The Sun.
London, England, 1845-11-27 00:00:00

CHRONICLE.—We never laid a public document before
the world with a livelier satisfaction than that which we feel
this day, in printing Lord John Russsell'sl address to his
constituents, the electors of the City of London, and through
them to the people of the United kingdom. oming from a
statesman whose moderation of opinion, firmness of purpose,
rectitude of character, and long-tried services to the popular
cause present all the qualities on which the English people
most love to rely; coming at a crisis of unexampled urgency
and peril to all our great eucial and public interests—when
an evil, hovel in its nature, unascertainable in its extent,
and terrible in its malignity is poisoning the very apringstnf
national life—and when the Government shamefully abdi-
cates the most sacred and responsible of its functions,
after an indolent recognition of the gravity of the occa-
sion calling for their exercise ;—this manifesto of the
Liberal leader will awaken responsive action in every part of
the country. By giving increased confidence, it will give
increased strength, to that national movement the signs of
which we are now daily recording. It will invigorate popu-
lar determination with the assurance of a near and full suc-
cess. We now see land at last. The country now knows—
that which before it instinctively believed—that its delibe-
rate and matured volition will not have to wait for a fit exe-
cutive. In this great struggle for national life, security, and
progress, the statesman who has fought our battles in by-
gone days, is altogether one of "us, the Queen's subjects."
We need not comment at length on particular passages of
a document, every word of which will be read, and read again,
in every part of the United Kingdom. But we cannot forbear
expressing our admiration of the manly plainness and truth-
fuhless which characterise Lord John Russell's allusions
to the course which he has, in former periods, taken
on the subject of the corn-laws, and to the changes
which the observation and experience of twenty. years have
gradually effectedin,his views. His Lordship's acknowlettg-
ment of former errors of opinion is, as might be expected
from a public man of his character, frank and full. Lord
John Russell can afford to acknowledge an error of, judg-
ment, in plain, honest English. He has no occasion to fear
Hansard; nor need he be perpetually calling that witness
into court to speak (under guidance of skilfully-put leading
questions) to his character for " consistency." In retracting
a mistake, Lord John Russell has nothing except the mis-
take to retract. He has never fostered popular delusions
that he inwardly scorned, nor played on popular weaknesses
for the sake of increasing his Parliamentary strength. He
has never descended to the meanness of making political
capital out of passions and ignorance that he despised, and
raising votes and majorities - on the false pretence of a
simulated participation in dominant prejudices. When
Lord John Russsell finds that he has been in
error, he can dare to say so, without circumlocution. He
once was of opinion that corn was an exception to the
general rules of political economy, and he treated it ex-
ceptionally. Observation and experience have convinced
him that the case of corn is not exceptional, and he repu-
diates a policy whose foundation is recognised to be false
and vicious. He once considered that a compromise might
be beneficially effected, and he proposed a compromise—the
compromise was rejected—the question has since outgrown
compromise—and he desists from the futile search for a
via media in which nobody is desirous of walking. We have
here a " consistency" infinitely worthier of an English
statesman than that which laboriously vindicates and
" proves" itself by rule of Hansard. Lord John Russell's
consistency is not that of this year's opinions with the
opinions of twenty years ago ; it is the consistency of words
with thoughts—of conduct with conviction—consistency
in cautious and well-considered progress—the con-
sistency of a mind open to the teachings of ob-
servation and experience, and participating in the
spirit of an • age distinguished for its advances
in social and economical science. The following passage of
his Lordship's address to the London electors will be read by
the country with especial satisfaction, both for the manly
straightforwardness of. its tone, and the announcement-which
it contains of a full and and unreserved adhesion to the great
rinciple of commercial and industrial liberty..:—" I confess
that on the general subject my views have in the course of
twenty years undergone a great alteration. I used to be of
opinion that corn was an exception to the general rules of poli-
tical economy ; BUT OBSERVATION AND EXPERIENCE HAVE
CONVINCED ME THAT WE OUGHT TO ABSTAIN FROM ALL IN-
TERFERENCE WITH THE SUPPLY OF FOOD. Neither a Go-
vernment nor a Legislature can ever regulate the corn market
with the beneficial effects which the entire freedom of sale and
purchase are sure of themselves to produce." Whether the aris-
tocracy of Great Britain are likely to make a wise and timcly
improvement of the counsel so earnestly tendered to them by a
distinguished member of their own order, who unites with
popular 'principles, and a long-tried devotion to the popular
cause, a full appreciation of the value of the aristocratic
element of our constitution, and whose attachment to the
real and permanent interests of an institution deriving its
strength from " ancient associations and the memory of
immortal services" needs no voucher beyond the name of
Russell—the events of the next few months, or weeks, will
decide. Our aristocracy may rest assured that " the struggle
to make bread scarce and dear" is indeed " deeply injurious
to them"—fatally damaging to the character of their order,
which it identifies with as sordid meanness and jobbery as
ever were perpetrated by a ruling class, and fraught with
peril to the continuance of a power which cannot very
long survive the loss of character by its depositaries.
The nobility and gentry of England must know
that this struggle can only end in one way. The " result of
resistanceto qualified concessions" will be now that which,
in the history of this country—most emphatically in the last
twenty years of our history—it invariably has been. That
resistance has been already made, and its necessary result is
past the power of man to recal. The tide of national intelli-
gence and national will has fairly set in, and all the Dame
Partingtons on earth cannot turn it back. Free-trade is as
certain a fact in our immediate political future, as was Par-
liamentary Reform this time fifteen years ago. Sharing, as
we do, the conviction that aristocracy is an element of our
social and political state, the preservation of which is to be
desired, we would gladly see landlordism desist,
while it is time, from a conflict which can have
but one termination, and whose continuance en-
dangers interests decidedly more valuable than even the
averages, the pivot, the slides, the rests, and the fifty-six
shillings. On the mind and heart of the people of England
the summons of the Liberal leader will tell promptly and
powerfully. Those spontaneous energies and efforts of which
our columns from day to day bear such ample witness, will
receive a new impulse from the voice of a statesman whose
name is " strong ' in "associations," and in the memory of
" services," which if less " ancient " than those which con-
stitute the prestige of aristocracy, are not less potent to stir
the national heart. The " unequivocal expression of the
public voice" will fall louder and louder on the ear of a
Minister faithless to his great trust, and reckless of his
solemn responsibilities. The " excuse," for which Lord
John Russell charitably—perhaps justly—assumes the
Government to be " waiting,' will be presented in a form
which " excuse" never took before. With a force like that
which wrenched Schedule A from a boroughmongering
oligarchy will the people of thane realms now "unite to put
an end to a system which has been proved to be THE BLIGHT OF
COMMERCE, THE BANE OF AGRICULTURE, THE SOURCE OF
SITTER DIVISIONS AMONG CLASSES, THE CAUSE OF PENURY,
FEVER, MORTALITY, AND CRIME AMONG THE PEOPLE."