The Express.
London, England, 1851-06-21 00:00:00

TO CORRESPONDENTS.

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LONDON, S'ATURDAI, JUNE 21.

TUE other day we published an address from Mr.
PHILIP PuSEy, one of the best friends the farmers
Id this country ever had, to his constituents, the
electors of limits, protesting against the absurdity of
canvassing a county for which there was no vacancy,
in which there was not likely to be any, and in the
third year only of the present parliament. To-day
we publish a similar appeal from Sir EDWARD
BetroN to the electors of South Essex, which is, it
would appear, similarly, and quite as uselessly and
mischievously disturbed by the protectionist preten-
sions of a gentleman, whose grandfathers and grand-
mothers have transformed the honest but plebeian
English name of Smtru, into the barbarous, un-
couth, unpronounceable, and Dutch-like cognomen of
BRUM : " for new born honour doth forget men's
Lames."

These movements of the protectionists are in
reality bits of bullying sham, having for their object
either to frighten sitting members into a premature
announcement that they do not intend to re-solicit
the suffrages of their counties, or to involve the
farmers in premature pledges to other aspirants to
their representation, long before it is certain on what
questions the country will be appealed to at the next
general election; the truth being that of all politi-
cal parties in the country, that which at present is
least prepared for any such appeal on any ground, is
the conservative. Here and there they may have a
man rash enough, foolish enough, or rich enough, to
Contest a scat. But it is notorious that never was a
political party so much in want of proper candidates
Si Lord STANLEY and his followers arc just now.
Why, in South Notts, for instance, there is poor Mr.'
iflotmiPiwoar it, most anxious, when he does remember
that he is still a member, to resign functions which he
cannot perform. And yet, in that aristocratic district,
where lordlings are almost as plentiful as yearlings,
the seat goes begging ; it has been hawked round all
the squirearchy of the division, but not a protectionist
among them all will even smell at it. So, too, in
Beath Northumberland; Mr. MATTHEW BELL, as

honest a bigot as eves: represented top-boots and
leather breeches, has long been desirous of retiring ;
and has not, we believe, been above twice or thrice in
the House of Commons during the present parliament.
Bat there, also, no little loaf candidate canbe procured,
even though the Duke of NORTIMMBERLAND was to
be First Lord of the Admiralty in the STANLEY
cabinet, that was never formed; and the seat is
being handed round, without a single bidder. And
so also in other counties, great is the bluster, loud the
seise, serious the threats, but small the progress
really made.
And this is the spirit in which Mr. PCSET and Sir
EDWARDBUITON accept these premature attempts on
their seats ; they neither yield before nor are alarmed
at them; they point out the folly that directs them ;
state the case and prospects of protection simply and
truthfully; and though sympathising with distress,
Stever for a moment think of abdicating the prin-
ciples of free trade. This is exactly tho way to meet
each movements ; courage and common sense are
always respected in England; never snore so than
amongst its rural population ; and now that the
loaders of the dear bread party have reduced their
claims on the pockets of their fellow-countrymen to
a tie. duty, or 4s. a quarter more than wheat now
pays, the bubble they were blowing has burst, and
the farmers know to a penny the exact worth of
their own friends.

If anything can convince the Essex farmers of the '
insincerity of their pretentious friends, it will curdy
De the sliding-scale of Sir W. BOWYER SMurn's,
protection. Last year, it seems, nothing short of an
18e. or 20s. duty on foreign grain would satisfy him.
Now, however, he " sings small " and is willing
to take whatever Lord STANLEY will give him ; and
that, all the world knows, is a Ss. duty. So that in
twelve months, during which time domestic agricul-
ture has, we are assured mid certified, been going
from bad to worse, the claims of protectionist aspi-
rants to bucolic votes have been descending even
more rapidly than the price of grain ; and the farmers'
friend in South Essex now asks 13s. or 13s. a quar-
ter less duty than he did when they were much
better off. So that, in all probability, by the time
the next freneral election arrives, this honourable
baronet, with the queer Dutch name, will be quite
content with the protection that Is. a quarter affords.
At all events, it is clear that what ho wants to pro-
tect is a STANLEY cabinet, not British agriculture.
There is about Sir EnwAan BUXTON'S notice of
this inconsistency a quiet good sense that contrasts
very favourably with his rival's nonsense. Agricul-
tural prosperity cannot, he argues, be restored by
any such duty ; for though it would raise the price
of Frain slightly (more, perhaps, than Sir EDWARD
anticipates), the reductions of rent and expenses now
in and increasing: would be interrupted;
and under the guise of an insufficient protection, the
farmer would have higher rent to pay, and be de-
luded into his old careless, costly system. And thus
it is ; turn which way wo will in this question of
protection, the more clearly it is seen to be • land-
lord question ; the more distinctly does it appear to
be a contest in which a skilful tenant farmer
who can command land on fair and proper terms,
and who, having it on such terms, has capital and
intelligence wherewith to cultivate the soil, has lite-
rally no interest. Bad land and bad farmers are, no
doubt, in the same boat as bad landlords; and to
them all a large fixed duty would perhaps bring
profit. But these are classes thrown overboard by
Lord STANLEY, who, despite his political faults, has
no notion of treating land ill.
The time is, however, past for arguing the question
of free trade ; our duty is, now we have it, not to
treat it as an open or an arguable question, but to re-
gard it as a fundamental law, to be defended and
preserved at all hazards, at all risks, in spite of all
dangers. There it is, classed with Magna Charta,
the Bill of Rights, the Act of Settlement, the Union
Act, the Emancipation Act, and such mho* statutes,
all of which had to undergo in their times some little
hostility and opposition, and to suffer some noisy at-
tacks: but none of which any sane person ever seri-
ously proposed to repeal or modify. And so it is and
will be with the corn law • until, indeed, material
comfort shall be less valuable to a nation than civil
and religious freedom.

