The Sun.
London, England, 1859-12-05 00:00:00

BinomETER-29.40,

WIND, Sonth-Westerly ; fresh, with rainy weather.
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HIGH WATER AT LONDON BRIDGE.
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THE SUN.

LONDON, MONDAY, DEC. 5, 1859.

The star of Liverpool is certainly—if not exactly
in the ascendant—shining pretty conspicuously
just now above the political horizon. It was only
the other day, comparatively indeed but a very few
hours ago, that the walls of the Philharmonic-hall
down there were ringing to the " divine wrath" of
Mr. JOHN BRIGHT, the BOANERGES of Birming-
ham—a
wrath then expressing itself (as usual
from those volubly censorious lips) against all
things in general, and some things in particular.
This, it will be remembered, of course, was upon
the occasion of the elaborately prepared demon-
stration of the Financial Reform Association. The
electric telegraph, indeed, only as recently as one
of the latest days of last week, flashed the rhetorical
displays made by the various speakers at this poli-
tical banquet, through the frosty darkness of
midnight and early morning, all the way from that
great northern seaport upon the coast of Lanca-
shire, up for the delectation and astonishment ,next
day of the good citizens of London and Westminster.
We have hardly,et recovered in a manner from the
effects of being thus scientifically and financially,
politically and rhetorically electrified. When—
behold ! there comes flashing to us another certainly
far shorter but as certainly far more surprising
telegram apropos of a very minute section of that
same mercantile community of Liverpool!
It is a demonstration this time not of an impor-
tant association, but of a couple of brace of exceed-
ingly obscure individuals. Uttered beyond the
precincts of their own counting house and factory
their names will certainly chime upon the public
car with all the charm of novelty. After the say-
ings and doings of these remarkable men we ought
really to alter permanently the popular phrase ex-
pressive of Derisiani Instead of talking henceforth
of The Three Tailors of Tooley-sireet, we ought to
speak of the FOUR MERCHANTS oF'LivEr.PooL !

But—what upon earth have these three tailors
—we beg pardon, these four merchants, been about P
Flying kites ? Bearing the market ? Bulling, or
what not P No—they have been far otherwise
astonishing the natives (and foreigners) by their
newly discovered method of—" working the tele-
graph." These four merchants of the Toole,y-street
of Liverpool have actually had the consummate
coolness to enter into personal correspondence (or
at any rate to attempt it) with his Imperial Ma-
jesty the Emperor of the FRENCH. The erudite

