The Sun.
London, England, 1842-07-07 00:00:00

etg
.-S-un.

LONDON!
THURSDAY MORNING, JULY 7, 1842.

The debate in the House of Commons on Mr. WAL-

LACE'S motion was continued last night with considerable
effect. It called up Lord HOWICK, Mr. MORISON, Mr.
ELLICE, Lord PALmuusToN, and others, who delivered
very useful speeches. It supplied numerous and striking
testimonies to the vastness of the present distress. It
traced that distress in general to our own restrictions on
our own trade ; and though there seems no hope
of now changing the mischievous legislation which the
House of Commons has recently completed, the debate
will .be beneficial to the public. Perhaps, as Lord
flowrctc. suggested, the Parliament may be again assem-
bled in the autumn.

The proceedings yesterday at the Anti-Corn-law Con-
ference speak for themselves. Gentlemen who declared
they will pay no taxes till the Corn-law be repealed, were
vociferously cheered. The recital " that workmen have
said it was not words would move Parliament, but
force, and they would have it if they did not change
their system," was heard with no disapprobation. In
the manufacturing districts men declare that " no good
can be done until they riot," and in the metropolis the
information is received with approbation. To-day
and to-morrow it will be spread through the whole em-
pire, and the ideas of rising, of rioting, and of refusing to
pay taxes, will be presented at one and the same time
to many thousand persons. The sanctity once belonging
to the law, which prevented such conceptions, is at an
end ; the minds of the people are becoming familiarised
with the idea of resistance ; and, if their misery be
not relieved, it will not be long before corresponding
deeds will spring from the idea.
In common with many members of the Conference,
and with the memorialists from Hinckley-, we have be-
come convinced that it is useless to place before the Par-
liament and the aristocracy evidence of the sufferings of
the people. Politicians rejoice that the unruly workmen
of the manufacturing towns are tamed into obedience by.
hunger; bigots exult that the half pagan, half free-think-
ing towns-people are for their sins visited by a judgment
which threatens annihilation. To bigots and politicians,
pictures of distress in the manufacturing districts are
not disagreeable, and we will not contribute to their
pleasure by repeating them. We turn rather to Mr.
rifeNTor.i's speech, who said—
It appeared to him that the time was past for talking.
The time was come to do something, and he would tell
their what to do.—(Cheers.) lie thought they ought to
proceed at once to appoint a Committee of Public Safety in
the metropolis—(Cheers)—and induce every Delegate frent
the country. to pour in such facts as would organize such a
body of public opinion as would create the utmost odium
against those in power, and compel them to yield."
Only a few hundred persons heard and cheered that
statement, but thousands will read and sympathise with
it. " The time is come to do something," is now a very
general phrase. Already the monopolists are very in-
tensely hated, and the only question is, by what means
they can be °impelled to yield. The upper classes assert
that they govern, not for their own benefit, but for the

benefit of the masses ;, and when the masses assure
them that misery, not lutppiness, is the result of
their rule, they must, from shame, give up their
ill-contrive .l measures. Their Government for the be-
nefit of the body of the people has not answered. It is a
complete failure. The multitude are immersed in griev-
ous distress, and the State is endangered. They must
begin to doubt the efficacy of their system, and, shrinking
back alarmed, if they have any shame left, they ought
to allow souse other system to be tried. If they are re-
solved to pursue their ruinous career, at whatever cost to
the people, they must not be surprised if TAIINTONS
spring up in every'quarter of the land, and preach hatred
to the aristocracy.

People are evidently tired of appealing to the justice
or the compassion of the aristocracy, and now they,talk
of appealing to their fears. This. may do some good.
The aristocracy commit injustice by means of legislation
with' a .view of. obtaining wealth and power ; and when-
ever they find' that their wrong-doing is endangering
theiyr wealth and power—if not before—they will be
ready, willing, and even anxious to alter their course.
As long as they find a. shield for their rapacity in the
respect of the public at large,' as long as their unjust
proceedings are dignified by the name of the Consti-
tution, and under that name held up to public reverence,
so long will they have irresistible motives for oppressing
those who invite oppression. But the .first step to put
an end to their power, which depends on public opinion,
is taken when they are publicly described as worthy
only of contempt and hatred.

