The Sun.
London, England, 1867-08-02 00:00:00

organised plan. As Lord DERBY very truly said,
the proposition amounted almost to a new Reform
Bill, and it was not expedient for their lordships
to decide upon such important changes ; for to say
at this time that the House of Commons could be
consulted amounted to a mockery. Hence the
boroughs which were to be partially disfranchised
could not have been heard through their own repre-
sentatives, and we agree entirely with the noble
earl at the head of her MAJESTY'S Government that
the House of Commons is the fitting place
for deciding upon those changes of so comprehensive
a character. It would, as the noble Earl said, have
engaged the attention of the House for three
months to accept the range of speculations which
Earl GREY wished them to take up. -W e doubt
indeed if at any time the House of Commons would
have received very favourably the notice of the
changes proposed by Lord GREY emanating from
the House of Lords. The House is jealous
of its rights, and would not have cared
to have had these alterations forced upon
it at a late period of the session. The
Government scheme of Redistribution might have
been better, but it is the best that could have been
devised under the circumstances ; and it must be
remembered that the difficulties which they had to
contend against in disposing of the franchise part of
the scheme were so great that too many and too
startling changes could not be expected to
be found in the latter portion of the Bill.
We can hardly acquit Lord GREY of indiffer-
ence as to whether or not the success of his scheme
interfered with the measure before the House ;
and at any rate he knew the risk it ran, when Lord
DERBY said that the adoption of the amendment
would be productive only of one result, that of
throwing the whole subject into confusion, and
putting an end to the " great progress which had
been made towards the settlement of a very doubt-
ful and difficult question." Lord CAIRNS gave it
as his opinion that the Redistribution scheme
might have been better, but the amendment of
Lord GREY was little, if at &l, different from another
Reform Bill. The noble and learned lord put the case
very strongly before the House, when he said that
their lordships would incur the responsibility of
abandoning the Reform Bill altogether if they per-
sisted in carrying this amendment. Loft STAN-
HOPE stated the case most effectively, when he said
that he looked upon the amendment as much more
calculated to injure the Government than to im-
prove the bill.
The noble lords who supported the amendment
certainly did not mince matters in the way in which
they spoke, and one and all seemed to think that
they had a right to lecture Lord DERBY as to the
course he was bound to pursue in the event of Lord
GREY'S amendment being carried. Lord GRAN-
VILLE tried being facetious, and the Duke of
ARGYLL adopted a censorious tone ; while Lord
GREY evidently lost his temper altogether in his
concluding remarks. The Lord Chancellor aptly
described the amendment as a most crude and un-
considered scheme, and very truly said that he could
not see why if ten thousand was not a limit
that could be called final that stopping
at twelve thousand should improve their position.
Lord RUSSELL made a vigorous attempt to gain the
desired end of the Opposition, and of course de-
clared that the Government scheme was not the way
to settle Reform. A majority of fifty-six disposed
of Lord LYVEDEN'S amendment, notwithstanding
his earnest appeal to their lordships to make his
proposal an exception, as hitherto they had
adopted no amendments which wore not Con-
servative. The noble lord's proposal to disfran-
chise all boroughs under five thousand population
was, if possible, more confused than that of Lord
Lord GREY'S more extended scheme. Perhaps
the debate iu the House of Lords last night may
be considered as animating and exciting as any of
those in the House of Commons on this subject, and
certainly its issue was as critical for the safety and
success of the bill. It must be a matter of rejoicing
to-day that this measure has advanced another
step in its uphill course, and perhaps it
is not expecting too much to think that
the worst is now really over, and that minor arrange-
ments will be all that will engage the attention of
the House. The country had a right to expect
more consideration from the noble lords on the
Opposition side of the House ; but very likely, when
all their plots have failed, and their machinations
disappeared like the baseless fabric of a vision, Lord
GREY and Lord RUSSELL will follow the example
of Mr. GLADSTONE, and tell Lord DERBY
that the bill is not that of his Government, but
that it belongs to the house. This will make very
little difference so long as the measure is a success-
ful one; and it may well be said in this instance
that the end crowns the work.

Last evening the House of Commons was
engaged in discussing a variety of subjects, rang;
ing from the postal service with the East Indies to
the revenues of the Irish Church. The evening
was, in fact, chiefly devoted to discussion, for three

or four successive motions were withdrawn as soon

as the general opinion of the House had been
elicited. Among the topics thus touched upon and
then abandoned was one brought forward by Mr.
CowPER respecting national exhibitions of art.

The right hon. gentleman moved that an address
be presented to Iler MAJESTY praying for the
appointment of a Royal Commission to consider
what portions of the national collections of fine
arts ought to be exhibited in Trafalgar-square ;
what provision should be made for the exhibition of

the National Portrait Gallery, and how the other
classes of objects exhibited to the public should
be divided between the remaining institutions.
Mr. COWPER, who was well qualified to deal with
the subject, observed that much of the value of
our art collections depended on their being placed •
in a logical order and sequence. He approved of
the general plan at present adopted, but was
anxious to have some changes in the disposal of
certain pictures. For instance, in the British
Museum is a valuable collection of the drawings
of the ancient masters, which would be more
advantageously placed in the National Gallery.
To the National Gallery, too, Mr. COWPER would
transfer those wonderful cartoons of RAFFAELLE,
which have never yet been suitably located. In
Hampton Court they were not well seen, and ran
great risk from fire. In South Kensington they
are perfectly secure, but are not well seen. Other
drawings, sketches, and paintings might be more
advantageously classified, so as not only to delight
the ordinary spectator, but to afford profitable op-
portunity for study and comparison to the
student. The earliest outline by the hand of
a great master might very probably, as Mr.
COWPER observed, be more serviceable as a

guide and an incentive to the young artist than
the finished picture. The National Portrait Gallery,
being intended rather as historical illustrations than
as works of art, might very well, as Mr. COWPER
suggested, be transferred to the British Museum,
which would be an important saving of space to the
other institutions. Mr. HOPE, who followed Mr.
COWPER, was somewhat apprehensive of the effects
to be produced by a royal commission, and main-
tained that England would never take her .place
among the artistic nations of the world until we sepa-