The Sun.
London, England, 1854-03-11 00:00:00

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LONDON, SATURDAY, MARCH 11, 1854.

Never has a British Fleet taken its departure
under more encouraging or more exhilarating
auspices than that which leaves our shores this
day on the Baltic Expedition. It goes forth
to the encounter with the foe, not of Eng-
land alone, but of all the civilised races
of Christendom, leaving behind it in the
hearts of the people an implicit confidence in its
crew, its officers, and its gallant Commander. It
advances northwards, moreover, only after having
as recently as yesterday received the farewell and
the Godspeed of the SOVEREIGN. Auguries of suc-
cess never before accumulated in greater abundance
round the leader of a maritime armament than those
which have recently gathered about Sir CHA.RLES
NA.PIER in anticipation of what the nation counts
upon—his speedy and complete victory over his
Russian antagonists. It is under the influence
of these propitious cireumstances that the brave
Admiral is now leading on his tars towards the
scene of an inevitable encounter—prepared to
fight to the death, if requisite, under that
heroic banner which CHARLES MACKAY has
this very day apostrophised with a lyrical elo-
quence worthy of Tllo)rss CAMPBELL, as the—

" Friend of the Brave,
Hope of the Slave,
And Guardian of the Free."

The eve of a great struggle is, of course,
by no means the appropriate time for boast-
ing, or for exultation. Yet, in regard to this
Baltic Fleet, conducted by NAPIER, it may be
permitted to us even now to assert, that, whatever
the odds opposed to it, we have an entire reliance
upon its capability of sustaining to the full our
national reputation, or, in other words, of vindicat-
ing to the very uttermost what Englishmen have come
to regard as the inalienable right of their mari-
time supremacy. Confiding thus entirely in the
bravery of our sailors, and in the capacity of
their commander, we would here, at their
going forth, recall to the memory of the
Baltic Fleet that glorious and inspiriting
signal with which Sir WILLIAM HOSTE led his
ships into action at the Battle of Lissa—that
brief but sufficient signal—" Remember NELSON !"

Mr. BRIGHT must forgive us, but we certainly
(11(1 not read his oration to the Manchester Elec-
tion
rareattee till we saw it rather vehemently
attack Coed
by the Ministerial and Tory journals.
Curiosity t
pother was then led us to inquire what all the
about. We find his unpardonable sin
to be that he a
and ees certain pretty obvious errors
shortcomings, which we ourselves have already
pointed out in so
strong a light that he would,
reject on this account, the Bill entirely ; while
we, on the otherhand, acknowledge more good
to lse-
than we should like Should it be sunk
by the Black Sea and Baltic fleets, or be
missing among more painful.
losses on the
Danube, we shall not, it is true, shed many
tears over it ; still, for our part, w, would give a
good deal for the abolition of those vile
ratoe-pay-
ing clauses, long so
i doggedly
adhered forto,
Schedule A, short as t is compared with what t
ought to be, and for Schedule B, although defec-
tive in the same way. Then the 101. suffrage for
counties, highly approved by Mr. BRIGHT, is a
large enfranchisement, and so far valuable, al-
though, as we have carefully shown, an enfran-
chisement of but comparatively few indepen-
dent voters. To set against this, we have
the redistribution, chiefly among the counties,
of the seats taken from the boroughs, and
that most un-English of novelties, Minority
Representation. We agree that these are two
great delinquencies. A very large number of
petty boroughs are, as we have lately shown, still
left enfranchised ; a great many left with two re-
presentatives which ought, in all consistency, to
have but one, and several with but one deserving
of two ; while some twenty or thirty, larger than

many which return two members, are still alto-
gether unrepresented. The member for a large
borough may naturally complain of this allotment
of borough representatives to counties, while so
many boroughs have a fair claim to consideration.
But the minority clause, which is, as the Thile3
truly asserted, the pivot of the bill, is specially
offensive to Mr. BRIGHT. "It will give Manchester
but one voice in Parliament," and that, too,, while
it gives forty-six more voices to the lords of the
soil—whether Whig or Tory voices a Manchester
member cares not. Now, we believe that there
is in Lord JOHN RUSSELL'S mind a very strong
repugnance to strengthening the Manchester party,
He holds in most aristocratic scorn their views on
Imperial questions. We remember he once told
Mr. BRIGHT himself, in a colonial debate, that
while he listened with pleasure and advantage to
his instructions in matters of trade and commerce,
he deemed hisviews on all great Imperial questions
exceedingly crude and narrow. Lord JOHN thinks
the untitled JOHN has taught him all that is
needful in his own department ; that British com-
mercial legislation is fairly got out of agricultural
ruts and on to the Manchester rails ; that it can-
not now go wrong ; and that, to use the phrase
of the day, Manchester has fulfilled its mission.
This Mr. BRIGHT thinks excessively ungrateful.
The eight or nine boroughs which have abolished
the Corn Laws, emancipated trade and commerce,
given us the ships and the prosperity which now
enable us to attack the northern madman without
fear, these boroughs are to be deprived of one-
half of their HoUse of Commons' power. The
lag-behind party in them, which would have
joined the counties to prevent all they have
done, is to neutralise the vote of one of their pre-
sent members. It would really seem that Mr.
BRIGHT may be allowed to complain a little, the
more so since he can demonstrate, by an appeal
to overwhelming figures, that the great commer-
cial districts are, and will be, comparatively, much
under represented. We think Lord JOHN'S fears
of Manchester influence quite groundless. These
gentlemen will never trouble themselves much on
Imperial questions, and their number, under any
equal system of representation, will always be
much smaller than those returned by ter-
ritorial influence ; while their commercial know-
ledge and zeal is essential to the prosperity
of the country interest. The value of English
farms will now, through all generations, depend on
the success of our commerce. But this, again,
should console Mr. BRIGHT. His party have now
clrried out their views to the point that no Mi-
nister, even of the party most opposed to them,
would ever wish to reverse their policy. It has
become the common interest of town and country
alike to buy everything in the cheapest market
and sell it in the dearest. Almost every bond
and fetter has been removed from trade, and the
springs of industry will soon be as free as the
pressure of our national debt permits. If the mino-
rity scheme be insisted on, we shall examine
its principle very carefully. Meantime we once for
all record our conviction, that to mix it up as
now with the other actual modes by which the
minority, for almost twenty years, has been too
strong either way, is to produce a jumble of
chances, forbidding all calculation of the result.