Deputations from the Woollen and Linen Yarn Manu-
facturers have waited on Sir R. PEEL to induce him to
remonstrate with the French and Prussian Governments
against an increase in the &ties on linen yarn, and on
woollens. But over these Governments Sir H. PEEL
may have no influence-.whatever. He is not Prime
Minister there as well as here. The march of our
Government he may control; he can scarcely give an
impulse to the Governments of other countries. Him,
too, and his colleagues, the deputations may influence;
their wailing will rather encourage 'the present policy
of France and Prussia than check it. We endeavoured
to point out, the day before yesterday, that the
duties levied in foreign countries, which are beyond
our control, are much less influential than those
levied by our own Government, which are within our
control. We infer, therefore, that the deputations, and
those who send them, would act more rationally, and be
more likely to benefit themselves in the end, were they
to confine their solicitations to what Sir ROBERT PEEL
can do at home. That the total abolition of the Corn and
Provision-laws wouldcompensate for the increased duties
in France and Germany we will not assert, but it would go
some way towards it, and would assist our manufacturers
to compete wish those of other nations. We are far from
saying that it is not desirable to prevent other nations
from levying duties on our commodities, but it is much
more desirable not to levy duties ourselves that are more
injurioiis"to our trade that' the duties levied by foreigners.
By correcting our own vicious system, too, we may ex-
pect that other nations will follow oar example.

It is a Conservative theory, that Government must
take man as, he finds him, and make laws in con-
formity to the existing state of society. In that theory
we agree, and we repudiate the notion of some prac-
tical Radicals, and some philosophical writers, that by
the agency of Government, of new constitutions, and
well-adapted laws, we can increase the prosperity,
promote the morality, and augment the happiness of
the human race. The spring cannot rise higher than
its source, and Government, however wisely contrived
and finely adjusted, cannot improve human nature,
from which it takes its rise. At the same time, we
are not to allow a Government to inflict poverty, de-
moralization, and misery, on the community. Because
Government cannot improve human nature, it does
not follow that none of its acts are injurious to society.
We Only dispute the Radical theory, that Government
can improve human nature, and we adopt the Con-
servative theory, that all Governments :oust take man
as his CREATOR has made him, and must adapt its
regulations to his condition.

We expressly and designedly call this a Con-
servative theory, because we are about to apply it to
disprove a Conservative error. At present, and at
all times men strive.and plan to procure all the things
they need with the least possible labour. To this end
the savage sets his traps, the agriculturist manures his
land, and the manufacturer employs a self-acting mule.
Very often the same end is sought by rapine instead
of peaceful industry ; but it is so generally sought
that it may be said to be universal, and a law of man's
being. It is inherent in almost every individual as
'gravity is inherent in every particle of matter. The
exceptions, like the apparent volatility of the atmos-
phere, only confrima the rule. Labour is the price,
and the only price, we pay for all the wealth of the
world. It is all purchased by labour, and the plain
and palpable consequence of this universal striving is
gradually to lessen the quantity of labour, which is
another expression for price, by which all commo-
dities are obtained.

The savage by the invention of a trap,.for example,
catches as many animals in a night, while he is en-
joying his repose, as he could run down in a week.
The agriculturist, by the application of manures, or by
varying his crops, doubles or trebles the produce with
which the earth, the sunshine, and rain, reward his
labour. In like manner the manufacturer, by inge-
nious machinery, multiplies many thousand fold the
productive power of individuals. We may, by one
observation, make the immense advantages of this
natural system apparent. It enables a comparatively
few. persons to provide necessary subsistence for the
whole; it is the true source, then, of the possibility of
a leisure class having any existence in society, and
such a class is closely connected with all the arts and
all the knowledge beyond that which is necessary to
provide for mere subsistence. We do not assert that
it is the sole parent of civilization, but it is one of its
essential elements.

