The Sun.
London, England, 1865-08-07 00:00:00

rHE SUN, LONDON, MONDAY EVENING, AUGUST 7, 1865.

of honour to Prince Arthur on his visit to South
Wales.

The Wanderer, 4, screw gun vessel, Commander
Michael C. Seymour, arrived at Spithead on Satur-
day from the Mediterranean, and soon after arrival,
having received orders to proceed round to Sheer-
ness to dismantle and pay out of commission, left
Spithead again under steam.
The Walmer Castle and Salamanca, hired sailing
transports, sailed from Spithead on Saturday for
Dover to land there the 89th Regiment, which they
have brought to England from India.
Lieut. Prince Alfred, having yesterday attained
his majority, the Royal Standard was hoisted on
the King's Bastion flagstaff of Portsmouth town
fortifications, and on the main royal masthead of
her Majesty's ship Victory, all the other ships of
war in commission at the port hoisting the naval
ensign at their respective mastheads in honour of the
occasion. At 10.30 p.m. a royal salute was fired
from the guns of her Majesty's ship Victory in
Portsmouth Harbour, from her Majesty's ships
Octavia, Constance, and Liverpool, and from the
garrison battery of the King's Bastion.
The troop-ship Renown, 1,293 tons, Capt. J. H.
Taylor, and the Windsor Castle, 1,074 tons, Capt.
H. B. Pryce, owned by Messrs. Green, of London,
left Kingston Harbour on the 3d current for Gib-
raltar, having on board the 78th Highlanders. As
the ships left the harbour the troops were loudly
cheered by those on shore and by the sailors of her
Majesty's ship Royal George, who went aloft for that
purpose. To these cheers the Highlandmen heartily
responded. The pibroch could be heard distinctly
as the ships sailed out of the bay. _ _

The Ist Regiment of Life Guards, under the com-
mand of Col. the Hon. D. de Ros, left Aldershot
camp on Saturday morning about 20 minutes past 7
o'clock, and marched by way of Bagshot and Ascot
to the cavalry barracks at Spital, near Windsor,
where it now remains. A portion of the baggage
was conveyed by the South-Western Railway to
Windsor. _ _

..
The following has been promulgated at Aldershott
for general information, and ordered to be read
to all regiments at that station on two successive
parades :

" Horse Guards, July 3.

" His Royal Highness the Field Marshal Com-
manding-in-Chief has had the honour to Jay before
her Majesty the Queen the proceedings of the Gene-
ral Court-martial held at Aldershott on the 28th of
April, for the trial of No. 693, Private Henry
Hamilton, of the 62d Regiment, who was arraigned
upon the undermentioned charge—viz. :—First, for
insubordinate conduct, and to the prejudice of good
order and military discipline at Aldershott, on or
about the 23d of March, 1865, towards Capt. G.
W. B. Hughes, 62d Regiment, his superior officer,
in saying, when awarded punishment by the said
Capt. Hughes, I will not do it. I will not do drill
for you or any one else.' Second, for having at Al-
dershott, on or about the 28th of March, 1865, when
a prisoner awaiting trial by a district court-martial,
and undergoing medical inspection for the same,
struck with his fist Surg.-Major J. Ewing, 62d
Regiment, being his (prisoner's) superior officer, and
in the execution of his office,—upon which charges
the Court came to the following decision :
The Court, having maturely weighed and consi-
dered the evidence in support of the prosecution,
together with the prisoner having nothing to offer
in his defence, are of opinion with regard to thefirst
charge that he, the prisoner, No. 693, Private
Henry Hamilton, 62d Regiment, is guilty. With
regard to the second charge, that he the prisoner,
No. 693, Private Henry Hamilton, 62d Regiment,
is guilty. The Court having, found the prisoner
guilty of both the charges preferred against him,
which being in breach of the Articles of War, and
taking into consideration his general bad character,
his being in the second class, and former convic-
tions, do now sentence him, the prisoner, No. 693,
Private Henry Hamilton, of the 62d Regiment, to
suffer penal servitude for a term of five years. Her
Majesty was pleased to approve and confirm the
finding and sentence of the Court, and to command
that the prisoner be kept in penal servitude accord-
ingly. " By order,
" J. W. ARMSTRONG, A.A.G."

The Ist Royal Dragoons, under the command of
Colonel R. Wardlaw, will march from the camp at
Aldershott and proceed to their destinations in the
following order :—Two squadrons to Shorncliffe
this day ; the head-quarters and two squadrons to
Brighton to-morrow. The dismounted detachment
for Brighton will march to the North Camp Station
on Thursday morning, and proceed by train to its
destination at half-past 10 o'clock. The dismounted
party for Shorncliffe will march to the same station
on Saturday, and proceed by train to its destina-
tion shortly after eight o'clock.
The undermentioned batteries are held in readi-
ness to move from the camp at,Aldershott as fol-
lows :—Royal Horse Artillery, A battery, B bri-
gade, to-morrow (Tuesday) for Dorchester ; Royal
Artillery, K battery, 4th brigade, on Thursday, for
Woolwich, encamping at Hounslow ; Royal Artil-
lery, E battery, 9th brigade, on Thursday, for Hil-
sea.

