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

Catainct anit

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 Lfflictions do not seem so intolerable
when we are permitted to give them free expression,
and receive the sympathies of others whose positions
are by ro menus 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.
Bad 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;
merchants 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 wheel, that made all ethers 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 prohibit 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 Loughb
proclaimed h
utterly useless it is for farmers to hope for fair
remuneration for their labouri. 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 he 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
not readily 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
the country. " They might talk of good times
coming," said the Hon. and Gallant
superiorlant Gentleman, "but
o
until they saw the rising some star to open
to them a brighter horizon, and toshow them a
plan by which the farmers would be enabled to en-
dure the load under which they had to labour. he
believed 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
Peelite and Cobdenite parties. At Tavistock,
Mr. FOWLER, of Prince Hall, the chairman of
the meeting also dwelt in the most despond-
ing strain upon agricultural prospects. The
latter gentleman, however, offered practical sugges-
tions, that were much more acceptable to an assem-
blage of tenant-farmers than they would have been to a
body of landlords. He insisted upon a general re-