The Sun.
London, England, 1866-11-19 00:00:00

MOH WATER AT LONDON BRIDGE.

Tins DAY.—Morning, 11h. 12m.—Afternoon, 11h. 42m,
To-Monatow.-Karning, h. m.—Afternoon, 12h. 10m,

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LONDON, MONDAY, NOV. 19, 1866.

On Saturday last the working classes of Edin-
burgh had a holiday, in order to carry out a grand
demonstration of a Reform. It cannot be said that
anything particular tookplace one way or the other,
but at any rate there was the satisfaction of wit-
nessing great order prevailing, and the various
speakers who spoke at the evening meeting, which
followed the day affair, seemed to be very quiet in
their tone, compared to the effusions of intemperate
eloquence which have lately startled many cities
and hainletS from their propriety. Of coursethere
was the usual absurdity displayed in the mottoes
and banners, all denoting extravagance and exag-
geration, more than any decided exposition of
thought and sentiment ; but so long as the pro-
ceedings of such affairs are carried on quietly and
orderly there is no reason to find fault with them.
Councillor FvFE, who occupied the chair at the meet-
ing in the Corn Exchange, very truly congratulated
the meeting on the orderly character of the display,
and "unlike the demonstration which took place
before the Reform Act of 1832, marked by threats

of violence, but imbued with the conviction that
right would triumph overmight." This was in point
of fact the best feature of the meetings both by day
and night; but in this very respect they formed a
striking contrast to the tone lately adopted by Mr.
BRIGHT, and no doubt had he been there we should
have heard a great deal of the usual unseemly talk
about the power that would put down oppression,
and such like phrases, that can be ingeniously
twisted to mean anything, but which every one
knows on such occasions are always understood to
r-present pioneering to violence unless the imme-
diate object in question is conceded. Several letters
of apology were read from members of Parliament,
and Mr. MoNcnEIFF made some very sensible ob-
servations in his letter, when he said that while he
was unwilling to refuse the request of his fellow-
citizens, he thought it desirable, in tho present in-
stance, to follow the example of other members of
the late Government in abstaining from tak-
ing part in any general agitation on the
question of Reform. He was, he stated, a
consistent Reformer, but he disagreed with the
proposal on the subject of the Reform League, and
which he understood to be embodied in the reso-
lutions.

We suspect that this represents the opinions of
many other members of Parliament, and of many
public men who are sincere in the cause of Reform
in principle, but object to the practice, now so pre-
valent, of dragging it forward in this manner, and
mixing up other matters of an extraneous char-
acter.

Perhaps there is no greater enemy
to the cause of Reform than Mr.
BRIGIIT himself, and nothing makes mode-
rate men more sceptical of the good results of
introducing another measure of Reform into Parlia-
ment than this demand that is raised about man-
hood suffrage and such like absurdities. After Mr.
BRIGHT and his immediate followers, those who
injured the cause of Reform the most are the old
Whigs and their devoted adherents ; and we do not
begrudge them the carcasms levelled at them by
Mr. APLAREN, ALP., who moved the resolution.
IL; said that the aristocratic Whigs of Edinburgh,
who had crowded Reform platforms in 1832,
had now deserted the cause, and become practically
Tories—" Tories in all but this, that they desired
that the Tories should come out of office in order
that they should go in." To them he applied the
lines in which BYRON expressed the comparison be-
tween ancient and modern Greeks :
" So coldly sweet, so deadly fair,
We start, for soul is wanting there."
We think this designation is appropriate for the
Whigs of the United Kingdom, and the hon.
member might have added that when the
Tories brought in a measure of Reform
they refused it a hearing, and when they
had forced themselves into office on false pretences,
they did nothing, or worse than nothing. Such
insincerity is a disgrace to any politician, and re-
dounds to the lasting discredit of the Whigs, but
going to the other extreme and advocating very
great and sudden changes in the representation will
not answer either. Between these exaggerated
views of the question of doing too much and too
little lies the great medium which will the best suit
the notions of the majority of the community, and
the most readily accord with the principles upon
which our Constitution is based.

The great advantage of a regular issue of duly
qualified official statistics has been abundantly
proved in times of exceptional mortality from epi-
demic disease. In this country we rely, not without
reason, on the most complete publicity for the best
means of encountering any difficulty or danger.
In this our conduct is very different from that of
most continental nations, where it is usually thought
politic on the part of the Government to keep back
disagreeable intelligence, arid where flourishing
statements of public salubrity, commercial pros-
perity, and popular content usually imply there had
been good reason for believing the contrary. The
consequence of such a system naturally is that such
statements entirely fail to restore confidence or lull
apprehension, and a panic invariably increases the evil
it dreads by exaggerating popular fears. In England
on the contrary, though we are by no means insensible
to the influence of sudden and unreasonable fear, it
is a good deal allayed by the wise method adopted
by our authorities of communicating the simple
truth to the public. Perfect reliance is placed upon
the official information, because it is known to be
strictly accurate, and when wild tales of pestilence
and disaster are circulated by the idle and mischiev-
ous they are speedily contradicted by a reference to
the official record. A striking instance of this truth
was given a short time back, when, on the decrease
of cholera in London, the Registrar-General dis-
continued the plan which on its first outbreak he
had wisely adopted of publishing daily returns of
the mortality from both forms of the epidemic. No
sooner was this regular information stopped than
uneasiness and anxiety began to prevail, which
were only allayed by the re-issue of the regular re-
turns. In compliance with the general wish, the
Registrar has kindly continued this issue, notwith-
standing the additional trouble involved ; but we
may suppose that he will soon abandon it, for we
are happy to find that for the first time since the
outbreak of cholera fourmonathssingagleo
dweaethhafvreoma
blank day—a return without
the dreaded epidemic. This is good news indeed,
and will give general relief. We had reason,
it is true, to hope for the disappearance of
the enemy before the advancing
cold, but
of late it has seemed disposed to linger
among us, and there were not wanting
prophets who foretold that it would make itself
felt more or less during the winter months, to break
out with full virulence on the approach of warm
weather. It is impossible for any human prudence
or exertion to guarantee our immunity next sum-
mer ; but there is very much that may be done
during the winter months to diminish the danger
to the smallest possible degree. It is to be hoped
the sharp lesson we have bad will not be lost upon
our local authorities, but that they will make the most
of the time before. Now is the season for various
sanitary reforms which would be dangerous in hot
weather or in presence of a visitation of cholera,
Long-standing nuisances, such as dust-heaps,
offen-
sive drains, and other accumulations, which will
not bear disturbance at other seasons of the year.
The worst of it is, that no sooner does the imme-
diate danger pass by, and the public alarm subside,
than the authorities fall back into their old dolce
far neinte, and the ratepayers, though they grumble
a little, are too much afraid of increased rates to be
very energetic reformers. What is everybody's busi-
ness is nobody's business, more especially in those poor
and populous quarters, where the chief danger lies.
It is quite time that a better spirit was infused into
this matter of sanitary reform. If half the energy
vere displayed about it that is shown in political
agitation our tables of mortality would show a very
different list of preventible deaths. 1f cholera does
not often visit us, if other plagues threaten us and
pass by, there are yet forms of pestilence always
busy amongst us, mowing down strong and weak,
aye and youth, together. That increasing prevalence
of fever in all its forms in the metropolis is a well-
attested fact, and the public improvements, unfor-
tunately, as yet only tend to iner;:-..se the evil of