The Sun.
London, England, 1846-01-07 00:00:00

MR.

A New Edition, corrected throughout from the rersonal Communi
cations of the Nobility, &c.,
AND CONTAINING ALL THE NEW CREATIONS.
In 1 vol. Bvo. (comprising as much matter as 20 ordinary volumes:
with upwards of 1,500 Engravings of Arms, &c.,price 38s. bound.
Henry Colburn, Publisher, 13, Great Marlborough-street.

NEW NOVEL.
Nov ready at all the Libraries, in three vole. poet Bvo.,
ATAR GARET CAPEL.oveI
A N
UNA- •

By the Author of " The Clandestine Marriage," &c.
Richard Bentley, New Burlington-street.

This day is:published, price Gs. 6d.,
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TIIE WEATHER.—Stm OFFICE, JAN. 7.
THERMOMETER, Lowest, 24; Highest, 40; Noon, 45,
BAROMETER, 30.31.—W1ND W., cloudy.

fIIGN WATER AT LONDON-BRIDGE TIIIS DAY.
21,,rning .. 27 minutes after 9 I Evening 2 minutes after 10.

The wider the franchise is diffused, the more per-
sons are necessarily brought within the electoral
class who are likely to yield to the foul influences
of bribery and intimidation. But, on the other hand,
the larger are the constituencies, the more difficult
will it be to carry elections by these foul means.
Add the protection of ballot to a system of large con-
stituencies (none, as we have said before, having less
than a thousand electors), and we should be ready to
defy all the " constitutional" Dukes and all the
bribers of the Carlton into the bargain.
As things are, with a large number in miserably small
borough constituencies, where a moderate purse or
one considerable proprietor can easily turn the scale,
and without the ballot to interpose between landlords
and their tenants-at-will, who are enfranchised in the
counties, we find ourselves, notwithstanding all that
has been done by the Reform Act, with a House of
Commons which no one will pretend to call a fair re-
presentation of the people.

We believe we are under the mark when we say
that a fifth of the Members of the House of Commons
are sons and brothers of Peers. What volumes does
this fact speak for the influence of Peers in elections !
The aristocracy are not content with the House of
Lords, which they have all to themselves, but have
got one-fifth of the House of Commons, also, through
sons and brothers. And this calculation does not in-
clude all the country squires connected by marriage,
as well as in landed interest, with the aristocracy.
The members of the aristocracy and the country
gentlemen together are, at least, half of the House of
Commons.

The Duke of PORTLAND, it would appear from
his letter to the secretary to the Agricultural Pro-
tection Society of Nottinghamshire, " cannot encou-
rage the delusion that any good can be done except
by fighting the Anti-Corn-law League with their
own weapons;" and as the weapons with which the
Anti-Corn-law League have fought the battle of free
trade have been logical deductions from proved
premises, weapons which the monopolist hath not in
his armoury, we take it that his Grace of PORTLAND
gives up the battle of protection as lost. It would
appear as if all the leading landowners were
in the same predicament as the Duke of PORT-
LAND, for not one of them honoured the protection
meeting held at Newark last week with their pre-
sence. My Lord LINCOLN sent a civil excuse ; my
Lord JOHN MANNERS a direct refusal; Mr. GAILY
KNIGHT was prevented from attending by ill health,
and Mr. W. E. GLADSTONE by public bu&iness. The
latter gentleman, who, like TALLEYRAND, seems to
imagine that language was given to man to enable
him to disguise his thoughts, says, in his letter of
apology :
" I must, however say, that in whatever situation I
may be placed, I shall always be desirous to secure for
agriculture everything that, upon a just view of the
general interest, it can claim, and to see those who are
connected with it exercise a powerful influence upon, and
as part of the community."

Now there is nothing in this passage to which any
member of the Anti-Corn-law League would not
heartily subscribe, for there is not one of them who
would not "be desirous to secure for agriculture
everything that, upon a just view of the general interest,
it can claim." Our complaint, is that it claims and
possesses more than upon, a just view of the public in-

