The Sun.
London, England, 1867-02-19 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

TIMES.—Mr. Gladstone last night very felicitously
summed up in a few words a feeling shared by us
all. There are, he declared, many currents of opi-
nion on the subject of Reform, but on one view
of the case all are agreed. Some desire, some dread
an extension of the suffrage ; but the whole com-
munity is animated by one sentiment, and that
sentiment is faithfully reflected by all sections iu
the House of Commons,—that it is desirable Parlia-
ment shall within the limits of the present session
arrive at a legislative settlement of the great ques-
tion of the day. We believe this to be a perfectly
accurate exposition of current opinion. The over-
powering sense that prevails of the necessity of
effecting a settlement, and a timely settlement, of
Reform explains much that is at first sight inex-
plicable. It explains the resolute abstinence of the
Opposition from taking advantage of the errors of
the Administration. It explains the willingness of
the House of Commons to depart from its ac-
customed forms of procedure, and to venture upon
modes of action which, if not absolutely unknown,
have been so little tried as to be unacceptable.
Every one is willing to do what he can—to forego
his personal ambition, to so-operate with his political
opponents, to exchange approved precedents fur
mere experiments—so long as the one object can be
accomplished. Difficult crises almost demand daring
expedients, and certainly nothing has yet been sug-
gested which would not be fully warranted were it
certain that as a consequence a source of dangerous
agitation would be dried up, the popular excitement
would be abated, and the obstruction to needful
legislation removed. The desire to effect a definitive
settlement of the Reform question has been the
safety of the Ministry. Every one wishes it, and
every one confesses, with Mr. Gladstone, that if the
question is to be settled it must be settled by those
iu power. Were the present Ministers driven
from the Treasury Bench, there would probably
follow a postponement of legislation for at least a
twelvemonth, and an aggravation of the excitement,
the desire to appease which is a principal motive for
striving to pass a Reform Bill. But it is plain from
the simplest statement of the case that, if the Minis-
try be kept in office because the House of Commons
desires to pass a Reform Bill, it can only be kept in
office as long as the House of Commons thinks it
possible that a Reform Bill can be passed through
its agency. Let it once appear that the Adminis-
tration is incompetent or unwilling to carry a mea-
sure of Reform through Parliament, and its days
are numbered. The inquires of Mr. Baines and
of Mr. Ayrton last night, the motion of which Mr.
Kinglake gave notice, are but so many attempts to
discover whether the Ministry is sincerely desirous
of co-operating with the House of Commons. Per-
haps we ought to regard them as something more
th in this, though to the same purpose—as attempts,
in fact, to settle the preliminary question whether
the Ministry is sufficiently at unity with itself to
have any settled desire on the subject. The Chan-
cellor of the Exchequer was able to parry the ques-
tions of Mr. Ayrton and of Mr. Baines, but he must
be conscious that there are limits to a policy •of re-
serve. The day of explanation must come, and we
are now in such a position that the longer it is de-
layed the more strong must become the suspicion
that delay is used as a means to frustrate legislation.
We believe the Administration are warranted in
the choice they have made to proceed by Resolu-
tions ; but the Resolutions must be clear and speci-
fic ; they must, in a word, be capable of being re-
cognised as the possible bases of a future bill. With
the precedent of 1859 before us, we do not doubt
that the immediate production of a Reform Bill
would have been the shipwreck of the Ministry.
The amendment of 1859 must, as Mr. Gladstone
said, be interrupted by the conduct of affairs in
1860, and with this gloss upon it its meaning is
unmistakable. Mr. Ayrton, indeed, declared
last night that no such vote could now be
possible ; Mr. Gladstone, in more solemn lan-
guage, expressed his belief that the proceedings of
1859 could not be repeated, and there are probably
not half-a-dozen members on the Opposition benches
who would not echo these sentiments. We would
rather not have their virtue put to the test. It is
very easy to be free from factiousness and intrigue
after the event, and cynical observers have re-
marked that members who have crept into the
House since 1859 have been very emphatic in de-
claring that they would never have joined the con-
spirators of Willis's Rooms. The method of Reso-
lutions saves the House from the temptation to fix
upon some blot in a Reform Bill as an error which
cannot be amended, and which can only be wiped
out of remembrance by a change of Government.
