The Sun.
London, England, 1865-02-20 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

THE " SATURDAY REVIEW" ON THE DISSOLUTION.
—There are few subjects which have a more legiti-
mate interest for a condemned criminal than the
question of the day which is to be fixed for his exe-
cution ; and criminals have rarely been so philoso-
phical as to pass the subject altogether by. The
present Parliament is not only mortal, like all things
human, but is able to boast, with the old Highland
chieftain, that none of its ancestors have died a
natural death. The time is fast approaching when
it too must be sentenced to a premature and violent
end. It is natural that gloomy calculations should
now be becoming an habitual subject of the victim's
thoughts. In fact, the question as to the latest day
to which the fatal blow can possibly be deferred is
the only one that can be said really to occupy the
Parliamentary mind at this moment. Compulsory
silence upon this all-absorbing topic is a cruel ag-
gravation of suffering at such a crisis ; but
consti-
tutional decorum is imperative. That which is up-
permost in the minds of all must be upon n o one's
lips. But in the shortness of every sitting, the
dulness of every debate, and the pettiness of every
subject of legislation may be traced the operation
of the care which is engrossing every mind. The
question upon which members seem to be delibe-
rating so silently and so sorrowfully is not without
interest even to those who have not before their
minds the vision of an agreeable future filled up with
laborious canvassing days, heavy election bills, and
tiresome bribery inquiries. In any case this Parlia-
ment will have approached nearer to its legal term
than the majority of its predecessors, and it may
possibly live to furnish a unique example of lon-
gevity. It is natural, therefore, that speculations as
to the probable time of its dissolution should be rife.
The only basis, however on which they can be rested
is to be sought in the inherent probabilities of the
case. Many rumours are current concerning the
information which the Prime Minister is supposed
to have vouchsafed upon the subject to intimate,
but apparently indiscreet friends. But these ora-
cular utterances are not satisfactory guides, be-
cause the Premier, in the observance of a rigid
neutrality between contending opinions, appears
to have given a different version of his inten-
tions to each successive querist. The selection of
the best moment for a dissolution is a critical point
in party manoeuvre, and it is safe to predict that he
will make it with his accustomed tact. But several
considerations must press upon his mind, of dif-
ferent kinds, and it is not easy to foresee which will
gain the mastery. The great issue lies between the
autumn of this year and the spring of next year.
There are some very potent arguments for delaying
the painful ceremony till next year. The past regis-
tration has not been as satisfactory to the Govern-
ment as could have been wished. The change it
has made in the lists is probably not quite so great
as the Conservative organs represent it to have
been ; but, upon the whole, there is little doubt that
the Government have lost decidedly, and there is
still less that they expected to gain largely. Under
these circumstances, it is very tempting to try the
chances of another year. Perhaps it is more a
tempting than sagacious policy. It is not likelythat
the stream will change its direction in so brief a
space of time. There is apt to be a run of luck in
politics, as in other games of chance, and it is not
safe, when it has set in, to play double or quits.
Still the proverbially sanguine temperament of elec-
tioneers will probably represent matters more fa-
vourably. If, as leaders of the Liberals, Lord Pal-
merston is exposed to the temptation to run out this
present Parliament, it is much stronger when viewed
from his own personal position. When he parts
from this Parliament, he must feel that he can never
have another so exactly to his mind. It represents
his own peculiar political position with a fidelity
which can never be equalled. Neither Premier nor
Parliament have finally broken with democracy,
nor is either inclined to yield to it. Their attitude
is rather that of a suspension of arms than of either
hostility or peace. The next Parliament can
scarcely return from the hustings in the same pro-
visional character. It must move decidedly in one
direction or the other; and with that change the
feeling which chiefly inspires, the present blind at-
tachment to Lord Palmerston will be gone. It can
hardly be doubted that, if he were left to his own
inclination, he would not shorten by a single week
the existence of so complaisant a body. But the ob-
jections upon the other side are so serious that per-
haps the majority of p&ple have made up their minds
that there must be a dissolution at the end of the
present session. It is nearly a century and a half
since the Parliament which passed the Septennial
Act was dissolved, and never once during the whole
of that period has the Parliament been allowed to
survive till within three months of its legal termina-
tion. Precedent is strong upon all those questions
which are included within the scope of the mysterious
word " constitutional," and in point of precedent
such a proceeding would be absolutely without
defence. But the practical evils of it would be more
formidable still. The discussions of the House of
Commons are not under the control of the Govern-
ment, nor even of the House itself. There is no
constitutional machinary by which inconvenient elo-
quence can be checked. Coughs, yells, scrapings
may be potent as against the sensitive and the fasti-
dious ; but in the case of members not afflicted with
either of these two disqualifications, they are abso-
lutely powerless. Now bores are usually only an
annoyance ; but if the Prime Minister should resolve
upon continuing the Parliament till next spring, they
will become a constitutional power of the first mag-
nitude. It will be in their discretion to disband the
army and navy, and to leave the Treasury without
a farthing to pay the Civil Service of the country.
