The Sun.
London, England, 1845-01-28 00:00:00

Altxtst"
I Ming

LONDON, TUESDAY, JANUARY 28, 1845.

We publish, in another column, two documents,
which, though they come before the world in a very
unpretending form, will be found not less remarkable
for The good sense they embody than for the good
feeling that pervades them. We allude to "An Ad-
dress presented to JAMES MATHESON, Esq., 111,P„
with a silver snuff-box, by the working classes of the
borough of Ashburton," and to the answer of the
Hon. Member to that address. There is a touching
tone of simplicity and earnestness about the one—a
frank and manly truthfulness about the other—which
stand out in refreshing contrast to the more studied
and more excited displays of reciprocated compliment
and professions, that have become, of late, so common
at agricultural protection and other county meetings.
There is, to he sure, in the documents we speak of, no
pattern-Duke—no " farmer's friend" (and landlord)
besprinkled with flattery "that licks the dust." There
is no parade of magnanimous self-denial or self •gratula-
tion,7 by the wealthy landowner and man of office,
on conceding to his tenants the enviable privilege of
destroying rabbits and hares, provided they leave, in-
tact, the pheasants and the partridges for his exclu-
sive sport, at the cost of whatever ravages these in-
violable game may meanwhile commit on their
growing crops. This is an affair altogether of
genuine, hearty, personal respect, on the part of a
constituency for their representative—on the part of
the representative, for his constituents.
We need hardly remind our readers that Mr.
MATHESON is one of the most eminent among that in-
valuable body of British merchants who have
amassed in remote countries—in China, for
example—enormous fortunes, by the ability, judg-
ment, and high integrity with which they have con-
ducted their vast commercial operations. Since his
return from China, he has become the proprietor of
the large island of Lewis ; and, enormous as was the
purchase-money he paid for that vast extent of ter-
ritory, we have no doubt, from the observation we
have devoted to his most useful career, that he will
more than redeem all the high anticipations which Dr.
PATRICK CAMPBELL, eighty years ago, had formed,
in respect of the Lewis and of its vast natural ca-
pabilities and undeveloped resources. The sagacious
and well-informed author of the " Political Survey of
Great Britain" predicted that, whenever the energy of
capital, directed by a spirit of judicious as well as
liberal enterprise, should be brought to act upon that
extensive region of the Hebrides ; the product of its
fisheries alone would surpass any preconceived no-
tions that might have been formed of it. It is
certain that so enormous an extent of coast line, in-
dented with so many creeks, small bays, deep locks,
and natural harbours, offers facilities for such a trade,
which the improved commercial means of Ireland,
that may be calculated on as certain to result from
the rapid extension of railway communications
throughout the length and breadth of that fine coun-
try, will, in two or three years, stimulate to unprece-
dented activity and importance. The distinguished
privilege of providing a permanent market for the
enterprise of many thousands of, perhaps, the hardiest,