The Sun.
London, England, 1858-01-16 00:00:00

LONDON, SATURDAY, JAN. lfi, 1858.

The telegram which appeared in our impression
of yesterday carries on the dates from Bombay to
the 24th December—Christmas-eve. There
eia-
-8
nothing whatever from Calcutta, the commic
time wherewith having been interrupted, as

already stated in The Sun. The garrison of Fut-
tehpore, some 40 or 50 miles from Cawnpore,
appeared to have been sharply pressed by the re-
bels, so much so that it was deemed judicious to
abandon a portion of their entrenchments. This
course, however, appears to have been only
adopted for the purpose of taking up a more
secure position, where there would be less toil
and exposure to the onslaughts of the
enemy. The date is not mentioned, and it is
therefore by no means impossible that it might
have been before the victory gained by Sir COLIN
CAMPBELL over the Qwalior Contingent, and when
that formidable body was threatening not only
Cawnpore, but Futtehpore, and all the British
stations where there could be a possibility of grati-
fying their grasping cupidity or malignant cruelty,
Now, however, that our troops are at Cawnpore,
within what our victorious general has proved to
be less than two days' march, there are no reason-
able grounds for apprehension on the part of our
countrymen or countrywomen at Futtehpore.

A column from Delhi, under Colonel SEATON,
had defeated a body of rebels at Goaowree, taking
three guns out of four, and killing 150 meu.
Three officers were killed and one wounded on our
side. There appears to be a far more than usual
proportion of officers killed in recent operations,
which would seem to show that they have been
selected as victims by skilful marksmen.

it is satisfactory to know that Brigadier WHITE-
LOCKE had arrived with his column at Secundera-
bad on the 14th en route for Saugor. We may
therefore assume that the garrison so long threat-
ened by the rebels in that quarter, and
whose position was so very precarious, have
long since been effectually relieved, and that
Saugor will also be rescued from its implacable
and persevering assailants.

We hear, too, from the neighbourhood of Jub-
bulpore, that the insurgents were attacked by a de-
tachm,n t of the 47th Madras Native Infantry, but
" without any decisive result." We fear, however,
that the results in such cases are generally much
less favourable than are suffered to meet the eye
on the first accounts. Reinforcements were, how-
ever, advancing from other quarters in the direc-
tion of Jubbulpore.
It is said that the rapid and efficient pursuit by
Brigadier HOPE GRANT, which so well followed
up the victory achieved by Sir CoLIN CAMP-
BELL over the Gwalior Contingent, had completed
the dispersion of that formidable body of
rebels. This accounts for the statement in that
distinguished officer's despatch, congratulating
the Government on the satisfactory termination of

that campaign.
The work of expiation had commenced. The
trial of the Nawab of Jhugurt was proceeding at
Delhi, while the Rajah of Amjheera and his
Minister had not only been tried, but sentenced
to the extreme penalty of the law, which was duly
executed on the Minister, but his master was
spared until confirmation by the Government.
We suppose that the morbid sensibility which
spared the life of the hoary ruffian of Delhi will
again be displayed, and the wretch spared to
exult in his treachery and villsny. There have
been many other executions, but the Punjaub,
Scinde, Madras, and Bombay are perfectly quiet.
The interruption of the communications between
Bombay and Calcutta seems to have taken place
in the neighbourhood of Nagpore, in a scantily
inhabited and unwholesome district where the
rebels cannot do much mischief.

We rejoice to find that the Gazette of last night
contains a prompt recognition of the highly meri-
torious conduct of Brigadier INGLIs. That truly
gallant officer has been promoted to the
rank of a Major - General " for his
enduring fortitude and persevering gallantry in
the defence of Lucknow, for 87 days, against au
overwhelming force of the enemy." This is as it
should be, and reflects great credit on his Royal
Highness the Commander-in-Chief. We trust,
however, that the matter will not be suffered to
rest there, but that some further testimony may
be afforded of the Royal appreciation of the in-
valuable services rendered by these indefatigable
soldiers.

