The Sun.
London, England, 1867-05-08 00:00:00

LONDON, WEDNESDAY, MAY 8, 1867.

Yesterday the preliminary meeting of the Con-
ference took place at the official residence of the
First Lord of the Treasury. Lord STANLEY is the
President of the Conference, and the noble lord
will 10.ve enough on his hands with one thing and
another. However, he will be an excellent arbi-
ter, which is of the greatest consequence, and we
feel assured that he will neither be too yielding
nor too dictatorial. Had the noble lord chanced
to have been the presiding genius in 1864 no doubt
a very different result would have followed, but
as it was England was a perfect nonentity in the
affair, and she could not even enforce the carrying
out of the treaty to which she was a party in
1852. It is idle at this early stage of the pro-
ceedings to say anything very decided in the way
of prophecy, but we may readily enough surmise
that the difficulty in the way.of coining to a settle-
ment will be very great. It is certainly so far a
tribute to this country that it should have been
s.;lected to settle the differences in question, and it
is surprising after the very curt manner in which
we have been treated by foreign magnates. No
doubt had the hero of the meddle-and-muddle
policy beau still at the head of foreign affairs things
would not have come to this pass, and certainly
the Fronea I;:toperor for one wool 1 not very
have agreed to the untter, Irx2c tine 14].11.1

ItrssELL was so ringracions' and nneonciliating if

th,! (sarlier gt.tge3 of the Dano-Gerinau controversy

and refused to accede to the desire of France for
a Congress. I Lia that taken place under proper
auspices we should have by this time beheld 'a very
different state of things, but there never was a more
unfortunate conjunction than that the foreign ad-
ministration of tbis coun try should have beetle° badly
managed while important European combinations
took place. The mischief will not be speedily.reme-
died, and indeed this generation may not live to see
the end of the Danish war, The members of the Con-

ference comprise the foreign ambassadors, and we
suppose that the " vexed question" 'of German
policy will be gone over again and again during
the discussions. Very little beyond preliminaries
took place yesterday, but it was agreed upon that
a guarantee for the neutralisation of Luxemburg
was indispensable, and must be the basis of the
negotiations. The Plenipotentiaries have tele-
graphed for instructions to their respective Govern-
ments. The next Conference will be held to-mor-
row. It is curious to notice some of the comments
made in the German papers on this subject. The
semi-official North German Gazette observes that
the Conference " opens to-day, the anniversary of
the day when Count BismarlcK's life was so visibly
protected by the hand of GOD." This style
of writing and speaking prevails to a large
extent in Prussia, and it is much to be
regretted that it should be so, for it is most un-
seemly language. This journal goes on to say that
affairs are now in a much better and more promising
state than they were at the timeof theSchleswig-Hol-
stein question. France has given up her desire of pos-
sessing Luxemburg, and Prussia, " confiding in her
right, recognised by Europe, and in the pacific
assurances of France, has taken no measures of de-
fence." This is certainly an original way of looking
at the thing, and it shows that those who are con-
vinced against their will are of the same opinion still.
It was generally believed that all Europe was scanda-
lised at the latest demands of Prussia, and some had
been roused from apathy and indifference to regard
the state of things with dismay and indignation.
Another authority states that affairs have reached
that point when an arrangement will be come to
immediately, and when the mobilisation of the
Prussian army will be issued. It is encouraging to
notice the Journal of St. Petersburg, which declares
that an arrangement is on the lapis, and that
all is ready for an • immediate settlement.
It would be indeed a sad thing for war
to break out again on the Continent, and
more especially as things are in so unsettled and
unsatisfactory a state in regard to commercial and
monetary transactions. The war of last summer,
in addition to the panic in the money market, has
occasioned a sad year for many, and to renew the
struggles and disappointments of war in order to
gratify the foolish ambition of Prussia seems a result
greatly to be deprecated on all accounts.
We hope that Lord STANLEY'S firmness and dis-
cretion will do mach, and will show the Prus-
sian representatives that England will not
be trifled with, and that at any rate no support,
either moral or material, -will be given by her to
the war wih France, to which Count BISMARCK'S
efforts seem to be tending. It is said that the lat-
ter replied to the deputation which waited upon
him to congratulate hiih upon his escape from
assassination last year, yesterday being the anni-
versary of it : " The situation is now more serious
than ever it was before." If this be the case
it is the best satire ou his own con-
duct, and shows the folly of spending
one's life in making plots against the security of
others. The state of the Berlin Government just
now seems akin to that of ships who wish in sight
of land. They were, it was said, on the eve of
accomplishing all their most earnest desires, and
lo and behold ! all is again confusion, and' we are
again mixed up in strife and controversy. It is a
disgrace to Prussia that another Conference should
be rendered necessary in so short a time, when no
important need calls for it.

