The Sun.
London, England, 1852-01-31 00:00:00

SATURDAY EVENING,

gland, when in crossing the Palmiet 6prnit River he
wls drowned, owing, it is understood, to the upsetting of
the cart in which he was travelling, and to his bc•comlng:
entangled in the tent cover, or receiving some accidental
blow, as, being a good swimmer, it was considered that
ho could have reached the bank if disentangled, or un-
hurt by any blow of the vehicle.
Her Majesty's steamer Vulcan arrived at the Buffalo
on the 16th inst. with troops and horses.

About 40 men of the 43d were left as a garrison to the
Castle at Cape Town, the panic in the West having ren-
dered that course advisable.

A further extract, dated East London, Dec. 17, states
that " the Vulcan came in yesterday, and has already
discharged nearly all the 43d. She is expected to sad
this evening.

FRONTIER.—GENERAL ORDER.
Head-quarters, King William's Town, Dec. 3, 1851.
In the commencement of the war Commodore Wyvill,
with his characteristic zeal for the good of her Majesty's
service, landed the marines of her Majesty's ships Castor
and Dee, under the Command of Lieutenants Harris
and Reed, for the purpose of joining the army—circum-
stances now demanding their return to their ships, his
Excellency the Commander in-Chief has great satis-
faction in conveying his marked approbation of the
conduct of Lieutenants Harris and Reed, and of the
non-commissioned officers and soldiers of the detachment
under their command.

They were attached to the 73d Regiment, and ac-
companied that corps on very many arduous patrols
their gallantry in the field and their endurance of
fatigue being ever cotispicuous.

(Signed)

A. J. CLOETE, Q.M.G.
_____

MINISTERIAL CHANGES, AND
THE NEW REFORM BILL
(From the Times.)

We have not kept count of the Ctibinet Councils, but
this afternoon's, we see it stated, will be the seventeenth
within about twice that number of days. It is natural
that expectation should be roused by such permanent
sitting, and, as rumour runs, since the commencement
of this great incubation we have been once on the eve
of a new Cabinet, and twice flattered with a reconstruc-
tion, besides distant glimpses of dissolutions, revolutions,
and radical reforms. But expectation is as proverbial
for ushering in small things as great, and it seems to be
generally felt that, if the effort is sustained very long,
the result will be very small. That is to be the case in
the present instance. It becomes our painful duty to
announce a meagre catastrophe. In the first place, Lord
Broughton retires from the Board of Control, and Mr.
Fox Mauls takes his place. Sokasenescentem, He has
left some heavy work to his successor in .:the construc-
tion of the new Bill for the Government of India. That
work devolves on a man whose long habits of business,
strong sense, and genial temper particularly qualify him
for it. So far all is well. The whole value of the change
cannot be known till Mr. Fox Maule's successor is ap-
pointed. This, however, is all the Ministerial modifica-
tion we aro yet to expect, but still it is about as little
as possible. The Indian charter being about to lapse,
something was necessary to be done, and Lord John has
given the work to the best man for the purpose he could
find in the existing Cabinet.
The great measure of the session is on much the ;
same scales—that is the infinitesimal. The principle of
the new Reform Bill is to propose as little as possible,
on the speculation that either the House of Commons
will accept that little, or will take on itself the respon-
sibility of more. There is to be neither disfranchise-
ment nor enfranchisement, as far as regards localities,
if' we are rightly informed, but only a general enlarge-
ment or swamping of the existing constituencies. For
the 101. householders we are to have 51. householders;
for the 501. tenants we are to have 20/. tenants ; and
the notorious boroughs are to be enlarged by copious
annexations. On this plan there will not be a single
change in the seats—no new metropolitan boroughs—no
more representatives for Manchester and Liverpool—
none for the score or two large towns now un-
represented—and no obliteration of the names
that have brought on the Reform Act the odium
of having created more corruption than it de.
stroyed. That, at least, is our present informa-
tion. We confess that we can hardly believe it. It is
impossible to suppose that a thriving town with twenty
thousand inhabitants—and there are many such—will
look on quietly while new Parliamentary boroughs are
faggoted round such places as Sudbury, Harwich, or St.
Albans, and they are themselves put off with their pre-
sent share in the county constituencies. As for our
huge metropolitan boroughs, except that they have hi-
therto been content to return perhaps the most inefficient
sot of men in the Howe, th®y could hardly be supposed
content with a less share of representatives than any
other equal population in the kingdom. Were London
inConnaught, were its princes peasants and its palaces
hovels, it would have twice as many Members. The new
Reform Bill is to effect no improvement in this point ;
the only alteration being, that whereas there are
now seventeen thousand registered electors in the
borough of Marylebone, there may possibly be
for the future twenty-five thousand, and so for
the other boroughs. Whether the representatives
will undergo a corresponding improvement we very
much doubt, or rather we have no doubt in the matter.
In the smaller class of boroughs, at present almost inva-
riably the sinks of corruption, we have to contemplate
the operation of a twofold change, viz., a reduced quali-
fication and a larger area. It may be readily conceded
that the larger the constituency the less chance of cor-
ruption, but it is a lamentable fact, whatever the infer-
ence, that the poorer the constituent the more accessible
he generally is to a bribe, and we cannot venture to re-
gard the addition of 5/. householders as a purifying de-
ment. If the 10/. householders aro to be washed by the
5/. householder=, what ablution is to be found for the
latter class? Passing from the boroughs to the counties,
it cannot, in common decency, be denied that a man who
pays a rent of 201. a year is a fair subject for enfran-
chisement. When freeholds are in the market for 201.,
surely the annual payment of that sum ought to be a
qualification. But there remains the practical question,
whether the agriculturists in many of our counties will
not bo entirely swamped by this change, unless it be ac-
companied by some provision in their favour.
It this is all that we are to expebt, the public will
deem either that Lord John has recoiled from the blast
of his own trumpet, or that he has been overruled in
his Cabinet, It may be that, as in some recent in-
stances, his Lordship thinks it best to throw a rough
measure into the House, leaving that body to fill up the
outline. But this is not a courageous policy, nor one
that can endure. We look for an initiative Government,
and any considerable alteration made in a Government
measure helps to transfer the initiative elsewhere, besides
that, patchwork is never so good as that which is thrown
off, so to speak, at one heat and from one master hand.
At this moment one of the chief dangers of the country
is pompous and abortive legislation. The statute-book
is encumbered with a brood of spurious measures, for
which nobody is responsible, and we may as well expect a'
child to thrive without the care of a parent as an Act of
Parliament to be effectually worked without some party
or other being specially committed to its success. That
however is the present mood of ;be
Legislature. There
is scarcely
a measure of the last two sessions of which
if it answers their purpose,
Government may not say,
" That is no child of ours. You • changed it at nurse;
and, to all appearance, we are threatened with some
halt-dozen changelings of
the same sort this session.
There is nothing healthy or robust in
the appearance of
the Reform 13111 as it is described to us; its features are
not marked, or its movements characteristic. It is only
the wax to receive any impression that may be put upon
it—the rude metal to be_ coined as this or that political
get the largest share, We moneyer may
rather
not the t; admit that
the present is
time for sweeping
changes. The tree is
planted ane to be trained
and pruned thanw* we have a House
and vie had
of Commons,better keep it,
for, once thrown away, lye May never find a substitute.
But the reform intended seems altogether to lose sight
of the occasion. The manifest diseases of the consti-
tuency are small boroughs i
Invariably
unrepresented, various important
large
towns wholly sous important classes
excluded from the franchise, and wealthy populations
without half their just share of representatives. The
remedies should be adjusted to these diseases, but the
remedies provided by the proposed measure have little
or no reference to them. There
was no such pressing
call for a lower qualification. in our boroughs, nor will
the nuisances among them be puch sweetened by the
infusion of suburban villages. However, as
the measure
betrays the agency of too many cooks, and has
probably
received some dozen revisions, there is hope that it may
undergo still further change before it istsabnaitted to the
Legislature.