But, the method of Resolutions having been fairly
launched, the House of Commons is entitled to
demand particulars which shall redeem it from the
risk of becoming illusory. Mr. Sclater-Booth
elicited from the Chancellor of the Exchequer last
night the declaration that the passing of a Reform
Bill would not at all depend upon the passing of
the bid for making assessments uniform throughout
the kingdom, nor on the completion of the proposed
re-adjustment of boundaries by a Boundary Com-
mission ; but something more is wanted than this
answer to a friendly questioner. Mr. Baines
pointed out the character of the information which
it will be the duty of the House of Commons to
insist upon on Monday next, and which the Govern-
ment might, with advantage to the despatch of
business, supply before that day. The exact
amount of the Borough and County qualification,
and a detailed statement of the nature of the other
franchises contemplated by the Government, are
of the essence of the question. These are the
particulars which should have been given on Mon-
day last, but were withheld for some reason, into
which we care not to inquire, by the Chancellor
of the Exchequer, with the simple conse-
quence that next Monday the House of Commons
will be just where it ought to have been a fortnight
before. Then, however, if not before, a full reve-
lation must be made. The Chancellor of the Ex-
chequer has taken the unusual, if it be not thesab-
solutely unprecedented, course of explaining the
views of the Government in two instalments ; and
the House of Commons, anxious not to lose another
opportunity of bringing the Reform question to a
successful issue, has condoned, though it has not
approved, the proceeding. If Mr. Disraeli seriously
believes, as he seemed to intimate last night, that
the prospect of legislation has been advanced and
facilitated by the line he has adopted, he is alone in
his belief ; and he will do well before next Monday
to inquire what others think of it, lest he should be
induced to repeat an indiscretion which must be
fatal to the Government as well as to Reform. We
must wait till Monday next. The Administration
are unable or unwilling to make a clean breast of
their intentions before then, and, however unwise
their reluctance may be, the House of Commons,
having gone so far, must fain acquiesce in it for
days longer. Between this and Monday the Ca-
binet will be able to determine what it is ready to
concede and what it is steadily resolved to main-
tain. It must decide on definite measures and
unambiguous proposals. On Monday the decision
of the future will pass from the Cabinet to the
House of Commons. It must then be apparent
whether anything is to be expected from the pre-
sent Government, and if the verdict be unfavour-
able the policy of forbearance must cease. To
persevere in it would be not only unnecessary, but
unjustifiable ; it would be a dereliction from the
duty every representative assembly owes to the
nation it represents. The House of Commons must
not be degraded by participation in any line of
action which is manifestly a delusion and a snare.
Thelimits of indulgence have been strained already;
but if the reason of the indulgence ceases, the in-
dulgence becomes criminal. If there is to be no
practical result of the licence accorded to the Ad-
ministration, it must be revoked. We hope for
better things. We are loth to believe that the best
opportunity yet presented us of solving a difficult
problem is to be lost. The only means, however,
of guarding against such a misadventure must be
found in a clear definition now, while it is yet time,
of what must be found in the statement of the
Chancellor of the Exchequer next Monday.
THE WESTMINSTER GAZETTE ON LABOURERS AS
CAPITALISTS.—The Pagans of antiquity considered
that nothing was more pleasing to the gods than
the spectacle of a civilised society. This source
of happiness to Olympus must, doubtless, have
been owing to an opinion on the part of the
divinities that human life was not the chapter of
accidents it is sometimes reputed to be, but was
the result of a system of causation, and of what
Mr. J. S. Mill would term parallel forces, origin-
ated and laid down by themselves. Hence they
had a natural love for their own offspring, and a
complacency in finding it to thrive and prosper.
Crude as were the conceptions of Pagan antiquity
respecting the Divine Omnipotence and Wisdom,
the writings of their philosophers at all events
show that they allowed a very narrow scope indeed
for the ameliorating powers of human government
in respect. of society, and that they were thor-
oughly convinced of the principle implied in the
couplet—
"Of all the ills that mortal men endure,
How small the part that kings or laws can cure."
The Swedish Chancellor Oxenstiern's maxim, how-
ever, Quam parnti sapientid regitur mundus, is by on
means correct, whether we apply it to the evidences
of a supernatural wisdom controlling the course of
events, or to the relations which governments
either bear or ought to bear to the governed.
The wisdom of that power which paints the flowers
of the field is even beyond our comprehension ;
and it follows, by analogy, that similar wisdom
is exercised in regulating the affairs of civil society.
The chief duty of a government would, therefore,