The Sun.
London, England, 1860-04-06 00:00:00

I

BENSON'S WATCHES.
" Perfection of mechanism."--Morning Post. ---
Gold Watches 4 to 100 guineas.
Silver Watches
23 and 34, Ludgate-hill, London, E.C.
Ma 2 stamps for Benson's Illustrated Pamphlet on Watches

THEATRE-ROYAL, HAYMARKET.
Lessee, Mr. J. B. Buokstonc.
On Easter Monday will be performed THE OVERLAND
ROUTE. Messrs. C. Mathews, Buokstone. Compton, Chip-
pendale, Mrs. C. Mathews, Miss Weekes, and Mrs. Wilkins.
To conclude with a new fairy romance, THE PILGRIM
OF LOVE.

- -
ADELPHI, NEW THEATRE-ROYAL.
Bole Proprietor and Manager. Mr. Beni. Webster.
Root powerful attraction for the Holidays. Adelphi Drama
and Grand Extravaganza.

On Easter Monda;,April 9, will be reproduced the popular
Original Adelphi drama of THE DEAD HEART. Robert
Landry, Mr. B. Webster (who will make his first appearance
since his return from his greatly successful provincial tour) ;
Messrs. P. Bedford, J. L. Toole, David Fisher, Stuart, C. J.
fimith, Billington, Eburne, Powell, Romer, Page Mis s ; Wool-
gar, Miss K. Kelly, Miss Laidlaw.
After which (first time at this theatre), the Grand Musical
Fairy Extravaganza, by J. R. Planche, Esq.. of THE FAIR
ONE WITH THE GOLDEN LOCKS. King Lachrymoso,
Mr. J. L. Toole ; Count Pleniposo, Mr. P. Bedford ; Viscount
Veryaoso, Mr. C. J. Smith ; Graceful. Miss Woolgar ; Queen
Luddora, Ildiss Emily Thorne (her first appearance at this
theatre) ; Mollmopsa, Miss K. Kelly.
BOX-office open from 10 till 5 on Thursday the sth, and on
Saturday the 7th. Private boxes, £2 2s. ; Family Boxes, £1;
Orchestra Stalls, ss. ; Balcony, 4s. •, Front Circle Stalls, 3s. ,
Pit Stalls, 25.; Pit, Is. 6d. ; Amphitheatre, is ; Gallery, 6d..

Acting Manager—Mr. Wm. Smith.

CANTERBURY HALL CONCERTS.
THIS EVENING,
LUCHEZIA BORGIA,
(Donizetti).
_

_ .
Donna Lucrezfa ...... Miss Russell.
Maffio Orsini Mrs. Anderson.
Getman) Mr. Henry Herbert.
Don Alfonzo Signor Tivoli.
Conductor—Mr. Jonghmans.
Comic 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
(Wary. The suite of Halls have been re-decorated and
beautified. and constitute one of the mast unique and brilliant
sights of the metropolis.
The gallery is open from 5 till 11 on Sunday Evening.

HIGH WATER AT LONDON BRIDGE.
Tins Dir.—Morning, Ih. 50m.—Afternoon, 2h. 10m.
.Itow.-Morning, 2h. 32m.—Afternoon, I 2h. 54m.

THE POST-OFFICE AND
NEWSPAPERS.

Scarcely a day elapses that we do not
receive complaints of newspapers missing,
being too late, or arriving several posts be-
hind time. This is an intolerable nuisance
to our subscribers, and is, besides, highly
prejudicial to ourselves. Where rests the
evil ? It is idle to complain, for polite
answers and promises avail nothing.
Surely Sir Rowland Bill will have some
merciful consideration, and endeavour to
redress the grievance. It is a double griev-
ance, for we are made to pay for not send-
ing the paper, which is often kept back till
next morning, which loses a day to our
subscribers, who truly say that old news is
no news, causing anger rather than benefit.
If the General Post-office be not large
enough, then extend it, or build another
capacious enough for every purpose, be the
cost what it may. It will serve for all
time. N e make this suggestion in a spirit
of good-will, and hope that good may come
of it.

Sun Office, April 4, 1860.

