The Sun.
London, England, 1845-11-26 00:00:00

After which, LIFE IN THE CLOUDS,

To conclude with JACK SIIL:PrAIID. Supported by the entire
Company.

THE WEATHER.--sus OFFICE, Nov. 26.
THERMOMETER, Lowest, $9; Highest, 48; }Toon, 49
BAROMETHR, 2.92.—W1ND W.; light rain.

10.1 WATICZ AT LONDON-BUIDGE TIIIS DAY.
Mortiog .. 10 minutes after 11 I Ever,'mg .. 33 minutes after 11.

ROBERT PEEL remain true to the tactics hitherto in•
variably forming the guide of his policy, he must come
forth a free-trader in corn, and carry into full effect his
principle, that it is expedient to buy i❑ the cheapest and
sell in the dearest market. It is true, he cannot outbid
the present offer made by Lord JOHN RUSSELL; but if
he is anxious, as he has hitherto shown himself, to cul-
tivate the support of the great manufacturing districts,
and remove the ab surd anomaly that still exists respecting
the trade in corn, he must come up to the same
pitch with his rival, conciliate the feelings of the great
mass of the people, and " put an end to a system u hich
has been proved to be the blight of commerce, the bane
of agriculture, the source of bittee divisions among
classes, the cause of penury, fever, mortality, and crime
among the people." These are not times to trifle with
the community by neglecting the general good for the
benefit of a few monopolists. The danger of famine, at
least high prices, is beyond the possibility of a doubt, and
should the winter prove severe and a scarcity ensue, the
sufferings of the people would generally and justly
be attributed to a scheme which bad only
one real objection in view—to raise the prices of
the necessaries of life, and put money into the landlords
pockets, but which has inflicted still greater evils by
stinting the cultivation of grain in corn-growing
countries, and thereby depriving the starving peo-
ple of Great Britain and Ireland of supplies
which otherwise would have been bountifully provided.
For these reasons we regard this plain, unassuming letter
of Lord JOHN RUSSELL as the most important docu-
ment that has appeared for many years. It will

form a watchword for the whole Liberal party ;
its statements will be re-echoed throughout the United
Kingdom, and no rest will be given to any Minister, of
whatever party, till the corn-laws are utterly abolished,
and every restriction on the admission of food and
clothing used by the people be finally removed.
With the appeal of Lord JOIIN RUSSELL to the men of
his order we close these (remarks.—" It is no longer
worth while to contend for a fixed duty. In 1841 the
free-trade party would have agreed to a duty of Bs. a
quarter on wheat, and, after a lapse of years, this
duty might have been further reduced, and ulti-
mately abolished. But the imposition of any duty
at present, without a provision for its extinction
within a short period, would but prolong a contest
already sufficiently fruitful of animosity and discontent.
The struggle to make bread scarce and dear, when it is
clear that part, at least, of the additional price goes to
increase rent, is a struggle deeply injurious to an aristo-
cracy which (this quarrel once removed) is strong in
property, strong in the construction of our Legislature
strong in opinion, strong in ancient associations, and the
memory of immortal services."

The corn-law is producing. its effects even more
rapidly than we bad anticipated. The people of Eng-
land are at this moment, paying weekly 400,0001.
more for bread-corn than they were paying this time
last year, and, as a natural consequence, the trade of
the manufacturing districts is suffering. Mr. COBDEN,
at the great free-trade meeting at Sheffield, on Monday
last, declared that, " within the last six weeks they had
suffered in Lancashire a more sudden and severe depres-
sion than had been sustained since the time of the peace."
He adds, "It was not a difficult matter to account for
the suddenness of this depression. They had a wheat

harvest deficient in quality and in quantity in this coun-
try, and they had also the failure of the potato crop ;
and those evils together caused a rise of at least 50 per
cent. in the cost of their provisions. Every one before
him, both the wholesale and retail dealer, understood
what were the legitimate effects of a bad harvest. Every-
body, therefore, was acting upon that knowledge, which,
to no small extent, was owing to the preachings and
teachings of the League. Everybody understood that
the high price of food, which was the result of a bad
Larvest, caused a bad state of trade, and the wholesale
and retail dealers, immediately that they saw the pros-
pect of a bad harvest, before them, ceased to buy large
stocks of manufactured goods, lest by-and-by these
stocks should be left unsaleable! on their hands.
What becomes now of that fallacy of the monopolists,
that when bread is dear wages rise? Bread is dear—
have wages risen ? This corn-law we are told was
enacted for the especial benefit of the agricultural
labourer. Does he now receive a larger sum weekly
for wages than he received this time last year ?
If the monopolist doctrine were true he ought,
and he ought also to be a better customer to the
manufacturer, now that bread is dear, than he was when
bread was cheap. But he is not a better customer now
than he was last year, because, as he has to expend a
larger amount of his wages for bread, he has the less
to spare for clothing, and he knows to his cost
that his wages have not risen as the price of bread
has risen. Working men have found out the delusion
which the monopolists have been practising on them, and
it will go down with them no longer. To quote again the
words of Mr. COBDEN—" Working men now understand j

that a high price for provisions does not cause high
wages, but, on the contrary, that high wages and a low
price of food invariably accompany each other."
That a period of distress is fast approaching in the ma-
nufacturing districts, is, we fear, but too evident, and dis-
tress and famine, says Dr. THOMSON, at the Sheffield
meeting, are always the forerunners of pestilence. But

that the corn-law will be suffered to do its worst
we cannot for one moment believe. Thanks to the la-
bours of the League, the people are now enlightened,
as to the cause of their distress, and, as was well observed
by Mr. BRIGHT, whose speech at this meeting was one
of the most admirable which that eloquent ad-
vocate of free trade has ever delivered—" The
people constantly and invariably attribute the pre-
sent depression of trade to the operation of the
corn-law. This law, which was passed ostensibly fur
the purpose of protecting the native industry of the
country, and to give us, who are manufacturers, a con-
stant supply of good custom from the home trade, to
give to capital a fair profit, and to labour fair wages ;
this law, which promised so much is now looked
upon by almost everybody as the guilty party, in
causing the present almost universal depression."
Under these circumstances there cannot be a doubt but
that the great majority of the people will join the
League in making " a long pull, a strong pull, and a
pull altogether," which shall, to use a legal phrase, at
once prostrate the nuisance of monopoly. The resolution
which Mr. BRIGHT proposed at the Oldham meeting
should be made a standing resolution at all anti-starvation
meetings throughout the country. If at all these meet-

ings it were resolved, "We won't stand it any
longer," the affair would be very soon settled. Mean-
while the League is proceeding steadily and deter-
minedly to fight the battle of free-trade in the
Registration Courts. " Register! register ! register !"
is now the motto of the League, which they have bor-
rowed from Sir ROBERT PEEL ; and the day is not far
distant when he will return the compliment, by assuming
as his own, their motto—" Free Trade with all the
World."

We have received Madrid journals of the 18th inst.,
but they bring no intelligence of the slightest interest.
The Funds were rather flat on that day, and only a few
transactions took place in the Three per Cents., which
closed at 3611 at sixty days.

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