The Sun.
London, England, 1852-12-31 00:00:00

that, to their unyielding obstinacy on this matter,
they owe the dissolution of the Ministry of which
one was the Chief, and the other a prominent
Member. They may now be " wiser," as they
are assuredly much " sadder," men ; but if so—
if they have, indeed, repented of their former
error—they should say so at once.
The approaching elections—more especially that
for Halifax—will afford a suitable opportunity for
exhibiting the required interrogatories ; and, as
we have already stated, it should not be neglected
or misapplied.

Who of all the cliques and classes, parties
and politicians of the day, should look forward
so cheerily as the MANCHESTER SCHOOL to a happy
New Year? Let no lurking ungenial imp
whisper in their ears—" Neither your COBDEN nog'
your BRIGHT, nor even your IVIILNER GIBSON, are in
the New Cabinet." The schoolmaster's pride is
to train men for Cabinets—not to enter there
himself. It is in his scholars that he glories.
Look, then, at the group composing the ABERDEEN
Government,—why, almost to a man, they are the
choice pupils of the Manchester School. That
celebrated Academy was founded to teach
Free-trade principles to the millions both
of town and country yet ignorant of them, and
to teach tlbLeir practicability and advantages
to those RI Eperior minds who, indeed, admired
ADAM SMITH' B. doctrines, but were almost as hope-
less as himsellf of their ever becoming the creed of
an overpowering majority of the British nation.
These gentian en, then, begin a New Year with a
Cabinet which is even a more splendid evidence
of their success than the minority of 53 in the
House of Concimons, The leaders of the League
are not assuredly the men to despise all but the
aristocracy w'hether of rank or of genius, to be
satisfied with fa small audience for their speeches,
or to be very nice about the taste and style in
which the ten-pound householders celebrate
their deeds. Had they, however, the pride of
the most ft' stidious of our exclusives they
would now :have all that heart could wish.
They might turn from the " vilest rabble
ever seen," shouting the praises of the big
loaf, till the polished taste of Sir FREDERIC
THESIGER wished it " stuck is their throats," and
say, pointing -to the ABERBEEN list,-
'" Satis est equitem mihi plaudere,
Plotius, et Nr.arius, Maecenas, Virgiliusque,
Valquis, et probet haeeOctavius Optimus, et que
Fuscus ; et hue retinam Viscorum laudet uterque."

Nor would any but prosodians object, if for one
name they substituted Victoria Optima, so harmo-
nious would the alteration be with fact and the feel-
ings of every a uditor. What, then, can they wish for
more ? They; begin a New Year, not only with a
nation on the eir side, not only, with Protection
buried for ev.er, although conducted to the place
of execution w ith funeral honours by its friends—
not only wit h Protection, moreover, formally
abandoned by the powerful and numerous party
which, for years had, used it as their rallying cry,
but with a /V [inistry composed, by universal ac-
knowledgment , of the ablest men in the House of
Commons ; a iGovernment comprising more ability
than the cell brated All-Talents Ministry, and
nearly each on e of these a pupil, more or less, of
the Mancheste r School ! Oh ! how bright the change
from the time when VILLIERs was voted down byl
" overwhelmin .g majorities ;" when Lord JOHN
RUSSELL snub" bed them ; and Lord MELBOURNE
declared that, r " of all mad things the maddest was
to propose repealing the Corn Laws ;" verily, the
times are changed," and verily, we may add,
on behalf o f all but the unchangeable 53,
"we are changed with them." Indeed all the
53 are 'not quite hopeless, for even Mr. E.
BALL himself declared "we are all good Free-
traders now."' A happy New Year, then, to our
prosperous tutors ; who knows whether, before
many years roll over us, the Lord CHANCELLOR,
unless " fused."' down to a common Law Judge, may
not sit upon a bale of cotton instead of a wool-
sack.