The 2d battalion Grenadier Guards, under the
command of Colonel Cure, arrived at Aldershot
Camp on Friday, and took possession of the ground
previously occupied by the Ist battalion. The
marching in strength was 17 officers, 37 sergeants,
27 drummers, and 619 rank and file. The regi-
ment is attached to the Ist brigade.

The dismounted portion of the 3d Hussars, with
the wives and families of the regiment, has arrived
at Aldershot from Manchester, and taken up quar-
ters in the South Cavalry Barracks. The remainder
of the squadron from Manchester will arrive at the
camp on the 15th inst.

The 39th Dorsetshire Regiment, under the com-
mand of Lieut.-Col. Munro, C. 8., will leave Alder.
shot on Thursday for Dover. _

The troops composing the Aldershot division,
under the command of Lieut.-Gen. Sir J. L. Penne-
father, K.C.8., have been actively exercised in field
manoeuvres during the past week. On Monday the
cavalry and Royal Horse Artillery had a field day
at Bickley Bottom, in the presence of the Duke of
Cambridge, the evolutions lasting about four hours.
On Tuesday a field day of the whole division took
place. The chief interest of the proceedings con-
sisted in a grand attack upon the heights of Caesar's
Camp, which were carried, and the whole of the re-
giments and batteries grouped upon them. The
force on the field consisted of A and B batteries
Royal Horse Artillery, Ist Life Guards, Ist Royal
Dragoons, 3d Hussars, Bth hussars, 14th Hussars,
B, E, and F batteries, 9th Brigade, Royal Artil-
lery ; K battery, 4th brigade, Royal Artillery ; A
and B troops Royal Engineer Train, Ist battalion
13th Regiment, Ist battalion 17th Regiment, Ist
battalion 21st Regiment, 31st, 39th, 69th, 74th, 85th,
and 92d Regiments. The evolutions lasted about two
hours, and were witnessed by some Japanese tourists
and a Parsee judge and his family, the latter being
accompanied by Col. Battersby, of the British and
Ottoman armies.
The following appointments have been made at
the Admiralty :—Staff Commander William Forbes
promoted to be retired captain ; Commander Edw.
R. Foster and Commander C. A. J. Heysham to be
inspecting commanders of the Coastguard ; Staff
Commander W. W. Dillon to the Fisgard ; Lieut.
Arthur Salwey to be Lieut. and Commander of the
Linnet ; Jas. Riddle, master, to the Donegal ; Edw.
H. Mills, master, to the Royal Oak ; Wm. F. Greet,
second master, to thelmpregnable, for the Sea Lark ;
Daniel N. Browne, second master, to the Boscawen
for the Ferret ; James Ryley, chief engineer, to the
Terror, vice Brown ; W. Anderson, chief engineer,
to the Cumberland for the Rodney, vice Ryley ; Jesse
Bridgernan, chief engineer, to the Royal George ;
r
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the Dee ; and Henry
A. T. Cummins, assist. clerk,
to
Thethe Oundermentioned gentlemen have been nomi-
nated to navel cadetships :—Alfred W. Paget, Wm
Gillow, Leonard Horrocks, and Reginald de i.
Dering.

CONSTANCE KENT.—This convict still remains in
the Wilts County Prison, at Fisherton, Salisbury, no com-
munication having been received up to Saturday, of her
ultimate fate. Her demeanour is still calm and collected,
and it is not true that sho has signified any intention of
making a further confonion.

The National Artillery Association,

The proceedings of the National Artillery Association's
first prize meeting were closed on Saturday with the distri-

bution of prizes by the Marquis of Hartington, M.P., Under-
Secreta7 of State for War. The ceremony took place in
the Royal Artillery drill shed of Shoeburyness, a most com-

modious building, used for the 'instruction of the troops in
the Armstrong gun-drill, and which was filled with an
_ .

