The Sun.
London, England, 1842-08-20 00:00:00

ROYAL SURREY ZOOLOGICAL GARDE.NS.

The Nobility, Gentry, Subscribers, and the Public, are resimetflilly
Informed that

ON MONDAYS, TUESDAYS, AND THURSDAYS,

GRAND EVENING FETES will be given, in which will be em•
bodied all those popular Entertainments that have given to this favou.
rite place of recreation its peculiar celebrity, with additions and in.
trodilcttons,Fhich render them more generally attractive.

The MENAGERIE has been enriched by-many valuable and im-
portant acquisitions in the classes of both Quadrupeds and Birds...-
Feeding Time Five o'clock.
The Colossal VIEW OF ROME has been repainted, and in some
instances remodelled, with a Mechanical Tableau d'action' repre-
senting the Procession of the Papal Troops, Guards, and Roman
Nobles, to the Castle of St. Angelo.
The BAND includes some of the most eminent Performers, con-
ducted by Mr. Godfrey, and the Programme of the PROMENADES
A sICA LES selected from the noblest works of the great Masters.
The IL LC MINATIONof ST. PETER'S, the CROSS of FIRE,
and the GIRA NCO OLA of ST. ANGELO, with all the gorgenuti
Spectacles and magnificent introductions that have called forth ac-
clam mations of delight and admiration on each evening of their ex.
hibitiun, terminating with the triumph of pyrotechnic splendour,
the CA SC ADE sf BRILLIANT FIRE, SIX l'Y FEET in height.
The Gardens arc open Daily from Ten' till Dusk. The Evening
ttcs,with the Promenades Musicales, Illumination of St. Peter's,
Giraildola of St. Angelo, &c., will be given on Mondays, Tuesdays,
.tat ►I, tirsdays. Admission One Shilling.

WATER AT LONDON BRIDGE THIS DAY.
Nicrning ...... minutes after 1 R Evening 53 minutes after 1.

LONDON:
SATURDAY MORNING, AUGUST 20, 1842.

Some of our Contemporaries, (we speak of the
Times and the Post,) are endeavouring to make the
public believe that the variations in the demand for
the productions of Manchester are the necessary
consequences of what they call the fluctuations
of trade. According to them, trade fluctuates ne-
cessarily and frequently. We have certainly, in
our time, seen great vicissitudes in the condi-
tion of our community, but they have existed
in con:unction with a number of laws regulating, or
pretending to regulate, and certainly restricting, cir-
cumscribing, and impeding trade. What proportion
of those vicissitudes has been caused by the laws, and
what proportion was necessarily inherent in trade, is
one of the nicest questions of political science, and is
not to be settled by the hasty and crude assertions
of our Contemporaries. It requires, indeed, we
are well convinced, a long and searching analysis to
distinguish between the effects of laws and the
effects of trade itself ; and all that we can now even
attempt, in order to throw some light on this impor-
tant question, and not allow trade to bear the blame
hich belongs to bad laws, is to indicate some of the
principles which would seem to show that all trade,
inc:uding the trade of Manchester, must naturally
and necessarily, but for restrictive laws, be as steady
and progressive as the wants of human beings.
In all accounts which have ever fallen under our
notice of men living in an uncivilised condition, like
tha Red Indians for example, they are represented as
exp.?riencing, as the seasons change, the extremes
of abundance and famine. In the summer season,
wLel game and fish are accessible, they are toler-
ably well fed ; in winter, they die in considerable
numbers Lom actual famine. Fluctuations in the
condition of society are natural and excessive in its
early stages.

.The natural causes of such fluctuations seem not
to abate as society advances. The seasons, making
the earth teem with abundance at one part of the year,

and locking it up in sterility with ice and snow at
another, are the same for the European children of the
United States as for the Red men ; but they never ex-
perience such terrible vicissitudes as afflict the Indians.
The seasons also now vary, probably, from year to
year as much as ever they did ; and the earth
in one summer and in one place, as last year in parts
of England, almost mocks the husbandman's toil, and
;n another summer, as at present, yields to all his
labours a rich abundance.

