The Sun.
London, England, 1842-03-30 00:00:00

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LONDON!
WEDNESDAY MORNING, MARCH 30, 1542.

There can be no donbt that Sir ROBERT PEEL
is a prodigious statesman. He came into office
eight months ago at the head of a great and
united party. The majority of the constituen-
cies were fur Sir ROBERT PEEL. With unex-
ampled patience and unbounded confidence did
the people await his decision. A fortnight has
scarcely elapsed since it was known, and all
classes and descriptixis of persons hiss at Sir R.
PEEL. His great supporters, the farmers, de-
luded by the ignorant squires and the designing
clergy, who were a little alarmed by his useless
invasion of their palladium, the Corn-law, have
been thoroughly terrified by his tariff, and no
gander in their ow n yard can utter more unplea-
sant sounds than they send forth against their
recent idol. From Sussex to Inverness they are
in motion, to decry and denounce his tariff.
If one section of the ship-builders like his
tariff, another section, and the timber merchants,
is ho have got an immense stock on hand, cry
cut lustily against it. Where the people are
silent, as in cowed and corrupt London, it is
more from indifference and apathy than from
any liking to the tariff. Many per Sons think it
is of no use petitioning the House of Parliament:
They are tired of putting up their prayers to a
deaf idol. Nowhere, however, do people move
in favour of Sir R. PEEL. A measure, involving
numerous and extensive changes, is propoSed
by the Prime -Minister, beloved, and ho-
noured a few weeks ago, and it is received in
woody silence, or with great disapprobation
throughout the country. Now, he is, we
assert, a prodigiously great statesman, who,
before he has well acted, and before he has
encountered any disaster, is all at once,
by his own project, hurled from the height of
popularity and confidence, to the depths of dis-
like and distrust.

We believe that he richly deserves the change.
He took hold of the tariff, including some twelve
Lundred articles, and, of his own will and plea-
sure, made alterations in the duties on them all.
ouch a thing was never before heard of, we
believe, in the history of the world. No despot,
in the plenitude of his pOwer, ever attempted
it. Without consulting a single interest, with-
out asking one party concerned, he flings
down a measure which must alter, with-
/nit improing, the distribution of labour and
capital in almost every branch of industry, giving
employment to some and taking it from others—
)naking some poorer, but not, we believe, in-
creasing the riches of any. Such a measure,
even if an angel had proposed. it, and Infinite
Wisdom had regulated its proportions, would
necessarily have excited the disapprobation of
the many interests it so suddenly alarms and
disturbs.

At the same time Sir ROBERT PEEL'S tariff is
remarkable for a want of wisdom and the, injus-
tice of its. proportidns. Re has just prOposed a
Corn-law, which maintains the sliding scale, with
a view,to protect the agriculturists, as he sayS,
when- the harvests are abundant, but. in his tariff
lie place's a fixed duty on cattle, on meat, on po-
tatoes, on fruit, on starch, on an immense variety
of agricultural produce, which he allows to be
imported at the same duty at all times.
Take, for example, the article. starch, which.
mainly consists of the nutritious portion of
grain. It is condensed *food, and much easier
transported than wheat. With a fixed duty
cn starch, it will -be prepared abroad, so
as to be converted into food .on importa-
lion, as sugar is imported froM the Channel
Islands disguised as confectionary. When the
duty on wheat, therefore, in consequence of the
price being below 50s: shall be 205., the duty
on starch will only, lie, equivalent to a duty of
355. on wheat; starch will then be imported in
great quantities, ,and the pretended. protection
given to the agriculturist by the Corn-law is,
rro tanto, destroyed by the tariff.
What is true ofsta rch, is true of all kinds of cat-
tle and meat. The duty on them is fixed withont
any relation to the price, while the duty on corn
'varies with the price. But all these are articles
of agricultural produce as well as wheat, and the
farmers might just as well have a fixed duty on
the latter as on the former. Thus does Sir R.
PEEL adopt i.ii his tariff, as to agricultural pro-
duce, the prlnc.ple he contended against as to
corn ; and thus does lie run counter in his tariff
to that very principle of protection he has re-
cently established by his Corn-law. -
Without going through the items, and show-
ing that he has done relative injustice to the
potatoe-grnwers and to the owners of orchards,
Nvho made an outcry against the Whigs for fix.
dutyof i n a
Lig the duty on apples at double
the
nci
Fir ROBERT PEEL'S tariff. This principle
fixed duty on numberless articles of provisions,
and a sliding duty on corn, shows either gross
ignorance of the working of his own laws, or
gross infi-mity of p- r,.osc in the Satrap who
hias undertaken to revise at sight the whole tariff
of this great commercial empire.
But, as we have previously hinted, perhaps
Sir ROBERT PEEL does not. mean to carry his

tariff. He has put that forth to' amuse his oppo-
nents and frighten his
.friends into submission.
'Xhe Glasgow AP•gus positively affirins, that to
ne74.46)