The Sun.
London, England, 1860-03-19 00:00:00

CONCERTS,

CANTERB UR Y HALL
THIS EVENING,
LUCREZIA BORGIA,
(llonizetti).

Donna Lucrezia Miss Russell.
3laffio Orsini llrs. Anderson.
Gennaro Mr. Henry Herbert.
Don Altonzo Signor Tivoli.
Conductor—Mr. Jonghm ans.
Oomic Vocalists —Messrs. George Hodson (the Irish Come-
dian and Mimic), W. T. Critohfield, and E. W. Mackney.
Several interesting Pictures are added to the Fine Arts
Gallery. The suite of Halls have been re-decorated and
eautified, and constitute one of the most unique and brilliant
sights of the metropolis.
The gallery is open from 5 till 11 on Sunday Evening.

THE WEATHER.—SUN OFFICE,lincu 18, 11607
THERMOMETER, IN THE SHADE.
58—highest since noon yesterday.
51—lowest this morning and during the night.
64—this day at noon.

BAROSIETIIIIt-30.03.
WIND, North-Westerly ; light, with fine weather. Some
alight rain in the morning.

MARCH 19.
THERMOMETER, IN THE SHADE.
57—highest since noon yesterday.
42—lowest this morning and during the night.
53—this day at noon.

BAROMETER-30.18.
WIND, Variable—from S.W. to W.N.W.; light, with
dull weather.

HIGH WATER AT LONDON BRIDGE.
TIII DAY.—Morning, 12h. 10m.—Afternoon, 12h. 36m,
To-mousow.-Morning, 12h. 57m.—Afternoon, lh. 17m.

So far as matters look, the independence of Italy
seems to be going on swimmingly. On Sunday
Governor FARINI was presented to the King, Vic-
TOR EMMANUEL, and delivered into his MAJESTY'S
hands the legal documents containing the re-
turns of the universal suffrages of the
people of Modena, Parma, and the Romagna.
It was expected that the Tuscans would present
their allegiance next day. The King accepted the
solemn votes, and would henceforth be proud to
call
.them his people. We must now wait to see
how matters will right themselves in so far as
other parties are concerned.
The neutrality of Switzerland seems to be bound
up in a sort of tangled vein. Austria now steps
forward and insists, on the faith of treaties, that the
Neutrality of Switzerland shall be respected. This
opens a new case for the consideration of the
Powers who have been parties to the guarantee.
It were idle to speculate on the event, for every
new phase seems only to embroil matters more and
more.

Two Reform Bills are to be brought before the two
Houses of Legislature to-night, one in each. That in
the House of Lords for the first time ; that in the
House of Commons for the second time. We know
the contents of each Bill, however ; for that which
the Commons will consider has been printed at
length in our own columns ; and that which the Lords
are to look at (no leave to introduce being needed
by a lord) is one which may be comprised in a
single word, or in one with a very slight addition
—The Ballot—as in practice in our Australian
colonies. The Bill for the Commons professes to be
a bill to make " further provision for the due re-
presentation of the people in Parliament !" The
Bill for the Lords, tacitly probably, makes the
same profession. Both are enabling Bills. But
that in the Lower House will enable persons to give
a vorte who cannot now de so. That in the Lords
will enable those who have a vote already, or ever
shalt have one, to do their own voting." Lord
JOll N IltissEm. says to three or four hundred thou•
sand. new voters, you also may vote for a member of
Pc:liament ; Lord TEYNIIAM says to all of these,
vo
she aid they get votes, and to as many more
e
WI" now Possess them, you may vote
yo u please. Lord JOHN RUSSELL looks
at the "outer man," and if he live in a ZlO
hook vs in the county or a Xt3 house in the town,
—your lips may pronouns© at the polling-
boot a the name of any of the candidates. Lord
TEY NELOI looks to the "inner man," and says,—
you vote for the man after your own heart. With
the 3 ioord, by courtesy, " due representation" means,
porn kitting all to vote who will not endanger aris-

tocratic ascendancy and institutions ; and to this end
permitting them to vote only under the surveil-
lance of landlords or employers, of lawyers, bankers,
and creditors. With the Peer, " due representa-
tion" means,—that it is " due" to each voter to be
influenced by neither personal fears nor hopes.
The comparative reception which will be accorded
to each bill, it is not difficult to predict. In both
houses there are nobler minds—minds which regard
men as men, and think that their honour and their
interests are equally concerned in securing to every
elector in tho empire the most unqualified freedom
in choosing his representative. It will be seen, we
believe, through the introduction of Lord TEYN-
HAM'S bill, that there are more Peers than might be
supposed who are as honest assertors of the
elector's privilege of " free and independent"
voting, as of the right of the Peers to vote
freely in their own house. Their number may,
indeed, be relatively small at present, but we are
too old Reformers not to know that minorities like
these are the leaven which has always, in its ap-
propriate time, leavened the whole mass. Hence,
while we can be certain enough of the long list of
Non-contents in the Upper House, and the compa-
ratively short one of Contents, we can feel equally
sure that the length of the lists must be some day
reversed—an early day it may be ; for light some-
times bursts with somewhat tropical snddenness
even on the House of Peers ; but, with freedom of
the Press, and freedom of commerce achieved, and
with freedom of religion dawning rapidly on us,
freedom of election is certain to be not far distant.
We have emancipated negroes, Catholics, mer-
chants, even Jews—we must speedily emancipate
our voters.

