The Sun.
London, England, 1860-04-30 00:00:00

UGLY SYMP7OMS.

We have drawn upon ourselves piteous remon-
strances by venturing to liken this halting Reform
Bill to a sickly innocent. We are told that, so far
from being innocent, it is the cause of all the
troubles that afflict the country. Just so. It is the
nature of an innocent to turn the house topsyturvy,
interrupt the common household course of things,
expel its progenitor from his own room, and very
often to go off in a convulsion when all the mischief
is done. If innocence could exist only under the
condition of being the cause of no evil, we should
apologise and retract it at once. This Reform Bill
stops everything itself, and does not move itself.
Allthe public business is in arrear. We are nearly
half way through the session, and nothing has
been accomplished. Half the Treaty business has
yet to be worked off. There are the Wine Licences,
when, as the Ministers will have to meet a curious
alliance of knaves and fools, they will have to fight
a hard fight. There are the Paper Duties to be
taken off, and some measure to be adopted to pre-
vent the Emperor of the French putting them on
again for his own benefit. The Stamp Duties are
still unsettled. The wild notions of the Post-office
Secretary, who forgets that he is managing a mono-
poly, and fancies that he is only collecting a re-
venue, have to be corrected at the cost of much
public time. There is not yet a vote passed in
the Committee of Supply. Law Reform, which
stood out so large in the sessional programme,
has had so little chance of hearing that even
the Bankruptcy Bill cannot find an hour
for its discussion; and that Bankruptcy Bill is
more practically important than a thousand Reform
Bills. There is a complete legislative block. So
far as we can perceive, August might find us in the
same position. The debate on the second reading
has now gone on for almost more nights than we
can count, and if nothing be done it may go on for
as many more. To-night Mr. Bentinck takes up
the wondrous tale, and some great fixed star—per-
haps Mr. Gladstone—will rain his light upon the
evening. There is no symptom, however, that to-
night, or even Thursday night, will see the end
of it.

We believe the bill will be withdrawn. It has
long been determined that it shall not pass. The
plain common-sense of the matter is, that the House
of Commons is not inclined to commit suicide. This
eighth Parliament of Queen Victoria is young yet.
It has a right to consider that it has a long life be-
fore it. It is not a year old. It is full of youth and
ambition and vigour. It does not want to be cut up
and boiled in the bubbling pot of a general election,
in order to be rejuvenated. It must be a very fas-
cinating Reform Bill which would receive the sup-
port of a House of Commons under such circum-
stances. But this is not a fascinating Reform
Bill. Its very endurance by the Bright party is a
confession of utter defeat, and is suggestive of some
secret compact, perhaps rather tacit and implied
than declared and absolute. To the Derby party
it must be odious, and its only chance of pass-
ing is its becoming under the plastic influ-
enee of a committee just what their Reform Bill
would have become if it had been suffered to
be put under the same process. Decidedly this is
not .a fascinating bill. It is not likely to excite
any English Parliament to any deed of heroism.
There are certain gentlemen in the house whose
seats are secure, and whose elections cost them
nothing, and whose nature it is to make hustings
speeches, who would just as soon it passed as not.
There are also a few Conservative leaders who have
never ceased to regret their own folly in commit-
ting themselves to any reform, and who would per-
haps buy a release from this most disagreeable
pledge, even at the expense of an interview with
their constituents, But, with these exceptions, the
passing of this Reform Bill means money out of
pocket, a month of hard, disagreeable work, and
possibly a fall from the Parliamentary firmament.
Perhaps it might have facilitated the progress of
the bill if a public announcement had been made
that a Reform Act should not be followed by a dis-
solution. The idea, we believe, has occurred to
many, but perhaps it has been thought so candid
as to verge upon indecorum. A maiden may be
very anxious for a husband, a barrister for a brief,
or a politician for a seat, and each may tremble at'
the thought of losing the object of his solicitude ;
but it is part of the respectable hypocrisy of social
life that a perfect and stoical indifference shall
always be assumed in such matters. We believe
that if such an assurance had been volunteered
even Mr. Horsman would have indignantly repu-
diated any suggestion of an unwillingness to test
the confidence of the electors of Stroud. But still
it might have helped the bill.
If the house will not move this bill on or throw
it out, it may be better to withdraw it than to waste
the session. But the worst of this course is that we
shall have the same difficulty over again next session.
The office of leader of the House of Commons will
come to have but one duty—that of advancing a
Reform Bill to a certain stage, and then letting it
drop. There may be a new Sisyphus each session,
bat there will be always the same stone; To-day
Lord John is enduring this purgatory. We do not
pity him. It is the Nemesis which pursues him for
his mistakes in that other world of opposition. We
told him last year, prosy preachers as we were then
thought, how it would be. Day by day, six days
a-week, we tried to induce him to let Lord Derby's
Bill go into committee, and there to mould it. He
would not do so, and here he is, in his own turn, at
the same hopeless work. Not one step has the cause
of Reform moved since Lord John carried his reso-
lutions. Lord John now, as Mr. Disraeli thee, is
laboriously rolling up the stone to the second read-
ing point. Lord John now, as Mr. Disraeli then,
is out of breath, and is giving up the hope of pre-
venting it from slipping down again.
We recur to the advice we gave last year—" Pass
something !" Better for all purposes, public and
private, to pass something. For the conduct of public
business it is absolutely necessary to get this ob-
stacle out of the way, and to pass something. For the
s kl.:0 of our position viith foreign Poy;mrs, hicit, if it
u not at tiiii)noment very threatening, at least
rendors it important that we should be able to

