The Sun.
London, England, 1860-04-25 00:00:00

continually decreasing, compared with seventy-
eight thousand acres and 2,500,000 inhabitants, and
the latter continually increasing! Two things
combine to preserve the present monopoly—one
that the worthy old gentlemen who form the City
Parliament hold up their hands if a word is said
about extending the sacred boundaries, and exclaim
Privilege ! privilege ! And all good Conservatives
and Conservative Liberals look grave at that cry.
Another that the suburban people see nothing in
the Corporation to make them wish to participate
in civic honours. From time to time the reports
of debates and proceedings in the mimic Parlia-
ment of the City appear in the papers. Who reads
them? Hardly an individual in the rest of London,
and few, indeed, in the City itself, unless their
pecuniary concerns are likely to be touched. If it
be justly a reproach to America, as Lord GREY says

it is, that the most educated, wealthy, and intelli-
gent classes hold aloof from public affairs, noto-
riously is this the case in London. Not one of the
first-rate men who transact their business in the
City ever dream of accepting even its highest
honours. They would rather pay any fine than do
it. Worthy citizens, no doubt, shrewd men of
business—those members of the old Corporation, and
we should not wish them to be altogether super-
seded ; we only want the City Corporation to be a
body which men who combine taste and cultivation
with business habits should not feel it beneath them
to belong to. It may be replied, the present Cor-
poration would rather be without them. Just so.
And, just because it would, we should say it wants
them.

London, however, is a problem which all Govern-
ments seem to shrink from handling with a view to
solve its difficulties. They increase, and will in-
crease with its extension. A small, but half para-
lysed attempt has been made by the creation
of the Metropolitan Board of Works, but its ob-
jects and powers are so limited that nothing can be
deduced in the shape of argument from its work-
ing. What it does, however, it will do with
a view to the benefit of the whole metropolis,
and why should not all questions be dis-
cussed with a view to their bearing on the inte-
rests of all parts of London ? If the representatives
of Whitechapel met those of Belgravia, and the
representatives of North London those of the
Borough in common council, is it conceivable that
a more general and kindly feeling of interest in
the state and concerns of all would not be dif-
fused throughout the whole of London? The
debates of such a council would have real
interest, and men of the highest standing
would not shrink from taking part in them and
presiding over them. With these general views
we can feel but little interest in this little bill—it
can't do much harm—the adroit old gentlemen
who manage city matters have taken care
that it shall not do much good. If
the bill should pass, and anything termed
a reformed council be elected, we should
perhaps, test them first in a small matter between
us and the City—we should ask them whether they
were reformed enough to reform out of our way
the unsightly old obstruction to vehicles and foot
passengers so justly named Temple-bar.

A spirited meeting was held yesterday, at the
Guildhall Coffee-house, of Reformers from all parts
of the country, to confer on what should be the
course of earnest Reformers. It was well attended,
perhaps the best meeting which has yet been held
under the auspices of the Parliamentary Reform
Committee, Many of the really Liberal members
of Parliament were present, also gentlemen who
had come from almost every district for the purpose
of attending the meeting. A unanimous and hearty
spirit pervaded the conference, and we especially
noticed one thing—that the firm tone held by
Lord JOHN RUSSELL in his treatment of Mr.
MASSEY, and the determination he expressed on
the part of the Government, obtained for him a
measure of approbation which we have not known
him receive from a public meeting for some time.
There appeared to be more disposition than of late
to believe him to be a sincere Reformer himself,
though hampered by less advanced colleagues.
Even those who held that he ought to have given
us an out-and-out Reform Bill, and on its rejection
to have thrown himself on the country, yet thought
he had done all he could with the present Cabinet
and the present House, and did not deny that the
best course now was to insist on having what he
had offered ; and on the new basis, when acquired,
to make further efforts.
Mr. MASSEY came in for unmeasured censure.
Indeed, from the tone of the remarks, we gathered
that his treacherous notice of motion was the first
thing which suggested calling the meeting, and
that one of its principal objects was to warn re-
creant Whigs that their slippery ways will not be
tolerated by the constituencies. Mr. MASSEY will
yet in all probability hear from his constituents in
a style which will convince him that asking for
another member for Salford court not atone in their
eyes for endeavouring to stop a measure of fran-
chise extension. It appears that a memorial is
preparing at Salford requesting the hon. member
to vacate his seat for that borough, as his views on
the great question of Reform are no longer in har-
mony with those of the majority of his constituents !
It was strongly suggested, also, that Mr. JAMES
ought to receive a memorial from the Reformers
of Marylebone. Discontented Whigs had better
take care ; their supporters will not allow them
with impunity to refuse as their representatives
what, however short of their wishes, they have
made up their minds, is too good to be lost.
The meeting was decidedly in favour of an ap-
peal to the country should the present bill be
refused ; and several speakers commented severely
on the disparaging tone in which members of both
houses, and some of the press, too, had spoken of
the working man. Two persons, evidently of that
class, and who would obtain a vote under the
new bill, spoke exceedingly well and shrewdly,
and interested the meeting quite as much as any
of the more educated speakers present. One could
but think that perhaps half the members in the
house could not have spoken with more moderation,
sense, and point, and most of us would often prefer
a little of such natural mother wit to the prosy
nothingness we are compelled to listen to.
The final resolve of the meeting was, that if dis-
contented Whigs and Tories should, by any artifice,
combine to get rid of the bill for the season, Mr.
BRIGHT should be requested to bring forward his
measure. This would not be a bad move. If a dis-
solution then took place, or if Reform became, as it
then would, the subject of warm discussion in the
country, then, with the two bills before it, the ob-
structors would receive, we imagine, from the
country a lesson they now little dream of.

Upon the motion of the hon. member for the
county Galway, the house of Commons agreed
last evening to the appointment of a select com-
mittee to inquire how far and in what way the
British Museum might be reorganised. Upon that
select committee a large amount of responsibility
will be devolved. Its members will have to con-
sider among other important matters whether the
various collections which have been gradually ac-
cumulating in Bloomsbury shall at length be scat-
tered. Whether the space, on the contrary, imme-