The Sun.
London, England, 1858-02-08 00:00:00

LONDON, MONDAY, FEB 8, 1858.

The future popularity of Lord PALMERSTON—
nay more, the fate of his Government depends on
the nature and extent of the measure of which
he has given notice for this evening. Under
existing circumstances, and considering the gross
insults so recently offered to England, with the
sanction and authority of the EMPEROR himself,
any concession, however trivial, was inexpedient
and injudicious. If a change in the law were
really required, it should not be made until ample
amends, or at least satisfactory apologies, had been
tendered for these insolent and bullying publica-
tions. Citherwise our kind friends on the conti-
nent will attribute the new legislation to fear,
and the Valour and prestige of Great Britain will
be materially damaged by the inopportune move-
ment.

It
is now attempted to be shown that the
publication of these inflammatorY documents was
a mere 'mistake on the part of
the editor of the
Moniteur, and that no one regrets their appear-
ance
was no mistake,' it could be no mistake, and it
shall be no mistake 1" The manager of the
official journal is not quite so slovenly or so reck-
less in his proceedings as to insect hastily any-
thing that comes to hand, for the mere purpose of
filling his columns. Nor if these had been error
ou his part, would it have remained unnoticed for
a single day. He might not have received a re-
gular warning, such as would be given to less-
favoured publication'', but a hint would have been
given quite sufficient to prevent him from allow-
ing his zeal to outrun his discretion, and commit
a second and third miztake of a similar kind. But
these incendiary addresses, grossly and menda-
ciously libelling England, by designating it as " a
den of assassins," asking permission to invada it,
and dernandlitg that it should be destroyed,
appeared day after day usque ad, nauseam ! They
were received with bland smiles by the autho-
rities, and tacitly sanctioned, if they did not
directly emanate from the Ministerial bureau.
Indeed, considering that they were the productions
of military officers of high rank, and should be
transmitted through the proper channels to the
War-office, it is palpable that they must have been

sent from that department for publication in the
Moniteur, with the assent and approval of the
Minister who is especially responsible for the dine•
tion of French journalism.

We can easily conceive that the EMPEROR
now regrets the rash experiment against English
independence. But not a word was said of that
regret, until a storm of indignation had been
evoked throughout the length and breadth of the
land at the audacious menaces against our coun-
try ; thus sanctioned and adopted by the French
Government. When the English Press had
spoken out boldly and unflinchingly, with all but
perfect unanimity, then, but not till then, was
the mistake discovered. But even now, when it
has been ascertained, what redress has been
afforded, what expression of displeasure announced ?
The guilty parties were soldiers, peculiarly amena-
ble to military discipline. What would be said
at the Horse Guards if British officers had insulted
a friendly nation, and called for its invasion and
destruction ? They would have received at least
some intimation that they had transgressed the limits
of military decorum, and the censure would pro-
bably be attended with the punishment of some of
the most truculent offenders. Even the English
law, defective as it is said to be, would suffice to
bring such libellers to justice for acts calculated to
occasion great disturbance of the public peace,
good order and government of the kingdom, and
the great danger of creating discord between the
Emperor of FRANCE and his subjects and the
Queen of GREAT BRITAIN and her subjects.
But it is not merely that the contemplated
measure is totally unnecessary anti uncalled for.
The highest legal authorities—the Lord Chief
Justice of England and Lord BROUGHAM--
have emphatically declared that there can
be no doubt that the existing law is amply
sufficient to render any party conspiring to
commit an offence abroad liable to severe
punishment. What more, then, could be required
consistently with our constitutional principles,
which we shall never abandon at the will of any
foreign Prince or potentate, or military ruffian.
If the Bill be so greatly diluted, of such milk and
water character, as not to offend the feelings of the
British community, it will be a mere work of
supererogation without the slightest utility or
advantage. If, otherwise, if the law of England
is to be changed at the will and pleasure of any
foreign power, if Lord PALMERSTON forfeits, as
he will do, the character of not being the
Minister of France, of Russia, of Austria, or
of Prussia, but the Minister of England,
he may forthwith commence setting his house
in order, for his tenure of office will be
brief indeed ! The best way will be to have the
obnoxious measure withdrawn with all convenient
speed. If not, we trust that every independent
member will strain every nerve to have it thrown
out at the very earliest stage in its progress. It
merits no better fate, and the Premier must sub-
mit to the inevitable consequences of the grave
mistake into which he has been betrayed.

