The Sun.
London, England, 1866-04-14 00:00:00

in the course of a brilliant and effective speech,
pointed out, with good show of reason, that, as a
class, agricultural labourers were at least as well
entitled to the consideration of the Legislature as
those of .the same social standing who dwelt in
towns; but for its present purpose the House of
Commons may admit, and in fact does admit, the
necessity of admitting considerable numbers of
the artisan class within what it has become the
fashion to call the pale of the Constitution. Even
opponents will, we think, admit that up to the pre-
sent time Mr. Mill's is the great speech of the de-
bate ; and that so masterly an argument has seldom
on any subject been addressed to the House of
Commons as that which they heard from him last
night!! Misgivings were at one time justifiable,
and almost unavoidable, that in his election

philosophy had lost more than Parliament has
gained ; but there doubts can be entertained
no longer. Mr. Mill, who has mastered
many more difficult things, has proved that
the arts of debate and the physical accomplishment
of addressing the House of Commons were not
beyond his reach. and has acquired a position which
even :country gentlemen who were at Oxford
before the Moral Sciences Tripos came into
existence, and to whom the " Principles of Poli-
tical Economy" and the " System of Logic"
are no better known than the last books of
Livy, will be able to understand. Differing as
they did on almost every point under discus-
sion—on the intrinsic merits of the Government
measure, and on the propriety of separating in
legislation the extension of the franchise from the
distribution of seats—Sir Bulwer Lytton and Mr.
Mill were in accord upon question, on which it is
our fortune to have already expressed, and to have
been taken to task for, an opinion identical with
theirs. Sir E. Bulwer Lytton, speaking as a lead-
ing member of the Conservative party, advanced'
that theory of the representation of classes which
we have demurred to as illiberal, but which some
of our contemporaries pronounce to be the only
true Liberal doctrine.
The Morning Star says :—Two men of genius
addressed the House of Commons yesterday on the
great question now before it for settlement. Sir
Bulwer Lytton enjoys throughout England that
graceful and genial popularity which arises from
the wide and cordial appreciation of a vernacular
classic, and though he too seldom addresses the
House of Commons his speeches always add a grace
and intellectual interest to its proceedings. Mr.
John Stuart Mill had virtually his first appear-
ance to make, and the excitement occasioned in
the house by his first set speech was
equally attributable to the greatness of his pre-
vious fame and to the noble success of his
Reform argument. Placed in contrast the two
speeches suggest how the most generous of personal
sympathies may be chilled into practical cynicism
by :political prejudices, and (how fully the really
philosophical mind, when allied to an open and
kindly heart, can apply itself to every situation in
public affairs.
The Morning Herald says .—The most remarkable
feature of last night's debate was a couple of speeches
delivered by two of the most distinguished literary
men of the age ; by the greatest of living novelists,
and the greatest living master of economical
science. It would be as unworthy and ridiculous
on our part to depreciate the knowledge, philo-
sophic thought, and lucid style of John Stuart Mill,
as it is in seine of our Liberal contemporaries to
sneer at and make light of the exquisite taste and
brillant imagination of Sir Edward Bulwer Lytton,
because he does not happen to share their political
opinions. The encounter was an interesting one,
if its result -was not quite what might have been
expected. The advantage certainly appeared
priori, to be on the side of the profounder writer.
There is very little trace of politics, and still less
of political study, in the novels which have com-
manded so veep an interest, and so warm an admi-
ration from the educated youth of England, and
won for their author a higher reputation, and a
more solid, if „not a wider popularity than has
been achieved by any writer of English fiction
since Sir Walter Scott. Mr. Mill, on the other hand,
has been all his life a political student, and next to
his economical works, the best known and most
valuable of his writings have reference to the very
questions which are involved in the discussion of
Parliamentary Reform. And yet the palm, not
merely of eloquence but of political thought, of
sound reasoning, and of political statesmanship,
in last night's encounter, certainly did not fall to
the member for Westminster. On such a subject
Mr. Mill could hardly fail to say something that
was new, and a good deal that was worthy of
consideration ; but his speech fell far short of that
which preceded it, not merely in its immediate
effect upon the audience, which might be prejudiced
in favour of the more popular and parliamentary
eloquence of the practised orator, but in weight of
matter and elaborate reasoning. The comparison
is a very fair one ; for both speeches were evidently
deliberate and premeditated efforts, into which the
speaker put his whole mind and power, and which
contained the sum and substance of his thought and
knowledge. And the victory of Sir Edward Bulwer
Lytton was certainly complete and more evident
than we could have expected ; and the verdict
signified by the enthusiastic applause of the House
of Commons will, as we think, be confirmed by most
unprejudiced readers of this morning's report.
The Morning Standard says :—" Sir Bulwer
Lytton followed Mr. Baxter in a magnificent
speech, which cannot fail :to produce an immense
effect upon the country, as it did upon the
house of Commons: Studded with epigram, en-
riched with felicitous illustration, rising in almost
every other sentence to the highest eloquence, and
always grappling with the question before' the
house, the oration of the right honourable baronet
will rank amongst his highest and happiest efforts.
The Standard adding :—The speech of Mr. Stuart
Mill was far more worthy of his high reputation,
although as an oratorical effort, perhaps a greater
failure than any he has addressed to the House."
The Morning Advertiser says :--bast night the
Chancellor of the Exchequer was again badly
treated. Sir E. B. Lytton showed him no mercy,
but gave him, with telling force, a succession of
blows under which he must have smarted much.
In fact, :Mr. Gladstone was the chief target at
which all the Opposition fired off their guns. Earl
Russell, although Prime Minister, and consequently
assumed to be the author, as he certainly is the
sponsor of the Reform Bill, escaped with a very few
superficial scars, while Mr. Gladstone is already
seriously wounded in the battle, although it is
destined to rage for several days to come. So far
as the debate has yet gone, it cannot be denied by
even the greatest friends of Ministers, that they
have been worsted in the encounter. They have
:nt
suffered severe damage.
I

