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

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS

" - -

TIMES.--The Chancellor of the Exchequer is so
clever a man that he constantly deceives himself by
underrating the capacity of others. The elaborate
speech he delivered last night was a signal instance
of this self-deception. The House of Commons is
longing for a settlement of the Reform question.
It recognises its difficulties ; it is conscious that it
has dallied with a problem which becomes more in-
volved the longer it remains unsettled ; it is ready
to welcome any proposals which would redress the
glaring defects of our representative system without
subverting the principles of the Constitution. The
country is of the same mind. The course the
Ministers of the Croivn have adopted is not, the
Chancellor of the Exchequer last night confessed,
flattering to themselves. This is true, but they might
have converted it into an opportunity of triumph.
" An offence handsome!y acknowledged," as Lord
Delamere said last week, quoting the most brilliant
comedies, " wafers an sliigations" and if -the Mini-
stry had shown that they frankly recognised the
position in which they were placed, and were dis-
posed to concede freely what it is incumbent upon
any Ministry to concede, no ungenerous construc-
tion would be put upon their conduct, and they
might have achieved a distinguished success. It is
now probable that their conduct of Reform must be
a continued humiliation, and the only practical
question is whether the House of Commons must
not take the matter into its own hands and use the
Ministry as an instrument to register its Resolu-
tions. The Administration is ready, Mr. Disraeli
said, to consult the sense of the house and to accept
its suggestions--words which may indicate a desire
for real co-operation, or a supineness ready to bend
to any fate. The House of Commons is fortunately
not called upon nicely to discriminate the_ mean-
ing of these phrases. Its desire—and in this
respect, as in so many others, it reflects the spirit
and intelligence of the nation— is to settle the
problem of Reform on terms which may be accepted
as permanent for a generation. It has declared
over and over again the necessity of an extensive
enfranchisement • it has manifested as often its de-
terininationnt'ctharatackte.
to erawayanything from its own
representative But now there is a need
of prompt and- immediate action, compared with
which the fate of a Ministry or the ambition of an
&pposition is a matter of trifling consideration. To
eject the present occupants of office from the
Treasury Bench would delay the solution of Reform
for at least twelve months, and too probably for a
longer period ; to keep them there is to employ the
services of several able administrators, and to con-
ciliate an opposition which might be too powerful if
unloosed.: The highest considerations demand a de-
termination to abstain from party triumphs. The
House of Commons must take the Ministry at their
word, and mould the resolutions so as to correspond
to the requirements of the case. The house must
express the sense the Chancellor of the Exchequer
is ready to consult ; it must put forth the sugges-
tions he is willing, on behalf of his colleagues, to
accept; and so the session of 1867 may not be
wasted, and the work of Reform may be accom-
plished.
HERALD—In the fortnight which is to elapse
before the House of Commons will be asked to enter
upon the consideration of the Government resolu-
tions, the country will, we trust, study carefully,
and consider fairly, the speech of the Chancellor of
the Exchequer. We do not think we allow ourselves
to be blinded by our long admiration for the dis-
tinguished leader of our party when we say that it
affords a coucluive vindication of the course which
the Government has resolved upon pursuing, and
an irrefragable statement of the true principles of
Parliamentary Reform. In calling upon the House
of Commons to divest itself of that party spirit
with which it has usually and legitimately ap-
proached the disCussion of this question, Mr. Disraeli,
who certainly is not the man to underrate the im-
portance of party organisation, or to dispute the
benefits of party spirit, summoned the house to
legislate on Reform in the only way in which legis-
lation can be attained. All parties have attempted
to settle the question, and all have failed ; and close
observers have long seen that no party, dealing with
the matter in a party spirit and without the co-
operation of the other side of the house, can settle it.'
The Government does not present its scheme to the
house saying,
"Take this ,or none at all." Whilst
resolved to abide by the leading principles of its own
plan, which it could not abandon with honour or
safety, it will receive propositions coming from the
other side of the house with thedesire to find in them
the means of rendering the measure more complete
and satisfactory. In fact, the Government says to
the House of Commons--" This question of Reform
is one of your own stirring up. By the manner in
which you have dealt with it its settlement has now
become a matter of urgent importance. We have
resolved to do our utmost to bring about that settle-
ment; and the only way, in which we can find a pos-
sibility of attaining it is to take you into our confi-
dence, to invite your co-operation. It would have
been more agreeable to us to introduce a bill ; but
this is not a time to consider the complacency of
Ministers or the pride of parties, and our past expe-
rience shows the danger of that policy. To effect
a settlement of this question we must all give and
take. We ask you, therefore; to meet us, to rise
superior to mere party spirit, as we have risen above
our personal predilections. We want to bring in a
bill that will pass, and passDAILY NEWS.--Of all the places of evening with promptitude."
en-
tertainment which are now open in London there is
none more attractive than the House of Commons
when Mr. Disraeli is announced to perform. This
great actor's British Constitutional Statesman is as
clever a personation as his Buckinghamshire coun-
try gentleman. Both are a little artificial ; but they
are not the less amusing on that account. But
though amusement is very, well in its way, it ought
not to interfere with business. To be put off with a
player when a statesman is needed, is as impertinent
as a jest out of place. Mr. Disraeli's speech yes-
terday evening must- have brought these reflections
home to the minds of his most enthusiastic admirers
in the very crisis of their enjoyment of his eccentric
history, his whimsical philosophy, and his piquant
personalities. The practical conclusion of his
lengthened exposition is clear. The Government is
determined to keep office, and to let Reform take its
ministries should tion,because all parties
chance. It is not, Mr. Disreali has discovered, a
their
tii
rcah
hptaahuretdyfsacitaeuteosf
it
and failed. It is a
penqhauve de-
d.se t i
torniletocini
is
House of Commons question, because the House of
Commons has refused to accept any of the proposi-
tions of the various Administrations which have
attempted to deal with it ; and because the motions
which revived the subject in and after the year
1848, and the amendment which defeated Lord
Derby's Bi linlBs 9, proceeded from private and in-
dependent' members.
POST.—lnto the merits of the resolutions it would
be premature to enter at present. We may, how-
ever, say at once there isnothing necessarily objec-
tionable involved in any o them. Rating furnishes,
f
perhaps, a better basis for determining property
qualification than rental, and so the majority of the
House of Commons thought last year when they
adopted Lord Dunkellin's motion and defeated the
boGovernment.roug
boroughs are completely no one can seriously complain
fno completely disfranchised, i, still the general prin-
ciple
figures,but and the inferences he
pro-
vided the franchise is extended to their satisfaction.
Those who represent the borough interest may de-'
i
Disraeli'sewould probably be ac-
cepted o
of
dbAtrylharewthose w ormdth resolutionh m
were truly anxious about the
o
passing of a Reform Bill. The fault which we fancy
will be found with the resolutions is that they carry
us a short way on our journey, and that their accept-
ans,e is quite consistent with the future loss of the
measure they are intended to introduce. The vital
issue will not be raised until the House of Commons
is asked to decide whether the Government offer a
sufficient extension of the franchise. But on this
point they are now silent. When the House goes
into committee on the resolutions, we conceive it
will be the duty of the Government to state the
substance of the measure they propose ; as other:
wise the house may reasonably object to pledging
itself to resolutions in total ignorance of the man-

ner in which they are to be applied. We did not,
however, understand Mr. Disraeli to say that the
resolutions should be discussed otherwise than as
abstract propositions, and we cannot therefore
assume that the initiatory step proposed by the Go-
vernment will be taken as a matter of course even