The Sun.
London, England, 1853-02-11 00:00:00

4

with a view to incresso 7 ,
our defences. We may possibly, in return for the
15 millions paid for armaments, have a sufficient
force, naval and military, kept at home to render
us invulnerable. It is well sometimes to seek rea-
sons for hope, and it is wise always to make the
best of exitsing circumstances. This being so, we
may say that this year's delay—if we must submit
to it—should be turned to the best use, by placing
the question of Reform in such a position that the
twelvemonths' consideration shall bear the fruit of
a better measure than we could now hope to pass
on the instant, under the cold shadow of an aristo-
cratic Coalition Cabinet.

(From the Morning Advertiser.)
The oracle has spoken, but what a speech ! Lord
John Russell last night undertook to submit to
the House of Commons a programme of the con-
templated Ministerial policy of the session. But
did the noble Lord discharge the duty which he
thus engaged to perform There will be but one
answer to the question. On many important sub-
jects which occupy the attention of the country,
the Foreign Secretary literally said nothing. He
did. not even allude to them. And on those on
which he did touch, the information he afforded
will be felt by all classes to be scanty and unsatis-
factory to an extent which no one could have been
prepared to expect. Anything more meagre and
vague than the observations of his Lordship, when
he did say anything at all could not be imagined.
Apart from the one great measure of which the
country is to be baulked, and respecting which we
shall have some observations to make presently, the
Ministerial programme for the session does not pro-
mise anything which is likely to call forth the enthu-
siasm of the country. The measures indicated in
the speech of the Foreign Secretary may be enu-
merated in a few words.
A bill is to be brought in to enable the Legislature
of Canada to dispose of the clergy reserves. A*
these clergy reserves have been for many years a
subject of much ill-feeling in our Canadian posses-
sions, we are glad to find that the Aberdeen Ad-
ministration have raarle_up theix,minds tolegislate --
on the subject. Whether they will adopt the best
kind of dealing with the question, is a point on
which we must reserve our opinion until we see the
measure
which they mean to bring forward. Let
us hope that it will not be a half measure, but one
which will fully meet the merits of the case.
Next, in the order of the Ministerial statement,
we have a bill for the removal of the civil dis-
abilities of the Jews. That measure will meet with
general approbation, but it is not one in which the
public take any lively interest. Of itself, it is a
measure which will not add much to the strength
of the Government.

The third measure which Lord John Russell last
night announced as part of the Ministerial programme
for the session is one of great importance. A bill is
to be brought in for the purpose of promoting the
education of the people. In other words, we are to
have a scheme of national education. This is a ques-
tion in which the public has long felt a profound
interest. It is a question of great difficulty. If
the Aberdeen Administration bring forward a mea-
sure of national education which will command the
• confidence of the country, they will, indeed, be in
a position to boast of having achieved something
meritorious. But we have great doubts on the sub-
ject. We shall, however, not condemn the intended
measure before we have seen it. When it is fairly
before the country, we shall not be slow to express
our opinion of its character.
The question of transportation to Australia is one
which has occupied the attention of the Coalition
Cabinet during the recess, and the conclusion at
which Ministers have arrived, is that no more con-
victs shall be sent either to that part of our colo-
nial possessions, or to Van Diemen's Land. This
was the course which Lord Grey meant to propose
to the last Parliament, but the sudden extinction
of the Cabinet of which he was a member, pre-
vented the noble lord from carrying his views into
effect. In conjunction with the resolution of Mi-
nisters to put an end to the transportation of con-
victs to Australia, we are promised the careful con-
sideration of the whole question of secondarypnnish-
ments.

The qu6stion of law reform has also occupied
the attention of the new Government, and we are
promised further advances in that direction, in the
course of the session. A bill for further law re-
forms is to be brought in, in a few days by the
Lord Chancellor.

The financial statement of the Chancellor of the
Exchequer is not to be brought forward till after
the Easter recess. What we are to have then, in
the way of novelty, if anything at all, has not been
permitted to transpire.
Ireland is not to be forgotten in the legislation
of-tile seg-siont, lAw:1-40143.41wiseil.,informed. the
house that it is the intention of the Government
to move for the appointment of a select committee
to consider the landlord and tenant question, in
that country.
Last of all, the noble lord came to the question
of questions,—the question of Parliamentary re-
form. And here, we regret to say, the new Govern-
ment have broken faith with the country. As the
Times stated a few days ago, and as we informed our
readers more than t wo months since' we are to have no
Reform Bill this year. When we first annnounoed
that Ministers had come to a resolution not to have
any Reform Bill this session, the public could hardly
give credence to the statement. Nor was it willing
to believe the fact that it could be so, when
the Times reiterated last week, what we had
affirmed eight weeks before. Nor can we wonder
that the country was loth to believe that the new
Ministry, every one of whose members had given a
solemn assurance, either in Parliament or on the
hustings, that we were to have a liberal measure
of reform,--could be guilty of so flagrant a breach
of faith with the public as the postponement of the
Reform Bill involves. Such conduct is deeply to be
deplored on the ground of public morals. It not
only impairs, but it destroys all confidence in pub-
lic men. It is melancholy to behold so many per-
sons as those which constitute the Aberdeen
Government all concur in practising a deception
on the country. The people, it now turns out,
were too confiding. They carried their gene-
rosity to excess. Ministers asked for a fair trial.
They implored the country not to prejudge them.
They begged to be allowed to develops the policy
they intended to pursue before they were condemned.
We acquiesced in the reasonableness of the request,
and intimated our readiness to grant them the fair
trial which they demanded. The country did the
same. They have had their trial. They have been
allowed to announce their policy. They have been
tried, and found wanting. The event has shown
that the country's confidence was misplaced.oul have
d
We say all this with sorrow.
u
given us great pleasure to have seeneasltthurwe
eswh
Aberdeenioh
Administration bring forward m
would have justified us in giving them ou
They have, however, determined on not p .
taking one
s support.
step in the path of popular progress. The country
•
will now ask, and ask with reason, what we have
gained by the ejection of the Derby Government
melleasureis there to be
found
fromo
programme of last
ififiic tell ?e
AWb ehradte esni n-
Rg lue s s
night which Lord Derby and Mr. Disraeli would
not have given us ? We have had a change of men,
but we are to have no change of measures. This
is really, as a former Premier once remarked, " too
bad." It is not only a gross breach of faith with

