The Sun.
London, England, 1852-03-13 00:00:00

you will obtain them by a far more costly
process than that which our immediate policy
recommends !" Be it so. We'll " take our
chance," the risk shall be cheerfully encoun-
tered. We will not have a bread tax although
it should not "raise the price of the loaf by more than
a halfpenny," as sagely remarked by Mr. G. CARRING-
TON, of Missenden Abbey, the seconder of the Right
Hon. Gentleman. On that point the people are
firmly resolved. The matter has been
long since disposed of, and any attempt
to enter on a retrograde course, or to bring
back the obnoxious impost, would be as
unavailing as an effort to repeal the Emancipation
Act, and to re-enact the penal code. We should have
added, or to resuscitate the rotten boroughs, but a re-
collection of the " New Reform Bill" compels us to
avoid that dangerous ground.
A clear, distinct, and unequivocal answer will be
returned now, or at any future period, at which the
question may be asked, and that not only on the
hustings, but from every cottage fireside throughout
the length and breadth of the land; not only from the
electors, but from the non-electors, who have yet
sufficient political knowledge to understand that
representation should be coincident with taxation, and
that it is better to have sufficient food for their
children than to have them kept on short diet. Even
the veriest blockheads will find words to express their
feelings on such a subject. The " political cyphers" will
show that they have still some weight, and a recog-
nised position in the British Constitution. GOD
forbid that we should again behold the fearful scenes
of riot and disturbance such as those that
once prevailed in the heart of the metro-
polis, when the blood of our fellow-subjects—
of men who could not remain insensible to the
cries of their starving children, rolled down the gut-
ters of St. James's-square. We hope and believe
that there will not be a repetition of such lamentable
events, because we cannot conceive, under any cir-
cumstances, the possibility of a bread-tax;
but were it otherwise, and that a Parlia-
mentary majority should be returned in favour
of protection, we again repeat the assertion to which
we have already given deliberate expression, that
" free trade cannot be interfered with without blood-
shed, or a corn-law restored without revolution."
On this point there is neither doubt nor difficulty, and
we believe that the Earl of DERBY and Mr. DISRAELI
are as well aware of the fact as we are.

We have no such dread of a "re-adjustment of
taxation" as to avert it at such an expense. On the
contrary,it is what we have energetically demanded for
many years. We believe that the agriculturists, in com-
mon with the industrial population of all classes are un-
fairly and unjustly treated. By all means give them
relief, but we must take care that the burden be not
transferred tto other shoulders, which are even less
able to ibear them. We shall not condemn pro-
jects at which, at present, we can only
guess. Let ➢lr. DISRAELI therefore bring
forward his propositions, and if they be just
and equitable we shall consider them calmly and
dispassionately, without prejudice or favour—the
good of " the many" our only object. But let him
carefully avoid any undue pressure upon industry,
and be particularly cautious about bringing forward
anything in the shape of indirect taxation.