The Sun.
London, England, 1842-05-31 00:00:00

that premeditation and deliberate design are too appa-
rent; for we do'ubl)•reg?ct to say that the attempt
yesterday was the*pitition oflim attempt made the,
day before, which, noikeiilgkiiOwil to her MAJESTY,
was kept secret froiinhe public. The would-be
assassin then remained undetected.

Her MAJESTY, we are informed, was aware of the
attempt that was made yesterday, and displayed her
usual coolness and self-possession.
The circumstance occasioned the greatest excite-
ment at the West-end. Both Houses of Parliament
were immediately adjourned, and all the Ministers
hastened to attend the examination by the Privy Council.
Crowds collected round the Home-office, and at other
places where information was expected, and the whole
population seemed to take an intense interest in her
MAJESTY'S welfare. To attack the life of a Sovereign
is an awful affair; but when that Sovereign is a young
and amiable mother, surrounded with all the enjoy-
ment as well as all the pomp of Royalty, it is at once
an attack on what is most lovely and endearing, and
most lofty and commanding. We cannot be surprised,
therefore, that the attempt has excited intense interest
and equal horror.
We have several times had occasion to notice re-
semblances between France and England; it is de-
plorable that we find a likeness also in a disposition in
some of the people to assail the life of the Sovereign
in both countries. Such a disposition at home and
abroad must have some similar cause, and we con-
jure our statesmen to make this a subject of delibera-
tion. When it becomes the practice to assail the life
of the Sovereign, they may be sure that political so-
ciety is not in a sound condition.

A man,• it is said, should live with his friends as if
they were one day to become his enemies. Para-
phrasing this, we would hint to the upper classes the
propriety of treating the people as if they were at
tsome time likely to get the upper hand. It will only
be acting on the admirable precept of doing to others
zei you would wish to be done unto. To-day Lord
1 ASHLEY is to move for leave to bring in a Bill to make

regulations respecting the age and sex of persons ad-
pitted to work in mines and collieries ; and it is
apropos of that motion that we have referred to these
n ixiins of civil wisdom.

We do not for one moment doubt the humane and
kindly intentions of Lord ASHLEY, and of his
prompters and advisers; but between humane and
kindly intentions, and the knowledge which ought alone
be the foundation of laws, there is an immense
difference. His generous impulses recommend him
to .Our affection, but they do not qualify him for a
legitl3tor. It is given in evidence by the Commis-
sioners to inquire into mines, that the well-intended
regulations which have had the effect of keeping
children out of comparatively healthy factories, where
the work is easy, have made their mothers solicitous
to get them employed in mines. Any kind of labour,
they feel, is'better for their offspring than starvation
or the poor-house. It is given in evidence before the
sand Commission, that it is the poverty of the young
rather than their will, which makes them con-
sent to de3cend and labour in the bowels of the earth.
We must believe our legislators when they
tell us, as they do constantly and inva-
riably, that they have made the laws not
ibr their own benefit exclusively, but for the

public advantage. Their motives, they assert, have
lorn, like those of Lord ASHLEY, of the most .amial_le
!chid, their intentions the most benevolent ; and the

plain and palpable result is extreme poverty, g►reat
destitution, and great degradation of the classes
:hey have so benevolently meant to serve. Fear-
ing that such may also be the result of
Lord ASHLEY'S well-meant, but perhaps not
eniigi.tened intentions, we beseech him to weigh well,
not merely the supposed material or physical come-
qu4! ices of his Bill, but all its moral consequences on
he Inind.; of all those classes with whose industry and
uccu litions he is about to meddle.

