The Sun.
London, England, 1851-09-27 00:00:00

SEPTEAIBER 27, 1851.

and energy. Lord Pahnerston's great ohjec,
was to mare a speech, without giving utterance
to a single expression which could in any
way commit his colleagues in the Cabinet, or
himself, to a specific line of political action. The
only apprehension of the chairman of the Manchester
gathering —of Sir Joshua Walmsley—and the other
speakers, was lest they should not be able to say,
in the limited space which circumstances allowed
them, all they wished to say, and which they deemed
necessary to utter, in justice to the cause of popular
progress. If from the absence of any allusion, on the
part of the Foreign Secretary, to the promised Reform
Bill of the Premier, the country is forced to arrive
at the conclusion, that the contemplated measure will
be a mockery, a delusion, and a snare, it is the source
of no small satisfaction to be able to infer, from the
proceedings at Manchester, that the country is deter-
mined not to be deluded by the Whig Minister.
The thousands there assembled declared, without
one single dissentient voice, and in tones which
will accompany the Premier for weeks to come, go
where he will, and travel as rapidly as he may—
that the people of these realms will not be deceived
nor trifled with on the great question of repre-
sentative reform. They are too intelligent and too
shrewd to be imposed on by any mock measure of
reform which he may propose, however specious the
measure may be. They are determined to accept► no
new Reform Bill which will not lay the axe at the
root of the existing evils in our Parliamentary repre-
sentation. They are bent on a thorough revision of
the constitution of the House of Commons, and they
will never rest until they have wrenched it from the
grasp of a reluctant Legislature. And here let us
whisper a word of warning into the ear of Lord John
Russell. It is right that he should know that the
people of England will no longer brook those experi-
ments on their forbearance, which the Whigs have so
frequently ventured to make. There are limits even
to good nature—bounds to the patience of a nation as
well as of individuals. Those limits have been reached;
those bounds have been touched. Any further at-
tempt on the public endurance will be made at the
peril of the Whig Premier. If he has the temerity,
and the unfaithfulness to the principles which he pro-
fesses, to insult the country by a delusive measure of
reform, after having led them to expect a measure
fitted to meet the emergencies of the case, he may
rest assured that he will be visited with such an out-
burst of the popular indignation as will not only
fiercely sweep him from the Premiership, but will
do such damage to him, as a public man, as will
prevent him from ever afterwards filling any office
in the State. Any attempt at cheating the nation
out of that thorough reform in the representation
of the country, on which the popular heart is set,
will not only fail of success, but will destroy for
ever the public character of the Noble Lord. He will
by such an act seal his own doom. He will commit
political suicide. The Manchester gathering pro-
nounced in favour of certain great principles of re-
form. To the friends of progress everywhere else,
our counsel is, " Go, and do likewise." Manchester
demands the extension of the suffrage to every man
of mature years, who occupies a tenement—an
abridgment of the duration of Parliament—the vote
by ballot—a revision of the electoral districts into
which the country is divided—and the abolition of
the property qualification. These are excellent rally-
ing points for the friends of reform. Some go much
farther, but every one who has any claim to the cha-
racter of a reformer goes thus far. He who stops
short of the points we have named, may, if he please,
call himself a reformer, but the term is a misnomer
as applied to him. The mass of the people are deter-
mined not to accept anything less than is embodied
in the Manchester propositions. The thing that is
required is, that all parts of the country should give
an explicit and energetic expression to their views.
It is in that way only that Lord John Russell can be
made acquainted with the public sentiment and
feeling on the subject of reform; and unless there
be some such expression of the national wish,
Lord John Russell will have a show of
reason for affecting ignorance of the state
of public feeling on the question of reform.
When his measure is assailed in the House of Com-
mons on the ground of its inadequacy to remedy the
evils with which it professes to deal, he will not fail
to get up and throw the blame on the country for not
having given a tangible expression to its wishes. If
the friends of the cause of progress would cut from
under the feet of the Premier all pretext for saying
that he did not comprehend the views of the nation,
they will not lose an hour in giving expression to
their wishes. If Lord John Russell will persist in
proposing for the people's acceptance a measure of
reform, falling far short of what they demand and
what the necessities of the case require, let us have at
least the satisfaction of feeling that such a measure
was the result of the Noble Lord's inherent hostility
to all real reforms, and not the consequence of his
ignorance of what the people ask. I❑ this way, the
Premier will find that the country will not fail to
fasten en him the responsibility of bringing forward
an insufficient measure. The speech of Sir Joshua
Walmsley was characterised by much practical wis-
dom as well as by great ability. The Hon. Baronet
went far enougn, without going too far. While he
dwelt on the encouraging prospects of the popular
cause, he adjured the colossal assemblage he was ad-
dressing not to let these cheering indications induce
a feeling of too much confidence, so as to lead to inac-
tivity, but to make the favourable symptoms by which
we are surrounded the incentives to strenuous exertions.
This is sound and salutary advice. We must never
feel certain of the success of our cause until that
success is an accomplished fact. We must labour,
and struggle, and strive, until we have reached the
goal. As one of the best means which can be adopted
for giving an effectual expression to public feeling on
the question of reform we would urge on the people
the propriety of rallying round the National Parlia-
mentary Reform Association. That association, with
little noise and without any pretensions, has rendered
essential service to the popular cause. The country
has but a very imperfect idea of the obligations under
which it lies to the council of that body. For several
years they have laboured in the promotion of the
cause of progress, with a zeal which has seldom been
equalled and never been surpassed ; and they have
done so amid discouragernents which would have
crushed the energies of less resolute men. They have
worked vigorously and hopefully, when everything
was calculated to dishearten and to divert them from
their purpose. The nation owes it to them, more than
to any other agency, that the cause of reform has
not perished altogether. They have kept it before
the public; and, time after time, given it a powerful
impetus, when matters seemed to render its progress
a moral impossibility. They had to struggle with,
and overcome a combination of the most formidable
obstacles, with which a great question ever had to
contend. They had no distinguished names gracing
their list. The most death-like apathy pervaded the
public mind. They were without any adequate pe-
cuniary resources to carry on the war with Parlia-
mentary corruption—without, indeed, any pecuniary
means at all, other than those which were furnished
by themselves; and yet the Council of the National
Parliamentary Reform Association persevered in their
great object, never for one moment flagging in their
zeal, and never slackening iu their efforts. The time,
we believe and are sure, is at hand when the public
will do full justice to their noble exertions in the
cause of popular progress. But meanwhile, the best
practical proof which the country can give of the
sense which it entertains of their services, would be
to rally round them with their contributions. Furnish
the Council of the National Parliamentary Reform
Association with the requisite pecuniary resources,
and we pledge ourselves that before the re-assembling
of Parliament they will get up such an agitation in
the country as will compel the Whig Cabinet to bring
forward a measure of reform which will fully meet all
the exigencies of the case, and give entire and uni-
versal satisfaction to the country.

