The Sun.
London, England, 1853-01-05 00:00:00

Mr. CAnDwELL's temporary removal from the
sphere for which he was so eminently qualified.
We are greatly gratified at his once more as-
suming the position from which such a man
should never be excluded, although his opinions
on some points might not be altogether what we
could desire.

The Honourable CHA.RLBS VILLIERS —the
faithful, the consistent CHARLES ITILLIERs--the
earnest, as he was one of the most vigorous,
champions of Free Trade, was, as might have
been easily anticipated, once more returned as
Representative for Wolverhampton. To Mr.
VILLIERS an election has always been rather an
ovation than a trial. As he truly remarked—
" the longer his connexion with Wolverhampton
lasted, the longer it seemed likely to last." The
electors had exhibited a degree of gratitude, for
important services to the good cause, as honourable
to themselves as it was flattering to its object.
Mr. VILLIERS had well merited their favour. Not
only had he been a Free-trader when it was by no
means fashionable to avow that faith—not only
had he been placed in the van on every contest,
but he was their recognised Parliamentary leader.
His services in the House hitherto have been
unrequited, save by the honest electors of Wolver-
hampton. When large sums were raised for
others, his claims were forgotten, and the only
appearance of gratitude was that exhibited by the
men of Wolverhampton—a token of friendship
which Mr. VILLIERS did not undervalue ; for,
when he was returned for Wolverhampton, and
the most important division of Lancashire—an
honour of which any man, the highest Commoner
in the land, might be proud—he refused to sever
the links that had bound him in less favourable
times, and remained faithful to the honest men of
Wolverhampton. He has, at length, joined the
Ministerial ranks ; and we confess that his
appointment although, perhaps, not fully
adequate to his claims—was that which in-
duced us to entertain some hope of the stability
of the New Government—a hope that we might
not otherwise have felt, considering the diversity
of opinion and the many causes of dissension in
the new Cabinet.

The greatest Godsend of all, however, was the
return of Sir CHARLES WOOD for Halifax. The
other cases had been anticipated. None doubted
the result at Wolverhampton, at Carlisle, at Ti-
verton, or London. But it was very different at
Halifax ; a vigorous opposition had been organ-
ised, and Mr. EDWARDS, who had formerly headed
the poll in the borough, was too formidable a
competitor to be slighted. Great anxiety was
wtertained in political circles as to the event—
an anxiety which reached a very high pitch when
it was known that EDWARDS had, in the early
part of the day, achieved a majority of
130. The feeling was, however, changed,
when the glad tidings was announced—per
electric telegraph—that the President of the India
Board was, at the closing of the poll, 52 a head
of his opponent. However satisfactory at this
moment the result may be to the Ministry, we
fear that it will not cause permanent gratification,
when the Right Hon. Baronet has exhibited his
handiwork for some time in the mismanagement
of the Anglo-Indian Empire.

All the Members of the Cabinet have now been
re-elected with SlTLerattlioirsir by ird' Me"
impoiVail, exception. Mr. GLADSTONE is opposed
for Oxford by Mr. DUDLEY PERCEVAL--a son of
the Right Hon. SPENCER PERCEVAL, who, while
filling the very office now held by Mr. GLADSTONE,
was murdered in the lobby of the House of Com-
mons by BELLINGHAM. The contest may pos-
sibly prove closer than has been anticipated. Mr.
PERCEVAL, who obtained a first-class degree in
the University, is no mean opponent. We should,
however, although strongly opposed to some of Mr.
GLADSTONE'S crotchets, more particularly those re-
specting the Income Tax, to which he gave expres-
sion during the late financial debate, greatly re-
gret his exclusion from the arena in which
a man of his intellectual powers should have a
place whether in or out of office. It appears that,
this morning Mr. GLADSTONE was only in a majo-
rity of 3—there being 86 votes for, and 83
against the Right Vonourable Gentleman. The
poll, we find, may continue open for 14 days
—the Universities being excluded from the
salutary rule limiting the time of polling
to one, or at most two days. That is a
point which will, we trust, not be forgotten
when the much-required University Reform shall
be brought on the tapir. In the meantime, we
can only express a hope that, notwithstanding
some glaring mistakes, Mr. GLADSTONE'S many
claims may not be disregarded. We gave " fair
play" to the late Ministry ; we shall do the same
to the present. As we have repeatedly stated,
our motto is " Measures, not men ;" and
we shall cordially support every good
proposition, no matter from what quarter it may
proceed ; while we shall as strenuously oppose that
which appears to be injurious to the great body
of the people, although the fate of any party hung
on its adoption.

