The Sun.
London, England, 1864-03-31 00:00:00

midst of the general fickleness and volatility showL,
by their neighbouring Liberal boroughs. He had
earned for himself no mean reputation in the House,
of Commons. OF late years especially he was one 01
a class, always rarer than they ought to be, by}
on whose presence there much of the influence o
the house depends in the country—men who, though
they may remain attached to a party, are known to
have passed beyond the ordinary objects of par*:
ambition, who are no longer tempted by visions 01
place or power, and who have risen superior to the
din and turmoil of party strife to those serene regions
where they act rather as mediators than as parti-
sans. It is a grand sight on the eve of a great party
division, when the House of Commons grows weary
of debate and clamours loudly for a division, to see
how all the tumult and uproar are hushed at once
into respectful silence as one of this class—a mall
weighty in his character and piety, as Virgil has it
—rises in his place, and with his first slow measured
tones stills the roaring of the multitude, and recalls
them to their position as English gentlemen and
representatives of the English people. It would be
invidious to enumerate the men who possess this
privilege, but now that he is about to leave the as"
sembly where his portly figure has been so long
familiar there can be no indelicacy in saying that it
is possessed in an eminent degree by Sir Francis
Baring. Nor must it be forgotten that the privilege
has its drawbacks. A man who aspires to this kind
of influence must first make it clear that he has re'
nounced the desire of power. There was a time
when Sir Francis was as eager as other men in the
pursuit of place, and in the course of his long career
he has had his full share of it. There have been feW
Whig Governments formed since he has been in Par•
liament in which he has not held a place of more or
less importance. He was a Lord of the Treasury
under Earl Grey •, a Secretary of the Treasury,
blossoming into a Chancellor of the Exchequer, under
Lord Melbourne; and First Lord of the Admiralty
under Lord J. Russell. His experience in official life
is therefore extensive, and we are bound to admit
that, with the exception of his unlucky Chan.'
cellorship of the Exchequer, it was well performed.
But on his elevation to the Exchequer he might
well have complained that he had fallen on evil
times. The adoption of the penny postage systems
from which we now gather such marvellous fruits,
had just taken place, and Sir Francis Baring sue•
ceeded to an empty Exchequer and an enormous
deficiency. And, unfortunately for him, he had yet
the inventive genius to fill the gap. Had our
finances been in their ordinary condition no better
man could have been found for keeping them safe,
and for seeing that not a shilling was unnecessarily
or extravagantly spent ; but his was not the genius
that could discover new springs or invent nevi
modes of making taxation pleasant. Sir Robert
Peel's humorous picture of him sitting on the Trea-
sury Bench and fishing for a budget was too happy
to be soon forgotten ; and the additional per-cen•
tages to the customs and excise duties, which were
the sole result of his angling, seem to have been pre-
served by all future finance ministers as a moan'
ment of their helplessness and incapacity of one nt
their predecessors. There was no need of such
memorial. We should have remembered him by
quite other marks. Had a more capable Minister
than he been at that time in charge of our finances
his auccessor would not have had the excuse Sir
Francis furnished him with for imposing the income
tax. But though not happy as a financier, Sir,
Francis Baring always commanded the respectful
attention of his party, and that respect, as we have
intimated, eventually extended itself over the whole
house. His rising was always the signal for silence
whatever was the temper of that mobile assembly
he could always secure attention. And as his argil'
ments, though moderate in tone, and delivered with
judicial gravity, were invariably urged in favour of
Whig principles and Whig conduct, there can be
no doubt that the party had in him an adherent of
more value than many of those who would bring
more energy, more zeal, or more eloquence into
their service. The moderation of his opinions was!
constant check upon the wilder and more advanced
members of the party. and his own steadiness of ad'
herence kept many a waverer firm to the Whig
standard. We can well believe that there were
many country gentlemen, the descendants of the
old Whig party, who had begun to doubt whether
the principles of Burke and Rockingham were
not better represented in our days by Lord Derby
and Mr. Disraeli than by Lord Palmerston and Mr.
Gladstone, but who stilled their rising scepticisfe
by the reflection that so long as Sir Francis Baring
and such as he remained by the Whigs the party
could not wholly have abandoned their traditionary
principles. But now these ties are loosening day
by day. The men who were the ligatures of the
Ministerialist crew drop off or disappear. and the
motley crew which still calls itself the Whig peel
is fast falling into a state of decomposition. tide
look forward with confidence to an approaching
general election to quicken the process and to re'
move it from the position it now occupies, where,
by the confession of its own friends, it has become
useless for any national purpose, incapable of carry'
ing any measure, and as, in fact, only cumbering
the ground.

,rj

COUNTRY MARKETS.

i'i, --

NONMOUTII—TuEsDA.Y.

The local markets have been thinly attended during th°
week, owing to the farmers being busily engaged in sowing/
and prices aro firmer. The average quotations are as fol•
lows .
Wheat, white 5s 3d to 5s 9d I 8ar1ey...... td 2s 84
Ditto red .0s Od to Os Od Oats ... 2s 2d to 2s 9a