The Sun.
London, England, 1859-07-05 00:00:00

PEEL, " the great Parliamentary middleman"-
-CHARLES VILLIERS, long overlooked as one of
the foremost among the principal authors of the
Free Trade system, has at last (not, however,
as we have seen, until he is fifty-nine
years of age) assumed the high distinc-
tion he has long since so signally merited.
He is no longer grudgingly admitted into the outer
circle—among the administrators " Not in the
Cabinet." He is one of the sacred number of the
Sixteen. And the particular department over
which Mr. VILLIERS has now been placed most
sagaciously by the Premier, is, among all the vari-
ous departments of the public service, perhaps the
very one for the discharge of the duties of which
the right honourable gentleman is most peculiarly
and happily qualified. As one of the Commissioners
of Inquiry into the operation of the Poor-laws, Mr.
VILLIERS is surely " the right man in the right
place," when installed, as we now rejoice to see him
installed, as President of thelPoor-law Board in this
new Coalition Government.
It cannot be forgotten—we at any rate, for one,
have not by any means forgotten—how entirely
the great services done to the cause of Free Trade
by CHARLES VILLIERS were contemned and posi-
tively ignored in 1845-1846 by almost universal
consent. When everyone else almost who had
striven in any way to advance those beneficent
principles received the utmost possible degree of
exaggerated glorification CHARLES VILLIERS,
who had fought the good fight for years and years
previously in the House of Commons, was abso-
lutely, with the majority, lost sight of altogether.
Precisely the same ungrateful treatment was the
recompense awarded simultaneously to another
great but overlooked champion of Free Trade,
General (then Colonel) PEYRONNET THOMPSON, the
gifted author of the witty Corn Law Catechism,
originally published in the pages of the Westmin-
ster Review. Nothing, absolutely nothing, was
given—even empty praise—at the time of the
triumph of Free Trade Principles, either to
PEYRONNET THOMPSON or to CHARLES VIL-
LIERS in recognition of their resplendent ser-
vices in the cause of the advancement of
those principles, during the period when the
advocates of them might be counted almost on one's
fingers ! Yet at the very same time Sir ROBERT
PEEL was allowed, as he nobly deserved to be, Sir
ROBERT was allowed by general acclamation—
(simply because of his magnanimous recognition of
the truth at the eleventh hour)—to cap the climax
of his enviable popularity and immense reputation !
Mr. COBDEN receiving from that great statesman's
generosity not merely the lion's share, but actually
the whole of the glory of the triumph, just won,
as Sir ROBERT said, by the hon. gentleman's
" unadorned eloquence." Mr. COBDEN got more
even than this—he received, in fact, all but " a
plum," in truth exactly £70,000 as a national
testimonial. Mr. WILSON fingerGd in his
turn a minor testimonial to the tune of £lO,OOO
sterling. And so on with some of the others.
But CHARLES VILLIERS' reward was—Nothing.
PEYRONNET THO3IPSON'S reward was—Nothing.
Precisely, in the same way—the Times, which had
been dead against Free Trade during all the years
throughout which the principles of Free Trade had
been earnestly, strenuously, and pi:eseveringly advo-
cated by The Sun—our contemporary, the Times,
because it recognised the truth at; last, and at the
eleventh hour declared the Leagu e' to be " a great
fact," monopolised the credit to which it had no
title whatever, namely, that of doing yeoman's
service to the cause in ,N hat WILLIAM
WYNDHAM dubbed nearly a century since, the
fourth estate And now, the Tin te s, whose silence
in Mr. VILLIERS' regard in 184:5-;1846 helped to
ignore his really great services in t he advancement
of Free Trade principles—the Time's again is con-
verted at the eleventh hour, or rather it should be
said now actually at the twelfth--the Times is
induced to acknowledge Mr. VILLIERS' claims to
reward—only, however, when M;r_ VILLIERS has
been rewarded IVe, at any rate, Lave not waited
for any such signal for this particu tar recognition.
We, at any rate, have all along a ppreciated the
merits, the career, the services of the right. hon.
gentleman the member for Wolvo,rhampton, now
one of the Sixteen Ministers of thea Crown, under
the revived title of the Coalition Gc rvernment.

What is this extraordinary stateg lent in regard
to the electioneering compromise down at War-
minster ? It is surely scarcely era dible that any
Liberal nobleman in the land can h ave authorised
proceedings so outrageously unconst: itutional ! Yet
according to the explicit statemela ± contained in
the last number of our provincial c ontemporary,
the _Devizes and Wiltshire Gazette, •we are to be-
lieve that the Marquis of LANSDOV NE tolerated
acts in no way in accordance with his most honour-
able reputation. According to that local newspaper
the inquiries recently instituted in Terence to the
late Election Riot at Caine were preme A.urely brought
to a close by a compromise, appende d to the record
of which we find in the journal aforesaid this
astounding and really scarcely c, )receivable an-
nouncement,—" Lord SHELBURNE Ind his agent
at Bowood," says the the reporter c f the Devizes
Gazette "had been subpoenaed for ti i e defence ; and ,
had the case proceeded, it has been 1 publicly stated
that it would have been proved that on the morning
of the nomination 120 labouring men, employed upon
Lord LANSDOWNE'S estates were summoned to
Bowood, where they were regaled ,A ri ith strong beer,
put into companies of twenty, ord( •ed to go into
Caine in different directions, so a 5 not to appear
coming from Bowood, and having Tseen Mr. LOWE
and his friends safe in the Town-h 11, to take pos-
session of the front of the building :and not let any
body go in, which instructions, it is stated, they
carried out, as far as they could ; zas it was only
by great efforts on the part of se' r eral voters not
belonging to Mr. LowE's party, t hat they were
able to effect an entrance into the I i all—that after
the nomination, having accompan,74 Mr. LOWE
back to his quarters, they were ag •ain refreshed,
and a large number of the, stroz igest of them
were selected, and ordered to come again
on the morrow." Nor is th is all: the
reporter adds, " The object of subpoenaing
Lord SHELBURNE was to prove frori t his own lips
his knowledge of the above arrangeint 3nt, he having
been present at the assemblage of t he men in the
court-yard hermore, "It
at Bowood." And furt
having got wind that it was intended to bring
these facts and others of an intimu lating nature
before the public had, it is said, consi, lerable influ-
ence in bringing about the comproin'll ,e, and of thus
setting at liberty the whole of the defendants."
Are we to accept all this as proven, or as admitted ?
Will Lord SHELBURNE remain silo?, t under the
direct, and Lord LANSDOWNE un df r :the indirect,
imputation ? Will the " agent at Rol vood" breathe
not a syllable in rejoinder ? -e are " paus-
ing for a reply," we are driven irrel Asti ':aly to reflect
upon the sufficiently remarkable .c oim lidenoe that
Mr. LowE's electioneering history fabou LO.s so oddly
with these unpleasant kind of runic.= s and re-
miniscences. " 'Tis passing strf range !" Whether
the locality be Calne or Kidder minster# " it's all
one for that !" There are brick-b ats flyinvg—hcads
broken—(once it happened, by t he A ay, tc, be the
right hon. gentleman's own !)___ them are. riote