The Sun.
London, England, 1867-03-27 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, WEDNESDAY EVENING, MARCH 27, 1867.

a Reform Bill must pass, and he is not a man to be
daunted. It requires more real courage to with-
stand taunts than to fly with virtuous indignation
and resign in a huff because one's enemies are too
many for one. The present Government have been
too wary to destroy their bridges and to burn their
boats, though the tempter was most subtle and the
charmer charmed ever so wisely in seeking to make
them do so.

It is difficult to select the most striking passages
out of a speech which is so comprehensive as the one
before us, but we would direct particular attention
to the passage in which Mr. DISRAELI spoke of the
lodger franchise, and showed the absurdity of his
being lectured in the matter, and ordered by the
right hon. gentleman the member for South Lanca-
shire to insert it in the measure. He was the
first to introduce it himself in 1859. The incon-
sistency of Mr. GLADSTONE'S course is very
plainly shown by this fact, that he said last year
that the " lodger franchise was a very insignificant
affair, and would produce very small results ;" but
we now find that it has become a question of very
great importance, and at those meetings where the
"mob of the House of Commons" attended the
leader of the Opposition, it was decided that
the fate of the Government should rest upon it,
and they were not to be allowed to go into Corn-
mittee until it was conceded. Mr. DISRAELI, as
the first Minister who proposed the adoption of the
lodger franchise by the house, could not certainly be
charged with inconsistency when he announced the
willingness of the Government to entertain the ad-
visability of considering it in committee. Thus
ends one of Mr. GLADSTONE'S grand schemes, and
we see upon what a solid foundation his " stern
appeal" rested. No very enormous sacrifice is
required for the Government to agree to this fran-
chise ; and, indeed, on the contrary, we think that
the general demand for it is a tribute to the wisdom
and sagacity of its inventors, while it shows that those
who denounced it at first did so from party motives,
without taking the trouble to consider its merits.
Mr. DISRAELI laid great stress upon the manner
in which Mr. GLADSTONE had criticised the mea-
sure of Government, and the way in which his re-
marks were received showed that the House
coincided with him. lle made a speech upon the
introduction of the measure which was well fitted
for the second reading, and upon the second reading
he spoke as if the Bill were in committee. Besides
he addressed the Government in a tone not at
all usual in the House, so much so as to call from
the Chancellor of the Exchequer the amusing
remark that his manner was "so excited
and alarming that one might almost feel
thankful that gentlemen in thi3 Ilouse who sit
on opposite sides of the table are divided by a good
broad piece of furniture." It is long since a leader
of any party in the House has so far forgotten him-
self as Mr. GLADSTONE has done in this matter, and
members of his own party can feel and appreciate
his mistake. He has been arrogantly presump-
tuous in pretending that he, and he alone, could
represent what the House wanted, and what it
did not want. He has been excited where
calmness was required, and bitter where
moderation was called for. In short, ho has
sought to make a faction-fight out of a great na-
tional question that especially called for the self-
denial and good feeling of all patriotic legislators.
Wo think that he kas now to rejoice, and his
friends for him, that he has failed in his sinister
attempt to make political capital out of the diffi-
culties of the Government, for the public would
not readily have forgotten or forgiven the ma-
noeuvre, however dexterously it was carried out.
While he defended the general principles of the
bill, the Chancellor of the Exchequer did not
fall into the fatal error of setting up points to stand
or fall by. Under existing circumstances such a
course would be very prejudicial to the success of
his scheme. The most important announcement
made by the Chancellor of the Exchequer was that
concerning the " dual voting," and as that most
concerned the fate of the measure it is very satisfac-
tory to find that the Government does not pledge
itself to maintain the proposition. While declaring
that men of great mark and standing were prepared
to support it, the right hon. gentleman admitted
that their friends had not encouraged them to persist
in the course they had indicated. "I am prepared
to fight against the greatest difficulties," said the
right hon. gentleman ; " but we stand here as prac-
tical men, with a duty to fulfil, and that is to pass
a bill for the amendment of the representation of the
people, and it would therefore have been more than
idle to persist against such opposition." In a spirit
worthy of the occasion, and in language that
was eloquent, from a conviction of the import-
ance of the subject treated of, and thus
was natural and effective, not studied and
specious oratory, Mr. DISRAELI concluded his re-
markable speech by declaring that parties might
struggle and combinations be made, but that the
Government had no other wish but to bring the
question of Reform to a settlement; and truly de-
clared that it was not for the weal of England that
any delay should take place in such settlement, and
warned those who thought that ambition might be
gratified in preventing the passing of the measure
that a deep responsibility rested not upon the Go-
vernment, but upon the whole House of Commons iu
respect to this measure. " Act with us cordially and
candidly, and assist us to carry out this measure
which we hope will lead to a settlement of the ques-
tion, consistent with the maintenance of the repre-
sentative character of this house. Act with us, I
say, cordially and candidly—you will find on our
side complete reciprocity of . feelina Pass the
O
Bid, and then you may change the Ministry
if you like." We are not surprised that loud
and continued chars greeted this announce-
ment, for it was one worthy of a Minister
of the Crown addressing Parliament on a great
national question, and the House of Commons al-
ways appreciates spirit. Mr. DISRAELI rose to the
height that was due when he delivered the closing
passage of his discourse last night, and we feel
convinced that the country will rightly estimate the
position of the Ministers, and encourage them with
their support and sympathy. We know now that
the Government are the friends to Reform, and it
remains for those who oppose them to show us who
are its enemies.

