The Sun.
London, England, 1849-05-25 00:00:00

Ant

LONDON, FRIDAY, MAY 25, 1849.

Of course it was rather too much to anticipate the
triumphal acceptance of the Ballot without a struggle.
Yet we must confess that we should have expected a
somewhat more gallant advocacy of that groat
security to the franchise than was perceptible in the
discussion of yesterday evening. 'Without the aid of
the noble house of BERKELEY, a house nobler from the
political liberality and undeviating consistency of its
living descendants, than from its own historical anti-

(pity, the cause of this most eesentialiEgis of popular
government would indeed be in a sore plight. The
circumstance will not be overlooked or forgot-
ten by the population. It will lire in the re-
collection of all Radical Reformers. Encour
aged by his success during last session, the
' Hon. HENRY BERKELEY again brought forward his

proposition in favour of election by the urn instead of
election by the present system of polling-booths—a
System notorious for its encouragement of political
prostitution through the intimidation practised upon
the tenant-farmers and the tradesmen. Foremost,
moreover, among the supporters of the Hon. Gentle-
man the Member fcr the city of Bristol, were two of

his brothers, the Hon. and Gallant Member for the
city and the Hon. Representative for the Esstern Di-
vision of the county of Gloucester. What renders
the conduct in this particular the more laudable
on the part of the Honourable Captain
BERKELEY, is the fact that, as one of the Lords
Commissioners of the Admiralty, he is directly iden-
tified with the ruling Administration. As the Prime
Minister himself observed very recently, however, the
question of the Ballot is generally understood to be
an open question with the Government—a declara-
tion still further illustrated last evening by the
voting of Rear-Admiral DUNDAS with the minority.
In the instance of the Hon. GRANTLEY BERKELEY
we are satisfied that his advocacy of the Ballot will
tend in a great measure to dissipate the painful re-
collection of certain unseemly family differences, as
far as the public is concerned—his felicitous and, in
one instance, witty speech of yesterday affording ample
testimony that, whatever his irascibility may be with
the Earl FrrzirAnniscu, his disposition is not suffi-
ciently soured to deaden his appreciation of the
ridiculous, or to render him inconstant in his political
principles. When he exclaimed of the Right Hon.
MILNER GIBSON that he was like a political JOSEPH,
who had been obliged to fly from the Treasury bench
in order to save his political virtue, he spoke not more
happily than when he enumerated some of the names
of those Members who had voted in favour of the
Ballot on the 21st of June, 1848 :
"In that list he found the names of Colonel Anson,
Mr. Bellew, Captain Berkeley, a relative of his own, Mr.
Byng, Admiral Dundas—(Hear, hear)—Sir George
Grey—(Cheers and laughter)—Lord Marcus Hill
(Cheers and laughter)—Mr. Macaulay, Mr. Fox Maule
—(` Hear, hear,' and laughter)—Mr. Parker—(Hear,
hear)— Mr. Redington, Mr. Sheil--(Hear. hear)—Sir
W. Somerville—(Laughter, and cries of Hear, hear')
—Mr. Tufnell—(Cheers, and continued laughter)—Mr.
Ward, Mr. Buller, and Mr. Gibson Craig.—(Laughter
for some minutes)."

To the admirable speech of the Member for the
city of Bristol, and to that from which we have just
quoted, by the representative of the eastern division of
Gloucestershire, aided by those delivered in favour of
the motion by its seconder, the Member for Maccles-
field, and by the distinguished orator the Member for
Oldham, the cause of the Ballot was alone indebted
fur any support during last evening's discussion.
The silent eloquence of the division-list
is, however, more expressive than any harangue,
however earnest its language, no matter whether it
be as unanswerable in logic as that of the Hon.
HENRY BERKELEY, as conclusive in testimony as that
of Mr. JoHN WILLIAMS, as abounding in instances of
intimidation, drawn from his own political experience
as th.at of the Hon. GRANTLEY BERKELEY, or as per-
suasive in emphasis as that pronounced immediately
before the close of the debate by Mr. W. J. Fox.
Among the minority, the friends of Mr. Sergeant
TALFOURD will rejoice to find his name recorded—a
circumstance which would appear to indicate that, on
second thoughts, he has forsaken the abominable squad
of finality.

