The Sun.
London, England, 1845-03-10 00:00:00

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LONDON-, MONDAY, MARCH 10, 1845.

The condition of her MAJESTY'S Government, be-
tween its malcontent followers, and the formidable op-
position who hover about all its evolutions, with a de-
gree of generosity not often equalled, perhaps, in Par-
liamentary skirmishing, is not a little peculiar. The
destination of the two forces is now pretty well ad-
mitted, by both, to be the acquisition of a given point
which, among its other designations, may well enough
be identified as free trade. The army which first
proposed to achieve this point—that of the ex-Govern-
ment—was beaten the very moment they attempted
to leave the lines they had previously occupied. The
battle-cry of their victorious enemies, was, " Down
with the champions of free trade;" and when the excite-
ment lar4uished, for however short a period, the ral-
lying cry was " Down with the open-corn-trade
Ministry"—" Down with the liberal, Roman-Catholic-
disabilities-alleviating Ministry—Down with the
Ministry who would maintain the assessed taxes at
an increased rate if 10 per cent." The course of
events has run itself out. The attacking force now,
in their turn, occupy the entrenched camp of power,
from whence they this time four years ago expelled
their predecessors ; and, strange to say, they carry
banners so closely resembling those which were borne
by the men over whom they triumphed, that the ejected
forces can scarcely distinguish them from their own.
In truth, the essential and prominent difference
between the late Whig garrison and the present Con-
servative one is, that whether as a feint only, or with
settled and serious purpose, the Conservative govern-
ment are pushing their advances towards the point
common to both sides, with far more of vigour,
animation and success than the Whigs, whose interest
and earnestness in the same design could never be
doubted, but whose operations were not directed, it
should seem, with quite so much of tact and prudence
as those of their adversaries. It is mainly to this sin-
gular identification of the great objects—secret or
avowed, matured or in contemplation—of these' party,
combinations that we must attribute the/ other-
wise inexplicable results of the most important
divisions which have thus far signalised the pre-
sent session of Parliament. It cannot be imagined
that an intelligent and still formidable, though
it be not a sufficiently compact Opposition, would
forego such palpable advantages, as the run
of fiscal and commercial questions has for some
time past presented to them, were they really disposed
to turn such advantages to the account of a factious op-
position. It would be obviously on that assumption
their tactics to avail themselves of every reinforce-
ment which aggrieved recruits from the West
India interest, the Baltic trade, the landed or
agricultural interest, the monopoly protectionists,
and SJ many other class proprietaries that have
sustaine I, more or less, of temporary disturb-
ance, by reason of the present Premier's measures
in respect of the duties on sugar, coffee, timber,
Canada flour, &c., &c. They could have set up a
still more certain and popular appeal for ensuring
the defection of a vast contingent of their antagonists,
by proclaiming their readiness to embark in any
common movement to resist and put down the pro-
perty and income-tax, which so accurately resembles,
in most of its features and its effects, the forced levy
of a heavy war-tax in a time of profound peace. We
sincerely regret, for our parts, that it has not con-
sisted with the views or policy of the Opposition to
give the most determined resistance to that most
cruel and inquisitorial impost. But, on the other
hand, it is to be recorded, to the perpetual honour of
" her Majesty's Opposition," that, be the principle of