The Sun.
London, England, 1852-02-11 00:00:00

EVENING,

WEDNESDAY

SPIRIT of the PUBLIC JOURNALS.
FROM THE MORNING PAPERS OF THIS DAY.
TlNlES.—lnstead of the stormy and protracted debate
which agitated two successive Parliaments on the occa-
sion of the last Reform Bill, the present bids fair to be
discussed as calmly as a Police or a Beer Bill. But like
its predecessor it will be fought on its details. Of those
details, till the Bill is
printed, we are but imperfectly
informed. The most salient point is the enfranchisement
of the 51. householders. On this proposal we must re-
peat our unwilling conviction that the new class of
voters, like the lowest class in all our existing constitu-
encies, will be simply a material for the exercise of cor-
ruption on a petty or a gigantic scale, according to the
size of the borough. He who said the other night that
the Si. householders would swamp the 101. householders
spoke to the good sense of every experienced member.
At all events, where the practice of bribery is prescrip-
tive the new Si. electors will rush with avidity into the
market of votes, and, like the expiring race of freemen,
overpower the more scrupulous 10/. householders. The
cure for this state of things, should it arise, will he
either a revocation of the dangerous been or vote by
ballot; but which is the more likely wo will
leave Lord John Russell to decide. The next point
in the order of importance, and which bids
fair to occupy many weeks of the session, is
Lord John's mode of dealing with the borough's which
ho has not the courage to disfranchise. We warn the
public that a comparison of the proposed schedule
with the map of English counties
wall disclose the
grossest absurdities, not to say impossibilities. In some
parts small boroughs lie so thick that if they are
decently augmented as propoesd they will form con-
tinuous borough districts, end reduce the county pro-
perly so called, to a very inconsiderable area. Nay, iu
some instances we do not see how the boroughs can he
augmented, so small is the interval between them, Ir
the new Parliamentary boroughs are made without re-
gard to the divisions of counties, then we have a great
stop towards equal electoral districts, to which Lord
John himself expresses the greatest objection. Nay,
whatever the details, the creation of sixty-seven new
district or partnership boroughs is going some way in
the direction he deprecates. It has already been dis-
covered by the sharp eyes of the Reformers that in more
than one instance the proposed annexation will simply
have the effect of harnessing a wild elephant
between two tame ones—that is, a borough
more remarkable hitherto for corruption than
nomination between towns or districts long obedient to
aristocratical menage. But, after all, when so many
counties have a lair claim to a larger share in the repre-
sentation, and also so many towns, will -those two rea-
sonable demands be satisfied with the creation of hybrid
coun-
ties or swollen towns, as people may please to describe
tbhoermou s
?ghLboertdw
jeoenhnconuunstsieelsl andsays ttohwants, miniature
England does not
consist wholly of counties and large towns, and that a
representation confined to those two species of consti-
tuencyexpress the in-
terestsfinds the want
supplied in the smaller boroughs. Yet having ascertained
this object, and found the proper means applied in the
and
wouldopi n 0
a not
s of
the adequately
country.
cha-
racterexisti genagltsomaltlhr, ro, anu
something which as yet can only be imagined. In every
aspect of the scheme we see only a superficial remedy
and an ephemeral duration, and, accordingly
we cannot
anticipate for the propose Bill even that degree of finality
ebor
ts o change that which exists into
, ho proceeds to alter their
which the Fates have accorded to the last.
CHRONICLE.—The curiously ambiguous reception
which the House of Commons gave to Lord John Rus-
sell's explanation of the provisions of his new Reform
Bill—the utter absence of anything like resolute oppo-
sition or hearty approval—is, perhaps, the best comment
on the merits of that singularly lame and disjointed
piece of workmanship. It is not in human nature either
to denounce or to admire a project which, as it contains
a little of everything to please everybody, cannot be
wholly bad—whilst its total lack of originality, and of
any definite and intelligible principle, precludes more
than a faint and listless acquiescence on the part of
those who are so fortunate as to deem it a real gain
to the popular cause. For our own part, the more
we look at that incoherent jumble which Lord
John has the nssurance to dignify with the
name of a " Reform Bill," and which he asks the
country to accept as the matured product of years of
anxious deliberation, the more are we amazed at his po-
verty of intellectual resources, and his destitution of
statesmanlike breadth of view. As a string of empirical
changes in the working details of our political life, it may
be good, bad, or indifferent; but as an enlarged and
amended Parliamentary Constitution for the British
empire, carefully framed and pretentiously announced
by the First Minister of the Crown and the '° leader of
the Liberal party," it is alike discreditable to its author
and insulting to the country. It is but too clear that
Lord John Russell has dealt with a great question in a
petty and n arrow spirit.
Years of elaborate trifling
have ended in the production of a scheme so thoroughly
crude, common-place, and trivial, that for aught we can
see, the humblest Treasury clerk might any day have
jotted down as good a one on his blotting paper at a
quarter of an hour's notice.
ADVERTISER.—The defects of the new Reform
Bill were not clearly perceived on Monday evening,
otherwise it would not have been so favourably re-
ceived by many of the Liberal party. When its great
and manifold deficiencies are fully apprehended, as they
soon will be, we shall find some of those independent
Members who greeted its developement on Monday,
transformed into its most strenuous opponents. What,
in the meantime, surprises us most is, that Mr. John
Bright, as the representative of the Manchester school of
reformers, should have regarded it as a mighty boon to
the country. Six or seven weeks only have elapsed,
since Mr. Bright took a prominent part at a great demon-
stration in Manchester, in favour of Reform; and cer-
tainly it would not be very easy to imagine two measures
more different, than the one which Mr. Bright then
advocated, and the Ministerial measure of Monday
which, to all intents and purposes, he accepted at the
hands of the Russell Ministry, The absence of disen-
franchising clauses ought alone to have rendered the
measure unacceptable to all real Reformers. The Bill
contains no schedule abolishing small boroughs which
are notoriously the seats of corruption. A separate Bill
is to be brought in to disenfranchise St. Albans,—from
which the legitimate inference would be, that there are
no other boroughs in England which need to have the
disenfranchising process applied to them,—whereas
there are at least sixty or seventy which are quite
as bad as St. Alban's.
And were a commission
similar to that which lately
dragged to light the
abounding corruptions in St. Albans, appointed to
inquire into the doings which have occurred in these
boroughs, it would be found that the bribery and
corruption in nearly all of them were quite as great as
in st, Albans. The only parties who will feel any
gratitude to the Noble Lord for their enfranchisement,
are those in small boroughs, who see a reasonable chance
of finding the franchise a marketable commodity. They
will prize the electoral right for no other reason than
that they hope to be able to turn a
penny by it. Its
measured by the money
value in their eyes will beit will
bring. Had the measure included
the ballot, wo might,
notwithstanding its many defects, have deemed it worthy
the acceptance of the country; but without that accom-
paniment, it will bo altogether worthless; and whatever
amount
of time the Legislature may devote to it, will be
wholly wasted. As the measure now stands, it will be
found, the momen itarrive comes into operation, should that
moment ever —a mockery and a delusion.

