The Sun.
London, England, 1842-11-15 00:00:00

o§lllll.

LONDON :
TUESDAY MORNING. NOVEMBER 15, 1842.

The Scotsman has undertaken the task of
abusing The Sun for our observations on Mr.
MACAULAY'S present pursuits. We shall not
trouble ourselves to retort the wit, or reply
to the vituperation of our northern Con-
temporary. We content ourselves with print-
ing his remarks, and shall leave Mr.
MACAULAY to bestow any further notice he
pleases, and any honours he can now command,
on his champion. To those remarks we append
a communication from a Correspondent, which
enables us to state with great satisfaction that
our observations, though they do not please the
partisan print, receive the approbation of inde-
pendent men.

wehad I.
n view was to
drawT heppurbi
Inicci principal
attention
to the ecpresent occupations
ofsome of the late Ministry. They
the people into the hands of the Tories, and
played
and now
desert them. Not one exertion have they made'
though circumstances are now favourable, to unite
and rouse the scattered bands of Reformers, or to
lay down a system of policy to guide them, which
shall be worthy of public support. Yet they
expect, we believe, on account of the transcen.
dant talents with which they conclude they are
endowed, to be again placed in office whenever
the Income-tax and Sir ROBERT PEEL'S system
ofcombined coercion and fraud shall goad the long-
suffering people to do jusOce on the Tories. They
are mistaken. The people will have active, in-
dustrious men, who attend to the business of
England, for leaders; and if the Whigs make no
claim to that character when out of office, they
will find, when the time comes, as come we be-
lieve it speedily will that Sir ROBERT PEEL
will be either chased from the helm as a mere
political charlatan, who has deceived ka 1 1 parties,
or will resign it from mingled shame and des-
pair, that they will be compelled to give way to
those who have sought and gained the popular
approbation. We believe, however, that our
object has been rained. The notice of the
Scotsman, and the communications we have re-
ceived on the subject, assure us that.we have
made both the late Ministers and their journals
a little sensible of their great deficiencies. We
have piqued them into reflecting on their forlorn
and miserable political condition, and made them
aware that they must either give up politics or
they must imitate those who are now struggling
to obtain an ascendancy over the hearts and
minds of their countr3 •
mentO advert further to the
Scotsman, it is due to
Thougli we do not care
former ourselves and due to our
journal informs us that
readers to justify ouri\i observation. That
r
may have been written at Co IMAI CAULAY'S ballads
ege, or on his way
why a
We know nothing
home from India. Granted
on the subject. But re they published
now ? Why does Mr. m
--AcAuLAY seek at this
time
Ementgol divert
aiid
t o
public
theattentiongleends o
RRomef the suffering
Rome
? There are
in the land.
There
ehpublic mind by
--W-1
ere is a whole
triflers enough
artny—almost a myriad of them i
0•
certainly
amuse, but who fritter away !li

imaginary tales. They tend to destroy all hearti-
ness and all earnestness. They lull the public
into insensibility to the condition of the people,
and are some of the best allies of that misgovern-
ment which leads to revolution. If Mr. MACA U.•
LAY feels no interest in the condition of England,
he does well to emulate these triflers, and publish
at this time his boyish effusions, and the studies
that served to dissipate the ennui of a long sea

oyage. But we must inform him that the suf-
ferings of the people have given sternness to their
temper, and by now amusing himself with these
literary trifles he displays an insensibility to
their condition, and exposes himself to public
contempt. _ _

The Scotsman says, " Mr. MACAULAY is the
representative of Edinburgh, and he is not aware
that any party there charge him with neglecting

their interest." More shame for the men of
Edinburgh. But as we have had the pleasure of
hearing Mr. DUNCAN M'LAREN speak eloquently
against the Corn-laws, as we remember the
stern, but just, terms, in which they were de-
nounced by the Edinburgh Guild of Merchants,
we must be permitted to doubt the accuracy of

the Scotsman's assertion. Mr. MACAULAY has
done little or nothing to release the throat of the
people from the gripe of the landlords, and if the
Anti-Corn-law party in Edinburgh are satisfied
with his exertions, they must send him to Par-
liament rather to thwart than promote their
views. One or two speeches of comparatively
little importance are the sum of the Right Hon.
Gentleman's exertions since he was released
from the trammels of office; and while in office,
like the rest of the Whigs, he sacrificed the
principles of free trade for the purposes of party.
in the last session, some most eventful mea-
sures were brought forward. The people were
then cursed with an Income-tax. A whole sys-

tern of new differential duties was imposed on
commerce ; a piece of charlatanism in the shape
of a sliding scale received the sanction of the
House of Commons, and we have no recollection
of any great efforts which Mr. MACAULAY made
to expose the cunning and the iniquity of that

legislation. What exertions did the Right Hon.
Gentleman make to stir up the spirit of the peo-
ple, and stop the measures that are now gall-
ing them to the quick ? He had little time to
consider such important matters ; he was im-
mersed, it appears, in the mythe of ancient,
or the superstitions of modern Rome. If the
Right Hon. Gentleman prefer these amusements
to the dry details of Corn and Provision-laws, we
shall make no objection to his pursuits; but we
shall feel it to be our duty to warn the public
that a gentleman of such a -cultivated taste can-
not possibly attend to the vulgar wants of the
people.