Whatever may be the opinion of the community
on the fact that the Government 'treated a motion of
so much importance with the most contemptuous
taciturnity—that Ministerial slight to the Ballot will
not be lost to the popular remembrance. Neither
will be forgotten that very recently a hint has been
thrown out by the Liberal Conservatives, that the
policy of Government in this country is invariably to
postpone all remarkable reforms and constitu-
tional improvements until such time as the public
will shall have declared itself in a very imperative
voice through the medium of agitation. The hint
will not be slighted. It will stimulate indirectly and
directly the supporters of the Ballot, of triennial Par-
liaments, of an extension of the suffrage, of the
distribution of the country into well•balanced elec-
toral districts, of colonial re-organization, of Irish
amelioration, of systematic education, of sanitary
interference, and of financial retrenchment. Let the
Cabinet be sure of that. The hint given inadver-
tently by the admirers and emulators of their policy
will not be lost sight of. The people will not only
recognize the force of the suggestion but will act upon
its recommendation.

Many will, doubtless, be disposed to make a
distorted use of that acknowledgment of the
Honourable Gentleman, the representative of
Oldham, that he gave his vote in favour of the Ballot
with reluctance, because "he could not but admit
that secrecy was not a fit companion for the exercise
of the noblest right of citizenship !" Many, we say,
will be disposed to contort that confession to their
own advantage—as was intimated at the moment of
its utterance by an explosion of deri.ive cheering,
But the corollary of the speaker should at least be
taken also into consideration—" thatthatfault must rest
upon those who have made secrecy essential to the free
exercise of the franchise."
Enforcing his own demand with the signatures
of 3,0e0 petitioners resident in Chelsea, and with
those of 7,180 of the citizens of Bristol, the
Honourable HENRY BERKELEY last evening
submitted the matter calmly to the decision of the
Commons. That decision has been unfavourable, the
votes in favour of the motion being 85, those
against it being 136, giving an adverse msjority
of 51 in a House of 221. The upshot of
the whole is simply this—we have not had enough
agitation, the pressure from without has not
been sufficient, the popular demand has not been
adequately imperative, even according to the Liberal
Conservatives. All well and good—the complaint of
this deficiency of demand, agitation, and pressure will
not have to be reiterated very much longer. The
Radical Reformers, in other words, the people of
England, will have the Ballot as they have already
had Free Trade ; and they will not only have the
Ballot, but they will ultimately assume to themselves
the entire catalogue of reforms from that of education
to that of retrenchment.

" With free trade, we must henceforth openly and
avowedly depend less upon home supplies, more upon
foreign supplies ; that is not itself a bad thing, but it
tends more to constitute trade the sole or chief basis
of political science and action." This proposition is
laid down in the last number of the Spectator. In
a paper of less mark it might be passed by amongst
the popular errors or fallacies. Coming from the
quarter which it does, it should not remain uncom-
mented upon. It does not appear written with any
intention to injure the cause of free trade, neverthe-
less it involves a total misconception of the question,
for it is in no respect true, that under a free-trade
system the dependence upon home supplies is less and
upon foreign supplies more, however generally cur-
rent may be the contrary opinion.
A Protectionist paper, of Wednesday morning,
gives currency to a fallacy having a similar bearing,
though more hostilely intended, and the high autho-
rity of Lord BACON is put forth for viewing foreign
importations with jealousy ! The quotation from
BAcoN is that, "Instead of crying up all things which
are either brought from beyond sea or wrought by
the hands of strangers, let us advance the native com-
modities of our own kingdom and employ our own
countrymen before strangers." It is quite true that
free trade permits the productions of the four quarters
of the globe and those from the four cardi-
nal points of the compass to be brought for
our use, but if it can be shown, as it may
be, that in order to have these foreign productions it
is requisite that some equivalent be given, and that
the equivalent necessarily consists of home produc-
tions, we are then as dependent on the home produc-
tion, or "home supplies" under a system of free trade
as under a system of prohibition, since we depend
upon the production of this equivalent, or " home
supplies," as the condition for obtaining the foreign
supplies. That such is the working of the system
admits of being demonstrated. Every cargo of foreign
production which enters our ports, of whatever it
consists, or whencesoever it comes—the hemp, the
tallow, the timber and deals from the Baltic; the
fruits and the oils from the Mediterranean, the
wines from Portugal, the silks and the brandy from
France ; or, taking more remote regions, the cotton,
the rice, and the flour, f:otn the United States of
America ; the silver and gold from Peru, Mexico, or
California ; the coffee, the sugar, and the rum from
our Indian possessions; and the tea from China—are
each and all given as an equivalent for something
we give to foreign nations as an equivalent ; for if
we are o suppose that the various productions of the
different climes and regions just enumerated, with an
indefinite number of other fereign productions which
are almost daily and hourly arriving at our empo-
riums of commerce, are not sent as an equivalent for
something, we are then led to the absurd conclusion