Should the present Parliament meet again in' Feb-
ruary next, it will have, within little more than three
months, to pass the Mutiny Bills, to go through the
votes in supply, and to pass the Ways and Means
Bills necessary for raising the taxes out of which the
expendituresanctioned is to be defrayed. But it is
an old constitutional right that, before any stage of
these proceedings for the granting of money, any
member may claim to be heard upon any grievance
—that is to say, upon any subject on which it may
please any member to talk. It requires no great
effort of imagination to foresee that bores may be
found who will see their opportunity and use it
mercilessly. They must be listened to. Remon-
strances, objections, indignant protests will be of
'Theyavail. For the moment, they are the masters.
They will enjoy the unwonted sensation of being
secure against a count-out, for a count-out would
only aggravate the delay they are causing. For
the first time in the history of Parliament, they
will be in a condition to insist upon a hearing.
It may be conjectured that, before they have been
exhausted, the spring will be well advanced. The
fatal 30th of May, on which Parliament will dis-
solve of itself, will be close at hand. No English
member, with the fear of his constituents before his
eyes, would venture upon so indecent a proceeding
as talking the Parliament out, but Irish constitu-
encies would probably look upon such a freak with
more sympathising eyes. Mr. Vincent Scully would
perhaps not suffer severely in the opinion of the
people of Cork if he were to seize that opportunity
for explaining the wrongs of Ireland ; and the in-
dignation displayed. by the base Saxon at such a pro-
ceeding would make his return at the impending
election absolutely secure. If Lord Palmerston will
only try the experiment of deferring the dissolution
till the spring of next year, this generation will have

the chance of seeing a dramatic Parliamentary scene
such as has seldom been witnessed before. Scene—
the House 'of Commons ; time—half past 11 o'clock
p.m. on the 30th of May, 1866. Principal figure—
Mr. Vincent Scully eloquently insisting upon the
wrongs of Ireland. Below him, the Ministers pro-
foundly uncomfortable at the reflection that neither
Appropriation Bill nor Tax Bills have been passed,
and that the public service can only be carried on
by illegal proceedings for which a new and possibly
hostile Parliament may refuse an indemnity. On
the benches round about, the bloody and brutal
Saxon trying to put down Mr. Vincent Scully by
mere howling ; the din, however, only inspiring
him with fresh ardour, by recalling to his mind plea-
sant memories of his native land. For half an hour
the grand spectacle of the impassioned patriot gesti-
culating in dumb show, and vainly struggling to
make his eloquence heard above the chorus of 500
infuriated Saxon yells. At the end of that time the
clock strikes 12, the Irish patriot's task is done ; the
Speaker, no longer a speaker, descends humbly from
his chair ; the House of Commons is suddenly re-
solved into a very shabby-looking and uproarious
public meeting ; and the Ministers go off reflecting
upon the perplexing predicament into which the
exigency of party tactics has conducted them. It
would be a pity to lose such a scene. Perhaps, for
the transitory interests of the public service, it would
be better that the elections should take place next
autumn ; but for the more permanent objects of the
sensational historian, it is earnestly to be hoped that
the dissolution may be postponed.

