The Sun.
London, England, 1827-02-16 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

The light let in by Sir George Clerk's admission, upon
the villainy directed against the lives of our brave sea-
men, iri the manufacture of their contract bread, seems to
have recalled the public attention to a subject, from which,
indeed, it ought not to have so widely wandered as it has
done, .viz. the frauds which are, we fear, very generally
practised in the preparation of that important aliment.
Had the work of Ace= upon the adulterations of food
been fairly dealt With by the author—that is to say, if he
had not, by his own personal conduct, destroyed the mo-
ral authority and influence of his charges against others,
whether individuals or bodies of tradesmen, it is possible
that he might have succeeded in fixing the mind of the
Legislature itself upon the invention and application of
safeguards for the community, with a view to the reduc-
tion, at least, of the quantity of poison administered to
the people of England instead of the wholesome food, if
the total banishment of it could not be effected. A little
pamphlet " On the Adulteration of_Bread and Biscuits"
has been addressed to Mr. Peel, the writer of which treads
in the steps of Mr. Accum. He appears to be a plain,
sensible, and zealous kind of man. His charges involve
the three classes of tradesmen who advance the raw ma-
terial through its several stages, until it is turned out in
the shape of a 41b. loaf. With this author the miller,
mealman, and baker, are nearly equal delinquents ; and
it is curious to observe how the use of one foreign
ingredient makes others necessary to the imposing ap-
pearance of the fabricated loaf; inasmuch as though pure
flour needs nothing more than yeast to ferment and
raise it, when, on the other hand, whiting, bone-ashes,
pipe-clay, blues, sharps, tailings, &c. are resorted to,
a further addition of alum is required, to act as mortar,
and bind the multifarious rubbish, or it would fall to
pieces before it was half baked. Of the three orders of
criminals above enumerated, it is clear that the baker
stands foremost in point of mischief. Every baker can learn,
without difficulty, the use of such tests as would decide
the exact character of the flour which he purchases; and
if he were to return upon the hands of his rnealman each
sack that he discovered to have undergone adulteration
since the supposed basis of it left the farm on which it
grew, the market for poison would cease without further
uoable, and the public served with such bread as was con-
sumed by our father. Whatever general objections may
be felt against extending the jurisdiction of the excise laws,
we should be far from joining in any outcry against render-
ing bread, as well as beer, amenable in all its elements
•, , incidents to the watchful scrutiny of the officers of
»se.
Is the health of the nation of less importance than
its income ? Is a fraud against the revenue to be made;
in all cases, a valid reason for subjecting every class ol
citizens to the visitation of the excise 2—and is the ac

vity of that vigorous and useful engine to be spared against
the wholesale murderers of the people, on any vague and
hollow pretext, that the excise is an " unconstitutional"

establishment. We agree with the author of the little
work before us, that every baker's premises in the king-
dom should be made liable, every day or night in the
year, to be entered and searched, in virtue of excise war-
rants, and, we may add, that the existence of any articles
in the hands of a baker, capable of being used in the adul-
teration of bread, ought to be made a high misdemeanour
by Aet of Parliament, and inexorably punished. Is it
not monstrous that forgery should subject a man to be
hanged, and the sale of slow poison instead of sound food,
to nothing more severe than the payment of a trifling sum
of money ? Government, in the mean time, ought to
look well to the execution of the contracts for provisioning
our troops in Portugal; and we urgently call upon them
once more to publish the names of those contractors who
were guilty of poisoning 6,000 sacks of our poor sailors'
victuals. If this necessary measure be not taken, Mini-
sters are parties to all the villanies which may hereafter be
practised by those.wicked men, against the great body of
their fellow-subjects—since it is certain that if fraud be
only checked on one side, it will soon find vent on some
other.—Times.

There was a disposition in the House of Commons
last night, to take up the subject of Emigration, on such
a scale as alone could render it a remedy for the evil of a
population so redundant as ours. Colonel Torrens spoke
of transporting a million of people from Ireland to Canada.
It is unquestionably true, as he stated, that a removal of
numbers must precede every plan for the improvement of
that country. The effect of English Capitalists going to
Ireland would be, to deprive a great part of the agricul-
tural population of all employment whatever; for improve-
ment supposes always an economy of labour. The lower
men are sunk in the social scale, the less are they dispos-
ed to abstain from marriage. To animals, such as those
of whom Mr. Brownlow remarked, " Dr. Doyle, in his
evidence, had stated, that the people were compelled to
congregate for the sake of animal heat, and the multipli-
cation of the human species naturally followed," it is in ,
vain to address prudential considerations. Before a man
can listen to the voice of prudence, there must be beneath
the deep in which he is a " lower deep" still. But it
would be worse than useless to enter on emigration, with-
out being prepared to carry it through on a larger scale,
and without coupling with it measures for securing the
country against the recurrence of the evils from which it
has freed itself at such an enormous sacrifice. Twenty-
two millions are a large sum in the present embarrassed
state of the country. It is true, that there is no com-
parison between the benefit of expending millions in this
way, and expending them in warring against Jacohiniam
and for the preservation of our holy Religion. But still
twenty-two millions are a large sum. All this money would
not merely be thrown away, but add to the evil, by the burr
den so much debt would impose on us, if the emigration
were to be conducted by driblets, and not instantly on a
great scale, and if measures of restraint and regulation of
an enlightened and comprehensive character, were not to
be consentaneously adopted. To send away a few thou-
sands at a time would be merely giving, a stimulus to po-
pulation. Mr. Hodges observect,that'the parishes had no
benefit from removing their poor to America at a great ex-
pence, as the moment. a cottage was empty young couples
were called in marriage. But it will be said, would you
impose restraints on liberty ? Those who use the word
liberty, es applied to civilised life, are either very ignorant
or very evil intentioned. Wherever we turn in civilized
life, we are met by restraints on our liberty; and the more
civilized the society, the more numerous the restraints. If
we use the words good Government, we shall then speak
an intelligible language. Now, such restraints as are ne-
cessary to the well-being of society, that is, to good Go-
vernment, most be submitted to. The sort of liberty which

would expose a whole nation to the danger of being re-
duced to the level of the beings who " congregate for
animal heat," whereby multiplication follows, is a liberty
which cannot be contemplated without dismay. Of this
sort of liberty a striking instance was told us a week or
two ago, by an intelligent gentleman. Accompanying a
medical friend in his rounds through Southwark, he en-
entered one of those wretched abodes in which the Irish
crowd together. The man had received an injury, and
was unable to work. Two children were sprawling about,
and twc large pigs were also inmates of the apartment.—
" Why do you not sell the pigs to a,:sist you?" was a
question put to the wife. " Och, Sir," said she, " the
pigs belong to the landlord : we get the room at less rent
by taking in the pigs Ll 4 lodgers." But, as Mr. Baring
observed, "the particular
Plans form a subject for after
consideration."—Morning Chronicle.
The indisposition of Mr. Canning, especially at this
important period, is a serious calamity to the country,
and is rendered doubly so by the awe in which his talents
are held by his colleagues, who appear to acknowledge
that they can do no one thing without him. That Mr.
Canning is the brightest star in the present political fir-
mament must be readily admitted; but that the rest of
the Ministry are mere satellites, attendant upon and mov-
ing round his orb, is what we were not aware that they
would all so freely admit to be the case. On the subject of
the Corn Laws this point seems, however, undeniably
established; for though it is one in no way connected with