The Sun.
London, England, 1865-02-03 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

TIMES.—" Rash men, who slew the sire but spared
the son !" will rise to the lips of some who read Lord
Amberley's speech at the Leeds Reform Meeting.
What is the use of making a man a Peer when
there is a son who can not only take up his father's
cause, but take it up without his father's compro-
mises and shackles ? Here is the next generation
already looking us all in the face. Lord Amberley
was in petticoats when the Corn Laws were re-
pealed, and happily not old enough to know what was
meant by a 6s. fixed duty on wheat. The sayings
and doings of thirty years are the sweet traditions
of his nursery, carefully culled, and warmed up with
filial devotion. In his little antiquity there stand
out prominently the foolish things that Sir Robert
Peel said, and what Lord Lyndhurst said, and what
Peers in general are apt to say, if they have narrow
minds and are not worthy of their fathers. Most
fortunate is it for Lord Amberley that he was not
the eldest son of a Peer till his mind had done grow-
ing—that is, his body, for, of course, his mind will
grow still. His appearance at Leeds is to be regarded
as a solemn installation in his father's political
honours. Our early Kings had their eldest sons
crowned, and thenceforth rested and were thankful,
if their sons would let them. It was ten years
before the Reform Act that Lord John Russell
proposed to give members to Leeds ; and he had a
part in the management not only of that Reform
Act, but also of the Municipal Reform Act, which
invested Mr. Luccock with a gold chain. So here is
a tradition of more than forty years, and Leeds is
just the place for his successor to start on his great
career that is to be. Educated for a commoner, un-
trammeled by office, he goes forth to reap the har-
vest left for him by the neglects of his elders and
the hindrance of circumstances. Nor has culture
been wanting to so high a vocation, Lord Amberley
has been thoroughly indoctrinated in the logic, the
controversy, and the history of Reform. He has
even been told whom to look to. Mr. Gladstone is
the Mentor of the young Telemachus, who for a
time will want at least the decency of a guide. The
time will come when—but we desist. We shrink
from the contemplation of this pure, untainted, un-
sophisticated, unencumbered Reformer of his coun-
try as the wear and tear of life may present him
even at thirty. For the present he personates a
holy faith, honest convictions, and the sweetest
possible conceptions of honest and intelligent six-
pounders and county ten-pounders, of working
men in general, and anybody who can read and
write, excepting the late Sir R. Peel and Lord
Lyndhurst, and large landowners, and huge capi-
talists, and haughty young Peers with minds so
narrow that they will only think on these subjects
exactly as their fathers thought before them. We
accept the young lordling and his speech, with all its
golden promises. Nay, more, we press him into
the service. Let him spend the few years of
unofficial life that a kind Providence may allow
him in working at a Reform Bill as good as
his father's. At present he would think ten years a
very long time to wait, but his father had to wait
ten years before he could give Leeds the two mem-
bers he had promised it, besides many years' waiting
before. He will not take it amiss if we drop a few
hints, which, if duly attended to, may make his
advice more palatable for the future. He deals much
—all boys do—with the argumentum ad honzinem, in
the form of a retort. He tells the House of Com-
mons that it is very fond of reforming everything
but itself. It reforms Universities and Public
Schools, but does not take to self-amendment quite
so kindly. This may be sharp, but is it a practical
view of the subject? Would the House of Com-
mons show less need of reform by refusing to make
reforms ? Would it be less an authority as to the
wisdom of immediate Parliamentary Reform if it
set its face against all reform whatever ? On the
contrary, it seems to us that if the House of Com-
mons does its duty in keeping our institutions
sound, sweet, and effective, it so far proves that it
may itself be let alone for the present. If a tenant
or bailiff improves everything under his charge, is it
