The Sun.
London, England, 1842-02-10 00:00:00

tests or resolutions calculated to sustain the Deputation
in the approaching contest, may be forwarded to the
Office of the Metropolitan Anti-Corn-law Associationl
448, Strand, London."
" That it is desirable that these Resolutions be imme-
diately published in the Provincial Papers, and that the
Committees of Anti-Corn-law Associations be re-
quested to take measures to effect that object."

SPIRIT of the PUBLIC JOURNALS.

FROM THE EVENING PAPERS OF TUESDAY.
STANDARD. —We have already very frankly
avowed our opinion that the demands of ttle United
States cannot be complied with in respect to either class
of the negroes on board the Creole; not with respect to
the majority, who, it is admitted, took no part in
the emancipation of the coloured passengers, nor
with respect to the minority, who fought the
battle of freedom. As regards the first class,
a friend has kindly favoured us with a case
precisely in point --- a case which proves that
even at a time when England permitted slavery in her
colonies, she was still accessible to the considera-
tions of justice, by which the rights of independent
nations, whether those nations are powerful or feeble,
ought to be protected. Twenty-two years ago England
refused to assert against the most puny of Governments
that right, as it is pretended, which the United States
now command her to admit against herself. The al-
lowing is the proof to which we refer, and it can be easily
verified by an inveatigatioirof the papers in the Colonial-
office :—" About twenty-two years since, a pilot-boat be-
longing to a Mr. M‘liewan, of Port Royal, was carried to
St. Domingo, by the crew, who were all slaves. On
this being made known in Jamaica, the owner of the
boat and negroes applied to the Admiral at the station,
to send a man-of-war to Hayti, and demand the boat and
crew. The -Admiral (Sir Home Popham, or Ad-
miral Halsted) did so : the answer made by the
Haytian Government was, that they would give up the
boat to its owner, but the negroes were at liberty to re-
main or return as they pleased. They added, that every
one being free in St. Domingo, the moment a man
landed on their territory he was free also. Whatever
was the state of the person in the country from whence
he -came, they, the Haytian Government, could only re-
cognise him as a free man, slavery not existing in that
island. This answer being considered unsatisfactory in
Jamaica, the circumstance was reported by the Governor,
the Duke of Manchester, to England, and instructions
how to proceed were asked for. The answer from Eng-
land was, that. the Haytian Government was right ; and
that if 'the negroes had landed in England instead of
Hayti, the British Government would not, and could
not, by law, compel them to return to their former
owners in Jamaica." This is decisive. The British
Government cannot, after this decision, restore a single
negro of those not charged with an active participation
in the rescue.

COURIER.—The hour so anxiously anticipated by
all classes of the country—so fraught with good and evil
—is now nigh at hand. On Wednesday next the vital
measure of the present Government will be proposed to
the House of Commons, and the speculations of all parties
bo set at rest. It were idle to deny that great alarm pre-
vails in the agricultural districts, that the mere rumour of
a change in the existing Corn-laws has been productive of
harm. It is certain that since the agitation of this question
the sale of land has been materially affected, both buyers
and sellers being unwilling to close their bargains until
the Government has declared what amount of pro-
tection it will afford to the agricultural interests. One
thing is certain, that the Duke of Buckingham has left
the Cabinet, and we may fairly argue from this cir-
cumstance, that some important alteration has been pro-
posed. There- are many who draw still deeper con-
clusions—who feel that the measure which could not
obtain the support of the farmers' friend cannot be
permanently beneficial to the country. In discussing
the question of an alteration in the Core-laws, we have
always been indifferent to the views of any particular
Government. The interests at stake are too important,
too vital to be argued on so narrow a basis of general
politics. On this occasion, if on any, we should look to
the measures and not to the men. We are legislating
not merely for the present, but also for the future.
The late Government having proposed a fixed duty of
eight shillings, were defeated upon their appeal to the
country, not because the measure was brought forward
I by the Whigs—not because it was adopted (as a Morn-
ing Contemporary has stated) at a wrong moment--but
because those who constitute the heart of the country,
the agriculturists, felt that their very existence was in
peril, and the nation generally had sufficient sense to
perceive that, the vested rights of the landholders and
farmers once invaded, the spirit which animates and
gives life to our social system would lose all its vigour.
Now, we firmly believe that any alteration in the
pivot will ultimately lead, not merely to a fixed duty,
but to the total repeal of the Corn-laws. Human nature
and history both testif that it is impossible to limit the
progress of change. So far, and yet no further, is a
principle which can never be applied to legislation. That
which is experiment to-day becomes precedent to-morrow,
and in suffering and grief men too eagerly seize upon
any panacea which promises to alleviate their pain, even
when they know the remedy is offered by charlatans and
can only procure them temporary relief. We do not
in the least degree blame those who seek to pro-
mote their own interests, and who imagine that those
interests are affected by the present Corn-laws ;
but we are deeply sensible that if the Government do
intend to insist upon protection to the farmers, it should
uphold the present system, otherwise it were better, far
better, at once to yield the whole question and adopt a
fixed duty. By such a course of policy we should at
least conciliate one party in the country ; we should not
be driven from our position inch by inch, and experience
that most bitter of feelings—the knowledge of having
conceded principles-in vain.

