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

be allowed to take the law into their own hands.
It must be administered by responsible judges, who,
if they think proper, may be authorise& to punish
an improvident or fraudulent debtor.

Reaction seems to havo begun in earnest in
America. It is hardly two years since RUCTIANAN
and the Slave Power were triumphant, in a severe
struggle, over FREMONT and Free SoiL Pennsyl-
vania, the Quaker State, gave the vote which
virtually placed in the Presidential Chair one of her
own sons. It was known that anti-Slavery feeling
there was very strong, but it was not so strong as
to be uninfluenced by immediate proximity to a
Slave State, and by the prospect of giving a Presi-
dent to the Union. Mr. BUCHANAN also discreetly
said as little as he could which might irritate the
Freemen of the Northern States. Since his elec-
tion, however, he has found it impossible to serve
two masters. He must choose between them, and
he chose the Slave Power. Hence his miserable
Kansas policy, by which he offered that territory
a heavy bribe if she would but enter at once as a
Slave State, while, if she did not, she must remain
several years before she could be an Independent
State at all. The bait was rejected with scorn, and
Kansas is rewarded by seeing the Missouri ruffians
withdrawing into more congenial quarters, and her
free population rapidly increasing and insuring her
soon taking rank among the Free States.

Not only in this affair but in others, Mr.
BUCHANAN has not been lucky. That is, not lucky
for electioneering purposes. He is no nearer ap-
propriating Cuba than any former Presidents have
been. Central America is not annexed, nor likely
to be, just yet, and even in the dispute with Great
Britain about the alleged misbehaviour of our
cruisers, for one thing the facts turned out to be
fictions, and for another, Lord MALMESBURY was
able in good faith to point to the demands of Gene-
ral CASS himself as the rule by which England had
guided, and was still willing to guide, herself. The
whole affair turned out to be that very undignified
thing which we designate 'familiarly as a " mare's
nest." Mr. BUCHANAN, therefore, has irritated the
North by what they regard as treachery in regard
to Kansas, while lie did not satisfy the South, and
has failed to reap any compensatory Ostend or
filibustering laurels.

Hence it is, as we suppose, that the elections
have gone decidedly against him in the North.
In Pennsylvania, and in Indiana especially, he
appears to have emboldened the Republicans, and
proportionately to have depressed the energies of the
Democrats or pro-Slavery men. The former were
previously very much divided into sections who
could not be induced to act together. But the
prospect of decided victory by union has now dis-
posed the rival sections to compromise their dif-
ferences; in which case it would seem they can
carry all before them. " Settlements have been
made everywhere—we are informed—and New York
itself is likely to show large opposition gains." If
so, we are told, the probability is that the next
House of Representatives will be hostile to the
Administration. With so impulsive a people,
however, as the Americans, it is not safe to con-
clude too hastily. Not a year ago BUCHANAN ap-
peared likely to vanquish all opposition, and he
must be a bold man who could predict victory to
the Republicans from their present successes.
It is very gratifying to observe that our apparent
yielding—for it turned out there was nothing to
yield—on the right of search, seems to have
brought the Americans to their senses respecting
the slave trade. They appear now to feel ashamed
of doing nothing to vindicate their flag from the
stain of this infernal piracy. They have, as we
hale seen recently, captured a slaver themselves,
have landed her emaciated cargo of human good'
on their own shores, and shipped them off again to
the coast of Africa, to Liberia. A letter from the
medical man in charge of them, to a friend in this
country, has just been published. It gives a heart-
rending account of their degraded mental and
physical condition, and of their dreadful sufferings;
but what is most remarkable—all American as he
is—he denounces the infernal traffic as indignantly
as an Englishman could do. He is confident that
his country is as hostile to the slave-trade as ours,
though this is hardly compatible with the very
rare captures made by American cruisers. He
maintains, however, that we must make the slave-
trade piracy and murder, which we have already
done, and only want the Union to follow our ex-
ample. He says that we ought to try slave-traders
on a different plan, "probably by swinging► them
at the yard-arm." Good ! Dr. RAINEY ; only get
your Yankees to agree to it, and England would
readily swing the crew, or the officers at least, of
every vessel condemned as a slaver.