that they are sent without an equivalent. It must
be obvious that they are either given for something
or for nothing, and since it may be dismissed as ut-
terly untenable that they are given for nothing, it
follows of necessity that they are given for something,
and it may be as clearly demonstrated that this some-
thing must be home production, or "home supplies"
the produce of British labour ; because, inasmuch as
that we cannot become possessed of any considerable
quantity of any foreign production but by giving an
equivalent, this equivalent must be a home produc-
tion in the first instance, or we could not become pos-
sessed of it.

The case is in no respect altered from this because
occasionally coffee, or sugar, or gold, or silver, or any
other foreign production is sent as an equivalent, the
transaction is only one or more further remove, as an
analysis of the case will show. Thus, if a piece of
woollen cloth manufactured in Leeds or Huddersfield
or some cutlery or hardware manufactured in Shef-
field or Birmingham, are sent to the South America or
to the East Indies as an equivalent for some bars of
silver, ingots of gold, hogsheads of sugar, or bags of
coffee, and this silver, or gold, or sugar, or coffee is
sent to China or to Russia as an equivalent for either
tea, tallow, or wheat, that tea, tallow, or wheat is as
clearly the result of the British labour and capital in
Leeds, Huddersfield, Sheffield, or Birmingham, as if
the tea, the tallow, or the wheat had been produced
in this country.
And it would then follow that in reality we are as
truly consuming the results of British labour, when
we partake of a plum-pudding composed of flour
brought from New York, eggs from Havre, currants
from Zante, and raisin's from Malaga, sweetened with
sugar from Jamaica, flavoured with nutmegs and
spices from the West Indies, and served up with
butter from Antwerp or Rotterdam, as we are in par-
taking of a Yorkshire pudding made entirely of ma-
terials produced in this island, r.otwithstanding that the
Duke of RICHMOND brought forward in the House
of Lords last week what appeared to him, and some
of the Noble Lords, a very alarming fact, that the
paupers in the Brighton Union Workhouse were ac-
tually fed upon bread made of French flour. It is
a much more gratifying state of things that the in-
habitants of the two nations—England and France—
are upon such terms as to supply each other with
food and clothing, and exchange international visits,
as at present, than was the case when bullets and
bayonets were the missiles, instead of bread loaves,
and when the international visits consisted of French
prisoners locked up in this country and English pri-
soners•locked up in France. Besides, it was only as
recently as 1847, in the same month as at present,
May, that the purchases of wheat in this country, for
tho use of the French,were to such an extent
that minor seaports on the eastern coast of the
island were exporting to France 5,000 to
]O,OOO quarters weekly, and the effect upon
the market in Mark -lane materially contributed in
raising the price to one hundred and sixteen shillings
per quarter, which was the quotation for fine quali-
ties. A little reflection should convince the Noble
Duke and the advocates of high prices, scarcity, and
high rents, that it is fortunate the French can now
spare some , food for the supply of those who require
it on this side of the Channel. If some of the French
flour could be spared also for those who die of star-
vation across the Irish Chantel it would be still bet-
ter. The inhabitants of that ill-fated country Ireland
have been trained to rely upon a home production,
the potato, which does not ordinatily admit of being
exported as an equivalent, and the result is they have
now no surplus equivalent to give in exchange for
foreign productions.
It is perfectly fallacious to suppose that any foreign
importation displaces British labour, for since it has
been shown that the commodity imported was as an
equivalent for something exported, that something
exported has occupied British labour instead of being
employed upon the production of the commodity im-
ported, which, if it cannot be made cheaper or better
abroad, will not continue to be sent or continue to he
received, so neither will that production of British
labour which we send as the equivalent be continued
to be sent or received, unless we can produce it
cheaper or better than the inhabitants of the country
to which it is sent ; thus, under a system of free
trade, the various populations direct their energies to
those branches which the soil, the climate, the habits,
the aptitude, or the experience best befit. It would
be as mutually disadvantageous for the inhabitants
of Lancashire, or the West Riding of Yorkshire, to
compete with the inhabitants of Norfolk in producing
barley as it would be for the inhabitants of Nor
folk to rival the inhabitants of the other two counties
in the production of cotton or woollen manufactures.
If such manifest relative superiority for different pro-
ductions exists between the eastern and the western
side of this island, separated only by a distance of a
few miles, how much more marked are the physi-
cal capabilities, natural and artificial, of nations
geographically divided, and how much better to
permit the inhabitants of each to apply their energies
in the direction which they find most suitable than
to foster one branch of industry at the expense of
others.

