The Express.
London, England, 1852-03-04 00:00:00

THE REVIVED LEAGUE.

(Free the Doty News.)

Yesterday we announced the si=nt fact of
therevival of the Anti-Corn-Law , and gave'
besides the important evidence of its new vitality in
the shape of a subscription list, amounting at once tol
upwards of 27,0001. This renewal of one of the moat
remarkable political comtiLnations of modern times
must be attended by very ci;s4inct and important
consequences. The new operations of this League
of commercial men for the vindication of tine right •
of free commerce, must follow very nearly the plena
adopted by the same men on a former occasion, when
carrying out an end similar to the one they have now
to view. Then, as now, the object was to give poli-
tical instruction to the people; then, as now, the
operations were based upon the acknowledged fact,
that anything which the body of the people earnestly,
fairly, and loudly demand must inevitably be granted.
It is clear that, whilst preaching free-trade, certain
principles of political economy and of practical go-
vernment must be discussed, and that this can lead to
no other result than an amelioration of our legis-
lative as well as our commercial system. Hence
the money subacibed with lavish but wise liberality
for prosecuting the more immediate objects of the
Anti-Corn-Law League must when used have
the important effect of stimulating political inquiry
and advancing political knowledge. Thus the
efforts of the tree-traders will forward the views of
their political competitors; aye, and serve eventu-
ally the best interests even of their political oppo-
nents. To show this it is only necessary to ask,
how can free-trade be argued without reference to ex-
isting political arrangements ? and how can " things
as they are" be described without exposing the ano-
nialies from which wo all suffer, and which, once
thoroughly exposed, must, by mere weight of their
iniquity, compel reform? To argue the necessity of
union against the landocracy, it will be neces-
sary, on a hundred platforms, and in thousands of
tracts, to show what kind and manner of men that
landocracy really are; whilst the very showing them
as they. exist, and exposing their boroughmongering,
must in itself afford the best illustration of the
need for improvement. To keep a corn law—a
bread tax—it is requisite that those who profit by
it should have undue parliamentary influence; or in
other words, should have small corrupt and nomination
boroughs. To have small pocket boroughs, large
towns must be loft without representation—and thus
, by glancing along the chain we see how free-trade and
parliamentary reform are indissolubly connected.
The possibility of a law for giving high prices to
land at the expense of the labourers lord proves the
existence of legislative corruption. Therefore to
argue against corn laws is to exhibit the need for re-
presentative reform. What difference need arise
then between sections of reformers? They all de-
sire to lead the nation towards that point to which ,
we must eventually come, and which we year by year ,
approach more and more nearly. All reformers
desire to give the people political instruction—to
give them an insight of those economic laws which
regulate all communities, though their provision
may not be found in dusty legal collections, or may
never have been discussed in any. parliament.
These laws,--acting with the inevitable regu-
larity of the great rules of nature, for the regu-
lation of demand and supply, price and wages,
plenty and scarcity,—cannot be mooted without im-
provement to all who partake in the discussion,—and
, the more widely they are understood, the more
widely must the demand arise for those changes
in existing institutions, which lapse of time, change
of circumstances, or human cupidity, have rendered
requisite for the free development of our social and
industrial system. The 27,0001. subscribed yester-
day may be fairly regarded then by men of all
parties as a fund—be it called by what name it may
—that must be so dispensed as practically to stimu-
late the political education of the people.
The speech of Mr. COBDEN will be read with
general interest. lie places the whole case clearly
before us at one view. But, whilst explaining why
he thought it better not to mix up other topics with
a purely free-trade agitation, it was. quite clear that
he saw what he thought it unwise then to dilate
upon—the inevitable tendency of all political agita-
tion to create a desire for political improvement.
We have said that such a political campaign
as the one wo are now commencing, must be useful
sot only to competing political reformers but even to
the enemies of all reform. This it is not difficult to
show, since for proof it is necessary only to point
to that terrible page of history, written in words
of wrong, of violence, and of blood, that tells
the successive steps of the first French revolution.
France, under the old regime, was owned by an
oligarchy who kept the laws as best pleased their
humour, oppressed and plundered the people; thought
parks and forests, and game more important than
men or industry, or commerce. They taxed and
rioted and tyrannised in the most gentlemanly way
in the world. They scoffed at reform, and ,neglected
education; and whilst they used the people as the
means of their own aggrandisement, they kept them
in a state of brutalised ignorance—alike destitute of
political freedom and political knowledge. When
human nature could endure tyranny no longer, the
people violently burst the bonds which their masters
had refused to loosen. Once untrammeled they knew
' no bounds. Unchecked by a knowledge of consequences
they destroyed all. The monarchy, the church,
the institutions of centuries, were swept away
as by the headlong force of a torrent break-
ing its banks. And when men recovering a
little from their astonishment ventured to look
round they saw, as it were, in the course of
the unruly stream, not only the traces of destruction, '
but innumerable crawling and abominable things,
which in their nature belonged to the depths and
slimy crevices of the late pent up pool, but which i
now, by its escape, were on the surface, revelling in a 1
prominenoo and power for which, by nature, they
were never meant. Ravings of impossible theories
and practices et horrible vices wore on all sides. ;
The [pullouts* sated itself with victims, who, soon
' becoming too numerous for the knife, were drowned '
in hundreds to save trouble to executioners who '
deemed them unworthy of destruction one by one. ,
The beg& and breadth of France, searched
and again for fresh victims, could at length
ve no more; and then the offending oli
ing almost exterminated—France--sick witir the
excess of licence—sunk an easy prey to military
despotism. And the moral of this terrible episode in
the weld's history seems so plain that it would appear
almost impossible for men to l' it unheeded, if day
by daywe did not see cases in which the lesson is lost.
Six words tell the story—lgnorance, Wrong, Denial
of Redress, Revolution—a people increasing in num-
bers, kept in political darkness, politically oppressed,
and refused reform, revolt. Just as the pressure, so
the reaction • equal to the tyranny, so the cruelty.
And as the world goes on, will these terrible
lessons be again and again taught, until rulers,—be
they single despots or be they. combined oligarchies,
—see the wisdom of rendering populations politi-
cally and morally intelligent, as a stepping-
stone to making. them politically free. The
best guarantee against violent change must ever be
gradual and wise concession. And the best mode of
contenting mon with proper and steady ameliora-
tions rather than violent disruptions is, by teaching
them by books, by newspapers, by lectures, the great
economic truths of political science. This is the
task the League are once more about to assume
under the necessities of the hour brought down
clans by the presence in England of a Reactionary