UICIDE IN MILLBANK PRlSON.—Yesterday an
nquest was taken by Mr. Bedford, in the Millbank Prison,
on the body of William Stanton, a convict, who committed
suicide. It appeared by the evidence that the deceased was
received into the prison on the 21th of January, having been
convicted at Worcester of an unnatural crime, and sentenced
to be transported for life. The Coroner asked whether any
regulations different to those which the other prisoners had
to observe were put in force in his case? The witness
replied that he was kept i❑ separate confinement, and he
could not be sent to the hulks ; and as he was a Roman
Catholic in religion he was not sent to chapel with the ether
prisoners. The Coroner—Had he a priest to attend him ?
Mr. Macintyre said he had. Other evidence was then given
to show that on the morning of Thursday he was seen in his
cell at a quarter to nine, and apparently in good health, for
the rules of this prison require that all prisoners shall attend
the chapel at half-past eight, and the warder having seen
that they go there, he has, iu the case of such a man as the
deceased ( ordered to separate confinement), to see that he is
there and lock him in his cell, which was done. When the
warder went round half an hour afterwards, he was found to
have put some twine round the bars of his window, and had
then put his handkerchief in the noose, tied it round his
neck, and jumped off a table. He was quite dead when dis-
covered, and the jury returned a verdict of" Temporary in-
sanity."

FATAL ACCIDENT ON THE SOUTH-WESTERN
IZAILWAY.—On Thursday evening a fatal accident took place
on the line of the South-Western Railway, whereby a young
man received such serious injuries that he expired. The de-
ceased was a porter at the Nine Elms goods station, t- atter-
sea, and on Thursday night was engaged in shifting several
luggage waggons, preparatory to their being loaded, when
he by some means was jammed between the buffers with
such violence that his body was completely crushed flat. His
screams soon brought his companions to his assistance, and
he was extricated in a shocking condition. He was carried
immediately to the accident ward of St. Thomas's Hospital,
where he died yesterday morning.

