The Sun.
London, England, 1853-01-15 00:00:00

placing so imr ►ortant a department of public affairs
under the sole . management of gentlemen selected
solely for V weir supposed wealth or convivial
capabilities. There is nothing on which the wel-
fare and prosperity of the country so greatly
depends as .on the discreet management of its cir-
culating intdium, which has been styled " the
very life-b] ood of industry." Why, then, not
transfer the. important duty of regulating that im-
portant matter to a responsible Minister of the
Crown, who. 'Would have to answer in Parliament for
any abuse► or indiscreet exercise of power
that might injuriously affect the commercial,
manufacturing, or trading interests of the com-
munity. T here would surely be a better guaran-
antee for sagacious and prudent management
under such a system than with that now in ope-
ration.

While sincerely willing to give the present Mi-
nistry the fairest play and.the fullest scope, and
while believing them to be intellectually com-
petent to all. that could be asked of any Govern-
ment, we yet think it the duty of both the press
and the coil-a-try not to go to sleep through undue
confidence i n their new Administrators and Legis-
lators. As a body they will need watching
quite as m troll as other men in office. Those
amongst the " combination" who are Reformers
more from necessity than inclination, must have
necessity laid upon them ; and those included in
it who are tried and hearty Reformers, must have
their steam k ept up by the ardour of popular sup-
port—not pet chaps so much on their own account,
though office is somewhat of a refrigerator to men
of the peopl as to add the most effective of all
power to their Cabinet arguments. That secret
voting which Cabinets cling to for themselves,
while they refuse it to the people—that secret
voting on which important parts of a Government
measure oftc e a depend, depends itself very much
on what a C a.binet perceives the people are deter-
mined to ha ve. We lay it down as an axiom,
that the pre sent Cabinet will of itself do nothing
hearty and ;generous in the way of reform. It
will do as :much as will content the people,
and no more. Its standard and test for
a Reform Bill will be—What will pass
muster ? I t has but one honest Reformer
in it ; and, what is he against twelve others
who, since 1832, have avowed or practised
finality doctx ines—against twelve men who, it is
stated, are a] ready sure of the co-operation of a
majority in t he House of Lords, including all the
Bishops. Ti to latter may seem a trivial circum-
stance. With us it has great weight. No clique of
men are, ass . body, more averse to popular mea-
sures—none more afraid of their cathedrals and
their chapter; s being invaded by profane eyes—
than the Bisl tops. One Sir BENJAMIN HALL, and
one HORSMA N, are horrible enough ; and any
measure likely to furnish a tolerable crop of such
legislators we uld be scented afar off by their spi-
ritual Lordsla ips. Such straws indicate the direc-
tion of the cn =Tent, especially when we already
pretty well lulow its natural course. It is by no
means in an ungenial and carping spirit that we
thus write— is from a deep conviction • that,
with the pra3sent Ministry, as with almost any
other, all thre 'a the people will gain,/ hey must gain
for themselv, a; 3. Just as our Judges, in the Superior
Courts espeui ally, always endeavour to escape de-
ciding a grail :; and general principle of law involv-
ing the merit s of a case, and seek to ride off upon
some minor point, so our Ministries all evade,
if they can, anything in tho shape of electoral
reform ; espei lially do they avoid adopting any
great principle as wise, just, and expedient. A
thousand ple as are always at hand. Some ad-
mirable prop osition is shelved because they "do
not like bit-J y-bit reform ;" now it is too soon in
the session-- they have not had time to consider
it ; now too late to hope to carry it. Now the
Government themselves are considering the sub-
ject ; or, again, it is too busy to attend to it
this session, but will attend to it early in the
next. Sometimes it will " embarrass the Govern-
ment you ha ye hitherto supported ;" at others,
if too feasible to be opposed directly, or even to
be met by • the previous- question, it must be
shelved by re .ferring it to a committee, and the
Government " will confer with the Honourable
Member reset 'cting its nomination." Now, while
gladly recogni sing the fact that the greater part of
the present Ca tbinet are improving and improvable
men, we canna of believe that, unless they think it
will lengthen their tenure of office, they will prove
to be very ea: rnest Reformers. We have had ex-
perience eno-u gh of the old Whigs in it ; and the
numerous Pi a 4 3lites have shown no inclination to
reform the :Reform Bill. They accepted that
measure when they could not help it, but did their
best to develo:pe those aristocratical qualities in it
which Lord JOHN RUSSELL himself boasted of.
