The Sun.
London, England, 1866-01-23 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

TIMES.—It would not be reasonable to expect
Parliamentary Reform to be an easy matter. No
great change in the Constitution of this country has
yet taken place without a degree of violence, and
even disorder, only just redeemed by the value of
the object. The first serious amendment in the
American Constitution has just cost a million lives
and five hundred millions sterling. The truth is,
everybody who finds himself pretty well placed in
the existing system is a Conservative at heart, and
wishes things to remain as they are for the present.
If he is a Reformer, he probably thinks it will make
no great difference, for he trusts, not without
reason, to the Conservative instincts and the con-
stitutional habits of all respectable British sub-
jects. Indeed, we most of us, from the peer to the
peasant, carry the whole Constitution, the three
Estates of the Realm, and all our national jealousies
and prejudices in our own bosoms. Thus, really
insincere, and without any necessity except what
has arisen from political complications, and except,
also, that respect which is due to our own loudly
expressed intentions, we are all in for a Reform Bill.
No doubt it would be a happy thing for the country
if it could take such a dose of Reform as would last
a whole generation. Not only would the consti-
tuency be improved, but a ghost would be laid, a
quarrel set at rest, and an hypocrisy deprived of its
trade. But this is a state of things which greatly
aggravates the difficulty of a Reform Bill. There
are many things easy under pressure, but difficult
at leisure. Soldiers, whether attacking or flying,
will perform feats they afterwards stand aghast at.
The excitement of the hunting-field will take men
over anything. But we have now the very doubt-
ful, though much desired, advantage of being able
to do the thing quietly. We are about to do, not a
cavalry dash, but a piece of engineering—a mere
matter of paper work that we can sleep and dream
over—nay, that all England has been sleeping and
dreaming over now for many years. We have all
bewildered ourselves with maps and calculations,
and got into such a maze that people hardly know
where to begin and certainly not where to end, and
whether to do it at all in one good stroke of work,
or to divide it, and save some for next day or next
season. Curiously enough, the most ardent Reformer
of us all, Mr. John Bright, is the man who takes
the most deliberate, the most prospective, and most
" bit by bit" view of Reform. In deference to the
taste for serials,:he has announced Reform in num-
bers. Number I. he hopes to bring out this year ;
the rest to follow in due time. We are not told
when the publication is to be completed ; and it is
even admitted that the original subscribers may have
reason to repent of their bargain. But that is an in-
stance of the spirit in which this great work is to be
entered
.upon. The works of the Main Drainage
could not have been undertaken more coolly. We
must beg leave to doubt very much whether Reform
can be done in this fashion. Even Acts of Parlia-
ment which are only laws, not revolutions, require
a good deal of dash ; and in their case the greatest
momentum of legislation often finds itself brought
to a standstill, baffled by the petty obstructions of
interests, classes, and prejudices. There are im-
provements of a purely administrative character
which have taken thirty years to make their way ;
and there are statesmen who, with the best views
and the most honest intentions, could never carry a
measure, simply for want of what is called " go'
perhaps we might add for want, too, of self-sacri.
five. Are we likely to carry the supposed citadel of
corruption before us by slowly advancing zig-zags,
tardy blockade, and starving out? Is the business
before us to build a house, the foundation to be laid
this year, the walls next, the roof the year after,
and the fittings and decorations in due time? By
every analogy that history can furnish this is a busi-
ness, not for a siege, but for a pitched battle, and
which must be done at a blow. Of course, if an
ambuscade were possible, if it could be done with-
out lying, and if there were no John Bright to
preach from the housetops what was whispered in
his ear the day before, we might be ready to say,
" By all means surprise Parliament into a reduc-
tion of the franchise, and make such use of it
afterwards as you please." But that is utterly
impossible. There can be no secrecy, no reserve,
no ulterior intentions in the matter. Tho 43
porratives know pcifeetly vi di Limb a redistribution
of seats is intended, and that some forty or fifty
dwindling constituencies are doomed. They know
that the question will not be settled till these consti-
tuencies arc disfranchised, merged in the counties,
or grouped, and the seats so gained given to more
populous districts. If this is to be done, and can-
not be avoided anyhow, the only difference of opinion
can be as to the manner and degree ; and that must
depend on the character of the Parliament which
does it. Mr. Bright's calm and leisurely proposal is
that this, which is the very cream of the whole, is
to be carefully reserved for a future Parliament,
which shall be more worthy of it than the present.
In fact, he does not trust this House of Commons.
The small borough interest, he fears, will come to
the rescue, and beat a bill which strikes at them.
But they are just as wise in their generation as Mr.
Bright or Lord Russell can be in his. If they don't
like the destruction of their little strongholds, neither
would they like to admit the foe right up to their
very gates, and leave themselves at his mercy. They
are quite entitled to say they will agree to nothing
till they know what is to be done. Indeed, upon
the mere question of symmetry, and with regard to
the'anomalies which constitute the case for Reform,
it would be simply absurd to pass a bill which
grossly aggravated all the inequalities of our system,
and did no more. If it is matter for Reform that
300 votes in one place and 3,000 in another have
only the same share of the representation, that is not
mended by raising the former to 350 and the latter
to 6,000. So, with all due respect to the masterly
engineering, so lucidly expounded by an accom-
plished professor, we adhere to our belief that this
is not an affair of slow earthworks. The Reform
Bill will have to embrace the whole of the Reform
intended, and must have its schedules as before.
The Conservatives interested in small consti-
tuencies will, of course, oppose any bill. The
Liberals must be prepared to make a few sacrifices.
Why not ? A Whig landowner may very naturally
say that he will stand up for his borough till he
sees the political necessity for its surrender, and
knows how much that surrender stands for in the
general arrangement. A seat is not a thing to
be thrown away wholly without an equivalent.
But if the sacrifice of twenty Whig seats will pro-
cure the disfranchisement of as many Conservative
seats, and a somewhat more popular franchise
besides for the whole British constituency, no Libe-
ral with a character at stake can stand in the way
of the bargain. Disfranchisement, of course, is not
a very gracious proceeding, but it is necessary to
the verynotion of Reform. It is scarcely necessary
to insist upon the danger of throwing the country
into a chronic disturbance upon the pretence of Re-
form by dividing it into annual instalments ; but
we feel very sure it will never do to habituate the
public mind to the idea of continual reconstruction.
Nor is it necessary to repeat that a half-reformed
House of Commons, meeting for the express pur-
pose of completing its own reform, is more likely to
make wild work of the business than the Parliament
now about to meet. We will take the broadest
possible ground. There is a work to be done, and
being a matter of adjustment, equivalents, and com-
promise, it ought to be done at once and completely,
without leaving an ugly sequel behind. Nobody
supposes that the best bill in the world can pass
without much battling and considerable mortifica-
tion. That is a process which will require the whole
matter in dispute to be in view. A Congress is
about to sit. There will be the representatives of
classes, interests, and prejudices. They will not
put their name to any treaty which simply.binds
their hands till another Congress can overhaul and
overthrow their work. They will be ready to give
and take, but not to give when they will take
nothing and will immediately have to give a great
deal more.

