The Sun.
London, England, 1866-01-29 00:00:00

thoughts in clear and powerful words. Young men
especially have a dangerous sympathy with intel-
lectual ability when they happen to possess intel-
lects of their own. The Government would be
perceptibly stronger if it included within its ranks
Mr. Lowe and Mr. Horsman. Orators who are not
professedly hostile are formidable opponents when
their own convictions compel them to depart
from the official creed of their party. It is impos-
sible to estimate the power of Lord Stanley, because
the direction in which it will be applied is uncer-
tain. Although he is still young in years, he has
sat nearly 20 years in the House of Commons, and
a prudent reticence maintained throughout the sit-
tings of the last Parliament has increased the general
fait in his capacity and in his great attainments.
A singular felicity makes it at the same time proper
that he should be a Conservative, and natural that
he should be a Liberal ; and neither party desires
to alienate or to criticise too severely an actual or
possible adherent. With the exception of Mr. Dis-
raeli, who will retain his accustomed rank, the older
members of both parties will probably find that time
has weakened their hold on theirpolitical supporters.
Mr. Gladstone might have rendered rivalry impos-
sible, if he had declared his intention to form and
to lead a moderate Liberal party. As a Reformer,
he may perhaps achieve equally brilliant success but
there will be far more risk of failure.
THE " SPECTATOR" ON THE PROBABILITY OF DE-
FEAT TO THE COMING REFORM BILL.--The Minis-
terial organs, the journals which raise party
etiquette into a creed, and all speakers at public
meetings connected with the Government are ca-
rolling in somewhat reedy voices to the same
scrannel tune. A Reform Bill is inevitable, and
the first duty of the Ministry therefore is to intro-
duce a bill which shall be acceptable to Parliament.
We deny it. Even if we accept Mr. Milner Gib-
son's astounding assertion that the Government
" will propose a measure which at the present time
will confer benefits on the public, and, with regard
to the future, will leave the future to take care of
itself, and leave other statesmen, if they think fit
to deal with the question to decide what is best
for their time,"—an assertion which denies to the
Cabinet not only the possession of foresight, but
even a sense of the duty of exercising it,—still the
proposition is untrue. The duty of ministers is to
introduce that bill which shall seem to them calcu-
lated to do more good than any other likely to be
accepted by the country at large. If they, believ-
ing universal suffrage to be the scheme best calcu-
lated to promote the interests of the empire, still
perceive that the country will not accept universal
suffrage, they are morally at liberty to postpone it
in favour of a smaller Reform. But they are not
at liberty to abandon the scheme in which they
themselves believe, simply because Mr. Brand
thinks, after a careful counting of heads and cal-
culation of the patronage at his disposal, that un-
less some presumably hostile section within the
House can be secured, the bill will in all probability
involve the defeat of the Ministry or a dissolution.
This is what is meant by a bill being " unaccept-
able to Parliament," and it is by this consideration
that the Cabinet appears to us to be at present
guiding itself. A principle more unsound, both as
to its morality and its statesmanship, was never
openly extolled ; as to its morality, because the
first duty of political leaders is to do the best they
can for the country careless of consequences to
themselves; as to statesmanship, because the ulti-
mate appeal on such questions must and ought to lie
to a body higher than Parliament. It must lie, be-
cause whether the bill passes or not its introduction
will be followed by a new election during which the
country will pronounce an irresistible verdict ; and
it ought to lie for a reason which we can make clear
by an illustration. Suppose Parliament to pass a
law allowing or ordering all existing members of
the House of Commons to sit , for life. Such a law
is clearly within the legal competence of Parliament
just as much as a law that they shall sit for seven
years is within its legal competence. But does any
one pretend to say that such a law would be con-
stitutional, or would involve a moral duty of
obedience, or would be anything except a coup
d'itat executed by arbitrary power ? The reason
is plain. Be the agent never so absolute in his
agency, he can never possess the right to dismiss
his employer, and Parliament with all its theoretic
autocracy is, as regards the nation, and even as
regards the enfranchised class of the nation, such an
agent. As a rule no doubt it is far better that there
should be no reference, that the silent adhesion of
the country to the passed measure should be deemed
sufficient, but when the question is one of the re-
distribution of power, of the virtual extinction of
one set of employers in favour of another, the em-
ployers themselves have a right to be directly con-
sulted. Even if a bill like the Reform Bill could
pass like an ordinary measure it would be highly
inexpedient that it should so pass. We cannot
imagine any change of feeling in the country more
mischievous than the idea that the franchise is a
matter of which Parliament has the absolute con-
trol, that it is open to the dominant party to modify
it for its own convenience, or in order to secure its
own permanent power without a reference back to
the nation and the electors. We can conceive a
dozen changes which the Houses might be inclined
to accept, which yet would in their result stereotype,
and, therefore, in the end destroy, the Constitution.
It is, however, of little use to carry the argument
back to the first principles either of justice or of
constitutional law. The plain matter of fact is,
that the Cabinet has on this question to look to the
constituencies as the final arbiter. The non-electors
are not enthusiastic enough to coerce their trustees.
The members of the Lower House arO not in earnest
enough to resist the biddings and warnings, and
repritnands which will be contained in the shoal
of constituents' letters which they will receive within
a week of the publication of the bill. The Peers are
not frightened enough to allow a measure they dis-
approve to pass. Consequently the Ministry has to
look outside the walls of the Palace atWestminster,
and outside it we feel convinced their one-barrelled
bill, if they finally resolve to introduce it, will meet
with-no sufficient favour. We do not mean to say
they cannot carry an £8 suffrage if they choose
without a dissolution, or one fixing the qualification
at £9 9s. 9d., or any meaningless measure of that
kind, which nobody would dream either of resisting
or approving, or considering, except with a languid.
contempt. But a real bill, which shall in a percep-
tible degree reduce the franchise, say to a £6 qua-
lification, and do that alone, will, we confidently
believe, be under some form or another referred to
the people. Whom among the electors is it to con-
ciliate ? Not the Tories, for they have been care-
fully instructed that the bill is only to be prelimi-
nary to a succession of bills which, after two pre-
cedents have been set at an interval of a generation
must all advance in the same direction. Not the
educated Liberals, for they, if they remain true to
themselves, will reject any bill which, by fixing a
mere qualification by rental, leads the way directly
to the rule of numbers. Above all, not the immense
mass of Liberal electors, who see clearly that phy-
sical force is outside the Constitution, who are
heartily willing that it should be brought inside,
but who are anxious while including it not to be
ousted themselves, and are above all things desirous
that the question should for this generation end.
Such a bill will please only the Radicals, who hope
that with the Conservative voters reduced from one-
half of the borough constituencies to less than one-
third—this is Mr. Baines's own calculation—they
shall be able to carry bills the existinc, constituency
would refuse seriously to consider. Are the Radicals
sufficient to carry the bill in the teeth of the secret
dislike of all other classes ? We disbelieve
it entirely, even had they the earnest sup-
port of the non-electors, and this they will
not have. The English masses have never yet
moved except under the inspiration of an idea,
and what idea is to be obtained out of a £6 fran-
chise ? The workmen will see that their represen-
tation is as far off as ever, their special views—and
if they have no views, why represent afresh what is
represented ?—being swamped in the overwhelming
majority of the middle class, and no other non-
electors, except the smallest shopkeepers, will be
enfranchised at all. The Reform Bill of 1832 in-
volved a redistribution of power, and the cry of
" The Bill, the whole Bill, and nothing but the
Bill l" showed that the nation felt this, but who is
going to be enthusiastic for £6 instead of £lO ? A

