The Sun.
London, England, 1852-10-09 00:00:00

THE

SUN,

Porte, was the negotiation of certain necessary ar-
rangements in regard to the proposed libe-
ration of ABD-EL-KADEE. He appears in-
deed to have been instructed to consult with
his Majesty the SULTAN respecting the removal of
the EMIR from the French to the Turkish domi-
nions—the PRINCE PRESIDENT having resolved to set
the Arab Chieftain at liberty in a short time, accord-
ing to the terms of the promise contained in his well-
known letter to the Marquis of LONDONDERRY. We
have little doubt but that, everything considered, the
heart of ABDUL MEDJID will respond eagerly to the
humane intentions of Louis NAPOLEON in reference
to the intended release of ABD-EL..K.ADER. In Eng-
land it cannot very soon be forgotten how nobly the
young SULTAN sympathised, in 1847, in the dreadful
sufferings endured by Ireland in consequence of
the simultaneous appearance of Famine and Pes-
tilence. In Hungary, again, it must long be
remembered with what heroic magnanimity
the same potentate shielded Louis KOSSUTH
and his glorious compatriots, when they were hunted
to the death by the banded Emperors of AUSTRIA and
of all the RUSSIAS. A ruler who could act thus
gently towards a remote people like the inhabitants
of Ireland, and thus bravely towards a defeated and
fugitive leader like the ex-Dictator of the Hungarians,
may assuredly be supposed, without much extrava-
gance, to appreciate to the full the justice and the
generosity of the act by which Louis NAPOLEON
proposes to effect ABD-EL-KADER'S tardy, but not the
less on that account acceptable, liberation.
During the ball recently given to the Chief of the
French Republic by the working classes of Mont-
pellier, it may have been observed that numerous cries
wereraised by the artizsns present of "Five TAmnistio.'
The PRINCE remarked these cries, according to one who
was present and witnessed the incident, but said no-
thing and took his seat upon the estrade prepared
with a chair of state for his reception. But
subsequently, on his rising to depart, and while he
was in the act of descending the steps, the same cries
were repeated. " The PRINCE stopped," says the
eye-witness, " and in a calm and firm voice said, I
hear cries of nve r Amnistie! The amnesty is more
in my heart than in your mouths. If you desire it,
render yourselves worthy of it by your prudence
and your patriotism.' These words," continues the
person who witnessed the occurrence, " were received
by a shout of Vine l'Empereur P and flowers
were thrown to the PRINCE as he returned to
his carriage." Conditions like those abovementioned
may not unreasonably be required by the Chief of
the French Republic as the necessary preliminary to
acts of clemency towards the ordinary class of poli-
tical offenders—but nothing of the kind ,is requisite
or even possible in reference to the peculiar act of
generosity so frequently demanded at his hands i❑
behalf of the heroic ABD-EL-KADER by the veteran
Marquis of LONDONDERRY. An evidence of genero-
si►y, of clemency, and of magnanimity it undoubtedly
will be on the part of Prince Louis Nactomiori, but
it will be none the less also an act of simple
justice. Supposing ABD-EL•KADER to have
been liberated, instead of by the pre-
sent Ruler of France, by one of the Princes
of the House of Orleans, his release would have been
only an act of justice and a token of repentance.
Authorised by the Prince Louis NAPOLEON, the re-
lease of the EMIR will, as already intimated, be a
complex act of justice, of generosity, of clemency,
and of magnanimity. Never did a fairer or more
enviable opportunity present itself to a great poten-
tate for winning " golden opinions" from the ma-
jority of the population. That the PRINCE PRESIDENT
is by no means willing to forego this opportunity
appears to be indicated, and the indication will be
welcome to the Marquis of LONDONDERRY, and still
more to the Emir, ABD•EL•KADER, by the recent
mission of M. BACCIOCIII to the SULTAN'S Court at
Constantinople.

The plan (seldom in practice anterior to the passing
of the Reform Bill) of requiring the represented to
have an account of his stewardship from the repre-
sentative, received a valuable improvement from Mr.
JOHN MACGREGOR, one of the Members for Glasgow,
the second city in the empire. He was the first to
present himself before the non-electors, as well as
the electors, and each successive meeting has only
tended to confirm and strengthen the mutual confi-
dence which has sprung up between them. He has
served them ably and faithfully, and they are grate-
ful to him for what he has done. No man in the
House of Commons is so well acquainted with every-
thing relating to the Trade and Commerce of the
country. His whole life, in and out of office,
has been devoted to this subject, and
his opinion is of great authority in and out of Par-
liament. In his speeches, in his writings, Mr.
MACGREGOR is plain, terse, and oxplicit—he indulges
in no verbosity—he aims at nothing beyond the ex-
pression of his thoughts, Bo that their meaning cannot
be raistalien—he eschews mere figures of rhetoric,
but no man more satisfactorily deals with figures of
arithmetic. His proper position would be in the Ad-
ministration ; but he has disdained the vulgar arts by
which men creQp or wriggle into office. He is too
strongly attached to bis principles to compromise them
by any concession to " the powers that be--he
proudly prefers to occupy the highest position an
honest man can hold in this country, that of an
independent representative of the people. We hesitate
not to say that if Mr. MACGREQOR'S principle of
taxation were adopted (and it is coming into opera-
tion bit-by-bit), the fiscal burthens of the people
would be lessened and equalised, while the Public
Revenue would be greatly increased. Years before
Free Trade was agitated for, Mr. MACGREGOR had
published the proofs of its paramount and inevitable
necessity. When Sir ROBERT PEEL revised the
Tariff it was Mr. MACGREGOR (then one of the
Secretaries of the Board of Trade) who furnished him
with the plan and communicated the information
which he required.