It was, we believe, the Hon. Fox MAITLE (now
Lord PANNURE) who, in a speech to his consti-
tuency, first gave circulation to an argument
against the Ballot, at which not own the Tories,
but, much more, the humbler fry of Whiggism,
gladly caught. Whig candidates are generally in
the inconvenient dilemma of wishing to retain all
power in the hands of the aristocracy, and their
own section of it especially, yet of being obliged
to advocate liberal measures as their own hope of
carrying the people with them. They profess
themselves the friends of the people for the same
reason that Protectionists profess themselves
the farmers' friends, namely, that they may ride
into office on their shoulders. Protectionists in
power this summer last it by disappointing
the expectations of their own party ; and the
Whigs in power last spring lost it through
the disappointment generated by the contemptible
Reform Bill of Lord J. RUSSELL. All earnest
Reformers perceived, to use the language of
the Times, that his Lordship was now " effete" and
used up." Two cardinal sins of omission be-
longed to that bill ; it did not abolish pocket
boroughs, it did not give the Ballot ; and we can
assure the Whigs that, unless these sins be utterly
renounced, they never will be placed in power
again by the people. The latter sin, refusal of the
Ballot, is the one dearest of all to the hearts of
whigs. What a Heaven-sent Whig, therefore,
must he be who could teach Whig candidates
how to persuade the non-electors that refusal of the
Ballot is protection to them! It would, at least, gain
for them a hustings' triumph ; the forest of hands
would be always held up for the Whig friend of the un-
represented As such a tutor, then, Mr. F. MATJLE
came forward. Dropping the stale and un-Eng-
lish nonsense that the Ballot is uu-English
although so much used, in their clubs and
otherwise, by those who deem themselves the
elite of Englishmen, it is, he says, unfair to those
who have no votes. " I will agree, then," says
Mr. F. MAULS, " to the Ballot when the suf-
frage, as in America and France, is universal ;
but, with a limited suffrage, I must hold the
electors responsible to the non-electors ; the
electoral suffrage is a trust, and trustees for
the public ought to vote publicly." The
opponents of
lo the Ballot in the Liberal ranks
were ightly pleased with this argument ; it
was solemnly
brought
not
intolike to sary,
paraded, as if the Ark had been
disconsolate camp. A_Whig
does
‘ with Tory bluntness, to men
demanding an
have it"---
"For Whigs allow no force independent vote, " You sha'nt
to reply to the
intWirlaatteadbvoootne,r,th,e,niotuorle be
eote
abhut argument."
musnlatrust for the
non-electors, and they
form your trust." Verily, t
k"
now a
DA hZtLYou per:.
judgment." Yet, however plausible, th- to
themselves, and their real friends in Parlitople
regarded it only as a clever hit--an ader'ioti't
piece of special pleading, much more worthy
of the great " mystery man" than of the
then Secretary-at-War. It is, nevertheless,
worthy of a distinct answer, which we do not re-
collect to have seen vouchsafed to it in any of
the Liberal journals. It might well be disputed
at the outset whether the trustee theory be the
Ulu) one. It is most certain that Lord Josx

RUSSELL proposed to aim at so arranging the con-
stituencies under the Reform Bill, that voters of
every class should belong to them ; propositions
have also been made, that in any alteration of the
suffrage, not numbers, but classes, should be repre-
sented. Lord JoHN, then, and these latter poli-
ticians with him, assume that voters in each class
are to vote according to their own conceptions of
the interests of their class, and by no means as
the trustees of other classes. They assume
that each man voting for himself will fur-
nish a fair representation of all classes in
the House of Commons, since the great body
of individuals in each class agree very closely
in what they deem the interest of their order.
We will, however, pass by the discussion of this
more abstract question, and ask what are the facts
of the case ? They are mainly these,—First, that
the non-electors are universally in favour of the
Ballot, and of conferring that right on the present
constituency also. 'Secondly, that, considering
the electors as trustees, the only party which
attempts to tamper with them in the discharge of
their duty, is a small but wealthy party already
enjoying representation itself,—and, thirdly, that this
small party to the extent of its power, influences
the electoral trustees in opposition to the known
wishes of the unrepresented, for whom they are
trustees.

One thing is quite plain, that probably in every
instance in which " the masses" were present at
the hustings, a candidate in favour of the Ballot
has had a vast majority on the show of hands.
Nor can any one doubt that if it were now sub-
mitted to the larger constituencies both of our
towns and counties, whether even the pre-
sent limited suffrage should be protected.
by the Ballot, every large gathering of the
people would almost unanimously hold up
their hands in its favour. And not without the
best reason. If non-electors did not know
how individual electors voted, they are cer-
tain they could not be losers by their igno-
rance ; they know, indeed, that they must be
gainers. Whenever the man of their choice at
the hustings has been defeated at the poll, the
Ballot would always have given him more votes,
and probably have given him a triumph. The
non-electors know that their powers of intimi-
dation are small indeed compared with
those of lords; magistrates, and parsons, millown-
ers, and other large employers of labour; and that
their power of bribery is absolutely nothing. If,
then, the voters be trustees, let them be protected
against the class which alone can, which alone
does, and which alone wishes to tamper with them
in the discharge of their duty ; from the class
which hinders thousands from voting consistently
with their supposed trusteeship to the non-elec-
tors, and deters them by cruel or corrupting in-
fluence from espousing their cause.
Trustees for the non-electors ! Does it not
border upon the ridiculous to utter such words
gravely ; and that, too, in the face of so many
constituencies by whom the man of the people's
choice has been rejected ? Verily, the trustees
acquit themselves strangely of their trust ! As
at present influenced, they but too commonly re-
fuse to fulfil the wishes of those for whom they are
trustees. Possibly, Mr. F. MAULE may tell
us that this is because the unrepresented do not
it/TOW their crwn-interest•--if—ao,however the
responsibility of electors to them is of nO-u:SVat.
all, and these trustees had better be delivered by
the Ballot from any danger of listening to the
wishes of their incompetent charge. Clear it is,
that whenever the poll reverses a very decided
majority at the hustings, the electors have not
acted as responsible to the wishes, at least, of the
non-electors. Mr. Fox MAULE must in this case,
therefore, admit one of two things : if the electors
have done well in rejecting the popular candidate,
then their votes had better be entirely free from
the supervision of the non-electors, as that influ-
ence, so far as it went, was injurious; but, if badly,
why, then, the non-electors ought to be made
. _