audience composed of the volunteers who had been en-
camped during the week in rear of the barracks, and of
visitors from Sheerness, Chatham, Gravesend, and other

places on the opposite shore. There were also many ladies
present, and the men of the Royal Artillery had given the
shed quite a holiday appearance by decorating it with flags,
and it would have appeared an ordinary meeting hall, but
for the Armstrong guns ranged round it, and their em-

brasures, through which there now peered all who could
not find room inside. The excellent baud of the Royal Ar-

tillery played a selection of operatic music during the morn-
ing. His lordship, who was accompanied by Viscount Har-
dinge, Colonel Wilmot, the commandant of the Shoebury
depot ; Colonel Fisher, the instructor of the Royal Artil-
lery ; Colonel Harcourt, President of the National Ar-
tillery Association ; Major Curtis, and other Royal Artil-
lery and Volunteer officers, was received with military
honours, and on ascending the dais which had been erected
of practice targets, and on which were arranged the prizes,

he was warmly cheered.
Colonel HARCOURT, in opening the proceedings, com-
menced by expressing the obligations which the council of
the National Artillery Association felt to Lord Hartington
for coming to Shoebury on this the first meeting of the
Association. The council, he said, had been much indebted
to his lordship personally for the courtesy he had on all
occasions shown them, and they accepted his presence
among them that day as a proof that the Government did
not disapprove the Association, but was, as he believed,
disposed to give it every assistance. It had been rather
hard upon the council that the entries for the camp at
Shoeburyness had been made by certain corps very late
indeed, as some ten days before the time announced for the
commencement of the meeting there were only 70 names
entered. And this was not the only difficulty they had had

to contend with, for when he came down on the Thursday,
as the camp wus to be opened on Saturday, he found only 25
tents sent down. This was somewhat disheartening, for he
did not then knowwhat he had since found—that he should
receive every assistance from Colonel Wilmot and the other
officers of the Royal Artillery—(cheers)—and it was not too
much to say that, but for their assistance, the meeting would

have been a failure. All the Volunteers, he was sure,

would unite with him in thanking Colonel Wilmot for the

arrangements which he made fortho comfort of the encamp-
ment, and Major Curtis and the other officers of the Royal
Artillery for the carrying out of his wishes, as well as
Colonel Fisher for the kind manner in which he had de-

voted all histim ein superintending all the Volunteers'pmc-
dee. (Cheers.) His lordship would pardon him for ob-
serving that if the Association was to be a permanent insti-
tution it would never do for it to stand still, and unless the
Volunteers got what they all desired the Association must
be considered to have failed. It was not likely that his lord-
ship would ask, at all events not in his official capacity, as
to what were the desires of the volunteers, but if he did
they were quite ready to answer that they wanted rifled
ordnance. (Laughter and cheers.) It might be said that
the Government did not possess the guns, and that it would
be costly to obtain them, and to this he would reply that
though the War-office held the purse strings the purse be-
longed to John Bull, and he believed a song sung at the
camp fire well expressed the national feeling in saying that
"Jolly John Bull" was so proud of his sons that he was
quite willing to " shell out twice as much" as he had done
if it were necessary for him to do so to add to their effi-
ciency. (Cheers.) It might also be said in objection that
it was not decided which class of rifle ordnance should be
adopted as the gun for the army, and to this he would take
the liberty of saying that if the Government gave up the
40-pounder Armstrong the Volunteers would be only too
happy to receive that gun. (Cheers.) On behalf of the
Association, he begged to thank his lordship for the favours
received, and to assure him that they were quite prepared
to ask for more. (Laughter and cheers.)
Colonel WILMOT acknowledged that the officers of the
Royal Artillery had looked uponthe encampment of a large
body of men outside the barrack walls with some apprehen-
sion—an apprehension he saidwhich was entirely unfounded,
for the Volunteers had been unexceptionably well conducted
a testimony which he was proud to bear. With respect to the
drill of the Volunteers he could say there was not an offi-
cer or non-commissioned officer of the Royal Artillery who
was not much astonished and agreeably surprised at the
manner in which the Volunteers had done their work. He
could only say in reference to this that if the time should
come for the Volunteers to be trained with the Armstrong
they would, as men of intelligence, turn their instruction
to good account. (Cheers.) If it should be arranged for
the Volunteers to come again to Shoeburyness the Royal
Artillery would be glad to give their best assistance, and he
might say that apart from the feeling they had experienced
towards the Volunteers as brother gunners and as men
wearing the blue coat, they had only done what they had at
the express wish of the War Department, and at the desire
of his Royal Highness the Commander-in-Chief. (Cheers.)
Colonel FISHER said it gave him pleasure to state before

tho Marquis of Harlington that having well watched the
Volunteers at practice he could bear testimony to their zeal

and ability, and his opinion was that if the Volunteer force
of artillery was to be utilised the sooner it commenced the
Armstrong drill the better, for then its members would be
able to do justice to themselves and the country from which
they sprang. (Cheers.) He acknowledged the discipline
which had prevailed, and he thanked the Volunteers for the
ready obedience they had shown throughout the meeting.
Viscount HARDINGE stood forward as one of the council
of the National Artillery Association, and maintained that