LONDOIV, WEDNESDAY, MARCH 27, 1867.

We congratulate the Ministry, the house, and
the country upon the tone which the debate assumed
last night, and we think that the new Reform Bill
has now got over the worst of its difficulties, and
may now be looked upon as certain to pass with due
care and under proper restrictions. We rejoice at
the prospect, partly because we think her MAJESTY'S
Ministers have done their best, and deserve to sue-
ceed, and still more because we feel assured that
the question should be settled at once, since
it affects the best interests of the cow_
munit We say without fear of contra-
diction, or of being accused of exaggeration,
that Mr. DISRAELI never achieved a greater success
in his life than he did last night, or made a speech
in which he more completely carried his hearers
with him. The sense of the house was with him,
and discarding the narrow prejudices, and rejecting
the factious advice recently tendered to it, it seemed
to enter fully into the views of the Chancellor of
• the Exchequer. In a speech of great length the
right hon. member very frankly stated his views as
the exponent of the policy of. Government, and
after stu:lying his speech we do not see on what
grounds any one can fear that the measure will be
rejected. He nether drew back too soon nor too
ate, but showed that the Ministry were fully pre-
pared to make good their propositions, although
they were not so foolish nor so infatuated as to stick
by them at any cost. Lord DERBY has declared than

The country has good reason to be satisfied with
last night's work in the House of Commons. Those
who were fortunate enough to be present had no
unfavourable specimen of the debating talent of our
Parliamentary chieftains, but it was the substance
rather than the form of the achievement which made
the evening remarkable. The Reform Bill was read a
second time, and an early day was fixed for going
into committee upon it. It is true that the bill of
last year got as far as this, and collapsed in its pas-
sage through committee, but there are indica-
tions of a more favourable character in the poli-
tical horizon. The House of Commons is evi-
dently anxious to pass the bill, subject no
doubt to certain modifications. The Government
as we anticipated, have frankly declared their wit'_
lingnes.s to abandon the dual vote an 1 to accept the
lodger franchise—tho two points of most importance
—and many other minor matters they leave open
to discussion in committee. No more can be

