The Sun.
London, England, 1847-07-22 00:00:00

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LONDON, THURSDAY, JULY 22, 1847.

PRIVY COUNCIL.

A Privy Council was appointed to be held at three
o'clock this afternoon, at Buckingham Palace, for the
purpose of settling the QUEEN'S Speech on closing the
session of Parliament. Most of the Cabinet Ministers
were expected to attend the Council.

That supreme authority over the character of tLe
Legislature, which is periodically confided to the dis-
cretion of the multitude, entails with it a supreme
responsibility. Rashness is culpability, indifference
is culpability, not less than dishonesty and corruption,
in an elector. For it must be remembered that the
proper exercise of judgment in the selection of e
Parliamentary representative is absolutely requisite
to ensure permanence and wisdom to the national
councils. Under this consideration it becomes obvi-
ous that the possessors of the elective franchise are in
effect the creators and guardians of the House of
Commons; li
to them is traceable the disposition of our
representative assembly, the bias of that assembly,
the tendency of its members, its disposition, its mo.
rality, its capacity, its subtlety of comprehension, the
eloquence of its discussions, the keenness of its per-
ception, the comprehensiveness of its experience—all
are attributable directly and essentially to the people.
It is by the people that the character of the House of
eonamons is formed ; as emphatically—to use, not
Irreverently, an old scriptural expression—as the clay
in hands of the potter. Is the Parliament one of
distinguished honesty ' It is owing to the popular
selection. Are its Members competent to de-
cide upon measures of legislative improvement ?
Their capacity has been originally detected
by the enfranchised people, and their ser-
vices consequently enlistedin the cause of the
entire empire. Whatever may be the prevailing
tone of a Government—whetheayr
it of a pernicious
or a beneficial influence—whether it profligattennine principle or conscientious in
practice—that
voicestheof the
as last
has been born from the aggregated
electors. This was deplorably manifested in
generation, yes, in the last generation, as well
its predecessors : the rotten boroughmongeringsy.sn
tem impregnated the Commons with a venality and a
pervading viciousness most consonant with the cor-
ruption practised among the pocket constituencies.
Now, however, that boroughmongering is almost
rendered impracticable, the electors are permitted
a better opportunity for evincing at once their inde-
pendence, their incorruptibility, and their discretion.
Their responsibilities are, moreover, enormously in-
treased.

Never, we distinctly affirm it, never has a general
election approached under circumstanc s more.
calcu-
lated to afford the constituencies of the United kingdom
a chance of selecting at their pleasure from among the
various candidates who will present themselves upon
the hustings, the most patriotic and enlightened body
of representatives. The opposition which is pre-
vented I vented to you, Liberal electors, is either so odious in
purpose, or so splintered by divisions, or so contemp-
tible in its numerical di-proportion, that failure will
only he attributable to yourselves. Union—and the
day is not only yours, but the seven years are yours. I
Combination—and the shadow of Conservatism, or
rather Toryism disguised, will be discomfited for ever.

The old electioneering war-whoop of " Protection"
is forgotten because of the derision cast upon the
misnomer. "No Popery "is chosen instead. So be
it. That " pudding-headed" cry, as Mr. CARLYLE
would call it, that cry so typical cf everything that
is obsolete and thoroughly used up, is the symbol of
the wretched faction opposed to us. Onward, then,
courageously and confidently, and we must inevitably
be victorious.

- Activity is already visible in a large number of
our cities, boroughs, and shires. The electors, with
a wholesome providence of time, are bestirring
themselves for the struggle which is approaching—
which may, in fact, be said to have already arrived.
Among these judicious constituencies we are rejoiced
to perceive that of the second most populous city in
the British empire—Glasgow. Better candidates—
candidates more felicitously chosen to contest the re-
presentation of that great manufacturing city—could
not by possibility have appeared than the LORD
PROVOST of Glasgow himself; and the eminent, and
indeed renowned, political economist Mr. MACGREG on.
Both of them are men distinguished by their
public services and their singularly practical
ability ; both of them are men of unimpeach-
able integrity, and of assured principles. Mr.
MACGREGOR is in a peculiar manner entitled to the
consideration of a vast mercantile community like
that of Glasgow. His assiduous and enlightened
labours as one of the joint secretaries of the Board of
Trade—labours extending over a period of fifteen
years—labours which have associated him succes-
sively with the Governments of Lord MELBOURNE,
Of Sir ROBERT PEEL, and of Lord JOHN RUSSELL—
prove him to be a man skilled in the philosophy
of commerce. This fact, moreover, has been
blazoned conspicuously in the writings by
which he has shOwn himself to be a worthy
disciple of the first Apostle of Free Trade--
ADAM SMITH. Mr. MACGREGOR has earned for him-
self the esteem and the suffrages of the Liberal elec-
tors of Glasgow ; he is precisely the man qualified to
watch over their interests, and over the commercial
interest of the whole empire. By sending the LORD
PROVOST • and Mr. MACGREGOR to Westminster
Glasgow will nobly aid in the advancement of the
national cause, and guarantee at least two distin-
guished Members in the Popular Parliament.

