The Sun.
London, England, 1858-12-27 00:00:00

might even at times assume a tone of fierce decla-
mation, but its fire must be directed on some utterly
unimportant point. If a doctrine really unpalatable
to the Government were at any time brought for-
ward, it must be -so in such a way as to give the
triumph by easy inference to the party of order.
There must be an entire absence of any announce-
ments, either of foreign or domestic intelligence,
which could in any way embarrass the King's
servants, or diffuse a suspicion among the
people that any abuse existed in any depart-
ment of State. Thus, the Minister gained abso-
lute power not only over the journals on his
own side, but over those which nominally repre-
sented the Opposition; and all this was to be
done so adroitly that the impulse from behind
should never be seen. Now, this is a downright
stroke of genius, and as far superior in effect to
the French system as Machiavelli was superior to
a corporal or a police-constable. We can well un-
derstand what the feelings of the wretched editors
and contributors must have been when they saw
their own guns turned upon their own friends day
by day by the ingenuity of the " Apostle." The
Government had all the credit, without any of the
inconveniences, of liberality. The Liberal party
had the satisfaction of seeing their doctrines and
opinions caricatured by their own teachers, and
there was not an atom of violence. The journal
was like a child afflicted with a huge tapeworm,
which diverted all the nourishment apparently
swallowed to its own sustenance. It was a sparrow's
nest troubled with a cuckoo. It was a tree
smothered and killed with ivy. How different from
the French system, and how immeasureably supe•
rior to it.

THE NEW REFORM BILL.

