The Sun.
London, England, 1865-07-14 00:00:00

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SPIRT' OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

TlMES.—Yesterday the electoral contest in the
boroughs was virtually decided, and it will no doubt
prove to have been the most hotly fought day of
hours,
lvarious
candidates.
the h
o turnspe a
the campaign. He must be a strangely apathetic
person who can refrain from interesting himself int e
an e
l pt
ohl e l
by
at ftahstuee
ecoefss
ithee
respec-
tive riThenodf
fefortunerfears
state of
conceivedt
partisans through these fallacious indications,
and then the final delight
or gloom as the numbers
up to 4 o'clock are brought, make indifference
almost impossible. Yesterday there
was a dreadful
list of casualties. The calculations
were baffled in several instn aces. On the day, how-
ever, there was a gain to the Liberals. As might
be expected, it is generally in the populous and
wealthy boroughs that the Liberals have prevailed,
while the gains of the Conservatives are, for the
most part,
.in those which are small in population
or under some local influence. Though there are
some losses to regret, there are many reasons for
encouragement as to the constitution of the new
House of Commons. Not only have seats been
gained for the party of progress, but several men
have been elected who are likely to bring originality
and independence of judgment into that Assembly.
One of the most satisfactory elections of yester-
day is, we think, that of Sir John Acton, for
Bridgnorth. It has been long a reproach to Eng-
land and Scotland, and a ground for Roman Catho-
lics at home and abroad to deny the religious libera-
lity of the two countries, that no one who professes
the unpopular faith could obtain a seat in Great
Britain. Only ono Catholic was returned to the late
Parliament by an English constituency, and he re-
presented not an open constituency, but the Duke
of Norfolk's borough of Arundel. So positive has
been this exclusion that the advocates of a repre-
sentation of minorities have given it as an instance
of the grievances they would remedy, and have said,
plausibly, though incorrectly, that the English Ro-
man Catholics have not been represented at all.
It is satisfactory to find that religious zeal does not in
all cases urge the British elector to vote against a
Papist. The Bridgnorth people in returning Sir
John Acton have not only shown themselves superior
to the prejudice that has hitherto prevailed, but
they have placed in the House an accomplished man
and one of the most thoughtful and judicious among
the members of his Church. It is by such displays
of liberality on the part of Protestants that the in-
tolerance of the extreme Catholics is best disarmed.
The votes of two little constituencies have banished
_ _

