The Sun.
London, England, 1858-11-02 00:00:00

THE WEATHER.—SUN OFFICE, Nov. 2.

THERMOMETER, IN THE SHADE.
49—highest since noon yesterday.
47—lowest this morning and during the night.
52—this day at noon.

BAROMETER-30.41. •
WIND, Easterly; fresh, with fine cold weather.

THE SUN.

TUESDAY. NOVEMBER 2, 1858.

JOHN BRIGHT is a man. Right or wrong he
speaks out, and gives utterance to his sincere con-
victions in a manly, straightforward way. He
means what he says, and he says what he means.
There is no mistake, there can be no mistake, as to
his opinions. The language in which he clothes
his earnest, honest views of men and things is
plain, strong, nervous English. We listen to him
with pleasure, even when we have the misfortune
to differ from him ; and we also think that we
have a right to speak our mind. It is our mission,
as it is that of Mr. BRIGHT, to tell the country
what we believe to be the truth. We "dare" to
differ from Mr. BRIGHT. We believe that on
many occasions he speaks the truth, but we refuse
to admit that he always, according to our appre-
hension, speaks " the whole truth, and nothing but
the truth." Mr. BRIGHT, as we have said before,
is not infallible. We admire his self-reliance. But
it is passible to be too self-confident. And when
a man asks his fellow-citizens how they " dare" to
differ in opinion, we say at once that his self-
confidence has degenerated into intolerance.
Now we are not going to say a word at present
about Mr. BRIGHT'S opinion as to the advantage
of Peace-at-any-price. Sir R. WALPOLE, Mr. Fox,
Lord GREY, Sir R. PEEL, and Mr. BRIGHT alto-
gether would not convince us, any more than they
would convince the nation, that " any peace is
better than the most successful war." But we
differ widely from Mr. BRIGHT upon another and
a most important subject, and that is, the best
means of improving the condition of the people of
England. Before we " dare" to tell him in what
respect we differ, we will do ourselves the pleasure
of informing him in what respect we agree with
what he said the other day at Birmingham on this
topic.

"When I am told," said Mr. BRIGHT, "that the
greatness of our country is shown by the
£100,000,000 of revenue produced, may I not ask
how is it that we have 1,100,000 paupers in this
kingdom, and why it is that £7,000,000 should be
taken annually from the industry, chiefly of the
labouring classes, to support a small nation, as it
were, of paupers ?" We agree that this is a ques-
tion which ought to be asked. "But," he continues,
" it is well known that just above the level of the
1,100,000 there is an equal number who are ever
oscillating between independence and pauperism,
who, with a heroism which is not the less heroic
because it is secret and unrecorded, are doing their
very utmost to maintain an honourable and inde-
pendent position before their fellow men." There
are, then, 1,100,000 of British paupers, and another
1,000,000 of our fellow subjects living on the verge
of pauperism—living a life of careworn and
anxious struggle for food enough to eat, and cloth-
ing enough to wear. In Ireland the rate of wages
is a shilling a day ; in Scotland's romantic glens
and moorlands there are many families existing
from day to day and from -week to week on oat-
meal. While these things continue, says Mr.
BRIGHT, " we are bound by the sacred duty which
we Owe to our country to examine why it is that,
with all this trade, all this industry, and all this
personal freedom, there is still so much that is un-
sound at the base of our social fabric."
With this view of the question we entirely and
cordially agree. Were-echo the elonuent and glow.
ing language of the hon. member for Birmingham
with heartfelt approbatiou—,, Crowns, coronets,
mitres, military display, the pomp of war, wide
colonies, and a huge empire, are all trifles light as
air, and not worth considering, unless with them
you can have a fair share of comfort, contentment,
and happiness among the great body of the people."
Mr. BRIGHT, then, has truly and forcibly
depicted the evils of the social condition of the►

people, and declared that the first business of a
statesman is to direct his attention to the removal
of those evils. With all this we agree. But what
are Mr. BRIGHT'S proposed remedies for these evils?
Get, he says in effect, some political privileges, in
order that you may reduce the taxes ; and, in the
meanwhile, if you are starving, and cannot wait
for political privileges and reduced taxation, emi-
grate. This is all the advice which the great
popular orator has to offer to the two millions and

