The Sun.
London, England, 1846-05-12 00:00:00

ltitninc

LONDON, TUESDAY, MAY 12, 1846

As we yesterday conjectured the debate upon the Corn Im-
portation Bill was adjourned last night with the general ac-
quiescence of the Commons. This additional postponement
was very naturally to be anticipated for reasons which we
have already particularised—any further delay of the settle-
ment of this measure will now, however, be more than vexa-
tious, it will be tampering to an unjustifiable extent with
the whole commercial relations of the empire. Such a de-
claration as this originates in no factious anxiety to
precipitate a victory which at this present moment is
virtually achieved ; it is based upon the unanimous consent
of society, upon the hesitation visible during this session in
almost every quarter of the country, upon the anxiety of
every member of the population, whether manufacturer or
agriculturist. It was from being fully impressed with this
conviction that the Home Secretary prefaced his elaborate
and conclusive speech yesterday evening by expressing his
disinclination to occupy the attention of the House, because
it was "evidently weary of this protracted discussion !" Never-
theless, harassed as the representatives must undoubtedly
be with so much " lengthened sweetness long drawn-
out,"—but, especially, the true representatives of the people,
the supporters of the Government policy, we rest assured
that their patriotic feelings are too ardent to permit of their
becoming lethargic at a juncture so propitious to the future
prosperity of their fellow-countrymen. They are sufficiently
imbued with a repugnance for those enactments which are on
the eve of being expunged from the statute-book, they are in-
spired with sentiments sufficiently exultant at the approaching
emancipation of commerce, to merge every feeling of
exhaustion at the balderdash uttered night after night by
the delinquents below the gangway into one paramount
sense of satisfaction at participating in a triumph so bene-
ficent. With these ideas we feel satisfied every Parlia-
mentary advocate for free trade is actuated ; the
vicinity of those boons for the acquisition of
which they have yearned so hopefully and laboured
o ,valiantly during so much untoward opposition,
is surely an adequate preventative of anything like marks of
fatigue. The greater the difficulties, the nobler the consum-
mation—the more numerous the obstacles, the more agreeable
the achievement. There is an axiom in warfare which de-
clares that whenever cruelty is displayed by the conqueror
towards the vanquished troops it is a sure sign that
the losing party were at some period of the
struggle near being the winners. The converse of this
is a proposition, we take it, equally undeniable. And ob-
serving that, throughout the time which this debate has
occupied, the Protectionists have been uniformly treated
with the most lenient placidity, that their garrulity
has been generously permitted to die away of itself, and
that their very acidulated personalities have been re-
torted sometimes by silence, sometimes by a remon-
strance, but never by a " counter-blast" of personality,
it is clear that the Free-traders felt their superiority
from the first moment ; and evincing this knowledge of their
superiority at the commencement, it is assuredly not sur-
prising that they should evidence a great confidence
as to the result immediately anterior to its eluci-
dation. Hence it was Sir JAMES GRAHAM declared over-
night, "I have a very strong opinion that the measure
under consideration will in a very short time become
the law of the land." Nor is the fact less mani-
fest, that the country party have been heaping burning
embers upon their own heads by their most illusory and
pernicious system of procrastination. Instead of having to
compete with bushels, the farmers will now, in all likelihood,
have to compete will' whole granaries directly the proposed
Acts come into operation ; and for this agreeable difficulty
their gratitude is solely due to their pseudo- friends in
Parliament. From the delays which these meddling po-
liticians have caused in the progression of the Corn and
Customs' Bill through the Lower House the bonded wheat
from foreign countries, which has been accummulating in
our seaports in expectation of the reduction of duties, amounts
to the enormous quantity of fifteen hundred thousand quarters !
Against this and (as the Home Secretary judiciously
observed) against the next harvest the unfortunate
pets of the protectionist will have to enter the
market—the competition, of course, producing a tem-
porary but most embarrassing diminution of price.
This fact, which was last night ably insisted upon by Sir
JAMES GRAHAM, is merely an application of the arguments
contained in Mr. COBDEN'S letter to the Tenant-Farmers of
Great Britain, deducing from a delay of months what
he deduces from a delay of years, an applica-
tion of those deductions to August or September,
which the Honourable Member for Stockport applies
to 1839. The Secretary for the Home Department adduces
"an enlarged experience," as the primary cause of his con-
version, from the very obsolete credence in the efficacy and
excellence of a protective policy, and a more eligible or ac-
ceptable reason for such a conversion could not
possibly have been advanced. If, in like manner, the Pro-
tectionists could persist in giving themselves such severe
lessons of experience by moving fresh adjournments upon
the question, theywould before long delay themselves into free-
traders. As a specimen of the preposterous style of logic with
which these gentlemen have been endeavouring to bolster up
their very dilapidated system, we may mention an argu-
ment which was dragged into the discussion by
Mr. MILES, the honest, blundering Member for
Somerset. This sagacious legislator actually pro-
pounded, as proofs of the necessity of protection to agri-
culture, that wheat is cultivated in Virginia for a hun-
dred successive years without the application of manure;
and again, that there as in Russia an annual accumulation
of 28,000,000 quarters of corn over and above their home
consumption. Never were facts more unfortunately
produced by a protectionist representative ; in pro-
nouncing them Mr. MILES actually shuttlecocked over
to Sir JAMES GRAHAM a most crushing argument against
himself. Why, as that Right Hon. Baronet justly inferred,
"if those statements were true—if Russia had 28,000,000 Of
grain ready at all times for exportation ; and if in America
they grow wheat for a century without manure, every attempt
to protect this country, every attempt to guard this country,
must be worse than useless." A patient analysis—of which,
however, they are almost invariably unworthy—would as
plainly demonstrate the inefficiency of the thousand similar
pieces of absurdity uttered by the followers of the Noble
Member for Lynn. Saving tbat it would exceed the etiquette
of the House, and be of an unparliamentary character, the
opposers of this vast measure would long since have
been dispatched to Coventry—so wonderfully old-fashioned
and conventional are all their most cherished opinions. As it
is, they have nearly "strutted their little hour upon the
stage," and those Members who, according to Sir
JAMES GRAHAM, never until the present session
gave the agricultural interest the "advantage of
their eloquence," will be reduced to the necessity of subsid

