The Sun.
London, England, 1856-12-12 00:00:00

world, his quondam Chief—the Fillibuster Presi-
dent of the ne:w•born republic of Nicaragua. His
denunciation and exposure of the Yankee "First
Consul" was given at full length in the columns
of The Sun of last Wednesday. It was in the
form of a semi-official statement, affecting (rather
materially) the reputation of one whom the
writer sneeringly specifies as "Mr. WILLIAM
WALKER, now President of Nicaragua." After
entering a protracted and elaborate catalogue of
Charges in his immense Bill of Eudietment, Gene-
ral GOICOITRIA sums up all, point-blank, in these
singularly unmistakeable words :—" I, therefore,
denounce Mr. WALKER as wanting in the first
element of every kind of ability, namely, good
faith ; I denounce him as wanting in ordinary
sagacity and discretion ; I denounce him as
false to the interests as well of Cuba as of the
United States." "So much for"—the Fillibuster !
This already from General D. DE GOICOURIA, dated
New York, Nov. 22. Something else in the
way of exposure and denunciation may be looked
for very soon, we doubt not, from Citizen A.
OAKSMITH", ex-Minister to the Cabinet of Wash-
ington. And so—even now, in the very dawn
of his career General WALKER begins to find the
ground cut from under him, as far as his " repu-
' tation" is concerned, by one after another of his
discarded Diplomatic Representatives. Yet, besides
thus want)nly and blunderingly awakening the
animosity of his own associates, General WALKER
has grossly mistaken his part as an American BONA-
PARTE. He has infamously, by the bungle
of one execrable decree, re-established slavery
in Nicaragua as by a single sweep of the sword of
his Dictatorship. Whereas he should assuredly
have borne in remembrance the fact—the glorious
fact, emblazoned in letters of gold upon the too-
often crime-tarnished and blood-stained pages of
European history—that by one stroke of his pan
Slavery was abolished throughout his vast domi-
nions by NAPOLEON BONAPARTE.

Could we not contrive to set up a Despot or a
Dictator for a Session, and resume our "venerable
constitution" at the end of it ? It would be worth

while, to clear off the vast mass of needful reforms,

as Lord BROUGHAM, in his short reign, cleared
the lists in Chancery. What a number of things

are advanced to the position of acknowledged
claims on Parliament, and are year after year
brought forward in it, yet nothing whatever is
done. Will any one make us believe that a NA-
POLEON would not have codified our own law, and
decimalised our money, weights, and measures at
any time he decided to do it ? And is anything

wanted now but a man at the helm, with a clear

head, enlightened mind, and immovable purpose,
to settle for ever the questions which waste Par-
liamentary time year after year ?
Sundry clever schemes have been propounded
for making our Parliament a working Parliament ;
the chief thing wanted, we firmly believe, is a

leader who knows how to set it to work and make it

do it. It may be laid down that Government can
command both the highest and the most varied

talent of the nation. No expense incurred in
obtaining full information, or employing high
ability to prepare measures for the consideration
of the Legislature, would be grudged by the
country. It would be the truest economy. The
great obstruction has been that measures of the
best general purpose, like Mr. LowE's Bills last
session, have been so carelessly prepared, and
have overlooked such important facts to which
they should have been adapted, that they had to
be withdrawn either entirely, or for re-introduc-
tion in al:KAI:ma. form. 'Now thts in discreditable
and blameworthy. It is too bad that Liverpool
should run riot in other people's money for
another year, perhaps pledge it irrevocably,
merely because the Government gave Mr. Dis-
RAELI, and the Gbstructionists, handhold whereby
to drag the bill into a select committee.
What on earth should hinder the getting rid
of those annual bores, the Church Rates and the
Ecclesiastical Courts ? Every one keows that both
are doomed. They are confessed nuisances. The
first is easy enough to sweep away. No one
cares about them but a few old Ecclesiastical
fogies, whom 4 firm will at head-quarters would
put to the rout in a trice. The latter no
one ventures to defend, but every one
attacks the, proposed substitute. A dozen
hours honest consultation with the three
principal schemers would enable any Minister
to settle the principle of a new bill; and a few weeks
would enable his subordinates to shape the details
till the measure should be good against all comers.
The Common Law Judges want work ; and what
needs hinder their being invested with full powers
to deal with all kinds of testamentary property,
and, so far as relates to wills, to deal with ques-
tions of equity as well as common law ? The
proctors, the Chancery lawyers, and the Common
Law practitioners, hitherto have all bustled up
against one another and the public, and frustrated
all attempts. We cannot doubt, however, that a
Premier who could introduce a measure whose
obvious superiority appealed to the country,
would compel the interested lawyers to silence.
Then there is the old rusty, we beg its pardon,
ivy-covered Corporation, London. Everything
was ready to hand; the Commission had prepared
the forms ; it but needed to be vigorously
handled; when the Government merely proposed
to sweep just enough to offend the tenants already
nestled in their much-loved berths, without
making all clean enough for a new class to enter.
There was no pluck in the Bill. It was a thorough
bit of Whiggism. Had we not known that Lord
Jon sr Russera. was out of the Cabinet, wo could
have sworn that it was "By the author of the
little Reform. and Election Bills." A bill which
had dealt with the real London, not with the
little Lord Mayors and Aldermen, which gave to
all London the benefits engrossed by a little sec-
tion of it, would have been carried, despite the
cunningly-sought aid of DISRAELI and his faction,
and even notwithstanding the terrors of Gog and
Magog themselves.

Sir RICHARD BETEELL has told us of a bill he
means to introduce, by which land is to become
as facile of transfer as funded property. - No one
doubts that this might be done. That with a
strong will at the head, the reasonableness of the
case, its practicability by honest men, and the
certain increase of value it would give to land,
would force it through the herd of lawyers who
will resent any attempt to dispense with the dark
and costly mysteries of conveyancing. But who
believes in the strong will ? No, it will be
bungled in details ; a whole pack of lawyers in
the House will bait it to death, and every land-
lord's solicitor will do his best to frighten his
client with imaginary dangers. The measure will
be read a first time—the second reading deferred,
perhaps for ever, or at bast it will be interred in
a Select committee.
Wo haire given but a few illustrations out of
many of the nuisance we all complain of. We wish
we could look forward with better hope ; but the
truth is, we have clever men now, men who know
how to keep their places by managing parties, but
nowhere a man of commanding genius and firm
purpose. They play with Parliaments as they
do with cards, and are content if between luck
and skill they win the game.
Well, we suppose we must make up our minds to