The Sun.
London, England, 1870-02-03 00:00:00

LONDON, THURSDAY, FEB. 3, 1870.

MANCHESTER has tried a combination of " extra,
parliamentary utterances." Instead of one or two
M.P.'s singing that tune of praise or condemnation of
a Ministerial policy with which we are all so unhap-
pily familiar, it has gathered together nearly twenty
members of the Lower House, five hundred
Delegates of the National Reform Union,
and an immense assemblage, comparable to
those of the free-trade agitation. One hundred and
fifty-seven towns sent representatives in support of
Mr. GLADSTONE'S Government. This is not a new
experiment, but it is uncommon, and it might with
great advantage be adopted more frequently. It is
an excellent mode of bringing different sections
of the population into communication with
each other, and it cannot but be ser-
viceable in enlightening the Government as to the
wishes and necessities of the nation. The machinery
usually employed for these purposes is lamentably
deficient. It is seldom, indeed, that any attempt is
made to secure co-operation between remote
districts in the just work of impressing
the conclusions of the people upon the Executive
and the Legislature. Isolated constituencies, how-
ever, regularly " bring public opinion to bear," and a
very lugubrious transaction it generally is. The
member for a county occasionally attends farmer's clubs
and ploughing matches, praises the Constitution of
which there is now hardly a fragment left, and pro-
mises to do his best for the repeal of the Malt Tax.
These gatherings are generally of a very social cha-
racter, and the less politics the representative talks
the better, perhaps, he is liked. In boroughs, business
of this kind is done more formally. On special occa-
sions public meetings are held, and once a
year the member goes down and solemnly reviews
the Session. If there be an Irish Church
Act in contemplation, the train of agitation burns
rapidly on, and meeting after meeting at the great
centres of population are of infinite value in directing
the policy of the Government. But the ordinary
"extra-parliamentary utterance " is mildly treated in
being pronounced unsatisfactory. For the most part
nothing can be more wretched. Neither individual
constituencies nor the public generally can derive
any benefit from being told again and again how
the battle of last session was fought, how nobly the
pledge to abolish the alien Church was carried out,
or, as the case may be, with what degrading servility
the tyrant majority folloNted Mr. GLADSTONE into
the lobby. Such talk is fit only for Bedlam. If
there be a great question under immediate considera-
tion the representative, if he be a member of the
Government, can say nothing, and if he be
not a member of the Government, he too
often knows nothing. In brief, at a confer-
ence between an M.P. and his constituents
everything depends upon the ability of the represen-
tative, and as it is not to be expected that a large
assembly like the House of Commons can be formed
entirely of able men, the result is that the march of
public opinion is far too slow for the times. Nothing
is more prejudicial to good legislation than the tar-
diness displayed by the electoral body in making up its
mind, and ill through the want of competent
guides.
Such a conference as that at Manchester supplies
what is needed. Its good effects are quite inde-
pendent of the calibre of the men who attend it.
Twenty members of Parliament are, it is true, more
likely than one to say something worth hearing;
but such an interchange of opinions must
be chiefly valuable in more rapidly fixing
public opinion, and in impressing the Govern-
ment with its real force. A question which
is mooted at one town may mean nothing, but there
must be something in a demand which is endorsed
by delegates from a hundred and fifty towns,
and by the Parliamentary representatives of
a score of constituencies. Such assemblages had
their effect in the days of the Corn Laws, and there
is equally as much work for them now. Nor is a
demonstration of the kind merely imposing ; it must
also be national. Single constituencies are prone to
fix their minds on local affairs, and mem-
bers are too apt to encourage them, for
petty discussions involve nothing. At a general con-
ference, general topics only will only find favour. It
is impossible for the delegate from Plymouth, Caine,
Hull, or Swansea to yield to the temptation of ob-
truding local matters at Manchester. The measures
discussed will be for the common welfare. On the
other hand, a conference is calculated to be beneficial
to the deliberations of individual constituencies,
which have their value, if properly regulated. A
body of electors who knew that they would
be called upon to talk national affairs
over with their countrymern from different parts of
the kingdom would not be likely to waste their time
in retrospeciive history, or in idly libelling men of
opposite opinions. They would more profitably
occupy themselves in laying down the course they
ought to pursue, and in discussing the details with
which a cumbrous conference could never cope. The
work of the latter would be to proclaim opinions;
the work of single constituencies to form them.
Of the actual proceedings at Manchester on Tues-
day, there is not much to be said. It was a
meeting "in support of Mr. GLADSTONE'S Govern,
ment," and its primary mission, therefore,
was to praise the Ministry. This great
work was effectually done. The members of
the Cabinet must blush to read of the exceeding
virtues which are attributed to them, and of the
wonderful performances of which they are deemed
capable. Still the gathering was careful not
to sing the Government's praises without
reminding it of its duties. The M.P.'s and
delegates have clearly intimated their intention
to drive more than one omnibus through Temple Bar.
In addition to a land measure they want the licen-
sing laws improved, education extended to every
child in the land, the ballot set up, and the
restrictions at the universities thrown down. Such a
meeting will help to remind the Government that
important as Ireland is, it does not form the whole
of the British Empire. It would, however, be
undoubtedly more effective if such conferences,
on the part of both Conservatives and
Liberals, were more closely directed to the dis-
cussion of some one or two special subjects.
Restricted to certain important conclusions,
these meetings could not fail to exert
a healthy influence on Parliament, without
lnunp3rivg its freedom of action. They may supply
what is so much needed—a quick and vigorous asser-
tion of the public wants, Of such assertions we have
comparatively little, and it cannot be doubted that
the ,wit -..re suffers from the deficiency.

