The Sun.
London, England, 1866-07-05 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

HERALD.—If we may forecast Mr. Gladstone's
future political career from the letter he has ad-
dressed to Mr. George Potter, of strike notoriety,
we must assume that he means to come forward
in the House of Commons, and in the town, music,
and temperance halls of South Lancashire, as
the unmitigated demagogue. A few days ago
we had ventured to hope that Mr. Gladstone
had resolved to accept worthily the position he
had made for himself, to take his place in the
House of Commons as the leader of a powerful
Opposition, but a leader prepared to deal fairly and
honourably with his opponents, and determined to
devote all his energies to the task of reconstituting
the party which he had dislocated. These were
objects which he might well have proposed to him-
self, objects in the energetic pursuit of which he
might have regained the confidence he has lost, and
assured himself the headship of the great Liberal
party. But the echoes of the cries sent forth under
his windows by the noisy boys who followed their
leader to Carlton-house-terrace have apparently
drowned all these sensible intentions if they were
ever formed. The sweet voices of the unenfran-
chised who trooped down to Trafalgar-square from
Clerkeuwell-green and Hoxton to proclaim the
divinity of " the people's William," have intoxicated
him with the diseased taste of one debauched by
coarse and fiery spirits. He prefers to the appro-
bation of men of his own station, of his own party,
orators who never open their mouths wit out con-
victing themselves of a shameful ignorance of the
subject upon which they have the confidence to
speak as Sir Oracles. And he seems to have made
up his mind—so far have overweening vanity and
childish rage carried him—to make Mr. Beales' pro-
gramme his programme, and agitation for the ob-
jects of the Reform League his business. The right
hon. gentleman begins his letter to Mr. Potter by a
stale display of indignation against the pretended
insults and calumnies lavished upon the working
classes. No one knows better than Mr. Gladstone
that, in the debates upon the Reform Bill, no in-
sults or calumnies were thrown upon the working
classes, and that those debates were marked rather
by a spirit of servility towards that class, carried so
far as to exalt them very many degrees above the
middle classes in both political knowledge and poli-
tical virtue. Mr. Lowe did, indeed, insinuate that
the lower you get in the social scale the larger is the
amount of intoxication, violence, and other vices you
meet with; - and that unfortunately is a fact, but a
fact not due to any intrinsic inferiority on the part of
working men, but to the circumstance that they are
placed in conditions in which resistance to those vices
is far harder than in the classes of society materially
above them. Nobody in the House of Commons has
denied that a working man, cmterisparibus, is as moral
a man, and would be as conscientious an elector, as
the middle-class man; but On other things are not
equal, and that Mr. Gladstone and those who affect
with him this indignation know very well. If they
really cared for the working man they would devote
themselves to the work of making those other things
more equal instead of indulging in this mischievous
and insincere declamation. Mr. Gladstone declines
with reluctance, and with his richest verbiage the in-
vitation "extended" to him by Mr. Potter in the name
of the working men of London. Painful as this re-
fusal is to him, however, it is diminished when he re-
collects how well and nobly the cause of loyalty,
order, freedom, and liberal policy has been defended
by the representatives of the metropolis, with one
single base exception, to which the ex-Minister in-
vites the particular attention of those executors of
public justice, Mr. Potter and his myrmidons. The
metropolitan members are evidently nature's noble-
men. Who can look, indeed, upon Messrs. Craw-
ford—the would-be saver of the Government—John
Locke, Butler, Ayrton, Harvey Lewis, Chambers,
Layard, Hughes, Mill, and M'Cullagh Torrens, on
Baron Rothschild, Capt. Grosvenor, and last, but
not least, the three aldermen, Salomons, Lusk, and
Lawrence, without seeing outward patent signs of the
glorious fire which burns within them ? But, the re-
presentatives of the metropolis being such noble de-
fenders of the cause of freedom, what on earth have
the working men of London, teste Mr. Gladstone,
to complain of ? Mr. Crawford represents them,
Elo does Alderman Lusk, and so do the whole con-
fraternity. That being so, why is everything to be
turned upside down ? If r. Potter's sentiments
are expressed in the House of Commons, if he and
his working-men friends haie almost the whole re-
presentation of the metropolis to defend their in-
terests, and the interests which they considere
inimical to theirs have but one vote, they have quiet and voting power enough alreadto
them settle that point with their new hero,
who
we are glad to say, retains common sensei eon
or in
decline meeting them on Clerken weeca
I Glad-
Trafalgar-square. In the hour of defeat
He looks
gh
Government
as stone has the presentiment f_ still,
to
more gener-
him his
as uponon
et the resignationore onward stepof LtoorwrdotiaLdu;si
tittle
es
but if he is thus
and we will nOt logic a
their object,. We do not
sg.ogic
victor in the childish anger
the attainment G overn
triumphant Stirely boas% might
in some degree excusable in
we will take M r.Glad-
stone'sthe vanquished.