That in the progress of society the different pro-
ducts of different labourers are exchanged for one
another; makes no alteration in the general rule. Of
this universal striving at all times to procure com-
modities at little cost of labour, universal cheapness
is the natural and necessary result.
Never were the efforts of this law of human na-
ture more apparent than at this time. The spirit of
• carnage being no longer allowed to waste the
abodes of Europeans, their chief skill and ingenuity
are turned to produce useful and agreeable commo-
dities at a cheap rate, that is, at the cost of a less and
less quantity of labour. In England this progress during
the last thirty years has been astonishing, and the
same quantity of goods which then cost 10,000,0001.,
may now be I had for less than half the sum. The
reduction in money price, however, does not repre-
, sent the whole reduction ; because, the extended use
Of paper. money, and improvements in working mines
and purifying the precious metals indicate that money
itself is inow the produce of less labour, or, is itself
naturally cheaper, while the things it measures are
also cheapened. Thus, the universal striving which
is a law of man's nature, has in our age, and espe-
cially, though not exclusively, in our country, attained
its object in an extraordinary degree.
But what, in the meantime, has been the conduct
of the Government, which ought, according to
the Conservative theory, to have framed its laws
with a special view to this great, permanent, universal,
and successful striving after cheapness ? Why, the
Conservative Government has passed laws an.l upheld
laws, and has perilled its own existence in upholding
laws which countervail, oppose, and endeavour to render
vain the attempts of the universal people to reduce the
price, or the cost of commodities. Instead of
taking man and society as it is, the Govern-
ment, using the phrase in its widerst sense, has
resolved on modelling both on a pet notion of
its own. It would not have cheapness—it has de-
creed dearness. It has passed a law to say that the
people shall not procure their food by that very
small quantity of labour, by which a piece of cotton
cloth sent to the United States would buy a bushel of
flour, or, sent to the Brazils, would buy a cwt. of
sugar. It has set itself to constrain, alter, and mis-
direct the whole strivings of all the industrious classes,
and the whole course of human society. It says the
people shall not eat unless they employ three days'
labour in gaining bread from our limited soil, when
they—might obtain it, by one day's labour, from the
choice soil of the United States. It is this direct op-
position of the Government to the stream and course
of society, this foolish attempt, in the teeth of the Con-
servative theory, to impede the striving of men to
obtain abundance and cheapness after their own
fashion, and, according to their own devices,
which is at the bottom of all our present social
misery. Nature or Gov commands man to
put out his
labourm tothe greatesttban profit—the
Government individuals
es to know assumes
how to make their labour profitable, and it impiously
strives to counteract the laws of 'Nature.
w better
While our people have thus been successfully and

nobly engaged in providing useful commoditi,)s
little cost, the Government has been employed. h
preventing other persons from doing the same for
them. •It has virtually said to the farmers of the
United States and of the Continent off Europe, if you
follow the good extmple of our peOple, which you
would be sure to do, and produce food for them as
they produce cloth for you, I will not allow you to
bring your produce to England : at least I will
place such a duty on it as to make it unprofitable
which will disable you from bringing,it. Thus, whil
our people have been exerting their skill to provide
cheap commodities, the mischievous Government has
been depriving them of a „market. It has, in

manner, prohibited other people` from working
for them, while it has encourage, 4 them to work for
other people. The consequences cif this fatal, this
anti-Conservative, anti-social policy is now evident i
the want of markets for our goods. *..r.here is compa-
ratively little or nothing to be got for them. There
is no sugar, no flour, beyond what our own Colailies
and farmers supply. If you prevent men
goods at a profit, you effectually prevent them bein
made. Hence, when you destroy the market for our
goods, that is, prevent provisions being given in ex—
change for them, you stop their production ; you stop
the labour which produces them ; you stop the em-
ployment for the people. This is esActly what has now
taken place. The Government ha's*.--prevented our
people from receiving the food by which other_ people
would luiy their cotton and cutlery; there is no longer,
therefore, a corresponding market for these commodi-
ties, no longer employment for the people in making
them, and there is great distress in the land. This is
all clearly traced to. the laws, which; in defiamce of
nature, have expressly thwarted the efforts of ,our
people to create or obtain wealth at a little cost' of
labour. •