ing into their original obscurity as legislators. For this—
though by their departure we lose the cause of considerable

merriment—we rejoice. Assured, however, as is the triumph
of the free-trade principles upon the division at the third

reading, let every individual lover of those princi-
ples render the majority still more triumphant, than
upon the two preceding occasions, by his attendance.
Let every supporter of the proposed policy, as lie loves his
kind, as he wishes well to humanity, as he is desirous for
of his country, and as he is ambitious of the
the prosperity
title of a philanthropic legisktor, attend in his place at the re-
sumption of the debate, and enrol his name upon the majority
hat. A new and peaceful era is to be commenced; let him
partake iu a glory so bloodless and so imperishable!

A leading Paris journal, universally admitted to be under
the influence of M. TRIERS, and to represent faithfully his
political opinions, occasionally puts forth leading articles of
such a trifling, contemptible, and juvenile character, that
not one leader in a hundred could believe for a moment
that thel were the production of the great statesman and
historian that once presided over the destinies of France, and
is generally regarded as the successor of the present able
Minister, when accident, or royal caprice, or some great
national question may cause his resignation. Oue of that
description has just appeared in the Constitutionnel, Which,
though of the very lowest character, bears all the marks of
the author of the "Consulate and the Empire." It

exhibits his petty jealousies, his unconquerable re-
pugnance to England, and also a wilful departure
from truth, merely to serve a temporary purpose.
The British Cabinet, the writer asserts, beholds with a
jealous eye the protracted stay of InnAillM Pacira in
France, and has signified to the Cabinet of the Tuileries its
desire also to receive the son of MEIIE3IET Au. The Prince
reluctantly consented to accept the invitation, though lie did
so at the risk of injuring his health by the intemperate
climate of England. Then the grand object of the British
Cabinet is disclosed—namely, the settlement of the question

of transit across the Isthmus of Suez ; and in reference to
this subject it is said England will use all the powers of se-
duction at its disposal to convert the PAULI, to its views.

"Thus (in order that M. GUIZOT may not escape) the tour
of lER.AHLII in Europe will have served more
the English than the French interests." This is
all in perfect keeping with most of the accounts
of sea battles given by TIIIERS, in which he
takes every opportunity of lessening the merit of the English,
or concealing it altogether, and of attributing to them
motives of action so mean and unworthy of a great nation,
that the reader feels astonished how they could be imputed
to a respectable rival by a man professing to write impartial
history. Everything English that M. TRIERS touches he
tries to damage. England can do nothing good from honour-
able motives. She has always some selfish interests to in-
dulge, and, Am, all, she takes care to use every opportunity,