reasonably expected of them ; and, in fact, there is
no other definite objection to the measure. The
country demands a considerable extension of the
borough franchise ; it is granted. It demands a
reduction of the county franchise ; it is granted.
It asks for some guarantee that the class enfranchised
shall be fair specimens of steady and loyal English-
men, and such a guarantee is found in the adoption
of that test usually appplied in ordinary business
affairs. It requires the enfranchisement of intelli-
gence, and it is offered an educational vote. These
are the main principles of the measure, and surely
they give a sufficiently broad basis for a grand and
permanent structure. The Attorney-General in his
very able and sensible speech last evening argued
strongly in behalf of a household rating suffrage on
the ground of its permanency. It offered, he said,
a prospect of permanence which did not exist in any
other experiment yet tried. As for the county
franchise, said the hon. and learned gentlemen, every
one admits it ought to be altered, the only question
being as to the precise amount of alteration, which
could best be discussed in committee. " The same
remark," added the Attorney-General, "applies to
the redistribution of seats, and the general question
whether there ought to be a certain amount both of
enfranchisement and disfranchisement. There is
but one question on which we can be really divided
on the occasion of the second reading, and that is
the principle of the borough franchise." That prin-
ciple has already commended itself to the judgment
of the country ; and the House would have very in-
accurately represented the public sentiment had it
insisted on the retention of the old limit of a
certain amount of rental. Having then ac-
cepted the main principle of the bill,
and having received from the Government au inti-
mation that they were prepared to concede minor
points, there would have been no valid reason for
delaying the second reading. We congratulate the
House and the country on its having advanced to
this stage, since the necessity of a prompt and de-
finite settlement of this long-vexed question is now
frankly admitted on all hands.

•
The speakers last night represented many shades
of opinion, and almost every clause in the bill was
discussed with a vigour and ability which left
little to be desired. Mr. GLADSTONE was by
the rules of the House silent, but he had
not left us in ignorance of his sentiments,
having previously exhausted his ingenuity and his
eloquence in successive oratorical onslaughts.
Next to Mr. GLADSTONE'S proceedings the course
which Mr. BRIGHT might think fit to pursue has
probably excited most curiosity. It could hardly,
perhaps, have been expected that the lion. member
for Birmingham would give his cordial support to
any measure of the kind iu which he has had no
share. Some time since, indeed, he expressed him-
self in favour of a household suffrage, when it was
not on the Lapis, but it is a different thing when
theories take actual form. Then it is that
professors find their professions troublesome
that Reformers think that Reform should begin
in the Cabinet; that Liberals are inclined to put no
liberal construction on the measures before them.
Mr. BRIGHT will oppose the bill, telling its pro-
moters, in general terms, that they are about to
repeat the error of 1832, and re-enact the exclusion
of the working classes from the franchise. How
can this be, unless the working classes of this coun-
try are in a very different position, intellectually
and socially, from what the hon. member for Bir-
mingham has hitherto tried to make us believe.
If a man can neither pay his own rates,
nor live a certain time in lodgings at a
fixed sum, nor put money in the savings
bank, nor pay anything in the shape of direct taxa-
tion, he can hardly be accepted as a fair specimen of
that class of intelligent and prosperous mechanics
who feel it, as Mr. BRIGHT has often told us, so
great a hardship to be excluded from a share in the
representation of the country. It is not very easy
to understand what are the particular changes which
Mr. BRIGHT wishes to see introduced. He condemns
the measure as ungenerous and unstatesmanlike,
and yet he intimates that, by drawing a line at a
certain point in the rating, some final conclusion
might be come to. On the whole, Mr. BRIGHT'S
speech was more favourable than the Government
might have expected. No one could suppose that
he would be inclined to look leniently on a Con-
servative measure of Reform, even if it coincide
oppoAtioni,oinnacnloidnf
eadildtoreossp
with his own previous declarations, but he seemed
to fed it necessary to apologise for his prospective
addressed
redistribution.shimselfe te
twhaes muchciuest Mr.eaa sguLorAoedi
sasad,ebaeNNli,nhtgoo
Tory-Radical, instead of Liberal Conservative, was
not altogether averse to its provisions. He would
have preferred a £5 borough franchise, with a
liberal lodger franchise, a county franchise identical
with the proposal of last year, and an extensive
scheme of redistribution. Nevertheless, there were not
wanting independent members who supported the
main principles of the Government measure, and
the feeling of the House was clearly manifested in
favour of a fair and candid consideration of the
bill, with a view, not to its rejection, but its im-
provement and ultimate passage into law.

