The Sun.
London, England, 1839-06-08 00:00:00

LONDON :
SATURDAY, JUNE 8, 1839.

In the House of Lords last night, the Marquis of
LONDONDERRY inquired into the steps taken to liqui-
date the claims of the British Legion, but obtained no
satisfactory answer.

The Earl of STANHOPE presented a petition praying
their Lordships not to place any reliance on anything
emanating from the Poor-law Commissioners, and the
Noble Earl, as usual, was a source of mirth to the
House.

The only business of importance that occupied their
Lordships was the disgraceful state of one of their
own Courts—a subject we have adverted to in another
article.

The Commons threw out the Cheltenham Improve-
ment Bill by a majority of nine.

The CHANCELLOR Of the EXCHEQUER signified, in
answer to questions, that measures are to be taken to
Put an end to foreign lotteries, being a subject of gam-
bling in this country ; and that a Bill is in progress to
carry into effect some improvements in the Metropolis.
Poor Colonel PERCETAL, who has grown so unpopu-
lar, that when he goes out to dine in Sligo he is obliged
to sleep abroad, as he dare not go home, drew Lord
MORPETH'S attention to a resolution of the Sligo Ma-
gistrates against the peasantry having loaded sticks,
The Aristocracy may therefore have great guns or
blunderbusses to keep the labourers in check, who must
not have a stick, and even Lord MORPETH hopes that
be may be able to embody the recommendation of the
Sligo Magistrates into a Bill.
The Report on the Prisons' Bill was further con-
sidered. _ .

After a temporary adjournment for want of something
to do, Mr. BURGE, the Barrister, who seems to be em-
ployed by Mr. BURGE, the Agent for Jamaica, was
heard at considerable length against the Jamaica Bill,
Which, after he had done, was ordered to be committed
on Monday.
After a division, a Select Committee was appointed
oflthe motion of Mr. HODGES, to consider the duties
oi, fruit. This is an attempt on the part
the the landowners to tax plums and pears ; for
Y will not allow either youth or age to
,escape
their harpy claws.. Twenty-six Members, in a
House of forty-four, including tellers, were for the
Committee, which was appointed accordingly.
The House sat till Twelve o'Clock.

Mr. GROTE has taken the earliest opportunity
of putting to the test the reported resolution of
the Cabinet, to make the Ballot an open question.
Last night he gave notice, that on Tuesday the
19th inst., he would move for leave to br;ng in a
Bill to take the votes of electors by Ballot. He
will on that occasion have the support both
of the vote, and the eloquence of the new
Member for Edinburgh, whose few observations on
that subject, as reported in our Paper on Saturday,
were at once pertinent and forcible. The result
of that motion will teach us the exact force of the
Radical party, and what it has gained by making
the Ballot an open question. We continue,
as we ever have been, strenuous supporters of
the Ballot ; but we are afraid lest granting it
now should illustrate more than anything else

the general tardiness of politicians, and give
an additional reason to class them with those
sagacious bumpkins who lock the door when the
steed is stolen.

As far as the constituency are concerned, un-
doubtedly the Ballot is that one thing which they
most desire as a means of protection ; but the evils
iluffered by the constituency are no longer those
which most need redress. They lie beyond the
limits of the Reform Act. The danger to which
the country is now exposed springs from the unen-
franchised. It is the want of the franchise more than
the need of its free exercise, of which the discon-
tented masses complain. Now it is possible, had
the Ballot been given to the constituencies when
they were flushed with gratitude to their unenfran-
chised allies in obtaining Reform, that they would
have elected a House of Commons on the principle
of doing practical justice to the bulk of the people.
Then the Corn-laws might have been abolished,
great reductions made in the public expendi-
ture, the extravagant claims of the Church
kept in check, and a considerable portion of its
misapplied wealth devoted to public instruction ;
then we might have bad such administrative

improvements as would have made the unenfran-
chised not think it a grievance to want a vote.
The Ballot, however, not having been given in
time, the landlords and the clergy have been able
to pack the House of Commons with a great
number of their creatures, and so to impede and
deny necessary reforms, that the unenfranchised
have been driven to despair, and are not now to be
appeased or ruled, without being admitted into the
pale of the Constitution. What might have been
very beneficial in 1833, will be less so now ;
and it is even probable, in the present state of
feeling towards the Chartists, that the Ballot,
were it conceded, would give us a still more Tory
House of Commons than at present, and precipi-
tate those disasters which will surely spring from
excluding five-sixths of the people from all direct
influence over the Legislature. As Mr. MAC-
AuL Ay once said, government is a science founded
on experiment ; but experiments are now so rapidly
multiplied in every part of the world,the discoveries are
so numerous, that the furthest advanced philosopher
is 1832 is distanced by the tyro of 1839. Govern-
ment differs, indeed, from chemistry, in which the
philosopher institutes guides, and conducts his
experiments, but in Government the experiments
are really made by society at large, and the politi-
cal philosopher has only to watch the course of the
people.

An interesting discussion took place in the
House of Lords last night on the present state of
the Court of Chancery. Ever since we can re