The Sun.
London, England, 1845-11-29 00:00:00

LORD JOHN RUSSELL AND THE

CORN-LAWS.
(From the Times.)
It is ascribing not so much to Lord John Russell's character
and position as to Ministerial blindness and diflieuhief, to
pronounce the letter " to the electors of the city of London"
the final deathblow of the corn-laws. Opportunity, which
, makes a child a match for a giant, has conferred on Lord
John Russell a principal share in a noble achieve went. 'lt •
has been left to him to dictate the terms of a great capitela- •
time. A few weeks, nay, a few days ago, Sir Robert Peel
might have done this with comparative freedom :Ind com-
parative honour. Though not the highest act of initiative
wisdom, it might still have been the generous humility of a
great statesman, ready to sacrifice his own conaisitency for
his country's advantage. Lord John Russell has: made the
measure his own, and it cannot now be taken away. What-
ever place in the arena of public controversy the ,oroposit ion
of a perfectly free trade in corn has lately or long ago held,
Lord J. Russell is the foremost in the great political group to
link with it his name and his fortunes. The Premier cannot
now adopt it without adding to all his other difficulties end
disagrecables the ignominy of being taught and led by a
deal. The public sense of justice will not quarrel at
such a result. It is fit that Sir Robert Peel should
have no portion in that which is not really in any
sense his own; and the whole world might have repelled the
illusion which should make him appear to be the author. The
Premier only fulfils his own instinct and follows his destiny;
and we should be puzzled, if not disappointed, were he to
act otherwise. Mistaking his own vocation, he thinks to
dictate principles rather than to adopt them from the people.
Thus lie holds on to systems till they are virtually abrogated
by the decisions of the national mind. He waits till that
abrogation only requires to be recorded,—till it is reckoned,
realised, and all but historical, till, in the city phrase, it is
actually " discounted" by the political world, and then at the
last moment he comes hi and consents to be vanquished with
as good a grace as lie can ; making up for the ignominy of a
real defeat by gaining a victory over his friends. Whcu
concession is inevitable, it is wise to concede before necessity
destroys both freedom of thought and dignity of moYetrienr.
It is wiser, also, to read and learn a political lesson before it
has to be enforced by the rough discipline of events. Lord
John Russell does not beast himself greater than nature,
kinder than Providence, or wiser than the people. He ceps Lis
task with all docility, and confesses that he is the wiser for it.
Hence lie becomes the fir. historian of the Premier'sewilffilness
" But I confess that on the general subject my views hays
in the course of 20 years undergone a great alteration. I
used to be of opinion that corn was an exception to the ge-
neral rules of political economy, but observation and experi-
ence have convinced me that we ought to abstain from ell
interference with the supply of food. Neither a Government,
nor a Legislature can ever regulate the coin market with ths
beneficial effects which the entire freedom of sale and pus..
chase are sure of themselves to produce. I have for several
years endeavoured to obtain a compromise on this subject.
In 1839 I votel for a Committee of the whole House, with
the view of supporting the substitution of a moderate fixed
duty for the sliding-scale. In 1841 I announced the
intention of the then Government of proposing a
fixed duty of Bs. a quarter. In the past session I
proposed the imposition of some lower duty. These propo-
sitions were successively rejected. The present First Lord
of the Treasury met them in 1839, 1840, and 1841, by elo-
quent panegyrics of the existing system—the plenty it had
caused, the rural happiness it had diffused. He met the pro-
positions for diminished protection in the blame way in which
he had met the offer of securities for Protestant interests in
1817 and 1825—in the same way in which he met the pro.
posal to allow Manchester, Leeds, and Birmingham to send
Members to Parliament in 1830. The result of resistance to
qualified concessions must be the same in the present instance
as in those I have mentioned. It is no longer worth whiles
to contend for a fixed duty. In 1841 the free-trade party
would have agreed to a duty of Bs. a quarter on wheat, and
after a lapse of years this duty might have been further re-
duced, and ultimately abolished. But the imposition of any
duty At present, without a provision for its extinction within
a short period, would but prolong a contest already suffi-
ciently fruitful of animosity and discontent." Everybody
has experienced the sensation of having been at some tiara
or other before exactly in one's present position and cireum -
stances—of having before seen, or heard, or said the ray-
same things as at this present moment. One asks, " Have I
dreamt this ?" " Is this the recollection of a former
state ? Or is it all a reverie ?" Sir Robert Peel.
sets one rubbing one's eyes under this visionary im-
pression. Surely all this show of desperate clinging to
the corn-laws, protracted till the patience and the mo-
deration of the people are ' utterly worn out,—surely, . this
intense determination of the applicants, and rapid aggrava-
tion of their claims, has all passed before. By what acci-
dent does it revisit our senses? It has all passed before.
