The Sun.
London, England, 1845-12-15 00:00:00

(FROM A CORRESPONDENT.)

Lord JOHN RUSSELL left town this afternoon for
Windsor Castle, to have an audience of her MAJESTY,

The Duke of BEDFORD arrived in town: to-day
from Woburn Abbey, and visited his noble relative
in Chesham- pl ace.
It is understood that Sir JAMES GRAILAM had an
interview with Lord JOHN RUSSELL, on Thursday.
Rumours have been very prevalent during the day
that Lord JOHN RUSSELL is not likely to form an
Ad ministration.

We believe that the end of the present extraor-
dinary crisis will be the formation of an Administra •
tion by Lord JOHN RUSSELL. But this is our opinion
only. This result is probable, but not certain. Lord
JOHN RUSSELL is not responsible for the present
State difficulties ; and it would be not only incon-
sistent with his habitual caution and indicative of in
him a very unusual greediness of power, but it would
be even the extreme of madness, unless he sees his
way to success, or his duty as a patriot
and a loyal subject of her MAJESTY leaves
him no alternative, to commit his fame to the
solution of difficulties of no ordinary nature, in
creating which he has had no share. If he embark
in the great undertaking and fail, the public may
not nicely dispense the just degrees of blame to Lord
Joust RUSSELL and his predecessor. The Minister
for the time being will be the person in court ready
for sentence ; and when the questiun on which he is
to stake his lame is the all-exciting one of the free
supply of food to a nation visited with scarcity, a
much Tees cautioNts and cons,:lentious man than Lord

JOHN RussaLL would think thrice before he under-
took the responsibility which Sir ROBERT PEEL has
sought to transfer to him.

There are two things which the new Premier wil
have to do. He will have to meet the present
exigency, and he will have to undertake a final settle.
ment of the corn-law question.

For the first of these objects, after the delay which
has already occurred, and the further delay which
new ministerial arrangements would probably neces-
sitate, there would seem now to be no alternative
but an immediate Order in Council for the opening of
the ports. Would Sir ROBERT PEEL and the Duke
of WELLINGTON ensure, as they have it in their
power to do, indemnification by Parliament ?
For the permanent settlement of the corn-law
question, there is but one way of doing it, and, at
any rate, but one way in which Lord Jour' RUSSELL
can propose to do it, after his letter to the electors of
London. What course will Sir ROBERT PEEL and
the Duke of WELLINGTON take on a measure of total,
immediate, and unconditional repeal ? Without Sir
ROBERT PEEL'S support, Lord JOHN RUSSELL can
have no hope with the present House of Commons,
though a dissolution would most probably give him a
majority with another. But without the Duke
of WELLINGTON'S influence, what is to be done
with the House of Lords ? Will Lord JOHN Rus-
SELL commit himself to collision between the House
of Lords and the country, and to carrying the repeal
of the corn.laws by provoking a popular excite-
ment, such as that which carried the Reform Act,
and by extraordinary measures, if they should be ne-
cessary, for overcoming the opposition of the House
of Lords. A wise man will weigh all the conse-
quences of a step, and if he take it will be prepared
for the worst. But Lord J. RUSSELL would, pro-
bably, refuse at present to incur the necessity of
rousing the passions of the people ; nor is it likely
that he would ask, or, if he asked, obtain a promise
such as WILLIAM IV. gave Lord Gain-, to swamp the
House of Lords. Other things must be tried
first. Rather than undertake this now, we feel as-
sured that Lord JOHN RUSSELL would compel Sir
ROBERT PEEL to return to his post. Compel, we
say, for it lies on Sir ROBERT PEEL, and not on Lord
JOHN RUSSELL, to extricate her MAJESTY from her
present difficulties. Lord JOHN RUSSELL is free to
name his conditions on taking office. Sir ROBERT
PEEL cannot leave her MAJESTY, as he has left her,
without aiding her, if she requires his aid, out of the
difficulties which he has made for her.

It principally depends then on Sir ROBERT PEEL
how this crisis shall end. It is no ordinary
step which he has taken, in resigning at
this moment. He has resigned while Parliament is
not sitting—not, as is usual, in consequence of a
Parliamentary defeat—with the certainty, whenever
Parliament met again, of a large Parliamantary
majority at his back, even though he should not reli-
giously adhere to the principles on which his Govern-
ment was formed. His Parliamentary majority has
already often followed him in desertion from the old
party standards. How, then, can we read Sir Ro-
BERT PEEL'S resignation but as a confesssion that he
cannot govern the country on his own principles,
nor on any principles so near to them as to
be able to meet again his old Parliamentary majority,
as Minister ? This being so, will he stickle now on
small differences between the measure which he may
have intended to propose and Lord Jowl RUSSELL'S
measure ? He cannot have resigned without ex-
plaining to her MAJESTY the insuperable difficulties
of his ministerial position. Will he refuse her MA-
JESTY the aid which he can render to the only man
who can succeed him ? Sir ROBERT PEEL has ceased
to be Minister under circumstances which must com-
pel him to cease also to be a mere political tactician.