Mr. Malins and Mr. Denman from Parliament.
Though from a party point of view there is neither
loss nor gain, since these two learned gentlemen
balance each other, we cannot but regret their
exclusion from the new House of Com-
mons. At Mallow Mr. Longfield is overthrown
by Mr. Sergeant Sullivan, and the Liberals gain
a seat. At Hull, Warwick, Frome, Wareham,
and Colchester there is also a seat gained. At Gran-
tham, Northallerton, Cricklade, and Abingdon the
Tories have inflicted a loss on the Government. But
the most important elections yesterday were those of
Manchester, Leeds, and Edinburgh. At Manchester
there were four candidates, of whom Mr. Bazley was
certain to be re-elected, the real contest lying be-
tween the other three. Mr. Jacob Bright had been
brought to the borough as the representative of the
extreme Liberals, and for that reason was obnoxious
to the Conservative part of the electors, who, though
they did not think it possible to bring in one of their
own men, yet determined to select the least objec-
tionable of their opponents. Their choice fell on Mr.
James, who has accordingly been elected with Mr.
Bazley. At Edinburgh Mr. Black has expiated his
speech against Reform by losing his seat. There,
two Whigs, the Lord Advocate and Mr. Black, were
opposed to two advanced Liberals, and the two
parties now share the representation, Mr. M'Laren
and the Lord Advocate being returned. At Leeds
Messrs. Beecroft and Baines are again returned.
Lord Amberley's aspirations are for the present
checked, and it is to be hoped that before he again'
presents himself to a constituency he M ill acquire a
little more of the modesty which is one of the graces
regretted
tothata
of youth. As Leeds is one of the few first-class
towns which return a Conservative member, and as
it was
determined
stronger
tthe
et o oppose
bce hrLiberal
m pll
interestsil
champion
n. B. e cvr
were
f mt,
ai ty,ni is
repeat
to
in-
trustedbethat there is every reason for
the supporters of the
present Government to be satisfied with the result
of the elections as hitherto ascertained. The Libe-
rals have a decided balance of gain, and where they
have lost it has generally been through bad tactics,
and especially through their common fault of divid-
ing their party by a plurality of candidates. They
have always been less under discipline than their
opponents, who are accustomed to make up for their
weakness, by an elaborate organization. But with
all the fickleness of Liberal constituencies and the
habit of visiting their representatives with the
severest punishment for trivial backslidings the best
Liberal members have kept their places, and will
assemble in the next Parliament reinforced by a
band of able men. It would, indeed, have been a
disgrace to the Liberal cause if such a man as Mr.
Roebuck had been driven from Sheffield after hav-
ing represented it with honesty and ability so many
years. He and several others have been threatened,
but when the time came the good sense and good
feeling of the constituents forbade them to execute
the injustice with which they had been menaced.
POST.--When Lord Palmerston told the electors
of Tiverton that the Government of which he is the
chief had honourably and faithfully performed the
duties which the Sovereign and Parliament had
confided to their hands, he in the tersest language
stated the real grounds on which not only he but
his several supporters now claimed the suffrages of
the electors of the United Kingdom. It is, indeed,
seldom that a Prime Minister, when a member of
the Lower House of Parliament, is enabled to meet
his constituents under circumstances more favour-
able than those under which Lord Palmerston pre-
sented himself to the electors of Tiverton. It is
not in many countries that the head of the Govern-
ment is called upon to enter into competition with
any comer who may choose to enter the lists in order
to secure the right of • being heard in Parliament ;
and the contest between Lord Palmerston, Mr.
Walrond, a political opponent, and Mr. Denman, a
former colleague, for the two scats in Tiverton, fur-
nishes a picture which is in itself singularly charac-
teristic of our institutions. That Lord Palmerston,
whose name as Prime Minister of Queen Victoria
is world-renowned, should be a member of the
Lower and not of the Upper House, and should
on a dissolution of Parliament be compelled like
the most unknown aspirant for Parliamentary
honours to solicit the saffrages of a number of
townsmen, must strike the majority of foreigners
with great surprise. But so it is. Lord Palmer-
ston took his place the day before yesterday on the
hustings at Tiverton with nothing but his own merits
to recommend him, and unaided by any of dt
thate.
official intervention which in other countriesi
similar circumstances would unquestionably
aibt of his
y Dave
been employed to prevent even the possibility
so
pleased,
rejection. Had the electors of 'Tiverton ertacit e bottom
the Premier would have been place
unless unlessth more for-
instead of the top of the poll,
oafodsome other
tunate in seeking the favour
consti-
tuency, Lord Pahnerston would be excluded from
the House of Commons.
Satisfied, however, with
the policy pursued by
their late representative, and
doubtless proud of the privilege of sending to Par-
liament the first English statesman of the present
day, the men of
Tiverton placed Lord Palmerston
in the van of his competitors.
It is now nearly 30
years since an election has been contested in this
borough, and the relative strength of the two poli-
tical parties seems to have been but imperfectly
understood. Mr. Walrond ventured in the Conser-
vative interest to seek one of the vacant seats, and
has been successful. At the close of the poll he was
found three votes ahead of Mr. Denman, Lord
Palrnerston's colleague iu the late Parliament ; and,
as the result of the Tiverton election, one seat is
consequently lost to the Government. The return
by a constituency of two representatives belonging
to different political parties is by some looked upon
as almost tantamount to disfranchisement ; but that
the borough which sends to Parliament the Prime
Minister of England, and chief of the Liberal pLartyci
should have paired him off with a follower of or
Derby, is, to say the least of it, an event as singular
as it has been unexpected.