The Sun.
London, England, 1849-05-22 00:00:00

SPIRIT of the PUBLIC JOURNALS.
CHBONICLE.—A majority of thirteen in Committee
(where proxies do not count) against Lord Stanley's
principal amendment has finally settled the question of
the navigation-laws, and proved the utter hollowness of
the boasts and threats with which the public has been
so long teased and deafened by the Protectionists. By
a kind of retributive justice, too, they have received
their death-blow in an attempt at an imposition and a
trick. A borough Member, who was expected to do
something handsome for his constituents, promised to
give five hundred pounds to be laid out for the good of
their town so soon as they had agreed as to the best
method of expending it. They never did agree, and he
saved his money. Lord Stanley's offer, or promise, of
reciprocity was a dodge of the same character. his
sole object in making it was to gain time, create
embarrassment, and eventually do nothing. If he has
read the printed " Correspondence with Foreign States."
on the subject of the navigation-laws, he must be
perfectly aware that the principal maritime countries,
with the United States at their head, are most desirous
to deal with Great Britain on a perfect footing of reci-
procity; but a very general suspicion prevails that she
is not in earnest. Several complain that they have taken
the initiative in liberality as regards both commerce and
navigation, and that their overtures have not been
frankly and fairly met. It is, therefore, of paramount
importance to inspire confidence, and to dissipate, by a
generous and open mode of dealing, the growing jea-
lousies of rivals and competitors, who, by combining,
might fatally check the progress of our manufactures or
our marine. It is also obvious, that if the improved
system of commercial policy is to be carried out, bit by
bit, by treaties with each individual state, an infinity of
difficulties would be started, and work would be cut out
for the diplomats, enough to last them the next twenty
years, if not enough to compel the institution of a new
academy for their instruction. Many of our existing
treaties contain a clause binding us to admit the con-
tracting party to any advantages to which
we admit any other nation. This would le
one source of complication. The impossibility
of finding equivalents, or satisfactory subjects
of interchange, would be another. How, for example,
are we to deal with countries which have no colonies?
or how can a country with only a single port compensate
us: for admitting their vessels into the whole of our
numerous ports? Or are we to confine Hamburgh and
Bremen to Newcastle and Hull? If Lord Stanley was
not aware of these obvious objections, he has profitted
very little by his official experience; and it is most ex-
traordinary that he does not see (what, it is rumoured,
some of his followers saw at a glance) that his scheme
is a distinct admission of the principle of free trade. For
these several reasons, we never for a moment looked on
Lord Stanley's amendments as bond fide propositions ;
and his speech, on bringing them forward, was not of a
nature to dispel doubts as to his good faith. It was not
only wavering and inconsistent in itself, but utterly at
variance with what he said no longer since than Friday
last. The unconstitutional character of the course he
threatened had become apparent in the brief interval of
two days; new lights had broken in; and the amendments
which were to sweep away the principle of the Bill were
described as not affecting that principle at all. But it
is needless to turn back for the purpose of exposing
Lord Stanley's inconsistencies. It is simply necessary
to place his arguments in parallel columns, and the self-
refutation is complete. Eloquently and elaborately did
he expatiate on the sagacious policy of Mr. Huskisson
in proceeding by reciprocity treaties ; but it suddenly
occurred to the Noble Lord, that, if this, the first serious
encroachment on the Navigation-laws, had turned out
well, the general conclusion might be against him, and
he forthwith attempted to show that, by these: same
treaties, Mr. Huskisson bad made a present of large
slices of our trade to every nation which sent a ship to
Liverpool. Then Mr. Huskisson had said, and he (Lord
Stanley) agreed with him, that the time might
come when some doughty rival might monopolise
the carrier trade of the world, and that, in all human
probability. this formidable maritime rival of Great
Britain would be North America. Yet forthwith he
proposes to give the United States the right of carrying
Canadian produce to Great Britain, to the exclusion of
every other fereign country; thereby protecting our most
formidable rival against Holland, Prussia, Sweden. Den-
mark, Norway, and all the other states which are sup-
posed to run us close. Bit rdship admitted that the-
prohibition to bring the raw produce of Asia, Atrica, or
Ameriea, in any ship whatever, British or toreign, from
any European port to the British isles, was an absurdity.
But when compelled to specify what modification he
would allow, it was with pain and difficulty extracted
from him that the utmost to Which he could consent'
was, that the law should be relaxed as to a few slight
articles, but that it must remain unaltered so far as tea,
coffee, cotton, sugar, tobacco, and, in fact, every other
weighty and important commodity was concerned. But
the point on which he was most inconsistent, and con-
tradicted himself most frequently, was precisely
that which constituted the leading feature of
his plan. Everyone acquainted with commercial matters
knows that there is nothing so ruinous as change. One
of the greatest evils of the restrictive system consists in
the fluctuations occasioned by it. If prohibitory duties
are imposed one year, and repealed or modified the next,
the most cautious calculations are confounded, and the
steadiest trader finds himself in a dilemma. Lord Stanley
saw and stated this, with his accustomed force and clear-
ness, when his object was to discredit the retaliation
clauses in the Ministerial Bill. " Once open your ports
to a foreign state (so runs his argument), and it is ab-
surd to suppose that you would ever again dream of
closing them." But when it was necessary to recommend
his own proposal, the argument was reversed. According
to his amendments, her Majesty is merely to be authorised
to act by " orders in council, revocable as hereinafter
mentioned;" and let no one suppose that this re-
voking power is to be a dead letter. Most emphatically
did he explain that it was to be regularly exercised on
the first symptom of unfairness or inequality. If, for
example, it should be found upon trial that Great Bri •
Lain could not compete with any given country, the order
in council was to be withdrawn or cancelled, and the
pristine state of restriction was to be restored. Does
Lord Stanley really believe that any country in the
world would negotiate upon such a basis, or that mer-
chants would embark their capital subject to so facti-
tious and gratuitous a risk? Not contented with contra-
dicting himself five or six times over, he must needs con-
tradict one of his ablest supporters, Lord Ellenborough,
who had dwelt very pointedly, and very superfluously, in
the former debate, on the madness of sacrificing national
honour or maritime supremacy to wealth. It served the
purpose of the moment, and Lord Stanley covered with
ridicule the notion that nations are to be guided by roman-
tic considerations of glory and generosity, instead of mak-
ing the best possible bargains on all occasions. He was fol-
lowed by Lord Grey, who hit him right and left without
mercy. "It is all very well to keep to generalities, to
talk about Nelson and the Nile, and the dependence of
the entire empire on these miserable wrecks, relics, and
fragments of navigation laws. But come to close
quarters: take restriction by restriction, and let us see
if you have a word to say for one of them." Lord
Stanley is too wary to accept such a challenge; and it
would have been well for him bad he been silent as to the
returns relating to the Liverpool trade for 184$. Lord
Grey proved from them incontestably, that, if the United
States possessed an advantage in the direct trade
under the reciprocity treaties, this was entirely
owing to our own senseless and arbitrary law.
The discussion which ensued reminds us of a
debate described by Horace Walpole, in which
• Murray (Lord Mansfield) suffered for an hour." Lord
Stanley must have suffered for several hours, unless he
has grown completely callous. It would be no easy
matter to decide whether he was most damaged by
neutrals, friends, or enemies; but he must have writhed
under the unprincipled advocacy of his adherents, as
much as under the good sense and information of Lord
Granville, the statesmalike views of Lord Lansdowne, and
the unsparing castigations of Lord Grey. As for Lord
Colchester's knowledge and Lord Eilenborough's oratory,
they were worse than wasted; whilst Lord, Wharnclitie
and Lord Harrowby passed a strong censure on the Op-
position leader, in the very act of objecting to the measure
of the Government. We shall take another opportunity
of commenting on this debate. Our present impression
is that Lord Stanley has received a severe lesson; and
(better late than never) must have learnt that the cheers
of an intemperate and broken party will ill compensate
him for the discredit he has incurred by sacrificing prin-
ciple, consistency, and the confidence of all right-thinking
men, to gratify them.

