The Sun.
London, England, 1849-11-07 00:00:00

TO THE EDITOR OF THE SUN.

SIR,—We are living at a period that has no parallel
in the history of the world. Thrones, principalities,
powers, built, apparently, on the rock of ages, and
which promised to endure through all time, have
been shaken to their foundations, and all this within
the short period of a tew years. Changes so great
must have had causes adequate to their production.
" Si le hazard dune bataille," says Montesquieu,

" c'est a dire, une cause particuliere a ruing une Etat,
it y avoit une cause generale, qui faisoit que cet Etat
devoit perir par un bataille." What philosophy has
laid down as a maxim history acts ❑pon as a principle ;
and I will venture to assert that there is not one of

those revolutions which have so recently desolated
Europe that an acute and clear-sighted historia❑ may
not only trace back through a long series of years and
events, but develope their gradual progress from the
first so wivg of the seed to -the reaping of the harvest.
Causes have been in progress for some time past
which. seem to threaten this country among the rest,
at no distant period, with a crisis in its affairs. It is
not from misgovernmentthatany convuLsive result

is to be Apprehended. The Whigs, imbued as they
bre with all the worst tendencies of Toryism, are too
strongly kept in check by public opinion. The
Commissioners of the Treasury cannot take up%
newspaper, on any day of the week, that does not
announce the meeting of some reform association in
some one or other of the great manufacturing districts
throughout the kingdom—meetings not assembled
for a display of democratical ascendancy, but
called together by persons of known weight and
influence, strong in argument and stedfast in purpose
—the first and strongest links in the chain which
binds the middling and the working classes, whose
interests acknowledged by both to be one and indi-
visible. It is these popular and effective meetings
that assemble the best, the most independent, and the
most patriotic of our public men. It is in these
meetings that an opportunity is afforded of discussing
every great public question in which the interests of
all classes are involved. It is here that honest truth
finds utterance, and comes with a weight that silently,
but strongly, influences the measures of Government.
It is the Reform Associations, and the meetings con-
sequent upon them, that increase the number and
intelligence of those whose sentiments compose
public opinion, and which generate that energy and
perseverance which forms so great a portion of its

power.
But for this excitement and diffusion of public
spirit, the popular mind would sink into apathy ;
the whole machinery of freedom would stand still

for want of a moving power. Most heartily do
Ministers wish that this moving power was not to
be found. Associations for retrenchment and econo-
mical reform never find countenance in high places.

Within that circle no right is more distasteful than
the beholding an M.P. like Cobden the advocate of
such a cause, never losing sight of his great purpose,
but bringing together the vast mass of his materials
and employing them with triumphant effect.
How far Ministers will be able in the forthcoming-
session to ward off or evade those measures of
a financial reformation, upon the obtainment of which
the country is so strongly bent, remains to be seen.
That the nation will not be satisfied with half
measures is certain, and the Chancellor of the Exche-
quer has a tangled path before him. How few
Ministers has England ever had—l am not sure that
I can name even one—that, placed as they have been
on the highest political eminence, have enabled us to
benefit by their survey. Though dwelling amid
great things one day to be realised, they gather no
profit from history or from experience. Instead of
being in sympathy with the age, they are in opposi
tion to it. They never put their footsteps in the path
that is straight before them ; but the time has come
when this must be done. They must come pre-
pared with some well digested plan of retrenchment
for the next session. Our hope that they will do so
is certainly stronger than our expectation. But let
us wait events; they are, perhaps, at this moment,
contemplating measures introductory to a wider ex-
tension of the suffrage, a sweeping reduction of expen-
diture, and- other substantial improvements that we
dream not of. I frankly confess, Sir, that my
faith in all this isps a grain of mustard seed; but
yours may, perhaps, be stronger; if so, I will take a
leaf out of your book, and let patience have its perfect
work, albeit that, like that of the public, it is well
nigh worked out.
I am, Sir, yours, &c ,
TIMON (but not of Athens).

attar unpa-
ralleled 06./fr Of T
Ross,//E
SIB,-7heTarEetuErnhl
exertions to accomplish his mission, without
bringing any tidings whatever of Sir John Franklin
or his gallant companions, coupled with the res
of similar but much weaker efforts, would naturally
lead to the conclusion that the discovery s
hip smtt
have foundered in a heavy tempest before arriving
within the Arctic circle. God forbid that such
should have been the case ; but as hope is now almost
wholly extinct, I should like to see the opinions of
some of your meteorologistic communicants founded,
on their registers of the weather at the time of Sir
John Franklin's departure, and for nine or ten weeks
afterwards.—Yours respectfully,

117. P. S.

Her Majesty's ship Excellent,
PortsEnouth, Nov. 6, 1849.

The bright spots of a man's life are few enough
without blotting any out; and since, for a moment of
mirth, we have an hour of sadness, it were It sorry
policy to diminish the few rays that illumine our
chequered existence. Life is an April day—sunshine
and showers. The heart, like the earth, would cease to
yield good fruit, were it not sometimes watered with the
tears of
the
and the fruit would be worthless,
but for tile sunshine of smiles.—Eliza Cook's Journal.
The Earl and Countess of Jersey and Lady Cle-
mentine Villiers leave town early in the ensuing week
for Mid lleton Park, near Bicester, where shortly after
their arrival a disticgtlished circle will assemble.