The Sun.
London, England, 1846-05-30 00:00:00

beyond possibility to divest ourselves sufficiently of a par-
tiality for speculations on the future, to scan, with
art attentive eye to detail, the multifarious sentiments
which have bees advanced by our legislators. Of the
arguments employed by the discomfited section in the
Commons little more will be thought than inasmuch
as they indicate the excitement then paramount
among the self-elected champions of a pro-
tected agriculture ; for, with reference to the
statistics introduced in favour of the now-exploded sys-
tem, they were so fantastically specious, so miserably
mal• a-droit, and so built up upon rotten premises, as to
deserve nothing better than a passport to oblivion. It is
in the temperate, ardent, and singularly able address of
Lord STANLEY that his very old-fashioned party will in-
sure to themselves the attention of the public. In that
speech the last scintillations of rationality upon the
question of perpetuating the corn-laws will be recog-
nised ; and, although those scintillations be both fitful
and futile, they will continue for some considerable
Period to attract the observation of posterity, as
exemplars of the real ground upon which the
Noble Lord's party maintained the advisability
of continuing the commercial imposts levied by
our ancestors. Clever, however, as the man-
ner and arrangement cf Lord STANLEY'S harangue
unquestionably is, there is such a flimsiness about the
proposition which he therein endeavours to uphold,
such a barley-sugar instability about the fabric which
he advances as the only one suitable for the com-
merce of Great Britain, that the predominant
sentiment excited during a perusal of the harangue
is that of wonder at such sagacity of defini-
tion being linked with such obtuseness in the scheme
defined. Had the allusions been restricted to the corn
regulations of ancient Rome, the Noble Lord's oration
would, beyond a doubt, have entitled him to the medal
for rhetoric at Harrow ; but, as treating of the mer-
cantile affairs of England, and that, moreover, in
the middle of the nineteenth century, it must
be regarded as rather derogatory to his character
as a statesman. The ingenuity of the logician was his;
but the sound and mellow wisdom of the politician
was wanting. What the speech acquired in lingual
embellishment it lost in sagacity of perception and in
solidity of reasoning. These characteristics are applicable,
moreover, in a variable degree to the other speakers in the
Upper House in favour of restrictions upon importation.
But what we are inclined the more particularly to com-
mend in the discussion of the Peers is the sobriety of
tone, for which it was throughout remarkable. They
displayed in the very generalities of their manner
an appreciation of the momentous nature of the
proposed changes ; they expressly notified it
as no party measure, but rather as ono involving
the welfare, more or less, of every individual of the com-
munity ; and hence they have treated it with propor-
tionate respect. The superficial indications of this fact
are numerous ; the brevity of the debate, the avoidance
of unnecessary personalities, and the subjugation of many
exciting considerations being among the number.
There is, however, one other peculiarity in the
discussion which will not fail to elicit general
remark, and it is a peculiarity which tends very consi-
derably to place the upholders and the opposers of the
question in strong contrast. It cannot have been alto-
gether overlooked that throughout the four months of
earnest discussion upon the policy of remodelling our
commercial code, the free-trade Members to a single
man, from the Premier and the representative
for Stockport downwards to the leait noticeable among
their supporters, have avoided—most scrupulously
avoided—anything like an appeal to the passions of
Parliament or the people, through the medium of elo-
quence in diction or brilliancy in illustration. They
have confined themselves to the mere utterance of
facts, to the mere quotation of figures ; they
have placed the matter before their hearers in the
simplest light conceivable, stripped it of all adventitious
attractions, and looked upon it themselves in its naked
actuality. What, on the opposite side, has been the
behaviour of the protectionist speakers ? Simplicity—
brevity—quietude ? Nothing of the kind. One and
all have striven to corer the real meagreness and
poverty of their principle in a splendour of
rhetoric and an actual gaudiness of talent. Every mere-
tricious ornament of scholarship has been called in to
the enforcement and embellishment of their theory.
Lord GEORGE BENTINCE, by an ostentation of unex-
pected ability ; Mr. DISRAELI, by the increased
liveliness of his sarcasms and a greater effer-
vescence in his fancy ; even Mr. SEYNER, by a
kind of spasmodic struggle for Parliamentary renown ;
but, above all, incomparably above all, Lord STANLEY,
by a forced display of all his most showy and seductive
powers as an orator and a debater. The difference alto-
gether between the protectionists and free-traders is most
striking, and the deduction to be drawn from it most
conclusive. The former have dealt in fictions, the
latter in facts. It has been a most disproportioned
battle, the belligerents on one side employing merely
flowers and weeds as their weapons of assault ;
those on the other giant blocks of granite. The flowers
will fade away and decay, the granite will remain,
immutable. Viewing the matter simply in this light,
the whereabouts of right and wrong are manifest ;
and the consequences of the discussion are threefold—
the nominal advocates of agricultural prosperity have
escaped a very great responsibility, the well-wishers of
the measure have performed their duty nobly, and the
wishes of the people have been so far complied with, in
the legislative approval of free trade.

