The Sun.
London, England, 1867-04-02 00:00:00

TO THE EDITOR OF THE SUN.

Si n,--After all it must be admitted I have been
a true prophet in my correspondence with you.
Lord Derby is fully as a great Reformer in 1867 as
he was in 1831 and 1832. I may pass from the
future into the past tense, and no longer inquire,
What will Lord Derby do ? but, What has the noble
Premier done ? He has introduced a Reform Bill
which has already reached its second reading and
gone into committee. He will have a greater
facility in carrying his Reform Bill in 1867 than he
had in helping to carry the old Reform Bill of 1832.
By this measure some 500,000 people will be put
into possession of the franchise who have never had
it before. In what respect, therefore, are we
placed in a retrograde position by the accession of
a Tory Ministry to office ? It must be admitted on
all bands that we are far more advanced, and have
made great progress since this time twelvemonth.
We are every way getting out of the abnormal
position we had been in for so many years, and
that, too, under a so-called Liberal Government.
There are certain diseases in the human frame
which take different forms, arising from an
abnormal condition of the blood. Exactly so is it
in the political world. Forty years ago, in the
early part of the year 1827, the late Lord Palmer.
ston was a member of a Tory Government, that old
Tory and War Ministry of Lords Eldon, Liverpool,
Sidmouth, &c., which had carried us through
all the perils of the latter days of the gigantic
struggle with Napoleon Bonaparte, and gave us an
European peace which, with the exception of the
two short years of the Crimean war, has continued
to the present time. In this Administration the
very man who, only two years ago, was our Premier,
a distinguished member, and Lord Derby, then
commonly called young Stanley, a member of the
Whig opposition. We were not, therefore, in such
a different position in 1825 to what we were two
years ago in 1865. In both the two last-named
years the present and the ex-Premiers were poli-
tically opposed to one another. In both years we
were possessed of a Government which did not
consider it necessary to bring in a Reform
Bill. But now comes a most important dif-
ference between the two Administrations. In
the former year we had a Government which
had never brought in a Reform Bill at all, or ever
considered one necessary. In the last-named year
we were ruled by a Government which had not
only brought in no fewer than three Reform Bills
within the previous 13 years, but had six years pre-
viously expressly turned out the Government of Lord
Derby on a most sensible bill, because in their eyes it
did not go far enough ; and then, with the exception
of their mock Reform Bill of 1860, and what may
be called their death-bed struggle Reform Bill of
last session, reform was never once mentioned or
heard of. It must be admitted, therefore, that re-
form is in a far more hopeful and promising state
than it has been since. The great bill, the whole
bill, and the nothing but the bill of 1832,
at both the abovenamed periods, in 1832 as
well as now in 1867, our present noble Premier was
a member of the Administration. It may fairly be
said, therefore, that no Reform Bill has ever made
any material progress unless our present illustrious
chief has had dealings with it. The old Reform
Bill, which our excellent Prime Minister spoke with
such pride of having been instrumental in carrying,
has lasted, or rather settled, the question for a whole
generation, for 35 years is an eternity in politics.
There is no reason to doubt that the present mea-
sure, should it become (as there seems every reason
to believe it will) part and parcel of the law of the
laud, will be the means of settling the question for
another 35 years. And then it may fairly be said
that, without the aid of Lord Derby, no Reform
Bill has ever passed into law. Alas ! for poor
Lord Russell, another melancholy proof of kis
utter inability to carry any useful and permanent
measure was evinced in the House of Lords only

last night. Ilia beautiful Ecclesiastical Titles Bill
was pronounced to have been a dead failure, and
nine nobi.. lords out of ten are advocating its imme-
diate and entire repeal. That it would be wise or
politic to repeal the measure of 1851 now, after the
lapse of so many years, reviving and resuscitating,
as such an act would do, all the angry and
exciting discussions of the exciting religious
controversial periods of 1850 and 1851, I do'
not for one moment believe; nevertheless it
proves, to my mind incontestably, how completely
Lord Russell's heads ever and anon become con-
verted into tails, and how nearly all his measures,
for upwards of 30 years, have proved abortive,
stale, flat, profitless, and uninteresting. I reminded
you in a former letter, not long ago, how in 1835
Lord Russell turned out the Government of the late
Sir R. Peel on the Irish tithe question, and only
three short years afterwards he carried the very
identical measure which he had turned that highly
gifted and most talented statesman out upon. No-
thing in my mind can more incontestably prove the
vast superiority of the late Sir R. Peel's mind over
that of Lord Russell than my oft-quoted above-
named fact—that Lord Russell was compelled to
carry the measure in 1838 which he had in 1835
upset the Government of Sir R. Peel upon. I could,
and most likely shall, in a future letter narrate
many more facts, whereby I can prove how very
much Lord Derby has accomplished in the cause of
Reform, but I think I have made my present letter
long enough.—l remain, therefore, as usual, your
obedient servant,
A LOVER AND OBSERVER OF HISTORI CAL
DATES AND FACTS.

Fight between the Fenians and the
Military.

Conic, Monday

A fight is reported between three armed Fenians
and a party of police yesterday, near Mitchell's
Town, in his county. One insurgent was killed,
and two others captured ; one of these captured is
M'Clure, who commanded a body of rebels in the
late rising.

One more arrest has been made in this city, and
ten at Killeagh, in this county.
CORK, Monday Evening.

Later reports respecting the conflict between the
military and the Fenians, near Mitchelstown, yes-
terday, state that no force but the military was em-
ployed. The soldiers surrounded a wood where the
insurgents lay concealed. A long conflict with
revolvers and rifles, from behind trees, numerous
shots being exchanged, took place, Three rebele
were captured, one escaped across the river, and one
prisoner died of his wounds. lie was named Toomey,
and is said to have been a comfortable farmer near
Youghal. One of the prisoners, Captain M'Clure,
for whose arrest a reward of 1200 was offered, was
also wounded. Five soldiers, it is rumoured, are
wounded.

. D ums, Monday Evening,

Intelligence has just been received here of a fatal
collision between a flying column and some Fenians
near Mitchelstown, close to Fermoy, early yester-
day morning. An armed party came upon three
Fenians fully armed, and called on them to sur-
render. The Fenians replied by a volley, and a
fight ensued. One of the Fenians was mortally
wounded and has since died. The other two were
captured. One of them is Captain M'Clure, who is
alleged to have been the leader of one of the bands
engaged in the late insurrection.

HEALTH OF TUG PREMIEIt.—Lord Derby, who has
been suffering since Thursday last from a severe attack of
gout, was yesterday afternoon reported to be somewhat
better.

THE REFORM LEAGUE DEPUTATION TO LORD
DERBY.—The Secretary of the Reform League has received
a letter from Mr. Barrington, stating that the indisposition
under which tho Premier is suffering will prevent his
lordship from receiving the Reform League deputation this
day as appointed; but the Earl has requested Lord Stanley
to represent him. It is expected that as many as 300
members of trades' societies will attend.

The screw steam sloop Royalist, 11, Commander
Hamilton E. G. Earle, from the West India station,
which arrived at Plymouth on Wednesday, left th e
Sound on Saturday afternoon for Woolwich, where
her crew will be paid off, and she will be placed in
the steam Reserve,