No constituency has perhaps ever so egregiously
stultified itself as the constituency of Stroud. It
had the distinguished and (at this time) the some-
what exceptional honour of being represented in
the House of Commons by one of the most truly
consistent, thoroughly independent, and entirely
outspoken men within the walls of Parliament.
That honour, that credit, it has now taken—as the
French EMPEROR (let us say) has taken his famous
Milan Proclamation—and torn it into ribbons and
scattered it to the winds of heaven. The Stroud
electors, the so called " liberal" and " enlightened"
electors of Stroud, assembled as we know the other
day in solemn and most sapient conclave, in which
—without asking the right hon. gentleman for one
syllable of explanation, without for that matter
paying him the ordinary compliment, or offering
him the customary courtesy of an invitation
to attead—they deliberately passed a resolution
condemnatory of that very conduct on the
part of Mr. HORSMAN, during this present session
of Parliament, which, in point of fact, reflects upon
him peculiar honour ! And would, but for this
absurd and ridiculously ill-timed resolution, have
reflected peculiar honour also upon themselves as
his constituents ! We have here spoken of the
resolution, it will be remarked, as "ill-timed." And
we are bold enough to assert most absolutely that,
perhaps, never was any resolution so ludicrously
and preposterously ill-timed. The proposer and
seconder of it, the whole assembly, in fact, of
electors who voted for it almost by acclamation,
might have exclaimed then and there, in reference
to the absent Mr. HORSMAN, as DOGBERRY ex-
claimed, in reference to the absent Sexton—" 0
that he Were here to write me down an Ass !
Adding, even as they might have done also quite
truthfully as DOGBERRY himself adds, at the end
of his ejaculated lamentations---', But though he be
not here, don't forget that I AM an Ass!, , For
what was actually the literal fact in regard to Mr.
HORSAfAN, the electors of Stroud, and that memor-
able resolution, in which the latter condemned the
former, upon the score, as the resolution intimated,
of his inconsistency ? Why actually the literal
fact was simply and absolutely this, that the noble
lord the Foreign Secretary was formally—upon the
evening of the very day upon which this ludicrous
resolution was passed at Stroud—Lord JOHN Rus-
SELL, we say,was then officially justifying, amidst the
cheers of the House of Commons, every syllable ut-
tered during this session, upon foreign affairs, by
the right hon. gentleman the representative of the
Stroud constituency ! !
It will be enough, however, upon this point, if
we refer directly to the irrefutable logic of Mr. Hone-
kAN's own masterly self-vindication. Elsewhere
in our impression of this evening will be found
the whole of this admirable document. It is worth
Perusing from the first word to the last. It is one of
the most delightfully lucid and unanswerable state-
ments ever put upon paper. And certainly if the
sexton never did as DOGBERRY wished him to do—
Mr.HonsmAN has carefully satisfied the kindred aspi-
rations of his constituency. He has written it down
finite plainly, so that those who run may read.
There is no mistaking the conclusion at which he
arrives, at Which we must all arrive in regard to his
constituents ; and
really the echo of DOGBERRY'S
last wish is also (in our own regard) perfectly satis-
fied—for we don't think we can by any chance very
easily contrive to " forget it !"

At the commencement of the very second para-
graph of this admirable and delightful communica-
tion addressed by Mr. HORSMAN to his one manly
and sagacious vindicator upon the occasion of the
Stroud meeting, the right hon. gentleman
very sarcastically,
ob-
serves very forcibly and "I eau_
not but think it was a somewhat novel proceeding
for constituents to meet and pass judgment on a
representative without formally apprising him that
the meeting we to take place and inviting him to
,Attend, and stilt more strange was it that the chair-
man a the meeting should not have the courtesy or
fairness to communicate to me the resolution,

