The Sun.
London, England, 1852-01-09 00:00:00

they must, had not the smack's boat most opportunely
put off to their aid, have perished. Two sovereigns
were also voted to two pilots of the river Dee, for
having saved the lives of the crew of a smack, sunk on
a recent occasion during a heavy gale off the point of
Ayr, on the coast of Flintshire. The crew had taken
to the rigging, and were rescued from their perilous
situation, after three unsuccessful attempts, the pilots'
boat being very inadequate to contend with the high sea
that was running at the time. Daring the past year it
was stated that upwards of seven hundred wrecks had
taken place on the coasts of the United Kingdom,
causing, as usual on the occasion of such disasters, a
frightful loss of life. We understand that the institu-
tion is now making vigorous exertions to increase the
number of its life-beats on the coast, and we trust that
the public will liberally second its humane and hitherto
successful efforts to save life from shipwreck.

STATE OF PARTIES.
(From the Times.)
There is one contingency which factions are apt to
overlook, and that is the contingency of success. A
game may be very good so long as it is confined to
the instant there is a
tschaens talking- For an ex-
r than the alliance of
aangme
necessity
ptealsetsiiowtnye,
fbonurateadmc
tainnyogtbargseoa
wkf
eudirol
Republicans, Communists, and Legitimists that
drove Louis Philippe from his throne, and by one
act, concluded his reign and their own. All the
authors of the unspeakable calamity which has
fallen on France were great men in their way, till
they achieved a triumph almost beyond expectation
in February, 1848 ; but since that they have dwindled
toare not even to be found.
It were not prepared for the
Power to which they ostensibly aspired. Something
iis s n
veryi gni fi
clearcn ce '
of the same kind happened in
that and
they some
w
this country, when the
Protectionists last session found themselves sud-
denly invited to form an administration. In
that case happily there was a man of some
weight and 'some experience, who saw the abyss at
his feet, and renounced the dangerous prize of power.
The only damage incurred by the party was the
naive confession of its recognised chief, that it con-
tained no men who were competent to lead Parlia-
ment and advise her Majesty. Theie the evil stopped
for the present. But what
if the same contingency
should occur next session, and power be once more
tendered with redoubled urgency ? Should a weak Go-
vernment with a budget of weak measures encouter a
weak support and a strong opposition—in a word,
should the Ministry have to undergo once more the
ordeal of last session, and have to run the gauntlet of
perpetual defeats, it is quite possible that the Protec-
tionists may find greatness thrust upon them in spite
of their natural modesty. Should that be the sase,
they will, of course, be driven to a dissolution, and
we have never denied that a general election would
probably give them a few votes. They would then
have to meet Parliament, and would forthwith have
to announce the polic-
y on which for the future they
expect the country to be governed. That hour of
triumph would only be the beginning of their diffi-
culties.

