The Sun.
London, England, 1860-04-27 00:00:00

rjiff SUN, LONDON, FRIDAY EVENING, APRIL 27, 1800.

THE GOVERNOR AND COMPANY, of the
BANK of ENGLAND do gereby Give Notice, That on
and after the 19th day of May next the business of the Bank
of England will CLOSE on SATURDAYS at Three o'clock
in the afternoon; instead of at four, as at present.
April 26, 1,360. JANES ST EWART, Secretary.

METROPOLITAN, COUNTIES, AND
GENERAL LIFE ASSURANCE SOCIETY,
27, Regent-street, Waterloo-place, London, S.W.
CAPITAL £lOO,OOO.
Assurances upon single and joint lives and survivorships.
Immediate annuities, and annuities to commence at a fixed
age. Endowments for children and for expected families.
Credit given fbr half the premiums for the first five years.
Three-fourths of the profits divided amongst the assured.
Policies purchased after five years premiums have been paid.
No charge for policy stamps, or other entrance fees. Loans
on approved real and personal security, in connection with
life assurance. Service permitted within the United King-
dom, in any volunteer corps free of extra premium.
F. FERGUSON CAMROUX, Manager.

THE GENERAL LIFE AND FIRE
ASSURANCE COMPANY.

Established 1837.
Empowered by Special Acts of Parliament.
62, RING WILLIAM STREET, LONDON.
Capital—£l,B6o,ooo.
_

The Directors give Notice-
1. That the ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING of the Pro-
prietors will be held at Twelve o'clock precisely, en SATUR-
DAY, the 12th day of May next, at the Office of the Cora-
pany,f62, King William-street, in the City of London.
2. That at such Meeting the Proprietors who then held ten
or more shares, which they have possessed six calendar
months, may attend and vote.
3. That three Directors, Joseph Dawson, Esq., resigned
George Meek, Esq., deceased ; and James Pilkington, E§q.,
M.P., retire by rotation ; the last of whom, being eligible for
re-appointment, will be proposed. George Scott Freeman,
Esq., Auditor, also retires.
4. That any Proprietors, duly qualified, who shall be de-
sirous of becoming candidates for any of these situations,
must give written notice of their intention at the Office, to the
Secretary, at least ten days previously to the time of such
meeting—By order of the Directors.
April 25, 18GO. THOMAS PRICE, Secretary.

JUL L I N F UND.
COMMITTEE Room-50, NEW BOND-STREET.
The Committee of the Jullien Fund, fearing that the sub-
scriptions have been materially checked by the unfortunate
death of Mons. Jullien, desire to explain that a widow and
others, members of his family, can be protected from want
only by the kind aid of those who appreciate the great ser-
vices rendered by the late lamented maestro to the cause of
the musical education of the English people.
The committee confidently appeal to that benevolence for
which their countrymen are so distinguished, for such
prompt and liberal additions to the subscription list as shall
enable them to do some justice to the memory of M. Jullien,
and at the same time afford adequate relief to his bereaved
family.
COMMITTEE for the DISTRIBUTION of the JULLIEN

Chief Justice Cockburn, giving the opinion of the common
law judges, in condemnation of the arrangement of calling
on any of them to assist the Judge-Ordinary.

Lord CRANWORTH moved that a clause be added to
the bill to prevent collusion between. parties for the purpose
of obtaining a dissolution of marriage.
The clause, supported by Lord Wensleydale, tho Lord
Chancellor, and Lord Chelmsford, was agreed to, and the
bill, as amended, passed through committee.

