The Sun.
London, England, 1851-12-16 00:00:00

kl2o,47:esee'
assert that not only one hat all c laeses are sqferieg --e
by free trade—the reductio ad absurdum ta"
President Fillmore., (-bees in fact lead his argnOnt: - •
CHRONECLE.—Tho Me ssLgo with which IT'tztitifittite.- -
Fillmore opened Congress, cn the 2 1 instant. iq uestiainlAr
a for less interesting document than the missiisewhiek,
on the same day, was addressed by another Presiflentto
the people of another Republic; and, though icfinteely
more prolix, it contains nut a tii.ho of the inforMhtion
conveyed in the half-dozen torso and telling sentences of
the latter. Nevertheless, to our sober English tastes, it
is immeasurably more agreeable reading; and the fact
that, even as compared with some of its oe n predeces-
sors, it is somewhat barren of novel and striking fea-
tures, in no way diminishes the satisfaction with which
we peruse this annual register of the progress of a great
and prosperous commonwealth, which speaks our lan-
guage and inherits our laws and liberties. For the very
reason that a Message of Mr. Fillmore's is less exciting
to Cisatlantic politicians than were those of Mr. Tyler
and Mr. Folk, it is more satisfactory to the British
reader, and mere creditable to the wisdom
and integrity of American state& manrt: ip.
two topics of the pr, sent Message which ate
more especially inte,esting on :ilia tide of the Atlantic
are the questanse connected x lib the piratical Cutter'
and the suggeeted " modnicatioe" of the
Tariff of 1846. But on sit ither of these doe a the l'te el-
dent tell us anything that is at-once nca and important.
His treatment of the first sr airily consists in a retrospect
accompanied with firm and temp rate ex..
porfeesveeljts'
ieeaof his a-termination to enferca that reaps ct for
international law ehich bets ever been the honourable
characteristic of the Amer iron VlThigitarty ; and on the
second he merely gives a faint and hesitating utterance
to wishes which he has no power to carry into effatt, and
en
which are utterly sutapnisle to the convictions of an
immense majority is both Houses of Congress. As re-
gards the former the exec:dela tone and spirit of Mr.
Fillmore's stiscrei
tional of the great principles of interne-
Wigation, makes us regret more than
ever that it is only to accident that we owe the
happy. combination of a Whig Executive with a
Democratic Legislature. The President ventures to
speak of the marauding
the
descent
" Her Catholic Majesty" in
ignores any rightreprobation almost
terms
the protection of their awn as strong as those which-
it deserves; Bed be explicitly
et
,d
of the offenders
on the territories of
to invoke
the
just penalty of their crime.n Government against
Spanish Consul at Now O To the outrage of the
mortification and regret,,, r Orleans ho adverts with deep
of " such idcmnity" as isd accompanied with the proposal
mended by " ust regard
El
for the honour of the nation a d
the
is due to a friends power ;" and he res jpect which
expe-
diencyis
of armingetthe Executive with
new
the
to enforce on its citizens the better new
legal powers fulfilment of the
examen Jaw of nations. We dare not
as to the prObability Of the recommendationpredic t anything
your with the Democratic majority ; t;,e finding fa-
events pleasant to hear an American Pre t ia •at all
on the extreme desirableness of his country insisting
ing her respectability ameng the nations Illiniaintain-
e earth."
Perhaps the force of his appeal on this point
mny be
enhanced by the somewhat superfluous em
with which—after alluding to the possible "allus"
emphasis
that might arise from the joint determination of Great
Britain and France to prevent future buccaneering
at-
tempts on Cuba—he protests his determinaticn, under
all circumstances, and at all hazards," to maintain the
" maritime rights of the United States." Yet we are
scarcely disposed to cavil at a harmless display of vigour
which was probably intended to ensure a more indulgent;
reception for wise and moderate counsels; and we are the
less inclined to to critical on this point, because the
President not only acquiesces, by distinct implication, in
the right of the British and French Governments to com-
bine for the suppression of piracy, but intimates his ac-
ceptance of the pledges which the two Powers have
given, that such right shall not be abused to the injury
of any nation's lawful commerce. We have only to add,
before leaving the foreign topics discussed in the Mes-
sage, that " Governor Koesuth" and his associates are
very quietly disposed of. The President makes no boast
of the " judicious bottle-holding" of his Government—
though he certainly might have made some political ca-
pital out of the illustrious exiles, had he deemed the in-
vestment a prudent and paying one. He merely in•
forms the two Houses, with a matter-of-fact brevity
which the " sympathisers" will not, we fear, deem alto-
gether edifying, that Congress wanted to have the gen-
tlemen in question—that Congress may very shortly
expect to see them—and that it is time, therefore, for
Congress to consider what it means to do with them.
We have already alluded to that peculiarity in the pre-
sent relations of the United States Executive and Legise
lature which deprives the President's Protectionist
leanings of all practical importance whatever. Our
agricultural readers will, we hope, quite understand this.
