The Sun.
London, England, 1846-01-16 00:00:00

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LONDON, FRIDAY, JANUARY 16, 1846.

The French Minister of Foreign Affairs, in his
eloquent speech on Monday, was probably much re-
strained in his remarks on Mr. Pottes outrageous
pretensions by the sympathy evinced in certain quar-
ters for the people of America, and the hos-
tile feelings which a considerable portion of the
Members entertain towards England ; but, neverthe-
less, he spoke out boldly, and condemned in the
strongest terms the doctrine laid down that the United
States reject all European influence in the continent
of North America, and that the application of the
system called the "balance of power" will not be
permitted by the Union in the New World. " I beg
pardon of the Chamber," said he, according to one
of the reports, " for repeating this untoward expres-
sion" (cette mauvoise expression), and according to
another, be denounced it as a strange maxim:
"We admire," added the speaker, " what is great
and noble in the American institutions ; they will
exercise an immense influence on the destinies of the
human race, but our policy must be suited to what
the United States are at the present day. No one
can be astonished that we watch their progress with
a vigilant eye. It is both our duty and our right to
take into consideration these new and important facts.
Even if prudence did not recommend us to follow
this course, the Message to Congress would point it
out to us." And then be came to the main point,
what France was to do in reference to the " strange
maxim," and his words were sufficiently explicit. He
repudiates (a favourite phrase in the Union) in the
strongest terms the selfish pretensions of the young
republic, and for one weighty reason, that they
would interfere in the most injurious manner with
the best interests of France. " The language
of the President," he affirmed with much
emphasis, " goes far beyond the limit of
the right of one people over another, howev:,,_
great it might be. The commercial and political
relations which we have with the other states of North
America we shall maintain—lt is our right, and we
shall make use of it without any sentiment of
hostility towards the United States, but, on the con-
trary, with those sentiments of good-will which we
have so long professed for them, without giving
them any subject of umbrage, but, also, without
being stopped by illegitimate pretensions." These
just sentiments of indignation at the lan-
guage of Poet( called forth repeated cheers, be•
cause it is for the interest of France as well as
England that Mexico shall remain independent, that
the Spanish race shall not be oppressed by the
Anglo-American, and that, for the development
of prosperity and peace, free independent states
should be multiplied throughout the whole of the
American continents. But according to Mr,
POLK'S doctrine, the more powerful party
that is, the United States, will submit to
no interference either on the part of France
or England; that great Republic must manage all the
business in its own way with the small states, for not
one can cope with it; the United States must be sole
arbiter in all disputes, portion out territories, and
extend their "general area," according to Mr. Casa,
till they have made the whole of the northern conti-
nent one and indivisible. They have already,
and in a very brief space, made good
progress in that respect. They have robbed Mexico
of Texas, they have fastened pretensions on Cali-
fornia. Oregon at present is of small moment, but
serves as an excuse for war, and they require it also
to make the republic complete in the west; Mexico
will be found necessary in order to extend
their land border on the Mexican Gulf,
which properly belongs to them, for more than
three-fourths of it are embraced by Florida, Louisiana,
and Texas. Cuba lies near Florida, and also properly
belongs to it. St. Domingo is but a sister island, and
Jamaica would make their possessions in that part of
the archipelago complete. Has not Mr. POLY, then,
good reason to warn England and France off
premises which would add so much power
and glory to the United States, and extend
to the utmost verge of that hemisphere the
blessings of civilisation, the institutions of the great
republic, and the beautiful system of slavery which
flourishes in such vigour in that land of liberty ? But
unfortunately neither France nor England will listen
to Mr. POLL'S " strange maxim." The one has still an
interest in St. Domingo and Mexico, and even
California ; and the other will not, at the bidding of
TYLER, or POLK, or Cass, give up her West India
possessions, or allow any power whatever to interfere
with their trade. In one thing, however, we must
rejoice. The President of the young republic has
put Europe on its guard. He has pre-
maturely laid open the ambitious and gigan-
tic schemes of his countrymen, and how-
ever his insulting expressions may be afterwards
smoothed down to conciliate France, or to blind
England, the avowed resolution cannot be forgotten,
that the United States are resolved to maintain
supreme dominion over the whole of the North
American continent.

