The Sun.
London, England, 1856-05-20 00:00:00

will the inha,ibitants, the hard-working, industrious,
pale-faced iuhabitants at the East End say to
this ? No scruples of conscience stand in the way
of the recre3 tion of the rich on Sunday ; it is the
affording it the poor, galls the Sabbatarians.

What are we to do now we have done with
Russia ? If we take Lord STANLEY for our guide
there is plenty of work for us ; Representative re-
form he thinks people care but little about ; when
it is attempted he tells us it must be something
worth an qifort ; and this is perhaps the only
topic on which he showed even a tinge of Toryism
in his long political manifesto to his constituents
at Lynn. We know not, indeed, that we ought
to call it Toryism, since he does not seem disin-
clined to improve our representation, if the im-
provement be only an extensive one. We differ,
however, from hire in this. It is one of Lord
Jon:v's follies that he resists every real improve-
ment because it is not part of a great scheme.
Reform or Education —it must be a whole
string of proposals, or he holds it to be not worth
attempting. We, on the contrary, think that if
a proposition have meri t in itself item seldom fail to
be consistent with all that is good in our present
system, and to modify what is bad. For instance
the 101. electoral franchise in counties, the aboli-
tion of property qualification, conferring a vote on
all who pay income tax or assessed taxes, not to
mention th© greater matter of the ballot, are all
and each of them improvements upon the present
electoral system, and any one or all of them might
advantageously be enacted, whether the others
were or not, and it would be so much clear gain.
We are rather surprised thud Lord STANLEY with
his practical turn does not see with us, but pro-
bably this, in his case, is rather to be attributed
to his fondness for an almost mathematical exact-
ness and completeness, than to over-Conservative
tendencies.

For the rest Lord STANLEY is a financial re-
former, an administrative reformer, as army re-
former, a law reformer, a civil service reformer,
an educational reformer especially, an ecclesiastical
courts reformer, or perhaps we should say abolisher,
and last, not least, a Sunday observance reformer.
He objects as strongly as we have done to the
fire insurance duty as a tax on prudence, and to
the paper duty as a vexatious impediment to its
manufacture, and a tax on literature. Indeed,
notwithstanding the struggles of the Chancellor of
the Exchequer, we believe he understands that he
must soon give up the fire insurance duty, or see
the business rapidly transferred to France.
As to education his Lordship does not despair,
on account of the ignominious defeat of Lord
JOHN RUSSELL'S ambitious hodge-podge of reso-
lutions, of our ultimately obtaining at some time
a good system of common school education.
Meantime the cheap press, cheap literature,
lending libraries, and the like, aro together
with competitive examination for the civil service
to advance education rapidly. For our part
we must think that it is to spontaneous
efforts of this kind we must now chiefly look.
Neither people nor Parliament can agree on a
Government system. The Clergy of all denomina-
tions will not allow it ; and if their bigotry does
but generate a vigorous and universal voluntary
effort on the part of the friends of education, we
shall at least save the waste and cost incidental
to Government alininistration and patronage.
Lord STANLEY recognises the necessity of army
reduction and army reform in csmbination. Here
we quite agree with him. It would be monstrous
to saddle us in peace with the cost of a War Army,
but it would be madness to have it so unprepared
for action as it was in 1553. For thc sums we
spent annually on our Army and Nsvy we ought
to have had them ready for any service, and in the
most splendid condition. It is the waste of pub!ic
money which has made the nation indignant ;
col si2.teen or seventeen millions sterling per
annum it is scandalous that we were not prepared •
fir every emergency. A coualiaratively small
army in the highest state of training and disci-
pline, with the militia for a feeler, would be true
economy and efficiency. Oar present number of
troops officered on the H nese G tirds system
would be wanton ,waste. We are glad to see Lord
STANLEY denouncing as an intolerable anomaly
the system of purchasing commissions, and we
are quite sure he will be as decide 1 as a commis-
sioner on the subject as he is when addressing his
constituents. Abolish this absurdity, introduce
effectually promotion by merit, keep the mechani-
cal equipments of the army up to the lvest inven •
tions of the day, a thing which can be done with-
out ruinous waste of antiquated stock for a small
army— teach our men to rough it in home camps
as they must do when they go abroad, and make
the officers work, in time of peace, real work, and
England will be quite prepared to do her part
when despotic ambition again troubles the security
of Europe.
In regard to Law Reform Lord STANLEY men-
tions three especially. He believes that all
thinking men are unanimous that the cumbrous
machinery of our ecclesiastical courts ought to be
done away with ; the only difficulty now is to
what Court the business should be transferred.
It is a disgrace to the great branches of Law that
their jealousy of each other should keep in
abeyance a reform so necessary and so universally
concurred in. He advocates also a simplification
of the process for transferring landed property,
and considers justly enough that the ownership
and actual possession of land being identical, is
the first essential of agricultural improvement.
He strongly advocates the consolidation of the

statutes, and represents the state of the law on

divorce as absolutely disgraceful. Since his ob-

servations the Governrnont Bill for divorce
has been made public. Passing by for the present
the weighty and fundamental question whether

lie wife should not be able to obtain a divorce on
;he ground of the husband's adultery, as well as
he husband in the case of that of the wife, the

bill fails in the one great point of cheap justice.
Divorce, on proper grounds, ought to be accessible
to the poor as well as to the rich. Indeed the

crime for which almost alone it clu be sought is
as much a crime deserving prosecution at the

public cost as theft or fraud. No crime, if cora-
..

mon, would more utterly subvert the foundations

of society. The honour and purity of the mAr-

riage relation is as essential to social existence as

property itself, and ought to be protected on the

same terms. Lord STANLEY comiders that a
Minister of Justice is the grand desid3ratutn for

bringing our whole legal system into harmonious

operation. No doubt he is right ; but the public

mind is not yet made up as to the House of which

he should be a member, or indeed as to the per-

manent or political character of the office. We

heartily wish Lord STANLEY SUCC3SS in his line

of practical reformer. Of one thing we are hap-
pily sure, that he is a reformer from intelligent

conviction, and not for mere popular favour or

party purposes.

Lord GRANVILLE is, it appears, to represent
England as Ambassador Extraordinary at the
CJronation of the CZAR. That he can be
well spared from England is certain ; and,
if no charge
were to be thereby imposed on
the Eachequer,
we should not have the 3lightest