that had been come to, but should leave m►e
to get my information from the newspapers
or any other accidental source." But put-
ting aside as a matter of very seeondszy
consideration this little evidence of provincial
discourtesy, Mr. HORSMAN hastens at once directly
to the point—he comes at once to the subject of
contention. " I am accused," he says, "of having
acted inconsistently with the principles on which
I was elected." He puts the charge quite di-
rectly, and he repels it with equal explicitness.
" No accusation," he writes, " can be more entirely
confounded." That—it may be objected—is mere
assertion. But it is an assertion that Mr. HORSMAN
at once proves beyond the possibility of contradic-
tion in the manner following. " The two questions,"
he remarks, "on which I had to express my-
self most frequently and publicly at the election
were Parliamentary reform and foreign policy."
He first of all takes the subject of Parlia-
mentary Reform into account, and he says—
"On Parliamentary Reform some of my consti-
tuents were dissatisfied with my recent vote on
Lord JOHN RUSSELL'S abstract resolution, and my
answer to them was this Whether I have been
right or wrong must at present be a matter of
opinion. We must wait till this time next year.
If you have then the :arge and comprehensive mea-
sure that has been promised you I shall own I have
been wrong. But, as I predict, you are offered a
measure no better nor more satisfactory than the
one now rejected, you will own I have been right,
and that it would have been wiser to have settled
the question by amending Lord DERBY'S bill with-
out the turmoil of a dissolution and the loss of a
year.' " Mr. HORSMAN adds—" This issue [be-
tween himself and his constituents] was universally
accepted [namely by his constituents]. It was
raised in March, 1859, and the new bill has been
discussed in March, 1860. With what result The
dissatisfaction felt with the bill of Lord DERBY was
as nothing compared with the contempt and ridicule
that from every side are poured on the bill of Lord
JOHN RUSSELL ; and while last year's measure had
at lease the merit of exhibiting much thought and
pains bestowed in its preparation, this new one is
universally condemned for its careless and slovenly
character, and no one suggests how, by any number
of amendments, it can be made as good a bill as
Lord DERBY'S, with very few and simple amend-
ments, might have become. Moreover," continues
the-tight hon. gentleman " the reluctance shown
by the Government to introduce their bill, and
the indifference with which they have postponed
its progress, discredit the whole proceeding as ema-
nating from the necessity to redeem a pledge
rather than a desire to reform Parliament." So
much for Mr. HORSMAN'S inconsistency in regard
to the question of Parliamentary Reform. Now,
in reference to his views in the matter of our
foreign policy. "On foreign policy," he writes,
"my views were as clearly expressed, and my course
hasbeen equally consistent." Assertion, again, it may
be said—mere assertion—yes, but assertion thus
supported by facts. " For years," says Mr. HORS..
MAN, "I have warned my friends at Stroud, at every
annual meeting, that the aggressive policy of France
was a storm a-head, and that increased armaments
and augmented income-tax would be forced upon
us ; and I concluded a speech two years ago with
the expressions I see you quoted at the meeting—
' Put not your faith in the Emperor of FRANCE,
but keep your powder dry." Speaking of things
more within their immediate recollection, Mr.
HORSMAN adds, for the refreshment of the memory
of his somewhat obtuse constituents—" Towards
the close of last session of Parliament (on the 9th
of August), I protested against the English Minis-
try becoming so much the French EMPEROR'S par-
tisans in Italy. I warned them that he had
ulterior designs of French aggrandisement,
and that they would find themselves deceived
and embarrassed by complicity in his acts." And
further, he writes : "In the first week
of the present session the Chancellor of the Exche-
quer, when announcing the treaty, asked the House
of Commons if under any conceivable circumstances
the alliance between France and England could be
too close P I replied immediately, That our
alliance with France could be too close when it
separated us from the other Powers of Europe.'
This was on the 27th of January, and on the 14th of
March I again urged on the Government the neces-
sity and the duty of drawing closer to other conti-
nental Powers, and especially of combining with
Prussia against the common danger from France.
There seemed at that time no hope of such a policy,
yet, within a fortnight from that day (on the
26th of March), Lord JOHN RUSSELL, in answer to
another appeal from me, announced, amid the cheers
of the house, that the eyes of the British Ministry
were opened at last to their grievous error, that
they were now freeing themselves from that special
alliance with France which the Chancellor of the
Exchequer had vaunted, and were seeking those
other European alliances that I had ventured to
recommend." Mr. HORSMAN'S remarks might very
well have ended here. No one, however, can wonder

