The Sun.
London, England, 1852-01-10 00:00:00

ish usurper invited to a great act of sacrifice provided
with distinguishing vestments, and cut off from all pos-
sible retreat. The effect of such a policy as would then
of necessity be placed before the Legislature would
be to compel all sides to declare themselves, and to
reduce the natural multiplicity of opinions to a simple
Yea and Nay. While the unhappy agriculturists
would find themselves obliged to persevere or recant,
the numerous other classes and interests in the State
would be drawn into a closer and simpler unity of re-
sistance. There would rise such a cry as was often heard
in the middle ages among the stout-hearted burghers
who found their commerce interrupted and their liber-
ties threatened by the lord of some neighbouring castle
—such a cry as was heard in France before the First
Revolution swept away in one hour the privileges of
the aristocracy. There are too many in this country
who would like nothing so much as a Protectionist
Government, for they know well the tendency of one
extreme to provoke and prepare for the other, and
they know that the obstinate assertion of agricultural
privileges might lead to a crusade against all privileges
whatever.

Were such a Ministry to be in for a month, it
would be the signal for a counter-organisation more
extensive, and probably more permanent and danger-
ous, than any we have yet seen. That organiintion
would proceed, not merely on the fact that
commercial freedom and equality were threatened,
but on the fact that the Whigs had failed
to carry on the Government, and that no
other party in the high political world was able to
take their place. An extreme class of politicians
would come forward, no longer as reformers of ancient
abuses, but as deliverers from growing difficulties and
impending dangers. The expedient of a dissolution
would give the Minister time and enable him to
enjoy a brief shadow of power ; but the longer he held
Downing-street the longer would the country at large
be in the hands of a party prepared to go any lengths,
and rejoicing in the opportunity of an utterly un-
popular and impotent Administration. Thus far we
have been delivered from Chartists. They take no hold
on the mass of the people ; out of doors they get nothing
but signatures ; indoors they never advance further
than an annual motion. But if the policy of the Govern-
ment once threatens to be retrograde, it will be met
by an almost universal combination for an onward
movement. Now, the question for country gentle-
men to consider iw, whether they are prepared for the
fearful responsibilities of such a crisis. We repeat
that, after the example of last year, they may be
forced into a temporary triumph in spite of them-
selves. But it will be by their own act and deed.
Reluctant as they may be at the last moment to
undertake a great Protectionist reaction, the course
they are now taking, and the divisions they are now
promoting, may ultimately, and before very long,
force them to the attempt. To some of the party
it may be a very agreeable thought that they may
possibly wake some morning and find themselves Mi-
nisters; but Lord Derby is not one of those self-
flattering enthusiasts. He is not particularly
im-
patient to undertake a Protectionist Administration,
for he knows what it would end in.

CONFESSIONS OF A VEGETARIAN.
lam a regular downright vegetarian, I am. I taste
nothing that has been connected with blood, and my
stomach is as free from the flesh of beasts, birds, and
fishes, as it is from that of my own species. I go the
whole hog without killing him, as if I were a snob I
should shudder when making use of his bristles. I had
once acme hair-bottomed chairs, but my conscience was
so tender that I could not sit down upon them without
feeling a degree of horror, so I gave them away for the
sake of peace, and got some air-bottomed ones instead.
And now, considering the whole, it may literally be said
of me that I live upon the wind. My shoes are made of
gutty percha and west of England. The phrase "nothing
like leather," don't suit me. I can't look at the article
without thinking of blood. Shirt and other buttons
made of bone I abominate; they smell of death, and
that sickens me. So I wear no buttons, but those made
of papier-mache, which in reality are vegetable buttons.
I burnt my wife's muff teat week, and threw away half
a score of kid gloves; the akin of the poor dear dumb
animals melts me. I hate the butchers with so much
zeal that I could drown them in the blood they shed,
were it permitted me to take life. Myself and a few
similar spirits are about forming a society which is to be
called the Anti-Devouring Club." The objects of it
will be to save all life, from an adder to a rhinoceros,
from a sprat to a whale, from a wasp to an eagle. Per-
sons are to be employed in the forests to prevent the
wild beasts from gorging upon each other, and divert
will be sent into the deep to tame the sharks and cause
the larger fishes to live upon seaweed instead of upon
the small fry. Green, the aeronout, will be the Van
Amburgh of the birds of prey in the airy regions.
And lastly, we shall have all butchers, sausage-makers,
and rat-catchers tried for wilful murder, and when we
have found them guilty, as being taken red fang, instead
of punishing them capitally, we shall send them to
Botany Bay, there to vegetate for the rest of their
lives upon the esculents from which the place takes its
name.