The Sun.
London, England, 1866-06-04 00:00:00

ILLINOIS CENTRA.L.

The financial statement of
57, this7o company
been Ompanyforthe
9-
month of April shows that
X 57,709 receivedf
during the month for the sale of £5,107 acres of
land and some town lots. The cash collected in
April amounted to $91,192. In the traffic depart-
ment the total receipts on the railway for the month
of April amounted to $406,773 against $409,939 for
April, 1865, showing a decrease of $84,166.

ERIE.
The traffic receipts on this company's lines, in-
cluding the Buffalo division, for the month of April
last, amounted to $153,295 ; and for April 1865 to
V,538,314, showing a decrease of $385,019.

BUENOS AYRES GREAT SOUTHERN.
The traffic returns on this company's line for the
week ending the 22d of April showed that 2,866
passengers 'were conveyed, the receipts being
$83,005; for parcels, $5,466 ; and for goods,
$9 kl
7,392; total,
$185,86 being equivalent at the
present rate of exchange to $1,463. The number
of train miles run was 2,358 ; the receipts per train
mile, 12s. sd. ; and receipts per mile of line for the
week, £2 12s, Rd.

RAILWAY BILLS.
On Friday, in Lord Redesdale's Committee,
of Lords, the Hexham and Allendale --ouse
w
The Manchester, Sheffield, and Lincolnshire passed.
rep
tional powers) was also passed. The Wino-IC:mldt.e
and Midland, to raise £42,000 by shares and £14,000
by loln, the Manchesteil, Sheffield, and Lincolnshire
(new lines), and the Manchester, Sheffield, and
Lincolnshire (Liverpool Extension) were passed.
In the Standing Order Committee, the Presteign,
Clun, and Bishop's Castle Bill, to raise £275,000 by
shares and £92,000 by loan, to make four railways,
was passed. The Ellesmere and Glyn Valley was
also passed. The East Glocestershire Bill and the
Hoylake Bill, to raise £200,000 by shares and
£66,000 by loan, were passed. The Wrexham,
Mold, and Connah's Quay and Hoylak.e Railways
Bill was passed.
In the House of Commoni, Group 2, the South

Eastern and London, Chatham, and Dover (Lon-
don, Lewes, and 'Brighton) Bill was again heard,
and adjourned. Group 14.—The Midland (Ashby
and Nuneaton), the Midland (Branches, &c.), and
the London and North Western, and Midland
Counties Coalfields (Extension) were partly heard
and adjourned. Group 16.—The Swansea and
Clydach was heard and adjourned. In the case of
the Brecon and Merthyr Tydvil Junction (northern
lines) the parties stated that they did not intend to
proceed with the bill ; the Vale of Neath (Transfer)
Bill was heard and adjourned. In Group 18, the
Caledonian and Scottish North Eastern Bill was
heard and adjourned. In Group 18A, the Caledo-
donian (Edinburgh Station) and the Caledonian
(C orstorphin e Junction) Bills were again adjourned.
In Group 19, the Caledonian (Lanarkshire, &c.,
Branches) Bill was heard and adjourned.

The Ministerial Crisis.

(From the Examiner.)

Government is attacked in one breath for dispro-
portions in its plan, and in the next for an approach
to symmetry abhorrent to our Constitution. And
apropos of that Constitution, we must say that -we
rejoiced to see that Mr. Lowe closed his marvel-
lously clever speech with an appeal for mercy for it,
or at least some little time of grace for it to gather
its robes about it and fall with decency. We were
glad of this cry to spare the Constittition, " the life
and soul of this great nation," because we have
noted that no great beneficial change has ever
been proposed that the destruction of the Constitu-
tion has not been predicted to follow. Mr. Manta-
lini did not poison himself oftener than the Consti-
tution has perished within the last forty years. It
perished of the Repeal of the Test Acts ; it perished
of Catholic Emancipation ; it perished of the Re-
form of '32 ; it perished of the Repeal of the Corn
Laws : and here it is, safe and sound, ready to
perish again of a small extension of the franchise
and small redistribution of representation. It may
be laid down as a safe proposition that no measure
is good for anything which is not said to kill the
Constitution. When Apollo Belvi, in the farce, an-
nounces his own death, he is asked of what he died,
and promptly answers, " Of sudden death, to which
he was very subject all his life.;" and the British
Constitution has the same liability, but is not a jot
the worse for it. And it may sing with the per-
sonages in Tom Thumb, who, having dolefully died,
spring up to life merrily again,

And if some folks please
We'll die again to-morrow.

The part has often been repeated, and can be
always repeated so long as there is fudge in the
world. But though we are glad to see the appeal
for mercy to the Constitution as the sure sign and
token of good in a measure, we are surprised that
it should come from a man of Mr. Lowe's wit and
humour, who must have had a sense of the absur-
dity of his high appeal for so small an occasion.
He must have laughed in his sleeve as he begged
pity, or, at least robbing time, for the often-doomed
Constitution.

