The Sun.
London, England, 1842-01-04 00:00:00

win _sum

LONDON:
TUESDAY, JANUARY 4, 1842.

Some persons suppose that Lord ASHBURTON'S
rank will recommend him to the Americans, but
his Peer's robes are too new and scanty to hide
his counting-house sleeves. His patent of nobility
will not cover his loan contracts. An ennobled
and successful NICHOLAS BIDDLE may excite
the envy, not the respect, of the shrewd Ameri-
cans. It' a Nobleman were required to dazzle
them, one should have been selected who can
boast of his ancestry and of their deeds. Lord
ASHBURTON'S ancestors are unknown beyond the
second generation, and all his greatness, derived
almost exclusively from money, was achieved
by himself and his immediate predecessor. If
the Americans honour high rank, they do not
honour ennobled wealth, and the new negotiator
will be better known in America, and will be
treated accordingly, as Mr. BARING, the mer-
chant, than as Lord ASHBURTON.
We dislike his appointment, because we be-
lieve it is a mere piece of Tory trickery to make
the people expect relief from the wrong quarter;
Great and undefined expectations have been
already excited. The Funds got up from a kin-
dred feeling and confidence in the monied man.
But Lord ASHBURTON will not be able to do
much. The affdir of the Caroline is perfectly
simple. We are right, and therefore bound to
refuse all satisfaction for cutting her out from
Schlosser ; or we are wrong, and bound to
make instant satisfaction. Negotiation cannot
alter that simple fact, nor will it induce the
Americans to enter into a compromise.
Neither is the Boundary question to be settled
by negotiation ; the surveyors and mappers must
already have decided it, or it will not be decided
at all. As to the right of search, the Americans
will not submit to that, the PRESIDENT must
yield to the prevalent popular feeling on that
subject, which no negotiations can set aside.
On this question we consider Lord ASHBURTON
an unfit negotiator ; because we have a recol-
lection that, as Mr. BARING, he expressed opi_
nions unfavourable to our practice, whence it is
to be inferred that, as Lord ASHBURTON, he will
be a determined stickler for it in its most out-

rageous form.
But while Lord ASHBURTON is dilly-dallying,
Sir It. PEIL will be able to say " Wait till Lord
ASHBURTON has concluded his negotiations.
The American tariff is soon to undergo
revision, and as the Americans would profit
by a free trade in corn, let us keep that back
and hold it out as a boon or a threat to procure
an alteration in the new tariff favourable to our
trade. Lord ASHBURTON is gathering much
useful information, which will enable us to legis-
late with much greater certainty and advantage
than if we now make an alteration in the Corn-
law." Lord ASHBURTON'S mission then, which
the man, deeply interested as he is in maintain-
ing the Corn-law, will know how to protract and
how to turn to the advantage of those class ini-
quities of which he is such a strenuous advocate,
will be used as a pretext for postponing the dis-
cussion on the Corn-laws.

With respect to the particular right of search,

the Quarterly Review recommends negotiation
and a convention ; but we venture to assert that
the simple suggestion we threw out on Sa-
turday will do more'to settle the question than
any negotiation which does not adopt it.
We are aware of the objections that are
made to having American officers on board
our ships. They are of no importance.
American naval officers are well-educated,
gentlemanly men; and there would be no more
danger of their quarrelling with our officers
than there was of the Russian officers quarrel-
ling, several of whom were on board our ships,
during war, for years. Such an objection is idle.
The American officer should be of a rank lower
than the Commander of the English vessel, and
instructed to obey him within the sphere of his
duties. There are hundreds of examples of offi-
cers of different nations serving together on such
terms, without any serious quarrels ensuing ; but
in the case of one American officer embarked on
board one of our ships with strictly defined
duties, there would be no chance of disturbance.
Those who make the objection must have a
worse opinion of officers than we have ; and the
officers ought to be told that they must conform.
We see no difficulty, therefore, in the two
nations coming to an agreement to embark
an American officer on board every one
of our ships' which is employed to repress
the Slave-trade, who shall be instructed
and empowered by the American Government
to examine every ship which shows American
colours, and determine whether she be a genuine
American vessel or not, and whether she be en-
gaged in the Slave-trade. In fact, the prostitu-
tion of the American flag touches the honour of
the United States, and the plan of having ships
overhauled by an American officer, will enable him
to prevent it being tarnished, while national dig-
nity would be carefully preserved, by the exami-
nation being made under the authority of the
United States, and by one of their officers.
We believe, too, that some common-sense
plan, such as this, would settle the other ques-
tions. The English and American Governments
take different views as to the Caroline; why
not refer the single point in dispute—namely,
whether England had, or had not, a right to
burn the Caroline—to a third party? The Boun-
dary question may not be so easily settled, but
where there is a will there is a way, and Govern-
ment and diplomacy, indeed the whole art ofpoli-
tics, will stink in the nostrils of the world, if
they do not prevent a quarrel between the two
nations about such trifling objects, by some easy
and simple methods, similar to that we have
pointed out.