If we may use a homely phrase, but one which
precisely describes the fact, Lord GREY has let
the cat out of the bag. Oae sentence in his Essay
(p. 128) indicates, though in that vague language
in which the whole book is written, his object in
writing it. "The objects that ought to be aimed
at," says his Lordship, " by such a measure, are
to interest a large proportion of the public in the
constitution, by investing them with political
rights, without disturbing the existing balance of
power ; to discourage bribery at elections, wir.out
giving more influence to the arts of demagogues ; to
strengthen the legitimate authority of the Executive
Government, and at the same time to guard against
its being abused ; and to render the distribution
of the Parliamentary franchise less unequal and
less anomalous, but yet carefully to preserve that
character which has hitherto belonged to the Rouse
of Commons, from its including among its mem-
bers men representing all the different classes of
society, and all the different interests and
opinions to be found in the nation." Again
(p. 129), "It can hardly be doubted that any
increased power given to the democratic element in
our constitution must end, soone2 or later, in its
complete ascendancy. Though strongly convinced
of the value of free institutions, and a firm friend
of popular liberty, 1 am yet persuaded that su,:lh
a change in the character of our Government would
be one of the greatest misfortunes that could befal the
country." Lord GREY wishes, when we have a
Reform Bill, that it should be one that should,
like the last one, settle the question for a long
time to come, but his reason is the same ; a bill
making but slight alterations would not ap-
pease but rather stimulate democratic demands,
which would thus go on from year to year, till in
a short time the people would gain far more than
they would have done by a liberal concession at
first.

Lord GREY deserves the best thanks of Radicals.
He plainly states that he thinks the Reform ques-
tion has been brought forward prematurely ; but
his advice to his order is, whatever you do, do
the thing in appearance handsomely. If, for in-
stance, he argues, you were to disfranchise all
boroughs whose constituencies were under 1,000,
and to dispose of their members amongst the
larger boroughs, and by dividing larger constitu-
encies, such an arrangement would settle for a
single year the question of what our future repre-
sentation should be, while it would annihilate the
only argument for the small boroughs—that of
prescription (p. 125). No doubt his lordship is
right, but the reason for his objecting to such
limited Reform is, that it would ultimately
strengthen democracy. Democracy is indeed the
phantom which haunts Lord GREY his whole book
through. An American mob tyranny is his con-
stant dread ; he sees that England is going down
the plane, and his counsel is, that the check-
tackle be made, if possible, more efficient than the
launching power.

We are certainly not disposed to controvert the
u cahb out
question America
whetherand
hgreeraitnesrtiptaurttioonfs w;
'butt hew esattlyn
linehe l atyos t thhi
ne k btl
that
amte t ohne
ptheoeplreighhatv E 13ca11
saed. tlllireein
Go-
vernment what it is, not that the Government
has corrupted the people. The American people
have had among them a great political immorality,
and a great political folly from the beginning.
Slavery has poisoned all their political action at
"me,anda mean jealousy of England, with boyish
propensity to bullying and swagger, have lowered
the tone of their foreign policy. The slavery party
has been united by its vile bonds more firmly th n
any other ; it has made itself necessary to the
patty which would be in power ; naturally it
t more powerful, would have been of the ariitocr..tic patty, 1.0
finding democracy the
cifulol'ngatedmbdr'al:el-d
cracy needing its aid, the two have w
each other most cordially. The result haasdel:eanciaa.
progeny of political immoralities,
and
tion of politics altogether unsurpassed probably in
any civilised country, certainly in any free and
Christian country. Mr& BEECHEg Szowz has
given us ample illustrations of the way in which
slavery has tainted the jurisprudence and the
whole public life of the United States. But for
the slave question w;',at different Presidents,

Senates, and Representatives would have been
elected of late years !

