The Sun.
London, England, 1842-05-07 00:00:00

THE INDIA SU

CONTAINING

A MAP

AND
FULL ACCOUNT OF
APPGITANISTAN

AND THE

THEATRE OF WAR 1N INDIA,

IS NOW READY.

THE WEATI-lER.—NooN, MAY 5.
40YAL GALLERY OF SCIENCE, ADELAIDE-STREET.
Ti,errnometer .... 59 I Highest 6l I Lowest 4
• Barometer 29.85.—Wind W.

411 HIGH WATER
in AT LONDON
ve B
ngRIDGE THIS DAY.
41...... 55 mutes after 11 I Eni 0 minutes after 0.

4-11,Advertisements of a Disgusting Character,
OP Immoral Tendency, are excluded from
Mc Columns of "The Sun."

the sleet falling, the ice hanging on the rigging, and I
the hands are benumbed with cold, so that they can
hardly feel the rope, on holding fast by which life de-
pends. Hard, very hard, is the life of a dredging boy
in a Peter-boat, forced to go to work on the water in the
depth of winter ; and there are hundreds of them
between Dover and Yarmouth. The complaints of
the shopkeepers' assistants in London of being
overworked are numerous. All these classes' will
be entitled to receive the attention of the Legis-
lature, if it begin to regulate and prescribe em-
ployments. In short, for it to enter into that
career opens up a prospect of such fearful trouble and
responsibility, that it ought to pause and deliberate long
before it proceeds further to interfere r,ith the employ-
ment of the people. We ask again, if Lord ASHLEY
begins, where will he stop ?
Our legislators, who obstinately refuse to admit the
working classes to be either constituents or representa-
tives, know practically little or nothing of their toils.
Accustomed to find most of their pleasures in ease,
idleness, and bodily comfiwts, they form a very exagge-
rated notion of the actual sufferings of those who toil.
Use is second nature, and living in squalor, or dabbling
in dirt, shut up in a pit, is perhaps not near so painful as
appearances make the rich, and the tenderly brought up
suppose. GoD tempers the beat of the mine to the col-
liery girls, and the fierceness of the blast to the dredging
boy, as he tempers the wind to the shorn lambi; and the
Legislature, which is composed exclusively of the upper
classes, will commit a gross mistake if it attempt to legis-
late about employment from its own views of the happi-
ness or misery of the working-classes.
On these accounts we doubt very much the propriety
of making laws for the regulation of employments. Hard
and irksome as may be the lot of these children, it is
better than starvation ; and if the Noble Lord cannot
supply them with plenty of food is idleness, it is, per-
haps, creel to interfere With their occupation. The peo-
ple themselves scarcely complain of their toils. They
want less work, and better wages, not the abo-
lition of their employments. We confess that
we mistrust those who, while they pretend to feel for
these infants, cruelly tax their food to enrich themselves.
Let Lord ASHLEY and his friends set a good example,
let them abstain from plundering the people by laws, let
them resist Sir ROBERT PEEL in squandering the pro-
perty of the people as if it belonged to the Parliament, and
they will confer more benefit on the working classes by
their conduct, than they can possibly do by any laws.
One part of the work for which children are required is
to open and shut doors, which might be easily done by
machinery ; but when the population is ground down
to • poverty by mischievous laws, they look with
abhorrence on. the employment of machinery, as

depriving them of bread, and they petition against
it, as if the benevolent agent that spares their toil
were a curse, and not a blessing. To make them prefer
machinery to irksome toil, and to put an end to these
degrading and demoralizing 'employments under ground,
the first requisite is, that the people be able to get cheap
and abundant food above ground ; and till the Bishops
demand the repeal of all Corn and Provision-laws—till
the Lords repeal all such barbarous and brutal enact-
ments, we shall hold them to be the guilty authors-cif all
the miseries in mines, collieries, and factories they pre-
tend to deplore, and will vainly essay to prevent by legis.
lation.

The Emperor of RUSSIA is engaged in a contest with
his Nobles about the emancipation of the serfs through-
out his dominions. His Imperial MAJESTY is opposed
to serfage, and since his accession has done all in his
power to give freedom to the most oppressed and most
deserving class of his subjects. The Nobles, however,
who are the owners of the serfs, and who re-
gard them in the light of property, are so op-
posed to the measure that ti revolution may be expected,
should the EMPEROR persevere. Now, persevere he will.
All who know anything of the character of the Emperor
NICHOLAS, must be aware that he never swerves from
any purpose which he has once undertaken. His ob•
stinacy is so great that nothing can remove it. It
matters not whether the course to be pursued is right
or wrong, the CZAR never swerves from it. Fortunately
the course which he is now pursuing is the right one.
Serfage in Russia is but a modification of slavery as it
exists in the Southern States of North America. The
Russian serf can obtain liberty on no terms
whatever. If he follow any trade or profession, he
cannot remove five miles from his native village
without the written permission of his master, which is
always obtained with difficulty. His 'earnings, his wife,
his children, are all the property of his master; and the
instances are exceedingly rare in which serfs have been
allowed upon any terms to purchase their liberty. Some
of the serfs engaged in trade, especially in the Baltic
provinces, are rich,- their families highly accomplished,
and yet at the beck of their masters they may at any
moment see their daughters torn from them, and given
to boors without their consent, and themselves reduced to
the most abject slavery and misery. The pride of a Rus-
sian Noble is to have as many serfs* possible, and the more
he has the greater is the consideration in which he is
held by his compeers. To diminish the power of the
Nobles is the main object of the Easraaon'S attempt to
emancipate the serfs. While serfage exists he reigns by
the sufference of the Nobles, and he wants to be absolute.
We,
__however, care nothing what are his intentions, so
long as his acts are liberal and beneficent. Now next
to the abolition of the African slave-trade, the abolition
of serfage in Russia is one of the greatest boons that
could be conferred upon the human race. But it re-
quires to be done with great caution, and to be accom-
panied with measures, making the letting of land com-
pulsory on the part of the great proprietors. The
omission of such measures on the part of the Imperial
Government, completely. neutralized the benefits which
might have been expected from the abolition Of serfage,
a few years ago, in some of the Baltic provinces. The
former masters of the emanipated serfs united in
refusing to let them land on any terms, in consequence
of which they were reduced to such misery as to im-
plore the authorities to allow them to return to their
former condition. The fact was seized upon at the time
by the Nobles, as demonstrating how much Russians pre-
ferred serfage to freedom, and for a time the resolution of
the EMPEROR seemed shaken by it. But the actual
circumstances of the case becoming known, the EMPEROR
more than ever determined to restrict a power which
was shown to be too great to be controlled by an Im-
perial Ukase. We shall enter more into the details of
this question on a future day.

