The Sun.
London, England, 1846-08-25 00:00:00

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Sl7 N 7 AUGUST 25, 1846.

MR. COBDEN AND THE FREE
TRADERS IN FRANCE.
(From the Times.)
It is not the least pleasing part of the honours which
have attended Mr. Cobden's successful career, that he
should have been received in Paris, not as the represent-
ative of any exclusive interest, or even as a distinguished
i o f
results principlesup o n
member of the English Legislature, but as the active
ewhichver3 civilised
ldestinedsed
community t oconfe
n theirth the
promoterbeneficert
world. Pew men who have been so ardently engaged in a
great party contest have suffered so little as Mr.' Cubden
has . done from the narrowing effects of all such contro-
versy. On the contrary, his conceptions seem gradually
to have enlarged as the object of his exertions drew
nearer to his grasp. The views which he originally
adopted as a Manchester manufacturer, for the espe-
cial advantage of that class of the population of
England with which he was himself connected ra-
pidly expanded, until they embraced the general wel-
fare of this country in the cause of free trade ; and
no sooner had they received the sanction of England
than the truth and wisdom of these principles en-
sured their recognition and adoption in other parts
of the world. The whole spirit of this great change has
tended more to union than to division. Mr. Cobden
may claim the credit of never having sought to set
one class of the community against another class,
but rather of endeavouring to remove those errors
of legislation and opinion which had so long been
a ground of contention between agriculture and
manufactures, the two great limbs of the nation.
And the same auspicious influence may be extended
to the union of other countries, in the relations of
commercial interchange, and to the removal of those
barriers and custom-house troops who wage an incessant
warfare on the intercourse of mankind. We are very
well aware that in the present constitution of political
society in France, there is hardly any country in Europe
(except Spain and Portugal) from which less is to be
expected in the way of commercial reform. But this fact
is so inconsistent with the position of the French nation
in the world that it cannot be perpetual. The names
of Turgot and Say deserve to be quoted by the side of
Adam Smith and Ricardo in the annals of political
economy; and nowhere have the scientific principles of
free trade been demonstrated by,. more rigorous argu-
ment or illustrated with keener ingenuity. The in-
terests of land, and of almost all its products, are, in
France, unequivocally on the side of free trade. It is
a mere pretence and a delusion to suppose that they
are not. French agriculture suffeis far more than it
gains by the protective system, although that same sys-
tem excludes the necessary supply of live-stock, and
interferes with the import of raw material under various
forms. Lastly, some of the members of the present
Government, and especially M. Duchatel, who, as
Minister of the Interior, deservedly occupies the
second place amongst them, are, in theory at least,
partisans of that system of commercial freedom of which
several other countries have now given such striking
examples. France has then as clear an exposition
of the sound principles of trade as has been
given by any writers ; she has a vast and prepon-
derating national interest, with nothing to fear, and
everything to gain from freedom of trade; and she
has Ministers perfectly competent to advance, by
gradual steps, in the right direction. The Journal des
Debuts, speaking the language of some of the most en-
lightened men connected with the Government, has
taken the opportunity of Mr. Cobden's reception in
Paris, to declare itself most forcibly and decidedly
in favour of commercial reform ; and there is
no doubt that the late changes in England
and in the United States have already proved
a heavy blow and great discouragement to
the doctrines of protection all over the world. Yet, in
spite of all these circumstances we do not anticipate a
speedy triumph of free-trade principles in France, and
this not so much for commercial as for political reasons.
The comparatively small class of 220,000 electors who
return the Chamber of Deputies are in the main a pro-
tectionist class. The Chamber of Deputies is protec-
tionist—even more so than the Chamber of Peers,
where wen like the Due D'Harcourt, M. Anisson Duper-
ron, and M. Rossi have taken a leading part in favour of
free-trade. And until the great mass of the consumers
in the country have been taught to know what a burden
of indirect taxation they really bear, under the form of
protection, we have little hope that public opinion would
support a Minister in a series of bold and effectual commer-
cial reforms. Mr. Cobden's address to the Economists Club
in Paris was distinguished by the tact and propriety
with which he avoided anything that might have savoured
of undue interference in the public affairs of a foreign
state. The cause he represents is fortunately one which
has as much to hope from the ukases of the Emperor
Nicholas, or the infallible decrees of the Roman Pontiff,
as from the impulses of the American democracy.
