The Sun.
London, England, 1842-08-16 00:00:00

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31 llt 4

LONDON:
TUESDAY MORNING, AUGUST 16, 1842.

No longer ago than on Wednesday last, the House
of Commons resounded with the loud and prolonged
cheers, first of the Whigs, and afterwards of the To-
ries, as their respective champions planted a telling
blow on the sides of their opponents. All the Press
was interested on the following day with the masterly
though merely factious orations of Lord PALMERSTON
and Sir R. PEEL, and commented on them, and pro-
mised to make them the text of many a lengthy leader.
Mondarcame, and the two great speeches seemed to be
already forgotten. The outstand of the operatives in
the manufacturing districts, the alarming fact of an
insurrection requiring to be met with troops and can-
non, and which at once stopped, though it may be,
we hbpe, but for a moment, the welling source of Bri-
tain's wealth, has consigned almost to corn-

f)lete oblivion the speeches which those great masters
of oratory no doubt supposed were to live for ever. We

are not aware that we can by any means represent

more forcibly to the imagination the immense impor-
tance of the movement, temporary as we hope it is, in
the manufacturing districts, than by the fact that it
has almost driven out of the public mind, as if they
had never been uttered, these two masterly speeches of

two .of England's greatest statesmen.
We are not, therefore, of those who would tree.'
the great social insurrection of the North—for it is
more an insurrection against the usages and practices
of society than against any positive enactment—as a
trifling matter. Whether the present eruption be
sooner or later suppressed, the continual apprehen-
sions•which have been entertained for months, and
even years, of some such movement—the length of
time such a thing has been talked about—the warn-
ings that have been given concerning it—all conspire
to show that it takes its rise from some deep-seated and
permanent cause, which is not to be eradicated,
though the symptoms may be alleviated, by the ordi-
nary political remedies of imprisonment, banishment;
and death. The benevolent, though, we think, mis-
directed exertions of Lord .ASEILET and the inquiries
of the Mine, Cominissioners- she researches of the
Secretary of the Poorslaw Commission—the sta-
. tistical inquiries of scores of intelligent gentle-
men, all converge -to one point, and show a great
niaips of persons living in ' Great Britain in
c%le and daily communication with . one another,
almost cut off from all sympathy with the classes above
them, and having for the staple of their converse their
own Misery and suffering, and the hardships and op-
pressions they endure from those above them. It is
the ..existence everywhere in society of great masses
of Men so circumstanced—with no respect for the law,
with a dislike of their superiors, living in the world;
as it is said, without GOD—though they have an
abundance of priests—and liable tcybe influenced by
the machinations of ambitions demagogues to their
own purposes, which makes the social insurrection in
the North, though it may, perhaps, be easily put
down at present by the strong hand, a subject to us
of momentous importance. It is not to be trifled
with, nor can it be effectually cured by communication
with the Horse Guards, or by any -precedent to be
found on that file which Sir It. PEEL will, probably,
exchrsively consult.
lie, and the great majority of the middle classes,
rely on the law, and follow its commands; but when
he and tly persisted in divorcing the law from
justice, they robbed it of more than half its power.
Of itself*, the law is a mere piece oF spoiled parch-
ment, and it owes its vitality to public opinion.
Now„ there is one great branch of the law peculiarly
affecting the districts and the population at present
disturbed, which has been—whether justly or not is
beside the present question—denounced by a great num -
ber of the middle classes, by intelligent ministers of
religion, by the great body of the Press, as an
iniquitous law. It has been held up in sermons, pam-
phlets, newspapers, and speeches, as equally a violation of
tke revealed commands of GOD and natural justice. A
deep impression haibeen made on the public mind, and
law, in that instance, has become synonymous with
injustice. To be effective it should be supported by the
intelligent people as well as the Ministers and the
army ; but throughout the districts where the dis-
turbance prevails, the law is considered to be the
°awe of distress, of discontent, and of insurrection.
There the law will be deprived of its power. Accord-
ingly we hear with regret, but no surprise, that
several of the millowners of Manchester continue to pay
their idle Hands ; that in Leeds many of the middle
classes wish the insurrectionists Gco3 speed ; that in
Staffordshire they have freely aiiitritiited tb- the sups
port of the colliers ; that in Scotland many of them
side with the Tura-outs, and supply them with food.
Thus the law, by being divorced from justice, has lost ;ts
moral power, and those who rely on it to cure this
great disoler will be egregiously deceived.
On this account, seeing the reliance which