The Sun.
London, England, 1852-03-31 00:00:00

SPIRIT of the PUBLIC JOURNALS.
TIMES.—We have ever been ready to take the most fa-
vourable view of that singular position into which the ca-
prices of fortune, and the scarcely less unaccountable follies
of party, have thrown Lord Derby and his followers. We
have vindicated for them the greatest breadth of pledges and
length of tether. We have maintained that, instead of con-
tinually probing and torturing the Conservative leaders as to
the exact duration of the session, or the precise measures
which Government would presume to introduce, it rather be-
came the Opposition, who claimed a majority in the Com-
mons, and who therefore held the power in their own hands,
to do what they thought best, on their own responsibility,
without endeavouring to draw the Minister into gratuitous
engagements. Perhaps we inclined to this view of the Mi-
nisterial position, partly because, of all things in the
world, we dreaded those painful allegations of broken
faith which political engagements seldom fail to oc-
casion. It cannot be denied, however, that there has
been a definite understanding between the Ministry
and the threefold Opposition. There has been give
and take. The Opposition has been voting supplies and
passing estimates with as cheerful an acquiescence as if they
were enjoying a triumph instead of bearing a defeat. They
have done this in the belief—which we must maintain to
be fully justified by the general tenour of the Ministerial
explanations—that Lord Derby would not attempt to intro-
duce any measures that were not of immediate necessity.
Only three measures have been instanced—the Militia Bill,
Reform in Chancery, and the Bill for Disfranchising St.
Albans, and filling up the four vacant seats in the Legisla-
ture. As to the first and third there could be no demur ;
and perhaps when it is considered that many proceedings in
Chancery have been suspended and many suitors put to the
greatest inconvenience by the present state of uncertainty,
it may be conceded that justice cries for reform as urgently
as our altars and hearths for defence. Bat it was scarcely
possible to suppose that these three measures, though spun
out by idle controversy, eked out by private Bills,
and interrupted by all kinds of crotclets, would_
occupy raffia tent the length of an ordinary session ; or
would, in fact, do more than carry us a week or two beyond
the Whitsuntide holydays. It might not be possible to name
a week, or a month, for the dissolution; but a short session of
" a humble and useful" character" was all that was ex-
pected, and that expectation has been, in fact, the under-
standing on which supplies for a twelvemonth have been
freely granted, instead of their being restricted to six
months. We must confess, then, to a most unpleasant mis-
giving on, finding in Lord Derby's reply to Lord Minto last
night the °nib:ions words., " Nothing has- ever fallen from
my lips which could lead any man to suppose that the pre-
sent would be a session of unusually short duration. I never
said anything that could justify such a conclusion. I say,
further, that the continuance of the session depends on
causes over which I can have no control. Now, though it
is just possible to conceive the three specified measures being
made the pretence of debates so wordy and so unprofitable to
last any number of months, still, at the common rate of talking,
and with the example of Monday night's business-like debate in
the Commons, we cannot fairly reckon on the session lasting
beyond June at the furthest. If we are now to be told this
is all an imagination, it certainly looks as if Lord Derby
meditated an attempt to give the session a normal and or-
thodox appearance, instead of its being a mere interregnum
of necessity and routine. Possibly his Lordship may have
no such intention ; possibly he may simply mean, that inas-
much as he cannot tie men's tongues, and prescribe limits to
hostile eloquence or controversial ingenuity, therefore he can-
not tell when the Whigs will allow him his much-desired
appeal to the intelligence of the country. But, seeing all
the present appearances, quite as much as all the previous
announcements, encourage the expectation of a short routine
session, we feel staggered at Lord Derby's present declara-
tion. It certainly looks as if his Lordship could not brook
the tenure of "forbearance" by which he holds power. Like
the child who wishes to " sit up" till ten o'clock from mere
vanity, his Lordship would rather not be "sent to bed" two
months before his brothers. On Monday, the 15th, Lord
Derby said—" This is a question which ought not to be
allowed to remain any longer inn abeyance than pos-
sible." Further on he said—" I repeat that the
period of suspense ought to be as short as possible—that the
appeal to be made to the country ought to be made as early
as the great interests of the country will permit." On the
Friday following his Lordship was, in some respects, even
more explicit. After declining to name any precise time for
a dissolution, inasmuch as circumstances might possibly arise
that would render it inexpedient to dissolve in this or that
month, his Lordship summed up his reply to the Duke of
Newcastle with the emphatic words—" I repeat that I de-
sire only to conduct such business through the present ses-
sion as it is necessary for the good of the country should be
passed. I will not specify what are the measures included in
that category,except to say that I do include among them one
of paramount necessity—the organization of the internal de-
fences of the country. After I shall have discharged the duty in-
cumbent upon me for the present session, I beg to repeat that
I shall be as anxious as the Noble Duke can be that an early
decision and judgment of the country should be taken, and
that Parliament should upon that judgment, before the close
of next autumn, pronounce its definitive and final decision."
Without attempting to weigh particular expressions, we
must say there is at least a difference of tone between the
announcement of Friday, the 19th, and that of last night.
The former presented Lord Derby as all anxiety for a settle-
ment; burning to close the present suspense, and to extin-
guish for ever this purgatory of mutual recriminations. He
carried all sides along with him, and seemed himself to
be carried along with the most impatient Freetrader in
his dissatisfaction with the present uncertainty. Last
night ;se were presented with the other side of the picture.
Had his Lordship been five years, instead of barely five
weeks, in his seat—had he a triumphant majority in the
House and a blazing popularity out of it, and had he a full
budget of good, safe, useful, and popular measures, he could
not have talked more easily and jauntily about the prospects
of the session, and his reluctance to cut short its bright and
beneficent career. Lord Derby knows too well the various
import of different tones to expect that the country should
recognize the same man in the humble and deferential
Minister of an interregnum, and the confident leader of a
willing Legislature—that is, the man who last night acted
that part.

