The Sun.
London, England, 1846-08-10 00:00:00

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LONDON, MONDAY, AUGUST 10, 1846.

On Wednesday next, according to one of the arbi
trary regulations of sport, grouse shooting will com-
mence; on Saturday last the Sugar Duties' Bill was
passed through the Commons House of rarliement.
This evening the measure will be introduced to our
legislative aristocracy ; their decision is already more
than conjectured by the community ; the protectionist
opposition has announced its determination not to
thrust itself in the way of the somewhat dangerous
scythed-chariot of free trade. Little better than a
week now remains of perhaps the most memorable
session of the British LegiSlature—a session that has
witnessed the annihilation of a potent monopoly and
the championship ofits previously helpless victims; that
has established thatempire of untrammelled commerce
which had for centuries been regarded as little less
chimerical and impossible thaniPLATo's Republic, Sir
THOMAS MoßE's Utopia, Sir Pump SYDNEY'S
tirc,adia, or Lord BACON'S Atalantis. Besides this,
the session of 1846 will be ever illustrious and ever
beneficial to the population of the United Kingdom by
being an example to arouse the interest and excite the
emulation of the remotest posterity. L will...be an
example of the real nature of political consistency, of
the innate dignity of forbearance under vituperation,
of that forgetfulness-of-self, which is the noblest
characteristic of a true and patriotic statesman, of
the necessity of being open to conviction and of risk-
ing the malignity of a disappointed faction when-
ever reason and experience combined to direct
the mind upon a better and more enlightened policy.
This Parliamentary campaign will, moreover, attest
to after generations the period in which the people
of England first recognised the moral potency of
their will, the period when our legislators were not
ashamed to confess that the popular sentiments had
modulated their prejudices ; when the oratory of a
self-elected association and the rhetorical pleadings of
a free press enlarged the mind of the public for the
reception of gigantic principles ; when the seeds
sown by Sir WALTER RALEIGH, ADAM SMITH, Lord
HOLLAND, and others, were ripened under the
auspices of Sir ROBERT PEEL, RICHARD COBDEN,
and Lord JOHN RUSSELL. It will be the most me-
morable lesson ever given to mankind for their
guidance in commercial legislation.
It was customary on the opening of this session to
ridicule the Parliament for its redundant squabbles,
and the Ministry for its intolerable procrastination.
The Easter holidays had arrived before anything de-
finite had been done towards the settlement of the
enormous question at issue. People began to tremble
lest the Parliament should degenerate from an active
assembly of legislators into a mere counterpart of a
Chancery-lane debating society. That tendency,
however, towards speechifying gradually disappeared ;
the flame of passion, which had ignited the mental
lamps of so many hitherto sdent Members,
in time consumed itself and glimmered away
into the socket. The gentlemen who had so
recently practised rhetoric from bElow the gang-
way, were now incontinently devouring but-
tered bread and whitebait at Blackwell, or investi-
gating widgeon pies at Goodwood. The deliberative
assembly of the nation was suddenly relieved of a tor.
bulent and intractable party of representatives, and
the immediate consmenee of the alteration was a
material improvement in the conduct of public. busi-
ness. As the commencement of this session was re-
markable for its slowness in arriving at any decision,
its termination will be, and indeed has already been,
conspicuous for the rapidity, and yet the decorum,
with which Bills are introduced and accepted. Not only
did the Sugar Datieslßill obtain the final : anction of the
Commons on Saturday, but two other Bills of very
considerable importance were successively read a
third Ito Aila pottil Witiroilt a dinviitient nice,