THE " SPECTATOR ON MR. GLADSTONE AND
RAILWAY REFOR3l.—There are only two modes of
carrying a great innovation in a constitutional
country. One is to bring forward with great éclat
a measure so large and as it were so dramatic that it
touches the popular imagination, and is accepted
by irresistible acclaim. The storm of public ap-
plause cows the " interest," and scatters obstacles
as a physical storm scatters sand dunes. Free trade
in corn was really carried in that way, the nation
having made up its mind to the cheap loaf months
before the governing classes had fairly reasoned
themselves out of their pecuniary timidity. The
other, and perhaps less dangerous way, is to invite
discussion, to issue commission, and form com-
mittees, to let facts and theories and considerations
and plans filter slowly down into the national mind,
till when the time for action arrives it is found that
there are no obstacles to remove, that even the
" interests " are willing the experiment should be
tried. That was the way in which the Poor-Law
reformers secured what at one time seemed impos-
sible—a tolerant hearing for their immense and un-
popular innovation. Mr. Gladstone has in the
matter of Railway legislation adopted the second
and perhaps wiser alternative. Mr. Roebuck forced
from him on Tuesday night, not perhaps altogether
unwillingly, a statement not indeed of his policy,
but of his immediate action. He does not intend
to suggest at once any vast scheme for the purchase
of the railways throughout Great Britain, or any
one system of railways, or even of any one railway.
Still less does he propose to renew the Railway Act
without discussion or concession secured to the
public, or guarantee that the more pressing evils of
the monopoly shall in some way be softened. With
a studious precision of words he announced that
he intended to guano the public mind, to issue,
in other words, a Royal Commission, which
should inquire into the working of the Railway
system, the cost of conveyance of goods, the charges
made for passengers, the degree in which Railway
companies, having obtained a monopoly of the
carrying trade of the Empire, satisfy the needs of
the nation, to " bring all the facts and information
bearing upon the subject into a state in which it
may be thoroughly available for members of Parlia-
ment and likewise for the public at large." The
Commission is not to discuss the policy of any mea-
sure whatever, for if it decided against innovation
the Government would be embarrassed, and if for
it the public would not have previously been conci-
liated. It is to be bar, not tribunal—to collect the
evidence, not to decide in what direction the bulk of
that evidence plainly tends. The report of this
commission will, it is hinted, be ready before the new
Parliament has assembled, and it will then be laid
before a body fresh from contact with its consti-
tuents, and with time before it to consider any pro-
posal, however extensive. Mr. Walpole tried hard
to induce Mr. Gladstone to ask the House for a
preliminary vote in the shape of an address praying
the Crown to grant the commission suggested, but
the Chancellor of the Exchequer was not inclined
to be entrapped. He had made up his mind that to
do anything great he must have the support of the
nation, that to gain such support he must instruct
the nation, and that to move before the instruction
had been afforded would be fatal to all his plans.
He fell back therefore with a pride which we wish
other Ministers would display a little more frequently
upon his responsibility, telling the member for
Cambridge University that the first act belonged
to the Ministry, who, and not the House are respon-
sible for their advice to the Crown. The public,
accustomed to believe that a commission is a subter-
fuge used to gain time, may be inclined to imagine
that Mr. Gladstone has abandoned the wider ideas
he is said to have entertained. If he had he would
have done the weakest act of his whole political
life, but there is no trace in his proposal of any
such design. People who jump to that conclusion
either wish it, as the Times avowedly does, or fail
to perceive the extent of the field which any inno-
vation, and therefore any inquiry, must of neces-
sity cover. The railway companies have not yet
completed their task, but they begin to see land,
and they have accomplished immense results.
Within the 25 years of their existence they have
practically obtained a monopoly of the whole
internal carrying trade. They have killed the
coaches, superannuated the barges, outstripped
the steamers, and abolished the posting houses.