couple of dozen members perhaps like Mr. Baines
himself, whose seats it will place beyond the possi-
bility of attack. Universal suffrage is an idea, so
is household suffrage, so is the representation of
workmen, but a £6 franchise ! why* does that mean?
Will any one constituency in England, supposing
Mr. Baines's figures correct, be able if it choose to
send up a workman as its representative, or indeed
do anything except return without a struggle the
members whom it returns now with one ? There
will be no enthusiasm whatever, and without -en-
thusiasm the secret consciousness of every con-
stituency that on the whole it would rather keep

power, and the open consciousness of the little
boroughs that the new Prrliament would execute
them, will suffice to reject the bill.
THE "EXAMINER" ON OUTRAGES IN RAILWAY
CARRIAGES.—An engine-driver has risked his life,
and the lives of all in the train, in protecting a poor
girl against outrage, and a guard on the Caledonian
line has miserably lost his life in the same manly
endeavour. Upon the Eastern line the conduct of
a man to a young female passenger excited the
suspicions of the engine-driver, and he passed along
by the buffers, holding on by the lamp-irons, to the
compartment in which the two passengers were
placed, when lie saw enough to satisfy him of the
intentions of the man 'and the unwillingness of the.
girl. The driver's appearance alarmed and stopped
the ruffian for the moment, but a second visit which
he made at the sameri4s, thiaing the Attempt would

