The Sun.
London, England, 1847-06-30 00:00:00

awning .7,- Ant

LONDON, WEDNESDAY. JUNE 30, 1847.

Political parties are so utterly dismembered that
there is the feeblest possible chance of a vigorously-
contested election on the dissolution of Parliament.
A few weeks alone intervene between this moment
and the general appeal to the electors, and yet the
note of preparation is only sounded at intermittent
intervals, and in a comparatively small number of
metropolitan and provincial constituencies. At an
epoch when there is a greater necessity than ever for
exertion
and discrimination on the part of the en-
franchised population, an universal lethargy seems to
have abated all the sentiments of division and ani-
mnsit:( Nvhich they have been incited to activity.
Happily bythere
Promis a consolatory prognostic in this
very quiescence. Prom theselfe- reelai amnocneg vst•hhei echo
con
rI
perceptibly the prevailing
igdlfiom it is impossible not
to behold h
prejudices and the anti-
pathiesPerPetual dissen-
stitlsotfe the
conquest United
of Kin
the
eh
sions which.Duringthe formerly
last causedu
session,
indeed, of this most
memorable and most eventful Parliament no Op-
position worthy of that distinction has confronted
the Ministry and the Ministerial supporters.

'We gladly direct attention to the meeting con-
vened yesterday afternoon at the London Tavern by
the Registration Association of this great city, a
lengthened report of which meeting is duly published
in another column. The course of the metropolitan
constituency is thereby mapped out beyond all pos-
sibility of misconception, and certainly beyond all
possibility of failure, providing the Liberal electors
are only true to themselves, and earnestly unanimous
in the great principles involved in the approaching
struggle. Considering that the registered majority
of Liberals over Conservatives is something approxi-
mating to two thousand, there can assuredly be little
hesitation as to the result of the election, in the

event of a general combination. Nor is there now

any uncertainty whatever as to particular candidates
deserving of the suffrages of the London constituents

--the candidates enumerated by the Registration
Association are at once distinguished men and ex-
treme Liberals : foremost amongst them the Prime
Minister of England; secondly, Sir GEORGE LAR-

PENT ; thirdly, Mr. JAMES PATTISON ; and, fourthly,
Baron LIONEL ROTLISCHILD. Let it not be forgotten
that thrice previously has the City of London sent
four Liberal representatives simultaneously to Par-
liament ; namely, in 1832, when the successful can-
didates were Alderman MATTHEW WOOD, Alderman

ROBERT WAITHMAN, Mr. GEORGE GROTE, and Sir
JOIIN KEY; in 1835, when the same Members were
returned, with the exception of Mr. WILLIAM

CRAWFORD in lieu of Sir JOHN KEY ; and in 1837,
when the successful candidates of the preceding elec-
tion were each of them victorious. To London
an immense number of the provincial constituencies
will look immediately upon the dissolution of

.. . .
Parliament for an example as to the disposition
which should be evinced.. What must not be

the consequence of the visible unanimity of the
metropolitan electors in the triumphant return
of Lord JOIIN RUSSELL, of Sir GEORGE LARPENT,
of Mr. JAMES PATTISON, and of Baron LIONEL

ROTHSCHILD ? What must not be the contagion of that
enthusiastic manifestation of liberality ? Upon the
decision of the City of London depends therefore, to a
considerable extent, the character of the new Par-
liament.

There can be no question as to the deep and serious
importance of the subject to which Lord BROUGHAM
on Monday directed the attention of the Upper
House. The enormous quantity of business an-
nually brought forward, the extensive interference
with the rights of property, and the weight and mag-
nitude of the interests involved in what has been
termed " private legislation " imperatively demand
that the tribunals to whose decision they are to be
submitted should be so constituted as to diminish to
the lowest degree the chances of an erroneous or un-
warranted judgment, and to prevent the possibility
of fraud or of corruption. The first question, there-
fore, that naturally arises is, are these points attained
by the present system ? and, secondly, if not, and
that great and glaring abuses are to be found in its
administration, what measure of reform is necessary
in order to obtain tribunals in every respect unobjec-
tionable—suitable for the grave and important
duties entrusted to their charge, and responsible for
the just and efficient discharge of these duties ?
The Noble and Learned Lord gave an interest-
ing account of the ancient machinery brought
into operation, of the " recevours " and
" triours" to whom petitions were referred,
from whence it is manifest, that the same
absurd jealousy as to any interference with the legis-
lative functions, by persons not members of either
branch of the Legislature, that has recently prevailed,
had then no existence. The " recevours" were not ne-
cessarily members of either House, and the " triours"
were assisted by the judges and King's sergeants.
The Members of Parliament generally would no
more have acted in opposition to the judgment of
those learned persons than the lay Members of the
present House of Peers would interfere with the
law Lords in their judgment on a purely judicial
question. The cases, however, in which private legis-
lation was required were comparatively rare, and
when brought before Parliament generally com-
manded an universal assent; in fact, there was seldom,
if ever, controversy, either as to the law or the fact.