But while the produce of man's labour when applied
to the earth or to the sea, in catching fish, varies
much from year to year and place to place, his wants
of food, of lodging, and of clothing, are nearly constant,
or subject only to a progressive increase as population
increases. It is therefore a dispensation of Provi-
dence, which appears to pervade all time and
every stage of society, that great fluctuations in the
supplims of food should prevail from year to year, from
place to place, and from summer to winter. The
wants of man remaining about the same at all times,
it is a natural and necessary consequence of this dis..
pensa ion, that society, unless man learn the art to
provide against the evil, should be exposed to great
fluetuat'ons.

So^iet v, in the United States, however, seems rather
to aivance steadily, than to fluctuate, and none of the
communities of Europe experience, it is believed,
the dreadful vicissitudes to which savages are ex-
'. A very lure proportion of our ONV commu-
oll tla‘ opulent and easy classes, know nothing
.iaxver of dread,ul vicissitudes between famine
and plenty, though the seasons continue to fluctuate.
It is pretty well ascertained, also, that great
r. s have been the vicissitudes of our commu-
since the commencement of this cen-
they bear no comparison to its vicissi-
in former times ; and great as have
the vet-mho:l3 of the prices of corn under the
siieing-scale, they be r only a small proportion to the
_ cions of that price in the 12th, 13th, and 14'6h
ce.--:,uries. Thus, as society has advanced, man has
found the means of guerding against those fluctuations
in its condition, which, but for his skill, would he
at P-1 times the natural and necessary consequence of
ore season being less 'A cui;...al than another.

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What are these means? They are expressed by
one word---TRADE. Trade, though it must partie7-
pate in the natural fluctuations of the seasons, is the

means of equalizing them to men's wants. and saving
society abm those terrible vicissitudes which it expe-
-1 iences where trade is unknown. What is the guiding.
principle of trade ? To buy when end where com-
modities are cheap, and to sell when and where com-
modities are dear. It blys the corn wben it is
's gathered in abundance •om the field, and it sells
it in winter when the field is as barren as the stones
in the street. It buys—or would buy, but the law
NA :11 not allow man to equalise the effects of seasons
in different political communities as in the same com-
munity, and in different periods of the year—it buys
the corn which is cheap in. the United States or in Rus-
sia, and sells it in England where it is dear, or wanted by
hungry men. The necessary effect of trade, there-
fore, which our Contemporaries describe as fluctuating
and as causing fluctuations in the condition of society,
iF to prevent fluctuations, and to equalise the produc-
tions of fluctuating seasons to the steady and perma-
nent wants of men.

