The Sun.
London, England, 1856-04-14 00:00:00

METROPOLITAN IMPROVEMENTS.

Mr, WILKINSON submitted the subjoined resolution,
after a brief address, "That the van -us Parliamentary
reports and papers in relation to metropolitan improve-
ments already circulated among the members by order
of the board be referred to the Committee of Works
an I Improvements, with authority to consider and re-
port thereon."
Mr. D'JFFANGER seconded the motion.

Mr.
run LESLIE opposed the proposition. According to
the terms of the moti-n, immense volumes would be
laid before the committee upon which they could not
poAsibly report.
Mr. HALL sugzested that the words " with authority
to con-i. ?er them and report thereon" should be left
out, and that the following should be substituted, " fur
their assistance in considering improvements now, or
hereafter, to be referred to them by this board."
Mr. WILKINSON willingly consented to adopt these
words as part of his proposition.
Mr. Deputy HARRISON believed that the reference to
the c.antnittee should be more extensive, and would
therefore move " that it be referred to the Committee of
Works to consider the present state of general communi-
cation to and in the metropolis, and of the best means
of improving the same, and report thereon to this board."
The PRESIDENT ruled that the words proposed by the
deputy could not be admitted as an amendment.
Mr. Hawkes and Mr. Ware spoke against the motion,
and Major Lyon earnestly besought the board not to
hand over such great powers to a committee. He con•
eluded by proposing an amendment which the President
decided to be irregular.
The motion, on being put, was carried by a majority
of 15 to 12.
Mr. SEELEY moved, " That in order to make provi-
sion fur the proper carrying into effect the 144th clause
of the Metropolis Local Management Act, it be referred
to he finance committee to prepare and lay before the

board an estimate of the se;era.l sums which it will be

necessary yearly to assess upon each parish or district in
the metropolis, in order to rea'ise a stated income of
100,0001. per annum, to be applied to the purposes de-
scribed in the said 144th clause. And also an estimate
of the rate which will be required to raise such sum,
supposing that the whole metropolis be rated in one and
the same proportion." Agreed to.

(.Fran the limes.) ' % 7‘;.,775, r
A Statesman who has for many years spoken an
acted in Parliament with all the advantage thatthe,
support of a large political party, the enjoyment of,
high office, and the possession of enormous patro-,
nage can give him, ought to be very careful indeed.
what measures he proposes when stripped of these
adventitious advantages. Human nature is prone'
to magnify present and to depreciate past great-
ness ; and unless, as is not very likely, his former
success attends the statesman when out of office, it
is sure to be said that all his great actions were the
gift of fortune, and all his failures entirely his own.
Never was the truth of this observation more
strikingly evinced than in the House of Commons
on Friday last. Conscious of the ground which he
had lost in the estimation of the public by. his pre-
mature res;gnation of office and his unfortunate
proceedings at Vienna, Lord John Russell sought
for subject involving enough difficulty to
make it ssettlement, if it should be obtained, areal
and sal ststntial triumph, and enough interest to
rivet upan it the attention of all men and all
etas, es. That which he sought he found in the
question of national education. With great care
and pains, with infinite deliberation, and with no
lit le parade at el flourish, Lord John Ruisell
introduced to the House a se leme which has
proved more u •rly futile and abortiv • than any,
thins we at present nese ober—a soh. me which
u act agains; it every shade of party, ev, ry claUs
of political opinion—a scheme which evcryboly
was ready to attack, and nobody to defend ;
founded, as it appeared to us, in complete igno-
rance of the national character, the sentiments of
Parliament, and the exigencies of the question
itself. It requires con4idertble ta'ents and con-
siderable position, high connections, and great po-
litical experience, to enal le any man to make so
complete a failure as that which Lord John Rus-
sell achieved for Ifmself on Friday night. Had
he not Ilen the person to whom for many years
the Government of the country was intrusted,
whose voice at one time swayed the deliberations
of Parliament, wise introduced and carried one
Reform Bill, and i 3 for ever threatening us with
another, the utter break-down of Lord John Rus-
sell and his me tsure ?rent part
of the piquancy which they now possess. We really
do not believe that if all those votes were deducted
which were .given from personal kindness or from
old recollections Lord John Russell would have
been able to muster 40 members in support of the
scheme to which he looked for the restoration of
his damaged reputation. In vain the Government
generously flung its weight into his scale, the ad-
versa impression was too strong to be resisted, and
the eff,rt to break the fall of the former leader of
the Whig confederacy served but to mark and tes-
tify its completeness.