Such, we are confident, is the wish of the great
majority of the public, who are wearied and dis-
gusted with the constant reiteration of promises that
are never performed, theories that are never put into
practice, and professions that only serve to render
their professors too desirous for perfection to be
ever satisfied with mortal measure. With the
abandonment of the dual vote and the introduction
of the lodger franchise the two most serious errors
of the Bill will banish into thin air. All other
questions as to the exact line of rating, the dis-
franchisement of particular boroughs, and the
extension of the county suffrage, can be best
settled, as the Attorney-General observed, in
committee.

CORRESPONDENCE FROM PARIS.

(FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.)
PARIS, Tuesday Evening.

The illoniteur says:—

" The Prussian Minister of War, M. de Roon,
has just sent to the Reichstag a note relative to
articles 50 to 58 of the project of the Federal Con-
stitution of Northern Germany. It appears from
this note that according to the last census, and con-
sidering the probable increase of population, the
Confederation of the North will contain nearly 30
millions of inhabitants. The effective peace array
fixed by articles 56 and following will therefore
consist of 300,000 men, including 39,000 sub-officers,
but not comprising the 13,000 officers. With this
total force, the Federal army will be composed of 13
corps d'arm6e, including the corps formed by the
Prussian Guard.

The Emperor has charged ono of his officers of
ordonnance Naval Lieutenant M. des Vareunes,
with the mission of proceeding to Saigon to examine
into the state of that colony, in order that lie shall
be able to give an account to his Majesty of the
progress which has been effected, and that measures
may be adopted to increase the relations of Cochin
China with the neighbouring countries.
A letter from Suez says :—" Scarcely a day passes
without some important service being derived from
the communication across the Isthmus of Suez from
Port Said to Ismailia by the maritime canal, and
from Ismailia to Suez by the fresh water canal.
Some immense dredging machines have excited
great attention at Suez, but more astonishment has
been created by the number of packages from
Cochin China, Singapore, and Point de Gallo by
the Government transport Orne, for the great Paris
Exhibition, which effected the passage across the
isthmus in four days. There recently arrived in
the port of Suez, from Alexandria by Port Said and
Ismailia, a beautiful Austrian gcelette of eighty
tons, freighted by a French company formed to
worked the sulphur mines at Djemse upon the western
coast of the Red sea. This gcelette, which is called
the Primo, is the first merchant vessel which
has passed from one sea to another by the Isthmus
of Suez on a long voyage.. The vessel was deco-
rated with French flags and ornamented with flowers
gathered at Ismailia. She is now in full sail to her
destination. It is hoped that she will accomplish
her voyage attecessfully, and that on her return some
time hence she will have the honour again to be the
first to show to the vessels coining from the Red
Sea the way by the canal of Suez, as she did in
coming that of the Mediterranean.
The cattle plague has so far subsided in Belgium
that permission is now given again to send oxen by
the railway. When the animals passed across the
grand square of Hasselt to the station the circum-
stance was hailed with so much joy by the popula-
tion that a large crowd assembled. Never, says a
letter from that town, did the Apis in Egypt re-
ceive such an ovation as did those animals, whose
free passage was hailed as an indication that the
plague had departed.
A German paper contains some interesting sta-
tistics respecting the railways in every part of the
globe. The iron network of the world which at
the commencement of last year traversed a length
of 112,000 kilometres new presents an increase of a
few thousand more kilometres. (There aro a thousand
metres in a kilometre, and about 1,600 metres to an
English metre). Prussia is among the countries which
most contributed to this increase. Independently
of the lines from Dunabourg. to Vitebsk, and from
Warsaw to Terespol, great progress has been made
in the line which proceeds from Moscow towards
the south by Orel and Koursh, and which is destined
to join towards the west that from Kiew to Odessa,
and will shortly place Moscow and St. Petersburg