We have called the respective productions recipro-
cally exchanged equivalents, or things of equal value,
but this phrase fails to realise all the beneficial effects
of the exchange, because in one view of the case,
though it may seem paradoxical, each gives the less
value fur the greater; the inhabitants of Norfolk pro-
ducing more barley or malt than they can possibly
consume, give some of their surplus to Northumber-
land for a supply of coal, which is of greater value to
them. On the other hand, the inhabitants of
Northumberland producing more coal than they can
possibly consume, and an insufficient quantity of bar-
ley, give some of the surplus coal, the less value, for the
barley which is to them the greater value—thus each
party obtains not merely an equivalent, or something
of equal value, but something of greater value, and
the case is in no respect different between different
nations in the transactions carried on through the
merchants of the respective countries. Both coun-
tries are benefited, for each nation receives in the ag-
gregate—something not merely equivalent, but some-
thing which is of still greater value. The merchant
in his transactions merely embodies the miscellaneous
requirements of the wholesale dealer, the wholesale
dealer in his transactions comprehends the wants of
the retail dealer, and the retail dealer those of the
individual members of the community; and it is of
those individuals that nations are composed. To
permit each individual to judge what commodity
he prefers to consume, in what branch of industry
he can most advantageously employ himself in pro-
duction—this is free trade. So long as there is trade
it is for the well-being of society that it should be
free. If the applications and discoveries in science
and mechanism, and the combination of the productive
powers of man shall, in any future period of the
world, be carried to the extent of producing an abund-
ance or superabundance of the requirements of the
species, trade may then be superseded, and SOME
other distributive processes be introduced ; but so
long as there is trade, it is for the manifest advantage
of society that it should be free trade. If free trade
had the tendency to check production at home the
case might be different, but the contrary is proved
to be true, for if Norfolk had no vent for barley,
or Northumberland for coals beyond the consumption
of the inhabitants, production would be limited to
that consumption ; so if Leeds or Hud lersfield had no
opening for woollens, or Birmingham and Sheffield
for cutlery and hardware than are afforded by the
limits of this island, their production must be re-
stricted to the consumption of the island. Opening
our ports for the production of other countries thus
obviously stimulates production here, since home
production, in some form or other, directly or
indirectly, is given as the equivalent ; and if the
foreign production were not admitted the home pro-
duction could not be received. There needs no stipu-
lation fOr 6' reciprocity," the reciprocity necessarily
arises out of the fact, that for every import there
must be an export.

MAIL STE AAI ERS TO LiAmnuncix.—We under-
stand that contracts were yesterdt,y signed by the
owners of the Hull steamers, by which they are em-
powered to convey the royal mail bags hence to Ham-
burgh, with a post-office mail master on board. The
importance of the correspondence and mercantile trans-
actions between the two ports bas led to this arrange-
ment, which has been largely facilitated through the
active exertions of Mr. Clay, M.P. The first mail boat
will be the Rob Roy, which is appointed to sail on Satur-
day night —Eastern Counties Herald.
Cholera has again broken out in the vicinity of
Edinburgh.—North British Daily Mall.