The Sun.
London, England, 1849-10-25 00:00:00

ighening `max

LONDON, THURSDAY, OCTOBER 25, 1849.

The right of grumbling is one of the most cherished
privileges of Englishmen. It is the safety-valve that
has prevented political explosions similar to those we
have so frequently witnessed amongst our continental
neighbours. The pressure of our grievances loses
half its intensity when we are permitted to complain
of our sufferings freely and without restriction. Our
sorrows and afflictions do not seem so intolerable
when we are permitted to give them free expression,
and receive the sympathies of others whcse positions
are by no means better than our own. Thus it is that
the agriculturists derive a melancholy satisfaction in
declaring themselves to be utterly and irretrievably
ruined, and that the sun of England's glory set for
ever with the establishment of free-trade, and
the abolition of the grinding monopoly which
they have been pleased to term " protec-
tion." So long as all other classes were
taxed for their exclusive benefit they ascribed
the evils, the existence of which were then as fully
admitted as at present, to a variety of different causes.
Bid harvests, overspeculation, railway expenditure,
in turn, were declared to be the causes of the national
distress; but now all these have been completely for-
gotten, and the want of protection is alleged to be
the source of all the misery and wretchedness which
the country has encountered since the year 1846.
The artizans and operatives of the manufacturing
districts have justly complained, because they have
been compelled to eat cheap bread, the price of which
has not been artificially increased by heavy duties;
mei chants and tradesmen have been obliged to sus-
pend payments, because they were not permitted to
contribute large sums to keep up the price of
farming produce ; the State machinery; has
completely gene astray since the stoppage of
the %riled, that made all others contributory to the
high price of land. Such are the complaints that are
reverberated from agricultural meetings throughout
all parts of the country. Notwithstanding the rules
that prohibi:, political discussion at the festivities of the
various societies, no orator will be listened to with any
degree of attention who does not expatiate upon the
irretrievable ruin that has fallen upon the landed in
terest, as well upon the owners as on the occupiers of
the soil. These salutary regulations are manifestly
regarded as " more honoured in the breach than in
the observance," and if any satisfaction is to be
derived from knowing the full extent of the
mischief, then should the British farmers be tho.
roughly and completely happy.
Many noble and distinguished orators have chaunted
the bucolic grievances in different parts of the country
within the last week. At Loughborough the
Marquis of GRANBY has proclaimed how
utterly useless it is for farmers to hope for fair
remuneration for their labours. He has announced
that it is absurd to look to " increased production"
or " cheaper production" as the means of meeting the
additional competition to which they are subjected ;
they cannot succeed either by high farming or low
farming, by employing much or little labour in the
cultivation of their lands. One resource only remains,
they must adopt a system of exclusive dealing, in
order that the manufacturers may be involved in one
common ruin with themselves. If they have any
money they must expend it in foreign countries,
where a certain amount, 10 or 15 per cent. of their
payments, will be returned to the exchequer in the
shape of duties, and by means thereof the amount of
taxation that presses so heavily at present may be
reduced. Does the Noble Marquis for a moment
suppose that the British manufacturer, who
can at present successfully compete with
the foreigner in his own land, although
subject to great disadvantages in the expenses of
freight and costs of transit, and even in import duties,
will fear that competition in his own country, where
his position is reversed and his rival is obliged to
encounter similar impediments? or does be imagine
that English farmers will pay much higher prices
for inferior articles, in order to avenge the fancied
wrongs inflicted on him by the refusal of his fellow-
subjects any longer to subsidise the landlords ? For,
after all, these are the only parties who benefited by
protection while it existed, and who must now sustain
the loss, if any. occasioned by its removal. The
British manufacturer only requires a clear stage and
no favour—he seeks no more for himself, and he will
net ieadily be disposed to yield it to others. The
remedy proposed by the Noble Marquis is,
therefore, as vain as is the hope, if
any such there be, that protection can again
be restored, and that the trading and com-
mercial classes will consent to the re-imposition of the
trammels and fetters by which they were formerly
restricted.

