The Sun.
London, England, 1842-10-14 00:00:00

titt

LONDON
FRIDAY MORNING. OCTOBER 14, 1842.

All parts of the country do not equally rejoice
in a good harvest. Complaints are loud and nu-
merous in Essex. They are whining and bitter
in Sussex. At an agricultural meeting held at
Cuckfield, in the latter county, on Friday last,
Mr. ELLMA N, a leading farmer, gave this account
of the deficiency of the crops, and the probable
destitution of the labourers :

He had heard the Noble Duke of Rutland speak or
their excellent harvests ; but that remark, he was
sorry to say, did not hold gool with regard to this
county or Surrey. Coming as he did to-day from
the latter county, where he had heard of men being
already turned -)fl. their constant employ, and hearing
at Reigate and the adjoining parishes that their crops
had been so bad that they could not employ more
than three-fourths of the hands whom they employed
last year, he asked what was to become of those la-
bourers who were discharged from their employment ?
—(Hear, hear.) He feared that they were in the
same state in the Weald of Sussex ; and he wished to
call the attention of the meeting to the employment
of the labourers during the ensuing winter, because
he was satisfied that the farmers in the Weald of
Sussex would feel great difficulty in meeting the
demands that would be made upon them, and giving
constant employment to their labourers during the
winter.

The Chairman of the meeting. Lieut.-Col.
ELLWOOD, noticed that Sir C. BTntItELL had, at
Horsham, a few days before, adverted to the
destitution of the labourers, and recommended
his neighbours to employ them, by way of cha-
rity, in trenching for potatoes. Then Mr. WOOD
said—

He was obliged to those gentlemen who had
pointed out the difficulties of the coming winter ; but
he should have been still more gratified, if they had
pointed out the means of averting those difficulties.
Mr. Ellman continued He had introduced
the subject for the purpose of provoking discussion,
for the difficulty was almcGt too great for him to
grapple with. When he ki iew that in the Weals of
Sussex and Surrey the fanners had not grown more
than half a crop, when he knew that their expenses
were very great, when he kinew that instead of re-
turning three rents and in the better land four rents,
the farmer would this year Si arcely return two, how, he
asked, was that farmer to me 3t his expenses for the cur-
rent year ? It was a question of deep moment ; and
that question he left to tile meeting to solve. He
hoped and trusted that the landlords would come for-
ward ; and unless they did; he could not imagine how
the difficulties were to be overcome.
The Chairman said it was his duty, as Chairman, to
speak home truths. He had been told to-day that
there was a great deficiency of straw this year, so
that the farmers had very little thrashing to do. The
remedy for this difficulty was, he thought, a better
state of cultivatiOn.

Mr. ELL` AN returned to the charge—
Re said it Nas the opinion of some of the farmers
of the Weald of Surrey, I;hat their wheat would not
average this year more than three sacks to the acre.
Now, bearing hi mind the shortness of the crop, which
was about from one-half to two-thirds of the average,
and that the loss was increased by the panic—whether
called for or not, he would not now stop to discuss—
he did not see how the farmer was to pay for an in-
creased cultivation. He knew well that the farmer
would not be able to meet his usual expenses. How
then could he meet increased expenses ? The distress
would, he was afraid, fall most heavily on the
labourers. When he heard of the distress of the
large farmers, and that they were obliged to turn off
twelve hands from one farm, he could easily calculate '
the number of hands that would be out of employ-
ment. lie knew there were several union houses in
Surrey that were, he might say, overstocked, and
that there were many labourers out of employ, who
did not know where to go to earn their bread.lf
those labourers were thrown upon the farmers, who
had not the means to employ them, their backs would
be broken.

Such unpleasant prospects for the agricultural
labourers and for the farmers, are not confined
to Sussex. In Kent, that pattern county for
loyal squires, intelligent parson-magistrates, and
well-educated peasantry, we are told that the
farmers are dismissing their labourers in all
directions. About four months ago, Sir JAMES
GRAHAM informed the Tory-admiring
and the servile Parliament, that there were
1,‘2A)0,000 paupers in England alone. sow, the
union workhouses of the agricultural districts,
immediately on the completion of harvest—when
the labourers must, if ever, have something, ac-
cording to Mr. ELLMAN—are overstocked, and
farmers are turning off their hands by dozens.
What a dreary prospect does this open for the
coming winter, when the 1,200,000 paupers will,
most likely, be increased to 2,000,000, while the
farmer, as Mr. ELLMAN says, is unable to meet

his usual expew es ! Those who live in the ai-
cultural districts look fur greatly increased rates
and greatly diminished means to pay them, or
to employ the labourers.
The Brighton Gazette has stated that some
farmers and Iw:downers have declared their in-
tention of discharging labourers to meet the
Income-tax. That must be the case. The land-
lord might have compassion on the tenant—
the tax-gatherer will have none ; and the
farmer is preparing to meet him by lessening
the sum he pays for wages. Such an effect of
the tax was foreseen by all persons, though it
was consistent with the system of deceit prac-
tised by the Tories to represent the tax as falling
wholly on property, and inflicting no injury on
the labourer. It is quite useless to preach to
the farmer, as some persons do, about humanity
and patriotism ; he sees that either he or the
labourer must go to the workhouse, and he is
not such a fool to go thither himself to please
his Tory landlord and some Tory scribes, and
so he dismisses his labourers.