the objects for which the association had been formed were
worthy of every encouragement, not only from the Govern-
ment but from every one who took an interest in the de-
fence of his country. It was to be borne in mind, he said,
that in the extensive system of fortification assented to by
Parliament, and begun on a considerable scale, it would be
impossible for the guns to be manned in the hour of need
without a large supplementary force of Militia and Volun-
teers. The Militia force would be necessarilylimited, but he
wished the volunteer force could be doubled, and he im-
pressed upon all the necessity that was for the strength of
all corps being kept up. He believed the Volunteers would
go from that camp with grateful feelings to the officers and
men of the Royal Artillery for their assistance and co-ope-
ration, which, he could answer for it, would always be
given to men who responded to the call which their coun-
try made to them to stand ready for her defence. (Cheers.)
Lord HARTINGTON then said—l must beg, in the first
place, to thank Col. Harcourt for the kind manner in which
he has spoken of me and mentioned my name, and I can
assure you that it has given me sincere pleasure to come
and distribute among the winners prizes which have been
competed for during the past week, I only regret that it
was not in the power of Lord de Grey, the Secretary of
State for War, to hold the position with which I have been
honoured to-day. I regret it, because I know that it would
have given him much pleasure to have been present at the
first mooting of this association, and I regret it because I
know that it would have given you much pleasure to have
had the personal support of one who has taken so warm an
interest in the volunteer movement, and has worked so
hard to promote its efficiency and prosperity. (Cheers.)
The Government has not wished to take any fame to itself
as having by any exertions on its part produced the volun-
teer force, for that force was the spontaneous act of the
people themselves, and no Government could have pro-
, duced such results as have emanated from the spontaneous
exertions of the people. (Cheers.) Neither does the Go-
vernment lay any claim to the credit of having brought
forward those two institutions which have engrafted them-
selves on the volunteer force, and which have had, and will
continue to have, I hope, much to do with its efficiency,
value, and per manency—l allude to the National Rifle As-
elation and the National Artillery Association. What the
National Rifle Association is to the Volunteer Rifle Corps
the National Artillery Association witl be to the Volunteer
Artillery Corps. You aro all aware that this association is
in its infancy as yet, but I have great hopes that in the
course of its career it will confer as great obligations on the
branch of the force it is intended to serve as its elder brother
has conferred on the other branch. This is not the time
for long speeches, but I will just take an opportunity of
stating what occurs to me with reference to this association.
We all know the great value of the volunteer force, and we
are also aware that this value depends upon it efficiency
and the assiduity to which the Volunteers devote themselves
to their drill. But we knew that continuous drill is not a
very amusing or exciting occupation, and many officers
have found it a difficult matter in getting some of their men
to attend sufficient drills to make them efficient. Well, then,
the association is necessary to give men an interest beyond
mere drill—an interest in the weapon they use, and to pro-
duce among the Artillery Volunteers something of the same
feeling of emulation as has been produced among the Rifle
Volunteers by the National Rifle Association, which by its
contests has been the means of making the shooting one of
the most popular amusements in the country. (Cheers.)
What has been so successful in the one case will, I hope, be
found to be equally successful in the other. It is true that
the accuracy of a shot does not so much depend upon indi-
vidual qualities or skill, but at the same time it is true that
the accuracy and perfection of any artillery practice depend
still more than in tho case of rifle shooting upon the assi-
duity with which the mon have attended their drill. Though
therefore there is not so much skill necessary to individual
members of detachments in winning prizes at artillery
competitions, I think it as equally honourable to members
of detachments to distance their competitors, and I think
it is a greater honour for artillery corps:to produce a good
detachment, than for a rifle corps to produce a crack shot.
As I said before, the Government takes no credit for pro-
ducing this association. The credit is due to Colonel Har-
court and his brother officers and members of the council,
and it is upon the exertions of the Volunteer Artillery force
in general that you must depend for ultimate success. The
Government will remove all difficulties and obstacles it can,
and on the part of Earl de Grey I can venture, I think, to
promise that such assistance as the War Department can
give shall be given. (Cheers.) Some remarks have been made
about the value of the Volunteer Artillery force, and 1 can
add nothing to what has fallen from those speakers, but I
Call flay that I think the Yelunteer Artillery force is one