The great, the vitally important question of the day,
the discussion of which consumed so much time in the
House of Commons, has had its principle affirmed and
the fiat of the hereditary branch of the Legislature re-
corded in its favour, after a debate:of three nights' con-
tinuance ; and, in justice to that august assembly, we
must say, that hacknied and threadbare as the subject
most undoubtedly had become, there was more of
novelty, more brilliant eloquence, more sterling know-
ledge, and sound reasoning exhibited, than we could have
supposed possible in the short period occupied. We may
well be proud of the House of Lords ; they have evinced
liberality and wisdom in the decision at which they have
arrived—they have testified that no selfish consideration
could induce them to reject that which the country at
large had so loudly demanded ; they yielded gracefully
'to the popular voice. No doubt many of their Lordships
have reasoned with such cogency as to satisfy themselves
that the interests of manufactures and agriculture are
not so antagonistic in their nature as the monopolists
have, for party purposes, attempted to establish, but
that with the prosperity of the former the latter
will also -thrive and fructify ; but many must
have been misled by the specious arguments used on the
protectionist side, and fancied that, as landowners, they
would be heavy pe&iniary sufferers by the adoption of
then' 3 measures, and yet they had sufficient patriotism
and honesty to disregard such a consideration, and re-
gister their votes on the side of their country, of truth,
and of justice. Their Lordships also knew that the
question was one properly appertaining to the other
House. The pule can only be taxed by the
voice of their representatives is one of the soundest
maxims of constitutional law. And where a ques-
tic•n involving the taxation of millions —of
every single inhabitant of the British nation,
which falls with as great severity on the poorest artizan
or labourer as the wealthiest man in the kingdom—comes
to their Lordships sanctioned by a vast majority of the
ropresentatives of the people, they would have shown
themselves strangely forgetful of their proper position
had they sought to maintain that of which the people
hact temperately but firmly demanded the abolition.
It would be invidious to select any single speech as
deserving peculiar praise where all on the Ministerial
side were brilliant and effective, and reflected in-
creased lustre on the distinguished Noblemen by
whom they were delivered. We cannot, how-
ever, pass by that of the Earl of CLARENDON,
without tendering to his Lordship the tribute of our
warmest admiration, of our profound respect. His Lord-
ship took just credit to himself for the undeviating con-
sistency with which he had ever warned their Lordships
unworthyom zealously
of
ftehnedpe
dr o
he cet i o:1
ns
ssttreym ,f
lb. atth teh eu
u samejus
of what he had conscientiously believed to be the evils
t atinmde
imputations with which they bad been •
assailed ; and in
a manner,
,honourable alike to himself and to those who
had formerly been his political rivals, re moved
affixed the stigma
sought to be axed to their public charac'e
said, " Whatever had influenced the Go'vresr.nTlis Lordship
posing it, he rejoiced in the introduction of met
he
Itu iene
sp r o-u
and almost as much in the wisdom and justice of
there
avowals and arguments by which those who had been
hitherto opposed to such a measure had supported it in
the long ordeal it had undergone elsewhere." He then
ably proved that this was not a party pleasure, that it was
one with respect to which opinion had undergone more
modifications than any other within the last thirty years.
Could the protectionist party say that they would,
take on themselves the responsibilities of office,
and maintain the present law, or were they
prepared to make any change ? Would they not now
duty of Bs., which
they had scornfully
gladly accept the
rejected five years
ago as likely to o-revolution
and ruin ? All the opposition had been raised against
the Minister more than against the measure. And the
PEEL proved that he was
in-
vectives poured upon Sir R. f
influenced by higher views than those of party, and
good-willnd support of his
that if he forfeited the a