For the extra hands. of the agricultural dis-
tricts there will now be found no employment
in the manufacturing districts. The landlords
have taken care to stifle their trade and means
of employing the people. The pauperism they
have engendered will now overwhelm their own
lands. Never was retribution more plain and
more just. Never did a punishment more certainly
and clearly follow an offence. They have
dammed up the outlets which carried off the
surplus population from the land, and now, when
farmers turn off their hands, they fall on the land
for support. It is perhaps possible for an in-
dividual to escape—or at least appear, to our
short-sighted views, to escape—the punishment of
his offences; but it is not possible for a nation.
He may slink into some hole, or travel on some
bye path through life, and imagine he is for-
gotten; but where can a great nation hide itself
from its own deeds, so that they shall not follow
and find it out ? It cannot escape the conse-
quences of its acts ; and now we see the guilt
of England, in spurningthe bounties of Pro-
vidence and keeping food out of the land,
bringing on her the most alarming evils.

The whole Press has only done justice to Lord
Chief Justice TINDA.L'S charge, in describing it
as a calm, clear, and masterly exposition of the
law. It exaggerated no facts, it exasperated no
feelings. It gave to those who were to be tried
an assurance that they would be fairly dealt
with, and would not find in their Judge a ran-
corous political opponent. They could have no
apprehension that the law which was so pro-
perly explained would be strained or perverted
to take away their lives or their liberties.
Nearly the whole Press has only clone justice to
the charge delivered by Lord ABINGER at Liver-
pool, in describinz it as the very opposite to the
charge of Sir N. TINDAL. Even heated partisan
Tory journals, which cordially approve of the
political sentiments of Lord ADINGER, and en-
tirely concur in his hostility to Chartists and
master manufacturers, justly and vehemently
condemn the use of such language as he held on
the Bench.

These passages (said the Morning Herald yesterday)
are also excellently adapted for the House of Lords,
but we do think there are sentences in them much
misplaced in the charge of a Judge, who, in all pro-
bability, will have fo try some of the very Chartists
whose conduct and designs he thus decidedly con--
demned. If some of the Chartist prisoners should,
upon arraigment before Lord Abinger and a petty
jury, object to be tried before a tribunal thus con-
stituted, on the ground of the very strong opinions
contained in this charge, their objection will surprise
no one. Is it predent then in Lord Abinger to risk
the occurrence of so unseemly a scene ?
We will pass over, with proper condemnation
of the Noble Lord's political partisanship, all the
hostility which he expressed towards the Chart-
ists, to take notice of some of the Noble Lord's
political economical doctrines. The people are
much reproached because they do not reverence
Bishops, who discourse about the duties of wear-
ing surplices and lighting candles, and Judges,
who discourse from the bench about things which
they understand less than do the Bishops the art
of wearing gowns or extinguishing lights; but
how can men reverence those things which they
believe to be folly or nonsense ? The mind dis-
criminates as well as the palate, and men may
as well be reproached for not liking aloes or as-
safcetida, as for not reverencing a worldly Bishop
or a partisan Judge. Whatever hostility the
workmen in the manufacturing districts may
have to the master manufacturers—and we have
good reason to believe their hostility is intense
—and however much further they may desire
to go than the Anti-Corn-law League, there is
not, we believe, one of them out of a thousand,
who is not an opponent of the Corn- laws. They
will not demand a repeal of those laws, because
they say that would not ensure them against fu-
ture oppression ; they want the Charter. There
is not one them of who is not painfully convinced
both that employment has been lessened as food
has risen in price, and that their wages, which
have not been increased, would not procure them
as much food in dear as in cheap times. There
is not one of them, therefore, who will not
treat Lord ABINGER'S assertion that " the price
(meaning, we presume, rate) of wages must de-
pend on the price of provisions," with contempt.
They all know pretty well the price of provisions
in Ireland and in the United States, and know
also the rate of wages in the two countries; they
know still better what has been the rate of their
own wages, as provisions have risen or fallen in
price, and they openly say Lord ABINGER knows
nothing about the matter. From contemning his
opinions, they will speedily come to contemn
the man; and Lord ABINGER, by mixing silly
errors with his avowed hatred of Chartism, may
bring the whole Bench into contempt.
We should suppose that there was some error
in the report of Lord ABINGER'S charge, but we
find the phrase, " price of wages " repeated.
W hat does Lord ABINGER mean by the price of
wages? Wages is the price of labour, and those
who speak of the price of wages, confuse all
language. Ninepence is the price of a loaf-
does any person ever speak of the price of nine:
pence ? And why, then, should he speak of the
price of eightpence, that being the day's wages
of an agricultural labourer in Devonshire? If
the Judge means to say that that eightpence
will buy as much flour when it sells at thirty-
pence a bushel, as when it sells at twelvepence,
we should at least understand his proposition,
however we might dissent front it. If he
means to say that the rate of wages
always rises as the price of provisions
rises, we could understand that too; but
it would be so obviously untrue, that
he could mean no such thing. The phrase—.
which, as far as we know, is of Lord
ABINGER'S invention—seems to have been used,
either because the Noble Lord had no clear
ideas of what he was speaking of, or because lie
desired to mystify the subject.
We might, were it worth while, correct some
more of the Noble Lord's errors, whose reading
on these important subjects seems not to have
extended beyond the pages of the Herald and
the Post, but he is, we are afraid, too old to
learn, and seems, from what we recollect of the
man, to have hardened in error as he advanced
in years. Of his law we pretend not to judge;
hut his doctrine about wages and the price of
Provisions, as far as we understand it, is so
erroneous, that it will certainly be, in fact we
know has been, laughed at in Lancashire.

