The Sun.
London, England, 1842-12-20 00:00:00

titt e§int.

LONDON :
TUESDAY MOnNING. DECEMBER 20, 1842.

We learn with satisfaction that "a consider-
able increase of demand is felt at Bolton, and
that the weavers are now more employed than
at any time during the summer;" " that more
inquiry- has been made for goods at Halifax ;"
that the markets in Leeds have been very ani-
mated "that buyers at Bradford last week
were numerous, and purchases as extensive as
might have been expected ;" that in Kiddermin-
ster " the,carpet trade is improving," and it is
there expected that "after Christmas the trade
will be as good as ever;" that at Carlisle,
"the wages of the hand-loom weavers have risen
from n to 10 per cent.;" that at Dundee, the
" markets are active," and that at Bromsgrove
there is a prospect of the " nail business in-

. creasing." All these are cheering indications,
and as the price of food is now c( imparatively
low, we may hope on good grounds that the
extremity of the national distress has been
passed, and that Nature is bounteously sending
that relief which our rulers have doggedly
denied.
While we rejoice in this prospect, we fear,
when the danger and the extremity of the evil
are over, lest the lesson which the present
and recent national sufferings should teach may
be forgotten. Should the natural anxiety
on the part of both employers and
labourers to enjoy as speedily as possible
the return of prosperity make them forget
what they have suffered; should our rulers, no
longer alarmed by the pressure of a famished
multitude, think they may postpone the aboli-
tion of restrictive laws to some more favourable
period, and so avoid the appearance of being
forced into a just policy ; should they suppose
that they can carry the present political system,
encumbered with monopolies, safely through the
difficulties which beset it, then the present gleam
of prosperity will be fatal to the future peace
and happiness of the empire. From such a
narrow system of restrictions on trade, framed
from a very partial and most incomplete and
imperfect comprehension of the numerous and
vast phenomena affected by such restrictions,
there will ever ensue periods of hollow, gaudy
prosperity, and periods of severe depression and
suffering. A spurt, at present, of manufacturing
progress—not unaccompanied, however, by agri-
cultural depression—without a repeal of re-
strictive laws, would be followed most likely
by a severer check, a year or two hence, than
manufactures have lately experienced, and the
calamities of the last two or three years must
be suffered over again, perhaps as needlessly and
as unavailingly as they have already been suffered.
If the League, through its organisation, should
now continually enforce on the public the im-
portant truths which the recent and present
condition of the country teach, and prevent the
lesson being thrown away ; if it shall compel the
Legislature by its remonstrances to act at once,
while the impression is fresh, it will perform a
most important service to the public. Respect
for the decision of last year—legislative decorum,
as it is called—ought not to be suffered to stand
in the way of exertions to procure at once and
for ever the removal of the restrictions which
caused the distress of the last four years. If'
they be not now removed in consequence of
the sufferings, then may we dread that still
greater sufferings will hereafter fall on the
people, leading to insurrections, compared to which
that of last year will pass away as an unremem-
bered trifle.

Amongst the most strenuous supporters of the
present system may be numbered the landlords
of Ireland. At the same time we read almost
daily of violent attacks being made on property
and life in that country. No landowners, how-
ever amiable and however exalted, who live there,
are safe. Is there no connexon between conten-
tions for plots of ground in Ireland, ending in
bloodshed and murder, and the restrictions on
trade ? We believe there is, and if we can make
the connexion apparent, we shall show how
much more extensive are the ramifications of
restrictive laws than is supposed, we shall
supply another argument for their repeal, and
we may hope to win the support of the land-
owners in Ireland for the cause of free trade.
It is the boast of the Whigs that agrarian out-