IT is alike painful and difficult to form a judgment
upon the latest report of Dr. LIVINGSTONE'S death.
Previous stories of the kind have turned out to bo
utterly unfounded, and we may, therefore, justly
refusa to_c*Oit. anythtz that cpplekfrom tlitiaterior

of Africa, unless supported by more precise testimony
than that given in Mr. DOME RTY'S letter. On
the other hand, Dr. LIVINGSTONE'S enterprise
is essentially a hazardous one, and the pitcher may
go to the well once too often. This melancholy news
is the latest yet received, and it comes from a diffe-
rent quarter. All our recent information has been
derived from the east coast of Africa; this
reaches us from the west. From the east coast it
was reported by the Johanna men that the explorer
had been killed, next that this account was false,
then the Doctor had discovered the sources of the
Nile, and lastly that he was making his way
by Lake Tanganyika and the River Congo,
across the continent, to the western coast. It is
on this side that we now hear of him. He had
pushed on to the head of the Congo, intending to
come out by that river. Just as his great achieve-
ment was on the point of successful completion, some
miserable King, through whose village Dr. LIVING-
STONE had passed, died, and the natives, persuaded
that the Englishman had bewitched their sovereign,
started in pursuit, killed, and burnt him. Such is
the news as brought by the Portuguese trader from
the interior to the commander of the British war-
ship Petrel. The story is too circumstantial to be
slighted, whilst hope and past experience forbid its
entire acceptance. The African habit of lying is not
confined to the east coast.

THE Globe is very just in its strictures on the Times
touching the new treaty with China. The latter journal
seems to labour under the impression that the
merchants doing business with the Celestial Empire,
both at London and Shanghai, condemn the treaty
in all its important details. Far from it ; the posi-
tively objectionable clauses in the eyes of business
men are those providing for an increased import duty
on opium and an increased export duty on silk.
The other stipulations are all good in their
way ; but the merchants are of opinion that
they either do not go far enough, or their
fulfilment is not sufficiently guaranteed to compen-
sate for the heightened imposts. For example, it is
proposed to levy an additional import duty of 21 per
cent., instead of the obnoxious transit dues which are
now demanded at the interior barriers. These dues are
illegal, but the tax-farmers exact them on various
pretexts, chiefly on the ground that the goods
belong to natives, by whom dues • are
payable. In order to secure immunity the
foreign merchant is compelled to take the most
troublesome precautions, and after all is often
mulcted. If by payment of an extra 21- per cent.
all this trouble could be avoided, the British mer-
chants would gladly accept the change. But it is
feared, and not without reason, that even the extra
duty will be no safeguard, and that the system of
extortion will go on as befbre. With regard
to navigation on inland waters, too, the terms
of the treaty are so singularly restricting as
to render the privilege in great measure worthless.
Had these and the other concessions been of a really
honest kind, the English people generally—whatever
mercantile men might think—would have felt no
repugnance to an increased duty on opium. It stands
in precisely the same position as our own darling
alcoholic spirits, and is just the article that ought to
be taxed.

CONSECRATION OF THE BISHOP OF
NOTTINGHAM.

rlit, SUN, LONDON, THURSDAY EVENING, F

On Wednesday morning a large number of persons arrived
at Nottingham, to be present at the consecration of the
Right Rev. Dr. Henry Mackenzie, formerly vicar of
St. Martin's-in-the Fields, London, who has been se-
lected by the Crown to be Suffragan Bishop for the
diocese of Lincoln, under the title of Bishop of Notting-
ham. The Mayor and Corporation of Nottingham received
the Mayors and Corporations of several other towns in the
Town Hall ; the county magistrates, clergy, and others
assembled in the County Hall; and the Bishop of
Lincoln received the assistant prelates, the chancellor,
archdeacons, and prebendaries of Lincoln in the
Chapter House. Archbishop Lycurgus was present.
A grand procession was formed, which moved through the
town to St, Mary's Church, where the Bishop of Lincoln
received the local and other dignitaries. The Communion
Service was read by the Bishop of Lincoln, and the
sermon was preached by the Rev. Francis Morse, vicar of
St. Mary's