The Sun.
London, England, 1852-10-26 00:00:00

thinking sometimes factious, in the expression of their
hostility upon the occasion (each more irritating than
its immediate predecessor) of every successive, but
really, under the circumstances, unavoidable, postpone-
ment. Against this factious display of animosity we,
' for one, raised our voice from the very outset, and
that, too, it may be remembered, rather frequently.
We saw that it was unfair, under the pressure of so
great an emergency. 'We saw that some procrastina-
tion was inevitable in order to enable her MAJESTY'S
Ministers to arrange their order of tactics with any-
thing like decent deliberation. Occasionally we ob-
tained a tantalizing glimpse of the probable views of
the Administration. We discovered at length that Pro-
tection was upon all sides at first virtually and at
last practically abandoned. We perceived clearly
enough that the Earl of DERBY and his colleagues were
not very long before arriving at the conclusion that
the Free-trade system was one in all respects thence•
forth inviolable. Added to this there were promises
thrown out at intervals by the Cabinet of intended
reforms, some of them of considerable importance, in
preparation. Mr. DISRAELI gave us the hope of large
and beneficial changes in the scheme of taxation.
Mr. WALPOLE intimated pretty plainly that the Mi-
litia might in some measure become in a manr. er
popularized. Lord JOHN MANNERS revived our
wishes of something really resembling a wholesome
effort at sanit►ry improvements. Lord St. LEO-
NARDS opened up the prospect of sweeping
innovations in the practices of the Court of
Chancery, innovations such as might have
saved the lives of a dozen GRIDLEYS and the in-
tellects of more than one Miss ELITE, making per-
petual Christmas on the hearth of Bleak House, car-
rying perrenial joy into the Growlery, and even
guarding from the east wind our good, honest, sensi-
tive, benevolent, "Cousin JARNDYCE." Under these
auspices, Ministers went to the country immediately
upon the dissolution of Parliament—and still under
these auspices, they will in a few days present them-
selves before the newly-elected representatives.

At such a crisis, it behoves the Radical Reformers
throughout the United Kingdom—we repeat it ad-
visedly—to keep a watchful eye upon the course pur-
sued by the Administration. At such a crisis, more-
-1 over, every straw thrown into the air—even though it
be thrown up by the heels of a devourer of thistles—
becomes an object of curiosity, and in some sort also,
it may be at times, a matter of importance. Two or
three of these straws have been fluttering within the
last few days in the political atmosphere, and show,
we fancy, clearly enough in what quarter the wind
blows, There was the annual meeting of the Agri-
cultural Association held on Friday last, at Lough-
borough. There was the dinner given at the Bull's
Head, after the morning's inspection of the show, with
Mr. PACKS as chairman, and we don't know who as
croupier. There were the speeches when the cloth
was whisked away by the Ganymedes at half-a-
crown a-head, in pumps and white neckcloths. Above
all, there was the oration delivered to the assembled
farmers by the Marquis of GRANBY, in his capacity
as body-stretcher to Protection. " Close up its eyes,
tie up its chin ;" as the Poet Laureate says of the
old year. " Call for Shillibeer, and let them carry it
out, and bury it decently." The thing is dead—there
is no mistake about it, any more than there was about
the death of Jacon MARLEY—dead as a door-nail, or,
as Mr. DICKEN'S suggests, "as a coffin•nail," as being,
perhaps of all, decidedly the deadest article of iron-
mongery. Yes ! the thing is dead, and the Marquis
of GRANBY probably feeling himself called
upon for a song—rises gravely in the presence
of the dessert, and solemnly chaunts the De
Profundis. A gentleman, benevolently disposed,
called BENET, rose, we cannot but think, some-
what humanely after this rather unconvivial per-
formance, and endeavoured by his jocularity to dissi-
pate the influence of the dirge. After drawing a
humorous picture of the so-called sufferings of the
landed proprietors when contrasted with those of the
middle-class agriculturists, he added that " he thought,
however, they had now passed the worst, and in any
case his advice to the tenant farmers was not to look
back." Mr. Faarluaxt had previously expressed a
hope that he should not be regarded as too sanguine
in congratulating the agricultural interests on the
late harvest, and upon their brightening prospects.
The truth is, the sticklers for Protection are trying
to put a decent face upon its abandonment, and are
fixing their attention more sedulously than has been
hitherto their wont upon those visions of improve-
ment which are already " looming in the future," ac-
cording to the assurance of the Right lion. Gentleman
till CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER. Among these
on-coming changes for the better, even the Marquis of
GRANnY perceives the speedy and inevitable discontinu-
ance of the Income-tax—of all taxes the most unjust
and the most unpopular. While our friends the agri-
culturists are thus perking up their hopes by way of
anticipation, surely the Radical Reformers should
not just now be looking onward with a a glance of
indifference. It is advisable, on the contrary, that we
should now begin to watch with eager and unwink-
ing vigilance the nature of the policy about to be
disclosed by the leaders of the present Government.
We are very marvellously mistaken, or we shall be
enabled to obtain more from them in six months than
we were enabled to obtain during six long years of
Whig Administration. At any rate—nous verrons—
brief interval will now solve the mystery of the
Cabinet : and " Watch," is our advice, in one word, to
the great mass of Liberals or Radical Reformers.