Sir HENRY MARSHMAN HAVEIipCK has proved
himself the worthy son of an illustrious sire.
The simple statement containei in the Ga-
zette, respecting the cool and soldierly conduct
for which he obtained the Victoria Cross, showed
beyond the possibility of doubt the stuff that was
in him. He would be an acquisition to the House
of Peers, or to any order of chivalry. His gallant
companions, Captain CROWE and privates THOMAS
HANCOCK and Jorirr PURCELL, of the 9th Lancers,
were also worthy recipients of distinction, that
must, be greatly coveted, so long as it is only be-
stowed for services such as those recorded in the
Gazette. The records of the 87 terrible days at
Locknow, and of the despond) dash into the
b.,-I!eitgured Residency, must have offered many
favourable opportunities for selection among the
garrison. Indeed there are many who think, and
not without adequate reason, that every one of
that noble band should receive a high testimonial
of the national gratitude.
No further Bheel depredations have been re-
ported, and quiet prevails generally. The intelli-
gence is, on the whole, favourable, but further
reinforcements must be despatched to complete
the work so well commenced.

A bill, bearing date the 16th of February,
1854, was presented to us by Lord JOHN RUSSELL
as his last great contribution to Reform of the
Representation, but we were then in the thick of
events which led to its withdrawal amidst the
tears of its author and the indifference of the
Liberal party. It did next to nothing for the
people. The suffrage would have been but slightly
extended, since the majority of the new franchises
were included in some existing one. It would
have done nothing for the Liberal party,
since, while it extinguished 19 pocket boroughs
and their 29 members, and took one member
from each of 33 more pocket boroughs, it handed
over no fewer than 41 of these members to the
counties, and only 14 more to new or old
boroughs. The bill was clearly a device, like the
first reform bill, to place power in the hands of
the agricultural party. Its chief merit was, what
ought to have been done by a short bill long ago,
that it proposed to abolish those nuisances, the
rate-paying clauses. Its grand vice was the one
which
has spoiled all Lord JOIN RUSSELL'S per-
formances aencinesteirneetthsiosf line—.that of quack doctoring
The ex-Premier could never bring himself to
abandon political protection. He has never had
confidence in the merits of his party's policy.
He could never trust it to the People of England,
but only to the people trimmed, and pruned, and
allotted to this influence or to that. A real vote of
the country has been his greatest dread ; the vote
must be "cooked"-- cooked in a duly proportioned
arrangement of little and large, of borough and
county constituencies; and Lord JOAN his
always fancied himself the SOYER to produce
a dish very wholesome for our Whig aristc-
cracy, not altogether unpalatable to our
iTery aristocracy, and withal a dainty dish to set
I!before the QUEEN. How far he has succeeded is
apparent enough from the fact, that we have just

now the most aristocratic Whig Cabinet which
has been witnessed for many long years. No one
expects more from it than from a DERBY Cabinet,
and her MAJESTY, and even his Royal Highness,
are understood to be quite content—for even
Austria and Germany are satisfied. As to a PAL-
MERSTON Reform Bill, it must, after all, be con-
fessed to border closely on a PALMERSTON joke.
There is to be a Bill—it could not be helped, the
last election demanded it ; the hundred majority
might have been much less last year had not that
point been conceded ; but there the matter ends.
The Bill will probably be of little value, and if it
be good for anything, why then of course it is to
be withdrawn, or its best parts surrendered, or the
House of Lords is to stand the Whigs' and Tories'
friend.

One of the organs of the Treasury is, we per-
ceive, making a dead set in favour of the little
boroughs, such as Lord JOHN'S Bill of 1854 pro-
posed to extinguish or curtail of a member ; and
it is no doubt easy to describe them as a class—a
class distinct from both the agricultural and the
monied or manufacturing interest, and one which
deserves representation. But how fallacious are
all special pleadings when brought to the test of
plain fact ! Why, but the other day we had two
elections in two select examples of these boroughs,
Thetford and Harwich, one with, one without a
contest ; and the result was that the son of a
banker, and the son of a peer, of a BARING, too,
were respectively returned ! It is needless to add,
that this is but a specimen of what runs through-
out the whole list. Of this any one may satisfy
himself by glancing them over in "DOD's Electoral
Facts," where the " influence". is given as a
simple electoral fact—a fact for which all parties
want a book of reference, and which, therefore,
Mr. DOD provides for them without the slightest
tinge of party bias. This single book—a record
which no one ever impeached, or wishes to impeach
—is a standing witness as to the quality of these
constituencies. They will be found either the most
venal of the venal, or the pocket boroughs of some
patron ; or of some patrons who agree to divide
the representation when two members are re-
turned, as at Thetford. This class of petty
boroughs, in fact, represents landlords and monied
men quite as much as the counties do in which
they are situated.