be interesting to you to know what aro the present num-
bers, and what is the condition of this force. I have
brought with me memoranda showing what the force has
been and what it is, and you will learn with pleasure that
the force was never in a more satisfactory condition than
it is at the present time. The first return which we had •
of the Volunteer Artillery force was in August, 1860, a
short time after the movement had commenced, and there
were then 16,000 enrolled members, of which number
15,000 were what wore then called " effectives." Without
troubling you with any statistics showing the progress of
the force, I will say that on the Ist of December last the
numbers enrolled were 30,000, of which over 22,000 were
"efficient" under the law of 1863, and only 7,000 returned
as non-efficients. As you know, the standard of efficiency
now required is higher than under the old law, and it is a
fact of which we may be proud that we have upwards of
22,000 efficient Artillery Volunteers in this country.
(Cheers.) Colonel Harcourt, in the most kind and consi-
derate manner possible, has mentioned a subject which has
been brought to our notice in the House of Commons,
without, however, the same kind of feeling. I need not
tell you that the whole of the Volunteer Artillery force is
at present drilled in the use of guns of the old smoothbore
nature. I wish it were otherwise ; but it is impossible
for me to give you any assurance that it is intended to
arm you with rifled ordnance; and, even were it intended,
my official position would preclude me from stating it
here. But I would remind you, which, in fact, Colonel
Harcourt has already done, that we aro only in possession
of a very small number of rifled guns, that they aro very
costly, and that it is undecided which is the best kind of
gun. I would also remind you that the large num-
ber of works which you would have to man in
case of an invasion still consist, and will for some
time, of tho guns with which you drill. It is
right, therefore, that you should drill with the guns
which you would have to use if you were called out for
active service. Still, I hope that the time is not far distant
when the number of our rifled guns will be increased, and
the Volunteers trained in their use. (Cheers.) Your visit
to this place must have been most instructive and highly
interesting to you. You have here been on the "battle-
ground" of all the guns, and you have probably seen speci-
mens of the work of the Armstrong, the Whitworth, and
of other inventors. You may have seen in the targets
effects of some of their triumphs, and you have witnessed
a considerable number of the results of their failures, and if
you have mixed much with your brethren of the Royal
Artillery, you have probably heard many things which will
enable you to judge of the difficulties in which the Govern-
ment is placed in reference to the vexed question of pro-
viding the country with the rifled gun. No one who has
been here and seen Colonel Wilmot and his brethren of the
Royal Artillery engaged in the experiments for showing
which is the best gun but will be prepared to make the
best allowance for the Government if there has been any
apparent delay in this matter. I trust that we have got
over some of the difficulties, and if we have not arrived at
a perfect and satisfactory conclusion we are beginning to
see and have smoothed our way to it. (Cheers.) Nothing,
I am sure, will give the Government and the House of
Commons more pleasure than seeing the way to place the
country in possession of a large number of rifled guns, and
then nothing shall be allowed to interfere with the Volun-
teers being trained to the use of superior weapons to those
which they now have. (Cheers.) His lordship then pro-
ceeded to distribute the prizes to the winning detachments
in the order in which they were won.
As has been reported in The Sun, the Brighton
Artillery Corps (Ist Sussex) won both Lord Palmerston's
prizes and the Queen's prize ; the Duke of Cambridge's
prize was won by the 4th Cinque Ports (Hastings) ; the
Association Cup, by the Ist Middlesex Artillery ; and the
prize given by the Prince of Wales, by the Ist Kent Artillery.
The Sports Committee prizes for swimming were also pre-
sented, the winners being members of the 3d Durham ; and
a vote of thanks proposed by Colonel Harcourt and
seconded by Captain Page, as representing Lord Elcho,
having been given and acknowledged, the proceedings ter-
minated with the National Anthem being played by the
band.

