The Sun.
London, England, 1868-07-27 00:00:00

137181 T OP TICE PUBLIC JOURNALS

The Cattle Market Bill having been withdrawn, in con-
sequence of a financial difficulty rather than what the
Times calls the preposterous volubility of the Opposition,
our contemporary advocates the bill as a really free-trade
measure, the existing system of Privy :Council Orders
combining to maintain a system of a restrictive character,
raising the price of meat, and of no benefit to anyone but
the butcher.

The patriotic gentlemen who have an idea that giving a
good chance to the rinderpest is the surest way to cheapen
the supply of meat, have gained their point, and are
ironically recommended by the Herald to go to the country
—or rather to the towns—and declare that they are the
true friends of the people, having defeated a Tory scheme
for restoring Protectionist principles. At this juncture
the rinderpest has broken out in Egypt and St. Peters-
burg, London is without protection, and its spread to
the provinces would be likely to follow its appearance
there. Anything snore extraordinary —to use the
mildest term—than the opposition offered to the Cattle
Market Bill has scarcely been seen in recent times.
Devices of all kinds were employed to strangle the bill.
A knot of politicians joined themselves together and
fought by the hour against common sense and the public
good. Never was opposition stretched to a more outra-
geous extent. Not even au overwhelming majority against
them could shame this little faction into good behaviour.
The scene was humiliating to Parliament, and the conduct
of the minority was such as we should never have expected
from men aspiring to the position of legislators and states.
men. There is a limit even to the most conscientious
opposition. Perhaps it was because this opposition was
not conscientious that it therefore proved unlimited.

The Foreign Cattle Market Bill, withdrawn at a late
hour on Saturday morning, was, the Daily News thinks,
perhaps brought forward with no other design than that
of winning the votes of the more thoughtless of the country
electors ; but its operation would have been full of political
clanger. These are not times in.wllicla to-repeat legislation
in the spirit of the abolished coin laws. We-have not yet
done with monopolies, but of those which we continue to
tolerate, none takes a form so gross as that which the
Foreign Cattle Market Bill was intended to establish.
Ministers are very fortunate in not being able to pass the
bill. They may now gain, in places where the agricul-
tural voters are exceptionally ignorant, the praise of
being the farmers' friends. There may be graziers who
believe that if in consequence of this bill cattle
sold for £2 ahead more than they do now the
advantage would be theirs; but our farmers nowadays as
a body are skilled producers, men of too much intelligence
not to know that in such a case the extra profit would
have gone, not into their pockets, but into those of the
landlord. Our contemporary opines that Mr. Disraeli will
not reintroduce the bill another session, and risk thereby
the execration of the large populations for taxing the
people's meat.

The Standard is most anxious to keep this fact in the
public memory. The measure has not been defeated upon
its principles. It has been talked out of Parliament after
the whitebait dinner. It has been talked and shouted out
by a minority of one-third of the members remaining in
town, and in spite of this its opponents had the audacity—
the word has become classic—to complain that they have
been resisted by clamour and violence. Why, it will not
be forgotten that during all these debates which have
ended so inconsequentially, there was, on the left hand
of the Speaker, a small cabal scarcely ever silent, fre-
quently called to order, intensely abusive, and perpetually
diverting the discussion from its proper channel. When
Mr. Lowe, trying to recover the customary toue of debate,
told the House that they must., either have this dis-
tinction between the home and the foreign cattle trade
or submit to an incessant rinderpest in England,
instead of his argument being met by a testimony to the
contrary effect, or even by the coarse expedient of a down-
right denial, again was the House of Commons troubled
and confused by a motion for the suspension of its busi
ness. The history of this bill will be upon record and will
be remembered as a disgrace to those who opposed it, and
as a reproach upon the last days_of the last Parliament
elected under the first Reform Bill.