With a trifling change of circumstance it is the perpetually
recurrent action of the Conservative leader. It is the old.
plot, the old charactees, the old dresses, the old scenery done
up with just the alteration of an incident, a name, or a patch.
A few dabs of paint have changed the ruined castle into -a
' barn, and the church into a hay-stack. Instead of spears
there are pitchforks,_ the carbonari for this evening are
ooachers, and the Venetian senators are tricked out for a
rural procession. The casual company of the boxes may be
delighted with that novelty of the entertainment; but the
more knowing frequenter of the pit is disgusted at the im-
pudence of the fraud. The peculiar line which the Premier
has worked fat° system, and which is the historical reality
represented by the name of Conservatism, has been illustrated
by various images more or less fitting and dignified. It has.
been likened to ballast, to the dragchain, and the safety-
valve. We are inclined to think people have missed the
most appropriate emblem. The Right Hon. Baronet
and his party are the stopcock of the nation. It is the
spirit of this age, at least, to move by steam ;—that
is, by a series of explosions. If public opinion had continual.
legislative vent, it would waste itself in idle noise, and never
accumulate the power for effective measures. Conservatism
offers itself to obstruct the passage. Sir Robert Peel chokes.
it with himself. After a brief interval, fresh steam has been
generated, and the social piston has ascended to its former
place. With the most mechanical precision Sir Robert with-
draws, and the steam does its brief and powerful work.
Without so useful an appendage we should have continual
waste,—without its periodical retirement we should have a
destructive catastrophe. The nation is a very hard creditor.
Discharge its lawful demands as they become due, and the
cost is tolerable. Let the account run, or pay your debt
with a neer note of hand, and you soon find yourself over-
verwhelmed with arrears, and compound interest hunting
you down. No usurer could be more extortionate. After- a.
long period of perhaps imaginary insult and vexatious delay,
the people demands its pound of flesh with an almost insanity
of purpose. Has Sir Robert forgotten how quickly the hum-
ble petition for two Members for Birmingham being once
superciliously denied, grew up to the awful dimensions of
"the Bill, the whole Bill?" Has be forgotten that and
twenty other cries of furious onslaught, and final victory?
Refuse a fixed duty, and you have no other choice
given you but a total repeal. You cannot now offer
the alternative which you have yourself taught the
people to despise. The Oily question is, what further 4e_.
mends will now be added? Had you capitulated, it would
have been on terms. You choose to be stormed, and must
now submit to the conditions of an enemy flushed with
triumph and angered with delays. But how can a mare
make terms who is himself hampered by conditions? There
is the rub. It is perhaps the fundamental defect of Sir B.
Peel's position that he never was a !enough master of it.
He feels the hardship of his case, and the sense of iajuatice
makes him the more unscrupulous. What servant ever was
faithful to a hard master? The landowner, represented by
his House, constitutes Sir Robert his attorney in the national
suit. The Baronet is nothing loth, and offers to procure good
terms. " Stand by me, and I will stand by you." Mean-
while he knows they are in heart only standing by them
selves, and he accordingly only stands by himself. It is in-
credible that he should really imagine, with his experience,
that he can effectuate their conditions, and maintain the as-
cendancy of a class. Yet he flatters and eludes their imbecile
expectations by still negotiating on that hollow basis. Go
on, Sir Robert, master of a policy your own. Lead your
friends into the treacherous defile of a proud and intractable
obstinacy; and then, whatever be the glory of that aehieve-
ment, deliver them up to the foe. You need not fear. You
have the gift of infinite plausibility, and your friends, often
as you have deluded them, will nevertheless trust you again.
(From the Chronicle.)
The comments, if such they may be called, of the Govern-
ment and monopoly journals upon Lord John Russell's letter
are the best proof that it is a decisive blow. The whole su-
perstructure of protection, patched and propped up as it is. by
a hundred make-shift expedients, totters from the shock, and
will, before very long, come to the ground. The dismay, the
annoyance, the exasperation of Ministeiialists and Piotec-
tionists exceed all bounds, and we may say all utterance.
