The Sun.
London, England, 1846-07-04 00:00:00

excess which; while it is in accordance with the liberal

tendencies of the age, does not deteriorate from his
character as a sagacious and discriminating leader.
Whatever ill-success may have attended his en-

deavours to break down still further the barriers of

political partizanship, by the amalgamation of the
retiring and the approaching Cabinet, his proposi-

ion to retain Lord DALHOUSIE at the head of the

Board of Trade, and Lord LINCOLN in the Secretary-

ship for Ireland, was worthy of this ever-memorable
crisis ; it was worthy of the catastrophe of
parties ; it was peculiarly and eminently
worthy of so illustrious a Reformer as the now Prime
Minister of England, Lord JOHN RUSSELL. A more
signal method could scarcely have been adopted to

proclaim that the policies of the new Administration
would be based upon the most comprehensive and en-
larged principles—that the RUSSELL Cabinet would
not be conventional but cosmopolitan. These most
gratifying announcements were virtually made on the
noble Premier's visit to the residence of the ex-First
Lord of the Treasury, at Whitehall-gardens. The
announcement was thereby made implicitly, but it
was yesterday delivered explicitly through the ad-
dress issued by Lord Joliet' RUSSELL to the
electors of the City of London. From the
tenor of that remarkable letter it is easy
to perceive the scope of the reformatory
ietentions which his Ministry is determined to
fulfil—a scope of conspicuous breadth and generosity.
Satisfied, however, as every rational man must be
with the certainty of future improvement to Great
Britain, through the instrumentality of those Minis-
terial measures which will proceed from a Cabinet
guided by such a statesman as Lord JOHN RUSSELL,
it becomes a matter of no inconsiderable importance
to remark in the expressions of his Lordship's address,
the germs of those constitutional reforms which it
will be his particular pleasure to advance. Far from
considering that commercial freedom has been
altogether realised by the extraordinary achieve-
ments of his predecessor, and far from indo-
lently abandoning himself to quietude in regard
to the removal of still existing restrictions, Lord
JOHN at once proclaims his determination to con-
summate what has been so gloriously commenced,
and not to abandon such matters until free trade is
universally applied throughout this country. In
proof of this resolution he observes, " I trust that
the measures of commercial freedom which still re-
main to be accomplished will not occasion the renewal
of angry conflict." It is not difficult to perceive that
the sugar duties are implicated in this sentence.
Having thus guaranteed the realisation of the molt
cherished hopes of the multitude, the Noble Lord
assumes to himself a still bolder and loftier position by
the declaration of the abstract truth, that " Great
social improvements are required !" He thereby
kindles up the expectations of the people, nor are
these expectations quenched by any mincing pro-
gramme of the improvements which he conceives to
be so requisite, and for the attainment of which it will
be the purpose of his Administration to struggle.
Foremost among what Lord JOHN considers to be
the national grievances, we perceive that of the in-
sufficiency of popular instruction :—" Public educa-
tion," says he, "is lamentably imperfect." Next in
importance, according to the Noble Lord, is the re-
organisation of the criminal code ; or, as he happily
expresses it, " the treatment of criminals is a pro-
blem yet undecided." Again, the diffusion of
health among the population of the empire appears
to be a subject calling loudly for the interposition of
both Parliament and Ministers. Lord J. RUSSELL
acknowledges the necessity of some immediate atten-
tion to that demand, where he says, " The sana-
tory condition of cur towns and villages has
been grossly neglected." So much for the
especial improvements proposed by the new Ad-
ministration with regard to Great Britain in a gene-
ralised point of view, and with reference to which
many especial circumstances are, as a matter of
course, understood ; in other words, there are the
" ablative absolutes" of local reform. For example,
the entire system of model prisons and solitary
confinement, and the proportions of punishment to
proportionate crimes, and the establishment at Pen-
teneilles are all to be comprehended in the simple
the N ormal schools, the " Godless" c3eUges;
religious endowments, the prevailing ignorance
of \Vales, and, we heartily trust, the "ragged schools"
themselves, will all become points of inquiry when
the imperfect state of "public education " is scruti-
nised. While the demolition of rookeries in our
towns, the construction of spacious streets, the
sewerage, public baths and washhouses, proper ven-
tilation, and the removal of burying-grounds out of
our cities, will each, we are fain to believe, come
under the categorical title of improving the sanatory
condition of the population. With regard, however,
to the particular exigencies of our sister island Lord
Joins RUSSELL speaks in definite and decisive terms ;
he conceives the position of that land to be
singularly exigent, fur he remarks—" Our recent dis-
cussions have laid bare the misery, the discontent, and
outrages of Ireland ; they are too clearly authenti-
cated to be denied; too extensive to be treated by
any but the most comprehensive measures." No-
thing, indeed, could be more glorious or propitious
than the character of the address written by
the new Premier to his metropolitan constituents,
showing us, as that letter does, the dawn of
a moral, social, political, and national ad-
vancement in Great Britain, which if the RUSSELL
Administration be aided by the approval of the
people, will insure to this country advantages almost
incalculable. With that address before them the
electors of London cannot remain indifferent as to the
triumphant return of the Prime Minister as
the representative of this great city. They must not,
if they consider the interest of themselves and of the
community at large, permit the seat, which has be-
come vacant by Lord JouN being summoned to the
head of affairs, to remain unoccupied beyond the
time necessary for the routine of an ordinary
election. With the consistent and disinterested
conduct of Lord JOHN RUSSELL during the recent
discussions fresh in their recollections, with a grateful
memory of his celebrated free-trade missive addressed
to themselves, knowing the distinguished and un-
swerving character of his whole political career, and
knowing also that party distinctions are now for ever
abolished, the electors of the City of London must
assuredly return their illustrious candidate tri-
umphantly and speedily. Let the metropolis set an
example of promptitude and liberality to those
boroughs which will be rendered vacant by the
Ministerial changes, and public business may be
commenced forthwith.

On Friday week we inserted a letter signed
" R. S. M." and headed " What should the Allottees
do ?" questioning the justice of the opinions we have
from time to time put forward respecting the legal
and moral liabilities of the allottees of railway shares.

Our correspondent manifestly sympathises with
the provisional committeemen, but he put forward
his views with so much fairness and moderation, and
at the same time with so much ability and cogency,
that, although differing from our own opinions on the
subject, we hesitated not to give insertion to his lett?r.
The question of the legal liability of the allottees
has been settled by a much higher authority than
that either of our correspondent or of ourselves.
The Court of Exchequer unanimously pronounced
their judgment in the case of WALsTan v. SPOTTIS.
WOODE, that the allottee was not liable for any portion
of the preliminary expenses, and this decision was
the more valuable, as no new principle was thereby
introduced, but one of much importance, which had
stood the test of many years' experience, and which
had never been judicially questioned or controverted,
was sanctioned and affirmed, viz., " that where persons
set a scheme on foot, and assume to be the managers
of it, all the expenses incurred before the scheme is
in actual operation must be sustained by them if that
scheme should afterwards be abandoned." That
principle, so long as it is held to be good law, must,
as we conceive, govern the point at issue, and in the
still later case of WONTNER v. SnAstr, it was recog-
nised and extended by a judge of another court.
Originally promulgated in the Queen's Bench, it was
received with unanimous approbation by the full
Court of Exchequer, who founded their decision
thereon, and was subsequently put to ' the jury as
undoubted law by a judge of the Common Pleas. We
cannot, therefore, permit the provisional committee-
men to indulge in the pleasing but delusive hope that
these 13 Any prob Ability of the rule being Altered for their