The coasting trade has put itself en rapport with
them, and there are routes along which feeble
tugs or still feebler horses slowly drag cumbrous
barges with loads the value of which will
scarcely bear the expense of speed. In the out-of-
the-way districts stage coaches may still be found,
and there are whole counties, notably in the north
of Scotland, where to the discredit of their proprie-
tary and the delight of innkeepers the traveller is
still reduced to posting. But for all practical pur-
poses as to goods, and for all purposes as to passen-
gers, the railways have completely won the day. If
they stopped our civilisation would stop too. It it
were possible to imagine the system suspended in
toto England would be ruined, for the trade of to-
day created by the diffusion of railways could not be
carried on by the ancient means. Communication
would seem to be suspended, trade would be
paralysed, half the population of England would be
comparatively imprisoned, and no small section of
the remainder would be compelled to strike their
tents and close in on the great cities as the price of
their daily bread. To take a single illustration of
the effects railways have exercised upon our civilisa-
tion, their suspension would be equivalent to that of
the newspaper press. The
carried over the Empire at the prices now demanded,
could not, we journals could not be
strongly suspect, be carried in bulk
at a
all. The companies have the control of a supply
which is to civilisation almost as valuable as air to
the human body, and it becomes to the last degree
important to inquire into the spirit in which they
are disposed to employ their power. They are the
national carriers—are they trying to carry the
nation or only a very limited class, to convey all
goods or only goods which can bear heavy expense
of carriage ? Nobody doubts, we presume, that
there is a point of demand for passenger fares at
which the railways would become an unmitigated
nuisance, would give to a few individuals a mono-
poly of locomotion as completely as the Legislature
could do. Parliament certainly will not deny it, for
it legislated to meet that very contingency. Nor
will any wise person doubt that if conveyance could
be made perfectly costless the activity, and conse-
quently the prosperity, of the Empire would be inde-
finitely increased. There must be a point between
those two extremes, which is the one best for all par-
ties, which secures at the least sacrifice of pecuniary
productiveness to the railways the largest possibility
of traffic to the nation. The object of Mr. Gladstone's
inquiry is to ascertain whether the railways have
by their rule of thumb happened to ascertain that
point, whether, for example, it is a national good
that while the Great Northern dividend last year
was £7 10s. per cent., it defeated a project which
would have lowered the price of coal to five millions
at least 3s. a ton. The nation suspects that it is
not, that the. railways are carrying small numbers
of men and limited quantities of goods at high rates
in preference to large numbers of men and unlimited
quantities of goods at low rates, that they are sacri-
ficing the public not to their own profits, but to the
ease of directors, the comfort of contractors, and
the timidity of a vast body of little shareholders.
The companies, for example, carry third-class pas-
sengers at Bs. 4d. per 100 miles. That is cheaper
than any other conveyance, but the Belgians carry
the same class at 3s. per 100 miles, which is actually
cheaper than walking barefoot, for a strong man
would take three days to walk it, lose Is. 6d. a day
as wages for unskilled labour, and must pay for his
keep besides. Transport at that rate would equa-
lize wages all over England, and enable surplus la-
bour to flow to its proper market as water flows to
its level. In addition to these heavy charges the
companies charge third-class fare only at the most
inconvenient hours. If the inquiry simply ended
in adding a third-class division to every train, and
regulating charge by speed as well as distance, it
would be worth all the trouble it will involve, but
it will effect much more than that. It will, we be-
lieve, show that whole branches of trade are cut off
by the charges invented to obtain great profit for
little work ; that entire districts grow less than they

might if chalk and manure could be carried cheaplyi
that whole populations are starved with cold, and
great industries arrested by the fictitious price
posed upon coal ; that the natural movement
population, ' which is the very systole and dias„t°,,,
of modern civilisation, is arrested by tariffs will%
while they injure the people, do not secure returf
to the proprietors ; that in short the tendencY ,u 0
railway management as at present carried on is
therte
stereotype the pace of the national pulse, and
fore the rate at which the national energy call

applied.
