The Sun.
London, England, 1842-10-29 00:00:00

caused by our restrictive policy; as if that •
restrictive policy were only of the date
of yesterday, instead of being of the age of at
least a century and a half—in truth of a much
greateFage. Why, if the markets of the world
are cl6secl—which they are not—they must have
been open before they were closed, and the restric-
tive system it must have been that opened-them.
If commerce is now embarrassed, commerce must
have existed prosperously before it could suffer
embarrassment; and if the industry of labourers
is mow in a degree paralysed, it must have been
at one time or other healthy and active; and com-
merce and industry must have enjoyed this
prosperity and healthy activity under the restric-
tive system, unless we arc to look back upon
~hem over the wide gulph of greatly more
an 150 years. When the great League talks
:an axe laid to the root of national prosperity,
.t lies if it means that the axe has been lately
aid : and, we say it
.with submission; it talks
nonsense if it refers to the axe that has been
resting harmless for centuries. We are not now
-going to reason with such people, but we would
remind them of a Somewhat uncouth word
which their practice has naturalised in our vo-
cabulary. They have before now heard of gluts.
" a glut" is just the thing to close mar-
-1W:, while it operates, to embarrass commerce
and to paralyse industry; and when we find
the exports of a country multiplied twofold,
while its population has increased less than
one third, and all this accompanied by
that. plethora of money of which our
Co :temporary the Morning Chronicle com-
pla:ns,. we must think that the disease is rather
the effect of a glut than of any cause, that has
been steeping innocuous for centuries. If the
great Leaguers tell us that the increase of popu-
latio,t makes the increase of produce necessary,
we rt mind them that the increase of produce
has is of only greatly outrun the increase of popu-
latitn, at home, hut still more outrun th increase
of T ovulation abroad. If they speak of a
mon IN-sacrifice as accounting for the excess
of p:oduce, we point to the confessed plethora.
Thrse two symptoms are decisive of the
true nature • of the ailment; it is a corn-
plictr,ien of gluts, a money glqt at home—a
glut of goods in the foreign market, all the result
of the rabies canina for gain, combined with a
coostipated retention of what is gained—a pro-
fessi alai malady, which from analogy to the
"7iier'.or urn Cholera," we may call the Dyspepsia
Harpaginunz, or " League evil." From the
Leateee's statement it appears that two thousand
lecte:es have been delivered and five million
traes distributed at an expense of 100,0001. This
stalcment is worthy of a short calculation. What
Anti-Corn-law lecture worth ? This, to be
sure, is a question of some uncertainty, for men
difro• widely as to the proper price of a fancy ar-
ticle. Were we to pronounce upon the absolute
value of the articles delivered for lectures as
lite:•:.ry compositions, we should rate them
very low indeed. Such could be easily
had at a pound the dozen among the less fhrtu-
n-tte votaries of letters with which London
almonds. But as most of the lecturers have, like
Mr. Acland, acted as " penny-a-liners" for the
p1:1):1c-press, it seems proper to allow them
solu.:.,:rp_r at the rate of their former profession,
them 4h it is one in which they have failed—say,
then, one pound per lecture, which we honestly
ai ::u to be liberal pay; but be generous and call
it a-n pounds, or prodigal and go to five! Under
this head of lectures, then, we have, upon the
hypothesis, two thousand pounds, upon
i,.odioal hypothesis, ten thousand. As to the
trAct., there can be no difficulty in making_
an stimate. A tract of four octavo pages of
avoriqe print, where a great many are taken,
Can be sold for one farthing;
,five millions of
tracts of four octavo pages would come to about
Here, then, we have the terms of the
gn,:tt League's account with the goad-natured
p:!;)Jle who have subscribed 100,0001.
Money received £loo,ooo
Lectures
Tracts

Balance £85,000
NV;iat has become of this balance ? It is not our
part to play Joseph Hume to " the great
L.aguers, but certain events have occurred
within the sphere of their exertions which justify
a little general curiosity as to the expenditure of
such a sum as 85,0001. A lavish outlay by some
one after a great robbery has, before now, led to
the detection of the thief, and a lavish outlay by
parties of questionable character upon the very
eve of an insurrection may, in like manner,
co3inct to its authors. During the progress
or the late -disturbance, which ha 3 resulted in
thl exposure of 300 foolish persons to the
p nalties of the law, as well as in much
other mischief, there was frequent mention
sinio.icr the insurgents of funds mysteriously pro-
nil and mysteriously supplied. Now these
V 0,;(.../ ambigua concurring with the sudden,
str.log'e, and unexplained disappearance of such
a sum as eighty-five thousand pounds from the
fnals of the League, surely require to be ac-
ted for. For ourselves, we have no doubt as
to tile real destination of the greater part of this
large sum, and we are, therefore, pretty confi-
dent that the " great Leaguers" will not give
accaunt. To conclude, the League have by
their own confession reaped little beyond an in-
surr2ction, and the imprisonment of some 003 of
our li.-.llow-citizens from an outlay of 100,0001. ;
and this is a poor plea for asking 50,0001. more.