good logic to say, " Now, my good fellow, you're
mighty fond of improvements, so I'll just remove
you off my property. Pack up and be gone ?" What
would Lord Amberley have the House of Commons
do ? Would he have it prove its right to remain as it
is by following the example of the young peers who
know no more than they have learnt from their
fathers? He sneers at the Commons for being progres-
sive, and at the Lords for being unprogressive.
Which does he prefer at heart ? He does not seem
quite to have made up his mind on a very delicate
point at the other end of the social scale. While
intimating a philosophical predilection for an educa-
tional franchise, or rather an educational disqualifi-
cation, in the most obliging possible way he makes
the Conservatives a present of those who cannot
read or write. The landed interest, he implies, is
that which would have most reason to regret their
exclusion. We wish everybody could read, write,
and keep accounts ; but we happen to know very
good labourers and very good tenant farmers, too—
aye, very good village shopkeepers, and others better
than labourers—who cannot read or write, but who
know at least as much as their neighbours. Un-
fortunately, too, reading, writing, and arithmetic
have long ceased to be a guarantee for the moral
virtues we wish to find in a British elector. Land
and capital, says his lordship, are now abundantly
represented ; and why not labour ? The rela-
tions of land with labour we leave in his own
hands, for he makes them close enough. But how
as to labour as opposed to capital. We have the
greatest wish to see labour represented in the House
of Commons as fully and thoroughly as possible. We
should like to see a few members, and more than a
few, who would really place the case of the working
man well before the public. It is very much better
that labour should prosecute its claims by reason,
able arguments, in a fair and open field, than by
suicidal strikes, intimidation, conspiracies, occasional
acts of violence, ruinous self-taxation, and the dicta-
tion of public-house committees and secretaries.
But why is capital to be told that it is represented
more than labour, when it really has no life with-
out labour ? It is impossible to use capital without
employing labour, and putting the working man
into a better condition for enforcing his demands,
whatever they are. Nay, it is impossible to employ
capital to any amount without raising a number of
people higher in the scale of the Parliamentary
franchise. Unfortunately, there is an abusive and
corrupt representation of capital by the expenditure
of immense sums for the acquiring of political in-
fluence and obtaining of votes. But we must
record our sorrowful conviction that a very large
and comprehensive representation of labour, aiming
to include every working man, would fearfully ag-
gravate this corrupt representation of capital.
We have to deal with the mass as it is, not as it
ought to be. The vast majority of working men
have necessities that overpower their sense of inde-
pendence and instil the hope that their vote will
do them some palpable good. They are not worse
in this respect than their immediate betters, but
they are as bad. Together with this state of
things we may have colossal fortunes, far larger and
more numerous than thirty years ago, in the hands
of men who can buy almost everything except social
and political position, and who will buy this if pos-
sible. It is not the " cleverness " of the thousand
low electorS brought in by a lower suffrage that
can possibly enable them to turn the scale of the
2,000 old electors ; nor is it the dangerous eloquence
of the men they love to hear. Nay, there are many
places, perhaps Leeds is one of them, where we have
no fear. But the poorer the electors, the more ac-
cessible they are to corrupt influences. There are
many more millionaires in Parliament now than
there were before the Reform Act. There is also
more electoral corruption ; and a seat, from first to
last is much more expensive: It used to be said
that a general election involved an expenditure of
two millions. That would be a very low figure to
put it at ; but if every working man in the kingdom
had a vote, and the preponderance of the masses
was not neutralised as it is now by the great
inequality of our electoral divisions, we venture to