The great error, however, we hold to be,
the artificial effort to get a class represen-
tation. Lord JOHN RUSSELL and his school
assume, not only that all classes, but that each
class must be represented ; an assumption which,
as we and others have observed again, would re-
quire an endless number of classes. Town and
country are but two of a very large number, all
of which might ask, on the class system, for a dis-
tinct representative. It is impossible to make the
system reasonably self-consistent. What, how-
ever, we most object to is the diversion of the
Reformer's mind from its proper object. If we
are to have a Representative Government let
it be an honest representation ; a representation
of the people of England. Let the basis be as
broad as the classes needing representation. Now,
it surely cannot be pretended that the poor do not
need it as much as the rich, that they do not pay
to the taxes, and have not interests to protect,
while they have no defence from wealth, the most
efficient protector of all. It is singular in this
view of the case that none of the classmongering
reformers have ever made the attempt to provide
working-class constituencies; on their own theory,
the Ernest JONESES and the FROSTS ought to be in
Parliament, as well as the elect of Thetford and
Harwich.

The general objection to large constituencies
with an extended suffrage, is that operatives being
everywhere the most numerous class, anything
approaching to universal suffrage must throw all
power into the hands of one class, and that the
one least qualified to exercise it aright. The re-
ply is, that a homogeneous class of working men
is a pure imagination. All above the unskilled
labourers have, relatively, as much to protect,
and as much interest in order, as an Earl or a
Duke. What, moreover, have the labourers in
mines, and manufactures, in ships, boats, and com-
merce generally, and in agriculture, in common ?
What, at least, which could ever induce them to
act as one compact body in returning representa-
tives hostile to the other classei ? The truth,
however, is, that property and intelligence have
always had, and always will have, their influence
with the masses of the English people. The great
body of the working men of England have abun-
ance of sound sense and shrewdness, and would
for the most part go, in opinion, with the classes
above them. They would probably never choose
representatives wanting in ability. The charge
against their favourite men has never been that
they were fools. Constituencies comprised of all
curses always choose some man superior to by far
the majority of the voters in property, station, and
intelligence, or in all of them.
The Ballot here comes in as the preventer of the
worst mischiefs which possibly might be apprehen-
ded. It would render combination of any class
throughout the kingdom impossible. At the
same time, it would throw the less educated man
upon the better educated man, for the guidance
which ignorance instinctively seeks from know-
ledge. Whenever an ignorant person has to act,
not openly with a crowd equally ignorant, but to
act individually, we believe his first thought
invariably is, how does such an one, who
known better, think on the subject. We must
come to free trade in politics as well as in
commerce. We must rely on natural, not on arti-
ficial constituencies. We must seek, through the
Ballot, the real, not the coerced or purchased votes
of all. We shall rest thus, upon principle instead
of quackery ; ou the rights of all, not on the inte-
rests of aristocratic parties.
,Railroads, electric
telegraphs, the diffusion of education, and the ap-
plication of skill and machinery to agriculture, are
all tending to fuse classes into each other, so far
as their relation to legislation and government is
concerned, and it is the business of the Reformer
to recognise and accept this undoubted fact, and
to shape his bill, not by the recollection of old or
rather antiquated parties, but by the wants of the
nation as it is.

PROMOTION OF THE DEFENDER OF
LUCKNO V.

(From Last Night's Gazette.)
GENERAL ORDER.
Horse Guards, S.W , Jan. 15,
The Queen has been graciously pleased to command
that Colonel John Eardley Wilmot Inglis, of the 32d
Regiment, be promoted to the rank of major-general, for
his enduring fortitude and persevering gallantry in the
defence of the Residency of Lucknow, for 87 days,
against an overwhelming force of the enemy.
By order of his Royal Highness the General Com-
manding-in-Chief.
G. A. WETHERALL, Adjutant-General.

Her Majesty the Queen and his Royal Highness the
Prince Consort and Royal family left Windsor Castle
yesterday and arrived at Buckingham Palace at two in
the afternoon.
Their Royal Highnesses Prince Frederick Charles of
Prm-eia, Prince Frederick Albert of Prussia, and Prince
Adalbert of Prussia, and his Highness the Prirce of
Rc,heez•)ll.rn iirrived at Buckingham Palace upon a
vls.t to latq. Mjeit,y, at a quarter-pass five o',,l)ek grater
day afternoon, from the confluent.
HER MAJESTY'S THEATRE.—The opera appointed for
Saturday next (the 23i lust.), when the third festival
performance in honour of the approaching marriage of
the Princess Royal will take place, is "La Sonnambnla."