advertising their universal specifics for the abolition of all political diseases. D'Israeli, the Jew-Gentile romance writer, and House of Commons enlivener, is a practitioner of this latter stamp. During the recess he was engaged in hawking his patent medicines about the rural districts; and he generally contrived to pop in upon poor farmers, "much bemused with beer," after their market dinners; and puffed off his little medical wares with the bronze flippancy which characterises his auctioneering eloquence. Last week he chose to exhibit in the senate, and although his fresh Balm of Gilead is not a whit better than any of his former curatives; he certainly succeeded in calling a larger amount of attention to his new simples, we may venture to call them.

Our readers will perhaps remember that the opening of the session was signalised by a financial piece of braggadocio on the part of the ministers, that the Chancellor of the Exchequer was likely to have a surplus of revenue, little short of two millions, at his disposal; and that the good guardian of the public-purse was somewhat at a loss what to do with his treasure-trove. This was enough for the vehement and voluble D'Israeli, who can say with Othello," upon this hint I spake;" and speak he accordingly did last week for several hours, with the benevolent intent of helping the Government to allocate the new-found fund, in such a mode as would prove most satisfactory to the Protectionist party. Three doses in the shape of resolutions were prescribed by Doctor D'Israeli to the House of Commons. The effect of the first would be to transfer to the consolidated fund the whole expense of the establishment of the Poor Laws; the second would transfer to the consolidated fund about half a million of other charges; and the third would place upon the general revenue of the united kingdom, the cost of maintaining and providing for the casual poor. The Doctor, moreover, declared with great fairness, that all this should be considered as but one of the measures which he contemplated for the health and cure of the body politic. Our readers will see at a glance that this recipe is in fact a revocation of the Poor Law system of Assessment; and that if the proposition were adopted, the present provision for the parochial poor must undergo a perfectly sweeping change. This class of considerations, however, Mr D'Israeli did not condescend to notice; his whole object being to win a little catch-penny popularity by suggesting a scheme ostensibly for the relief of the "agricultural interest." His

speech, therefore, and a succession of speeches, pro and con, were all partisan harangues, each orator availing himself of the occasion to disgorge his declamatory nothings concerning the distressing difficulties and no-difficulties of the passing time. The vapid, bootless character of two prolonged debates cannot be adequately described. We have Sir James Graham's statistics of his Netherby domains; Mr Wilson's dull repetition of his dissertations in the Economist; and then comes Mr Gladstone, the pillar of English Church and State Jesuitry, who, finding that his old "pastor and master," Sir R. Peel, has lost his chance of a third premiership, is evidently setting up for himself, and hopes to be carried into Downing Street on the shoulders of the protectionist palanquin bearers. The next interminable talker is the Tamworth Janus, who has one face for free trade, and another visage for protection rents. Sir Robert having exhausted all the usual sources of national prosperity, comes to the succour of the agriculturists by avowing himself the champion of brick-making! Other wiseacres may dive into mines and collieries for the extrication of national wealth, and suggest fallacious remedies for the relief of distressed farmers; but Sir R. Peel has one infallible specific for all our wants and woes: let other sages go where they may, but Sir Robert betakes himself to the brick-kiln! If bricks are allowed to be made ad libitum, without duty, and without the meddling measurement of impertinent excise-officers, Sir Robert Peel assures all men, women, and children, that national prosperity will be almost too great to be borne! How can surplus riches be more beneficially employed than in permitting bricks to fly about in perfect freedom!

Unluckily, at the close of two night's debate, Lord John Russell rises, big with the fate of D'Israeli's resolutions, and Sir Robert's bricks. The Premier, in a very complimentary style, praises all the orators in succession, and is very happy in extolling Sir Robert Peel's devotedness to free-trade, which his lordship well may; for, had it not been for that faux pas, Lord John would not now have sitting-room on the Treasury bench. After this routine of eulogy, the grand secret is at length disclosed; all the debaters of every party, and every shade of opinion, from Doctor D'Israeli to Doctor Peel, had founded all their sagacious suggestions on the assumed certainty of a SURPLUS; when, Ho!

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presto, begone, the First Lord waves his wand, and the vaunted surplus is declared to have no existence save in the ministerial mirage, which glittered for a moment over the financial sands on the first day of the session! And thus vanishes D'Israeli's doctoring and Peel's brick-making! Old Oxenstiern informed his son, "with what a trifle of wisdom the world was governed;" but in our day, it is plain that the world is governed without any wisdom at all!

SIR ROBERT PEEL ON PROTECTION AND RENTS.

