The Sun.
London, England, 1829-07-18 00:00:00

is necessary, according to the metering legerde-
main employed in the operation. In every
species of dry goods weight is a much surer
criterion of quantity than measure. The Coal-
owners and dealers know this, as they have re-
cently proved before the Lords' Committee, on
which occasion it appeared that, at the pit's mouth,
and at every transit up to delivery to the consumer,
weight and not measure is the mode of dealing re-
sorted to. But the truth is, that all this shackling and
tampering with trade is wrong and absurd. If
the coal trade were left, like any other, unham-
pered with this metering system, the buyers and
sellers would regulate their dealings much more
to the satisfaction of the former, at least, than
any which these laws, avowedly made for their
protection, can ever afford teem. In fact, the
law, under colour of protection, is only a colour
for fraud. And then, supposing them to be
otherwise, how are their operations defeated ?
Nine times in ten by some chicane, which, to be
sure, as long as it is allowed to exist, people,
perhaps, cannot be much blamed for resorting
to. In the case we allude to, the India House,
it appears, happens to stand in more than one
parish, and, therefore, as the information could
not state to the poor of which parish the half of
the penalties would belong, the whole proceed-
ing fell to the ground, or was quashed, as it is
called. Law is said to be the perfection of rea-
son ; but such law as this seems to approach
nearer to the perfection of nonsense.—Morning
Herald.

CITY, FR I D A Y.-Nothing of any consequence
has transpired here to-day ; but if we may believe
the Evening Papers, " the greatest sensation haS
been excited among commercial men," in conse-
quence of the London Grand Jury having found
a true bill against the proprietors of this Paper;
for a libel upon the Lord Mayor. These Papers
tell us, that the libel consisted in our having
stated, under the head of City, that " it is said,
that a large house in the iron and; lead trade
was yesterday accommodated by the Bank of
England with a loan of 100,0001." They then
go on to state, that " the Lord Mayor swore-
before the Grand Jury, that the iron and lead
house meant him ; that it had an injurious ten-
dency towards the credit of his firm ; and that
he proceeded by indictment, because, it being the
long vacation, if he had proceeded by civil ac•
tion, the libel would have gone uncontradieted
till November next." Now, in the first place,
we should be glad to know how it can be injuri-
ous to a man's credit to say, that he was thought
so highly of by the Bank of England as to in-
duce them to lend him 100,0001. ; and in the
next place, we would ask how the paragraph can
be construed to mean his Lordship's house, seeing
that there -are perhaps 50 or 100 iron and lead
houses in England ? But we are told by the
Evening Papers that the Lord Mayor ad6pted
the proceeding by indictment, because the para-
graph would 11ave gone uncontradieted till No-
vember. Now every body knows, that knows
any thing of law, that proceeding criminally in
the case of a libel, never brings into question its
truth or falsehood. All that the Jury have to
consider is, whether the paragraph cotn
plained of has a tendency to bring about a
breach of the peace ; and we have yet to learn
how 'saving that a nameless house borrowed
100,0001. of the Bank can have that effect.

One word with regard to the delay in contradict-
ing the statement in question, which his Lord-
ship is pleased to say applies to him. The pro-
ceedings before a Grand Jury arc, or ought to
be, secret, so that, the course adopted could not
have availed the plaintiff any thing by way of
contradiction. How the Lord Mayor's evidence
got into the newspapers it is impossible to say.
All that we know is, that Grand Juries arc

sworn to secrecy, and that it is a misdemeanour
to publish any evidence given before them. We
may add, that the present mode of proceeding,
in a case like this, is quite unprecedented. We
shall probably, however, have a little more to say
on this subject on a future occasion.—/bid.
We observed a few days ago that the lowness
of the stock of corn now in the hands of farmers
is no proof of their general poverty, inasmuch as
the deficiency of the last year's crop, in con-
junction with the present system of the Corn
Laws, presented them with unusual inducements
to hurry their produce to market. A Corre-
spondent, evidently a practical man, has since in-
formed us that the general quality of the last
year's harvest presented to the farmer one in-
ducement, in addition to those we enumerated,
to get rid of it with all convenient speed. We
now revert to the subject for the purpose of cor-
recting a misapprehension to which we under-
stand our former observations have give" rise.
We did not speak of the temptation presented
to farmers to hurry their produce to market as
one of the beneficial effects of the present Corn
Laws. It is an incident of the system of a gra-
duated scale of duties, but it is not the incident
to which we ever thought of referring as a proof
of its superiority. The superiority of this sys-
tem to that of a free trade in corn is, that it pre-
vents the country from becoming habitually de-
pendent upon foreign supplies for its necessary
food ; that it upholds and perpetuates a landed
interest in all its gradatioms of labourer, tenant,
and landlord—the only interest of the country
that is sure at all times, and in all emergencies,
to be truly patriotic, because here alone selfish-
ness and patriotism are inseparably allied ; that
it prevents the community from degenerating
into a vicious, feeble, and turbulent congrega-
tion of manufacturers of artisans. The superio-
rity of this system to that of a fixed duty con-
sists in the assurance it alone is capable of
affording of permanency and inviolability. This
system is flexible, that of a fixed duty will not
fiend, and whenever scarcity is really felt, and
the voice of humanity is raised against it, is sure
therefore to break in: the hands of a Govern-
ment so much subject to popular influence as
that of England is, and is destined, we trust,
to remain. If the system of a graduated
scale of deity be preferable, as we believe
it is, to a free trade in corn, and to a
fixed duty for the limitation of import, its
tendency to induce the British farmer to hasten
his sales after a deficient crop, need not be ad-
duced, and certainly was not adduced by us, as
an additional recommendation to it. This ten-
dency is incidental, as we have already said, to
the system, and explains, in part at least, why
the stock of corn in the hands of the farmer at
the present moment is unusually low. With-
out contending that this effect of the system is
an absolute good, we do enough if we skew that
it is not a positive and serious evil. We admit
that the stock in the hands of farmers has hereto-
fore constituted a reserved fund, and has pro-
tected the country from the risk of famine upon
occasions of defective crops. It may do so
still. Before the last defective crop there was
such a reserved fund in the hands of farmers,
which to a certain extent answered this pur-
pose ; 'and we doubt if such a reserve has ever
been made to a sufficient amount to meet two