The Sun.
London, England, 1842-11-11 00:00:00

SPIRIT of the PUBLIC JOURNALS.

FROM THE EVENING PAPERS OF THIS DAY.
GLOBE.—The Times denounces the tactics of the
party in Opposition as flagrantly dishonest, for re-
presanting repeal of the Corn ,laws as " a panacea
for all the evils incident to a densely-peopled country."
This alleged dishonesty it compares with the former
alleged dishonesty of the same party, as having re-
presented Reform as a like panacea in times past.
That the Whigs did put forth Parliamentary Reform
as a necessary measure twelve years back, is un-
deniable. That they do put forth Corn-law
Reform as now necessary, is equally so.
The question of honesty or dishonesty must
depend on whether those measures were and
are necessary or no. To pretend that a party with
whose general principles such or such measures
are conformable, is not to cultivate the popularity
which the state of the times may attach to those mea-
sures, for fear of becoming powerful enough to compel
their opponents to, pass them; or let them pass—is
simply to pronounce that only one party should
exist in the State ; and that the party which writes
on its banner resistance to popular measures.
Popular measures may be right or wrong; but the
rule would be highly convenient for Conserva-
tism, if the mere fact that certain great measures are
susceptible of becoming popular ones, were to debar
an Opposition from espousing, and making them its
watchword. The whole question, as we have said
already, is—whether the measures are right or
wrong. It must be evident that the Conservative
party, so far as it merits its title, will avoid the
reproach of laying itself out for popularity in its
measures. Its constituents are the great classes of
the country who desire to keep things es they are ;
and its function is, to act us a drag on the wheels
of political movement. We are far from saying that
this function is one which no party should per-
form. We are far from saying that the principle of
movement—of innovation—should constantly main-
tain the ascendant, or can do so in this country, with-
out faster and further changes than the chiefs of either
party would promote, supposing them adverse
to
entire social and political revolution with all its
chances. It is needless to say that, so long as arts-
, tocracy, whether Whig or Tory, supplies chiefs to
political parties, they must be adverse to such a re-
volution. Thus, then, the chiefs of the section of
public men professing the more popular principles, will,
ever and anon, subject themselves to the reproach
opposite to that above mentioned. They will be re-
proached with shirking, not with seeking, the popu-
larity attached to such or such measures. Here, as
before, the whole question is, Are such or such mea-
sures right or wrong? It is idle to abuse any party,
for that which is a necessity of its nature. It is idle,
for instance, to abuse the Conservatives (except in the
way of business) for being Conservatives—for being
the party of resistance to popular innovations. It is
not less idle to abuse the Whigs for being the party
which leans towards innovations—a leaning necessarily
limited by what is aristocratical in its composition.
STANDARD.—The present state of the civilised
world requires, that if Great Britain is to maintain
her position, she must bestow more attention and
mere favour upon the colonial trade than it has yet
received at her hands. Twenty-seven years of peace
have had the necessary effect of accumulating capital
and augmenting population in all reasonably well-
governed nations. Redundant capital (we mean
redundant as to the existing means of employing it),
and an augmented population suggest new depart-
ments of industry. These can be generally found
only in manufactures ; hence the manufacturing
spirit that we see extending in Europe and in the
United States—slowly, indeed, at present, but not less
certainly. For many years to come our own industry
need not fear the effect of this rivalship, unless we
shall he mad enough, by repealing our Corn-laws, to
transfer a flood of capital and to stimulate population ;
but we must expect that what has happened in Eng-
land will happen sooner or later elsewhere, and that
the time will arrive when Great Britain shall be de-
pendent for the employment of her wealth and people
upon her maritime commerce and her colonial markets ;
and the present is the time to prepare for such a state of
things. At present, however, the colonists and other
dependents of the British empire are not rich enough
to purchase ; if they were, the trade of Continental
Europe and of the United States would not be
worth a moment's thought. It is the business of the
Government and Legislature to make the colonists
rich. A very early, if not an immediate, change
may be effected in this respect by wise measures ;
and to say truth, the United States, and most of the
European States, seem inclined to force us to such
measures. But whether the enrichment of the
colonies be early or late, time is not to be counted
in the duration of an empire as in " the hour-glass
of one man's life." It is our duty to provide for
posterity, as our fathers have provided for ua ; and
we have the higher motive to perpetuate the power
and influence of a nation which Heaven manifestly
seems to have selected as the ark of rational liberty
and of religious truth. Our attention has been di-
rected to the subject of these remarks by two
articles, very different, indeed, in their spirit and
in the degree of talent which they display, but
both bearing upon the colonial trade. The first of
the articles in question appears in a Whig-Radical
Evening Journal, in the form of an attack upon
the arrangement for the admission of corn from Ca-
nada, viz., upon the payment of a duty of 3s. the
quarter of wheat, and sic de ccet.—(provided that
the Canada Legislature shall impose a duty of
ss. the quarter upon all wheat imported from the
United States). This our Whig-Radical Contempo-
rary treats as a departure from the principle of the
Corn-laws, and an unjustifiable surrender of revenue
to the colonists. As regards the surrender of revenue
to the colonists we need say little. Even were our
Corn-laws designed for the purposes of revenue—pur-
poses emphatically disclaimed by every one of her Ma-
jesty's present Ministers—we think we have said
enough to show that no such surrender of re-
venue to a struggling colony can be too liberal.
With regard to the alleged violation of the prin-
ciple of the Corn-laws, it is a manifest absurdity.
The principle of the Corn-laws is a principle of pro-
tection from ruinously low prices, produced by the
competition of foreign grain ; and if the farmer has
this protection, it must be to him a matter of indiffer-
ence how it is obtained—whether the rival is excluded
by a protecting city, by the cost of land transit and
freight, or by any other cause. Now, the corn im-
ported from Canada, if it come from the United States,
must pay a duty of Bs. the quarter plus the cost of transit
across the colony to a British port and the freight
across the Atlantic. And what is still more
important, it must come from a district where, gene-
rally, prices are within a few shillings as high as they
are in England, and where they are sometimes higher.
The arrangement, therefore, really threatens no danger
from the United States corn via Canada. To the
colony, however, such an arrangement is all important.
Canada sometimes imports corn from the United
States, but much more frequently exports to the States.
To seal the frontier against her would be to destroy
the most valuable branch of the industry of the rising
province : hut Canada also exports to England.
how-
ever,With-
out some
extphoertfreterdadome
ooff
Ethe g
aSntda t e
out some arrangement such as has been made,
s wouldf ro n
ni
ie r e
ffaenedt
open that road for United States corn to the
British market, which is pretended to be open
with a duty of Ss. A graduated scale, though
practicable enough at home, could not
possibly be
applied to Canada. The only thing that coal be
done is what has been done. -Without this we must
either close the trade between Canada and the States'
or deprive Canada of the advantage of the export trade
to England, either of which privations would ruin the
colony. So much for the Whig-Radical's complaint.