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

THE " SATURDAY REVIEW" ON PARLIAMENTARY
REFORM.—The intentions of the country and of the
House of Commons with reference to Parliamentary
Reforkn might furnish metaphysicians with a new
illustration of the pardox of free will and necessity.
With absolute control over its own actions, the com-
munity is content blindly to wonder whether it is
about to effect a great constitutional change. What
statesmen can do, and what they will do, is doubt-
ful, especially as the officialleaders of opinion openly
ask for guidance and pressure from their followers.
It is generally agreed by all, except the consistent
adherents of Mr. Bright, that no improvement in
legislation or in administrative practice is to be ex-
pected from an extension of the constituency. The
demand for additional hands to the rope is preferred
exclusively for the satisfaction of those who are at
present debarred from a share in the labour of go-
vernment. There is no doubt that there may be an
advantage in providing employment for a certain
number of discontented idlers. The mobs which have
lately disgraced several towns by their violence
probably consisted of non-electors, and it is possible
that the possession of a vote might develope the
rudiments of decency and self-respect. The class,
however, which is supposed to desire enfranchise-
ment is too respectable to create disturbance, except
' under the influence of genuine political excitement.
The workmen of great factories in the North are
often intelligent, and they are said to feel a corpo-
rate desire for a share of electoral power. At the
same time, it must be remembered that a mechanic
or artisan with an income of £lOO or £l5O a year
generally takes little trouble to acquire, or even to
register a vote. When the working classes are told
that they care little for the extension of the fran-
chise, they always denounce the statement as a
calumny, but it is evident that in their individual
capacities they are almost indifferent to the privilege.
If a certain number of seats could be given up to
the manufacturing operatives, all parties would be
inclined to settle the question by a rough empirical
compromise. The existing constituencies are willing
to be diluted, while they reasonably object to be
swamped. No practical scheme has, however, yet
been suggested for buying off the most formidable
claimants of the suffrage. Although nine-tenths of
the House of Commons would be glad to leave things
as they are, there are wide differences of opinion as
to the prudence of total inaction. Mr. Bright and
Mr. Lowe agree on the probable tendency of any
considerable measure of Reform. They believe that
the present constituency maintains a political and
social system which is obnoxious either to the in-
terests or to the prejudices of poorer classes. It
would follow that a large extension of the franchise
would lead to important consequences, and Mr.
Bright especially hopes that it would cause a redis-
tribution of landed property. If Parliament were
once thoroughly convinced of the soundness of Mr.
Bright's judgment, it would be useless for any party
or for any Government to propound a scheme of
Reform. English society is not prepared to undergo
total reorganisation in a time of unprecedented
prosperity. There may be many advantages in a
subdivision of property, but accumulation is more
consistent with the national habits of thought •, and
the rapid increase and wide diffusion of wealth and
of luxury every day multiply the natural supporters
of an aristocratic social system. It happens that the
theories of commercial freedom which were once ad-
vocated by Mr. Bright are at present chiefly supported
by the upper and middle classes who exercise political
power. Mr. Lowe commanded the assent of his
audience when he vindicated the legislation of the
last thirty years as thoroughly enlightened and
beneficent. He inferred, like Mr. Bright, that the
representative body had expressed the convictions
and principles of the constituency, and that a new
body of electors would probably introduce sweep-
ing modifications of financial and general policy.
A few years ago Mr. Bright announced that a re-
formed Parliament would throw the whole burden
of taxation on the class which would have been pre-
liminarily deprived of all electoral power. He now
adds that the public expenditure would be largely
reduced ; but even if his anticipations were well-
founded, the prospect of stricter economy can never
furnish an argument for organic revolution. The
same House of Commons which is asked to intro-
duce promiscuous suffrage has absolute power to
reduce the estimates according to its own judgment
of expediency. While democrats in England con-
sult public opinion by promising a diminution of
expenditure, their American allies are proving, to
their own satisfaction, that a national debt is a bless-
ing ; and, amongst other reasons for their conclu-
sion, they dwell on the advantage of high customs
duties in affording incidental protection to domestic
industry. The House of Commons is, on the whole,
not prepared to adopt Mr. Lowe's belief that a mode-
rate reform would promote the designs of Mr.
Bright. There is a general feeling that the danger
of revolution would be diminished by some

limited concession, and almost every prominent
Liberal politician, with the exception of Lord Pal-
merston and Mr. Gladstone, took the opportunity
of the election to intimate atheoretical concurrence in
a moderate Reform Bill. As Lord Russell could not
appear at the hustings, Lord Amberley, with amiable
simplicity, informed the electors of Leeds that his
father had just published a new edition of his well-
known work, with additional notes or appendices in
favour of Reform. Lord Palmerston probably in-
tended to discourage constitutional changes, but the
silence of Mr. Gladstone may bear an opposite in-
terpretation. His former imprudent defence of
universal suffrage gave sufficient notice to the ex-
treme Liberals that, if they had a chance of power,
they would not want for a leader; but, for the pre-
sent, Mr. Gladstone is willing to act with his col-
leagues, reserving himself for the choice of a policy
when he assumes the chief conduct of affairs. Some
of his political opponents have more definitely fa-
, voured the projecta of the moderate Refermere.

Henley inclined to a household franchise founded
on rating, and Mr. Walpole has lately published a
letter in support of a similar scheme. No plausible

objection can be raised to a £2O franchise in coun-
ties, except that the highly respectable voters who
would be admitted are not desirous of the suffrage.
Mr. Walpole properly points out the difference be-
tween a £6 rental and a £6 rating, as the qualifica-
.

Lion for a vote. It is certainly fair that householders
in boroughs should be excluded when the landlord

compounds for their rates, and that in countiet
the level of the occupation franchise should coin-

mence the payment of the house-tax. Almost the
only unjust fiscal measure since the Reform Act
consists in the exemption from the house-tax which
the £lO voters have secured for themselves. If a

