The Sun.
London, England, 1860-12-11 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, TUESDAY EVENING, DECEMBER 11., 1860.

(SHE BUCKLEYS IN LONDON, at the ST.
.1_ .TAMES'S HALL, Piccadilly,-.Every Night at 8, and
a Day Peformance on Saturday Afternoon at 3. Full Pro-
gramme and Tickets may be obtained at 28, Piccadilly, from
10 till 5, and at the Principal Libraries and Musicsellers.
Admission, Stalls, 3s. ; Area, 2s. ; Gallery, le.—Doors open
at Half-past Seven, and Saturday Afternoon, at Half-past
Two. *** Grand Change of Programme !

A RGYLL ROOMS, Windmill-street, Piccadilly.
-rs, The Hrtndsonmst and best proportioned rooms in
Europe, are open for CONCERTS and DANCING, Conducted
by the well-known artiste Mons. ANTONY LAMOTTE, of
Parisian celebrity. M. Boulcourt, the greatest Cornet player
in this country, plays solos nightly. Doors open at half-past
Seven. Daneinir at Nine o'clock. Admission, One Shilling.
N.B.—A magnificent Smoking and Reading-room is added to
this establishment.

MITE NATTONAL ASSEMBLY ROOMS,
High Holborn.—The Best Entertainment in London
—ln consequence of the great influx of strangers to the Me-
tropolis during the CAT rI,E SHOW, and the kind patron-
age the establishment always receives on th's occasion, the
(,oncert will commence at half-past Seven, and Dancing con-
tinue one hour later than usual. The Smoking and Refresh-
ment Saloons are most commodious, especial regard being
paid to the comfort of the visitors, and the Reading-room is
well supplied with English and Foreign Journals. Mr. W.
M. Packer's celebrated Band will perform Overtures and
Selections from the standard Operas, and a choice programme
of dance music. The Wines and Refreshments are of the
very first class. Admission, ls.

CATTLE SHOW and SMITHFIELD CLUB.
EVANS'S MAGNIFICENT MUSIC and SUPPER
ROOMS.—Gentlemen visiting London during the Cattle
Show Week are invited to the above world-known Institu-
tion, now regarded so for its respectability and tha meeting
place of the gentlemen of the country. Commencing every
evening at eight o'clock.

TO THE RIFLE BRIGADE.—A GOOD
SIGHT WILL PROVE ADVANTAGEOUS IN
SELF-DEFENCE. To render your sight and hearing per-
fect take GRIMSTONE'S EYE SNUFF, invented by him to
give strength and vigour to the vision, &c. Sold in tinfoil pack-
ages, 6d. per oz. ; canisters, Bd., Is. 3d., or in jars 2 oz., 4 oz.,
8 oz., lbs. upwards at Bs. per lb. for export, under the authority
e the Lords of the Treasury, and Medical authority. Or
should you be a smoker, leave it off, it renders your hand un-
steady. If you must smoke, smoke GRIM STONE'S ARO-
MATIC HERB TOBACCO. This will strengthen your
nerves ; by swallowing your spittle it increases the appetite.
The smoke equal• Oriental pastules. Sold in square, green
Packets with red label, at 3d. per oz., 3s. 6d. per lb. GRIN-
STONE'S HAIR REGENERATOR is the only article that
will produce whiskers, moustaches, eye brows, or cause a new
growth of human hair upon those p xrts nature intends this
ornament of the human figure. It is sold in triangular
bottles, and inclosed in the 77th edition of the pamphlet full
of testimonials from ladies and gentlemen. Real addresses,
45., 75., and lls., this size contains four of the 4s. size, All
letters to William Grimstone, herbalist, London Depot, 52,
High-street, Bloomsbury: and by Messrs. Barclay and Sons,
Farringdon-Street, and all other respectable dealers

ORIENTAL INLAND STEAM COMPANY
(Limited).
NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN, That the FIFTH HALF-
YEARLY MEETING of the Shareholders of this Company
will be held at the London Tavern, Bishopsfrate-street, in
the City of London, on THURSDAY, the 20th day of Decem-
ber instant, at Two o'clock in the Afternoon precisely.
By Order. -
JoIIN MATHEWSON, Secretary.
9, Billiter-street, London, Dec. 5, 1800.

ORIENTAL INLAND STEAM O)IPANY
(Limited),
The TRANSFER BOOKS of this • pany will be
CLOSET) from the 20th to the 31sc day of• ember current,
both inclusive, preparatory to issuing the interest warrants
for the current half-year.
JOHN MATHEWSON, Secretary.
9, Billiter-street, London, Dec. 5, 1860.

