The Sun.
London, England, 1842-10-10 00:00:00

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LONDON
MONDAY MORNING. OCTOBER 10, 1842.

It seems, by the article we copy from the
Leeds Mercury on the tariff of the German
League, that there has suddenly emanated from
the Congress at Stuttgard, without any previous
ratline discussion, and without any warning to,
other States, a new schedule of duties. Reports
bad certainly got into circulation that some alte-
ration in the duties ioimical to our interest were
in contemplation; but the secret was so well
kept, that in July last Sir R. PEEL had no in-
fl)rmation on the subject,and stated to the House
of Commons that he had had some conversation
with the Prussian Minister, who knew of no
such designs. Now, however, we are assured by
the Mercury, that the Congress has agreed to
raise• the duties art mixed worsted and cotton
goods from thirty to fifty dollars per cwt., an
alteration which, it is said, will have an injurious
effect on a number of articles manufactured in
Yorkshire and Lancashire. Our industry, then,
is assailed on all sides, and the patriotic efforts
of our anti-manufacturers, who wish to have half
our towns engulphed, and a stop put to the in-
crease of a manufacturing population, are well
seconded by the commercial legislation of France,
of the United States, and of Germany. If the
Government, and the middle classes who con-
trol it, continuo to support our present policy)
the desire of those who would like to drive a
ploughshare over the site of Manchester, may
13'2ThalPs, ere long, be gratified.
Of course we shall he stunned on this occasion,
as on the Occasion of the alteration in the tariff
of the United States, with declamation from the
Tory journals against the ingratitude of other
States, which repay our reductions of duty on
their commodities with an augmentation of duties
on ours; and we shall again be told of the folly
of expecting that other States will follow our
example. Let us prepare to encounter this de-
clamation, by. reminding our readers that the
incipal reductionS of our duties, that on timber,
was of no importance to any other member of
the League than. Prussia ; and that
.admittino-
cittle, though useful perhaps to Holland, Bel-
gium, and Holstein, is of very little consequence
to the Stases of the Zoll Verein. At the same
time we levied a new duty_ on the coals Ger-
many imports from England. The Zoll Verein
thereflire, very, little to be grateful fur, and
will not, on that account, merit many reproaChes.
But what is our example which the .Germans
will probablybe' blamed for riot following? Does
not enr whole tariff proceed on the principle of
Protecting native and colonial industry; and does
not the 'Zola Verein act on that principle ? The
move or less, the 'thirty or fifty dollars, is a
questioa of detail of which the Germans must
judge. It only fhtlows our example in protect-
ing, as it is called, the manufactures of Germany,
as En rand protects the growth of corn. In
Eaglaral, be it remembered, this principle
of protoction has been hotly assailed. It
has been denounced as a trespass on
honesty. It has been accused of inflict-
ing, •death on the people. Political econo-
mists have shown that it is destructive of
pv..tional wealth, sensible men have proved that
it overturns all nib-mar, and the ministers of re,
ligion have demonstrated that it is shockingly
irupious. Here it has been tried and tested by

the public reason, and all that has been said
against it has been wafted all over Europe. En-
joying more than any other nation of Europe the
freedom of the press, and having attained to a
greatness almost unexampled, the conduct of
Great Britain has great moral influence over the
rest of the world. She is reputed one of the
wisest of nations. By the wisest statesmen of
this wise nation, after the principle of protection
had been assailed as we have described—in the
teeth, too, of a great and powerful party—it was
maintained and enforced. Not contented with
preserving it throughout the tariff, Sir R. PEEL
established for the first time a whole system of
differential duties, thus informing every State of
the world that it was his solemn practical con-
viction, and the conviction of our Legislature,
after much discussion, that the principle of pro-
tection, that is, plundering by law, was the sure
and certain means of promoting national great-
ness. On that principle so confirmed, the 'Loll
Verein is acting, and by enhancing the duties on
mixed woollen and cotton goods, it follows the
example of Great Britain, and protects its native
industry.

