The Sun.
London, England, 1850-01-22 00:00:00

Oittldilff 'aU.

LONDON, TUESDAY, JANUARY 22, 1850.

The semi-official announcement, upon which we
have already commented, to the effect that the answer
to the Speech from the Throne will be moved in the
Commons by the Hon. CHARLES PELHAM VILLIERS
brings very forcibly to our recollection the inconsis-
tency with which the tokens of popular gratitude are
invariably distributed. Invariably distributed, we
mean, on those exceedingly unusual and intermittent
occasions when any sentiment at all approaching to
that of gratitude is evinced by the multitude ; for it
has long since become proverbial that the labours of
patriotism are, of all the toils that can be adventured
upon by humanity, the most severe and
the most thankless. Among the most illus-

;rious victims of misfortune whose ♦icissitudes

have been recounted by the annalist and the biogra.

pher, the most numerous and melancholy catalogue is
that of the martyrs of civism. Some of these august
unfortunates have been beheaded and others have

------ -
been ostracised, some have been subjected to

prolonged incarceration and others have been
torn to pieces by the rabble, some have
been ruthlessly burnt at the stake and
others have been executed on the guillotine. Hap-

pily for modern statesmanship the evidences of popu- I
lar ingratitude, though still as frequent as heretofore,
are marvellously abated in their ferocity—so that the 1
more adventurous politicians may dare to aspire to
the seals and the red boxes of administration without
the ultimate alternative of falling under the authority
either of the turnkey or the headsman. Ir, however,
the people have become less sanguinary in their exhi-
bitions of
-forgetfulness, they have at the same time al-
lowed their judgment to be more and more darkened by
suspicion, and less and less capable of an exalted dis-
crimination. Hence it comes to pass that now-a-days,
instead of witnessing the decapitation of these who
have the most conspicuously advocated the rights and
struggled for the benefactions of the community, we
are compelled to see those noblest among our fellow-
country men passed over with the most contemptuous
indifference, or neglected by the multitude they have
served at the very moment when that multitude is
squandering its aural plaudits and pecuniary testimo-
nials upon some lucky pretender to approbation.
Never, possibly, was this injustice of the popular
voice more glaringly exhibited than in reference to
those orators whose exertions had been variously in-
strumental in abrogating the atrocious laws by which
taxes were imposed on the first necessary of exist-
ence. While the latest advocates of the Free-trade
doctrines were lauded to the very echo, those gifted
and con sistent antagonists of Protection, who had
toiled without interruption during many long years
to emancipate the commerce of England, and who
had never shrunk from declaring themselves Free-
traders when to be a Free-trader was to be an object
for universal scorn and vituperation, were altogether
unnoticed and forgotten. Three men especially, out
of that glorious phalanx of our representative?, were
passed by as though they were labourers of no impor-
tance, or of ordinary reputation—and to each of these
men the people of England were more, infinitely more
indebted, for the victory they had just obtained over
the monopolists than to all the rest of the opponents of
agricultural protection put together. Any one at all
acquainted with the merest outline of the political or
Parliamentary history of Great Britain during the
last quarter of a century will at once recognise that
these three most illustrious among the whole body of
Free-traders were none other than—
CHARLES VILLIERS,
• PERRONET THOMPSON, and

EBENEZER ELLIOTT.
To the unflinching resolution, the untiring assi-
duity, the continuous exertions, and the splendid abili-
ties of these redoubtable antagonists cf monopoly the
nation owed her first meed of gratitude when the ex-
ecrable imposts upon corn were at length abrogated.
True, doubtless there was much, very much;due to the
magnanimity of that distinguished statesman who sa
crificed his influence over a gigantic fiction, who re-
signed the supreme power hitherto exercised by him
over the Parliament, and who voluntarily retreated
from the highest office of authority in the country,
that of Prime Minister of England, for the purpose of
paying his allegiance to the sway of Truth, and of
testifying his *loyalty to the cause of experience.
True, again, there was much, very much, due to those
fluent and persuasive rhetoricians who, during the
last years of that prolonged and memorable
agitation blended their voices with those of their elo-
quent and veteran predecessors—but to the three
patriotic and remarkable men we have already men-
tioned was owing, above all and beyond all, the
gratitude of the population. Oa their heads
the applause and the testimonials of the British
people should have been first squandered, and not
upon those who had scarcely learnt their political
alphabet, sshen the fame of these three fellow-
labourers had long since ripened into a wide and
more than national reputation. Yet among all the
advocates of the Free-trade principles, among all the
exponents cf the Free-trade doctrines, they have
been the least remembered, their noble labours
have been the least eulogised, their self-sacrificing
exertions have been the least appreciated. *We are
deeply moved with a mingled sentiment of shame
and indignation whenever we call this fact to recol-
lection ; for the circumstance is as disgraceful to
the people as it is consistent with all the records of
public ingratitude.
How far the cause of the Free-traders is really in-
debted to CHARLES VILLIERS may surely be very
readily estimated by all those acquainted with his re-
iterated opposition to agricultural monopoly in the
Commons House of Parliament. How far the same
cause is bound by the ties of thankfulness to PER..
RONET THOMPSON may be conceived by all those who
are familiar with his shrewd, witty, searching, and
altogether unanswerable Catechisms. How far, again,
the enemies of Protection are required to express their
debt of gratitude to EBENEZER ELLIOTT must be
sufficiently manifest to every individual alive to the
terse logic and poetical enthusiasm which character-
ized the effusions of the Corn-law Rhymer. Alas !
that we should have reason to lament the decease of
that gifted child of Genius before his fellow-English-
men had duly recognised his eminent and unfading
services. The bard of the Free-trade principles—
the songster whose verse had eff:oted as much in the
way of advancing the arguments brought to bear
against the monopolists as CHARLES DIBDIN'S
naNna
audvt
yi
sc
uaolsf t basaEia
nl
nlingdgla
nthdha—has,
hba
firees nowfinstrumentalthe
lastn i nftehwke ind
R oling
y weeks,agl
passed from among us prematurely for the national
gratitude, though far from prematurely for his own
reputation. Doubly thankFul, therefore, ought the
people of this country to be at the survival of the
two most remarkable among his illustrious fellow-
labourers. Those two distinguished men are still for-
tunately among us, capable of withstanding the indiffer-
ence of their contemporaries, and of still toiling on, ear-
nestly and honestly's. in the service of an unjust and
thankless generation. By the more retentive memories
of the few, at least, it will not have,been forgotten that
from the intellect of PEREONET THOMPSON emanated
those caustic and sarcastic arguments in favour of
Frea..tcado which had all the force of the pamphlets