the country, but it constitutes an outrage on the
national understanding. It is a most unwarrant-

able trifling with the people of England. It as-
sumes that they may be deceived, and yet not be
aware of it.

We fear that the consequences of the Ministerial
developments of last night will be of a very serious
kind. There will be a reaction in the public mind.
The existing tranquillity will be succeeded by scenes
of excitement and agitation which we would much
rather not be fated to witness. The mingled
amazement and coldness with which Lord John
Russell's speech was received by the house, ought
to have been regarded by his lordship as an ear-
nest of the feeling with which that speech will be
received in the country. The disappointment will
be deep and universal. So will be the indignation
which the speech will evoke.
And, as if it had not been enough to tell the
House of Commons, and through it the country,
that we are to have no Reform Bill this year, Lord
John Russell was at great pains to disclaim the
idea of ever having promised to give a more liberal
measure of representative reform than his bill of
last session. He was even indignant that words to
that effect should have been ascribed to him. M.
never said nor meant anything of the kind.
does not even promise us so good a measure as that
of 1852. The probability is, that if any such
sure be ever got from the present men,. Vlii,
much worse than the one of last session.

THE RECENT ROBBERY' OF 3,0001. IN Lrratroon.--
At the Liverpool quarter sessions, before Gilbert Hen-
derson, Esq., Recorder, Frederick Clarke was charged
with stealing the sum of 3,000/. from Robert Spencer
Humphreys, a clerk in the office of Messrs. Brown,
Shipley, and Co., of Liverpool, on 13th November last.
Mr. Parry, of the Home Circuit, held a special retainer
for the defence. The prosecution. was conducted by
Mr. Aspinall. The details of this robbery have been
given at length in
.our columns at the date of its occur-
rence. After hearing the evidence brought forward, as
also an able speech from Mr. Parry, inthe jury
returned a verdict of Not Guilty,
discharged. Mr. Parry applied,and the
some reply,
prisoner
pawn-tickweasts
for
that were taken from Clarke at the time of the arrest,
but Mr. Clough (the in-door superintendent of the polite*
department in Liverpool),thdaetclisnhedouldforthe
nothingp further
tto
restore them, but stated
transpire, he should fo
of a week. rward them by post in the Course

LONDON, FRIDAY, FEBRUARY U, 1853.

Do the Whigs realty= imagine that they can
secure to themselves even the most insignificant
modicum of public approval, by resorting once
more to their old- device of postponement after
postponement ? Positively, it would appear so.
It was only yesterday that the House of Commons
re-assembled for the transaction of the business of
tEe Legislature—it was only yesterday that the
new Ministers formally presented themselves be-
fore Parliament--and already they have given
terrible evidence of their intention to delay the
serious consideration of all matters of real diffi-
culty by procrastination after procrastination.
Yes, the old, old trick is again resorted to—to
the dismay of all rational and practical Re-
formers. If we have no longer the Bottle
Conjuror—we have a cluster of those practised
dalliers with the political pea-and-thimble, who
have so often before deceived the popular judg-
'ment by their adroit and ingenious displays of
administrative legerdemain. Confident in their
Own skill, they seem to count still as securely as
ever upon the extent of the public credulity—
forgetting that they have long ago been found out,
and that they are under the supervision of a duly
organised body of Detectives. • Blind, how-
ever, to past teaching, they have returned to their
now notorious scheme of deception. They set up
the table jauntily enough on the very first night
of their appearance--and there, as smug and self-
satisfied as ever, stands the arch-offender at the
green-box of office, trying as cooly as of yOre to de-
lud.c., the senses of the spectators—surrounded, of
co-arse, as usual, by his only-Partially-dis-
guised confederates. The judicious Bottle
Holder looks on as complacently as he
was wont to do in the good old times, when
Earl GREY was Colonial Secretary, and Sir
CHARGES WOOD Chancellor of the Exchequer—
twirling that surreptitious straw in his mouth,
which he can always at a pinch fling up in the
shape of an amendment to show which way the
wind blOws. There is the elegant young gentle-
man, who watches the game under the pretext of
seeing fair play, simply with a view to his
own amusement. Perhaps the Right Hon.
SYDNEY HERBERT will forgive our adventuring,
upon the comparison. Then there is the comfort-
able, elderly gentleman, evidently well to do in
the world—with the " spick and span" linen, and
the ,olden-rimmed eye-glasses—who is always
ready to wager any amount from the depths of his
plethoric pocket-book. Possibly Sir JAMES GRAHAM
may not be as leniently disposed as his colleague
td accept the simile in its more obvious application.
There they all are--iu tri
dus ously at work on the