Some weeks before his Bill appeared, we warned
Lord JOHN of the consequences of renouncing his
51. franchise, and in all Mr. BRIGHT'S remarks on
that franchise we go heartily with him. Work-
ing men, we have heard, denounce it as an
insult. The 101. franchise is a rent fran-
chise. Why is the workman's to be a rating
one ? The former may vote after a year's resi-
dence ; the operative must wait nearly three years
before he can do it. Then the rating is not paid
at 61., but exceeding that sum ; i.e., not less than
61. 10s. practically, or fully an 81. rental ; one
which very few workmen indeed pay. Equally
ungrateful to the feelings of an intelligent mecha-
nic earning 2/. a week must it be, to find that
the clerk behind a desk, no way his superior in
shrewdness and good sense, may vote on his quar-
terly salary, while he is denied a vote on his wages
to the same amount. These are not the propo-
sals to conciliate the " splendid democracy"
about whom LordJoux flourished his declamma-
tion at the Perth dinner when out of office.
On the whole, though we dissent from Mr.
BRIGHT'S conclusion, we must own that he has but
dilated on objections which we anticipated. Very
probably, however, we shall hear no more of
minority members.

The pertinent interrogatories addressed by
Lord TORRINGTON to the shareholders in the South-
Eastern Railway Company, and which appeared in
our impression of Thursday, are worthy of con-
sideration by every person in any degree connected
with the Company, before he decides on the part
which he shall take in the approaching contest.
If he investigate the facts of the case, and rea-
son calmly and dispassionately thereon, he will
at once perceive the imperative necessity of en-
tering boldly and resolutely into the matter,
and discountenancing the factious opposition that
has been offered to the acts of men eminently
deserving of the confidence of every shareholder.
In such a case neutrality is impossible—ono man
of high and generous spirit could consent to re-
main inactive, or abstain from enlisting on one
side or the other—

"tinder which king, Bezonian, speak, or die ?"

will practically be addressed to every proprietor
who has not before the " trysting time" unequi-
vocally explained his views. None can refuse to
respond to the urgent demand. It was on that
account, and, also, that no shareholder might be
disfranchised from ignorance of the necessary for-
malities, that the Board very judiciously resolved
on issuing proxies which might be used on either
side, according to the wish of the proprietor, and
which practically occasion no loss to the company,
the only distinction being whether the trifling ex-
pense comes out of the assets of the company or the
pockets of the individual—whether, in short, it
can be considered an act of extravagance
to save each shareholder a present payment,
which is to be deducted from his future
dividend. " Income tax" is saved by the course
adopted, had it no other recommendation. But
it is scarcely necessary to vindicate the conduct of
the majority of the Board on a matter which
nothing but faction, prejudice, or fatuity could
pretend to censure. We come then to the sub-
stantial issues raised between the parties.
" What are the causes of dispute ?" " What
are the errors or mismanagement of which the
minority of the Board complain ?" " Has any
alleged inefficiency or neglect of the Board of
Directors tended to injure and depreciate the pro-
perty of the Company ?"
These interrogatories may properly be grouped
together, for the same answers must be re-
turned to each question. If it were " Par-
liamentary to impute motives " if it were
possible to dive into the secret recesses of
the human mind, and to drag to light the hidden
springs by which it is influenced, we might per-
chance be compelled to keep them separate, on
discovering that the only " cause of dispute" was
the possession of office by the majority, and the
desire of a certain clique to obtain a transfer of
the honour and emolument to themselves. For
that purpose, they might be desirous of raising a
specious outcry, sufficient to excite distrust and
apprehension in the general mind, and to lead to
such confusion that the coveted position might
fall to the lot of their own party during the melee.
So far, however, as can openly be avowed, the chief
cause alleged is the support of the porposed exten-
sion, or rather connecting link, from Bromley to
Lewisham. That is the chief act of commission. As to
those of omission, their name is "legion." No oppor-
tunity of impeaching the conduct, or traducing the
character of the majority is neglected. Not only
have we direct accusations because the same divi-
dend is not now paid and the same prices for shares
obtainable as in 1845, but every species of in-
sinuation is indulged in. There is
" The whisper'd hint, the shrug, the hum, or ha,
These petty brands that Calumny doth use"—

everything, in fact, that can lead to distrust, or
induce ignorant men to bestow their suffrages in
favour of an unknown policy, administered by
men involved in almost equal mystery. Is there
a higher mileage rate from London to Ashford
than to Reading, the parties fixing the tariff must