The Sun.
London, England, 1852-04-15 00:00:00

(r)
noted what they saw for perhaps half a century, GI
and who have witnessed many a sudden gush of
prosperity, are new as surprised at what they see as
if the,like had never been seen before ? It is because
everything is abundant and cheap, and yet wage*keciii, K
up and labour bas its due. It is because bread is uh-t- • (7','
taxed ; because`all kinds of food, if not wholly free,-
are at least little taxed ; it is because bricks are un-
taxed, and timber .owing to the reduction of the
duties, costs two-thirds, in some instances less than
half, its former price; it is because coal cheap,
metals are cheap, and all the material• of industry
is free. Hence it is that our hard-working popu-
lation facility and every inducement to
labou haver,to.settle, every
to be householders,
to surround
a themselves with comforts, and maintain a decent
state. How far they will generally stand the trials
of prosperity, which, certainly has its tritits, is a
question for them to consider very gravely ; but it
is not a question for the -nation to decide by starving
the poor man for the safety of his soul.
Though the surrender, then, is as total ass it is
reasonable to require, Mr. Adderley still retains his -
abstract love of Protection, his tender recollections of
its benign influence, and his fond anticipations of itq
possible, though distant revival. He tells us he belt
not in the slightest degree abandoned his opinion that
the agricultural interest had a right to pr4tective
duties, as an equivalent for their extra share in the
national burdens. Till the nation undergoes the above-
mentioned change of opinion as to the wisdom of a
duty on corn, he demands from a country proverbial
for its love of fair play, that a class which is now dis-
playing so much tardy and superfluous generosity
snail be relieved from those burdens which, as he says,
are now wholly uncompensated. On this point we only,
wish that he had spoken with a particularity and ex-
actness which promised success, if not in obtaining,
actual relief, at least in telling us what ought to be'
done. Strongly as we feel that many agriculturists
have suffered by the change, and are now more bur-
dened than they would have been but for the theory'
of a protected agriculture, we wholly despair of hit-
ting the exact remedy which is to relieve the ease of
the sufferers without either injury to one class or
wasteful generosity to another. In justice to Mr:
Adderley, it ought to be stated that he most empha-
tically.deprecates any measures of relief which shall
have the power, if not the form, of Protection. Nay;
in so doing, he makes a curious admission, which
cienty-disqualifles him from-agitating PrOtiainui
ever.' la- 'that far distant day when a ippentgit and
self" Whit* r
even other mode there may be;' he says, " for an
adjustment of unequal taxation, it appears to me
that those at least must be abandoned whie)?
have the tendency in any degree (and the
less that degree the less reason for adhering to' them)
to raise the price of food." According to Mr. Adder.
ley, therefore, protective measures are only beneficial
so far as they raise the price of the protected article;
and the less nuisance they are to the people, the les,
are they worth the odium of stickling for them. So
the working man's bane is the landlord's weal. Of
course this has often been alleged, but not hitherto
by county members. They have usually tried to
make out that it was possible to fill the pocket of the
andowner without the least interference with that of

the working man ; nay, with benefit to it, rather than
otherwise. •Mr. Adderley, overflowing with candour,
and carried along by the tide of political transition,
has confessed the honest truth, as stated by Mr. Sid..
ney Herbert, that the corn laws were nothing but .a
system of out-door relief for the benefit of the land-
owner.