at his adding immediately :—" Yet, while all Eng-
land is applauding this change of policy
which gladdens the heart of every Liberal in
Europe, there are speakers at the Stroud meet-
ing, differing, I venture to say, from the senti-
ments of electors of every party in every other
constituency, and censuring me for my distrust of
France." Than this nothing could be more ad-
mirably or more forcefully put. In disproof that
the pursued by him was in any way calcu-
lated to excite war witi. our French neighbours,
Mr. HORSHAM quotes the remarks uttered by him
in the House of Commons on the 13th ult., when
he spoke thus :—" The whole question is this, what
is the policy that leads to war ? Is it a policy of
firmness ? Because I cannot but recollect an
occasion, not very long ago, when divided counsels,
leading to compromise and tending to weak-
drift us into a most disastrous
ness, did
war •
pys And he asks, " Was I singular in these

views ?" Answering his own query by
saying,
very truthfully, " There is now a very general
opinion in the House of Commons that if Lord
JOHN RUSSELL had delivered a month ago the
speech that he delivered last week ; or if the
Ministry at an earlier period had declared, No
Savoy for France, or no commercial treaty with
England ; no Savoy for France, or no special alli-
ance'--the Savoy difficulty never would have
arisen. And lam informed that this is also
the language of the Emperor of FRANCE, who
complains that the English Cabinet have misled
him, as they misled the Emperor of Russia into the
Crimean war, and as they misled the French Em-

peror himself on the Conspiracy Bill.'.' We cannot
possibly refrain from quoting the next two sen-

:onus, where Mr. HORSMAN writes—'

" The resolu-

tion of the meeting condemned my votes and
speeches on the commercial treaty and the budget;

but, so far am I from regretting them, that I have
now the satisfaction of seeing opponents in all
directions coming round to my opinions. There

is scarcely an independent organ of the press
that has not modified its approval both of the treaty
and Budget." We at any rate have had nothing
whatever to modify. Our opinion has, like Mr.
HORSMAN'S, been entirely and absolutely consistent
throughout. We can refer as confidently to the

files of our journal in proof of this—as confidently
as Mr. HORSMAN has done to his speeches both
in and out of Parliament. The whole position
assumed against the Government of late by an
independent member like Mr. HORSMAN, and by
an independent organ like The Sun, is expressed
epigramatically in that one alliterative sentence, in
which the right hon. member for Stroud, speak-
of Lord PALMERSTON, observed that he (the Pre-
mier) was "doubly disqualified" (from the conduct of
affairs)—" from having tried with _Reform and
truckled to France !" Enough. The truth, the
whole truth, has been spoken, now, right out—and
Mr. HORSMAN stands forth perfectly vindicated—
even (we cannot but think by this time), upon
second thoughts, in the estimation of his own
constituency.