rages had much diminished, and had almost
ceased under their rule. But during the time
they were in office there was an increase of mills
and of employment in the manufacturing dis-
tricts—trade was extremely brisk, and a very
considerable number of Irish found employment
in Lancashire and the west of Scotland. The
effects of that great demand for Irish labour did
not cease till 1840. The comparative security of
life and property in Ireland was coeval, then,
with the manufacturing and trade prosperity,
of England and Scotland. Latterly the ma-
nufacturing districts have sent back their
hands to the agricultural districts ; there is
no longer an extensive demand for fresh
Irish labourers in Lancashire and Scotland ;
we no longer hear of their coming over in crowds
on the decks of the steam-boats; and coeval with
the slackness, or rather the cessation, of demand
for Irish labourers in the manufacturing districts,
agrarian outrages are becoming so numerous in
Ireland that it is again an insecure place of resi-
dence. Does not that show a connection between
agrarian outrages and those restrictive laws
which impede trade and manufactures ?
In Ireland land is almost the only means of
obtaining a subsistence. To that end, possession
of a little plot of ground is required. If men
can get a comfortable subsistence without pos-
sessing a plot of ground, they will not fight and
commit murder to obtain possession of it. The
Irish have, on all occasions, shown themselves
ready to emigrate to England or to the United
States, or to any other part of the world where

their services were an demand and wages were
good. Even if we had established no connec-

Lion, therefore, between manufacturing prospe-
rity in England and peace in Ireland, is it
not clear that the best method to put an
end to agrarian outrages in Ireland is to

lessen the competition for plots of ground
as a means of subsistence, by enabling
a large portion of the people to get a comfort-

able subsistence by other :means But it has
been shown over and over again that the
abolition of restrictions on trade would imme-
diately give employment to a great multitude of
hands; it would relieve • the poor-rates of
England, and would lessen the competition for
land in Ireland; it would increase, more than
the best devised code of criminal laws, and more
than the most rigorous police, the security of
life and property in both countries.
Restrictions on trade are peculiarly injurious
in Ireland. They both increase the competition
for land, and encourage landlords to break up
small holdings, and cultivate grain for the high-
priced markets of England. They have a direct
tendency to raise rent in Ireland, and restrict the
quantity of land in the market, though at the
expense of security
and life. Now, the compe-
tition which the landowners of England fear the
most, is that of the Western States of North
America. For the plains there, however, to
supply England with any great quantity of
food, they must be cultivated. They need
hands. They arc the very spots, then—forming
as they now form, by the continued Passing
to and fro of steamers and sailing vessels, almost
a part of the old world—to draw off the too
crowded population of Ireland. If we had no re-
strictions on the trade between that country and
England, there can be no doubt that the 'Western
States ofAmerica would be cultivated to a consider-

able extent to supply our market ; and no doubt
that our own capitalists and American capitalists
would go thither, and would carry labourers
from Ireland.

There is no country where labour is so much
in demand as in the United States, and where
there is yet so muchework to be done. A few

weeks ago we published an elaborate account of
a magnificent aqueduct which has been con-

structed at New York. That, like other great
undertakings in the States, was mainly executed
by the hands of Irish labourers. Every town,
nearly, requires some similar erection. In fact

the work to be done in the United States isquite
endless; and the more, therefore, wecontribute to
the prosperity of that country, the more we shall
cause a demand for that labour which, from
not being wanted in Ireland—SATAN always
finding mischief for idle hands—is there the
cause of insecurity and murder. The removal of
restrictions extending over manufactures would
increase the demand for labour at home and the de-
mand forlabourin the United States; it would both
give security to life and property in Ireland, and
prosperity in England. We do hope, therefore,
that the landlords of Ireland, for their own sake,
will join our cause, and demand the removal of
those restrictions which prevent the gradual ex-
tinction of agrarian outrages in Ireland. We
are pretty sure, too, if we have been successful
in connecting those outrages with restrictions on
trade, we shall not want for some time in the
be the mo-
continuation of them—whatever may

tpentary prosperity of England—mementos of the
folly and guilt of our present system.

