The Sun.
London, England, 1845-02-01 00:00:00

Atening L-°zlnt

LONDON, SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 1, 1845.

The rumours of Ministerial resignations, to
which we yesterday alluded, have strangely broken in
upon that torpid lull of news in the condition of
domestic politics which usually precedes, by a week
or ten d ip, the re-assembling of a Parliament for the
business of the session. In our present state of
uncertainty it would be idle to speculate on the
results of events which may have occurred, as yet,
upon the authority of report, only. These rumours
are a species of game, which, once put up, secure a
numerous and eager field at their heels—hot upon
the scent, and staunch in the pursuit. Our brother
journalists, of course, in such a field, take the lead ;
and it is an object of keen competition among them,
as it is with others interested in such pursuits—to "be
in at the death ;" or, to speak less figuratively, to
ascertain whose selection of rumours approaches
nearest to the realised facts which they finally "run
into." We have already quoted the oonflicting specu-
lations of the Times, Chronicle, Herald, Morning Post,
and Standard. These, under our present imperfect
knowledge of the actual intentions of the Crown and
its Prime Minister, we do not here attempt to pursue.
But we are authorised to assume that Mr. GLAD-
STONE has resigned his connexion with office by
retiring from the Presidency of the Board of Trade ;
and this, we repeat, is a very important event in its
bearing on the moral power and constituent strength
of Sir ROBERT PEEL'S ..Administration. But in our
view of the matter its main interest is derived from
the possible scope it may give to that Administration
for a far more healthy, intelligible, vigorous, and
beneficial action, than any which itself or its prede-
cessors have been able to exercise for very many years
past. We shall not be suspected of a desire tog° out
of our way to say civil things of Sir ROBERT PEEL'S
Government; still less of him, personally. But our
Support is ever challenged by measures, not men.
Our. solicitude is extreme for principles, whilst we
are indifferent to party. We have always felt a high
respect for the character and the ability of Mr. GLAD-
ISTORE ; but we have never blinded ourselves to his
deficiencies,
even as a Minister of Commerce, and to
his pernicious example and writings as a polemical
layman. Ile has contracted his vast sphere of useful-
ness by an obstinate adhesion to anti-Brazilian p re-
judices ; and he has shaken the foundations of
the
Church by his Tractarian tamperings with their
massive simplicity. lie dies the official death—
a mar-
tyr, we are told, to Manilla sugars, and a victim
to the
progress of Puseyism. In both instances his own
pinions have supplied the shafts which have broughthim
down. The one has been feathered by his "certificate
of growth," or nationality, which was to secure the ad-
mission of foreign sugars into our markets free from
the taint of slave labour—the other, by certain Oxford
Tracts, and by an article in the Quarterly, which, not
disavowed or recalled, connected the Administration
whereof he was so prominent a member, with his own
Romish prepossessions and his jesuitical casuistry in
vindicating them. Of the latter, we recorded in our

impresssion of yesterday, and at large, the opinions
we have never ceased to hold, since this affliction
was first visited upon the Established Church. Of
the certificate of growth we could only now repeat,
what we have so often urged before, as to the ab-
surdity of an attempted compromise between the
literal and rigorous construction of the responsibility
assumed by this country to abolish and repress negro
slavery, by every act dependent on her own volition;
and the necessity of increasing the supply and
cheapening the price of sugar, to the British con-
sumer, by admitting foreign sugars into consumption
here. To imagine that in the Southern States of the
Union, or in Cuba, sugar is not raised by slave
labour, would not be more at variance with fact
than to suppose that slave-owning growers in foreign
Eastern colonies will not transmit their produce to
Manilla, for example, under circumstances that will
secure them their certificate of having been raised by
free labour, from some British functionary who, in five
cases out of eight, will not be able to testify, of Lis
own knowledge, to anything at all about the matter.:lf
our Abolition and Emancipation Acts invested us with
the authority or power to put down the offence of slave-
h ,ding in America, in the Archipelago, or elsewhere,
these certificates of free growth would have been super-
fluous. But we have neither that authority nor that
power. After all the incalculable sums we have expended
in the work of Negro Emancipation, are we to be still
further taxed, by reason of the diminished produc-
tion and increased cost of sugars grown on our own
West Indian possessions, to eat less of, and pay
more for, this important commodity than many of
our Continental neighbours, who have made no such
sacrifices at all ? This, it is admitted, it would be
toa monstrous to require ; and so we have the certifi-
cate scheme of free labour growth, to be deluded
with. The real effective operation of the system is
to give to slave-grown sugars, after a voyage of a
few weeks from the Antilles or the Main to some
other country, a statutable purification from the taint
of Slave Manipulation, on their re-export, so as to en-
sure their admission into this market.