(From the Observer.)
Her Majesty's Government are once more in the
midst of a crisis ; and those who think that the
one political object to which the country is
looking is the particular borough or county they re-
present, or the peculiarity of franchise, or corrup-
tion, or intimidation, to which they owe their seat,
may find some consolation in the announcement that
the Government is in a crisis. We have no reason to
dispute the importance of these matters ; but we
have reason to opine that those men whose thoughts
run in a groove somewhat different to the whips or
the attorneys must set about the serious considera-
tion of what is to follow from the defeat of the Minis-
try ; and to do that they must review, and review
correctly, what has happened this session.
The Government, rightly or wrongly, determined,
with a majority of 60, to do that which their majo-
rity of 13 in 1859 considered impossible—namely,
to fulfil the promises of 1859, and bring in a Reform
Bill. But, foreseeing the length of debate to which
thatwould give rise, they thought it would be better
to confine it to a Suffrage Bill, expecting that they
would thereby neutralise the opposition naturally to
be expected from the members for small boroughs.
But the opposition which the Government met
with was not from the members for small boroughs
only. It was from a third independent party, of
which the leaders are disappointed public men, and
the followers uninstructed politicians, eager to try
their hands at political intrigue, or their minds at
political thought. The Opposition, combined with
the whole Conservative party, forced the Govern-
ment to produce a Redistribution of Seats Bill along
with their Franchise Bill ; and having done so are
now complaining that the Government bill is not so
complete as it ought to have been if more time had
been given. It is just possible that the Government
might have sacceeded better if they had taken some
other course than that which they did take ; but, on
the other hand, some critics might assert that they
have tried everything to' please their supporters,
and found them equally intractable in all. The con-
, sequence of all this must sooner or laterbe examined.

(From the Saturday Review)

If Reform itself does not advance, and if the
prospect of carrying a bill this session becomes
daily less, the debate which this great subject pro-
vokes certainly does not languish. It is maintained
with a vigour and a liveliness which show that this
Parliament is determined that, if it is to be the last
of unreformed Parliaments, as we sincerely hope it
may be, it will perish with the old reputation of
English Parliaments for debate undiminished, and,
we may even say, at its height. Mr. Lowe has
again made a speech, the wit, cogency, and fresh-
ness of which have delighted and captivated his
hearers. A new speaker on Reform, with novel
views and a clear grasp of principles, has also ap-
peared in the Attorney-General ; and once more
the discussion has come back to its old point, and
the main question has been brought into new pro-
minence, whether any Reform whatever is wanted.
The Conservatives made what we cannot but con-
sider a great mistake on Monday even in trying to
shelve the bill by advocating the insertion in it of
impossible "clauses on bribery. For this is a mis-
take, unless they are really prepared to insist, with
Sir Stafford Northcote and Mr. Lowe, that no Re-
form is wanted. Captain Hayter, by an amend-
ment hostile to the leading features of the measure,
has attempted to deprive the Government of the
opportunity of amending their Redistribution Bill
in committee, even if they should be so inclined.
The entire measure, as Mr. Disraeli very truly says,
hae now come for the first time before the house,
and if Captain Hayter's amendment is carried, the
whole bill will be at an end this session. And we
are very glad to see, from the speech of the Attor-
ney-General, that thaemGezeimrnemien.t will not consent to
retain office if this
theirnot roteled. honour,lf
they have the slightest regard fort
they must, in that case, go out of office. The prm
ciple being distinctly raised whether there is tor be
a Reform Bill, and some of the leading speakers
for the amendment distinctly supporting it because
no Reform Bill is necessary, the difference of opinion
between the Government and the House will be far
too radical and deep for the 'Ministry to undertake
to guide Parliament if such an expression of adverse
osTvehniosri'ss agmuietne da-
ded agataionfst
Lordth urem.
dopiffinerioenntiscarseecofrom that r
ment, for Lord Grosvenor merely asked
poedrtlreduttrhee,
Government should alter its method
try, or to stop the bill altogether.
and did not invite the House tocensurNeotrhecaAnlintihse-
Ministry consent for an instant to the proposal
roposal
made by Sir John Pakington, that the whole
sub-
ject should be referred to a Royal Commission. A
Ministry that consented to let the conduct of such a
measure be taken out of its hands, would instantly
lcoo Lord
snettell:et respect
gaond confidence of the country. In
the days ofnV a Melbourne aLiberal
contemptible exis-Atleinnciset,rnyev'v'aer
daring itself to t s
take
etrh
anothere ni t iat iwv e(,)uand s
solve
trusting e tdhiaf
t
one Commission
ficulties with which it felt
was that itself
took office, the nation h when Sir Robert Peel
unable to grapple.
The consequence
advent to power of a statesman with delight the
think and guide. And even
thewere
vast possible for a
inert power
ifanitwho could act and
Whig Government, resting on

of the Whig aristocracy to cling to office in a time
of political prostration and disappointment, it would
be the ruin of Mr. Gladstone to adopt such a policy,
even if he would condescend to accept the position
in which it would place him. Nor would the evil
be one that would merely affect individual statesmen.
It would have most dangerous consequences for the
whole system of Parliamentary government.