The Sun.
London, England, 1849-03-19 00:00:00

TO THE SECRETARY OF THE

METROPOLITAN REFORM ASSOCIATION.

Sir,---On Wednesday the 14th the Clergy Relic
Bill was read a second time, without a division
Another proof that liberality in the department 01
Church affairs is on the -advance.

On the same evening the debate was renewed on
the Member for Buckinghamshire's motion for a
Committee of the whole House on " Agricultural
Burthens," and continued by adjournment on Thurs-
day, when it was negatived by the votes of 280
against 189. The most striking thing about the
whole, was the concluding speech of the mover; be-
ginning in a profession of demand for justice to an
interest which for twenty years has been the plun-
derer of all the others, and ending by throwing off
the mask and avowing the unalterable design of
moving back to the old tyranny. The speech was a
continual "crescendo " in sound and fury, wound up
by an almost ludicrous explosion of energetic pom-
posity, conveyed in a novel allusion to a celebrated
old woman, and the vow to imitate her in reiterating
the demand, till we see " Protected and Regenerated
England."
Other Members on the same side made no secret of
their disinclination to tamper with any petty object
like the removal of the malt tax, and their resolution
to look to " a fixed duty upon corn." Here then,
after all attempts at decent disguise, the plan is abroad.
The demand is for a right to put down foreign com-
merce at the beck of any man who proffers to prove,
that he can supply the consumer with a
worse and dearer article at home. The question
is not half understood in the House of
Commona ; and great responsibility attaches
to those who have let pass the opportunities for an
almost daily retort on the assailants. It may be very
well to make speeches once or twice a session which
shall be cried up as unanswerable; but a much more
effective system for public progress, is that of giving
here a little and there a little, and turning the ardour
of the adversary into occasions for repulse. If this
had been followed in :timeipast, " Protected and Re-
generated England" would net now have shown its
head, and there would have been no talk of either
monuments for its deceased supporters, or chaplets
woven by ladies' hands for the living.
It cannot be said that the division was quite as bad.
as on the Navigation Laws. But it was clearly not an
aggressive majority, nor one that is capable of carry-
ing any principle in advance. The cause of progress
in general is arrested, by having allowed Free:Trade
to be reduced to a melancholy defensive. The bare
has squatted and gambolled, till the tortoise has made
sure of the race, as far as winning anything new is
in question. There must be Navigation Laws, and a
struggle for our plunder for ever, because frolicsome
statesmen could not keep going ahead when they were
doing.
On Friday a motion by Mr. Hume for obliging
the Ministers to submit a statement of the expected
revenues and expenditure for the ensuing financial
year. After a very useful debate, the motion was
negatived by 97 to 48.
On the same day in Committee of Supply, motion
made for reducing the number of seamen voted, from
40,000 to 35,000. There was probably no danger of
being wrong in voting for the smaller number. But
the remonstrants do not make their case clear in the
details. They dwell much on the fact of ships being
built to decay; it ',Ting apparently allowed on all
sides, that the natural term of a ship is
fifteen years. But under such conditions, how is
it possible that ships should not be built to decay ?
As there has happily been a thirty years' peace, there
seems to have been no alternative between this, and
having a clear sweep-out of the dockyards ; and no-
body stands up for the last. On which I only note,
that the remonstrants advance an argument which
they do not carry to an end. It does not follow that
there has not been extravagance ; but the circum-
stance of ships being built and decaying without ever
going to sea, does not prove it. The motion for re-
duction was finally negatived by 144 against 59.
I am, Sir, your obedient servant,
AN OLD REFORMER.
London, March 19, 1849.