DENMARK ANI) THE DUCHIES.
SCHLESWIQ-HOLSTEIN, MAY 18.—Ftedericia has been
bombarded since 3 o'clock yesterday morning, 30 bombs
having been, in the first instance, thrown into the for-
tress.

The day before yesterday, the Prussians occupied
our Aarhims, and they did not encounter any
of the men except a few cavalry patrols. Nor is
it known where the northern division of the enemy
is stationed. On the gradual approach of the Imperial
troops, the inhabitants leaving their property at stake,
take ships, and leave for Turin. The Danes at Fre-
dericia are indefatigable in daily saluting the German
work of fortification with their bombs, without,
however, causing much damage. Wnen too energe-
tic the Germans make the Jutland peasants, who are
at work, upon them, immediately cease their fire.
On the 15th they saluted the German entrenchments
with nineteen bombs, but only one of them took effect,
and killed a couple of men. Upon this, General Bonin
placed the Jutland peasants in a mere exposed position
than they generally occupied, and the Danes imme-
diately gave over firing. The fortress of Fredericia is
now the stronghold, and although the Danes were
victorious in the first sally, it is said that their
loss was considerable, though the Minister of War
at Copenhagen gives the list at one killed and sixteen
wounded. The Danes assert that Fredericia will be able
to sustain a bombardment for three weeks. The event
will prove whether this is so or not.
COPENHAGEN, MAY 17.—An English war-steamer
arrived here to-day. It is conjectured that it is the
Hecate, vrhicb, according to the English journals, has
been sent hither with dispatches from Lord Palmerston.
HANOVER, MAY 16.—The Hanover Gazette is indig-
nant at the report circulated in the capital, and inserted
also is the 111.orning Pest, that the King of Hanover
would arrive in England in the course of twenty-four
hours. " lung Ernest Augustus," says this journal,
"is made of rather tougher material thus to quit his
post in tbeyrospect of possible contingencier."
The prrlect of the German Constitution, as about
to be adopted by the German Government now &libe-
ls said to be ready, and will soon be
rating at Berlin,
promulgated. It comprehends a German union, and
differs only on some points to the administrative
formerly propounded at Frankfort. This Con-
stitution, as accepted at Berlin, is to he sub-
mitted to the Diet to be uss,mbled this summer for
deliberation and ace, prance. By this project the King
of Prussia will be at the head of Germany as Regent
of the Empire (Reichayerweser), and thereby obtain
the supreme command of Germany on a more, sure