The Sun.
London, England, 1842-10-08 00:00:00

zunLxc OPINXON.

We take the following fromThebhronicle :—" It
is somewhat amusing to see the Tory Government
lauded as taking vigorous measures for the suppres.
sion of Chartism, after Whig tolerance had allowed it
to grow to a formidable head. When a purpose is to
be answered, facts are forgotten with wonderful fa-
cility. Peaceable Chartistism is no offence : it is not
a thing to be crushed by prosecutions or persecutions.
And the Chartism that relied on violence as its agency
had succumbed under Whig Administration ; not only
before the Tories possessed themselves of the Govern-
ment, but while they were, from time to time, frater-
nizing with these very Chartists to embarrass
their common political opponents. That is the
plain state of the case. Toryism finds, on com-
ing into power, its old ally crippled and
effete ; and begins to trample upon it with loud
reproaches on its predecessors for their tolerance.
We shall see which method is the most successful.
We believe, however, that the wise and kindly yet
efficient course, pursued by the late Government, has
so extensively dispelled the illusion of establishing the
Charter by force, that even Toryism will not goad
the multitude into any great suicidal outbreak. They
will bear much, now that their eyes are opened on
that point. They will even endure to be warned that
the commemoration of a massacre may be an offence,
though there was no crime in its perpetration. Still
it is well to try them as gently as possible, and we
would fain hope that those who have not disdained to
pirate certain lessons of national economy from their
predecessors, may also, in time, abstract a few maxims
from their political system."
The following remarks on the present state of feel-
ing in France towards England, are from the Herald :
—"Not content with refusing to allow their Sove-
reign to ratify a treaty which his representative had
originated and concluded, the French are resolved
that their Government shall not implement treaties
which have been ratified ; and • though they will not
take any active measure to put down the slave trade,
they would prevent any attempt on the part of Eng-
land to suppress that horrible crime. This mania, or
frenzy, is a melancholy exhibition for so great and
fine a people as the 1 rench to make. England is
their mad subject, and when the fit is on them, Eu-
rope may some day feel the want of strait jackets
capacious enough to restrain the freaks and antics of
temporary lunacy in nations. Scarcely a French mer-
chantman that returns from Africa which does not
throw them into a fit of delirium ; every skipper in
their African trade, regardless of ' how hard a thing
it is to write,' can positively, by spelling a letter
to a provincial paper, dement his fellow-citizens;
and every foolish complaint, every tale of hardship or
affront from that coast, is quite enough to set all
France in a blaze. Their statistical return show
that French commerce with Western Africa is rapidly
extending, yet do they believe any idle bouncer or ig-
norant journalist who tells them it is disappearing ;
their Government is endeavouring to form new settle-
ments on that coast, yet do they perversely close their
eyes to those they have ; their merchant.; have mono-
polised the African gum at the expense of England,
yet do they give ample credence to every stupid
story about the decline of their trade ; their cruisers
have a perfect right to search every English ship in
those seas, having a suspicious appearance, and yet
do they exclaim against a one-sided right of search.
There is, in truth, no reasoning with the French
press on this subject, its absurdities are so great and
its prejudices so inveterate."
The Times has the following comments on the an-
nouncement of the London bankers to shut up their
counting-houses every day at four o'clock :—" The
London bankers, it appears, are tired of keeping their
counting-houses open till five o'clock, and meditate
cutting an hour a day from their period of business.
The weakly constitutions of the present day are un-
able to cope with that amount of labour on which our
fathers flourished, and by the steady perseverance in
which English commerce has become what it is. We
must be allowed to say that we rather understand
than admire their sudden objection to hard work.
None would be more ready than ourselves to advo-
cate a diminution of the labour of those whose powers
we really believed to be overtaxed. Any feasible pro-
ject for shortening the duration of that long and weary-
ing bodily labour to which the labouring classes are too
generally condemned, would command, if not our sober
approval, at least our best wishes for success. We might
think the means chosen for effecting this reform vi-
sionary and unpractical ; but we should understand
and respect the feeling from which the attempt arose.
The effort, unsuccessful as it might be, would be ac-
counted for and justified by the facts. Not so, how-
ever, the bankers' reform. We confess we cannot
see that eight hours of such work as a banker and
his clerks are condemned to are so grievous and un-
bearable a tax on man, whose lot is to labour.
Tedious and uninteresting it very likely is ; so are
many things which we are all obliged to do ; but
when we remember the 12, 13, or 14 hours' confine-
ment to which the tradesman is compelled to submit,
when we remember the length of time which the
agriculturist, the manufacturer, and the practising
lawyer are obliged to devote to their vocations, we
cannot discover the justice of that urgent claim for
remission which is now put forward by one class of
gentlemen concerned in business."
The Post says If the authorities quoted by the
Anti-Corn-law League are to be taken as absolute
authorities, in the face of which no man may maintain
an opposite opinion, then, indeed, Liberalism is
triumphant, and we may fold our arms in despair.
But we deny that the case is so, and we must take the
liberty of adding, that if all who ought to speak their
minds with deliberation and courage had done so, the
audacity of Liberalism neverwdoutoldgo. havelf gitoanneswthere
lengths to which it .haspresme
the purpose of the Anti-Corn-law run-law League to publish
on
their- rr
es sideie
n thet
of
dictath of
Bar
the o
oPrime
Trade,linis t eft andtheougohft to
• \ e
o Britishse d t
ol landowners
anything
gto
in state
firmly answer
that the
but, on the con-
thpeyuraproesielotufdisp
trary, will steadily resist that policy,
fur-
therance of the policy of the League,
no matter by whom
Chronicle, in its easy way,
it may be wholly or partiallysupported.
assumes
that,The Morn-
ingunderthe policy_foorfeilengilsalabtoivaer
mpraoy-
existing circumstances,
pro-
tection against the competition 0 g
be considered to be virtually at an
country be prepared to acquiesce in
the
ienuted;preltfattilo'ne
put upon Ministerial declarations
bythe
these
declarations are understood to embody, we do
Anti-Corn-
law League, and to yield to the policy
which Anti-Corn-
see that the assumption of our Contemporary couldnbe
ot
said to be unfounded. And if our labourers are really
to have no protection from ggntinental competition
save what the cost .of conveying continental produc-
tions to British markets may afford, what is to become
of the labourers ? It is notorious that they have to
pay is conch higher taxation than the continental la-