The Sun.
London, England, 1847-06-19 00:00:00

1141"

LONDON, SATURDAY. JUNE 19, 1847.

THE CABINET.

Summonses were issued yesterday from the Fo-
reign Office to the Ministers, to attend a Cabinet
Council this afternoon. The whole of the members
of the Cabinet are expected to attend at the Foreign
Office, Downing-street.

Sir CHARLES NAPIER has announced his determi-
nation to come forward again at the ensuing election,
as a candidate for the representation of Marylebone.
We congratulate the constituents of this metropolitan
borough upon the certainty of not losing a Parlia-
mentary advocate so assiduous and so earnest as the
Gallant Admiral, the hero of Acre.

Delay is about the most inexcusable blunder in any
constituency, when there are so many probabilities
of a speedy dissolution of Parliament. Preparation
should be made for the electioneering contests which
are inevitable thereupon at the first dim intimation of
an appeal to the country. And let it be remembered
that the earlier the preparation the less expense will
be entailed upon the constituency, and the greater
security there will be that their political views will be
forwarded with intelligent discrimination in the deli-
berations of the Senate at Westminster.

Any individual possessed of the prerogative of
the elective franchise, who procrastinates his
selection of the candidates until the last moment,
is culpable, not only as to his personal rights, but
as to the whole collective rights of the commu-
nity. In leaving his vote upon the balance, as it were,
during the preliminary period when a calm and dis-
passionate choice can be made, and allowing it in the
end to be joltered over to either side in the turmoils
of the final day of the political battle, the elector
evinces a greater amount of recklessness than the
gambler who stakes a plum upon the possible stop-
ping-spot of the roulette ball. For seven years he
renders himself incompetent to influence the move-
ments of the Government ; for seven years he
abandons the most important problems of con-
temporary legislation to the caprice of a carelessly
selected Member. Let it be remembered that, sup-
posing the new Parliament were assembled in the en-
suing August, the decision of the people might not be
revoked until August 1854 ! The responsibility,
therefore, that presses forcibly upon every consti-
tuent in the United Kingdom is grave beyond
exaggeration. The bounden duty of every consti-
tuent is already to be on the alert, especially at this
particular crisis, when so many vital and interesting
points of administration are on the eve of a perma-
nent settlement. None of these points should be
overlooked or forgotten. Foremost amongst
them all, as affording a rational founda-
tion for effecting a comprehensive ameliora-
tion of the condition :of the :multitude, is un-
questionably the subject of sanatory improvement.
Next in the order of social advancement is the orga-
nization of a proper and universally-applicable sys-
tem of national education. Upon the principle that
" Cleanliness is next to godliness" we give the priority
to the former means of elevating the poorer classes
from the abysses of moral and physical degradation ;
for having
bpyureiufi
purified their
drainage,eirtenemenbts by wholesome
ventilation,
plies of water, by a reasonable
light,admisysionadoefgu ate s
au
npd-
the general establishment of baths and wash-
houses, and capacious parks, the State will
have opened, as it were, grooves and chan-
nels for the conduct of
knowledge among the
masses. These things must by no means saeapenrsthnef
recollection of the thousands who are possess
the elective franchise, nor must it be forgotten that
the whole criminal code of the empire requires in
an
especial way the revising wisdom of the most com-
petent legislators. The currency, again, is a matter
which the constituencies of England must especially