But the so-styled Reform Bill—the RUSSELL
Bill—the Cabinet, or half the Cabinet Bill—what
will be done with that ? Debated, of course, it will
be. Like the Treaty, after it had been substan-
tially decided on, it must be debated; we sup-
pose, also, it must be divided on; though, why,
we never could make out." Not a point is there
in it which Tories can divide on as to principle.
The difference between borough and county fran-
chise which split their own Cabinet, can hardly be
selected, anti the amount of the difference is a com-
mittee question. The disfranchisement of borough
county voters will never be again, in our time, put
to the vote. The number of boroughs to lose each a
member, with the exact amount for a voter's quali-
fication, can hardly be points for a discussion on the
second reading. The bill omits, indeed, the only clause
which, as we believe, hindered Mr. DISRAELI'S
bill from reaching committee without a division,
and we can hardly see, therefore, what pretext can
be found for not going into committee. The Radi-
cals have indeed ground enough for a division.
The omissions of the bill are its unpardonable sins ;
but then a powerful section of them have been duly
purchased with a treaty and a budget, and the rest,
we will not say unwisely, have made up their
minds to take any instalment. With but the one
fatal exception, we should gladly have taken Mr.
DisßaELt's bill as an instalment—of course we
shall Lord JOHN'S.
There are, we know, some, both enemies and
friends to Reform, who think the bill will effect
more than we can hope. Amongst the former, our
great morning contemporary presents to timid
Whigs and listening Tories a frightful picture of
the transference of some hundred seats or more to
the Red Radicals. Amongst the friends of Reform
Mr. JAMES ACLAND calculates that all the boroughs
of which the constituencies will be increased fifty
or a hundred per cent. will return Radical mem•
bers ! while those increased from 25 to 50 per
cont. will return Liberal members. Hence we are
to be sure of 142 Radicals and 154 Liberals, and to
have but 41 " illiberals" from the boroughs where
the increase is smallest, though among these are
the metropolitan boroughs. The Times, of course,
gladly accepts such calculations as a reason for at-
tacking a bill it most cordially hates, though the
writer makes them to induce Liberals to be thankful
for what is offered them. We must believe tiat both
the enemy and the friend of liberal politics are

mistaken.
Both estimate the increase of electors at far
above what it will be. They reckon from the num-
ber of houses between £6 and £lO rental. But the
deductions are so very large, owing to tenancies by
females, indifference, the rate-paying clauses, ab-
sence, illness, and other causes, that in many cases
probably not more than half of the houses in ques-
tion will furnish registered electors, certainly not
half of them voters. But not only will the in-
crease be smaller than is computed—it will, under
open voting, be a very dependent class of electors.
Between employers of labour and buyers of vote.,
the additions will be nearly all liable to coercion,or
purchase by the class above them, and in the coun-
ties no one doubts that this will be the case. Tho
new voters will be servants or mercenaries of the
same masters or hirers as now command their ser-
vices. What change will this effect?
Some good amendments are already announced.
Mr. BERKELEY is to proceed in regard to the
Ballot, by way of bill, on the 20th. Mr: MAC
EvoY Las a ballot motion for Ireland when the Irish
bill goes into committee. And Mr. DIOS. DUN-
COMBE is in committee to move for an optional
ballot, which, if it relate to individuals, is no ballot
at all ; if to constituencies, unless it be provided
that a small minority may require its adoption for
the whole, the ballot cannot be introduced where
the incorrupt or the independent are few—just
where it is most wanted ! Mr. EDWIN JAMES, whose
course on the Ballot and treatment of Mr. BERKELEY
look as if he were thinking of an Attorney-General-
ship under Lord JOHN R USS EL L
inf
anda Lordfavour
ur of the
P .:L-
-MERSTON, has a good amendment
better class of lodgers, and for discontinuing :the
clauses. We trust h
annoying rate paying
they will
both be carried. It is too bad to be dragged up to
a revising barrister, or to lose your vtotee,
collectorbecause
you were away from home when h
called, and you forgot to visit him. Surely it is enough
to be rated—the law can collect its own rates,
without using them as an instrument of disfran-
chisement. As to lodgeri we all know that in the
suburbs of large towns they are a numerous and
intelligent class, and ought to have a vote, with a
reasonable residentiary qualification. It should
not of course be one requiring that the occupancy
be of the same apartments. This is no more need-
ful than that a person should be a tenant of the
same house. Well—what with Budget and Bank-
ruptcy, and Parliamentary Reform Bills, it will be
strange if 1860 does not leave us somewhat
Reformed.

The second reading of Mr. CROCIX'S bill. for
bringing the hours of labour in the Bleaching and
Dyeing works under the control of the Ten Hours'
Act is announced for Wednesday next. We take
this opportunity of bringing the fact before the
notice of the public, and of earnestly enti eating the
members of the Legislature to give their votes in
favour of the bill.

In these bleaching and dyeing works women and
young girls, sometimes children under 10 years of
age, are kept at work for eighteen and twenty
hours at a stretch during several consecutive days.
The temperature is maintained at the heat of an
Indian summer; while the state of a crowded fac-

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THE SUN.
LONDON, MONDAY, MARCH 19, 1860.