ON the occasion of two of the three recent vacan-
cies in the direction of the East India Company,
there have been sharp and smart contests for the
very agreeable, very influential, and not very la-
borious or responsible office ; the defeated candidate
c each wagon being, however, the successful one
ea the next opportunity.
By the demise of Mr. HENRY Sr. GEORGE
Tucxna, a gentleman eminently qualified by long
experience of India, by considerable abilities, by
high principles, and by the purest sense of honour,

for the seat he so worthily occupied in the Court of
Directors, a third vacancy has occurred in the course
of a few months; and now, strange to say, there
is neither to be a contest, nor will Mr.
CtRNAC MORRIS, the aspirant who was de-
feated at the last ballot, succeed in his
still subsisting ambition to participate in the home
administration of Indian affairs and in the domestic
distribution of Indian patronage. Scarcely had death
done its worst with Mr. TUCKER, than the usual
number of advertisements and pretensions appeared.
But, after a pause, all except one, have disappeared;
and Mr. Monxis, not yet however, despairing of his
object, has announced that he will not at present
proceed to another ballot. The consequence is that
Mr.l. 13. ASTELL will, in all probability, be the new
director.

This exceptional state of things requires a little
explanation : for it is suggestive of growing influ-
ences and combinations to supply these vacancies,
not altogether in accordance either with the spirit of
the statute in that case made and provided, or with
the improved tone and feelings of public sentiment
in such matters. Of the gentlemen, however, who
aim at seats in the court, none, it may be at once
granted, had better pretensions than the one who is
likely at present to succeed. The memory and re-
collection of the late high-minded and honourable
Mr. ARTELL still lives in the City of London ; it
will, indeed, long survive, at once a stimulus to and
an example of unswerving commercial rectitude; an
illustration and an instance of how a devoted and
active sense of individual duty and responsibility
command far greater respect and deeper affection
than mere worldly prosperity; and that the best in-
heritance any man can bequeath to his family is the
reputation of unsullied honour and of the sternest in-
tegrity, preserved amidst the difficulties of private,
and the temptations of public life.
Thus strongly, supported by the recollection of his
father's long public services in and out of the Court
of Direction, and himself well qualified by personal
acquaintance with Eastern countries and politics, it
is very natural that Mr. J. If. ASTELL should aspire
to the direction ; and it is only a proper tribute of
respect to those services that, being so qualified, he
should be successful. Not a suggestion can, there-
fore, be raised against that gentleman's election;
and had a contest been necessary there can be little
doubt but that the result would have been exactly
what the forthcoming ballot will produce.
But there appears to be involved in this election a
contingency which, though the election itself may
be proper, is not so free from objection. Mr. C.tßN.tc
MORRIs, in withdrawing from a contest at present,
does so, he states, because Mr. DuntEv Corms

MAIUORIBANKS, another aspirant to the direction, has
thrown his influence into Mr. J. ASTELL'S favour;
and Mr. M kn.IOItIBANKS announces his intention of
going to the ballot on the next vacancy.
Here there arc indications of a spirit of intrigue
and a system of management that must be guarded
against; otherwise the Court of Directors of the
East India Company may be allowed to degenerate
into a sort of family compact. Mr. MARJORIDANKS is,
we believe, a young gentleman of brilliant pecuniary
prospects; connected, on the one hand, with an emi-
nent banking house, and, on the other, by marriage
with the present deputy chairman of the Court of
Directors, Sir J. W. hoes. Ile has not, however,
any especial qualifications for a seat in the court,
lother than such information about India as any ac-
complished and intelligent gentleman can pick up
who has never been there, and who has ample leisure
'at his disposal with inclination to use it well.
It is doubtless very meritorious in a young
gentleman so Situated to desire to be use-
fully engaged in high and responsible duties ; and
when experience in the arduous undertakings of life
shall have indicated peculiar fitness for participating
in the direction of East Indian affairs, no one will
object to his aspiring thereto. But, at present, all
that can be recognised in the candidature of Mr.
D. C. M ULJOILIDANKS is the connexion subsisting
between him and Sir J. W. limn ; and that, we
take it, is hardly a fair claim to the future suffrages
of the proprietors of the East India Company; able
a man as Sir J. W. Hoc° undoubtedly is, and useful
though he may make himself to government
when at a pinch. If, therefore, Mr. MARJORIBANKS
has hereafter to have a quid for his quo in now
giving the support of his friends to Mr. ASTELL, a
very bal system is about to be begun in elections
to the direction of the East India Company, and ono
that ought to be nipped in the bud.
Of Mr. CARNAC MORRIS we know nothing, and
take no interest in his future success or failure. But
to the growth of family parties in the Court of Di-
rectors, as seems to be contemplated, the greatest
objections must be entertained by all who desire to
see India well governed • and with this danger in
prospect, we cannot forbear letting Sir J. W. HoGo
know that his designs have already attracted, and
will continue to receive, public attention.