Lord GREY nowhere expresses his opinion re-
specting the Ballot ; indeed, he carefully avoids
all approach to definite opinions, but he cer-
tainly seems to have drawn out most ably the
case for secret voting ; and but for supposing
that he would view it as a democratic implement,
we might imagine him a member of the Ballot
Society. He shows that in small constituencies it
can hardly be expected that each voter having
so much power in regard to a much-coveted prize,
should have virtue enough to resist the appeals
which would be made by the wealthy and ambi-
tious ; that legislation may interpose difficulties
in the way of direct pecuniary bribery, but can-
not long prevent even that ; but that it is power-
less to hinder an " understanding between the par-
ties for giving and receiving money's worth."
" The voter," he adds (p. 118), " may have a
house or land let to him on such advantageous
terms as to be equivalent to an annual present
from his landlord, to whom, consequently, he
will not refuse his vote. This is pro-
bably the most common mode of bring-
ing the pecuniary interests of the elector
to bear upon his use of the franchise, and while
this continues to be notoriously practised with im-
punity, it is impossible that, in counties and
boroughs, where property is thus used by one
party, those on the other side will think them-
selves, morally, more guilty of bribing than their
opponents, if they endeavour to compensate the
disadvantage to which they would be thus exposed,
by giving to the voters who support them, an
equivalent in money, for what is given by their
antagonists in value.

Surely Earl GREY, in the Lords, will back Mr.
BERKELEY in the Commons. But, no, there is a
hitch—the fear of the demagogue intrudes. In
page 120, we are told that " such an employment
of money is not more immoral than the use of
other means to prevent the judgment of the
voters. To give money bribes to electors, is not
worse, or rather, not nearly so bad, as to court
their favour by flattery, by flattering their pas-
sions and prejudices, and by encouraging them,
knowingly, in mischievous political errors. More
real guilt is incurred, because greater injury is
done to the nation, by having recourse to acts of
the demagogue, than by the illicit use of money,
for the purpose of carrying an election, and at the
present moment the former abuse seems to be
more common than the latter." Further on his
L.)rdship distinctly states that it would be a
change for the worse, if demagogues took the place
of men of wealth, that the great object, therefore,
is to check, if possible, both kinds of abuse, and
to make arrangements which will favour the re-
turn of members to Parliament who should not
owe their seats, either to their money, or• to their
ktse courting of popularity." (p. 121).
What those arrangements are to be, apart from
the Ballot we do not see. Lord GREY confesses
they are difficult, but be does not despair of
seeing them effected. Now it is not denied
that with the Ballot, and tolerably large
constituencies, pecuniary bribing and " value"
bribing, as described by Lord GREY, would
at least be very difficult or very much die—
Couraged. But what of demagogue flattery and
courting ?—the latter expression showing that the
vice is pre-eminently characteristic of Courts. It
would seem, according to Lord arm. himself, that
the practice is growing now ; indeed, if we are to
believe him, outstripping the good old five or ten
pound note practice. The Ballot could not, there-
fore, make matters much worse on that score. But
we have a strong opinion that it would lessen the
influence of demagogues. Most assuredly in advo-
cating it such is our wish. These contemptible
, men are much more likely to find their level in
the ballot-box than in the poll-book. The dema-
gogue is mistrusted by thousands of men who
must hurrah with the noisy of their own clas,,
but who, if the eyes of that class would not be on
their vote, would give it in accordance with (pie'
conviction. At the worst they would only have
to do like their betters. Peers, till better taught
by experience, have been beguiled by aristogogues,
and the demos would soon learn wisdom in th,
same school. We claim Lord GREY'S ,vote for
the Ballot.

The military protegees of H.R.H. are, after
all, not very successful. It may even be confi-
den'ly asserted that they are, one and all, invari-
ably and signally—unsuccessful. There was
General CODRINGTON. There was—high treason
and rank blasphemy though it be t) say so in the
hearing of his numerous admirers—there was
(distinctly we aver it) Lord RAGLAN. There is—

last but not least remarkable among all theso un-
heroic failures on the part of warriors selected for
high command by H.R.H.—there is General
ASHBURNHAM.