the last few months there had been a melancholy example
of the way in which the working classes managed their
own affairs. On being told that by agitating they could get
10 hours' pay for nine hours' work, they went out on strike,
exposing not only themselves but their wives and children
to great sufferings. No doubt they manifested great self-
denial and mutual reliance, but these virtues only made
them the more formidable. Well, it was now proposed
not only to introduce such perms into the constituencies,
but to introduce them in large numbers, in some boroughs
increasing the number of electors to ono-fourth, in others
by one half, while in others the new constituencies would
outnumber the old ones. There was thus to be a new in-
fusion into the present electoral body which would lower in
quality the whole aggregate of the borough constituencies.
Now, if an hon. member had any important business to
transact, and wanted some persons to take charge of it,
would he like to go into the lower streets of Westminster or
St. Giles's and take the first half-dozen men he met there,
or would he not feel himself much safer in selecting his
agents from—he would not say Belgravia, but from Cheap-
side or the Strand ? By conferring the franchise on such a
large mass of half-educated people you would not raise the
character of the constituencies, but, on the contrary, must
inevitably bring it down in some degree to the level from
which the new body of electors sprang. (Hear, hear.) Would
that be an advantage? If so, it should be done at once;
but, if it were doubtful, it would be prudent to hesitate be-
fore taking a step which could not be retraced. (Hear,
hear.) Some hon. gentlemen were not aware of the extent
to which combinations such as trade unions and their affilia-
tions were carried. In a recent instance they had seen a
small executive body sitting in London issuing orders and
receiving obedience from all parts of the kingdom. It was
stated that the number of those who were governed by that
executive in London alone was not less than 600,000.
(Hear, hear.) It might be true that all those persons
would npt be admitted to the franchise under this bill,
but a very considerable proportion of them would be
admitted. Supposing that the executive committee, com-
posed probably of men who were energetic, en-
thusiastic, and aggressive, chose to issue their mandates,
how many men connected with that body would dare to
disobey them ? In fact, every man of that body would be
either a voter or a canvasser, and the house could conceive
the immense effect which such a combination would have
upon elections. Hon. gentlemen opposite said that the new
electors would deal injuriously with the taxation of the coun-
try, :and that would be only natural, for all men liked to
shift burdens from their own shoulders to those of others.
But they would also agitate other schemes. When he was
pursuing his canvass at the last election he met many
thousands of that class, and the question was put to him,
" Would he support an Eight Hours Bill ?" He said at
once that question showed how dangerous it would be to
intrust them with the franchise. (Hear, hear.) No sooner
would those men receive the franchise than it might be
expected that they would make the eight hours question, or
the abolition of the tobacco duty, a test for election, and no
doubt some candidates would be found to swallow the test.
(Hear, hear.) The noble lord the member for Stamford
(Lord R. Cecil) had said that, having sat upon several
election committees, he had found that the class usually
bribed were the freemen—persons of the same grade as the
£6 householders. (No, and cheers.) He could give another
proof. (Hear) There were no freemen or potwallopere in

Scotland to be affected by the Reform Act of 1832, and there
had been no corruption among the £lO householders in that
hountry. But in England the old constituency was partly
affected by the dry rot of bribery, and the taint was commu-
nicated to the new electors. In fact, bribery and corrup-
tion extended to the Tweed at Berwick, and there stopped,
for bribery was unknown in Scotland. (Hear and a laugh.)
There was another view which must be taken of this bill.
There had not been much agitation about it, but there had
been some meetings, at nearly all of which resolutions in
favour of manhood suffrage or something of that kind had
been submitted. It was, however, argued by the leading
speakers at those meetings that they should be content with
this bill because it was a step in the right direction, it was an
instalment. (Hear, hear.) Those persons were justified in
regarding this bill as an instalment, and, if it were passed,
they need not fear that the whole sum would not be paid in
due time. (Hear.) If this bill passed, we should have
gone down a certain distance on the slide ; we might still
go on by stages, but it was certain that at last we must
come to the bottom. (llear, hear.) The question had got
a shove which would carry it down the whole distance, and
there would be no standing-point until it arrived at manhood
and universal suffrage. (Hear.) If, however, the house
thought manhood suffrage would benefit the people or im-
prove the representation, why not go to it at once ? (Hear,
hear.) That would save all the agitation which might be
expected from proceeding by degrees to reach that point.
The house might be sure that it would be impossible to go
back when once this step was taken. The opinion of the
late Lord Macaulay upon this subject had been previously
referred to ; but he thought the house would not object to
a short extract from the noble lord's letter to Mr. H. S.
Randall, of New York :
" I have long been convinced that institutions purely de-
mocratic must, sooner or later, destroy liberty, or civiliza-
tion, or both. In Europe, where the population is dense,
the effect of such institutions would be almost instantane-
ous. What happened lately in France is an example. You
may think that your country enjoys an exemption from
these evils. I will frankly own to you that lamof a very
different opinion. Your fate I believe to be certain, though
it is deferred by a physical cause. . . . But the time
will come when New England will be as thickly peopled
as Old England. Wages will be as low and will fluctuate
as much with you as with us. But you will have your
Manchesters and your Birminghams, and in these Man-
cheaters and Birminghams hundreds and thousands of ar-
tisans will assuredly be sometimes out of work. Then your
institutions will be fairly brought to the test. Distress
everywhere makes the labourer mutinous and discontented,
and inclines him to listen with eagerness to agitators, who
tell him that it is a monstrous iniquity that one man should
have a million while another cannot get a full meal. In
bad years there is plenty of grumbling here, and sometimes
a little rioting ; but it matters little, for here the sufferers are
not the rulers. The supreme power is in the hands of a class,
numerous indeed, but select—of an educated class—of a
class which is, and knows itself to be, deeply interested in
the security of property and the maintenance of order. Ac-
cordingly, the malcontents are firmly but gently restrained.
The bad time is got over without robbing the wealthy to
relieve the indigent. The springs of national prosperity
soon begin to flow again, work is plentiful, wages rise, and
all is tranquillity and cheerfulness."
It was said that if they adopted this measure it would be a
settlement. A settlement! When they had the Bill of 1832
before them it was to be a final settlement (hear, hear) ; but
that bill had not been in operation many years until there
arose a cry for the extension of the suffrage. If they made
one change was it not likely that they would be required to
make another ? (Hear, hear.) He was one of the most ardent
supporters of that Bill, but there was a most material dif-
ference between it and the present measure. The electors
then introduced were from £lO upwards. They had then a
constituency composed of all classes—the most highly edu-
cated, the most opulent, the most influential, the higher and
middle, and a considerable portion of the lower classes.
(Hear, hear.) But in the present Bill they had got but one
class (cheers)—a large class--whom there was great danger
of its overweightiug the machine. If it was considered de-
sirable that a certain portion of the working classes should
be admitted to the franchise, there was a way of doing that