We are glad to perceive that the Testimonial
subscription to Sir JOHN and Lady PIRIE, in
token of their esteemed private worth and ac-
knowledged public character, is making rapid pro-
gress among all those classes of the com-
munity who appreciate in others that vir-
tue which is the practice of their own lives.
There cannot certainly be a stronger stimulus to
ambition than the sure but steady rise of private
worth to the highest attainments of public
honour. And such honour, Sir Joisx PIRIE,
from poor but worthy origin, has attained
in the first city of the civilised world. By what
means ? Let his conduct, by its proud and dig-
nified reward, answer ! In this world all men
are rated by their apparent worth—not by their
prospective merit : the man of ten thousand
to-day, is infinitely greater than the man
who promises, however truly, ten times that
amount to-morrow. But it has been the
fate of Sir JOHN PIRIE—we speak of him
as of any other man, wholly irrespective of
. politics—to work his way to eminence—that is,
to the good-will and according testimony of his
fellow-men—as an instance of singular fortune.
His acknowledged merits are not confined to one
class of moralists, or politicians—the wide and
diversified circle of society crowds in to welcome
him, by one simultaneous consent, as one who
bath done honour to the best, because the least
obtrusive sympathies of humanity—charity--that
well-spring of the heart which overlooks the cause,
in the effect, of its benign benevolence. To such
generous sympathies do we assign the spon-
taneous contributions of men of all classes—
politics apart—to a testimonial to Sir JOHN and
his amiable Lady. Among the long list of sub-
scribers will be found the worthy names of
such men as Sir CHARLES FORBES, Sir JAMES
DUKE, T. A. HANKEY, Esq., J. MASTERMAN,
Esq., M.P., Mr. GROTE, Mr. COTTON, &c., all
of dissimilar politics; and therefore is their tes-
timony the more valuable. And, if such be the
contributors in London, what will be the ex-
pression of public sympathy from the shipping
interest, to which Sir JOHN is so decided a friend,
all over the kingdom ? The answer, no doubt, will
be as creditable to the one as honourable to the
other.

COURT CIRCULAR.
WINDSOR, MONDAY.—Monsieur and Madame Van
de Weyer took their departure from the Castle on
Saturday.
Her Majesty and Prince Albert walked in the
Home Park this afternoon, and her Royal Highness
the Princess Royal was taken an airing.
His Royal Highness Prince Albert went on a
shooting excursion, attended by the Earl of Liver-
pool, Hon. Captain Duncombe, and Mr. George Ed-
ward Anson. The Prince returned to the Castle to
lunch.

Sir Henry Wheatley arrived to-day on a visit to her
Majesty.
Her Majesty and her Illustrious Consort walked
out again in the afternoon.

Her Royal Highness the Duchess of Kent and Lady
Fanny Howard will join the Royal Circle at the
Castle at dinner this evening.
Covers are laid for fourteen. The Royal dinner
party is also expected to include the Viscountess Can-
ning, Hon. Miss Murray, Hon. Miss Devereux, the
Earl of Liverpool, Sir H. Wheatley, Viscount Sydney,
Hon. Captain Duncombe, and the Equerries in Wait-
ing on her Majesty and his Royal Highness.

Mr. Kay Shuttleworth had an interview with Sir
James Graham yesterday at the Home-office.
The Right Hon. W. E. Gladstone has left town
for Hagley Park, Worcestershire, the seat of Lord
Lyttelton.
___

-Sir George Clerk left town yesterday morning on
a visit to the Marquis of Exeter, at his seat Burghley
House, Northamptonshire.
Sir Thomas Fremantle has arrived at Drayton
Manor, Staffordshire, on a visit to Sir Robert and
Lady Peel.

