The Sun.
London, England, 1846-06-29 00:00:00

•
--- Ant

LONDON, MONDAY, JUNE 29, 1846.

The PEEL Ministry go out ostensibly on the Irish
Coercion Bill: the question, however, which has

really broken up the Cabinet is that of the Sugar
Duties. There is every reason to believe that the
liberal intentions of the chief have been thwarted by
the interested opposition of certain of his colleagues,
and the question of the Sugar Duties it will be the
duty of the new Cabinet to meet at once. There
must be no attempt at renewing the present duties

for one year to avoid grappling with it. Any such
attempt would involve the ultimate destruction of the
new Ministry. To be defeated on the question
during the present session would not weaken the
new Cabinet, but the attempt to avoid the discussion
would be a most damaging confession of inherent
weakness : besides, the question is one which will
not admit of delay. The sugar crop in the
West Indies has failed; the attempt to procure a
sufficient supply of this necessary article from
countries in which free labour only is employed
has failed also. Instead of a supply of 20,000 tons,
as estimated from this source, the supply has only
amounted to 3,864 tons, while the price to the con-
sumer has been materially increased. Now the pro-
ducers of corn are great consumers of sugar, and
having established free trade in corn it would be most
unjust to the producers of that article to make them
pay a protection price for that which Mr. CANNING
once designated as " the corn of the Tropics "
sugar. The same measure which has been meted
out to the British must in justice be meted out to the
coloeial agriculturist. The West India planters
have already received more, much more, than their
due. Be it never forgotten that at the time when
the Slavery Abolition Bill was introduced into the
House of Commons it was proposed to lend the
planters 15,000,0001. They were well pleased with the
proposition, and were doing their best to provide
something like a tangible security to offer for the
; repayment of the loan, when the then Colonial Mi-
nister, Lord STANLEY, with that unreasoning reck-
lessness, that utter disregard of consequences which
has ever been his peculiar characteristic, proposed to
change the proposed loan of 15,000,0001. into an un-
conditional gift of 20,000,0001. The people had not
then recovered from the intoxication of joy conse-
quent upon the passing of the Reform Bill, and no-
thing :but the circumstance of their being so over-
joyed as to render them incapable of cool reflection
can account for the fact of Lord STANLEY being per-
mitted to carry out his project. Let us beware
lest we too be induced, by the joy and gratitude
which 'we feel for free trade in corn, to accept less
than free trade in sugar. Should Lord JOHN
RUSSELL be the new Minister, he is pledged to give
us free trade in sugar without reference to the ques-
tion of free labour or of slave labour.
Indeed it is so impossible practically to
draw the distinction, and so transparently hypo-
critical to make the attempt while we admit
slave labour cotton and slave labour coffee, that we
do not imagine any statesman will be found willing
to risk his reputation by broaching the argument.
There are various other important economical and
financial questions (such, for instance, as a revision
of the whole of the Excise duties) which
must, ere long, occupy the attention of the
new Cabinet; but, like Mr. COBDEN, we have a preju-
dice in favour of doing one thing at a time. The
question of questions at the present moment is sugar
—that question must be settled, and settled at once,
in the broadest sense of free trade. The new Cabinet
must, in the settlement of the sugar question, follow
the example Sir R. PEEL has set them in the settle-
ment of the corn question, and do away with all pro-
tection, or their doom is sealed.

