The Sun.
London, England, 1860-06-09 00:00:00

tion and representation should be inseparable ?"
Put thus—" stripped," as Mr. COBDEN expresses it, I "
of all mystification"—the query certainly comes
as a home-thrust upon the Legislature. There is
no escaping it. The Lords are fairly pinked—but
the foil has yet the button on it ! The time may
arrive, however, the Member for Rochdale himself
takes occasion to intimate, as plainly as words can

well do so, when the thrust may not come so In-
nocuously. A contingency, in fact, which i2as been
pointedly indicated by Mr. BRIGHT, since Mr.
COBDEN'S letter was written, when the hon. gentle-
man the Member for Birmingham, speaking from his
place in the House of Commons alluded on Thursday
evening to the possible advent of those treublous
periods in our future history, " when the House
of Lords should have become omnipotent and the
House of Commons contemptible !" Already in this
important letter of his to the Constitutional Defence
Association at Rochdale, the member for that borough
had put forward the same warning in words just as
forcible though essentially different. Nay, more,
Mr. COBDEN,
.in his letter from Paris, has (in antici-
pation of the possible advent of the same crisis, as
that alluded to by the member for Birmingham)
not contented himself with a sufficiently com-
prehensible warning addressed to the Lords, he
has gone so far as to indicate what in his view
would then be the solemn and bounden duty (in
regard to that branch of the Legislature) devolving
upon the general population. He does so, let it be
borne in mind quite plainly. He writes-0
borne
that principle"—[he is alluding to the hitherto aci-.
witted principle that a majority of the House of
Commons possesses an entirely irresponsible and
uncontrollable authority in imposing, in remov-
i'ng, in adjusting or readjusting the fiscal burdens
of
,the multitude]—" Let that principle of our con-
stitu‘ion," writes Mr. COBDEN, " be invaded, open
the doo.r to the House of Peers to revise and reject
our Bud jets, and what man possessing any self
respect wo.'ild remain in the ranks of a party which
was impoten•t to carry its measures in any one de-
partment of Government ?" In the writing of that
pertinent inquiry'
the right hon.member for Ashton-
under-Lyne nay be said to have received from
the chief among ho political friends and associates
an anticipative hint ,If the withdrawal from office
that would lse looked. for in his instance, in the
event of that presumed contingency ! But Mr.
COBDEN immediately goes on to declare his
views as to the more solemn responsibilities and
duties that would then accordinj to his judgment,
as we have before intimated—deN-olve upon the
masses of the population. ~ If
,Such a state
of things were to arise"—[we will again quote
Mr. BRIGHT'S words indicating precise.lY what
L that " state of things " would be, namely, ~; :when
the Rouse of Lords should have become onznipo!ent,
and the Rouse of Commons contemptible"]—Mn.
COBDEN adds, in so many words—" IT WOULD
ONLY REMAIN FOR THE PEOPLE OUT OF DOORS TO
FIND A REMEDY FOR THE EVIL !" In the force of
these declarations, in their accuracy, as indicative
of the duties incumbent upon "the people out of
doors," we believe, ourselves, fully and firmly—we
coincide to the full in the opinions thus powerfully
expressed by Mr. COBDEN, in his letter from Paris,
and by Mr. BRIGHT, in his speech in the House of
Commons—we believe that such-and-such would
be the duty of the people out of doors—lN,that con-

tin gency !
But we have every conviction that such a
contingency AS the one thus seriously and al-
most, we might say, confidently anticipated, not
only will not, but, we would go the length of
saying, cannot in reason arise. Whatever else
may be the result of the labours of this Committee
in search of Precedents, whatever may be the
nature of their report, we may rest absolutely cer-
tain of this—that the House of Commons will take
good care that, henceforth, the Lords shall not
interfere with the fiscal and financial arrangements
entered into by that branch of the Legislature
which holds, as it ought to hold—and holds alone
and uncontrollably—the purse-strings of the nation.
At the worst, therefore, the recent act of the Upper
House cannot settle down into that formidable
precedent dreaded by the hon. member for Roch-
dale, and equally by the hon. member for Birming-
ham. Meanwhile, the noble viscount at the head of
the Administration has clearly announced it to be
altogether beside the intentions of the Cabinet to
bring Lords and Commons in this matter into colli-
sion. There is every reason as yet to believe that
technically the Lords are authorised to do as they
have done by that sweeping majority of 89, thereby
throwing out the bill for the repeal of the obnoxious
duty upon paper, a tax representing the annual
sum of £1,500,000. The House of Lords are, we
conceive, as clearly in the right technically as the'.
are in the wrong constitutionally. The course not(
before the House of Cc, 'mons is plain enough.
Let that course be resohttetj and consistently pur-
sued, and the Commons will remain in this matter
as entirely sans peter et sans raproche as ever was
BAYARD the Dauntless.

Hungary' is as much an object of interest to our
free country as Italy or Sicily itself. The last,
indeed, attracts our anxious -et hopeful attention,
for the hour, from almost every other spot ; we will
not, however, overlook the battle which is now
waging, on less equal terms in some respects, between
Hungary clad her old oppressor. Quite as much
for the future of continental freedom, depends on
the struggle between Vienna and Presburg as on
that between Sicily and the young Neapolitan
despot. And events seem in Hungary and Vienna
to be nearing their crisis ; the meeting of the new
Reichsrath, or Imperial Council, may well be a
turning point in Austrian and Hungarian history.
Long did Austria endeavour, but in vain, to in-
duce any man of station in Hungary to accept the
honour, so suspected amongst his countrymen, of
a seat in the Council. It was declined again and
again, and the noblest of the Hungarians still keep
aloof; at length, with certain reservations, Count
APPONYI and Count ANIYRASSY agreed to attend,
and we suppose the remaining six seats were filled
by political nobodies. On the let the Reichsrath
assembled, when the EMPEROR read to them an
opening speech. At first glance it reads pretty
well, but when scrutinised with perfect fairness, it
appears to us—like every engagement entered into
at all voluatarily by the Jesuit-ridden Hapsburgs,
from the celebrated clause which was the pretext
for commencing the 30 years' war and deluging
Germany in blood, to the issue of the patent of the
Ist of September—it appears to us to contain g-
pressions intended as the ground of despotic and
centralising action.
We might let pass the remarks on the " intimate
connection" of the several parts of the State, or on the
" thousand ties" by which they are bound together,
or on the injurious effect of an attempt to loosen
these ties, though they has e, doubtless, under the cir-
cumstances, a minatory tone ; especially the assur-
ance of the EMPEROR that he " cannot permit it
without violating his most sacred duties to his sub-
jects ;" but hostility to Hungarian demands is ob-
vious in these sentences—" Equal protection shall
be accorded to all the nationalities, and all the pro
"Ices ; with the same privileges and the same
duties, the different nationalities will live together
in brotherly concord, and form a mighty whole."