A few years ago Lord BROUGHAM died by report.
His Lordship's carriage wheel broke, and his Lord-
ship's head shared the same fate. It was evening
when the rumour arrived ; next morning all the
papers were filled with Brougham panegyrics. The
journal which had but recently lashed him unmerci-
fully, with English good feeling spoke as kindly as
the rest. Lord BROUGHAM enjoyed the unusual good
fortune to read his own funeral orations in his lifetime,
and they were flattering ones. Not so will it be
should the defunct Convocation return to life. With
but few exceptions, it would find itself denounced in
no measured terms. Its harmless ghost, at its yearly
appearance, has been annually smiled at as the image
from a magic lantern; but the very rumour of re-
storing that ghost to ecclesiastical life has called
forth as many anathemas, as the rumour of Lord
BROUGHAM'S death called forth encomiums. Ana-
themas we should think almost sufficient to lay the
poor harmless ghost for ever—certainly sufficient to
deter it from attempting to live again on this ungrate-
ful earth.

We believe Lord DERBY is thankful enough for all
this hubbub about Convocation. That he ever wished
to advise her MAJESTY to set that body to work, or
rather to talk, again, nothing but his own assertion
will persuade us. Hence, we feel assured that he is
as pleased as the majority of Englishmen are, to wit-
ness the nearly universal reprobation with which the
very mention of the project has been received by the
press. The reputed Tory organ of the Government
denies that any such advice was ever tendered, or
even thought of by Lord DERBY ; and repeats the
denial, attributing the origin of the rumour to a
Stock-Exchange wager. Another journal, a Liberal
one, asserts that the Primo Minister and his colleagues
have nearly come to the determination to offer the
deprecated advice, but that they have not yet dared
to do so, and that it is known to be offensive at
Court. The great oracle does little more than expose
and denounce the folly and impossibility of the thing.
For ourselves, we pretend to the knowledge of no
Cabinet secrets; we only presume that Lord DERBY
is guided chiefly by English common sense, applied
to his own political position. He may have a lean-
ing to the High-Church party, for he broke with the
Whigs on the Appropriation Clause, and his appoint-
ments look that way. The much-to-he-regretted tam-
pering with the Educational Minutes, points also in
the same direction. But whether he himself be a
High Churchman or not, it is clear that he may as
naturally deem it his political interest to court that
party, as Lord JOUN RUSSELL deemed it his interest
to court the opposite party. His accession to power was
welcomed by that section of the Church ; they have
done their beat for him at the elections ; they conferred
upon him the honour of the Chancellorship of Oxford;
and with all these indications of willingness to render
him cordial support, and all these favours to repay, it
is natural he should wish to do all in his power to
retain their support. Now we all know how strenu-
ously the High Church party desire self-government ;
they have openly claimed it ; they tried to introduce
it to the notice of Parliament; they have even sum..