They foam at the mouth, and cannot for very rage make
known articulately the grounds of their discontent. Their
overcharged souls seem to find no relief but in a free use of
the most abusive epithets. As specimens of their flowers of
speech, take the following from the Morning Herald : -
"Matchless presumption,' "unexampled indifference, to
shame," " stale and vapid sneers," "low and spiteful spirit,"
and divers passages as wise and well-toned as the following
—" Lord John's changes have always been made at
the tail of the worst and wickedest rabble, because decent .
persons renounced him, and always made with some
aspect to a violent convulsion. Such is the mean and had
spirit of the man, and such is the spirit of his letter." The
Post, in like manner, is so vehemently angry that it quite
forgets the proprieties. " Great ignorance," ' great spiteful-
ness," " impudent assertions," a unmitigated nonsense,"
" cool effrontery," " a man so utterly shameless as Lord John
Russell," are some of the phrases which our; polite Contem-
porary thinks applicable and becoming in discussing the
Noble Lord's letter. To reason with people in such a state
of frenzy would be waste of time. Let them by all means go
on and unpack their hearts with words," if they find it a
relief. The public will look on quietly and form its owne
conclusion, remembering the old moral to be drawn when
-
disputants are seen to lose their temper. The
rethae it com-
e ing feature of Lord John Russell's address
is,
aujhority.
bines weight of argument with weight
of
It exhibits, with extraordinary. brevity, Clearness,
eonsido eneratoiofneitsbywegwnhaincht
le.
and force, the main
policy of England should at the present moment
be governed. Almost any
is the contrast, brought home to us by a
topic, for instance,
between the present state of •
sen-
tences contains matter enough for an essay. How *weal a
few striking words,that which would arise under a healthy system ? Variations
in prices, when not artificially produced, are the result of a
eighty beneficial law in social economy. The price of food,
when settled by natural cause_ ~e is the best regulator of con-
Eaaption. Cheapness in such a case indicates plenty, and
favours a free use of the bounties of Providence, without
leading to any evil results. Dearness proves scarcity, and
' obliges us to be sparing in the consumption of a supply which
is insufficient for our ordinary wants. Whenever Govern-
ments have attempted to alleviate the evils of scarcity by
forcibly preventing prices from ascending beyond a certain
point, all men are now aware that instead of diminishing they
have aggravated the mischief. Bat if any other causes pre-
vent prices from accurately indicating the extent of the sup.
ply on which we may count, evils of the same kind must
inevitably follow. At the present moment, partly from
natural and partly from artificial causes, the prices of foot'.
do not truly inform us of the state of our supplies. In the first
place, the price of potatoes, though much -higher than usual,
is kept down by the fact that they are known to be perish-
able. Who will fill his stores with stock.of Ibis kind, when,
he has no reasonable assurance that two or three monthstany
not convert it into a heap of rottenness ? The consumption
of potatoes, therefore, beyond a doubt, is not checked, as ite
would be if the preservation for nine months even
,of
price
of supply now available could be
.reliedicionurea.. Thofempun2;
of corn is deranged by other causes, and is a
-to . a
and very pernicious error. Averages,
are now more watt they have
tion of tb
cer-
tain extent deceptive,
probably ever been, from the lgPf-err quality.l.
Theta
is wheat crop which is of 411 le i . fte,
reader whose eye has not fte.
is scarcely any newspaper
from
t weeks,
eater kn oowna' '. p al:van-
wcastle-upoi-
e.quaepnhtlsy
likreestteate,
fero-liewiningt,h.ewhtlEutlaisrfgewea
Tyne :—" The bulk of straw is
badly,mueh lanoddgedtheszglubelitotettle
all our best soils
dth
down : this cense
thin and shrivelled. The anxiety of our farmers tone= e
teh ecre°aPer to wer
fille
their crops led them to hurry much into their stack-yardt f4'
the worst condition. The greater portion, consequently%
comes to hand unsound, and so soft as to be quite unilrto
grindwithout the use of the ltibbe Prom; ur t laagie,
xio
where the plant was thin and nets Uld;'tife 'istm s.i is some- '
what better. On thrashing, the yield of the w de proves

extremely defective.' Other accounts tell us that a large
proportion of this year's crop will not grind well unless mixed
with old wheat, and that for that purpose, if there were no
other, foreign corn will be needed. But the quantity of in-
ferior, wheat now in our market, and the way in which it
operates upon the averages, was most clearly shown by Mr.
Baines, in his speech at the great Leeds meeting. He said—
" Let them observe that the price of the best wheat last
year was 545. per quarter, whereas the price of the best
quality this year was 745. per quarter, thus making a
difference of 20s. per quarter between the two periods alluded
to.—(Hear, hear.) Now the range of average prices last
year was 40s. per quarter for the lowest quality of wheat, and
545. for the highest; but this year the range has been 408.
for the lowest quality,, and 745. for the highest.—(Hear,
hear.) Last year the difference in the range was only. 14e.
per quarter between the highest and the lowest qualities of
wheat, but this year the difference amounted to 308.—(Hear,
hear.) That showed conclusively that there was at this
moment a great quantity of bad and low-priced wheat in the
country—(Hear , hear)—the effect of which was to keep
down the averages, and, by keeping them down, to keep up
the duty, which prevented the importation of foreign corn
just at the time when it was most wanted." Thus
we have a
price of corn, as well as a price of potatoes, which is calcu-
lated to give us false impressions of the extent of our available
resources, and to hide from us in some degree the dangers by
which we are threatened. This derangement of the standard
by which our usual calculations are regulated renders it all the
more necessary to take every precaution prudence' can !suggest.
