The Sun.
London, England, 1860-01-19 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, THURSDAY EVENING, JANUARY 19, 1860.

supreme electoral power, certainly the one interme-

diate between the most numerous but illiterate,
and the select but most tempted to legislation for
themselves, seems fairest. But if these distin-
guished statesmen are consistent, they, too, cu ght
to be as earnest as any,to give their favourite class
a real representation. They may justly consider
themselves to be in a position parallel with that of
a judge at a trial, who, while he must feel his
superiority to the jury, has yet declared again and
again that he regards the plain practical sense of
the jury as of the highest value to him. So our
statesmen, with all their information and talent,
yet need the jury of an honest public to pronounce
their verdict on the practical worth of their policy.
For this, however, they need to have the unper-
verted sentiments of those to whom they appeal.
As to our Whigs, we hardly know what to say
to them. They ought, by all their professions, to
be most ready to accept our doctrine. Popular
liberty is continually on their tongues ; we ought
to be able to believe them to be sincere. Yet, if
they postpone freedom of election to increase of
electors, we cannot think them so, and this is just
what they do. Not only what they do, but what
they would compel our ROEBUCKS, COBDENS,
BRIGHTS, LINDSAYS, and all hearty Reformers to do.
Extension now, they say—the Ballot when you can
get it ! This policy we denounce as the mockery of
Reform. We have already enough of electors of the
present sort; of borough electors accessible to the
innocents of Gloucester and Wakefield and Nor-
wich fame ; of county and agricultural borough
electors, accessible to the landlord's steward, and
as much at his mercy, electorally, as the slaves in
South Carolina, are to that:of their drivers. What we
need is not an increase of such unfortunates, but

their liberation. We want to give them their own
votes, that we may get at their own opinions, not
at the party wishes of their landlords. And there
are no means of effecting this but that of giving
them the Ballot. The county constituencies, above
all, are a.sham, not a reality.
We call upon _Reformers then to consider whether
they have not been duped by Lord JOHN RUSSELL.
We think they have. He has coaxed them into
accepting extensions of suffrage which Tories
would have given if pressed to do so ; they whisper
among themselves, and we shall get the Ballot and
independence afterwards; but Lord John also
whispers to his timid ones—and his soothing whis-
per is—" Let them have extension as a sop—while
we have open voting they will never have inde-
pendence." Lord STANLEY and his friends avow
that they wish power to be in the hands of the
middle classes. Lord JOHN and his friends prefer
to go lower, but it is to fence off the demand for
reality of representation.

MACAULAY IN WESTMINSTER ABBEY.

JANUARY 9,. 1860.
(From Punch.)

Among the men whose words and deeds
Lie best has taught our time to prize;
Macaulay's honoured coffin lies,
Mid hush of jarring cliques and creeds.
A shadow falls upon his grave
When morning lights the eastern pane ;
And one, when sunset splendours rain
Through the west window of the nave :
That by his recent marble thrown,
Who sang of Nelson and the North,
And " England's mariners" rang forth
in music like a trumpet-tone.
This, by his earlier statue flung,
Who in the lettered reign of Anne
Stands out, serenest type of man,
Best wielder of our English tongue—
Addison, Campbell—such the guards
At our Macaulay's head and feet;
And what companionship more meet—
Of Essayists and Lyric bards—
For him, whose almost boyish breath
The battle-ballad's clarion blew,
And thence heroic war-notes drew,
To breathe a soul through ribs of death—

When the Armada's march he sang,
Along the guarded English steep,
While leaping watch-fires lit the deep,
And village bells defiance rang ?
For him, whose later essays taught
To narrative fresh arts of grace ;
Gave to old truths a novel face,
And new to crystal clearness wrought ?
If with the genial English life
That in Sir Roger charms the mind,
Drawing us closer to our kind,
His brilliant pages were not rife,
Yet let us own the Art that threw
Concentred light on giant men;
Made Clive and Hastings breathe again,
And Laud and Strafford strive anew.

Fitly his resting place is given
With these great dead he loved so well.
Stand on his grave, and you may tell
The chief stars of our English heaven.

From Chaucer's glad May-morning beam,
To Spenser's planet rays that warm
Cold Allegory with a charm
Of life, sold given to Fancy's dream—
And Camden's steady light, that falls
In each dim nook of England's past,
Now on some worn inscription cast,
Now on grey tower or minster walls—
And Johnson's, Beaumont's, changing stars,
One moment glad as liesper's glow
With light of mirth :—to tragic woe,
Shifting, the next, like blood-red Mars—
And all the galaxy that fused
Their lesser splendours into one,
When William ceased, and Anne begun,
And state-craft writer-craft abused.

Who knew and treasured of all these
What was worth treasuring, more than he
Who to their silent company
Has last gone down, from life and ease ?
Yet love and skill of letters give
But half his claim to take his state
In our Valhalla, with the great,
Whose names in lettered memories live—

With our historic worthies, too,
He shared state life : their measure gauged
With rule, where strife of party raged,
Perchance not always just or true ;
Yet, granting error, and an eye
Too prone to wink excuse for friends,
Too sharp for flaw in means or ends
Of those whose camps o'erthwart him lie.
Who shall deny his pen has cast
New life in all wherewith it deals ;
That light from his bright pages steals,
Between the clouds that wreathe the past ?

Who shall gainsay his right to sleep
With those whom England honours most
Whom, while they live, we loudest boast,
- Whom, whey they die, we truliest weep ?

Their Royal Highnesses the Duchess of Cam-
bridge and the Princess Mary are staying at Ashridge
Park, on a visit to Lady Marian Alford. A select circle of
the aristocracy have been invited to meet their royal high-
nesses.

The Duke of Richmond left town on Tuesday to
join the Duchess and family, who are passing the season at
Goodwood.

The Earl of Granville, as Lord President of the
Council and leader of the Ministerial party in the House of
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large circle of the leading supporters of the Government in
the Upper House.
The Earl of Hardwicke will come to town on
Monday from Wimpole Hall, Cambridgeshire. The coun-
tess and family remain at Wimpole for the present.
Lord and Lady Rokeby and the Hon. Miss Mon-
tagu have left Hazelwood on a visit to Lady Marion Alford
at Ashridge Park, near Derkharupstead.
Sir G. C. Lewis left town yesterday for Windsor
Castle.
RARE DOMESTIC EVENT.—We find the following
in a Scottish paper :—At Silverhillocks, Gamrie, the wife of
Charles Wilson, of twin daughters—one born on the 31st
December, 1859, the other on January 1, 1860.
THE EDINBURGH ANNUITY TAX PROSECUTIONS.
—On Monday came before the High Court of Justiciary, at
Edinburgh, the cases of Mr. James Hunter and Mr. Thos.
Pennock for resisting the officers in execution of their duty
while collecting the above tax. The jury returned a ver-
dict of acquittal in both cases, an announcement which was
received with loud cheers.