The Sun.
London, England, 1865-01-27 00:00:00

discussion, and with the object of having all future dis-
putes settled by arbitration."
It was further resolved that the delegates should, prior
to their next meeting, take the opinion of their various
societies upon the above resolution, with the view to im-
mediate action.

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

TIMES.-11 the electors of Huddersfield are rather
late in receiving from their member an account of the
proceedings of the last session, they certainly have
no reason to complain that they suffer by comparison
with those constituencies whose representative have
been more hasty in laying before them an account
of the Parliamentary campaign. The speeches of Mr.
Leatham bear evident marks of careful study and
preparation, but the labour that is bestowed upon
them is by no means thrown away. This gentleman,
one of the most promising of the younger members
of the Radical party, has evidently taken Mr. Bright
for his model, and from a merely oratorical point of
view it would be scarcely possible for him to select a
better. He has, in common with Mr. Bright, a strong
faculty of humour, butMr.Leatham treats subjects in
a lighter and more cheerful manner than his leader.
He does not appear so deeply impressed as Mr. Bright
with the tragic miseries of the people of England; he
seems rather struck with the ridiculous than with the
melancholy aspect of things, and draws, with great
force and humour, a picture of the embarrassments of
Government and Opposition on the Danish question
—the Opposition anxious for war in order to turn
the Government out, the Government anxious for
peace as the only way of retaining their places. Mr.
Leatham then proceeds with much force and good
sense to argue against the measure which has ob-
tained the name of the Permissive Bill, mainly, we
suppose, became its object is to empower the majo-
rity to tyrannise without dispute over the wishes of
the minority. Mr. Leatham's argument on this
subject is well worthy of attention, not only for its
bearing on the question of compulsory temperance,
but from the much wider range of subjects to which
it is applicable. "It is," he says, " the essence of
representative Government that the electing class,
which is analogous to the class paling rates, shall
possess no direct legislative power ; and the princi-
ple of Parliamentary representation is that not
-even the representative principle shall alone legis-
late. We have taken the precaution to protect the
rights and property of Englishmen by the preroga-
tives of the Crown, the privileges of the Lords, and
the authority of a representative assembly. All
these constitute the threefold and invaluable shelter
which we have raised over the rights and property
of the meanest subject in the realm. But here is a
proposition which, with naked and revolutionary
simplicity, proposes to intrust the property and
maintenance of the rights of a large class of persons
to diminutive, homogeneous, democratic, and irre-
sponsible Parliaments set up all over the country,
in place of a central, responsible, compound, and
constitutional one. It seems to me that this strikes
at the root of a constitutional and representative
system." It is impossible to state the case better,
and the argument is, to us, who are in favour of the
English Constitution mainly as it at present exists,
quite unanswerable and perfectly satisfactory. We
object as strongly as Mr. Leatham can possibly do
to the substitution of a pure democracy for one
central, responsible, compound, and constitutional
system ; but we see no reason, as Mr. Leatham
deubtless does, to limit these principles to the case
of Mr. Lawson's Permissive Bill, and would prefer
Ito extend them to subjects of infinitely greater im-
portance, to which they are equally applicable, and
where they would be infinitely more valuable.
Having, as we think, entirely demolished Mr. Law-
son, Mr. Leatham proceeds, in the same happy vein
of humour, to address himself to the subject of Re-
form. He regrets the agitation on the Permissive
Bill, because he thinks that by its counter-irritant
qualities it has tended materially to reduce the in-
flammatory action which otherwise must have
arisen in the body politic. On the question of re-
form in the representation of the people he considers,
very justly, that the energies of the working classes
have been unwisely divided, one portion of them
seeking for a democratic Reform Bill, and another to
enforce uponthemselves the Permissive Bill—a mea-
sure presupposing a state of things as its foundation
which would render any extension of the franchise
a palpable absurdity. Mr. Leatham is far too clear-
headed not to see very plainly that the two positions
are untenable by one person at the same time. It
requires extraordinary boldness to argue that the
working classes are so degraded that they cannot
be entrusted with the right to determine for them-
selves what quantity of beer or spirituous liquors
they shall consume for their own use, while at the
same tirte they are so enlightened that they are fit
to take upon themselves, to the virtual exclusion of
all other classes, the management in the last resort
of the affairs of a mighty empire. Mr. Leathern
urges us, on the authority of Mr. Stansfeld, to take
these matters upon trust, but he can hardly expect
us to have more confidence in the working classes
than they have in themselves. We are not bound
to take every one at his own estimate, and we are
certainly not required to put any one higher, espe-
cially in a matter of such unspeakable importance
as an entire change in the power by which ultimately
the destinies of the country are to be decided. Mr.