When we find Americans, mad the Emperor of
the French, too, ashamed of the trade, we may
begin to hope for humanity. If these two countries
would but do their duty, we would soon make Spain
do hers, and then farewell to this accursed traffic,
for ever.

The Reform agitation has now entered on ano-
ther phase. The honourable member for Birming-
ham proposed in one of his speeches at that town
that Reformers should take their bill into their own
hands ; that they should select some trustworthy
member of their party to undertake the charge of
a bill on which the utmost practicable amount of
unanimity can be obtained, andthen press it on the
House as the bill they were determined to carry.
Whether. Mr. BRIGHT then spoke by the card or
not, we are not permitted to know ; it is one of the
secrets of the hitherto little known Reform
Committee. We recommended, however, at the
time, and have done so before, the plan
of Reformers acting for themselves, and let-
ting Government know both that they meants
business, and what sort of business they
meant. And we have urged the advantage of such
a course for men who have nothing to conceal if
Government threw them on the country, and also
the advantage, if Government assented to their
views as expressing those of the country.

The Reform Committee has taken Mr. BRIGHT
at his word. They 'have convened a meeting of
Reformers from different parts of the country,
and, having informed the hon. member of what
they intended to propose, they invited him to the
meeting, and formally, by a resolution moved by
Mr. ROEBUCK, and seconded by Mr. MIALL,
placed in his hands the preparation and conduct in
the House of Commons of the People's Reform
Bill. It was neither in Mr. BRIGHT, nor
for Mr. BEIGHT to refnie to carry out his own
own proposal. :He accepted it, therefore, and it
is, we presume, settled that a National Parliamen•
tary Reform Bill, with the names of BRIGHT and
ROEBUCK at its back, is to be ready for us all next
spring. The party in office may be as willing, great
part of them at least, to give us a bill as they are
jrpcei,c.petopurratreeed:l t.
nto boi
o oen,
or
roaut
not.s House of
Lord
d AllBI eodnfhoN
here
rdße
i s
tteabnikain knows 117 i may
yeEoLble-
said and did at Knowsley, and no one knows whe-
ther irreclaimable Tories are to reti •
re, and a Rus-
sell-Stanley Administration to be the result.
Gossip and guesses all—but, it is no guess that a man
has undertaken the task of drafting a bill for the
country, Milo is not likely to quail at any.diffieulty. It

must be confessed that 11s mot yielding a jot of his
peace crotchet, on accowit of its unpopularity, makes
it very certain that he NV ill not yield to blandish-
ments in high quarters, m -hen he has undertaken a
confessedly popular cause..
Mr. BRIGHT does not enter upon his task as one of
the easiest. He is fully aware of difficulties with-
out and of difficulties within the House of Com-
mons. He quite sees that what is a hard task for a
Minister with a pledfsed majority at his back, and
the patronage of offi!.!e in his hands, must be a task
indeed, for an independent member—one so little
pliant by nature as himself, and so liable to be
thwarted by the diverse opinions of gentlemen who
have as good a right to act independently as him-
self, and by the less worthy opposition of others who
may yield to petty envy or jealousy. Mr. BRIGHT,
as at Birmingham, is disposed to a measure of com-
promise rather than of permanency. He thinks that
extreme Radicals, like himself, ought to consent to
some modification of their demands for the comfort
of the nervous and the propitiation of the hostile.
No one will attribute this in JOHN BRIGHT to any
unworthy motive. It is but too w ell known that
he would prefer to be as pugnacious for his own
views on the suffrage as he is for peace-at-any-
price. We accept it, therefore, rather as an
evidence of his intention to put his bill in a shape
in which it can be carried. A sort of semi-official
position in this matter has made Mr. BRIGHT him-
self half a moderate already.
But what effect will the announcement of a Bir-
mingham Bill have on the constituencies and on
our Ministry ? On the latter its influence will be
very much in proportion to its influence on the
former. If the towns, seeing a prospect of their
wishes being presented in a working form to Par-
liament, and presented by a man whom nobody
can affect to despise as an advocate of a popular
cause—if they should bestir themselves, and should
insist on the main points of his bill being enacted
as law—we do not see how any Government can
resist. Members cannot defy their constituents,
and Ministers cannot defy Members. A dissolution
on a popular Bill would only bring it back again
with yet more stringent provisions.
All that a Ministry could gain by a dissolution
would be time, but it would certainly be time for
which full interest would be exacted., Meantime the
country would be kept in a state of needless excite-
ment. Questions would be raised which the Aris-
tocracy and the Church would prefer to see
dormant. Both would be in danger of sinking
into the almost contempt into which they fell
during the first Reform Bill battle, and that of the
Corn Laws, and all for no purpose. The elec-
tors must be masters at last. '