Two courses would then be open to them ; the
,
one, that suggested by the strong pecuniary appe-
tite of the landed interest Viz , a good measure of
protection ; the other, that devised by the more
subtle genius of the Protectionist leader in the
Commons—viz., a relief from the peculiar burdens
alleged to have been the the counterpose of Protec-
tion, and to have become intolerable in its absence.
It is not for us to
say which policy would prevail
in the agitated counsels of that fearful crisis, but, if
we are to believe the great body of Protectionists
themselves, ;hey would make straight for a good
sliding scale, or an eed
valorem duty on all imports,
or something, at all events, that would forthwith put
a round sum into their pockets. But, even if we
suppose a more temporising policy, indicating, in the
shape of relief, that the country is to be governed
for the peculiar benefit of the agriculturist, the
effect would be much the same on the mind of the
country at largo. In one form or another the Pro-
tectionist Minister would have to announce the policy
of befriending one class at the expense of all the rest.
So, at least, it would be understood; and, if it were
not so understood, it would not answer its purpose of
uniting the Protectionist
phalanx. Such a policy
would be suicidal, in exact proportion to the ways and
means that might possibly be found for averting its
immediate rejection.
In the first place, it would reduce all the growing
intellect and expanding effections of the landed inte-
rest to the fell necessity of one more final Protec-
tionist self-immolation. Dukes and squires would
have to declare themselves once more in black and
white, merging all private misgivings and minor
differences. If a country gentleman had almost
forgotten his politics in useful pursuits, or if he
had learn to recognize free trade as a fact, he
would find himself pressed once more into the last
defence of a desperate cause. There has been only one
parallel that we know of for the net of destruction in
which the party would find itself involved, and that it
may read in the fate of the men whom a certain Jew-
ish usurper invited to a great act of sacrifice provided
with distinguishing vestments, and cut off from all pos-
sible retreat. The effect of such a policy as would then
of necessity be placed before the Legislature would
be to compel all sides to declare themselves, and to
reduce the natural multiplicity of opinions to a simple
Yea and Nay.
While the unhappy agriculturists
would find themselves obliged to persevere or recant,
the numerous other classes and interests in the State
swi
sOttle would bee.T
drawnhere into a closer and simpler unity of re-
would rise such acry as was often heard
in the middle ages among the stout-hearted burghers
who found their commerce interrupted and their liber-
ties threatened by the lord ofsome neighbouring castle
swept away in one hour the privileges of
the aristocracy.
R—such
u tai
o nc cry
y as was heard in France before the First
There are too many in this country
who would like nothing so much
as a Protectionist
Government, for they know well the tendency of one
extreme to provoke and prepare for the other, and
they know that the obstinate assertion of agricultural
privileges might lead to a crusade against all privileges
whatever.
Were such a Ministry to be in for a month, it
would be the signal for a counter-organization more
extensive, and probably more permanent and danger-
ous, than any we have yet Seen. That organization
would proceed, not merely on the fact that
commercial freedom and equality were threatened,
but on the fact that the Whigs had failed
to carry on the Government, and that no
then
talcs
An extreme class of politicians
would come forward, no longer as reformers of ancient
party
their
pn l a theee high political world was able to
.
abuses, but as deliverers from growingcwleonf gpoerwwerou; would the country at large
party prepared to go any lengths,
difficulties and
impending dangers. The expedient of a dissolution
would give the Minister time and enable him to
opportunity of an utterly but the longer he held
abneDowning-street enjoydin rejoicing t ah briefeh a nsd shadow
in aodt
fhot
the
e
un-
popular and impotent administration. Thus far we
have been delivered from Chartists. They take no hold
than
on the mass of the people ; out of doors they get nothing
but
never advance further
Govern-
ment once threatens to be retrograde
an onward
movement. will be met
signatures
annual
oration.indoors
if
the
policy of the
by an almost universal combinationfor
movement. Now, the question for gentle-
men country to consider ie, whether they are prepared for the
fearful responsibilities of such a crisis We repeat
that, after the example of 1
t
aa
8 year, they may be
forced into a temporary triumph in spite spi
i te of them-
selves. But it will be by their owr act and deed.
e
Reluctant as they may be st the last moment to
reaction,
undertake a gret Protectioniat the course
divisions
they are now taking, and the divisions they are now
promoting, may ultimately, and before very long,
force them to the attempt- and some of the party
it may be a very agreeable thou h that they may
possibly wake some mornie oug t
Mi-
uiaters ; but Lord D g and find themselves . _
erhy is not one of those sell-
flattering enthusiasts, ei not particularly im-
patient to undertake a eis
s
Protectionist Administration,
for he knows what it
Would end in.

CONFESS
lam a regular downright vegetarian, I am. I taste
nothing that has been connected with blood, and my
fishes, as it is from that tShTtOoFf AmyltrowEnGsEpeTeiAes:ll:Ng:
the
stomach is as free from the flesh of beasts, birds, and
whole hog without killing
him, as if I were a snob I
should shudder when making use of his bristles. I had
once some hair bottomed chairs, but my conscience was
so tender that I could cot sit down upon them without
feeling a degree of horror so
air-bottomed ones instead.
so I gave them away for the
sake of peace, ant got some
Aad now, considering the whole, it may literally be said
of me that I live upon
gutty percha and west of England. The phrase " nothing
me
like leather," don't suit . can't look at the article
of
without thinking the wind. My shoes are made of
blood. Shirt and other buttons
made of bone I abominate; they smell of death, and
that sickens me. So I wear no buttons, but those made
of papier-machi, which in reality are vegetable buttons.
I burnt my
wife's muff last week, and threw away half
a score of kid gloves; the skin of the poor dear dumb
animals melts ale. I hate the butchers with so much
zeal that I could drown them in the blood they shed,
were it permitted
me to take life. Myself and a few
similar spirits are about forming a society which is to be
called the ‘• Anti- Devouring Club." The objects of it
will be to save all life, from an adder to a rhinoceros,
from a sprat to a whale, from a wasp to an eagle. For-
sons are to be employed in the forests to prevent the
wild beasts from gorging upon cacti other, and divert
will be sent into the deep to tame the sharks and cause
the larger fishes to live upon seaweed instead of upon
the small fry. G
—re", the aeronout, will be the Van
Amburgh of the birds of prey in the airy regions.
And lastly, we shall have all butchers, sausage-makers,
and rat-catchers tried for wilful murder, and when we
have found them
guilty, as being taken red fang, instead
of punishing them Capitally, we shall send them to
Botany Bay, there to vegetate for the rest of their
lives upon the esculents from which the place takes its
name.

HULL, JAM. W.S.W., strong. —Arni. Amelia,
Juga, Alexandria; TrYPhelaa, 6t. Alicliael'e,