Parliament being now so immediately upon the
eve of assembling—a circumstance which must
speedily settle the present agitation about commercial
reform—nothing could well possess a more extra-
ordinary interest for, or exercise a more astonishing
influence over, the minds and opinions of "the mass,"
than an explicit declaration of his views and intentions
from the lips of Lord JOHN RUSSELL. And that
declaration has just been uttered by the Noble Lord
on the occasion of his receiving the freedom of the
city of Glasgow from the hands of the Lord
Provost, on Monday evening last. Nor could
any enunciation upon a Legislative measure
s 4 =it, and of Such imminent importance,

as that of freedom to commerce is general, have been
more comprehensive, more emphatic, more compen-
dious, or more thoroughly candid in every one parti-
cular. But that almost every faculty of almost every
individual in the kingdom is absorbed, to the exclu-
sion of all other considerations, in the grand and mo-
mentous struggle for cheaper sustenance, the prelimi-
nary remarks made by Lord JOHN Russell, would,
of themselves, arouse the attention of his countrymen
—whether those countrymen consisted of his oppo-
nents or his admirers. This arises from the first
portion of his address being composed of allu-
sions to the most remarkable alterations which had
been effected in the Constitution, either under his
immediate auspices or his direct co-operation, from
the repeal of the Test and Corporation Acts, the
passing of the Reform Bill, the abolition of colonial
slavery, and the opening of a commercial intercourse
with India and China, to the publication of his mani-
festo respecting the duty upon foreign corn, addressed
to his constituents, the electors of London. With
respect to that manifesto Lord J. RUSSELL has ex-
pressed himself as resolute in his adherence
to every sentiment which it embodies, and
has defined with singular perspicuity the
origin of that alteration in his opinions which had
first become manifest from its expression ; and that
explanation proves him to have seceded from the ad-
vocacy of a fixed duty of eight shillings, and to have
resolved upon supporting the demand for a total
repeal of such taxation, from principles equally cre-
ditable to his philanthropy and his judgment. From
his address it appears that he had long since arrived
at the conclusion that no modification, adequate to
the exigencies of the nation, could, by any possibility,
be effected by artificial plans for the supply of food—
an impression which was confirmed by the failure of
Lord RIPON's scheme in 1815, of the one propounded by
Lord LIVERPOOL and Mr. Husrerssosi in 1828, and of
the most chimerical proposition of all, the one ad-
vanced by Sir ROBERT PEEL in 1842. Grounding
his estimate of internal and international economy
upon the system originated by ADAM SMITH—a
system whose foundation is acknowledged by our
wisest statesmen to be of such marvellous stability—
he had coincided with that illustrious philosopher in
thinking that " legislation cannot do so well as the
free intelligence, the free skill, and the free industry
of the inhabitants" of any country lit.e Great
Britain ; though, at the same time, he en-
tirely agreed with his position, " that if
a vicious system of monopoly or protection
is embedded in the legislation, it requires caution and
deliberation to consider in what manner such restric-
tions could be removed." It was, embued with these
considerations, that the Ministerial proposal of 1841
was brought forward in the House of Commons, with
the intention of conceding in some measure to the
wishes of both the agriculturists and the advo-
cates of commercial liberty—the failure of this
measure causing the withdrawal of Lord MEL-
BOURNE and his colleagues from office. It is
unnecessary to do more than just mention the main
features of that celebrated Bill—the importation of
sugar at a differential duty of 125., the decrease of
differential duty on colonial timber, and the establish-
ment of a fixed duty of Bs. upon corn, in lieu of the
sliding-scale system—these features being insufficient
for the demands of either party, rousing the acrimony
of the land proprietors, and fermenting discontent
among the populace as merely a partial improvement.
Speaking of the delight evinced by the protectionists
at what they then erroneously regarded as their vic-
tory, Lord J. RUSSELL inquires, in a tone of cutting
sarcasm, "Do they now rejoice that that eight shil-
ling duty was rejected ? Are they now prepared to
say that that eight shilling duty, which would have
prevented much of the misery, and mitigated many of
the evils which occurred to the manufacturing towns
in the years 1841-42, and 43, would not have been a
compromise most favourable to the views of those
calling for protection ?"
The irony of this question must be a hitter bolus fur
the monopolists, and a bolus without a film of
gilding; they will however, be compelled to swallow
a still more nauseous and unpalateable pill before the
present agitation throughout the country can sub-
side. Upon this contumelious and absolutely ungrate
ful conduct on the part of a class whose interests had
been consulted by the Whig Ministry more than they
were actually justified in doing—after, that is to say,
having been met with the opposition and revilings of
the agriculturists, instead of with their assistance
gratitude, Lord JOHN RUSSELL began t'
the point at issue. He contini"

