The Sun.
London, England, 1848-07-08 00:00:00

THE. SUN,

superfluous, seeing that " we wanted no additional
examples to prove to. usitat a very good poet may
be a very bad politician!" The derisive laughter
which greeted the remark was provoked upon his
own head by the honourable, learned, poetic, and in-
consistent gentleman, the representative of Reading.
If we except one very simple announcement, his
oration was only remarkable for inasmuch as it pre-
sented us with the spectacle of the vacuity of forensic
eloquence ; and that announcement was, that when
he cast a glance of retrospection over the political
history of the last thirty years, when he remembered
the extraordinary changes which had occurred,
and the wonderful advantages which had been
torn from the unwilling grasp of the aris-
tocracy in 1832, when he considered the increased
share acquired by the people in municipal corporations,
"he thought he did not act an inconsistent part in
refusing to go further." So much for the new light
thrown in upon the political character of Mr. Ser-
geant TALFOUBD, by the discussion of Thursday
evening—a discussion which showed his tendency to
the finality system, and his faithlessness to the cause
of progressive and comprehensive reform.
To ourselves, and we doubt not to the vast ma-
jority of those who are indisposed to despair of the
ultimate success of the movement commenced by
Messrs. HUME and COBDEN, simply because of the
division of 84 against 351, it is refreshing to turn
from the empty and declamatory speech of Ser-

geant TALrouitn-, to ,the sound and argumen-
tative harangue of the Honourable Gentlemen
the Members for the West Riding and for Middlesex.
The statistical arguments of Mr. COBDEN, coupled,
as they may be, with those contained in Mr.
MACE.A.Y'S pamphlet on Electoral Districts, are to our
thinking altogether unanswerable. What shall be said,
for example, against the justice of the plea in favour
of a batter apportionment of the different constituencies
of the United Kingdom after the estimates mentioned
on Thursday by Mr. COBDEN ?—that the West
Riding contains a population of 1,154,000, and Wilts
a population of 260,000, that the former is rated to the
poor on an annual rental of 3,576,0001., and Wilts
on an annual rental of 1,242,0001., and yet that each
of them returns 18 Members, or again, that the popu-
lation of the county of Buckingham is 17,000, and that
of the city of Manchester is 240,000, that the former
is assessed to the poor at the annual rental of
760,0001., and the latter at an annual rental of
1,200,0001., and yet that Buckingham has eleven
Members, and Manchester only two ! What shall be
said in contravention of the same arguments when
the Honourable Gentleman enunciates such a Hen-

tence as the following :—" I hold in my hand a list
of ten boroughs, each returning two Members to
Parliament, making in all twenty Members, and I
have also a list of ten towns in the West Riding of
Yorkshire which do not return any Member, yet the
smallest place in the latter list is larger
than the largest of the ten boroughs having
two Members each !" According to the pre
sent iniquitous arrangement, therefore, the Bri-
tish House of Commons is only the Repre-
sentative Chamber of a very minute section of
the enfranchised, even under the present contracted
plan of distributing the suffrage.
It appears to us that the great blunder in which
much of the opposition to Mr. HuME's motion has
originated is the misapprehension of its immediate
tendency. According to the opinion of a great body
of the so-called Liberals, or of the ci•devant
Reformers, it is dreaded that by granting the prayer
of the petitioners—by extending the suffrage to all
householders, by restricting the duration of Parlia-
ment to three years, by mapping out the
country into equally balanced districts, and
by protecting the conscience of the voter by
the visor of the ballot—we shall inevitably be weaken-
ing the foundations of the Constitution. Never was
there a more egregious fallacy. Instead of weaken-
ing the foundations the granting of these reforms
would only tend to widen and extend them—affording
a broader basis by that measure to the political
pyramid of Great Britain. Is there any want of a
mathematical proof as to the accuracy of this asser-
tion ?—it is found in the homely expression of Mr.
COBD*N. " If," said he, " you enfranchise the
householders in this country, making the number of
voters 3,000,000 or 4,000,000, whereas at present
they are only about 800,000, will any one deny
that by so doing you would conciliate the great mass
of the people to the institutions of the country, and
that whatever dissatisfaction might arise from any re-
maining exclusion, your institutions would be ren-
dered stronger, by being garrisoned by 3,000,000 or
4,000,000 of voters, instead of 800,000 ?" Against
that one homely expression we defy all the declamation
of the Conservatives to effect anything in the way of
triumph. It is the condensation into one masculine
sentence of all the justice, of all the exigency, of all
the expediency, of all the truth, of all the earnestness,
and of all the unconquerable vigour of the great popular
movement. That movement cannot now be stopped
—it cannot even be retarded for any length of time;
—notwithstanding the majority of 267 against them
on Thursday evening, the people of England must
very soon be victorious.