trustees of their own votes, and Mr. Fox MA ULE
ought to give them Universal Suffrage.
Mr. F. MAULE and his pupils must take care.
Englishmen do not like sham arguments on a
serious question. Whenever this pretence of
trusteeship is brought forward again at the hustings,
we would recommend that some one should put it
to the non-electors present, whether, for the sake
of their knowing how the electors vote, they wish
that landlords, magistrates, parsons, and great
masters, should also know how the electors voted.
We fancy they would hear a pretty general re-
sponse, " Emancipate the present electors from
aristocratic domination, and then we may hope to
get votes for ourselves." We warn the Whigs,
however, that the Ballot is merely a question of
time, and of no long time either. Uncertain
and expensive means of punishing bribery will be
tolerated no longer ; while no means but that of
secret voting can put a stop to the feudal barba-
rities of the traffickers in corruption. The
people will be hoaxed no longer by ingenious
sophisms. Their own common sense, and the tes-
timony of a FRAIL and an EDWARDS will outweigh
all such pretences of argument. The question is quite
settled in the minds of the vast majority of the
middle and working classes. Representatives of
Liberal constituencies who have hitherto stood
out are showing plainly, in their half-conceding
language, that the screw is upon them ; and very
speedily eyery opponent of the Ballot will be
numbered with the avowed opponents of popular
liberty.

There are few persons to whom emigrants and
the friends of emigration are under such weighty
obligations as they are to Mrs. CHISHOLM. There
is something so earnest, so' persevering, and so
essentially practical in the character of that lady's
philanthropy, that with small means, and beset
with many difficulties, she has effected incalcul-
able good in her generation.' At home her ex-
ample is an incentive and encouragement to the
exertions of others more wealthy and influential
than herself ; and beyond the seas thousands who,
arriving poor and friendless on a foreign shore,
found in her kindness a sister's sympathy, and in
her counsel a, safe resource—thousands who owe
the means of life, and more than life, to her timely
succour, remember her with gratitude, and call her
" blessed." This is no exaggeration ; or if any are
inclined so to consider it, we would commend them
to turn to a recently published account of the in-
valuable laboutit of CAROLINE CHISHOLM. As we
have already observed, it is its practical tendency
that gives so high a value to Mrs. CHISHOLM'S
benevolence. Good wishes and a vague sort of
sympathy with the unfortunate, are not wanting
with the majority ; but how few of us are as
ready with our deeds as with our desires ! While
others talk of what ought to be done, Mrs. Cms-
gnieficfiiacletwioisnsh.es,
HOLM express
pe
ri.oms bountifullyreal
HOLM thinks of what can be done. While others
Mrs.
an Cllevisi--
beneficial
dence of the quiet, practical natur f e_oher projects,
we have only to turn to her address last
evening at
the Mechanics' Institution at Greenwich. Sonie of
the facts which she there alluded to will probably
surprise many. One point, however, should not
be passed over, and we earnestly trust that the
Post-office authorities will at once take it into
consideration. It would appear that the majority
of emigrants are husbands and fathers of families,
who go out alone, with the hope of transmitting
money to enable their families to join them.
Mrs. CHISHOLM stated that to her own know-
d thus left their wives
ledge 11,000 men ha
behind them. By the last mail Captain
CHISHOLM transmitted to this country more
than two thousand pounds as remittances
from working men to their relatives. The diffi-
culty and inconvenience of such remittances on
the part of emigrants is, however, great, and the
importance of affording every facility to such a
means of enabling their families to join them is
too great to require comment. If a system of
transmitting money to this country by Post-office
orders were established in Australia, Mrs.
CHISHOLM anticipates the greatest benefit,• espe-
cially to those separated families of whom some
members have gone to seek their fortune, while
others w e
others remain behind in poverty, in
anxiety,
and hope
deferred. Such a necessity surely
only require to be made can
the known to
proper authorities, in order at once to obtain
attention. Another portion of Mrs.
.., el
HISHOLM'S