ASSESSORS AND COLLECTORS

OF THE PUBLIC TAXES.
TO THE EDITOR OF THE SUZY.
one of your legal friends and occasional
correspondents would be pleased to favour your readers
with the law on the subject of the appointment of
assessors and collectors of the public taxes he would
confer a great obligation.
I am not able at this time to make reference to that
point, but my impression is, that if a party who has
been agreed upon in public vestry be tendered to the
Commissioners of Taxes, with parties prepared to
enter into security on his behalf, that the Commis-
sioners are bound to accept such person; but, in case
of such default on the part of the parish, the Commis-
sioners
.may appoint parties either with or without
security, the whole parish being liable to any default,
in case no security be given.
In the :spring of the year, I believe, the Commis-
sioners have a preliminary meeting, at which their clerk
is ordered to issue a precept to the Churchwardens and
Overseers of the poor, to return proper persons as as-
sessors and collectors for the year ensuing; by some
juggle or other, these precepts are too often delivered
to the old assessors and collectors, to be given to the
Churchwardens and Overseers, but which are in a
vast many instances surreptitiously withheld, so that
the old ones actually return themselves, and by this
means get re-appointed. There is one point which I
would wish to point out as objectionable beyond mea-
sure, which is the appointment of the same parties as
assessors and collectors ; this must be evident to any
parties who consider that the collectors are paid a per
centage, therefore, if the assessor can surcharge parties'
returns, he insures himself an increased poundage.
Parishioners are liable to serve the offices of Church-
warden, Overseer of the Poor, Surveyor of the High-
ways, and constable, without any pay or remunera-
tion, and, I believe the office of Collector of the Taxes
is almost the only one a parishioner is compellable to
take that has any emolument attached to it; there-
fore, I think it would be fair and reasonable for the
parishioners in vestry to agree- that the outgoing
Overseers of the Poor should be the Collectors of the
Taxes for the year ensuing, if they choose to under-
take the office, and give proper security, and not to
allow one individual to monopolise a yearly office,
being the only beneficial one.—l am, Sir, yours, &c.,
Dec. 16, 1842. JUSTICE. ,

POST-OFFICE.
TO THE EDITOR OF THE SUN.
SIR,—If I were to prefer the complaint of which
I am about to inform you, directly to the Post-office
authorities, I should most likely be called upon to
point out the parties whom I should consider in fault;
therefore, I hope the case will be remedied by your
mention of it in your journal, without my adopting
the more unpleasant alternative.

Some time since the Post-office authorities supplied
the different country postmasters with placards for
public exhibition, stating that "stamps at Id. each,
and covers at lid. and 21d. each," might be had at
the office. One of my complaints is that this placard
is withdrawn from the public view; and another, that
if you ask for a penny stamp, you will be told " We
are out of them; and a further complaint is, if you
asksouhefpii
miotnlfheo:shrbsaaup 0
svt
thicnilieraalistripseoirnreg:ket envelope, you are told " We do not
I do not mean to say that if a party being aware
postmaster's duty
single
the
cover,
country
were rt
ierty t%
son,
00
udt
lebdme
ianbnegd s
roaenfadu
sw insisteaa e
to of
the postmaster's duty, would go away without that
which he ought to have been supplied with. With
regard to the penny stamps, which the country post-
masters try to be out of, I would suggest that an order
should be given to them that whenever they had less
than a single sheet of stamps (viz. 240), they should
be ordered to apply for more, and strict orders should
be given to them to take care that they 'are not with-
out a supply for the public.--I am, Sir,
IA yours,TOß. Sic.,
V
Dec. 18, 1842.

ROYAL POLYTECHNIC INSTITUTION.—A party of
distinguished savans met the Directors and Profes-
sors of this Institution on Saturday evening, to test
the powers of the colossal electrical machine. Amongst
these were the Earl of Enniskillen, Sir. M. A. Shee,
Professors Faraday and Brande, of the Royal Insti-
tution, Professor Groves, Messrs. Pepys (the veteran
electrician), Tite, Cubitt, and several members of the
Electrical Society., In addition to the immense bat-
tery of the Institution, those of the Royal and London
Institutions were put in requisition, presenting a sur-
face of 200 square feet, the jars in all amounting to
135. The plate of the great machine, offering a sur-
face of 60 square feet, was mounted with two pairs of
rubbers, producing an electrical force of unequalled
intensity. The deflagration of the metals was the
principal object of experiment, and presented results
of the most curious and beautiful description. The
series of experiments was conducted by Professor
Bachoffner with much success.

CORNUILL WARD.—In consequence of the resig-
nation of Clement Harris, Esq., one of the repre-
sentatives of this ward in the Court of Common
Council, a requisition, signed by the leading inhabi-
tants of the ward, has been presented to Thomas
Lund, Esq., a resident for full forty years, solicititig
him to allow his name to be put in nomination for
the office. It is understood that Mr. Lund has con-
sented to stand. ,