TO THE SECRETARY OF THE BRADFORD
REFORM ASSOCIATION.

(CONTINUED ON MONDAYS AND WEDNESDAYS.)
Sir,—On Monday the 29th came on the debate on the
Militia Bill. The Government made the extraordinary
declaration, that they do not want the Militia to guard
against the designs of any of the actual rulers on the
continent, but they want it to guard against the " anar-
chy and confusion" which they expect "in a few months"
will be the result of the deposition of some of those
rulers. We are therefore asked to call out the Militia
as a support to the present ruler of France, and in the
way of a threat to those who it is apprehended may
be disposed to put him down. This is out-heroding
Herod, in the way of enthusiasm for the coup d'etat of
the 2nd of December. What is clear is, that the Militia
is to be called out as a prop to what at Paris is called
" order;" that it is to be a check to anything like an
attempt at the restoration of constitutional freedom on
the continent, and consequently, in defiance of any
quantity of words of the kind which in the language of
Lord Duberly quoted in one of the late debates " butter
no parsnips," is equally likely to be applied to the
same purpose here.
This declaration of the Government puts the question
of the Militia in a new light. There is great difference
between granting a Militia to an Administration known
to be, albeit imperfectly, yet generally in favour of civil
and religious liberty all over the world, and to one
which avows that its fears are not from the mom), on
the other side the water, but from those who may be the
enemies of that enemy. If the Government has changed
sides, we must. In other words, we must stick to our
own side, when the ground changes under us.
Arithmeticians know, that the difference between a
pound more and a pound less, is two pounds. What is
the difference between having a Ministry which in the
main desires to promote the interests of public freedom,
and one which summons us to drill for the sake of keep-
ing in check the possible progress of those interests on
the other side the water, not without view, it is pre-
sumable, to the effects on this?
On Tuesday Resolutions evincing groat good sense and
Idnowledge were brought forward by the Member for
Orkney, on the subject of preparing the numerous
steam-vessels in the commercial service, fer employment
in case of emergency against an enemy. The Admi-
ralty agreed, to what it seemed impossible to object to.
On the same evening Mr. Henry Berkeley brought
forward his motion for the
m Ballaoget.aleincTstitohinet objections2w4ass.
n oI
ttl
looks
dk
Taed by the Government were more than usually weak
and irrelevant. On division the numbers (including a
Member who declared he had voted by mistake) were
foras r
if t.h
e Berkeley'sprospect
afa
motion
generall4s,
unfa-
vourable to the votes for the Ballot.

inot be amiss to say, that it was in the course
of the may
heevening reported in the House, and was pointedly
alluded to by the Member for the West Riding in his
speech, that the Ministry are repudiating their under-
stood engagement to go to an early Dissolution. It
required no great actioness to surmise that this would
be their strategy. But there are always men who seem
to have a morbid appetite for running into delusions.
I am, Sir, yours very sincerely,
AN OLD REFORMBR.
Blackheath, 31st March, 1852.

by the Asia, to the 28th ult., showinge"d'idd andoefirt
en
ras-
a f
we learn from the American accounts,
STATE OF TRADE.
(From the Manchester Guardian of this day) ,
MANCHESTER, Tuxspky..—The receit of British auv.en
in the Liverpool and Manchester markets,
day, prevent the increased arrivals
..4.ABtfthwetton in the
depressing in some degree the P..-- Po bales against
States. The total receipts are 2,010,0
1 and 106,000 in the
1,751,000 at the same period of 185-' week of last
week against 64,000 in the ;correspondingai2try, however, were
year; the week's exports w
parties looking indesdeht9r 7 h ithis
Ie ae total exports to Great
only 33,000 against 70,000, le--000. It is expected that the
Britain are 720,000 against 8.
61tOr some weeks to come ; and
receipts will eontinue large
Are ising to 9,800,000 bales—some
the estimates of the creP --,, 9/4000. The consequence is a
receivpeortsY from
decline at the S°ufbeer e accounts have added to the
% to 1,4 c. per lb. Liverpool market, and increased in
dullness of the unfavourable bias which we have
and New York markets of
our own that
re port. the dimin
latterly had had
tlast three weeks Under many spinneished pe
rs are now
dons of the
A position which renders them more
comingA
dispose “;e a good deal of irregularity amongst sellers ac-
is
_,,,b,":. their varying views and situations. Without
foiurnweet the buyers than they were before. There
es'i-''''•nt,-,° therefore, to enter into particulars, we may
attemPth-o,
Ste
yarns, from 40's downwards, is against the producers. We
Y--' in stating the decline at 1-Ad. per
cannot be wrong
' that the tendency of prices, in both water and mule
lb. since this day week ; and the day's transactions have
been inconsiderable. With the exception, perhaps, of light
T cloths and %th printers, which are sustained in value by
the continuance of a fair demand, the inclination of the goods
market is slightly advent); and the amount of business is
very liantod.