The Sun.
London, England, 1867-04-30 00:00:00

"My dear Sir,—ln the present crisis of the Libe-
ral party and the Reform cause I venture, as a very
humble but earnest frield of both, to appeal to you
for the initiation of some measure calculated to bring
back Mr. Gladstone to the position which he alone
can fill, of our trusted and honoured leader. The
correspondence which you have already had with
him, your position as a member for London, and, I
may add, the respect which you command in the
house, all justify you in undertaking this duty.
"In making this public call I must ask your per-
mission to add a few remarks.

" No one can doubt the indispensable necessity of
party organisation fo'r effecting any great end in the
House of Commons; and it is equally clear that that
organisation cannot be maintained without a leader,
to whom the party give their confidence and yield a
reasonaas and considerable deference. But if this is
so, under any circumstances, organisation is most
emphatically requisite at a great crisis of our consti-
tutional history, when our fundamental institutions
are to be remodelled. And it is most of all essential
when this work is undertaken by a Government the
members and supporteri of which have been the life-
long enemies of Reform, and who are now only
driven to it either as a oleaus of retaining office, or
tinder fear.,of ate popular indignation which their

own conduct lids p-rovokel. -'---- ' -
"Yet it is at such a moment that the Reform
party in the house finds itself without a leader; and
unless Mr. Gladstone can be induced to resume that
all-important post the party will be paralysed, and
the mighty interests of the Constitution will be aban-
doned to the tender mercies of anti-reformers.
" I am afraid I cannot justify Mr. Gladstone for
the step he has taken, unless on the ground that it
was really necessary to show the Liberals the ruin-
ous consequences of their disunion. Should it
have that effect it will be vindicated. It is
impossible to deny that, as the defection of a
certain number of Liberals last year destroyed the
Reform Bill and the Reform Government; so the
same cause haS this year reduced. the Reform party
to powerless confusion. I impugn no man's motives,
but Liberal members cannot fail to .see what has
been the disastrous effect of abandoning their party
and their leader in a great crisis. Nor can they
justly complain of a leader who, after doing every-
thing that zeal, vigour, and consummate ability
could do to insure success, and yet being left by his
own friends to sustain a decisive defeat, seems to
despair of thereafter leading the same forces to

victory.
" You will not fail to appreciate the anxiety which
Mr. Gladstone has shown to take counsel with his
own party, and to defer to opinions not merely of a
majority, but even of a respectable minority of their
number. Three times have they been summoned to
his house for the purpose of interchanging views.
He has been accessible to opinions from every quar-
ter, either expressed directly to himself or gathered
through Mr. Brand. Though his own opinion and
that of his late colleagues in office, of Mr. Bright,
and I believe a majority of the party, was in favour
of opposing the second reading of the Government
Bill, he deferred to the judgment of a minority, but
with the understanding that an instruction should
be moved before going into committee, which would
insure the bringing of the bill, on essential points,
into accordance with the views of the Liberal party.
When that instruction was prepared, explained, and
agreed to almost unanimously by the party, and
when Mr. Coleridge was ready to move it, at the
last hour Mr. Gladstone was waited upon by a depu-
tation from the tea-room, and again yielded to the
earnest representations of a minority by withdraw-
ing the most important part . of the instruction.
Finally, he moved an amendment, which every real
Liberal ought to have supported, because it virtually
placed compounders below £lO in the same position
as the law had long pladed compounders above £lO
—and here, though supported by the great bulk of
his party, he was deserted. by so many as to give
the victory to Mr. Disraeli. It is evident that Mr. Glad-
stone has shown no want of deference to his party,
and that, if he has committed any fault in this
respect, it has been by yielding too much, not too
little.
" Of Mr. Gladstone's claims to lead the Liberal
party in the house' suppose there can be no possible
doubt. In statesmanlike abilities, in parliamentary
and official experience, in mastery of statistical sub-
jects, he has no rival ; while his perfect sincerity and
high-souled earnestness are the admiration of the
whole country, and have won for him the warmly-
expressed confidence of nearly every public meeting
of Reformers last year and this. He had made the
Reform question eminently his own. This has been
universally recognised ever since his speech on the
Borough Franchise Bill in 1864. As soon as he be-
came leader of the House of Commons, Lord Russell
and he staked the existence of their Government on
the success of their Reform measure, and they sac-
rificed power because they could not carry it. At the
beginning of this session Lord Russell, at Mr. Glad-
stone's house, emphatically devolved upon his late
colleague the leadof the Opposition. The attendance
of the entire party on his invitation, and the recep-
tion which they repeatedly gave him, together with
the approbation of all his former colleagues in the
Ministry, ratified his appointment. Lord Grosvenor
and Mr. Bright concurred onthis point. The marked
hostility of his opponents vindicated his title. In
fact, I feel it is almost absurd to prove Mr. Glad-
stone's right to the lead of his party, and it would be
altogether so but for the defections which have
thrown doubt upon its universal acknowledgment.
" If, then, in the present crisis of the Constitution
the necessity of a leader for the Liberal party is so
incontrovertible, and if Mr. Gladstone is not only
their best, but their only possible leader, might we
not reasonably expect that he should receive their
hearty and general support? True, we cannot dic-
tate to independent members the course which they
should pursue. If in so important a crisis of our his-
tory they think it right to detach themselves from
the body of the Reformers, we can only leave them to
their own consciences and their constituents. But we
must point out to them the inevitable consequences
—namely, the defeat, if not the destruction, of the
Reform party, and the surrender of our representa-
tive system into the hands of the Tories, to model it
according to their will. To me these appear to be
consequences in the highest degree disastrous to
Liberal principles, dishonourable to the Reform
party, and fatal to the hope of any satisfactory
settlement of the constitutional question.
" has est et ab bogie doceri ; and the example of the
Conservatives, iu sacrificing not merely feelings,
prejudices, and scruples,. but even the principles
'which they have advocated all their lives,-in order
to keep Lord berby and Mr. Disraeli in power, and
to have the settlement of the Reform question in
Conservative hands, proves, at least, their sense of
the paramount necessity of party discipline. Far be
it from me to advocate a sacrifice of principle ; but
I advocate the compromises which wise and honest
men may make, and which they are compelled to
make almost daily for the sake of securing great ob-
jects. If we have a leader in whose ability and in-
tegrity we have Confidence, we are bound as men of
common sense to follow his guidance. True, we
may sometimes in the heat of an engagement be
tempted to seize upon the post which is nearest to
us, but in doing so we may derange the order of
battle, and lose not merely the action but the cam-
paign. It is the duty of the leader to consider all
points, to measure his own strength. and that of his
opponent, to sacrifice small objects to great ones,
and so to act that .he may acquit himself of the
mighty responsibility which rests upon him to his
party and his country.
" I declare my extreme alarm at the position of
the Reform Atie4tion. The bill of the Government