Now, the practical question which our Contempo-
raries decide off-hand against trade, and to which
these principles may serve to give a different aspect, is,
Have the fluctuations in the condition of the populatio.i
o' Manchester, and other manufacturing towns, been
caused by manufacturing, by buying and selling, or
by the laws which have interfered to prevent or im-
pede, under the pretence of regulating, buying and
selling ? Without saying that no trader may have
miscalculated the wants of his customers, we have no
hestitation in asserting that the fluctuations are chiefly
the consequences of the "wisdom of Parliament." The
bulk of the manufactures of Manchester are intended
to supply almost universal wants. Fustians, calicoes.
ginghams, muslins, are every where worn ; the per-
sons who wear' them, too, are almost everywhere in-
creasing. The customers of Manchester, in England,
in the United States, in North America, in our colo-
r:es, are rapidly multiplying.
In that increase of population, we see a reason
why the manufactures of Manchester should go on
steadily increasing, none why they should fluctuate.
But the law interferes, and will not allow the Man-
chester man to supply the wants of those people.
It says to the Manchester manufactUrers, " you shall
not buy corn in America and sugar in the Brazils,"
ard, o 'course, you shall not sell—for where there is
mg there is no buying—when you like, or as
you is x.e, for the purpose of equalizing the produce of
different countries and seasons with the wants of man ;
bre.; when some other purpose, which the law has in
is to be answered—namely, keeping land in
:vz:,on, as is said, in England. Here the law lays
down a m ale for the conduct of a trader, and enforces
its observance, totally different from the natural rule
of buying when and where commodities are cheap,
and selling them when and where they are dear. It
introduces confusion into the whole course of trade,
and disturbs all its operations. It is plainly at va-
riance with the natural principle of trade, and is, we
telieve, the sole cause of those fluctuations which our
Contemporaries believe to be inherent in trade itself.
It may be supposed that when the law has substi-
stituted this artificial rule for the natural rule of
trade, that men adapt themselves to it. So they
do, to a considerable extent, and the sagacity of
individuals prevents much of the mischief which en-
forcing this false rule is calculated to cause. But the
law may, and is changed. Then men must learn
new rules. And not only the law immediately affect-
ing corn and sugar, but affecting other things may be
changed ; as, for example, reduction or increase of
taxation, which alters the relative value of foreign
and home-grown corn, or of foreign and colonial
sugar; and, again, the law compels the trader to change
his conduct. Moreover, the trader hopes, or supposes,
the law may be altered ; many manufacturers, for
example, may have hoped for the abolition of the
Corn-law, and have guided their conduct by their
hopes, instead of the facts. That is consistent with
human nature. It is the uncertainty introduced into
trade by the law, substituting the caprice of the self.
interested law-maker; for the natural rule of buying
when and where commodities are cheap, and selling
them when and where they are dear, which is the
cause of most of the miscalculations of the manufac-
turers and the traders, and of fluctuations in trade.
We hope that our Contemporaries will take these
matters into consideration before they again dogmatize
about fluctuations in trade.

ro

We published in The Sun of yesterday the letter
in which the Messrs. BAYLEY, of Staley-bridge ex-
plaln their shore in causing the present outbreak.
They are completely exonerated of having contri-
buted to it in any manner whatever, except by pro-
-posing to reduce the wages paid by them to the level
of the wages paid by other manufacturers. Our
readers may not know, and, therefore, we must inform
thorn, that on the conduct, as it now appears falsely,
ascribed to those gentlemen, and on the supposition
that they are members of the Anti-Corn-law League,
the monopolist journals have raised a huge super-
structure of false charges against the League. They
all amount to this, that the League caused and en-
couraged the outbreak. We admit that the League
predicted mischief, as Mr. COBDEN said ; that it
warned the Ministers and politicians of all parties
against such consequences, as likely to arise from
the continuance of the Corn and Provision-laws, and
like other prophets, it has been accused of causing
the mischief which it had the sagacity to predict. Its
fate is a great reproach to those who, from distorted
and selfish views, have made its high merit a subject
of blame.
Another foundation for the censure of the League
was some expressions supposed to have been used by
Mr. FINCH, of Livei pool, of which that gentleman
has given this exp'.anation :
In the report of the proceedings of the Anti-Corn-law
Conference of the 29th of July, appears a letter which I
read to the Conference : it is thus reported
" Mr. Finch, of Liverpool, communicated the follow-
ing letter from a party engaged in the iron trade of
verpool :
Mr. Bills, of Darlaston, called upon me this morning
(23th July), and says that an attempt is making to re-
duce the thick coal-getters from 4s. to 3s. 6d. per day;
and it is exnec;;ed that the consequence will be a general
turn-out of all the colliers. A very erroneous impression
0; the wages of colliers was given by Sir Roben Peel in
the House o'f' Commons lasi-, week, when he stated that
the dispute was between 4.5. and 3s. 6d. per day. It is
true that is the universal wages given for the thick coal-

getters, but the thin coal getters and the ironstone-
geaers are reduced to 2s. 9d. per day ; and none of the
colliers scarcely are, doing more than two or three days'
o -lc per week.
" The League and Anti-Monopoly Associations, with
the assistance of the colliers, have the power of com-
pelling the aristocracy, in less than one month, to abo-
lish the Corn-laws altogether, and compel them also to
grant the People's Charter. Let the colliers in all parts
of the kingdom cease working for one month, and the
thing is done ; they have only to insist on these mea-
sures before they go to work again. This is the most
simple and efficient measure that could be adopted to get
all. we want, without spilling a drop of blood, or causing
any commotion of any kind. The city of London would
be withouz fuel, and all other conceras must come to a
siand till it was seined"

