Ministers have been receiving such expression of public re- quirements
as can be conveyed by deputations,--always too par- tial a medium to be trustworthy. When the deputation repre- sents a class or a local interest, there is some means of testing its representative genuineness ; and the body of gentlemen who asked the Government to establish provincial centres for effecting the transfer of stock wherever the Bank of England has a branch, may be understood to make a reasonable request on the authority of a real local interest. Thus, again, the deputation on fire- insurances makes out its case. A French company has opened a trade in French insurances on English property; such insur- ances are legal, they bear a moderate duty of md. not renew- able ; while our fire-insurances bear a heavy duty many hundreds per cent on the rate of insurance for the property of a poor man. The answer of the Chancellor of the Exchequer, that he must look to revenue, is irrelevant : a tax that operates as a protection in favour of a foreign competitor, and prevents a large proportion of business at home, is a bad tax, and is not justified by revenue considerations. The Archbishop of Canter- bury and the other members of the deputation who brought upon Lord Palmerston the weight of an organized movement for pro- moting a stricter observance of the Sabbath, have not the same- accurately-defined constituency ; and, representing more de- cidedly one side, their claims are less tangible, less clearly iden- tified with the wish of the whole public or of any class imme- diately or exclusively interested. They desire compulsory laws which numbers do not desire ; and the colloquy which subse- quently arose as to the best mode of getting up petitions of a novel and telling kind, proves that "they desire to make a public opinion which does not yet exist as they would paint it.
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