At Saffron Walden, Major BERESFORD took an
equally gloomy view of the position and prospects of
of
the country. " They might talk good times
coining," said the Hon. and Gallant Gentleman,
"but
until they saw the rising of souse superior star to
to then] a brighter horizon, and to show them
plan by which the farmers would be enabled to en-
dure the load under' which they had to labour, he
bAkved it was impossible to expect better days."
In West Surrey, too, the Earl of EGMONT, after
expressing a hope " that the meeting would remember
the chairman's injunction to abstain from touching
on politics," was the first to violate it himself by
inveighing bitterly against free trade and the
iPzejitr And Cobdenite parties. At Tavistock,
Mr riIFVLEB, of Prince Hall, the chairman of
the meeting also dwelt in the most despond-
ing strain', upon agricultural prospects. The
it4,o !.,,entltlman, however, offered practical sugges-
tion:, that were much more acceptable to an assem-
blage of tenant-farmers than they would have been to a
body of landlords. lie insisted upon a general re-

THE

duction of rents, and not of rents merely, but of
taxes also, a reduction of every kind. Did it not,
however, occur to Mr. FOWLER, that his object might
be attained in another and more simple form—that
the wide-spread and general distress, which is not
peculiar to the agricultural body, but in which all
classes, merchants, traders, manufacturers, and, be-
yond all, labourers participate—has been occasioned
by the undue appreciation of money, under our pre-
sent iniquitous monetary code, by which the pressure
of taxation, and of every public and private charge or
incumbrance, has been increased to twice its
former amount? When the purchasing power
of a pound is double what it formerly
was when twice the quantity of broad
cloth, of calico, and of almost any description of ma-
nufactured goods, must now be given that was for-
merly required for the same nominal sum, how, we
say, can he suppose that agricultural produce should
form the sole exception to the rule ? The value of
the quarter of corn, of the ton of bay, of oats, or of
turnips, is not more reduced than every other species
of commodity. It is not that they have depreciated,
but that the general measure of value—money—has
been appreciated. The movement that will be
really beneficial to the country will be one in favour
of a free and unrestricted currency, by which the
life-blood of industry, a circulation adequate to the
wants and exigencies of the people, will be supplied to
the nation. That is the object for which every honest
man, every true friend and well-wisher to the country,
should struggle. When that is obtained trade will
be rendered really free, and there will be an equitable
adjustment of the public burdens. The money-
lender and usurer will indeed be deprived of the
" protection" and monopoly he has hitherto enjoyed,
but the industrious classes, without exception-7
farmers and agricultural labourers as well as trades-
men, the manufacturers and operatives—will receive
the fair fruits of their labour, and there will be full
and remunerative employment for all who are able
and willing to work.

THE FBEN CH REPUBLIC.

We have received the Paris journals of yesterday.
The Avignon and Marseilles Railway Bill was read
a first time by the Assembly on Tuesday.
The High Court of Versailles was on Tuesday the
scene of another scandal, in consequence of the gross
misconduct of a witness, M. VALors, who, instead
of confining himself to facts, abused the prisoners, who
were representatives, calling them not representatives,
but wretches—hereupon the prisoners, as might have
been expected, loudly protested against the insults of
M. VALois. These protests were renewed
in the course of the day in consequence
of the manner in which a certain Cap-
tain GOUBEAII gave his evidence. The Captain
stated that upon his arresting a couple of individuals,
one of them said "Take care, I am a representa
tive ;" on which he (the witness) exclaimed, " You
a representative ? aye, a representative of the Ca-
naille !" Hereupon the prisoners rose, en masse, and
protested against the shameful insults to which they
were subjected, and one of them, LAMA ZIERE, de-
nounced the witness as a liar, for which he was
immediately sentenced to three months' imprisonment.
and a fine of 100 francs. The Counsel for the
defence energetically denounced the insulting con-
duct of the witnesses. _ _

____
The Republique and the Democratie Pacifique of
Tuesday were seized for publishing the following
letter from Louis BLANC and his companions in
exile:—

" Citizen,—The sentence which bas, in the person
of citizent Cabet, just struck one of the most pure
and courageous;servants of democracy, has not surprised
us. Whatever opinions may be formed on an attempt
at colonixition, inspired moreover by so elevated a feel-
ing of devotedness, every Socialist considers himself as
jointly attacked by the julgment pronounced against
Cabet. It belongs to those who have sanctified the pil-
lory and the hulks to re-establish also the benches of the
correctional tribunal. Each of us henceforth has paid
his debt. The musket, the hulks, exile, imprisonment,
the galleys, and infamous condemnations are the conse-
cration of new ideas. It is still the gibbet of ignominy
transformed into the standard of victory ; the cap of the
slave become the glorious symbol of liberty. Health
and fraternity.
" The members of the committee,
" Louis BLANC, President ; J. CAZAVANT, Se-
cretary ; CAUSSIDIERE ; LOUIS MENARD ;
RATTIER ; J. P. BERJAEU ; A. BOURA ;
DELE&U
.; A. DUBOIS (a journeyman es-
binet-maker) ; A. WATRIPON ; MARTIN
BERNARD."

