The Sun.
London, England, 1865-10-21 00:00:00

sooner the better for the welfare of the community
and the credit of the authorities. Mr. MILLER
truly declared that the visitations of PROVIDENCE
with which we had been lately affected rendered it
very important that some measures be resorted to,
and care bestowed on these subjects. Although in
a town the subject of the cattle disease naturally
engrossed attention, and the hon. member turned
his attention in that direction, he advocated the
necessity of establishing insurance societies ; and,
indeed, it seems strange that more care has not been
taken to promote these compensatory institutions,
which seem to offer at the present crisis the surest
and safest mode of action.
Mr. MILLER considers that the Malt Tax should
not have been the first tax taken off, because other
things were of more importance, such as the income-
tax, the fire insurance duty, and others. But all
these had now been happily reduced, and therefore
the malt tax now stood pre-eminently in the first
rank for remittance in the ensuing session. This is
fair enough, and under existing circumstances it is
most probable that the vexed question of this tax
will be settled next year, for the losses of the agri-
culturists have been most severe, and their claims
should come before others in more flourishing and

prosperous circumstances.
During the entertainment a rumour got afloat
concerning the great loss which the country had
sustained, and Mr. MILLER, in concluding his re-
marks, briefly, but impressively, alluded to the sad
intimation that had reached them. He sail that he
feared it was only too true that they had lost the
services of so useful a man, and that he had been of
great use in restraining the unwise endeavours of
some incautious politicians. Viscount INGESTRE
also made some remarks, and paid a tribute of re-
spect to the memory of the departed, due, he ob-
served, to such " merit and talent." He alluded to
the change which might occur in the political world
in consequence, and propluesecl that Mr. BRIGHT
would now prepare to do wonders. Yet the noble
lord put in a defence for Conservatism, since the
leaders of that party had actually introduced a
Reform Bill under very adverse circumstances—
a Reform Bill, too, " which was now admitted by
the Whigs to be a measure of the right sort, as it
proposed to extend the franchise to all the clergy,
and gentlemen of the legal profession living in
lodgings, and to confer what were designated by
the Whigs as ' fancy franchises.' "
There was great reason in this reminder of Lord
INGESTRE, as it certainly is to the credit of the Con-
serTatives that they kept to the nation the promises
made by their predecessors, while it is to the lasting
disgrace of the Liberal party that their petty
jealousy and mean prejudice prevented the passing
of a Reform Bill at all. The noble lord made some
facetious observations on the ingenuity which the
Whigs always displayed in taking the credit of all
fortunate occurrences to themselves, and concluded
with some impressive remarks upon the muddle that
Lord RUSSELL had made in his correspondence with
Mr. ADAMS. "He thought JOHNNY appeared as
small as he always did ; he seemed a little smaller,
in fact." As Lord INGESTRE said, what could be
more absurd than having recourse to arbitration at
all if we were not going to give compensation ?
Captain JERVIS, who followed, declared that the
death of Lord PALMERSTON would mark a new epoch
in our political history, for " the departure of great
men announced great events. Great men were like
landmarks, and when their time was done it was
the signal that the new order of things was coming

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