The Sun.
London, England, 1852-11-03 00:00:00

,
M.Mitnirt4 gall) t .

LONDON, WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 3, 1852.

Another evening, and we shall have the short-band
writers again hard at work in the galleries at West-
minster. Several days must, of course, elapse bee
fore the Ministers will find themselves enabled " to
buckle to" in earnest—the House of Commons hav-
hog to pass through the preliminary labour of inaugu-
ration. After the swearing in of the Members, there
will come the election of the Mr. SPEAKER—the
candidate for that high office being, as is now gene-
e'ally understood, the Right Hon. Cnertexs SHAW
LFFEYRE, as the candidate of the Opposition, and
on.e whose character renders him not unacceptable as
the candidate of the Government. Whether the di—
tinguished ex• Speaker, the representative of North
Harney-lire, will regime his position as the first Com-
moner of England, or whether he will be required to
give place Ito the Right Hon. the ATTORNEY..
GENEI:AL, the member for Stamford, and thereupon
retire hnto the illustrious privacy of the peerage—
rewarded by the coronet he has earned in three suc-
cessive Parliaments—are matters which will now in
the coarse of a few hours be definitively decided by
the Legislature. The circular recently issued by Mr.
Meeeeezre would appear, it is true, to indicate that
the re-election of Mr. SHAW LEFEVRE will be unop-
posed by the nomination of Sir FREDERICK TIAESIGEK
as the Ministerial candidate. Thereupon will follow
the series of what we may call funeral orations to be
pronounced by, the more distinguished Members in
both Houses of Parliament over the memory of the
late Duke of WELLINGTON. Through these intro-
ductory labours of the short session now on the eve
of commencement, the Cabinet will have to struggle
manfully in the hope of at last setting themselves in
some way or other, to a certain extent, right with the
nation, either before the last few days of November,
or the first few days of December. It is desirable,
lodeed, that the country at length be in some mea-
sure compensated for the disappointment resultieg
from
_ ee many official incidents leading to procrasti-
u3u m after procrastination. It is but right that
sernething like an understanding should be
arrived at between the representatives of the com-
munity and the Members of her MAJESTY'S Govern-
ment. Matters have continued long enough in a
state of uncertalut
,t i
calculated, if blindly persisted
prove detritu2n
in, to
individual
national interests, and
especially- to the
mercantile interests
of the population. For
the
credit of the country
cannot possibly be maintainsetdo
.
the a
.healthy state so
long as there is doubt a
Leaders of the Administration.
of It
i:tentions of the
one of the ele-
mentary truths in the science government.lliuknlt isd
ono of the most familiar among the more
axioms of politics. But, unfortunately, in additione
to this, it is a truth just now requiring, in
-- a eery
lamentable, a direct re•enforcement, and an'
axiom that demands imperatively at the present junc-
ture an audible and explicit repetition. M. DE LA.
MAATINr, not long ago, gave his "Confidences" to
his fellew-Frenchmen—Lord DERBY must now give
his to hisfellow-Englishmen. Only instead of indulging
na with the aec-,unt of love-passages with GnA-
ZIULLA, he must gratify the multitude by telling them
all about his late Ministerial flirtation, with Free
Trade. The truth is, the country is bent upon hav-
ing the Plume Miarseart at last making a clean
breast of it, and we doubt not that the Noble Earl
has hill-pelf become by this time sufficiently conscious
that the community will not brook any further er
aartplemental dia?ppointment.
A ittle time longer, therefore, and the nation will

