The Sun.
London, England, 1860-01-27 00:00:00

Commence at 7.

Grand Morninv.: Performances of the Pantomime on Satur-
day, Jan. 28, and Saturdays, Feb. 4 and 11, at Tyro o'clock
each day.
Mr. Cooke respectfully intimates his Farewell Benefit will
take place on Monday, .Jan. 30.

CANTERBUR Y HALL CONCERTS.-
EVERY EVENING. Sterndale Bennett's MAY
QUEEN.
And a Grand Selection from Meyerbeer's new opera of
DINORAII.

Comic Vocalists —Messrs. George !Tolson (the Irish Come•
dian and Mimic), W. T. Critchtleld, and E. W. 3lackney.

Several interesting Pictures are added to the Fine Arts
Gallery. The suite of Halls have been re-decorated and
beautified, and constitute one of the most unique and brilliant
eights of the metropolis.
ROSA BON figUit'S celebrated PICTURE of the HORSE
FAIR is now added to the already magnificent Collection of
Paintings in the Canterbury Hall Fine Arts Gallery. The
gallery is open from 5 till 11 on Sunday Evening.

THE WEATHER.—SITN OFFICE, JAN. 27, 1860.
THERMOMETER, IN TILE MADE.
49—highest since noon yesterday.
46—lowest this morning and during the night.
50—this day at noon.
BABomwrEn-29.30 ; another sudden fall.
WIND, \VN.W., but variable ; light, with dull weather,
and rain in the night.

HIGH WATER AT LONDON BRIDGE.
THIS DAY.—Morning, 4h. 30m.—Afternoon, 4h. 45r a.
To-mottnow.-Morning, sh. Om.—Afternoon, sh. 15m.

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T IIE SUN.
LONDON, FRIDAY, JAN. 27, 1860.

We entirely concur with the Hon. W. F. CAMP-
BELL in his admirable remarks at the Whittington
Club, which appeared in yesterday's &Fun, on the
course which ought to be taken by the Liberal party
in regard to the Ballot and the Government Reform
Bill. His views are, indeed, the same as those
we have for some time entertained and ex-
pressed. Not for a moment doubting Mr.
BRIGHT'S sincerity as a Reformer, or that of those
who work with him, we have said, and we still
think,that regard for Lord JOHN RUSSELL—a half
personal regard, perhaps—has misled them. It
is, therefore, very gratifying to us to see the son
of the Lord Chancellor of England urging
with a force of common sense and logic which
cannot easily be met, the claims of the Ballot to a
place in the new Reform Bill. Mr. AYRTON, also,
at the meeting referred to, spoke with great effect,
and we trust that the result of the whole will be
to embolden Mr. BERKELEY and his supporters to
a more business-like course.

The cry of " obstruction" will of course be raised
by a Knoll knot of formal reformers.
Ve
nor does Mr. CAMPB L anything lef the snoortt:
Heaven forbid we si;sould obstruct any political good
the Whig leaders and the Tiouse of Commons would
do—we know it will be :tittle enough. But
we may be allowed to protest ag vinßt their converting
such good as they would do, in, to a bait—a bait to
catch honest Reformers, and dep..”ive them of the
life of their party. This we believe to be the true
light in which to regard the offer of A cowiderable

extension of the suffrage without protection of the
voter's independence. Mr. BRIGHT and his friends
say—" Oh, let us get an increase of voters, and they
will soon get us the Ballot." It may be so, but vi e
think the chances are quite the other way, and
we thank Mr. CAMPBELL for speaking out in such
manly style on that aspect of the case. We cannot
for a moment doubt that he will do the same in the
House of Commons. Let the House, by all means,
have public notice that if it shelves the Ballot now,
it shall do it with full knowledge of what it is
doing, and that the country also shall know it.
There is, indeed, little need to argue longer the
merits of the Ballot, or to meet the stock objections
of special pleaders, and men afraid to part with
ill-gotten power. What we now want is—busi-
ness. The case is proved. Two hundred and
thirty free members of the Liberal party—that is
more than two-thirds of it—have pronounced it
proved. We must now show that "we mean busi-
ness." Another formal motion for " leave to bring
in a bill" is not the requirement of the hour. Mr.
BERKELEY must take higher ground; indeed, if he
do not, we know that there are gentlemen in the
House disposed and prepared to do so. Feeble,
indeed, will be the impression produced by the
announcement, tacit or expressed," We shall bring
forward our annual bill; but, gentlemen on the
Treasury benches, make yourselves comfortable—if
you reject it, we shall give just as hearty support
to your bill," This is not business. It is moon-
shine. It will produce no impression on a practical
house and a practical people. It will be dismissed
with good-tempered smiles by men in office, and
with sneers by their bitter anti-reforming though
party supporters.
Now, we call on Mr. BERKELEY, and on the
Society of which he is the president, to take quite
another course. Let them come prepared to say—
"We will give you no rest, we will be at you in
every way the forms of the house permit, unless
you allow the Ballot to become a part of the Re-
form Bill." We know how such an avowal
will be met. Those who unite to make
it will be abused handsomely enough by Whig
Members and by Whig journals. " Never mind,"
as old COBBETT would have said, " Your demand
is right—you only make it and stick to it, and you
will see what a commotion you will raise." The
Ballot cause now wants nothing but boldness,
steady, considerate, intelligent boldness, on
the part of its leaders. It is a good
cause, as those leaders well know ; but it
is damaged, from session to session, by being
brought forward, not as a cause which they seem
determined should succeed, but as one only re-
quiring a passable annual speech, or at most two.
When once the leaders speak as meaning to do
something, they will find a debate arise such as we

