The Sun.
London, England, 1861-10-29 00:00:00

present that with regard to the smaller class of
tenantry who had not, and never had, a lease in this
country, their tenure hadvery often been much more
permanent than that of those who had had leases.
There were tenants in that room who had been
on this estate, he believed, for many gene-
rations—for some centuries— in fact, from
time immemorial. The relation between land-
lord and tenant, therefore, whether they looked at
it with reference to the large tenements under lease,
or with reference to the small tenements, was in its
nature an almost permanent relation ; and it was
impossible that in such a relation there should not
arise, and there ought not to arise, feelings of
mutual regard, and he might say of mutual depend-
ence which were wholly different from those which
sprang from a purely mercantile transaction." There
are numerous relations quite as permanent as that
of tenant. But from another part of his speech we
should have thought the permanence itself rather
questionable. We have heard of Scotch landlords
clearing their estates of their yearly tenants, and
driving them from the land to catch herrings on the

What the Duke has done on his estates we do
not know, but we do know that he himself tells us
not that the surplus of a rapidly increasing popu-
lation has been obliged to leave their homesteads,
but that the population has considerably decreased
in Argyleshire ; which must mean that numerous
tenants without leases had to quit their little
feudal Edens, with the wide world only before them
and "Providence their guide." But for the banks
of the Clyde, and perhaps, in many cases, those
of the St. Lawrence or the Ottawa, it would have
gone hard it seems with fifty per cent. of the con-
fiding clients of the northern landlords. Referring
to the state of agriculture in the eounty of Argyll,
he said " That from the late census it appeared that
during the last 30 years the population of the
county had decreased by nearly 20,000 souls, being
a decrease of very nearly 20 per cent. upon the
total amount of population. Other counties had
diminished, but not in the same ratio. The popu-
lation on the shores of the Frith of Clyde having
undoubtedly very largely increased, they must
come to the conclusion that the decrease in the
purely rural and purely agricultural part of
the country had certainly been not less
than from 25 to 30 per cent. That was a very re-
markable fact, but he found that, coincident with
this decrease of population, there had been an in-
crease in the valuation of the county to a very much
larger extent. In the 16 years from 1844 the in-
crease in the value of the county had been no less
than £73,800 a-year, equal to 30 per cent.; and he
could not for a moment doubt that if they took in
the other periods from 1831 to 1844 the increase in
the value of the county had been no less than 50
per cent, ; an increase, the benefit of which was
certainly not felt by the expatriated fifty per cent.,
however pleasant to the landlord and the luckier
tenants.

His Grace, however, does seem to have learned
the lesson that the price of agricultural produce
must depend upon the prosperity of manufactures
and commerce. " I hope," he observed, " although
there are some misgivings in the aspect of public
affairs at present, that agricultural produce may still
maintain such prices as fairly to remunerate the
cultivator of the soil. We have now learnt, I think
all of us, whatever political party we may have
formerly belonged to, that we must look for the
prosperity of agriculture to the prosperity of the
manufacturing industry of the country. So long
as they are prosperous and the demand is great,
there is no question whatever that agricultural
industry will proper and succeed. This Wb.B a
lesson which his order were slow indeed to com-
prehend. It is well for us that they now under-
stand how entirely the prices of corn depend on
the number of the non-agricultural population; of
those who make it worth the farmers while to
grow more than he and his family themselves can
eat.

This natnrally led him to the clouds across the
Atlantic, which threaten our vast cotton manufac-
ture. A manufacture which has done more than
any single cause to raise the rent-rolls of our Lords
and Dukes ; but one for which they are only just
overcoming the feelings of profound con-
tempt they entertained even a quarter
of a century ago. Yet the cotton lords
beat them. The son of a cotton spinner, who
himself, in his holidays, when a lad, assisted, to our
knowledge, in his father's warehouse at Man-
chester, in serving provincial customers, over-
threw, as Prime Minister of England, the landlords
grand monopoly, and removed their tax from the
food of the people. Now the cotton lords fear for
their supplies of raw material, and a ducal land-
lord dreads the effect of manufacturing embarrass.
ment on the prices of his tenants' produce, and
therefore on his own bankers' balance.
The Duke, however, is wise enough to object to
any interference on the part of England, in the
quarrel which locks up the cotton needed by Man-
chester, in the plantations of the South. He objects,
very properly, not only to breaking the blockade,
but also to proffering our advice, which they would
certainly little care to receive. -We might
easily find, indeed, a strong case for recognising a
Southern Government, and fetching away their
cotton, whether Mr. SEWARD liked or not; but
at present, and if the Northerns behave with
anything like decency, it is better not to go to
war with them, and India will get the benefit of
the embargo on the South. As to advice, we
quite agree with the Duke, that we should de-
serve the cold shoulder from the Americans if,
like the Emperor of RUSSIA, from very good in-
tentions, we proffered merely the general advice
to make it all up as soon as they could. Such
advice does seem to treat the ground of the dis-
pute as trivial; while, as the speaker justly ob-
served, " Whatever we may think of that con-
test, in fairness to our American friends we ought
to admit that no more tremendous issues were ever
submitted to the dread arbitrament of war than
those which are now submitted to it upon the
American continent. I do not care whether we
look at it from the Northern or from the Southern
point of view. Take the mere question of what is
called the right of Secession. I know of no Go-
vernment which has ever existed in the world
which could possibly have admitted the right of
secession from its own allegiance. Gentlemen, I
think we ought to admit, in fairness to the Ameri-
cans, that there are some things worth fighting for,
and that national existence is one of these. And
then, gentlemen, if we go to the South, if we look
at the matter from the Southern point of view,
difficult as it may be for us to do so, I must say also
that lam not surprised at their conduct. If they
believe—as they loudly proclaim that they do be-
lieve—that slavery is not an evil which is to be
tolerated only and brought to an end as soon as
possible, but a Divine institution for the benefit of
mankind. to be maintained, and, if possible ex-
tended, and which if it is assailed, even in a single
outpost, must be defended to the death, then, even
though the citadel of slavery be not assailed, but
only an important outwork, then it is but natural
that the South should rise in its defence. But, of
course, in this, as in all other revolutions, those
who take part in them must be judged finally by