THE THREATENED DISSOLUTION.
THE rumours of an approaching dissolution of Parliament, to which we alluded last week, still continue. It is best to be pre- pared for any contingency ; and so there can be no harm in the electoral body throughout the empire looking about to see what use they can make of an election. Ministers seem to wish to go to the hustings upon their Irish Registration Bill. Any real extension of the suffrage contemplated by that measure, it would ill become us to challenge ; but it would require a more intimate acquaintance with Irish statistics than we possess, to say whether the actual working of the new qualification will much increase the number of voters. It may also be questioned whether leasehold occupation, with the small farnis, rackrents, and frequent arrears of Ireland, will, without the ballot, give an in- dependent constituency. These are considerations not to be over- looked. It is our duty to watch as jealously over the interests of Ireland as over the interests of Yorkshire ; and therefore it is our duty to support only such measures as are really calculated to benefit 'Ireland—not mere claptrap legislation atiempted for the purpose of making a " splash on the hustings." It is also incumbent upon us not to overlook the interests of this side of the Channel in our care for Ireland. It is written that we ought to "love our neighbour as ourselves "—not better than our- selves. We are told that "he who provideth not for his own household is worse than an infidel." When honourable candidates say what they are going to do for Ireland, care should be taken to ask them at the same time what they propose to do for England and Scotland. The class of Liberals who used to make their devotion to Negroes at a distance pay off the score of neglected duty at home, seem now to be falling back upon Ireland. If we are to have an election, it will come speedily, and every- where take the electors by surprise. There is no time to deliberate upon what reform ought to be made the great demand at the hust- ings. That which lies nearest at hand—that which occupies the thoughts and wishes of most men at the moment—ought, under such circumstances, to be taken up. There is no question at pre- sent under discussion so likely to affect the elections, or calculated to produce so great an amount of immediate tangible good, as the financial reform suggested by the Report of the Committee of the House of Commons upon Import-duties. The existing tariff is felt as a burden in every house. There is not a washerwomen who sits down to her slice of bread and butter and cup of tea but feels its pressure. In the large body of evidence delivered to the Committee on Import-duties, there is nothing more striking than the account of the rapid improvement of the habits of the working-classes under the influence of tem- perance coffeehouses, and the check which has been given to these institutions by the operation of our Custom-duties. Our traders with Brazil and the United States dread reprisals on account of our prohibitory duties. And all our great merchants feel their opera- tions limited by the tendency of these duties to prevent the natural expansion of our commerce. The conviction is daily gaining ground, that inasmuch as all are consumers, the interests of the consumers ought to be the principal object in determining the amount and distribution of import-duties. The spirit of Husxissox's legislation has survived, although there has been no statesman to catch up the torch he let fall : the cause has grown, although the noise of other discussions has diverted attention from its progress. That Sir ROBERT PEEL should declare his adherence to the cause of the consumers—that the Times and Morning -Chronicle should simultaneously urge upon their parties the expediency of conciliating support by trying to give effect to the suggestions of the Committee upon Import-duties—are signs of the times not to be neglected.
There is another reason for grappling with this commercial and financial question, which will give additional impetus to the advance of the public mind in the direction of free-trade. The revenue continues deficient the debt has been increasing ; and we have to look forward to the certainty of a small and the possibility of a great war expenditure. The report of the Committee demon- strates the possibility of increasing the public revenue, and at the same time alleviating the public burdens, by a judicious re- adjustment of our Import-duties. The public has an interest in seeing the experiment fairly tried, which promises to provide more liberally for the expenses of the state at less cost to each indi- vidual. The Government has an interest in seeing the experiment fairly tried, which promises to insure to them an adequate revenue, with less pressure to the tax-payers, and consequently diminished odium to themselves. Here, then, is a reform for which the public mind is clearly ripe. Here is a lever for turning the general election to account, if it take place as is threatened. But let the people keep the lever in their own hands and for their own use, instead of handing it over to Whig or Tory to be used for party purposes. There are false professors abroad. The agitation for the repeal of the Corn- laws has attained a degree of strength and independent action that troubles the repose of both parties. There are many among them who profess to be anxious for a remission of the tariff, in the hope that, amid the adjustment of so many duties, the duty upon corn may escape unscathed. There are some mouth-friends to Corn- law Repeal who stand pledged to that cause to an extent that threatens to interfere with their allegiance to Whiggery, and who think they see in the revision of the tariff an opportunity of back- ing out of their pledges. It behoves the electors to be on their guard against such hollow allies. Let them take care that when the other duties upon imports are overhauled, the duty upon corn do not escape scrutiny. When shuffiers prate to them about the folly of sacrificing free-trade in all other articles to an exclusive demand for free-trade in corn, let them stop their mouths by re- minding them, that the restrictive duties upon corn are the key- stone to the arch of our restrictive system ; that the " landed pre- ponderancy" will not lung tolerate other monopolies after their own has been taken from them ; and that, on the other hand, the restrictive duties upon food tell with deadliest effect upon the masses, while the removal of any of the rest would only benefit them indirectly and at second-hand.
Imperfect as our representative system is—taken at unawares as the independent electors are likely to be—still a proper selection of candidates, and the use of the Import-duties question in a sin- cere catholic spirit at the hustings, may insure the return of a body of Practical Reformers capable of holding the balance between the two factions in the House of Commons, and effecting much good for the country.
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