The Sun.
London, England, 1865-07-13 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOITRNALS.

TIMES.—The elections of yesterday may fairly be
taken as expressing the opinion of the borough con-
stituencies of England, and they corroborate in a
very remarkable degree the verdict of the metropo-
litan constituencies. Almost everywhere we find the
supporters of her Majesty's Ministers achieving vic-
tories over their opponents. The net results of the
elections of yesterday and of Tuesday may be stated
as a gain of six to the Ministry; and when we re-
member the numberless influences which are
brought to bear on borough electors, the balance
in favour of the Government is really remarkable.
There are always to be found constituencies in
which considerations of a local or personal
character override all motives of national policy;
but, luckily, those irregular springs of action do on
the whole counterbalance one another, and we may
take the balance of members elected as representing
the unbiased opinion of the majority of the electors.
The Ministerial gains are to a certain extent met by
Ministerial losses ; but the proportion of 24 to 18,
which may be increased, but cannot be diminished,
by the county elections, represents an increase of
strength to the Government of Lord Palmerston
which cannot easily be overrated. Amid much that
is uncertain so much is settled, and we are justified
in taking what has passed as a forecast of what is
to come. We speak of the result of the borough
elections as strengthening or weakening the Go-
vernment of Lord Palmerston, because this is really
the issue before the electors of the kingdom. .It is
probable that no election has ever taken place, at
least since the Reform Bill, in which the appeal to
the nation was more distinctly an appeal to charac-
ter. There is very little question about specific
projects of legislation to be brought forward by the
one or to be opposed by the other party. The Go-
vernment have not gone to the country on the ques-
tion of a Reform Bill, and they have shown their
honesty in forbearing from making such a measure
a party cry. They have claimed no credit for en-
deavouring to abolish Church-rates, and it would
have been as unwise as it would have been
untrue had they attempted to do so, when it is
remembered that the Chancellor of the Ex-
chequer has consistently opposed the unqualified
abolition of this tax. The whole question before
the electors has been whether they would support
the Government of Lord Palmerston or Lord
Derby. On this issue there could be little doubt
as to the result. The Ministry of Lord Palmerston
may not have done as much as they could have
wished, but they have done what they could. They
have gauged the limits of public opinion, and they
have advanced as far as the sentiment of the nation
would permit them to go with safety. Lord Derby
has taken no pains to conceal the course which he
would adopt if he were in office. He is in favour of
" muzzling" every hostile opinion, even when the
" muzzles" have become so old and rotten that they
are useless except for the purpose of irritating those
who are confined by them. A review of the results
of separate elections confirms the impression of a
general survey. Everywhere we find the same dis-
trust of extremes. No one ventures to talk of any
organic change of the electoral body, and, as far as
the pressure of constituencies is concerned, the no-
tion of a Reform Bill might be indefinitely post-
poned. But there are other legislative suggestions
which have been more decidedly put aside by the
voters at the polling booths. Never before have the
advocates of the Permissive Bill made such a vigor-
ous attempt to influence the borough elections, and
never have they been more signally discomfited.
Mr. Pope, the secretary of the Alliance Association,
and prime mover in the agitation for suppressing
the sale of beer, has been rejected at Bolton ; and
Mr. Lawson, whose only claim to Parliamentary
distinction was his sponsorship of the Permissive
Bill, has forfeited his seat at Carlisle. This last
is, in fact, one of the few Liberal losses which
cannot be directly referred to the operation of
some local influence which has accidentally gained
strength since the last election. That Mr. Bras-
sey should have lost the seat which he ac-
quired only a fortnight or three weeks since
may seem at first an argument on the other side,
for it is known that the utmost pressure was put
upon hith to promise his support to the Permissive
Bill ; but the electors of Devonport were in truth
actuated by a much simpler motive. The unex-
pected success of Mr. Ferrand's motion of inquiry
into the Leeds Bankruptcy Court atoned for a
thousand previous extravagances, and served to
secure for himself and his colleague seats which a
few days ago had been more than doubtful. A
general election is always attended with events
which more or less partake of the nature of sur-
prises, and the election of 1865 is not free from such
occurrences. That Mr. Frederick Peel should lose
his seat for Bury is noticeable, though perhaps not
astonishing, when the interest of Lord Derby in
the borough is remembered. The defeat of Mr.
Seymour Fitzgerald at Horsham is more unexpected.
A couple of months have scarcely elapsed since Mr.
Fitzgerald held up his borough to the world as a
pattern of virtue, because his constituents had
never troubled him with their importunities ; but
he may now see reason to doubt whether he did not
misinterpret their silence when he took it as indi-
cative of contentment. On the other hand, Lord
Alfred Paget, who has sat for Lichfield ever since
he became of age in 1837, has found himself de-
_ _ _

prived of his seat ; and in this case, as in many
others, local influence has proved too powerful for
political feeling. It has long been known that the
new Parliament would be distinguished by an un-
usual number of untried men, although this must
be attributed to the protracted existence of its pre-
decessor, and not to any change of political feeling.
Mr. Gladstone's plea for apprenticing young men
of ability to the work of legislation has secured the
return of his son for Chester ; and the success of
Mr. George Trevelyan at Tynemouth and of Mr.
Fawcett at Brighton may prove an acquisition to
the House of Commons.

