The Sun.
London, England, 1842-06-20 00:00:00

Ott _ lit,

LONDON :
MONDAY MORNING, JUNE 20, 1842.

When we find Sir BOBERT PEEL falling under the
objurgation of the ultra-Tories, it is, perhaps, our
duty to take him under our protection. In proportion
as he is attacked by the Post and the rabids of his own
party, he rises in our estimation. We are almost
compelled to believe he is doing good, though we dis-
trust him, and repudiate the means he employs, when
we find him furiously assailed by ignorance and
Bigotry.
Perhaps some of our readers, who attend closely to
politics, may recollect a Sir RICHARD VYVYAN in
Parliament some eight or ten years ago. The Hon.
Baronet sat then for Bristol, if we recollect
right, and was distinguished for making a few long
and furious speeches in She House of Commons against
freedom in every shape, which no Journal ever
honoured, except the Standard. This ultra-Tory
Bafonet, who was thought at one time to make pre-
tensions to be Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs,
has been returned to the present Parliament for the
borough of Helston. He has, however, given up
making speeches and taken to write pamphlets. A
production of his, in the shape of a letter to the Elec-
tors of Helston, has lately been published, which
makes some curious revelations as to the Tory party.
From the position of the Hon. Baronet, he is a good
witness to what is going on in its interior, and we
shall quote some parts of his letter to explain that :
The leader of the Oppo,itic,n, who had originated the
vote of distrust before the dissolution, was commissioned
by the Queen to form a new Government, and the con-
stituencies looked forward with confidence, to an imme-
diate cessation of Ministerial endeavours to unsettle ex-
isting regulations affecting agriculture and trade, while
they hoped that some of the obnoxious changes effected
by the Whigs, more especially as regarded the Poor-law
Commission, might be reconsidered. They were fully
justifieJ in entertaining these expectations. Appeals
mid been made to them upon such questions against th;
Whigs, and they had laboured with zeal to promote th;
election of Members in whose assurances of oppositioi
to the measures of the late Governmont they had full re
fiance. Under such auspices Sir Robert Peel becalm
;her Majesty's Prime Minister.
Although the mystery with which some of his more
confidential supporters, and the new subordinate plaee
holders, talked of the plans of their chiefs, was most
alarming to the main body of those Members of Parlia-
ment who had concurred in ejecting their predecessors,
there was so general a disinclination to suppose then
capahke of adopting the policy of those who had pre-
ceded them that hints upon the subject were almost
treated as insults. Until the Duke of Buckingham
.quitted the Cabinet, shortly before the commencement
of this session, it is evident, that even in that Counci
there could have been ho fixed determination to bring
forward free trade measures. Yet the retirement of hi:
Grace was a fact which justified all previous doubts, ann.
it pr red the nation for some propositions in which the
agricultural interest was to be attacked. Thenceforward.
from the opening of the session to the present hour, the
country has been kept in a constant state of apprehension.
The Hen. Baronet is somewhat endeared to us by
making a vigorous attack oft the Income-tax, against
which he voted, and wilith lie describes as an in-
tolerable burden carried through the House of Com-
mons in a most arbitrary manner. He is, however,
.a determined enemy to free trade, and therefore he
severely attacks Sir. ROBERT PEEL. Let the reader
remember, however, that the writer of the following
passage is a Tory, who must have experienced the
effects of those methods of forcing Gentlemen to vote,
of which he so feelingly complains

