The Sun.
London, England, 1866-09-25 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

TIMES.—We are entering on the usual season for
public meetings, and in the general dearth of sub-
jects, Parliamentary Reform should have an advan-
tage. As foreign politics are out of the question,
or no longer our part ; as the Jamaica question has
almost got to a dead lock, and a hundred other con-
troversies have been happily laid at rest, there really
is nothing better to talk about than Reform. The
Blue-books of last session have gone to the house-
keeper or the cheesemonger ; and we all start
afresh. We may therefore venture some sort of fore-
ca§t of the shape Reform will assume in public dis-
cussion, and bow it will be, or ought to be, treated.
The platform has its proper and natural vocation,
very distinguishable from that of the statesman, or
the Legislature, or the press, or the pulpit, or the
man who writes pamphlets and books. Its vocation
is dictated by the necessity of circumstances, as well
as by the faculties and aspirations that find their
vent in this mode of utterance. A public meeting
consists of men who, whether speakers or listeners,
feel a general agreement, and expect to hear only
one side, and that maintained on fully recognised
principles. It would he impossible to hold a public
meeting except en these conditions •, for no de-
bate would be possible, in three short hours, in
the presence of a multitude. The speakers must
suppress even minor differences, and express only
the points which they hold in common. The
immediate object is to bring to a common opinion
men who can holdopinions,
unless it be to give a vote which they have often
and do nothing more,
given before, and which will not signify much. Under
the circumstances all that can be done is to treat the
matter in hand in an elementary way ; to offer first
principles and arithmetical illustrations. The veriest
schoolboy can apprehend palpable facts, and go into
the mathematics of a subject, or thestatistics, as we
should call them. That is what is done at a public
meeting. For example, the evidence given before
the Commissions sitting at the four boroughs now
on trial would supply palpable facts for a public
meeting. The Census and the recent Electoral
Returns would supply both facts and figures that
almost any ordinary meeting would understand, as
far as they go. Anybody can understand the anomaly
of four thousand people returning the same number
of members as three-quarters of a million ; or three
thousand returning one member, and thirty thou-
sand none. All this is pure arithmetic, such as is
taught in the lowest classes in our village schools,
and apprehended by the child five years old, sent
for sugar, barm, or lard to the village shop. As
this is almost all that a public meeting can do, it
ought to be done ; but it ought also to be done well.
The first principles of political representation, as it
existsion British soil, ought to be put forth purely,
dispassionately, and with sufficient breadth to arrest
the attention and fix the interest. Our public
orators will.be quite right—indeed, what else can
they do ?—to urge the general claim to an electoral
vote, the self-governing nature and customs of our
race, the wisdom of interesting a whole people in
politics, the comparative security against corruption
afforded by numbers, and their freedom from the
most deliberate and mercenary form of bribery,
the sense of injustice that must always be inflicted
by great inequalities in the distribution of the fran-
chise, the cruelty of intimidation, and such matters
open in fact, to the intelligence of a child. It is
no disparagement to public meetings to say that
they can do little more than put before the world,
and establish in due prominence, what are called
facts and figures, and the abstract sentiments with
which all of us, taught or untaught, must approach
the subject. Thus it comes to pass that the public
meeting really has more affinity with the pulpit, or
the writer of books and pamphlets, than with Par-
liament, or the daily press, or any institution affect-
ing a deliberate and governing character. We, for
example, could not possibly content ourselves with
the part we have assigned to a public meeting. We
are compelled to take into consideration-a great deal
more than facts, figures, statistics, and the axioms,
if there be any, of political mathematics. We can-
defy a class strong enough to retort the defiance
with more effect. We must consider a good deal
moreoffer
than
advice
ab st
ract certainclaims
not to
and natural rights, for
we must also take into account the probable use
that will be made of votes and political power. We
must deal with facts, but not confine ourselves to
facts of the palpable class, for the ways and manners',
of parties, classes, and individuals may Pscape the
apprehension of a thultitude, but yet be veritable
facts and serious elements in the calculation. We
cannot help feeling more practical responsibility
than a thousand or two men assembled after their
day
eloquent speaker who kindly
olitical scale. The truth
is, we feel ourselves in council ; we are taking part,
hearthema
inn
the p
not in a one-sided demonstration, but in a great
national debate. We must hear every speaker, and
be ready to reply, as well as to justify what we have
said. We are all but in Parliament; some say,
wishess w
to ork
raise to
something more. At all events, our responsibility
is that of parliament so long as we pretend to
give it honest advice, and so long as we at-
tempt to calculate how much can or should be done.
And what is the governing principle, the so-called
self-government, of this country ? It is not the
triumph of any one principle, or the predominance