The Sun.
London, England, 1862-10-10 00:00:00

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THE SUN.
LONDON, FRIDAY, OCT. 10, 1862.

During several years past Sir EDWARD BIILWER
LYTTON has conspicuously represented his own
county in the House of Commons. As one of the
representatives of Hertfordshire the right hon.
baronet has sat alternately upon the Treasury Bench
and the Front Seat of the Opposition. Since first
returned as M.P. for Herts, it is true that not very
much more than a single decade has elapsed. A
considerable period no doubt in the life of any one
individual, but, in the history of nations, very little
more, so to speak, than one single stroke of the
pendulum. Yet, within that narrow compass,
within the time consumed by that solitary vibra-
tion, how much has there not occurred at home and
abroad, in Europe, Asia, Africa, America, and Aus-
tralia, alike in the old and in the new hemisphere,
to alter, to modify, to advance, and to
develope the destinies of the human race !
Reflexions—these—which are not unnaturally
suggested by that momentary glance of retrospect,
within the scope of which so many notable events
in the history of the world were embraced as in a
microcosm, when Sir EDWARD LYTTON, at the
commencement of his speech yesterday at Hertford,
recalled to the recollection of his hearers his first
political address to them as his constituents, in
that same room, in that same town, the homely old
Town Hall of Hertford. Summing up together in
a very few wor_is the most salient among these
Events, a task readily accomplished within the com-
pass of two or three sentences, the right hon-
ourable baronet can hardly be thought, even
by the most matter-of-fact amongst us, to have
spoken of them in any way, in terms of exaggera-
tion—where he observed that " they constitute one
of the most remarkable epochs in the history of the
world." When it is remembered what is revealed

upon the enumeration of even a comparatively small '
proportion of these memorable occurrences, it will
rtainly be apparent that the estimate thus formed
of their importance, so far from partaking, in any
way, of the characteristic of exaggeration is, in
simple and literal truth, very much indeed within
the mark. " Since then," said Sir BULWER LYTTON,
referring to the date of his first participation in the
public affairs of that county, " Since then [among
other things] France has undergone three revolu-
tions—the fall of the constitutional monarchy, the
stormy interlude of a democratic republic, and the 4
restoration of a military empire. The old'rulers of
Lombardy, of Tuscany, and of Naples have
disappeared, and the map of the world has
been alter". in. order to admit of the intro
diction of the -kingdom of Italy. Austria,
long the haughtiest representative of the prin-
ciple of absolute monarchy, has commenced the
e-xperiment of conatitmiened
government. And
Russia has laid the foundation of a new political
and so i it existence in recognising the value of free
labour and abolishing the institution of serfdom.
China has opened her ports to our merchants, and
her capital to our ambassadors. Ve
°lirselveshave
twice gone through the calamities et vat in the
siege of Sebastopol and tho suppression 01 the
Indian revolt. And we have been twice •
reTrunded
this evening that the great republic which bowed
a ,ioperb exemption from the perils and the evils
which beset ancient states and monarchical forms
of government his been violently rent in twain.
And whatever may be the issue of that struggle,in
which we see at present only a lavish expenditure
of blood and treasure, still there is no dispassionate
bystander who can believe that the Union can ever
be restored, and no far-sighted politician who can
suppose that the curse of slavery can long survive
it i 4 the most ostensible
that separation, of which
though not the only, nor perhaps the most powerful,
cause." A marvellou4 record, this, even of itself: yet
one which by no means contains within it
Be
whole of the wonderful occurrences which the his
torian of after times will have to relate as having
illustrated so resplendently, and advanced so ap-
preciably,in the very heart of the nineteenth cen-
tury, the onward march of modern civilisation.

Those three revolutions of France, which Sir But,

WER LYTTON has so aptly characterised as the fall

of a Constitutional Monarchy, the interlude of a

Democratic Republic, and the restoration of a Mili-
tary Despotism! That transformation of the Map of

