The Sun.
London, England, 1866-07-26 00:00:00

LONDON, THURSDAY, JULY 26, 1866.

The leaders of the Reform League cannot at all
events complain that they have not had a fair hear-
ing, and the events of the last few days must have
gratified that taste for notoriety which has generally
a good deal to do with this sort of patriotism. A
body of men prepared to run personal risks, to make
sacrifices, and to face the terrors of the law, in order
to defend the great principles of civil and religious
liberty, exact the respect of their opponents and the
gratitude of those on whose behalf they are con-
tending. When the only object to be attained is
the holding of a meeting, which at this time of the
year can hardly be said to have a definite or prac-
tical purpose, in one place rather than in another,
and the means adopted are the very commonplace
ones of smashing everybody's windows, trampling
down shrubberies, and stoning policemen, the nar-
row passage between the sublime and the.ridiculous
is very soon accomplished. We doubt whether the
crowds who yesterday went to see the scene of de-
vastation in Hyde-park came away better convinced
of the fitness of the lower orders for the fran-
chise, or of the propriety of allowing these gentry the
uncontrolled use of any place of recreation or enjoy-
Meta. The worst part of the affair is the damage
it will do to the cause of Reform. It is not only
the much-abused aristocracy, or the country gentle-
men, who are so freely denounced at such assem-
blies that we have to consider : it is the commercial
and trading classes, the merchants and shopkeepers,
and professional men, who have, after all, so much
influence in the matter. These will naturally be
inclined to consider whether such scenes of lawless
riot as likely to follow the diffusion of political
knowledge and the extension of political rights
among the people, and a good many of them will
be inclined to answer it in the negative. It is very
well for those who have set the whole affair in
motion to grow alarmed or ashamed at its conse-
quences, and to throw the whole blame on the
resistance of the civil authorities ; but the sort of
men and lads who startled London from its slumbers
on Monday night are not exactly the kind whom it
is safe to gather together in large numbers. Mr.
BEALES and Colonel DICKSON may rejoice over
their victory if they will. We regard it as
a mortifying defeat. It has disappointed the ex-
pectations formed not unreasonably of the English
working man, and has proved that the boasted
power of self-control and self-government exists
only so long as he keeps in the beaten track under
authority. If questions of disputed right are to
be settled by flints and truncheons, instead of by
courts of law, we are some degrees lower in civilisa-
tion than we believed. Our philosophical reformers,
such as Mr. MILL, carry their enlightened theories
so far as to advocate the representation of minorities;
but, we would ask Mr. BEALES and his friends, what
chance is there for minorities to make themselves
heard in their new system of government ? Des-
potism and Democracy come to precisely the same
thing in the end—government based on might rather
than right—on the temporary passion IF desire
of the moment, not on those principles which
cautious men approve as the safeguards of civil
liberty.

Mr. WALPOLE received the deputation yesterday
in his usual courteous and conciliatory manner, and
undertook that there should be no unnecessary in-
terference on the part of the police or the military,
provided the people refrained from actual violence.
He also pledged the Government to assist in bring-
ing the question of right to a speedy issue, from
which the deputation, by some extraordinary mis-
understanding, drew the inference that they would
be permitted to meet in Hyde Park on Monday
next. This impression Mr. WALPOLE has hastened
to remove ; and it is difficult to understand how it
could ever have been conveyed. The whole matter
will probably receive further discussion, and we can
hardly suppose that the general feeling of the public
will be inclined to reverse the prohibition long since
wisely put by a Liberal Ministry upon the use of
Hyde Park as a locality for monster meetings in-
stead of for health and recreation.