The Sun.
London, England, 1850-01-29 00:00:00

Grey's Government such a man as Mr. Jeffrey could
not be omitted. He was already in Parliament;
be was one of the most consistent politicians
that even the old Whig school could pro.
duce. lie and his powerful journal had been
amongst the greatest allies of Liberal principles that
the British dominions contained ; but though he
could not be neglected he raised himself very little
above the ordinary level of those learned gentlemen
who usually make their appearance in ikondon clothed
with the dignity of Lord Advocate, and after a
few years retire to Edinburgh to assume the judicial
ermine.

Mr. Jeffrey's promotion followed in due course.
In the summer of 1834 the death of Lord Craigie
created a vacancy in the Court of Session, and Mr.
Jeffrey became the successor of that learned personage,
assuming, in compliance with a usage amongst Scotch
judges, now three centuries old, the prefix of Lord—
a title merely official, and in no way connected with
the hereditary honours to which it bears so close a
resemblance. On his appointment to that dignity,
Lord Jeffrey was placed in what is called the
second division, to which, from the moment of his
elevation to the bench, business largely flowed in, so
high was the opinion entertained of his diligence, his
integrity, and his great judicial powers. It is gene-
rally understood that amongst his brethren of the
bench he held an extremely high position, although
he often embarrassed a tedious advocate by too closely
confining him to those points in the case respecting
which Lard Jeffrey himself entertained doubt or de-
sired information. But he, who had been accustomed
to adorn and elevate the dullest arguments of Scotch
law, or to illuminate the haziest depths of Scotch
metaphysics with such airy elegance, such bright and
sparkling plenitude of illustration, may well be par-
doned if with a seeming, but not real impatience, he
led inferior intellects back into the narrow circle as-
signed to them by their nature and destiny.
The writer whom we have already quoted says—
In person the subject of our memoir was of low sta-
ture; but his figure, which he tried to set off to the
best advantage, was elegant and well-proportioned.
His features were continually varying in expression,
and were said to have baffled our best artists. The face
was rather elongated, the chin deficient, the mouth
well formed, with a mingled expression of determina-
tion, sentiment, and arched mockery. The eye was
the most peculiar feature of the countenance : it was
large and sparkling, but with a want of transparency.
The late Lord Jeffrey was the eldest son of G:orge
Jeffrey, Esq., one of the under clerks of the Court of
Session, in Scotland, by Henrietta the daughter of
Mr. Loudoun, cf Lanarkshire. In 1802 he married
Catherine, a daughter of ;the Rev. Dr. Wilson, of St..
Andrew's, who died, leaving him no issue. In 1813
he married Charlotte, a daughter of Charles Wilkes,
Esq., of New York, grandniece of John Wilkes.

SPIRIT of the PUBLIC JOURNALS.
CHRONICLE.—Mr. Macgregor's letter on "The
. _

Rationale of Unrestricted Triide' (published in our
yesterday's paper) contains a great deal of valuable
information, which our Protectionist friends would
do well to study and digest. He has brought such a
host of well-authenticated facts and figures to bear
against their pet fallacies, that their only chance of
escape is afforded by the appalling look of his elabo-
rate epistle, in closely-printed columns •long drawn
out; and even this we now propose to take from them
by recaptulating the most material of his elucidations.
The grand point which the " Country Party"
are anxious to establish is, that provisions may be,
and at the present moment are, too abundant and
too cheap. When the doctrine is thus nakedly pre-
sented to them, not a few will probably be startled
at it; but such, fairly analysed and stripped of all
its manifold disguises, is their ereed—if, indeed,
they can be fairly said to have any, and are not
knowingly and consciously struggling for the simple
gratification of their cupidity. The corollary, or
obvious inference, is, that a statesman should do all
that in him lies to counteract the beneficent designs
of Providence, and that to make the necessaries of
life unattainable, except by a given amount of la-
bour, is the, never-ceasing duty of the Legislature.
Mr. Macgregor avows his complete dissent from this
doctrine ; and not satisfied with indicating its inhe-
rent absurdity, he proceeds to combat it analy-
tically, synthetically, logically, and historically.
Respect for its advocates has induced him to study it
in all its branches, and a state of confirmed disbelief