The Star considers that Mr. Milner Gibson deserves the
best thanks of the country for his very remarkable efforts,
which have been rewarded with a result it once seemed
wild to hope for, in the withdrawal of the Cattle Market
Bill. The perseverance and ingenuity he has shewn
Were drawn forth, not by any party object, but
by the presence of a grave necessity that some one should
stand forth to defend free trade in food. The old battle
that had to be fought, and the manner in which Mr. Milner
Gibson waged it has revived recollections of the many
excellent speeches which he made years ago in the Free
Trade Hall at Manchester' and elsewhere— speeches not
indeed so original as Mr. Cobden's nor so eloquent as Mr.
Bright's, but full of common sense and uncommon wit,
trenchant, powerful, and alert in every department of the
great questions then under discussion. In the present case
Mr. Milner Gibs,,n assumed to himself, with as much
vigour as he used to chew in opposition to the taxes on
knowledge, the responsibility of defeating the bad and
unscrupulous bill of the Government. He declared it
should be defeated, and defeated it was ; and doubtful as
some of the means were by which the result was insured,
they stand thoroughly justified by the plight in which
the almost interminable discussions on the bill left it
and its advocates. The Star compares the exclusion of
foreign cattle to the former exclusion of foreign corn
from the market. There will, of course, be many attempts
to persuade the farmers that the bill was defeated by a
factious minority ; but the country will perceive that the
factiousness of the minority consisted in steadily arguing
against a proposal to protect the cattle interest—a pro-
posal so recklessly made that the Government had not
even determined at whose expense the nefarious project
was to be carried out.

The Times pronounces the career of the late Chancellor
one of which Englishmen are not unnaturally proud. A
sedulous schoolboy, a successful if not a distinguished
student at the university, an advocate of trusted reputa-
tion, a judge of the first rank both on the common law
and the equity sides of Westminster Hall, distinguished
as a lawyer by his freedom from the prejudices of his
profession, and as a politician. by his perfect temper and
consistency, Lord Cranworth earned the position he held
with the approval of all men. It was as impossible for
him to sympathise with the stormy violence of Brougham
as with the dogged resistance Eldon offered to change.
his life had been too easy to allow him to be revolu-
tionary, and owing nothing himself to privilege, he was
never tempted to engage in a vain battle in defence of
privileges. He had worked hard for many years, but
his labour had been well rewarded ; and as ho kept his
mind open to fresh impressions to the last, he never
sank into the optimism of those who think the world
must be perfectly well ordered because they are them.
selves tolerably comfortable in it. Few men enjoyed
greater personal popularity. He was a thorough Whig,
but he never allowed the keenness of his partisanship to
cloud his judgment or to warp his actions. Fair and
equal to all, no man grudged him his elevation, but rather
everyone rejoiced at a conspicuous instance in which
abilities carefully cultivated had obtained distinguished
reward.

Tho Poet thinks the volunteer meeting at Wimbledot,
which has just terminated, will not unlikely prove to have
marked a crisis in the career of that remarkable move-
ment ; for, although the shooting was admirable, and exhi-
bited a steady general improvement ; although the duties
of the camp were performed in a manner betokening an
increased acquaintance with that portion of a soldier's
life ; and although the list of prizes was an indication of
more than sustained interest from outside, still, the meagre
and miserable review which brought the affair to a con-
clusion revealed the deplorable fact, as proved by their
absence, that a great part of the force is still indulging an
unreasonable and, we would almost add, an nnmilitary
spirit, the result of the unfortunate contretemps at Windsor.
Some blame for this result may be attributable to the
arrangements of the War Office, but the Post attaches
more responsibility for the failure to the sulky and insub-
ordinate spirit of the volunteers, which it strongly
condemns.

Several fires, one of them an extensive one, took
placo on Southampton-common during. the races there, by
which a grcnt quantity of furze was destroyed. The furze
was very dry and hot, owing to the weather, and the fires are
believed to have originate.) from smoker 3 carelessly or wil-
fully throwing lighted matches on the furze.

The decision of the Council at Wimbledon in
regard to the protest of Corporal Peake, who made seventy
points for the Queel's has caused much dii3atisfac-
tion among the volunteers Of Manchester and other towns
in Lancashire, and a slll,scription is talked al,out with the
1."1:!IV of presenting the corporal at least with the money
value of the prize, £250.

A letter has been forwarded to the Mayor of aTry
by Lord Claud Hamilton, roceived by him from
General Sir William Knollys, with reference to the expec-
tation that the Prince of Wales might visit that city during
the Royal Agricultural Society's show in August. His
Royal highness instructs General Knollys to say that the
obstacles in the way of such a visit aro not diminished.—
"On the perfect restoration of the Princess after her con-
finement, their Royal Highnesses will probably proceed to
Scotland or the continout, for the still further benefit of the
Princess's health. The mayor of Derry and the corpora-
tion will, therefore," General Knollys feels sure, "under-
stand how little able the Prince will be to manage a journey
to Ireland iu Augu4",, •