Mr. MacGaanou has just been before his
constituents and non• constituents at Glasgow.
The Council of the Parliamentary Reform
Association in that city have held a great
meeting, at which Mr. MACGREGOR attended,
by special invitation. At that meeting (where it
was resolved that household suffrage, vote by ballot,
equal electoral districts, triennial Parliaments, and no
property qualification, were requisite to ensure a pro-
per representation of the people) Mr. MACGREGOR
stated and explained his views, in a speech of great
force and ability. He started with the admitted
,
truth that " Taxation without Representation is ty-
-1 ranny," and he showed how the people are not repre-
-1 sented—for out of about four millions of adult males
not quite one million have votes. He said, iOWe are
not fairly represented ; and it gives me the greatest
possible pain that we are not justly represented. We
are not properly represented in Parliament, neither
are we represented in the Government of England.
Ireland has a Lord-Lieutenant, and a Secretary of
State, who has the same salary as the Prime Minister
—6,0001. a year. Now, I don't want a Lord-Lieute-
nant for Scotland, but I want a Secretary of State
for Scotland, who should take cognizance of all the
circumstances connected with Scotland, and who should
hold office near the Crown, so that we may be pro-
perly represented in the Government. True, we have
a Lord Advocate in the Parliament House of Edin-
burgh, who spends his time there, taking his fees,
when he ought to be watching the affairs of Scotland
in the Parliament at Westminster. I find that there
are sixty-seven burghs in England that have exactly
the same population as twice that of the Gorbals, and
these send 134 Members to Parliament, each of whom
has as much power in the House of Commons as each
of the Members for Glasgow, and I say that it is,
therefore, the more necessary that the resolution pro-
posed to you to-night should lay down, as it has done,
that no Ministry will have the confidence of this
country if they do not bring forward a great mea-
e of Parliamentary Referm."—Not a mise-
rable,
peddling, deceptive, nominal, make-believe,
measure, such as Lord JonN RUSSELL had the bold-
ness and impertinence to introduce during last
Session, but a real and substantive Reform, which
will give extended
and equal representation. No
thiq
Ministry, neglecting
Ministry CO hope for permanency
granting it, any
Y may reckon on popular sup-
port and gratitude.
Should the present Ministry a
system of taxation which will sk to introduce a
further relieve the
Agriculturists
the
i du
s
by
imposing
restrictions and burdens
unindustrious and manufacturing trading
p
classes.. Mr. MACGREGOR will Oppotse it, He
says,

" Now, we will not consent to anything like indirect
burdens on free trade, If there is a surplus revenue,
I want to apply it to other purposes--.to those
general purposes from which the whole population
will derive an advantage. I wish that the people
of this country should have their tea as cheap
as the people of the United States of America and
of Australia. At present tea is sold at three
hundred times more than its value; that is to
say, that you pay 3s. upon every one shilling's
worth of tea to the public treasury. I want to reduce
it in price, and instead of drinking, as a friend of
mine termed it, stained or coloured water, I want the
people to have good wholesome tea. I think the
surplus revenue should be applied to reduce the tea
and other duties on articles of consumption. There
is nothing in the world so obnoxious as dirt. At
present we have to pay 1,500,0001. for having our
linen and our skins clean—that is the duty upon
soap. That duty ought to be abolished. I will not
give the surplus to the CHANCELLOR of the ERCHE-
QUER for the purpose of relieving the agricultural
classes, because I deny that the agricultural classes
have any peculiar burdens at all."—ln fact, the Le-
gislature, chiefly composed of landlords, have carefully
provided the Agriculturists with numerous exemp-
tions from the burthens which therefore fall un-
equally upon other classes. We need only mention
two instances out of many —fire insurance and
the income-tax—in which the Agriculturists
have been favoured by Class Legislation.
Like other publicists, who have seen and felt in
what manner the Whigs in office have failed to act
up to the professions and promises they made when
out of it, Mr. MACGREGOR is for giving the DERBY
Ministry a fair trial. Of the late Ministry and their
clique he says—" We have, on the other hand, great
biddings for political capital from members of the late
Government in the way of liberal principles ; and I
shall be delighted to find that they are sincere in
their democratic aspirations, but I shall never con-
sent to give them power, but I would like first to
form a social contract with them, that will prevent
them from forming a family clique or compact, which
the moment they get into office would despise the
actual wishes of the people, inasmuch as they
have a hereditary tradition which leads them to
entertain the idea that they alone have a divine right
to breed the statesmen of the British empire. I
want to show them that such a Government cannot
now possibly exist in this country."—This
is pungent, because it is true. The "snug hmily
party" which recently were "at home" in Dowsing-
street are much deceived if they think that Oifile is
to be theirs by hereditary right and mutual agree-
ment. We find Lord JOHN RUSSELL now bidding
largely for office, at Perth and Stirling, by holding
out great expectations of Liberal measures, if tLe
country will only try him once more—but the coma.
try has a right to ask, how it happened that, in the
six years which have passed since Sir ROBERT PEEL'S
Cabinet was dissolved, these Liberal measures were
not introduced ? What security can the Noble Lord
give that, on return to office, he would not re-
sume the do-nothing policy ? If the Past is to
be the prophet of the Future, there is no
hope that the RUSSELL-GEEY-ELLIOT clique will
adopt the principles of Progress. Mr. MACGREGOR,
who knows them well, emphatically declares that
" such a Government cannot now possibly exist in
this country." _ _

