The Sun.
London, England, 1852-02-09 00:00:00

TO THE SECRETARY OF THE BRADFORD
REFORM ASSOCIATION.
(PUBLISHED EVERY MONDAY AND WEDNESDAY.)
Sir,—As the proceedings in Parliament since the first
day have been of inferior interest, on the principle ap-
parently on which school-boys put off everything to the
last, it may be allowable to go back to some of the
first day's proceedings and their consequences. To
which course I find myself further prompted by the dis-
cussions in your Bradford Observer, decidedly the bold-
est and ablest provincial paper within my knowledge,
and the one in whose judgement and opinions I feel the
most of confidence.
It strikes me that the newspapers have not accurately
represented what the Premier said in the portion of his
speech which is most likely to be brought up at the bar
of posterity. As my report may be as good as another's,
I will describe the facts as accurately as I am able. The
whole House was in a very low frame of mind; some-
thing like that of passengers in a steam-boat when they
have got a notion of a hole in the boiler, or a probable
rock under foot. Everything that was said in any quar-
ter was received with a dull silerc , like what might have
taken place in an assembly it, France or Algiers, which
bed received an intimation from the reigning Dry, that
noisiness would be punished with transportation to Cay-
enne. But e hen the Premier came to the passage con-
cerning the good intentions of the French President, it was
tollewod by a humming noise, mingled with some laughs
and cries of " Hear, hear," exactly as takes place in a
provincial public meeting when a speaker plunges into
something very contrary to what was expected from him,
—as if Joseph Stereo, for instance, should declare for
the necessity of immediately drilling every male, or Mr.
D'lsraeli burst out before his Buckinghemshire consti-
tuents on the importance of the ballot. The Premier
turned round to his supporters with a disappointed
air, and said he would repeat what he had said, for
he believed it had not been understood. He re-
peated it, and with the same reception, only in an in-
creased degree. And after all, it is my belief he was not
understood; the reason of which may be, that his mean-
ing was not easily intelligible. My individual persuasion
is, that he meant to lay down a rule, that though the
members of a Government may each of them in the
tribunal of their inward man be persuaded of the wicked-
ness of the acts of a foreign Autocrat, yet so long as the
Autocrat is an Autocrat, and all the powers of a nation
are prostrate at his feet, it is the duty of that,Government
in a certain Pickwickian sense to admit that the design of
the Autocrat may have been to do everything for the
best. This is a claim never extended to Jonathan Wild
when he aas uppermost; but there is no knowing what
may be come to. But what the newspapers appear to
have missed, is the Pickwichian sense. The Premier did not
say that either he or any of the Government individually
approved of the acts of the President, but that they col-
lectively tendered him their approbation in a certain
hypothetical and conventional sense, of which the term
Pickwickian is the only expression familiar to the ap-
prehension of Englishmen.
Surely on this subject it might have been permitted to
preserve a sullen silence, like a lady who found herself
shut up with loose company in a railway carriage. It
might not be prudent to speak all her mind; but the last
thing she would think of would be a declaration, that
she was in a certain sense bound to admit that her com-
panions were probably acting according to their own
views of life and its enjoyments.
I have not seen the article in the Eclectic Review al-
luded to in your journal of last week; and of course
can give no opinion on the authenticity of the informa-
tion purported to be conveyed. But this lam bound to
say, as a man who may be told hereafter he ought to
have had an opinion upon the subject and communi-
cated it to his constituents, that if something like what
is there threatened is not done, it will be because the
concerned are scant informed in their trade,—Mac
heaths who lay their hands upon the pistol,
and their heart fails them when they " hear
the sound of coaches." Are there not eighteen
millions, 3601. or 9,000 francs a-piece for an army of
50,000 men, the most splendid prize-money ever offered
on the face of the earth,—collected by a cruel supersti-
tion within two days' march of an invading army, or per-
haps no march at all; to say nothing of the
Kohi Noor, the natural heir-loom of the last
successful robber? The stories of the French auto-
crat having something else to do, are all " what gods
call potter and what men call prose." The precise, par-
ticular, actual danger is, that he should be forced on it
whether he will or no, as a faint-hearted confederate
is pushed forward by his bolder fellows. And all
the while the professed advocates of the people's
cause are doing their best to smooth you down with a
" Ye shall not surely die," as a lady who underwent the
knout in Russia used to be patted by the executioner to
make her put herself into the proper position.
I am afraid, from all at present seen, the question is
above the calibre of anything collected in the House of
Commons, and if the people are to be safe, the people
must lead the House and not the House the people. If
every man bad had a taste of the Austrian stick with
which somebody taunted the Italians, there could not
have been a more prudent absence of the energy which
might offend a conqueror. And here begins to
loom in the distance another danger, which
threatens you in your commercial capacity. The
Tories in the other House have poliucly laid the
ground, without incurring any responsibility at
present, fur declaring hereafter that they announced
their disapproval when the Whigs quailed. Now if two
or three French officers in disguise, with a clerical aide-
de-camp from the French general's instrument at Rome,
should be found in Ireland,—or the officers of a
French battalion in their cups should drink to the plun-
der of London as off aers in India did to the plunder of
Lahore,—a fear-born courage will take possession of the
nation, and it will be declared that everything
must give way to the necessity of self-preservation.
And then will step forward the Tories and insist, that
they are the men who never bent nor bowed, and to them
only the salvation of the country can be committed.
And the nation will believe them; and, so believ-
ing, what will become of you and your Free Trade?
The first not thoroughgoing despot who takes the
English side,—end some such there may be,—will
intimate that nothing would tend so much to strengthen
him in his position, as ceasing to bring on his back the
" protectors of his native industry." And so this bone
will be thrown to him as a very little thing. And then the
country will be appealed to if need be, to say whether
the Free-Traders were not found allied with everything
that could prevent the preparation against a foreign foe,
and whether if their advice had been taken the Chasseurs
de Vincennes would not have kept their New Year's Day at
Charing-Cross. I do not ask how far all this would be
literally true, but whether it is not what to a certainty
will be said, and act against you. Nobody is more con-
vinced of the impossibility of altering the past; but itere
is often a future, which is capable of a better and a worse.
Think of your being invited to trust to a Member's re-
port that he believes the sentiments of the present ruler of
France are perfectly amicable towards England, when.
so far as reports of that kind are of any value, it is as
well known as anything else which is matter of common
conversation, that when the individual in question was in
England, he declared to parties who are named, that
though he had great esteem for England and for English-
men, yet if he ever came to power he should think it a
duty to his uncle and to France, to attempt the invasion
of England. It is hard, on such foundations, to desire
you to leave your door open, in confidence that the steed
will not be stolen.
The speech of the leader of the Conservative Opposi-
tion, in the debate on the Address, was of the composi-
tion for which I believe you have a name in the manu-
facturing districts, where cloth that has been worn out
is torn to pieces and made up into new. The sufferings
of the farmers and the necessity of taxing yru for their
relief, Mr. McCulloch and the Pope, and all the rest of
the materials of last session, did service over again as if
they had never served before. Some of the Opposition
of the other end, did their best to set up the nephew of
his uncle, by calling him Napoleon. Possibly they have
persuaded themselves there has been a transmigration
of souls. It is very hard upon the old one.
It rained hard in the House of Commons during all
Thursday's sitting. One Member put up an umbrella.
A Roman would have been as much alarmed by such a
portent in the Senate-house, as when an ox spoke in the
Forum.