In the suba rdinate offices, indeed, are found
some honest and thorough-going Reformers--
some who -even advocate giving the people
independent 'votes. But what, again, are they
among so me tiny ? We hope and believe that
they will havt some weight. We are even wil-
ling to accep t their appointment as a kind of
pledge to the public that something worthy of
their past po:litical conduct shall be done ; yet,
if it be such a pledge, it is still equally necessary
ell
for the court• try toexaettheet e
erg
n
fnetieaty of
and the
fulfilment
pledge. If tZ people do not
by every demonstration in their power, treat
these appoint ments as a pledge, they may find
too late that their VILLIERSES, and MOLESWORTHS,
and OSBORNE 3., have been rather taken as hostages
to keep them. from holding inconvenient public
meetings, and sending up inconvenient deputa-
tions and pet itions to Ministers and to Parlia-
ment. We as e confident that the really reform-
ing part of tl'ae Ministry would thank us for this
advice to the public. They know that they will
need all the moral weight the people can give
them to spur on their colleagues to a reasonable
speed. With the people openly on their side,
they may, probably without much difficulty, in-
duce the present Ministry to propose, and to pro-
pose early, a substantial. Reform Bill, if not such
a one as we should think quit?, satisfactory.
Sir JAMES GRAHAM, at Carlisle, seemed to cal-
culate upon borough constituencies being left by
the new Reform Bill, srfficiea:ly small to be pur-
chased wholesale by the W. B.'s and their FRAILS,
even though the Ballot were conceded ; but we
confess that we have been chiefly prompted to
these remarks, by the language of Lord JOHN
RUSSELL and of Mr. SIDNEY HERBERT, pleading
for an extension of time for bringing in their bill.
Lord JOHN thinks a Ministry which has
any title to confidence " may claim forbear-
ance as to the time and manner in which their
measures are brought forward." Mr. SIDNEY
HERBERT, who speaks after nearly every Minister,
is safe again in his seat, appears to explain this
more definitely, when he states, "that, with respect
to the question of Reform, the Ministry should
seek from the country time to give it a patient and
deliberate considers tion." Now,
we respect the
plea for time when a debtor has assets which are
difficult to realise ; but we should look with sus-
picion on one who made use of it when we knew
that he had an immense deposit at his bankers.
We think the latter is the case with the question
of Electoral Reform. The Bill of 1832 has not
been twenty years at work without showing us
what wide extension of suffrage be adopted , we
plainly enough. its faulty parts. We care not much
would not fight very hard about a five-pound
suffrage : but when
rating or a five-pound rental
country. The
once a qualification is fixed upon, then it has but
to be honestly applied to the whole
late census gives us the present number of inhabi-
tants
eeded but honesty,
the kingdom, and nothing is n
and houses in every borough and county in
simple honesty, to arrange the number of members
accordingly. Time can be wanted only for frau-
dulent purposes--wanted only
to enable the pre-
sent Ministry to repeat
the juggleries by which
boroughs were carved out of
word is appropriate --
agricultural districts
the juggleries—no other
indeed, many large boroughs
" family;" by which,
to conciliate an opponent, or to please one of the
were created, but some of them put off with a
single Member,
while the most contemptible agri-
culturale honoured with as many
townlets wore
votes in the House of Commons as Marylebone or
We shall take an opportunity to
Manchester.
display, ere long, a few of these abominations of