be relieved from its recently protracted uncertainty as
to the ulterior designs contemplated by the DERBY
Administration. A little time longer, and we shall
be enabled eo fathom the long inscrutable mysteries
of the existing Government. A funeral page int must
first of all carry the popular interest away from the
atmosphere) of Parliament in the direction of those
vaults of St. Paul's Cathedral, in the centre of which
England is about to place with earnest care, side by
side wjah the Temains of her greatest naval hero,
eNeLscae, those of her greatest military hero, WEL-
LING TON. Afterwards, but not until afterwards,
,ean we turn with undistracted attention to the debates
and divisions taking place hard by the venerable
Abbey at Wes tminster. Nobody will feel inclined
to scrutinize very rigidly the proceedings either in
the Lords or in the Commons, while the body of the
brave old warrior is reposing uninterred in the
Castle at Walmer—saving alone those particular
proceedings which may have reference to the obse-
quies of ARTHUR the first Duke of WELLINGTON.
Nobody, still more confidently may we assert this,
would feel for one moment disposed to watch with
ordinary vigilance the nightly additions to the re-
cords of _Hansard while the inanimate form of the
more doubtable soldier of England is lying in state
in the grand hall of Chelsea Hospital. Yet later on in
November there will be the immediate period of the
public funeral, upon the solemn pomp of which the
regard of the whole nation will be concentrated
to the temporary oblivion of the interrupted labours
of the Legislature. Thereafter we repeat, but not
until then, we shall have reached a breathing time,
in the course of which we may find leisure to listen
attentively to the more momentous discussions taking
place within the walls of the Imperial Legislature.
There is one reflection connected with the approach-
ing session, eminently calculated to prove in the
highest degree satisfactory to the population. Cock-
fighting, it is true, is illegal—but then there are hap-
' pily still reserved for the enjoyment of her MAJESTY'S
lieges the rhetorical contentions and wordy squabbles
taking place nightly, at certain seasons of the year in
one or other of the illustrious Houses of her MA-
JESTY'S Parliament. At the particular period at
which we have now arrived, we have the delightful
prospect of a more than usually varied succession of
" sparring matches" between the legislative athletes
of the United Kingdom. For one thing—we may
rest confident of this, that, each in turn, the principal
Ministers of the Crown will find themselves
pitted against the ablest debaters of the Opposition.
The Earl of DERBY will have a hard
time of it, although he is among the category of the
Prime Ministers ruling the British Empire, osten-
sibly through the Lords instead of the Commons.
Mr. DISRAELI will, if possible, have a still harder,
being required to bear the brunt of the whole on-
slaught as leader of the popular branch of the Legis-
lature. The Erse of MALMESBURY, in the Upper
House, will have to explain away his concessions at
Florence, and to demonstrate that stringent measures
were really demanded by the circumstances of the case
for the future protection of the British North Ameri-
can Fisheries. Mr. Wileroes will be required in his
turn to satisfy the conscience of the country that he
has been neither inactive nor precipitate in his arrange-
ments for the reorganization of the Militia. The
Duke of NORTHUMBERLAND will be compelled so far
to lay bare the secrets of the Board of Admiralty as
to satisfy the community that the old-fashioned habits
of indolence has been abandoned in the English dock-
yards in the presence of the tremendous preparations,
in the way of maritime improvements, now 'lnking
in the French dockyards, as may be readily seen by
a glance at the naval doings at Rochefort. Inquiries,
no less eager and searching, will, doubtless, be shortly
addressed in due course to Sir JOHN PAICINGTON and
Mr. HERRIES, to Lord JOHN MANNERS and to Mr.
HENLEY, to the Hon. AUGUSTUS STAFFORD and to
Mr. CHRISTOPHER—in short, to every one of the pro-
minent Members in the DERBY Government. Out of
all these investigations we may anticipate, conse-
quently, not only a large amount of amusement,
but a considerable store of instruction, as to the
course which has already been pursued, and as to that
which is likely to be pursued in the development of
the hitherto veiled policy of a hastily constructed, but
we trust enlightened, Administration.

There has been an unusual dearth of political
banquets this season. This fact can easily be ac-
counted for. The worthy bucolics who were always
ready to " eat and drink" for the good of their coun-
try, and who found a dismal consolation in hearing
gloomy tales of the certain ruin awaiting in the first
instance all persons engaged in agricultural pursuits,
and eventually, the entire community, including
those short-sighted individuals who were so unrea-
sonable as to object to the imposition of a bread-tax,
were discouraged at the irrevocable abandonment of
" Protection" by her MAJESTY'S Minis'ers, while
the leaders—the stars who visited the provinces—
astonishing and delighting the rustics by the bril-
liancy of their oratory, and the uncompromising
assertion of the propriety and expediency of a Corn.
law, had many reasons for avoiding such ga-
therings. They could no longer affect to.believe in
the possibility of a resuscitation of the defunct monster
That would scarcely go down with the most credu-
lous sample of rural simplicity. Nor would it have
been very politic for those who either are in actual
enjoyment of, or are panting for, a participation in
the loaves and fishes. It was, therefore, probable
that they might have to "swallow" something more
than the viands for the general use ; and that broken
or neglected pledges woul I prove much less palatable
than the mighty joints of beef and mutton, the burning
tankards of potent ale, or the brandied :sherries or
fiery port, set aside the consumption of the sturdy
yeomen. Some few bad nerve sufficient to meet the
disappointed farmers, hut such conduct was the ex-
ception, and not the rule. And, generally speaking,
the eating and drinking was devoted to the advance-
ment of agricultural knowledge, or tho improvement
of stock. The melancholy fact being, at last, ad.
mitted, that farmers must look to their own exertions
for success, and not to any Legislative miracle that
could be performed in their favour.
On the other hand, the hurry and bustle consequent
on the general election, and the certainty that Parlia-
ment would meet for the despatch of business early
in November, and that, consequently, it would be a
time "not for sayings, but for doings," prevented
many assemblages that might otherwise have taken
place in honour of Free Trade, and to express the
unflinching devotion of the audience to the cause of
unrestricted commerce.

