The Sun.
London, England, 1859-05-28 00:00:00

allies ; that these men are thoroughly trained and
disciplined, and that the riflemen of the Tyrol exhibit
a direful skill in the use of their formidable weapon.
Their engineers are perhaps unequalled, most cer-
tainly unsurpassed, by those of any nation in the
world. And there is just as much reason why Louis
NAPOLEON should abstain from a forward movement
while Piacenza and Pavia remain in the enemy's
bands, as that GYULAI should have refrained from
marching on Turin while the Allies held
Alossandria. We know something of the
time consumed in the capture of Sebastopol, and
may therefore form some estimate of the results of
improved engineering skill in the defence of such
strongholds.
LOUIS NAPOLEON cannot afford any amount of
procrastination. His triumph, to be in any degree
satisfactory, must be rapid and decisive. A Fabian
policy would be his ruin. That, however,
now seems to be the Austrian game, which
will lead to very invidious comparisons
between the first and third of the name, and induce
the French to believe that they have accepted a
Brummagem substitute for a brilliant oxiginai.

If the commencement of grouse shooting is
again, according to annual custom, to mark the
close of the Parliamentary session, there remains
now merely an interval of about two months
within which to compress the whole of the future
toil for 1859 of our hereditary and representative
legislators. Within those two months, however,
very mach will, of course, be decided. It is
scarcely probable for that matter, indeed it is
scarcely possible, that anything can be effected in
the way of carrying out any scheme whatever,
large or small, moderate or immoderate, for the
revision of the popular representation. For this ses-
sion at least the question of Parliamentary Reform
is shelved both for Whigs and Tories, for Libe-
rals no less than for Conservatives. It were simply
waste of the little residue of the session yet left to
us, to deliberate upon the problem of reform with a
serious view, for an instant, of attempting anything
in the shape of actual legislation upon the matter.
For this postponement of reform to 1860 at the
earliest, the present Ministry is certainly not in any
way directly or indirectly responsible. It is the first
Cabinet that has for many years past laid upon the
table a definite scheme of reform, good, bad,
or indifferent. The DERBY Government, if it has
not contrived to solve the difficulty, has at any rate
had the good faith and the honesty and courage to
ventilate this " vexed question" in debate —it
has laid a specific project of reform frankly upon
the table of thdillouse—it has carried the subject
boldly and unhesitatingly to a division ; and
having been denied the opportunity of sub-
mitting its plan to the ordeal of the Committee
for the ultimatum of its legitimate acceptance or
its legitimate rejection, it has resolutely appealed
to the country through the constitutional medium
of a dissolution. That appeal has been unmistake-
ably responded to by the 400 constituencies. The
result of the dissolution, it is impossible to deny,
has, in many respects, exceeded whatever may have
been the most sanguine hopes of the believers in,
and supporters of, the present Government. The elec-
tioneering triumphs won by Ministerial candidates
have not only been more numerous than any one
could reasonably have anticipated, but they have
many of them been most unexpected and some of
them in their way quite extraordinary. It still
remains remarkable, for example, among the " sur-
prises" resulting from the late general election,
that both the Liberal members for Weymouth and
Melcombe Regis have been replaced by staunch
Derbyites. That exchange, moreover, is particu-
larly remarkable when it is remembered that
one of those two Liberal ex - members for
Weymouth was no other than Colonel WIL-
LIAM FREESTUN, who, as representative for
the borough, has sat in the House of Com-
mons during the twelve years last past (ever since
the general election of 1847), as virtually one of the
two body-esquires of the knightly PALMERSTON.
The rejection by Pontefract of Mr. MONCKTON
MiLNEs, the other body-esquire of the noble lord
the Member for Tiverton, and the preference, in
lieu of that staunch Palmerstonian, of a thorough-
going Derbyite, by the hon. gentleman's hitherto
faithful Yorkshire constituency—could hardly have
surprised us more than the summary manner in
which Lord GREY DE WILToN has superseded
Colonel FREESTUN as the deliberate choice of the
electors of Weymouth and Melcombe Regis.
Another double triumph of a very surprising kind
for the Derbyites is that gained by Messrs. POWYS
and KINNAIRD at Newport,in the Isle of Wight, in
place of the late Liberal representatives. Another
—the return of Sir E. LACON and Sir H. STRACY
by Yarmouth, instead of Messrs. YOUNG
and MELLOR, until then enrolled among
i the ranks of the Opposition. The twin successes
achieved at Berwick-upon Tweed by Capt JORDAN
and Mr. RALPH EARLE will not very soon be
forgotten or forgiven by their discomfited anta-
gonists, any more than the ignominious rejection
by Dover of its quondam representatives, Sir WIL-
LIAM RUSSELL and Mr. RALPH OSBORNE, borne
down by the superior influence of the veteran
Admiralty Candidates. But incomparably the
most astounding among all these double victories
won to the side of the Ministry were those gained
in the western division of Kent, and in the southern
divisionVacoa
n i sacdotiud
aten
t t
le lsoifol
no.uiLancAshire ! Here, by Sir EDMUND
FILmEn, and the heir to the earldom of Amherst,
with EsDALE—there, by Mr. W. LEGIT
H. A. Eozwrost. Meanwhile, coupled
these brilliant triumphs for new Ministerial
, there have boon no less than thirty•esOl
g the Liberal candidates whose names
appearwehdioh the
tt
saimonon
the UNI
rejectedatne t idi ei
bs dissolution,
theirfactiousuti o n
in --e majorit
to
have now been summarily
,forldwinli icior-
anconstituents, h
aatnedve
654 national repro-
hes sudden
dd finden
whoam e
n the
Consequently not longer
the supporters
sentatives. After passing tfhortrouungeh,
alternations of good and evil
again
havingpP°
of the Government and the supporters theof O
sition are about to confront each other
in the
new House of Commons—the Derbyites
won six-and-twenty seats, anii the Liberals lost six-
and-twenty seats during the late stormy struggle
in as many constituencies a difference, co,„,_
quently, of fifty-two upon a division—a clear
advantage of more than half-a-hundrel—heartening
the Ministerialists on to the Parliamentary strife
which now, with redoubled energy, will be com-
menced. The result of that contest is dependent
upon so exquisite a balance of parties in the new
house that it must infallibly b?long to which soever
throws most largely into the scale the triple weights
of union, of patrioti• rn, and of principle.

COURT CIRCULAR.
-

-
Her INlAjesty the Queen and her Royal IlighnesA the
Princess Alice visited her Royal Highness the Duchoot of
Kent yesterday morning at Clarence-house, St: Jarnes',4.
The Duke of Cambridge and the Princess Mary visited
her 'loyal Highness the Princess Frederick William at
Buckingham Palace.

His Excellency the Ambassador of France has
left Albert gate IlouAe, for PariA.
Despatches were sent from the Colonial-office
yexterday to the Governor of Canada.
Viscountess Palmerston will have an assembly
this evening at Cambridge House, Piccadilly.