Leatham struggles manfully against the difficulty
opposed by the undoubted fact that whatever faults
both parties may have committed with regard to a
Reform Bill, they have done so with perfect im-
punity—nay, with something like popular applause.
Mr. Gladstone, he says, made a speech which de-
lighted him and his friends who sit around him.
There was exultation below the gangway and con-
sternation in the House ; but neither was the exulta-
tion re-echoed in the country, nor was the conster-
nation of long continuance. Mr. Leatham forgets to
mention that Mr. Gladstone published his speech
with a preface, which, if it did not make it less mag-
nificent, certainly made it less intelligible, and drew
the sting of it so effectually that it is quite impos-
sible for any one to say what the views of the Chan-
cellor of the Exchequer upon Reform now are. If
he stands for Oxford, they are probably the views
of the preface ; if he stands for a larger constitu-
ency, they are probably the views of the speech.
Mr. Leatham takes substantially the ground of per-
sonal right to the franchise as the basis of a Reform
Bill, and is at much pains to prove that the working
classes will make a good use of the power intrusted
to them ; he does not deny that this power will be
complete, and that upon their enlightenment and
good conduct the destinies of the country must
thenceforth depend. Granting this for the moment,
we would press him with his own argument, and
ask him how he can reconcile his mind to the
revolutionary simplicity which virtually takes away
the power from all persons who now possess it, in
order to vest it in what is undoubtedly the poorest,
though, of course, he thinks the most virtuous and
enlightened of the whole ? Is it desirable to replace
what he calls our " compound constitutional sys-
tem" by this extreme " simplicity ?" He regards
the prerogatives of the Crown and the privileges of
the Peers as among the safeguards of our liberties.
Coming from him the admission is of weight, and
is honourable to his candour ; but how can he sup-
pose for a moment, in opposition to Mr. Bright,
that these institutions can be permanently preserved
when the Constitution has been converted from a
mixed monarchy into a pure democracy, and when
the upper classes are virtually disfranchised ? How
long does he think the House of Peers and his de-
mocratic House of Commons would go on working
amicably side by side ? He repudiates all check
upon democracy; does he expect democracy to check
itself, and, if so, on what historical precedent is that
expectation founded ? We can only say to Mr.
Leatham what we have said to Mr. Bright, that
while assuming only to advocate the rights of a
portion of the people, they are really proposing a
complete subversion of 'the Constitution, and sub-
stituting something for it which they may succeed
in proving to be much better, but which is not the
Constitution to which England owes her liberality,
her freedom, and her progress, and by virtue of
which her own popular orators are permitted to tell
five millions of the freest people in the world that
they are reduced to a condition of slavery.
HERALD. When the late Lord Elgin " opened
up" Japan he little thought what a terrible legacy
he was to leave to his country. How many fleets
and armies will have to be sent there, how many
ambassadors, admirals, and generals, before affairs
can be placed, as the cant phrase is, " on a satisfac-
tory footing," who can tell ? How many more brave
Englishmen are to be hacked to pieces on the high
road, and how many towns are to be laid in ashes
to avenge them, we cannot say. This only we feel,
that it is a most unfortunate thing we ever attempted
to break down the barrier of isolation which, in
mercy to mankind, had been raised between this
treacherous people and the world outside of them.
Europe, Asia, Africa, and America, not to mention
a fifth continent which is but half explored, might
have satisfied even the avarice of trade for the next
century or so. The way in which for more than
200 years past these islanders of Asia had treated
the Europeans who were willing to undergo. any
humiliation to be allowed to barter with them, was
not such as to tempt other nations to go out of the
way in suing for their friendship or incurring their
animosity. We might have left it to the Dutchmen,
who liked it, to allow themselves to be shut up in a
prison on a small island, to be kept at more than
arm's length like dangerous reptiles, to have letters
poked at them on sticks or handed on tongs, •to be
obliged to knock their heads against the floor when
suffered to behold from afar off a dignatary of the
great empire to endure all things and submit to all
possible indignities for that greed of lucre which
men call " commercial enterprise." We should
never have wiled our fingers with such a dirty

business, but have left Japan to the Dutch, andf ed
Dutch to Japan. The Fates and Lord Elgin
it otherwise, and there we are—an England
miainreTejr
in Japan •an imperium in imperio ; a i% •
with a Court as respectable as that of the Ty co° at
a little army encamped round him ; a fleet a.
