The Sun.
London, England, 1842-12-22 00:00:00

lin Evening Mail, to combine in London in
order to resist all further relaxation of our re-
strictive laws on trade. Should they be success-
ful, they will narrow the drain which a brisk
trade in England opens to carry off their surplus
population, or stop it altogether, and multiply
outrages, by increasing the competition for land,
in their own country.

We offer no defence for the condnct of Irish
landlords; we do not dream of vindicating the
law relative to the tenure of land in Ireland as
it stands; but neither the law nor the landlords
could be so prejudicial to the welfare of the
Irish as at present, had the people other means to
subsist than that of cultivating the soil. Compared
to an easy means of gaining a living o►► one
hand, and a keen competition amongst hungry
cutters for every fragment of an acre on the
other, the influence of all laws and of all insti-
tutions, of whatever nature, over the welfare of
society, must be trifling. To make men in
opulent and easy circumstances rioters and
murderers, would be a most difficult task ; but
not so difficult as to make men who are a prey
to hunger and wretchedness peaceable and
orderly. In Ireland profitable employment for
the people is wanted. There seems at present
not much prospect of establishing manufactures
on an extensive scale in that country. A de-
ficiency of coal, and a deficiency of a population
educated to the work—for the manufacturing
population of England, its hosts of millwrights
carpenters, smiths, and engineers, did not grow
up in a day—will for some time prevent Ireland
being the seat of extensive manufactures. But
the readiest way to promote that, is to draw
off as much as possible of its surplus popu-
lation into the manufacturing districts of Eng-
land, which will gradually extend peaceful habits
and produce security in Ireland. As its popula-
tion get partly taught in England, some of them
will return, and, aided by the English and
Scotch, ►manufactures may gradually grow up
there. According to this view, it is for the in-
terest of the Irish landlords to promote the ex-
tension of manufactures and trade in England,
and they can do themselves and their country no
greater injury, than by opposing measures which
would set the mills of England in full work, and
give freights to every one of her ships.

Though the Prime Minister has not yet ac-
quired much fame as a doctor, he surpasses all
others of the present day as a conjuror. The
miracles of Prince Hon ENLOE, and the conver-
sions made by Father MATHEW, all sink into the
shade when compared with those of Sir ROBERT
PEEL. But twelve months ago, landlords, farm-
ers, and clodhoppers shouted, with one voice,
" Protection to agriculture," " Support the
Farmers' Friend," "No surrender." These
sounds have died away, or if any wreck is left
behind, it is heard only in the domains of BUCK-
INGHAM, who stands alone in his glory, and mo-
nopolises the title of Farmers' Friend. Now the
cry is changed, and at all the agricultural
meetings from John O'Groat's to the Land's
End, the same parties as lustily exclaim " No
protection," " Improve your land," " Help
yourselves," and " Trust neither to PEEL nor
Parliament." Any man who last year had fore-
told such a change would have been regarded as
an idle dreamer, a visionary anti-monopolist, or
a fit subject for Bedlam. PEEL has done it all;
for though the seasons and the enormous fail-
ures in the corn-trade have conspired to aid the
cause, he still has the sole merit of originating
this great system of conversion. But it is only
in progress, and if we are to believe his Tory sup.
porters, next session will produce still greater won-
ders. The Minister, with praiseworthy caution,
keeps his secret well, to the great annoyance of his
friends, but a feather shows how the wind blows.
Lord CLIVE, a candidate for the ultra-Tory
county of Salop, saw more changes coming; and
Mr. ACLAND, the Member for another county of
the same stamp, is aware that things cannot re-
main as they are. In a speech, quoted by Earl
FORTESCUE, at the Devon agricultural meeting,
lie said," They must not rely too much upon the
Legislature for what was called protection against
foreign competition ; for the time was come
when the best security for all interests was in
increased intelligence and perseverance; so
that they might produce the best articles
at the lowest rates," and added, " whatever
changes have taken place, or might take place,
they would, looking to the balance of interests
work for the good of all." Earl FORTESCUE,
also, who is no mean authority in political mat-
ters, bears similar testimony, and calls upon
the landlords and farmers of Devonshire, as wise
and prudent men, to hold themselves ready
for further regulations for the admission of
foreign corn. "I, ask," said his Lordship,
" those who are in the habit ofwatching the poli-
tical horizon, whether they are not themselves
prepared fbr further changes ?" These are all
good omens; and with the spirit now abroad in
the country, and the calm reason displayed by
tens of thousands, who, only six months 'ago,
saw no hopes of safety but in monopoly, the
predictions must be fulfilled. The enemies of free
trade are in complete rout; their general led them
into dangerous ground, and they must rally
under a new banner. But the landlords are
not the only parties on whom the great conjuror
is to operate. The people want cheap sugar as
well as cheap bread. If one monopoly is put down,
all the rest must follow. The West India planters,
aware of this, are putting their house in orde r ;
they will in good time follow the example of the
agriculturists, and call upon one another to trust
to themselves, and not to selfish and ruinous re-
strictions. For these changes, so full of promise,
and so necessary to the welfare of all classes, Sir
ROBERT PEEL deserves the praise and the
thanks of the country.

We have long entertained a notion that Ma-
gistrates in general, and Police Magistrates in
particular, are by no means prodigies of wisdom,
and seldom does a week pass without some cir-
cumstance or other occurring, as if for the ex-
press purpose of corroborating our theory. For
instance, a day or two since three young men,.
named FLACK, GREAVES, and PZESCOTT, were
honoured with a special introduction to Mr.
GREENWOOD, the Magistrate, by a consi-
derate and attentive policeman, who charged
them " with loitering about the streets,
NimtVawlkl
aeesnepser
prove
dieneddn
window, then
with the' intention to commit a felony."
theyw
asheng oNanv,
aellokioei
kidteod
oainn: aai
tna snatdwtahtthec them,
n-
walked back again." This fact, it will be at once
admitted, was suspicious ; but how much more
suspicious—how much blacker in its dye, is the
following!—"Policeman watched them very nar-
rowly, and when they noticed him, they went
into the King's Arms public-house. In a few
minutes afterwards he saw them going towards
Clerkenwell." Going towards Clerkenwell !
Can there be more conclusive evidence than
this ? " What could they," as our Con-
temporary, the Times, justly asks, " what
could they want at Clerkenwell ?" Un-
happy Clerkenwell, whose locality is so
.
tainted, that even to " go towards" you, is proof
posirive that the individual thus " going," is no
better than he should be ! It was our lot, some few
months since, to see no less distinguished a per-
sonage than the Right Hon. HENRY GOULB URN,
Chancellor of her MAJESTY'S Exchequer, " go-
ing" towards Clerkenwell, and we will now
frankly confess that we bitterly regret not hav-
ing given him into the custody of a policeman,
for it is manifest that he could have been " go-
ing" into that contraband locality for no good;
and a discreet Magistrate would at once have com-
mitted him for the act. But though " going to
Clerkenwell" stamps a man as a rogue and
a vagabond, yet it is still more to his dis-
credit when he is proved to have " looked
in at a watchmaker's window!" Hear the
sapient GREENWOOD on this point :—" There
is no doubt that you were all three out for the
purpose of committing a felony. For what other
purpose could you be looking in at watchmakers'
windows?" Well may the Magistrate have put
this acute interrogatory ! The prisoners could
have peeped into the watchmaker's window for
no earthly good. There was burglary in the very
act of gazing. When a magpie peeps
into a marrow-hone, every man with two ideas
in his head knows right well that the bird is not