The Sun.
London, England, 1855-05-19 00:00:00

LONDON, SATURDAY, MAY 19, 1855.

" Doubt not, the Commoners, for whom we stand,
But they upon their ancient malice, will
Forget with the least cause, these his new honours."

"Baiting the Nineveh Bull" seems to be a
prevailing and rapidly-increasing practice in the
popular branch of the-Legislature. It is certainly
not a very creditable and by no means a safe
amusement. The enterprising tauridors have,
occasionally to deplore their reckless audacity.
But although many are tossed, others rush for-
ward to the rescue, anxious to inflict some wound
on the noble victim. There is some jealousy, and
much spite in this unworthy and very courageous
series of onslaughts on a single individual. It
is not usual with Englishmen to seek extraordinary
odds against any person, or tostrive to rail down by
clamour and bullying one whom they would
scarcely desire to encounter with equal weapons.
But Mr. LAYARD'S is a peculiar case. He is just
now the man of the people. His name has been
identified with the great cause of Administrative
and Military Reform ; and those who feel that
his success will consign them to comparative in-
significance—those who, like DEMETRIUS the silver-
smith, feel that " the craft by whi.3ll they have
been living" is endangered, are ready to seize on
any opportunity to, strive per fas gut nefas to
damage the too-daring assailant. The superseded
septnagenarian, who, having bitterly disappointed
the expectations excited in his behalf,_ sees the po-
pularity which he once enjoyed transferred to the
Honourable Gentleman the member for Ayles-
bury, complacently regards any blow Inflicted on
his competitor for—we should rather say his suc-
cessor in—the public favour. He has not himself
scrupled to come at the tail of a yelping pack,
who rushed open-mouthed on their intended prey,
whom they hoped to terrify by their number and
virulence. The signal thus given could scarcely
be disregarded. When the official dispenser of the
" loaves and fishes " showed his teeth, every puny
"waiter on PROVIDENCE," every hunter after the
crumbs of patronage that fall from the Ministerial
table, strives to bite, and'to inflict some damage
on the obnoxious member. Thus it was that,
although a house could not be maintained, to hear
the important motion of Sir ERSKINE PERRY re-
specting the mode by which the Anglo-Indian
army could be made available in the war against
RusSia, or the resolutions of Capt. SCOBELL re-
Vecting promotion in the navy, every seat was
?ivied, every part of the house filled, to hear
a question asked of the Hon. Member for
Aylesbury!"
for
the cold,
were there the slightest occasion
Velma not remark,ee- desire the Honourable Gen-
he will be d__ 11): discouraged, or to suppose that
which he has
beete:ll by the people in the ordeal to
subjected in consequence of his
rejection of an
omee for which he did not consider
himself qualified, while
that in which he could
really have been useful was
eeiven to one whose
qualifications were not of a v
highry order, and
who would have got on much better
and also of the lead he has taken in
the elsewhere,
of the great questions of the day. lutagther itati°ll
really no necessity for such ad-monition. The
Honourable Honourable Gentleman treats the aqsaults with the
profound contempt theyso eminently merit, while
he emphatically protests against the waste of valu-
able 'public time in such unseemly altercations, and
justifies himself in such a manueras to place him in a
14ieher position than ever. We sh al Ith erefore bestow
t'he advice which he does not require on lits as-
sailants, warn against suf-
whom we emphatically
fe ing themselves to be made the instruments of
such unworthy
has ehdesigns.
The Hon.
nor
Gentleman
that he can neither be bullied
cajoled—that he cannot
assailants,
be terrified by the-threats
of moustachioed
He
eaants, nor gained
tempting offers. over by
sneered can neither be frowned down,
coughed down, down, nor bought off; and,
therefore, it will be better to meet his argumeulo