MURDER.—On Tuesday evening last a man named
Regan was attacked and brutally murdered by the infliction
of blows of a loaded whip, of which he immediately died.
It appears that the deceased lived at a place called Slogger,
and on his way from the fair of this town had some alter-
cation with a person named Jennings, whereupon Jennings's
brother-in-law, named O'Malley, came up on horseback and
attacked Regan, striking him several blows of his whip upon
the head. O'Malley has not been made amenable.-11ayo
Cootitution,

COURT CIRCULAR.
BAL 3? ORAL THURSDAY.
Her Majc.sty, accompanied by the Princess Royal
a:):id the Princess Alice, drove yesterday to the Lynn
of Qusicb.
His Royal Highness Prince Albert went out deer-
, stalking.

Sir David Dundas arrived at Balmoral yesterday,
tad had an audience, for the purpose of submitting
o her Majcsty the proceedings of some courts-
:martial.
The dinner patty yesterday included her Royal
lighness the Duchess of Kent, Baroness Spaeth, the
1 )uke and Duchess of Leeds, the Earl of Carlisle, the
:arl of Aberdeen, and Sir D. Dundas.

Dispatches were sent if yesterday from the Colo-
] tial-ctlice to the Governors of the North American
(:;olonies.

. -
THE GREAT EXHIBITION.
Yesterday the receipts at the doors amounted to
2,4151. 15s , the number of visitors being 23,694.
T he temperature in the interior of the building was
cool and pleasant throughout the day, the meau being,
according to Bennett's thermometers, 54.4. This,
combined with the partial exclusiveness secured by
he,if-crown admissions, enabled all who came to see
to advantage the different objects of interest which
they were desirous of inspecting.
In another fortnight the Great Exhibition closes,
the Crystal Palace will have fulfilled its purpose, the
tide of cabs and omnibuses will cease to flow towards
Kensington, and those vast assemblages of spectatcrs
which for months past have made pilgrimages from
every corner of the globe to the shrine of industry
will be deprived of the centre round which their curi-
osity attracted them. When that event happens the
grandeur of the demonstration which has taken place
in favour of the peaceful arts will be more distinctly
appreciated, and the results, beneficial or otherwise,
which the display leaves behind it, will be calmly
ascertained and realized. In the meantime it behoves
all who can afford it not to lose the few remaning
days of opportunity for the survey of an unparalleled
spectacle such as-in our day we can hardly hope to
see repeated. For the first time since the world
began the different nations of the earth have collected
I into one focus the choicest specimens of their natural
wealth and their industrial products. Within
a building happily adapted for the purpose
thousands of people of all ages and from every
country have assembled to view the spectacle. Four
millions and a half of visits have been paid to it since
the opening ; nearly 400,0001. has been realised by
admission fees, the greater proportion consisting of
shilling payments. The popularity of the Exhibition
became its greatest wonder, and many who went there
to study the marvels of manufacturing skill could only
gaze at the multitudes which they attracted to Hyde-
park. There is a magnetic power about large masses
gathered in one vast edifice, and swarming in happy
excitement along spacious avenues, where their num-
bers tell upon the eye, which eclipses every other
spectacle, however splendid or interesting. Man is
superior to the choicest examples of his handiwork,
and never have vast assemblages been seen in a situa-
tion more imposing. Those who have witnessed the
aspect of the building on a crowded shilling day will
not readily forget the strange and indescribable sen-
sations with which it inspired them. Who can say
that we shall ever be able to witness such sights
again ? It is not a small excitement which drags up
humble provincials en masse from the country, which
induced an old woman of eighty-four to travel on foot
all the way from the Land's-end—which sends a
bushel and a half of watches in one night to the shop
of a single pawnbroker in Leeds, and which so stirs
the heart of private benevolence throughout the
kingdom that even our charity schools, and the in-
mates of our workhouses, are largely represented at
this jubilee of industry. On the ground, therefore,
of popular excitement alone, few of us can expect to
see such a spectacle as that which is now about to
close repeated in our day. Let those who have not
yet visited the Crystal Palace, and who have it in
their power to do so, defer no longer. After the
11th of October it will be no longer pos-
sible for them to take the measure of the industrial
arts in the middle of the 19th century. Books may
supply them with the fullest information on the sub-
ject, but they can never touch the heart or stamp
their lessons upon the memory like a personal in-
spection of the display. For ourselves we have al-
ways felt our powerlessness in dealing with the details
of a collection so vast and comprehensive. An exhi-
bition which embraces every kind of industrial pro-
duct cannot be grasped within the limits of a news-
paper article, and a history of it if attempted would
exhaust the patience of the most indefatigable reader.
The bare classification of objects occupies l 8 closely
printed foolscap pages. The power of discussing ad-
vantageously each division of that immense classifica-
tion involves a minute knowledge of every art to