upwards of his fellow-countrymen who are paupers
and on the verge of pauperism.
Mr. BRIGHT'S contribution, then, to the solution
of the great social problem of the cond..tion of the
people is—alas ! for poor human nature—a bril-
liant and showy declamation, " full of sound and
fury, signifying nothing." And. yet he comes
near to the truth. The reduction of the nation's
expenditure is his panacea for the social evils of
the system. It is, then, after all, like most other
things, a MONEY QUESTION. Poverty, vice, misery
abound, because the poor man earns too little and
pays too much. Now, we will refer Mr. BRIGHT
to a few plain facts. Ia the years 1854, 1855, and
1856, taxes were high, and wheat was from 80s. to
90s. a quarter, and yet the condition of the people
was rapidly improving, both in the agricultural
and manufacturing districts. Mr. BRIGHT must
remember well, if any man in England does, that
not only were the people willing to pay the heavy
load of taxes for the Russian war, but they were
able. How was this ? The reason why, during
these years, the people could pay their taxes was,
that they had plenty of money to pay them with.
The influx of Australian gold enabled the Bank to
keep out an adequate bank-note circulation. With
this circulation the price of all commodities was
permitted to rise, so as to include the additional
amount of taxation imposed. The producer got a
good price for his goods, and was therefore able to
pay good wages to the working man. The working
man, as a consumer, paid a price for his food re-
munerative to the food-producer ; and he could
afford to do this, for he got adequate wages. Every
industrious man in the kingdom was doing well.
The usurer and the hard calculator partook of the
general prosperity, but he seldom got more than 5
per cent. for his money, and he could no longer
purchase luxuries below cost price. Peace came,
and bullion went out. We had a monetary crisis,
which raised discount to 10 per cent., and the poor-
' rates in Lancashire 56 per cent. Government
stepped in at the last moment to prevent a national
convulsion, and granted to Fear that relaxation of
the monetary system which they had denied to
Justice.

Are these things necessary ? We affirm most
decidedly that they are not. We want money in
the realm, not so far abundant as to excite to
wild speculation, nor so inadequate to the nation's
wants as to produce depression of trade, misery,
and starvation. Experience tells us that a limited
amount of national money (X 20,000,000), based on
the honour, good faith, and wealth of England,
issued by the authority of the Queen and Parlia-
ment, would be sufficient.

By " the sacred duty which we owe to our coun-
try,"—in the name of the million of paupers, and
the million struggling between independence and
pauperism—we call upon Mr. BRIGHT to direct"
his energies and abilities to the unpopular but most
important subject—the Money Question. This is,
indeed, the great social question of the day, and
far beyond the honours which even the SOVEREIGN
of this mighty empire can bestow:Far beyond the
loud applause which the most despotic demagogue
can extort from his worshippers will be the honour
due to the man who shall bring happiness, content-
ment, and every social blessing into the lowly
dwelling of every labourer and operative in the
kingdom.

Habernus conftentem ! On Friday the Time s
in an elaborate argument, endeavours to extract
the sting of Mr. BRIGHT'S remarks, in which he
convicts our contemporary of inconsistency in
writing anonymously its contemptuous arguments
against the Ballot. But on Saturday it finds itself
required :to defend secret authorship against Mr.
SIDNEY HERBERT, who, we must confess by some
very plausible reasoning, endeavoured to show that
articles in newspapers would have more weight if
authors habitually appended their names to them.
The Times feels that Mr. HERBERT'S arguments
have something in them. Of course a man who
wrote on his responsibility by giving his name,
would have an extra inducement to care, both in
his facts and arguments. There is positively no
denying such an obvious truth as this. Yes, but,
says the Times, " If, Mr. SIDNEY HERBERT made
a clean breast of it he would confess that not love
but hate was father to his thought. He knows,
and we know, that it is just the anonymous charac-
ter of the Press that has secured its independence."
Even so—the secret author is an independent
author—and will the Times deny that the secret
voter must also be an independent voter ? Or,
will it take the other horn of the dilemma, and deny
that the voter ought to be independent ? Yes, says
the Times, in reply to Mr. BRIGHT, but there is no
analogy that we can perceive between the cases.
The voter's is a legal act which aids in choosing
him and me a governor, and I have a right to know
how his act affects me. Not quite so fast, good
Mr. ANONYMOUS. There is at least the resemblance
of securing independence in both cases. That you
assert strongly on Saturday. Secrecy is inde-
pendence ; so far good. Next, independence is
always asserted to be a desirable qualification for
an elector. You do not like to give a vote to the
operative or farm servant, because he is not inde-
pendent ; that is one at least of your reasons. Then,
again, will the Times not ' readily allow that a
column or two of its bourgeois is a thing which
very much affects our common governors ? Does
it not often print them to get certain governors in
or out, or in again when :they have been turned
out? and is not the censorship of the whole Euro-
pean press evidence enough that an article in a
newspaper is a matter of much more concern to
governors than a poor independent vote ?

