The Express.
London, England, 1849-05-30 00:00:00

tiection between this and the old " Protection Soci-
eties" which have become by-words even amongst the
protectionists *bem-elves. The first object of the new
society is to adopt means " for tendering the list of
vot re accurate and complete, and for taking such
measures as may protect the elector in the independent
exercise of the franchise." Here we have at once a
sign that the society is something different from the
emanations of the Bond-street clique. The indepen-
dent exercise of the franchise by county electors is
about the last thing the Duke of RICHMOND and his
land-agent hangers on would promote. Then thefourth
purpose is to enforce " the most stringent economy in
the gereral expenditure of the country"—a purpose
quite sufficient to drive away all genteel protectionists.
But the sixth purpose must be still more alarming to
the squirearchy ' • it is " to obtain for the ratepayers
such a share of the management of the county and
other-local rates as may control the lavish expendi-
ture which has hitherto been indulged in."
Now, if the farmers and their friends do join a
society having such practical objects as pro'cction for
independent electors, reduction of national expenditure,
and control over local rates, they will very soon learn
the absurdity of wasting their efforts to restore the
corn tax, and will concentrate their power upon the
more truly useful and attainable purposes of their
association. Whether the farmers, as a body, have as
yet enough of independt nce to carry such a society
may admit of some doubt ; but that there is amongst
them a growing desire for political and social emanct•
pation is certain. Thus we find that in Wiltshire
clubs of the same sort have been either formed or at-
tempted to be establishsd. There is one at Swindon ;
and, at a meeting in Marlborough, Mr. WILLIAMS,
farmer of the neighbourhood, while advocating &
renewal of protection, thus referred to the action of
the existing Protection Society.
You term it a Protection Society ; but what have been the
effects it has produced ? Yen have fancied that you have
done a Streit deal by holding county meetings and getting up
subaeriptiins—by mending deputations to London—by getting
the Dake of Richmond to take the chair—by mating forth a
demons ration in Willis. rooms, and by kicking up an ora-
tion—but what has been the result of it all? Why, that
when you have tone it, the House Me of Commons and the an-
chester School have laughed at it.

With the exception of a few farmers, there are pro-
bably not half-a-dosen men in the kingdom who were
not fully aware from the first that the Bond-street
Society was a mere sham. The society proposed to
be formed, says Mr. WILLIAMS, "has a totally dif-
ferent object ; its chief business will be to see that our
representatives do their duty, and that oar interest in
the House of Commons is properly represented r and
he added :
I think we must all own that the Protection Society has
been a perfect failure. If that, then, is the case—and I be-
lieve no one will deny it—is it not high time that we should
try some other means of making our voices heard in the
legislature? Now, one of the chief objects of our little
clubs—which are cot intended to extend beyond the county,
in cyder that their whole force may be brought to bear upon
the different localities in which they are established—one of
our chief objects, I say, will be to go a-head at the registra-
tion—to look to every individusl voter in the borough in
which a district club Ls tstabli.hed, and to ask each this
qaestiou "D s you sympathise with us in the position in
which we have been placed? If you do, will you join us in
endeavouring to rut things upon a proper footing r
Our course of action shall sot be offensive, but it shall be
bull-dog like, and such as I defy the aristocracy of this
country to withstand. And let the aristocracy look to them-
selves.

Knowing as we do the farmers of that district, we
believe, that though many may sympathise with the
speaker, few will dare to join the society he proposed
to form. Nor is it likely to be very influential so
long as the object of reimposing duties on foreign
grain is persisted in, for it will never have aid from
the trading chests of the district. But it is some-
thing to are the farmers attempting to create for
themselves a political status. Very short time will
prove to them that protection is gone for ever, and a
moderate share of experience will convince them that
they are powerless when apart from the other indus-
trial classes. Then they will cordially join with the
trading classes to effect these changes in the repre-
sentative :system by means of which alone can
general and local financial reorm be obtained.
It is not, however, enough for farmers to pay some
attention to public questions and to the political con-
duct of their representatives ; they most seek indi-
vidually to bec,me independent. They must make
each contracts for their farms as 'will enable them to
think for themselvt s, and act upon their own convic-
tions. They must demand the security of leases, and
resist to the utmost the insertion of restrictions and
reservations which often render an agricultural lease
a mere trap for the tenant. They must not be satis-
fied with the eleemosynary abatements of rent,
which some of the provincial papers are recording as
" liberal" and " generous acts on the part of the
landed proprietors. What are redactions of ten or
twenty per cent.onthe rent,when the tenantscan only
be sure of holding for one year? Farmers may now
be certain that prices in this country will be moderate
and steady, and should act accordingly. They should
see what is necessary to enable them to grow more
produce at a less proportional cost,and then determine
not to hold or take any farms unless they do so on
terms and conditions such as will enable them to act
like men of business. Landowners are not wholly to
blame for the unsatisfactory state of the relations be-
tween landlord and tenant in England. Tenants are
greatly in fault. They submit too readily to the cap
in-hand system, and consent to place their capital at
the mercy of the landowners in a way that is truly
puerile. Let farmers make their own share of their
bargains for securing to themselves safe tenures,
and they may then quietly exercise their electoral
franchises in accordance with their own opinions.
of