The Sun.
London, England, 1860-04-24 00:00:00

directly withdrawn, withdrawn evasively by a tardy
concession on the part of the noble Marquis, that
the previous question should be agreed to. Yet one
can't help remembering after this " most lame and
impotent conclusion," that the resolutions submitted
to the Upper House yesterday by Lord NORMANBY
were of a nature so apparently threatening that
they had actually constrained Lord COWLEY to
hasten over from the Paris Embassy for the pur-
pose of ensuring their effectual rejection in Parlia-
ment. His Excellency might very well, as it
happens, have left his defence entirely in the hands
of Lord GRANVILLE! The vivacious President of
the Council haring, with an evident relish for the
task, taken Lord NORMANBY'S propositions litercztinz
et seriatim, and carefully dissected them with a
keen edged scalpel of ridicule. Anyone who can
really appreciate the art of an adept in pok-
ing fun, will enjoy a cursory glance down
the cruelly satiric comments of Earl GRAN-
VILLE upon the Marquis of NORMANBY'S
ingeniously involved, and delightfully abstract, and
exquisitely circumlocutory resolutions. Resolu-
tions declaring in so many words " That while the
House fully recognised the necessity of a private
correspondence between the Secretary of State
and her MAJESTY'S representatives abroad, it
was of opinion that all fasts of interna-
tional importance ought to be made matter of offi-
cial correspondence, and as such, to remain on re-
cord for the use not only of the Government of
the day but of their successors in office, to be pro-
duced to or withheld from Parliament by the
Ministers of the Crown on their responsibility ;
also, that the absence of any such record, more
especially if such private correspondence is re-
ferred to in public despatches,' is injurious to the
public service, unjust alike to the Foreign Mini-
ster who made the communication and to official
colleagues at home, and calculated to withhold
important matter from the full and free control of
Parliament." As a series of abstract propositions,
they cannot, of course, be gainsaid—in the
abstract. But it so happens that our English Par-
liament is not precisely a conclave of the one-eyed
philosophers of the Flying Island of LEMUEL GUL-
LIVER. We are not yet worshipping Mumbo Jumbo
in the Mountains of the Moon. We are not abstrac-
tions, living in the midst of abstractions. These
appear to have been the kind of conclusions ar-
rived at by the House of Lords last evening. And
so—Lord NORMANBY'S resolutions fell through, the
house taking into consideration instead the " pre-
vious question." And so—Earl COWLEY may re-
turn again in peace to his position at Paris as her
Majesty's Ambassador.

" Like a door on its hinges, sir, all motion but no
progress," was the criticism we once heard on the
eloquent declamation of a great popular orator who
advanced, however but little, the cause he discussed.
And, subtracting the eloquence, this criticism would
serve well as a description of the debate of last
night on the so-called Reform Bill. Hon, members
talked all the evening, but the only advance made,
if advance it can be called, was Sir G. C. LEWIS'
defence of the Government returns. Mr. EDWIN
JAMES was retained by himself to attack them, but
he certainly did not make out much of a case. At
any rate, the Home Secretary showed that the in-
structions given and the persons applied to must
secure as great accuracy as could possibly be ob-
tained in any such returns. Our readers will
not thank us if we enter into details which,
if they have a taste for them, they can find
more fully in the speeches of the two members re-
ferred to; but we are bound to say that if accurate
returns are a serious object in the discussion of the
bill, we do not think those of the Government
could be substantially amended. Errors will of
course occur, but there seems not to be the shadow
of a doubt that the Government desired an honest
return, and took the most efficient means to se-
cure it.