The Chai. man said this would not be understood as a
recommendation of the Conference, but it was a proof of
the great feeling that was abroad against these laws.
On that occasion I stated that I introduced it for the
purpose of correcting a misapprehension as to the wages
of co'liers in the S affo-dshire district, and to show the
strong feeling tl-nt existed against the present Corn-
laws, and withon iden:Tying mys.lf with the opinions
or the writer as lo the mode 07 effecting their repeal.
The Morn:Pg Herald and some of the Conservative
provincial pepers, I observe, have remarked on the latter
pert of this letter wii,h great severity as being expressive
of my own op. mons, an sanctioned by the epproval of
the League. Attempts are thus made, by quotations
and garbled e:Ltracis, to conneci; the Anti-Corn-law
League with the present; disturbances.

That dissipates another basis for the lying super-
structure of the monopolist journals. We happen to
know also that it was impossible for any set of men
to take more pains than dkl the members of the
League to convince the Members of the Legislature
t'ort the iefusal to do justice to the people would
lead to serious consequences. For weeks and months

they dwelt with no simulated alarm on the probability
tlyz, some outbreak would place all their property at
the mercy of a mob. We know, from no second-hand
authority, from no hearsay or doubtful evidence, but
positively and certainly, that the members of the
League, particularly Mr. HAMER STANSFELD of
Leeds, M”. BRIGHT of Rochdale, and Mr. RAWSON.

went, as it were, from door to door of Members of
both Houses and of all parties, begging and imploring
them, on account of apprehended danger, to repeal
the Corn-laws and to enable the manuacturer to give
PIO e employment and higher wages to the workmen.
They expressly appealed to those Members
of the House who assume to be more godly
Jon their compeers, and almost besieged Sir
ROBERT INGLIS, Mr. MACKINNON, Sir THOMAS

ACLAND, Lord ASHLEY, and men of that staltn,

urging on all those to whom they obtained access,

the great distress and discontent of the people, in or
der to induce them to take an active part in repeal-
ing the law which limits the supply of food. The
members of the League haunted the lobbies and re-
+ eshment-rooms of the Houses of Parliament, and
lost no opportunity of entreating Members of the Le-
gislature, and particularly the Tory Members, not to
separate without passing some comprehensive measure
to relieve the distress o: the manufacturing classes.
To all these representations the Tory Members
turned a deaf ear; and now that some taste of the
danger against which the League warned them has
actually come, the Tory journals (we think the
Tory Members will hardly venture on so barefaced a
scheme) most unscrupulously and most unjustly
accuse the League of having caused the mischief.
But this plan will not succeed. The Tories and
monopolists are the authors and patrons of that social
vs's:ern against which the people rise in insurrection.
They impoverish and degrade the masses by their
restrictions and burdens, and they must bear the
blame of the outrages which ensue.
The present outbreak, though the greatest, is not
the only one. Our domestic history is a succession
of distresses suffered by the people, and of outrages
following therefrom. By them, and by similar
facts, will the policy of the monopolists be tested,
not by their theory that plenty, wealth, peace,
and prosperity are caused by restrictive laws.
Against their policy, so eminently triumphant
in Parliament, the continued distress of the people,
their discontent and turbulence, speak trumpet-
tongued. Systems of policy are tried by their effects.
The Corn-law has not been overthrown—it exists in
all its rigour. The monopolists have not yet been
defeated; they are the masters of the Legislature.
In conjunction with their success, and the prevalence
of their system, the community is thrown into great
disorder; there is a suspension of labour, and general
alarm. They, not the Corn-law League, have had
the power of regulating society ; and, if we are to
judge of a tree by its fruits, the present condition
of England is an everlasting condemnation of tie
monopolists.