I" TIIE ANGLO - AMERICAN TIMES" ON THE
ARREST OF CAPTAIN SEMMES. - The United
States Government will faithfully carry out the
terms of surrender accorded to the armies of
Lee, Johnston, and Kirby Smith, insuring to
each man who during the Rebellion acted ac-
cording to the laws of war, freedom from moles-
tation upon his observation of the terms of his
parole. But the United States will not permit any
one to escape, by virtue of the parole, from the
consequences of any antecedent violation of the
laws of war while he was acting either as a soldier
or a sailor. The latest illustration of this fact is to
be found in the circumstances connected with the
arrest of the famous—or infamous Raphael
Semmes, upon charges preferred against him by
Secretary Welles. Semmes was the commander
of the Rebel cruiser called the Alabama, which, after
a period of successful buccaneering, was sunk by
the guns_ of the Kearsage. The circumstances
attending the surrender of the former vessel before
she went down, are well known. Some time before
the Alabama sunk the white flag was flying in

token of surrender ; after it had been displayed,
and after the firing of the Kearsage had been
suspended, the Alabama fired on the latter with
two of her port guns. The Kearsage replied,
when a boat from the Alabama came to the
Kearsago with the notification of surrender.
The Deerhound, British yacht, was commissioned
by Captain Winslow to pick up the crew of the
Alabama, who were struggling in the water, not to
rescue them from the effect of their surrender. The
owner of the yacht pickedup 41persons,
among them
SemMes, the rebel commander. How the latter,
and all taken up by the Deerhound, were suffered to
escape, is well known. There was some talk at
the time of demanding the surrender of Semmes
and his associates, but nothing came of it. Semmes
would have been safe had he remained in Europe,
but his vanity impelled him homeward, where, al-
though he was a whipped man, and derelict ill
honor as an officer, he expected to be feted ande
flattered. He wisely abstained from the risk of
running the blockade, knowing that if he had been
captured by American blockaders he would have
received very little mercy. He went to Mexico, and
got safely across the Rio Grande and Mississippi,
and was for a time quite a lion at Richmond. He
went South, and, atter Johnston's surrender, was
one of the first individuals to present himself to a
provost marshal, and claim the parole. He now in-
sists that he belonged to Johnston's army, being at
Greensborough, N. C., in command of a naval
brigade. He contends that, by virtue of the sur-
render of Johnston, he is entitled to all the benefits
of that act. But Secretary Welles has ordered his
arrest for a violation of the laws of war, in having
made his escape by means of the Deerhound
after he had surrendered, and with intent to
evade an actual surrender as prisoner of war.
The case may involve some nice points in the laws
of warfare. A prisoner of war having actually sur-
rendered, and being in the possession of the captor,
has a right to escape if he can, and it is the business
of the conqueror to keep him safely. He incurs 110
military punishment if recaptured, although he may
be treated with much more severity than previously,
and be closely confined. But the laws of war will
not tolerate frauds in a surrender, and where a
prisoner who has surrendered escapes before he is
reduced to manual possession of the captor, he acts
dishonorably, and in contravention of the code. The
owner of the Deerhound was requested by Captain
Winslow, from sentiments of humanity, to pick up
the men of the Alabama in danger of drowning, by
the sinking of the Alabama. Had Capt. Winslow'
chose, he could have ordered that vessel off and fired
into her, in case of disobedience. The .Deerhound
and crew were the agents of the United States,
undertaking voluntarily to do what was requested.
Even if it were impossible to compel the owner of
the yacht to answer for breach of faith, the action
of the latter did not confer upon the persons who
surrendered any right to avail themselves of the
wrong. If Captain Semmes had been an honorable
man he would have sought the Kearsage and given
himself up ; but honor was not a leading sentiment
in the minds of the chief rebels. Semmes broke his
oath as a United States officer when he engaged in
the rebellion. It was therefore scarcely to be ex-
pected that he would keep his word impliedly given
by the display of the signal of surrender. Under
the circumstances the protest of Semmes against a
violation of the terms of capitulation on the part of
Johnston would be denominated sublimely impu-
dent on the part of one who had violated his owns
terms of capitulation, if it were not thoroughly
natural.