The Sun. — 1841-01-21 (London, England)

ILLUII-1 r commends the maintenance of the bread-tax to the Conservatives and the Clergy. It would seem from Sir JAMES GRAHAM'S remarks, that he and the rest of the supporters of the bread-tax, have long been aware of this effect, and on account of it cherish and preserve the law. Our legislators, being chiefly landowners, entertain an aversion for the manufacturing population ; they ask with a sneer, as did Lord ASHBURTON, if the whole land is to be covered with Manchesters and Birminghams, and they have taxed the bread of the people to prevent it.  Parliament is about to meet, and those who compose it stand arraigned before the public of high crimes and misdemeanors against the country. The language of accusation, not confined to one journal, has resounded throughout the land. It has been placarded on the walls of Walsall, and boldly used in the agricultural districts. Extortion, robbery, and murder are all ascribed to the law. Such language is wholly incompatible with respect and willing obedience. How can the Legislature repel it ? How can it stifle the voice of public complaint ? Privilege, vast though it be, is unequal to the task. Truth cannot be suppressed even by files of soldiers. The charges and accusations cannot be answered by the SPEAKER'S warrants. Yet they must be repelled, or the Legislature will be irretrievably damaged in public estimation ; its power will he shaken, and the political fabric founded on it will crumble to dust. There is but one way to retrieve its character, and throw off the charge with which it is branded, but one way to save the authority of the Legislature, and preserve our political institutions, but one way to appease the discontent of the people, and reconcile them with the law-makers, and that way lies through the total and immediate repeal of the bread-tax. The landlords may point to their pockets—we tell them that interests far dearer to them, and dearer to us all, than any pocket interests, are at stake, and that if they delay much longer to do justice they will ruin the empire.  We have on several occasions dwelt on the impolicy or folly of the Legislature meddling with banking, with the circulation of promises to pay, and with currency, which it .obviously does not comprehend. How can it ? The art of banking, with all its consequences, is of yesterday's growth, and is still in a state of rapid development. A science of astronomy we have, because the objects to which it relates are permanent, but a science of banking we have not, and cannot have, because the thing is not yet complete. It is, therefore, sheer folly in the ignorant gentlemen who meet at Westminster, and in the equally ignorant and equally presumptuous gentlemen who write pamphlets, to be extremely anxious to lay down laws for banking. Many specimens of this folly have been laid before the public, such as the Bank Charter, making a body of interested merchanttshatthethepromise regulator to the currency—the enacted lie, pay is an actual payment—the restrictions on private banks—and the sweeping away of small notes. Banking in all its branches and consequences, including the issue of promises to pay on demand, is one of the common businesses of life, like selling tea and sugar, or making hats and shoes ; it is a porti vcn trade,ono.fies ; like exporting woollens and importingand if the Legislature may attempt to regulate the business of banking, including the issue of promises to pay on demand, we cannot see a single reason tvliy it should not regulate every business even that of the scavenger and the milkman—in the whole empire. To be sure that would be impossible,