The Sun.
London, England, 1855-11-12 00:00:00

WHY NOT DISSOLVE PARLIAMENT ?

(From the Illustrated London News.)
Rumours have lately been prevalent that it is the in-
tention of the Government to dissolve Parliament. We
are not aware whether the rumours are entitled to credit;
but we think we are justified in stating that, whether
well or ill-founded, they give expression to a strong feel-
ing ; and that, if Government were so advised, and
would issue an appeal to the country, demanding its aid
in the vigorous prosecution of the war, a Parliament
would be returned of which the composition would em-
bolden and inspire the friends of justice and freedom in
every part of Europe, and strike more terror into the
councils of Russia than the raising by the Allies of
another army of 100,000 men, and the despatch of
another fleet to the Baltic or to the Euxine.
Why should not the Government take this step ? The
management of the war, under the auspices of Lord Pal-
merston, betokens the man of heart as well as the man
of genius ; the man for whom no detail is too small, and
no effort too gigantic. Yet it can scarcely be asserted
that the great bulk of our public men are inspired with
his high sentiments ; or that there is not a compact body
of men in the House of Commons whose personal ambi-
tion is larger than their patziotism or who ignore pa-
triotism altogether and sympathise with the enemies of
their country. The present Parliament is so constituted,
so evenly trimmed between the great contending parties
in the State, that this knot of factious and fractious
men, increased as it is from time to time by blunderers
and pedants, who make mistakes and cannot forgive
their country for finding them out, may at any time
have it in its power, by a temporary manoeuvre, or vote
upon a secondary question, to overthrow the present
Administration. Any one who has eyes to see and ears
to hear cannot but be aware of the efforts made by these
men to carry out their objects, which are so short-
sighted and suicidal as they are mean and paltry.
The peace for which they clamour is peace by sub-
mission to a rapacious and aggressive foe—peace by
betrayal of the interests of Europe—peace for the
sake of the corn trade with Odessa—peace for the sake
of fewer taxes—peace for the sake of the till—peace
at any price consistent with the existence of the nation.
Nay, we doubt whether national existence would be too
heavy a price to pay in the estimation of men who cannot
see that honour and justice are the bulwarks of great states,
and that no nation can long retain its independence
when its leading men are governed by no higher prin-
ciples and motives than those of the shop, and do not
consider slavery and degradation to be evils and calami-
ties far more deplorable than the worst horrors with
which war can afflict us.