reconsider

..,4 thus---

" When I saw woe
obstructions and those continued
rejections, T
reflected tnat that confined proposition of
"Ile, which was not accepted by the landed interest,
was really an obstacle in the way of those who asked for
the complete freedom of trade on the subject of the corn-
laws; and rather than be an obstacle in the way, and
be ieving that the present corn-laws are, as I have stated,
injurious to agriculture as well as to commerce, I with-
drew that proposition, and declared my opinion in a
etter to the electors of the City of London, whom I have
the honour to represent, that those corn-la% s ought to
be totally repealed."
This is an honest avowal of an error in judgment,
for which we honour the noble speaker. The
succeeding sentence, on two accounts, is peculiarly
interesting, and no less peculiarly satisfactory, first,
as it affords us an inkling of the truth of what was
hitherto enigmatical; and, secondly, as it contains a
guarantee of admirable and true-hearted boldness.
" It does not become me, in this place," said his
Lordship, "to refer to occurrences of which you
must all be aware, and of which the day of explana-
tion will arrive as soon as Parliament meets.
But this I will say, that when that day
of explanation arrives, I trust you will find
that I did not shrink from the assertion of all the
principles contained in that letter to the electors of
London."

The exposition which he then gives of the con-
sequences of a total abolition of the duty upon food
are worthy of the sagacity and forethought for which
the Noble Lord has acquired such a reputation. In
that exposition he clearly displays the fact that the
agricultural labourers will be materially benefited as
regards employment by the alteration, instead
of undergoing all the privations and miseries
enumerated by such flowery orators as his
Grace of RICHMOND. Besides thl4, he explains
how inevitable a plentiful supply of corn to this
country must then be—all the vast granaries of the
earth being ready on occasion for our demands—
Odessa when Dantzic is deficient in the article, Ame-
rica when Odessa has been visited with a meagre
harvest; and that hence, moreover, the bonds of
amity between the several kingdoms in b)th hemi-
spheres would become closer and more indis-
soluble. Towards the termination of his
address Lord JOHN RUSSELL became more
animated in his manner and more em-
phatic in his declarations, engaging in the
strongest language to persist in his struggles for un-
taxed commerce until a complete and elaborate re-
paration is made to the harder-worked, and more
heavily-burdened members of the community.
" It will be my duty before long to stand in the House
of Commons and declare my opinions upon some of the
most important questions that were ever agitated in that
assemblage. I fear not the discussion," and in con-
clusion, the Noble Lord exclaimed, " I hope I may be
entitled to say, having received this honour from you,
and, being the representative of the City of London, that
the great cities of England and Scotland are determined
that this monopoly shall last no longer, and that com-
merce shall be free !"

A fair augury may be taken as to the issue of any
contest, from the behaviour of the combatants ; and,
regarding in this light the two great parties in this
most important struggle, we cannot but be animated
by a sense of encouragement. Failure—most utter and
irretrievable failure—in the lachrymose and hesi-
tating movements of the one ;—triumph in the
staunch and courageous front of the other. Contrast
in this way the meetings at Cambridge and Glasgow
—at Wiliis's Rooms and at Covent-garden. The
deduction is obvious.

We have accounts from Madrid to the 7th. On
that day the discussion on the Address was resumed,
and, after a long speech from the Minister of the
Interior, it was adopted by a majority of 117 to 32.
The most active steps had been taken against Don
HENRIQUE, and it would appear that persons who had
little or nothing to do with the letter had also been
made sufferers. The PRINCE'S secretary had been
dismissed and banished to Cadiz ; his brother, Don
FRANCISCO D'ASSISES, had been ordered to join his
regiment at Pampeluna; and Don HENRIQUE was to
proceed with the least possible delay to Ferrol.
According to some accounts, the pArriage of ti}®

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