the Number just published of the Edin-
bur9h Review, there is an article entitled "The
late Session," in which, as it seems to us, the
.i.ading features of Sir ROBERT PEEL'S policy
are canvassed in a very fair, manly, and mode-
rate spirit. The Reviewer is no mere bigoted
partisan, but awards praise where he conceives
praise to be due, with a freedom and heartiness
that must obtain for him the respect of men of
all parties. Thus, speaking of the Premier's
Commercial Tariff, he says, " here our approval
may be more freely expressed "—he has just
before been alluding to the Corn-law Bill, to
whose sliding scale he strongly objects—" for
the principles laid down by Sir ROBERT PEEL
and his distinguished coadjutor, Mr. GLADSTONE,
few exceptions, all we could wish
were, with

and all that the masters of economical science
could have required from public men."
Again, speaking of the Education scheme., the
Reviewer observes, " the present Government,
after having opposed the system which had been
so successfully carried on by their predecessors
under the able direction of Lord LANSDOWNE, have
not only adopted it in its most minute details,
but have proposed to carry it still further. For
this Sir R. PEEL and his colleagues deserve
thanks and praise, which should be the more
liberally given, when it is considered how great
are the sacrifices of former votes and declarations
which have been Made; how much of self-loveand
of the pride of party has been necessarily aban-
doned ; and how much ot' effort must have been
required to wring a reluctant assent from their
colleagues and supporters to a tribute thus offered
to the merits of their Whig predecessors by the
present Administration." On the subject of the
Income-tax the Reviewer expresses himself in
far different terms. To this vexatious, inquisi-
torial impost he is most decidedly opposed, re-
marking that "in time of peace it is a most fbr-
midable experiment, and its effect upon com-
mercial profits, at a period when foreign com-
petition is active in all cases, and successful. in
many, cannot fail to be pregnant with danger."
The Reviewer --concludes with some intelligent
observations suggested by Sir ROBERT PEEL'S
present position ; he states that difficult as the
Tories may find it to live with him, they will not
be able to live without him, so completely are
they at his mercy, notwithstanding the noisy
bluster by which they endeavour from time to
time to conceal their state of abject de-
pendence. Pitiable indeed is the existing
condition, still more pitiable the future prospects,
of the more bigoted members of this party.
Events, which neither can control, are daily
tending to widen the breach between them and
the Minister, to promote whose political ascen-
dancy they have fought so hard, and made so
many reluctant sacrifices of opinion. If they
were dissatisfied with his measures last session,
they will be still more dissatisfied with them
next session. Whether willingly or unwillingly,
Sir ROBERT PEEL must move forward. This is
the condition on which he holds office. If he go
back, he is undone; if lie stand still, he paves
the way for his own speedy exclusion from office.
The great commercial movement to which, on
principle, he has given his express sanction, can-
not possibly be arrested. Monopoly is doomed ;
and such being the case, it needs no great saga-
city to foresee that those among the Tories who
support it, must ere long sink into utter insigni-
ficance as an Opposition, or yield to the irresis-
tible pressure of circumstances, and one by one
abandon every principle that they have hitherto
held sacred.