A bad impression is created throughout Europe by the
efforts of these pugnacious disputants, and by the un-
certain breath of our Parliamentary system. When a
man who is known to have been once powerful in this
country, to have been the High Priest of public opinion,
to have led one of the greatest and most successful agi-
tations for the redress of a social wrong that was ever
known among a free people, indites a letter to state that
" is his conscience" he believes the present war " to be
more unnecessary, rash, and aimless, than any in our
history, and which, for the visionary objects avowed byt
its advocates, has had no parallel since the Crusades,"
the Emperor of Russia may well take heart and discover
a ray of hope amid the darkness that surrounds him.
The balance of his mind, swayed to peace by continued
reverses and humiliations, and the growing misery of his
people, will sway to the other side, if he can persuade
himself that Mr. Cobden, the chosen representative of
one of the largest and most intelligent constituencies of
England, represents, in the sentence we have quoted,
the opinions of those who sent him to Parliament, or of
any considerable section of the British people. If he
reflect at the same time that one of the members for the
great and renowned city of London, the chosen delegate
of the metropolis of the world, is of opinion that his
country rejected fair proposals of peace in April last,
and must consequently have been in the wrong ever
since ; if he add to this melancholy, but to him cheering,
fact, the consolation that the member for the University
of Oxford that great seat of learning, renowned
throughout Christendom—sympathises with Holy Rus-
sia, and talks of her "paramount destiny" to conquer all
her foes, and be the supreme Power of Europe ; and if,
moreover, he remembers that Manchester—the great
hive of manufactures—one of the busiest, most prosper.
ous, and most intelligent cities in the civilised world—
has two members who think Russia to be right and
their own country hopelessly wrong, and Turkey a
State predoomed to perish and not worth defending,
he may be excused for falling into the error of hoping
that, by some turn of the political wheel, these men
may come into power, and wield for a short spare the
destinies of Britain. He knows enough of the British
Parliament to be aware that in that short space he
might accomplish, by the aid of his English friends,
what he could not accomplish by the strategy or the
valour of Prince Gortschakoff or the Grand Duke
Constantine ; and that, if nothing is to be gained
from the might of his own right arm, everything may
be expected from the paralysation of the arm of his
cpponents.
Is it not time to show the world, once for all, that the
British people are swayed by their nobler motives ?
that they repudiate the men who would tarnish their
honour, impair their independence, and lower them
in the rank of nations ? Is it not time to show
that there is not, will not, and cannot be, any mistake
about the objects of the war, and that the nation is pre-
pared for any amount of sacrifice or exertion to carry
them out To use Mr. Cobden's own words, " there is
nothing for it but an appeal to the manhood of Eng-
land." If Lord Palmerston will but speak the word—
if he will but say, or cause his Sovereign to say, in
short, pithy, unmistakeable terms, that which every true
Briton feels—that which animates the soldier in the
camp and the sailor in the ship—and in that sense ask
the constituencies of the empire to return him a Parlia-
ment, there will come to him before Christmas a re-
sponse that will strengthen the hands of England and
those of its Allies, and carry discouragement and dis-
comfiture into the ranks of the enemy. On all great
questions a direct appeal to the people is the safety of
this country—as, indeed, of any other. The present oc-
sion is one of them. If it were judged advisable to ask
the constituencies, as Lord Derby did, whether they
approved of Free-trade as a principle of social policy, it
is advisable for stronger reasons to ask them whether
they approve of the principle of the war, and whether
they are prepared to carry it on, coute qui coute, until
they conquer and secure an honourable and a permanent
peace ? To expect that all the friends of Russia would
be thereby excluded from the next Parliament, and that
none but true patriots and men of common sense would
be returned to it, would be to expect too much ; but,
judging from the strength and unanimity of the popular
feeling, it is probable that three out of four—or even
nine out of ton—of the impracticable peacemongers
would appeal in vain to the constituencies.
There is not a soldier in the army, or a sailor in the
fleet, who would not think it worth a month's pay to
t2l3lun ow
tuh:eeeni
isrdoe w
hear that Mr. Cobden, Mr. Bright, Mr. Gladstone, and
all other members oParliament who sympathise with
Russia, were consigned to private life and political
extinction. If Lord Palmerston will give our brave
defenders and allies this gratification, he will prove him-
selfyaosu
young
well ao so
blood
bold.
the
aTherm army,
country not
enwo t onlyblood
iwantsnth the
f
Cayomams ()onus;
neT;heFoieldid-hmaanrdsshaalrseoralwl
well-mean-
ing used
up, andGn
aetni the
eorna l r
Simpson.
and Gladstones are as antiquated
repre-
sents the effete quarrel of The existing
aPgaerinlierpernottention.qiinuipreensn'at the present time a Parliament
that shall represent the more vigorous and important
respect
quarrelpectr of
c Cohen national
bens quite
independence—ight
barbarism. The nation wants
ranadn"
odncroachingioroaching
. h In this
simply at the cannon's mouth, but in themcaonunocoildccnmot-
ber. Of what use would manhood be in the field if we
had a ministry of Cobden' and Gladstones to direct it ?

Le Nord specially commends Mr. Cobden's, letter in
,
the Leeds Mercury to its readers, as being very vigor-
ous, instructive, and interesting."
FEIGIITFIIL AND FATAL ACCIDENT. On Saturday
evening last, shortly after six o'clock, a frightful acci-
dent occurred to Mr. James Fyffe, a master lighterman,
and holding an appointment under the East India Com-
pany, residing in Union-street,. Deptford. The unfortu-
nate gentleman had arrived by train at the Deptford
station of the Greenwich Railway, and was in the act of
descending the flight of geometr!cal stairs leading into
the High-street, when, on reaching a turning, be by
some means overbalanced himself, being precpitated a
distance of upwards of IS feet on to the stone pavement
belOw; falling on his back. On being picked up he pre-
sented a frightful spectacle, the back portion of his skull
being literally smashed.