which the ingenuity and the labour of mankind have
been directed, and is plainly impracticable in a jour-
nal. For de determination of excellence in each
department the public may, therefore, be most safely
and authoritatively referred to the awards and reports
of the different juries. There are, however, general
results which it comes fairly within the province of
the press:to point out, particular inventions, to indicate
the importance of which justifies a special notice, and
lessons of experience for the guidance of our future
industrial career which ought not to be lost sight
of. Many of these topics have from time ,to
time been touched upon. Others may not suggest
themselves till long after the Exhibition has closed;
but now, when the 11th of October is so near at
hand, the discussion and solution of such questions
become more urgent; it is necessary to gather up the
threads of interest which the spectacle in its progress
has brought into light, and to trace out the full sig-
nificance of facts and objects which we have still for
a limited period before our eyes.
One point that strikes us forcibly on a survey of the
last few months is, the extraordinary contrast which
the attractive and the useful features of the display pre-
sent. It will be remembered that the American depart-
ment was at first regarded as the poorest and least in-
teresting of all foreign countries, Of late it has
justly assumed a position of the first importance, as
having brought to the aid of our distressed
,agricul-
turists a machine which, if it realizes the anticipa-
tions of competent judges, will amply remunerate
England for all her outlay connected with the Great
Exhibition. The reaping machine from the United
States is the most valuable contribution from abroad
to the stock of our previous knowledge that we have
yet discovered, and several facts in connexion with
it are not a little remarkable. In the first piece
the want of such an implement was so much
felt that we find in the catalogue a list of eight
British exhibitors showing inventions designed to
accomplish the same objects. Again, it appears to
have been in use in America for the last ten or twelve
years without finding its way across the Atlantic, and
although Messrs. Garrett had at length discovered its
merits, there can be no question that but for the Exhi-
bition the attention of our farmers would not for some
time to come have been so strongly drawn to it.
Another point worth noticing is that the agricultural
interest, that which at first gave the most hesitating
and lukewarm support to the scheme of an interna-
tional display in Hyde-park, is of all other interests
the one which receives from it the most conspicuous
and confessed benefit. To return to the contrast be-
tween the attractive and the useful features of the
Exhibition, it must have struck every observer how
little notice such things as the illustrations of Mer-
cer's and Claussen's processes—discoveries of the
highestimportance to our manufacturers—have ex-
cited among visitors. The stalls where these are
shown have rarely been visited, while from the
automaton toys in the Austrian compartment to
the malachite ornaments in the Russian section,
and the plate and jewellery in Hunt and Ros-
kill's stand, everything that could excite an ill-
directed curiosity has been industriously hunted
after and wondered at. The most deserted por-
tions of the Exhibition from the commencement
have been those where the more useful textile fabrics
are displayed, yet for England, and for other Euro-
pean countries also, they ought to possess the greatest
interest. Manchester, with its enormous indus-
trial development, has its staple products repre-
sented in a remote corner of the building, where no
one thinks of pausing to examine. Vain splendour
has carried popular favour completely in the Crystal
Palace against common place but profitable industry,
and the Americans almost at the clone have come in
seasonably with several of their practical notions to
damp our ardent admiration of finery, and give our
thoughts another bent. It is natural to inquire whe-
ther the Royal Commission may not have contributed
to this result by their arrangements. We think they
have, although they ought by no means to be blamed
for it. They decided, no doubt with the bestinten-
tions, that prices should not be attached to the goods
exhibited. Now, in all industrial products, the
question of cost is one of extreme interest to the
interest
the of mankind, and from that source of
the visitors to the Exhibition have been ddebarred.The commerce of the world is ruled by this influ-
ence more absolutely than by artistic design,impor-
tant as that is, and the consequence is that the po-
pular tendencies of the Exhibition have been sti-
mulated in a direction adverse to our manuface
Luring interests, and favourable to the expensive
and ornamental, but comparatively useless, produc-
tions of other countries. The fall from 2s. Gd. to is.
in the price of admission is a gain in money to the
Royal Commission, and in the same way machinery
and abundant labour make the industrial wealth of
England. If her great merit of cheap production is
concealed from the vulgar eye, and her manufactures
put in competition with the more expensive ones of
the foreigner, at the same time she is evidently placed
at a disadvantage by the contrast. It is consolatory
to think that, though in consequence of this omission,
the natural inclination of the public to admire wbat