The Sun.
London, England, 1865-07-31 00:00:00

word of his policy. There is no defect like
this to reckon up on the other side, and it was
rendered all the more ignominious because the noble
lord, with most mistaken judgment, evidently

adapted his professions to suit the temper of his

mmediate audience, and went so far as to yield to
the pressure of circumstances, and at last promise
to support measures that he evidently did not ap-

prove of. There can be no doubt that if Lord
AMBERLEY had gone to canvas any other town he

would not come to the same conclusions respecting

the six-pound borough franchise, but he got into a
regular " fix " between his innate wish not to go

,00 far and his fright of losing his supporters. ➢lr.

BAINES must win respect from both sides for his
consistency in keeping to his point, and for the
frank and outspoken manner in which he always
puts his profession into practice ; but it is quite

otherwise with those who halt between two opi-

nions, like Lord AMBERLEY. They only call down
ridicule and contempt upon themselves. If they
succeed in their venture, people say that they have
done so by a "dodge ;" and if they lose, the universal
opinion prevails that it serves them right. The
C II AIRMAN said very truly that Lord Am BERLEY, in his
next attempt at canvassing,had better go unfettered,
for in his late attempt at Leeds he put himself in
the hands of a small body, who endeavoured to ride
roughshod over the community, and he only found
out his mistake too late. Playing second to any one
is a thankless office, and seldom gains prestige or
prosperity for those who take the unwise and inju-
rious office upon themselves. The Chairman gave
another good hint to the assembly respecting the
success which attended Lord PALMERSTON in many
places. He said that the Premier had for the last
twenty years been in possession of the, administra-
tion gifts in the country, " and had viad all the
places to fill up." This ingenious practice had
been carried so far that the Chairman of

Mr. GLADSTONE'S committee at Oxford had
been placed in a bishopric before the election took
place. There is great truth in this summing up of

the matter :—" They were all mortals, and they
could all understand that those who were wishing
for place, and those who had places presented to
them, might in gratitude and hope be guided to
give a preference to one political leader over an-
other when they thought there was no great prin-

ciple involved."
Mr. BEECROFT laid great stress upon the fact
that the peculiar kind of trimmers had been elimi-
nated from the ranks of the Conservatives, and de-
clared that the loss of such men was an advantage.
Their seats were ou one side of the House,
and their votes were on another. The
honourable member also commented upon
the " Yankee Radicals," who have been the greatest
losers in the fray just over, and aptly described
them as " men who love America more than Eng-
land, and think her Republican institutions a better
model than those of our own limited Monarchy."
Thus Manchester has ignored the Manchester
School, and some of those who were to lead the
forlorn hope of the Maine Liquor Law are excluded
from the House altogether. Mr. BEECROFT truly
said that the Government had not much cause for
complacency or congratulation at the turn events
had taken of late. The last °Teat act of the late

Parliament was a vote of censure on the Lord

Chancellor, and thus the House of Commons extin-
guished one of the great Whig lights, and following
their example, as the lion. member facetiously ob-
served, had snuffed out four lesser ones. The two
Chancellors have been unfortunate, for Mr. GLAD-
STONE lost Oxford notwithstanding the stupendous
exertions made to retain him in that place. In re-
viewing the losses of their adversaries, Mr. BEE-
citorr pointed to the great catastrophe in Berkshire,
which he denominated the " most grievous of all the
election griefs," and to the mortification which the
Premier sustained in a political adversary being
returned with him for Tiverton. Iu truth, the
general election has been especially disastrous to
the Whigs in every respect. At Leeds they
met with a home thrust because their old
leader was outwitted in his earnest endeavours
to get his son returned as a representative.
It will be long before Lord AMBERLEY'S defeat is
forgotten, and while it is to be hoped that it may
impart more soundness and consistency to the noble
lord's political opinions, it nevertheless remains as a
lasting memento of the decadence of the House of
RUSSELL in influence and power. When the pre-
sent Government came into office Earl RUSSELL
was the Deus ex Illaclima of the affair. He was
the one that was looked to for inaugurating changes
and making improvements, but the result has been
far otherwise from what was expected. He himself
regards his labours with complacency, an 1 advises
the people of England to rest and be thankful. It
would seem that the good townsmen of Leeds have
taken his advice a little too literally, and not relished
the alterations he proposed to them. Whatever
may be the prevailing tone of the new house, there
can be no doubt that the days of " the higgery "
are numbered. It has runits race, and terminated
in defeat and disaster. There is nothing more
antagonistic to the spirit of Englishmen than trickery
and deceit, and these have been the prime movers,
the active agents, the propelling powers, of
the Whigs during this generation. It is
time that professions without practice, and the love
of place at the sacrifice of principle, be done away
with. And, what with one thing and another, it
seems as if the death-blow had been given, for the
disastrous defeats of the party have of late been
most significant. The Lord Chancellor obtained
much of his discredit by his devotion to Whig prac-
tices, and sanctioning the jobbery and corruption of
placemongers ; and several other affairs of recent
occurrence have tended to clear the popular distrust
of the doctrines of the party, once the greatest in
the State, but now out of repute, among the high-
, minded of all classes of politicians.

The returns of the Registrar-General are always
full of curious information, from which the initiated
may draw some inferences as to the social welfare
and prosperity of the country. There is not only
the bare fact of the state of the public health, or
the increase of population, to consider, but the pre-
valence of epidemics, the number of marriages, the
average age at death, and the different rate of mor-
tality in different districts, all tell their own tale to
the social philosopher. The epidemic that has
excited so much alarm in other parts of Europe has
happily very little to do with these returns as yet,
though in scan parts of the kingdom outbreaks of
snxalrpox, measles, and fever have shown how very
long it is before sanitary science can conquer igno-
rance and obstinacy. Hastings and Bath are not
certainly to be classed among the overcrowded or
unhealthy towns. Why, then, should they be
visited with violent attacks of zymotic disease?
Most likely there has been some neglect of ordinary
precautions in such cases; and bad water, imperfect
drainage, have converted one or two cases of conta-
gious disease into a local epidemic. That town life,
however inferior to country life is not necessarily
unhealthy, is shown by the rate of mortality in
different places. London, despite the crowding in
some parts, is, thanks to sanitary measures, almost on
a par with the averages of the kingdom, while Bris-
tol and Birmingham, two very different towns, one
of which at least has every excuse of trade and ma-
.