The Sun.
London, England, 1866-03-07 00:00:00

BROMPTON.

Although the company was limited in numbers, yet they
were of a most respectable character, more especially to wit-
ness the amateur race between
MEssns. D. M. O'LEARY AND K. T. DIGBY.—They had to
run a quarter of a mile for a valuable cup and a heavy bet.
Digby has won a 440 yards handicap, for which also
O'Leary entered, but did not start. Digby won the toss for
sides, and chose the one with his right hand to the turf, but
in getting off he slipped, so that he could not quite succeed
in catching his opponent, who came in first by four yards
Mr. H. 'Woodstock was the referee and starter. The bet-
ting was 6to 4, offered. Time 56 seconds.
W. HARRISON, OP PIMLICO, AND H. BROADHURST, OF
BATTERSEA.—This was a half-mile race between these two
for a small stake, Broadhurst having 20 yards start, which
advantage he maintained the whole of the distance he ran,
but pulled up 50 yards from home, Harrison of course win-
ning easily. Mr. West, of Brompton, was the referee.
Time, 2 min. 53 secs.
J. CLAYTON AND IL BARER.—These two amateurs now
came to run off their 200 yards race for £5 a-side. A good
start was effected, but in the finish Baker won by 5 yards.
Mr. A. Ball acted as referee.
There was a great deal of practising among the gentle-
men of the different athletic clubs.
C. O'MALLEY (OP BERMONDSEY) AND H. SIMPSON (or
WALWORTII).—This race of 100 yards for £5 a-side was
the principal event for decision, and caused a vast amount
of interest between their respective backers. In accord-
ance with the articles Simpson received three yards start,
and they were allowed 15 minutes on the scratch, but if not
off in that time then the pistol was to be fired. Just pre-
vious to the race O'Malley laid a soy even that he would
win by two yards. Simpson got a good start, but O'Malley
soon came to the front, and won a good race by 2+ yards,
so that he won his bet by a good half yard. J. M. was the
referee.•

J. ARNOLD AND E. DENNIS.—Both are of Marylebono,
and next came to run off their race of 300 yards for £5
a-side, Dennis having three yards start. They had to go
by first report of pistol. Dennis bounded away with the
lead given him, which he held to the end, and won a splen-
did race by 7 yards. Mr. Nicholson performed the office
of referee, whilst Mr. Brown acted as starter.
MAY AND GERMAIN.-The next spin calling for notice
was between May (of Peckham) and Germain (of Billings -
for £4 a-side. They
yards,
they got off, May
wgwaiettrehelaot
snhlei distancegthhett lseacrd,a be i
tbeing O
passed by Germain, who
ll
t 8
was
minutes,
n
won a good race by a yard and a half. Mr. E. Jones was
referee.