Al J NEY MARKET and CIT Y NE W S

FROM THE MORNING PAPERS OF YESTERDAY.

CTeIRONICLE.—The state of the corn trade forms
a 1:e. and proper companion to that of the cattle trade.
B.lth markets are panic stricken, and prices greatly
and unnecessarily depressed. The farmers have them-
sal ,-a; to blame very much for having given way to
fear from the phantom herds of horned cattle from the
Continent, which they supposed were on ship-board
to undersell them on British ground ; but the panic
in tile corn trade, and the ruinous loss that has been
suLred in Mark-lane and abroad by the recent fluc-
tuations in the price of wheat, are all to be attributed
- the deceitful influence of the new sliding scale.
The new law was framed to abolish gambling and
ci!lation, and to establish a steady trade and
ite- of prices. What has been the test of experi-
? Gambling has been as extensive, and speculation
r'.ce as it was before the law of 1828 was modified.
Upwards of 2,000,000 of quarters of foreign wheat
were entered for home consumption, under an Bs.
duty, in August last; in the weeks ending the 6th
o{f August and the 13th of August last, when the
average price was 645. 2d. per quarter, that is, ten
NV OE'!C3 back, and now the duty is 18s. per quarter,
alei the average price down to about 525. per quarter.
vaunting sliding scale, which was prescribed as a
speeific against the evil of its discarded predecessor,
has thus been attended with a fluctuation of 10s. per
quarter on the duty, and of 12s. per quarter on the
aver :m price in the course of a few weeks. The
trale has been sub:ected to a loss of 1,200,0001.,
and the British farmer has been exposed to the
in:!ue:ice of a market as fictitiously depressed,
as it formerly had been unduly advanced, in
price ; while the consumers have not been benefited
by a proportionate reduction in the price of bread.
The millers and bakers may, perhaps have reaped
some benefit by these changes, but all other classes
ha7:e suffered, and most of all the English farmers—
the home producers—have been losers by this extra-
ordinarily convulsive action in the corn trade. Had
the season proved unfavourable, the dealers would
have . held back their 2,500,000 quarters until the
Prier' had risen to a famine rate, and until the duty
hail been reduced to the lowest ratio. The game, in
that epees would have been in their own hands. It is
still on the cards for another day, and will be played
'bile it is open to be won. Inthe meantime, such
is the force of panic at present in Mark-lane, owing
to :he extent of the recent failures, that the best
Dantzic wheat is new offered, for 'money at 48s.
pe believe,
e quarter—less, we , . 7
than its cost free
on board. This, too, at the time when the English
fanners are sending their best samples to mar-
. •
ker, winch, from their superior quality, support
the averages; otherwise the price would be
cansiderably lower. The discount houses in
Lombard-street are now the actual holders of foreign
conl,'in security for the money advanced on the dis-
lieoured paper of the corn-factors. " Better good
reen than ,bad bills," was the observation of the head
of leading firm to-day ; and this is true enough ;
Let ;eeter we say, for all parties, a steady trade
:led a fixed duty. If the farmers are to have what
t?.rined " protection," let it be fixed, and then
ill;e:e will be an end to all mystification. It is
ra..0.15, indeed, to attempt to fix the prices of coni-
i-eallta,s be means of any Act of Parliament, for
w,. 5,?.,3 by the present state of the corn market that
a 'l"i'llnal duty of ISsa per quarter does not keep
t. 1e price at more than 48s. per quarter. A fixed
ci-a•e- as a source of revenue, and for revenue alone,
may be maintained, and such an impost would de-
ceive eo o • one, but all attempts to fie prices by legisla-
tion,. and to give a self-acting protective principle
to fiscal charges, are seleeelu
nothing but general panic and confusion.sions, andl vhig tend to
gery,
they say, is out of fashion. but be that as it may, Lord
John Russell was right—as time will prove— in re-
•e••uel to the measures of thea
present Cabinet. By
••
their new Corn-law and Tariff, leaving the great
ee-elopolies of corn and sugar still almost untouched,
Pee!, as Lord John Russell observed, " has disturbed
everything and settled' nothing." These are facts—
•• • truth,
and nothing but the truth. They are
etY,;liZant to every practical man of business in the
City-, and cannot be gainsayal• The cattle trade is
disturbed—the corn-trade- is -disturbed—the farmers