At a time when our system of Parliamentary
representation is under discussion and dissection it
may not be without advantage to ascertain how
similar matters are arranged elsewhere. They
certainly manage these things differently—if not
better—in France, though we should hardly advise
our Reformers to take a lesson from that school.
The vast advantages which some claim for universal
suffrage, even when the voter is unprotected, receive
some curious illustrations, and we may obtain addi-
tional evidence, if we choose to go so far for it, of
the utter futility of giving votes to men who are
bound by their circumstances to vote only one way.
In the current number of the Revue Indepenclante'
a serial of much ability, to which we have before
had occasion to refer, we find an article headed
" Un Election de Depute au Corps Legislatif en
France;" and although we must bear in mind that
the journal in question is emphatically and decidedly
opposed to the Emperor of the French, and the
pamphlet of which it treats is from the pen of a
defeated candidate, still there is little doubt that a
good deal of truth may be found in its strictures.
The information which it gives us is derived from
a curious brochure recently issued in France, con-
cerning the elections of Fougeres and Vitro, in the
department of Tie et Vilaine, which embodies the
protest of M. LEBESCIIU against the election of his
rival. M. LEBESCHU, it appears, is a justice of
the Imperial Court at Rennes, and has filled
the honorable office of magistrate during a
period of thirty-five years; consequently we
can hardly suppose that he would lightly
put forward a statement he could not substantiate,
or stoop to a tissue of deliberate falsehoods in order
to depreciate his rival. In his pamphlet he offers
proofs of the assertions he has made, and from the
fact that none have been demanded we may infer
that they are only too credible to make further in-
quiry desirable on the part of the authorities.
According to M. LEBESCHU, the election for a
Deputy was to take place in the united districts of
Vitro and Fougeres on the 18th and 19th of De-
cember last. On the 22d of November, nearly a
month previously, the Prefect of the Department
issued a circular, in the name of the EMPEROR him-
' self, recommending to all the mayors the election
of M. DE DALMAS, the second clerk of the EMPE-
ROR'S Cabinet. They were ordered to support his
election, and were further called upon to forward to
the Prefect a detailed account of the electoral posi-
tion of their communes. By way of encouraging
their efforts, they were reminded that the election
of a candidate who had such opportunities of access
to the EMPEROR could not but be most advanta-
geous. A few days later another circular is
addressed to these unfortunate mayors, calling
upon them to forward to every elector a voting
paper with the name of M. DE DALMAS, at the same
time as the official ticket giving them the right to
vote. A public proclamation, inviting the electors
to espouse the cause of the Imperial candidate, fol-
lows, while confidential circulars again appeal to the
mayors, desiring them to take note of those perverse
voters who support his rivals. At the bureau
only voting papers in the name of DALMAS are to
be had, and in the immediate neighbourhood intel-
ligent persons are charged with the distribution of
similar papers. The ♦irtues of M. DE DALMAS are
painted in rosy hues, while his opponents are, of
course, described as proportionately evil, abettors of
anarchy and factious democrats. This, we should
think, about enough of Government interference on
this side of the Channel ; but it seems it does not yet
infringe the liberty of the subject according to the
Imperial code. M. LEBESCHU, a magistrate, and
therefore an authority, divides the doings of which
he complains into different chapters ; and the acts
hitherto referred to do not come under the head of
his second chapter, " Acts exceeding the limits per-
mitted by the electoral law." Among these latter
offences he ranks the personal presentation of the
Imperial candidate to the authorities by the Pre-
fect, and the liberal promises made by that gentleman
according to the wishes of each locality he visits.
Thus one commune has its commissary of police
withdrawn, that it may be relieved from paying
that functionary. Also the votes of the worthy
class,whom we should style licensed victuallers, are
secured by permission to keep their houses open an
hour later. After this tour, which occupies ten
days, the Prefect and his protege continue their
efforts, ably seconded by the Sous-Prefet. The
postmen, the gendarmes, the sellers of tobacco, all
whose employments bring them in any way within
reach of Government influence or authority are
pressed into the service. On the day of election a
body of agents is specially sent from Rennes
by the indefatigable Prefect, to direct affairs.
One of these heroes, not being sufficiently active,
is dismissed on the spot, as the national proverb
has it, "pour encourager les autres." Whose who
distribute other bulletins than thong, of M. do
DALMAS are arrested. The withdrawal of licenses
is freely threatened if their holders.vote the wrong
way. Gendarmes enter the voting room and insist
upon seeing the bulletins used. They impose upon

timid electors those with the name of M. de
DALMAS. In ono of the communes 780 votes were
mysteriously found in the ballot-box, when there
are only 771 electors. In one case a mayor slipped
iwesofuoltdalb,osetent
fpoarrtAiers.,
daesseDrtAiLnmgAtsh. atllniesukenhew
they a
gioov t
cause we cannot suppose that the clergy
would remain idle, and, consequently, some of the
not scruple to recommend to their
parishionerscuresdid .not
from the pulpit the election of the
Imperial candidate. The complaint of M. LE-
BESCIIU is summed 'up in two points :-Ist, That
violence and intimidation were employed against
the electors who supported him ; 2d, that gifts,
promises, pressure, and fraudulent manoeuvres were
usedr in order to procure suffrages for the Imperial
candidate. In conclusion, he appeals to the
Corps legislatif to annul an election so
unfairly brought about ; but, as may be
imagined, the Corps Legislatif has turned
a deaf ear to this 'request. It is also not astonish.
ing to find that the activity of the Parisian police
has done its best to exterminate the dangerous
pamphlet in the capital. Universal Suffrage con-
ducted on this fashion must certainly be more satis-

factory to the Government than to the voters, and
even Mr. COBDEN'S enthusiasm might be damped
by such revelations. The maintenance of an irre-
sponsible dictatorship is assuredly an arduous task,
since it involves the exertion of the Government

nfluenee, and the setting in motion of all the

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THE SUN.
LONDON, FRIDAY, APRIL 6, 1860.