The Sun.
London, England, 1844-09-10 00:00:00

HISTORY OF THE LEAGUE.
THE SPEECH 01,' AUGUSTE/5.:57'4,F RI)
(FROM A CORRESPOND,Nr
O'BRIEN, Esq., Member fur North Nortlidpiptpn-
shire, in the liuusc of Commons, Wednesdav,
26, 1844, in the Adjourned Debate on the IL;;;. C. .1":
Villiers's Motion for a Repeal of the Corn--tiers.
William Blackwood and Sony, London and Edinhnsjpiti
1944. Pp. 28. Published fur thc-Agricultural•Pro=
tection Society.
We have often thought that a concise and accurate
history of the League would be both interesting and
useful. A narrative of the rise and progress of an
association, whose avowed object is the removal of all
restrictions upon commerce, in perfect confidence that
the consummation of their labours would produce
employment, and diffuse comfort and beppinees
amongst the great body of the people, would 'week-
sarily contain matter for anxious inquiry and solemn
reflection: But that a " history of the League"
should be published for the Agriculture! Protection
Society, bearing the respectable, yet imposing-names
of Messrs. Blackwood, containing onlp a si cech cf
Augustus Stafford O'Brien, Esq., M.P., in the House
of Commons, albeit carefully prepared, and afterwards
revised and corrected by himself and his colleagues of
the Publication Committee, was indeed prceter spem!
We do like the "litera scripts mance prmciple.
To all public speakers "just allowances" must and
ought to be made. A fertile imagination ; the ap-
plause of a listening audience; the excitement of
rude or impatient antagouists, sometimes betray' the
practised orator into exuberant metaphor, complacent'
confidence, and rash or unconsidered declarations. •
But when the lucubrations of calm contemplation
(and such this speech undoubtedly is) have undergone
recision and correction, and are i.sued to the world for
profit or for fame, we and all have a right to scru-
tinise, to test, to compare, and, if need be, to deny, to
contradict, and to expose. This principle Mr. O'Brien
has largely applied to the speaker, and writers of the
League; for about three-fifths of the publication be-
fore us consist of extracts from the circulars and
papers of that body.
lo those who have read, in the Parliamentary re-
ports of the day, the speech of Mr. Stafford
O'Brien, as it was delivered in the debate on
Mr. Villiers's motion, little had been said of this
pamphlet beyond calling attention to the affected im-
portance of its title. But as the Publication Com-
mittee !me probably destined this fitvourite produc-
of chairman to bear upon the title-page of some
future edition th stately announcement of " Seren-
tieth Thousand," a dignity already conferred by
them upon the work of a Fleet-street tradesman,*
we should be wanting in respect to-the "Member for
North Northamptonshire" if we were not to du what
in us lies to ascertain the validity of his claim to such
extensive notoriety.
Few readers will take up this reprint of Mr.
O'Brien's harangue without being prepared for dis-.
gist or entertainment in a competent proportion of
abase of the League, nor do we think that either
class will be disappointed. And inasmuch as the ob-
ject of this publication is to describe the character,
conduct, and proceedings of the League, we will
commence our notice of the literary part of Mr.
O'Brien's work, with his description of the members
of this pernicious confederation" :
Take one of our modern philosophers ; one of
those men with just knowledge or rather sciolism
sufficient to addle their heads and harden their hearts;
men who have learned so very little, and that little.
so very badly, as to be actually ignorant- of their'
own ignorance; who are ever ready to spring to an
abstract remedy to prescribe for a complex case ; who,
untaught by the consequences of a thousand errors,
continue still to dogmatise and blunder; men to
wham experience comes in vain, and to-whom time
; •
only add!, obstinacy to error ; who, without the least
power of. seeing into the life and truth of things, are •
ever enamoured of some tawdry theory, and -ready at
all hazards to embrace it ; who never .looking high,
or deep, or far, are perpetually patching and re--
daubing their systems, which are as perpetually
splitting and cracking, falling to pieces and •.
passing into infinite nothingness as soon as- ever
practical life comes near the:n with its touchstone; and
who reject nothing except toleration towards• those
who differ from them, and veneration towards those
who-have gone before them. These are the men—it
were easy to mention more of their .characteristics—uf „
wham Napoleon said, Give them power, and
they will grind the happiness of any nation to pow- ,
' der and lam sorry that the Noble Lord (Ilowick),,
with his abilities, with his earnest convictions, and
With his honest purposes, should for a moment lend
himself to them ; for their power would be the weak-,
hese of. our country, and their ascendancy wculd J eril
the existence of all we hold best and dearest in it."
We believe there is no class in society,.. from the
reer: who, makes the laws, to the peasant who suffers
by them ;. from the merchant who imports the proe,
duce of foreign climes, to the handicraftsman and me-
chanic
whose, labour moulds that produce into a ser-di
viceable. form ; from the landowner whose rent-roil
is his boast, to the tiller of the soil who starves amidst
.;
the plenty.he brings forth ; which has not sent forth
Os numbers to swell the ranks of the Leegue..Biehops'i
‘Ve believe there are none, but of mieist( rs of the Gob-
pet a goodly array ; and, in our cursory glance, we:.:
have- also noticed the names of officers of rank in
the army and navy, physicians, and barristers.
This varied band, amounting in numbers, if. we-
mistake not, to very many thousands, must be
grateful to Mr. O'Brien for his ;
estimate of their learning, knowledge, principles,
and conduct. Difference of opinlin may exit upon,
any subject of general or national interest, without .
imputing to the one side or Co other." impudent
in-
terference,. " insulting arrogance," " impertinent
Presumption," or a wish to " destroy the institutions „
ef the country. " All these expressions, and others of d
a slmilar tendency, are to be found in Mr. o'4
-pamphlet ; and possibly we mayhereafter find reason,;
to regret.that he should have de!therately indulged in
language of calumny and ‘ituperation.towards oldere,
and vvser, if Hot better, men than himself.
__