Mr. Fillmore can no more restore the tariff of 1842 than
than the Duke of Richmond, by his solitary vote and
interest, can restore the sliding scale of 182 S; and the
future commercial legislation of the Union is to be read,
not in any Presidential homage to the prejudices of
dwindling party, but in that overwhelming free- trade
majority in both Houses of Congress which guarantees
that the new policy shall have time to root itself in the
ideas, the habits, and the necessities of the great mass
of the people. Such being the ewe, it is hardly
worth while—especially after Mr. Walker's weep&
masterly exposition, to Liverpool and Manchester audi-
ences, of the triumphant success of the liberal miff of
1846 in augmenting alike the trade and shipping, and
the revenue of his coua:ry—to dwell on the garbled
facts, the flagrant fallacies, or the suicidal le gic which
Mr. .Filluat re puts fore and to sustain a faint and hesi-
tating protest against a system which he is impotent to
reverse. To necklet who enj ey this sort of thing as till
intellectual treat, It is only neck s;ary to voii.t out that
the President deems it mitt,r of complaint, if not of
astonishment, that his countrymen's exports of " bread-
stuff." have fallen off in Monty value since 1847, and
that England and Europe sc.ually take fewer dollars'
worth of American corn when they have almost em ugh
of their own than when they are starving. His sugges-
tion that the f sreige markets is not worth the American
farmer's attention couples oddly enough with the admis-
sion that American agriculture fields a progressively
increasing exportable surplus, and that the agricultural
portion of the community—already four-fifths of the
whole—is daily augmenting its numbers. And, after
this, the recommendatieu to Congress to establish an
" ekgrieultural Bureau," by way of teaching an in-
creasing agricultural population how to increase that ex.
portable surplus which is nevertheless not to be ex-
ported, is little short of downright fatuity. As for his
currency speculations, we will content ourselves with re-
marking that we now see more precisely than we did
before why Mr. Walker spoke the other day of "a Mr.
Newdegate." There are, it seems, at least, two of
them—the respectable Warwickshire gentleman who
haunts our dreams with nightmare pamphlets on the
Balance of Trade, and the eminent Transatlantic
Whig statesman, who mukes himself miserable with the
thought of " a sudden drain of the precious metals"
from California. When we add that the very same offi-
cial document which hints at " protecting" lour-fifths of
the community by depriving them of a foreign market
for their increasing surplus produce, and which depicts
the " disastrous consequence" of an over-exportation of
gold Pram the diggings, intimates that " in the present
prosperous condition of the national finances, it will be.
come the duty of Congress to consider the best mode of
paying off the public debt"—we have said enough to
enable the reads r to judge of Mr. Fillmore's logical con-
sistency, of the warmth and sincerity of his xal to re-
verse s policy that has borne such fruits, and of the like-
lihood of his converting his countrymen to the theory of
restriction and prohibition.
HERALD.—WhiIe some European countries 'are
presenting exemplifications of absolutism, lawlessness,
and the reign of military force—on which the philan-
thropist or the lover of his species cannot dwell with
pleasure or satisfaction—it is at least gratifying to the
Anglo-Saxon race to know: that their cousins on the
other side of the Atlantic are prosperous and peaceful,
and pursue the even tenor of their legal way without
having recourse to exceptional measures, or to a violence
beyond the law. We yesterday received by the Africa
steamer the Message of President Fillmore, which,
though extremely long, is a very interesting dccfimerit
—a document which will repay perusal even in the work-
a-day world of London. We have the satisfaction to
learn from President Fillmore that America is at peace
with all the world, and that the present year has been
one of prosperity and health. For these earthly bless.
ings the President of the staid, serious, and religious
people of the States piously and properly offers up praises
to Providence, and in this thanksgiving he but echoes
the general religious voice of his nation at large. The
first question treated in the Message is a delicate and
diffioult one, involving questions of international law,
but it is discussed in a sincere, honest, and truthful
spirit, and is therefore handled well. We allude to
the piratical invasion of Cuba, and on this point, we
are bound to say that the President expresses himself
as distinctly and as emphatically as any jurist of Spain
or the Old World could desire. He neither defends of
palliates, but, on the contrary, denounces the marauding
expedition. He tells his countrymen it planned by
certain Cubans domiciled in the States, that fshfeal leader
was a Spaniard—and, that in consequencedoill-infse sad
ormed
fraudulent „representations, " Pg ana° enterprise at
Americans were induced to engage s In
to have
once illegal and ill-fated." This be pronounces
expedition had its
been the more indefensiblehaatowed .
it but was altoge-
ther in no motive
which
-aerations of cupidity and greed
them prompted by
considerations
nor any other citizens have
of gain. intoNeither American buccaneering schemes of this kind.
a right to enter
rd
international amity and interns-
Toes' pesohey putto hazard
e, and the President has done right to de-
nounce them. But, at d
the same time, he pledges himself
to use his best efforts to procure the release of such
b
• • tizensas have been so ill-advisedas to em ark
American citizens
in a lawless and unlawful enterprise. The Presi-
dent lays great stress on the Neutrality Acts of the
United States, and of the efforts of former Presidents,
such as Washiugton and Jefferson, to preserve this
neutrality. Stich a neutrality has ever tended to a re-
sult abundantly desirable to friendly relations, without
entangling alliances. These friendly relations may,
however, be compromised by the imprudence of Ame-
rican citizens, or sympathisers; and it is to guard against
this danger—a danger enhanced by the possession of
three or tour thousand miles of sea toast, that the Pre-
sident raises his voice. It should seem as if statesmen
in America were appreheneivo of further attacks upon
Cuba, and that it was with a special view to discourage
and disapprove of this lawlessness
that so much strresse.
is laid on this particular topic. Our readersse 3'
pmtesniber,
member that we announced, August
the residence of
that a violent attack had been made 11
°Orleans, just after
her Catholic Majesty's consul in Newinfraction of inter-
the events at Cuba. This illegal,
denounced in the
national and public law is vigorously
his
countrymen
Message, and the President
that in reference to atabaaseders, envoys, and
1 foreigners
con-
suls, their legislation
•s
under the p defecti
protection of the law
entering a State are raw.,
of
the
different
of nations; but foreign AU