battery
RIFLED CANNON.—A nine-pounder geld
with it in the
usual ni
gun has been grooved at the Royal Arsenal on the rifle prin.
ciple and experiments will shortly be made
spherical Let-.
marshes to ascertain its merit compared with the
pounder field battery gun when charged with
The four grooves in the rifle cannon are about half an inch
deep by half an inch broad each, and the shot and
shell in-
tended to be fired from it are made of the cylindro-conical or
sugar-loaf shape, with four projecting parts on each to
and fill the grooves. Both shot and shell are enter
galvanised
and so smooth and not liable to rust by that process that
they may be rammed home with the greatest ease, the
pressure of the hand being sufficient to place them an ark,:
length into the mouth of the cannon, although they are •
to fit more full than the spherical shot does, made
and consequently
they will have less windage and require a less charge of
powder. The sugar-loaf shape of the new galvanized iron
shot renders it of a far greater weight than a nine-pounder
spherical shot; and the principle on which it win
proceed '
an arrow
after being fired from a rifle cannon, being similar. to
instead of revolving in the same manner as spherical shot, is
expected to cause it to go more direct to the mark, and to
have a much longer range. Lieutenant-General Brotherton
was present on Blackheath on Wednesday.lalt to witness a
sergeant and two gunners firing with the Millie rifle and balls'
at a target.
Lieutenant.. Bedford pitll)
ARCTIC EXPEDITION.—
R.N., who has now been some time at St. Petersburgh
endeavouring to obtain Russian permission and coopers.tion in proceeding through Siberia to the Polar Sea, in
search of Sir John Franklin, has returned to
England,
having failed in all his endeavours to accomplish the great
object he had in view. This officer is now a volunteer
for employment in the expedition intended for the search to
the north-west of the Wellington Channel. A detail of England Lieutenant Pim's proceedings since leaving will be
laid before Sir Roderick Murchison,. the president of the
Geographical Society, under whose immediate auspices he
went out.
TUE EAST RETFORD ELECTION.—We believe the
writ for electing a burgess to serve in Parliament for the
borough of East Retford with Bassetlaw, in the place of
the Honourable Captain Duncombe, who since his election
has been chosen Member for the East Riding of Yorkshire,
will be moved for on the first night of the session, and the
election will be held s^me day in the ensuing week. At
present no one is in the field as a candidate, but the lion
W. E. Duncombe, eldest son of Lord Fevershatn, and we be:
lieve that he will be returned without opposition.—Doncaster
Gazette.
An attempt is being made to obtain the franchise
for Ramsgate.