The persons who talk and write about appor-
tioning labour and capital to land, cannot have
formed any accurate idea of what they propose
that the Government should undertake. The
dispersion of man over the globe, and, conse-
quently, the apportioning of labour and capital
to land, has been going on since the history of
man began, and will continue till its termination.
What extends so much beyond the sphere of
any and every Government can be no part of the
duty of any one. But let us see what it implies
as to our own Government.

On our empire it is justly said the sun never
sets, and within its limits are crowded Hin-
dostan and the unpeopled Southern Continent,
the sugar colonies of the West Indies and the
wool and wine colony of the Cape of Good
Hope, Canada, and the Falkland islands ;
and if the principle be once admitted
that the Government is bound to appor-
tion capital and labour to land, or duly dis-
tribute the people according to some sys-
matic scheme of colonization, it must do that
universally through its dominions, leaving none
too much of either here, and none too little there.
Emigration must be promoted from India as
well as England. It must be directed to the
Cape of Good Hope, as well as to New Zealand
or Canada. The Government must take into
consideration the place where profit and wages
are highest, and it must possibly direct emigra-
tion, not to New Zealand, or to Canada, but to
the West India Islands.

It will be bound also duly to consider the
claims of all the capitalists already established in
our different colonies, and not send a labourer
more in proportion to Van Diemen's Land than
to the Island of Trinidad or Upper Canada.

Such a task, implying an intimate knowledge
of the capabilities of every acre of soil in
every part of her MAJESTY'S dominions, of
every creek and harbour, and of the present
amount of employment possessed by the labourers
in every part of those dominions, would require
an emigration-office ten times as extensive as the
establishments of the Treasury and the depart-
ments of the three principal Secretaries of State.
That would be a gigantic species of administra-
tion, even if it did not embrace the whole globe,
as we think the principle would; for the appor-
tioning of capital and labour to land is not limited
by political boundaries, and would require the
Government which undertook the task, to send
capital and labour where they could be most be-
neficially employed, without regard to the land
being under its dominion or not.
We say so much in reply to the gigantic folly
of requiring the Government, by a systematic
scheme of colonization, to apportion capital and
labour to land. It is beyond the compass of
human power. The practical objections to the
Government undertaking a scheme of systematic
colonization are quite as great as the theoretical.
At present the manufacturers of England are in
great distress. According to the Corn-law men
the agriculturists are happy and flourishing be-
yond description. They do not want to go abroad,
and cannot be spared. But in almost every co-
lony agricultural labour and agricultural skill are
chiefly in demand. Manufacturingcapital and ma-
nufacturing skill, could all Manchester be trans-
ported to New Zealand, would only perish for
want of occupation. The mass of the people
who go thither must till the ground. Besides
the agriculturists, a few mechanics, to make and
mend their tools, and build their houses, would
be required; but we want to obtain employment
and food for the starving weavers and spinners,
and their connected trades, of Carlisle, Manches-
ter, Stockport, Leeds, Macclesfield, and Spital-
fields; and such people would only be an incum-
brance to a new colony, and would perish if they
were sent thither. So far as they are concerned,
the most extensive emigration could give them
and the country no relief. They can be as cheaply
maintained here as by sending them to Canada
or New Zealand.

