The Sun.
London, England, 1846-07-07 00:00:00

JULY 7, 1846.

unthinking credulity. We had no bribes to offer our
converts ; on the contrary, large sacrifices were re-
quired from all who joined our cause. So hopeless did
our enterprise appear when first undertaken, that it was
regarded as something little short of insanity. Hope
and encouragement, however, grew rapidly around us.
We asked men to inquire, to investigate, and to examine,
and we found that every one who thus exercised his mind
ended by adopting our sentiments.
The system of lectures was an early and necessary
part of our educational course; the gentlemen employed
for this purpose by the League spread the doctrines of
free trade through the length and breadth of the land,
and the reception which they everywhere met convinced
the Council that there was a mass of sound opinion
spread over the country which only required to be
organised and concentrated to attain its object. Nothing
was more surprising than the rapidity with which sen-
timents of sympathy and confidence were developed
among free traders. Community of feeling became the
bond of friendship, and it was cemented by community
of suffering.
The financial and manufacturing distress which the
free traders clarly saw would be the result of a perverse
code of commercial legislation after sending before it
a premonitory shadow, spread a deep gloom over all
the branches of British industry, but more especially
over those engaged in the production of textile fabrics.
The ministers of religion met to protest against a sys-
tem which violated the first principles of Christianity,
and outraged every precept of the Gospel. Appeals
were made to the Government of the country by deputa-
tion after deputation, but instruction had not penetrated
into high places—the educational mission of the League
remained still incomplete. An outbreak of a singular
character in the manufacturing districts equally attested
the distress of the operatives and the strength of their
moral principle. The League held out to them hope and
encouragement ; they were saved from the wild excesses
of despair, and tranquillity was restored without blood-
shed. Men at a distance were astonished and perplexed
by such a phenomenon. They called for inquiry, and it
was granted ; the investigation only showed that physi-
cal suffering had prompted to the movement, and that
moral principle had brought it to a peaceful end.
The crisis passed over ; a more prosperous period
arrived produced by the causes which the League had
accurately predicted, and attended by all the circum-
stances which it had minutely foretold. The soundness
of our principles had thus been tested by the two ex-
tremes of fortunes ; our confidence in their truth was
strengthened ; the process of conviction was accelerated,
and new converts gathered around us every day. We
had multitudes of recruits, and not a single renegade ;
countless volunteers, and not one deserter. The League
had taught the lessons upon which events supplied a
commentary ; the evidence of the truths we inculcated
was brought within the daily range of every man's ex-
perience.
For a long time the monopolists viewed the progress
of free-trade opinions with apathy or indifference ;
sound opinion had already taken a deep root in the
country before they showed themselves conscious of its
existence. At length they discovered their danger, and
began to prepare for defence. All the fallacies which
Adam Smith had exposed, and his followers demolished,
were dragged from obscurity and obstruction, and were
reiterated in nearly the same words and syllables at
every farmer's dinner and agricultural association. But
the free traders had gained an immense advantage by
forcing the monopolists to speak out. Fallacy after
fallacy was demolished as fast as it appeared ; farmers
began to think, and labourers to reason ; they saw the
monopolists ever shifting their ground—driven from
pillar to post, and from post to pillar—while the free
traders constantly preserved the same simplicity and
consistency of truth.
Publication was one of the earliest modes of diffusing
sound principles which the League adopted. Tracts were
disseminated through a large portion of the electoral
body, and a journal was established in Manchester as a
record of proceedings. When the increased importance
and interest of the debates on Mr. Villiers's motion gave
evidence that the time of a decisive struggle was ap-
proaching, the journal was removed to London, where it
took the name of the League. Like the body which it
represented, the journal strictly confined itself to the
discussion of free trade and its collateral topics, holding
itself independent of every political party, unawed by
the frowns of power, and inaccessible to the blandish-
ments of seduction. No man, no journal, and no
institution, can be expected to please everybody ;
but there never was a journal so widely circulated against
which fewer complaints were made, either in public or
in private. Whatever may be thought of our pretensions
to talent, we believe that no one will contest our claims
to temper and discretion, even under circumstances
which might have rendered a little warmth excusable, if
not justifiable. It is neither our wish, nor our purpose,
to enter into any details of the management; but we
may state that it is an unprecedented event in literary
history for a journal, devoted exclusively to a single
topic, to maintain a permanent interest for its readers
through anything like the period over which our
publication has extended. A progressive increase of
demand is, at least, some evidence of sustained influence;
and though the paper was published at a price which
rendered it unprofitable as a pecuniary speculation, we
have reason to know that this was more than compen-
sated by the subscribers it procured to the general fund.
