The first election for an4ricilltuml County since the passing,of the
Tariff has taken place, and Carmarthen has elected a Con servative, who is an advocate for " protection," but who abstains from giving anything like distinct pledges as to what he will or mill not do in the way of concession. Much has been done to unsay the startling almost Free-trade speeches of Agricultural Members in the South ; as in the cases of Mr. MILES, the Duke of RUTLAND, and Mr. THOMAS DYKE ACLAND. But, although no one, perhaps, would have founded on the authenticated statements of those gen- tlemen the conclusions which were drawn from the newspaper- reports, the effect of the stronger language is not altogether re- moved. -The Whig Chronicle remarks, and the Conservative Post reechoes, that Mr. ACLAND let Mr. &Erwin twit him to his face with conversion, and did. not repudiate it till a sensation had been made. And the qualified, statements are very different things from what the same persons would deliberately have uttered a few months back : they speak of resignation to the recent changes, of the admitted expediency of exertion, skill, ,and- intelligence in ' agriculture, instead of mere reliance on protection; and they imply that although the leading agriculturists may neither com- mend nor expect further change, they have lost their confidence that it will not come. Such appears to be the temper of the new County Member for Carmarthen. Mr. GEORGE BANKES has made himself illustrious at Blandford by declaring for the forlorn band of obstinate " no-surrender" agriculturists; his colleague, Mr. &rear, was scarcely so decided; and Lord ASHLEY altogether avoided the subject. Taking the recent conversions in the most [LATEST EDITION.]
limited and merely negative sense, that the converts no longer insist on what they once considered imperative, the revolution in opinion must have been considerable ; and so the desponding tone of the Morning Post, the stanchest of Protectionists, shows it is felt by the Conservatives themselves.
