The Sun.
London, England, 1842-01-15 00:00:00

SPIRIT of the PUBLIC JOURNALS.
FROM THE DAILY PAYEES OF YESTERDAY.
ADVERTISER.—The breaking of lamps and win-
dows for the purpose of gaining temporary relief in pri-
son has recently been an act of frequent occurrence,
and the police reports of yesterday contain a number of
cases which are sufficient to excite no lesS horror than
alarm in the public mind ; for it appears that distress is
now driving our fellow-creatures to the desperate act of
plundering the bakers' shops to prevent that starvation in
the streets which otherwise threatens them. However
we may condemn the act of stealing bread, we must say
that it is at all events the most pardonable species of
robbery ; and the circumstance of such thefts being com-
mitted, not in one, but several and repeated instances,
compels us to pause and ask, what can be the state of
that country, in whose rich metropolis crowds of famish-
ing beings are driven by want of food to rob for it in
open day, and distribute it to herds of their wretched
companions in the streets of the city ? That such scenes
should occur ii London, the very centre of civilization
and of wealth, it would be difficult to believe, but that
we are long accustomed to hear tales of destitution
and distress, alike shocking to humanity, and disgraceful
to the land in which they are suffered to occur, while.
Providence has furnished ample means for preventing
them. Though we are ready to censure the lawlessness
of such acts as that we have alluded to, we are bound in
reason and in justice to ask, what it is that goads men
on to plunder for the commonest neceas,ary of life, and
induces them, by an instinct of nature,: to follow the law
Of self-preservation at the sacrifice ,of the ordinary rules
of conduct that morality prescribes to them ? it is a
maxim that " necessity has no
_'
law ;" and if we ex-
pect men to be ruled by the latter we should take
care that they are not placed so thoroughly
under the gnawing influence of the former as to be
incapable of submitting themselves to the guidance
of Government. In the cases that have suggested
these remarks, the unhappy persons who were in-
duced to steal fbod, had applied for it in vain to the
legitimate sources of relief ; and it was only after having
been refused assistance that they came to the desperate
determination of taking illegally, that immediate provi-
sion for their wants which their solicitations had failed
to obtain for thern. If people are perishing from hunger,
what, in God's name, can the poor wretches do ? If
they go-to the nearest workhouse, they are almost always
summarilysent away. If they beg they are taken up and
punished; while, if they rob, they are similarly dealt
-with; and when food is the only thing they steal, it is not
difficult for them to reconcile to their consciences an act
which is the only one open" to them for sustaining life
against the biting attacks of hunger. It never was the in-
tention of the Creator that the noblest of his creatures
should be dying of want—a fate to which the meanest living
thing is scarcely ever doomed; and we must, therefore, look
for the cause of the present horrible state of things in
some most iniquitous perversion of the blessings which
a bosintiful Providenee has afforded us. Something
must be done, if net to equalise wealth, at least to bring
comfortable subsistence within the means of all ; and the
Corn-laws, appearing- to stand the most in the way of
this arrangement, must be the first` point of attack by all
the friends; not ofuny particular political party,- but of
justice and huthanity. The tradesman who is called on
to protect his property against outrages induced by
despair and want; will do better to demand an alteration
'Of tine system, under -which he is liable to be disturbed in
the enjoyment of his own, than to join in the cry that
will be raised against'the atrocity of those whose neces-
sities make them forget law and defy authoritY.
CHRONICLE.—A bishopric is vacant ; and in this
internal crisis of the Church the nomination to it is'
eagerly looked to by the various clerical parties as likely
to indicate, to which of them Sirßobert Peel leans. He
is not officially called upon to vote for either of the can-
didates for the Oxford ProfesSOrship of Poetry ; and he
will of course take the ' sensible course of
nbt needlessly mixing in the ecclesiastical fray by
giving an unnecessary vote: ' But unlnckily for him,
the vacant bishopric makes him, in spite of all his
caution, a paiity to the contest now' going on. A
Liberal he most assuredly will not appoint ; and, con-
fining his selection to genuine Tories, he can hardly
avoid selecting some one who is prominent among either
the Puseyites or their antagonists, unless, indeed,' he jobs
the appointment away to some obscure tutor of a col-
league, or some unprovided Peel, or Wellesley, or Hope.
The different parties in the Church, who know well
how to manage the malleable Premier, are already hard
at work to force their own candidate upon him. This
was the evident object of a very careful and able
leading article which appeared yesterday in the Times.
From .the general views of that article it is im-
lidssible for any reasonable man to differ materially.
