The Sun.
London, England, 1853-09-21 00:00:00

LORD JOHN RUSSELL AT GREENOCK-.

BARNSTAPLE BRIBERY COMMISSION. - The inquiry
into the corrupt practices which have prevailed at the
election for the borough at Barnstaple, terminated on Sa-
turday, after a protracted sitting of 16 days. There
has been a good deal of bribery proved on the part of the
odeactuespiaetdthhey lastth;
Courtinelect
incident
eaxnadmtihne.
lai
angsgetnaftenswuo mfdtabhyes Toryhavenumber
bewitnessesaenend who had received 61. a-piece for
their votes. The inquiry has also been distinguished by
some shameful instances of perjury, and an
of a
very painful nature. It was elicited that a family. of the
name of Gaydon, numbering 12 voters, had received 61.
each for their votes. One of them, a respectable silver-
smith, at first denied strongly, on oath, but afterwards,
on his brother being sent for from London to confront
him, he was constrained to admit it. One of the Gay-
dons, a mason, aged 80, attempted to commit suicide on
Friday. The old man was afraid of being summoned
before the commissioners, as his name was on the list as
one who had received a bribe. He had denied that he
had accepted money for his vote as alleged before the
committee of the House of Commons, and when he
heard that he was to be called up before the commis-
sioners he cut his throat, but fortunately it was dis-
covered in time to avert an immediately fatal result to
his rash action, and it is hoped that he will ultimately
I recover. There were several instances of shameful per-
I jury, and the revelations were altogether of a most dis-
I tressing and disgusting nature.
THE GREAT BRITAIN.—A letter has reached us dated
St. Vincent, August 24, signed by Mr. Henry Davies,
on behalf of the. passengers to Australia by the Great
Britain, in which they express their entire satisfaction
with the attention of Captain Matthews and his officers
to the comforts of the passengers, and with the quality
and quantity of the provisions. The writer also praises
the arrangements made by Messrs. Gibbs, Bright and
Co. for the Eagle line of packets to Australia.

(From the Times. )
Great men are never so great as in the holydays.
Either they are sent for fifteen hundred miles from
Rome, or live hundred miles from the Highlands ;
or the quiet little nook in which they try to hide
themselves becomes the focus of a million wondering
eyes, and every town within 50 miles insists on feting
and addressing them. The good people of Greenock
have succeeded in drawing Lord John Russell, and
obtaining a good sight of the man whose speeches
they have read, whose life they admire, and whom
most of them have hitherto been left to imagine as
well as they can. A prima donna was once seized
in transitu by the population of a small
city, and
compelled to sing her best songs with what grace
she could ; and Lord John Russell has literally
said his best things and shown his best points to
the people of Greenock. For a compendium of
his life and his policy in one brief, performance,
really it was a very good exhibition. Conversant
as we are with Lord John Russell's strong points,
we really don't know one that he omitted or failed
to do justice to ; so, his spectators and hearers on
this interesting occasion may congratulate them-
selves on having seen the whole man, the great
orator and political chief in all his phases,
as Parliamentary, municipal, commercial, and
general Reformer, and now leading
the re•
presentatives of a free people and a great nation.
When a man has been before the world a whole
generation, and introduced important bills into
Parliament before half his present audience were
born, what can he say that shall be really new, or
even peculiarly appropriate to the occasion 'I Hap-
pily, the ever-varying situation pf,4,:phirs always
leaves some room for novelty. ""There is always
something new, even if it be only an old thing in a
new guise. The sun is never in exactly the same
place in the skies that he has been in before since
the creation of the world ; and so it happens, for-
tunately, or unfortunately in some respects, that
Lord John Russell could never have said before,
with equal propriety, what he said ol Monday,
from the platform of the Mid-Church at Greenock,
to a large congregation of Provosts, Sheriffs,
Baillies, Councillors, Water-trustees, Town-clerks,
Procurators, Chamberlains, and well-dressed gen-
tlemen and ladies.
Pi