If we were to point out the causes of the
Parliamentary decline and fall of Lord John
Russell we should assign a conspicuous place to
that predilection for what are called " con.pre-
hensive measures" which Lord John Russell has so
strongly evinced. It is not, so far as we have been
enabled to judge, that he has been in the habit of
seeking very deep for principles, but that he insists
upon dealing with every part of a large question at
once, and thus raising against himself the greatest
possible amount of opposition, while he conciliates
the least posnble amount of support. Having made
his reputation in a revolutionary period, he is apt
to treat subjects in a manner which can only sue-
e=ed when supported by the same amount of popu-
lar discontent as the first Reform Bill. There is a
complete want of sympathy—an utter incompatibi-
lity between Lor I John Russell and the present
House of Commons. -Whether or no we attribute
this phenomenon to the right cause, there can be
no doubt of its existence, and as little, we should
think, as to the solution of the difficulty. Lord
John Russell can scarcely expect to regain the fore-
most place in the deliberations of the House of
Commons; Parliaments, like individuals, are apt to
he swayed by hope rather than gratitude, and it is,
on the other hand, hardly to be asked of him that
he should be content to occupy in such an as-
sembly a second rate position ; his struggles to
regain his lost place are futile as regards himself,
and painful to his friends. We do not sup-
pose, either, that there is anything indiscreet or
improper in adverting to the fact that, -notwith-
standing his long, and in many respects great
services, Lord John Russell is not likely to be
returned again for the city of London, and we
confess that we should see with pain so eminent a
person running up and down in search of a con-
stituency, or driven to the inglorious alternative of
accepting a seat from among the boroughs or
counties which own the influence of the Duke of
Bedford. Late years have, as we have often ob-
served, contributed in an unusual degree to the
destructim of political reputation, and it is expe-
dient on every ground that this process should ho
arrested at the earliest possible period. Little as
we have seen to approve of late years in the poli.
tical career of Lord John Russell, we would desire
for a man who has filled so considerable a part in
our own times, and whose name is doubtless des-
!hie 1 to no inconsiderable place in the history of
England, afirtqc more tranquil and more dignified
ti an that which is promised to him in the House
of C 311.1 M

it is ()he of the many useful functions of the
House of Peers that it offers to the politician who
can neither maintain the foremost place nor grace-
fully descend to the second a harbour of refuge in
which his shattered political barque may ride at
anchor safe from the storms that rage without.
That assembly, in which Lord Cha ham and Sir R.
Walpole sought repose at the end of their stormy
political career, might surely perform the same
good office for Lord John Russell, and in his person
a title ever memorable in the political history of
England might be revived. We do not believe
that among the friends and supporters who s ill
remain to Lord J-im Russell there is one who
would not read with a feeling of relief the an-
❑ouncement that his long and checkered career
iu the House of Commons had at last come to a
• close, and that he had accepted an honourable
retirement from the fierce contests of party which
his long services have undoubtedly merited, which
is suitable to his birth and his station, and which
seems the only alternative left that can free him

from a succession of mortifications and humiliations
such as no one either of his supporters or oppl-
nents would willingly see heaped upon him.
Doubtless to be the hew' of a powerful political
party in the House of Commons is a position more
prominent, influential, and attractive that any that
the House of Peers, in the present state of our
cof.stitution, has to offer ; but to Lord John Rus-
sel we beli!ve that position is no longer open, and
we cannot but think he would oo more wisely to
content himself with what he might easily retain
—a fading position in the House of Lords—than
to waste the remainder i f his life in importunate
struggles after au opp rtunity which be failed to
use wisely when it was his own, and which is not
wont to return to those who :lave once let'it slip
from their grasp. We are living in a new political
era. The bands of party allegiance are now
loosened, the power of individual leaders is dimin-
ished, the public mind is no longer stung by that
general sense of injury and misgovernment which
25 years ago gave the Whigs their power and their
suce2ss. The very triumphs of Reform and Freo
Trade have impaired the influence of their original
supporters. New men and new questions arise,
and it is granted to few to remain for ever in the
van of an age pressing rapidly forward in the path
of political, social, and material progress. The
weary advocate gladly reposes in the comparative
quiet of the bench ; the most indefatigable parish
priest sighs for the repose of the episcopal throne ;
why should !not the political combatant who has
spent the third of a century in the conflicts of
party be well content to close his long career amid
the tranquil shades
?and venerable associations of
the House of

THE RECENT EIfBEZZLEMENT BY A

GOVEi NIIIENT CLEBK.

PORTSMOUTH, April 12.—T0-day the trial came on o
George Joseph Nathaniel Charlier, clerk in the Gun
Wharf here, for the embezzlement of 1,1381., the amount
of a cheque entrusted to him to get cashed, for the pay-
ment of the quarterly aad weekly salaries of the War
Department at this port. The Recorder was J. D. Cole-
ridge, Esq.
The evidence was precisely the same as that taken at
the examination before the bench of magistrates..
The jury, after a short consultation, returned a verdict
that the prisoner was not euilty of embezzlement, but o
larceny, under the third count.
The usual qu stion being asked by the Recorder, th
prisoner, in a partially suppressed voice, said--I throw
myself on the mercy of the Court. I Lave suffered the
lose of my position, the loss of my fair name, ofthe pen.
sion of 501. a-year to which I should have been entitled,
if I had bad to leave the service from illness. I have
been already deeply puni•bed, and now I can only throw
my-elf entirely on the mercy of the Court.
The Recorder, addressing the prisoner by name, said
—You have been convicted on the clearest evidence of a
most serious crime—a crime deliberately planned and
prepared befirehand. That crime involve; a breach o f
the great trust reposed in you by the Government of
your country, and by the officers under whom yon ever e
employed. That crime is not alone against the Govern •
ment of this country and your superior officers, but it is
a crime, too, against the wife and children whose claims
to consideration have just been pressed upon me by your
counsel. There is no circumstance to excuse its committal,
and it is one that demands a marked punishment. It is
necessary for the security of society that such a crime
sheult meet with a severe and terrible punishment, and
I therefore feel it my duty to sentence you to five years'
penal servitude. (From the sensation produced In enprt,
it was evident that so severe a sentoneu Wee Slot Stltt4'
pated.)••-2141%3471,in Taegraph. - •

t •