As long as there is a bare possibility of the present
upper daises not being always in the ascendant, they
ought .to be careful how they set the example of in-
terfering with other men's business. Suppose the
Chartists to get the upper hand, and issue a Commis-
sion of Inquiry into the occupations, amusements, and
manner of living of the nobility ? Does Lord Asti-
LET suppose that a Commission of medical democrats
could not make up as harrowing a report of the con-
sequences of idleness and dissipation, as the Mine
Commissioners have made of the consequences of
I overworking and underfeeding ? Could such a Com-
mission not state that the muscular development of
the idle and dissipated classes is imperfect—that
they are the prey of numerous disorders which
shorten life—that amongst them, owing to idleness
and high living, licentiousness of the most
revolting kind takes place, such as is quite un-
known to collier lads and collier lasses ? We
are afraid that, deeply as we mourn over the de-
gradation of collier girls, worse scenes than disgrace
the pits might perchance be unfolded were a Commis-
sion rigidly to inquire into all the practices of public
schools and universities. We are sure that such a
Commission, following a pampered youth of the rich
classes from a school to college, from college to town,
and in town to all the haunts he may visit, would
paint such a picture that all the vice, and all the dirty,
disgusting toils of the colliers would appear pleasant,
as we are sure they would be innocent, by the compa-

We have no inclination to follow out this
comparison; we have hinted enough to justify our
conclusion that a Commission of medical democrats'
appointed by a Chartist Parliament, might find much
that 1.4 s extremely reprehensible in the employments
and amusements of the rich.
If such a Parliament were to imitate Lord ASHLEY,
and propose, on the Report of such a Commission, a
series of laws to improve the moral and physical con-
dition of the opulent and idle, we are inclined to sup-
pose the lives of the latter would become unbearable.
From the best intentions and the most kindly motives
a Chartist Parliament, imitating Lord ASHLEY and
his friends, might conclude that a very considerable
portion of daily =similar exertion would be extremely
beneficial to the opulent of both sexes, and might im-
pose tasks on them not half so hard as the colliers,
both lads and lasses, voluntarily undertake, but
which would be a torment to those accustomed to the
indulgences of opulence. Let Lord ASULEY then, and
his followers and friends, be careful not to make his
own ideas the guide and rule of other men, lest it be
hereafter mewured out to him and them as he now
metes to others.

rison.

We see no reason why any class or description of
men, whether Lords or labourers, whether BiShops or
Chartists, should set themselves up as model men for
all the rest of Mankind. We know not why their par-
ticular mode of 'living, their pursuits, their ideas,
should be esteemed exclusively right and proper, and
we know not why other men should 'be required to
conform to them. In his sphere a collier is as useful
as a Bishop, and a collier lass as valuable a member
of society as a nobleman's daughter. The colliers,
both men and women, therefore, ought to be treated
the same as other people by the law. The personal
independence of each individual ought to be held sa-
cred. Colliers and peers should be equally at liberty
to go and come, to labour or not to labour, to play or
not
.to play, so far as the law speaks, just as
they like. It is the perpetual meddling of the Legis-
lature with the poorer and humbler classes which
destroys their sense of independence, substitutes regula-
tions for discretion, and makes them the mechanical,
and almost degraded, beings we find them. To begin
in a right direction, we should knock off some of
their fetters ; remove some of the impediments to. the
free and healthy action of their own natural powers,
not impose new restrictions and place more impedi-
ments in the way of their cultivating their fatuities.
Let Lord Asui.Ey and his fellows undo their own
votes to tax the butter and cheese and bread of these
.pejple, and so cease to impose on them a nOCOS,
Sit Vto labour twelve hours to obtain subsistence,
when, but for these taxes, six hours-might suffice. If
the' Lcg.slature will only allow the people to have
plenty of food as the reward of little work, we will
answer for it that there will be no more need for re-
gulations in England to prevent childan and females
from worl:ing themselves to death in coal-pits, than
there is at present to prevent the negroes in Trinidad
and Demerara front doing too much sugar hoeing for
the planters.

His Grace the Duke of Buccleuels vesterday
laid the first sti.ne of a new Episcopal Chapel in the Broaa-
way, Westminster.
PLYMOUTH, MAY 29.—We regret to learn that
General 31uri ay, the Commander-in. Chief of the district,
%las taken ill at a private oinner party given by Admiral Sir
David Milne, and was obliged to leave at nine o'clock for his
own sceitlence.