Reform Bill is introduced, it will probably corre-
spond with the suggestions of Mr. Henley and Mr.
Walpole. The greatest difficulty will be found in
the small boroughs, which were some years since
eloquently defended by Mr. Gladstone, as they are
still approved by Lord Russell. Lord Stanley is
willing to consent to a redistribution of seats, and
if any considerable change takes place, it will be
difficult to preserve the most useful of existing
anomalies. The members for petty boroughs are
well aware of their danger, and consequently they
will offer a formidable opposition to any scheme by
which the privileges of their constituents may be
menaced. The institution of equal electoral dis-
tricts would be the most ruinous of innovations, and
any approximation to such system must be watched
with jealous vigilance. The advocates of the
rights of minorities ought to understand that
the small boroughs already effect, to a certain ex-
tent, the purposes which they undertake to attain
by elaborate and impracticable contrivances. At
least one half of the most eminent members of the
House would be excluded from Parliament by an
enactment that the smallest constituency should
consist of a thousand voters. Mr. Gladstone, who
now represents one of the greatest constituencies
in the kingdom, first acquired his great reputation
as a nominee member for a little market town.
The advantage of a certain number of small
boroughs is generally appreciated, but in a Reform
Bill, which must necessarily bear some reference to
arithmetic, statistical symmetry may not improbably
outweigh considerations of general expediency. It
would be absurd and offensive for a legislator to say
that Lord Lansdowne or Lord Zetland should be
regarded as severally equal to twenty or thirty
thousand ten-pound householders ; but it is never-
theless undeniable that Calne and Richmond are
better represented than Marylebone or the Tower
Hamlets. Existing institutions which are found
convenient may well be tolerated, but new legisla-
tion must be plausible as well as just. It is not
surprising that all political parties are puzzled with
the difficulties both of reforming and of abstaining
from reform.
THE " LONDN REVIEW'? ON THE GUILD OF
LITERATURE AND ART.—A pleasant county, and a
healthy, is Hertfordshire. According to an old say-
ing, the land is worth a certain amount of extra
purchase-money, by reason of the pare air. Green
slopes of meadow-land, intersected by leafy lanes,
stretch from border to border; small woods of
timber-trees, and coppices of tender saplings diver-
sify the more open ground ; stately seats of distin-
guished :families, umbrageous with oaken glades
where the deer browse and glimmer, and deep with
ferny dingles where the hares crouch, or flit like sha-
dows in the sunshine before the intruder's footstep,
preserve, at intervals of a few miles, little Paradises
of seclusion and silence ; old villages and farmhouses
lie thickly scattered about the high roads and quiet
ways ; and, at St. Alban's, a venerable abbey, grey
with mists of Saxon and Norman antiquity, and an
ancient town, haunted with memories of Roman
Verulam, now utterly vanished, introduce an ele-
ment of historical interest into the pastoral freshness
and the patrician grandeur. Though seated so near
to London as to be within half an hour's jaunt by
rail into its very core, Hertfordshire is as rural in its
scenery, as bright and pure in its atmosphere, as
though a hundred miles intervened between it and
the huge smoke-cloud of the metropolis. If literary
men really love sylvan retirement as much as they
generally profess to do in their writings—a point
which must, we fear, be considered rather doubtful
—one could hardly fix upon a better county than
the northern neighbour of Middlesex for enabling
them to gratify their taste. You have in it a sense
of the neighbourhood of London, combined with
immunity from London cares. The peasants talk
in a tone just roughened with country characteristics,
yet not so difficult as to provoke impatience in the
cultivated ear ; and, " sitting muffled in dark leaves,"
or meditating over a tankard of ale in the shady
parlour of a wayside inn, you are still, so to speak,
conscious of the near pulsations of that mighty centre
of intelligence which can never become uninteresting
to any man who is not either a misanthrope or a
fool. The projectors of the Guild of Literature and
Art have therefore chosen a charming spot for the
erection of their Homes for the decayed man of in-