I am, Sir, your obedient servant,
AN OLD REFORMER.
Blackheath, 9 Feb. 1852.

SINKING OF A STEAM-BOAT.--Yesterday (Sunday)
shortly after twelve o'clock at noon, the Ant steam-boat,
which plies from the Adelphi-pier to London-bridge, left the
first-named place with a number of passengers. It was what
is technically termed dead low water. The vessel proceeded
as far as Blackfriars-bridge without meeting any accident,
but as she was passing under one of the arches another
steam-packet came along, and caused the water to turn off
in the opposite direction to that taken by the Ant. The con
sequence was that she was dragged over a heap of ston
placed on the bed of the river to strengthen the piers. The
speed at which the boat was going caused a portion of the
bottom to give way, and the passengers experienced a most
unusual sensation; for as the water entered through the
aperture in the steamer, it caused it to rock to and fro with
amaziug rapidity. The captain, knowing what had taken
place, refrained from telling the passengers, and the vessel
proceeded towards its destination without any one but the
crew being aware of what had occurred. Shortly after pass-
ing under Southwark-bridge the cabin passengers became
tearfully excited, owing to the water gushing in in a tremen-
dous body, and there is no doubt but many would have
jumped overboard had the steamer been far away from the
landing pier, and thereby have perished. As it was, the
boat was run alongside of the dummy at the London-bridge
pier, and the passengers were all enabled to land in safety.
The water in the hold of the steamer accumulated so fa st as
the tide rose that the vessel sunk, and last evening the ves-
sel still remained under water.
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—On Saturday Lord Brougham's Bill TY COURTS BILL.
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