The House of Commons, at the beginning of tle
present session, consisted of only two sections—that
which supported- Sir Robert Peel's Government, and
that which adhered to the late Administration. Any
Conservative inclined to act independently was ob..
noxious to the cabal by whom the mess of the part.
were inflbeneed ; they were warned against him as
naarplot ; his private declarations of a wish to think anti
tact in accordance with his own opinions upon any point.
were either scouted as those of a self-sufficient person, en-
tertaining what war, called " crotchety" notions—or a,
those or a mutineer in the Conservative regiment, incul-
cating dii.obedience to his superior officers, because he
had been diasppointen in the attainment of some object
of his personal ambition ; he was derided as an ultra
and alarmist, 0: stigelatisil as a ttissatistied place-
Runlets; who grumbled because he hail not been placed
in office. The surmise of a suspicion that the late change
or Government would disappoint the Conservative con-
stituencies, who had acted with so much energy and con-
fidence during the general election, was sufficient to
.isolate the Member who ventured to suggest it.
Yet this plan of keeping the members of a party
together, by stifling the expression of independent
oinnion, and degrading the self-respect of each in-
dividual, or of endeavouring to convert a body of
high-minded noblemen and gentlemen into a regi-
ment of partisans, never oan prevail ultimately. A
past majority of those who constitute the Conserva-
titre party in Paragons are too well initemed, and too.

N

conscious of their own dignified position before the
country, to be led on from one error to another, under
the guidance of a few intriguers,
.many of whom aru
subor,:inate persons, not Members of Parliament, and
nut entitled to respect on account of their political posi•
tion. Such a mode of exerting a sinister influence could
not have prevented the resuscitation of an independent
party, after the declaration of the Ministerial intentions,
which were announced in the Queen's speech, if Sir
Robert Peel had not accompanied his declaration by the
threat, that unless his measures were carried he would
resign—a threat distinctly made in his speeches on
several occasions

In ordinary times this method of attempting to force
great changes in the existing law through Parliament
would have had no effect upon the Conservative majority
for, however I may have presumed to differ from that
majority, I believe that there never was a House of Com-
mons more inclined to act independently, and in accord-
ance with the wishes of their constituents, when it first
met, than that which was elected during the last summer.
But the public feeling then manifested against die
measures -of the late Ministers was immediately
treated in the spirit of party, as if the nation enter-
tained a greater objection to their persons than to
their policy ; and as Sir Robert Peel's threat of re-
signation implied the supposed necessity of their return
to power, it had its full effect in compelling almost
every individual in the Conservative party to vote for the
new Corn-law, the Income-tax, and the Tariff, notwith-
standing his objection to such measures. The dread of
seeing the Whigs restored to place banished all other con-
siderations ; not only did they submit to the Minister's
dictatorial manner, but they scarcely ventured to offer
a few words in debate against it. Unfortunately for the
country, most of the leaders in opposition have not ab-
stained from holding indiscreet language about the so-
called principles of free trade, which Justifies the fears
of the Conservatives, that should Sir Robert Peel's Go-
vernment resign, they will be succeeded by Ministers
still more hostile to the interests which have been at-
tacked so unexpectedly by the present Administration.
In this apparent choice of evils, they believe the safer
course is to submit to an infliction, upon the full extent
of which no man has yet endeavoured to enlarge in his
place in Parliament.
Poor Sir RICHARD does not like to be called a
" marplot," a " crotchety man," or represented as
disappointed, and, therefore, the peaches agamst his
whole party, and declares that many of them have
dishonestly voted against their own convictions merely
from terror of the Whigs. They have, according to
their view, sacrificed the public interest to keepout the
hated Whigs. We shall quote another short passage,
which Viscount MELBommui said on Friday night was
very well expressed, and then leave our readers to form
their own judgment of the Tory party and the Tory
Chief from the testimony of one of his followers.
The nation at large is never either Whig or Tory ;
the people only look to the measures of a Government,
and are indifferent about the prospect of this or that
party losing or gaining
.office. Last year the pi oductive
classes believed their interests were in jeopardy when
Parliament was dissolved, and they were wearied by :he
constant attempts of ~he Whig Administration to disturb
the existing laws. At the present moment they are equaly
alarmed; but they are more disgusted with the conduct
of public men, because the leaders of the Tory party, if
not chargeable with deceptive promises before they be-
came Ministers, allowed the constituencies who returned
the majority of the House of Commons, to deceive them-
selves. Mr. Palmer, one of the Members for Essex, has
lately declared in Parliament, that had his constituents been
certain that the present Administration would act as they
have done, and had he declared his intention to support
such measures previously to his election, he could not
have obtained the votes of 50 Conservative electors in his
county; and no Minister who heard this declaration ven-
tured to contradict it.

