The Sun.
London, England, 1845-03-26 00:00:00

~~~I~~~~~T~ ~s~s.

LONDON, WEDNESDAY, MARCH 26, 1845.

The proposition with which we closed our extract
in a former article from the pamphlet on " Com-
mercial and Financial Legislation," is one that Euro-
pean statesmen cannot, in these times, keep too
steadily in view. It is a princip'e of the highest po-
litical certainty, as well as moral truth, that the
only security agaillst,a return of those " warfares cf
material interests, of which state wars are the in-
evitabla'result.,," is to destroy the " elements of the
former," which he happily terms, " wars of fiscal
ports, or custom-houses." He proceeds to show, in
the note appended to that passage, that Mr. PITT, in
1787, had nobly and wisely acted up, not only to the
spirit, but to the very letter of his spirited policy.
It is a most impressive, though a tardy tribute to the
genius of that statesman, to exhibit him as devising
the terms of a treaty of commercial reciprocity be-
tween Great Britain and France, founded on prin-
ciples so far in advance, in point of sagacity and
forecast, of the commercial policy of his age. We
can easily understand how Mr. PITT, with all his

tenacity of purpose, may have been shaken in his
adhesion to the enlightened scheme of com•
mercial connexion he had thus marked out for

the two greatest monarchies of the world, by the
events of the next half-dozen years. Events of so as-
tounding and eventful a character succeeded each
other, in such rapid succession, that a feverish and
incessant excitement usurped the salutary influence
that might otherwise have then, and permanently,
triumphed, of calm deliberation and vigilant expe-
rience. But it is very certain that the precipitate,
crude, and ignorant prejudices, on all general ques-
tions involving the true principles of a sound, inter.

national, commercial policy, which swayed the coun-
sels of the varioui French Governments called into
action by the revolution, were the main disturbing
forces which threw down the beneficent system that
Mr. PIIT'S genius had created by the treaty—whose
frank, clear, and equitable stipulations we gave, in
abstract, in our paper of Wednesday evening last.
In the lapse of nearly sixty years since the date of
that treaty, two furious wars have been waged between
the two countries, but, fer the last thirty years, rela-
tions of uninterrupted peace have been established be-
tween them. If the contingencies of the brief interval
between the years 1787 and 1793, sufficed so com-
pletely to throw down and obliterate such a record of
commercial statesmanship as the treaty in question,
owing to the overwhelming force of adverse circum-
stances ; how little has the evolution of fifty-two sub-
sequent years (thirty of them, as we have just stated,
being, as years of peace, eminently favourable to
the restoration of the good work that had
been demolished)—accomplished towards the attain-
ment of such an object ! What can so many Minis-
ters have been about, who have since directed the
affairs of this country, never to have attempted, with
all the encouragement, with all the political advan-
tage and authority which the course of European
events has from time to time given them—never, we
say, to have attempted the renewal of Pirr's treaty ?
The author of " Commercial and Financial Legisla-

tion" could not have better timed his reference to this

remarkable docu,nent, than by choosing for that pur-
pose the era of our quasi " transition state," from

a monopoly-ridden condition and class protections
to one not indeed of free trade, but of released energy
and more lightly fettered operation. We confess,
with a feeling of humiliation as well as astonish-
ment, that the great political experiment which was
successfully accomplished in 1831 by the will of the
people, exprt ssed directly through their representa-
tives—we mean the Reform of Parliament—has hi-
therto discharged but a poor instalment of the great
benefits which its bondsmen—its advocates—within
and without the walls of the Legislature,
repeatedly guaranteed to the country. Class
legislation has actually increased both as to its extent
and its abuses. Monopolies have been multiplied
and aggravated. The interests of the public consumer
have been sacrificed more than ever to the interested
views of the Ministerial supporters. It is truly won-
derful that such a barbarous system of protective, dis-
criminating, prohibitory, and retaliatory duties as
that which still manacles the gigantic powers,
and represses the native vigour of British
commercialenterprise, should have been left
comparatively
unrero rm e d
by a Reformed and
Reforming Parliament. Sir ROBERT PEEL, in-
deed, has taken some few steps in a right direc-
tion; but his course has been circumscribed and
crippled by the trammels of previous Tory connexions,
the
tilip n roary ngcontrol official precedents, and the
uence of official advisers. It
still
hamperingiii,fl of

belongs only, we fear, to an acute mind, an uncom-
promised judgment, and a philosophical estimate of
the existing condition of great national interests, to
trace, with a bold unprejudiced hand, the relation be-
tween cauie and effect, and, in doing so, fearlessly to
expose the former, with a view to the extinction of
the latter, where it is embodied in a shape hostile to
the prosperity, or destructive even to the welfare of
the State. We can scarcely expect, in the present
isptearrito:onfy such demonstration
mall the QUEEN'S sub-
fbraol cae r
isltnaet emoi
nf
jects, can least afford to act practically and independ-
ently on the dictates of his unbiassed judgment. We
feel the more obligation to any private individual who
will adopt this salutary course, even if it be as
an " anonyme." In another article we shall enable
our readers to judge, by a more detailed examination
of his pamphlet, how much the author of " Commercial
and Financial Legislation" has done to set the public
thinking upon the important topics in respect of
which our Governments have done, as yet, so little to
testify their own appreciation of them.

We have no desire to disparage the services of the
Metropolitan Police force, which we believe to have
secured for the inhabitants of the capital and its ad.
joining districts a much more extensive degree of
protection for person and property than had been
attained under the best administration of that system
which it superseded. But we can neither be blind to
its occasional glaring deficiencies, nor insensP)le to
the enormously-increased expense of its organisation
and service, as compared with the charge upon the
public for the former establishment. We have a
right to expect, in consideration of the somewhat
lavish scale upon which its pay and appointments
have been fixed, that all its members shall be held to
the strict discharge of their duties, and that the super-
vision of their conduct shall he conducted ,ith a de•
gree of vigilance bordering even on sev City. The
interests of the public clearly demand that the discip-
line of this " force"—(as it is the custom to term it,
with that unwholesome propensity for military
identification which seems to connect itself
ith the management, aspect, and details of
the body in all its associations) should
be rigidly maintaine3 ; that its efficiency throughout
every one of its districts shout! be beyond question;
that its character and integrity should be above all
suspicion of collu.ion with those whose actions they
are appointed to watch, and whose depredations on
the property of individuals they are expressly en-
trusted with the duty, not only of searching out and
bringing under the cognizance of the magistracy, but
also, in all cases where prevention may be practicable,
to defeat. We are sorry to confess that the " play-
at-soldiers" business seems to be much more carefully
attended to than the actual discipline of the men.
The criminal assizes both in town and country, the
very police-courts reports, and the incidental notices
of the acts of police-constables, which are scattered
through the proceedings in various charges comir.g
under magisterial cognizance, have furnished but too
many instances, during the last twelve months,
of;criminal offences, or of gross misconduct on the
part of individuals who either had been—or at the