The Sun.
London, England, 1842-05-04 00:00:00

PI THE SUN, LONDON, WEDNESDAY MORNING, MAY 4, 1842.

purchasing votes for Members of Parliament. It is a monstrous
abuse, and they do not say that it is confined to any party in
the State, though they cannot but take notice of the fact that,
for so far, in the present session, the conviction have been
against the Whig-Radical party. And they are the snore
called upon to take notice of this fact, because the Whig-
Radicals had asserted, before the investigations commenced,
that the Tories were the offenders in this matter, and had ob-
tained their majority by means of corruption. The fault lies
with the representative system and the immorality of the
people, in which we include those who seek to be Members of
Parliament as well as those who vote for Members of Parlia•
went. The Reform Act effected an exceedingly great mischief
in adding to the power and opportunity of unprincipled persons
to make a profit of their immorality. There was enough of
that Wore but since 1t132 it has greatly increased."
The Chronicle says—" The chief portion, if not the whole,
of what Sir Robert Peel has done, or proposes to do, for the
industrial and suffering population, consists of two items—
exemption from the Income-tax for those whose earnings are
less than three pounds per week, and such a reduction, six
months hence, in the price of meat as the agriculturists (he
assures them) need not be alarmed about. And how much
will this relief amount to? Every day brings fresh reason to
apprehend that the tariff modifications have been largtly over-
rated as to the benefit they will confer on the consumer. A
slight fall in the cost of animal food will not be felt by the
labouring classes. They cannot afford to purchase enough to
render the difference perceptible. Their outlay is larger in
potatoes than in meat; and more in bread, than in both toge-
ther. So long as bread is dear, its enhanced cost destroys their
ability to purchase meat. The relief is offered where they
cannot take it. It is by the middle classes that the chief
gain will be reaped from the operation of this change, should
it prove operative, and the working classes will be left much
as they are."

_
The Times thus alludes to the three million signatures to the
Chartist petition :—" Yesterday being the virtual Ist of May
for this year, and consequently a great London holiday, zeal or
curiosity induced some twelve or fifteen thousand persons to
accompany to Palace-yard a great Chartist petition to the
Lower House of Parliament, with 3,315,752 names appended
thereto. Why they stopped short at this particular number we
are not aware. Six million would have been just as easily
manufacturod by a really zealous Committee, would have
sounded much more imposing, and the difference in point of
credibility would have been in no way worth considering. We
will venture to say that not half•a-dozen of those honest per-
sons (if such there be) who believe these three millions of
signatures to have been affixed to the Chartist petition by three
millions of actual live Englishmen, would have been shaken in
that belief if double the number had been boldly substituted.
It might, indeed, have startled some of their simpler supporters
if the number of signatures had much exceeded that of the
adult male population of England ; but within these natural
limits we cannot but think, that after claiming what they have,
any squeamishness in respect of an additional million or two
was more nice than wise. "
MONEY—TRADE—COMIVIZETLCE.
The amount of the annuities paid to the Royal family in the
year ending sth of January, 1841, exclusive of the Queen and
Prince Albert, was 313,1971.
An Aylesbury paper states that the new tariff has somewhat
wakened the intellects of the farmers, who are now diligently
inquiring what the " to-a-riff" means, and are borrowing dic-
tionaries of their neighbours to assist their inquiries. Tariff is
a word not to be found either in the Bible or the Book of Com-
mon Prayer, and so the village farmers have great difficulty in
comprehending it.
The beer consumed in Brussels last year was about 63 mil-
lions of English quarts.

Z.GECTICONEEIZING.
Three more Election Committees have been formed to try
the merits of the petitions against the returns for Thetford,
Nottingham, and Newcastle-under-Lyme.
N.A.V.A.X. IN lIILIZITATLY.
Colonel Pasley commences immediately his operations against
the Royal George, and expects to clear away the whole of the
remaining wreck, embedded at present several feet in mud, this
season.

PINE ARTS.
The Sultan's medals of merit were exhibited at the meeting
of the Numismatic Society last week, presented to the allied
troops engaged in the Syrian war. On the obverse is the
Sultan's cipher enclosed in a skeleton wreath. On the reverse a
fortress. In the exerque, in Turkish characters, the date
(1256 of the Hegira), and the legend " Coast of Syria and
Castle of Acre."

The Magdalen of Canova, late in possession of M. Aguado,
has been bequeathed by him to the church of Notre Dame de
Lorette, in Paris.

LITERARY AND SCIENTIFIC.
A new professorship of comparative grammar has been
instituted in the University College, London ; changes also
ensue in the classical department.
Eight new islands in the Pacific, are stated by the Cape
papers, to have been discovered by an English whaler ; they are
fertile, inhabited, and of considerable extent.
Yesterday is marked in the calendars of the Romish and Eng-
lish Churches as the festival of the " Invention of the Cross."
Crosses, of old, were erected in every town, churchyard, and
at the turning of every public road, and the boundary of every
parish. Grants from sovereigns and nobles, and every private
engagement were ratified with a cross, and it was frequently
substituted, as now, for names.