:iii; is, undoubtedly, an epoch of great crisis, or rather
rerunning a great crisis in the history of the Anglican
iii*,"The appointment of a Bishop at such a period
4isinaffet of unusual and vital importance ; and it is
It
essential that it should, not be made a job of, but confer-
red on some man of mark, intellect, activity, earnestness,
and decision. He dOes ttotname the individual who sa-
tis4s the condittolls 'lt he imposes ; but those who
ititbiv`4LC:;tate;4fjttiiihurch, and the candidates
purfclrlyard by the .different parties, cannot belp
,svplYilag as the suppressed , but necessary conclusion
Of, the argument :—‘! bir Robert Peel must therefore ap-
point either .Dr. Hook, of Leeds, or, at any rate,- Arch-
deacon Wilberforce." -This is 'the object of the Pusey-
ites-,- the party of which the Times is always labouring
ter serve. theTurposes as openly as it dares. It is the
party in the Church to which Sir Robert must be most
averse f and 'the may reason to apprehend his taking its
candidate, is, that it has hit him so hard and so repeat-
edly, that he may be desirous of it, coneiliatino• But
i.,
as conciliating it wilt be sure to: be taken as a
mortal, offence -by the other party,, he, will hardly yen-
film on doing, so now. The same reason will deter him
from conferring_ such mark of favour on any known
partisan of low Church views. He mays therefore,
confer this piece of patronage, as he already, has top
much of that at his disposal, merely on ar,istocritic
grounds, and throw this, bislieprie to seine younger
brother of some favoured member of the clique about
him. Or if he is scared from this by yesterday's Times,
and some deference to Public opinion, he will seek refuge
in that portion of his followers to which the stream of
his patronage after all mainly directs itself, when he is
compelled to require some degree of competence as a
qualification for office. The bishopric will go to some
geometrical or philological rat from the Liberal party ;
and thus in the Church as in the State, " the Stanley
and Graham" section of the party will profit by the un-
popularity or incapacity of the ultras.
GLOl3E.—Anti-Corn-law Conference is the Order
of the Day, whether northwardt or southwards. We
have long reports of the "Great Anti-Corn-law Confe-
rence," which has opened its sittings at Edinburgh ; and
our this day's columns announce a " Southern Coun-
ties Anti-Corn-law Cenference," to be held at South-
ampton. It is impossible not to recognise theie astern-
blages as a sign of the times—some may deem as poi..
tentous as the ",Solenm League and Covenant" of
I he. seventeenth century. For our own part, we be,
Hear; the present movement will prove altogether as
formidable against a dominant Monopoly as the past
did against a dominant Priesthood. We believe,
in particular, that Scottish popular preachers do not
show their teeth for nothing. We should have
thought the landlords of England had found that out
just tmo centuries back. Do they desire 1842 to pro-
duce an Anti-Monopoly parallel of the Anti-Prelacy
Solemn League and Covenant which roused England
in 1642? Do they believe a Bread-war will be ended
more easily than a Steeple-war? Was the English
Liturgy a load more intolerable than the Corn-law
Leitourgia—the exclusive imposition of public burthens
upon the landless bread-eaters ? Is it a, light matter
that every fallacy, which a sleek Squire-cheered
Minister of the Crown puts forward in Parliament,
or his pocket borough, is torn to pieces in fifty
places, almost as soon as it has been uttered, by
plain men, in mosi'unparliamentary phrase, speaking
to werking men ? Is this a likely way to keep authority in
respect? We do in in our conscience believe such a Mi-
nister as Sir R. Peel, whose great faculty in putting a
plausible face upon self-conscious sophisms, and enabling
those who cling to them to feel in good humour with
theinselves to the last—we do believe such a Minister
is doing more mischief to authority in the mind of the
million than far more offensive assertors of class-
interest and prejudice. He gives a hollow show of
liberal views and sentiments to selfish action. Those
who suffer by that action resent it the more for its
hypocritical pretexts. There is an old story of a Whig
nobleman having exclaimed, " Give me anarchy, rather
than Peel I" For our part we fear the Peel Mi-
nistry, as a plausible precursor of anarchy. Unless
firmer and stronger purpose than we expect can be
taught the Minister, we deeply fear that his Squire-
backed plausibilities will lead us to the verge of a preci-
pice. Men who have dined, and whose rents jingle in
their pockets, may like to listen to Sir Robert. Men
whom the misunderstood interests of those listeners
deprive of a dinner, listen too ;—whether with the same
feelings may perhaps be questioned. " It's ill talking"
says the Scotch proverb, "between airs' man and a fast-
ing." Sir Robert Peel is talking to the fa' men—the Con•
ferences to the fasting. We back the Conferences in
the long run, against the Minister, or any dozen Minis-
ters. Such assemblages (anomalous as they certainly
are) don't begin talking, till a very serious crisis has
begun in a nation's condition. - Once more I—there is
one war as formidable as a religious war—and that is
a Bread War. We have had the first—we pray Hea-
ven—we appeal to whatever wisdom and honesty our
present rulers happen to possess—to save us from hay
ing the second. Or, in the last resort, we call on the
nation to force on the Squires' Ministry the only alter-
native on recanting indicated by Sir James Graham—

to resign.
STANDARD.—About 250 non-resident electors
of the University of Oxford, that is, about one sixth
or seventh of the whole number, have addressed the
Committees of Messrs, Garbett and Williams, repeating
the call for a withdrawal of both candidates for the
Chair of Poetry. Lord Ashley, a Chairman, of the
Committee for the election of Mr. Garbett, has very
properly given a positive refusal, but intimated
that he and the gentlemen acting • with him
are ready to comply so far with the wishes
of tb.e 250 mediators, as to abide the result of an
amicable and private comparison of votes ; thus ter-
minating the contest at once, and obviating the
inconvenience of a public poll. Mr. Williams's
Committee, as may easily be supposed, are, on
the other hand, willing to avail themselves of the
' loophole afforded to escape defeat ; but they do
not say what effect Lord Ashley's refusal, will
have upon their ulterior course—probably they may
make a merit of necessity, and withdraw their candi-
date at once ; but this is by no means certain. On the
1 other baud, the least relaxation on the part of Air. Oar-