The Sun.
London, England, 1852-10-18 00:00:00

iu tomtit I) atm

LONDON, MONDAY, OCTOBER 18, 1852.

Mr. Humes letter, on the expediency of forming
a People's party in Parliament, (and on which we
made some remarks a few days ago,) naturally con-
tinues to excite a great deal of notice and discussion.
We see it quoted in almost all the country journals,
many of which give extended comments upon it.
The general impression appears to be, that of all men
in the House of Commons, the veteran leader, Mr.
Hume, is best qualified to form that party—to lead
it, and to keep it together. Mr. Huasa is a rare
instance of the force of consistency and industry, and
the weight which they obtain in and out of Parlia-
ment. He is clear-headed, though he has not the gift
of eloquence. He is quick at the detection and earnest in
the exposure of abuses. He was an economist at a
time when a weak and wrecked Ministry were perti-
nacious in wasting the o
publiche most money,
certain waye was a re-
of
former, 'ellen to be s was t
obtaining obloquy. He denounced jobbery, when his
doing so rendered him obnoxious, even to persons
professing to desire reform. He has steadily worked
his way up to his present commanding position. He
has done this without the aid of aristocratic connexion,
and, indeed, in the very teeth of it. He was long de-
nounced as a democrat and a demagogue, but has out-
lived that calumnious imputation. The Throne has
no stauncher friend,—the People no sincerer cham-
pion. He has seen other men, who came into the
field at the eleventh hour, receiving the reward of his
labours. He mainly organized the Wbig party,
which upset the DUKE and Sir ROBERT ; but that
party shamefully neglected him. We have often
thought what a first- rate Chancellor of the Exche-
quer he would have made,—we doubt whether he
was ever offered any office under the Crown. Nay,
though equal in wealth to the majority of the Com-
moners on whom the honour has been conferred, his
Whig friends never paid him even the compliment of
making him a Privy Councillor. In fact, Mr.
Huse is not quite the stuff of which they make
officials and Privy Councillors. He has been
too independent for those in power. He has a
way of telling unpleasant truths, and he continues
to have no mercy upon abuses. It is to his credit
(and the circumstance is honourably mentioned
in Mr DIZRARLI% "Lord GEORGE BENTINCIE, a Poli-
tical Biography,") that though no man has had more
provocation, Mr Heats has never once lost his temper
in the House of Commons.

The Hull Advertiser, in which Mr HUME'S letter
first appeared,
says—" We
wasthi nkit would not bs dif-
ficult to show that even hemuch more successful
in forming combinations against bad
o t
governmentunit et than
he appears to be aware of. His efforts
public to resist oppression were n
Rousllan thrown
pr. oßsys,
away." It adds—" When the late Sir
took Mr HUME aside into one of the Committee-
Rooms
Mee-
Rooms of the House of Commons, andsubmitted
for his opinion his Free trade Tariff, before allowing
a whisper about it to be heard in Parliament, was not
that tantamount to an acknowledgment that the Ron.
Member for Montrose had net been unsuccessful in
leading an opposition against the Government? Mr.
HumE has, doubtless, expetienced great ingratitude
in his day. What public man, that ever served his
Country as he has done, but did experience ingrati-
tude? But Mr. HUME'S great mistak3 was in pitch-
ing his standard of public virtue too high. He fancied
that all who agreed with him upon great questions
would be prepared to do as he has done—devote their
whole lives to the service of their Country without
Court favour, (Alice, or other reward than the approv-
ing testimony of a good conscience." Notwithstand-
ing he is prepared to make another attempt to make
a popular party, and he will make the Ballot the
strong and connecting link in the chain of union.
Our °win opinion on the Ballot has been often

declared. It is the necessity of the time.
Without it, there never can be a Government
resolute in doing the best for the people. With it,
we shall have fair and free representation, the basis
of honest legislation. In no part of the United
Kingdom is there now, nor can there be, anything
like a free Election. Either landlords' dictation, or
the influence of the clergy, or some other screw, is
put on, to prevent fair voting. The elector does
not go free to the poll, as he can and does go in
countries where there is the protection of the Ballot.
Another reason in favour of taking the Ballot
as the basis of the new popular organization
will be found in the fact, that all the avowed
Liberals in the House of Commons are
decidedly in favour of it. The mere Whigs dislike
it—but nobody minds them. The aristocracy, who
send so many of their Members into the House where
none but the representatives of the Comm/At-9 of Eng-
land should sit, will be very unanimous in opposing
the Ballot ; and for the obvious reason that, with the
Ballot, very few of the sons, brothers, nephews,
and even relations of Peers, would be returned
to Parliament if there were free election. The
people would then select their own men—as it
is, they have men thrust on them whom they
do not care for, on whom they cannot depend,
and with whom they have little sympathy. A
new and improved state of things would be the
result of the introduction of the Ballot. Come to
it we must.