We beg the Times' pardon, and hope it will not
think us guilty of flattery, but we have a much
higher opinion of the influence of its articles than
its modesty permits it to entertain of them itself.
WIT, we think, in our vanity, better of our own.
We believe that the clients of our Coppocks would,
in numberless cases, be most thankful to know who
wrote some leader or communication in a news-
pa.per ; these leaders have often a great deal to
do, with which senator is elected. The candidate
senators never overlook an editor if they know
hi m, and, if they do not, they like to be friendly
with the manager or the proprietor. The truth is,
Om voter ought to be represented--that no one will
dvny. If he fears, or merely wishes to oblige in his
p Dlitical good nature, any one else, then he repro-
sonts that individual or individuals, not himself.
It it be really intended that every voter shall repre-
so; at others who have no vote, then in the name of
co mmon sense give the unrepresented votes for
el ectors. Let us have, as they have in some coun-

tries, double election—electors chosing others
who se business it shall be to elect the representa-

t ative. But now the voter is presumed to be inde-
pendent, aid the Times has assured us that secrecy
is the soul 01' independence.
We are oftei; told, however, that we cannot
secure secrecy—an odd objection, to be sure, from
opponents of secrecy, We reply, however—try.
Though the acts of our Australian colonies are not
framed for absolute secrecy in the event of a

s. crutiny, yet they have secured secrecy there, and
e ien when the majority has been but narrow, the
3feated party has not doubted the honesty of the
v oting, or appealed to a scrutiny. We lay before

our readers, however, the draught of a bill, whic h
if they will but compel our legislators to make it
law, will, we think, set the landlords and the whole
tribe of vote purchasers at defiance. Indeed,
nothing can be much easier than to provide me-
chanically for secrecy, if our governors but wish to
do it. And then, as in the case of the Income-tax,
the sentiment generated by the law and its recti-
tude comes in aid. Practically it is found that
where the law gives a man, a secret and thereby an
independent vote, men are slow to disgrace them-
selves by prying, if they could, into what the law
forbids them to know.

LATEST NEWS.

THE PENINSULAR MAILS.
(BY ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH.)
SOUTHAMPTON, TUESDAY MORNING.
The Valetta steamer, with the Peninsular mails,
is 'telegraphed from Hurst at 10 45 a.m.

SPAIN.
The following telegrams were received at Mr.
Reuter's office, Nov. 1 :

MADRID, Nov. 1.

The coalition of the parties in opposition to the
Ministry have had the majority in the elections at
Madrid.

Government has triumphed everywhere in the

provinces.
General tranquillity reigns in all parts of the
country.

NAPLES.

PARIS, MONDAY.

Letters from Naples state that the King has had
frequent conferences with Monsieur de Tilanguer.

There is a report that he will be again appointed
Minister.

FRANCE.

PARIS, MONDAY.
This being All Saints' Day, the Bourse and all
the public offices are closed.
General de Brigade d'Oullenbourg has been ap-
pointed to the command of a division of cavalry at
Luneville, in the roam of General Count Lion, who
has retired from ill ;health.

The Moniteur de to Reunion gives the following
details connected with the seizure of the French
ship the Alfred by the Portuguese, as briefly men-
tioned by the telegraphic despatch from Nantes :
" The Labourdonnais steamer has brought to the
Government of Reunion news from the coast of
Africa which lead us to augur favourably of the
mission of the French brig of war Le Genie. She
has also brought reports from Capt. Cahours, of
the Alfred. That vessel was at Anjouan when
she fell in with the English corvette Persian, by
the captain of which she was visited, every in-
quiry being made as to the operations which she
was engaged in. The, clear and explicit replies
made by the captain .of the Alfred prevented the
commandant of the :.Persian from carrying into
execution his intention of searching the vessel.
The interviews which the captain of the Genie
afterwards had with the commanders of the Eng-
lish cruisers on the sti ttion and the energetic lan-
guage he made use of •were of a nature to prevent
the renewal of pretensions. The instruc-
tions for the vessels e n the Mozambique station,
by the Governor of Re union, give the French mer-
chantment all the s upport necessary for their
commercial operations . The Alfred, on leaving,
the Comores, where slhe had made some engage-
ments, proceeded to rbo, on the eastern coast of
Africa, to convey three European passengers to
that place. The Portuguese Governor seized the
vessel, and. sent her to► Mozambique. The Governor
of Reunion reeei'ved the, intimation of this fact from
4_e Governor-General cif Mozambique, who in the
same despatch announced that the Alfred had been
released, and the Governor of Ibo summoned to
Mozambique to give a n account of his conduct.
Thus satisfaction has be en given before it has been
applied for."

CHISELHU.RSY PEAL OF BELLS.

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