The Sun.
London, England, 1860-06-08 00:00:00

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countenance, he but prolongs the reig n of misrule
with the hazard of sharing in the discredit it
brings on all concerned. His first frmpressions
were right, not only for the honour, but for the
future prospects of his party. Can they be so
blind as to imagine that oppositior , to Reform—

come how and when it will—after five announce-
ments from the Throne—after both ti'ie great parties
in the House had brought in Refoi m
after they had ascertained so much common ground
for both sides—can they really imagine that the

country will ascribe their conduct to any but the un
worthiest motives ? It will be said, it is said, that
they were willing enough last year to accept
reform for the sake of keeping in office, but
that this was the only reason ; that they hated
reform while professing to support it, and
that now they have not a sufficient sense of
decency even to preserve-appearances. Again, Mr.
DISRAELI, and we believe Lord DERBY too, clearly
see that to keep the Reform Question unsettled is
to keep a useful card in the hands of their adver-
saries. Once get rid of this subject, in a way which
must last some time at least, and Tories, as in 1832,
accepting the result, would only have to trim their
sails to the change, such as it might be, and devote
themselves to strengthening their position by the
requisite tactics.
If the Tories, and those who are thoroughly with
them iu heart, the old Whigs, who only nominally
belong to the Liberals, should succeed in getting
the bill withdrawn for the session, it will be by a
proceeding which will sink their public character
for a long time to come. The QUEEN, the members
of successive ministers, and the House have all
become pledged to reform our representation. A
bill is brought in so very moderate, that
it were hopeless to expect one making less change
in the representation, the real fear being that it
makes so little as to endanger something more
being soon attempted. The leader of the Opposi-
tion sees all this, and wisely bows to necessity ;
and yet, against their own Ministry and against
their own leader respectively, Anti-Reform Whigs
and hot Tories continue to defeat this bill. But
the worst is, they dare not do it like Englishmen.
They accept the principles of the bill without a
division, because they dare not vote against them,
but they interpose a mudbank of useless speechifyin g
to delay its progress. The time comes when they
are called on to go into committee, and when they
might face boldly its principal clauses—but still
they skulk from the stand-up fight, and talk
again, without stint, on going into committee. We
do not recollect anything more shabby in Parlia-
mentary history. Dunces are now at a premium in
debates, since they can talk if they can do
nothing else—and that is all that is wanted. There
is no real motion to be considered—no business to
be done ; the only thing wanted is to wear away
the time. Privates of all sorts are trotted out to do
their part—speakers whose speeches it is useless to
report because no one would read them ;—it is, in
fact, the battle between Duncedom and Reform.
Now, how long is this to go on ? We trust
Lord PALMERSTON'S coming out so ably last night
is an intimation that he does not mean to be beaten.
Both he and Lord J. RUSSELL spoke admirably to
the main point, and we do not think they can afford
to yield. In a straightforward conflict with the Op-
position, under the only general qualified to lead it,
they might have been vanquished even without
loss of reputation ; but to be run down by a crow
who have just run away with theio own leader
will be a disgrace not easily to be retrieved.

Was it not SIDNEY SMITH who wickedly main-
tained
that it required a surgical operation to get
a joke into the head of a Scotehman ? And might
we not, with a far greater show of reason, insist
that it requires nothing less than some such opera-
tion to force a real and obvious metropolitan im-
provement upon the acceptance of a Chief Commis-
sioner of Public Works ? There is that little
opening into St. James's Park at the corner of
Spring Gardens ! How long have we been hop-
ing and hoping that it might be widened from
a wretched little flagged footpath between two
walls, into a broad carriage way leading from
the Mall into Trafalgar-square ? How often in
these columns have we not argued in favour of
opening at this point a noble entrance into St.
James's Park ? It was here, indeed, that it was
proposed at one time to build up again the
Marble-arch at the time of its removal from the
the central point fronting the facade of Bucking-
ham Palace. The vicinity of the Edgware-road,
however, was deemed a site in every way more
suitable ! -It stands there now—that useless but
beautiful Folly of the " First gentleman in
Europe"—cheek by jowl with a little historic
slab announcing to her MAJESTY'S lieges—'

Here

stood Tyburn Gate." Nob and Snob, arm in arm,
were nothing to such a contrast as that. It is
as the carriage of a peeress in her own right,
with a lozenge on the panels, and JAMES and
CHAWLES on the footboitrd with their Drawing
Room nosegays, their heads powdered with an
extia shake of the flour dredger, and their silken
calves in a state of more than usually glossy

protuberance---it is for all the world like some
such superlatively Corinthian " turn-out" by
the side of a costermonger's tray upin wheels—

that Marble Arch standing by the side of the grim
memorial tablet commemorative of the spot once
hallowed by the caudine-forks passed under (vainly
for reprieve !) by every doomed hero bound for
Tyburn gallows! However undesignedly it has
sprung into existence—it is a contrast that
preaches perpetually and unceasingly (mid-
way between Mayfair and Tyburnia) to the
old text of ranitas Vanitatum. Other than for
which, there is no earthly use whatever (not even
that appertaining to an appropriate ornament) in
any way at all discoverable in that Carrara Folly of
our Fourth GEORGE—serving only as it does to
mark the contiguity of " stony-hearted Oxford-
street," and the dilapidated Edgware•road. It

is only exasperating, in fact, to think, now when it
is too late to remedy the matter, that the one op-
portunity was wantonly lost—that the only appro-
priate site was absurdly rejected, by availing our.
selves of which betimes we might have really
turned that Marble Arch to some advantage. Even
now that site may, for a comparative trifle, be turned
vet to some good account—meaning the point we
have here already indicated—namely, the corner of
Spring Gardens !
When—after the demise of the late Earl FITZ-
HARDINGE—oId Berkeley House was razed to the
ground, and the fragments of it were carted away
for what it was worth, as so much rubbish ; when
the Board of Health (determined at last upon vacat-
ing their temporary and insalubrious retreat in
Gwyder House upon the banks of the 1 Names)
bought the plot of ground once occupied by
Berkeley House, and there set about raising for
themselves a permanent residence—the wcrk of

reconstruction was wisely commenced a foot or two
further back, so that the little paved pathway
leading into St. James's park was secure at least
of being so far widened. But it now turns out
that there, on
the opposite side of that still nar-
row pathway, stands a tenement that is Crown
, property—a house now let, it is true, but with no
more than eleven years of the old lease yet to run.