The following notice appears in the votes of the
Commons of Friday, for Saturday, June 18 :
Mr. William Gladstone, in Committee of the whole
House, to propose the following resolution :—" That it
is expedient to permit foreign wheat to be delivered,
under certain regulations, from the warehouse or from the
ship, duty free, upon the substitution into the warehouse,
or the delivery for exportation, of equivalent quantities
of flour and biscuit."

No mention of the subject, however, is made in
the report of the debate on Saturday, and we pre-
sume, therefore, it was not then submitted to the
House. Had that taken place, we might have found
it less necessary to explain its scope and object. Mr.
HUTT had taken up the subject, which has been a
favourite with some Liberals for several years past, hut
we infer, from Mr. GLADSTONE'S notice, that the Go-
vernment has taken it out of Mr. Hurr's hands, and
means to carry a measure successively proposed by
Mr. P. ThomsoN, Mr. WARBURTON, and Mr. HUTT,
to a conclusion. Its object is to confer some benefit
on the grinding and shipping interest.
In the debate on May 25, Mr. GLADSTONE stated
that there are at present rules of the Custom House
by which every article, except salt provisions, lying in
warehouse, might be delivered (as ships' stores) with-
out the payment of any dues whatever. The Custom
House rule is this:

Warehoused goods may be delivered into the charge
of the searchers, to be shipped as stores without entry or
payment of any duty for any ship of the burden of 70
tons at least, bound upon a voyage to foreign parts, the
probable duration of which out and home will not Le
less than forty days."

According to these regulations, whenever Mr.
GLADSTONE'S proposition to allow biscuit to be sub-
stituted for foreign wheat in bond, on which
no duty has been paid, shall be carried into effect, all
our shipping engaged in foreign trade will be easily
victualled with foreign-grown corn, made into biscuit
here, as well as with foreign fatted and cured beef.
As far as the plan goes it is good. The great objection
we make to it is that it is partial.
Why should the Custom House and the Board of
Trade confine this great benefit of provisioning ships
cheaply to ships engaged in the foreign trade ? What
have the owners of coasting vessels done, that they are
not to have the same advantage ? What'have the
manufacturers done too ; and what have the bulk of
the. working classes done, that they may not have
cheap food as well as the shipowners engaged in foreign
trade ?

The Ministers profess a wish to give relief to the
labouring classes, but except as such a regulation
may give a little more employment to our millers,
biscuit-bakers, and sailors, it will be exclusively an
advantage to one class of shipowners. To the sailors
it will be of no benefit, for the plain reason that the
owner supplies them with provisions, and they only
victual themselves when they are on shore. As
a small abatement of the landlords' monopoly,
leading perhaps by smuggling to a large abatement—
as a means of giving employment to our millers, and
facilitating our shipping in supplying such colonies
as Newfoundland with ships' provisions, and as lower-
ing the cost of provisioning our own ships engaged in
Foreign trade, the measure has our hearty approbation.
We only blame it for narrowness, incompleteness,
and partiality.

At the 'sane time it reflects no credit on the Le-
gislature, that it is obliged to make such a multitude
~flaws and regulions as a substitute for the simple
rule of allowing evk man to trade when and where
he likes. Poor as the alteration is, Mr. GLAD-
STONE, unless supported by the Liberals, is not likely
to carry it, for it is the counterpart of a measure
which they have frequently proposed, and the land-
owners, headed by the present Paymaster of the
Forces, have always resisted. We see by the Votes
of the House of Commons, that Mr. Gladstone's reso-
lution was postponed till this day.

