The Sun.
London, England, 1855-06-23 00:00:00

THE INIELBITANTS OF KERTCII.

There were plenty of Tartars in the streets, dressed in
black sheepskin cap or white turban, with • handsome
jackets and wide breeches of dark s:lk or fine stuff,
and gaudy sashes round their waists. These fellows are of
the true Calmuck type with bullet head, forehead
villanously low, dark, piggish, roguish, twinkling eyes, obtuse
obstinate noses, straight lips, and globular chin. Unlike
most people, they improve in looks as they grow old, for their
beards, which only attain amplitude in age, then give a grizly
dignity and patriarchal air to their faces. Groups. of men in
long lank frock-coats, long waistcoats, trousers tucked into
their boots or falling down ever slipslod feet, sat on the door-
steps, in aspect and attiro the very image of a congregation
of seedy Puseyites, if such a thing could be imagined.
Most of these men wore caps instead of hats, the
clothing was of sober snuffy hues, to match their faces,
which were sombre and dirty and sallow. Their looks
were dejected and miserable, and as an Englishman or
a Frenchman came near they made haste to rise and to
salute his mightiness with uncovered head and obsequious
noddings and gesticulations. These were the remnants of
the Russian population, but there were among them Jews,
who might have stepped on any stage amid rounds of ap-
plause, in garb and face and aspect so truly Shylock-like were
they, cringing, wily, and spiteful, as though they had just
been kicked across the Rialto; and there was also a sprink-
ling of Armenians and Greeks; they were all leau,and un-
happy alike and very sorry specimens of Muscovite bourgeoisie.
Tartar women, scantily covered, were washing clothes in the
sea, like tamed Hecates—withered, angular, squalid, and
ugly in face and form.
. _

ADMI24TISII ATIYE BEEQEM,

No. 111.

" There was a little city, and few men within: and there
came a great king against it, and besieged it, and built bul-
warks against it. Now there was found in it a poor wise
man, and he by his wisdom delivered the city, yet no man
remembered that same poor man. Then said I, Wisdom is
better than strength : nevertheless, the poor man's wisdom es
despised, and his words not heard. *" Dread is not to
the wise, nor yet riches to men of 'understanding, nor yet fa-
vour to men of skill : but time and chance happeneth to
them aII."—ECCLESIASTES, chap. ix.