in uninterrupted communication with the Black
Sea. In Turkey last year the first important line
was opened, that from Routschouck to Varna. In
Scandinavia fresh progress has been made to connect
the two capitals of Stockholm and Christiania by
the opening of the section from Laxa to Christian-
hamm. In Denmark, there has been completed, by
the section from Fredericia to the new Prussian
frontier, the line which with the exception of the in-
terruption of the two Belts connects Copenhagen
with the Austrian lines. Railways in Holland have
made great progress, and have much facilitated the
communication between the Netherlands and Bel-
gium. In 1860 the Belgium lines, which in 1865
were to the extent of '2,285 kilometres, were in-
creased by 281 kilometres. As to France, during
the first nine months of the last year, an extent of
738 kilometres of railway was opened, the greater
portion being in the south. In England, the chief
fact to notice in regard to railway progress last year
was the construction of the useful and interesting
lines around ant within the city of London. The
lines in Italy, by the acquisition of the Venetian
line and the opening of new sections, were increased
to the extent of at least 1,100 kilometres. Iu Spain
the lines from Malaga and Cadiz were connected
with those of Madrid and Cordova. In the north
ov
the port of Santander was connected with the cen-
tral lines, and the western line was extended to
e of 6,300
Badajoz. There is now a continuNoduiiissitolai_nuNce
from
o gor Lis-
bon
od,
kilometresa n d ttohSu thus in
I.:nnPetersburg,aaybobaet fit
rvoaery
dayseratherrsed,
it
which separates the oe
Tagus from the Volga. In North America the pro-
gress was such that in a few years there will be
speedy communication with California, and the two
great seas will be connected with each other. In
South America the countries remarkable for rail-
way progress are Brazil, Venezuela, and the Argen-
tine India,of where, in 1865, there were
3,2oorailway,
a great extension
English Republic.
In
miles
has taken place. In short, at the two opposite
ex-
tremities of Africa, Egypt, and the Cape of Good
Hope, to say nothing of Algeria, railway communi-
cation has progressed. Australia, too, is beginning
to have railways.
Some of the Paris papers still persist that some
diplomatic negotiations have taken place between
France, Holland, and Prussia, relative to Luxem-
bourg. According to one version, the Prussian
Government, which considers itself the legal suc-
cessor and liquidator of the defunct German Con-
federation, is to receive compensation from the
Dutch Government, from whom she claims arrears
of various Federal contributions, and the amount
expended for various works of fortification. This
done, the Netherlands would give up the Grand
Duchy of Luxembourg to France for an indemnity
of 100 millions.

The Legislative Body is occupied wirl a subject
almost as exciting as the question of peace or war
—the proposed law for the abolition of imprison-
ment for debt. It may be well to explain the pre-
sent position. The Government and the Council
of State have given their opinion that it is desirab!e
to abolish imprisonment for debt, as well regarding
foreigners as Frenchmen. On the other hand, how-
ever, the Commission appointed to examine into
the subject are opposed to the abolition. There is
also very strong opposition on the part of influential
firms connected with commerce and trade. As the
Government does not adopt the views of the Com-
mission, the project of law now under discussion by
the Chamber contains a clause for the abolition of
1 imprisonment for debt except under peculiar cir-

cumstauces. The subject was again under con- LATEST INTELLIGENCE
sideration to-day. This is not the first time that •
the Legislators of France have been occupied with (REUTER'S TELEGRAMS.)
this subject. The National Convention declared on
the 12th of March, 1793, that " linprisonment for
debt was contrary to sound morals and to the rights
of man."

ROME AND ITALY.

RO3IE, March 26.
The official journal of Rome, of to-day, declares
it to be incomprehensible that the speech from the
throne at the opening of the Parliament at Florence
should have spoken of the legitimate liquidation of
the ecclesiastical property. Such a measure, it con-
tinues, is illegal spoliation suffered by the Church,
and cannot be legitimate, when he who can alone
authorise it will never accord his sanction.