The Sun.
London, England, 1864-05-19 00:00:00

connection with the borough of Pontefract reflects
honour alike on the representative and the repre-
sented. At a very interesting meeting held on
Tuesday at the Town-hall a large number of Lord
HOUGHTON'S late constituents assembled to present
him with a substantial token of their approval of his
parliamentary conduct, and to express their satis-
faction with the manner in which he had fulfilled
his duties as their representative for a period of
time extending over a quarter of a century, Lord
HOUGHTON, in returning thanks for the gift, natu-
rally took advantage of the occasion to address them
at some length. His speech was what might have
been expected from a man of his refined taste and
moderate sentiments, and was certainly quite out of
. the beaten track of the ordinary political discussions
, of the day. It is refreshing to read or hear a speech
which contains no reference to Schleswig-Holstein
or Federal and Confederate, and which deals rather
with the great events and characters of the past
than with the passions and convulsions of the pre-
sent. Looking back on his past career and survey-
ing so important a period of his political existence
as his life in the House of Commons, a speaker
would naturally soar above the mere partisanship
and prejudice of the hour, and deal with affairs
rather in that large and liberal spirit which allows
for exaggerations and mistakes on both sides, which
can recognise reason and good intention in Principles
opposed to its own. Surveying so large and event-
ful a portion of the life time of his generation, the
most hasty and narrow-minded of men must be some-
times forced to confess that the wisdom of the wise
has erred, thnt the eager advocacy and the obstinate
opposition have been often alike mistaken. The
great measures which were on the one hand ex,
pected to ensure universal peace and prosperity,
d on the other foretold to occasion national ruin,
have fulfilled neither augury, and both parties have
learned something, we may hope, from the modera-
tion of their results. Lord HOUGHTON is a man
who is especially well qualified for an address of
this character, since he has never taken part in the
angry extremes of political discussion. He says of
himself that be considers one of the drawbacks to
his parliamentary success has been the difficulty
which he has always felt in believing his own side
to be entirely in the right and his opponents entirely
in the wrong. He hes never, he says, possessed
that fortunate faculty which has enabled some
eminent lawyers to accept their client's cause as
readily as his fee, and to put undoubting faith in
the right of the side which they advocate. Howe
ever useful such a faculty may be to its possessor,
and however common it may be to earnest and
ardent men, it is very fortunate that we have some
parliamentary representatives who do not share
it, Rho are able by the enlightenment
and toleration of their views to modify the bitter-
ness of political debate, end temper the harshness
of angry controversy. Lord HOUGHTON has always
belonged to this class of thinkers, and it is to the
influence of such candid minds, aided by the in-
creasing enlightenment of the age, that we may
attribute the dying out of much of that party spirit
which placed of old so insurmountable a barrier

between Whig and Tory. The years of Lord

maximum salary of £lOO ior the next eight or ten
years to come, with examples before them of men
having served tweety years before they obtained
£2OO a year ? Yet such are actually the facts of
the case.

It may be asked, however, how are these depart-
ments to be benefited ? The proposition is to reform
the system altogether. Let there be a general
weeding of men, and curtailment of forms of prow-
dare. The evidence lately adduced before Mr.
HORSFALL'S Committee, and the petitions of the
clerks themselves, all point to the practicability of
such a scheme. It is the multiplicity of forms, and
the habit of keeping the accounts in duplicate
and triplicate, that are the bare; of the Civil Ser-
vice. We have always been advocates for the civil
servant being fairly paid ; but we have, at the
same time, been desirous that he should work well,
and that his work when done should be useful to
the public.

it is to be hoped that a Committee will be
granted to examine into the mode of doing businces
in the several departments of the Custom-house,
andu n which,,may after having
simplified forms and ac-
ts separate the drones from the bees.
co
This course would enable the Government to give a
higher remuneration to the eleths retained, and at
the same time render them better and more useful
servants of the Crown.

There are also other anomalies which at the same
time demand attention. Some of the departments
require to he re•classiEd. The fiscal and statistical
offices which are now intermixed and
.placed under
offic3rs of opposite interests, would be better sepa•
rated. The department of the Inspector-General
of Imports and Exports, Which has nothing what-
ever to do with the collection of the revenue, and
which is wholly occupied in the preparation of sta-
and the Board of Trade,
itsistsitcrsa
strange
for a t tohsea
yl:rsetai suryryncler the control and man-
agement of the Board of Customs. And
in the annual charge for the collection
of the revenue, its expenses are included
in one part of the account as a charge, and in an-
other part are deducted!

The anxiety and determination exhibited by the
clerks to bring about a reform in the system of
business at the Custom house, and to obtain for
themselves a proper remuneration for their services,
are deserving of success. And we cannot doubt but
that their exertions will result in the appointment
of a committee which will not stop in its investiga-
tions until it has simplified the public business of
this important branch of the civil service, and pro-
vided for the comfort and well-being of the indus-
trious Custom-house clerks

Lord Shaftesbury and General Garibaldi,

TO THE EDITOR OF THE SUN.

_ -
SIR,--Having addressed to you a letter in which
I fully and accurately stated the history of my in-
tercourse with General Garibaldi, I had hoped that
no further observations would be necessary. But
I continue to receive so many letters with, and
without, names on the subject, that I am compiled,
not only to re-assert my first statement, but to add
that no one of the charges made by the gentlemen
on Primrose-hill has, so far as lam concerned, a
shadow of foundation,-1 am, sir, your obedient

servant,

SHAFIESBURY.

May 18.