The Sun.
London, England, 1852-06-04 00:00:00

solved upon in consequence, something like a final
settlement of existing difficulties was promised
to be given next Monday by the Right
Honourable the CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER.
Considering the entanglement into which some of the
most important business of the session has been
brought by unnecessary debates and still more un-
necessary adjournments, more than this could not,
we conceive, have been reasonably expected. There
was the question regarding that unfortunate militia,
the consideration of which turned out the late Go-
vernment, and the reconsideration of which has since
impeded the progress of events under their successors.
Then there was the unlucky squabble about the grant
to Maynooth, which was transmuted from a local
question into a question involving the cause
of religious liberty or ethical toleration,
one of the most cherished, as it is assuredly one cf
the most. sacred and inestimable, among the funda-
mental principles of the Constitution. Besides these
matters, there were others under the consideration of
the Legislature of a magnitude calculated to em-
barrass even a recently nominated House of Com-
mons,
but complicated to a state of inextricable
bewilderment, when viewed by a Parliament in the
last stage of decrepitude, and trembling on the verge
of dissolution. Conspicuous among those, of course,
are the Law Reform Bills, referred to last evening
by the Right Honourable " Baronet the Member
for Ripon as idly tending, according to his view, to
waste the public time, because incapable of being
passed at what must necessarily be regarded not
merely as the fag-end of the session, but as the fag-
end of the Parliament.,
Unfortunately, affairs are so situated at the pre-
sent moment, that we are compelled to acquiesce
in a very great measure in the justice of
the opinion expressed by Sir JAMES GRAHAM in
the House of Commons yesterday. That opinion,
moreover, is unhappily by no means restricted
in its application. ' It is as idle under existing cir-
cumstances to look for any other comprehensive
measures of alleviation or improvement as it is indis-
putably idle to expect the successful completion of
all, or even of the principal of the proposed legal in-
novations. Elaborate efforts in the way of reform,
whether in regard to Chancery or in regard to the
Legislature, whether internal or colonial, whether
financial' or sanitary, were altogether " out of the
question" from the moment of the resignation of Lord
J. RUSSELL'S.Go-iemment. The situation of parties in
the House rendered it imperative on their successors,
if only for their own sakes, to dissolve the Parliament
at the earliest time that could be found at all practi-
cable. The estimates were, of course, imperatively
requisite, and after the estimates there were measures
which might be designated collectively the routine
business of the session, such as the Cabinet must find
it necessary to pass with as little delay as possible,
before its members could venture to appeal to the
country and seek the encouragement of the various
consti.uencies. It was felt even at an early period of
the session that the agitation raised in reference
to the grant to Maynooth was ill-considered under
the pressure of the existing exigency—with so much
justice, indeed, that Mr. Sroossait was himself com-
pelled to acknowledge last evening that it was im-
possible to enter into the serious inquiry of the
matter during the present Parliament, an admission
which was at once received with " loud cheers" from
the Opposition. Yet, with these convictions
weighing upon the conscience of the Legisla-
ture and upon the judgment of the general
community, the sessiorr has been extended into
June by a series of protracted discussions which
their originators must themselves have known all
along could by no possibility whatever yield any
practical benefit to the population. It was, there-
fore, time enough truly that some serious effort
should be made to prevent the continuance of these
needless and, consequently, most frivolous debates,
so that the summer might not elapse, aad the autumn
arrive before any visible prospect of the dissolution.
But for the appeal made yesterday by the CHAN
CELLoit cf the EXCHEQUER, the country stood in
peril of this rather terrible chance of procrastination.
But now that the imminence of the situation has
been dwelt ryen so forcibly by the Right
Hon. Gentleman, and the necessity fur some change
in the course pursued by the House of Commons,
explained in his lucid and: argumentative speech of
last evening, there is at length some probability of our
arriving at the class of these fruitless and protracted
discussions.

As an earnest of what may be now expected in the
way of concession from private Members, several I'm
Gentlemen who had motions on the paper gave way
last evening after the appeal made by the CHANCEL.
LOE Of the EXCHEQUER, so that the House was enabled
to go into
a Committee of Supply without any
further postponement. Thereupon several votes of
the miscellaneous estimates were passed with, com-
paratively speaking,
no interruption, the first serious
cause for debate being, as might have been expected,
the customary vote for Irish education. Aware
that on Monday next the CHANCELLOR of the
ExcuLQUER will,
according to promise, state what
business the Government will proceed with during
the present session, it is to be hoped that Hon. Mem-
bers will so far concede to the necessity of the
p
time as to comply in some measure with
riovfatelar. motionsDisnALreLra,y setting aside
tbe
the
whateverrequest
papers of the Commons, so that the
House may re-
solve itself into a Committee of
Supply upon every
day allowed by the rules of Parliament until such
time as the rest of the miscellaneous
esti-
mates can be completed. By acting thus
the sincere Reformers will, in the most
effectual manner, economize the public time,
for it cannot be supposed, for one instant, that any
measure with a view to improvement passed through
the Lords and Commons during the present session
could be otherwise than precipitately considered, or
could be otherwise, therefore, than most lamentably
superficial in character. Besides, on all the more
important questions of reform the People have to
decide at this moment—not the Parliament. The
House of Commons has only to vote the
residue of the miscellaneous estimates, and
accomplish the routine business still remaining on
the hands of Government, and then " quietly and
comfortably" be dissolved. At present the electors
of the United Kingdom can do little more than look
forward with all imaginable eagerness to this mos
desirable consummation.

The. session of 1852 will not be altogether wasted,
if some few among the numerous measures of
Legal Reform, now under the consideration of
Parliament, be brought to satisfactory conclusions
Legislature,
ere the dissolution. They are, indeed, the
points that can, by a
Only redeeming possibility,
the reproach of " doing nothing " from the
remove
ribmeecipnooggrn4is
erieete: down
.o_f
yt
the
e as
that can prevent the present year from
Billsa nleogwislapteinvediabglanwkill Thheefavlaisyt
ence.
Y
wheicahwiadelarragnage,amtooou,ntrelatingof
landed to
,A2eyb
take
person of practical experi-
the titles b
property is held in thisi country, and also to the pro-
cedure and practice a the courts of equity and com-
mon law. It is ESBt-ntial,
therefore,that no exertion
alreadnv
srorythtahte several Bills through
Parliament, 90
tgoese,a
without any unne-
sanctiathey may respectively
ample store of
tsreceivehheou remaininglshould
l bt
hees Legislativeparestages,
t a
cessary delay. There is
that,. even if
business for the new
no other reason for ',:x "
there were
oeztainly be Exceedingly desirable to
expedition it 'd
, wou,
addition to the matters necessarily prevent any
stand'
The Enfranchisement of co
t PYhold Rig
over.
persons • a Bill is one of
vital importance to all in any ,p
inter-
ested
a gree inter-
ested in property held under that tenure. The prac-
tical grievances arising under the system had long)
occupied the public attention. They had
been care-
fully and elaborately set forth twenty years
Since in
the report of the Real Property C _omminioner.,
who
strongly recommended the adoption of adequate re
medies for the acknowledged evil. These recommen-
dations, however, only led to the Act of 1941) Which
afforded facilities for the " voluntary" enfranchise.
ment of copyholds, and the " voluntary" commuta-
tion of heriots and other services. This statute has,