It is, in short, the cause of the wealth of nations rightly
understood ; and, although we have scarcely a right
to complain if others hold back upon the road on which
we ourselves have lingered so long, yet the conviction
with which we look forward to the ultimate practical
termination of these discussions, falls in no degree short
of absolute moral certainty. It will deserve to be no-
ticed by those who may hereafter investigate and describe
the phenomena of our age, that the English, who are
rightly regarded as a practical rather than a speculative
or theorizing people, have, nevertheless, within the last
quarter of a century, undertaken on theoretical prin-
ciples, some of the greatest experiments in science and in
legislation which the world has ever witnessed ; whilst
the French, on the contrary, who are certainly our equals
in the theory of the sciences, whether material or moral,
have, since their great revolution, shown the greatest dis-
trust of all theory, and the utmost reluctance to try innova-
tions not fully sanctioned by experience. Thus our
extraordinary system of credit and currency, our
immense expenditure for railroads, our reform of
the Post-office, our emancipation of sieves, and our
free-trade system, are based upon theories cau-
tiously and carefully formed by the method of in-
duction, but which nothing but actual experiment
could demonstrate to be practical benefits. No
other nation in the world, except perhaps the people of
the United States, would have dared to make such ex-
periments ; and as for the states of continental Europe,
they are still shivering on one shore, ere they
venture to cross the flood, when we have al-
most emerged upon the other. Upon the whole,
this conservative dread of change is the safer
tendency of the two ; and more is to be risked in
seeking to lead the age than in consenting to follow
it. But no accident can permanently place a nation like
that of France behind the vanguard of civilisation and
improvement; and we sincerely hope, that when the
new Chamber of Deputies meets for the dispatch of
business, a party will not be wanting of sufficient
• strength and importance to encourage the Government
to enter upon the removal of commercial restrictions.

THE CLOSING SESSION.
(From the Weekly Dispatch.)
Mr. Editor,—A few days must send the Parliamentry
gentlemen about their business—that is to say, about
their pleasure. Some will be off to the country, and
some to the coast ; some to the moors, and some to tl e
Continent. The parting speech which prorogues them
will thank them for their generosity (at our expense) ;
and admonish them to set a 'good example to their
tenantry, which doubtless they will do, in the same style
as heretofore. It is astonishing how immoral the rustics
would be, if the aristocracy did not sometimes reside a
little while at their seats. Hence the blessing of genie-
laws and game preserves. No partridge, no landlord ;
and no landlord, no morality nor religion. Our civilisa-
tion hangs upon hares, and pheasants are the cause of
piety in peasants. Were it not for the shooting months,
we should have no good manners ; as, if they lasted
through the year, we should have no law-making. Every
thing in its season. Most people are heartily glad the
Parliamentary season is over.
The closing session will be remembered in history.
And the popular triumph, in the repeal of the corn-laws,
by which it is distingui.hed, will be even less remarkable
than the new light it has thrown on the character of Sir
Robert Peel, and the new position in which it has placed
him. At the beginning, or a brief time previously, he
was apparently the permanent Premier, with a stronger
party at his back than ever before supported a Minister ;
at its close, he is a private gentleman, without office,
power, or party. At its commencement, he was the ob-
ject of public distrust ; at its close, he commands the na-
tional respect and gratitude. For the first time in poli-
tical history, we have beheld a statesman in the plenitude
of authority and influence, making a deliberate sacrifice
of power and patronage to the rights and wants of the
people—sacrificing even his own character in the estima-
tion of those by whom he had been raised to the summit
of his ambition. We have seen the man whose course
had been the crookedest made an outcast from his party
on account of his integrity, and exposed to the bitterest
vituperation. Sir Robert Peel has fallen from pewer,
and risen to greatness. He has lost a faction, and gained
a nation. Accusations of treachery evince his integrity.
Scornful assaults illustrate his dignity. Desertion only
leaves him in unapproached grandeur. There is no
similar instance on record of a party leader, and the tool
of an aristocracy, foregoing all the ad vantages and re-
sisting all the temptations of his position to become the
man of the people, and work out their deliverance from
the most oppressive and pernicious monopoly ever de-
vised, and upheld by the sinister interests of class legis-
lation.
This appeal from party to the people must produce
important results. Sir Robert Peel did not leave the
Tories to join the Whigs. He has not demolished his
own party to strengthen that of Lord John Russell. He
is under no compact. His stand is taken upon the prin-
ciples of commercial freedom and equal justice. He has
no further occasion for tactics ; no need of suppressions
or concessions. By him, and by the public, a new and
grand experiment is in course of trial. That reforms
should be gained, and the country governed without
party organisation, has always been pronounced an im-
possibility by political quidnuncs. The monkey without
a tail has been held less ridiculous than a statesman
without a tail. A thousand times we have been told
that " when bad men conspire good men must combine."