We have heard a rumour that it is the intention of

Ministers to re-assemble Parliament in a short time

in order to pass a Coercion Act for the manufacturing
districts. We notice the rumour to express our
entire and complete disbelief in it. Though the
manufacturing population have ceased to labour, and
in many cases have forced others to cease from labour,
the actual outrages committed by them, taking all
circumstances into consideration, have not been of an
aggravated character. With the exception of their
conflict with the police at Manchester,they have caused
no deaths, and have inflicted no wounds. They have
broken windows, and in the Potteries have burned
down houses ; but for these offences particularly the
latter, which is a heinous crime, the law already pro-
vides. Additional penal laws, or a Coercion Act, might
exasperate the people, but could not prevent offences,
and would injure trade. It would go far to reduce
the manufacturing districts to the condition of Ire-
land. Such a policy would be indeed fatal, and we
give the rumour that Sir R. PEEL intends to adopt it
an emphatic denial.]
Although the Turn-outs have used the customary
phrase of "Peace, law, and order," it requires no
evidence to prove, however much they may admire
order and desire peace, they do not respect the law.
They complain of the law—they condemn the Corn-
law—they censure the law of primogeniture—they
are decidedly opposed to the law which excludes them
from Parliament, and of many other laws they em-
phatically complain. If they respected the law they
would not have violated it. The great object which
the Legislature and the Government should keep in
view, is, we think, to re-inspire them with
respect for the law. Terror will not accomplish
that. A Coercion Act would: only make them
hate the law the more, and would convert them
all into outlaws. The only sure way to restore the
law to its wonted dominion over their hearts is to
make it just. A Coercion Act would ultimately pro-
voke a still more extended revolt.

We would have •statesmen be very cautious how
they deal with this great malady, and not be influ-
enced by rabid priests, or guided by acrid routine
politicians. Strange thoughts are engendered in men,
by comparing the professions of Governments with
their performances—the theory of their formation with
their actual practices. The celebrated Dr. OHANNING,
for example, has recently published a second part of
his Duty of Free States, which opens with this passage :

My great aim, in what I have written, and now write,
on matters of public interest, is to re-unite politics and
morality ; to bring into harmony the law of the land and
the law of God. Among the chief causes of the miseries
of nations, is the divorce which has taken place between
politics and morality ; nor can we hope for a better day,
till this breach be healed. Men, entrusted with govern-
ment, have always been disposed to regard themselves as
absolved from the laws of justice and humanity. False-
hoods and frauds are allowed them for their country or
their party. To maintain themselves against their oppo-
nents, they may even involve nations in war ; and the
murders and robberies which follow this crime are not
visited on their heads by human justice. In all times,
government has been the grand robber, the grand murderer,
and has yet escaped the deep reprobation which breaks
forth against private guilt. Such profligacy pervades the
sphere of political action, that the confidence of the people
is well nigh withdrawn from public men ; and a virtuous
statesman is involved in the suspicions which his unprin-
cipled associates hive drawn upon his vocation. Public
life is thought to release men not only from the obliga-
tions ofjustice, but from the restraints of good manners ;
and, acconlingly, the debates of Congress [Parliament] are
too often polluted by vulgar abuse, threats, and brawls.
So this is the standard of political life, that a man is
smiled at for his simplicity who talks of introthicing re-
ligion into the conduct of public affairs. Religion, it is
thought, belongs to Sabbals and churches, and would be
as much out of place in cabinets or halls of legislation, as
a delicate lady on a field of battle. A stranger might
be tempted to think, ;hat the Sergeant-at-Arms was sta-
tioned at the doors of legislative chambers, to forbid en-
trance to the everlasting law of God, and that nothing
but man's impotence prevents the exclusion of Him whose
holy presence fills the universe.
When men give such a character to Government,
and to the principles of politiCians, it behoves the
latter to be much on their guard. Higher principles
than either the rate of wages or the Charter would
seem, by such passages, to be involved in the present
struggle between subjects and rulers ; and Govern-
ments should be especially careful not to precipitate
it, and, above all, not to place themselves in the wrong,
by devising new schemes of oppression, to be accom-
plished by the instrumentality of law.

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