The Sun.
London, England, 1853-01-25 00:00:00

in the event of opposition to reform compelling a
dissolution, the counties would be so far in a
better position to vote on the question. Three
very common-sense reasons these, we imagine, to
encourage a mortal not to put off till next year a
reform worth carrying this. Suppose Mr. KING'S
Bill to become an Act, (which it assuredly ought to
be, if our " All Talents" delay reform) would they
next year find it harder to make and carry a
liberal Reform Bill just because they found things
a little nearer the goal than they now are ? Away
for ever, then, with the cant and slang of bit-by-
bit Reform, and let the utterance of the phrase, or
of the idea, at once set a man down for a foe to
the cause. So, again, Mr. G. Burr's motion for
shortening the time between the proclamation and
the day of election in counties, and its counterpart
in boroughs, is a clear advantage to the cause of
electoral purity, and of saving expenses to honest
parties. We fear Mr. BUTT is not the man to
press it, but if pressed and carried into an act, as
it ought to be, how in the world would it inter-
fere with the construction of a new Reform Bill ?
Much in the same way, so far as we can see, as

the removal of rubbish would interfere with
digging the foundations of a house.
And then Mr. BERKELEY'S motion for the
Ballot,—why that is a Reform Bill in itself.
Whigs and Tories both look on that as something
much greater than a " bit "of reform. Were our
Ministry sincere Reformers, they would' of course
hail Mr. BERKELEY'S motion as the very opening
of a railroad to the grand terminus. But, alas I
we fear that they have the aversion of a Col. Sin-
THORP to railroad pace towards real representation.
A French diligence would probably suit them
much better for that journey. There cannot be a
question that this motion is likely to be a far more
important one than that for any bill which the
present Government will ever bring in. If the
national defences be a primary question in a mili-
tary point of vidw, the elector's defences is a
primary question in an electoral point of view.
The advocates of the Ballot may well take the
ground that our constituencies must first of all be
secured from the piratical invasions of the Carlton
Club, the privateering of landlords, and the bucca-
neering of priests. It must be pressed on the House
that the gross bribery, intimidation, and violence
of 1852, cannot, for shame's sake, be repeated,
and that it is now high time to have done with
Lord JOHN'S little acts against bribery, and to ren-
der the practice as nearly an impossibility as
human power can do. Besides the public con-
fessions of Mr. COPPOCK, Mr. EDWARDS, and
others, it has been said to us in free conversa-
tions by many a local agent of the Clubs, " the
Ballot would stop us up." If it will not lessen
bribery, why then let Mr. BERKELEY demand the
support of the Right Hon. WM. BERESFORD, of
Mr. HORSFALL, and of the whole Carlton Club.
Sir WILLIAM CLAY'S notice, for taking the votes
at the residence of voters, would be of little service,
unless he also moves that the marked voting-
paper be put by the voter himself within an
adhesive envelope before it be handed to the
vote collector. Mr. DIINCOMBE'S general resolu-
tion is one for which perhaps many Tories now
would not much object to vote, as it is not a
practical one, and as all agree that something
should be done. Lord DUDLEY STUART'S, for the
,repeal of the Septennial Act, is also too vaguely
conceived, though few Reformers could or would
deny its importance. The grand point is, that
Ministers should know that they must encounter
a respectable array of strenuously-supported Re-
form propositions, unless they themselves take up
the work at once.