Europe, to admit of the introduction of the Italian
Kingdom in lieu of the effete and now abolished

rule of Austria in Lombardy, of the Grand Duke
in Tuscany, and of the BOURBON King in the Two
Sicilies! That commencement (at least) by Austria
of a change from Absolute Monarchy to a resemblance,
however feeble and remote, to Constitutional Gover-
nment ! That spontaneous emancipation by the Rus-
sian Autocrat of 20,000,000 of serfs! That Crimet, n
repulsion of the late Czar (INTIcrioLAs) by the
Western Powers, in armed alliance, to prevent the
calamity of a Russian occupation of Constantinople !
That reconquest of our vast Asiatic Empire, a
reconquest literally effected by the suppression of
the deadly mutiny of the Sepoys in Bengal ! That

successful accomplishment of our third war against
the Chinese ! This fierce and lamentable Civil War
now raging in the American Republic, rending
the Confederation in twain, and thus preparing (we
are no less persuaded of the fact than Sir EDWARD
LYTTON avows himself to be), for the inevitable
abolition in the end of the accursed institution of
Slavery! Important to the last degree though
these events are they are not by any means
the only occurrences which have marked the epoch
within the narrow interval of which they have
been massed together,
Not alone, for example, at the opposite ex-
tremity of this Eastern hemisphere has China,
after an insulation from the rest of the
world during so many preceding centuries, been
opened up at last to the influence of European civi-
lisation—but precisely the same result has been
brought about in regard to the vast, and wealthy,
and thickly peopled, and (in an Asiatic sense) highly
civilised island empire of Japan ! An empire peopled,
at the least it is estimated, by some 30,000,000! The
seas having been traversed and explored in every
conceivable direction—but two regions of the habit-
able globe still remained, until lately, the merest
blanks upon MERCATOR'S Chart of the Two
hemispheres : and these two till recently untrodden
regions have been at length penetrated by ad-
venturous travellers. The benevolent Dr. DAVID
LIVINGSTONE has advanced more than once towards
the centre of the great African continent. The ill-
fated O'HARA. BURKE, and his companions, have
chivalrously sacrificed their lives, in passing across
the whole width of the gigantic island, or rather
conLinent of Australasia. The problematic question
as to the existence of a North-West Passsage has at
length been answered in the affirmative, though in
solving this notable problem M'CLURE only did so
by advancing, when too late, along the fatal track
left by the footsteps of the devoted FRANKLIN.
Within this same interval of but little
more than one decade, of certainly not
more than three ever-memorable lustres—
the interests of commerce have been advanced by
two wholly dissimilar occurrences—first of all, by
the triumph of Free Trade principles, and, secondly,
and in a very subordinate but in a very appreci-
able way, nevertheless, by the discovery in rapid
succession of immense supplies of gold in Cali-
fornia, in Australia, and, finally, in Sir BULWER
LYTTON'S own colony, the noble colony he called
into existence, and rapidly organised, during his
brief tenure of office as Her Britannic MAJESTY'S
Colonial Secretary, the colony of British Columbia.
During this same epoch—no matter for how brief
a time, at any rate for " a time "—science enabled
America and Europe to be in instant communica-
tion under the depths of the mighty Atlantic.
Continent speaking with continent, at the
distance of three thousand miles, through
that magical metallic fibre of the submarine Elec-
tric Telegraph ! If for nothing else, the epoch we
have just passed through would be nobly and
affectingly worthy of remembrance for that one
sublime incident—when the ends of the earth, thus
brought into instantaneous communication, there
was flashed along the bed of the ocean, as the first
signal worthy of being thus transmitted from
man to man, Gloria in excelsis Deo—a cry
of adoration from Humanity, rising to heaven
thus literally De Profundis ! For the sug-
gestion of these, and many other impres-
sive recollections, the more reflective will have
reason to thank Sir BULWER LYTTON for that
luminous glance of retrospect with which he intro-
duced his otherwise, for the most part, colloquial,
occasionally humorous, and towards the end (when
referring to the loss sustained by the nation from
the death of the late lamented PRINCE CONSORT)
graceful and genial address to his old friends and
constituents down at Hertford.