The want and the distress which require relief,
exist in the manufacturing districts. But the
population there are all parts of a great system
of combined labour, of which the workmen and
the machines are alike essential portions. To
wrench them from their places, to separate them
from their fellow-workmen and their tools, is
to annihilate their skill. Our manufacturing
system must be maintained entire here, expand-
ing and improving, and those who work it must
be fed at home, or they and it will perish to-.
gether. Emigration, as a substitute for the total
repeal of the Corn-laws—a scheme of gigantic
ambition for the practice of justice—may hasten
the national decay : it can give our suffering
people in their present circumstances no relief.

The Irish are a grateful people. The affec-
tionate regard they still entertain for Lord NOR-
MANBY, the first Lord Lieutenant that meted out
to them even-handed justice, their public demon-
stration of regret at the departure of Lord
EBRINGTON, who followed in his footsteps, and
their still warmer attachment to Lord MORPETH,
who acted but a subordinate part in the great
work of reconciling contending factions, are
incontrovertible proofs of their generous and
ardent dispositions. The electors of Dublin,
on Friday last, paid another high com-
pliment to this noble and amiable statesman, and
seem 'A eterrnined, if they cannot have him as
Secretary, to make him at least their represen-
tative. A private meeting of the friends of the
Liberal interest was held on that day, the LORD
MAYOR in the chair, when it was unanimously
resolved to put Lord MORPETH in nomination,

and in a few moments 1,0001. was subscribed to
defray the expenses of the election. Will the elec-
tors of the West Riding of Yorkshire be behind
the people of Dublin ? Let them subscribe
also, and they will still have him as their repre-
sentative also in the House of Commons. A
great public meeting of the inhabitants of Dub-
lin was announced for yesterday, when we are
convinced such a demonstration was made as
will leave little doubt as to the result. Whether
Lord MORPETH accept the offer or not, this
public mark of respect will be gratifying to his
feelings, and do him and the electors of Dublin
great honour.

At the Manchester meeting on Saturday, re-
corded in our columns, a part of the petition
agreed to prayed the House of Commons to " ap-
point a Committee to consider in what manner
the injured people of Great Britain may be best
compensated for the great loss and damage they
have for so long a period sustained—whether
by a bounty upon the importation of foreign
corn, or any other plan which shall, by the supe-
rior wisdom of Parliament, appear to be best
adapted to answer the object in view." The
meeting was attended by several gentlemen of pro-
perty ; but during the discussion one person ap-
pears to have called out, " Let us have the land,"
or something to that effect ; to which Mr. FAL-
VEY of Macclesfield, who was speaking, rejoined,
" So say I : I am as willing as any of you to get
possession of the land." The landlords, then,
should watch the progress of the sentiments of
the manufacturers. They refuse to do justice
to the people by repealing the Corn-laws, and
the people have already gone a step beyond that,
and now demand compensation for the injury
the Corn-laws have inflicted on them. !They
are beginning, too, it appears, to demand pos-
session of the land. They are driven, by the
obstinacy of the landlords in wrong, to attack
the landlords' right of property, which they
have most stupidly blended with Corn-laws; and
the former, like the latter, is now treated as a
legal injustice. If they imagine that their rights,
when objected to by the people, can protect
themselves, or that they can protect them, they
are mistaken. The only security for any rights
is the public sanction, and any rights from which
this is withdrawn soon fall into desuetude. The
landlords may possibly though that is now
doubtful—save their estates by giving up the
Corn-law ; but it will be impossible to preserve
them if they persist in maintaining the law.
We may add, that we learn from an Edin-
burgh paper that both Mr. HUME and Mr. VIL-
LIERS have declined attending the Anti-Corn-
law Conference in Edinburgh—the former be-
cause he is engaged, and the latter because his
professional business, and the state of his health,
will not allow him to attend. Mr. HUME recom-
mends, as a general rule, that such meet-
ings should be confined to persons of the
localities, in order to prevent the assertion that
they are got up by strangers. Mr. VILLIERS, in
declining, justly compliments the members of the
Conference, by expressing a doubt whether he
could add anything to the sound judgment, in-
telligence, and information, they are likely to
display.