As to the closing scones in the historical career
of Field-Marshal Baron RAGLAN', there is not a
doubt about it that he so conducted the Siege of
Sebastopol, that he brought about three grand
catastrophes. The surprise at Inkerman—the
blunder of Balaklava—aud the repulse of the
Redan being, at any rate in a great measure, the
result of his hesitating and most mistaken policy;
the last, of course, posthumously. Happily for

he glory of British arms, the officers and soldiers
actually engaged upon each of those memorable
occasions were staunchly true to the national
reputation. Insomuch that the surprise of Inler-
man was turned by the stubborn resistance of
the Guards into a victory ! The blunder of
Balaklava was transformed by the matchless
heroism of the Cavalry and the dauntless front of
the Highlanders into a feat of arms perhaps never
surpassed in its audacious magnificence ! The
repulse of the Redan, even being signalised' among
the events of the Crimean-campaign, by a dogged
tenacity of resistance, resembling in all but it,
lack of a successful issue, the hand-to-hand en-
ciunter, forty years previously, within the walls
of the old farm house of Hougoumont. But the
glory thus won before Sebastopol during the late
war, was won neither by generalship nor by stra-
tegy, but rather than that, in spite of bad general-
ship and bungling strategy—by the strong right
hand of the private soldier, with the edge of his
sword and at the point of his bayonet. So much
for the warrior-pets of H.R.H. So much for
Lord RAGLAN'S generalship.
General CODRINGTON again. There was another
of H.R.II.'s military protege ! What a brilliant
success that was —don't we all remember it. Why
it was 'lke the sudden collapse of the Great
Nissan B tlkon at the moment of its accent ! The
King of FRANCE, with his forty thousand men,
marching up the hill, and then marching down
again, was nothing to it. There is really only one
incident at all resembling it that we can anywhere
recall to our recollection. It is an incident re-
corded among some of his pleasant memories by
threatened
Mr. LEIGH HUNT. It occurred, Mr. LEIGH HUNT
tells us, precisely thus :—Time—in the early
I in London,
teens of the present century, when England was
about to be ;ill::
with invasion by First Consul N.APO•
LEON BONA!,
a member of the actual bySictesne— chief a c
ocourt-yard,some-
whereffi er
where a body of Militia was
train-band being Mr. LEIGH

HUNT himself, the facetious narrator of the occur-
rence. The moment selected for description is
that in which the ranks, having just " dressed
up" for the reception of the Colonel, await his
appearance upon the very tiptoe of expectation.
A crash of drums and trumpets—the gates of the
court-yard are flung wide open—the Colonel's
horse plunges in through the entrance—and the
Colonel himself, very stou4-, tightly-strapped,
and excessively red in the face, is sud-
denly sent sprawling over the head of his
charger, down in the dust, at the feet of
the men who are presenting arms to him ! It
was for all the world the counterpart of General
CODRINGTON' s abrupt and ridiculous appari-
tion as the British Commander-in-Chief.
Never was there such an anti-climax ! At every
event ofkind
i can p
01 literally—.only
to bear it without lly—only grin and
bear it.
oeaainly impossible
grinning. The result of the grand preliminary
flourish being generally so intensely preposterous.

The latest illustration of this, the one which
has been just vouchsafed to the country by General
ASHBURNHAM-known far and wide as another
of Fl.R.ll.'s admirable military selections. Pre-
cisely when everybody is expecting to hear that
General ASHEURNELAM is going to begin the
deadly game of war out in those remote parts
of Asia to which ho has been sent as British Coin-
tnander-in-Chief—back comes—General As a-
BURNHAM l '

Now all this, while it is very ludicrous is also
very intolerable. Is it (we should like to
know) to be doggedly persisted in, as a
"system" at the Horse Guards ? Are we to
permit H. R. H. indefinitely at once to
make geese of our troops, and ducks
and drakes of our money, just for the
sake of amusing the leisure, and tasting the
whimsies, of an amateur Field Marshal ? We
hardly expect to find a German King Consort
another Organizer of Victory, like Citizen CA RNOT
—particularly after the melancholy absurdity of
the exhibitions afforled to Europe by the nomina-
tion to the chief command of military protegees of
R. 11. like General Asununsaim, or like
General CODRINGTON.

