The Sun.
London, England, 1866-07-24 00:00:00

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LONDON, TUESDAY, JULY 24, 1866.

The proceedings at Hyde Park last night could
not have been very satisfactory to the leaders of the
Reform League, as they certainly were not very
creditable to the followers, or gratifying to the rest
of the community. The affair, whatever its original
character, came at length to a trial of strength be-
tween the civil authorities and the mob,,and resulted
in the solution of the question whether London was
to be ruled by law or by numbers. There was no
fear, at any time, that any very serious consequences
would ensue. Englishmen have a natural respect
for the law, and respectable men of all ranks are
usually prompt to combine in maintaining order,
and the police are generally very careful to avoid
unnecessary collisions. But it is very much to be
regretted that the name and principle of Reform
should be brought into disrepute, that its advocates
should be associated with all the rioters and loiterers
who form the larger portion of every street mob,
that they should have succeeded in defying the
law, in damaging the beautiful Park, and in
throwing the whole western part of the metro-
polis into confusion for many hours. If this
is a specimen of the sort of legislation which
Mr. BEALES, Mr. MASON, and their colleagues
think desirable, they are nut very likely to convince
their opponents. It is a very poor sort of logic
which has to fall back upon physical force, and the
first step towards gaining political liberty is appa-
rently the destruction of property, the infraction
of law, and the infringement of the rights of others.
The park belongs to the people who pay for it, say
these heroes, but we have a suspicion that very few
of the gentlemen who pulled down the railings and
brickbatted the police had much to do with paying

'or the park. But allowing that each contributed

their quota, how many other taxpayers of London
also paid their share also, and why are they to be ex-
cluded from the enjoyment of a place of recreation by
a noisy and boisterous crowd ? :Le droit du plus fort
is the beginning and ending of the doctrine of
Messrs. BEALES and MASON, and are apparently
not aware that they are carrying out the doctrines
of the King of PRUSSIA and Count BISMARCK.
If our parks are to be given up to the demagogues,
mob orators, and field preachers, who will not fail
to throng there, if once the prohibition is recalled,
we need not have laid them out with skill, taste, and
expense. They had better be built upon and con-
verted into streets and aquareS, tor if mass meetings
like last night are to be the fashion there will be a
serious interference with the trade of London as well
as with its politics and its fashion. It is quite a new
doctrine that the mob has a right to every open space,
be it square, or park, or garden, and it is one which
will, we fear, prove more favourable to the pickpockets
than to the Reformers. No doubt Mr. BEALES,
Col. DICKSON, Mr. JONES, and others sincerely
regretted the riot of last night, but that does
not exonerate them from blame in the mat-
ter. As men of the world they might have known
that it was both foolish and dangerous to convoke
a meeting like the one in Hyde-park in defiance of
the law, and that the men and lads who were most
certain to take part in it were precisely those who
would be quite beyond their control. The
love of order and obedience to law which cha-
racterise the English working man have formed
one of the strongest arguments in favour of the
extension of the franchise, and such scenes as those
of last evening are not very likely to support that
argument. There is a good adage which tells us
that none are fit to command but those who have
learned to obey, and this the heads of the Reform
League would do well to remember. Until they
can learn to obey existing laws they are not
fit to propose new ones. The plain English of the
proceedings which they inaugurated last night is that
they want to govern by numbers, or, in other words,
by force. If the Government of the day, be it
Whig or Tory, does not maintain social order, it
fails in one of its first duties. No one dreams of
denying the right of public meeting, and if any
Minister dared to do so there are plenty of men in
the house of Commons who would call them to ac-
count, and, if need be, remove them from their
offices; but the idea of the League monopolising
the very Park in which meetings are forbidden by
general consent is simply ridiculous.

The chief matter of regret about last evening's
performances is the discredit which it will bring on
the cause of Reform, and for this Mr. BRIGHT, Mr.
BEALES, and others, may thank themselves. If these
are the best arguments they can bring to convince
the upper and middle classes of the improved legis-
lation likely to follow the extension of the franchise
they are not very likely to obtain their object.
Working men who wisely held aloof from such
an ill-judged and foolish proceeding may well feel
justly indignant at such disturbances being asso-
ciated with their name. If the Parks are to obtain
the object for which they are preserved—the
health and recreation of all classes of the comm,_
nity—Parliament must see that they are strictly kept
for that purpose, and not suffer them to become in-
stead a source of public disorder and annoyance.

The preliminaries of Peace now engage attention,
and the news from Paris seems re-assuring in that
important respect. Those who anticipated that
Prussia would show any moderation must have been
very much disappointed when they read the con-
ditions she has made, and upon whose fulfilment'
depends the ratification of peace. As to talking of
any consideration being shown, we do not see how
Prussia could have asked for more, especially when
Prance was a sort of arbiter to judge between the
contending parties. Of course we were all aware
that
Austria's exclusion from the new Confederation
would be the chief object in view, but it now ap-
pears that there
are many other things that must be
obtained by
the arbitrary Government of Berlin
before the affair is settled.
So far as we can judge
from the outlines afforded
us in the programme,
Prussia will gain an immense accession of power by
these conditions, and who can say how she will use
that power ? The North of Germany is to form a
union under the military and diplomatic direction