(From the Daily News.)
The opponents of Reform, unwilling to deny the
right of the working classes to the suffrage, take
refuge in the weak and evasive question, Cui Bono ?
What is the good of granting this right, of what
possible use can it be to these classes ? This may
fairly be answered by asking the wider question—
What is the good of doing an act of mere justice at
all,? Whatever is the use of granting rights to
these who fairly claim them? If the wrongs are
convenient and venerable why not perpetuate them?
If the rights have only truth and justice to recom-
mend them, and involve at the same time a good
deal of disturbance and change, why not continue to
refuse them ? Mr. Bright, however, in his Glasgow
speech, gives a more direct and practical reply to the
sceptical inquiry of hostile critics. To the question,
Cui bond ? he answers reasonably enough, that the
suffrao.e, by increasing their self-respect, will be a
powerful instrument for the elevation of the work-
ing classes. It will increase their motives to exer-
tion, and stimulate their efforts towards self-improve-
ment. It will implant within them that feeling of
citizenship which is the germ of public virtue,
For, without a fair measure of political freedom and
responsibility, there is but little scope or stimulus
for the display of higher patriotism. The feeling
of public responsibility awakens a sense of public
duty, and stimulates its possessor to discharge it in
the most honourable and efficient manner. Duties
are the sources of virtues. The suffrage, by bestow-
ing political power, will tend directly to develop
public virtues. Self-reepect, too, is the prolific
source of private virtues, such as temperance, fru-
gality, industry, and the like ' • and the enfranchise-
ment of the working classes will thus powerfully
contribute to their social elevation. One of the
most powerful motives to self-respect is the respect
of others, and the respect of others is naturally
increased by the multiplication of our public rights
and privileges. On the other hand, the continued
withholding of these rights not only deprives the
claimants of the public respect to which they are
fairly entitled, but tends to sink them in their own
esteem. Those who are forcibly kept in an in-
ferior position, social or political, become so far
degraded in mind and character. Their nature,
" like the dyer's hand," becomes subdued to What it
works in. That adult vassalage of any kind must
exert some such injurious influence, reflection
naturally suggests, and experience abundantly
confirms.
All this, however, the Times, in these its last
days of opposition to reform, finds it necessary to
deny. While allowing that to increase the self-
respect of the working classes " would undoubtedly
be a great collateral advantage," it more than ques-
tions whether the franchise would have any such
effect. The •possession of the suffrage could have
"no perceptible effect in elevating his views or
reforming his conduct. As a body, they do not
want it ; and it would do them no good if they got
it." This is exactly the kind of argument that:was
used a quarter of a century ago in the anti-slavery
agitation. The opponents of the movement, who
professed to be intimately acquainted with the wants
and wishes of the negroes, as well as with what
was really best for them, loudly demanded of the
anti-slavery reformers —What was the use of,
emancipation ? The slaves did not want it.
They had food and clothes, regular occupation,
and convenient dwellings. They were quite
happy and contented. What use could their
liberty be to them ? It was a nominal blessing
that would probably do them far more harm than
good. They were, in short, an inferior race,to whom
freedom would be a perilous good; who might in
some few instances perhaps turn it to good account,
but who, as a body, were far better and happier
without it. It seems never to have occurred to
these reasoners that freedom is necessary to develop
the nobler elements of character; that systematic
oppression inevitably degrades, and that in this way
slavery ends by producing the slavish mind it
quotes in its own defence. We do not, of course,
mean to draw any parallel between the negroes in
the West Indies and the working classes in our own
country. We simply say that the arguments
against the personal emancipation of the negroes
and those against the political emancipation of the
working classes are precisely of the same kind, and
of precisely equal worth. The working classes of
this country enjoy a large amount of personal,
social, and industrial freedom ; but their emancipa-
tion is noNomplete. They arc in a state of poli-
tical subjection, which exercises an injurious in-
fluence on their character, and from which they
have the strongest claims to be freed.
No one indeed is bold enough to deny these
claims. The enemies of Reform talk, it is true, in
a vague and declamatory key about destroying the
Constitution ; but the right of every freeman is as
old as the Constitution. The only
.bars to the
practical enjoyment of this right that have ever
been formally recognised are pauperism and ignor-
ance. These, however, were so far diminished a
quarter of acentury ago, that the supporters of the
last Reform Bill recognised the right of the work-
ing classes to the suffrage, only they counselled
patience and moderation in urging it. It would be
impossible, they arguedf. to secure all at once ; but
if the working classes would unite in a common
effort to obtain the franchise for the great body of
the middle classes, the reformed Parliament would
accomplish the rest: The enfranchisement of the
lower class, it was said, would speedily follow that of
the one immediately above it. But if the working
classes, as a body, were prosperous and intelligent
enough to be entrusted with the franchise thirty
years ago, what must be the added strength of their
claim to-day ? They are now almost as much above
themselves of that era as they were then,below the
middle classes. Almost every yearsince the passing
of the Reform Bill has witnessed some fresh effort
in the direction of popular education and commer-
cial reform. It has been a period prolific beyond
all precedent in measures of social and commercial
improvement. By the influence of emigration on
the one hand, and the repeal of the Corn Laws on
the other, the burden of pauperism has been lifted
from the land ; so that, in spite of the enormous
drain of a European war, we are in a state of unpa-
ralleled prosperity. Through the vigorous impulse
given to national education, elementary schools
have been multiplied in every part of the country,
and evening classes organised in all the great cen-
tres of industry. While the area of direct
education has thus been extended, the means
of indirect education have multiplied a thousand
fold. Within this period have risen the mechanical
and chemical inventions that characterise the age :
railways, steam navigation, electric telegraphs,
cheap literature, and the penny post. The educa-
tional influence of these new and powerful agen-
cies can be scarcely overrated. Under their wide
and effectual teaching Chartism has collapsed, the
occupation of the professional demagogue is gone.
It is no longer possible for him to gratify his spleen,
his vanity, or his ambition, at the expense of truth
and justice, by highly wrought appeals to the igno-
rance and passions of the working classes. They
are now able to read and judge for themselves, and
would only smile with scornful incredulity at the
terrible stories that were told them, and which
they devoutly believed, twenty years ago. The
working classes are now far better educated, more
intelligent, more prudent, industrious, and reflective
than they were thirty, twenty, or even ten years
ago. But the expectation of obtaining theirpolitieal
rights has been all along a Strong stimulus in their
career of self-improvement. They have kept
steadily in view the prospect of obtaining through
the suffrage a fair shire of political influence.
During these comparatively silent years have
shown they h •
shown how highly they value the suffrage byve
diligently qualifying themselves for the duties it
imposes, instead of noisily clamouring for its
immediate possession. It will never do to tell these
men that they do not want the franchise, that it
will do them no good, or that however strong
them
ngand
just their claim it is impossible to give
the prize for which they have so patiently and
zealously laboured.