LORD BROUGHAM.

Cord Brougham's Acts and Bills. Collected and
arranged by Sir John E. Eardley Wilmot, Bart.
Pp. 879. Longman and Company .
This substantial volume is a truly remarkable
publication. As a compilation notable in a parti-
coiar way for its comprehensiveness, and beyond
that for the singular perspicuity of its asrangemeut,
it reflects the highest credit upon the learned Re-
corder of Warwick and Jucl'e of the Bristol County
Court, to the industry and sagacity of whose re-
searches we are indebted for the first accumulation
of the " Acts and Bills" of our great ex-Chancellor.
Sir Eardley Wilmot has in this solid tome built up
one of the noblest monuments at once of the genies
and of the civism of Henry Lord Brougham. The
issue from the press of these 800 luminous
pages is an incident which seems to - us, in a
manner, to bear a certain fantastic resem-
blance to the erection of the colossal bronze
equestrian statue on the triumphal arch over
against Apsley House clueing the lifetime of
rier late Duke of Wellington. It is in other words
We
speak
.withluethi
la gigantic and conspicuous attestation of the fame
audpopularity of a great man, brought immediately
under his own observation not less than under that
of his own contemporaries. Everyone—Lord
Brougham himself—must recognise now that the
author of these extraordinary legal reforms, has in
truth, not lived in vain. Hera is conclusive testi-
mony that the golden talents entrusted to his
ke.iping have not been laid up iu a napkin and
buried away, instead of being multiplied—and the
affluent interest of them strown abroal with an
open hand as largess to the general population.
With an especial siesn'ficance has this volume been
respectfully dedicated by the .compiler to "The
Society for the Amendment of the Law" as a sug-
gestive and surely an encouraging "Record of the
Labours of their President in the Sacred cause" of
—what'd "Humanity, Justice, and Freedom !"
" Whereunto," adds the Dedication, with impressive
eloquent e, "the Laws themselves bear Faithful
and Living Testimony." Truthfully is all this
written—for the Legal Reforms en:cured to the
nation by these " Acts and Bills" of Lsrd Broug.
ham affect among other subjects :-
1. The Slave Trade,
2. The Ltw of Liisel and Slander, ."
3. Education and Charities,
4. CriAlleCry and Privy Csuncil,
b. Real Properly,
6. Criminal Law,
7. Bankruptcy and Insolvency,
8. Local Courts,
9. Law of Evidence and Procedure,
together with a:multitude of other subjects of a mis-
cellaneous character. Why, the accomplishment of
say that theam ognegoidt,usadchgite•efaatm, and
ener-
getic Law Reformer is
any
ye
otthhoeic.leoafutshileigfeoaftsthoof
sables of Aegean, is
e3oxlntaiogsugiclretri;',.
ttliluenfawbbl. fabled
we
wise citizen who has done all this is a man
itwihilmei oglllii,oahrsiiiedeserved
ge
ton].
iwellevri
generation.
c .Lisn. country.Gra ti
tll
not less than admiration. Let neither of them be
his only post rcules.
humously. Yet, be it remarked at
once, that these herculean achievements in the
way of legal reforms, accomplished single-handed
by Lord Brougham, represent, after all, but a
modicum of his :doiugs during the best portion of
the last half century. The Great Lawyer has
proved himself, during these same forty or fifty
years last past, great also simultaneously as a Critic,
as an Author, as an Orator, as a Statesman, as a
profound experimental Philosopher. For—be it
not forgotten by those who turn wonderingly over
the pages of this extraordinary volume—that the
author of these enormous reforms in the law is the
suns Henry Brougham who contributed a paper
on an abstruse optical theme to the Royal Society
the year after his precocious matriculation at the
University of his native city of E iinburgh—a paper
which was at once re.eognised to be sufficiently im-
portant to be published forthwith among the Philo-
sophical Transecti n
