The Sun.
London, England, 1852-10-18 00:00:00

nt;

LONDON, MONDAY, OCTOBER 18, 1852.

Mc. Huraz's letter, on the expediency of forming
a People's party in Parliament, (and on which we
made some remarks a few days ago,) naturally con-
tinues to excite a great deal of notice and discussion.
We see it quoted in almost all the country journals,
many of which give extended comments upon it.
The geneval impression appears to be, that of all men
in the House of Commons, the veteran leader, Mr.
HUME, is best qualified to form that party—to lead
it, and to keep it together. Mr. Hums is a rare
instance of the force of consistency and industry, and
the weight which they obtain in and out of Parlia-
ment. He is clear-beaded, though he has not the gift
of eloquence. He is quick at the detection and earnest in
the exposure of abuses. He was an economist at a
time when a weak and wrecked Ministry were perti-
nacious in wasting the public money. He was a re•
former, when to be so was the most certain way of
obtaining obloquy. He denounced jobbery, when his
doing so rendered him obnoxious, even to persons
professing to desire reform. He has steadily worked
his way up to his present commanding position. He
has done this without the aid of aristocratic connexion,
and, indeed, in the very teeth of it. He was long de-
nounced as a democrat and a demagogue, but has out-
lived that calumnious imputation. The Throne has
no stauncher friend,—the People no sincerer cham-
pion. He has seen other men; who came into the
field at the eleventh hour, receiving the reward of his
labours. He mainly organized the Whig party,
which upset the DUKE and Sir ROBERT ; but that
party shamefully neglected him. We have often
thought what a first-rate Chancellor of the Exche-
quer be would have made,—we doubt whether he
was ever offered any office under the Crown. Nay,
thigh equal in wealth to the majority of the Com-
moners on whom the honour has been conferred, hi.
Whig fiends never paid him even the compliment of
making him a Privy Councillor. In fact, Alr.
du" is not quite the stuff of which they mak,
officials and Privy Councillors He has been
VA) independent for those in power. He has
way of telling unpleasant truths, and he continues
to have no mercy upon abuses. It is to his credit
(and the circumstance is honourably mentioned
in Mr DisitkeLfs "Lord GEORGE B 'CK a Poli-
tical Biography,") ENT
though no man has had that has
'
d more
provocation, Mr Hume has never once lost his temper
in the House of Commons.
The Hull Advertiser, In which Mr HUME'S letter
first apwared, says— We . , think it would not ba dif-
ficult to show that even hewaambuadch more successful
in forming combinations against
he appears to be are of. efforts
government. than
to unite tie-
public to resist oppression were not all thrown
away." It adds—" When the late Sir ROBERT PEEL
took Mr Hums Rifle into one of the Committee-
Rooms
of the House of Commons, and submitted
for his opinion his Free-trade Tariff, before allowing
a whisper about I to be beard in Parliament, was
that tantamount to an acknowledgment that the lion.
Member for Montrose had not been unsuccessful h
lending an opposition against the Government? Mr.
11ume has, doubtless, experienced great ingratitude
ilehis day. What public man, that ever served his
Country as he has done, but did experience ingrati.
tulle ? But Mr. Hume's greet mistake wee in pitch
ing his standard of puha virtue too high. He fancies
that all who agreed with bias upon great question,
would be prepared to ao as he has done—devote their
whole lives to the service of their Country withou

n the approv
ec,urt favour, office, or other reward tha

teetimony of a good conscience." Not withstand
ing he is prepared to make another attempt to mak,
a popular party, and he will make the Ballot the

strong and connecting link in the chain of union.
Our OWA opinion on the Ballot has been often

declared. It is the necessity of the time.
Without it, there never can be a Government

resolute in doing the best for the people. With it,
we shall have fair and free representation, the basis
of honest legislation. In no part of the United
kingdom is there now, nor can there be, anything
like a free Election. Either landlords' dictation, or
the influence of the clergy, or some other screw, is
put on, to prevent fair voting. The elector does
not go free to the pol, as he can and does go in
countries where there is the protection of the Ballot.
Another reason in favour of taking the Ballot
as the basis of the new popular organization
will be found in the fact, that all the avowed
Liberals in the House cf Commons are
decidedly in favour of it. The mere Whigs dislike
it—but nobody minds them. The aristocracy, who
send so many of their Members into the House where
none but the representatives of the Commons of Eng-
land should sir, will be very unanimous in opposing
the Ballot ; and for the obvious reason that, with the
Ballot, very few cf the sons, brothers, nephews,
and even relations of Peers, would be returned
to Parliament if there were free election. The
people would then select their own men—as it
is, they have men thrust on them whom they
do not care for, on whom they cannot depend,
and with whom they have little sympathy. A
new and improved state of things would he the
result of the introduction of the Ballot. Come to
it we must.

We are persuaded that the great body of reformers
,n this Kingdom will epeclily accept Mr. HUME as

.he leader of the new organintion. One great

thing in his favour, is the fact that he is not that
milk-and-water nondescript—a Whig. Another is,
that he is not possessed by any crotchet in politics,—
he is not wedded to the fustian theories of the ultra
portion of the talkers called " the Manchester
School," nor does he quite believe that the expendi-
ture of 1837 is adequate for the vastly in-
creased population which has sprung up
in the last fifteen year,—least of all does he think,
with the Peace party, that the defence of this country
can best be maintained by putting our " wooden
walls " out of commission, and by disbanding our
military forces. We do not imagine, either, that Mr.
Hum's believes that the welfare of England entirely
depends on the quantity of cotton-twist which is
turned out by the hands in Lancashire. But he does
believe that great savings may be effected by eco-
nomy in the public expenditure, and that public
money should not be paid away, under any
pretence, or to any person, without an equi-
valent. We shall expect, by the way, that one of Mr.
HUME'S motions, early in the next Session, will be
for an humble Address to the QUEEN, praying her to
direct that the pensions 10,599/. 23. so long paid to the
Dukes of GRAFTON, of 1,595/. a year to Earl CowPER,
of 2,9001. per annum to the Heirs of the Duke of
SCHOMBERG, and of 1,200/. to " the Assignees of the
late CHARLES BOONE" (actually granted to reward
the corruption of PULTENEY, Earl of 13kru) shall be
discontinued at once and for ever. The sum total of
these burthens on the people is 16,2941. a year—a very
pretty saving to commence with. Mr. IlumE, as an
economist, has done much for the public, not only
with regard to the abuses he exposed and checked,
but those which the certainty of his vigilance pre-
vented from being attempted.