But we trust that Sir ROBEXT PEEL, in respond-
ing to the glorious opportunity which now presents
itself to him for untrammelled action, will not stop
short at putting the trade in sugar, and the peace of
the Church, on more permanent and on broader bases.
The opportunity for developing those liberal views of
commercial and general policy which we give him
full credit for really entertaining, is one such as may
not offer to another English Minister for another
century. Ile has fairly won his own position ;
hitherto his efforts in it have been thwarted, not
aided, by those whom he helped up the steep which
he had climbed. Let him now call around him the
men who will make good against the united force of
class interests, and class influence, that position. Let
him extend the circle of his operations, and give to
his efforts for the extension, the productiveness, and,
therefore, the freedom of our commerce, that unity
of purpose, that singleness of action, that precision,
vigour, and effect, which result from a hearty com-
bination of well-matured designs and the unflinching
execution of them. Away with the puerilities of
nominal, not virtual protection; away with the follies
of fiscal duties, pitched so extravagantly high as to
prove irresistible temptations to contraband pro-
duction or to smuggling; away with the monopoly
of trades, of which the staples are the first necessary
elements of human existence, or the comforts most
universally required for social consumption. Let
Sir ROBERT PEEL, whilst he abolishes oppressive
imposts, condemned by all sound reason and
policy as well as by humanity, release from
their antiquated restrictions those branches of
legitimate trade which languish and decline under
their restraint, but would leap into renewed life and
expansive energy on being set free, to the infinite ad-
vantage of individuals, and the perceptible improve-
ment of the national resources. Doubtless he must
long have felt that to give to our commerce that in-
creased activity and development which are so de-
sirable, we have only to will that it be so, in order
that that object should be attained. Let him, as the
first steps towards this consummation, so passion-
ately desired by the country, set the cur-
rency free by removing the fetters he placed
upon it in 1819 and last year, and thereby
so distribute the representative of wealth and
property among the working classes, more especially,
as to breathe new life into the nostrils of operative
industry, and in so renewing its wasting strength,
and duly rewarding its heretofore ill-paid exertions,
scatter competency, cheerfulness, and improvement
around the land, in the place of bankrupt enterprise,
accumulated pauperism, gloomy discontent, and ill-
repressed desperation. Let him take without hesi-
tation from the foreign customer whatever commo-
dity—corn, wines, sugars, fruits—he may have
to offer in exchange for our surplus manufactures,
our home and colonial products—our fuel, our
machinery. By such a course we may defy,
for scores of years to come, the attempted competition
of France and other Powers with ourselves in foreign
markets. Give ut but room to run ;—we are first, and
we will remain so. in this way we shall cease to be
worried with fears arising out of the negotiation of
commercial treaties or the formation of Zollverein
Leagues between other nations. In brief, let Sir
R. PEEL reflect that he has done enough for himself,
for his party, and their interests. Let him devote
the remainder of his career to realise a condition of
national vigour and prosperity in all departments of our
social and commercial system, which he may bequeath
to his country—to a grateful posterity—as the noblest
irheritance ever consolidated by the talents and the
good fortune of a single Minister. His golden for-
tunes offer him this golden opportunity for reaping
plden opinions. He will scarcely let it pass, whether
he regard with due consideration his own reputation,
or with due affection his country's welfare and
grandeur.

Madrid journals of the 24th ult. have been re-
ceived. In the Chamber of Deputies the report of
Senor PACHECO, upon the abolition of the slave
trade, had been presented to the Chamber of
Deputies. Upon a demand of M. D.H LATOGA for
the publication of papers, the Foreign Minister
replied that he could only partially comply with
such a demand ; adding, that two objects alone
were sought to be accomplished by the Bill—
the first was the acceptance of the treaty of 1835 ;
the second to make it evident how profoundly was
their conviction that the slave trade was infamous,
and ought to be abolished. The Editor of the Eco
del Commercio and M. CALVO MATEO, who have
been in prison since the attempt on General NAR-
VAEZ, have been let out on bail to stand their trial.

MADRID BOURSE.—Three per Cents. for cash, 31-i ;
for Account, 321; Five per Cents. for Account, 24.

The Paris papers are chiefly occupied with the
large meeting of Conservatives which assembled on
Wednesday, in support of the GUIZOT Ministry. The
Ministerial journals consider it an event of great im-
portance, while those of the Opposition regard it only
as an additional proof of weakness, and as a vain
attempt to prop up a Cabinet condemned by the re-
presentatives of the nation. Joined, however, with
the return of Court influence, the complete adhesion
Of SALVANDY, BUGEAUD, and BROGLIE, the violence
of the Republican and Radical party in the Chamber,
and especially with the strong expressions used by
the KING in his reply to the Address, with regard to
the importance of the English alliance, it has given
new life to the Ministry, and as a proof of this the
Constitutionnel, which regarded the return of TIIIERS
to power as certain, displays the greatest bitterness
and violence at the disappointment. The speech of
the KING is remarkable at the present time for
the stress laid upon the preservation of peace with
England, and fully shows that his MAJESTY is not
deterred by the anti-English mania of those who
hive conferred the epithet of the " Pritchard party "
on the supporters of his Cabinet. On Wednesday
evening the Deputation of the Chamber of Deputies,
and the greater nu:nber of the Conservative party,
proceeded to the Tuileries with the Address. The
Salle du TrOne was thrown open, and the KING took
his seat, surrounded by his Lords, the Duke of
NEMOURS, the Prince DE JOINVILLE, the Duke
d'Austatz, and the Duke DE MoNTrENsun, with
Marshal SOULT and M. GUIZOT on his right. The
Address was read by the President, to which the
KING made the following reply :
"Messieurs the Deputies,
"I thank you for this loyal Address. It will con-
tribute, with that force which attaches to everything
that emanates from you, to guard the future against
thera dangersupon he
twhich the blindness of passion too often
presidespeople. oAvermuotuural
rreelogtaiordusfowr
ith justice
adndwsfur peace
foreign Powers, and the agreement so happily and