We are persuaded that the great body of reformers
in this Kingdom will speedily accept Mr. Humis as
the leader of the new organization. One great
thing in his favour, is the fact that he is not that
milk-and-water nondescript—a Whig. Another is,
that he is not possessed by any crotchet in politics,—
he is not wedded to the fustian theories of the ultra
portion of the talkers called " the Manchester
School," nor does he quite believe that the expendi-
ture of 1837 is adequate for the vastly in-
creased population which has sprung up
in the last fifteen years,—least of all does he think,
with the Peace party, that the defence of this country
can best be maintained by putting our " wooden
walls " out of commission, and by disbanding our
military forces. We do not imagine, either, that Mr.
HUMS believes that the welfare of England entirely
depends on the quantity of cotton-twist which is
turned out by the hands in Lancashire. But he does
believe that great savings may be effected by eco-
nomy in the public expenditure, and that public
money should not be paid away, under any
pretence, or to any person, without an equi-
valent. We shall expect, by the way, that one of Mr.
HUME's motions, early in the next Session, will be
for an humble Address to the QUEEN, praying her to
direct that the pensions 10,599/. 2s. so long paid to the
Dukes of GaArTON, of 1,595/. a year to Earl CowPER,
of 2,9001. per annum to the Heirs of the Duke of
SCHOMBERG, and of 1,2001. to "the Assignees of the
late CHARLES BOONE" (actually granted to reward
the cerruption of PULTENEY, Earl of BATH) shall be
discontinued at once and for ever. The sum total of

thew burthens on the people is 14,294/. a year—a very
pretty saving to commence with. Mr. HUME, as an
economist, has done much for the public, not only
with regard to the abuses he exposed and checked,
but those which the certainty of his vigilance pre-
vented from being attempted.

It is formally acknowledged by the Edinburgh
Review, one of the recognized pursuivants of History,
wearing its heraldic tabard of blue-and-buff—that the
Free-trade journalists have not been in error in de-
claring that Her MAJESTY'S Ministers have explicitly
and deliberately abandoned the policy of that long
obsolete and defunct system called Protection. In
testimony of this, allusion is made to the memorable
manifesto issued from his retreat at Haghenden
Manor, Bucks, by the Right Hon. BENJAMIN
DISRAELI, in his threefold capacity, as Cabinet
Minister, as Leader of the House of Commons,
and as CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER. That docu-
ment the Edinburgh naturally enough regards as
altogether conclusive. It perceives at once that it
means absolutely nothing at all, or that it means the
most clear and straightforward recognition of the
permanence of those extraordinary changes which
were effected in 1846 by Sir ROBERT PEEL'S Ca-
binet, and subsequently confirmed and extended by
the innovations assured to the country by Lord
JOHN RUSSELL'S Government. " Mr. DISRAELI,"
says our contemporary, " renounces all inten-
tions of proposing a recurrence to the laws which,
previously to 1146 had protected the great producing
interests of the country:" adding, " These laws were
the Corn-laws and the Act regulating the sugar
duties ; the Navigation Laws were not repealed till
1849, but they appear to be included in the purport
of his proposition." Yes! Of this at least, there
can happily no longer be any doubt whatever. The
members of the DERBY Cabinet have foregone as
hopeless the shadowy chance which might still have
tempted them on to the agitation of the old monopo-
list bugbear in the discussions of the Imperial
Legislature. Instead of blindly pursuing this
infatuated course they have long since declared,
through the lips of one of their most distinguished
leaders, that they bow to the necessity if they cannot
yet fully recognize the wisdom of the repeal in 1846,
of the laws affecting corn, and afterwards in 1849, of
those affecting navigation. To this they are, indeed,
now long since pledged. Those gallant and promising
advocates of the cheap-loaf system, therefore, who are
in a few days to muster in great force in the Free-
trade Hall, at Manchester, will consequently find ample
reason to exult in the present situation of affairs, in
reference at any rate to the total abandonment of the
Protectionist views hitherto maintained by the
statesmen constituting the existing Government.
Another gratifying circumstance connected with
the future policy of the DERBY Administration is
recognized no less clearly by the Edinburgh—the
circumstance, namely, that the principal Members
of that Cabinet perceive the necessity of con-
solidating the system of Free-trade as cautiouslyand securely as possible, and of effecting this,
moreover, by the popular method of rigorously'
raising the system of taxation. An ink-
ling of this, among other advantages " looming in
the future," was given by Mr. DISRAELI in the
course of his first rapidly-prepared financial state-
ment. The whole truth, however, was candidly
" blurted out " a little later on by the same Right
Hon. Gentleman in the document already referred
to, in which he addressed himself to the electors of
the shire of Buckingham immediately prior to the
event of the Dissolution. " Having thrown aside the
Protectionist system," says the Edinburgh, " he (Mr
Distuzu) tries to find some other remedy for the
evils inflicted on the native-producing interests, by
unrestricted competition with the foreign producers.
Feeling of course, as they do, such a determination on
the part of Her MAJESTY'S Ministers cannot but be
comprehensible to ns Free-traders and Radical Re-
formers. Believing that such a remedy is nowa-
days the thing most imperatively requisite, they
naturally go in search of it at once, as the first object
to be pursued under the circumstances by their Go-
vernment. Mr. DISRAELI believes he has found
it in a diminution of the cost of production.
His endeavour is, consequently, to force the same
conviction, if possible, upon the minds of the majority
of the Parliament. Nay, he goes further than simply
intimating that such is his own individual impression.
He bluntly announces that it is the intention of Her
MAJESTY'S Ministers to recommend this scheme to the
serious and immediate consideration of the Legis-
lature. Hence the Ministerial project—a grand
one of itself—for thoroughly and systematically re -
vising the present system of taxation. From
an en'erprize having this tendency, we are sa-
tisfied that much benefit must necessarily accrue to
the population. Our reliance upon the sound judg-
ment of the House of Commons collectively, as a body,
is such that we look forward to this revision of taxa-
tion without the shadow of en anxiety or one instant's
4repidation. Fortunately (if such a word can be con-
sidered in any sense applicable to such a subject),
fortunately one thing is tolerably evident by way of
security to the people of England—and that is, that
scarcely any system of taxation could be adopted in
lieu of the present more glaringly calculated to
injura the community through the deplorable
inequality of its operations. Regarding the
matter in its worst light, therefore,
change whatever can scarcely prove otherwise any
than
for the national advantage. There is no fear of our
walking from the frying-pan into the fire—.we bit"