The Sun.
London, England, 1860-12-28 00:00:00

the Lord-Advocate. Mr. BLACK had been guilty
of aiding the defeat, for the session, of the Minis-
terial Reform Bill; and also of withdrawing a good
and popular measure in regard to the Annuity-Tax,
after having taken it to a second reading; and of
doing it in favour of the Lord-Advocate's obnoxious
measure. This measure, however, was the only
offence of the Lord-Advocate, as he had, of course,
supported the Reform Bill of.his Government; but
the perpetuation of the Annuity-Tax was quite
enough to irritate exceedingly the now very nume-
rous inhabitants of Edinburgh, who, since
the great Disruption, have had to support the
"Residuary Church," as they term it, by com-
pulsion, and their own Free Church by
their voluntary contributions. When to
them we add a considerable number of previously
existing Dissenters, it is not wonderful that the
author and the accepter of a bill which has resulted
in fixing for perpetuity a tax as odious in Edin-
burgh as Church-rates are in all English towns, or
as the abolished ministers' money was in Ireland,
we cannot wonder that the two members found them-
selves in pretty hot water. The result of the meeting,
indeed was, after all the care taken to pack it, that
the LORD PROVOST could not tell which side were
in the majority; he, therefore, gave the benefit of
the doubt to the accused members, who will cer-
tainly find themselves much more at ease on the
floor of the House of Commons than they did on
the platform from which they addressed those who
loudly denied that they el ere their representatives.
Mr. BLACK, who spoke first, was unquestionably
the greater sinner. His conduct had been—" Old
Whig"—to the backbone. While a £6 franchise
was a party move, in opposition to Mr. DISRAELI,
he voted for it as an amendment to throw out the
antagonist of the Whigs. We are not giving too
dark a view of Mr. BLACK'S conduct,"for the
BLACK view itself is this—" At that time, and in
the circumstances we were then placed, I was dis-
posed to recommend £6. And why ? because, in
the first place, Lord JOHN RUSSELL had moved
and earried a resolution against Mr. DISRAELI,
proposing among other things £6 as the limit of
the franchise, and on that occasion I voted with
my party in what was really a party motion,
and thus got in some degree committed, although,
if I had voted on the other side, I should have been
worse committed still, for then Mr. DISRAELI, for
the Protectionist party, showed their willingness to
offer the same bribe to the Radicals, or to come
even lower, and Mr. BRIGHT, besides many of
those who glory in the name of Advanced Liberals,
would hardly be content with a £5 franchise, but
would only take it as an instalment. All parties
in the House of Commons appeared to me to be
committed to the lowering of the franchise, and in
these circumstances I was disposed to recommend
the highest limit that was likely to be got."
A view this certainly which needs not the addi-
tion of any paint political of ours to.make it darker
in the eyes of all hearty Liberals. We believe,
however, that Mr. BLACK spoke on Monday the
sentiments of a whole battalion of " Old Whigs"
who would hardly like to-speak so frankly them-
selves. Mr. BLACK openly says, "I wanted Mr.
DISRAELI out, and Lord PALMERSTON in—Reform
of Parliament, in any popular sense, I had, on re-
flection, turned my back upon ; it was useful, very
useful, to eject Conservatives, but there its utility
ended. Mr. Disraeli was ready to give as. low a
franchise, if not a lower one, than Lord John Russell,
and for that very reason lam all the more gratffled
that I helped to turn him out." We thank Mr.
BLACK for these honest revelations. We know
that no man is more deeply in the councils of the
" Old Whigs," and as we always attributed to them
the political meanness of turning out the Conserva-
tives, not in the interest of reform, but of party
merely, and always predicted that we should get
a better franchise from the Tories than from the
Whigs, we are glad to have our views of Whig
policy confirmed from so well informed a quarter.
We beg, however, in fairness, to acknowledge
that we do except Lord JOHN RUSSELL from
the charge of indifference to his own measure. We
believe his amendment to eject Mr. DISRAELI was
factious ; but we have little doubt that, afterwards,
his slow pace with his own bill was due to the
Anti-Reform party in the Coalition Cabinet, of
which party the Premier is notoriously at the head.
It was the old Whigs, in and out of the Cabinet,
who used the very respectable citizen of Edinburgh
as one of their tools, that really "put the spoke in
the wheel "in the Reform Bill of last session.
Wo certainly shall not follow Mr. BLACK in his
recitation of the old reasons of recreant Liberals for
rejecting the franchise when formally proposed by
Lord JOHN RUSSELL, which they willingly accepted
from him as a promise in order to get their party
back to power. This much we say of all the clique,
that we regard them as we should commercial men,
who, having the means to pay, yet refused to
honour a bill which they had accepted. Would that
they could be as summarily dealt with. It was not
the Tories who deprived us of Reform last session.
They were, at least, but subordinate actors. Mr.
DISRAELI had declared that he would let it pass.
Afterwards, when " Old Whigs" began to whisper
to the Tories "Why did your leader serve us so ?
we looked to him to get rid of the bill for us—go
at it, and we will back you "—then, indeed, the
Tories gladly followed the promptings of their
Liberal friends, and the disgraceful process com-
menced of smothering the bill with talk. This we
believe to be the true history of the Whig Reform
Bill of 1860, and we must say that it was, politi
tally, a BLACK business.

THE C 4 PE OF GOOD BORE 111/11L.

PLYMOUTH, FRIDAY.

The Celt, with the above mail, arrived here this
morning. She left the Cape on the 21st ult., St.
Helena on the 30th, and Ascension on the 4th inst.

The Celt brings 25 passengers, among whom are
Major Mannsell and Assistant-Surgeon Crisp of
the 59th Regiment, and Captain Hall of the 13th.
Her cargo comprises 1,369 bags of copper-ore,
100 tons of antimony, 320 bales of wool, and a
small quantity of wine.
British Kaffraria was proclaimed a separate
colony on the 30th October:
The territory between the rivers Keiskamma and
Great Koi constitutes this new dependency.
A league had been formed in the Eastern pro-
vince to procure a separation from the West.
Influential meetings in favour of this movement
had taken place in all the principal towns of the
Esq, and largo sums had been subscribed with the
same object.
Sir George Grey was still at Cape Town. But
little progress had been made in public business.
The public journals complained of the delay.
Several iAnivenirs from Prince Alfred had arrived
and been distributed.

The 13th and 59th Regiments were holding
themselves in readiness to proceed to New Zealand.
Admiral Keppel was last heard of at the Manritius.
The Brisk had captured the slaver Manuela with
765 slaves on board.

The slaver Lyrus, taken on Oct. 13, had been
condemned.

The Hornet had arrived at the Cape.
The 'Lassie, a vessel belonging to Cape Town,
had been discovered to have gone slaving.
The ship Lord Clyde, from Calcutta for London
had been burnt.

Immigration prospects were favourable, as there
was plently of work at outlying places. Proceed-
ings had been taken for the naturalisation of
Adam Kok and Griguas as British subjects under
feudal tenure.

Letters had been received from Zanzibar, and
also from Mr. Moffat. Commercial and monetary
affairs at the Cape had improved.