terest, it ought to possess. Even the Duke of NEW •
CASTLE was not present in propia persona, although
he was represented by his steward, Mr.
WILMOT, as was Earl MANvEas by his steward,
Mr. PICKIN, who, as Vice-President of the
Society, presided. over the meeting. The pro-
ceedings were of the usual " protection meet-
ing" character. Abuse of the League in general, and
of Mr. COBDEN in particular, formed the staple of
the talk, garnished here and there with threats of
what they could and would do with Sir ROBERT
PEEL, should he attempt to diminish the present
amount of protection. There were, of course, the
usual assertions of the superiority of agriculture over
manufactures. "We have heard," said Mr. PICKIN,
" of a ' great fact ;' but the greatest fact is what all
history teaches us—namely, that those states which
have given encouragement to agriculture are those
which have prospered ; while we have, alas ! many
instances of states, once renowned for trade and
commerce, which are no longer in existence."
Now this " greatest fact" of Mr. PICHIN'S is
the very reverse of a fact. Poland has al.
ways given the greatest encouragement to agri-
culture—she is now blotted out from the list of na-

tions. Belgium has always encouraged trade and
manufactures, and although for centuries she has been
the battle-field of Europe, she has always been in a
flourishing condition, and her people have had, gene-
rally, a greater command of the comforts of life than
any other people in the world. Strict accuracy,
however, is not to be expected from a gentleman
who, like Mr. PICIEIN, will venture to say, " I
do assure you that rent is the last of his outgoings
of which a farmer ought to complain. I have no he-
sitation in asserting that the tenant-at- will,
who has the good fortune to hold a farm
under a liberal landlord, is in better cir-
cumstances than he who occupies his own freehold.''
None but a land-steward could have had the assur-
ance to have made such an assertion as this. We
look upon it as an indication of the intention of
landlords to screw out of their tenants, if they can,
their present exorbitant rents under all circum-
stances. The farmers should form a league among
themselves, so as to be prepared to act together in
self-defence and if this screwing system should be
attempted, every tenant should give notice to
quit,
and let the landlord occupy his own free-
hold. If we may judge from the speech
of Mr. WILMOT, the League have put the Duke of
NEWCASTLE into a quandary. The venerable Duke
can no longer "do what he likes with his own."
"The League," piteously whines his Grace of NEW-

CASTLE, speaking in the person of Mr. WILMOT,
" are from day to day increasing their numbers on
the register ; " and even Colonel ROLLESTON, the
only Member of Parliament present, spoke very
doubtingly of his chance of re-election. It is evident

that the protectionists of Nottinghamshire are
thoroughly frightened, and there can be very little
doubt, but that, after the next election, we shall have
the pleasure of seeing GEORGB WILSON, Esq., Chair-

man of the Anti-Corn-law League, take his seat in
the House of Commons as one of the Members for the
county of Nottingham.

We have accounts by the Peninsular mail from
Lisbon to the 30th December. The resignation of
Sir ROBERT PEEL had caused a strong sensation
among all parties. The Cortes were to meet on the
2d of January, when the Speech would be delivered
by the QUEEN in person. The new mode of collect-
ing the taxes had been officially published, and was
to come into immediate operation. There is no other
intelligence in the papers of the slightest interest.

Madrid journals of the 30th ult. have b2en received.
The Chamber of Deputies, at their meeting on that
day, heard the draught of the Address in reply to the
Speech from the Throne, as prepared by the Com-
mittee appointed for that purpose, together with the
amendments proposed by Senor SEIJAS on the part
of the Opposition. The discussion on these docu-
ments was fixed for Saturday, the 3d inst.
On the 30th the Three per Cents. closed at 361 for
cash, and 36 10-16 at 60 days.

The speech of Admiral MACKAiI, in the French
Chamber of Deputies, relative to the navy, has excited
much interest in France, and forms the principal
topic of discussion in the Paris journals. We hare
already stated that he had introduced a Bill demand-

to be laid at the door of their not having the franchise;
and that, if the lower classes are ignorant, this is no I
greater incapacity (if so great) than the prejudices
and sinister interests of the higher classes. The
English statute-book furnishes too many proofs of the
way in which the aristocracy and the landed interest
have legislated for themselves.
We have said that the political franchise is an
effective educator. It is, if a state of things exists in
which the franchise can be exercised freely by the
large numbers who are necessarily more or less de-
pendent on superiors, where bribery and intimidation
prevail : where landlords make their tenants-at-will
vote at their own bidding, and votes are sold for ale
or money, then the elective franchise ceases alto-
gether to be a means of education ; and, further than
this, it becomes an instrument to degrade instead of
raising (as it might do) the character of the voter,
turning him into a crouching slave, or staining his
soul with venality.

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