We have to call attention to the copy of a petition,
in another column, from the unfortunate claimants,
for losses by the Danes, which was presented to•the
House of Commons, a short time ago, by Mr. 'WAT-
SON. It seems the height of cruelty to deny redress
to these parties, after the repeated decisions in their
favour. They did not, however, bring their case
more prominently forward this session, on account of
the great exertions required to be made to relieve the
distress which existed in Ireland and Scotland; but
they intend to submit their long sufferings to the
new Parliament, which they trust will do them
justice.

The session could not be permitted to come to a
termination, the Legislature could not close its an-
nual labours without the modern QUIXOTE once more
setting his lance in rest, and running another tilt on
behalf of the goddess of his idolatry, his adored Pro-
tection. The chivalrous La blanchan was not more
deeply impressed with the glories of knight-errantry,
or imbued with greater hostility to the more sober
rules of modern justice, which had usurped its place,
than is the Noble Representative for Lynn enamoured
with the perfections of monopoly, and opposed to the
free-trade heresy that has sprung up to its exclusion!
No facts are sufficiently strong to repress his ardour.
He regards everything through a distorted medium,
and colours it according to his own peculiar views.
No wonder that he reposes implicit confidence in his
own powers, and that he questions clear and
(to other minds) convincing deductions with
as little doubt or hesitation as that with which
the Knight of the Rueful Countenance assailed
the innocent windmills. The statement contained in
the recent address of Sir R. PEEL to his constituents
respecting the financial and commercial policy of the
late Government was the giant which the modern
mirror of knight-errantry desired to overwhelm in the
present instance. Had he suffered it to go forth,
without contradiction to the public, that an increase
of the Customs duties, by a certain per centage, was
not productive of a corresponding increase to the re-
venue, while a great and general reduction of these
..141,/1 110 1e55 Wail ,OZJ,VVVi. sterling was
remitted to the people, was attended, in the year
184 G, by a diminution of revenue to the extent of
779,0001. only, and that in the year ending April,
1847, as that policy became more fully developed,
and its results came into full operation, that defi-
ciency had wholly disappeared; and, notwithstanding
these enormous boons conferred upon the people,
there had actually been an increase in the ordinary
revenues of the country derivable from the same
sources—it would have a most injurious effect on his
doctrines. What arguments could mystify or de-
ceive a people who had received such tangible be-
nefits, and bow could he hope that such a majority
of his party would be returned at the forthcoming
elections as would enable him to seize on the reins
of Government, and restore the golden era of mo-
nopoly in the teeth of such decisive facts ? Some-
thing must be done, and that speedily, to counteract
the effects of that plain and simple statement on the
public mind, to restore confidence to hi 3 depressed
associates, who were unable to sustain their positions
in the face of such truths. The Noble Lord accordingly
took advantage of a motion for certain documents, to
which no opposition was intended, to enlighten the
House and the public by showing, or rather striving to
show, that no dependence should be placed on these
extraordinary results, and that they were not in any
degree owing to the more liberal commercial policy
that had been introduced.
The reasons by which the Noble Lord attempted to
establish his proposition were certainly of no ordinary
character. He could not controvert or deny the
great fact that the ordinary income of the country
was now larger in amount than that which was
realized in 1841, before any of these reductions had
taken place; but he says—" It is not wholly owing
to the reductions, because in the articles with which
the tariff of Sir R. PEEL did not interfere there was
an increase of revenue within that period of
4,150,0001., for which he can take no credit. The
whole of the reductions should be made up by the
increased consumption of the articles on which they
had taken place, in order to justify the policy, or to
show that the improvement in the revenue had been
occasioned thereby."
Now there never was a more fallacious argument
than this, or one more easily overturned. It could
not be supposed that the loss of revenue occasioned
by the total abolition of any duty (and our readers
will hardly require to be reminded of how many ar-
ticles have been admitted free within the last six years
that were previously subjected to heavy import
duties) could be replaced- by an increased consump-
tion thereof, however great it might be ; but the
relief thereby afforded to the people, the increased
prosperity that followed, enabled them to partake
more freely of other comforts or luxuries, and thus
to increase . the consumption of those things on
which perhaps no reduction had been made.
The principal items on which this increase has taken
place will be found to be those chiefly indicative of
a more prosperous condition of the working classes.
The great improvement has been on tea, tobacco, and
snuff, British and Colonial spirits, bricks, paper, soap,
land hops. Now these are amongst the chief comforts
of the less wealthy portion of the people, and the
increase therein i 3 asily accounted for. The re-
mission of duties to the extent of 7,500,000/. sterling
saved aml,ooucho,loaoorgle.rssttv„ltgo
(the public, amounting to
nearly l
occasion). This enormoussaasywin
ee proved on a former
apelitciavbitlye tion otrthadere
andu: more general
gra, l thus
employment made ap-
p of
a, occasioned a much greater
the people, who had thus larger sums to spare
for the purchase of other articles, and these were
on which
atnhdintghsey in turn led
naturally applied to those,
their comforts chiefly depended
to others ; thus tea was at once the most obvious
article to be thus increased, and we find the revenue
thereon improve d fully 2.5 per cent., or nearly
1,200,0001. This again would lead to a correspond-
ing increase in the sugar duties, for which Sir
ROBERT
was entitled to more credit than (in
PEEL
his anxiety to remove any topic of controversy) he

had claimed. The other points are susceptible of a

similar explanation, and we do not think the Noble

Lord will succeed in shaking the faith of the country