On Saturday a meeting of the electors of Hert-
fordshire was held at Hertford, for the purpose of
ascertaining the principles on which Mr. HALSEY
comes forward as a candidate for the county. The
meeting was got up chiefly by his supporters. Sir
MINTO FARQUHAR, chairman of Mr. HALSEY'S cen-
tral committee, presided. Mr. 'HALSEY was introduced
amidst loud cheers, and everything seemed to betoken
a triumphant issue to the day's proceedings, but un-
fortunately for the Protectionists, some men of sound
knowledge, and not bigotted to the interests of one
class, were present, and by arguments and undeniable
facts turned the anticipated victory into a defeat.
The new candidate is no half-and-half Conservative
—he goes the whole length, and vies with the most
rabid Tory in denouncing Lord JOHN RUSSELL,
and threatening destruction to any Ministry, " let
them be who they might," who would attempt to di-
minish the present protection to agriculture. Taking
for granted that Lord JOHN RUSSELL had already
completed his difficult task, and was in the confidence
of her MAJESTY, he thus opens his attack upon the
party :—" There was now at the head of her MAJESTY'S
Government a man pledged to the destruction of the
Church in Ireland, to the endowment of the Romish
Church, and the abolition of all protection : would a sup-
porter of such a man suit the electors of Herts ?" And he
thus pathetically describes the woful plight to which
the farmers of Hertfordshire would be reduced by the
new-fangled policy adopted both by him and the
Conservative leader who had betrayed their cause :

"If those whom he addressed were willing to be
; forced to leave the farms upon which they and
their forefathers had lived and been happy for
centuries—if they wished to be degraded to a
lower rank, the farmer to the rank of the labourer,
and the labourer to the rank of the labourer on the
Continent—if they wished to be dependent on the
manufacturer for precarious work and a scanty al-
lowance of black bread, then let them support what
was called free trade." Mr. WARD, M P., who
knows the locality well, happened to be present, and
showed the blessings of protection for the last thirty
years in such a light, that the tone of the meeting sud-
denly changed, a motion declaring that Mr. llALsay
was a fit and proper person to represent the county was
rejected, and the following resolution carried by a
majority of two :—"That in the opinion of this meeting
it is the interest of the tenant-farmer, the labourer,
and the landlord, that the corn-law question should
be promptly and permanently settled, the experience
of the last thirty years having proved that protec-.
tion drives capital from land, narrows the home
market by crippling foreign trade, and injures
all classes periodically by ruinous fluctuations." As
we stated on Saturday, these " protection" meetings
are of the greatest service to the cause of free trade,
because the advocates of monopoly have not one
sound argument on which they can rest ; and the
absurdity of their principles requires only to be
pointed out, to meet the approbation even
of those whom they have deluied by false promises
and false hopes. The tenants find that, notwith-
standing the vast anxiety displayed by the landlords
for them and their labourers, the corn-laws have
really afforded them no protection whatever ; that
they are now in a worse position than they had been
at any former period, and that there is no hope
for them, but in a final settlement of the question.
That is the feeling entertained by the whole tenantry
of Scotland;, it is becoming prevalent in England, and
now that the leading men of both parties, in whom
the public place confidence, are unanimous in that
opinion, it requires not the spirit of prophecy to tell
that this great measure of reform can be no longer
delayed.

IVe have read, with great regret, a letter from Mr.
VERNON SMITH, M.P. for Northampton, to one of his
constituents, which contains a most wanton and un-
merited reflection on the Anti-Corn-law League.
We believe this gentleman held a subordinate office
under Lord MELBOURNE'S Government, and he pro-
bably hopes now to come in again for some of the
pickings. Mr. VERNON SMITH, who, by way of
making the thing perfect, calls himself a corn-law
repealer, says—" My own opinion may sound a para-
dox; but it is, that of late years the conduct of the Tories
has advanced the repeal of the corn-laws, andthe violence
and abuse of the Anti-Corn-law League has retarded
it. The true-hearted people of England loathe insin-
cerity and spur,, dictation." The distinguished lead-
ers of the League can afford to treat this imperti-
nence with contempt, and are not likely, we suppose,
to give Mr. SMITH credit for speaking the sentiments
of Lord JOHN RUSSELL, and Lord MORPETH, and
other leading statesmen, with whom he has.been con-
nected in a subordinate capacity. Air. VERNoN
SMITH might have chosen a better time for abusing