We see the course pursued by neighbouring nations similarly
situated, and the effects it is producing. Belgium, for in-
stance, finding her supply of food short, or fearing that it
may prove so, opens her ports to all the world, and from all
quarters she receives what she requires. It comes to her
from the Baltic and the Black Sea, from Italy and from
France—nay, from England and Scotland, whence it is sent
away. beyond a doubt, by the operation of the sliding-scale.
That it should be as easy, or even easier for us than for Bel-
gium, to get supplies in this way, and that we: should no
only neglect them, but keep up a law by which they are
excluded, is not very creditable to the common sense which
Englishmen are supposed to show in all business transactions ;
but we may fairly hope that the time draws near at which
our reputation, so far as this matter is concerned, will be
fully vindicated.
(From the Advertiser.)
We yesterday, after perusing the manifesto of the Noble
Member for the City of London, predicated the immediate
annihilation of the landlords' monopoly. We now with
equal confidence anticipate the abandonment of fixed duty,
if that can be said to be susceptible of extinction which
never, strictly speaking, bad a tangible existence. But
though not in the literal sense ever having had a being, the
fixed-duty principle possessed a strong hold on the minds of
the Whigs, as a party. It will hereafter cease to have even
that existence. As a principle, it has received its death-
blow. The letter of Lord John Russell to the electors of
the city of London, and that of Lord Morpeth to Mr. Baines
of Leeds, coming simultaneously., and without any previous
understanding between the two 'tinble Lords, have given the
moderate fixed-duty principle its finishing stroke. What
will Sir R. Peel do now ? He has but one of two courses open
to him. He must make his choice between them. Either he
must abandon the monopolists to their fate, and bring in a
measure for the repeal of the corn-laws, or he must resign
office, and make way for a successor who will. These are
the alternatives set before the Premier. It is for himself to
make a selection. Which will he choose? A little time
will tell? We have our opinion as to the course he will
pursue. He will not resign ; or if be do it will only be for
a particular purpose, namely, that of frightening his party,
if party he can still be said to have, into an acquiescence in
corn-law abolition. If he tender his resignation as Premier
into the hands of his Sovereign, it will only be to be recalled
to office as a total and immediate corn-law repealer. He
will then carry the extinction of bread-tax monopoly with
a high hand. He will carry it without an effort. Pressed
down with despair, and overwhelmed with confusion, the
landed interest will be incapable of making even a show of
resistance. Let us not be misunderstood. We do not say
that Sir Robert Peel will ever avow himself, as Lord John
Russell and Lord Morpeth have done, a convert to the justice
of corn-law extinction. But the want of any such convic-
tion will prove no barrier to his introducing a measure for
the immediate and entire repeal of the imposts on human
food. Sir Robert Peel has no idea that a conviction of the
justice of a measure, is at all necsssary to it being brought
forward. The greatest measures ever proposed and carried
by him, have not been grounded on any conviction of their
justice, but because he deemed it expedient that they should
pass. Witness the repeal of the Test and Corporation Acts.
That measure he always disliked. It was not from choice :
it was from dire necessity he consented to bring it forward.
Doubly true does the remark hold in reference to Catholic
Emancipation. The Premier never pretended to approve of
that measure on the ground of it being just. It was because
he felt it to be expedient—in other words, because he could
not help himself, but must either carry the mea-
sure or resign, that he consented to bring it for-
ward. And so of nearly all the great measures which
Sir Robert has been instrumental in carrying. The repeal
of the corn-laws will, we doubt not, add another to the cata-
logue of measures which the Premier has yielded to expe-
diency or necessity, but which he would never have brought
forward from a conviction of their justice. But we have
spoken of a second alternative. We have supposed it possi-
ble, though improbable in the highest degree, that the Pre-
mier will resign office altogether and permanently, rather
than be the instrument of carrying the abolition of the corn
monopoly. Even were it so, the circumstance would not
prevent the repeal of the corn-laws. Lord John Russell
would be the successor of Sir Robert in the Premiership, and
one of his first measures would be to abolish the bread mono-
poly. Under any circumstances, therefore, and come what
ministerial changes there may, the repeal of the corn-laws is
not only inevitable, but will be immediate. We repeat what
we yesterday said, that, before a fortnight of the coming ses-
sion has passed, the doom of the monster monopoly will be
formally sealed by Parliament, and the time for its extinc-
tion announced.