The Sun.
London, England, 1856-01-12 00:00:00

THE ADMINISTRATIVE REFORM

ASSOCIATION.

( From the Times of this day.)
Why is the sleep of the Administrative Reform
Association disquieted ? What has called them up
from the land of dreams and forgetfulness ? We
had set them down as holding a very respectable
position among the things that were, and, behold,
they jump into life, and make the reader start.
We cannot find any fault with this movement, ex- ,
cept that it has not commanded the popular sup- I
port to which it not unreasonably claims to be en- I
titled. It is unquestionably the right, and even the
duty, of the citizens of England to look after the
public money, and to take care the public offices
are filled by men of character and ability. It has
only one drawback. Nothing, as Talleyrand says,
succeeds like success, and the Administrative Re-
form Association has not obtained success. It
claims to act on behalf of the people of England ;
but the people of England, as far as we can see,
are not disposed to accept its agency. " If," says
Mr. Corderoy, the chief speaker, " we can attain by
a concentration of energy social, moral, economical,
educational, and sanitary reforms, we shall arrive
at our end." Nothing can be more true • but did.
it never occur to Mr. Corderoy how little proba-
bility there was that such a concentration of
energy can effect such an object ? " If," says the
fly, " by concentrating my energies I can break
through this web in which I am meshed, I
shall escape being devoured by yonder bloated
and greedy spider." Nothing can be more just
than the observation of the fly, but the spider will
devour it nevertheless. The Administrative Re-
form Association says it was not erected to support
any martyr. It will do wisely to consider whether
it does not run some chance of becoming the martyr
itself. Its efforts are directed to the, sweeping
away of impediments to free and open competition.
No doubt it sweeps as well as it can, but the im-
pediments remain, while the broom is worn out.
These are facts, from whatever cause they arise,
and the Administrative Reform Association will
do wisely not to overlook them. Grievances may
be very great and very pernicious, and yet may
require something more than goodwill for their
extirpation. Sir C. Napier and Mr. Apsley Pel-
latt are, no doubt, potent champions, but more
than they can do will be required to remedy the
least of the abuses of which Messrs. Corderoy and
Morley complain. We would not be ungrateful
to the Administrative Reform Association.
Launched by practical men of business, and having
an honest and good cause to support, it, no doubt,
did good service at its first meeting by embodying
to some extent popular feeling, and bringing
forcibly before the attention of Government the
danger of again rousing public indignation by mis-
management. How much more it might have
done had its administration of its own affairs par-
taken a little of that adminiArative excellence
which it so forcibly inculcates upon others we do
not know ; certain it is that its failure is to be at-
tributed to causes most of which were very obvi-
ously within its own control.
The Association started without securing for itself
that amount of politi cal weight and influence which
every person versed at all in the habits and feelings
of the English people ought to have known to be
an indispensable condition to the success of such a
movement. It is easy to rail against members of
Parliament, and say that they are so wedded to
faction and interest that it is impossible to enlist
them in favour or the pure and elevated objects
which this Association had in view ; but these men
are, after all, the chosen representativesof the very
classes to which the Association appeals, extremely
sensitive to any influence exerted over them by
their constituents, and ready on every occasion to
carry out what they understand to be the real
demands of public opinion. The fact, then, that
influential members of Parliament held aloof from
it might have warned the Association that the
success it sought, and in a great measure deserved,
was not desired by the people. The people, as
Mr. Morley truly says, are themselves to blame,
but it is impossible to save them against.
their will. How many intelligent gentlealen
there are besides the leaders of the Administrative
Reform Association ready to save or serve the
monarchy in Church and State, and whose efforts
are only defeated by the unaccountable unwilling-
ness of the monarchy to be served or saved by
them !

Next to the want of influential support, the
Association seems to us to have erred most in the
selection of its objects. Its orators complain with
justice when they say that those objects were too
pure and too unselfish for general acceptance. But •
what is this, except to say that this proposed po-
pular movement was founded on a misapprehension
of the popular sentiment, and, while intending to
treat men as they are imputed to them a sublimity
of character which it is now admitted they do not
possess ? Such errors are fatal in all agitations.
The cause must not only be noble and true, but
coincide with popular prejudices and antipathies.
If it do it may form an admirable subject for dis-
quisition in political circles, or for controversy in
reviews and pamphlets, but is unfit for the trade of
the agitator. Falsehood succeede lin the hands of
O'Connell—truth has broken down in those of the
Administrative Reform Association. The reason
is obvious. Falsehood was supported by eloquence
and popular sympathy—Truth was left to rely on
her own merits. Another less creditable cause
of failure, for it neither arose from the nature of
the subject nor from the absence of support, is the
signal want of literary ability displayed in the
pamphlets circulated in behalf of administrative
reform. Whether it were that jobbing found its way
into the bosom of this immaculate society, awl
influenced the choice of writers, who certainly do
not seem to have been chosen on principles of
public competition, we do not know ; but certainly
nothing was ever put forth less argumentative or
persuasive than these pamphlets, in which the in-
terest of the best of themes was so cruelly sacrificed
to the worst of writers. If the public mind of
England was to be aroused to the necessity of re-
form, it should have been by means of brains rather
than of scissors.