letter, containing within it an extremely' pertinent,
not to say (remembering who they are themselves
and who their correspondent is) --not to
say an extremely impertinent query ad-
dressed to NAPOLEON 111. at the Palace
of the Tuileries. It is for all the world like four
extremely pale-faced PAUL PRYS, with four ex-
ceedingly green umbrellas tucked under their arms,
stepped across the Channel, and knocking timor-
ously at the door of the Pavillon de l'Horloge—to
know what o'clock it is !
They have just got their answer—an answer very
laconic, very succinct, very pointed. It is called the
Emperor's reply, but it is in really the Emperor's
Secretary's! Even that the inquisitive firm in
question may take as really somewhat of a condescen-
sion under the circumstances. But as to the reply
—this pointed, succinct, laconic reply vouchsafed in
the name of his Imperial Master by M. MOCQUARD,
Chef du Cabinet, and Secretary of the Emperor ?
Well, the reply is plain as words can well be—plain
even pitilessly and uncompromisingly. It sets out
with, saying to Messrs. SHAW, MELLOZ,
and BLACKWELL, of Liverpool—" You have ad-
dressed yourself direct to the EMPEROR, to know
what are his intentions as regards England.'"
[Fancy the impudence of either four merchants or
three tailors asking such a question as that of such
a potentate—of course in the name of England. It
is like—well, there is no other comparison for it—
" none but itself could be its parallel" —it
is like—their impudence !] Having reminded
Messrs. Snooks and Company, of Tooley-
street, Liverpool, of the precise nature of
of their inquiry addressed to the EMPEROR, the
EMPEROR'S secretary, as if taking a derisive glance
at the moment at the extremely pale faces of the
Four PAUL PRY'S, "pausing (and trembling) for a
reply"—says to them point blank, in so many
words, in literally these identical terms—" Great
fear or great confidence alone could explain this
step." There is no blinking the truth, observe, by
the Chef de Cabinet. M. MOCQUARD mocks them
with the distinct intimation that they are very
much frightened. In fact, the Imperial Secretary
says to Messrs. Buowri, JONES, SMITH, and
ROBINSON, with their gingham umbrellas under
their arms, " On the one side, you are infected by
the imaginary alarm which appears to have seized
your country with the rapidity of an epidemic;. and
on the other, you reckon on the candour of him from
whom you desire a reply," Whereupon the Mai-
non's secretary, instructed, of course, by his master
to do so, administers to each of the Four a stinging
rap over the knuckles thus—reminding them that
in regard to this desired reply :—" It was, however,
easy for yourselves to give it, if you had calmly
examined the true eause of your apprehensions;
that cause you would have found nowhere but in
the various rumours originated among your fellow-
countrymen by the obstinate propagation of the
most chimerical of alarms ; because, until now,
under whatever circumstances, there was not a
woad nor an act of the EMPEROR which could per-
mit a doubt of his sentiments, and, consequently,
of his intentions_towards your country." The rest
being still more categorically explicit and distinctly
plain-spoken. " His conduct [that .is the EMPE-
ROR'S conduct] invariably the same, has not ceased
for one moment to show him as a faithful
and irreproachable ally." And more—by
way of humanely diminishing the anguish
of this deplorable ague fit on the part of Messieurs
the merchants —M. MOCQUARD observes, as to
the future policy of his Imperial Master, " What
he has hitherto been he will (I declare it to you in
his name) continue to be ; witness again to-day the
approaching community of danger to be shared in
a far distant land by our soldiers and ours." Nay
more—" Thus" quoth M. MOCQUARD, in conclusion
to this alarmed little " parti-earree'' from Liver-
pool—" Thus henceforth, fully reassured, oppose
an error too much spread. Great nations should
appreciate each other." And so with the custo-
momary polite flourish " receive the expression of
my distinguished sentiments," [whatever that may
possibly signify !] the Secretary of the EMPEROR,
Chef du Cabinet, signs himself MOCQUARD,
with the inevitable elongation of an extra-flourish
to be found at the tale of the autograph of every
lettered Frenchman. And so—the Four Liverpool
Merchants have got their answer—from his MA-
JESTY'S Secretary; and, of course, elated with their
success so far will probably have M. MOCQUARD'S
epistle framed and glazed for the glorification of
their counting-house.
But—now that all is said and done—let us in our
turn ask (not of an Emperor, nor yet of an Em-
peror's Secretary, but of just Anybody who may
feel disposed to answer it) let us in our turn ask
just one very simple question : Are any three
tailors or four merchants who please in this land
of oars to be allowed henceforth to drag the name of
England in the mire and dust,through the very slough
of the wayside kennel, to the footstool of any great
foreign potentate they may please to address (these
three or four Nobodies from Tooley-street !) in the
name and on behalf of the outraged majesty of
England'? We remember that about the time of
the Russian War precisely the same wretched spec-
tacle was exhibited when some half dozen foolish
Quakers went maundering off on a like errand to
his late. Imperial Miajesty of all the Russias—
and actually had an interview with the Emperor
NICUOLAS in his imperial palace at St. Petersburgh !
Cannot something be done to restrict the dating
of communications like these, henceforth not to
some London or Liverpool Hoekley-in-the-hole like
Tooley-street, but to Downing-street in the city of
Westminster ?

On , Saturday we urged farnfers to arouse
themselves, and to demand a voice in the re-
presentation of the country ; we showed them,
if so notorious a fact could need illustra-
tion, that they had no political power ; that
they were but political ciphers to multiply tenfold
their landlords' power ; and that, though a class
distinct from the landlords and of opposite interests
to them, they have been, ever since 1832, mere
machines for placing landlords' nominees in tho
Ifouse of Commons. We also remarked that so
great is their number, that they could, if free, re-
turn with ease men of their own choice. They could
have farmers' members, who ought frequently to bo
retired farmers, and ought not to be fewer than
one for each county or division of a county. We
promised, in concluding, to advert to-day to the
means of accomplishing this.

