The Sun.
London, England, 1847-07-19 00:00:00

oaf tilening

LONDON, MONDAY, JULY 19, 1847.

RonviaT PEEL has constituted himself a great
Leader of the English People by proving himself a
Patriotic Statesman. His retirement from the first
office in the government of these realms can never be
forgotten : it was invested with the dignity of an
historic event by the enthusiasm of the
whole nation for a falling but triumphant
Minister. Since that memorable occasion the
late Premier has lived in comparative retire-
ment; comparative, we say, merely in reference to
the prominent position occupied by him in the House
of the representative Legislature during the five
years precedihg. Sir ROBERT has at length emerged
from this partial privacy by publishing an Address to
his constituency at Tamworth. That Address, how- I
ever, belongs not exclusively to the electors of
Tamworth ; it is the property of the whole kingdom,
it is for the perusal of every enfranchised citizen in
the empire.

---
Some declaration of opinion, some definite an-
nouncement of principle, some explanatory allusions
to the past, some assurances and auguries as to the
future, were expected from Sir ROBERT PEELimme-
rliately upon the dissolution ofthe Long
Parliament,
during the existence of which he had lost the
obedience of a Great Party, and gained the gratitude
le SiBERT PEEL
and affections of a Gre t Peop a .
has fulfilled all these expectations byr
hßis O
comprehen
sive letter to his constituents.
Formerly the electioneering manifestoes of the
Right Hon. BAronet the representative of Tamworth
,were better than political puzzles. The Ad-
ores/ before us—every word and numeral of which
we have studied with the attention demanded by a
document of such significance and importance—
is eminently the reverse of its predecessors. It is
penned in the homeliest style imaginable ; but that
very characteristic of homeliness, both in manner and
language, imparts an extraordinary forcefulness to
the composition. Nothing could be more straight-
forward, more manly, more independent, more
candid, more conclusive than the explanation given
by the ex-Prime Minister of his conduct throughout
the period of his Administration. Nothing could be
raore singularly indicative of the soundness of his

position before the country than the solicitation of
the suffrages of the Tamworth electors by which
that explanation is accompanied—a solicitation so
graceful in utterance, and yet so uncompromising in
dignity. The Address, indeed, will be doubly wel-
come to the community at large ; it will be welcome
as an explicit retrospect of a policy which has been
productive of incalculable benefits to the million ;
and, above all, it will be welcome as a token that the
inaugurator of that policy is staunch in his adherence
to the cause of progression and improvement. Sir R.
PEEL is fully committed to the popular move-
' ment. Liberalism is his political creed. The greatest
_ _

good to the greatest number is the end of all his as-
pirations as a politician ; and—seeing that his obser-
vations upon the Maynooth grant, upon the penal
enactments, and upon the extension to all religious
classes of the blessings of national education, imply the
most catholic tolerance—we are justified in regarding