It is formally acknowledged by the Edinburgh
Review, one of the recognized pursuivants of History,
wearing its heraldic tabard of blue-and-buff—that the
Free-trade journalists have not been in error in de-
claring that Her MAJESTY'S Ministers have explicitly
and deliberately abandoned the policy of that long
obsolete and defunct system called Protection. I❑
testimony of this, allusion is made to the memorable
manifesto issued from his retreat at Hughenden
Manor, Bucks, by the Right Hon. BENJAMIN
DISRAELI, in his threefold capacity, as Cabinet
Minister, as Loader of the House of Commons,
and as CIIANCELLOR of the EXCLILQUER. That docu-
ment the Edinburgh naturally enough regards as
altogether conclusive. It perceives at once that it
means absolutely nothing at all, or that it means the
moat clear and stTeasiotforwara re,oe,..itiori of the
permanence of those extraordinary changes which
were effected in 1846 by Sir ROBERT PEEL'S Ca-
binet, and subsequently confirmed and extended by
the innovations assured to the country by Lord
JOHN RUSSELL'S Government. " Mr. DISRAELI,"
says our contemporary, " renounces all inten-
tions of proposing a recurrence to the laws which,
previously to 1846 had protected the great producing
interests of the country:" adding, " These laws were
the Corn-laws and the Act regulating the sugar
duties; the Navigation Laws were not repealed till
1849, but they appear to be included in the purport
of his proposition." Yes ! Of this at least, there
can happily no longer be any doubt whatever. The
members of the DERBY Cabinet have foregone as
hopeless the shadowy chance which might still have
tempted them on to the agitation of the old monopo-
list bugbear in the discussions of the Imperial
Legislature. Instead of blindly pursuing this
infatuated course they have long since declared,
through the lips of one of their most distinguished
leaders, that they bow to the necessity if they cannot
yet fully recognize the wisdom of the repeal in 1846,
of the laws affecting corn, and afterwards in 1849, of
those affecting navigation. To this they are, indeed,
now long since pledged. Those gallant and promising
advocates of the cheap-loaf system, therefore, who are
in a few days to muster in great force in the Free-
trade Hall, at Manchester, will consequently find ample
reason to exult in the present situation of affairs, in
reference at any rate to the total abandonment of the
Protectionist views hitherto maintained by the
statesmen constituting the existing Government.
Another gratifying circumstance connected with
the future policy of the DERBY Administration is
recognized no less clearly by the Edinburgh—the
circumstance, namely, that the principal Members
of that Cabinet perceive the necessity of con-
solidating the system of Free-trade as cautiously
and securely as possible, and of effecting this,
moreover, by the popular method of rigorously
raising the system of taxation. An ink-
ling of this, among other advantages "looming in
the future," was given by Mr. DISRAELI in the
course of his first rapidly-prepared financial state-
ment. The whole truth, however, was candidly
" blurted out " a little later on by the same Right
lion. Gentleman in the document already referred
to, in which he addressed himself to the electors of
the shire of Buckingham immediaeely prior to the
event of the Dissolution. " Having thrown aside the
Protectionist system," says the Edinburgh, " he (Mr
DIsRAELI) tries to find some other remedy for the
evils inflicted on the native-producing interests, by
unrestricted competition with the foreign producers.
Feeling of course, as they do, such a determination on
the part of Her MAJESTY'S Ministers cannot but be
comprehensible to us Free•traders and Radical Re-
formers. Believing that such a remedy is nowa-
days the thing most imperatively requisite, they
naturally go in search of it at once, as the first object
to be pursued under the circumstances by their Go-
vernment. Mr. DISRAELI believes he has found
it in a diminution of the cost of production.
His endeavour is, consequently, to force the same
conviction, if possible, upon the mind.s of the majority
)f the Parliament. Nay, he goes further than simply
intimating that such is his own individual impression.
tie bluntly announces that it is the intention of Her
NIAJEsTr's Ministers to recommend tbi s scheme to the
serious and immediate consideration of the Legis-
lature. Hence the Ministerial proje et—a grand
lila of itself—for thoroughly and systematically re-
vising the present system of taxati on. prom
►n en'erprize having this tendency, .we are sn-
'i'fied that much benefit must necessarily accrue to
the Population. Our relknce upon the sound judg-
meat of the House of Commons collectively, as a body, I
ea. such. that we look forward to this revision of taxa
"ion without the shadow of an anxiety or one fiestant's
s.idered in any
..repidati.on. Fortunately (if such a word can be con•
sense applicable to such a subject),
,siceeacurucreoiltfyy
the
honeyt hpseryepeople
omio
oftaxationEe u
glaringlyg ia d
could au
db
esrtunately one thing is tolerably evident by way o'
thatd is,
td- that
in
injure the community through
thceealcadu adopted
oe edr to
inequality of its operations. Regardingp athe
natter in its worst light, therefore, any
change whatever can scarcely prove otherwise than
for the national advantage. There is no fear of our
walking from the frying-pan into the fire—we have