. _
In the commencement of his speech, the lionour,...f
ali!e Member for •Northamptonshire trusted that, as
the corn-law was the subject of the debate, the House
Would excuse him if he confined himself more strictly
to it than Lord llowick had done. Those uho came

to
ge,
w
y
exp
Member on that "
afte
reface, some rEasoning
n
eoilrtspesttlsiteteouniaitoci.,).:loaia:ll:lol(nilea)t,
aloy,elenu_r(dila.:dflit,:atiovirirrlge:lcilusra\hmus:ai,:foierieluliaist.ileeceilarie •
ing to prove the
dr
expediency; of the
sure of general benefit awl utility, founded upon the
advantages which the nation, or " the agriculturists as
a class," have derived from them since the termination of
the war: In the address of a Member who could
" scarcely imagine a more noble office than that of 7,
• a statesman devoting himself to the examination of
ot,%lfhetilevi
etal srttebs-caluutlet:sat
siootrn7lotilfse
sTietoibi
iwotpla,l,se"lstniflooelo‘o,dlnect;
,b,ajneddeeteb,
xasptoeemriile: •
.ence," Might have been brought forwar'd with peculiar
fitness ; but throughout a lengthened speech, not one
passage in favour of the corn-law can he found, ex ry
-
cept the following trite remarks :—" The arguments, 7:
Sir, in favour of the principle of protection have ,
been repeated in this House as often as the question
has been brought forward. The particular burdens •
upon land ; the necessity of being independent of
foreigners for a supply yfood; the desirableness of
maintaining agriculturists as a class in the impoilant
position they nom occupy; the perils of so vast an ex- -1
periment in the face of all experience; these are the''
reasons which, in my mind, are convincing against
the abolition of our corn-laws. I do not say that
they are the only ones ; I do not say that to other
minds they are the best ones."
Upon - this text, 'often as we have heard 'it, Mr. -
O'Brien Might have expatiated. The opportunity
was afforded him of furnishing the public with '
information which has long been sought.
The nature of " the particular burdens upon' land,"
whether they be the poor-rates, according to Sir R -
bert Peel; the county rates and the malt duty, accord ►
-
ing to Lord John Russell ; or the hop duty, land tax,
and tithes, according to, others; the manner and the.'
proportion in which all or any of therseembauiir: the rea
dleenr,
toienxafponerdnmsraeetrioodfn
wt'hiteh attention.' These'
.„
swp•orensl:
peculiarly on the agricultural interest, and )
son why one class of persons in a community should
l
would be valuable, be-'r
at the
cause it would be new ;- for no author or orator has
alraeevpeproobitenecetsnt eoldni s
hitherto made out even a priniofie ca
of protection on the ground of any one or all in f
lloft7ißri
the sod'
called peculiar burdens.
"Independence of fo-
reigners ' hai become
a bye Word ; the argument's
'
against it
are a:.q well understood' as the plainest/
•
aphorism, whilst those which have' been brought t
forward' in its Support:
absOlute inanition. But has
e
.'he tflaelslierla.rbliennteso'sistse i
ofimain-
taming.)Yagriculturists as a class, in the important 4
position they now occupy" is a phrase (but no more
Oari a phrase) • deserving more notice: Of;
\Omni does Mr. O'Brien here speak Does he allude
to tenant-farmers and farm- labourers ? They doubt-
less are agriculturists in the proper sense of-the term,-,
and form two very important classes: But alas ! they,
will look around in vain to discover the importance
of the " position they non' occupy." Does the im-,
portance of the tenant-fariner's position consist in t-h&
uncertainty of the price of his produce, ••occasioneck
by those laws which Mr. O'Brien defends ?-.*
in having that produce diminished,, and his fields 4
ravaged !)y animals which: he' dares neither
use nor destroy ? to the investment
of his4's.
capital in land, the possession of Which. he 'may4
be deprived of he knows not how soon, or for4hatf
capricious or fortuitous reasons' without return' or re.)
turn Or recompense ? in the degradation he waist t
an occasional- allo'vvance .
submit .to by accepting

st Seventieth Thousand. CornlawAtil, ,An:Altpeal-to
Tradesmen in Town and country, by One bf Themselves.
London : John 011ivier, :59, Pall-mall, 1844. (N.B. 'sold
by the Agricultural Protection Society.—En.) • J