The Sun.
London, England, 1867-04-06 00:00:00

What Will Lord Derby Do ?

TO THE EDITOR OF THE SUN.

SIR, —I well remember hearing two men speak on
the relative merits of the Whigs and Tories many
years ago. One said to the other, " Whenever the
Tories have been in office they have invariably
brought us to the verge of revolution." His com-
rade quickly replied, " When the Whigs are in
office they as invariably bring us to the brink of
insolvency." How true the last-quoted retort was
let any one, who is not old enough to recall the
history of the last 30 years, just take the trouble to
examine the statistical falling account of our revenue
between April, 1835, when Sir Robert Peel quitted
office, when he left a surplus revenue of something
above £7,000,000, and August, 1841, just six and
a half years afterwards, during which time we were
consigned to the bungling management, or rather
mismanagement, of the Whigs. When, in the year
and month above named, Sir R. Peel, on again
becoming First Lord of the Treasury, found a de-
ficit of more £8,000,000, and was absolutely com-
pelled to have recourse to an income tax in a time
of profound European peace ; and direct taxation
had previously to 1842 always been looked upon as
part and parcel of the horrors of war. How equally
absurd is it to say that a Tory Government is neces-
sarily ex necessitate rei opposed to all Reform. If
we come to analyse the matter, all life is a Reform
Bill. Reform means change, and our very existence
is made up of nothing but change, and that too from
childhood to old age.. It is a reform when he leaves his
parents and goes to school ; -it is another reform
when he leaves school and goes either to the uni-
versity or else embarks upon some profession.
And how great a reform is it when either man or
woman quits bachelorhood or spinisterhood for the
holy estate, and, as we all hope, the happier and
much more blessed estate of matrimony. And
again, what a change when an articled clerk, or
bar student, passes into the attorney or barrister ;
as likewise when medical students become surgeons
or physicians. I might pursue this theme to any
extent--might expatiate upon the policy, the pro-
fitableness, and relative advantages and disadvan-
tages of change in all its various phases. I will,
however, content myself with stating that reform
and change is as certain in the political world as
the rising and setting of the sun, the new and
full moons, and the ebbing and flowing of the
tides, or any thing else amongst those certain
and immutable laws which an all-wise and bene-
ficent Creator has laid down for the everlasting
benefit of his creature, man. What, therefore, is
to prevent our having reform and change (for
reform and change are in themselves necessarily
identical terms) in our body politic and corporate ?
It is absurd and wholly ridiculous upon the face
of it to say that a Tory Government is neces-
sarily opposed to all reform or change. Having premised thus much, 1 now proceed to show what great and substantial reforms we have ever had
from Tory, or, as it has now been the fashion for
many years to call them, Conservative Governments.
How much reform, and how great and numerous
improvements, we have had in days of yore from
present Premier, I have in my recent correspon-
dence repeatedly shown you, except I do not re-
member ever having alluded to the brilliant speech
delivered in the old House of Commons in 1834 in
favour of the total abolition of Negro slavery. now pass further back from the reign of our late
monarch, King Williamlti
~ to which was essen-
tially
ipso facto a period of IV higgary to the reigns
of George 111. and George IV., which was as essen-
tially ipso facto a period of so-called ultry-Toryism,
and I there find that during the Administration of
the immortal William Pitt (as we had in the time
of his father, the great Lord Chatham, who had
ever been looked upon as a great reformer and
Liberal ; William Pitt was brought up in a school
essentially Liberal, as Fox was in a school essen-
tially Tory) was ever reforming and reforming our
constitution, and Cobden asserted many years ago
that had not the old French war broken out in 1793,
it had been Pitt's intention to have carried oat the
doctrines of Parliamentary Reform and free trade
to a far greater extent than even we have got them
now. Pitt was not only an advocate for, but was
himself the originator of Roman Catholic emancipa-
tion. In that high Tory Government of Lords
Liverpool, Eldon, Sidmouth, Castlereagh, &c., the
Ministers were completely divided upon the ques-
tion of Roman Catholic emancipation, as many
being in favour as against it. Why, therefore,
should a Conservative Government be supposed
to be diametrically opposed to Reform in
the abstract ? During the two last
Adminis-
trations of Lord Derby, as well as during the
five years Administration of the late immortal Sir
It Peel, more useful reformers found their way to
the statute book than during any Whig Adminis-
tration whatever, unless we accept the three and a
half years of the Administration of the late Earl ,
Grey, the so-called father of Reform, which, as I
have repeatedly remarked to you, in the course of
my correspondence, was by far the strongest Whig
Government England was ever governed by. I
trust, therefore, England will remember, as I have
repeatedly stated, that our present First Lord of
the Treasury was one of the ablest and most influen-
tial members of that very old Reform Government. '
I trust Lord Derby's Reform Bill will become part
and parcel of the law of the land in 1867, the same I
as his old one did in 1832. Otherwise, should he
meet with any factious opposition in the matter, I I
trust he will at once follow the precedents of the
late Earl Grey in 1831, the late Sir R. Peel in
1834-5, and last, not least, his own precedents in
1852 and 1859, go at once to the country, by which .
means he will, I trust, obtain as overwhelming a
majority as Lord Grey did in 1831 and Sir R. Peel
in 1841. No change or Reform Bill is more certain
than a change of Ministry, and as the Whigs were
in until last session for 20 years with very little in-
termission (indeed, if we were to except the five
glorious years of Sir Robert Peel's Administration)
for 36 years. Once more do let me entreat the
country to give the Government a fair trial.—l
remain Sir your obedient servant,
A LOVER AND OBSERVER OF HISTORICAL
DATES AND FACTS.

MARKETS.-This day.

COVENT GARDEN.
The supply of both fruit and vegetables is only mode-
rate. On the whole, the trade is steady at our quotations.
FRUIT—Pine apples, 6s to 8s; grapes, los Od to 303 Od
per lb ; apples, 4s Od to 8s Od per bushel ; oranges, 3s 6d
to 8s ; lemons, 7s to lls per 100; cobnuts, 75s to 80s per
1001bs; strawberries, is Od to 2s per oz.; pears, 3s to 6s
por doz.

VEGETABLES—Cabbages, 2s to 3s Od; cauliflowers, 4s to
8s per dozen heads ; celery, 2s Od to 2s 6d per dozen heads
aspargus, 8s to 12s Od per bundle ; carrots, 6d to 8d ; ;
turnips, 6d to Od ; per bunch ; cucumbers, is tO 3s each ;
small salad, Od to Od; mushrooms, 2s Od to 2s 6d per
punnet; onions, 4s to 5s Od per bushel; beet, is Od to 2s
per doz. heads ; potatoes, 130 s to 150 s per ton ; seakale,
2s to 3s per pun.; spinach, 4s to 6s per bushel.