predict that not two nor yet five millions would
cover the scandalous and iniquitous corruption of a
general election. But by all means let Leeds send
Lord Amberley into Parliament as the representa-
tive of the virtuous, incorrupt, honest, intelligent,
and educated working classes. The town appears
to be under an obligation to the Russell family which
it cannot discharge better than by a means which
will tend to enlarge its own rights and maintain its
own moral purity, Lord Amberley must inevitably
learn a good deal by so intimate a relation with a
class not yet spoilt by hereditary rank and pri-
vilege, by the possession of excessive capital, by
office, by parental narrow-mindedness, or even by a
want of education. He must still have something
to learn. Rasselas had the advantage of a good edu-
cation and the most jealous attention to his manners
and morals, but nevertheless he picked up a few
" wrinkles" down the Nile. We may say that the
position is vacant. Even in Mr. Baines we cannot
recognise the working man's representative. His
arguments are logical as far as they go, or rather as
they come ; his statistics are unimpeachable, his ab-
stract principles unapproachable. They are above
our capacity, or below—it matters not which as far
as we are concerned. So let Leeds send to the
House of Commons a man who desires thoroughly
to enter into the inner life of the working man, and
who can fathom the depth from which his rights are
derived far more than from any "facts and figures."
The practical question really and honestly is not one
of figures. The figures are preposterous, but the
British public is accustomed to them, and sees
nothing improper in two hundred shopkeepers re-
turning as many members as two hundred thousand,
if the result be satisfactory on the whole. The
question has to be lifted out of the dull limbo of
statistics, and we cannot think of a better man to
achieve this happy deliverence than this precocious
child of Reform.

