The Sun.
London, England, 1853-12-17 00:00:00

stance ot'the formation of the Earl of ABERDEEN'S
Administration. It was notorious, as far back as
this time last year, that that Administration, if it
was formed for any one purpose, was formed for
the purpose of carrying out certain " large mea-
sures" of Reform, to be prepared by the Noble
Lord the Member for the City of London.
Everybody knew as much so long ago as last
December. Everybody knew from the outset
that if the Coalition could be once effected, it
would be so mainly and obviously with the ex-
press view of carrying out the projected
scheme of Parliamentary innovations. The
Coalition was effected. Viscount PALMERSTON
consented to become a member of the new Govern-
ment. He consented to take office under the
Earl of ABERDEEN. He consented to become once
more a colleague of Lord JOHN RUSSELL,
who was to prepare the new Reform Bill,
and the colleague also of Sir James GRA-
HAM, who had promised vaguely but decidedly
certain large measures of improvement when ad-
dressing himself on a memorable occasion to
his Carlisle Constituency. Lord PALMERSTON
thereby proclaimed himself no absolute or
direct antagonist of the Reforms about to be
sketched out by the Cabinet prior to their
being submitted to the acceptance or refusal of
the Legislature. Remembering these broad and
undeniable facts,, therefore, it is simply absurd to
talk of Lord PALMERSTON having tendered
his resignation simply because he is devoid
of the enthusiasm requisite for the support of the
,vrojected improvements. It is simply absurd,
according to our estimate of past and passing
occurrences. Nor are we singular in so think-
ing. The conviction expressed by ourselves yes-
terday to this effect has been already, we rejoice
to observe, re-echoed by the voices of the majority
of our morning contemporaries. According to
their view, as well as according to our own, the
resignation of the Home Secretary must be attri-
buted by every rational and unprejudiced spec-
tator not to the Reform 'Bill so much as to the
position of our Foreign relations.
It is natural, of course, that the still surviving
members of the ABERDEEN Coalition should
wish to impress the public mind with
the belief that it was the scope of the
" large measures" predicted by the First Lord
of the Admiralty, and not the Russo-Turkish
difficulty, that induced the Noble Lord the Mem-
ber for Tiverton to tender his resignation
through the medium of the Prime Minis-
ter to his Sovereign. It is natural, we say, that

it should be so—it is consistent with their charac-
ter as political tacticians. They would fain, by so
doing, diminish the amount of Lord PALMERSTON'S
popularity. Therefore; before cock crow yesterday
morning, they contrived to introduce a bold and
explicit declaration to the effect above-mentioned
into the columns of the official organ of the Govern-
ment. It has not required much reflection upon
the matter, however, to convince the public at
large that the explanation thereby given of
Lord PALMERSTON'S Ministerial retirement is
erroneous to the extent of being absolutely
preposterous. It may be in some way inge-
nious—but it is certainly in no way ingenu-
ous. Rather than this, most base and most
prevaricatory. As such it was regarded by our-
selves yesterday afternoon—as such it is already
regarded by the great mass of the intelligent
populatiOn.

We would warn the stand-still portion of the
Cabinet that this is not the time to ignore the
Claims of the working men to Parliamentary Re-
presentation. We have several times adverted to
the necessity of fairly considering them in a new
Reform Bill : but we wish distinctly to record our
opinion that it will be as imprudent as it is unfair
to leave the largest section of the commonwealth
unrepresented in the House of Commons. We
are not alarmists, but we regard the present
aspect of the working classes as mere imperatively
demanding the enfranchisement of at least the
better portion of them than any noisy clamours
of physical force Chartism could do. We may
assume that Lord JOHN RUSSELL, and certainly
many of his liberal coadjutors in the Cabinet or the
Ministry, are not indisposed to concede to some
extent political power to those below the ten-
pound franchise ; but in nothing more than in the
Reform queStion will the patch-work texture of
the present Cabinet be injuriously felt. In
Free-trade measures all joined heart and soul.
Finance was given up to the Peelites, India to the
Whigs, or at least to their ex-Chancellor of the
Exchequer ; and Reform should be left to Lord
JOHN as the Leader of the House of Commons.
From him we should not have expected too much;
but we have reason to fear that even all he would
give may not be offered us. It is rumoured, at
least, that he has to defer to his colleagues on
some important points, and that amongst them
the claims of the working classes is one.
Now we would ask all who pooh-pooh those
claims to look for a moment at the present posi-
tion of working men. Combination is the order
of the day with them. True, the object is gene-
rally an advance of wages ; but it is the fact,
nevertheless, that throughout the kingdom, and not
in particular localities merely, amongst workmen
of every class and description, and not merely
amongst Preston cotton weavers, the working
class as distinguished from the employing class,
the class entirely unenfranchised, as distinguished
from the enfranchised class, is in a state of com-
bination. Ever since the defeat of the Amalga-
mated Engineers their practice, even after such a
heavy blow, has spread instead of dying away ;
indeed that body itself, it is stated, is again ac-
quiring large funds. The weavers of Preston
find organisations everywhere, to which they are
successfully appealing, and if the strikes have
failed in many instances, in others they
have gained their objects. Even where they have
failed,
the spirit of union is only quelled for the
time, not annihilated ; indeed it must, we think,
be clear to every reader of the daily journals,
that all over the land the tendency is for labour
to organise against capital. We may argue against
it as we please, we may be most confident that to
a large extent the immediate object is suicidal ;
still, the process is going steadily on. Workmen
in every trade are organising more and more, and
will continue to do so. The local organisations
too are pervaded by a common sympathy, and the
vague idea of a Labour Parliament, like any other
watchword, is a- t least a product of that sympathy,
and serves to give it an imaginary focus. There
is obviously, we think, the shadow cast before it
of a coming power, of which it behoves legislators
to note the magnitude and growth, and to make
all reasonable preparation to render it, as much as
may be, a power for good and not for evil.
While, moreover, we speak of dupes, and the
deceived and deluded many, and with too much
reason, every one must have been struck with the
ability as well as the fortitude and perseverance
evinced by the men in these meetings. Their dis-
cussions and speeches, with reasonable allowance
for excitement on the one hand, and for limited
education on the other, must be taken as indica-
tive of great natural intellectual power. Their
education, moreover, is much in advance of what
it was twenty, or even ten, years ago, and' is as-
suredly quite equal, on the average, to that of
fifty-pound tenants-at-will. They are eager,
too, to improve it. They now very generally un-
derstand that knowledge is power, and thousands
amongst them are much more eager to acquire
education as a means of acquiring power than
as an improver and refiner of the better part of
their nature. Education, it is true, may teach
them better political economy than at least fifty-
three
ine
members of the House of Commons have
learneds
b
mUniversitiesitblethaant and the
should League
aso
toge-
ther; teach
them still more clearly their political rights, and
make them dissatisfied to remain the political serfs
of millionnaires and tradesmen.
Now, we conceive, nothing
could tend more to
regulate the political action which the organised
1 of the workin- claszeS
and combined energies