be renewed, was only just in time to prevent the
worst outrage. The fellow was taken into custody
brought before an Essex bench, and fined £2O,
which was paid forthwith. The scoundrelly defence
was that the girl was a consenting party, a calumny
which was clearly disproved by the evidence of the
driver, who had seen her distress from the com-
mencement of the molestation. The falsehood and
villany of the defence ought to have placed the ruf-
fian in the dock to answer the more serious charge
of an assault with criminal intent, but this just course
was not taken, and the fellow got off with a pay-
ment of £2O. We suppose the proceeding was for
the breach of the company's bye-law in the moles-
tation of a passenger, but so bad a case should not
have been dealt with under so inadequate a law,
which awards only small pecuniary penalties. When
the worst feature of it appeared, the false and in-
jurious defence, that line of proceeding should have
been dropped, and a criminal prosecution substi-
tuted, which might have sent the fellow to jail and
hard labour for some months. But it is astonishing
how insensible and indifferent magistrates, and
judges, too, are to the wickedness of false defences.
They seem to think any defence fair, no matter how
much it may aggravate the offence. For malicious
prosecutions the law provides remedy and punish-
ment, and why not also for malicious defence, such
as that to which we are adverting. What could be
more injurious to the poor girl than the base lie of
consent. It was calculated to ruin her character for
ever, and may yet have its malignant effect, as there
are people always prone to believe the worst, not-
withstanding the distinct and thoroughly trust-
worthy evidence of the engine-driver. On the
Caledonian line a lady had complained to a guard
of excellent character, named G. Hogg, of a man's
attempts to take liberties with her, and Hogg de-
termined to keep a watch on the fellow. Hogg is
supposed to have been walking along the top of the
train to look down the lamp hole into the carriage,
when, in passing under a bridge, which he had pro-
bably not observed, intent as he may have been
on his generous errand, he was knocked off and
killed. Now one of these brave men risked, and
the other lost, his life in furnishing the protection
to female passengers which ought to be the business
of companies. They object to the surest means of
surveillance by the gangway plank along the line of
carriages, that it endangers the:lives of the guards ;
but here we see that an engine driver could make
his way along without the aid of any plank,
while the poor guard was unluckily killed when
walking'along the roofs of the carriages. The much-
talked-of danger to life from the external gangway
amounts to this, that the Belgians report the loss of
a man a year. But Belgians are not the most adroit
of men, and it would be extraordinary indeed if our
guards could not walk with safety along a plank a
couple of feet wide, while our seamen can find a
sure footing upon a surface not a fourth of that
breadth, and gather in or spread a sail flapping with
the force of half a gale of wind. This will be re-
marked, that all easy and practicable means of
communication between passengers and guards com-
panies will discountenance on some plea or other ;
but the most preposterously absurd plans for the
same object they will gravely entertain and con-
sider, simply because they must be rejected after a
make-believe of a wish to come to a result.
THE "LONDON REVIEW" ON THE ORATORICAL
POWERS OF MR. GLADSTONE, MR. DISRAELI, AND
MR. BRIGHT.—Mr. Gladstone possesses the copia
dicendi in an eminent degree. His wealth of words
is marvellous, and the unfaultering fluency with
which they are poured forth. His ideas are also
remarkable for clearness, order, and cohesion, and
his general treatment of subjects may justly be
called exhaustive. His divisions are sometimes a
little too mechanical, and one cannot now hear of
the regular " three courses" without a smile. A.
great element of his power as an orator is his intense
subjectivity. He so identifies himself with his sub-
ject, he so makes it, as it were, a cause to be con-
tended for tanquam pro aris et focis, that the depth
of his convictions for the time being gives to his
matter a force, and to his manner an earnestness,
that never fail to make an impression. But this
subjectivity is also a source of weakness when it
leads him to propound what seem to him political
or economical truths with a dogmatical authority
that will not brook correction or dissent. He seems
to convey in so defiant a manner his settled and im-
perturbable assurance that any one who presumes
to differ from him must be wrong, and wrong with
so hopeless an imbecility in error that further argu-
ment would be wasted upon him, that he often fails
to convert to his way of thinking men whom a more
persuasive and condescending style of reasoning
would easily gain over. It is unnecessary to say
how successful has been his management of the pub-
lic resources, or how frequently he has taken a Par-
liamentary majority almost by storm, and gained
from all quarters the support of measures which had
previously been regarded by many with disfavour.
