The Sun.
London, England, 1846-08-03 00:00:00

FRASER'S.

We are glad to perceive, from the commencement of
the "political" article of Fraser for the present month,
the more sensible of the protectionists—in fact the
great majority of the party—accept, like sensible per-
sons, the establishment of free trade as "un fait
accompli."
"There is no employment more profitless, in public as well
as in private life, than to look back upon misfortunes that
are beyond remedy, and to complain of their occurrence.
Peel's Corn Bill, whether for good or for evil, has become the
law of the land. The great principle of free trade is estab-
lished as that on which the commercial policy of this country
must henceforth be conducted, and let its remote conse-
quences be what they may, there is no power in any quarter
to avert them. We have taken a step in politics which does
not admit of recall. Lovers of the Arcadian state of exist-
ence may mourn over this, hankerers a. ter feudalism coin-
plain or threaten, and men of soberer jugdment than either
doubt the wisdom of measures which bid fair to convert
England, at no distant date, into a huge manufactcry. But
the impulse having been fairly given, we may no more hope
to stay the progress of events than to arrest the speed of the
railway carriage, or the descent of the loosened rock into the
lake. We are in the beginning of changes, of which it would
puzzle the sharpest sighted to foretell the end, and there is
positively no help for it.
'Entertaining these opinions, and heartily subscribing to
the doctrine that the bravo never repent,' we purpose for
the future, as often as the projects of politicians make a de-
mand upon our attention, to look at them with a forward
rather than with a backward glance, forgetting, as far as we
are able, party feelings that have been engendered of old as-
sociations, and delivering our sentiments on men and things
more with reference to the effects which they seem calculated
to produce upon society hereafter, than in the idle purpose of
trying them by the test of bygone arrangements."
Of course, then, there will be some few impracticables
who will repudiate the doctrine of Fraser, but we be-
lieve that he speaks the sentiments of all, but the most
minute fraction of his party; and, believing that, we re-
joice at the determination here expressed, to look for the
future at political matters rather with a forward than a
backward glance. The paper is entitled " Will the Whig
Government stand?" and the writer answers the ques-
tion in the n-gatire. The fact, however, that the ex-
pectations of the writer have already been falsified
would seem to show that the writer has been somewhat
hasty in making his calculations. The writer of the
series of " Contemporary Orators," takes as his subjects.
Mr. C. Wood, Mr. Milner Gibson, Mr. Hawse, Mr.Wyse,
and Mr. Ward. His sketches of Milner Gibson end Ward
are highly graphic. He does ample justice to the talents
of Mr. Hawes, who has always been, in our opinion, an
under-rated man ; and he passes a high, but most de-
served, eulogium on Mr. Wyse. With regard to Mr.
Charles Wood, the writer considers that he will turn out
the least efficient Member of the Administration, and
that he will prove a foil even to Mr. Goulburn. There
a another political article in this month's Fraser, de
voted to the praise of the aristocracy, in which the
writer sets about gravely to argue that the aristocracy of
rank in England is also the drisctocracy of talent. Of
the manner in which the writer makes out his case, take
the following as a specimen :-
- "It was a review, in fact, of the late struggle against the
corn-laws that suggested this article ; for it proved most in-
contestably that, with the exception of those two remarkable
men, Richard Cobden and Robert Peel, the overwhelming
superiority of talent lay, on either side of the question, with
members of the aristocratic body." -
. .

The writer should have carried his exceptions to a
much greater extent to make out his case, for unless
he includes among his exceptions such menus Sir James
Graham, Mr. Milner Gibson, and Mr. Disraeli, he will
not have a leg to stand upon; and once admit exceptions
to be made in this manner, there is no propo-
ition, however absurd, which may not be
demonstrated. The literary contents of this number
are excellent. We have an admirable philosophical
analysis of the life ani writings of John Foster, the
essayist—a continuation of the series on the " Manners,
Traditions, and Superstitions of the Shetlanders "—a
Celtic story entitled, " Red Finlay of the Deer "—a plea-
sant gossiping paper about Hampton Court—a most
amusing feu d'esprit, entitled, "Proposals for a continua-
tion of Ivanhoe," in a letter to Alexandre Dumas, by
Mon. Michael Angelo Titmarsh, and a variety of other
amusing articles.