22 DECEMBER 1849, Page 1

NEWS OF THE WEEK.

PROTECTIONIST activity continues, although the movement is .still without definitely settled object; and at last Free-trade ac- tivity threatens to revive, in a counter-movement. The Protec- tionists, indeed, do not gain ground, but rather, by their repeated demonstrations, expose the limited ground they occupy. At three meetings this week, their leaders have been Colonel Sibthorp, Mr. Cayley, and Earl Stanhope; who manifestly enjoy a degree of confidence not accorded to the literary leader, Mr. Disraeli, or to the maritime ally, Mr. George Frederick Young. But what can be expected of a movement that gives the preference to such leaders,—to a Whig alienated from his party and all its influence in the particular matter ; to the eccentric Member for Lincoln, or the more eccentric Earl? Still, lest mere silence and forbear- ance should inspire too mischievous a boldness in the party, Mr. Cobden is going to apply a counteractive ; and for that purpose, he will beard the lion Disraeli in his Buckinghamshire den ; where also he will explain how he manages to succeed as a landlord in Sussex. His plan he did not expound ; but as Mr. Cobden is al- ways powerful on matters of fact, and as his plan seems to be based on justice to the tenant, he is likely to have an influence on the farmer mind very troublesome to stationary or retrograde landlords.

The direct busigensyof his visit to Leeds, however, was to promote the Financtat Reform movement and its adjuncts. On this occasion Mr. Cobden delivered a very animated and powerful speech, and in the course of it took pains to strengthen his position in various respects. He averred that his mind had long been filled with thoughts of help for the agriculturists in their transition state, and that such was the very object of his plans for financial reform. He testified that he had not " impropriated " the freehold land movement, by expressly recognizing its author, Mr. Richard Taylor of Birmingham, as the originator of "the best reform" he had ever known. In like manner, he revised all his former declarations, bringing them up to the latest view. In the corrected version of his policy Mr. Cobden's plans look better ; but they still seem to be disproportionately small for their ob- jects. They are not counter to any further reforms; but there is no evidence that they have yet created a genuine interest among the working classes, or will extend any political power to them. It is a thoroughly bourgeois movement. Among the important points in his speech, however, is the express avowal that every one has a right of subsistence out of the land.

In Ireland also, divers Peers and others are getting up a Pro- tectionist movement about the country ; but there appears to be no substance in their show of strength. They are only so many gentlemen, without any popular following. The operation of the Encumbered Estates Act, in ousting several ostensible proprietors, oshows how little the apparent owners of the soil have any real interest in the land. The popular leaders, of the Repeal or Na- tional party, are still squabbling among themselves. The Pro- tectionist movement represents a party wanting many elements of material strength and popular influence.