The Sun.
London, England, 1846-05-04 00:00:00

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LONDON, MONDAY, MAY 4, 1846.

Happily for all parties—happily for England, Scotland,
and Ireland—for agriculturist and manufacturer, the mi-
serable period of su,spence and procrastination has almost ex-
pired. To-night the Corn Bill will be resumed. Considering
the length of time which has elapsed since its first introduc-
tion by the Premier, now upwards of four months ago,
namely, upon the 27th of January, the relative position of
the free-traders and of the protectionist gentlemen is
mow startling, if possible, in contrast, and more thoroughly
satisfactory than at any previous moment of the session.
During the large gaps of time, and of comparative leisure
which have interrupted the discussion upon this all-important
question, how have these two divisions of Parliament and
their sympathisers out-of-doors acted? First, of the Free-
traders. Why, every successive circumstance that has
transpired in relation to th 4 abolition of import and ex
port duties, whether within the echoes of St. Stephen's, or
in some distant corner of some distant shire, has tended only
to elucidate the soundness and ,beautiful Adaptability of the

principles inculcated by the advocates of unrestricted com-
merce. This fact has been proved beyond the cavil of the
most sceptical, by the frequency and earnestness of the con-
versions to those principles. Noblemen, and farmers,
and legislators, no matter how much they might
have identified themselves with the opposite policy,
have seized the first reasonable opportunity of
acknowledging the change which the consideration of
truth has worked in their own minds. And this has
occurred not once, but incessantly, not only irrespective of
all base inducements to such a transformation, but in actual
opposition to self-interest. Now of the Protectionists.
At the commencement of the discussions upon abolition
of taxes upon foreign corn and provisions, the mouthpieces
of monopoly endeavoured to fill us with trepidation by
threats of the antagonistic forces which would be summoned
from all quarters, at the sound of their voices, for
the express purpose of worsting Sir ROBERT and his
supporters. We were threatened with demonstrations
on a prodigious scale in favour of protection to agri-
culture ; petitions, signed by hosts of day labourers
and tenant-farmers, were to choke up the entrance, and
crowd the lobbies of Parliament ; distant but giant remon-
strances were to issue from our colonial possessions ; the Legis-
lature was to be stunned with the din raised by British sub-
jects in indignation at the proposed policy. Four months
have elapsed since the utterance of these big-mouthed
warnings four months I— and how have they
been fulfilled ? F,x nihilo nihil fit, saith the adage : here is
an exemplar ! 2V demonstration in favour of agricultural
protection worth one moment's pause to a statesman ; no
petitions in earnest of the popularity of the same cause ; no
single hint of dissatisfaction from our colonies. That is the
relative position of free trade and monopoly. The Bill
approaches its final stage in the Lower House, and it
does so under auspices the most propitious. The majority
en the second reading was, if anything, more triumphant than
on the first; hence we look with sanguine eyes to the divi-
vision upon the third and last. That it must prove in every
essential particular most decisive, man can no more doubt
than he can question his existence. Even the unfortunate
enemies of the measure must long since have perceived, not
only that their doom is sealed but that they have rendered
themselves the laughing-stocks of Christendom, the scape-
goats of their own folly, the general butts of mankind. My
Lord GEORGE BENTISSCK, however lofty his egotism,
must recognise this fact ; so must all of his
followers, minnows and tritons, whales and lam-
preys. His Lordship's speeches have been listened to
just as a Hunterian lecture by WIDDICOMBE would have
been listened to by the associated men of science—viz., as a
curious eccentricity, worth hearing, if only for the sake of
enjoying a hearty cacchination. Further than this, 1
and the obsequious cheers of the disinterested poli-
ticians ranged behind his Lordship, the attention of
the House did not go. He and bis forlorn pa- ty were in a
preposterous and untenable position. With the remainder
of the Commons affairs have stood very differently through-
out, but especially at the present juncture, when the
Prime Minister enforces the cause he had previously
avowed in words more explicit than ever, declaring
what he previously believed to be impolitic he now
believes to be unjust. A more overwhelming and concordant
support Bill never had—in its vitality is its triumph. " Re-
member, soldiers, you are but the advance-guard of a great
nation !" NAPOLEON to his army on the outset of the
Austerlitz campaign. So say we to our liberal-minded and
liberal-hearted legislators:—" Remember, free traders, you
are but the advance-guard of a great nation !"