But, nevertheless, we do not consider his Budget
speeches, as a rule, the best of his oratorical efforts
and the " City men" who sit them out, in order to
have the first and fullest exposition of his intended
policy, generally complain of weariness at the close.
They were more satisfied, on the whole, with Sir
George Lewis, wretched speaker as he was ; but
Mr. Goschen, whenever in the fulness of time he
becomes Mr. Gladstone's Chancellor of the Exche-
'quer, will be just the man for them. Mr. Gladstone
may be called, we think, the Tennyson of finance ;
for he brings to his public expositions of it not only
the powers of his reason, but also the resources of
his imagination, and clothes them with a beauty of
diction and richness of illustration which men de-
light to hear. Still it is not less true that a simpler
treatment would generally be more effective, that
subordinate parts of the subject are sometimes de-
veloped with too much diffuseness, and that the
artist often prevails over the statesman in these elabo-
rate efforts. Mr. Gladstone's delivery is very good.
His voice, if not powerful, is clear and judiciously
modulated, his enunciation distinct, though natural
and unaffected, and his gesture, though sparingly
used, and not remarkably graceful, easy, and ap-
propriate. Mr. Disraeli has few, if any, points of
contact, and many of contrast, with his great an-
tagonist. His great defect as an orator is the want
of that subjectivity of which Mr. Gladstone has
rather too much. That Mr. Disraeli is never in
earnest, it would be unjust and absurd to think,
and that there are many principles of public policy
which he advocates from conviction is very pro-
bable. But the appearance of hesitation and effort
with which he often speaks gives a disinterested and
impartial auditor the impression that his words are
not so much the signs of his inward ideas, as
attempts, sometimes painful and not quite suc-
cessful, to give expression to opinions that are
struggling for utterance in the minds of others ;
that he is speaking not exactly what he thinks, but
rather what others may like to hear, or he may
wish them to believe. We have no doubt, how-
ever, that this hesitation is often affected, and we
have remarked it at times when it seemed carefully
designed to give more effect to keen invective or
biting sarcasm. On comparatively rare occasions,
when there is some great personalointerest in that
debate, or when the peculiar characteristics of an
opponent have led him upon some happy vein of
humour, it is very pleasant to -hear him. His man-
ner, so often languid and listless, becomes warm
and animated, his face is lit up with a glow of
comic enjoyment, his words come out freely and
with a brisker emphasis—and the unhappy wight
upon whom he is giving for the time, as it were,
an anatomical demonstration, wriggles uncomfort-
ably in his seat, and adds, by his evident sen-
sibility under the operation, to the general
amusement. No long ago, the Times reminded
us of the confusion caused in Lord Aberdeen's Ca-
binet by the sort of moral psoriasis with which
Lord Russell became afflicted in consequence of
one of Mr. Disrael's sallies. The incident illus-
trates what we have just been saying, and is
worth recalling. When Lord Aberdeen formed
his Coalition Ministry, Lord John of course could
not be left out, and yet was not able to make up
his mind for the acceptance of any subordinate
office. It was arranged, then, that for a time at
least he should have a scat in the Cabinet without
office. But a man of so active a mind, and who
was besides the leader of the Lower House, was sure
to have a great deal of not merely private corre-
spondence, and, after a while, an office was taken
for him in Lancaster-place, near Somerset House.
This was an opportunity for Mr. Disraeli, who very
soon took occasion to deplore most feelingly in the
house the equivocal and incongruous position which
a statesman of the noble lord's great eminence and
services occupied in the new Administration. He
really could not imagine what the noble lord's du-
ties were. He had hard of an office being taken
for him in Lancaster-place. Perhaps the noble lord
had been appointed toll-keeper of Waterloo-bridge.
The house was convulsed with merriment ; but Lord
John took the matter so seriously that a new distri-
bution of Government offices had to be made at
once, with great indifference to the convenience of
the parties displaced, and the Presidency of the
Council was the salve with which the wounded dig-
nity of the Great Unemployed was healed. In the
same high rank with Mr. Gladstone and Mr.
Disraeli, as a public speaker, Mr. Bright has un-
doubtedly a right to be placed. He does not speak
nearly so often ix Parliament as either, but his style
of oratory, either there or at public meetings, ab-
stracted from the subject matter of his speeches, is
as worthy of admiration and imitation as almost any
model in our language. As distinguished from Mr.
Gladstone, Mr. Bright's best efforts have more of
Demosthenic power and concentration than of Ciee-
ronian copiousness and finish. His English is pure,
terse, nervous, and masculine, clothing earnest
thoughts in vigorous and telling words. He does
not always or often carry the house with him, be-