Notwithstanding the seeming reconciliation between
the parti-pretre and the Ministry, it is evident that the
breach is becoming every day wider between the dif-
ferent factions of the so-called party of order. It will
be remembered how energetically M. EMILE DE
GIRARDIN exerted himself to secure the election of
M. Louis NAPOLEON BONAPARTE to the Presidency
of the Republic at the time that M. TRIERS declared
that such an election would be a disgrace to France.
No sooner, however, had the election taken
place than M. DR GIRARDIN was discarded,
and M. TRIERS, the man who had laid the
Boulogne guet-a-pens for Louis NAPOLEON,
was feted at the Elys‘e. The apparent friendship of
M. THIERS in 1849 was merely another guet-a pens,
into which the PRESIDENT has again unwittingly fallen,
and M. THIERS now endeavours to degrade the
PRESIDENT, and to make him appear ponerless and
ridiculous. The object of these manoeuvres of M.
TRIERS are thus explained by the Presse :
" Do you desire to know what is the hope of M.
Thiers? We will tell you. M. Thiers hopes that the
day shall come when the domination of his own virtual
Presidency becoming insupportable to the President, so
only in name, the latter will, in a violent access of pas-
sion, attempt some inconsiderate enterprise. _ _ _

" Such is.the calculation. The who-le edifice is built
on this supposition, on this eventuality, which they
reckon upon as certain. The report of M. Thiers is the
first stone of the edifice—the vote of the majority is the
second."

The health of M. DE FALLOUX continues in such a
precarious state, that his resignation is considered
inevitable. It was said that the portfolio of Public
Instruction would be offered to M. VATISMENIL, who
had been one of the Ministers of CHARLES X. ; but
the DE FALLOUX and the MONTALEMBERTS object to
M. VATESMENIL, because he is not a Jesuit. Thus
do these pseudo-Republicans, in their zeal of Jesuit-
ism, out-do even the priest-ridden CHARLES X.
himself.

There are rumours of an approaching change of
Ministry, the PRESIDENT being, it is said, determined
to surround himself by his friends all the members
of the present Ministry will, it is said, retire, with
the exception of M. ODILON BARROT ; and MM.
VICTOR HUGO, DAau, DE LA MOSKOWA, and
MATHIETJ DB LA REDORTE, will enter the Cabinet.
The Putrie, however, states that these rumours are
without foundation.

The Constitutionnel says that, according to letters
from Venice, a rumour was current in that city that
the Austrian Cabinet had determined to condemn the
Hungarian Generals in their absence, and to abandon
the demand of extradition.

The Evenement states that dispatches have been
addressed by the French Government to General
AUPICY, at Constantinople, instructing him to act in
conjunction with the British Ambassador.
The same journal states that the object of the
mission of M. PERSIGNY to Vienna was to ask for
the remains of the Duc DE REICHSTADT, in order to
have them laid by the side of the EMPEROR. Had
the request been complied with the intention was,
that there should take place a magnificent funeral
ceremony on the 25th of December, the anniversary
of the translation of the remains of the EMPEROR to
the Invalides. The young EMPEROR, however, gave
a point blank refusal to the request, on the ground
that it would not be becoming to remove the son of
an Austrian Archduchess from the side of his mother.
At the sitting of the Assembly yesterday the dis-
cussion commenced on the proposition of M. CRETON,
for abrogating the laws of proscription against the
members of both branches of the Bourbon family.
The Commission had recommended its not being

taken into consideration. M. CRETON spoke at some
length against this conclusion of the Committee, and
disclaimed any idea of sowing the seeds of division
between the moderate men who had brought the
country back to a state of calmness and security,
and to render an act of justice to unmerited mis-
fortune.
M. Berryer said that though he had always
opposed laws of proscription he should vote for the
rejection of the present measure. He did so from
the firm conviction that the families alluded to
would not avail themselves of the abrogation of
these laws. Under the present system which pre-
vailed in France, no member of the house of Bourbon
would ever consent to return to the country. To
recal them from exile at this moment would he
considered only be to make "confusion worse con-
founded."

M. Pascal Duprat said that he had intended to
oppose the proposition, but the speech of M. Berryer
had induced him to chantgee his opinion, and he should
oaes.rhnomuledntp,owinhtoouwtoaunlyd
now vote for it unless
doubtless speak on the subject,
effillaiehttherippsrea:snte,
princes
sutf merely to
It was not tne
the fallen
gwliasrhi nogf dhisan
partydanger whicht o
destroy in the minds of the
houses all hopes which must be from henocefor
The Minister of the Interior said that tEethp vain.p
sition was good in itself, but in the present sfarte-'3o.f
affairs he was opposed to its adoption. The Govern-
ment had clearly stated its views to the Committee
on the subject, and on that opinion doubtless the
Committee had come to the resolution to oppose its