To say that there is no constitutional government in Spain
is a mere truism, admitted by every observer. The Spaniards,
to their cost, find another truth of still more vital importance,
and one which is equally obvious to that unfortunate
people—there is no government whatever. They have been
deserted by every Cabinet ; the Cortes, under a despotic
ruler, had been so changed in the constitution of the body,
and so humbled, that for any national good they were
helpless, and available only for registering the decrees
of the Camarilla and the proclamations of a military Dic-
tator. Even all these external forms of government have been
swept away, the new Ministry is justly regarded as a non-
entity, and the people, to escape from the basest slavery—
the galling chains of a foreign yoke—are thrown entirely
upon their own resources. But a week ago we ventured to
predict—rather a hazardous experiment in regard to such a
country—that, their patience being utterly exhausted by
such endless and ruinous revolutions at Madrid, they would
be compelled to rise in their own defence, and would take for
their watchword, " The QUEEN and the Constitution !"
" Down with CHRISTINA !" " Down with TRAPANI !" In
a proclamation just issued to the army by the " Directing Junta
of the National Movement" in Galicia, we were therefore not
surprised that the words to the same effect had been actually
adopted by that body, and that the main causes of grievance
at the present moment are, the detestable intrigues of this
wicked woman for overthrowing the liberty of the country,
and making it, as in bygone days, subject to Naples and
France. "On other points of the territory," says the
Junta, " the war-cry has also been raised against that even-
cious, hypocritical, and intriguing Neapolitan, who takes ad-
vantage of her position to deceive and enslave the QUEEN.
Aided by a handful of traitors, she exhausts all her schemes
to seat on the throne of Spain a Neapolitan Prince
full of superstitions and servile ideas, to drag us at
the tail of Rome, beneath the feet of the French Govern-
ment." The Junta, at the conclusion of the proclamation,
furnishes the watchwords, " Down with the Neapolitans!"
" Down with the traitors !" " Long live liberty and the
country !" This movement in Galicia is evidently of a very
serious character, even judging from the distorted statements
in the Madrid Gazette. A naval force (and what naval
force has Spain ?) is ordered to operate on the coast of Galicia
as if the soldiers in the interior could not be depended upon ;
and the Government of Louis PHILIPPE has also taken the
alarm, and appointed a protecting naval force for that quarter.
But they will have more (toasts than this to guard. The
Spanish nation can no longer submit to the ruinous schemes
of foreigners and traitors, and, sick as they must be of civil
war, and disheartened, too, in the prospect of anything like a
regeneration of the classes that rule them, they are forced by
dire necessity to resist a system the most insufferable of all
with which they have yet been afflicted. The accounts in
the Madrid Gazette received this morning state that none of
the peasantry have joined the insurrection. But that really
says nothing. The movement was begun by the middle
classes, aided by the military—parties sufficiently powerful
in these days to create a revolution in Spain. The army, too, is
a machine just suited to the occasion. It is open to the highest
bidder, totally disorganised, destitute of any distinguished
leader, and in a very short period, if affairs thus continue,
will be without pay. The conduct of the intriguing traitors
at Madrid has excited such abhorrence and despair in the
provinces, that the public functionaries or juntas that may
be formed will stop the revenue returns, and retain all for
their own local purposes. Never was any country more
thoroughly ripe for a great movement. And what has been
the cause of this total derangement of a Government that
but four years ago appeared to be established on fair con-
stitutional principles?—Queen CHRISTINA, the protegee of
the French Court. We blamed at the time the
part acted by Louts PHILtprE, after CHRISTINA
was expelled from Spain by a well-arranged and
patriotic plan of &TARTER°. He saw the
despotic and unprincipled disposition of the woman could
not be eradicated—he saw that if she were allowed to return
to Madrid to renew her intrigues, there must be a struggle
between them for the mastery, as has since been exemplified
in the ruin of NARVAEZ, and he resolved to cut the matter
short, by compelling her to embark at Barcelona. She had
no alternative, and was hurrying fast to Naples, to pass
the rest of her days, as she said, in retirement, when
she was stopped near Marseilles, by a messenger
from the Court of the Tuileries. She was induced
to take up her residence in the French capital,
her hotel became the centre of intrigue for all discontented
Spaniards, and all the enemies of ESPARTERO. She was
evidently a favourite with the French Court, and used as a
means for an eud. What that end was it is difficult to say,
but one thing is clear, that this woman has occupied herself
with nothing so much as the marriage of her eldest
daughter, the QUEEN. Could that have been quietly
arranged, perhaps, the marriage of the other daughter might
have followed as a matter of course, and some near
relative of Louts Pnuxeries might have been selected as
the favourite. We fear that only some strong personal feel-
ing of this description could have made a Sovereign so re-
markable for his prudence choose a woman of very low cha-
racter,
and thoroughly disliked by the great majority of I
Spaniards, as a tool for carrying his family schemes into
effect. Has he gained his object, or has he any chance of it?
CuiusTina's character is so tainted, she is regarded by all
good patriots as a foreigner, and the agent of foreigners,
and any marriage that she could propose for
either of her daughters would be regarded with the strongest
suspicion, and considered as a return for some enormous
bribe to betray her adopted country. Lord ABERDEEN ap-
pears to have acted a prudent part in reference to all these
disreputable transactions. As far as we can judge, Mr.
BuLWER has sided with neither party ; he has not disgraced
the character of a BritisshofMtihneistQeruEbEsy
.mmixoTHingirthimansdelfhuepr
Camarilla. He is neither for Count TRAPANI nor Don
ff *rs to the Spaniards, and
lIENRIQuE,
with the vile inletraivgeuse.
these a
ai
thereby maintains
the true dignity of the British Embassy.

Every free-trader will be glad to learn that Lord LINCOLN
has been at last rewarded for his spirited and honourable
perseverance in a good cause, and been returned as Member
for the Falkirk Burghs. His conduct on this occasion, as in
all the transactions which took place during the contest for
Nottinghamshire, has been straightforward and manly.
However anxious for a seat in Parliament, and though he
knew it was absolutely necessary to enable him to till his
present important office, he would not give a pledge which
lie considered inconsistent with constitutional principles, but
resolved rather to take his chance, trusting to his own merits
and the good sense of the Scottish electors. The result is
highly honourable to both parties, and more especially to the
Liberals, who form the majority of the constituency. Many
of them, it is admitted, held back, in order that Lord LINCOLN
might be returned, not because they had deserted their prin-
ciples, or concurred in all those entertained by his Lordship,
but because they knew that a great boon for the country
was at stake, because they wished to encourage a Minister
engaged in a noble and a sacred duty, and were convinced
that on the present occasion measures, and not men, ought to
guide their decisions.
This is the practical way of carrying