The Sun.
London, England, 1855-08-25 00:00:00

awl recreation of the Legislators ? It is a pro-
b1.0:1111 which does not seem very difficult of solu-
tion, which, we venture to say, any man of busi-
n(ss in the City would readily answer, and that
nine persons out of ten would acquiesce in the de-
cision.

" England is," as the Noble Lord truly
asserts, " the only nation in the world whose
most civilised inhabitants pass their summer in
towns, and retire to winter in the provinces."
Winter in town should be the rule, and not the
exception. But, by making the London winter
I commence at Easter, the natural order is inverted,
the spring is pushed on' far into the dog
days, and the beauties of the country are practi-
cally unknown, not merely to the members of
both Houses, and to their families and dependents,
but to the little " world " that suits its arrange-
ments to their convenience and moulds the
fashions to their wishes. Lord STANLEY is per-
fectly correct in saying that it is not the London
Season that regulates the Parliamentary Session,
.)tit the Session that regulates the Season. The
reform in the latter would, most assuredly, pro-
duce the no less important reform in the former,
and exercise a highly sanitary influence, not
merely on our Legislators, but on their' wives and
children, and all the " satellites " that follow the
movements of the leaders of fashion.
The suggestion of Lord STANLEY is to the effect
that Parliament should meet, as nearly as possible,
on the Ist of November ; that it should sit for six
weeks, adjourning about the 15th of December
for three weeks or a month, and should resume
its sittings not later than the 15th of January,
by which two clear months would be gained at
the time when the present session usually com-
mences. These two months may be taken from
the end, so that the prorogation might take place
luring the first or second week of June, instead
,f the first or second week of August, as at pre-
sent. Indeed an additional week might be spared,
Is there would be no necessity for the 'Whitsun-
tide holidays.
This is a simple and intelligible proposition—
one that can be thoroughly comprehended, and its
comparative advantages and disadvantages imme-
liately understood, mot wily by every member of
Parliament, but by every man of ordinary com-
drebension. It requires no argument to show
shat it would be a vast amelioration of the pre-
_ ._
ient system ; and when a large proportion of men
if all parties are in its favour, as asserted by
Lord STANLEY, there can scarcely be any difficulty
of carrying it into practical operation, and at ail
;vents trying an experiment, of the beneficial re-
-4ults whereof no reasonable doubt can be enter-
tained.

Foreigners must regard us as either a con-
3ummately conceited or an utterly infatuated
people if they judge us exclusively by the great
public undertakings over which Government has
control.

The superiority of other nations in matters of
taste connected with manufacture —generally
acknowledged until of late, when the establishment
of schools of art and the encouragement held out
to pupils have resulted in the elevation of our
industrial artists to an equality with their bre-
thren abroad, or at all events are likely to do
so—was always met by the complacent assertion
that, if beaten in the above- respect, we far sur-
passed all rivals in mechanical art, and in
everything else in which plain practical skill
and business energy were required ; that if our
designs were not so tasteful as those of our neigh-
bours, we could point, in all the pride of conscious
superiority, to works of unprecedented magnitude,
difficulty, and utility, executed with a rapidity,
an economy, and a precision that could only be
excelled by the completeness of the results. And
this, it must be admitted, was not far from the
truth ; but, unfortunately, it only applied to the
people, and not to their governors, whose practical
talents (as exhibited in public works) have always
been on a par with their taste.

Turn, for instance, to the records of the Ad-
miralty, and what a history of costly bungling
presents itself. Three-deckers, built at an enor-
mous cost, that when launched reproached their
architects for overburdening them with a super-
-0.110118 deck, and had to be returned to dock in
order to re-issue with only two. Two-deckers
that floated like tubs rather than sailed like ves-
sels of war, and minor craft that, if they did any-
thing well, turned bottom upward best of all.
Pitiful, doubtless, but recorded, and impossible to
escape the eye. Turn again to our public build-
ings ; what perplexity, want of plan, lavish ex-
penditure, and absence of all-embracing and com-
manding skill do they not reveal ! Look at our
National Gallery ; what Englishman but is
ashamed of it—at our Houses of Parliament, but
sighs over them !

And well are the latter calculated to evoke
such an expression of feeling. Whatever may he
their beauty in detail, he must be a bold man who
affirms he can discern the awe-inspiring or
commanding whole the frightful sums la-
vished on them warrant the provincialist in
anticipating. Whatever be the cause, it is
notorious that the desiderated effect is not yet
produced ; and after the original estimate has
been doubled by the expenditure, -we are called
upon to contribute a heavy additional amount for
alterations and additions. On the face of it there
must have been grievous blundering somewhere—
blundering that must not be repeated. Whatever
is really necessary to complete the original design
and for the due discharge of Governmental duties
there should be no hesitation in granting ; but any
scheme involving more than this, we will not say
should be rejected, but should not be sanctioned
without ample consideration by Parliament, which
it is to be hoped will approach the subject in an
enlightened spirit, without spleen, and without
favour, and only influenced by the necessities
of the case and the credit and honour of the
nation.