QUEEN'S BENCH—(THIS DAY.)
(Continued from our Afternoon Edition.)
THE CLARENCE RAILWAY COMPANY V. THE GRBAT
NORTH OF ENGLAND, CLARENCE AND HARTLEPOOL

RAILWAY COMPANY.
This was an issue directed by the Court of Chan-
cery to be tried in order to ascertain the opinion of
the Judges of this Court as to the construction of va-.
rious Acts of Parliament authorising the construction
of the tworailways. The defendants claimed aright to
cross the plaintihs' railway at a level, contending that
they had the power .so to do by their, the defendants'
Act of Parliament. The plaintiffs denied the right, con-
tending that there were clauses in defendants Act
saving all the plaintiffs rights, and the defendants
had merely a permission, not a compulsory poweri
to enter on plaintiffs' railway. The Court of.
Chancery had directed this fictitious action for
trespass. to be brought, and a justification to be;
pleaded, and the plea to be demurred to so as to
enable the parties ultimately to carry the case by way
of appeal to the House of Lords, ,by which tribunal
the case will be ultimately decided, as it is admitted
on all hands that the question involves little less then
the existence of one of the two Companies. It was
stated that if the decision should be adverse to the
defendants this railway would be rendered useless.
Mr. TuomfaNsoN. argued the case for the defend
ants, and

The SOLICITOR-GENERAL for the plaintiffs. The
arguments were purely of a technical nature, turning
entirely upon the construction to be placed upon ap-:
parently contradictory sections of the same Act of
Parliament.

The COURT took time to consider its judgment.

EXCHEQUER.—(THIS DAY.)
(Continued from our Afternoon Edition.)
In the course of the day the Court intimated that
they should on Thursday next proceed to take the.
new trial paper, in the cases in which rules had been
granted.

LEVY V. FYEE.
This was an action upon a promissory note of Count
. D'Orsay's,
to the amount of 4201., made payable to
is riMessrs.
ven
e
rs: It iYn
e and Richards, solicitors and money-
appeared that the bill on its arrival at