The Sun.
London, England, 1856-06-30 00:00:00

LONDON, MONDAY, JUNE 30, 1856.

Some time s'nce, at a Trinity House Banquet,
the nation was informed by a high authority that
" representative institutions were on their trial !"
la c....raroon with almost ev(,e.y, Journal
we resented the imputation, feeling it, in the
sense in which it was uttered, to be a gross and
unwarrantable insult to the British Constitution,
which could not be ameliorated on any German
model. It is, however, with deep regret that we
find ourselves obliged to repeat the assertion—to
declare deliberately and advisedly that " repre-
sentative institutions are really on trial," and
that, unless a complete alteration of the system
now in operation he speedily inaugurated there
is every prospect that they may be considered as
utterly worthless.

It is, however, in a totally different sense from
that used by the PRINCE-CONSORT that we repeat
his assertion. It is not because the chosen repro
sentatives of the peOple interfere too much with the
decisions of the Government for the time being,
or because they require full information respecting
questions of foreign policy, or pending negotia-
tions, that we have arrived at this painful con-
clusion. Far otherwise. It is because they have

apparently abdicated the functions transmitted to
them through a long succession of ages, and avoid
discussion on matters of vital importance to the
welfare and prosperity of the nation, until
too late to do more than merely register the de-
crees of the Executive and sanction expenditure
incurred without their consent or knowledge ; be-
cause by their extraordinary apathy and indif-
ference they recently suffered the nation " to drift
into a war" which cost nearly one hundred mil-
lions of money,
and, far worse, the lives of many
thousands, aye, tens of thousands, of the best and
bravest of our fellow-citizens, and that there is
every prospect that a still greater calamity may
be again occasioned by similar negligence.
The British nation
has lately received a deli-
berate insult. It has witnessed the representa-
tive, or rather four representatives, of its
Sovereign summarily and ignominiously expelled
from another State, and on evidence which Would
not before an impartial tribunal, either in England
or America, be considered sufficient to warrant a
verdict against a previously convicted pickpocket.
Our Government has quietly pocketed the affront.
That point has, for the time, been disposed of.
Now that the electioneering ticket of the Demo-
cratio Conference has been filled up, that FRANKLIN
PITIRCE -has failed in obtaining the stray votes
Which he vainly imagined might be caught by his
trneuleat insolence, it is scarcely probable that
be will repeat the blow, or give an additional kick
o those who have submitted to the previous
outrage with such edifying humility. Surely,
then, an investigation into that part of the Ame-
rican question cannot be considered premature,
or likely to occasion mischief with our peppering
relations. If either branch of the Legislature is
to pronounce an opinion on the conduct of the
executive the time has arrived for so doing,
unless the matter is to be altogether handed over
to posterity for its decision, founded on the opinions
of some as yet unborn MACAULAY. Every ele-
ment for judgment is now before the country.
We have the bill of indictment preferred
by Mr. MARCY, the exculpatory pleas of the Earl ,

of CLARENDON. The witnesses have been mar-
shalled—their testimony is now to be weighed,
and surely the British House of Commons should
make its voice heard on the all-important issue
Lef 're it is finally d'smissed from consideration.

But it is even more desirable that the opinions
of its leading members should be ascertained
respeoting the Central America questions, as yet
undecided. It is not only their privilege,
but their imperative duty, to advise the
Crown on all matters affecting its dignity or its
interests. The Mosquito Protectorate, the Belize
and Bay Islands difficulties, are still unsettled.
Congress has given full expression to its views on
the construction of the CLAYTON-BULWER Treaty.
Why should the English Parliament alone remain
gagged ? Why should not the hereditary and
representative Legislators tender their respectful
advice to their Sovereign iu such an emergency,
when Pease or War with men of our
own race, speaking the same language, pro-
fesiing the same religion, and maintaining
the same liberal institutions as ourselves, is the
enormous stake fore whicli—they are contending.
Lord PALMERSTON, emboldened by the general
apathy, refuses a day for the discussion. Surely
the necessary means may be taken to enforce a
speedy debate. If the soi disant independent (1)
Members refuse their assistance they will induce
the people to echo the cry of the PRINCE-CONSORT
and seriously to ask, What is the use of a House
of Commons which has so completely disregarded
its most important duties ?