We cannot doubt but that the Anti-Corn-law
League is making a rapid progress to power.
The notice taken of it by its enemies attests this
fact. The Times reports its proceedings at great
length, and the other Tory journals emulate its
example. Their comments on the League betray
their fear. Circumstances, too, help the League.
Trade does not get any better, and agriculture
gets worse. The discontent of the manufacturers
is a trifle compared to the growling discontent
of the farmers, and very soon the bulk of the
nation will demand a serious change.
Much, too, is due to the organization of the
League. They have divided England and Wales
into twelve districts, for the registration ofall those
who will support them. To every district a lecturer
and a superintending registrar are appointed, and
all members are to be enrolled who are willing to
pay one penny. The grand objectis to ascertain
the electoral strength of those who will support
the League, and the exact amount of public
opinion they can bring to bear on the Parliament.
To get at this, :towns like Birmingham are di-
vided into wards or sections—there they amount
to thirteen. In every ward a Committee is or-
ganised, and it is to be regularly canvassed.
Such a system will carry the League home to
every man's door, and will call on him to say
whether he be for monopoly or free trade.
It will scarcely allow of neutrality. If the
League be already powerful, such a plan will
add amazingly to its power, or destroy it.
We believe, as the cause is righteous
and the times favourable, that it will
add much to the power of the Leag,tte:
After learning so much of its intentions and :its
progress, we are not surprised that the mono—
polist Government is alarmed, and that reports
are rife of new coercive plans to secure Mono-
poly—if possible—and put down by force the
advocates of unrestricted industry.

The Cheltenham Free Press publishes an ac-
count of one JOSEPH HAYES having been sen-
tenced to two months' imprisonment in the
Northleach House of Correction, for beating his
wife. In that period, we presume from the con-
dition of the prison, the insufficient diet, and the
hard labour, the prisoner became very much
diseased, and applications were made to the Ma-
gistrates, it is not stated with what effect, to re-
mit the remainder of his sentence. The case is
noticed here, as a specimen of the offences for
which Magistrates are in the habit of summarily
convicting men—and we shall presently see how
numerous are such convictions—and exposing
them to all the horrors of imprisonment. We
do not deny that beating a wife, though it be
allowed in the civilised empire of the CzAR, is a
great offence; but we much doubt whether the
punishment, two months in Northleach, be not
a greater crime towards the prisoner com-
mitted by the Magistrates, than he committed
towards his wife. It would be bad for us all if

criminals forfeited all the rights of man, for few
of us are perfectly free from offences, though we
may not fall under the authority of the Magis-
trates ; and criminals not having forfeited the
rights of man, we say that those rights are grossly
outraged by the Magistrates in committinga man
for two months to the horrors of Northleach for
beating his wife. His offence is great, but the
punishment is a still greater offence.
In this Northleach House of Correction, the
horrors of which have been so recently brought be-
fore the public, we find from the Seventh Report
of the Inspector of Prisons, Southern and Western
District, that out of 51 prisoners confined at the
date of the Inspector's visit, July 22, 1841, forty
were cases of summary conviction. In the
whole year, ending Michaelmas, 1841, the num-
ber of summary convictions to this one House of
Correction was no less than 364, or 30 per
month. Surely they are not the friends—cer-
tainly they are not the protectors of the lower
classes, who consign them so mercilessly, and in
such numbers, to.hard labour and to pine in damp
cells in unwholesome prisons.

We are not much astonished at the number of
summary convictions with which this
makes us acquainted, but it is worthy
g
noticed. In the Somerset House of Correction
at ctiio
at Taunton, out of 760 prisoners in 1840,
number confined under summary convictions
was no less than 366 and out of 598 in 1841, no
less than 279. By another table in the same
Report we find that of the summary convictions
in 1841, 19 were for offences under the Game-
laws, 104 for offences against the Vagrant Act,
49 for offences against the Malicious Trespass
Act, 61 under the Larceny Act, and 32 for
assaults. All these offences, except the last, arc
offences against property, and particularly that
species of property of which the Magistrates are
the possessors, and which the poor want. They
are in fact, therefore, judges in their own cause,
for their cause is the cause of the rich against the
poor—their cause is the cause of the owners
of property against those who have none—their
cause is the cause of game against poachers, of
property against trespassers—and it is on the face
of it a piece of scandalous injustice, that this one
class of propertied men should be intrusted with
the power of summary conviction to such an
enormous extent.
Again, in Shepton Mallet prison no less than
567 persons were confined in the course of the
year under summary convictions. They were
employed either at the treadmill, at breaking
stones, or at pumping water, and were subjected
during their confinement to all the rigour of the
prison. Of them 37 were confined for offences
under the Game-laws, and 'lO6 for offences under
the Vagrant Act. In Usk House of Correction,