The Sun.
London, England, 1842-12-12 00:00:00

,§un.

LONDON :
MONDAY MORNING. DECEMBER 12, 1842.

It seems now almost universally admitted that
the present Corn-law cannot be maintained. The
Spectator on Saturday, for example, said, "Wil-
lingly or reluctantly, it begins to be generally
felt that the Corn-laws must go." " We will not
preterid to believe that the change can take place
next session." " Agreeably to all English usage
the new Corn-law must be fairly tried ' first, if
only on the score of legislative decorum." This is
deliberately written in a journal which prides
itself on its careful observation, and on using the
most guarded and well-weighed expressions. The
first sentence accords so well with the tergiversa-
tions of the Times, and the language used at all
agricultural meetings, that we may safely reite-
rate it, and assert that the Corn-laws " must go."
But if the Corn-laws must go, because they
are at once unjust, and now proved to be ex-
tremely pernicious, what will the public think of
the propriety of giving the new law a fair trial on
the " score of legislative decorum ?" What, let us
also ask, can they think of the sagacity of the
man, and what of the art he professes, who tells
them that they must submit for another year, or
perhaps two, or perhaps six, to the law which is
doomed, and must go, fo: the sake of legislative
decorum? Moralists assure us that the more
speedily a wrong is redressed, or an error atoned
fbr, the less is the demerit of the repentant
wrong-doer; but in politics a flagrant wrong may
be perpetrated, all men may be sensible that it is
a grievous wrong, the Legislature itself may be
convinced of it, and yet legislative decorum for-
bids the Legislature instantly to redress that
wrong. The laws of morality and ofhonour, then,
do not apply to the Legislature, and the public
good, on this principle, is to be sacrificed to the
abstract decorum of an abstract entity called the
Legislature. The prodigious suffering and misery
of this great community must be borne for an-
other year, trade must be deranged or sus-
pended, agriculture must be uncertain, no leases

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must be made, no contracts relative to land en-
tered into, and a vast number of the people
must be starved for the sake of legislative de-
corum. We quote this as a specimen of what is
frequently described to be the highest branch of
human wisdom, politics, or statesmanship.
But now look back at the first assertion, "the
Corn-laws must go." Why ? Not because Sir
ROBERT PEEL wishes to get rid of them; not be-
cause the majority of Parlialnent dislike them ;
not because they and he are even particularly
willing to give them up, but because the conse-
quences of those laws, now so plainly marked in
the misery of the nation, can no longer be main-
tained without leading to mischief, which even
the decorous Legislature dreads to encounter.
Those laws are a contravention of the laws of na-
ture, like building a house on a loose sand, or
placing a half-welded axle to a locomotive engine.
They are a violation of justice, and will as surely
lead to injury, as the falling down of a house or
the snapping of the axle. If the whole commu-
nity were polled, man by man, and woman by
woman, and were to say the Corn-laws shall be
continued, their united assent would not alter
one tittle of their consequences, and would not
make them less a contravention of the laws of
nature, and less a violation of justice. The
1 mass of the community now see that, and
therefore the Corn-laws " must go."

The Spectator draws the conclusion as we
draw it, from observing their consequences. All
other men, even many of the landlords, draw
the same conclusion from the same premises.
When they affirm on these grounds that the
Corn-laws must go, they try to overrule the will
of the Legislature. They speak to it like a mas-
ter, and say it must do a certain thing. The
authority of the Legislature, then, is virtually set
aside in men's hearts and minds by the authority
of nature. Respect for its decision on that par-
ticular point is necessarily at an end, and is over-
ruled instead of being honoured. On that point
it is what Mr. CARLYLE calls a " poor simula-
crum"—a mere mockery. It has no faith or
power yin it. According bo the Spectator, how-
ever, for the decorum of this simulacrum, the
authority of which that journal, in this instance
and many others, tries to overrule and set at
nought, this great community is to be plunged
fir another year into all the misery and vice
which are caused by Sir ROBERT PEEL'S new
modification of an old injustice. Our ConteMpo-
rary, like other partisans, prefers the Premier's
reputation to the national welfare, and says,
perish the people, but let legislative decorum
live for ever.

Agreeing with our Contemporary " that the
Corn-laws must go," we have to say that
it will now be the duty of the League, and
those who have contributed to bring about
that consummation, to be on their guard
against admitting modifications of the law.
The sliding scale being overthrown in the
public mind, they will now have to direct their
exertions to explain the mischief of a fixed, duty,

however small. That is a nostrum which has
not been lately tried, and the whole tribe of le-
gislators, for the sake of something more than
decorum, will flee to that rather than give up all
regulations on the subject.
Whatever the omnipotent Legislature pro-
mises or designs, its humble lieges are apt, in
spite of experience, to believe is sure to be ac-
complished. Mr. GREG, in the Prize Essay we
have already quoted, very happily exposes, by
a history of the vain attempt of the Legislature
to keep up the price of corn, the folly of this

general belief. At the same time it cannot be
speedily eradicated, and as a tax on corn, for
the sake of revenue, would operate in precisely
the same way as an equal tax for the sake of
protection, many persons will believe that it
will raise prices, and will try to recommend it.
Such a proposition appears in our columns to-
day, graced by no less honoured a name than
that of Earl FITZWILLIAM, and the refutation
which accompanies it is not likely to prevent a

large number of persons from adopting it. If
the opinions and views of the League be un-
altered, its lecturers, orators, and writers, must
at once vigorously grapple with this new form of
the old fallacy, and point out the evil conse-
quences, especially to farmers, of a fixed duty
to be levied for the sake of revenue. Mr. R.
GREG'S Essay contains some materials to this
end, which we shall probably use to-morrow.