MARSH AND SANDERSON.—This was a spin of 100 yards
for a small stake. Perry officiated as referee. Marsh won
by two yards.
The race between Grey and Howditt is postponed.
HACKNEY-WICK.
Another of the great gatherings took place yesterday for
which the popular Hackney-wick has been famous, fully
2,000 persons having assembled to witness the sport set
down. There was also, independent of the great Four-
mile Handicap and the One-mile Novice Handicap (the
eatures of the day), the race between Tuck and Hudson
and Mr. Pether's Half-mile Handicap. The following is a
brief return :
PzrnEie
Francis, s IlAL.anrciMs,lLE HANDICAP.—The 26 entries were
divided into four heats and the final. The first heat was
won by W.
who went from scratch ; O. Green,
30 yards start, was second. Won by 20 yards.
Second Heat.—J. Winter, another scratch man, came in
first; and young Hartley, also at scratch, was second.
Won by 15 yards.
Third Heat.—Again the scratch man, E. Byrne, came in
first ; and J. Harnhan, 30 yards' start, was second. Won
easily.
Fourth Heat.—J. Martin, 30 yards start, came in first by
a couple of yards ; and J. Nicholls, who went from the
mark, was second ; there were three other starters.
The Final Heat.—Francis, Byrne, H. Winter, and J. Mar-
tin now came to run off for the prizes, when Francis came
in first by ten yards ; Byrne was second, and Winter third.
The regular business of the day now commenced, and
Mr. W. Price's Handicaps were decided as under :
THE ONE MILE HANDICAP.—This was for a silver watch
for first, and a money prize for second. Sam Sutton, who
went from scratch, passed all his opponents, namely, Webb,
40 yards start ; Tidy, 40; Young Rook, 60 ; Smith, 60 ;
Watson, 60 ; and Prior's Novice, 60, and won a determined
race by 10 yards ; Smith was second.
GREAT FOUR MILES HANDICAP.—This was the race
of the day, and the whole of the entries, with the excep-
tion of Barney Hayden of Manchester, put in an
appearance. The famed Young England (Toddy
Mills) at scratch ; Sam Barker, 260 yards start ;
Harry Andrews, 340; W. Mills (Teddy's brother), 400;
G. Golder, 400; Vertue* (Patten's Lad), 400; and W.
Markham, 520, were the starters. More interest was at-
tached.to the contest as they all ran in colours. Vertuo
was made the favourite at 6 to 4, 5 to 2 agst Golder, 7 to
2 agst W. Mills, 4 to 1 agst Markham, 5 to 1 agst An-
drews, and 20 to 1 agst Barker. This was one of the best
contests ever witnessed. Toddy Mills showed his find
stlye ; but eventually Golder won in good style;
W. Mills was second, and Markham third. Sam
Barker ran in his usual good style ; and were the varia-
tions in the race given, it would take more room than our
space will allow.
J. *TUCK AND HUDSON.—These men ran half a mile
for £3O aside. Hudson jumped off with the lead, and for
more than three parte'of the distance led at a tremendous

- ta. vsaavaa,•,.•••.
pace. The latter having run himself out in endeavouring
to cut down his opponent, Joe Tuck, who had bided his
time, in the last lap rushed to the fore, when, in coming
into tho straight for home, and Tuck leading by half a
dozen yards, Hudson fell, and Tuck ran in an easy winner.
AMATEUR WALKING AGAINST TIME.-011
Satur-
day the long-pending match, in which Mr. Newby, a well-
known sportsman in racing circles, undertook to walk for
a bet of £5O two miles in 22 min., was decided in a satis-
factory manner at Harlington Corner, about five milesfrom

-----
Hounslow. The feat, which would have been but a mode-

rate performance for a commoner was not deemed a very
easy task for Mr. Newby, who is 52 years of agP., and
weight full 16st ; having led a merry London life for up-
wards of 30 years, and, moreover, having seen the gas off
requently behind his own counter as a publican, he had no
chance of getting into condition ; 60 to 10 wag freely offered

i against him. At about 4 o'clock the pedestrian appeared at
the scratch in walking costume, and at the signal given he
started of from tho fourteenth to the fifteenth milestone on
the London turnpike road, and accomplished the first mile
in 10 min. 5 sec. He then turned back for whence ho
started, and accomplished his undertaking easily in 21 min.
15 sac., thus winning with 45 sec. to spare. Mr. E. Smith
of Bell's Life was referee and timekeeper.

