The Sun.
London, England, 1844-12-12 00:00:00

FROM THE MORNING PAPERS OF THIS DAI.
ADVERTISER.—What say the Standard and Herald
now ? Is the League dead ? Any indications of its
extinction in Covent-garden Theatre last night ? Any
symptoms of decrepitude ? Any premonitions of im-
pending dissolution ? The indications and symptoms
were all the opposite way. The summer and autumn
vacation has done the League infinite service. It comes
before us more robust and more full of spirits than ever.
Never before did it show such signs of vitality and
vigour. It re-appears on the stage—on the stage,
in a double sense—like a giant refreshed. The blows
it ',gave monopoly last night will make the mono-
polists feel, if there be no other mode of con-
vincing them, that the League is alive, and in a far
better condition for doing the work it has proposed
to accomplish, than at any previous period of its
history. Often as we have had to record the enthusiasm
with which the meetings in Covent-garden have greeted
the speeches of Messrs. Cobden and Bright, nothing
ever equalled the cordiality of the reception they met
with last night. They must have felt that in that re-
ception they were amply rewarded for all theirexertions,
extraordinary and untiring as they have been, in the
cause of corn-law repeal. Mr. Wilson, the Chairman,
in re-introducing the League to the metropolitan public,
adverted at considerable length to the way in which
the League had been employed since they quitted Lon-
don and took up their location in the provinces. And
nothing could be more cheering than the statements
which the Chairman made. The League, though they
had been comparatively silent during the interval, had
not been idle. On the contrary, they had never worked
so hard, nor had they ever laboured with so much
effect. Their success has far exceeded their most san-
guine expectations. Several important counties have
been, through the exertions of the League, rescued
from the fell grasp of the landocracy ; and by the same
means, namely, attention to the registrations, it is coa
fidently expected, that among other counties which
aro destined to be won, are the important counties
of Middlesex and the West Riding of Yorkshire.
Should the expectations of the League be realised
in reference to Middlesex and the West Riding of
Yorkshire, the moral effect of their victory will be of
infinite importance to the anti-corn-law cause. The
wresting of these two places out of monopolist hands
would overwhelms the oligarchy with despair. Their
other strongholds would be taken possession of with the
greatest ease. The monopolists would hardly attempt
their defence. The importance of an immediate atten-
tion to the registries, wherever parties are in a condition
to acquire a freehold, was emphatically dwelt on at the
meeting of last: night. It will be impossible to qualify
for the remaining twelve months, after the end of
the ensuing month. Those, therefore, who mean to
enfranchise themselves for counties, in any part of
the country, must purchase their qualification within
a few weeks. The way to obtain this qualification, as
our readers are aware, is by purchasing a freehold of
the estimated yearly value of forty shillings. The money
requisite to make this purchase need not in any instance
exceed 701., while in many instances from 501. to 60/.
will suffice. Now, there can be no doubt—the thing,
indeed, is an absolute certainty—that in all counties
where there, are populous towns, there is a sufficient
number of persons holding free-trade principles, and pos-
sessing the requisite purchase-money, to turn the scale
against the monopolists, were they only induced to lay
out their little money in the purchase of a forty-shilling
freehold. Let all such as are in circumstances to ac-
quire a county qualification in this way, remember the im
portant fact—that in thus entitling themselves to be put
on the franchise, they are not only thereby acquiring a
political status in the community they did not possess
before, but are making a more profitable investment of
their scanty savings than it would be possible in any
other way to make. The interest would in no case be
less than five per cent., while in some cases it would be
as high as seven per cent., being double the interest
allowed by the savings' banks. We cannot, therefore
entertain a doubt that every free trader and every liberal
in politics, who is in the possession of the means, will
forthwith enfranchise himself for the counties, by ac-
quiring a forty-shilling freehold.
CHRONICLE.—The Anti-Corn-law League has once
more transferred the scene of its public operations from
the provinces to the metropolis; and the vast assemblage
of auditors which Covent-garden Theatre contained last
night was a curious commentary upon the assurances we
have lately heard, that " the League was dead." There
was apparently nothing in the announced arrangements
for this opening meeting calculatt d to attract a London
audience. The old subject—the " familiar faces "—the
customary topics—free trade ; Messrs. Wilson, Villiers,
Cobden, and Bright—these were the only inducements.
Yet, long before the appointed hour, every avenue to the
building was all but blocked up by an eagerly impatient
throng, who greeted their old friends with a hearty and
unabated enthusiasm; listened with interested patience to
details ; caught up and cheered as lustily as ever all the
points of each speaker, and displayed an ardour for
the cause which had gathered them together, to gainsay
which would be ludicrous folly, and to despise it infatu-
ation. The great complaint of the League against the
citizens of London, when it first came among them, was
their apathy with regard to a question which so deeply
interested and excited the manufacturing districts. Va-
rious explanations were given to account for this some-
what mortifying circumstance. London, it was said, was a
mere aggregate of separate interests ; it was difficult to
move public opinion in it ; the general distress which
swept like a flood over the manufacturing districts, was
here dissipated, and carried off in different streams ; and
even if the metropolis could be effectually roused, there
was an inertness in its enormous mass, a distraction in
the infinite variety of its occupations and amusements,
which would defeat all efforts to sustain continued inte-
rest. But if last night's meeting is to be taken as a cri-
terion, the citizens of London are far from being charge-
able with fickleness. Once convinced of their concern in
the question of free trade, their attachment is perma-
nently secured. It has survived Sir Robert Peel's
juggling with the corn-law ;it outlasts two good har-
vests, and the impetus which China and guano have given
to manufactures and shipping ; and in the face of
cheaper corn and an accumulating revenue, shows itself
as earnest, and more calm and determined, than when
begging boxes, by virtue of the Queen's letters, went
round the country to relieve the national distress, and
there was daily danger of insurrections amongst the
starving masses of the provinces. We are wrong, how-
ever, in supposing that the five thousand people who
flocked to hear Messrs. Wilson, Villiers, Cobden, and
Bright, last night, went to Covent-garden Theatre with
the certainty of hearing the same topics dilated upon
by the same speakers. The free-trade debate is now
all but over. The intellectual part of the process is
consummated. Thero is now no fallacy to expose,
no fiction to lay bare, no valiant agricultural protec-
tionist to combat. Figures of fact and figures of speech
have alike done their work. The mind of the nation—
of that body of the people who read, listen, think, and
reason—is thoroughly satisfied that the protective sys-
tem, in a commercial country especially, is a folly of the
first magnitude. This is the reason why the election of
Mr. Polk to the Presidency of the United States bas
created less interest in this country than it would have
done two or three years ago. We seem generally to
have reached the conviction that it ought to be so, and
should excite no surprise. True, in this country, a
very rural gentleman will occasionally be found ven-