~ F. It is the same Henry
Brougham who, from the very sommeneement of
the Edinburgh Review, was amongst the very fore-
most of its many gifted contributors. Nay, of
whom it is related, in connection with that famous
periodical, that, having written to the then pub-
Esher of the Review (fur. ConAab'e) for -an ad-
vance of a thousand pounds, undertaking to clear
off the debt by his subsequent, writings, lie so
rapidly entered upon the finfilment of this promise,
that, with the exception of two articles, he himself
wrote tha whole of one particular number (lie
number is one of those in vol. xvii. of the Edin-
b,„.o)_the papers in that one number, of course,
relating to a variety of subjects, one of them being
a treatise upon the Operation of Lithotomy ! A
circumstance, by the way, that probably may have
suggested to the wlainvric,l triied of-Sydney .Sizi!h
his well-known sarcasm in relation to Lord Jelin
Russell's self-confidence i u his own versatility. This,
is the same Henry Brougham who, although he had
.Denman among his colleagues, was incomparably
the most distinguished among the counsel of the
unfortunate Queen Caroline. The same who
as far back as 1803 produced his memorable disqui-
sition on Colonial Pb
Ii•;Y-wliose pen has since
written, in six volumes,
"The Lives of the States-
men of the Reign of George 111. ;" in four volumes
prenotineled a system of Political Peilosophy ;
illustrated and expanded Paley's masterpiece on
National Theology ; aided .cr
1 Cherie i Knight
with contributions to the Penny illaga.-:inc, that
inaugurator of the whole scheme of the cheap peri-
odicah ; assisted Dr. Birkbeck in establishing the
Mechanics' Institutes in the United Kingdom ;
orb; wised the University of London ; and founded
the Society for the affusion of Useful Knowledge.
It is the same man who, in the midst of al! these
splendid labours, shared so fiercely in the debut s
of the House of Commons—that upon one occasion,
(the 17th of April, 1823) when char gin; that emi-
nent statesman with " the mod menstrous truck-
ling for office, that the whole history of politic it
tergiversation could - present," he caused Mr. C an-
ning to leap from his seat with the exAarnation,
"It is false I "—while upon another, ii later, OCCA-
sion—(whea after referring wroth'eFy to the la 0
Iron Duke's famous declaration against reform, lie
thus apostrophised Sir Relert, "iliac we scorn
not—it is you we scorn •you his mean bite
fawning, parasite !") he , stir:led. Pea ,
l into an in-
stant and contemptuous prote ,tat:on that he wa,
the parasite of no man breathing. It is the sante
Henry Brougham, in fine, who soddenly, and not
by any graduated promotion, put aside the stuff
gown of a barrister, assuming, instead, the robes
b
of England's Lord High Chaucell)r. Nevertheless,
in spite of all this versatility, while still continuing,
moreover, to prosecute uninterruptedly his exporis

mental researches in natural philosophy—Lord
Brougham (and one may behold undeniable proof
of this in the huge volume here published by the
Messrs. Longman)—Lerd Brougham, instead of
merely indulging in showy exhibitions of his var.--
0113 and virile genius, has been securing to the com-
munity all the solid good malting from these bold
and comprehensive reforms of the law ; thereby
building up his own most glorious, ea-viable, and
imperdurahle monument. Born in the Se7tember
of 1778, Lord isßrougham consequently, at this
moment, in his eightieth year—yet it is, we rejoice
to know, the eightieth year of a man whose g, nius
is still vital with all the energies, the ardour, the
hopefulness, the buoyancy of youth. May that
vitality long remain unimpaired ! With
which earnest aspiration we close our present
and most inadequate tribute to that venerable
and patrician Senator, in whom, as a Commoucr,.
we still gratefully remember the daring and daunt-
less Tribune of the English People.