The gentlemen who are in town from the North of
England, for the purpose of laying before Government
and the Legislature facts connected with the present
alarming state of that part of the kingdom, have already
had an interview with Sir Robert Peel, and with se-
veral influential Members of both Houses of Parlia-
ment, and of all parties. Sir Robert • seemed impressed
by their communications. They have formed a Com-
mittee, to whom communications on the state of other
districts of the country may be forwarded, addressed to
Hamer Stansfeld, Esq., Ring's Arms Hotel, Palace -
yard, London. _

MR. VIGNE'S TRAVELS IN KASHMERE, &C.—We
are requested to state that Mr. Colburn, of Great Marlborough-
street, has this day published, " Travels in Kashmere, Ladak,
Iskard, and the countries adjoining the mountain course of the
Indus, and Himalaya, North of the Panjab," by G. T. Vigne,
Esq., F. GS., author of " A Personal Narrative of a Visit to
Afghanistan, &c., 2 vols., Bio., with a valuable map, and 22
other illustrations, which can now be had of all booksellers.
Mr. Colburn has alsu just published cheaper editions of the
following popular works:-1. Dr. Granville's Guide to the
Spas of England, in 2 vols., price 125., either of which may be
had separately, comprising upwards of 1,100 close pages of
letter-press : vol. 1. contains the Northern Spas, with 27 illus-
trations, and table of the chemical analyses of the various
springs ; vol. 2, contains the 111idiand and Southern Spas, with
24 illustrations, and table of the chemical analyses of the various
springs.-2. The Countessibs.booufn Th ile's
Hon.Bdt3ssir:gt°"ld 1 x
eri
ri ne FDraa
mn ceer,:s'
eBr"Travels in Greece, Turkey, Egypt, and the
2 vols., small smofal
Holy Laud,"l2
vols., small Bvo., with illustrations, 165., bound.
SURREY THEATRE.---it will be seen from the ad-
vertisement in another column, that the opera of Sonnambula is
to be brought out at this theatre to-night with a powerful com-
pany. Stansbury is conductor. Miss Romer will perform the part
of Amina, and she will be assisted by Harrison, Leffler, and
Mrs. Searle. The arrangements for performing operas at this
theatre, we understand, are excellent, and we have no doubt
will meet with public support.
As the train of the Lyons and St. Etienne railroad
was returning up the bank of the Rhone from Lyons, on the
evening of the 6th inst., M. Guyot, the conducteur,
passing through the tunnel called Darey, ? near Rive as it was
de Gier, in-
cautiously put his head beyond the carriage, and being caught
by his chin against the wall was drawn out, and, falling under
the vrheals) was instantaneously crushed to death.
1

GOLD COIN.
TO THE EDITOR OF THE SUN.

SlR—Your Correspondent " Numismaticus," in your
Journal of the 13th inst., suggests the expediency of the
gold coin being struck after the manner of the copper
penny pieces of 1797, having a raised border with the
letter indented, and not prominent. This suggestion
originated with Pinkerton, and may be found in the
second volume, page 148, second edition, London 1789,
of his essay on medals and coins. The following is an
extract :--- _

"The whole plan of coinage is yet susceptible of real
and most important improvements. A far higher relief
might be given to the impression, so as to rival the
ancients in this grand criterion of good coin ; and this
relief might with ease be protected by a circle of equal
height around the rim of the piece. This circle would
not only serve to preserve the coin, but might, in the
whole coinage betir a legend upon the edge ; an opera-
tion so simple as to appear upon the tin halfpence and
farthings, when they were in use. This circular legend,
now used only upon the crown and half-crown, cught to
adorn and protect every coin, from the five-guineapiece
down to the farthing ; for there cannot be so easy and
so effectual a guard against forgery, (it is preferable to
indent and not to raise the letters on the edge, because
in the latter plan they are soon defaced). The letters
ought to be placed within the circle, and that on the
edge might extend over the whole surface, so as nothing
could be taken from the coin without appearance. The
copper coinage of 1717, and gold coinage of 1728, are
something in the general style of this proposal, but not
of sufficient relief, and without the circular legends
Such as they are, however, these coinages ought to be
recommended, as of the very best form which has ever
yet appeared in medern times."
Pinkerton concludes his suggestion as to improvement
of the coin in the following quaint manner :—" But any.
effectual improvement of our coinage must be left till
God help us ; together with the more important improve-
ments of the police of London, of our waste lands, and
of Parliamentary representation."
I am, Sir, your's, &c.
Ilfracombe, June 17, 1842.

R. W. D.