The two Chancellors of the Exchequer—the one
who sneered at the Free-trade " wisdom of Parlia-
ment," and the one who has completed the eman-
cipation of trade, have each in his way been re-
ceiving public ovations, and each appropriately.
Mr. DISRAELI has been toasted by the Bucks
farmers, Mr. GLADSTONE by the busy traders of the
north. Each has had three days of it, Mr. DISRAELI
three somewhat distant days, and at three agricul-
tural meetings for his one little county. Mr.
GLADSTONE three corsecutive days for the populous
boroughs connected :with the groat trade of the
coal districts. Mr. DISRAELI has lectured on
agricultural matters to those who knew better
about them than himself, and gained cheers by
defending prizes for long and faithful bervice. His
trcompetitor could discuss the great facts
of
commerce with those who recognised
iutrmadpehan andt
in him one who could teach them something, and
who, instead of offering degrading prizes to _work-
ing men, had done more than any living man to
enable working men to earn that sweetest of prizes
to us all, good wages for good work. Mr. DISRAELI
could not, that we know of, tell the agriculturists
of more than one service he ever proposed to render
them—that of taking off half the malt duty, which
assuredly would not have put half-a-crown into
any of their pockets. Mr. GLADSTONE this week
could have pointed to tens of thousands of con-
sumers of malt liquors, and have told any
Bucks
yeoman, who dared venture so far from home, that
his policy, by making all these men consumers of
malt, had done more to raise the price of barley than
could have been accomplished by any reduction Of
duty.
If we compare the two demonstrations it might
be a little unfair. The Bucks farmers did what
they could. The population of the Tyne did no
more. Still there was certainly a fundamental
diffe ..._
'"uee between the two sets of men in relation to
their respective
e,„, -, •
asked, have told. via:roe:. Old Bucks and young
Bucks, at
lemil and other places, could not, if
What in the world they cheered for.
The Hon. BEezeAut, DISRAELI is no "good old
English gentleman"—
"ley did not fill their bum-
pers to a representative lon
N BULL. He was no
farmer; they could not cheer leis
agricultural
example. He had never renderedl thew
the slightest
fiscal service ; they could not cheer him for stamps
on their cheques. To be sure, he was, es the menu-
went raised by his own wife reminded them
" sixth time knight of the shire," but none knew)
better than these worthy yeomen that " the shire"
meant the landlords, He was no knight of theirs.
Had they independent votes-..c041c1 they appeal to

the ballot, which Mr. DISRAELI and the landlords,
whom he leads and obeys, so consistently dislike,
Mr. DISRAELI would probably stand little chance

of being " seventh" time " knight of the shire."
Why did they cheer, then ? We can conceive of
no other reason than that of their being in the

presence of their landlords, and Mr. DISRAELI
being their landlords' man.

Altogether different were the cheers at New-
castle, Shields, Sunderland, Middlesborough. If
the artillery, the music, the shouts of the multitudes

along the quays and river sides, and the shipping
dressed in flags, in honour of the Chancellor of the
Exchequer of the day, differ so much from the

quiet, after-dinner oheers of tenants-at-will at the

Bucks meetings, there was all the reason in the

world for it. Every man knew why he cheered.

Every man who cheered would have given his vote by

ballot for Mr. GLADSTONE, if Mr. GLADSTONE needed
his vote to secure him a seat in Parliament. Every

one of the masses of employers and employed knew
that his wages or income were the better for the

system which the member for Bucks and his party

opposed, and for which Mr. GLADSTONE had to
fight no ordinary battle. All had heard of the
snarling of the Tory party at the French Treaty,
though the constituents of many of them compelled
their members to support it, sadly to the grief of
the latter. Many would remember the hypo-
crisy with which the opponents of Protection
taunted Mr. GLADSTONE and Mr. COBDEN for
making a commercial treaty at all, and in their
new-born love for free trade carped at the only
possible mode by which the French EMPEROR,
without a political coup d'etat, could introduce free
trade into France. All had heard how, amidst
Tory growling, Mr. GLADSTONE had forced the
treaty on the squires, and they reasonably enough
glorified in their triumph the great successor to the
apostles of free trade. The three days' meetings,
addresses, and galas were the exuberance of intelli-
gent gratitude—not cheering to landlords' order.