It was a great triumph on\ Friday evening—
that won by the Noble Lord the Member for
Haddington ! It was a victory, let it not be for-
gotten, achieved at once over Court and Cabinet,
over Government and Opposition. In its way,
in truth, it is just the one redeeming incident of
the Parliamentary session, the solitary occasion
upon which the House of Commons has ventured
to vindicate its character. It were idle, . how-
ever, to conclude at once that because of that re.
markable division of the 27th of June, 1856,
the matter at issue is definitively settled in any
way, much less in a manner perfectly satisfactory.
All the positive advantage gained by the majo-
rity in favour of Lord Emulo's motion is simply
the postponement of the ultimate decision yet to
be arrived at by the Legislature in regard to the
"whereabouts" of the National Gallery ! The
whole battle has even now to be fought all over
again—a battle like that immortalised by the
pencil of Hoa.a.nree—fln which, by the way,
curiously enough, it may amuse Mr. Mona's
MooRE to remember, there shines forth conspicu-
ously in one corner, a very notable limning of
Arenzo flaying Maßserasfl—the Battle of the
Pictures ! So fen-7as we remarked on Saturday
—so good. Yes, so far, but no farther ! We
have only as yet "put off" the day of reckoning.
That day, sooner or later, this session or that,
must come, and when it comes let us by all means
be prepared for it. Remember—Prince ALBERT
has set his heart upon removing the National
Gallery from " the finest site in Europe," to just
about "tbe worst and ugliest"—from Trafalgar-
square to Kensington-gore ! Remember—that
in this monstrous and absurd design H.R.H. is
aided and abetted, as we have observed already,
by " the powers that be" and " the powers that
hope to be," by three Chancellors of the Exche-
quer, by the leaders of Conservative-Liberalism,
and the leaders of Liberal-Conservatism, by
Statesmen who are " in" and by Statesman wh
are "out," by Mr. DISRAELI and by Viscount
PALMERSTON. It can only be, therefore, by the
most strenuous endeavours, by the most vigilant
attention, by the most resolute and un-
flinching perseverance that we can at all hope to
triumph in the end over this new and eccentric
coalition, over what we have already termed, for
want of a better phrase, this new Germanic Con-
federation.

We, for one, are fully and deliberately resolved
to keep the subject in view until the matter shall
have been settled, one way or the other, perma-
nently.
What is actually proposed to ba done by those
who have so very perversely taken the subject of
the National Collection of PidLures in hand, and
against whom we have, from the first, put our-
selves in absolute and diametric opposition, may
be readily enough stated. They propose, these
illustrious Dabblers in Art, beginning with
H. R. H., and descending through the whole
scale of them down to Mr. MILNES, the Poetaster,
they propose to move the National Collection or
Pictures from the building in Trafalgar-square to
a new building erected upon some other site, if
possible, to the absurd site, until very recently,
sacred to cabbage-stumps, dibbling, and pigstyes,
or (in the words of the old nursery song, so
applied) to " rolly-poly, gammon, and spinach"
—the suburban market gardens of Kensington-
gore ! Wherever the new structure is to be raised,
they want, at any rate, to move the national pro-
perty in paintings from the edifice in Trafalgar-
square, and to give up that edifice not any longer
partially, but entirely to the purposes of the
Royal Academy.

Now, against all this we have protested from
the very outset, against this we still continue to
protest energetically, against this we shall persist
in proteiting down to the very end of the chapter,
until the whole of the vexed question about the
National Gallery has been settled for once and for
all definitively.
What we maintain in direct opposition to the
views of his A.R.S. and hi 3 courtly abettors—
both in and out of Parliament—the readers of
The San know already very well : but knowing it
already very well they will not object, we dare
say, to its brief and very simple re:capitulation.
Wherefore, let us say at once—we are opposed to
the removal of the National Pictures to Kensing-
ton Gore—we are opposed to their removal any-
where—we are decidedly and peremptorily opposed
to the sacrifice of the finest site a nowhere to be
found in all London or Westminater for a Na-
tional Gallery for the especial advantage, and sole
convenience, and particular gratification of the
Royal Academy—that very large .Elumbug, that
very snug Monopoly, that very close Corporation !
Instead of carrying out the suggestions of H.R.H.
and his
associates—we say—enlarge the present
magnificent site in Trafalgar-square by sweeping
away contiguous Barracks, back-slums, and
Workhouses
Send the Royal Acadh 3my "pack-
ing" th e
!
elsewhere—no matter where, blab at any rate
no longer there ! Knock down the pres ent hideous
pile disfiguring and inadequate .4g "the finest site
in Europe !" Dig out upon that e:ttended site
upon those
broader and ampler foundations,
foundations build up a perfectly n
structure
worthy of the designation of the Na,;-,lonal Gallery
of England ! THAT is what we propose, and that,
or we are very much mistaken, is what will have
to ,be ultimately accomplished (in vtery despite of
the crotchets of H.R.H.) by those custodians of
the public purse and of the public property—her
MAJESTY'S Government.

A heavy responsibility rests on t: Lis country in
the government of her colonies. In the entire
history of the world never did s ,tip a responsi-
bility rest on any other people. Wbe magnitud e