erhaps the peculiarities of the present state of
affairs may be summed up in three heads—the
approach of a new measure of Parliamentary Re-
form ; the necessity of a good many social and
material reforms, rendered more imperative just
now by the rapid increase and crowding of our
great cities ; and the still ugly look of affairs in
Eastern Europe. Lord John Russell has addressed
himself to all these points with so much of his cha-
racteristic simplicity, clearness, and strength, that,
even while we feel a shade of difference, we cannot
help admiring. With regard to the first, Lord
John betrays all his old paternal affection for
his Reform Act, and his unwillingness to see it
supplanted by a more vigorous measure or one con-
taining any new principle. He takes care to bring
out in full light the work of the last twenty
years—that is of the Reformed Parliament ; its
very great but quiet improvements, its increasing
triumph over party, the growing agreement of
public men, and the security which seems to be
obtained that no measure necessary for the public
welfare can now be successfully resisted. This
seems as much as to say, " Here is a legislative or-
gan sufficient for the purpose ; it has given you all
you want, and continues to do so, with ever-
increasing honesty and certainty ; it reflects the
people, and so long as they are true to themselves it
will be true to them." Are we far wrong in see-
ing through this a slight natural yearning for the
admirable status quo of our constitution Does
not Lord John feel that affection for the present
House of Commons, with all its faults, which
prompts a natural parent to resent the interference
of a neighbour in the education and even the ne-
cessary correction of his offspring ? No father, no
mother, ever yet tolerated the hand of the
stranger on her child. Casually, and by the way,
Lord John says it—but backhanders are always
the strongest blows—" It would be difficult, per-
haps, to find a time in the history of any country
when so many measures of importance have been
obtained, without convulsion and without revolu-
tion, as have been obtained and established in this
country since 1833." Who does not see the pater-
nal hand in this epitaph over the future grave of
the Reformed House of Commons ?
But then comes the timely admission that there
is a world of reforms still to be done. The diffi-
culty is skilfully brought in as itself a result and
proof of the success which has attended recent le-
gislation :—" Unfortunately, the very increase of
civilisation, the very gathering together of popu-
lations, which are the proofs of industry, of com-
merce, of flourishing manufactures, and increased
trade these things bring with them attendant
evils." Here are masses of deep ignorance in
crowded dwellings that neither the light of the sun
nor that of the heaven above seems to penetrate,
neither sweet air nor wholesome knowledge to per-
vade. Air, health, schools, and other wants of the
many, are now occupying the same place as objects
of patriotism that constitutional reform did in the
last generation. They seem rather tame stuff to
the men who have listened to Fox, to Erskine, to
Romilly, or even to the northern Gamaliel, at
whose feet Lord John Russell learnt his first les-
sons. But, as the Nimrods of other days would
now have to content themselves with very small
game, so our great reformers must condescend to
clean and to scour, to open windows, to " teach
the young idea to shoot," and busy them-
selves in alternately wielding the besom and the
pen. But here again comes another difficulty.
We are a free people, a constitutional people, with
a fancy for local management, and a jealousy of
centralisation. Many an Irishman would rather
die in dirt and tobacco than live in clean linen and
whitewash. That is our case. We would rather
go on as we now do, with stupid and obstinate
parish vestries which we never go near, and with
our courts full of cholera and juvenile pickpockets,
than submit to official pedagogues and sanitary re-
formers. An Emperor might level our rookeries
and our understandings with streets and new roads
to knowledge ; but in England we choose to do
these things ourselves, at our own leisure, and aro
not over-anxious to do them at all. So they seem
likely to wait the leisure of the next generation.
Lord John Russell, however, hopes otherwise. He
sets all this down as the work of the Legislature ;
perhaps with the thought in his own breast that
the House of Commons would do much more
wisely to attend to these matters, instead of
troubling itself with a suicidal attempt at self-re-
generation.
Then comes the third topic of the day, to which
Lord John alludes quietly, cautiously, and yet
boldly. We are a great nation, and profess to
stand our ground against all the world. But that
boast is hollow and that armament is wasted if we
allow our opinion and our friendship to go for nothing
in the general affairs of the world. Important as
domestic questions may be, "it is also to be con-
sidered," says Lord John, " and I trust we shall
none of us forget, that this country holds an im-
portant position among the nations of the world.
It is not once but many times she has stood for-
ward to resist oppression, to maintain the indepen-
dence of weaker nations, to preserve to the general
family of nations that freedom, that power of go-
verning themselves, of which others have sought
to deprive them. I trust that character will not
be forgotten, 'will not be abandoned by a nation
which is now stronger in means, which is more
populous, more wealthy than she has been at any
former period." In this manly and becoming strain
his lordship continued, with ever-increasing ap-
plause as he went on ; so that we are to conclude
the good citizens of Greenock are quite prepared,
if necessary, to incur the risks of war for the cause
of justice and their country s honour.
Altogether
Lord John Russell has turned to very good ac-
count the civilities of his northern friends. It is
not impossible that from the banks of the Clyde a
few salutary thoughts may reach the more magni-
ficent quays of the Neva, and be
i all the more im-
pressive for not being wrapt up n the sacred lan-
guage of diplomacy. Or, even if the Minister's
words should be set down as a matter of course,
not so will the energetic response of the assembled
citizens.

MR. CHARLES DICKENS.—This popular novelist, in a
letter to the Times, dated Boulogne, Sept. 18th, says :
" I observe two statements from a country paper, copied
into your columns of Saturday last, and therefore made
important. They represent me as having availed myself
of the experiences of that excellent police-officer, Mr.
Inspector Field, in Bleak louse, and also as having un-
dertaken to write the said excellent officer's biography.
Allow me to assure you that, amid all the news in the
Times, I found nothing more entirely and completely
new to me than these two pieces of intelligence."
DivisioNs OF THE HOUSE.—From one of Mr. Brother-
ton's returns, just printed, it appears that the number
of divisions on public bills in the last session was 179
before midnight, and 61 after ; and that 17 divisions took
place on private bills before midnight. The total num-
ber of divisions in the session of 1852-8 was 257.