The Sun.
London, England, 1870-04-01 00:00:00

LONDON, FRIDAY, APRIL 1, 1870.

A proposition from the Leader of the House of
Commons, before the close of March, to the effect
that morning sittings should be at once commenced
is, to say the least of it, sufficiently startling.
Backed as Mr. GLADSTONE is by an overwhelming
majority, the House seemed last evening to be in no
way disposed to yield very readily to his dictation.
The proposal, in point of fact, was simply, as we be-
lieve and as was at once asserted by the Leader of
the Opposition, unprecedented. No Government
Leader, in our recollection, has before this advised
the concession of morning sittings before Easter.
Scarcely two months of the session have yet elapsed,
and already Ministers, unsatisfied with their com-
mand of the Government nights, are sweeping aside
ruthlessly the privileges of private members. For-
tunately the House of Commons is of itself perfectly
alive to its own interests. And in the Leader of the
Opposition, independent members, whether seated
upon the right hand or upon the left hand of Mr.
SPEAKER, can recognize upon the instant one who ii
prepared to vindicate the rights of the House when-
ever those rights are threatened with encroachment,
or in the smallest particular in any way seriously
jeopardised.

It should be remembered, as the member for
Whitehaven took occasion to remark last evening,
that prior to the session of 1862, that is, up to as
recent a period as eight years only from the pre-
sent time, morning sittings were very rarely in-
deed held before July, before the period of mid-
sarnny:r. Nay, with the solitary exception of 1867,
they hal not commenced until the middle of June.
During the following session, that of 1868, they
commenced exactly in the middle of June—namely,
on the fifteenth. In 1869 they began on the 4,h
of May. Mr. GLADSTONE'S arrangement now is
for their commencement this afternoon at two
o'clock—on the Ist of April, so far as the House is
concerned, very appropriately.
There cannot be two opinions, of course, as to the
necessity of affording every reasonable assistance
possible to the Government in carrying forward, as
rapidly as may be in any way practicable, the busi-
ness of legislation during this more than usually
laborious session. The necessity for that no one dis-
putes. The only question is as to the reasonableness of
the Prime Minister's proposition. Granted that there
is urgent need for the hastening of the legislative toil
of the Lower House successively in regard to the fore-
most of the great Government measures, in regard to
the Irish Land Bill, in regard to the English Education
Bill, in regard to the projected measure for the closing
up at last of the long-vexed question of University
Test?, and in regard to that other proposed and
vitally important min:sterial measure founded upon
the request of the COmmittee on Election Proceed-
ings, a measure this last involving, as every one
knows perfectly well beforehand the application at
length of the Ballot in the future working
out of the national representation. Granted that
all this is indeed very needful—that the House
should afford every facility to her MAJESTY'S
Ministers in discussing these comprehensive
and complicated schemes of legislative improvement
—nevertheless it cannot, at the same time, but be borne
clearly in mind that to hasten measures of this mag-
nitude through Parliament thus early in the session,
through the medium of morning sittings, thus
imprudently precipitated, interferes very seriously
indeed with the rights, to say nothing of the mere
personal convenience of private members, while
affording anything but a guarantee for the greater
security of deliberate and well-considered legislation.
As Mr. DISRAELI very forcibly pointed out last even-
ing, the House of Commons, as a rule, is denied
the advantage at these morning sittings of having as
participators in the discussion of momentous schemes
of innovation or of reorganization like those involve I
in the Irish Land Bill and the English Education
Bill—" the gentlemen of the long robe, whose pre-
sence in the discussion of such subjects is extremely
desirable," as well as " some of the most enlightened
members of the commercial body, whose opinion
upon great subjects of policy is always looked up
to and always has considerable influence upon the
debates and discussions of the House of Commons."
The Law Courts, the Stock Exchange, and, besides
these, the very Committee Rooms of the House of
Commons itself, drain away summarily from
the deliberations of the lower branch of the
Legislature at these morning sitar:T.3 there very
important sections of the national representatives.
There is that perfectly obvious disadvantage in yield-
ing to the urgent demands of the Pi ime Minister—
by beginning, on All Fools' Day, what is ordinarily
postponed until the approach of Midsummer. Op •
pressed with a sense of the varied and complicated
labours before it, the House, nevertheless, yields to
the dominant Minister, backed as he is by an over-
whelming phalanx of supporters. It gulps the
bitter pill of the morning sittings, tempted to do so

~_ L

at the moment by that very fleeting Lump of De-
light, immediately afterwards—the once more un-
diminished Easter Reces3

In answering Mr. SOMERSET BEAUMONT'S rather
painful question last evening, the Chancellor of the
Exchequer was grimly. facetious. The inquiry was
addressed by the member for Wakefield to the
Under Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs.
Touching, as it did, howev,r, rrather upon the
breeches pocket than upon the nervous system of
JOHN BULL, the query was responded to, not by
Mr. OTWAY, but- by Mr. LowE. Whether there
were any- debts still owing by Spain' and
Portugal to this country, and, if so, what
were they, and whit might be their aggre-
gate? That was the question —and a question,
too, it must be addmitted, sufficiently delicate under
the circumstances. In answer to it, what says the
Chancellor of the Exchequer ? " The Government of
Spain is indebted to this country for money, provi-
sions and stores supplied in the Peninsular war—
(a laugh)—to the amount of £7,701,000. The Spa-
nish Government have a counter claim of £60,000
(a laugh)—leaving a balance in our favour of
£7,641,000 -- (a laugh). The Government of
Portugal is indebted on the same ground to
the English nation in the sum of £2,489,000.
Neither the Government nor Parli unent has
ever taken any step towards surrendering these
claims." That is the response. " Has the
Government," naively asks the member for North
Northamptonshire, " made any application for the
payment of these sums ?" Whereto, with a charm-
ing air of bewilderment that again provokes hyste-
rically " a laugh," Mr. GLADSTONE'S Chancellor of
the Exchequer (grimly humourous wag that he is)
asks, in his turn, of Mr. DISRAELI'S Chancellor of
the Exchequer "Which Government ?" " The
prtsent one," says. Mr. WARD HUNT. " No,"
says Mr. LOWE, laconically. Whereat, again,
hy,terically, the House gives "a laugh." And
so the matter terminates. Lightly put, lightly an-
swered, the question still remains, as in very truth,
no laughing matter. Money, provisions, stores, sup-
plied in the Peninsular War, still owing for by Spain
to the tune of from £7,000,000 to £8,000,000.
Money, provisions, stores, stilt owing for by Por-
tugal to the tune from £2,000,000 to £3,000,000.
Together, upwards of £10,000,000. Is the item to
be struck off as a bad debt, or is it to remain there
in perpetuity as a brand upon the national honour of
Spain and Portugal. The heart's blood of England
is not taken into consideration at all—it is simply a
question of stores consumed, of money spent, of
provisions devoured. For very shame's sake, the
Spaniards and the Portuguese ought to long for
COBS] T'S wet sponge, and for a draught of mingled
lethe and nepenthe.

DEATH OF GENERAL GREY.

We regret to announce the death of General the
Hon. Charles Grcy, who expired shortly before
ten o'eock last night at his residence in St. James's
Palace.