The Sun.
London, England, 1856-01-09 00:00:00

LONDON, WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 9, 1856.

Mr. COBDEN appears in a new character ! He
has assumed the mantle of prophecy, and treats the
public to a very extensive " peep into futurity."
We confess, however, that until he has done some-
thing to establish a reputation in the line so
recently adopted, we should pin our faith on the
established prophets, and give credence to ZAD-
KIEL or RAPHAEL, who have made good hits in
their time, rather than to one utterly untried in
the school of vaticination, and who cannot refer
to a single triumph, as an endorsement for his
heavy draughts on public credulity. There is
certainly one claim to the title, which he is striv-
ing to establish, and which, should he persevere
much longer in the course which he has pursued
for some years past, he may render irresistible.
We have been told on the highest authority that
" A prophet has no honour in his own country,"
and the Honourable Gentleman seems determined
to forfeit that which he once possessed amongst
his Anglo-Saxon brethren, for the purpose of
founding on the debris an exalted reputation in
Russia, and in the Russianised States of Ger-
many ! He even strives to kick away the ladder
on which ho elevated himself, and by means
whereof ho obtained the very substantial reward
of between 70,0001. and 80,0001. sterling, and
has adduced more powerful arguments against
" free trade" than any put forward by the most
enthusiastic advocate for a strictly protective
policy- We wish the disjectu membra of the
once powerful party joy of their now leader,
who may ho an important acquisition, since Lord
DERBY, Mr. DISRAELI, and other notorieties have
decidedly and permanently abandoned the palpable
delusion. It may not be that Mr. COBDEN " loves
free trade less, but that /to loves 'Russia more."
It is probably on that ground alone that he reverts
to the " used-up" fallacies of his quondam political
opponents, and endeavours to prove that it is im-
possible to coerce a nation that chooses to render
herself independent of the rest of the world.
On this point Mr. COBDEN shall be permitted to
speak for himself—to declare " the practical infe-
rence to be drawn from the facts which he has him-
se'.f se t forth. He says —" The argument cannot
be evaded, that the creation of a dozen additional
sea-ports
e would have presented so many more vul-
nerable points of attack to the allied squadrons,
It cannot be denied that the blockade of the coast
of Itureila loses its power of coercion in proportion
as she has pursued a course of economical isola-
tion. You cannot ruin ports which a false policy
has not allowed to exist, or impoverish merchants
where none have been permitted to flourish, or by
intercepting cargoes of fustians condemn to naked-
ness a population content with sheepskins, or cut
o ir the saccharine luxuries of a people who prefer
their own insipid beet-root sugar to the more
luscious product of the cane of the tropics, or by
closing, the navigation of the Neva deny the plea-
sures of the tea-table to the inhabitants of St.
Petersburg, who have voluntarily chosen to bring
the whole of their favourite beverage four thousand
indes overland from China, or expose them to the
rigour.; of winter by interdicting them from re-
ceiving at Cronstadt the furs which are convoyed