THE " EXAMINER" ON THE TRALEE ELECTILI
—What has taken place this week in the borough
of
Tralee may well awaken doubts in the insi.inther
Conservatives on-the subject of the Ballot -D1 e'
of the candidates contesting the representation Pwe
fessed to belong to the party whose interests
the
uphold. We are, therefore, entitled to discuss iity
matter without incurring the suspicion of Pattie
either on personal or political grounds. We re'abt
the result, because it has been unmistakably brondcwo
about by the most scandalous intimidation; an with
regard the example thus offered as one frangitt we
infinite mischief to the community at large. -
especially desire to mark the event as a signatv
stance of the want of security for liberty of v° lour
and to recommend its careful consideration bY e
is
Tory friends. Tralee, as most people are awar
a little seaport town in the south of Ireland', cnot
taming but a few thousand inhabitants and tes.
many electors. Of these about a fourth are Preto.
tants, and, as is usually the case in small Irish &yip
try towns, Conservatives. Of the remainder roth;
are Catholics, the wealthiest and most numerate
have for a long time professed innuedray
opinions, and have resisted any attempt to it
them into sanctioning wild or seditious views'dys
is generally understood that up to within a fetter
of the late election, they had signified their ddition
tion to vote for Mr. McKenna who had the
promises of support from the Tory minornY tea
A iro
borough. These latter kept their word, anu. had
for him as man who by honourable enterpri.sefor
acquired opulence, and who as an Bang their
tial director of the National Ban', their
identified with the industrial prosperity 01
town and country. Many of the Catholics r," ade,
persisted in redeeming the promises they had 3O,
but a number, variously stated at from 20 to 30,
themselves unable to resist the violence
OP°-
matically organised by the partisans of the
,ipetea
noghue. No mob which could have been COrboo
within the purlieus of the town itself conk'
produced such an effect. It was necessary t 0 :3
this w
the aid of the surrounding peasantry ; and days
done so unscrupulously, that for a week or tenessea
preceding the election the candidate who Prof oa
loyalty to the throne as opposed to revolutionlieoce
respect for law and order as opposed to tilrbintthe
and anarchy, was not suffered to apPer4l: Pa"iO
streets or to address a public meeting. 'ILI° “or'
priest who had originally invited him to coincoo,
ward, and who had gone the length of taking 14.4
sel with him how the opposition of a RePealer efol'
be averted, became at an early stage of tlies,e at may
ous proceedings a conspicuous object a 3131
be truly designated as agrarian interferene-jiatea
after a feeble attempt to withstand it, rePa 010
his acts and words and declared that h?as t
go with the stream. There is no secreV
the
the means employed. The customers d° their
small traders compelled them to len, they
aid in working upon the fears n'elitholia
reverend preceptor.. Others of the 00 c)/1
clergy were in like manner induced to co-op us
ivts-
the occasion ; and when the work of barbar°, dose'
midation was thought to have been sufficien to rei
the fanatical favourite of the hour was adweder tba_,
sign his seat for a neighbouring county in °r ogh
he might be returned for the insianificant bor venco
Tralee. A more wicked abuse of popular ill if the
at elections is not to be found on record. _
.nrefer
constituen.cy had really been stupid enough wohooe
a hair-brained and inexperienced youneall 10311
habits in political talk and political action W. g the
of tried ability and worth, capable of rendeld•tiolo
. • ad 1 we
locality efficient service and of bringing lent,
parlian o
weight to the Irishrepresentation in ,he err r ;
might regret the circumstance and pitY mound
int
but we should not have to complain of a vir again-
flicted on freedom of election or an outrage is too,
constitutioual rule. But the case of Vale° e 01'
d
flagrant to be passed over in silence : an iosecl 1
that party in the State which has hitherto e_..l of tbe
ears to all argument and reason in favciul_erionsil
Ballot, whether it does not behove town Li/00:
to consider,—in the interests of their ~a.
to put it on no higher ground,—lvne' to s'
method should not be adopted to put an en eno'
possible use of terrorism in the choicculocif %%Pyre: flew
tives ? Certainly vote by ballot Wo
tralized the ruffianism of Tralee.