The Sun.
London, England, 1860-01-23 00:00:00

1. Nil Nisi Lonum

2. Invasion Panics.
By Thomas Hood.
3. To Goldenhair (from Horace).
1. Franiley Parsonage. Chapter IV. A Matter of Conscience.
Chapter V. Amantium irze amoris integratio. Chapter
VI. Mr. Harold Smith's Lecture.
5. Tithonus. By A tired Tennyson.
6. William Hogart h. Painter, Engraver, and Philosopher,
Essays 01i the Man, the Work, and the Time. 1. Little
Boy Hogarth.
7. Unspoken Dialogue. By IL Monckton Milnes. (With an
II lustrat ion.)
S. Studies in Animal Life. Chapter 11.
9. Curious if True (Extract from a Letter from Richard
Whittingham, Esq.)
10. Life among the Lighthouses.
11. Lovel, the Widower. Chapter IT. In which Miss Prior is
kept at the Door. (With an Illustration.)
12. An Essay without End.
London : Smith, Elder, and Co., 65, Cornhill.

BENSON'S WATC H E S.
" Perfection of mechanism."--Morning Post.
Gold Watches 4 to 100 guineas.
Silver Watches
33 and 34, Ludgate-hill, London, E.C.
_ _

Bend 2 stamps for Benson's Illustrated Pamphlet on Watches

ROYAI,

'ENGLISH OPERA,
COVENT-GA RDEN.

Under the management of Miss L. Pyne and Mr.W. Harrison.
THIS EVENING, VICTOI{INE. Messrs. Santley, 11.
naigh, H. Ccr7l, G. Honey, Walworth, Sm. Misses Parepa,
Thirlwall.

—.....----
rEnE. Certainly the similitude here suggested has
been so far carried out in the House of
Commons time after time, that the guests

here scssionally assembled together, instead

of finding any substantial banquet served up for
amicable discussion, have only found themselves in
hot water before their final escape through the

glass doors, towards the middle of August, with a
shower of empty dishes and platters hurled after
them by the Ministerial TIMON of the Hour, in the
shape of incomplete Sel,ernes and abandoned Bills,

and that general battue of abortive measures,
known in the early autumnal season as the Mas-

sacre of the Innocents.

Employing yet another, certainly a more
hackneyed, but (in excuse for its renewed

introduction here it may be added) a sin-

iplarly appropriate illustration of the national

"situation " for some time past in reference to

Reform—it will surely be recognised at the

merest hint how very obvious the resemblance

has been all along between JOIIN BULL sitting down
in Parliament every successive February with the
broad sheet of a newspaper tucked under his chin
for a table napkin, with a keen relish for the ex-
pected Reform, a large and wholesome appetite, and
a healthy and vigorous digestion— and our old
friend SANCHO PANZA, with all the good things
swept off the board by the mandate of the State
Physician, like one of the most deftly managed con-
juring tricks in the harlequinade of a Christmas
pantomime.
TANTALUS starving in Hades among the
delicious fruit pendant all but within reach of

his ravening mouth and hands—was manifestly
the particular prototype passing through the
mind of Lord DERBY when, nearly two
years ago, he spoke of Reform being sys-
tematically kept " dangling" before tantalised
Englishmen.
. Awakening at last, as we hare said,

to the absurdity of this position, the most con-
scientious (of course !) and in every way admirable
of our reformers, such men as Mr. BRIGHT, for
example, and his quondam chief, Mr. COBDEN,
arcades ambo, have resolved at length to satisfy
themselves, so to speak, with a sip and a nibble—
incited thereto apparently by their failure hitherto
in the attempt to cram the national maw to repletion.
Oblivious, very conveniently, in their precipitAte
arrival at this somewhat startling anti-climax—

