The Sun.
London, England, 1852-03-17 00:00:00

EVENING)

TO THE SECRETARY OF THE BRADFORD
REFORM ASSOCIATION.
(CONTINUED ,ON MONDAYS AND WEDNESDAYS.)
Sir,—On Monday the 15th, attention was on the
stretch, to hear the questions and answers touching the
measures to be pursued by the new Government.
The answers, stript of much skilful arrangement of
words to conceal the ideas, were,—That ,the more the
new Government is asked what it means to do, the
more it will not tell;—That it is not pledged to impose a
five-shilling ditty, or :do any other given thing, unless it
likes it better; —That its present idea is, not to reverse
but to modify the policy of Free Trade, by " reversing"
meaning taking away the whole, and by " modifying"
taking away. ninety-nine hundredths or any other frac-
tion. This is what the oracle vouchsafes to leave to be
gathered from the interpretation of its words; and there
is no doubt that the oracle has every claim to success
which superior cleverness can give.
One other thing- is distinctly to be collected from the
oracle; and that is, that the oracle desires to postpone a
General Election. A reason which in the near balance of
motives pro and ontra, justly determines the opposing
parties to take the other &ides. The Protectionists, although
immeasurably the ablest players on the hoard, cannot
avoid letting out, that they count on the progress of the
influence which attends possession of the government.
Another point which they probably aim at, is to try
their hands on next year
,Registratiou. As they have
been allowe.l to win the greater piece which is the
having the Election, they will probably win the less,
which is the Registration.
One enormous advantage the Protectionists have
always had, and entirely owing to their own supe-
rior generalship. They never allow a debate, how-
ever remotely connected wall the question of Free
Trade, to pass without making a full and formal parade
of their theory of Protection, such as it is. IR this
manner they drill one another into the best attainable
knowledge of what is possible to be said for their cause,
and impress on the public, and especially on waverers,
that they .are the men who can render a reason for what
they demand. And their opponents, or those who ought
to be, take the precisely opposite course. They throw
up their brief and refuse to answer, on the plea forsooth
that it is not the question before the House. It is this
which has lost the Free Trade cause; to the extent at
all events of replacing the enemy in the citadel. And
this will be sufficient to keep it lost, or to lose it over
and over if some interference of Providence should re-
store the chance of trial.

