The Sun.
London, England, 1858-05-28 00:00:00

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LONDON, FRIDAY, MAY 28, 1858.

The confusion in King AGRAMANT'S camp was
nothing to the consternation excited in the Pal-
merstonian ranks by the brilliant address of the
Chancellor of the Exchequer. The home truths
revealed by the Right Hon. Gentleman have ex-
cited the minds of his factious opponents to the
fiercest wrath. They wince under the energetic
application of the scourge, which he wielded with
such unsparing severity. There are howls
of every character, from the thorough bass (or
base) to the shrill squeak of a penny whistle
—a bad imitation of the peripatetic Punch,
who, wanting the wit of the Prototype, are con-
tented if they make it up in noise and clamour.
Mr. DIsnAELI has stripped the lacquer off the
native brass. Like St. PATRICE, in the Hiber-
nian myth, he has crushed the venomous reptiles,
and their "pharisaical" patrons who gave, or
seemed to give, implicit credence to " the leading
articles written by themselves."
The description of the Friday evening in the
House of Commons was inimitable, when " the
wail of distress " not from the Ministerial
benches—was heard around. There was a com-
plete revolution. A mutiny only to be compared
to that of " the Bengal Army. Regiment after
regiment, corps after corps, general after general,
all acknowledged that they could not march
through Coventry. It was like a convulsion of
nature rather than any ordinary transaction of
human life. It only could be likened to one of those
earthquakes which take place in Calabria or Peru.
There was a rumbling murmur, a groan, a shriek,
a sound of distant thunder. No one knew
whether it came from the top or the bottom of
the house. There was a rent—a fissure in the
ground—and_ then a village disappeared, then a
tat tower toppled down, and the whole of the
Opposition benches became one great dissolving
view of anarchy."

Well might the Right Honourable Gentleman
exclaim, " are these the people whom you want
to govern the country ? People in pie whose camp
there is auarchy,_between whom there is discord
on every point, and who are not even incited by
the common bond of wishing to seize on the spoils
of office." They are not. The so-called " inde-
pendent Falinerstonian Liberals," although they
do not like the DERBY Government, do not see
their way to any benefit, either for themselves or
the nation, in the return to office of the veteran

Viscount, while the really consistent men, like
JOHN ARTHTIR ROUT/OE, JOHN BRIGHT, and Sir
A. H. ELTON, have decided, and will decide on
the real merits of the case, without reference
to party feelings or undue motives. They at least
would regard the premature return to office of the
happy family as an evil of no ordinary character.
But even that would not induce them to vote
against their consciences, or in opposition to the
real merits of the case. If the Government
go wrong —if good measures are rejected,
they will strive to bring them into a proper
course. If perverse uLstinacy, or contu-
melious insolence, such as they were long
accustomed to, were attempted, they would speedily
vindicate their own cause ; but so long as Minis-
ters pursue a straightforward and honourable
course, beneficial to the nation in its foreign
and domestic relations, they have nothing to
fear from the really independent Liberals.
Sir A. H. ELTON clearly explained the policy
of the true Liberals, at the meeting of his con-
stituents on Wednesday evening ; and that policy
was endorsed and approved of by men of all
shades and varieties of political opinion. He could
not join in the onslaught against the celebrated
despatch—which, if even, indiscreet, was certainly
"honest ;" and any fault, if fault there were, was
more than atoned and expiated by the resig•
nation of its author—a resignation deeply re•
gretted by every true-hearted Englishman, and
one which we would gladly see recalled,
and " the right man restored to the right
place." The earnest pretest of Sir JAMES
OUTRAM against the " confiscation policy"
was identical in sentiment, if not in language,
with that of Lord ELLENBOROIIGH. It was con-
clusive on the question at issue ; and oven those
who had improvidently promised the Palmer-
stonian whipper-in, shrunk from the redemption of
their ill-advised pledges. Had there been a divi-
sion, there would have been a large majority on
the side of the Government, and many absentees,
who, like Mr. DIINCOMBE, would have taken up
their hats and made their respective conges. The
feeling of the House, so plainly and unequivocally
displayed, however prevailed, and the ignominious
withdrawal of the motion—so humiliating to the
conspirators and damaging to their cause—was
the result.