tellect, supposing him really to desire a countrylife ;
and certainly the ceremony of last Saturday, with
its accompanying festival at the fine seat of Sir
Bulwer Lytton at Knebworth, about two miles to
the south, was calculated to exhibit the project in
the most attractive light possible. The country
around Stevenage, where the Homes are situated, is
at once open and well wooded ; the buildings them-
selves are pretty Gothic structures • the day was fine,
and a jocund company, headed by Chas. Dickens,
the Vice-President of the Guild, and one of the chief
promoters of the undertaking, passed a- merry
afternoon at the seat of Sir Bulwer Lytton,
the President. All the circumstances were of
a nature to captivate the imagination, and to
call forth some of the kindliest and most sympathetic
emotions of our being. The old hall of Knebworth
was draped with the banners of many generations of
its owner's family, and the host had provided for
his guests a luncheon such as formed no bad prelude
to the speeches, and to the subsequent dancing in
the green alleys of the park. It was pleasant also
to listen to the two most illustrious of living novel-
ists speaking each other's praises in words of which,
we are sure, the sincerity was equal to the elo-
quence. Literary men are so often charged with
mutual jealousy and ill-will, and the charge has
been supported by so many ugly facts, that it is
truly delightful to see two foremost men in the same
walk of literary art thus crowning one another. We
do not marvel that the words of both speakers
should have been interrupted by " loud cheers,"
for the enthusiasm of such moments is contagious,
and it is then that we find even cold and reserved
natures betraying their latent heat and brightness.
That the day was in the highest degree successful,
is certainly no wonder ; and that it will impart a
powerful stimulus to the Guild, which has lan-
guished a good deal since its first establishment 12
or 13 years ago, we cannot doubt.
TIIE SPECTATOR" ON CHILD MURDER.---The
public, in its healthy horror of the crimes committed
by Charlotte Winsor, the Torquay murderess, has
we think rather missed the point of the ghastly
story told by her accuser. It has fastened justi-
fiably and naturally upon the sickening revelation
involved as it were incidentally in the woman liar-
ris's statement, upon the fact that in 1865, in a
pleasant village of Devon, there lived a woman of
forty-five to whom child murder was a profession,
who would, by her own statement, " put by" any
other woman's offspring if only she were paid, who
was willing to kill " forty" children if it were made
worth her while, who had put her finger under the
jugular vein of one, and stifled another three weeks
old, and put away a third " for her sister Poory,"
and killed a fourth while her accuser looked on by
throttling it under the bed-ticking, who took
" orders" for murder as other women take orders
for washing, who when a doubtful commission ar-
rived only objected that her customer, had she been
" honest," would have prepaid her fee, and who
when asked if she had no supernatural fears, bade
the questioner " go to hell, for she was doing good."
Murders like those committed by Pritchard or Con-
stance Kent are justly felt to be trifles by compari-
son with massacres like these, with a habit of mur-
der contracted by a woman who had no motive
other than a desire for very trifling rewards, who
had no animosity and no remorse, who wept when
her accomplice gave evidence against her, and who
seems, by one of those awful perversions of nature
which almost justify the Calvinistic view of hu-
manity, to have been willing to commit a murder
as an evidence of goodwill. Thugs do not reach
that point of degradation, and to see it reached in
the present day in England, and among a village
population, has given a shock to the community
such as no murder ever gave—a shock deepened by
an impression, instinctive rather than logical, that
Charlotte Winsor may not be the only woman who
increases her means by making a trade of the one
great crime supposed to be stopped by civilisation.
We do not wonder that the public, well aware
that infanticide is one of the specially English crimes,
that in Lancashire " overlaying" is one of the most
frequent causes of infant death, the overlaying
being deliberate, that the Coroner for Middlesex
has affirmed and proved the existence of 12,000
women in London each of whom must have mur-
dered a child, that no week passes without the police
reporting the discovery of the bodies of infants,
should have seen in the Torquay horror new proof
of a condition of affairs it had all along suspected,
should have fastened upon Charlotte Winsor, and
altogether forgotten what seems to us the main
sentence in Mary Harris's story,--the story, let us
always remember, of a woman almost as guilty as
Charlotte Winsor herself. She stood and saw her
own child killed, killed " barbarously," to use her
own words, from a ghastly curiosity to see what its
death would be like, and then helped to strip the
poor infant, not yet cold, and pack it away in a
rabbit-box, all apparently without a sigh, though

her conscience or her fears afterwards awoke. This
woman said in her cross-examination, " I had had
3s. 6d. a week for a previous child, but I had never
had but those two children." So it was not to con-
ceal her shame, as penny-a-liners always assert, and
juries seem always to believe, that she had put away
her child. She had had one before, shame was over
and done with, and she wanted to be rid of the
second baby, not that she might be believed chaste,
not because she " had been tempted and had fallen,"
—she had lived with her paramour six years,—but
simply that she might be rid of a trouble and an
expense for which he was no longer willing to pay.
That, it seems to us, is the true point of a story
such as ought to cover the kingdom with shame, to
rouse men, if it were possible to rouse them to any-
thing, to a savage decision that at any cost, whether
of effort or liberty, or even minor morals, a scandal
like this shall end. We shall never discover the
remedy if we go on ignoring the facts, and the first
and most dreadful fact is that shame is not the only
cause of infanticide, but only one cause, and pro-
bably not the main one, that we have something to
cure besides unchastity, something to denounce be-
sides men's lust. 'We believe if the cause of every
such crime during the past year could be made
known to men as it is known to Heaven, we should
find shame very seldom recorded, should discover
that the majority of such crimes are committed by
women who have no fear of the world's opinion in
the matter, being far below that, and more than a
moiety in the matter, being far below that, and
more than a moiety of the remainder, perhaps more
than five-sixths of the remainder, by married
women. It is the toil and the worry and the ex-
pense, the weary hours of nursing and the incessant
watchfulness, the interruption of work and the
danger of utter poverty, which these murderesses
dread, and not merely exposure.