We have described Mr. MACGREGOR'S oratory as
being plain, expressive, and free from tinsel orna-
ment. At times, however, this plain-speaking man
produces effects such as the most eloquent might be
proud of. Truth is the " great fact" of his speeches,
and its expression sometimes rises into what, in effect,
is highly poetical. His definition of Democracy is an
example, and to our taste is preferable to the familiar
simile of the ship " reposing on her own stately
shadow," in CANNING'S celebrated speech. We sub-
join Mr. MACGREGOR'S words :
" There is a wide difference between a democrat and a
demagogue—a democrat is one of the people. Demo-
cracy is not well understood, because it is confounded
with the word demagogue; but democracy properly un-
derstood is the most sound, most constitutional, and
most healthy of all the denominations that, under Pro-
vidence, possibly dwells upon the earth. We borrow it
from an old Greek word, ' Demos,' which means 'the
people.' I have always said I was a man of the people;
that I was one of the demos,' and consequently I am a
democrat. Now, when I bear people speaking against
democracy I want to know what they that have opposed
democracy, and who spurn us, the people, have done;
and I put the question to myself, what has democracy
done? Now, I wish to explain that word to you be-
cause a great deal of evil goes forth in reference to
the word without explanation. Democracy means
all those engaged in industrious pursuits, whether
in science or labour, in tilling the ground,
in digging the ditches—whether as merchants,
manufacturers, or navigators—whether they are
engaged in mechanical operations, or whether they are
those ingenious men who have made the discoveries of
those powers which God has given to the intellect and
hand of man, to exercise in great and good works, and I
put the question to myself, what have they done? In
the first place, democracy were the inventors of and dis-
covered everything connected with agriculture, manu-
factures, and navigation. Columbus discovered Ame-
rica, and Vasco di Game discovered the new route round
the world. Who have constructed our ships and canals?
It was the democracy. But I come back to your own river
Clyde. Who have deepened it and made it navigable up to
the Broomielaw? It was the democracy. Who opened
up the mineral riches between the Forth and Clyde, and
to bring forth your coal and iron. It was democracy, and
I defy those who oppose you to say anything to the con-
trary. Who built the great steam-ships that bridge the
Atlantic? The democracy. Who are constructing your
iron ships on the banks of the Clyde? It is the demo-
cracy. Who were they that invented printing, the
steam-engine, the power-loom, cut the canals through
the kingdom, constructed your docks, railways, built
your cities, and brought your cotton, cloth, and iron
manufactures to such perfection? It was the democracy.
Who have made your fashionable attires in cotton, and
silk,
ha d
andi wool? It has been thedaetmi
nation,
aancyd.enFabrloemd
wedriveallthe power of a n
the Government to tax a people, and to exhibit the gran-
deur of princes and of kings? Was it not from the
labour of the democracy?"
We envy not the man who can read the foregoing
(and particularly the practical illustrations with
which it concludes) without having his soul stirred
within him. It is eloquence of the highest order, and
what makes it so is, the fact that every word of it i 8
tru:

SIR CHARLES AND SIR WM. STE WART.
[We are anxious to direct the particular attention
of our readers to the subjoined communication ad-
dressed to us by Lord Londonderry—as, in our lead-
ing article of the 2d instant, inadvertent mention was
made of the gallantry of Sir W. Stewart, in seizing
Colonel Lamotte in the cavalry skirmishes at the
battle of Fuentes d'Onore, instead of particularizing
the daring charge at the heights of Benevente where,
in the midst of the mil4e, General Lefebvre-Des-
nouettes, commander of Napoleon's Imperial Guard,
was taken prisoner by Sir C. Stewart, now the Mar-
quis of Londonderry. This inadvertency, as must
be obvious at a glance, originated in the circumstance
of the Peninsular Wars being illustrated by the per-
sonal bravery of two distinguished officers of the same
name—mentioned by Alison, and others, somewhat
confusedly as " General Stewart," without the prefix
of the Christian name, which would at once mark Sir
William Stewart as the brother of Lord Galloway,
and Sir Charles Stewart as the brother of Lord Cas-
tlereagh.—En.