SPIRIT OP THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

MRS.—The Scotch borough constituencies and
their members have-good reason in insisting that if
the business of reform is to be done at all it shall be
done well. The deputation which whited on Lord
Russell about a fortnight since professed various
opinions upon points of detail, but upon this cardi-
nal proposition they were agreed. The delegates
from Glasgow and Col. Sykes,' representing Aber-
deen, declared that the men for whom they spoke
would be content with no half measure, and more
lately the constituency of the Ayr boroughs, dissa-
tisfied, as it would seem, at the ambiguous response
of the Premier, have sent their memer to him to
protest that what they want is not merely a reduc-
tion of the franchise but also aredistribution of seats.
Never was a protest more seasonable, and never
were men more worthy of being heard. The
boroughs of Scotland enjoy a unique position in the
body politic. Their opinions are sober without be-
ing reactionary, and advanced without being fan-
tastic. There is not a single member for a Scotch
borough who is not a Liberal, and we do not re-
member any Scotch borough being suspected of cor-
ruption, much less any member for one of them
being unseated for bribery. While Berwick is one of
the most notorious of English constituencies, we
have only to step across the Border and we find
ourselves amid groups of boroughs whose purity is
above suspicion, and where the only contests which
arise turn upon the greater or less degree of Libe-
ralism professed by the candidates. It is impos-
sible to dissociate this comparative perfection of the
Scottish boroughs from that practice of grouping
together three or four towns to form a constituency
which is at once their leading peculiarity and the
readiest means of meeting the difficulty of dis-
franchisement, which is the sole excuse for
avoiding a redistribution of seats in England.
If we were to unite together the small boroughs of
the South and West, we should raise their cha-
racter, and have some additional seats to bestow
both upon the enlarged county constituencies and
upon the unrepresented inhabitants of the more
progressive towns of the North. We might, in the
case of such composite constituencies, adopt a plan
for the more perfect representation of the associated
voters like that proposed by Lord John Russell in
the Reform Bill of 1853. To disregard all such
considerations, to press on a reduction of the fran-
chise, and a reduction of the franchise alone, is to
expose ourselves to the charge of hypocrisy, which
has been often brought against all recent Reform
agitators. The plan betrays a complete ignorance
of the drawbacks of our present system. No one
who has seriously studied the subject can for a
moment justify a proposal which will work no
amendment, and on some points will induce a posi-
tive increase of evil. The three great defects of our
electoral machinery are the exclusion of a large pro-
portion of the adult male population from any part
in its action, the capricious distribution of power
among those who are intrusted with votes, and the
inducement to corruption found in the fact that a-
few unscrupulous electors can decide the event of
an election. A reduction of the franchise will, in
appearance, but in little more, do something to re-
move the first of these defects, but it will aggravate
the other two. The feelings of those who are now
excluded from the franchise may be gratified by a
reduction which will give them votes, but if consti-
tuences are left as they are the gratification will be
a very empty one. It would be little worth were
-100,000, or 200,000, or 500,000 voters added to the
register to-morrow, if they only shared with fellow-
voters the privilege of sending the same men as before
to Westminster. The additions made to the metro-
politan and other great constituencies would in any
case be small, but, were they ever so large, they
would be absolutely powerless in determining the
choice or increasing the power of metropolitan repre-
sentatives. And it is in such large constituencies
that the men live whose exclusion is a special griev-
ance. The body of artisans congregate in the great
towns, where, moreover, few of them attain the
dignity of separate householders, partly on account
of its expense, and partly because of the nomadic
habits forced on them by their employments. A re-
duction of the franchise in smaller boroughs would
admit numbers bearing much larger proportions to
the existing constituency, but the privileges which
in large towns would be worthless would in their
case be too valuable. Every one knows what a
small and compact body can do in a borough of
limited size, and all experience points to the conclu-
sion that a reduction of the qualification in such a
case would aggravate the corruption already too
prevalent. The boroughs where freemen exist are
already such as all boroughs not overwhelming in
size would become ; the freemen are the men who
live in houses of less than £lO rental, and there is
rto town in England having a large number of free-
men among its electors which has not been over and
over again the subject of an election petition. Not-
tingham, Norwich, Dover, Coventry, Maidstone,