The general belief is, that, within almost an
hour of the publication of these remarks, the
walls of both Houses of Parliament will be filled
to hear the official announcement of the resigna-
tion of Sir ROBERT PEEL'S Ministry. The occa-
sion is momentous. The pages of history will be
searched in vain for a similar political sunset. A
whole nation are intently gazing upon it. The lu-
minary descends to the horizon, surrounded by every
attribute that can add brilliancy to its exit. A bene-
ficent course has been run, and the solemnity of the
eclipse will create a sensation among grateful millions.
The dark clouds that have hastened to shroud the
closing scene, have, by the contrast afforded, only
added to its gorgeousness. The brilliant corusca-
tions of light emitted by the setting orb, in its sudden
descent, have pierced the feeble shadows of circum-
jacent enemies, and conttibuted a lustrous grandeur,
whilst it vanishes from the sphere in which it has so
nobly moved.
Sir It. PEEL will no doubt take occasion this
evening to review his governance of the greatest
empire, ancient or modern, in the known world, since
his accession to power in 1841. The summation of
his labours will renovate him with feelings beyond all
price. The gratifying close of the Chinese war, the
honourable termination of that of Affghanistan, the
brilliant victories recently achieved in India, the
preservation of peace, compatibly with the full main-
tenance of the national honour, in other parts of the
world, where concord has at times been seriously
threatened ; thei admirable restoration: of our
finances, the efficient state of the navy, the diminution
of crime in England and Scotland, the prosperity of
our agricultural, commercial, and manufacturing in-
terests—each and all of these are points of political
triumph at the command of Sir R. PEEL, and may
fairly constitute the ingredients of his address to the
House of Commons on rising to communicate the re-
signation of his trust as Prime Minister of England.
But, above all, may he dwell with pride upon the
crowning acts of his Administration, by which he
has broken down the barriers of monopoly, and
opened wide the ports of these kingdoms to the bounties
of nature, in exchange for our unrivalled productions
of art. The author of all this good resigns the helm
of Government—a man who, in the language of Mr.
COBDEN (a shrewd observer and faithful expositor
of the feelings of millions of our countrymen), "car-
ries with him, in retiring from office, the esteem and
gratitude of a larger number of the population of this
empire, and especially of the working classes, for hav-
ing successfully conducted one of the most magni-
ficent reforms, than ever followed any Minister that
was ever hurled from power."

To be deprived of a statesman to whom such
credit is due, and by whom such great things
have been accomplished, is a source of unfeigned
regret. In this feeling Mr. COBDEN himself parti-
cipated whilst giving his conscientious vote against
the second reading of the Bill for the Protection of
Life in Ireland. Unmitigated rancour drove a large
portion of the protectionists to stultify themselves by
voting differently upon the second reading to
what they had upon the first. They did so,
avowedly, upon the charge that they had been be-
trayed by the Minister. For ourselves we rejoice,
for reasons previously given, that this measure has
not met with the sanction of the Legislature. At the
same time we give full credit to Sir R. PEEL, and
believe that he had most reluctantly persuaded him-
self of the necessity of his measure for the repression
of crime in Ireland. But far otherwise were the
motives of the protectionists. They have committed
suicide. They knew the Premier was too high
minded to hold office "by sufferance"—they knew
(that other opportunities would present themselves,
Independent of the Coercion Bill, to place the Go•
venhent in a minority ; yet such was the
blindness of
their rage,
such their fell and inve-
terate hatred,themthe very first opportunity
i to allege they
the hands
was seized upon h 7
rs in
black was white. It _ ems bombastidleeunhesitatingly to vote
would not trust unconstitutional
of Sir R. PEEL. They were inwardly
from
fdr ohe
would not abuse them Bent upon ousting him
office, they must have known, that even if they had
passed the Bill by their continued support, its Powerswould have been eventually lodged in the hands of
Lord JOHN RUSSELL, when the chances were they
would not have been resorted to at all, seeing that he
had conscientiously opposed its becoming the law of
the land. The monopolists hick iled
if to
they had suc-
substantiate
their charge of treachery, in w,
ceeded, it must have told equally against the Duke
of WELLINGTON and other men of public celebrity.
Again, if they believed in the truth of the indictmen'
they preferred, th3y should, to have been consistent
have voted against the first stage of the Protecti,
Bill, inasmuch as the treachery of the Governmenk
was as manifest at that time as they conceived it to
be during the discussion upon the second reading.
The fact is, they hoped the Lords would alter the
Corn Bill, and thus, that either a dissolution
would have been forced, or a change of Ministers
effected ; but when they found themselves disappointed
in this respect, and that the Lords were for maintain-
ing the Bill in its original integrity, they determined
to "eat their leek," and, at all hazards, to vote directly
in the teeth of their former opinions upon the Irish
measure, in order that the hated, but dreaded, Mi-
aster, should be peremptorily ejected from power.