The Sun.
London, England, 1858-03-01 00:00:00

j„:.-

LONDON, MONDAY, MARCH 1, 1858.

Lord DUB?' cannot afford a second time to offer
to the country merely the half-ready contents of
the Whigs' measure-basket. He has taken office,
and, if he would avoid political disgrace, must do
something worthy of his position. None of his
colleagues' addresses up to Saturday night were
permitted to foreshadow, ever so faintly, the
knowledge to be imparted, we may hope, to-night.
The first appeals to the country merely said—Gen-
tlemen, you know us ; the names of Dlsa♦7LT,
P.4.iniaTox, and lIINLAI are not strange to you ;
elect us for what we have been ; what we are to
be, take upon trust from the past. Even Sir
FiTZROY DILLY, who does advert to some points
of Representative Reform, is very conveniently
♦ague. Well, this may, so far, be politic
and convenient, but it is only so far and no fur-
ther. Lard DEBIT' cannot afford once more to
say, Let us hold on a little while by sufferance ;
enable us to allege that we made a few good law
reforms all ready to our hands, and passed the
necessary financial bills ; then leave us to shoot
and hunt for half-a-year ; and after that we will
tell you what we have made up our minds to. We
can appeal to his Lordship whether we have not
on former occasions demanded fair play for his
Administration, and we demand it now ; but we
demand also a policy, a frankly-avowed policy wor-
thy of fair play. We can hardly ask for him exemp-
tion from factious oppositions, if by reticency, or by
half-measures, or unpopular proposals, he himself
invites that opposition.

There is one journal, of not the humblest preten
lions, which, perhaps not liking to turn too soon,
is openly threatening Lord DERBY with the im-
possibility of evading a stiffish Reform Bill. This
same journal was fain to allege a few weeks ago,
that nobody wanted reform, but that somehow
everybody was looking for it, and the Premier
had promised it last year, he had even put that
promise in the Qrsas Speech ; so, a Reform
Bill, though suite needless, and though it could be
attended to any year, in the course of the next
ton or twenty years, yet must be brought for-
ward.
Now, however, it is the one thing inevit-
able 1 Eves India
may wait, and the Corporation
of London surely may ; but Representative Re-
form—the Reform dema.nded only in political
imagination—this has become Ulo one thing which
cannot wait ! We have, of course, always taken
the directly opposite view, and have demanded a
substantive Reform Bill as the honest wish of the
treat body of those who take any interest
at all in politics. We have always hoped,
we may say believed, that a sham
f
R orni Bill would have ruined Lord
l'Alatalurrom, and we therefore cannot be thought
to press the
sublect on L)rd DERBY merely to em-
barrass him. On the contrary' we believe that he
has quite as much good will towards representative
that he may
representative
t
Reform as Lard PALICEB.3IO:S .
consistently allege the same reason for b
forward a Reform measure Which woulrainhging
ave
been the impelling motive with the ex.-Premier,
namely, that the oountry will have it, and that the
Parliament had been elected to carry one. Lord
Dun L the Minister of England, and if England
demands a ortain measure it is his duty to pro-

pose it.
Last year Lord DERBY did us the honour to
quote our Reform catechism in the Trouie of
Lards ; he did it then for Lord PAL3LJEASTOY.,
instruction ; he will, we trust, now give it his best
attention for his own sake. If hostile journals
taunt him with the promised Reform Bill, he must