They were chiefly cases for the improvement of pri-
vate estates, the settling of doubtful titles, and others
of a similar description; a greater degree of laxity in
consequence began to prevail. The judges or
sergeants were not called upon to give their assist-
ance in questions of such trivial importance and re-
quiring so little skill or learning to solve
their difficulties as those which generally
were to be adjudicated upon. The present
system, therefore, gradually sprung up, and
is continued, although 600 or 700 private Bills are
now annually brought forward—many of them, in-
deed the great majority, involving the decision of
disputed facts, the determining the relative weight
attachable to the evidence of witnesses of undoubted
integrity and of the highest scientific attainments, and,
finally, a judgment between conflicting claims which
should, if possible, be ever founded on fixed and in-
variable rules and principles, but which is required
from those wholly unacquainted with such rules or
principles, and who are in nowise qualified, either by
education,:practice, or attainments, for the discharge
of the judicial functions.
Private legislation had, in fact, the same relation

Lord J. RUSSELL presides over the legislative
destinies of England without almost the shadowy
phantom of a competition. Nor must it be pre-
sumed from this partial stagnation in the rivalry
of statesmanship that the Cabinet of the Noble
Lord the Member for the City of London ex-
ists merely upon sufferance. In an infamous sense, it
has recently been said by M. ALPHONSE LAMAR-
TINE, in his magnificent " History of the Girondists,"
that ROBESPIERRE was the consummation of the Revo-
lution—that the Revolution, after embodying itself in
a variety of fOrms and personages, ended in ROBES-
PIERRE. In a noble and humanising sense, it may be said
that the prolonged struggle in political opinion which
has followed the passing of the Reform Bill, the moral
revolution of Great Britain has been consummated
in RUSSELL. And it is most fitting that this eminent
statesman should be the result of such a diversified
and triumphant contest against the abuses of the con-
stitution ; it is most fitting that the man who had the
immortal honour of introducing that renowned mea-
sure in the House of Commons should be the chief-
tain selected by the nation for the government of its
affairs when the full advantages of Parliamentary
reform were beginning to be realised.
Contented, however, with the benefits already en-
sured by the destruction of political party, the consti-
tuencies of the empire show signs of degenerating into
inertness. They seem to be impressed with a notion
that the requisite impulse has been given, and that
their work is consequently in a great measure accom-
plished. Probably it may be so. Probably the time
has actually gone by when there could be any chance
of retrogression. We believe that that time has gone
by. We believe that the triumph of liberality is se.
cured for ever, that the pathway of civilisation has
been trampled smooth in the very struggles of de-
fence and progression ; we believe that the wedge has
been so inserted in the upas of ignorance and
Toryism, that it must with every additional blow rive
the stem from the crown to the root. Still the deve-
lopement of the blessings of social advancement will
be better secured and expedited by the continu-
ance of popular activity. Inertness in the electors
conduces to indifference in the elected. Quietude
out of doors necessitates an abatement of energy
within the House. It has become proverbial, indeed,
that public opinion is the chief motor in the
mechanism of the Government. Without ardour and
consistency, and perseverance and precision in the
prime motor, the movements of that State machinery
naturally relax correspondently. The fire smoulders,
the water becomes less heated, the piston flags in its
directing force, the rotation of the wheel slackens.
This is inevitable. It is inevitable, we maintain, that
unless there is an increased ardour among the consti-
tuencies, there will be a decreased energy among their
Parliamentary representatives.
It is incumbent, therefore, upon the electors of
England, Wales, Ireland, and Scotland, to bestir
themselves betimes for the selection of the most
competent candidates among those who will solicit
their suffrages at the hustings; otherwise the
charaeter of the new Parliament must be neces-
sarily deteriorated by procrastination and careless-
ness. Precautions and preparations are conse-
quently requisite in every city, borough, and
county.