Probably many of our readers know well what
we should propose. Indeed, we believe no honest man
could fail to mention first, the thoroughly English
method, adopted by Englishmen in, all elections
where absolute freedom is desired—the Ballot. It
is a device pre-eminontly English. IVe all love
fair play ; we all love perfect liberty for the weaker
when they have to act with the strong ; and hence
we use the ballot whenever we fear that any of us
might be induced, by fear of offence, to give a vote
contrary to our real wishes. We throw in the teeth
of those who call the Ballot un-English their own
dishonest charge. They are un-English. It is they
who want to make men fight with tied hands. It is
they who dare not meet them with equal weapons. It
is they who would have farmers vote under fear of
the only man who can hurt them, while they Tote

THE Su N,

in fear of no one. We call this mean and un-
English. They know that nothing but the Ballot
can place the farmer and his friends on equal terms
with the landlord and his friends, and yet they
refuse it. They talk of skulking under cover of
secret voting—it is the landlords and their party
who skulk behind the poll-book. They know that
not one farmer in a hundred can attack them there,
where the landlords themselves are perfectly safe,
and where the farmer would fight them at the
peril of his livelihood, yet there they stick—like
the Russians at Cronstadt—and never venture to
measure strength with the farniers and their friends,
except under the guns of their poll-book.
Not long before the last election we were con-
versing with an intelligent tenant farmer, upwards
of sixty years of age ; a man of some property, who
had been once a farmer only ; but who is now also a
considerable farm agent and valuer ; he is now, in-
deed, independent, but he once had to vote for the
party to which he was opposed,—to vote for his
landlord. Conversation at such a time naturally
turned on the late Reform Bill—and we, as natu-
rally, inquired of such a man, who knew the posi-
tion and the feelings of the farmers so well, what
they thought and wished on the subject—his reply
we have never since forgotten—" We farmers," said
he, " want but one thing—no reform is of the slightest
use to ns except the Ballot. Let them give us the ballot,
and then we shall be free and independent electors."
We found all the representations we had ever
heard respecting the absolute subserviency of the
farmers to landlords most fully confirmed. Wethen
adverted to long leases. He remarked there was
little in them politically, for a farmer would be
always looking to the end of his lease. We men-
tioned some of the stock objections to the Ballot;
he disposed, of them all with the sound common
sense so common amongst his class—" they were
mere empty pretences, they only wanted to keep
power over their tenants' votes." The Ballot, he
affirmed again and again, was the only reform
wanted in the counties ; and there it would make
just the difference between independent electors
and slaves. He believed that more than half the
tenants would rather be without votes, so degraded
they felt by having to vote to order.
Now, then, is the farmers' opportunity. They
are the class who need a Reform Bill more than any
other. Non-electors may desire:the franchise ; but
farmers want to be delivered from the mockery of it.
Non-electors indeed cannot vote ; thousands of
farmers would be thankful for that privilege; their
misery is, that they can vote, but must vote so often
against their convictions. They are not allowed to
be non-electors. The steward sees to it, that their
names are on the register, because he wants them
just as the planter wants his negroes. Let, then,
the farmers have one grand battle for their liberty.
Let them, as a body, tell their landlords that if they
are farmers' friends, they must vote for the far-
mer's Reform—the Ballot. That it is all very well
to enfranchise householders in towns and £lO ten-
ants in counties ; but that the one thing needful is,
that the adoption of the Ballot should give unques-
tioned independence to the much-praised yeomanry
of England. It is bat to pluck up courage for a
session, or at most for two, and the farmers of Eng-
land may confer on themselves and their successors
for all time the dignity of free men. Let them
cover the tables of both Houses with petitions
from every county, not merely of England, but
Wales, Scotland, and Ireland, too. Why should
they not ? They need the Ballot above every other
reform, and the proposal of a second Reform Bill
is the timd to demand it. If they will but
unite, landlords cannot punish the whole body of
farmers. And if they do petition as they ought,
, they must succeed.
Of one thing we are quite confident—that Par-
liamentary Reform in the counties, without the
Ballot, is a shuffle and a sham. It is wanted bad:y
enough in the towns, but the farmers of Great
Britain are the men who above all need it. No
candidate is an honest Reformer, no candidate
wishes the farmers to be independent electors,
who will not go heart and soul for the Ballot. The
Ballot is the test of a candidate's love of electoral
independence, and electoral independence is the
first element of a healthy representation. Better
by far, anywhere have a thousand honest indepen-
dent electors, than ten thousand at the mercy of
perhaps a hundred landlords. We like ex-
tension—we should like every taxpayer to
have a vote,--but, we value independence more
than numbers. Indeed the two, in one
aspeet of the matter, are but one. If ten thousand
farmers vote as a hundred landlords bid them, the
constituency is reduced to one hundred. And this
is just the case with the counties. Their real con-
stituencies are contemptibly small. They consist of
the landlords. The Ballot would, really, increase
the county constituencies twenty, perhaps fifty-fold.