A brief article from the Siecle, on the abuses
of the French Custom-house, will be fbund
among our extracts from Foreign papers. The
writer animadverts justly, on the extreme seve-
rity with which these functionaries examine
the persons and luggage of travellers, and con-
curs with the decision of a local tribunal, that
personal search is illegal. This is a good begin-
ning, and augurs well for the ultimate abolition
of a system which is a disgrace to a civilized
community. The French themselves seem
ashamed of the practice. It touches their
national honour and gallantry, and requires only
to be placed in its proper light before
the public to meet with universal con-
demnation. It is sufficiently humiliating fi►r
a gentleman to be suspected of fraud,
and searched like a felon, but to subject a lady
to such outrageous treatment shows a want of all
decency, an utter contempt for the acknow-
ledged rules of society, and for that deference
and respect to which females are entitled. The
French have long had the character of being the
most polite and gallant nation in Europe, yet when
strangers set their foot on the territory of France,
they are seized and imprisoned like suspected
robbers. The men are left to the tender mercies
of the douaniers, and the women, though their
persons are searched by females, are treated with
as little ceremony; yet, for a few hundred francS
a year, the Government of Louis PHILIPPE
winks at scenes so odious and so injurious to the
character of the country. The politeness of the
people in general, and the rude, barbarous system
which prevails in public offices, fbrm a strange
contrast.

Madrid papers of the 4th instant have been re-
ceived. Some of the Opposition prints having
asserted that the Government was encouraging,
in certain quarters, the proclamation of the Con-
stitution of 1812, with the view of prolonging the
Queen's minority, the Madrid Gazette gives a
formal contradiction to such reports, and declares
that they amount to an abuse of the liberty of
the press.
Official intelligence has been received of tran-
quillity being re-established at Jecla, and in the
vicinity of the salt pits of La Rosa. The National
Guard has been dissolved provisionally, in order
to be re-organised. The civil and military autho-
rities have adopted such measures as will prevent
a recurrence of such scandalous attempts on the
property of the State.

Various rumours were circulated respecting
the object of the political entertainment that was
given to several distinguished persons, including
certain members of the Cabinet, and likewise
Sir ARTHUR ASTON, by the new Treasurer of the
Infante Don FRANCISCO DE PAULO, Senor
MATHEU. The current opinion is, that there is
a desire that the Prince should return to the
capital, and therefore it was with the view of
sounding certain official personages that the ban-
quet was given.
Three bargains were concluded in the Three
per Cents., at 21 3-16ths 1, at 60 days; and 31 in
the Five per Cents., at 251 1 for cash, and 25
11-16ths 26, at 60 days, for 16,000,000 reals.

We have received the Paris papers,
which contain articles chiefly interesting to
the people of the country. There is one excep-
tion, however, and that relates to the right of
search, not of ships, but of men and women
when they enter the territory of France. The
Tribunal Police Court of Sarreguemines (on the
Prussian frontier) has declared that the search
of the persons of travellers practised by the
Custom-house officers of France is illegal. The
Court dwells with much emphasis on the shame-
ful indignities inflicted on female travellers by
the Custom-house authorities. On thissubject the
Siecle makes the following just observations :
" The extreme severity with which the Custom-
house officers in France act in examining the luggage
of travellers excites each day very merited complaints.
There is, however, another right which the Adminis-
tration arrogates to itself, and which it ought to use
with great reserve—we mean the right of searching
the person, which the Custom-house officers exercise
towards travellers under pretext of preventing fraud. 1
There is not, as far as we know, any other country
where so exorbitant a pretension is set up. The in-
numerable annoyances, and the ridiculous and even
odious measures, which it occasions, contribute to
keep travellers from our ports. 'What is the more
extraordinary is, that so grave a proceeding does not
arise from any formal law, it being by induction that
this humiliating system, which shocks the most re-
spectable feelings of public morality, is arrived at.
if the law, however, were even clear and precise, the
Custom. house Department ought still to observe the
most delicate precaution, use measures commanded by
personal dignity, and not deliver honourable men to
the caprice and brutalities of inferior officers."
The French Government should abolish this
odious and disgraceful system at once. It has
been discontinued in England, unless when in-
formation is laid against a party, and the revenue
has not suffered by the change.
In claiming protection for the ironmasters of
France, the Journal des Debats says—" The
Government would not be justified in again post-
poning the conclusion of the Belgian treaty.
Any further delay might compromise the best
interests of the French nation. France would
deserve blame if she were to lose that oppor-
tunity of raising an insurmountable barrier, by
means of the Union, against the hostile design of
placing Prussian Custom-house officers at Mons,
Namur, and Tournay, in the same manner as the
Prussian landwehr is already at Sarrebruck."
The ruinous state of the wine trade is thus ad.
vetted to by the National :

"The Chambers and the press re-echo each year