Richmond enquirer. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1815-1867, 1844-12-31
THE ENGLISH PRESS.

II is amusing TO see the various speculations
which have been made in the London and Paris
papers, upon the unexpected election Of Mr.. Polk.
The event itself ough, 10 teach the Foreign Jour
nalists that The Wing presses in this country are
not the only nor indeed the most correct oracles
orthe public sentiment in this country. The sur
prise indeed seems 10 have affected all The presses;
but they remarkably vary in the effects they have
predicted, and the Spccula'ions they have called
forth. The Tory prints in England, and the Roy
al journals Of Paris, are full OF Indignation at the
election ola new man, just emerging from the
bosom of free people. They seem TO regard
him as the Fop described by Hotspur, as "com-
ing between the wind and his Nobility" But the
Wing and radical conrters in both countries con-
template it with more favor, and most of them
with cordial congratulations. We have already
published extracts from various London and Pa
ris papers. as the evidences Of their respective
opinions. 1t gives US pleasure 10 add 10 those the
following extracts from the London League" Of
November 80, which we have received by the
Acadia. Il halls MIR. Folks election as
GREAT TRIUMPH OF FREE TRADE IN
THE UNITED STATES.
GThe mos; remarkable feature in the Presidcn-
tial election in America, now virtually concluded,
is the utter scorn with which the advocates OF
protective Tariff have been treated, even in the
Eastern States; and the contempt manifested for
The miserable sophisms OF monopoly. Polk, per-
haps, owes his decisive triumph to a variety of
causes; but the advocacy of Free Trade has been
The principal source OF his success: it obtained for
him the votes OF many thousands who differed
from him on all other points OF Democratic
policy. Clay and his friends, in fact staked the
election on the Free trade issue; Webster expa-
tated on the virtues of prohibition TO the Penn
sylvanians with peversity oflogic which might
well excite the envy of our oratorcal monopoliss
In England; he adorned the cant Of protection 10
domestic industry with all The charms OF clo-
quence and poetry; but the absurdiy was TOO gross
and the evil TOO palpable TO be disguised BY de-
coralion, and, as the Gentoo provcrb says, the
wings OF the butterfly did not hide the body ofthe
disgusting caterpillar Mr. Webster himself, al
the very eve ofthe election, exclaimed AT Brook
Ign, that Free Trade was but DISBURSEMENT of
The Tory principle of l116-a mere renewal Of tho
attempt 10 tax America for the benefit Of En-
gland This was exaggerating our English fall
lacy of mo dependence on foreigners with VEN
geance; but the very eSaegeration helped TO expose
The delusion, and the voters OF New York State re-
volted from such sophisiry with disdan The
American monopolists, like their bretheren at
ing the most daring fasehoods: they assert
election, and that one hundred thousand
pounds had been subscribed 10 ensure the
return of Polk and Dallas. But this very
falsehood helped to ensure The defeat of its invent
ors: it would have been an additional recnmmen-
dation 10 the Free Traders of America had those
candidates possessed the confidence of the League,
and consequently, so far as the alsehood was Gre
dited, it served rather than injured their cause;
while its subsequent detection and exposure show
ed SO strongly the base and inscriptions charac-
ter of monopoly, that many, who had before
doubted, enlisted under the banners of Free Trade.
at had been vainly supposed, that the States OF
New York and Pennsylvania, the seats of many
protected manufactures, would have been found
s,aunch advocates Of the Tariff; but monopoly is
most distrus,ed where it is most known: the men
of those States discovered that the Tariff was an
excuse for high prices, Just as the English farmers
have found out that the Corn Laws are an excuse
for high rents. Monopoly has been defeated on
its own chosen grounds, as itwould be in the Eng