The men of Manchester were, however, resolved
that one demonstration at least should take place
worthy of their former fame, and of the spirit and
determination that achieved a triumph in the face of dif-
fieulties that might have appalled the most courageous.
What they do in the manufacturing metropolis, they do
well. They are not men for half measures, or leaving
any doubt as to their inflexible resolution. It was
scarcely necessary to kick the unseemly car-
case that had long since been consigned to an early
grave, but so long as any political quack could be
found, to express the faintest hope of its revival, it
was well to show what he would have to encounter
in the despairing efforts. No real danger of such a
result was to be anticipated; but there would be
mischief in any agitation that might be carried on
under the erroneous supposition that the snake was
only " scotched, not killed."
on any former occasion were so
maNnyeveprOpPaP'
popular representatives assembled at a pro-
vincial meeting. Men who were not the nominees
of an aristocratic portion—but who owed their elec-
tion to the unpurchased suffrages of independent
constituencies, and not to bribery or intimidation.
The representative of the West Riding of Yorkshire,
the largest county constituency, was supported by the
honourable gentleman the member for Glasgow, the
representative for the largest borough constituency
in the United Kingdom. A host of worthy coad
jutors were in attendance. Mr. MILNEE GIBSON,
who might be regarded as the leader of the move-
ment for the repeal of the taxes on knowledge was
supported by the Hon. H. P. BERKELEY, the tried
consistent anti efficient champion of " protection to
the humble voter in the exercise of his most sacred
duty by means of the ballot." Many members from
the sister-isle proved that notwithstanding the absence
of manufactures in Ireland, and the assertion that it
was a purely agricultural country, the Irish people
were gill faithful to the en„,o ot.
Free Trade, and
that the 841539 efficient support may be anticipated

from their representatives that has ever been af-
forded on all points relating to Free Trade. We
cannot attempt to particularise the " good men and
true " who attended, or the celebrities who were
obliged to forward apologies in place of personally
exhibiting their devotion to the cause, their name was
legion ; and it is sufficient to say that the Free
Trade Hall was crowded to suffocation, every avail-
able spot being densely packed, there being more than
three thousand persons present assisting in the de-
monstration, and lending their moral weight to the
firm and:unyielding resolution thereby expressed. It
is needless to say that there was the most perfect
unanimity, that no difference of opinion disturbed the
harmony that should prevail among those assembled
for one common object—and that of the most patriotic
description—viz., to preserve the rights of the people
intact, and to prevent a reimposition of the odious
tribute so long paid by " the many" to " the few"—
by the over-toiled operative and intelligent artisan to
increase the wealth and stimulate the pride of " the
territorial aristocracy."

The veteran Chairman of " the League," the honest
and consistent GEORGE WILSON, took the chair. It
was an honour well earned by his former services—
and one which we believe will never be withdrawn by
a Manchester meeting from the general who led them
from their earliest organization, when seven men
assembled in a small back room, until the final
triumph of the noble cause in which they were
engaged. He might indeed refer with pride to
his antecedents—the very place of meeting must
have excited emotions of no ordinary character,
and the reorganisation of the body which sprung
into vigorous and matured existence the moment a
necessity for its action appeared to manifest itself,
27,0001. being collected within twenty-five minutes,
which was subsequently increased within a few days
to over 70,0001., proved that ;the same spirit still sur-
vived in the hearts of the survivors of that faithful
band. The next post of honour was justly accorded
to RICHARD COBDEN, who seldom appeared to greater
advantage. It was the subject on which he bad
gained his ancient laurels, and be proved himself
worthy of his former reputation. Sir WILLIAM
CLAY, Lord GODERICII, and Messrs. BRIGHT, KEOGH,
BERKELEY, MILNER GIBSON, and CHEETHAM, also
spoke earnestly and impressively, and at a
late hour the proceedings terminated; proceed-
ings which will long be remembered, not only
in Manchester or in Lancashire, but through-
out the entire length and breadth of the land,
which will strike terror into the Protectionists, if any
are yet to be found, and give courage to the advocates
for the removal of every existing restriction on the
trade and commerce of the country.