As to the Lords, they must give way, or raise a
commotion on the greater question, whether
they are longer to be indulged with anti-
quated privileges, ought to wield them against
the people. They may enjoy their name
and nominal rights in peace for many a day if they
are as prudent as Mr. RAREY, and do not acquaint the
people too much with the secret of their own strength.
We see but little difficulty with them if the people
but choose to signify their will. Parchments and
coats of arms would soon appear to disadvan-
tage if they once began a conflict with reason
and popular feeling. We thoroughly respect all
such of our Lords as have shown themselves worthy
of participation in the affairs of the nation ; we
have no wish to set them aside just yet. Another
generation may view the subject more logically
but we would rather reform their practice only a
little, and at once ; we would abolish, for instance
the pernicious privilege of _voting by proxy ; and,
compel those who vote on the nation's business to
hear the arguments on it, and we might not be very
reluctant to relieve the spiritual peers of their
secular duties ; but, deem bene se gesserint, the Lords
may live on for generations to come for all that we
care. The longer the better. The mode in which
most of them became legislators is indeed the
climax of logical absurdity ; but we aro used to it,
and if these hereditary legislators understand that
they are revisors of national work, not masters of
the nation, we may all of us, long jog on (Am-
fortably enough together.

THE COUR 11

WINDSOR, Nov. 10.

Her Majesty's dinner party yesterday comprised the
Duchess of Kent, the Duchess of Cambridge, the Prince of.
Wales, the Princess Alice, the Princess Mary of Cambridge,
the Duke of Cambridge, the Princess of Leiningen, the
Prince of Leiningen,'thetMarquis and Marchioness of Aber-
corn and Ladies Louisa and Georgians Hamilton, Lady
Anna Maria Dawson, Lady Geraldine Somerset, Colonel
the Hon. R. Bruce, Major-General the Hon. C. Grey, Col.
the Hon. Sir Charles Phipps, Sir James Clark, Sir George
Couper, Lieutenant-Colonel Purves, Colonel the Hon. Jas.
Macdonald, the Rev. C. F. Tarver, Mr. Gibbs, and Major
Teesdale, R.A.

The following hsd the honour of receiving invitations
after dinner :—The Belgian Minister and Madame Van de
-Weyer, Miss and Mr. Victor Van de Weyer, Colonel the
Hon. N. .and Lady Mary Hood, Miss and Mr. Arthur
Hood, Colonel F. H. and Lady Emily Seymour, Miss
Horatia Seymour, the Hon. Mrs. Grey, the Hon. Mrs.
Wellesley, the Hon. Lady and Miss Phipps, Captain and
Mrs. F. Sayer, the Hon. Mrs. Biddulph, Lady and Miss
Couper, Mr. and Mrs. G. Couper, the Hon. T. Stanley,
and Viscount Mahon.

The band of the 2d Life Guards played before dinner,
and her Majesty's private band attended in the Drawing-
room after.

The Queen, with Princess Alice, walked in the Home
Park this morning, and 'visited the Duchess of Kent at
Frogmore.
Tho Prince Consort, accompanied by the Prince of Wales
and the Duke of Cambridge, wont out shooting.
The Duchess of Cambridge and Princess Mary took leave
of her Majesty, and left the Castle in the forenoon, attended
by Lady Geraldine Somerset and Lieut.-Coloriel Purves.
The Prince of Leiningen also took leave of the Queen,
and left Windsor for Portsmouth. The Princess of Lein-
ingen quitted the Castle for Frogmore House, on a visit to
the Duchess of Kent.

The Duke of Cambridge returned to London in the after-
noon, attended by Colonel the Hon. J. Macdonald.
The Marquis and Marchioness of Abercorn and Ladies
Louisa and Georgiana Hamilton have taken their depar-
ture.