The mischief now is that the real county electors
—the landlords—are but a small 'class, and one
whose interests are antagonistic to those of all other
classes of persons in the county ; classes who have
as good a title to representation as the landlords
themselves. Indeed, they have a better one. The
landlords have the House of Lords undeniably to
themselves. It is very hard on the farmers of
England that landlords should make them the means
by which they engross the House of Commons also.
We counsel the farmers of Great Britain and Ire-
land to petition at once, to petition annually-, and
to petition for the one thing the farmers need—
THE BALLOT.

A Cabinet Council was held this afternoOn at the
official residence of the First Lord of the Treasury in
Downing-street. The Ministers present were Viscount
Palmerston, the Lord Chancellor,, Earl Granville, the Duke
of Argyll, Sir G. Cornewall Lewis, Lord John Russell, the
Duke of Newcastle, the Right Hon. Sidney Herbert, Sir
Charles Wood, the Chancellor,of the Exchquer, the Duke
of Somerset, the Right Hon. C. P. Villiers, Sir George
Grey, the Earl of Elgin, and the Right Hon. T. Milner
Gibson.

Their Serene Highnesses Prinle and Princess
Edward of Saxe-Weimar left town a few days back for
Kimbolton Castle, on a visit to the Duke and Duchess of
Manchester,

His Highness the Maharajah Duleep Singh has
arrived at Claridge's Hotel, from Teddesley Park, Stafford-
shire, the seat of Lord Hatherton.
The Duchess of Sutherland left Stafford House
on Saturday to join the noble duke and family at Trentham,
Staffordshire.

The Lord President of the Council returns to
town to-day, from Brighton, to attend the meeting of the
Cabinet Ministers. The Countess, we are happy to learn,
has slightly improved in health during her brief sojourn at
Brighton. a

The Marquis and Marchioness of Headfort have
arrived at Claridge:a Hotel, from. Paris.

The Earl and Countess Howe have returned to
Gopsall Hall, Leicestershire; from Brighton. Viscount and
Viscountess Curzon and a select family circle have assem-
bled at Gopsall.
The Earl Cadogan and Ladies Augusta and
Honoria Cadogan have arrited at Dover, where his lord.
ship contemplates passing the winter. • •

- -
LORD ROBERT MONTAGUE AND MR. BRIGHT.—
Our readers will remember that the above noble lord, when
chairman of the last Huntingdon Bible Meeting, took occa-
sion to make an attack upon Mr. Bright. A gentleman in
the neighbourhood sent the hon. member for Birmingham
a copy of Lord Robert's speech, and he kindly handed us
Mr. Bright's very characteristic acknowledgment, which
we subjoin :—" (Copy). Rochdale, Nov. 25, 1859. Dear
Sir,—l have to thank you for your letter and newspaper. I
don't think Lord Robert very civil, and I'm sure ho is not
truthful in his observations. His regard for the Scriptures
would be of more value if it were accompanied by some por-
tion of that charity which is recommended in the New Tes-
tament. The feeble among the Lords, and they are a
numerous class, consider some attack upon me to be an
essential part of their public speeches. This habit, r pre-
I sume, pleases them—it amuses me. Again thanking 3ou
for your letter, I am, with great respect, yours truly, Jourr
BRIGHT. To —. Esq."—Cambridge Independent

G,

WAR APPLIANCES.- PRACTICAL

DEMONSTRATION.