W e might take the opportunity to taunt the
Morning Post with the fickleness and caprice of
the monarchial Zoli Verein, and to borrow from
this secret proceeding a confirmation of our
opinion that the manufacturers may rely more
securely on a democracy than on a monarchy ;
but when we see the best interests of our coun-
try, and, we believe, of mankind, endangered by
commercial restrictions, we have no spirit for
newspaper contention, though we fancy we
could snatch a triumph. We pass rather to con-
sider how these attacks on our national prospe-
rity and greatness by a virulent faction at home,
and by envious foreign nations, can best be re-
pelled. The faction can only be put down by the
growth of sound knowledge, and no day now
passes which does not teach the public, by im-
pressing on them painful facts, the folly and
cruelty of this commercial nation cutting off
sources of trade. We look to the progress of
knowledge for a speedy triumph of the principles
of free industry, and no sooner will they triumph
at home than they will stifle folly abroad.

It is obvious that the best and surest means of
counteracting German, French, and American
tariff's), is to set free the trade in corn, and to take
off the duties on wool, cotton, and every other
raw material which enters into manufactures, so
as to enable our people to :produce articles
desired abroad at the smallest cost. BONAPARTE,
at the height of his power, could not keep Eng-
lish goods out of the Continent. FREDERICK THE
GREAT, when he had nothing else to do with his
armies, could not put down smuggling. The
United States, Germany, and France, have all
extensive frontiers; and if, by abolishing our own
mischievous laws, we set our manufacturers en-
tirely free, we may rely on the smuggler spee-
dily redressing the wrongs which protecting
tariffs inflict on the whole family of mankind
A bold and a jut policy—but that our states-
men are not capable of, for they are unfortunately
allied with foreign Governments in maintaining
a kind of police against the people, and would
rather aid them, we are afraid, in stifling trade than
in setting it free in opposition to their ignorant
decrees—a bold and a just policy would dictate
the assembling of Parliament before Christmas,
instantly to abolish the Corn-laws, and all the
duties on raw materials ; to establish in earnest
and effectually the great principle of freedom for
industry, which would speedily compel every
other nation to act on the same principle. Such
a bold course, honest to our own people, and just
to foreigners, we cannot anticipate ; and we must
content ourselves, therefore, with having pointed
it out as an effectual cure, operating both by its
example and its direct effects, for those systems
of mutual and revengeful damage which at pre-
sent statesmen in all countries seem bent on up-
holding.

We observe with regret, from Mr. COBDEN'S
and Mr. BRIGHT'S statements, at a meeting of
the Anti-Corn-law League, held at Manchester
on Thursday, that the prospect there is darker
than ever :

" We have been suffering," said Mr. Cobden, "now
in the north of England six years. It is six years
since that revulsion occurred, which has led to a de-
pression greater, of longer continuance, and of far
more intensity, than has ever been witnessed by the
oldest resident in this neighbourhood. But, bad as
has been our condition before, at the end of these six
years, our prospects are worse than they have been in
any previous year.—(llear, hear.) It would seem as
if the American tariff that had just been passed was
to be the last feather to break the camel's back. It
found us almost in a prostrate condition, and it has
utterly prostrated the energies of this district."
Another feather has since been added, by the
increase of duties in Germany, which, if possible,
will add to the gloom and suffering at Manches-
ter. The League, however, seems resolved not
to despair. It proposes to raise 50,0001., and we
presume it will succeed; it is sending its tracts
and its lecturers all through the country, and
confidently expects that the Corn-law will, be-
fore long, be abolished.

Both Mr. COBDEN and Mr. BRIGHT referred
to gentlemen, Members of Parliament, who had
voted for the Corn-law, and yet said they knew
that it could not be long preserved. One of these
gentlemen had the honesty to confess that he
voted because his estates were mortgaged. "He
said he believed that rents would be as high in
tell years with the Corn-laws repealed as they
were likely to be ten years hence with the
Corn-laws in being; but for the first three or four
years rents would go down; his own would fall
below the amount of his mortgages, and he should
be ruined." We have no doubt many other
Members vote from similar motives; but would it
not be more honest and more humane in them to
vote the other way, and appeal to the Legislature
to make a fair adjustment of such incumbrances?
The Income-tax, by making them known to the
tax-gatherer, may enable such gentlemen to get
over their reluctance to made a confession, and
induce them to advocate a plan by which justice
may be done to them, to their creditors, and to
the suffering people. It is horrid to think that
the Corn-laws are to be maintained for a few
months or years longer, to the ruin of our trade,
and the starvation of many people, because a few
landlords are in debt, while they themselves
know that the law is unjust and cannot be long
continued. If the League has many such con-
science-stricken supporters amongst the land-
owners. and we believe and hope it has, its
spirited exertions will soon be crowned by success.