Kanagawa ; a colony of merchants at Yokohanl
But the whole thing is hollow, a falsehood o,au„
mockery. We are not on good terms with JaPaPse'
for from the highest to the lowest the JaPaueo
hate us like poison. Ours is not a peaceful
there but an armed occupation. They are not off.
nary merchants but unscrupulous invaders, 'ova
are forcing their barter and their exchange 11P°11„`$,
nation that wants neither their gold nor thernse.lv,l,o
To trace things to their source, the treaty by vrl'iair
of which we have entered Japan was not 5d at
treaty ; it was extorted by intimidation, &date
_A
the cannon's mouth. We have nevertheless followc
it up by farther violence, by the destruetional
h
Kagosima, the bombardment of Simonosaki• It
and
been supposed that the Japanese Governmero' 9ais,
the half-independent princes, terrified at the
covery which they have made of our irresisfwat
strength, have made up their minds to surrender dv
discretion to all our commands. We have alrero
found out the mistake. A civilised people dpesk3
by open force which a nation of half-barbarians sewn
to compass by treachery. The English burn d° . g
a town, or send a handful of men to sabre thelieir
at a battery. The Japanese bide their time in t •ty
d
dark vindictiveness, and on the first oPPeffilluto
retaliate by assassination. How can we preteilay
be astonished at it ? It is the savage's natural W
of making war ; we can kill him for it, but he Icse,
remain a savage to the last. For the JaPll3,ets-
with all their pretence of refinement, their stet
tion of fastidiousness, are as savage in their
hThe
as aboriginal Red Indians or Australians. ,oe
last mail from Japan shows us that we
indeed reached a critical point in our relaar,
with that country. Its tidings have broughlfro,
row into the homes of two brave young 01173.0
whose misfortune it has been to be sent to °..„,,a
on this ungenial shore. 'lt seems that the Ted
from Yokohama to Kamakura is much frequen
being'
by the foreigners at the former place,
to the
r
by express stipulations, as open to them as
Japanese themselves. On the 21st November labor
Baldwin and Mr. Bird started on horsebae.b. .00
what they conceived would be a pleasant eio 01
and an agreeable little break in the monotonLvo
daily life at the settlement. They were met bl;ii-
friends on the road, who passed them with tbe°4,4
nary greeting, and left them riding together t 070,0
Kamakura. On the same day at nightfall v.e."40,
information reached the little community at,•Viasto
hama, and a terrified party started off in bey :all
along the road. They were too late. Ina "-tlis
bamboo shed by the roadside, on mats. °,lll, of
N
ground, were the hacked and mutilated T:, eof
the murdered men. The assassins were sworclw.i.;b
they are presumed to have been many in IniZer
but beyond this nothing whatever has been u-het
vered of them. And thus two brave offieersmttlet
their death ; not gloriously, as a man dies in '',.;„risl
with his face to the foe, and his country's nell:f-ullY,
his heart and his strong right arm • not peacrolte4
as a man who with wife and childrenl aronnu the
tranquilly and unregretfully his last look °',8,113
world—but miserably and foully slain like„,,clio,
beasts in the jungle by white-livered assass,_fl aoa
stole upon them from behind. And to all Of; 01?
to many more such outrages, shall we have wool
mit for our folly in having forced ourselves i',AO
Japan. How can all the revenge that we es,ll„ ana
atone to us for the murder of poor Baldwwftso
Bird ? Would a thousand Japanese blown era
guns, supposing such condign punishment Pr°,l)tbese
desirable, be any satisfaction to the friends °'l,scef
slaughtered Englishmen,or any fair counterba,'Tence
11 I
indeed, to their loss ? We know by, eget,',-
what we get by " making an example," 03;
it, of the Japanese and their rulers. p
son was murdered, and we made a ruinedllo,l
Kagosima. Major Baldwin and Mr. 131-wft
been murdered, and something of the same s°' (yak
have to be done again.. It would be idle .t°
that such a crime calls so loudly for vengean6
c-ve to
the very severest means of retaliation will fail
be adopted in case the authorities should oet
deliver up the offenders into our hands. Stiftlistis •
then, that Jeddo is laid in ashes. What nee
next ? Relations between us and the tisk—tot!
will by that time have arrived at such a Prof egg
perhaps the best way of settling them, a11t.4„,;,1 ss
pressing our supreme disgust for these 10%-r
cowardly islanders, would be to send a 5q„,..-ci
to Yokohama, and take away Sir ,g
cock and every Englishman in Japan to
or Hong Kong.