The Sun.
London, England, 1855-06-22 00:00:00

LONDON, FRIDAY, JUNE 22, 1355.

At twenty minutes past one o'clock this morn-
ing, just before the rising of the House, the ques-
tion was put on Sir E. B. LvrroN's amendment
relative to Administrative Reform. There had
been no previous discussion--a few members only
remained to witness the termination, of the pro-
ceedings that had occupied the evenings of Friday
and Monday, and produced such intense excite-
ment not only in official circles, but throughout
the whole length and breadth of the land. The
enthusiasm inside the house had, however,
subsided for the time being. It was known that
Ministers had unconditionally accepted the amend-
ment, and that there would therefore be no division.
The whippers-in on either side had graciously
accorded " leave of absence," and the wearied
legislators had, with few exceptions, availed them-
selves of the permission, and Maried away in quest
of amusement or repose. The ominous question,
pregnant with the fate of so many Government
ouvriers," was therefore put to "a beggarly
account of empty benches." It was anticipated
that it would have passed sub silentio. But not so.
One zealous red-tapist, like ACHATES, "faithful to
the last," still lingered near the tomb of buried job-
bery, and uttered a loud anl sonorous "no" at the
This ebullition a
question. deeply-excited feel-
ing, whether inspired by midUe devotion at the
shrine of BACCH US, or sorrow at the probable fate
of the younger children and daughters of the
oligarchy—attracted but little sympathy. A
hearty burst of laughter was all that the laconic
but heartfelt protest produced, and the amend-
ment, now put as a substantive motion, was
agreed to without a division.
It is, as we have stated, impossible that any
body of men can be more firmly pledged
on any point than Ministers now are on the
great question of Administrative Reform. In
this instance " the good beginning " has more
than half accomplished the great desideratum so
urgently demanded. We are faithfully promised;

at no distant period, " a careful revision of our
various official establishments with a view to sim-
plify and facilitate the transaction of public
business." There are no exceptions. None
can hug themselves in conscious security at
a supposed exemption from the common lot.
Every department and every grade, from
the highest to the lowest, falls within tht
scope of the resolution —" judicious tests of
merit" will be introduced in every quarter, not
merely for the neophytes seeking admission
within the charmed circle, but for those who
have already penetrated to the innermost shrine
and become, the very hierophants of the mysteries.
All " obstructions to the fair promotion and legi-
timate rewards" of merit must also be removed,
so that "the largest available proportion of the
energy and intelligence" of the country may be
secured for the public service. The widest field of
competition will be opened, and no man can ascend
a single rung in the ladder of promotion who has
not pre-eminently deserved the distinction.
Ministers have solemnly and deliberately
pledged themselves to accomplish this wqnderful
reformation, and it will be for the sincere and
zealous Reformers out of doors not only to aid
and assist them in carrying out the arduous task,
but to stimulate and encourage them should
there be any symptom of flagging, or any
relaxation of their efforts. As yet we- have
only words—it is vox et preterea nihil. Deeds
must speedily be added, all framed on a
sound and judicious principle, and calculated to
advance the final victory over corruption and
jobbery. For this purpose the most complete
information must still be sought after, and every
appointment, and still more, every promotion,
closely canvassed. Never were the labours of the
Association more needed. "The pressure from with-
out" cannot be relaxed for a single moment, lest an
impression should be produced that the public
have again become apathetic and indifferent on
the subject, or that the newly-born zeal has, in
any degree, cooled. It may, for a time at least,
be impossible to banish nepotism. The monster
may occasionally rear his hideous head in some
of the departments ; but the instances will
be comparatively rare, and there cannot again
be so flagrant a disregard of public opinion as
heretofore. The man appOinted or promoted
must be able to bear some, at least, of the tests,
and not altogether "a bad bargain" to her
MAJESTY. A searching exposure and unsparing
denunciation, in every instance, will, however
Gradually, lead to further ameliorations, until
(letur digniora, will be the motto fairly inscribed
on every official appointment. This will, however,
be a work of time and labour ; we cannot hope to
attain perfection per saltum. Every valuable
result requires toil, and that must be be-
stowed by the patriots who haie so nobly
stepped forward, and they must still receive the
unanimous and cordial support of the country.
Above all, every voter must purify himself. He
must firmly resolve not to apply to his represen-
tative for any favour as to the price of the vote
he has given. How can he expect the man whom
he expects to solicit Government on his behalf
to abstain from doing so on his own account, or
that of his immediate relatives and friends—this
wholesome purification, with the indispensable
preliminary of a real and thorough cleansing of
the Augean stables, and the introduction of " the
right _men into the right places."