If it be said that all the huge fabrics which have been
built up in the manufacturing towns, that all the
ponderous machines there employed,- all the skilful,
inventions there in constant use, the tall chimneys
the deep mines, are not natural ; we reply, that if
they be not, neither is the skill of the trapper, nor
the art of the agriculturist, natural. But when we
see that in all ages and all countries these kind of
arts have come successively into existence ; that after
man has learnt to appease the cravings of hunger at a
small cost, he has invariably directed his powers to
increase comforts and luxuries, we must contend that
the mannfacturing system, though it assumes different
shapes in different countries, is a natural phasig
in the history of mankind. It is not con-
fined to England. It prevails, and has pre-
vailed, under different modifications, in every
country iu which civilisation has made any
progress. The growth of the manufacturing system,
therefore, is a natural portion of society, though it
have been modified in different countries by their
different political institutions. Here, owing to our
aristocratic form of Government, it "has assumed an
aristocratic character, and cotton Lords andiron Lords
vie with landlords in wealth, while the labourers
under all three are equally in a low and degraded
condition. But that is not the consequence of the
manufacturing system, with all its beautiful in-
ventions—it is the consequence of our political form
of society, it arises from political regulations to main-
tain the aristocracy, and foster such a distribution of
property as suits them.

ST. MARYLEBONL BANK FOR
SAVINGS.

76, WELBECK-STREET.-ESTABLLSHED 5Tx
JULY, 1830.
COMPARATIVE STATEMENT OF PROGRESe; AT SPECIFIED

PERIODS, DURING THE LAST EIGHT YEAR&

On sth July, 1835
1836
1837
1838
1839
1840
1841
1842!

Open Deposi.
Accounts

£5,805
7,635
9,410
10,703
11,620
12,445
12,881
13,100

'Suing" Invested with
National Debt Com-
missioners.

£83,472
115,88 i
143,481
179,381

216,017

244,469
-460,552
2.75,072

LIGHT GOLD.

We have received a letter containing soul r objet
tions to a statement which appeared in the money
article of the Times of the 28th of June, on the sub-
ject of the light coinage.
The writer of this letter appears, to consider, that
the variation in the weight of the sovereign allowed
to the Master of the Mint, is six grains above, and
six grains below, the Mint standard, for every one
pound weight troy ; instead of being, as stated by
us, twelve grains below this standitr4 weight. The
correctness of our assertion may, bowavr; be readily
shown.

The following is an extract front the reporti of the
address of the Lord Chancellor to the recent Pix
Jury, and which appeared in the Miles of the '23d of
June last :

"It was imposible that in all instances the coin
could exactly correspond with the standard, and
therefore when an inquiry of that nature (the Pia
Jury) was first institututed, a provision had been
made to meet any case of trifling deficiency.
With respect to gold, 12 grains were allowed in every
pound troy. In silver 1 dwt. in every pound troy. if
no greater deficiency than what he had stated took
place in a new coinage, it was allowed;. but if there
was a greater deficiency, the Master of the Mint must
render an account to the Crown, for he was respon-
sible. If, on the other hand, there should be an ex-
cess in the weight, the Master of the Mint was en-
titled to receive it. And further, if the coin was
wrong, it was imperative on the Master of the Mint
to recoin it at. his own expense in a proper form and
manner, agreeably to the pleasure of the Crown."
The above extract appears clearly to point out that
the 12 grains in the pound Troy, given as allowance
to the Master of the Mint, may allte taken as the
error in diminution of the weight. Thepossible case
of an error in excess is provided for in another man-
ner, in a subsequent part of the paragraph just
recited.