friends, he did it for that which was of higher import- r
ance to his country's good. This was, indeed, the (
truth, and well worthy of the cheers which its enuncia-
tion elicited from their Lordships. We have repeatedly
borne our testimony to the strength of the conviction, the
sincerity and purity of the motives, which must have
actuated the Prime Minister when adopting a course by
which he separated and disunited a great party, of which
he was the acknowledged leader; by which he dissolved
ties whiCh had grown up during a series of years, and ex-
posed himself to reproaches and imputations which would
be intolerable to any but a man of the highest mental
capacity, aided and supported by a conscience at peace
with itself, and thoroughly convinced of the vast bene-
fit he was about to confer upon his country by the ex-
traordinary sacrifice on which he had resolved ; and it
must be highly gratifying to that able and honest Mi-
nister to find such true appreciation of his conduct so
gracefully avowed by the worthy representative of a
time honoured name, who permitted no feelings
of former hostility or differences to withhold
the honest acknowledgment of his sense of the
honour and integrity of the course pursued. His Lord-
hip clearly showed the absolute necessity of some course
being adopted to stay the progress of starvation, and its
attendant evils of disease and turbulence, in Ireland;
and the admission of one of the leading protectionists
—of the man who had been selected as one of the leaders
of the party in the other House—that the mere appre-
hension of such a scarcity would have justi-
fied the opening of the Irish ports. And
if they had been opened what must have
been the effect while the trade was free be-
tween the two countries ; and what guarantee
could have been given to have restored or maintained
the law against the force of public opinion after such an
opening? He then showed the fallacy of the statement
that the party were taken by surprise, by showing the
tendency and direction of the mE asures introduced
by the Right Hon. Baronet for the last four years, and
that during that period he had spoken a language which
could not be mistaken by any save those willing
to deceive themselves, a language perfectly intelligible
to all. There was no instance in which protection had
been withdrawn which had produced a disadvantage to
the producer or consumer. The watchword of the party
had been changed from protection to agriculture
to protection to native industry, but that protec-
tion was repudiated by those on whose behalf it
was demanded. The labourers could not be benefited,
for their condition unfortunatelycould not he worse under
any system than it was at the present moment. It was
impossible, then, the labourer could sink lower in the
social scale ; and he therefore could have no interest in
protection. The tenants who, without skill, money, or edu-
cation, took a quantity of land, might want protection to
save them from their own incapacity. That argument
was to make progress wait upon ignorance, and was as
valid for the spade against the plough as the distaff against
the spinning jenny ; but with the good farmer, the man of
skill and intelligence, it would only promote a healthy
stimulus. His Lordship clearly showed that we should
meet hostile tariffs with free trade—that all negotiation
with foreign powers on the subject mast fail. Whenever
there was a treaty, one side or the other would think
they were over-reached, and seek to dissolve the arrange-
ment. Let England do what was wise and pru-
dent, and other countries would speedily follow
the example. Ile pointed out the vast increase in
our exports to Germany and France, illustrating,
and confirming his arguments, and the futility of pro-
hibitions to keep out articles required by the people,
the only effect of which was a vast increase in smug-
gling. Restrictions upon trade were rapidly crumbling
away, and would soon be forgotten amongst other anti-
quated systems. To promote free trade was to carry
into effect the law of GOD. Freedom of commercial in-
tercourse was a policy which gave and received the best
guarantees for the preservation of that inestimable
blessing, peace. We heartily commend his Lordship's
admirable speech to the attentive perusal of persons of
every class in society, and. we are thoroughly convinced
that there is no one, who will calmly weigh and con-
sider the principles stated therein, who will not be
benefited thereby, and become better acquainted with
the great question in all its bearings.

Intelligence from Cracow has been received at Berlin,
which states that a tribunal, composed of Russian,
Prussian, and Austrian jurisconsults, had been formed
for the trial of the prisoners implicated in the late in-
surrection. They are to be tried according to the
Austrian criminal code. The incorporation of Cracow
with Austria is by many considered as a probable event.

A letter from Lisbon, rlatPd May Rth, my. that the
CABRAL Ministry is at an end in Portugal. The Minis-
ters on the 17th tendered their resignation to the
QUEEN, which was accepted. Her MAJESTY has charged
Count VILLA REAL, whose son is chief of the revo.
lutionary junta of Tras•oa-Montez, with the formation of
a new Cabinet. It was, however, the general opinion
that the efforts of Count VILLA. REAL would prove un-
successful, in which case the Duke of PALMELLA
would probably be called on by the QUEEN to form a
Ministry. JOSE CABRAL had returned to Lisbon from
Oporto, where several conflicts had taken place between
the troops and the people, which ended in the greater
part of the army fraternizing with the revolutionists.

Madrid papers of the 23d have arrived. It was ru-
moured that a Spanish army was to advance to the
frontiers of Portugal.

MADRID BOLSA, MAY 23.—The Three per Cents.
were done on the Madrid Bourse, on the 23d, at 33i
for cash.