The Speech delivered by the Regent of
SPAIN, at the opening of the annual session of
the Cortes at Madrid, on the 26th ult., published
in another part of The Sun, is a well-arranged
business document; and its perusal will afford
great pleasure to all who take an interest in
the consolidation of the peace and the growing
prosperity of Spain. There are topics, how-
ever, upon which it greatly disappoints public
curiosity. A mystery is observed respecting
the chief originators of the rebellion ; the
correspondence between Senor OLOZAGA and
Madame Muxoz is not so much as alluded
to; nothing is said of the executions that
took place ; and the quarrel between Spain and
the Holy See is spoken of incidentally as an
affair of secondary, or rather of no moment.
But upon other, and perhaps more really
important, matters the Speech i 3 exceedingly
explicit. It announces the conclusion of
friendly Treaties between Spain and three of the
South American Republics; the negotiation of a
treaty with Portugal for the navigation of the
Douro, and anothei with France for preventing
the violation of the Aldudes. The British Go-
vernment having given satisfaction to Spain for
the cutting out of the vessel at Carthagena,
the REGENT has no further ground of
complaint on that score. The speech, after
briefly noticing the suppression of the late
rebellion, and the declaring Barcelona in a
state of siege, proceeds to state that the con-
struction of the public roads, suspended by the
civil wars, has been resumed, that bridges have
been ordered to be built, and every measure
taken to facilitate safe inland communica-
tion, and' promote the interests of com-
merce. The Government has also directed its
attention to the establishment of normal schools
of education ; and various measures are in pre-
paration for enforcing the execution of justice,
and effectual administration of the laws. The
proper maintainance of the clergy, the punish-
ment of frauds in the collection of the pub-
lic revenue, a general review of the Customs,
Tariffs, and other taxes, and the appropriation of
funds for honourably discharging the public
debt, are all measures recommended to the
serious attention of the Cortes. The Courts of
justice are to be re-modelled, a necessary and
most useful measure, and efforts are to be made
to improve the commercial navy of Spain. The
only harsh measure recommended in the speech
is one for restraining the licentiousness of
the Spanish Press—a measure which we are
deeply pained to state is loudly called for by the
abuses of some of the Spanish Metropolitan
Journals. In some of these Papers we have
recently seen articles openly advocating another
revolution, the suppression of the Regency, and
the abolition of the Constitution of 1837.

The conclusion of the Speech is full of spirit,
and well calculated to make a deep impression
on the grave national heart of Spain. Address-
ing the Cortes, the REGENT says :—" Your mis-
sion is serious, and tends to regenerate the
nation, and the book of immortality reserves you
a golden page. Depend upon my efforts and
the honest heart of a soldier, who always fought
for the liberty and glory of his country. Let us
draw closer the bonds of a sincere and consolidat-
ing union, and let us consolidate the Constitu-
tional throne of a young QUEEN, whose name has
always vanquished the enemies of liberty."
This is excellent advice ; and now comes the
best possible reason why the Cortes should fol-
low it. In the REGENT'S continuation we have
the very climax of patriotism I have no
ambition for myself. My life belongs to my
country, and the glory of serving it with honour
forms my patrimony. May the existing Consti-
tution, the Throne of the young ISABELLA, the
national independence, and the Government
framed according to the wishes of the nation, be
the programme of our fidelity, and the point of
departure whence to direct the legislative la-
bours towards the consolidation of a strong and
just Government; which, resisting the snares of
ambitious factions, may secure for ever the pros-
perity and happiness of the nation!"
This is surely not the language of the man
whom the French represented as the betrayer of
Queen CHRISTINA, in order to usurp the throne
of her august daughter. These, on the contrary
are the sentiments of a soldier and a patriot.
There was a time when we doubted the honesty
of ESPARTERO, but that time has not been since
the flight of Madame MuNoz into France. That
was a result to which we felt patriotism must
have contributed.

The speech is silent. on the subject of the
differences between the REGENT and M. SAL-
VANDY, the French Ambassador, respecting the
presentation of the latter's credentials. His Ex-
cellency, to avoid the mortification of an exclu-
sion from the Ambassadors' seat in the Cortes,
visited Toledo and La Granja on the 25th and
26th ult. This whole affair, on the part of
France, would be very ridiculous, were it not
well understood that the object of the Ambas-
sador's presentation to the young QUEEN is to

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