The Sun.
London, England, 1864-10-29 00:00:00

in the van with the war cry of Reform had not the
slightest intention of carrying out their professions
when the power and the opportunity were in their
own hands. Bat men were now becoming
thoroughly convinced that it is idle to hope or ex-
pect substantial reforms from Lord PALMERSTON'S
Government, especially if they wait for them to be
spontaneously given, and the wise folks of Man•
chester are determined for their part not to lend
such inaction the countenance of their silent acqui•
escenee. Accordingly the members of the National
Reform Union assembled a few evenings since in
the Free Trade Hall, at Manchester, reflecting,
perhaps, that as their good town had borne such a
conspicuous part in carrying out that great polio
tical change, so it might attain equal distinction
by pressing on the work of Parliamentary
Reform after the long hiatus. As the
chairman of the meeting, Mr. GEORGE WILSON,
very justly said the other evening, there is now one
advantage—no one has the inclination or the hardi•
hood to defend the present state of things. " When
it was recollected," said Mr. WILSON, " that in this
age there was confided by Act of Parliament to one
million of the population the sole electoral power of
the country, leaving so many millions totally un-
represented, having no more connection with the
choice of those who governed them than if they
lived in Kamschatka or New Zealand, that Man-
chester was outbalanced by the small boroughs, and
that at the present moment one-half of the House of
Commons was elected by less than 200,000 electors,
it might easily be conceived there were very few
people indeed left to defend the present system?'
When the case is stated plainly it only appears
marvellous that such a state of things should be tole-
rated for one session, and the present House of Com-
mons was, in fact, as Mr. WILSON observed, elected
not to decide whether or no the present system
should be maintained, but how it should be abo-
lished. How it has fulfilled that task we leave the
country to decide, and we apprehend that even
without reform of the electoral districts and classes,
the roi faineants of the existing Parliament will
learn a lesson at the next election. One of the
most energetic of the speakers who addressed the
meeting on Tuesday indignantly denounced the
conduct of those who called the quietude of the
people apathy, and said that they had been relying
on the solemn pledges they had received from the
Throne, the Cabinet, the Parliament, and the hust-
ings, and their confidence was now construed into
apathy. This gentleman partook of more extreme
views than the general body of moderate Re-
formers, and accepted the Chartist doctrine of
manhood suffrage—a theory not altogether popu-
lar with the body of the people themselves.
To make a privilege valuable and valued, it must
necessarily have some limits or it would cease to be
a privilege, and if the idle or thriftless or worthless
are to have the same standing as the industrious
and prudent, the lack of distinction is not justice but
injustice. For a man to become a householder or
occupier of a tenement of any kind, he must either
have possessed sufficient skill and steadiness to have
acquired property, or has been brought up in that
position of life which presupposes some degree of
education and mental and moral training. It is
this that is the real requisite, and it is difficult to
find a test. Undoubtedly manhood suffrage does
not supply one, for every man is not qualified for
an elector. Men would not trust their business
to incompetent hands, they would not travel
by locomotives or steamships guided by rash and
ignorant persons. Why, then, should they trust
the vast concerns of State to those unfitted for the
charge, and though the voice of each elector may
be comparatively unimportant individually, it must
be remembered that the aggregate votes of each
class is not so, and that while we are extending the
right to vote we want also to enfranchise the voter.
It is useless to give a man legal permission to vote
and virtually to deny him the exercise of that
power. If the lowest classes are to have the fran-
chise they must also have the free exercise of it, and
not be under the dictation and influence of those
above them, or our Reform will be mere inconsis-
tency. Therefore, until things are very different
from what they are now, we must have some safe-
guards that those who exercise an indirect
influence on the councils of the State
shall have an interest in the maintenance
of social peace and order, in the upholding
of the laws and the preservation of property. Year
by year the influence of demagogues and mob
orators is lessening among the masses, year by year
education and reflection are opening their eyes to
many important doctrines of political economy
which at one time they regarded with scorn and
suspicion. Very often the peasant or the artisan is
less extreme in his theories than those just above
him, and it is extremes that are the danger of all
reforms. They not only alienate from the cause
many wise and prudent as well as hesitating per.
sone, but they produce an inevitable reaction which
damages the cause. There is one point which we
are sorry not to see mentioned in the report of
Tuesday's proceedings, but we hope it was only
an oversight incident to the confusion of an in•
augural meeting. No word was said of the ballot,
but we can hardly suppose it possible that the
Manchester Reformers do not include that in their
programme. Without it no reform can be compre-
hensive or effectue. The extension of the franchise
will only extend the area for bribery and intimida-
tion. The triennial parliaments will but repeat the
oftener those scenes which humiliate every right
thinking Englishmen. No distribution of the elec
total districts will fail to give an accurate represen-
tation of the sentiments of the people. Reform will
again become, as it has been before, an empty
word, a fair profession to grieve the hearts
of the people, and will want that solid basis, that
sure foundation on which the Parliament of this
great country should assuredly rest.

Meetings and anniversaries are now the order of
the day, and certainly they tend to enliven the
gloom of this dull season by giving people some•
thing to talk and think about. In Colchester the
other evening there was an affair of this kind, at
which several speakers discoursed upon the chief
topics of foreign and domestic interest. Earl RUS-
SELL is certainly undergoing a petty martyrdom
in the way of taunts and reproaches, for through-
out the length and breadth of the land there seems
to be the universal sentiment that he has mis
managed the affairs of the nation with respect to its
foreign relations. Again and again do we meet with
censured criticism, and the select few who are in
favour of the Government generally do not give
much opinion of the awkward question. Mr MILLER
observed that they should feel gratified at the man-
ner in which Denmark had received the Princt
and Princess of WALES, for they had had quite
sufficient provocation to do otherwise, owing to the
irritating course pursued by this country towards
them. This is true ; and tho kindly feeling dis-
played by the inhabitants of that afflicted
and injured land is a sure sign of the in-
nate superiority of the people, and attests that
it deserves a better fate than that which
unhappily has now befallen it. In a similar cir-
cumstance the opponents of the Danes would not
have established the same reticence or the same
magnanimity. After ell that has been said and
Written on the subject it can har ' y be thought