The Sun.
London, England, 1845-12-10 00:00:00

SPIRIT of the PUBLIC JOURNALS

FROM THE MORNING PAPERS OF THIS DAY.
PROTECTION TO BRITISH INDUSTRY.
POST.- —The agriculturists of England have at length
declared themselves ; they reject by anticipation all pro-
posals of compromise ; they announce their resolution
not to die without a struggle. What the result of such
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mination to the agricultural body at large, because the
speech delivered .yesterday, by the Duke of Richmond,
at the annual meeting of the Royal Agricultural Pro-
tection Society, was so spirit-stirring an appeal to all
connected with the cultivation of the soil, that he must
be worse than an infidel who can doubt the indignant en-
thusiasm it will excite throughout the country. From
this moment we may date the commencement of an agi-
tation, compared with which all former movements have
only been the skirmishes that precede the general
action. Something we might say, perhaps, of the late-
ness of the period at which this resolution has been
taken, and something of the supineness hitherto
shown by Protection Societies • but the latter error
is nobly redeemed by the proceedings of yesterday, and
there is still time to remedy the past, if the present be
devoted to such exertions as English yeomen have shown
themselves capable of making. It never occurred to us
that the apparent inaction of the agricultural body arose
out of any want of a consciousness of their danger, or
still less that it had its origin in the cowardice of de-
spondency. We knew our countrymen better than to
suppose such things. We knew the difficulty of pro-
curing a general expression of feeling, or of producing
unanimity of action, amongst men scattered over the
face of the country, engaged in the anxieties of a
hazardous occupation, without organ Ned means of com-
munication, and crippled in their deliberations, when
opportunities for discussion were occasionally afforded,
by the absurd prohibition of any allusion to politics.
Now, however, a new impetus has been imparted to
the injured agriculturists. The principal protection
Society has given the word to agitate ; and the affiliated
institutions are no longer debarred from considering the
political bearings of their position, since the Duke of
Richmond has emphatically set them the example.
" The Protection Societies throughout the country,"
says his Grace, " must be up and doing. By all fair
and legitimate means you must show your determination
to the Minister and the leader of the Opposition. I say
nothing of the League, for the League would be nothing,
were it not led and supported by such men as Sir Robert
Peel and Lord John Russell." Here is no lackadaisical
abstinence from politics. The Duke, like an honest
tfiaornmiesr,thecraellsin
Grace proceeds to discuss the rumoured determination
atouspehadinegaosnpapdoelitiaenald as little owfhheensihtais-
emfeetit that he will
mises to do his duty, and we will answer for
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not lack followers. These are his Grace's words :
.atMinistersh e
question t o proposefairly thaned repeal
without o f
flinching. the corn-laws. o. rn I a wHs
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session is not
corn-has on the first or second ay o. e .
I, for my own part, do not believe it. I cannot
correct.
believe, upon such authority at least, that such perfidy
hthoepe
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Government
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repeal intention
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would or could enter into the mind of man. If, howes er,
such should turn out to be the case, all I can say is, that
I most sincerely hope that the House of Commons—that
re-
turned for thteateitxvuisirleoisfts
otphuuetr pose of defending agricultural
tt
hh
interests—willir
,* cI'Po r eis eo , I I ok• to the hereditary Peerage of En..
land. ' How far the Duke of Richmond's hope from the
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it: fit
se d
atby
large as
we • e
main
ttayventure to fore-
replesentatives of the agricultural constituencies may
tel ; that they may, even at the last moment, retrieve
the ground from which they have voluntarily re-
treated, is our earnest wish ; but we look ta the agri-
bceuljtuuof their own
cause. The sentiments expressed by the Duke, we take
pride in feeling, will have no novelty for the readers of
the Morning Post. That they are now more eloquently
expressed, we rejoice ; that they are now put forth fly
one holding the highest station and possessing all the
strength that is derived from extensive influence and
personal popularity, is a happy augury for the cause ;
and we should be indeed faint-hearted if we were to
doubt the inspiring effect of hi; Grace's speech on the
agricultural community. But there is another class of