in its soundness or reasonableness is the result upon
his mind :—" I consider that there is much that we
are bound to endeavour to do with regard to ame-
liorating the condition of several millions of the
people in the three kingdoms, who are still under-
led, insufficiently clothed, and miserably lodged ;
but I can bring no power of calculation, no exertion
f reason, to my aid, which will justify me in arriving
at the Protectionist conclusion, that those millions
will he more fully fcd, more warmly clad, and more
comfortably lodged, by diminishing the quantity of
food—therefore making it scarce, and therefore dear."
If the agriculturists had rested their case upon what
is termed the vested-interest argument—if, forgetting
the changes wrought in almost every branch of British
industry within living memory by improvements in
science or legislation, they bad merely complained
that they had been let down too rapidly—it would be
enough to remind them of their pettish or arrogant re-
fusal of a fixed duty when considerately proposed with
the view of breaking their obviously approaching
fall. But when they talk of laws passel by what Mr.
M:cgregor terms Houses of Landlords (with soldiers
drawn up in Parliament-yard to suppress the rude
protests of a starving populace) as laws of nature, or
laws of the Medes and Persians at the least, we have
no alternative but to preserve a scornful silence, or to
repair with Mr. Macgregor to the authentic records
of our social progress, and to illustrate the abortive
or baneful tendencies of their beloved system by its
fruits. Mr. Macgregor undertakes to prove "that
there have been lower prices of corn and more severe
periods of agricultural distress while prohibitive and
protective corn and food duties were in full force,
than at the present time." lie does this with a fulness
of detail which 'amply compensates for any want of
originality, in the plan. Until the commencement of
-the zevatitianary war, England was generally a corn-
c liotting country 'and the mode in which the restric-
tive system was carried out varied according
to the emergency. The Plantagenets enforced
it in a manner which would hardly suit the
Irish landlords, the Downshires and Glengalls, who
would fain grow rich on the destitution of their
countrymen. Richard 1., finding several ships at St.
Valery laden with corn from England, when a famine
was apprehended there, bung all the masters and
crews of the vessels, and sent the corn back to be
eaten by his own English subjects. Bounties alter-
nated with prohibitions, whilst engrossers, regraters,
and forestallers (whose speculations were really of a
nature to neutralise the effects of national improvi-
dence) were sometimes pilloried by the authorities,
and sometimes pillaged by the people. But seasons
of plenty were chequered by seasons of want, and
cheap years mingled with dear years, as if to defy and
discredit the vaunted wisdom of our ancestors ; nor
did. famines and riots grow less frequent when
modern legislation took up, and gave its own pe-
culiar warp to, the principle of interference. In
1795 there was great scarcity, and the Lords
of the Council' set the example of eat-
ing coarse bread. In 1800 there was a scarcity, and
food was very dear. "In February, 1803, the Chan-
cellor of the Exchequer stated, that in consequence of
twenty millions having been drawn from the country
for grain, it became necessary to continue the Bank
Restriction Act." In 1810 there was great distress.
The Luddite riots broke out in 1811, and assumed a
most alarming character in 1812 ; the chief ground
of discontent and the real root of all the evil being
low wages and dear food. But untaught by expe-
rience, or hardened in selfishness, the agriculturists
procured a corn-law, tantamount to a prohibition, to
be passed, amidst the clamorous opposition of the
lower orders, in 1815 ; and prohibition or protec-
tion was thenceforth the order of the day until
1846. Did wages keep up ? Did trade uniformly
prosper ? Were the agriculturists prosperous and
contented under their monopoly ? It is sufficient
to name the years 1816, 1817, 1819, 1822 (when
there was a famine in Ireland), 1823 (when sixteen
counties sent requisitions to their sheriff's to call agri-
cultural distress meetings), 1825 and 1826 (years of
great commercial, manufacturing, and shipping
calamity), or (not to render the list tedious) to 1833
as a specimen of what may happen under protection
to farmers—or to 1841-1842 as an illustration of
what may be inflicted by the same regime on manu-
facturer. The prescriptive condition of the labourer
in the most exclusively agricultural districts is the op-
probrium of the landed interest; and whenever they
now venture to talk of their bold peasanty," the coun-
try's pride," a wondering exclamation or a contemptuous
laugh is the reply. Mr. Macgregor's illustrative
commentary on the comparative state of our protected
and our unprotected manufactures is equally fraught
with instruction. Almost all w hich are not protected
are shown to be thriving; whilst all which are pro-
tected might bo supposed, from the most cursory
glance, to be the predestined victims of a fatality.
Need we name the Spitalfielda weavers, the London
tailors, and the needlewomen, who saved from

foreign competition by those duties —onsilk
and ready-made articles which Lord John Man-
ners and Mr. G. P. Young ignore one day
and denounce the next—indisputably constitute the
most destitute porticn of the urban and suburban
claws of the community ? A strong light has been
reflected on some other important topics by Mr.
illacgregor's diligence; and our remaining space is
only just sufficient for a warning to the orators who
have been wont to make a butt of him. We would
merely hint that, if they could manage in the discus-
sion of any one of the comprehensive questions of the
day, to display a tithe cf his knowledge, candour, and
good faith, they would at once obtain a more credita-
ble and more influential position in the House than
they will eyes win fa theineelYel by theiX sArcitsms,