There is one part of Reform which it is very easy
to talk about, but very difficult to put into practice,
and it possesses the peculiar characteristic that
every one agrees about it in words, and attaches
great importance to it, while in actual fact every
one is absolutely indifferent. No one is bold enough
to stand up in the House of Commons and defend
bribery and corruption. Al.P.'s may be found to
defend the rigid limitation of the franchise, and to
take exception to every other Liberal proposal, but
no one can venture to declare himself in favour of
electoral corruption. Yet it is a difficult and, un-
welcome task to attempt its repression ; and so long
as the public fail to appreciate the advantages offered
by the ballot it will be very difficult. Still we are
gaining some ground, since the necessity for active
measures is being insisted upon by leading members
of both parties, and the improvements suggested by
the new bill are very important. The alteration
respecting the investigation into corrupt practices
is an undoubted gain. The wearisome Parliamen-
tary committees,which exhaust the time and patience
of members during the already busy hours of a long
session, arc often fruitless of good. There are plenty
of means of eva'ling them known to the initiated—
the withdrawal of petitions by mutual arrangement
between political parties, the " starving out" of
proceedings and getting rid of witnesses, and plenty
other familiar means. Added to these many glaring
cases are never brought forward owing to the ex-
pense which the lawyers take care to render pretty
burdensome. The exorbitant fees required for
carrying an election petition before the House of
Commons may well deter men of moderate means
from attempting to dislodge an unfairly-seated
member. Very certainly the system of examination
by Parliamentary Committees has not succeeded in
putting a check upon bribery and corruption, and
it is, therefore, highly advisable that a new plan
should be tried. An inquiry .carried on on the spot
will be ten times as effectual and far more likely to
deter both bribers and bribed. It will be next to
impossible for the culprits to escape detection in
their own immediate neighbourhood ; neither will
it be easy to buy off or get rid of all the witnesses.
There was one very excellent suggestion which we
are sorry to find is not included in the Bill now
before the House, although early in the season
the Government expressed their approval of
it.

We hope that the committee will take
care that it is carried out. We allude to
the proposal that in cases where bribery is proved,
the seat should be given to the unsuccessful candi-
date. This is a most efficacious mode of stopping
bribery, because if a candidate knew that by his
expenditure he is not only running the risk of loss
and exposure, but really of benefiting his rival, he
will be much more cautious in his proceedings.
This clause, too, would put a check upon
the system of obtaining party seats, since
the clubs would be less willing to come
forward if they knew that their subscriptions
would be more likely than not to give the con-
tested seat to the opposite side ! The scheme is not
a new one. Sir F. GOLDSMID, who regretted its
omission from the bill, on. Monday reminded the
Muse that he had himself made a similar proposi-
tion in 1860 and in 1863. Ile expressed his belief
that this would do more to check bribery than any
other provisions. Common sense, however, is more
in favour of Colonel SYKEs's panacea. The hon.
and gallant member, after remarking that the ex-
tensiOn of the constituencies would be likely to di-
minish bribery from the great increase of the number
to be bribed, said that they ought to protect those
whom they admitted to the franchise by the ballot.
It appears not a little singular, that so simple and
inexpensive a remedy should not have been long
since tried,.and the general reluctance to make the
experiment goes far to confirm Mr. OSBORNE'S
pointed declarations that there is no Wish to put

down bribery. The hon. member for Nottingham
is generally very successful in showing up other
people's foibles and failings, and he is not inclined
to give quarter, when he thinks he has a good case
for the display of his vivisecting talents. He
believed, he said, that the whole system of the
House and country was conducted upon the com-
mercial system, and having &dared that he did not
believe there were 30 members in the House who
obtained their seats by fair play—a statement which
might have been expected called forth some disap-
probation—he expressed his approval of the Go-
vernment measure, because it took the matter out
of the hands of the House, who had hitherto been
judge and jury in their own case. The hon. mem-
ber appeared to forget that the House would have
to p tss the bill. Ho believed, he said, the
most useful provision of the bill was that
which took the power of deciding upon
cases of bribe'ry from the House, and added truly
enough that until they made bribery ungentlemanly
and unfashionable they would never put it down.
At present a man was not thought the worse of
for having bribed, and the good Parliamentary
man whose political exertions were rewarded by a
peerage had usually spent immense sums in con-
tested elections. The witty member for Notting-
ham was unsparing in his satire and his de-
nunciations, but there was undoubtedly a good
deal of truth in his observations, however unpa-
latable. Colonel SYKES'S was the more sensible
and practicable remedy, and if only the public will
take up the matter in earnest, we may hope that
one of the first acts of the Reformed Parliament
will be to give us Trtz BALLOT.