A Cabinet Council was held yesterday at the
official residence of the Chancellor of the Exchequer, in
Downing-street. The Ministers present were—The Earl
of Derby, the Right Hon. B. Disraeli, the Lord Chancellor,
the Marquis of Salisbury, the Earl of Hardwicke, Mr.
Secretary Walpole, the Earl of Malmesbury, Sir E. Bulvror
Lytton, General Peel, Lord Stanley, Sir John Pakington,
the Right Hon. J. W. Henley, and Lord John Manners.
The Canadian' Ministers, the Hon. Mr. Cartier
and Mr. Inspector-General Galt, accompanied by Mr.
Bates, had an interview-yesterday with 'the Chancellor of
the Exchequer at his official residence in Downing-street.
A deputation from the guardians of the Roch-
dale Union, introduced by Sir Alex. Ramsay, Bart., M.P.,
and Mr. John Bright, M.P., and consisting of Mr. Heap
(chairman), and Mr. Alderman Livesey, together with Mr.
John Holgate, the clerk, had an interview with the Right
Hon. T., Sotheren Estcourt, M.P., yesterday, at the office
of the Poor-law Board.

Although State reasonspre-vent her Majesty from
responding to the unanimous desire of the North American
provinces that she should visit that portion of her dominions,
her Majesty, with her usual courtesy, has seized the occa-
sion of the presence of several of the Canadian Ministers to
acknowledge the loyalty of her North American subjectshy
paying marked honours to their representatives. The Hon.
Mr. Cartier, on a special invitation, joined tho royal circle
at Windsor Castle on Saturday and remained until Monday.
We are sure that this proof of the interest which the Queen
takes in British North America and the courtesy shown to
her Ministers will be heartily appreciated by Canadians.—
Canadian News.

Their Royal Highnesses the Duchess of Cam-
bridge and the Princess Mary returned to Cambridge Cot-
tage, Kew, yesterday afternoon, from visiting her Majesty
at Windsor Castle.

We regret to learn that a great affliction has
fallen upon the Hon. Mr. and Mrs. Henry Fitzroy, in the
sudden death of one of their sons. The Baron Rothschild
was prevented evsaeanteevden being
t,
present at the Lord Mayor's banquet
by

LATEST NEWS.

INDIA AND CHINA MAILS.

The Euxine, with the mails from Calcutta and
China, arrived at Marseilles at 7 o'clock this (Thurs-
day) morning.
The mails were to leave for London at 10.
The passengers are detained in quarantine until
Friday afternoon.

"BEYROUT, Our. 27.

" The packet boat from Alexandria has brought
news of general agitation which is reigning in
Asiatic Turkey. Insurrections have taken place at
several places, Omar Pacha maintaining himself at
Bagdad with difficulty.

" The tribes living between Tripoli and Aleppo

have revolted.

" The communication is interrupted between the
Libanus and Tripoli, and between Alexandria and
Aleppo. The garrison of Beyrout have been sent
against the insurgents.

" The disorders in the Libanus have been ap-
peased by the bishop, Joseph Jahiol."