We do not believe that there will be any other
factious attempt this session, although the modern
Pharisee, who " thanks GOD that he is net as
other men," is reported to have exclaimed, in an
ebullition of pious wrath, " that Ministers should
sot long retain their places." More sagacious
men will, however, see the danger of a second
abortive effort, and therefore we may hope that
the remainder of the session will be devoted to
the pressing business of the country, and that
another week may not be wasted iu a " faction
fight," occasioned by the ex-Premier trailing his
skirts through the house, and challenging any one
to tread on them.

Another ingenious plan for the better drainage
of the metropolis has been submitted to the con-
sideration of the metropolitan commissioners. As if
there were not enough plena already to bewilder
any ordinary board, and to render as dubious as
possible the chance of any speedy attempt at one
comprehensive improvement. Engineer after
engineer has proffered his suggestions under this
head, and up to the present moment nothing at
all definitely has ever yet come of it. The
Metropolitan Board of Works has been particu-
larly hasty in the matter. The General Board
of Health has taken it into its serious considera-
tion. The Deodorisation Commission has not
been by any means idle. Reports have been
drawn up and published periodically. Statistics
have been sedulously acoum ulated. Sir BEN-
JAMIN HALL has scruti nixed the problem from
every imaginable point of view, in the hope of at
last arriving at some satisfactory solution. Lord
JOIN MANNERS has endeavoured, is still endea-
vouring to emulate the industry, and to surpass
the sagacity of his energetic and indefatigable pre-
decessor. Dr. IdiTHSBY has " many a time and
oft" insisted upon the necessity for some resolute
and instant reform in this direction being forth-
with undertaken by Hor MAJESTY'S Government.
Dr. SOUTIWOOD SMITH has lent the aid of his
great authority towards the improvement of this
all but universal and overwhelming conviction.
Mr. EDWIN CHADWICL has sustained with hie
great authority the same powerful and convincing
argument. From Gwydyr House, from Guild-
hall, from Whitehall-place, there have been per-
petually pouring in additional facts demonstrative
more and more clearly of the sore need there is
of some determined effort being made towards the
purification of London and Westminster. Mean-
while—so much having been spoken, written, end
printed upon the subject—what has been actually
clone ? Surely nobody needs to be told that after
all these years, after all the hubbub in the way
of argument and consultation, what has actually
been done amounts just Madly to—Nothing.
Not only nothing has been Done, however, but
absolutely nothing all this while, up to the pre-
sent moment, has even been Attempted to be
done ! There have been plans in abundance, but
not one of these plans has ever once been frankly
and boldly taken in hand. And now—after all
the time and the toil thus wasted—forth comes
a bran new plan for the better drainage of the
metropolis—to what end of what precise cha-
racter ? Now, mark The last new plan in re-
ference to the main drainage question, the plan
now formally submitted to the consideration of
the Metropolitan Commissioners affects not in any
way to purify the Thames, and beyond that goes
the length of explicitly proposing that the sewage
shall be discharged within the metropolitan area.
So that literally the short and the long of it is—
that before this new Government plan could
by any possibility be accepted and acted
upon, a new act would have to be framed
and passed through both houses of Perlin.
ment. For so long as the Metropolis Local
Management Act continues in existence in its pre-
sent form it would be a direct' infringement of
that particular act of the Imperial Legislature,
either to discharge the sewage within the metre-
politan area or not to see to the purification of the
river Thames. And, what ie more, we don't think
it at all within the bounds of mere probability that
the Lords and Commons can be iaduced now-l-
a hair's breadth, the terms of that
days to alter by
special enactment. It is obviously, therefore,
sheer waste of time for the Commissioners to be
pottering over the impracticable suggestions of
an illegal plan like the one just now sagely sub-
mitted to their consideration. Let us hope that
the last of these abortive plans may, without
any further delay, be strangled betimes with its
own swathing bands of red tape, and buried away
decently in the cerements of circumlocution.

Several journals have announced that the Caimacan
of Moldavia, Pinco Vogorides, was at the point of death..
A telegram from Jassy, dated May 24, contrad:ots this
news.
COPYRIGHT IN WORKS OF FINE ART.—A petition to
the House of Lords, praying an amendment of the law
of artistic copyright, already signed by Sir Charles East-
lake, P.R. A , is now arid will be lying at the house of
the Society of Arts in the Adelphi for the next few days.
All persons interested in the subject should lose no time
in signing it.