The Sun.
London, England, 1842-02-21 00:00:00

pays the squires a heavy rent, which the mismanagement
.
of those squires have heaped on ? All the burdens I
nearly which the land bears, are laid on it by the acts of
the landowners, and we know several instances—
they are probably numerous in every corner of the
empire--where their favouritism and jobbing have much
increased those burdens, to enable their land to bear
which they now insist on limiting the food of the people.
Nov a just and discriminating Prime Minister, a cau-
tious, calculating, far seeing, much pondering Prime
Minister such as The PEEL, if he meant, on his own
principle, to have given a protection to the land accord-
ing to the burdens it bears, ought to have inquired into
the origin of those burdens, and ought to have appor-
tioned the protection according to their different
amounts in relation to the acres of each county.

Further, it is said protection is necessary to prevent

the " cold clays" from going out of cultivation; but why
extend that production to the warm and rich marts ?
Wby is not a bounty given to the growers of wheat on
unfertile land, and on such land only ? But protection, in
order to keep a few hundred acres of barren land in culti-
vation, is extended over all the land of the empire ; and
on all that which would not be driven out of cul-

tivation by free trade, merely enhances the rent.
It gives the same protection to the rich vale of
Evesham and the fertile isle of Thanet, as to the stony
planes of Bucks, and the flinty hills of Kent. Protection
to keep land in cultivation, in order to approximate to
justice, ought to be regulated by the qualities of the soil;
but, with a lumping generalization, the legislators of St.
Stephen's give an equal protection to the fat lands of
Sir EDWARD KNATCEIBULL and the thin moors about
Netherby Hall.
Should it be said that the Legislature cannot enter in-
to these minutia, and must take things in general, we
reply that, on its own principle, the law is founded on
minute differences of cost in different places, and if it
cannot enter into them; it is not justified in making a
law at all on the subjec.t. It is, however, another piece
of humbug to say it cannot enter into them ; it dots
enter into such minute inquiries when that suits
its purpose. To carry the Tithe Commutation Act
into execution, the present productive powers, and pre-
sent value of every acre of land in the county subject
to tithes, has to be ascertained. In fact, the pitiable
excuse that the Legislature cannot accomplish this, only
proves that the whole theory of protection which is put
forward as the foundation of an unjust law, is a hollow
pretext, blown into greatness above and around the
heads of the people by the vapid breath of Members of
Parliament, in order to exclude the light from them.
Before any such system can be justified by the prin-
ciple laid down by Sir ROBERT PEEL, a most rigid
scrutiny ought to be instituted into the actual cost of
producing corn, and all other things, here and in other
countries, into the elements of that cost, and into the
circumstances which influence the selling price of com-
modities, as distinguished from their cost. Sir Ro-
BERT PEEL pretends to legislate on these elements,
and he is bound, before he makes a law to keep
out foreign corn, to ascertain the cost of grow-
ing corn in England, and the reasons why that cost
is greater, if it be greater, than in other countries•
For example, manorial rights in many places operate
like the tolls on rivers in Germany, and increase both
the cost of production and the selling price in the
market. Is all foreign food to be taxed on account of
the cost and the price being enhanced by these ma-
norial rights ? Sir OSWALD MOSELEY, we see by
an article in the Manchester Times, has mano•
rial rights in Manchester, which, levying tolls on
all the sellers of provisions, enhance the price
of them in the market. The various parties en-
gaged -in bringing food to Manchester market must be
able to pay all Sir OSWALD MOSELEY'S manorial charges
by the price at which they sell the food. Similar
charges exist all over the country, and Sir ROBERT PEEL
is the just man to stand up in the House of Commons
and insist on taxing all food that comes in from abroad,
in order that all these charges may continue to be paid.
This he and his followers falsely call protecting the
growers of corn and the fatteners of cattle.