White wheat (weighing 631 b to 641 b), 50s to 54s ; Fed
ditto (weighing 631 b to 651 b), 48s to 50s ; best malting
barley (weighing 551 b to 561 b), 34s to 36s •, runs ditto
(weighing 541 b to 551 b), 28s to 30s ; distilling ditto (weigh'
ing 521 b to 531 b), 25s to 27s ; oats, 24s to 26s ; beans, 01' ,
to 39s ; peas (maple), 36s to 38s per qr; flour, 33s to —3
Od per sack.
Averages :—Wheat, 1,337 qrs., 44s 11d ; barley, 6)273
qrs., 32s 7d; oats, qrs., —s Od.

YORK—SATURDAY.
The supply of wheat from the farmers was limited. 11e
finest sorts of wheat met a tolerable sale at extreme rate
secondary lots unaltered. The supply of barley
was fair,
and prices have a tendency to advance. Oats in short
supply, and unaltered in value. Beans at recent prises.
New white wheat, 50s to 565; new red, 45s to 495 per
36 stone. Barley, for malting, 348 to 38s per qr ; grinding'
30s to 32s per 30 stone. Oats, new, 26s to 28s per 24 stone.
Beans, 40s to 42s per 40 stone. Malt, 62s to 64s ;
30s per qr. Flour, 36s to 38s per sack of 2801 b.

NO T TrNGHAM—SATuRDAY.
There was a rather better supply of wheat, but there
was considerable irregularity in the quality and condition
of the grain. The inquiry was healthy at fully late rates.
The supply of barley not large, the best sorts making
small advance. Oats firm at previous rates. The shoe' of
beans was limited, and inquiry steady at full prices ; Pea°
lower.
Old white wheat, 5Gs to 60s ; old red, 50s to 54s ; „_.new
white, 53s to 58s ; new red, 49s to 53s per 36 stone.
ley, old malting, 32s to 40s per qr ; old grinding, 265
28s; new, -s to —s per 30 stone. Oats, old, 27s to 30$
new, 20s to 25s ; old foreign, 22s to 27s per stone. Beans'
old, 48s to 52s ; new, 40s to 43s per 38 stone. Super fiowl
37s to 398 ; fine, 34s to 36s per 20 stone.