MR. J. T.NORRIS,3I.P.F')P. ABINGDON,

OH PUBLIC AFFAIRS.

On Tuesday last the members of the Abingdon
Philanthropic Institution held their annual dinner,
at the Queen's Arms Hotel, on which occasion the
health of Mr. Norris, the representative of the
borough, was drunk amidst the greatest enthu-
siasm. On the applause subsiding—
Mr. NoRRIS rose, and after some preliminary
remarks on the object and usefulness of the institu-
tion, said—l think my experience as a member of
the House of Commons justifies me in speaking of
that assembly with some authority, and I venture
to say that, taken in the aggregate, it is a body
of gentlemen who are actuated by the highest
sentiments of honour, and the warmest love of
their country and their kind, and notwithstanding
all the severe newspaper critics have written in the
way of censure and condemnation—notwithstand-
ing its shortcomings in some particulars, it does, in
my opinion, represent in a most remarkable degree
the interests, the opinions, and the feelings of this
great country. (Hear.) Parliament has been
accused by some of too much talking, of wasting
time in debates which had no practical result. I do
not deny that the charge is in some measure true,
but I submit that the error is on the safe side. Too
much debate is better than too little. The house
punished itself, and not the country, by a long
session and late sittings, which were a tax on the
patient endurance and physical strength of the
members; whilst their effect on the country was to
preserve it from unconsidered measures and hasty
legislation. For my own part, I believe that full
discussion in Parliament serves to inform the popu-
lar mind and to settle and consolidate public
opinion. With a national expenditure of more
than 70 millions it would be impossible for any
Minister of either party so equitably to adjust the
taxation of the country as to satisfy all classes of
her Majesty's subjects—impossible to make the
pressure so equal as to prevent complaints of an
undue share of the public burdens ; and if a Govern-
ment could be found that could raise such a sum
without a murmur, the task of distributing the
patronage incident to its expenditure, without
creating some measure of discontent, would be an
impossibility. Yet I am bold to say that in the
appointments and patronage connected with the
administration of law and justice, in the various
departments of the Civil Service, in the Church, and
in the two great branches of the national defences,
viz., the Army and Navy, there is, criticise these
appointments as we may, a remarkable degree of
justice and purity; and, grumble as we always do,
yet taking into consideration the purity which marks
the administration of law and justice, and distin-
guishes the affairs of State in this country, and
looking at the degree of public liberty and reli-
gious freedom, there is not one amongst us whose
heart does not burn within him with national
pride that he was born a Briton. (Cheers.) To
return to the history of the past session. We passed
many public acts and a large number of private
bills, all of them of the utmost importance to the
commercial interests of the eountry, so that our
proceedings did not all end in idle talk. (Cheers.)
I believe the general tendency of our legislation
and our discussions was to create a better feeling
with France than before subsisted, whilst we laid
down and established as a national maxim that
principle of non-interference in foreign States,
where the people were struggling to achieve their
national liberty. Perhaps some may say, " Yes,
but you did not pass the Bankruptcy Bill." On an
average 35 per cent. of the assets of the bankrupts'
estates throughout the country is absorbed by the
expenses of administration, and this is a grievous
wrong to the commercial and trading commu-
nity. My explanation is, that this bill is
only withdrawn until the coming session—pres-
sure of time was the sole reason. It had some
459 clauses in it, and before we got through a
hundred of them there was a clear intimation
from the law lords that they would not take it up
unless sent to their house in the then current week.
In this state Sir Richard Bethell (undoubtedly the
greatest man of his day) had no alternative but to
delay it until the next session ; and seeing that all
the great lawyers on both sides of the house, and all
the great commercial interests in the country are
favourable to it, there can be no doubt of its passing
next session. (Hear.) Perhaps others may say,

" You did not pass a Reform Bill, and the talk on
the Reform Bill delayed the Bankruptcy Bill." Well
it seems the fate of Reform Bills to get strangled or
put aside in some other unnatural way. Lord John
Russell's bill of 1852, which proposed the political
matrimony of little country towns with old parlia-
mentary boroughs, had to be withdrawn because
the parties interested "forbid the banns." His bill
of 1854 met a similar fate. The Tory bill of 1859,
conceived in the spirit of party tactics, and opposed
to all the traditions of its authors, was intended to
cut the ground from under the Whigs, and to de-
stroy their old party cry of Reform. Disraeli
said to the Whigs, " You have no right to a
monopoly of the professions of a reform policy, we
are Liberal Conservatives,and we will be Reformers.
But his bill was soon killed in a party conflict, and
was cast into the limbo of unaccomplished acts, side
by aide with its two elder brothers of the Russell
parentage.' Lord John Russell promised that he
would try his hand again, he fulfilled his promise,
bat failed in his object. (Hear.) I will not say
his bill was strangled or otherwise violently dealt
with, but I must submit that he delivered it in a
cold and unimpassioned manner to the house, that
the house received it without a cheer, and that the