as his favourite motto, " Civil and Religious Li-
berty." The retrospect taken by Sir ROBERT PEEL
is, as we hare already intimated, most satisfactory ;
but how could it be otherwise ? The Right
Hon. Baronet can only look back with exultation
upon the closing achievements and predominant ten-
dency of his Administration. Referring to the state
of our foreign relations at that period, he can only
remember the honourable compromise effected with
regard to Oregon, whereby continued jealousies and
probable warfare, between Great Britain and the
United States, were prevented; he can only remember
the triumphal progress of our arms in the defence
and development of our Oriental possessions; he can
only remember the prolonged and continuous peace
preserved between ourselves and the other kingdoms
of Christendom. Referring to the measures adopted
by himself and his colleagues for the development and
preservation of the Established Church, be recalls to
mind the fact of their having afforded facilities for
religious instruction to no less than 764,000 souls
hitherto excluded from that instruction by the paucity
of the churches when compared with the general
Ipopulation. And, referring to the financial and com-
mercial innovations effected under his especial
guidance, he enumerates a series of such marvellous
and beneficent changes (faits accompli), as it has
never before fallen to the lot of any statesman to
catalogue.
A profound interest is attached to this portion of
Sir R. PEEL'S manifesto. The details, it is true, are
no more than a recapitulation of the speeches deli-
vered in the House of Commons by the Right Hon.
Baronet on proposing the total, but gradual, abolition
of the laws obstructing the importation of foreign
grain—the recapitulation, however, is more concise,
and, if possible, more convincing and unanswerable
than the orations it echoes. Again, does the ex-
Premier aver that his conversion from the doctrines
of Protection to those of Free-trade was not as abrupt
as his present antagonists asseverate. He proves that
in his instance there was no sudden " jumping to con-
clusions ;" that, on the contrary, his financial policy
tended, from 1842 inclusively, to the ultimate reali-
sation of freedom to commerce. Nevertheless, he is
not ashamed to acknowledge, as he nobly acknow-
ledged on retiring from authority, that his confidence
in the so-called protective system was materially
weakened " by the conflict of argument on the prin-
ciple of a restrictive policy," meaning thereby the
peaceful agitation of the Anti-Corn-law League, and
the logical eloquence of its illustrious chieftain, Mr.
COBDEN. To the awful deficiency of provisions,
moreover, caused by the mysterious destruction of
the potato crops in 1845, he attributes in a particular
manner his final determination to demand the abro-
gation of the corn-laws. Famine was indeed to him
what the Sibyl was to the Prince of VIRGIL—at once a
warning and a guide. Famine warned him from an
obstinate persistence in the obsolete blunder of pro-
tection, while it led him on to the golden glories of
free trade ; it pointed not from the luco to the antro,
not from the grove to the cavern, but from the dark-
ness and confinement of old laws to the light and
liberty of new ones.
" Procul 0, procul este, profani,
Conclamat vates, totoque absistite luco.
Tuque invade viam, vaginaque eripe ferrusn;
None animis opus, ./Nnea, nunc pectore firmo.
Tantitm effete, furens antro se immisit aperto:
Ille ducem haud timidis vadentem passibus atquat."
Famine threatened ; experience conquered a moiety
of prejudices ; reason and argument overcame the
remainder. Sir ROBERT proclaimed to his colleagues
the necessity of opening the ports and of blotting the
restrictive laws upon corn from the statute-book :
the Conservative party was thereby deprived of its
creator, and he himself was expelled from'office, though
he was accompanied in his retirement by the accla-
mations of his fellow-countrymen.
History will tell that those acclamations were well
deserved, that they were deserved because of the in-
troduction of a financial and commercial policy which
has in truth tended "to fortify the established in-
stitutions of this country, to inspire confidence in the
equity and benevolence of the Legislature, to main-
tain the just authority of an hereditary nobility," and
—what is more practically beneficial than all—" to
better the * condition of those who labour for their
subsistence." By the establishment of an income-
tax and the removal of imposts from articles of
consumption, whether as food or as the materials of
manufacture, Sir ROBERT PEEL relieved the poorer
classes from the burden of contributing in undue pro-
portions to the national revenue, and removed the re-
sponsibility of the maintenance of the credit of our
exchequer to those more opulent classes among which
he himself is notoriously numbered. This considera-
tion it is which justifies the Right Honourable
Baronet in saying so emphatically, in allu-
sion to his determination, in the November of 1845,
to abolish the restrictions against the introduction of
grain from foreign countries—" / am wholly un-
conscious of any single motive of self-interest, personal
or political, which was not calculated to bias my judg-
ment in favour of an opposite conclusion." Knowing
the accuracy of this assurance, the population of Great
Britain cannot but recognise in the consequent retire-
ment of Sir ROBERT PEEL from authority the sacri-
fice of Place to Patriotism.
What will the electors of Tamworth do ? What
will be the influence of this Address over the
scattered divisions of the Conservative party ? The
answer must be obvious to themselves. Sir ROBERT
shows that he is neither a wavering supporter of
Expediency, nor a sycophantic aspirant for the votes
of any single constituency in the empire. On the
contrary, he evidences that he is an honest convert
and a manly candidate. If, therefore, the enfran-
chised inhabitants of Tamworth are conscientiously
opposed to the course adventured upon by their
distinguished representative, they have had pointed
out to them by that very representative himself the
only path which now remains open to their inde-
pendence. Whatever may be the decision of his
constituents, however, Sir ROBERT PEEL will retain
the affection and admiration of the people, because in
becoming a Reformer of singular audacity, he has
become also a National Benefactor.

In the observations which we offered on Friday,
respecting the clause proposed by Mr. G. ALEXANDER
HAMILTON to be inserted in the Bankruptcy and
Insolvency Bill, we stated that none of the
parties seemed aware of the fact that an Act had
been passed in the year 1841, by which members of
the Irish bar were qualified to be appointed to any of
the offices abolished by the Bill, and generally to
any judicial office, unless specially excluded. On
inquiry we have learned that Mr. HAMILTON men-
tioned the existence of this provision, although
t o a nyprlere:rserno.
rom the confusion which unfortunately prevailed
in the House at the time it was not reported, and
from the line of argument adopted by its opponents it
didre e t
rendernot
o u runintentional appearinjustice
tn,‘aNned w shoulde sh should
instance,o.dto
obtain as., although
haocut gohe
opposed to Mr. HAMILTON in political feeling,
ldsorrergyretot
it the more in the
wholly
he was at the time endeavouring
ltewhich we e are satisfied
justice fora
nfodr
toa highlypromo t
er respectable eocbtjaebc of his country-
would be highly beneficial to the people of the United
Kingdom generally.
It was considered desirable to obtain a legis-
lative declaration of the rights of the Irish bar,
although no new enactment might be re-
quired to confer that right, and it was with
that view that Lord CA3IPSELL introduced the
clause to which we have already alluded, although
Lord LYNDLIURST7 on its introduction, stated that he
I conceived it to be unnecessary, for he never under-

THE SUN,