CORK—FRIDAY.
The following were the quotations this morning :—fed
wheat,9s 2d to 10s 3d ; white, 10s 7d to lls Od ; barley,
4d to 8s ; oats, 7s 10d to 8s 3d ; black oats, 7s 7d to 75 9 I
bere, 6s Od to 6s 6d.

DIIBLIN.—FRIDAY.
Market slow, but little business resulted. Home grain
unchanged. Fair sale for barley. Foreign wheat un
tered in value. Indian corn dull. Flour unsettled ;
views do not meet sellers. Oatmeal nominal.

Foreign Mail racket List

MAILS DUE.
Australia and New Zealand, via Southampton Feb. 10.
Ditto, via Marseilles Feb. 13.
Brazil and Cape Verde, by British packet Feb. 4•
Ditto, by French packet
Cape of Good Hope, Ascension, and St. Helena Feb. 22'
China, Penang, and Singapore, via Southampton Feb. 2.
Ditto, via Marseilles jam 27.
Falkland Islands
Gibraltar, via Southampton jam 27.
India (Calcutta), and Ceylon, via Southampton Feb. 2'
Ditto, via Marseilles Jan 27'
India (Bombay), via Southampton.. Jan. 20.
Ditto, via Marseilles . Feb. 7.
Mauritius, via Southampton Feb. 13
Ditto, via Marseite3 Feb. 7.
Newfoundland
Portugal FFeebb.4.l4.
••.
Ditto, by private ship to Lisbon...
United States and British North America, by Bri-
tish packet
Ditto, by United States packet, via Southamp-
ton

Ditto, via Curk
Ditto, by Canadian packet, via Londonderry.. Jan. 24
West Coast of Africa. Madeira, and Teneriffe Feb. 11'
West Indies and Pacific (except Bahamas, Cuba,
and Mexico
•• Jan. 29.
Cuba and Mexico Jan, 29.
Bahamas, via New Y ork. Feb. 8.
Bermuda, ditto Feb. 14'

Births.
CALLOW.—On the 26th inst., at Aldershott, the wife of
W. Callow, Esq., Royal Horse Artillery, of a son.
TROUBRIDGE.—On the 26th inst., at 8, Queen's-gate, -Lad/
Troubridge, of a daughter.
VERNON.—On the 25th inst., at 42, Grosvenor-squarel the
Hon. Mrs. Greville Vernon, of a son.

Marriages.
CLARK—DANIELS.—On the 25th inst., at St. Paul's, 110115 r ;11
Yorkshire, Edward E. Clark, Esq., of Cowick, %to
Snaith, Yorkshire, to Ellen, third daughter of the '-
James Daniels, Esq., solicitor, of Witham, Essex.
PALLETT— COIC.--On the 24th inst., at St. George's, l,r1,311;
over-square, Mr. G. Pallett, of Berner's-street, tc?,•' ~,,,-s
-
second daughter of Benjamin Cox, Esq., of Poo—
street, Hanover-square.

Deaths.

BLARISTON.—On board H.M.S. Isis, off Sierra Lame, COM'
mander Peyton Blackiston, R.N., aged 34.
BOTELER.—On the 24th inst., at LandoughCastle, (}lBr
morgan, Lieut.-Colonel Robert Boteler, late Royal
gineers, aged 65.

, -
TAYLEUR.—On the 25th inst., at Brynyffynon, near Du'
Denbighshire, Henry Tayleur, Esq., aged 53.
WEBB.—On the 22d inst., at Pau, France, Adnails-
I WO'
Webb, aged 70.
WOOLLEY.—On the 25th inst., at his house, Alluh,„"-."-rNO/
Islington, Henry Woolley, Esq., aged 65.

London : Printed and Published by VVILI,/AAI AN 9e 11%,
of No. 112, Strand, Painter, at Tim SUN Ofnac,' :gni eh
Strand, in the Prednot of the Sy vay. In the I
MiddigieNcraWildsh January 2%,188x,