The laudable endeavour recently made by
some of the most distinguished writers of the pre-
sent ago to 'waken the Literary Fund from its
tong torpor to something like activity, has, we
-,Tieve to say, as yet proved altogether ineffectual.
The Executive of that Society has been in a man-
ner hibernating, to adopt the humorous figure of
ipe.ech indulged in by " Boa," in season and out
of season, uninterruptedly almost from the period
of its foundation. It is still snoozing comfortably
between the blankets. With 30,0001. in hard
cash, and the title-deeds of other property to the
value of 2001. per annum, stowed away in its
strong-box, and the key under its pillow ! With
its old charter, primed and loaded with all man-
ner of detonative clauses and protective conditions
lying at its elbow in lieu of a blunderbuss I It
still slumbers on, undisturbed even by the
" cold pig" so very unceremoniously adminis-
tered to it the other morning by Mr. CHARLES
DICKENS, as Chairman of the Special Com-
mittee. " Beyond all question," as he him-
self protested while administering the dose to this
incorrigible Sluggard among our Charities, " the
Literary Fund has overslept itself." Neverthe-
less, energetic though his attempt to rouse the
delinquent from its long somnolency undoubtedly
was, it turned out on Saturday to be wholly in-
fructuous of the good intended by its originator.
Yet, in the very hour of disappointment, while
we are still lamenting over the failure of this first
effort to dissipate the dreaming and dozing of the
Literary Fund Executive, the most disheartened
among us may gain new hope from the assured
vivacity with which Mr. DICKENS declared at the
close of his animated remarks on the 16th instant
in Willis' s Rooms, that because of the very profound-
ness of the lamentable trance into which that
Literary Fund Executive appears to have lapsed
—" It ought now to be knocked up, and, please
GOD, we must get it out of bed some way or

another !" . Well—we believe this. But not yet

awhile. A very different course must be adopted
from that which was recently followed by the
Special Committee—if its members, and their well-
wishers (among whom we would have ourselves
enumerated) seriously hope to witness the expected
tableau of the Sleeper Awakened.

The well-intended effort made by Mr. C.

DICKENS and his colleagues altogether ap-
pears to us to have been too great, too
tarried, too much at random, to have ren-
dered it possible for it to prove in the end
effectual. Too much was attempted—so that
after all, in the haste and flurry, the " cold pig "
got scattered. The Report aimed at the achieve-
ment of au impossibility ; iu other words, it sug-
gested the accomplishment by one machine of
what could.'alone he effected by the aid of several.
We cannot but regret an error of judgment so
remarkable that, because of it, nothing was gained,
for the simple reason that everything was at-
tempted. The Special Committee, in fact, pro-
p)sed, through their Report, that not only
should the re-organised institution assume to
itself more comprehensively than ever the
character of an eleemosynary establishment, by
disbursing large!y to needy men of letters
henceforth both loans and annuities, but that it
should at the same time undertake to combine
within itself the appliances at once of a club-room
and of a library—developing its energies, in fact,
by experiment after experiment, until it might
ultimately expand into a Hall or College for the
service of Literary men and the honour of Litera-
ture. Lord JEFFREY'S description of the analogy
discoverable between the diverse capacities of the
steam-engine and the trunk of an elephant was
nothing to this. Rending an oak and pick-
ing uP a pin by the same means and almost
in the same breath, were nothing to the miracu-
lous adaptibility of the wonderfully incongruous
powers proposed, by the Report of the Special