ENGLISH AND GERMAN COMIC PAPERS.—When
an English comic paper c,olebrates an anniversary, or a cen-
tenary, or a royal marriage, or any other great occasion,
it makes the chief public characters of the day the vehicles
of its wit, the figures in its pageant. But the German
caricaturist cannot venture on this. lie could not bring in
native characters, for fear of the censorship; au assemblage
of purely foreign personages would have little interest.
All ho can do is to revive the imaginary characters whom
he has invented during his existence as a comic illustrator
But the fun of this can only be appreciated by himself, and
by those who have followed him throughout his career.
And though well enough for once, it does not bear repeti-
tion. We should get tired oven of Mr. Briggs, if he was
to be always the leading figure in a procession.—Once a
Week.

JOHN BROWN—HER MAJESTY'S GILLIE!—A Lon-
don correspondent writes :—" Such of your readers
as study the Illustrated News may have remarked that in
the engraving of last week, which `illustrated' the last
royal visit to Aldershot, a Highlander was depicted as
seated in the rumble of her Majesty's carriage, as well as a
domestic in the usual livery. This is a new feature in the
royal household. The individual in question is her Ma-
jesty's Highland gillie, one John Brown by name, whose
especial duty it was in Scotland to attend and watch over
the steps of the Queen whenever she stirred out of doors
His office appears to have been extended southward, and
new, whether in walks and drives, his stalwart form and
picturesque dress may always be seen in respectful attend-
ance. The attachment and fidelity of Highlanders to those
whom they are permitted to serve personally and confiden-
tially are proverbial, and Gillie Brown seems by degrees to
have fallen into the position in the household of the Queen
such as was occupied by Rousteon, the Mameluke, near the
pawn of Napoleon the Great."