How cheery-, too, does everything look which
borders, on tbeir Free-trade Goshen ; our Exche-
quer never fuller, and that, too, = despite the re-
peal since 18.4 2, of eleven millions of taxes ; our
Customs and 3Exaise all but as productive as ever,
notwithstandii ag the immense remissions of duties ;
our Imports sand Exports increasing rapidly every

year ; our gi3 pbuilders and n2m. chants not only
surviving the repeal of the Navigation Laws, but
expressing their satisfaction with the change ;
Jamaica, to be sure, sending home some melan-
choly strains. Only we have been so accustomed to
them from our editorial boyhood, that we have
hardly noticed them ; sending us, however, as
Mr. DILRAELI assured us, much more Sugar also,
which somewh at soothes us the consumers thereof ;
then, employment is everywhere so much better
than in the years of monopoly. Indeed, Free
Trade
.only begins to quake,. lest emigration, in
connection with it, should make the labour-market
too good for f.he labourer ; a fear which Mr. Ms-
RAELI, somewhat too mirthfully, according to Mr.
GLADSTONE, Zescribed as quite groundless. , We
,-think with the former, however, that population
would soon overtake almost any demand.
Money, again, is so abundant ; and not only did
the predicted_ deluge not follow the retirement
of Lord DERBY, but the symptoms continue rather
of our being :overwhelmed with money than of
sinking with our failing credit. It is astonishing
how little Consols have fluctuated with the
changes of Cabinets, since those who deal in them
have been assured that Free-trade principles must
hereafter govern the English Exchequer, and since
the country has become too enlightened to refuse
any amount of taxation needful to pay the na-
tional creditor. Even the operatives are becom-
ing capitalists ; the town of Birmingham alone
records, for 1851, an increase of more than a
thousand depositors in its savings-banks, and an
increase of more than 20,000/. in its deposits; the
total of deposits in its banks amounting to
400,0001.! Then as to foreign nations we con-
tinue, as her MAJESTY says, to receive assurances of
amity and good-will from all Foreign Powers. Mono-
poly duties abroad, too, are beginning•evidently
to quake. Europe must soon follow the example
of England, or see its trade thriftless and stunted
beside our all-prosperous and absorbing commerce.
America has not only chosen its Free-trade Pre-
sident by an unheard-of majority, but even before
the sound of FILLMORE'S Protectionist elegiacs had
well died away, Congress was preparing to con-
sider, with a view to reduction, the Protectionist

duties on imports. Everything betokens a vigor-
ous state of trade for another year. It were folly
to prophesy, folly even to hope, that no overtrad-
ing, no ebbs as well as flows, will not soon occur ;
yet one thing is clear, that never have we had

such an abundance of money for so long
a time, with so little tendency to merely spe-
culative or jobbing undertakings. We have not yet
forgotten the• railroad panic—possibly that may
have a very beneficial influence ; but, whatever be

the cause, the immensely increased business of
the country is, it is universally agreed, carried on
to supply an actual demand. Why, even the
Crystal Palace is a Free-trade monument. It

would never have come into existence under the

old jealous system of restricted competition--of
timid and selfish monopoly. It was the generous
spirit of •Manchester principles which invited all
the world to come and see what we could do, and

which asked the nations also to come and show us

what they could do. The toiling artizan, if Ju-
daising bigotry will let him, will refresh and ele-
vate his wearied faculties amid the instructive
beauties of Sydenham, and will be thankful that
Wee Trade has provided him a palace more

splendid than Royalty itself can boast, and at the
same time the pecuniary means to pay for his ad-

mission 4

And now our strictly rural friends, with equally

hopeful expectations, we wish them also a happy
New Year. They now begin a wholly new course;
they now know the worst—every thought of pro-
tection, or compensation, or relief from unknown
special burdens—all, all is gone. They will now put
their hands to the plough without one dangerous
glance backwards ; the work before them will be
pushed with the vigour and sturdiness of English
yeomen ; long leases, fair rents, increased produc-
tion, extirpated vermin (yclept game), taxation
lightened from industry and increased on property,
in such things will rest the hopes of :the sons of