This great renovator of England also speaks of protec- r
tion having existed 150 years, but he did not state what 1
interests that protection has called into existence. Did 1
manufactures grow up under its shadow, or in spite of i
it ? Did his father gather great wealth, and every other 1
manufacturer, in consequence of that law, or in spite of
it? Had it any conceivable influence in bringing forward
the manufacturing industry of this country ? We answer
no ; it has prevented the extension of that industry;
But the growth of manufactures, and the consequent i
increase of a town population in wealth and numbers,
has been a greater stimulus to agriculture, and been
more the shadow under which its mighty interests have
grown up into greatness, than all the laws that were ever
passed since the days of limos.
In fact, agriculture, like manufactures, on which its
prosperity depends, has flourished in spite of the protec-
tion with which the law-giver encumbered it. Sir
ROBERT PEEL talks, however, of still protecting it, and 1
Mr. GLADSTONE, mimicing his leader, talks of protec-
tion, and all the landlords talk of protection. Their re- i
petition of the same cry resembles nothing that we are
acquainted with, so much as that curious propensity
of the canine species (and we hope our readers will
excuse the comparison, but we know nothing mean
enough, which can sufficiently express our thorough
contempt of the gabble of those whom Lord PAL3IER-
STON called " dealers in protective duties"), which, alter
one dog has lifted his leg and dirtied a spot,
makes every other dog which passes also lift his
leg and dirty it too. One hundred and fifty years ago the
landlords dirtied the fair industry of the country by
their protection, and every generation since of, land-

lords, attracted by the scent, has done the same.
Amassing dirt after dirt, according to this legislative
fashion, merely because dirt was before put there under
the name of protection, makes up what Lord PALMER-
STON so justly and appropriately called the monstrous
legislation of the dealers in protective duties. We
have shown by the facts, of the tithe system, of
the local burdens, and of different qualities of soil, that
the lumping system of protection, now adopted to please
the landlords, is a sheer pretext, having no foundation
in the nature of things. It is unworthy of any rational
being to make it, unless with a design to cheat the public
understanding, and unworthy of rational beings to credit
it on any authority.

It is our misfortune to be sometimes obliged to
censure those who are, or pretend to be, our friends.
Mr. Sergeant TAILFOURD is one of the Liberal party,
and we have seen reason to suppose, from the general
train of sentiment in his writings, that like most men of
a high cast of mind, he is a fond and devoted admirer of
Nature, and a hater of all men and things which deform
her great works. We have high poetic authority
or saying that man is "like unto God," that he is the
" head, the heart, the soul, and tongue of all," and ex-
tending the ennobling sentiment we can, but conclude
that society, an aggregate of men, is the noblest and '
grandest work of creation beneath the planets. At pre-
sent, however, society is the prey of an alarming disorder
which threatens its existence. Class is arrayed against
class, and the hand of the oppressor is lifted to snatch the
bread out' of the mouth Of the people. Disease,
distress, and untimely death are on every hand. No in-
considerable number of good men, who generally live
retired in the bosoms of their families, alarmed at this
condition of society, and grieved at the unexampled
distress which they have no power to relieve, the con-
sequence, as they think, of some acts of a few selfish
and ignorant law-makers, have exerted themselves to
explain to the people the cause of their present
condition, and to urge them to obtain re-
lief by demanding that those acts of ignorant
selfishness be annulled. Under such circumstances, Mr.
Sergeant TALFOURD goes out of his way, when speaking
on a trial at Stafford, to condemn the agitators for Corn-
law repeal, and to advocate submission under these most
deplorable social evils. His remarks are very appropriately
paraded by all the Tory journals, and in them have been
forced on our notice. It is only necessary, we believe,
for us to quote the Learned Gentleman's words,,to con-
vince our readers that they are ill-timed and erroneous,
He said:—

" I may add, that of all the arts of delusion or excitement,
there is none which, in my judgment, is baser than that which
takes the inevitable sufferings and calamities of human life—
those sufferings and privations which must be the lot of mankind
in this world—those calamities of labour and suffering, and
plays upon them by representing that they do not arise from
the taws of nature or inevitable circumstances, but that they
arise from a wicked disposition to grind, to oppress, to injure,
and to starve, as lam afraid you will be obliged to find is im.
puted in this article."

Does Mr. Sergeant TALFOURD then really suppose,
while America and the North of Europe, and in feet
almost every quarter of the world, offers us food for which
our people have the means of buying, and are prohibited
by the law, that the terrible calamities they aro now
suffering " must be the lot of mankind," and arose
" from the laws of nature or inevitable circumstances?"
The Learned Sergeant will give us leave to say that such
remarks are a greater libel on nature than what the
Editor of the Staffordshire Examiner said of Lord
INGESTRIE. If these be not the serious opinions of Mr.
Sergeant TALFOURD, he did injustice to himself by ut-
tering them in any cause ; if they be, he takes an
equally unpoetic and erroneous view of nature. We call
his attention to the subject, that he may inform the
W :rld whether they are the sentiments- of the man and
the politician, or the mere verbiage of the lawyer.

The mock revolution which took place at Lisbon, on
the 10th inst., hardly deserves notice. The Charter