POST.—Lord Amberley'has delivered, at Leeds, a
remarkably judicious and well-balanced speech on
the subject of Parliamentary Reform. The son of
Earl Russell is fairly entitled to claim a special his-
torical connection with this question. Reform has
come to be regarded as the hereditary appanage of
the House of Bedford. Lord Amberley is, therefore,
a Reformer; but, inasmuch as everybody more or
less professes to desire the extension of the franchise,
which is what Reform is popularly understood to
mean, he explains that he is a "moderate" Reformer.
The caution was perhaps necessary, though the re-
marks it prefaced are legibly stamped with the Whig
trade-mark. Lord Amberley's theory is exceedingly
extensive. The franchise, he contends, belongs of
right to a free people, and, when any large body of
such a people are not permitted to vote, some strong
and sufficient reason should be given for their ex-
clusion. So that, practically, the theoretical right
is subject to conditions. Any measure of violent
or sweeping change would place the whole power of
government in the hands of a single class, and that,
Lord Amberley confesses, is an objection to his
theory which demands serious consideration. He
cannot agree to a proposition which would virtually
establish class legislation. He recognises the'diffi-
culty in the way of effecting a large increase in the
representation ; he would not allow an unintelligent
class of voters to monopolise the government of the
country ; and he does not think it would be advis-
able to admit those who have little educa-
tion, and who know nothing and care nothing about
politics. Not regarding the influence of democra-
tical opinions with " particular alarm," he is
nevertheless sensible of the dangers attending a
democratic form of government, and would pre-
serve the subsisting safeguards against the errors
or excesses into which such a government might
fall. It is possible, he truly says, to prove by
theoretical arguments that the working classes
should be admitted to the exercise of the suffrage,
but that it is for the working classes themselves to
;
prove, first, that they are earnestly and truly desir-
ous to be admitted to the trust, and, secondly, that,
if admitted, they would exercise it well and wisely,
and with a due sense of the responsibility it com-
prehends. Further, he advises Reformers to com-
bine energy with patience, resolution with discretion,
and to be charitable and courteous to those who look
upon their demands with suspicion. On the other
hand, Lord Amberley seems to think that these
fundamental objections to an immediate extensive
reduction of the franchise do not apply to the mea-
sures of Reform that are now proposed. The mea-
sures referred to are, we presume, the annual mo-
tions for lowering the county and borough franchises.
But the question, as Lord Amberley has himself
properly put it, is not whether Mr. Locke King's
bill and Mr. Barnes's bill are drawn up constitution-
ally, but whether they represent the opinion of the
classes they are drawn upon, and whether those
classes are in a condition to fulfil the obligations
they would, in the event of the acceptance of these
bills, have contracted. Any measures that were
truly and generally required, and which approved
themselves to the reason and judgment of the coun-
try, would, however opposed, eventually receive the
assent of the Legislature. Lord Amberley has evi-
dently read history thoughtfully, and he must there-
fore be aware that a free people can experience no
difficulty in obtaining the redress of a proven wrong.
In effect, indeed, this is the gist of his speech.
Looking at the representative system as it is, he
remarks its deficiencies and anomalies, and, as a
matter of theory, he would like to see the one
filled up and the other abated. We are all agreed
upon that point. We all want something that we
have not got, and there are thousands of public
anomalies that we would all be glad to have re-
moved. Mendicancy, for example, is an aggravating
anomaly, seeing that there is a law for the relief of
destitution ; and the absence of education, which is
one of the strongest arguments against the exten-
sion of the fran huge, is another. But what are we
to do ? A great statesman told us the other day to
rest and be satisfied. That, however, is scarcely
practicable, even if it were wise. At the same time,
it is preposterous to propose to reform the Constitu-
tion of a country as if it were a card-house. The
pulling down would be a formidable operation, and
the rebuilding could only be accomplished on the
grave of the errors and excesses to which Lord
Amberley adverted, and by the strong arm of
despotic force. Moreover, in talking about respon-
sibility, it ought to be borne in mind that if the
people are indifferent, those who, as Lord Amberley
suggests they should, endeavour to put an end to
that indifference, become answerable to the nation
for the consequences of their agitation. The very
people they stir up to demand privileges which would
make them neither happier nor richer, might, when
they discovered the delusion, turn round upon those
who had led them out of the ways of peaceful and
steady progress. Still, on the whole, Lord Amber-
ley refused to dissemble the prevailing
conviction
that an indiscriminate admission of the working
classes to the franchise would be a rash rnd dan-
gerous measure. He pointed out that they would
be peculiarly liable to the influence of bribery, and
he might have added that they would be bargained
for in masses by political clubs formed amongst
themselves. But they must be taught, he said, not
so to violate a public trust. We humbly submit
that this elementary education should precede
their enfranchisement. It would certainly be the
safest course. Lord Amberley, however, urges
that, cogent as the objection is, it does not He in
the mouth of those who now abuse their privileges
to press it. That may be, but really it is begging
the question. The existence of an evil is no reason
for its enlargement. In like manner, too, it is
very well rhetorically -to prefer the declamation
of • a demagogue to the methods employed by
landowners to secure the votes of their tenantry
in a contested election, but the answer is obviously
the same. Practically, the landowners do not do
much harm. Their representatives are, for the most
part, respectable and decorous members of the
Legislature. But a House of Commons returned
under the inspiration of demagogues would be a
very different affair ; and, in fact, this it is that
makes people doubt and hesitate as they do. It is
not the working classes that are feared. They are,
many of them, not intellectually qualified to use the
franchise for the public benefit ; but, as a body,
they are loyal and honest. It is those who would
come forward to lead them, and who would make
political capital out of their ignorance and simplicity,
that are dreaded. What is apprehended and depre-
cated is the organic change that must ultimately
take place. The government of the country would
not be endangered, but, to preserve to the working
classes the free exercise of the franchise, the liberty
of the subject would in many respects have to be
abridged. It is incontrovertible that universal suf-
frage, or any considerable reduction of the fran-
chise operatively equivalent to it, is incompatible
with freedom as we enjoy and understand it in this
country.