Sir Robert Peel, in compliance, we presume, with the social liberalities of the season, has bethought himself of bestowing a nice Christmas box, in the shape of an epistle, on the above twofold theme-ostensibly addressed to his Staffordshire tenantryand here the ex-premier has to encounter a double difficulty. As a statesman, and moreover the identical minister who succeeded in carrying the repeal of the corn-laws-he has to contend with might and main against the bare supposition of any possible revival of the monster-evil-Protection. But, on the other hand, Sir Robert Peel has the good fortune to be the proprietor of large landed estates, of which the usufruct comes to him every six months in the agreeable mode of particularly well paid rents-which somehow or other tenants begin to think were estimated upon oldfashioned protectionist principles-not according to the tariff springing out of Cobdenite tenets. To meet this difficulty, Sir Robert has written and published a rather lengthy letter, in which he discusses very edifyingly the irrevocableness of his own legislation regarding the corn-laws-talks of the good effect of the "free import" of the main articles of subsistence" in maintaing a range of low prices in average seasons, and to prevent very high prices in seasons of dearth"-dwells with philosophical precision on the advantages of cheap national food and winds up his display of statemanship with a practical exhortation to his own tenants—and, of course, all other tenants-" to dismiss altogether from their calculations the prospect of renewed protection." So far, so good -the anti-protectionist statesman comes out in great force-and it is plain that D'Israeli or Lord Glengall are not likely to obtain adherents among the tenantry of the great writer of general epistles from Drayton Manor. But when, after dispatching the case of the

empire at large, Sir Robert Peel enters upon a sort of domestic disquisition as to the relation presently subsisting, and probably accruing, between himself and his Staffordshire rent-payers, we lose sight of that lucid decision, and uncompromising boldness, which characterise his declarations against defunct and never-tobe-restored protection. After reading twice over Sir Robert's exposition of a new "relation of landlord and tenant," obligingly sketched in his letter, we confess ourselves unable to gather any hints bearing on the permanent welfare of his landholding dependants. Sir Robert promises to consider this, and to consider that —to make a variety of calculations-endless enquiries on all conceivable subjects, at home and abroad-and to "co-operate" with his sturdy Staffordshire husbandmen "in preparing to meet, not only foreign, but home competition." Then follows the practical working of this doctrine of "co-operation," which consists in agricultural advice on Sir Robert's part, and in "wise economy-the command of adequate capital-the application of scientific skillthe liberal employment of labour"—and about a dozen other excellent things on the part of the farmers! At length we approach the core of this deep mystery-what about RENTS ?—and here Sir Robert, being familiar with the chefs d'œuvre of the great masters, treats us with a finished dash of chiaro oscuro, and blends light and shade so cleverly, as to make it very doubtful whether his tenants are to be really benefited or not. The only absolute certainty in the fore-ground is the matter-of-fact intimation that rents, "payable according to custom at Michaelmas and Lady-day," are still to be paid, together with all arrears, at the same solemn periods, and at the same customary rates! So runs the Drayton decree as to the peremptory payment of unlowered rents-for any abatement (if attainable) is reserved for future deliberation, and distant determination. If people pay punctually their old, protection rents, Sir Robert graciously engages to lay out "20 per cent. on such improvements as may be most beneficial to each farm."

Now, with all submission to the wisdom and liberality of the great parliamentary destroyer of protection, we beg to inquire, whether these arrangements meet the cases of the tenants thus lectured by their leviathan landlord of Drayton Manor. Is it true or false that prices are permanently fallen, and in consequence too of the very measure of abolition which Sir Robert Peel strained his strength to carry? Is it true or false that rents,

all rents, Sir Robert's own rents, were artificially enhanced by virtue of the protection so long afforded, and now "irrevocably withdrawn? These are the questions that require honest, practical solution, instead of evasive expedients such as Sir Robert Peel fills his letter with. Tenants must pay their accustomed rents is the burden of Sir Robert's Staffordshire ditty; and when they have sold crop or stock on forced terms to meet Sir Robert's austere audit, then they may go home penniless to dream of improvements made on Sir Robert Peel's own farm, by direction of Sir Robert's own agent! Ah Sir Robert, this won't do! In addition to being a liberal statesman, you must learn to be a liberal landlord. As you have helped to lower prices, now help to lower rents. Remember how angrily you denounced the Irish landlords. Set them a good example by foregoing a fair portion of income derived from land, and furnish your tenants with inducements for not joining the recruited ranks of the protectionists.

SIR ROBERT PEEL ON FREE TRADE AND RENTS: OR THE TWO VOICES FROM TAMWORTH.

In another part of our paper will be found, copied from the Times, a shrewd plain-speaking letter from a Lichfield correspondent, revealing the sore disappointment and dudgeon of the Staffordshire farmers on reading, or hearing read (for scholarship seldom guides the English plough), Sir Robert Peel's mysterious manifesto, which appeared in our last publication. We may take a little credit to ourselves for our early exposition of Sir Robert's oracular obscurities, which, from having closely studied the character and career of the ex-Premier, we felt ourselves tolerably qualified to interpret. The Lichfield commentator having the advantage of living in Sir Robert's vicinage, and, of course, of acquiring a knowledge of the Staffordshire sentiment regarding low prices and high rents, has informed us of the unmistakeable resentment of the agricultural ale-bibbers of that large county on finding that Sir Robert Peel turns out to be a Parliamentary Free-trader, and a Drayton Manor Protectionist! Who can adequately picture the dismay of a portly tenant farmer, whose savings have been sorrowfully melting away since the downfall of protection, when Sir Robert's dark sayings are opened up to him, like the