There was one department of the business of the
League, unconnected with its educational mission, which
has excited much attention on account of its constitu-
tional importance ; we mean the registration. Sir R.
Peel was the first to proclaim that the battle of the con-
stitution should be fought in the registration courts, and
his party found the benefit of following his advice. As the
League depended for success solely on constitutional
means, it was necessary, as the combat deepened, to in-
vestigate the means which the constitution had placed
at their disposal. By the ancient laws of the realm
the possession of a forty-shilling freehold confers a
vote in a county ; and hence free traders were
urged to procure such freeholds, the League pro-
vided proper agency to facilitate their acquisition.
It has been absurdly supposed that some of these
freeholds were purchased from the League fund; but in
every instance they were bought and paid for by the in-
dividual free trader, the League only procuring for the
purchaser legal aid and guidance in effecting the trans-
fer. Had the existence of monopoly been protracted to
a new Parliament, we have little doubt that the League
system of registration would have been found as effec-
tive in other counties as it proved to be in the West
Riding of Yorkshire.
The announcement of the Ministerial measures just
brought to a successful issue under the guidance of Sir
R. Peel, tested the strength and consistency of the
League. It was supposed that it should of necessity
declare either for one party or the other; but it held to
its independent course, and submitted to the House its
demand for total, immediate, and unqualified repeal.
When that motion was rejected, it refused to play the
factious game of the monopolists, but steadily supported
the Minister who "paid 17s. 6d. in the pound, and gave
good security for the remaining half-crown."
Let it be remembered that the free trade agitation
was the only movement exclusively originating with,
and conducted by, the middle classes recorded in British
history. The League sought no aristocratic leader, and
submitted to no titled guidance ; it was perfect demo-
cracy with all the unity of a despotism ; it had no re-
cognised head in whom itsipowers were concentrated, no
absolute leader by whom its proceedings were uniformly
directed. When any business was to be done, the fit
man was found to volunteer without the trouble of a
search ; and he took the lead in his selected depart-
ment until his mission was accomplished. Mutual
agreement and mutual confidence supplied the place
of command and obedience ; and hence the steadiness
of the power applied effectually prevented any de-
rangement of the machinery. Everywhere in the
League the spirit of self-sacrifice destroyed the
spirit of selfishness so often apparent in other asso-
ciations. The desire of all was to have the good effected;
but the individual instrumentality was never brought
into question. But the League itself was founded in
self-sacrifice to an extent unparalleled in the world. The
members of the Council were not idle men of fashion,
on whose hands time hung heavy; as little were they
professional politicians, taking up an agitation as a
means of opening paths to place and power. They were
all merchants and manufacturers to whom their counting-
houses, their warehouses, and their factories were mere
valuable and precious than any offices which it is in the
power of the Crown to bestow. Splendid as were their
pecuniary donations, their devotion of their time and
toil to the cause was a far heavier tax, and involved a
greater amount of loss. They had no ambition t? gra-
tify; and, as the event proves, so far from seeking to
make the League a leverage for personal elevation, they
have resolved on its dissolution the moment that its
object has been accomplished.
Many zealous friends of the cause will no doubt
grieve over the dissolution of the League, and regret
that its machinery was not applied to effect some other
social improvement. But the League has never broken
faith with the public. The most precious point in its
history is its unsullied honour ; and this must be pre-
served not only without taint, but without suspicion.
To preserve the organisation and machinery of the
League, and hand over the direction to some other as-
sociation formed fur a different object, however benefi-
cial, would be inconsistent with the promises made from
the beginning of the agitation, and would violate, if not
the letter, most certainly the spirit of the League's en-
gagements. Hitherto there has been the most perfect
unanimity in the working of the League. Never was
there so large a body in which there was so little, not
merely of dissension, hut even of difference of opinion.
But this unanimity would be at an end the moment that
it became necessary to choose a new subject for new ex-
ertions, and the result would exhibit a majority with
little reason to boast, and a minority with much reason
to complain.
Singleness of object has been one of the chief ele-
ments of the success which has crowned the efforts of
the League. There were many occasions in the course
of the struggle when a large addition of strength seemed
likely to be gained by allying our cause with other de-
mands more or less popular, but the seductions of tem-
porary advantage were resisted, for the League relied
for success more on strength of argument than on
strength of numbers. Truth must, in the long run,
prevail, and its pregress would be retarded if it had
been presented to the public mind in such a form
as to distract attention. To have superadded another
topic to our legitimate demand would have alienated