PROPERTY QUALIFICATION.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE SUN.
SlR,—Whatever of change there may be under the
sun, it is palpable there is but little in the amount of
estimation entertained for Wisdom-,-without• a balance
at her banker's. One would think the sentences I have
quoted above were written for, or prophetic of, our own
model constitution ; and they were so in the sense that
events repeat themselves, and Wisdom is ever self-con-
sistent.
About a century ago there was a poor wise 'man in
OUR little city, of the name of William Pitt. Being a
poor man, and not born a lord, he was despised accord-
ingly by that oligarchy among whom the Government was
apportioned as an inheritance, and they kicked him out of
place and power. But the time (like the present) being
one of difficulty, and the vessel of the State fast drifting,
from their incompetency, towards the breakers, the poor
wise man was found indispensable as a pilot, and hee-le-
livered the State. Now, in one thing the old policy has
been improved upon by the modern dominators, and that
is in grafting the poor wise man upon their own stock
(as a lord or belted earl), and straightway he and his
race, instead of adorning the illustrious poor, are of the
hereditary legislators of the land, who array themselves
in the cast plumes of his wisdom. Many a poor wise
man has done thus in the last three centuries, and not a
few have linen translated as I have mentioned. There
was Wolsey and Cromwell, and Russell and Raleigh,
and Baoon and Blake, and Somers, Churchill, Harley,
Yorke, Harcourt, Stanhope, Clive, 'Duncan, Legge,
Rood, Howe, Kenyon, Nelson, Abbot, Law, Best,
Brougham, and a host of others.
Now, these were poor wise men, who served the State
(or a clique, which is equally efficaciaus), and, not being
easily kept down or dispensed with, were bought off
from poor Wisdom, and, as a noble successor of one of
them said (in substance) on a late occasion, " We, their
descendants, sit in this House by virtue of the honours
achieved by their merit and services."
Yes, they succeed in transplanting the man and the
stock, but they cannot transfer the wisdom also. Na-
ture is, after all, too strong for them, and takes her re-
.venge of the men and the system.
Look at any of the present representatives of these
poor wise men (where the line has not already become
extinct), and make the comparison. See what creatures
they becoine after two or more descents—ae.memorable
for want of wit as their ancestor for the possession of it.
" Hereditary legislators, know ye not,
Who would be wise themselves must toil to learn ?"
This occasional infusion of new blood (though politic)
has been found insufficient to arrest the deterioration
that great wealth, peculiar privileges, and the non-
necessity for exertion inevitably tends to. On a privi-
leged caste, with hereditary distinctions independent of
merit, nature has set the brand of dissolution and decay.
By the sweat of his brow man is to eat bread, and labour
(in moderation) is a condition of efficiency, nay even of
health and continuance. Yet in this country Govern-
ment is claimed and exercised by such a class, and we
see with what results. The so-called aristocracy have
been tried and found wanting. Monopolising all power
—filling all offices—on whom can they now cast the
burden of inefficiency and failti6 ?
The-Times, in a series of articles, has lately been writ-
ing against this, and uttering opinions that I have ever
advocated. They were once called extreme and revolu-
tionary, but in the hoer of danger ale found to be salu-
tary. But, sir, it is is vain to cry out for the infusion
of new blood ; empty is the declamation that the fault.
is with the people in not sending fit men to represent
them, if, at the very threshold of House of Commons
crouches a treacherous but not inexorable law, that lets
pass the needy scion of nobility, but springs upon and
excludes the untitled intellect, the integrity, and the pa-
triotism that comes without the endowment of 300/. or
6001. per annum--the sop to the Cerberus that guards
the gates.
I have said, not inexorable law, and for other causes
than the one I have stated. It winks at fraud, 'contriv-
ance, and chicanery.. It yields to the fictitious convey-
ance—it is dazzled by a colourable qualification ; that is,
where its malignity is not evoked by party rancour, per-
sonal venom, or the fear that the entering member is
likely to prove a troublesome or unmanageable inmate.
So it allows to pass the members and nominees of the
Reform and the Carlton—the passive and pliable holders
of rotten revenues and no income ; while to the inde-
pendent spirit, the chosen of a constituency who love
and confide in him, this moribund monster, who was,
supposed to be dead but only sleepeth, starts up with
mischievous vitality to shut the gates against his useful-
ness and devotion. How, then, can it be ascribed to
the people in the choice of their representatives, that
" the political government of the nation is thrown into
the hands of the aristocratic families," because " the con-
stituencies have not returned to Parliament a sufficient
number of men competent to dispute or share that influ-
ence," seeing that the people's choice is limited to the
plutocracy or the landed interest ; and that when they
have chosen, without regard to either a man whom they
know, esteem, and trust, their choice is disregarded and
set aside ; and without giving them an opportunity to
amend it by a new one, an irresponsible tribunal forces
upon their insulted helplessness an individual whore they
have thrice rejected and refused their confidence, while
the Septennial Act, fit niter ego of such a law, fixes him
there for six long years of life.
Is such a transaction likely to encourage constituen-
cies tii'disregard rank an,d wealth, and honour with their
confidence merit and capacity alone ? Does it not
rather promote cliqueism and clubbism, caballing and
contrivance, and throw the Government of the country
into the hands of faction, incapacity, and selfishness ?
If* "to raise the character of the House of Commons
is an indispensable preliminary to the improvement of
the Government," can that take place until the interior
is open freely to the virtue and intelligence of the na-
tion, freed from all testa obstructed by no oaths, and
requiring no other passports than the unbiassed, choice
of a constituency entitled to be represented ?
I ever affirm that I and my constituent% were sacri-
ficed. I was the only member petitioned against in
whose case bribery, treating, or intimidation, was not
even dared to be whispered ; for my election, though a
contested one, did not cost 201., and yet, sacrificed upon
the altar of this iniquitous law, the pall of oblivion
seemed spread over the scene, and not a member was
found to claim for the people of this country freedom to
choose their own representatives.
Is Reformer but a name when a candidate becomes a
member ? Is the Radical pirty without heart or with-
out honesty ? They have seen all this, and a new Re-
form Bill introduced omitting a clause for the repeal of,
this law which the former one contained, and not a
voice among them was lifted up to characterise or supply
the omission. And when, the other day, a member
(though of somewhat equivocal. politics, yet deserving
thanks for this) moved for leave to expunge this obsolete
and thrice-condemned inconsistency from our statute
book, it was attended to by very few members, and
lost by a majority of, I think, but one vote. Again,
I ask, where was the Radical party, or is it become re-
duced to this ?
It is time for the people to act for themselves, and to
speak out in public meetings their wishes and their will.
If Administrative Reformers will turn their strength
in this practical direction they will. entitle themselves to
universal co-operation from all who desire the right men
for the right places. Let them denounce the fetters 'that
shackle choice, and they will speedily be struck away.
But if, disregarding the means of political regeneration,
it shall pretend to accomplish ends without them—if it
shall profess to aim at effects, yet be studiously regard-
less of causer, then such administrative reform is an im-
posture or a sham, which the nation and the association
will speedily find out. I believe there is honesty in it ; let
it be directed by good sense; in which hope I beg again
to subscribe myself,

Your faithful servant,
Temple, June, 1855. S. CARTER.
* See Times, February 8, 1855.

MR. PEEL'S NEGATION OP THE EXISTING
ABUSES IN OUR MILITARY SYSTEM.