Canterbury, Lincoln, Glocester, Hereford, Berwick,
Stafford, Maldon, these are a few found on the roll
of the Parliamentary return issued on the motimrof
Mr. Baines, and every name is eloquent of con-
tests in committee-rooms. These are the boroughs
which are dear to Parliamentary agents, and there
are many of the number about which an election
petition is at this moment pending. If the way
to improved government lie through corruption,
no better plan could be devised than that of
reducing all the boroughs of England to the
level of these constituencies, but the hope of get-
ting at a better result by brutalising the machi-
nery is, to unsophisticated reasoners, unpromising.
The maintenance of anything like purity of election,
to say nothing of the redress of the present gross
inequalities of representation in the different parts
of the kingdom, demands that a reduction of the
franchise shall be coupled with a redistribution of
seats, which shall secure to the newly enfranchised
I some share of legislative influence, and shall take
away the temptation to bribery, which is and must
be in small constituencies too potent to be resisted.
Reform has been before the country for fifteen
years, but though Lord Russell was powerful enough
Ito raise the spirit, he seems, like children in fairy
tales, to have forgotten how to undo the spell and
to lay it at rest. In his despair he proposes to cut
it in two, not knowing that each half will prove as
troublesome as the undivided whole, and that the
result will be an increase instead of a diminution of
mischief. We speak of Lord Russell as the head of
the Ministry, though it may be that he has been
vainly struggling against influence too strong for
his control. He himself, in the recent edition of
his work on Parliamentary Government, proved
himself still a genuine reformer, although charac-
teristically incapable of receiving new impressions
and benefiting by new thoughts. But whoever may
be to blame for the result, the voices which herald
the coming bill are confused and unpromising. We
are assured one day that we are to have two bills,
and we are told that there will be but one the next.
The bill is to reduce the property qualification, and
nothing more ; it is to create a lodger franchise, it
is to be supplemented by another dealing with the
redistribution of seats, and perhaps by a third in-
troducing some novelty in the method of voting.
The supplementary bill is to be introduced at once,
it is to be put off to the next session, it is to be left
for a new Parliament. All these rumours coming
in quick succession, or we may say all at once, only
prove that the bill or bills to be introduced will vary
directly as the pressure exercised on the Ministry. If
the House of Commons be sincere in its determina-
tion to settle the question, we shall have a complete
scheme brought forward, and the several 'branches
of it pressed on simultaneously ; if it be lukewarm,
the second part will be deferred as long as possible,
and wheh introduced will be languidly promoted ;
if it be absolutely indifferent, the second part will j
not make its appearance at all. Under such cir-
cumstances, it behoves members and constituencies
to determine whether they will accept a measr Ire
which would unsettle instead of settling, 'wt. icli
would create a just resentment among those who
found themselves endowed with an empty prix
would rouse the passions of those who might remain
excluded, and would demoralize consti46uencies
which have as yet escaped the taint of corruption ;
which would, in a word, under pretence of re-edify-
ing the political system of the nation, en danger its
stability by exposing it to ruder and in( ire violent
attacks than before.
POST.••••4t is probable that the Refori n Bill which
is now in process of elaboration will pro• ve, when :in-
troduced on Monday next, to be of a mt Ye complete
and satisfactory character than, from the com7posi-
tion of the Ministry, might at first have be t ex-
pected. It cannot be too often repeated that the
introduction of a bill bearing palpably the t caces
and exhibiting all the weakness of a comp. rc wise
between the desire to do everything and the. wish
to do nothing, which are known to be oppo me d in
the Cabinet, would result in nothing but fail Li: ee for
the bill and ridicule for its promoters. The: ques-
tion of Reform if treated at all, must be met r a ankly
and settled decisively. " L'appStit vient 'nn :man-
geant" is more true of political power thr A of any
other thing, and to give half a loaf hist ez of no
bread, although for the moment it may f se.tisfy the
recipient, is but to weaken the hands of
' the donor
in meeting the next demand, which is c
Main to be
made for a whole loaf and something 7 more. Re-
form has peculiar capabilities of being used in any
agitation of class against class, and sir',
ce the ques-
tion is raised it will argue infinite/ more wis-
dom to give all that is pror ,ery and just
now, rather than, by.giving only much as can-
not be denied, to leave to the agit: itors the power
of coming affain shortly with ft eller demands
which would innlude much more than would be
either just or proper. If a stand : 'gainst reform is
to be 4110 e; it were better to make , it now, once for

