The Sun.
London, England, 1867-02-12 00:00:00

THE CRETAN INSURRECTION.

Mr. GREGORY asked the Secretary for Fel oign Affairs
when the papers he had moved for ou this subject would
be laid on the table ?

Lord STANLEY said he had placed them there not
ten minutes since. (Laughter.)

THE REFORM QUESTION.

[A glance first of all, however, at the actual state
of the political situation just in regard to the whole
Reform question as it now stands before Parlia-
ment. If ever, to use Napoleon'sphrase, " the pear
was ripe," it is ripe now. The Leader of the House of
Commons, one might say, has only to stretch forth
his hand and gather it. And what is more, every-
body wants it gathered.

People are getting sick to death of the
whole subject. As Mr. Gladstone said only
the other night, it stops the way. We all want
it cleared out of the way and shall be grateful to
the man who may have the privilege, or luck, or
skill (call it what you please), of so clearing it away.
Both in the House, and out of the House, there is
a general, an universal longing to have it fairly
grappled with as a difficulty, and to have it so dealt
with at last that—at any rate for a long while to
come—we shall he well rid of it. And, certainly,
if there was erer a reasonable prospect of its being
thus vigorously taken in hand and dealt with, that
prospect, one would think, is now immediately before
us.

During the last few years we have had—one after
another—how many bran new Reform Bills? Well,
to say nothing of the last Derby-Disraeli Reform
Bill, which was smothered and hustled out of the
way at the moment of its birth, we have had three
purely Russell Reform Bills, as 'well as a sort of a
Whig composite supplementary Reform Bill, or
cluster of Reform Bills thrown in to boot. It is
almost like an echo of the incantation scenein Mac-
beth :

- - -
" Thrice the brindlbd cat hath mewed.
Thrice and once the hedgehog whin'd ;
Harper* cries, 'tis time, 'tie time !"
[C Mr. Bright—lot us suggest—who is perpetually harp-
ing on the subject.]
And now comes the sixth Reform Bill, or at any
rate the sixth proposition to have a Reform Bill in-
troduced, with a view to its being consolidated
into a substantial onactment.

Preparatory to the Alinistorial statement of
to-night—there has been within the last few weeks
issued from the press a whole mass of what might
be called Reform literature. One eminent
publishing firm has laid before the public, in a col-
lected form, the entire series of the Reform
Speeches of Mr. Disraeli. Another has given to
the world, in the same way, those of Mr.
Gladstone. Another, those of Mr. Lowe.
Another, the fourth, and the last, and not by
any means the least, those delivered in the House
and out of it, hither and thither, all our the country
by the BOallage3 among all living champions of
Reform, the hon, member for Birmingham. It was
only a year or so back, moreover, that Mr. :Moles-
worth gave, in an interesting and valuable
volume, a historical resume of the First Parlia-
mentary Reform Bill of all, the only one as yet
actually formed into a law, the Reform Bill of Earl
Grey, as the ex-Prime Minister, no doubt would
fain have it called, if he could, the Reform Bill of
Lord John Russell.
Whatever may come of the new endeavour
which is adventured upon this evening by the