The Sun. — 1840-10-05 (London, England)

CORRESPONDENTS.  wickedness of the proposer and his touter more  apparent. Nothing is more certain than that all the im: provements in arts which adorn modern society— from the painting, poetry, architecture, and sculpture of the age of the MEDICI, to railways and vessels moved by Archimedian screws, are the offspring of cities. It is equally certain that the improvements in morals which distinguish the moderns from the ancients, have had the same source. We know that it has been customary to assert that they have come from the scattered aristocracy and the priesthood, whose education has been based on the cruelties Of the classic Romans, or Greeks, or still more ancient Hebrews ; but the patience and forbearance, which is inculcated by the conditions of their existence on tradesmen of towns anxious for customers, dependent for their bread on the good opinion of other persons, are the true sources of the humanity and kindliness of modern life. In towns, division of labour is carried to the greatest extent ; in towns, therefore, the mutual dependence of men is extreme; in towns, accordingly, people learn to be civil and well-behaved, and from towns civility, forbearance, and humanity, have spread over the rural districts. Yet because the town population exhibits these virtues,while they have to a considerable extent emancipated themselves from the control of the priests, the half of our towns are to be razed to restore the dominion of those who are angry because the people no longer believe that they are appointed by GoD to be our masters and oppressors. The Post and the Quarterly Review deride the improvement of the age. Instead of drawing on their imagination for rich pictures of Arcadian bliss, in the good days of protection and obedience and feudal tenures, let them consult history ; and, whatever may be the vices of our modern cities, they will find them surpassed in their chosen periods of rural felicity. Not a century ago there yet remained in Scotland the beau ideal of the Quarterly Re• viewer's government. Feudal tenures existed—each chieftain exercised a monarch's power over his vassals, and what was the result ? Why these rural kings were continually aiming at each others lives, and employing their subjects to levy black mail on the more civilized people of the neighbouring towns and valleys. They were quarrelsome assassins at home and robbers abroad. Two centuries have yet scarcely elapsed when such a state of society existed in the north of England, and the Marches were then filled with rapine and murder. Two centuries ago, when such a feudal condition of society existed, England was continually the prey of armed incur_ rections and civil war. Do the Quarterly Review and the Post wish them restored? As our towns have increased, the people have become peaceable, and the inhabitants of our mercantile and commercial cities, obtaining wealth and power by honest industry, have tamed the plundering Barons and the militant priests. We quoted a few days back Mr. FARR'S unanswerable observation, that the mortality in towns had gradually lessened during the last 200 years, and, with that lessening mortality, th ere has been a gradual increase in all the decencies and virtues of life; yet simply because this improvement has been accompanied by- a -proper diminution of the power of the priests, it is proposed to raze half our towns. The conceited, arrogant heart in which the thought originated, however gracefully it may be expressed, is fit for the bosom of a NERO or a