hope of its being made worthy of the acceptance
of Parliament or the country. The county
franchise is not adequately extended. The
borough franchise is constructed to beryuile
the Radicals, yet to satisfy the Tories; and either
the one party or the other will be horribly cheated
by it.. It will entail upon us conflict in our parishes
and corruptirl at our elections. In some boroughs
it will admit the very lowest class of householders.
while in the vast majority of boroughs, as in my
own, it will exclude the skilled, educated, and well-
paid artisans. The principle of the dual vote has
been universally condemned in the house and the
country. The proposed plan of voting by polling
papers is open to endless fraud and the exercise of
undue influence to an unlimited extent. The two
years' residence is a great injustice to the new voters
as compared with the old. The fancy franchises are
liable to gross abuse. The absence of a lodger fran-
chise will make the bill inoperative in the metro-
polis. The redistribution of seats is ridiculously
inadequate to redress the anomalies of the electoral

map.
" Such are some of the objectionable features of
the bill, and it is an additional cause of alarm that
it is to be conducted through committee by a minis-
ter of whom it is needless to say more than that he
is the author of the measure.
" Unless the Reformers can re-unite under a re-
cognised leader, it is evident that every attempt to
check the rapid progress of the bill, or to change its
Vhatter, will" utterly fail. The Liberal m 4917144
will become a routed minority; and we ought gravely
to consider how we shall be able so justify ourselves
to our constituents and the country for permitting
the ruin of the Reform cause when we hid actually
the means in our hands of insuring its triumph.
" There seems to me no possible means of avert-
ing this disaster and disgrace but by appealing to
Mr. Gladstone again to take the initiative. What-
ever we may think of it, the fact is, as expressed
in his letter to you, that he has felt that pru-
dence requires him to withdraw from his attempts
to assume the initiative in amending the Government
Bill. He says:—' I shall not proceed with the
amendments now on the paper in my name, nor
give notice of other amendments such as I had con-
templated.' But he declares—' I am not less willing
than heretofore to remain at the service of the party ;
and when any suitable occasion shall arise, if it
shall be their wish, I shall be prepared again to
at tempt concerted action on this or any other sub-
ject for the public good.' I infer from these words
that Mr. Gladstone would obey the call of his party,
but that he will not resume the lead, at least on the
Reform question, without such call. May we not
hope that the party which has witnessed his unri-
valled services in the cause of Free Trade, of Fi-
nance, and of Reform, for so many years, will now,
from gratitude for the past and with full trust for
the future, recall their only possible leader, and fol-
low him to another constitutional victory ?
" Excuse this appeal from one who has no other
apology to offer for it but his earnest zeal in the
cause ; and permit me again to entreat you not to
shrink from the responsibility of taking immediate
steps to bring back the Liberal party to ' concerted
action.'—l am, dear sir, yours truly,
" EDWARD BAINES.
" Headinglerlo lge, Leeds, April 27."

Railway and other Companies.

NORTH BRITISH.

A Wharneliffe meeting of this company was held
at Edinburgh on Friday, to consider various bills
now before Parliament ; Mr. Stirling presided.
The CHAIRMAN said that the most important bill
was for raising a pre-preference stock, but was not
sufficiently advanced to be submitted to the present
meeting, which would be adjourned till May 25, for
consideration of that measure. He proposed reso-
lutions for approval of the bill for deviation of the
Stobcross (Glasgow) branch, and for acquisition of
land at Dundee for station purposes ; the bill to
enable the Solway Junction Company to use four
miles of the Carlisle and Silloth Bay line, belonging
to the North British ; the bill authorising an agree-
ment with the Caledonian as to Grangemouth
Harbour ; the Deviation Bill of the City of Glasgow
Union Railway, to which the North British were
subscribers; and a bill extending by a year the time
for completion by the company of new markets at
Edinburgh.
The resolutions approving the bills and for ad-
journment were unanimously carried.
The CIIAIRIIAN congratulated the shareholders on
the increase of traffic since their last meeting, which
he believed would have been larger if they had only
had sufficient plant.
The meeting then adjourned.