The Sun.
London, England, 1846-07-09 00:00:00

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LONDON, THURSDAY, JULY 9, 1846.

MINISTERIAL MOVEMENTS.

The Right lion. Milner Gibson has attended at the
Board of Trade, to commence his official duties as
Vice-President. _ _

Lord Lansdowne, the new Lord President of the
Council, is expected to return to town this afternoon,
from Bowood Park, Wilts.

Our anticipations are being realised, and the people.
confiding in the integrity of the new Administration
are not only obstaining from all flagitious opposition,
but are by every reasonable means affording to its
formation their concurrence. Simultaneously with
the acceptance of Lord Jour; RUSSELL by the electors
of London, candidates of the same liberal policy are
returned by the constituencies of Nottingham and
Worcester. A noble triad of testimonies these of
popular confidence in the RUSSELL Cabinet! It is
gratifying to observe on those three occasions the
unanimity which prevailed between the principles
I advocated by the respective Members, and it is curious
to remark the diversity of manner by which the
announcements were characterised. In the Prime
liMinister's harangue vie discover that wholesome ab-
stinence from detailed Ministerial disclosures which
might alone have been anticipated from one whose
mind has ever been so remarkable for its discreetness
and sagacity. From the entire complexion of his
declarations we learn the abstract generosity and the
practical liberality which may be said to form the
connecting girdle of his Cabinet, without being
initiated into any precoelousknowledge of the reforms,
I both social, commercial, and municipal, which will be
undertaken by that Cabinet. It is but rational that
the plan and tactics of the campaign should be di-
vulged before the cohorts are adjusted and caparisoned.
The "talking tree" of the Arabian fable is beautiful,
no doubt, as a botanical allegory ; but the tree that
germinates in silence, and proclaims its own merits
by an abundant fruitage, is immeasurably preferable
to beings constituted like ourselves. Enough for us
therefore, in all conscience, to observe the vigour, both
of talent and principle, which is so conspicuous
in the present Administration; enough for us to
recur to former seasons for evidence as to the actu-
ating principles of our newly-proclaimed rulers ;
enough for us that a promise of emulation in the fur-
therance of liberality and judicious reform has been
tacitly and directly given by the most eminent
statesmen of the age, irrespective of all their
former predilections of party ; enough for us that the
new First Lord Commissioner of the Treasury has
avowed to the citizens of the metropolis the posses-
sim of such enlarged and inimitable sentiments in
respect to mercantile freedom, sanatory precautions,
international friendship, civil liberty, and religious
toleration. 'We can afford, after such noble
declarations, to await in patience, and confidence, and
hopefulness, the Ministerial avowals in the Minis-
terial measures. 'We can subdue all the exorbitant
dictates of curiosity, and draw very largely upon our
aspirations, without much fear of our calcula-
tions being materially disappointed. The ad-
dress delivered to the electors of Nottingham
by Sir JOHN CAM HOBHOUSB affords us a direct
contrast to the one delivered almost at the same
moment, in Guildhall, by his leader. While the
PREMIER restricted himself almost exclusively to
affording us certain intermittent and encouraging
glimpses of the Parliamentary future, Sir J. 110BELOUSE
was enlarging upon the administrative past. As the
former, however, was judicious, the latter appears to
have been imperatively necessary ; the supporters of
the rival candidate, Mr. FEARGUS O'CoNNoR, having
forced some justification of his conduct upon Sir
JOHN CAM llonnouse. Such a remonstrance
as the following was undoubtedly only
wrung from the Right Honourable Baronet by
the importunate antagonism of his auditors; when,
after commenting upon the share the Whigs hai in
passing the Reform Bill, he proceeded—
" I should like to know whether, beside that great mea-
sure, the party with which I have acted did nothing else for
the country? To whom do we mainly owe Catholic Emanci-
pation ? Who was it who repealed the Corporation and Test
Act? Who, I should like to know, gave you the municipal
franchise? Who, I should like to know, mitigated the
criminal code? Who were the beginners of the great com-
mercial reform, which has now passed into active law by the
instrumentality of the late Administration ? Who originated
the penny postage, which, although insignificant in sound,
had carried real comfort and consolation into every house
throughout the country ?"
Conscious, no doubt, of the moral stability of those
principles, in the advocacy of which his opponent
then stood before the enfranchised people of Notting-
ham, and aware how int:m itely thoss I rinciph a have
interpenetrated the popular mind, Mr. O'Cosusou not
ungracefully secede d frotn the contest, notwithstanding
the enthusiasm of his reception. The cause which
proved triumphant in the capital of the empire
was paramount in the borough of Nottingham,
and one amongst the many able and gifted col-
leagues of Lord Joux RUSSELL was declared to be
its representative. Worcester has likewise ac-
corded its acquiescence to the recent Ministerial
innovations, and its satisfaction with the political
tenets of the present Cabinet, by returning
without the semblance of opposition a man
who has been thoroughly drilled into the
knowledge of legislation, not only as Secretary to
the Board of Trade, and Secretary to the Treasury,
but also as Private Secretary to Lord MELBOURNE.
Sir DENIS LE MARCHANT was thus selected as the re-
presentative of Worcester in consequence of the late
representative, Sir THOMAS WILDE having been no-
minated Lord Chief Justice of the Court of Com-
mon Pleas, in the room of that eminent and noble
character, Chief Justice TINDAL, lately deceased.
In these rapid elections of the Ministerial candidates
in London, Nottingham, and Worcester, may we not
perceive omens of prosperity to Lord JOHN RUSSELL'S
Administration ? The people of England are, at the
least, evincing their reliance upon its councils, and
by the expedition of their proceedings show
their earnest anxiety that " the good work " should
commence.

We have on various occasions felt it our duty to
direct the attention of our readers to the enormous
powers conferred on members of the medical profes-
sion by the laws regulating Lunatic Asylums. Those
laws confer on any two members of that profession
the absolute power of imprisoning for an indefinite
period any one of her MAJESTY'S subjects. In order
to effect the arrest and imprisonment of any indi-
vidual, they have only to sign a certificate, stating
that the person to be so arrested and incarcerated is,
in their opinion, lunatic, and, without the institution
of any investigation—without being afforded an op-
portunity
of proving his sanity—without even being
made acquainted with the grounds upon which he is
declared to be insane, the unfortunate victim of medi-
cal cupidity is seized and confined in a madhouse.
We say the "unfortunate victim of medical cupidity,"
and we use these words advisedly ; for it is now
matter of public notoriety that these medical certifi-
cates can be purchased at the rate of one guinea,
half-a-guinea, nay, some even as low as five shillings
each. For a knowledge of ,
this fact the public are
indebted to an excellent society, recently instituted
for the purpose of affording protection to persons
improperly incarcerated as lunatics, and we
JmaAMESke
the statement on the authority of Mr, Luicu
HANSARD, who, in presiding over the founda-
tion festival of the " Alleged Lunatics' Friend
Society," on Tuesday last, publicly declared
that these medical certificates were so sold. On that
occasion there were present many persons who had
.10,:en thus unjustly incarcerated, and who had been
liberal C 4 in eonsequenge of the exertions of the society.
One of these ?awns Was Mr. WHITE, whose case
certainly calls fora rigid investigation. It appears
from the statement made at the feting? that Mr
, .