We have great pleasure in directing attention to a
well-reasoned and sensible article copied from the
Dublin Pilot, on the folly and madness of the revo-
lutionary doctrines advocated by some portion of the
Irish press. Mr. BARRETT, the proprietor of the
Pilot, has done good service to the cause of modera-
tion and social order, by the publication of such an
appeal to the good sense and loyalty of his country-
men. We sincerely hope they will profit by the
perusal of advice so timely and so salutary.

The House of Commons was again occupied last
night with the discussion of another Protectionist
amendment to the resolutions on the Sugar Duties,
and although the subject has been literally worn
threadbare, the debate was adjourned until Monday
evening. The Noble Lord the Member for King's
Lynn, it appears, is charged brimful with an oration,
which, as he has taken upon himself the position of
champion and protector for the West Indian colonies,
cannot be delivered in less than two or three hours.
He appears to have forgotten that already his first
speech on the question " that the House go into Com-
mittee" entered most fully into the entire subject:l
that his views were explained beyond the possibility
of doubt or misconception, and that the reckless and
injurious accusations which in the course of that
speech he preferred against the Colonial Department
generally, and more especially against the Noble
Secretary and the Under-Secretary for the Colonies,
personally—led to a lamentable waste of time ;
the greater portion of three evenings having been
consumed in the vindication of the characters so
unjustly assailed, and the partial reiteration of the
unwarranted aspersions. Most justly did the
Premier
appeal to the House to induce them to di-
vide on that amendment without further adjournment,
and nobly did the House respond to that appeal, the
motion for reporting progress having been negatived
by a majority of 131. Thanks, however, to the
obstructive nature of the present rules, which permit
a small minority to impede the progress of any
business, the majority was obliged to succumb, and
on Monday the House will have to decide on the
proposition of the Hon. Member for Leominster,
who desires to suspend the progress of the Act of
1846, and to maintain the duties at their present
rate fur a period of six years. He would thus give a
minimum protection of 4s. 6d. on Muscovado, and of
7s. 7d. upon clayed sugars for the same period.
It is hardly necessary now to enter into the merit
of this suggestion, which can scarcely be palatable to
any of the parties interested, whether producers or
consumers. It would retard the gradual diminution
of prices, which would greatly increase the consump-
tion of the article. There would be no breaking the
fall—if fall it might be called—so that at a moment's
notice the planters would be reduced from a consider-
able protective duty to perfect equality ; they would
be compelled to pay 14s. per hundred on their pro-
duce for six years, in place of 13s. at present, with a
decrease of ls. in each succeeding year until 10s. only
was levied. All these advantages would be wholly
lost if the Honourable Member succeeded in his mo-
tion. We can scarcely, therefore, think that the
West Indians will array themselves in its favour.
To the consumer it is even still more objectionable.
He would still be unduly taxed on an article of great
utility, an abundant and cheap supply of which mate-
rially adds to the comfort of his domestic circle. He
would still contribute a portion of his hardly-earned
wages, not for the increase of the revenue, but for the

LONDON,

private emolument of a class ; and as the question
would still remain unsettled, there would be a renewal
of those disputes, which are peculiarly unpleasant
when personal interests are involved in the discussion.
It would also be less productive to the
revenue, inasmuch as the great increase
of consumption, which may reasonably be expected
to more than compensate for the decrease in the
duties, could not then be calculated,on. For every
reason, then, the Government proposition is infinitely
more beneficial in whatever point of view it may be
regarded, and there can be little doubt that the
amendment will be negatived by a large majority;
indeed, the opponents of the Government resolutions
will not again be able to collect the disjecta membra
which constituted the minority of 245 on the first
division, who, as we have already pointed out, were
actuated by a variety of conflicting motives for the
votes they recorded upon that occasion.