employ•,qtl in the cotton manufacture. This unfortunately
q case. There was a rapid increase in the fo-
reignml. but there was an increase still more rapid
was not
aein tlia.
in the supply?!
This discrepanc," between the increased supply in Eng-
land and the lesser increased demand, is the main
pillar of all Colonel Torrens 's building. But this dis-
crepancy took place under the Corn-law and other re-
strictive laws, which, by prohibiting all the free inpor-
tation into England of the flour of North America, and
the sugar and coffee of South America, prohibited all
the commerce which would have taken place by the
barter of those commodities, and lessened, pro tanto, the
demands of America. Air. Cripps justly said, in his
communication to Sir R. Peal—" The United States of
America take as large a quantity of our manufactured
goods as they can pay for : if wo could increase their
means of payment, we could safely increase our exports
to that country. At present, their shipments of cotton,
tobacco; ashes, &c., do not furnish a sufficient supply of
bills W meet the payments for our manufaciNres. The
consequence is, that merchants are now remitting from
thence in gold:"
Can Colonel Torrens, or any other person, say that
the lessened demand America, in comparison w our
power of frroduction, Is not caused by those restrictive
laws ~ anti can he say that the demand would not have
been fully equal to, and even greater than, the suppl. 7 had
the demand not been extinguished by our own . law-s ?
Colonel Torrettes supposition " that the markets OS
Amerita for English goods should remain stationary,"
while the supply of them should be increased, is as wild
a dream as ever entered the head of a visionary. The
Gallant Officer, in fact, tell us, when his objt:ct is to
prove that emigration will not lessen the resources
of England, that the capital which has been trans-
planted from England to America " occasioned a vastly
augmented demand for. labour in the mother country."
In no country do capital and labour increase so fast as
in the United States, and that they have not been directed
to raising raw produce for our manufacturers is clearly
the consequence of our Corn and other restrictive laws,
which have prohibited the sale of their articles in our
markets.
The wants of the Americans, constituting a market for
our goods, have increased with the rapid multiplication
of the people. It would seem, indeed, that the wonder-
fully productive power of England, consisting of ma-
chinery, and the rapid developement of population and
capital in the United States, arising from their abun-
dance of soil and raw materials, were as exactly adapted
to each other as the wing of the bird to the air, and the
fin of the fish to the sea ; but Corn-laws, and such like
enactments, have marred this beautiful harmony, and
tucled all nature into discord. The true market' of
Amenja is the /rant of her ever-increasing population,
to which nd bounds can be set. And while their de-
mands would increase under a free trade, fully equip to
our productive power, the employment given to our
population would enable them to consume more ; and
our productive power, which Col. Torrens, with Mr.
Owen's eyes, looks on as excessive, would be doubly
taxed, and would rather fail, we believe, than otherwise,
to answer dve-tlertiands, did not new inventions come to
its help.
The observed discrepancy then between our productive
power and the demands of foreign countries, which has
become manifest under the Corn-laws, is the consequence
of those laws, and the elaborate pamphlet of the Gallant
Officer rests on a complete petitio principi. It begs the
whole question, and assumes the effects of the Corn-laws
as the data of its arguments, as if they were natural,
necessary, and unavoidable circumstances. To us it ap-
pears no better than silliness to infer, because the de-
mand from America has not kept pace with our power to
produce, under the system which has prohibited the
growth of that demand, that the same discrepancy would
exist with free WA °, and that the Government, would