Nevertheless, let not the Administrative Reform
Association despond. They, also, have contributed
something towards the march of events. They
have given Ministers a short, but very severe fright.
They have made Mr. Tite member for the city of
Bath. Is there nothing in all this to satisfy a vir-
tuous ambition ? They have, besides, assisted in
the creation of a Board for the examination of
candidates for the civil service, which is destined,
if we mistake not, in no slight degree to usurp their
functions, When they read the forthcoming report
as to the incompetency of the persons examiued,
and the strange difficulties in which Government
has been placed by exacting even the minimum. of
qualification from its servants, the association will
see that the work has been done by this commis-
sion nearly as well as the association could have
done it itself. For the association but one duty is
lett—a duty most difficult both to actors and philo-
sophers. It has outlived the power of influencing
public opinion, and can only come forward now to
whine over the influence which it hoped for, but
does not possess. From such a body complaints
are unavailing; all that is left to it is to die with
dignity.

A NEW STEAM HAMMER.—Mr. Naylor, the Norwich
superintendent of the locomotive department of the
Baden Counties Railway, has just succeeded in com-

- plating an important invention in the form of a steam
hammer, which he believes to be in many respects supe-
rior to any other that has yet been constructed. Its
peculiar qualities consist in its adaptation to all descrip-
tions of work brought under it. It can deal with a small
piece of iron with the greatest precision, be it ever so
small, or it can efficiently operate upon a piece of iron
six or seven inches thick. Such is the command over it
that it can be made to strike a light or heavy blow at
will, and, if necessary, the light and heavy blows can be
,given alternately, while it is dealing 100 blows a minute.
The rate of working may, moreover, if desired, be re-
duced to less than 100 blows per minute. -Most power
hammers obtain their force by their accelerated velocity
in their fall. Consequently, when working upon a large
piece of iron, the greatest force is necessary ; but, as the
distance of the fall of the hammer is reduced by the
thickness of the iron it is operating upon, the full power
of the hammer cannot be exercised. Mr. Naylor has,
however, a provision for this difficulty, for by hie pecu-
liar and patented arrangements he c3n put. any amount
of steam power upon the hammer in addition to it.,
()wry gravity, and it matters not, therefore, whether
the barmier falls through a space of six inches or six
feet, so long as its velocity is the same at the instant of
. its contact witsr the iron on the anvil. The steam can
be applied above as well as under the piston of the ham-
suer, or by merely turninga small handle the steam is
prevented entering into the top of the cylinder, leaving
the hammer to fall (as others do) by its gravity alone,
be made while the hamlet( e
Thefect that this, change may
is at work shows the great advantage of Mr. Naylor'4
' arrangement over that of others, sad is more striking
even to.thse who do cot profess an intimate acquaint
*nes with steam hammers. By haring& short blow a 3
effective ax a, long one a greater nnkiber of blows can be
given.in the same' time, and all practical men know the
advantage of striking the ironrwhile it is hot. The barn.
mer weighotAbont-fl cwt., and its greatest fall i.s bat 1 S
inches. ft is. very Airuphi iu its eonstruetion, yet beauti-
ful iu its detailed. TO show iteeitraordinary powers one
iustmee will suffice. We were shown a bar of iron six
feet long, three inches wide, and three-quarters of an
inch thick, which had been drawn at one heat in eight
and a-half minutes out of an old block of machinery not
snore than 12 inches long, thus producing out of the
old
,scrap, iron a bar of new iron of the very best quality.
The principle of this hammer has been patented by Mr.
Naylor; who considers it equally applicable as a ri vetting
machine' for holler-Making and iron shipbuilding, as well
as for iron making, smith
'a forging, stamping ore, and, I
indeed, foe all purposes requiring the process of ham.' !
meting ; and, to. Meet' every end, it can be worked hyl
elastic, gal, compressed air, steam, or vacuum.—NorfolkNews