The Sun.
London, England, 1852-02-28 00:00:00

at,
tytinva

LONDON, SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 28, 1852.

Everything considered, the speech delivered last
eiTning in the House of Lords by the Earl of DEBBY
will excite, we are persuaded, very general feelings
of satisfaction. It was an inaugural address worthy
of the man and of the occasion—bold but delicate,
courageous but conciliatory, breathing throughout
the fervour of a lofty and energetic ambition, but
evidencing at the same time a recognition of the weak-
ness of the orator's position and of the vastness of his
responsibilties. We can speak thus clearly and ex-
plicitly, because we are of no Party whatsoever.
" Measures not Men" are at all periods the ob-
jects of our political aspirations. Partisans in
no respect, we are ever enabled to regard
without prejudice and without predilection the course
pursued under different circumstances by the various
statesmen undertaking the manifold and diffi-
cult offices of administration. Our opinions are
" pinned down" to no school or class of politicians.
Unlike the gentleman who said " ditto" to Mr. Buss,
we are not disposed to uphold the views of any Ad-
ministration, however illustrious, when those views
do not coincide with our own—looking as we always
have done, and as we always shall do, not to the per-
sonage advocating the principle, but to the na-
ture of the principle advocated. Situated
thus aloof from cliques and factions, we
are prepared to commend the Whigs whenever
we deem them worthy of commendation, to applaud
the Tories whenever we conceive them entitled to
applause, to eulogise the Liberals whenever we con-
ceive they merit eukgium, and to admire the conduct
of Conservatives whenever that conduct appears to us
in any way whatever to call for our admiration.
Precisely in a similar manner are we ready to ex-
press the dissatisfaction with which at any moment
we may observe the fallible policy carried out by
these same Whigs, Tories, Liberals, or Conservatives.
It is from this independent position, which we
have long secured to ourselves that we are
enabled to pronounce an estimate of the value of Lord
DERBY'S speech of yesterday evening, the more deci-
sively, unbiassed by animosity, and uninfluenced by
infatuation. That speech we regard in every respect
as befitting the lips of a statesman, elevated by cir-
cumstances to the office of conducting the affairs of
the British Government. It was an oration worthy
of " the -RUPERT of debate," now the Prime Minister
of England. _ _

Nothing could be more admirable in every respect
than the tone of the allusion which was necessarily
made by the First Lord of the Treasury to the question
affecting the principles of free trade, a question of su-
preme importance to himself as the avowed and recog-
nised leader of the Protectionists. That corn should
be made the exception in any way he acknowledged
was to him inexplicable. Yet, frankly confessing his
belief in the wisdom of a monopoly, which we con-
sider to have been both detrimental to the national
interests and prejudicial to the interests of humanity,
the PREMIER declared almost in the same breath his
determination to waive at least for a while a cause of
contention which, if revived again, and that
precipitately, might prove nut only injurious but
disastrous to a very considerable part of the popula-
tion. He maintained, moreover, that although he
himself and his supporters considered that a moderate
impost at least should be levied upon corn, if for
nothing else, merely for purposes of revenue, it might
so happen that in so thinking they were mistaken :
and under any circumstances the duty of changing
thus radically the fiscal and commercial policy of the
nation reposed not with himself, but with the
general community, not with an isolated party,
but with the entire population. Besides thi., the
Noble Earl fairly and freely avowed that he should
restrict himself during the course of the present ses-
sion to that ordinary routine of the Legislature in
regard to which there could scarcely be the possi-
bility of a misunderstanding—not certain that he had
a majority in the House of Lords, and quite certain
that he was in a minority in the Howe of Commons.
After this manly but conciliatory appeal to the more
magnanimous sentiments of the Parliament, this can-
did and honourable argumentum ad misericordiam, it
is deeply to be regretted that any notice
of motion should already have appeared, of a nature
calculated to engender anew the bitterest feelings of
rivalry between the Free-traders and the Protec-
tionists. Such, however, is unfortunately already
the case, the Honourable Gentleman the Member for
Wolverhampton having announced last night his in-
tention of bringing forward at an early period the
very subject it would have been judicious to have
passed over, without reviving it in a manner such as,
under the circumstances, might reasonably be
looked upon as little less than actually
factious. The services of the Hon. CHARLES PEL-
HAM VILLIERS we have always to the fullest extent
appreciated. When those services appeared to be
overlooked by almost every one else in the United
Kingdom, being disregarded in the midst of the
noisier popularity of men who reaped where the
representative of Wolverhampton had sown, we re-
peatedly endeavoured to recall to the remembrance of
the people the fact that CHARLES VILLIERS was the
first energetic advocate of the abolition of the
Corn-laws, that he was to Free Trade what Coeusa-
nn3 was to America, that he stood before the country
on the floor of the House of Commons, year after
year, session after session—alone—the champion of
the principles of unrestricted commerce at a time
when those principles were nothing better
than objects of contempt and of ridicule.
Such are the opinions we have all along maintained
in reference to the man whom we honour as the
first champion of Free Trade. Such is the estimate
we still entertain of his long and arduous career as
the opponent of the doctrines of Protection. Such
are the grateful sentiments with which we, as
Free-traders, must always cherish a remembrance of
his exertions. Yet, we cannot but consider him to
be on the present occasion very grievously and la-
mentably mistaken. His course, under the peculiar
circumstances of the case, must inevitably be repro-
bated as factious by many even of those who sympathise
the most cordially with his desire to see the nation
saved from falling anew in the slough of monopoly.
And hence we regret the fact that he bas
not refrained from thus girding at the
leaders of the Country Party—seeing that
everyone
must coincide in the justice of the
hope expressed by
the Earl of DERBY, that no unne-
cessary obstacles may be placed in the way of her
MAJESTY'S Ministerg, at least yet awhile, so as to
interfere injuriously
with the cfequisiteustomary and absolutely
operations of the machinery of Government.
Apart from the continued belief expressed by the
nes of the agricultural
little, indeed
paimE AlreesviTeEetcanindtihsecodvoecr tri
monopolists,
indeed, to cavil at
in the sentiments enunciated by him in
of his inaugural address to the
of the Imperial p
grace-
ful rament. In
the opening l
uthpepercouursoeuse
late Lord President of the
the
tribute to
of that address the Earl offered a
Council, the Most Noble the Marquis of
he way, appears to be the
Dowse [who, by t-
only member of the late Government who has
r the "good things"
come in for any of
in the way of approval, the sweetmeats and the bon_
boos of official compliment],
and after
glancing ra-
pidly over the course be should
deem it advi-
sable to pursue in one or other of the
principal departments of the Administration,
crowned his speech by a peroration such as
might have been expected from one of the most ac-
complished and classic orators of the age. Among
the more remarkable topics touched upon in I
that memorable address of last evening, the
country will rejoice to observe that portion
relative to the foreign
Policy, which, under the
influence of the Earl of DERBY as Premier is likely
to be remodelled upon principles in some degree at ,
least comparable to those pacific And lAttiotic

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