without diluting the aggregate body of the electors. , He
should have no objection to give up a certain number of
boroughs to manhood or any other suffrage (a laugh) ; but
don't let them leaven the whole lump with a £6 franchise.
(Cheers.) It was painful for him to differ froin statesmen
for whom he had the highest respect, and whom he held in
the greatest honour four their invaluable services to their
country, but be could not, from the mere influence of
affection, permit himself to appear even to acquiesce
in what he did not approve, nor did he wish that his
constituents should imagine that he had said one thing
to them, and another to the House of Commons. (Cheers.)
-Sir E. B. LYTTON (who was cheered in rising to speak)
said—Eir,—lt is obvious, as had been observed by the hon.
gentleman who has just sat down, that the consideration of
this bill involves a question on which gentlemen opposite
have an interest fully equal to our own; and, therefore,
imitating his example, T will state my views in a spirit that
shall be as free from party bias as I can possibly form and
express it; and as I think it very important that we should
have clear perceptions of the nature of our dispute, and of
the consequences of any mistake' we may commit, I will
first entreat the house to bear with mo for a few minutes,
when I try to consider whether at least we cannot agree as to
the broad principles upon which all good representative sys-
tems must be based. Sir, I will assume that every popular
reformer, and every sound Political thinker, who seeks to
estimate the proper standard at which to fix an electoral
franchise must, in abstract theory, start from the same
point—(hear, hear)—and that point is the prima facie right
of manhood suffrage. Where you find a civilised commu-
nity in which all the members are equally free, and where
by a system of indirect duties every man is more or less
taxed to the support of the State, I can readily understand
that every man should consider that he has a prima facie
right to proffer his claims to vote for those who superintend
his affairs and regulate the machinery by which his welfare
is controlled. But here, from the origin of all political
societies, commences another view of that same question,
upon which reformers may differ—l do not know if they
do—but on which all who are acknowledged to be sound
political thinkers are agreed. And it is—Granting that
every man in a free community may thus put forward
his claim to the electoral franchise, still every member
of a community merges all his individual rights, and
many rights much nearer and dearer to him than an elec-
toral franchise, in the paramount consideration how the
State itself can be best sustained for the general safety and
the social advancement : or, in the words of the hon. gen-
tleman who has just spoken, how the greatest happiness of
the greatest number can be secured from attacks without
L and within, from foreign dangers or its own mistakes, for