The Sun.
London, England, 1853-02-16 00:00:00

writings of Mrs. HARRIET B. Srowß, the appeal
made by the women of England has been scorn-
fully thrust aside by Mrs. JULIA G. TYLER—both
of them eminently distinguished, though in a very
different manner, among the more gifted matrons
of the United States. We had at one moment,
we will confess it, anticipated some other result
from the supplication forwarded from Stafford-
house to America—some other result than its angry
rejection as an impertinence. Nor can we imagine for
one moment that we are alone in our disappointment.
Every one who perused thinkingly the tearful nar-
rative of " Uncle Tom's Cabin"—and who has
not done so?—must have felt at some time or
other a consequent aspiration for the downfall of
that evil system which we ourselves as a nation
have still the accursed remembrance of having
encouraged, though we have long since striven to
efface the crime from our conscience by sincere
and earnest efforts at its expiation. Yes—we
may have felt that the picture was over-coloured
--,-that the lights were too diaphonous rand. the
shadows too sombre—that the slave was idealised
in goodness, and the tyrant was exaggerated
in atrocity, but knowing well that such things
are—that there are fellow-creatures, men and
women, young virgins and aged patriarchs, sold
by auction like so many dogs, to do in all respects
the bidding cf their accidental purchasers—we
have hoped, we have surely, one, and all of us,
yearned from the very depths of our heart for the
arrival of that day to slavery which §;iall witness
its complete and permanent abolition. And that
day will certainly come—sooner or later it must
come. What though the Stafford-house appeal
be-despised ? What though it be scouted by a
hundred thousand Mrs. JULIA. G. TYLERB speak-
ing in the name of generation after generation of
the women of the United States Yes !—tho day
will come when the outcast children of Africa will
witness their final emancipation.

After a day or two's reflection, we cannot re-
lish the Tory-Whig programme for the Session
much better than at first ; and we- are pleased to
observe that such of our liberal contemporaries as
have any character to lose, dislike it as much as
we do. We were amongst the first, if not the
first, to call the attention of Reformers to the in-
solvent supplications of Lord JOHN RUSSELL and
Mr. SIDNEY HERBERT for time ; and to the kind
aid furnished them by some of the magnates and
some of the plebs also of the press, in the contem-
plated resuscitation of Whig tactics for Tory pur-
poses. We must, therefore, be pardoned if the
truth of our prophecies does not console us for
our distaste to that which fulfils them. Indeed,
they are mere than fulfilled. We foretold delay,
but we have to lament delay, and curtailment of
promises too. The Reform Bill, when it does
come, is to be a second birth of last year's abortion.
Our little corrupt Ninevehs of one or two hundred
voters each, are, as we reluctantly predicted, to
be saved ; and we, unlike the Hebrew Prophet, in
regard to concern for our own reputation, but
thoroughly like him in desiring the destruction of
the justly doomed, and in this case the irreclaim-
able, think that we do well to be angry.
What is the grand plea for the procrastinators
The amount of real work they mean to do, and
the danger of division and weakness if they touch
Reform. Neither are quite fair. The House of Lords
will, as befits it, take the chief labour of nearly
all the law reforms off their hands, and Lord ST.
LEONARDS has, we are glad to see, proffered them
his valuable and safe aid in carrying out his Own
work, leaving them all their time for such mea-
sures as they mean to propose. The Jews' Bill
need not waste time in the House of Commons.
The incurables may be allowed to talk themselves
out on an exhausted theme without reply, and the
votes of the large majority recorded as soon as
bigotry " feels itself spent, and fumbles for its
brains." The Canada Clergy Reserves Bill
too will be little more than a measure to
vote upon and have done with. The Income
Tax again, when it is brought forward, can be-
come a matter of much debate only through the
most culpable wilfulness. No one believes that
brains are wanting in the Cabinet to understand
the grand principles which Mr. DISRAELI and all
his " Chairmen of Quarter Sessions," as their op-
ponents termed them, so honourably recognised,
and the highest practical talent in the kingdom is
at the command of any Government, in revising tho"
schedules. All the Opposition are prepared, much
to their honour, to support cordially an Income
Tax as honest as their own.

As to the Ecclesiastical Courts, the work is
being done to their hand. Let them but place
testamentary affairs in the hands of the Civil
Courts, abolish Church Rates, accept Lord
BROUGHAM'§ Divorce Bill, and refuse all power
over the persons or property of laymen to Church
Courts, and no opposition could long impede what
every man of common sense has already made up
his mind to.
The Education question is n
feel pretty confident they cannot so easilyosee wttlee,
unless by overbearing much opposition from some
party without 1 Inferior in importance to none,
it has its known difficulties ; but these we are cer-
tain would be much lessened in a really reformed
Parliament. Any extension of the franchise
would add a vast number of voters desirous of
Parliamentary action on this subject. For the
cause of Education it is, therefore, bad general-
ship not to gain first so large a reinforcement of
friends to National Education. On this question,
however, the Budget will be the best test of their
honesty. They will encounter no opposition in
repealing the Excise and Stamp Taxes on the cir-
culation of knowledge. That is absolutely in their
power. It will do more than any Central Board
spending the money raised at a great cost, by
taxing heavily the greatest of educators. Ragged
Schools, which no Government can touch without
spoiling them, and a free press which Government
could grant by a word,—these are the Education
measures, which, though humble in appearance,
are the want of the age.
To come, then, to Reform itself. The great
Evasionist throws clean overboard the suggestion
of a Commission of Inquiry ; Government has
knowledge enough in its possession. No doubt
of it. We have been, and are quite at one with
his Lordship there. The facts are patent to all
the country. They are not like those into which
the Poor-Law Commission had to inquire, the
hole-and-corner work of the great unpaid and of
parish vestries. They chiefly occur when every-
body knows everything, when newspapers are
filled with them, and when every borough and
county rings with them, although the Hon.
Member, unseated on petition, had of course no
guilty knowledge of them. No, no ;it was not
the difficulty of doing the thing,—not the time
demanded by that or other measures which is the
real objection. Was it, then, the other excuse ?
Would a Reform Bill split up the Cabinet, and
perhaps create a storm in the House ? .If it
would, then we -must own that we have been
cheated. Liberal Members went to the hust-
ings in June, with the full impression that
the Convener of the Cheshara-place Meeting
would give them a real Reform Bill if
they kindly placed him in Downing-street again ;
and electors thronged the hustings inmidwinter
to be assured of something substantial in the
amendment of our National Represeritation. There
has been talk enough of the infidelity of the DERBY
Ministry to the election promises of their sup-
porters. It certainly canniot surpass Lord JOHN'S
cool treachery to Reform on Thursday evening—a
treachery for which he presumes the country will
thank them ! Well, certainly the Lincolnshire
farmers thanked Mr. CHISTOPHEit for his Free-trade
votes ; all England, however, is not Lincolnshire,
nor are all voters farmers, and possibly Lord JOHN
May hear of other votes than votes of thnks
Man-
even
from London itself. There is such a place as
chester. Pooh ! what cares he about Manchester ?
the
It has but two members ; he can neutralise it any
i! n nu of
Wyt
eh.°
eadasye,bmy
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Whipper-in
theAn West Riding Riding lße at li
will
match
West Riding at any time—or COBDEN alone
Arundel, or Abingdon, or A shburtoinn,aonir a
my 66 little pets, will bring him up
We think it will soon be apparent that the pre-
sent Government, as compared with the late Go-
i
verilment, is by no means a strong on
t
can only exist by far more Cabinet compromise
than the other, and, like the other, it will have to