OPENING OF THE BELGIAN
CHAMBERS.
THE KING'S SPEECH.
The Belgian Legislative Chambers were opened
on Tuesday for the session of 1858-59 by his
Majesty in person. Having taken his seat on the
Throne, King Leopold addressed the members of
both houses as follows :
" Gentlemen--I am happy to find myself again
surrounded by the representatives of the nation
under circumstances entirely favourable to our
country, in the double view of our internal situation
and of our relations with foreign countries.
" Those relations, founded on sentiments of
reciprocal confidence, continue to strengthen as
they arc developed. Several treaties will be laid
before you. One of them will have the effect of
relieving literary productions from all impediments
at the frontier of the two contracting countries.
We are endeavouring, besides, by a new law to
guarantee the rights of authors and artists in a
more complete and efficacious manner.
" Penetrated by the duties incumbent on it for
• the moral and intellectual development of the coun-
, try, the Government consecrates all its cares to the
prosperity of public instruction.
" The primary teachers received last session a
manifest pledge of its solicitude, and the youth of
our schools, assembled with their masters, testified '
' sentiments towards me at a recent solemnity of
which I shall treasure the reminiscence.
" The edifices for our primary schools being re-
cognised as insufficient in a great number of the
communes, a fresh credit will be asked for to aid
their administrations in providing for that popular
necessity.
" The questions connected with the exercise of
public charity will be settled after an inquiry into
the situation of the indigent classes, and into the
efficacy of the means employed •to relieve them.
My Government has not thought it right to defer
the presentation of a bill intended to put an end to
the differences of opinion for which the wording of
art. 84 of the communal law has left room.
" In spite of a commercial crisis that severely
tried very many countries, the material interests of
the land have continued to develop with remarkable
energy. Our national railway, which for nearly five-
and-twenty years has largely contributed to that
improvement, has just been extended and, so to say,
completed by the Luxembourg line, which creates
for our territory a new transit route of the most im-
portant kind, and links to us an interesting pro-
vince by opening to it fresh sources of. prosperity.
The people havo a lively sense of this, and I was
pleased at associating myself in presence as well as
feeling to their satisfaction and their hopes.
" The progress of the public wealth exercises a
happy influence on tite situation of the Treasury.
The ordinary receipts present an excess relatively
' to the expenditure that has served to reduce the
floating debt.
" The cost of boatmen's licences has for a long
time given rise to well-founded complaints. A bill
will be laid before you for reducing that impost.
" A' bill will also be submitted to you for ensur-
ing a better apportionment of the land-tax.
"My Government will call your attention to
measures destined to favour trade and manufactures,
by facilitating loans on merchandise and the pub-
lic sale of the colonial produce and the raw materials
that mainly employ our maritime commerce.
" The means likely to inspire a habit of saving
among the labouring classes ought to be an object
of anxiety to the public authorities. Proposals will
be made to you to introduce into the Annuity
Fund such modifications as are indicated by expe-
rience, and to institute a good system of savings-
banks on large bases.
" The improvement of country roads and of the
public health will receive a further impulse from
your co-operation.
" You will have to decide at an early period of
the session on the law in reference to personal re-
straint, and on the reform of the Penal Code,
which the present, Chamber will hold it a point of
honour to complete.
" A law on the judicial organisation will be sub-
mitted for your deliberation.
"The Civic Guard and the Army continue to
show themselves worthy of our common solicitude
and animated by the same spirit of patriotism.
" My Government is occupied with reforms that
are to be introduced into the Militia Law.
" The last decennial census has established an
augmentation in the population, one of the conse-
quences of which must be an increase in the number
of the national representatives.
" Such, gentlemen, is the sum of the work that
will occupy you during this session. I have the
conviction that your patriotism will not recoil be-
fore the completion of that laborious task, and that
I may look for that loyal and active support from
the national representatives as will permit my
Government to impart to the public business a rate
of progress both regular and productive of results.',

FRANCE.

PARIS; WEDNESDAY.

It is announced that a Commission, composed of
three persons appointed by the Minister of Algeria
and the Colonies, is about to set out for the coast of
Africa to examine on the spot the question of immi-
gration.

The Emperor has signed a decree appointing
Captain Lafon de Lndebat, on the proposition of the
Minister of Marine and the Colonies, to be a mem-
ber of the Council on Marine Works, in place of
Captain Paris, appointed Vice-Admiral.,
Vice-Admiral Charnier has been continued in the
position of President of the same Council.
The last despatches received from China an-
nounce that Admiral Rigault, after having taken
possession of the establishments at Tourane, had
immediately marched on the city of Hue, the
capital of Cochin China, and of the entire empire
of Annam.

According to the aspect of the political world we
might expect a period of dull tranquillity for some
time to come. On all sides no immediate difficulty
presents itself. Spain will probably be contented
with the O'Donnell policy. France will not invade
England this year; therefore each country had better
take to reform domestic abuses.

According to late despatches from Lisbon the
Portuguese Cabinet seems disposed to accept the
friendly and conciliatory feeling of France.
M. Paira is expected in Paris on the 15th of this
month.

The Marquis Villamarina, Piedmontese Ambas-
sador, has been requested by his Sovereign to pre-
sent the municipality of Paris with a bust of his
Majesty, in remembrance of his visit to Paris.
Despatches from Rome record the death of Count
Mastai, brother of the Pope. The same communi-
cation adds :—" Several distinguished Russians are
here expected this winter, as well as Queen Chris-
tina, the Marquis and Marchioness of Londonderry,