A Chancellor of the Exchequer—the great tax-
imposer of his day—is not the member of the Go-
vernment whom the taxpayers would most naturally
be expected to cheer. But Mr. GLADSTONE is no
ordinary tax-imposer. His faith is rather in
abolishing than in imposing taxes. It has been
his to sweep the tariff almost clear of taxes, and to
abolish excise duties, and yet to sustain the revenue
of the country, while at the same time he lowered
the income tax also. Thirty-three millions, in
round numbers, was the six months revenue, before
his great reductions ; thirty-three millions is the
six months revenue, in the corresponding six
months of this year ! And even this broad
statement gives but an imperfect illustration of the
working of the GLADSTONE system of finance.
Giving us one of his careful calculations and making
every allowance, notwithstanding the repeal of the
paper and hop duties, and of a penny in the income
tax, the articles which are left taxed, have produced
a clear £600,000 more than they did previously.
And this is the man whom the DISRAELIS and the
STAFFORD NOItTHCOTES, without a particle
.of
financial genius, themselves, carp at, nibble at, and
denounce as a dangerous and rash man ! Danger-
ous Mr. GLADSTONE is—but it is to those who, after
a twelvemonth's trial by the nation of his plan, shall
attempt to drive him from his post.
The French treaty was naturally a prominent
topic with all parties, and of course with the great
orator himself. Ho had a right to be proud
of it. He gave indeed the highest places to
Mr. COBDEN and the Emperor of the FRENCH,
and not a little honour to his chief, and
to the Foreign Secretary. But he could give the
fairest and fullest share of honour to others without
lessening his own. He had done the chief work in
the first assembly of the world ; Mr. COBDEN had
shared the spleen of a great daily journal for his
association with him, but he had to bear all the
gnashing of teeth, face to face with it, of exasperated
and interested parties and partisans. He had to
meet all the protectionist prophesyings and evil
omens, while as yet he could have no facts where-
with to rebuke the false prophets. He now has his
reward. They are but too glad to slink away from
their old position, to forget all their vaticinations of
evil, and to rehearse the story of the blessings of
the treaty, as if they had never denounced
it as a curse I We pity them. What can they
do? A fair eleven or twelve months' trial
stands before these old prophets of curses—and the
treaty points to an unquestionable doubling—more
than doubling of our trade with our nearest neigh-
bour. It has changed a trade of nine millions and
a half into a trade of twenty -one millions ! This
eleven millions and a half of trade is just what
England would have lost had Lord DERBY and
Mr. DISRAELI been in office when the French treaty
was made. That eleven millions and a half is just
the bare commercial value, in one direction only of
PALMEMSTON and GLADSTONE, compared with
DERBY and DISRAELI. We hope every English-
man will note it. We know political gratitude is
a feeble sentiment ; but we also know that for
fiscal " favours to come,"—a lively sense of which
is said to constitute political gratitude, the nation
would be mad if it did not scout the orator of
Bucks for the orator of Newcastle.
We hardly need add that the benefits of the new
French trade come at a most seasonable time. It
seems almost like a special mercy of Providence to
meet the loss of our trade with America, and to
enable us to aid the sufferers in Lancashire better
to bear their privations. Where should we have
been had Toryism ruled our,country in 1860 ? It
is really frightful to think of what we must have
suffered had not the ill-omened meeting at Willis'-
rooms extinguished the anti-commercial Tories.
In their madness the Tories turn round upon our
expenditure, and with good reason as it regards its
amount, but with the worst reason as regards them-
selves. 1 hey began it—they have compelled its
continuance—they perpetrated Galway, Cunard,
and Dover costly jobs to bribe votes—they would
not allow the least reduction of our Army and
Navy and Dockyard Estimates, the great
cause of our extravagant expenditure
they, with the most paltry political motives,
backed up the school teachers and school patrons in
getting national money for nothing. Tories have
forced a not unwilling Premier to spend largely, and
now are canting about economy and " bloated arma-
ments." Mr. GLADSTONE, on the contrary, has
al ways been a consistent supporter of real economy.
They hated him, indeed, for his known antipathy
to the expenditure the Tories forced on the Cabinet.
However, Mr. GLADSTONE is prepared to antici-
pate, consistently, their inconsistent whining. He
has announced, as Minister, that when Parliament
meets again it'w ill be seen whether,afterGovernment
has performed its first and permanent duty by mak-
ing provision for all the services, it will not also have
performed the duty " of retrenching every expendi-
ture of an unnecessary nature." We accept the
announcement as it Nvas doubtless intended; and
expect to find the Government meeting the country
less per annum than
wSEitNiLl'ENPopoTrYNsTaiLlsutooNesx, expend

M.R. GLADSTONE AND LORD PALMER_
STON.

What letter of the alphabet expresses the chief
difference between the Premier and his Chancellor
odit•heEzeilecic°T ? The letter E_beeause the
Hirst
et
giltu in war-houses, the seec.72d is IYAre-houses.