FROM THE EVENING PAPERS OF YESTERDAY.
GLOBE.—The eventful day, big with the fate of tte
country, and probably of the Cabinet, has at, 'ien,th
dawned. Sir Robert Peel will to-night r'7opound
long-looked-for plan for relieving tht "commercial and
manufacturing classes from the ".ressure produced by ex-
isting fiscal restrictions, an especially by the insane and
cruel Corn-laws, non their energies. The impedi-
ments to their enterprising efforts, by which alone they
can be prosecuted with success, are to be removed.
This achievement, we are told, is to be effected. At
the same time the agricultural interests are to be satis-
fied, and their monopoly, protected by the " sliding
scale," is to be retained 1 That the Premier's theory is
to embrace these objects, as we have here stated them,
is obvious, from the allusion, in the nature of a puff pre-
liminary, which he, in his own person, made last night.
There was an evident necessity laid upon him to quiet
the feverish disposition to an open rupture, which was
sufficiently present among his supporters, in the sym-
pathy exprestba by several Members on the Ministerial
benche", with the remarks of Mr. George Palmer,
one of the Members for South Essex, on the pro-
poted alteration in the duties on Colonial timber,
which are essentially the same with those proposed by
the late Government. "He (Mr. P.) wished it to be
distinctly understood, that he had not changed his
opinion with respect to the measure, though he had
changed his seat from one side of the House to the
other." Lord John Russell having expressed his general
approval of the measure, it became the more necessary
for Sir R. Peel to remove the impression which was evi-
dently deepening and extending itself. He thereupon
said :---

K He trusted that the House would not attempt to draw in-
ferences with respect to the other portions of the commercial
policy of the Government from this measure, but that it would
wait until the other measures were brought forward. He
should to-morrow introduce one of the most Important of them,
and he would take the earliest opportunity of pursuing the
same course with respect to others. He trusted that the har-
mony which had hitherto prevailed with respect to this subject
would not be disturbed. He would only add, that he did not
think that the Noble Lord would taunt him with adopting all
his views and measures, when he had heard his (Sir IL Peel's)
proposition to relieve the country from the great financial em-
barrassnientsunder which it now laboured."

This announcement was hailed with " cheers" from
the somewhat discontented adherents to the Premier.
Even the Duke of Buckingham's band of Corn-law
champions, whose obligations to the patron for their
seats bind them to support his views, and to resist any
substantial change in the system to which the land-
owners are generally and strongly attached, and to evince
his devotion to which his Grace has seceded from
the Cabinet -- even these joined in the " cheers."
COURIER—The morning press leader of the Anti-
Corn-law crew has not hesitated to assert that the CM,
servathe party long denied the existence of great riffs.
tress in the country, which is falsehood the firsA, inas-
much as that distress was never questioned in tny quarter,
although on more than one occasion its '7;rilful and mali-
cious exaggeration, and in somft instances, its pure
invention, by the Radical speakers and papers, were
justly held up to opprobrium and ridicule. Falsehood
the second is, the hardy statement that the distress
(never denied) is now fcir the first time admitted ; and
falsehood third—thoatrowning lie of all—imputes to the
Government awl the Conservative party the broad unre-
served admission, the extraordinary apostacy of opinion,
that the present Corn-laws are the cause of the present
distress. The Conservatives can well afford to deal
with, and dismiss at once, these various atrocious fabri-
cations almost in one word—they are each and all
devoid of truth as their makers of common honesty.
STANDARD.—The proceedings of the House of
Commons last night are calculated to exercise an in-
fluence upon the interests of the empire far more exten-
sive and beneficial than might be expected from the
modest and unpretending manner in which the Mi-
nisterial measures, forming the groundwork of these
proceedings, were introduced. First, in real tempo-
ral importance, as well as in the sacred cha-
racter of Its objects, is Lord Stanley's proposed Bill for
multiplying the means of religious instruction in the
West Indies. "Religious sympathy," says M. Lawn..
tine, in his interesting Travels, "is the only sure, 'bond
of political union, the only solid of national strength.
Were the Christians of the Levant united, they
woulgl constitute a mighty empire," Attach the British
colonies to the metropolitan State by a bona fide par-
ticipation in the national religion, and you will build up
an empire inseparable and irresistible—an empire which
in its progress will contribute to your prosperity and
wealth, as in its eginpletion it Inust place your security
beyond the moll of danger. Civilisation, and the tastes
fctMeeent luxury. inseparable ' from civilisation,
ever attend upon religious improvement ; and what-
ever may be • the fate of British trade with
foreigners, an ample compensation Will, by civilise-
saticm, he ensured to her in her own colonies.
1-* next measure proposed by Mr. Gladstone, is a
114PPY accompaniment .to the foregoing, pointing in the
same direction ; it is a Bill for relieving the colonies
froln all .imposts which can be truly regarded as either
burthensome or vexatious—a fair and full application
of the principles laid down in the Colonial Act of
1778 —the principle that no impost shall be
posed by any authority, save the local Legislature,
for the sake of revenue, or for any other purpose
I but the regulation of commerce. We have not more