We have received the laris papers of Thursday.
They all comment on the speech of M. THIERS in the
Chamber of Deputies cn the preceding day, which may
be considered as the manifesto of the Opposition for the
approaching elections. The speech, which professed to
give a history of France from 1830 up to the present
moment, was in the latter portion of it a voluble and
showy attack on the policy of the French Ministry.
The following are the observations of the Journal des
Debats on the inconsistencies exhibited by M.TmEns
M. Thiers is so much a Stranger to principles, that he
did not even appear to suspect that the policy which he at-
tacks at present is precisely that which he defended in the
first and most glorious years of his ministeriA life! For
him the whole history of these 15 years is divided into two
phases. All was well in the first—M. Thiers was then
Minister; the Opposition was wrong; it attacked M. Thiers.
All is had in the second; M. Thiers is no longer Minister;
the Opposition is right; it attacks M. Guizot."
The republican ll'ational thus comments on the speech
of M. TUIERS :—" There is nothing changed in the
policy, which is the same to-day as when M. TRIERS
directed it. This general review of the acts of the
system, therefore, the more it overwhelms M. G UIZOT,
the more it accuses M. TIIIERS. As regards his criti-
cisms on Marshal SOULT (the President of the Council),
we do not thick it very generous of him to wage war
against a veteran retained in the country on accuunt of
his health."

On Thursday, M. GITIZOT, in a long and eloquent
Ipeech, defended the policy of the Government, and had
not concluded when the post left.
The journals publish at length the report of M. FRANK
CARRE in the case of LECOMTE.
IBRAHIM PACHA is to leave Paris on the sth of June.
for London.

The National says that the Cabinet decided on Tues-
day that the elections should take place on the Ist of
August.
The Three per Cents. closed at 84f. sc. ; the Five per
Cents., at 119 f. 60c. ; Orleans Railroad shares, 1,235 f. ;
Rouen, 1,012 f. 50c. ; llavre' 750 f. ; Great Northern, 736 f. 25c. ;
Avignon, 870 f. ; Vierzon, 6221. 50c.; Bordeaux, 608 f. 75c. ;
Boulogne, 487 f. 50c.; Basle, 213 f. 75c. ; Fampoux, 419 f.;
Paris and Strasburgh, 503 f. 75c. ; Tours awl Nantes, 519 E ;
Paris and Lyons, 540 E ; Spanish Three per Cents., 381/2.
The following are the quotations in the new lines :-
Lyons and Avignon, Definitives, 5151.
LY"B, MAY 26.-Marseilles and Avignon, 8981. 75c.;
Paris and Orleans, 1,235 f. ; Rouen, 1,022 f. 60c. ; Lyons,
536 f. 25c.; Vierz3n, 632 f. 60c. ; Great Northern, 745 f.
BUSINESS DONE IN FOREIGN RAILWAYS AT THE
LONDON STOCK EXCHANGE, MAY 29.
Boulogne and Amiens, 11%-Dutch Rhenish, 7%8-Louvain and
Jemappe, I %-Luxembourg, 1% -Namur and Liege, 3%-Orleans
and Vierzon, 1414-Paris and Lyons Constituted, 6-Sambre and
Meuse, 5-Tours and Nantes Constituted, 5%.

EJECTMENT EXTRAORDINARY.—This morning, and
during the last two or three days, the neighbourhood of
Gate-street, Lincoln's Inn-fields, has been the scene of great
excitement, in consequence of the violent exertions made to
eject the tenants of a house in Gate•street, near the chapel.
The parties in possession have lived there for seven years,
and, it is said, rent free. A short time since, however, a
claim was set up by other parties, and th 2 matter went be-
fore the magistrates, but no settlement Was come to. It is
understood the house was represented to be dangerous. An
attempt has been made to compel the occupiers to give up
pthilri
aei:cavegkAti nuKbgn:
tbt
IlpetEhtitahebiobtuclatorooterrihi
Net
wiigra;elli anda:irissi
.tKa
Eni rdisi,nt ega. d
Theo f removing
tenant
a
possession. by taking off the Reif, pulling out the w indows,and
il theand h
ii
srub-
bish it is left in the interior in a heap, with scarcely anv-
family have taken possession of the only place of shelter left,
which is the passage, and declare they 1%111 stay, though the
of all grain are extremely limited, Iwith29t.rie Tehxecesputpiopnlieosf
beans. We had a fair inquiry for fresh wheat, at fully last
butfi
withoutne waletreerati alteration week's prices ; in common descriptions but little business
was transacted. The price of barley remains nominally the
same, the demand is however more limited, as most of the
maltsters. have ceased working.
Beans dull for common sorts,
each sold readily,
Peel and family, at Drayton Manor, Staffordshire. The Right
Hon. Baronet returns to the metropolis on Wednesday next.
The last letters from Rome announce the death in that
easyn
isnal Nevsa.lu oe.ats Maltand isnherlelqinugest.
Sir Robert Peel! left town this morning to join Lady
city of the Baron Van-den-Steen de Jeliak, the Belgian
Minister Plenipotentiary.