The Right of Search question continuos to excite the
attention of the French Journals. The following sensi-
ble remarks of the Journal des Debuts, stated, to be from
the pen of M. GUIZoT, are in answer to the ribald
attacks on England in the Presse and the National.
They are worthy of their imputed author :
We need not dwell on the last treaty relative to the right of
search. The Chamber, having testified its disapprobation, the
Government has not ratified it, and M. Guizot has repeated,
even to satiety, in terms the clearest and most precise that
language can furnish, that unless important modifications should
be introduced, it will not be ratified at all. What is not less
true, and what France ought pot to be mistaken about is, that
England has a right to be astonished at this refusal to ratify,
and at the explosion of abuse which accompanied it—for the
treaty was our work as much as hers. We, like her, had
negotiated for it in the great Courts of Europe fur years to-
gether, and under every Ministry since 1833. We may be
accused over and over again of having an English heart, but
what we have just statist* will not be the less true, and it is
not our fault if for ten, years the persons, who take as the
text of their declamations the treaty of 1841, have done every
thinF in their power to have it concluded, signed, and ratified.
Let tt not be ratified if such a line of conduct appears ad..
visablei but let us not appear ridiculous in speaking of per-
fitly. To hear the present outcry, one might suppose the
treaty of 1833, with the right of search, was quite a new dis-
covery. What ! if a great abuse existed, would everybody
remain silent for ten years ? But the truth is, either the
treaty was unknown or entirely forgotten, and this is the
very best proof that if the right of search produced some
abuses, they could never have been attended with such la-
mentable consequences as are perceived at present for the
first time. Is it possible, we ask, that our commerce could
have been ruined, and our navy annoyed and insulted for ten
years, without a cry having been uttered from one end of the
kingdom to the other ? Believe it who may, we certainly do not.
Vexatious proceedings and unjust seizures have been cited ' • we
do not deny the truth of such statements for a moment. The
treaties themselves contemplated the possibility of abuses, and
have provided the means of obtaining redress. We have re-
commended that such matters should be represented to the Go-
vernment, which will apply to England, and we hope—nay, we
are convinced, that justice will be dealt out to our just applica-
tions. This is all we advise, and yet for this we have excited
the fury of the patriots of the old and new schools. War is all
their cry. They wish to begin with cannon-shots, and after-
wards come to some understanding on the matter when
France and England shall have reciprocally burnt their fleets
and done each other as much injury as possible. or to abolish
the treaty of 1833 and tear up our signatures, which would
be a totally new proceeding amongst civilised nations, anal
would highly honour the France of 1830 ! It would be a fine
sight to find the country, which is named Liberal par ercellence,
and which first proclaimed the rights of man, commencing
a, ainst England and against all Europe a war in favour of
slavery. And let us, even with the ri.k of having ourselves
doubly abused, tell the whole truth, and inquire since what
period the infamous traffic in slaves has relaxed? Since the
Treaties of 1831 and 1833, and the establishment of the right
of search. The Revolution of July took pride in having
abolished a commerce which so cruelly outraged the dignity of
maxi. We were not willing to leave to England the honour of
having driven slavery from the world, and are we already tired
of our efforts? Have we done what England has effected?
Have we paid 500 millions of francs to purchase the liberty of a
portion of the human race?
BOURSE--PARIS, WEDNESDAY, MAY 4.
Past Highest Lowest Last
Price Prue. Priv.. Price.
french 5 par Conu ll9 90 ... 119 90 ... 119 70 119 75
per Como ......... 107 W 107 80 ... 107 80 107 SO
4 per Cents. ........ 101 ... 102 0. 102 ... 102
3 per Cents.. Bl 10 ... 82 10 P 2 82
Dun ..... 82 10 . 82 10 ... 82 10 .. 82 10
Sank of France ............... 2362 10 ...ON 50 —5362 50 :3362 50
LatAtte an I,OOOE Shares 1040 ~.1040 ...10-IS
5,000 f. Share. 0055 ...5055 ...5055 '
Belgian Bank 00000000000 795 795 'Os 795
Belgian 5 per Cent 5.......... 103% 103%
• per cents., 184.0i0 105% ... 105% ... 10514
_5O 105%
9 pot Cant otoomot 73 30 0. 7x.10 ~, 73 7l 80

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