Foreign Mail Packet List.
-- b -

Australia and New Zcaland, via Southampton Feb. 18.
Ditto, via Marseilles Feb. 12.
Brazil and Cape Verde, by British pac.et Feb. 3.
Ditto, by British packet
Cape of Good Hope, Ascension, and St. Helena Feb. 19.
China, Penang, and Singapore, via Sou hampton Feb 18.
Ditto, via Marseilles Feb. 12.
Falkland Islands

Gibraltar, via Southampton
India (Calcutta), and Ceylon, via Southampton Feb. 18,

. -
Ditto, via Man.:eines . Feb. 12.
India (Bombay), via Southampton. Feb. 11.
Ditto, via Marseilles ... ...Feb. 5.
Mauritius, via Southampton .Feb. 11.
Ditto, via Manion el Feb. 5.
Newfoundland Feb. 15.

Portugal .Feb. 3.
Ditto, by private ship to Lisbon...
United States and British North America, by Bri-

tish packet
West Coast of Africa, Madeira, and Teneriffe Feb. 10,

The Catastrophe in Westminster.
Yesterday afternoon Mr. St. Clair Bedford
an inquiry at the Westminster Hospital ..
to
lio
the death of Mary Hefferan, aged 66 years' w a
lost her life through the recent accident at the Rona
Catholic Schools in Great Peter-street. the
the
present Coroner, upon taking his seat, said that
he
present was a second casualty resulting frfromiot
calamity which the jury had met to investigate (ow
Monday. With respect to that occurrence, "u 3.
C
learned coroner) had placed himself in coreollll d
tion with Mr. Henry Miller, M.P., who had raav:
d
the Board of Works that the surveyor should in
tigate the state of the building which had led tnt
giving way of the flooring, and the surveyor's °too
deuce and report would be placed before the jai
Monday next. On the present occasion the Yry
ceedings would therefore be only preliminary 3
Timothy Callaghan, No. 10, Artillery-square
in
identified the deceased as his mother'
aged 66 years, and lly
0 3
law. She was had bee the
widow for 25 years. Witness saw her daily in the
hospital, but she could not give any account of
accident.
Amelia Andrews, No. 9, St. Margaret's-telewe'
the wife of a police-constable, said that she welt
the schoolroom in Great Peter-street on TharsT;t;
the 26th of January, at 7 o'clock. She had a tic
but the tickets were not given up at the door' the
stood on the left side of the upper room, ala-ver.
deceased was a little behind her. A great 111110' r's
sons left the room in three-quarters of an "",,sue(l
time, but not in consequence of any alarm. Deca„,e' eti
then got in advance of . witness, but reinlii*
talking to her. A great crash took place, do
ness turned round to escape. She went (1"-ero
stairs. She did not see deceased fall. Ther!,Wgide
numbers of persons in a gallery along the rig
of room. 1,0 OC'
The Coroner said he wanted evidence of
currence that befel the deceased.
Mr. Crow said there was no one who Could sPeto
to that fact. When the crash occurred every g+
helter skelter, thinking that the building was fiw-
and that it was necessary to get away at once' the
The Coroner said he wished to know when
deceased was picked up. ate
The witness said she did, not see deceasu-
the crash. The last she saw was a gentleman
ing up a gold watch. the Pt°4
The Coroner said he would not go into &of
of the question having reference to the nuraber°'
in the building at present. dthat
Mr. C. St. Aubin Hawkins, M.R.C.S.,
_The 01
when deceased was brought into the hosPitwi-iricle,
that her case was a very serious one. The '3,, 80
collar bone, five ribs, both bones of the forearl'coa.
the right leg were fractured. She had, beside3lsible,
cussion of the brain. She was perfectly insert die('
and she remained so until Monday night. t„,,•cia
from her injuries. The other patients were get.Ltill''tbe
well, much better than he had expected. lir' a the
exception of one, who might die, he belie Leo
is
others would pull through. There were 11°'' er.
the hospital, and 93 had been attended altoge"
The proceedings were then adjourned,
The Fatal Accident in the Biackm—

Tunnel.
f;
Yesterday aftermion at three o'clock Mr. C. `l' -arifree'
coroner for West Kent, resumed the inquiry at the 1teol•
mason's Tavern, Woolwich, into the circumstauceAs_,7
ingHunt,
the deaths of Edwin Allum, John Guilin, 1111,"--,„ °llo'
platelayers in the service of the South-East-,111i50,,f1
way Company, who were killed by the fearful -11.lort'
which occurred in the Blackheath Tunnel of the -
Kent line on the evening of Friday, Dec, 16. Old
Several officials connected with te South
way Company were present. Mr. Nicholson, 1331, ",r1,106t
appeared on behalf of Lancaster, the guard of the
train,
and Mr. Robinson for Jones, the signalman' sere %
The Coroner commenced the sproceedings
by ot
that the jury were no doubt well are as to the
the inquiry held at Blackheath on the previous ii‘es;ldcl
but they were not in the slightest degree to be ge: st 6
the verdict then given. It was their duty to arri%co
conclusion solely from the evidence which Well
brought before them. heath
The witnesses who gave evidence at the 131ack Dios
quirt'were then re-examined, and subjected to a setroco.
cross-examination by Mr. Robinson and Mr. Nicht)'d cop;
The Coroner up having summed the evidence 31'
mented thereon, the jury, after a deliberation of
an hour, returned a verdict of manslaughter agaiettils6t'
the signalman, and Lancaster, the guard of the
train, coupled with the same recommendations gilie,i,-;05
jury at Blackheath on Tuesday last, with the J"- 04
additions :—" That, in the opinion of the jury' J°l3,,te:4lce
signalman, was overworked ; and that the Pr',-011,jec
burning coal in the tunnel instead of coke is higli„.l3: -„ot
tionable and injurious ; as.d that the trains 0118.""tiotiP
btheeso overloaded as to prevent their certain Pa6.5°.8.8
tunnel or upon any incline on the lino?
el, said a
Mr. Chapman, stationmaster at Blackhea'-',% to tit
reirceocnuu endations• of the jury would be forwarue
d t ors of the South-Eastern Railway CorePa3ll.
earl4lleo
Bail was then tendered and accepted for the BPP.(t
of Jones and Lancaster to take their trial at the_loicee-edia4
sions of the Central Criminal Court, and the 1:".
terminated.