HERALD.-7-With the general result of the elections
already decided the Conservative party has every
reason to be satisfied. The account of gains and
losses up to yesterday night apparently leaves both
parties just as they stood before the dissolution ; but
the Conservatives have not only maintained their
position—no slight thing to do against Government
influence and wholesale bribery—they have mate-
rially improved it. In the first place, two of the
losses with which we charge ourselves are really no
losses at all. The seats were held by gentlemen who,
although calling themselves Conservatives, deserted
their party whenever it needed their vote, and were
for all practical purposes as gold supporters of the
Government as the representatives of the Whig
pocket boroughs. In the second place the account
is open to a very important rectification as soon as
Parliament assembles. The Liberals have carried a
large number of seats—have certainly won four of
them, which they include in their gains—by the
grossest corruption. The exposure of their disgrace-
ful malpractices six years ago has in no degree
checked them. They have been as lavish of . their
money and, we are happy to add, as clumsy inits
distribution, as they were in 1859. The satisfac-
tion with which the general result must be re-
garded is increased when we look at the
particulars of which it is made up. Our
gains, and the signal defeat of so many Liberal
attempts to wrest seats from us, testify decidedly
to the existence of that Conservative reaction
which our Radical contemporaries jeeringly profess
their inability to discover, and prove that Con-
servative principles have made good way in.our in-
dustrial and commercial centres. Mr. Laird has
defeated his Radical opponent, Mr. Jackson, at
Birkenhead, by two thousand to one thousand votes.
A Conservative was at the head of the poll for D erby,
and Mr. Hodgson occupied the same proud position
at Carlisle. His triumph will be acceptable, we
fancy, to the vast majority even of the Liberal
public, inasmuch as it iias Parliament of that
mischievous fanatic, Mr. Wilfred Lawson. At
Blackburn the two Conservatives had a large ma-
jority, and at Canterbury the Radicals have paid
for their attempt to monopolise the representation
by losing the share of it they formerly held. At
Southampton and Stoke-upon-Trent a Conserva-
tive candidate was at the head of the poll. At York
the Liberals, in their efforts to give a Liberal col-
league to Mr.Westhead, lost that gentleman his seat.
Cambridge and Great Yarmouth have each again
returned two Conservatives. Mr. Christie, we are
glad to say, will not have the opportunity of dis-
playing in Parliament those peculiar gifts by which
he succeeded in breaking off diplomatic relations
between this country and Brazil. In Mr. Forsyth
the electors of Cambridge have a representative of
whom they may well be proud—a distinguished.
scholar, an eminent lawyer, who well supplies the
place which Mr. Kenneth Macauley should have
filled. But the two elections in which Con-
servatives generally will take the most personal
satisfaction are those for Devonport and Whitby.
In spite of the tremendous pressure put on by the
Government the Conservative candidates were vic-
torious at Devonport, and Mr. Brassey, s Parliamen-
tary career has proved, perhaps, the shortest ever
run. The electors of Devonport deserve the thanks
of the Conservatives of England for the spirit and
the steadiness with which they have fought this up-
hill fight, and every one will be glad that Messrs.
Fleming and Ferrand have reaped the reward of
their pluck and perseverance. The rejection of Mr.
Ferrand would have been a great loss to the coun-
try. He is a man who has the courage—unfortu-
nately very rare now in Parliament—to say what
he thinks, and if he gets on the scent of a Whig
job he will not be put off by any "dodges" of
the Premier or Attorney General. The Liberals
of Whitby are by this time, we should fancy, re-
gretting very deeply Mr. Hudson's arrest, and
repenting it too, if, as the world will insist upon

assuming, they had the principal part in it. They
got rid of Mr. Hudson, but a Conservative has
been returned for the borough. They have earned
the disgust of the public, and got nothing for it.
Four members of the Government are amongst the
rejected candidates. The most important of them,
Mr. Frederick Peel, has been dispossessed by a more
thorough-going Radical, and we have no desire- to
claim his discomfiture as a Conservative triumph.
The other three, however, have been beaten by
Conservatives. Viscount Bury has wooed the elec-
tors of Dover in vain ; he boasted a little too soon
of their favours. Colonel White has been ejected
from Kidderminster, and the Irish Lord of the
Treasury has not even an English seat. May Mr.
Brand to-morrow share the fate of his brother whip !
And lastly, Lord Alfred Paget has lost a seat which
he believed to be perfectly secure, There will be
a good deal of complaining, if not cursing, in the
Reform and Brookes's for the next few days. The
Conservatives have not come scatheless out of the
fight. We have several losses to deplore, all the
harder that they were unexpected. One at leait of
these losses is a loss to the new Parliament and
a loss to the country. Mr. Seymour Fitzgerald
had made for himself a high position in the House
of Commons. His speeches commanded the
admiration even of his opponents ; his courtesy
and fairness won him their good-will. The new
House of Commons, however rich it may
prove to be in " young" talent, cannot spare a
statesman of Mr. Fitzgerald's stamp, and we
hope some constituency will hasten to do itself the
honour of securing his services. The absence of
Sir John Hay will be much felt in the house too.
To the Whig Secretary of the Admiralty it will, no
doubt, be a relief not to be confronted by so keen a
critic ; to the cause of good naval administration
and economy his absence will be a great drawback.
We may say the same of Sir James Elphinstone,
who has succumbed to the Government screw at
Portsmouth, the great agent for converting electors
to Liberal principles, which has also deprived the
new house of Sir F. Smith's great knowledge upon
military subjects, and given a seat to that wander-
ing Jew of politics, Mr. Otway, a relative of Lord
Clarence Paget, who happens so very singularly to
be Secretary to the Admiralty. These, however, are
the mishaps incidental to every such battle, and we
may congratulate ourselves that we have up to the
present sustained comparatively so little harm. The
substantial advantage when last night closed over
the combatants was with• the Conservative party,
and if we only go on as we have begun the new
Parliament will show a clear working Conservative
majority.