appear before the world as an united nation, it is
most desirable to get rid of all points of internal
discord, and to pass somethirg. For all questions
of administrative reform it is absolutely necessary,
if you would do anything beyond talk about first
principles, and poirilation statistics, and poor law
ratings, to pass something. These are the public
reasons. There are very important and private
reasons also. To every man who works in hope of
a little grouse shooting this year or next year we
would suggest that his interest renders it of the
utmost importance that he should pass something.
To the Tory who wishes to see his way into some
small little oasis of office we suggest that he cannot
hope fora chance while this fatal engagement stands
in the way. The Conservatives have signed the
bond, they have sold themselves to that county
ten-pound demon, and they can never be free until
they have passed something. To the Whigs it may
be hinted that they will not be allowed to go on
for ever producing little models that won't work,
clumsy little machines that will not get the
steam up. They must do their work soon, or
it will be taken out of their hands. They have
promised Mr. Bright to jump into that quart
bottle, and now that Mr. Bright is not in a con-
dition to be very truculent they had better com-
promise by performing some more possible trick,
and—pass something. Pass something—some-
thing that all parties will agree upon. We don't
presume to prescribe, but something that will pass
oilily through both houses. Arrange the machi-
nery, if you will, so that the registration shall re-
quire two clear years before a dissolution can take
place. Declare publicly that so small an alteration
will not require a dissolution. Leave the seats, if
you please, as they are. According to present ap-
pearances the places you intended to enfranchise
will only use their power to send railway men to
Parliament, and this interest is quite strongenough
there at present. Compromise the matter in any
way, but do put an end to this grievous block,
and let the public business and domestic legislation
go on. Do pass something.—Times.

TILE LIME LIGIIT ON WESTMINSTER

BRIDGE.

For some evenings past the completed portion
of the new Westminster-bridge has been lighted by
the new lime light, and has presented a brilliant
appearance. There are 10 lights on the bridge—
about one third of the number of the old gas lights.
The light is of a pure white colour and of
dazzling brilliancy, making all the old gas burners
in the proximity appear as dull as though they were
burning
in the bright sunlight at noonday. It was
to this description of light that Professor Faraday
referred when he stated it was so intense that it
could be distinctly seen for a distance of 95 miles,
and the correctness of this statement was verified
during the Ordnance survey of Scotland, when one
of these lights, placed as a station mark on the top
of Ben Lomond, was distinctly seen at the Kilock
Layd, between 90 and 100 miles distant. A single
jet of the lime light of medium size is equivalent to
40 argand, or 80 fish-tail gasburners, or to 400 wax
candles ; and its intensity and brilliancy may be in-
creased by augmenting the quantity of gases sup-
plied. As compared with the illuminating power
of common gas, a single jet, consuming four cubic
feet of the mixed gases of hydrogen and oxygen, is
said to be equal in illuminating power to that ob-
tained from 400 feet of ordinary gas. The mode in
which the light is produced is by the combustion of
lime under the great heat caused by the flame of
the mixed gases. A stream of common gas, which
is used instead of pure hydrogen, is conducted
through one pipe, and a supply of oxygen is sent
through a second one, each being attached to sepa-
rate gasholders. These pipes terminate near the
lamp in one single tube, where the gases are allowed
to mix in their way through a curved jet to what may
be called the wick of the lamp, which is simply a
lump of lime, held in close proximity to the mouth of
the curved tube by a piece of metal. In lighting the
lamp the first step is to direct the stream of hydro-
gen upon the lime; it is lighted, and gives forth a
small flame of a pale yellow colour. In a few
seconds after this pale colour gives place to a deep
red, caused by the combustion of the metal cal•
cium in, the lime, under the great heat of the
hydrogen flame. When the lime is in this state
the oxygen is turned on, and instantly the bright
white light is produced, which will continue as long
as the " wick' remains unconsumed. The supply
of lime is kept up by the action of simple clockwork
machinery, which raises the material as it burns
down, at a rate of speed varying according to the
progress of the combustion. There is nothing of an
expensive character about the light, and with ordi-
nary care it may be used with perfect safety. At
present the oxygen gas is conveyed in bags to the
pipes, as the gas-holders provided arc not sufficiently
large to contain the quantity required for the
night's consumption. The works required for the
completion of the remaining portions of the new
bridge are being pushed forward with considerable
activity. The carriage-way and footpath on the
eastern side of the old bridge are in course of re-
moval for the purpose of lowering the surface, and
a large portion of the centre and two adjoining
arches has been taken down. It is necessary to
lower this part of the bridge in order to admit of
persons crossing it during the progress of the works,
as the travelling cranes overhead would be only a
few inches above the highest part of the old road-
way. The removal of the crown of the centre arch
and carting away several feet of the roadway will
afford the necessary accommodation. As soon as
this alteration has been effected on the one half of
the bridge the foot passengers will be required to
pass on that side, the western half will be imme-
diately taken down, and its place supplied as soon
as possible by another section of the new iron
bridge.