which
hndis nnoatiuinradiutl
his feelings, which • is a good deal
as to the canaction of the late
Governmentd in the conduct of
more than we
tells .
Government. He Potter that the leading
goHeaonwdever,
principles wordo ftahsatto
their Reform Bill were scrupulous moderation in
fixing the limits of their original design, and a care-
ful deference to every wish of the House of Corn- I
mons in regard to methods of procedure. We have
heard this before since the was rejected,b'llbUt no
one discovered the moderation and deference
I
whilst the bill lived, and no one who watched
the conduct of Mr. Gladstone then will believe
in them now. On the contrary, it was the
vices directly opposed to these virtues, for which
the Minister has the audacity to take credit,
that provoked the successful opposition to the bill,
and overthrew the Government. However, Mr.
Gladstone was writing to people who take their
accounts of the procedure of the late Government
from Us organs, and we have no doubt the members

THE " GUARDIAN" ON A NEW GOVERNMENT.--
t is well that the Queen accepted the resignation
of Lord Russell ; it was quite time that the Go-
vernment of 1859 ceased to exist. In reality it
ought to have ended with Lord Palmerston's death.
It had no locus standi except the prestige of his
personal popularity. It was founded on deliberate
treachery and deceit ; in the wilful jockeying of the
Great Liberal Party. It took office on the sham
pretence of bringing in a better Reform Bill than
Lord Derby's. People believed and trusted the as-
sertion, but their eyes were soon opened. In 1860
the Liberal Reform Bill was burked and abandoned,
and from then until after Lord Palmerston's death
the name of Reform was unheard. It was some-
thing like the forlorn lover in the pathetic and silly
ballad of " Alice Grey." From 1860 to 1866, mem-
bers of Lord Palmerston's Government might, in
reference to Reform, have sung a la Alice Grey:—
Oh no we never mention it,
Its name is never heard ;
Our lips are now forbid to speak
That once familiar word.
But the Premier died, the lips became unclosed, !
and Reform was heard of once more. But alas
that when Lord Russell lost his leader, he should
have gone to Mr. Bright for counsel and advice,
and still more is he to be blamed for acting on the
advice given. For the notion of bringing forward a
Franchise Bill only, and leaving a new Parliament,
sent by new and ultra electors, to redistribute the
seats, was a trick worthy only of the card sharpers
and thimble-riggers who infest the roads near
country races. No wonder that the House of Com-
mons took offence ; no wonder that the members of
the Liberal side the house opposed their own Mi-
nistry, and finally turned them out. They are
gone: and we cannot say of them as was said of
Charles 1., " that nothing he did in life so became
him as the leaving of it." Lord Russell, on Tues-
day night, after he had thrown up his office, in-
dulged in a petulent burst of bad temper, and
charged the Conservative party with obstructing
the Reform Bill ; when he knew full well that Mr.
Disraeli had offered to help the Government through
with the bill, and that the obstructions had come
from his own party—from Earl Grosvenor, Captain
Hayter, Lord Dunkellin, and others, with whom
the Conservatives have nothing to do. We re-
capitulate this, because it is necessary to be re-
membered that the Conservative party are not
responsible for the present position of affairs. They
would have preferred seeing the Reform question
settled before they took office, because it could them
be no longer used as a party cry against them. But
how could they have possibly settled it this year? The
franchise portion alone would not have been allowed
to pass. The House of Commons and the Ministry
had settled that. Then the re-distribution scheme
was so faulty, so imperfect, that it never could have
passed—a fresh bill altogether was required. There-
fore there was no other resource but to let Reform,
`for this session, go by the board. And the great
majority of thinking people in this country would
' be glad enough if it went overboard altogether, and
nothing more was seen or heard of it in the present
century. We gladly take leave of it for awhile.