wholly and absolutely (and we cannot but repea
very conveniently) oblivious of the notorious and
indisputable fact, that last year, in the spring of
1859, they might really and truly have had just any
measure of reform they pleased. They shut
their eyes to the past, however, as resolutely as
they are now doing in regard to the future. They
ohoose not to remember how not a twelvemonth
since they emulated the wisdom of lEsoP's dog
crossing the stream on that plank which is the
pons asinorum of the old Greek fabulist—drop-
ping the substantial Reform Bill of the Derbyites
(that might have been cooked to a turn in Com-
mittee) to snatch at the shadowy reform bill of
the new Coalition Government. And now, for-
sooth, instead of having any formal and well
arranged banquet of Reform at all,, we aro to
have some wretched little mouldy crust thrown to
us by way, just for the moment, of staying our
appetite !
The honourable member for Harwich (son of the
Lord Chancellor)—an excellent reformer himself, a
bold and determined and -consistent advocate, among
other great measures of the measure of all mea-
sures, namely, the Ballot—the Hon. W. F. CAMP-
BELL puts the matter quite plainly in half a dozen
sentences delivered in the course of his speech on
Saturday evening to his constituents. Delivered,
by the way, at a hotel in Harwich called the Cups
dreadfully suggestive of the " slip " that rhymes
to " lip "in the proverb. " Experience," said Mr.
CAMPBELL, on Saturday—[for, alas ! he too is clearly
in some measure infected by the prevailing politi-
cal epidemic of concession resulting often in a
distinct compromise—but then to be sure the hon.
gentleman is son of the Lord High Chancellor !]—
" Experience," said the member for Harwich, " was
ready to convince them that as regarded the amend-
ing of the Reform Act of 1832, El attempts at a
large and final legislation had met as yet with failure
and disaster. In 1848 the late Mr. O'CoNxou in-
troduced a scheme of large and comprehensive legis-
lation ; but it met with no support from any order
of society. In 1849,1850, and 1851 Mr. HUME at-
tempted a scheme not very far dissimilar; but it
met with no response, except aversion in the House
of Commons and indifference from the people. Lord
JOHN RUSSELL in 1852 introduced a large and com-
prehensive scheme, but in ten days it overthrew
1854 the Earl of ABERDEEN,
his Government. In
blind to all those lessons, tried a large and compre-
hensive scheme, but it met a similar repulse,
although not once. In 1859—and they saw he had
brought them down to times at once recent and
familiar—the Earl of DERBY, blind to those im-
pressive antecedents, introduced a large and com-
prehensive scheme, which overthrew his Govern-
ment amid the loudest marks of public reproba-
tion." An excellent and timely historical
epitome undoubtedly ; but, with a little
adroit reticence in the last mentioned par-
ticular—in that little closing reminiscence. Not
a syllable it will see about the Whig '• dodge" that
alone led to that final rejection—an intrigue that
must not be mentioned nowadays to ears polite
—particularly seeing that it all leads only to this
" most lame and impotent conclusion "—a bit-by-
bit Reform in the system of representation !
Notwithstanding our regret that a staunch
advocate of the Ballot like the member
for Harwich should evidence any leaning
whatever towards Mr. COBDEN'S specious
and illusory project of a compromise eminently
convenient, of course, for the Whigs and their
associates in the Administration—a compromise
designed to render Reforms, thus slowly dribbling
forth, "a lengthened sweetness long drawn out."
We rejoice to note that Mr. CAMPBELL, at any
rate, adds immediately upon this avowal a most
suggestive alternative, to wit,—" He could not
help thinking that the N
electorsrotofectthioisn kingdom,
if they really did de ire that p
they had heard so much, were bound to point
out briefly asd respectfully to the statesmen
who conduct affairs that one of two things they
would have—either a large and final measure which
comprehended the Ballot, or an admission that the
bill which was promulgated was not to be regarded
as a settlement upon which they meant afterwards
and almost immediately to improve." There is only
one thing better, to our thinking, than this alter-
native—namely. the insisting at once upon a large
and comprehensive measure of Reform, the sine
qua non, for the acceptance of which by all the
independent Reformers in the House should be the
concession of the Ballot by all the sixteen members
of the Coalition.
Unfortunately the only report of Mr. CAMPBELL'S
speech
eat llarwich, that had reached us in time
present edition, appears to be in many
places exceedingly erroneous. In a later edition,
however, we purpose giving a more accurate record
of the words actually spoken by the hon. gentle-
man.

To-morrow her MAJESTY opens Parliament in
person. The Royal Speech will not, of course, en-
able us to anticipate the proposals of her MAJESTY'S