have not lately had on the ballot.
The consideration which Mr. CAMPBELL pressed
so strongly on the meeting is one of the greatest
weight. If the Whigs can wriggle with their
Reform Bill ou their backs through this session, we
may not soon and easily gain public attention again.
People will say—let us try the new scheme a little
first.

Bat there is a worse result than mere
procrastination to be dreaded. If the Whigs san
but succeed in getting a few elections with their
extended suffrage and without the Ballot, those
few elections will have so trained all the new electors
in the old malpractices, that the diffioulty of carrying
the Ballot may be increased, at the very time that

the need of it will certainly be increased. The
first feeling of the new voters will, we doubt
not, be strongly in favour of the Ballot, but
after they have tasted the sweets of borough cor-
ruption,and worn the yoke of county intimidation,
they will become active or passive opponents of
secret voting.
Not a word, of course, was elicited from Lord
JOHN RUSSELL yesterday on the subject. He
talked enough about punishments for bribery,
but nothing about cutting off the means of tempta-
tion; and not one word did he say about the uni-
versal coercion of the counties. He even deplored
the difficulty of detecting bribery, and yet
seemed quite to forget that he, and the most
intelligent men of his party, had once pro-
posed that it should be made difficillt to
commit. There is no hope from him, if left to his
own course, but there is every hope if the real
friends of the Ballot will open their eyes to their
true position, and announce that they shall now
give up its merely formal adTocacy, and declare that
the Ballot shall be a part of the Reform Bill of
1860.

At a dinner given yesterday evening at the
Albion Tavern, to celebrate the 72d anniversary
of the foundation of the Australian colonies, various

speeches were made, all more or less eulogistic of

the advancement and government of our dependen-
cies at the antipodes. The Chairman, Mr. J. E.
FITZGERALD, in proposing the health of her MA-
JESTY'S Ministers, dwelt at some length on the ulti-
mate separation of the colonies from the mother
country. That Australia will sooner or later become
an independent republic like America few doubt, but
those who anticipate an early day for such an
event will find themselves mistaken. They must
bear in mind that England can never again resort

to the suicidal policy she attempted with her trans•

atlantic possessions. The Australian colonies have
in effect all the advantages of a republican go-

vernment, joined to the protection afforded by their

connexion with the British Empire. The eeeen.
tric Doctor Lang, of Sydney, is the only man in al]
the colonies who has declared for an unconditional
separation, or, as he terms it "cutting the painter"
and the contempt with which his proposition was re-
ceived on all sides gave a fair indication of the feel-
ings of the public. It would have been more satisfac-
tory to the well-wishers of Australia if, at a meet-
ing of gentlemen, all more or less interested in her
advancement, some mentio❑ had been made of that
all-important subject of present agitation—the land
question ; bat what with personal compliments and
other customary formalities the question on which
the real prosperity of Australia depends was over-

looked altogether.
When the flocks and herds of the early colonists
in New South Wales began to multiply, and the
sheep farmers and stockholders to assume the rank
of gentry, it became incumbent on the Legislature
to assign certain districts or " runs" to each and
every one of the numerous claimants of such privi-
leges ; these assignments were necessary to prevent
disputes, and certain laws were enacted regarding
tLem, regulating the number of cattle or sheep re-
quired for a given area. New South Wales was at
that time dependent on her wool and tallow for
her exports, agriculture being little attended to.
Something of the American system of squatting
was resorted to; proprietors sought good pasture
beyond the limits of the surveys, and even the
settlements of the white men. It was their inte-
rest so to do, and the Government encouraged it by
granting runs, with long leases, at nominal rents.
The extent of these runs may be conceived, when
we state that several at the present day exceed one
hundred square miles in extent. The squatters were
not backward in availing themselvesof the advantages
held out by the Government. There were men of
enterprise and spirit amongst them. The first
merino sheep were introduced into the colony by a