LAW INTELI---------
COURT OF QUEEN IGENCE;
RETIREMENT OF mii:'S BENCH, Feb. 10.
the members of the bar bd
In expectation of this JUSTICE PATTESON.
0 event, there was from the first
sitting of the Court not
niealso a considerable number
a very large attendance of
of tors. The inconve
means of ingress and egress,nt court, with no proper
ac-
commodation, soon became prison to those who were
and very few means of ac-
it)lisefidlleadlmwositthegnetnirtelelymebny,
in it, and was literally wed"
The back gallery of the cenftnd uP with human beings.
sire to pay respect to the
ladies. So sincere was the
ocdee:
retiring judge that number..
and the side gallery was
court during the whole of th remained standing in the
commendable pertinacity the -e day, maintaining with
first taken up. .poaitions which they had
Mr. Justice Erle came in from
his seat on the bench. Sir The the Bail Court, and took
and Mr. Napier, M.P., were aistuas Acland, Sir H. Inglis,
At the close of the argumeentsP,reaent•
trial, in a motion for a new
The ATTORNEY-GENERAL rose
rose with him, and continued stand! and the whole bar
Gentleman was speaking, 11, said Whilen the Learned
half of my brethren of the bar, I My Lords, on be-
address a few words to the Learned .7-lainl permission to
understand that we now see for th udge whom we all
bench of this Court. (Turning the last time upon the
Judge, he proceeded)—Mr. Justic,„,
the Learned
charged by my brethren at the bar to- Patteson, I am
sincere regret and common sorrow cnnvoY to
that you our
the last time on that bench where, for ne we see you for
two years, you have occupied a Seat 15: nearly twenty-
honourith
to yourself, and such unbound:
4 such infinite
the profession. And, as we are now ab' satisfaction to
it may not be entirely unbecoming in out to lose you,
wholly unwelcome to you to receive, Mt 0 to offer, nor
the universal sense of the whole .
profehe assurance of
high and sacred duties of the jedieisslion, that the
never more honestly or ably discgedn' office were
during your whole judicial life. Thong hthau by you
your memory will yet remain to ns we lose you,
proper position among those revered narnassuming its
nify this place and this hall, and will be cha which dig-
not more for that vast and varied learning erished by us
have profited and which all have admireLl hich all
untiring love of justice and truth, and thantb for that
oppression and wrong, that unflinching into at, hatred of
pose, that simplicity and singleness of heart, of pur-
benevolent kindness of nature, which leave t, and that
whether we should more revere the judge
orus in doubt
You will carry into your retirement
man. thelove the
and veneration, and the enduring attachment respect
respect
member of the profession. Wo rejoice to think of
every
though the sense of one infirmity, and the that
aPPreh
lest that should interfere with the perfect discharge ension
your duty, have made you withdraw from Yettr of
the vigour of 3, our powers, you will long remain. office in
impaired health, and long enjoy all the pleasures in nn-
We hope and pray that in that honourable retirement
happiness, and with full hearts we bid you
ag years of
respectfrd
and affectionate farewell.
At the close of this, address, which wiu
ad
delivered, the whole bar bowed in assent to ,
.smi_rably
ship; but the strangers, who were not fettered
bLord-
rules of professional decorum, expressed their y the
ra
by applause, as, indeed, they bad done —ore epproval
c
during its delivery. Their applause was than ence
hecked, and
~,,Aoc.n as Aiencv was restored, .

Mr. Justic;P ATTESON, who was much affected, an-
swered—Mr. Attorney-General and gentlemen of the
bar, I receive with proud satisfaction and With feelings