Our Correspondent will also perceive, on a re-
perusal of our observations of the 28th of June, that
a comparison was first made with the issuing weight
of the sovereign, including the allowance to the Mail-
ter of the Mint, as being the strictly equitable mode
of considering the subject, but that a modification of
the scale of loss on light coins was afterwards effected
by adding one halfpenny to the results, whieh brought
them to the allowances to be used when the compari-
son is made with the legal calculated weight of 5 dwt.
grains.—Times.

DR. REID'S LECTURES ON CHE-
MISTRY. •
THE ACTION OF AIR ON BODIES.

After some preliminary eiPeriments upon colouring matter,
produced by the admixture of liquids, and' the methods of stain-
ing the calico of our markets with its rich and multiform dyer,
Dr. Reid, in his lecture at Esefir-hall yesterday evening,
chiefly dwelt on the action of air upon external „surfaces. He
proceeded to show thit in the same manner as on a grander
scale, the air circulates round the vast eircumfetence of the .
globe, from the pole to the equator, and thither again to the
pole—so it similarly wound itself about and pervaded all other ..
bodies, and especially, among others, the human frame. In its
more immediate action on the body respiration was cue of the pecu-
liar forms it assumed—a process by which every individual, in or-
dinary life, respired 820,000 times a day. Passing from this sub-
ject to the consideration of dry-rot, which arises from non-eir.,
culation of a just quantity of pure air, thereby clusuig engeO-.
derment of carbonic acid, which fed by moisture, was the prime
creator of this species of decay, the lecturer made some interest-.
ing observations on the subject. Dry-rot generally originated
in the roofs of buildings, in which there was no exit for air
above, and which causing the combination of carbon and
moisture as alluded to above, generated often that rich
aerial manure in which plants and futile were found
to thrive luxuriously. Dr. Reid exhibited several spe- •
citizens of plants which he had collected, and which re-
ceived their nourishment in the manner indicated. 110 . .
considered this air-formed compost se nutritious in its ea.
ture, that even corn could be grown in it. It war the great, ,
pabulum of dry-rot. Thus, but a day or two since, in
ascending to the roof of a church where dry-rot was believed
to exist, the lecturer saw that the very ladder itself from this
cause had decayed, and holding it between' his fingers, made
for a fact that at this instant roofs were givingn7pnlisinnuen_gs_
it crumble to dust. By this destructive process, knew
were beiteg destroyed, libraries were dneaair Lsei Places—evils
of the large accumulations of emir
would have obviated, or the
of air through the apartment, est direction of a current
which proper ventilation, or the
t slightest
l
and explanations of the air-pump, _
simple application of one or two s.reciffiocrms. s Danidagrlprem:
the lecture.
sures of the atmosphere, concluded

Rd—TlTYhTisliEneAwlTT:orOkßEbasSB ,
HRTE.
OP " THE HISTORYress OF
in
the very foremost rank of female
placed the tut
. We were the first to call attention," observes the '
.. to the excellent truth and nature of The His. •
a Flirt, and looked with more than usual expectation
TIIE MANCCUVRING A MOTHERS
tort' of
for the appearance. .
so fortunate in its pictures of life among our middle classes.
This new book will sustain the reputation bf our authoress.
novelists.An <E u m .
She 19 many degrees nearer to Miss Austin thin any of her
contemporaries; she writes, too, with as much care as pur-
pose; and she will keep tier place, we are inclined to think. as
she has won her way—that is, steadily but unobtrusively. '. •
There is great skill in her conception of the Manteuvring
Mother's (Lady Wetheral's) intrigues for the brilliant establish-•
ment of her five daughters, not so much from selfish designs
for her own aggrandisement in theirs, as from a mind perverted.
—which regards rank, wealth, and 'show as the absolute neces-
sities of existence. We could mention almest'everttersonage
of the tale with a note of commendation, but enough is said to -
make our readers seek for the work, and oncefouml, its merits .
will presently ensure for it as healthy a popularity .as
,belongs .
to its predecessor." ,
We learn from Hanover that tile: Ring }eft hi-
capital on the 26th ult. for Roteakirchea. . .