country looked upon it with indifference; there
were no meetings to support it, no enthusiasm in
its favour. It had to bear a great quantity of
small talk, whereof it died ; it slept itself away,
its complaint was inanition. The defeat of that
bill was brought about by. many causes, not neces-
sarily akin to each other, but all conspiring to
produce the same result. The attitude of
France was regarded, I will not say with fear,
but what next would happen was a matter of soli-
citude and anxiety to every person in the country.
(Cheers.) The state of our national defences, the
question of our foreign policy, and the spirit mani-
fested by working men in trades' unions and in
strikes, absorbed the general attention, and left
neither time nor opportunity for the public to re-
gard and discuss the question of Reform. If a man
were occupied in his own household, debating and
settling some matters of difference between the mem-
bers of his own family, and heard in the midst of a
discussion, bordering perhaps on strife, some noisy
disturbance in the street, threatening by its violence
to invade the sanctity of his dwelling, he would
naturally enough drop all questions of individual
domestic grievances, and there would be a family
compact to resist the aggression expected from
without. (Hear.) And so it was with the country.
Instead of considering questions of internal policy,
every man's thoughts were of national safety, and a
system of voluntary association to defend our national
rights and liberties. Another great reason why the
question of Reform had lost ground in the public
mind was the promulgation of the doctrine that in-
equalities in social life resulted from political
causes. Such a doctrine was calculated to unfit

- '

those who are low in the social scale for the posses-
sion of political power, for, being erroneous in prin-
ciple and wrong in fact, it is an evil in its tenden-
cies and its consequences. (Hear, hear.) It does not
follow that because to be denied political power,
produces no social disadvantages, that therefore
there is no need for its extension, but it does follow
that any man who reckons on the possession of the

franchise as a means of advancing his social position
has within himself the very element which is
turned to account by corruption, and is sure to
become its victim, either in some mitigated form in
relation to his customers or his trade, or the un-
blushing condition of an open bribe. Instead there-
fore, of teaching the working man that he has some-
thing to gain for himself by acquiring the franchise,
his political education should be that it is a trust to
be exercised in the service of his country, and
solely with a view to the good government of the
people. (Cheers.) Take as an illustration the case
of the Tower Hamlets; suppose a man who never
had a vote for that borough obtained one to-mar-
row, he would obtain the twenty thousandth part
of right to elect two members, who consti-
tute the three-hundred-and-twenty-ninth part of
one branch of the Legislature ; and, if the fran-
chise were- further extended, his fractional propor-

tion of political power would become even smaller.
How could this minute portion of political autho-
rity advance his social position ? (Cheers.) You
will understand that I am not arguing in defence
of what has been done, or speculating upon what
might be done, I am only giving you my reflections
upon the facts and circumstances as they occurred.
I will not even venture to say what ought in future
to be done, nor to predict who will next take itup.
The question of any great organic change does not
depend on the opinions of the Ministers or the
will of Parliament, but is entirely in the hands of
the people. (Loud cheers.) But change or no change,
reform or no reform, I exult in the thought that
England surpasses every other country in progress,
prosperity, and contentment, and enjoys such a
full measure of public liberty and religious freedom
that she is at once the envy and admiration of sur-
rounding States. (Hear, hear.) The zeal of the
Italian in his recent struggle for nationality has
been fired by the hope of obtaining a constitutional
Government like our own, and the inspiration of
English liberty roused even the indolent Neapoli-
tans to shake off the tyrant who oppressed them.
The officers of state in Central Italy kept their
position only by the presence of foreign armies.
The Sicilians were taking arms in aid of Italian
nationality. Prussia was full of dynastic tyranny,
and desired that the great European Powers should
unite and interfere to put down the struggling
Italians. Prussia favoured this idea to the extent
of debating the matter in a conference at Warsaw,
but the plot was ultimately abandoned. All this
occupied the public mind, and called off the atten-
tion of the people from any considerations as to
the manner in which the question of reform had
been disposed of; the future only can disclose
when next it will be brought before Parliament
and the country.