....---'1
inster.

Bedford Oa
ital touching
yearn
who
at the Roulau

said that the
ng from thet
vegigate 135
.enee, he (the
to had
should iJYese
had led 0h
.
irveyor's
oA
re the PI
gon the pro•

iminary. a
ery'Sqllare'•
is mother-3
d had been
daily in
the
tecount '9"

aret's-terractoel
it she went
on rrhurs—
a,
had a tlekSehe
lie doer.l the
)oni, r.
,t Per,s
'of all 11°Q4,11eJ
[rm. pece7ea
gut re'llft•
lace, an:l •
A-
went L.- re
There were
the right 51

ce of the dc"

0 could SPlir
eVerY6lle:
Lg WaS
at 011Ce.e° the
LOW Wil

after
lecessed ,a,
atleniallllo'

' art'
into 1," Pse,,
nurriberS)

.S
~
said thaavit
ospital he.scle,
The el3slaoa
forearthuon,
besicl6'B;blef
tly insert diea
ht. Slit 3 (,on
rere gettinht'tbe
d
a.
Wit
tl'
believea 6 ill
ir
re t.
I altoge
ed.

ackbeatil

J CBl4{ll. J. r. C. free'
I at theatter,
istance; Josef:
all"„
h' Easterojoil
fearful °;•fortll
of th°

5. V Rai,
asterli.s or,
~
lson, 10.1151130 t
I of the
r-cia
bs
o° of
s by t
to the
„ious T.4cied
0 be gui
0, 0 6
r to allisr,-ti 19°
rich WO"

Black ell!"
dto
seaj.
111:11°
r. I'llo dco
T 1 f
clone° 9' 4101
on of IM'iolleA
nst
r ago ,3113
of the vi)i
)13Ls given io iviP;
o
L the fol
nag, °Itt
'lll, race°
the
s 1J1&not to
~,ht
s 0-0 e
Pgssgg

a Oa
sal 0
the
)rwarcled
ropail• tatoc°
the aPPet
bt the lle
cori"
rrocee

i di
Y. f Wji bt'
supply. 0,004
et)
is dal 6° 5 ilit'',o'
malitieSA ore
ilither ''', 03
. reci a,t
to 440'6,0 ve
0345;t0 os
, 19, re
AO 42° re

TESDAY* to 41);
arley 1";
st weelc Ut
for fine
A late" orK'
.s to 30;
qr. 4,6 r
; barleYl

046
Y. deal
r atten 1,,,n8 to
I wheiteet eoffret‘
)en 161, ol
)ted 1" —clio"o9,
3 at f deto te't
ji at
id Per

Y.
nnV
y• Of
tiou'll
lil
JO 4,
OS b dO7O,
3'
OS 9cl
00 11,100

iss 1.0(1
OS la

19011
...sold
04
..s 4A 4
91,
'OO toe
"sold e$
36°'
3 bd.

e cl
ftt °PIO-
w▪ iless
briSl9)o
eve t°
: e
(IC,, th
die
SareP Of
wife
eXt t▪
he

floo
iewoocitep

01,
et, t
it the 401,10'
iani
pittrver,
Saifit fto rotti
fr. W. per
jolll'

1
A"0-
4, 0

ester'
sh
rr at (oho
ier

het,yard
rc
„,,t
et,
D.
:01,
se,
Se°
Ge°r,e
Of°
VS° 10'
04,6.14 rlo of
OoOtt
1 tPtC