27 SEPTEMBER 1851, Page 1

The vacation manifestoes of Members of Parliament, or of aspi-

rants to that honour, at meetings political or semi-political, mul- tiply but slowly. Sir Edward Bulwer Lytton seems ambitious to assume the office of Protectionist champion, more than half-abdi- cated by Mr. Disraeli : Coningsby having given symptoms of a dis- position to fall back upon his original Free-trade faith, the Last of the Barons aspires to lead the yet unshaken Abdiels of the agricultural interest. Protection would seem to be the favourite field of dis- play for men of genius who combine the imaginative faculty with a craving for action : Disraeli has strutted his hour on that stage, and as he descends Bulwer mounts it. Soon, however, will it lose its attractions. One after another "the thanes fly from it." Lord Palmerston's Tiverton oration, oracularly obscure on all other points, is explicit in its avowal of his belief that Protection is at- an end for ever : until the Exe flow backward to its source, the cadent waters of Protection can experience no reflux.