The Sun.
London, England, 1858-12-16 00:00:00

another to file, and a third to make up the even
number. How easily might one of these extra
copies be abstracted for a time, and how difficult
would it be to bring home the crime to the offender
if he only took the precaution of copying it out.
Again, Mr. MILLER, when he received these pri-
vate and confidential documents, only deemed it
necessary to place them on the table within arm's
length of the desk at which he wrote, putting a
heavy book over them. They remained on that
table day and night, without even being placed
under lock and key. Many persons had.come into
the library on office business during the
period of the receipt and abstraction of the despatch,
although there were no other visitors than Mr.
WELLINGTON GUERNSEY. The room, too, was
cleaned out by a housemaid, but still papers of im-
mense consequence remained on the table, subject
to the inspection of any one who had the curiosity
to lift " the heavy book." Mr. MILLER did not even
take the precaution to count the number of copies
which he had. He had unbounded faith that all
would be right, and that was all that he considered
essential.

We trust that the painful lesson which has been

taught by Mr. WELLINGTON GUERNSEY may be
turned to advantage in every Government office,
and that there will no longer be such opportunities
afforded to angry, disappointed, or silly gentlemen
of producing great mischief by their petulant folly.
We confess that we cannot quite enter into the
feelings of those who applauded a verdict which
in our judgment was alike opposed to law and fact.
Mr. GUERNSEY has received the benefit of the
doubt, and we trust that he will not again be im-
plicated in any charge of a similar character.

Many affect to be altogether ignorant as to the
probable character of the new Reform Bill about to
be introduced to the notice, and eventually passed,
with more or less modifications, through both
Houses of Parliament. The Right Hon. Member
for Kidderminster even goes to the length of assert-
ing that he can't for the life of him form as much
as a conjecture as to the general aspect of these
prospective revelations. The Times, as in duty
bound, says pretty much the same thing altogether,
though not quite so explicitly. Now, in all this
we cannot but recognise a good deal of affectation
and disingenuousness. As to the leading charac-
teristics of the new Reform Bill, if not each of
them as plain as a pikestaff, they are undoubtedly
all of them within the scope of a very ordinary
amount of sagacity—so as clearly enough (if we
will any of us but exercise a little common sense
for the nonce) to be predicated.

It signifies, comparatively speaking, nothing
whatever from which particular party, or section
of a party, the Reform Bill emanates—whoever
lays the new bill before Parliament must,
as a matter of pure necessity, impart to it
at the very outset two or three perfectly distinct
and wholly unavoidable characteristics. First of
all, it must embrace—whether it be the Govern-
ment measure laid upon the table of the Lords by
the Earl of DERBY, and upon the table of the Com-
mons by the Right Hon. Member for Buckingham-
shire, or whether it be the opposition measure pre-
paring under the auspices of Mr. BRIGHT and his
supporters—in either case, it must embrace an ex•
tension of the electoral franchise more or less con-
siderable and comprehensive. Secondly, it must
equally, as a matter of course, affect the distiibu-
tion and the relative proportions of the different
constituencies. There are other almost equally
obvious portions of the coming measure that might
be safely calculated upon as pretty nearly certain
—certain at any rate as to their presence (in the bill)
though not of course as to their exact proportions.
The opposition measure under Mr. BRIGHT'S
auspices will be, beyond a doubt, bold and slashing
in the scope and daring of its innovations. The
Government measure will equally, beyond a doubt,
be formed under the sobering influence of Ministe-
rial responsibilities. Nevertheless, in despite of the
repressive tendencies of that overwhelming and
ever-present sense of responsibility, much may not
unreasonably be anticipated_by the more advanced
advocates of reform from a Ministry who, during
the last session of the Legislature, frankly ac-
cepted, in obedience to the exigencies of the time
one of the long-cherished hobbies of Chartism—the
removal of the Property Qualification. Beyond
this we are tolerably secure that the Cabinet of
which the chief minister is the STANLEY of 1832
one of the shining lights of which is the STANLEY
of 1858—will not egregiously disappoint the hopes
of the great mass of the intelligent population. The
leader of this Cabinet in the House of Commons,
moreover, is too sagacious a politician delibe-
rately and elaborately to prepare an overthrow for
his Government by participating in the concoction
of a scheme of Reform unpalatable alike to the
people and to the Parliament. Among his col-
leagues, likewise, it is encouraging to remember
that there stands forward conspicuously in the
person of the Colonial Minister, one who was a
practical reformer twenty years ago, onelwho, like
his political chief, directly participated in carrying
the last Reform Bill through the House of Com-
mons, besides personally sharing with him in has-
tening through that House the great and humane
measure of Negro Emancipation.
Under the auspices of statesmen such as these—
men at once of sagacity and experience—there is
reason to believe that the projected Reform Bill is
being prepared with a rational and dispassionate
regard, above all things, to the exigencies of the
time and the wishes of the people, and not merely
with an eye to "the predilections of party and the
dictates of expediency. Beyond, far beyond, how-
ever, the extension of the suffrage, beyond the re-
vision of the electoral districts, beyond each and all
of the various divisions of the Great Question of
Parliamentary Reform, there is one which we are
firmly convinced will be the turning point of the
Government. There is one word which is the Shib-
boleth of all reforms both in and out of office—and
that is the Ballot. It is the mot of the whole move-
ment. Whichever among the great parties in the
Legislature frankly and distinctly pronounces it,
declares for it, and accepts it, will therefore be re-
cognised as 'the rightful possessors of office—will
then hold securely within their grasp the func-
tions of a protracted tenure of the:power and prero-
gatives of Administration.

COURT CIRCULAR.

OSBORNE, WEDNESDAY

Her Majesty's dinner party yesterday included the
Prince and Princess of Leiningen, Col. Foster, commanding
the Engineers of the South-West District, and the Rev.
George Prothero.

A deputation on the subject of municipal borough boun-
daries extension had an interview with Mr. Secretary Wal-
pole yesterday at the Home-office. The deputation con-
sistea of, from Banbury, the Mayor, Mr. Richard Ed-
munis, Mr. Alderman Draper, and the Town Clerk ; frow
Falmouth, the Mayor, Mr. J. B. Moorman, and Mr. Al-
derman Carne; from Grantham, the Mayor, Mr. E. L
Hough, the Recorder, and the Town Clerk ; and Mt. W
E. Welby, M.P., and the Hon. F. J. Tollemache, M.P.'
Despatches were received at the Colonial-office, yester-
day, from the Governors of Tasmania, South Australia
New Zealand, Labuan, and Malta.

AUSTRALIA. (By Electric and International
Telegraph.)—FALMOVTH, Dec. 15.—The Orwell, Weyn-
ton, arrived off Falmouth on Wednesday, 84 days from
Port Phillip. She has on freight 84,070. ounces of gold,
and brings 74 passengers. She landed the mails and 12
passengers.