The Sun.
London, England, 1845-12-04 00:00:00

uovning Am

LONDON, THURSDAY. DECEMBER 4 1345.

The P Lceess of that party in the community who have
long advocated free-trade principles may now be re-
garded as certain. The whole country is roused to a
serious consideration of the question, not as regards
corn only, but many other foreign productions requisite
for the subsistence and comfort of the inhabitants. Pro-
hibition and protective duties have been found of no
u c whatever, nay, they have been proved highly inju-
riee i to those very classes who enjoyed the mo-
nepelies. They have destroyed enterprise, obstructed
improvemere, and prevented the full exercise of that
ingenuity and skill which competition excites, and which
our countrymen, when left to their own resources, dis-
. play more than the people of any other nation. We may
mention, among many other instances, the silk trade and
the glove trade. While silk goods and gloves were pro-
hitaited, or loaded with heavy imposts, which amounted
to prohibition, scarcely any improvement in the manu-
facture of the articles took place. The French beat the
English in every market--our manufacturers were left
far behind, both in the designs and colouring of silk
goofs ; ingenuity, in fact, was prostrated, and no im-
provement whatever took place. The same may be said of
gloves; but since the absurd restrictions on importation
were removed a new impetus was given to these manu-
factures, and except, perhaps, in what regards the effects
of climate, they have been brought to as great pertec- '
tion, and can be produced as cheap as in France. The
same law applies to other monopolies, and, above all, to
the monopoly of corn. Our landlords and tenants have
ever since the establishment of the noxious impost, in
1815, gone on in their eld sleepy course ; they have
obstinately rejected improvement ; they have trusted
to protection alone, and when the tax is
no longer found tenable, they begin to show
symptoms of life. They discourse at agricultural
m(ettegs, not about corn-laws and the sliding-scale, but
about tile-draining, sub-soil ploughs,
quickset hedges,
and fifty other improvements and experkuents that they
hate never dreamt of. Fer this the advocates of free
tr.iile J.'servc the highest honour, and it is, therefore, gra-
tif) lug to find, by accounts from all parts of the country,
that their labours in this respect, as well as in the ac-
complishment of their principles, are cordially approved
of by the almost unanimous voice of the nation. We
have given from day to day reports of the numerous
meetings held throughout England—abridged reports, we
admit, both because we eould not find room
for the speeches, and the arguments in general
were so similar, and the facts enumerated so
palpable, that lengthened proof and comment were not
necessary. The impulse has extended from England to
Scotltß.l and greand, for even the Irish Members, so
-lift thehro,east ocates of monopoly, have at last given
Way;
W kreatmeetil was held at Edinburgh, on Tuesday
a
convened by the,EMO PROVOST, and wasatteaded by the,
, first. citizens_ r's orthern metropolis, and among
if
% ot4r' v-14139tifl -,l7,llJcam RUSSELL and Mr. Macen-
k, 1 1 114. N

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