The Sun.
London, England, 1846-01-31 00:00:00

COURT CIRCULAR.

The Queen held a Court and Pry Council at I.alf
past two o'clock yestaday afternoon, at Buckingham
Palace.

At the Court, Count de Sr. Aulaire, the French
Ambassador; Baron de Cetto, the Bavarian Minister;
and Baron de Hugel, the Wurtemberg Minister, had
audiences of the Queen on their return from the Con-
tinent,
Their ticelleneies were respectively introduced by
the Earl of Aberdeen, lit., her Majesty's principal Se-
cretary of State for Foreign Atfairr, and were conducted
by Sir Robert Chester, Master of the Ceremonies.
The Council was attended by his Royal Highness
Mince Albert, the Lord President, the Lord Privy
S al, the Commander-in-Chief, the First Lord of the
Treasury, the Secretaries of State for the home and
Foreign Departments, the President of the Board of
C .ntrol, the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster,
the Chief Commissioner of the Woods and Forests, the
S.-cretary at War, the Postmaster-General, the Lord
Steward, the Lord Chamberlain, and the Master of the
Horse.

Her Majesty pricked the Roll of Sheriffs nominated
on the morrow of St._ Martin in the present year._

The Honourable Wm. Bathurst was the Clerk of the
Council in waiting.
Lord Granville Somerse, Chancellor of the Duchy of
Lancaster, had an audience of the Queen, when her
Majesty appointed the Sheriff for the county of Lan-
cast-r for the present year.
Sir R. Peel had an audience of her Majesty.
The Earl of Morton, and Major-General Sir Frederic
Stovin were the Lord and Groom in Waiting.
The Court was attended by the the Marquis of Angle-
sey, Gold Stick in Waiting, the Vice-Chamberlain, the
Treasurer of the Household, and the Comptroller of the
Household.
Her Majesty and her Royal Consort took their usual
early walk yesterday. Prince Albert rode out on horse-
back, attended by Colonel Bouverie.
The Prince of Wales, the Princess Royal, and the
Princess Alice were taken airings yesterday, in the
royal gardens.
On Monday the young Australian boys, with Mr.
Eyre, the Australian traveller, who brought them to this
country, were introduced to the Queen and Prince
Albert, at Buckingham Palace, by the Right Hon. W. E.
Gladstone, her Majesty's Secretary of State for the Co-
lonies. Her Majesty received her Australian subjects
very graciously, and both her Majesty and Prince Albert
seemed much pleased with their general appearance and
manners.

The Royal dinner party yesterday evening included
his Excellency Count de St. Aulaire, the Lord Chancel-
lor, the Earl and Countess of fladdington, the Earl and
Countess St. Germans, Lord and Lady Ashley, and the
Right Hon. W. E. and Mrs. Gladstone.
The band of the Scots Fusilier Guards was in attend-
ance at the Palace during dinner.
Her Majesty's private band afterwards attended.
. .

Her R4al- Highness the Duchess of Cambridge, ac-
companied by the Princess Mary, visited her Royal
Highness the Duchess of Gloucester yesterday, at Glou-
cester House.

The Chevalier Bunsen, Prussian Minister, transacted
business yesterday at the office of the Board of Trade.
The Lord Advocate of Scotland had an interview with
Sir James Graham yesterday at the Home-office.
The Ecclesiastical Commissioners for England had a
committee yesterday. There were present the Bishops
of London, Ely, and Exeter, the Elrl of Be!.sborough,
the Right Hon. Sir George Grey, and the Right Hon.
John Nicholl.

Sir James Duke had an interview with Sir George
Clerk yesterday, at the office of the Board of Trade.
Sir Edward and Lady Kerris, wn left town yesterday for
Brighton.