all, and to deny any extension whatever, rather tloun
.
to give a part of the ground on which to erect halt
teries which would command the rest. The danoin
of the present Government appears to lie less
being too bold than in being not bold enough; ""_d
the desire of fusing into one trimming bill the opt
site opinions of a Cabinet composed of such bet%
genous_elements may yet prove fatal to it, toil;
there exists sufficient authority among it leaders od
enable them to procure the adoption of a billfra!],3.„
more with a view to the merits of the question tres
to the diversity of opinions on the subject. AThe
all, reform in this country is not revolution.
~bes
adoption of a £6 franchise would not entail elb'ict,
socialism or anarchy, and any reform bill vi to
may be passed in 1866 is, at any rate, not like bat
be followed by more serious consequences than
ree
which was passed in 1832. The important featu
of the Government bill are, we believe, not ler,
finally settled, but the statistics have, it is under
stood,. not been without their influence on the lich
sure in determining the adoption of a rental YI the
will admit a fair additional number of voters to
Palmer
franchise. 'The bill introduced by Lord ,v
ston, who was not likely to propose an excessive
extension, would, if adopted, have added son'
180,000 to the 450,000 borough electors alreator
in
the enjoyment of the franchise and there isnie'vot
reason to expect that the forthcoming bill w' not
in this respect fall short of the standard of
sion fixed by the late Premier. This would be an
addition, so far as boroughs are concerned, of 401;
cent. to the present electoral body, but as the &)ilate
ties would probably not get the same proportion
00
extension, the relative aggregate increase
to
the whole number of voters in the kingdom Iv: on
of course be less. If, however, the bill proceeds le
the basis above indicated, it will not be possl,,os
even for Mr. Bright to say that the question mted
been trifled with, or for an agitation to be Preilliie
on the ground that enough has not been done.
he
redistribution of seats will, it is presumed, foriu.t,eo
subject of a separate bill from that which proviuo,,
for the extension of the franchise. The two Vog
tions are, in fact, perfectly distinct, and, 13elbf
founded upon different principles and supporteu.„:l
different reasons, their separation is quite logl;
and proper, as well as being perhaps politic. ~r,
reasons for conferring a vote for members of 19:14
liament upon an increased number of individnret
have no resemblance whatever with the reasons
redistributing the members among those individn'e,
In a system of government which aims at represe,,A
tation, the constant changes of the population
as constantly for a readjustment of the repre,9ol`3ll
tires divided amongst it, but do not necessarily et A
for increase in the numbers of the electors, so tba de
bill to provide for the one cannot properly be nlatio
to go hand in hand with a bill to provide for
other. It is certain that the House of Commons "ill
appreciate the difference in principle, and will discover
an advantage in the difference of treatment of the tW
questions. The one one thing that is clear is, that "-,ho
form is approaching a settlement, and if, under 'lit
disadvantages it has to face, the present Governoteile
succeeds in introducing a bill which is not 11,1.0
and illusory, there is every reason to believe imof
it will obtain sufficient support in the House of
Commons to carry it. It is understood that, le,
Disraeli has announced to his own immediate co.c,;
though not to the party at large, that, if the
stem are driven from office on the measure thee
will propose, he will be prepared to follow lit
policy of 1859, to accept the Government "10f
its engagements," and to take up the question
ot,
Reform himself. The question, in fact, is 13/1,11.
whether Reform shall be accepted or rejected, ts
whether it shall be carried by its friends or 1/114
enemies. Mr. Disraeli if the present measure lf
rejected on the ground' of insufficiency, could 004
hope for success by outbidding it ; and it will 'et
for the House of Commons to say, before the pow
has been lost, whether they will prefer a modera
but complete measure now or a more sweeping()ne
hereafter ; and it is in the power of the Governme"o
to assist them to a wise decision, and at the oarns•
time to strengthen its own position, by proposine.
measure calculated to settle the question satin
torily and definitively.