The first step in a different direction was that of Sir
Robert Peel in abolishing the corn-laws. He may bs
said to have done it alone. From the night when he
announced his plan, party was, as to that question,
abolished. Truth, justice, and public opinion, were
arrayed against monopoly in the House of Com-
mons, as they had been in the arena of popular agi-

tation. Peel, with no party, carried his point in the
presence of all parties. Relinquishing office in the hour
of victory, he took his second step in the no-party direc-
tion. He made that memorable declaration of Irish
policy. The House heard with amazement the lan-
guage of political equality and universal justice. It was
again felt that the Minister had become a man. He
was declaring truths, not beating up for recruits. Our
drilled politicians cannot comprehend it yet. For the
people, it is a great lesson. Can we not do without
party? It little matters by whom the mere routine of
Governmental business is conducted. The clerks in the
offices really do that, though ,Peers are put it over them
to take the credit and the money; and where great prin-
ciples and needful reforms are concerned, what has party
ever clone but impair and compromise them? The his-
tory of party in power is the history of compromises ;
its history out of power is that of large promises, to be
followed by small performances. It is the " madness of
many for the gain of a few." A statesman who disre-
gards
it is a treasure to a nation. We should learn to
disregard it too. Neither Whigs nor Conservatives are
wanted; but men who will claim the redress of grievances,
whoever may be in or out. We should seek the triumph
of principles, not of persons. Towards this common
sense in politics, Sir Robert Peel has made himself the
nation's leader. This is the moral of the session; it can
only be thrown away through our own folly.
In the Bentinck and Disraeli corps the session pre-
sents the counterpart of this picture. Here is a new
party; it aspires to the Government. It has neither
political theory nor practical statesmanship —it is
banded together for the support of no one institution—
it aims at no one reform—it simply seeks place and
power for its own profit. The profits to some of hand-
some salaries, and to others of partial laws. Its means
are unscrupulous as its ends are selfish. It has stretched
the forms of the House to their utmost extent of
vexatiousness. It supported and opposed the Irish
Coercion Bill, just as the division could be made subser-
vient to its purposes. It will vote white one day, and
black the next. It deals in vituperation and insolence.
Looking to an election, it recommends the coercion of
voters. It is destitute even of the old cant of party,
and disregards the old decencies and conventionalisms of
party. It would bully itself into office, and ride rough-
shod over the community.
These corn and game-law gentry are now exhibited
in their true colours. They hold a creed yet more
monstrous than " the monstrous faith of millions made
for one." According to them, all things were made
for a squirearchy. Corn grows for the partridges first,
and the people afterwards. Manufacturers work, not
for the world's market, but for home consumption; 1. e.,
for the few in robes, while the many have only rags.
Talent in Parliament is an impertinence, unless it be
subservient. They are feudalism without its superior
enterprise, and aristocracy without its superior refine-
ment. For them to rule, would be more disgraceful
than the Norman Conquest. Peel has felled them to the
earth. It only remains for the constituencies to trample
out the rest of their proud and sordid existence.
The Whigs are bewildered. They have been tumbled
into power by events, and know not what to do with it.
They are a party, and cannot join to extinguish party.
They follow Sir Robert Peel on the corn-laws, to their
little utmost ; always keeping rather in the rear. They
helped to turn him out on the Irish Coercion Bill, and
then brought in the Irish Arms' Bill, and then threw it
up again. Sir Robert Peel gave the corn monopoly three
years, in the face of a fierce opposition ; so they have
given the sugar monopoly five years, in the face of a
feeble opposition. a
The dying session bequeaths political power to the
people, if they have but nerve enough to take the legacy.
If the Whigs know not what to be at, it is for the peo-
ple to teach, and to command them. If Sir Robert Peel
have no party to realise his policy, it is for the people to
make him one for the occasion. If monopoly continue
to rave, and threaten mischief, it is for the people to
apply the straitwaistcoat to the obstreperous patient.
The " social revolution," as it has been truly called,
which this session has accomplished, is a transference
of power to the industrial classes and to public opinion.
It is cur own fault should that power go back to an oli-
garchy. Sir Robert Peel, at present, is the great repre-
sentative of the British nation. He can only remain so
by the action of public opinion, telling Lord John Rus-
sell it will not put up with inertness or compromise; and
Lord G. Bentinck that it will not be bullied. By pub-
lic opinion we shall represent ourselves. Let it be alive
and alert, and Great Britain is, for the future, the mo-
narchy of the industrial classes.