LETTER FROM MR. COBDEN TO
THE TENANT FARMERS OF ENGLAND.
TO THE FARMING TENANTRY OF THE UNITED KINGDOM
Gentlemen,—The question for you now to determine
is, shall the repeal of the corn-law be gradual or im-
mediate ? Deny it who may, this is the only question
that deserves a moment's consideration at your hands.
Public opinion has decreed that protection to both agri-
cu'ture and manufactures shall be abolished ; and minis-
ters and statesmen have at last reluctantly bowed to a
power from which there is no appeal. Let no de-
signing or obtuse politicians delude you with the cry
that the House of Lords, or a dissolution of Parliament,
can prevent the repeal of the corn-law. All men of
average sagacity are now agreed that free trade in corn
and manufactures is inevitable. How, then, shall we ap-
ply this new principle ?—timidly and gradually, like
children ; or boldly and at once, as' becomes men and
Englishmen ? Upon this point, I wish to submit to
your consideration a few remarks, which I believe to be
of the utmost importance to your interests ; they are
offered in good faith by one who has sprung from your
own ranks, and who, although deemed by some to be
your enemy, will, I hope, live to be regarded as a pro-
moter of the independence and prosperity of the farming
tenantry of the kingdom.
The Government measure proposes to abolish the corn-
law in February, 1849, putting on for the three interven-
ing years, a new scale of duties, sliding from 10s. to 4s.
The moment this law is passed, the duty will drop from
15s. to 4s. Here will be change the first, fright the first,
and with many, I fear, panic the first. But there will
be no settlement. You will not be able to foretel
whether the duty during the years 1847 and 1848
will be 4s. or 10s. It is quite probable that, in Febru
ary, 1849, the duty will be 10s.; if so, on the Ist of that
mouth, it will drop again suddenly, from 10s. to Is.
Here will be change the second, fright the second, and,
possibly, panic the second. The fall of duty in these
two changes would have amounted to, first, from 15s.
to 45.; heat, from 10s. to ls.; making, together, 205.;
but, mark, if the duty were immediately reduced, from
)ss. to ls., the fall would be only 14s. So that by this
clumsy contrivance, you are not only to be kept for
three years in a state of suspense and embarrassment,
and exposed to double panics, but are liable to a drop of
20s. instead of 145., duty; you are actually subjected
to die shock of the withdrawal of 6s. more of protection!
But this is only a small part of the danger to which
you will be exposed by the delay. From the moment
that the new corn-law is passed foreigners and corn im•
porters will begin to make preparations for the day of
its extinction ; they dread a sliding-scale in any shape,
owing to former lesses, and will keep their eyes steadily
fixed upon the Ist of February, 1849.
What a precious policy is this, which advertise for
three years to all the landowners and speculators of the
entire world, offering them a premium to hold back
their supplies, and then to pour upon our markets, in
one day: a quantity of corn which, but for this contriv-
ance, might have been spread over twelve or eighteen
months ! And what may your fate be under these pro-
bable circumstances ? Supposing the crop of 1848 to
be abundant in this country, you will be liable, in
the spring of 1849, to the sudden and unnatural intiCK
of the corn accumulated by foreigners for this market,
which must be sold here, having no other market ; thus
beating down prices artificially, to the loss of all parties,
but more especially of the British farmer.
How different would be the operations of an immedi-
ate repeal of the corn-law. There would then be no
stock of foreign corn waiting fur the opening of our
ports. Nobody expected last year in Poland or America
that the English corn-law would be repealed—nobody
prepared for it ; not a bushel of grain was raised upon
the chance of such an unlooked-for contingency. Is
there an intelligent farmer in the kingdom that will not
at once exclaim, " If we are to have a repeal of the
corn-law give us it this spring, when the farmer is un-
prepared for it, and when not a single quarter of corn
sown after the news reaches him can be brought to this
market in less than eighteen months."
But the present is, beyond all comparison, the most
favourable moment ever known for abolishing the corn-
law. If ever it could be repealed without even tempo-
rary inconvenience to the farmer, this is the time.
There is a scarcity at present over nearly all the conti-
nent. One half of Europe is competing for- the scanty
surplus stock of grain in America. Millions of our
countrymen are deprived of their ordinary sub-
sistence by the disease of the potato, and
they must be sustained at the public ex-
pense upon a superior foo6. Do what we will, we
cannot, during the present year, secure low prices.
Abolish the corn-law to-morrow, and still wheat must
rise during the spring and summer. If the farmers bad
the power of ordering time and circumstances, they
could not contrive a juncture more favourable to them
than the present for the total and immediate repeal of
the corn-law. Nay, I believe that if the corn-law could
be abolished by a secret edt to-morrow, the farmers
would never make the discol'ery of open ports by any
injurious effect produced upon their interests.
I cannot believe that Sir Robert Peel is favourable
to the gradual repeal ; he supported it by no other
argument in bis speech than the fear of panic
amongst the farmers ; but he has told us again and
again, in proposing his former alterations in the
tariff, that he believes all such changes are less in-
jurious, if suddenly made, than when spread over a
series of years. I have the strongest conviction,
derived from his own past changes in the tariff, that
he is right. Why then should you, in deference to
unfounded fears, be deprived of the benefits of ex-
perience ? If you speak out in favour of an immediate
settlement, who will oppose your wishes ?—Not the
Government : they are anxious, so far as putlie opi-
nion and the exigencies of the moment will allow, to
conciliate your favour. Not the great landed proprie-
tors, whose interests and yours are in this respect iden-
tical, who desire also, on political grounds, to put a
' period to an agitation, the prolonged duration of which
they believe to be injurious, and who would willingly
take any step which shall at once consult your interests
and dissolve the League.
Let me entreat you to take this subject into your
instant and earnest consideration. Do me the justice
to believe that I have no other obj, ct in view in writing
this lettei but to serve your interests. If you should bs
induced to concur in its views, you will avoid the only
danger to which, in my opinion, the farmers were ever
exposed from the repeal of the corn-law—that of the
transition state. From the firs.t I have always enter•
tained and expressed the conviction that free trade,
far from permanently injuring the farmers, would
ultimately tend to their prosperity ;and inde-
pend,orce. I never diTuised from myself, however, the
temporary evils to which they might be exposed in the
change. But let us unite in seizing the present opportu-
nity, and the triumph of sound principles may be
achieved without the bitter ingredient of one particle of
injury to any class or individual From the most exalted
personage in the realm down to the humblest peasant, ell
may witness, with unalloyed pleasure, one of the
greatest victories ever achieved over past prejudice
and ignorance, whilst each class may derive pecu-
liar gratification at the close of our long domestic
struggle. The Sovereign may glory that her reign
was reserved for the era a a commercial reforma-
tion, more pregnant in its beneficial consequences to the
destinies of mankind than all the wars of her illustrious
ancestors ; the landed aristocracy will see ix the con-