Lord Derby succeeds to office in troublous times,
with war abroad. WCtrust it may bo ewerhocl-f.-..,...
lis ; but already the cry is raised that the Tories
are about to plunge the country into war. There
is something shamefully dishonest in the way in
which the Morning Star and Daily Telegraph try
to raise an outcry against Lord Derby and his
party, regardless alike of common truth or common
honesty. Lord Derby has no more wish to plunge
this country into war than has Lord Russell, and is
far less likely to do so. For these reasons, that he
does not write either indiscreet or impertinent let-
ters—Lord Russell writes both ; and Lord Derby
he neither meddles nor muddles,whereas Lord Rus-
sell does both. The way in which an outcry has
been groundlessly raised against Lord Malmesbury
as a Foreign Secretary is proof of the shocking
manner in which some of the organs of the Liberal
press abuse the liberty the press enjoys in England.
They have over and over again said of late that
England would not be safe from war with Lord
Malmesbury at the Foreign Office. Yet what were
the experiences of Lord Malmesbury's policy in
1859 ? It was a wise, discriminating, peace-pre-
serving policy. Full testimony to its worth was
borne by Lord Palmerston, than whom no man ever
had greater experience as a Foreign Minister, and
who was therefore an authority ; and what did he
state in 1859 ? Directly he regained office (after
his organs had been abusing Lord Malmesbury in-
cessantly) he said " in our foreign policy we shall
follow exactly the footsteps of our predecessors,"
and from then until after Lord Palmerston's death,
the vile slanders, so injurious to Lord Malmesbury 's
reputation, were hushed. But now that the veteran
is in his grave, they are again revived ; and Lord
Russell does not disown them or deny them. His
organs repeat them day after day : he knows they
are false, but they serve the purposes of his party.
They help to make a difficulty in Lord Derby's
distribution of the chief offices of the State.

The Intended Pefoim Demonstration in
Hyde Park.

Last evening a special meeting of the Reform
League was held at their committee-rooms, Adelphi-
terrace, to consider the propriety of holding another
great public demonstration in London, and inviting
the provincial friends of reform to take part in it.
Mr. Edward Beales, president. the League, occu-
pied the chair.
Mf. LUCRAFT proposed a resolution to the effect
that a great national demonstration in favour of
invited to
demonstration. He
reform be held in Hyde-park on Monday after-
noo, July 23, at six o'clock, and that the various
branches of the Reform League and other reform
general feeling among
on Mon-
stakasaisdoeciabp
etiaortn s
found throughouttheafterp rtohpetohsgederecaodtuenramtrfentin g
that there tfhaevroeurwoasf
haolding
th
ano er great meet-
ing in London, and he thought that a day on which
something important was going on in Parliament
would be best for the occasion. If the meeting
rdeafyorm
were called early, the provincial reformers could
come in from the country, and the railway com-
panies would probably run trains
to take them home
the same night. If that were done, he felt certain
that from 50,000 to 100,000 persons would assemble
in Hyde Park. (Hear, hear.) The people were
up and stirring throughout the
wanted-some standard to rally round.
Mr. ODGERS seconded the resolution.
Mr. DAVIS said with regard to the actual results
of Monday's great meeting in Trafalgar-square, he
went to Bow-street Police-station and saw the in-
spector, who, in reply to his inquiries, said that only
one charge in connexion with the meeting had been
taken there. (Hear, hear.)
Mr. Lucraft's resolution was put and carried
unanimously.
Colonel DICKSON suggested that it would be well
if meetings and bands of music were organised in
Camberwell, Lambeth, and in the suburbs of Lou-
don generally on the day of the great meeting,
which would bring additional thousands together.
Mr. GUEDALLA moved, Mr. LUCRAFT seconded,
and it was resolved, " That an appeal for pecuniary,
aid to carry out the great demonstration be imme-
diately issued."
The consideration of a letter suggesting the
Crystal Palace as the scene of the proposed demon-
stration was postponed.
The proceedings then terminated,