AGRICULTURAL LABOURERS' WATCHES.—The most
interesting clan of watches, to us, was that of the agricul-
tural labourers. We were glad to bear that agricultural
labourers bought watches; a fact which we should hardly
have inspected. The number demanded is rapidly decreer
ing. If one hundred and fifty witches are made weekly,
eight or nine of them may be for agricultural labourers;
and the proportion was formerly much larger. They are
of • wondrous aim; about two inches thick. There is
silver to the vales of two pounds in a watch which costs
four pounds. The thing looks as if it could never be lost
—hardly broken ; and it is inconceivable that damp or soil
could get in. On its broad face is painted • gay picture
Speed the Plough, or the Foresters' or the Odd Fellows'
Arms.—Diekoss's Household W.rda." _

LONDON AND SOUTH W Y.STERN RAILWAY.—
Amount of tragic for the week ending Feb. 29:—Passen-
gen, 6,2901. 3s. 6d.; gouda, 2,3281. 18a. 7d. Total,
8,8191. 2a. Id.
DIMINUTION OP PAUPERISM. Yesterday wu
printed a parliamentary paper, from which it appears that
the expenditure for the relief of the poor for the year ended
Lady-day, 1831, for Bedfordshire, woe 39,4811, being a
decrease of 10,9261. compared with 1848; and 26,2021. for
H ontingdonshize, being a decrease of 6,3751. compared with
1848.