The strange thing about this coarse of conduct, is that
it is so diametrically opposite to what obtained the po.
pular victory of the Anti-Corn-law League. The
League obtained its success, because young men and
maidens were put in possession of the reasons why Pro-
tection was a babyism as well as a cruelty. They were
accustomed to see the 'reasons on one side weighed
against those on the other, and the result was that Pro-
tection kicked the beam. There is no wonder that
when the process was inverted, the result should be also.
It was gratifying on Monday to perceive an outburst
of something like a different policy, and from the
quarter where of all others it is most capable of being
made effective. Lord John Russell spoke of the in-
creased export of manufactures, as " implying an in.
crease of native industry and capital, and thereby just
the contrary of the statement of the supporters of
Protection." There is the " Open, Sesame," which if
applied in time would have prevented all the
mischief. And there is the secret, which it
would be a pardonable outbreak of ill-humour
to say, has been as religiously kept by the Free Traders
in the House of Commons, as if to utter it were treason
against God and man. If the Noble Lord would listen
to an old practitioner, on the same principle that he
would do so to a dentist, an oculist, or any other who had
attached himself for a series of years to a particular
branch of business, he should be counselled to do by
himself, what apparently nobody else will do for
him, and push the Protectionists with this the
grand infirmity and inherent rottenness of their
entire system, consisting in requiring of men to ignore
the fact that things obtained through foreign commerce
are just as much the results of British industry as things
created at home, and with the further result upon the
final balance, of giving an advantage to the consumer
measured by the difference of price. One industry may
reside in one county and the other in another; and the
childish fallacy of the Protectionists consists in re-
prosenting that the industry of Lancashire and the West
Riding is not British industry, and ought to be put down
whenever anybody else can be found to say they would
profit by it. The war is in fact against Foreign Com-
merce, or against all that part of it which consists in
bringing goods cheaper from abroad than they could be
made at home. It is a war against the trade with Por-
tugal for wine, to favour those who say they could make
it in hothouses at home. The Protectionists dare not
face this example; all they can say on it is, that though
it might be impolitic to lose four or five hundred per cent
on the price of wine, it is politic and expedient to lose
forty or fifty on the price of corn.
I repeat it, with all imaginable respect, that if the
Noble Lord desires to try his opponents at close quarters,
he must say this for himself, for it is experimentally i
proved that nobody will say it for him. He tried the
key in the lock last night, and if he will try it again as
shall be required, he may walk oat of Protection's
castle of Despair, and set poor pilgrims dancing about
the giant's head upon a pole.
But to return to you and yours, to whom I feel
more certain of access, I see distinctly that the trust of
your opponents is in a new Election. They wish to post-
pone it, and therefore the other side wishes to bring it on;
oa which, since you can do nothing either to promote or
hinder, there is no more to be said than that the longer
it is postponed, the readier you must be. The lion has
been let in, and it is left to you to turn him out
again. You are to go to the Election with
a power of ten to one against you; that is to say, your
opponents, in the aggregate, are to have something like
a vote among three or four hundred, and yours among
three or four thousand. Your opponents are to pull at th 0
long end of the steel-yard, and you at the short; and if
you can so beat them, you are to win. I know of no help
at the present moment; but neveit forget it in time to
come, and the time is coming when you may remember
it with advantage. For the present, do what you can
to make your horse win, though he is to carry ten stone
to your adversary's one. Remember that all
you aro ever to have, in : every possible way,
depends upon it. If you have desires be-
yond corn, as doubtless you have, remember
that you might as well hope to gain those objects from
Louis Napoleon's grenadiers if they were installed in
the House of CODIIIIOBB, as ask for them from the pre-
sent tenants of power. If there are simple men among
you, they will run some one way and some another
as was done in France, and leave the Elections to go is
favour of the.general adversary. Exactly in preportion as
you are free from such, will be the unanimity with which
you will use the chance you have. You are acting
against those who will give you nothing you
want, and take away everything you have. You
are pulling for; your lives, and there is no use in
stopping to say you have, got . a leaky boat.
Get home in her to Plymouth, and another time you
may have a better. But the thing is, to get home now.
Work therefore while there is the chance. There is no-
body but can do something; and many a little makes a
mickle. Stir vigorously, stir all; or by-and-by you will
lift up your eyes where stirring is of no use.
On one point I want to enter a protest, in the name
of as many Free Traders as shall agree in opinion; and
as I am not likely to have the opportunity of doing it
anywhere else, I do it here, and ask you to put it for-
ward and support it. Oar opponents have a tolerably
firm persuasion, that if they are beaten in the next
Elections, their chance is over for ever. But it does not
follow that if we are beaten our chance would be over
for ever; on the contrary, we should from the first hour
set ourselves to work heart and soul to recover the lost
ground by every means that time or chance should ever
place within our reach. It is therefore quite natural
that the opponent should be anxious to include our side
in an agreement that the decision shall be final; but it
is not at all according to the rules of the wars, that our
side should agree to it. I therefore protest against having
ever made any such agreement, and declare the directly
contrary intention. Ido this in the name of so many
as shall think with me; and if the time comes, we
will not be slow to act upon it. 1 '- -
On Tuesday the mast note-worthy proceeding was a
movement from the Ministerialvide, for a grant of public
money to make a railway in the Western Highlands;
which their own Chancellor of the Exchequer, with the
feelings natural to a purse-bearer, would not support.
So the debate was adjourned fOr a fortnight, to -be em-
ployed in overcoming his resistance.
Blackheath; lam
March,
,Sir,yours very sincerely,
AN OLD REFORMER.
17th
1852.

COURT CIRCULAR.
*OSBORNE, TUESDAY.
Her Majesty, his Royal Highness Prince Albert, and
the Royal Family, did not leave the grounds of Osborne
yesterday.
The Royal dinner party included Sir Charles Eastlake,
the Dean of Winchester, the Hon. Colonel ,and Mrs.
Grey, tlnd the Rev. Mr. Protheroe.

Lord Maidstone had an interview with the Earl of
Derby yesterday, at his official residence in Downing-
street.
Mr. Doyle, from the Bahamas, had an interview with
Sir John Pakington yesterday at the Colonial-office. Sir
William Codrington had also an interview with the
Right Hon. Baronet.
A deputation from the grand jury of the county of
Monaghan, consisting of Mr. Matthew John Anketell,
and Mr. Edmond Percival Morphy, accompanied by their
Parliamentary agent, Mr. Bryden, transacted business
yesterday at the railway department of the Board of
Trade.
Lord Redesdale had an interview with Mr. Secretary
Walpole yesterday, at the Home.offion. Gentlemance. Mr. Deedes
had also an interview with the Right H.
The Cambridge University Commission had a Pie eting
yesterday at the official residence of the First Lord of
the Treasury, in Downing-street. Present: the :Bishop
of Chester, the Dean of Ely, Sir John Herschel, the
Rev. Professor Sedgwick, and the Rev. W. H. Betesou
(Secretary).
Dispatches were sent from the Colonial-office
theof West Indian
day to the y ester.

ACCIDENT ON THE LONDON AND NORTH-WESTERX
RAILWAY.—On Saturday evening, about eight o'clock, just
as an engine which had left the Longsight depot of the
London and North-Western Company had got upon the down
line to Manchester, and before the driver could get a fair
see y
d iron it, the Macclesfield train to Manchester came up
at a consinerable pace and ran into it. The shock was so
violent, that fourteen or sixteen persons were much shaken
and bruised, but no person was killed or seriously injured.
Dr. Harrison and his partner, Mr. Cook, surgeons to the com-
pany, were very early in attendance, and dressed the wounds
of the injured passengers, which consisted principally of
braizes of the knees against the seats. All the parties were
removes to their homes.

17,

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