The Sun.
London, England, 1859-04-18 00:00:00

committee. They real dily acceded to the spurious
proposition of a disavpointed party leader below
the gangway on the side of the Opposition—
a proposition that was only not unprecedented,
inasmuch as that party leader had himself some

years back furnished th.-,;s precedent. After a
stormy . and impassioned debate, extending over
seven nights in all, the vaoue resolutions proposed
by Lord SonN RussELL as% an amendment to the
formal motion for the secon d reading was carried
by a clear majority of 39 i'n a house of 626—the
division taking place only an hour or so after the
last day of March had merged into the first day of

April.
Not one syllable all this while had been heard of
Mr. BRIGIIT'S Reform Bill within the walls o.
Parliament, deafened though the public had
been previously by the clamour raised on its
behalf outside those walls, prior to the com-
mencement of the legislative session. The
hon. member for Birmingham has very re-
cently said (since the date of the adverse division)
—speaking of the Cabinet proprosition—" Its cha-
racter was so bad and its features so ugly, that not
its enemies only, but those who should have been
its best friends were anxious that it should be put
under ground as speedily as possible." At any
rate the Government Reform Bill—whether
hideously grotesque or exquisitely beautiful—was
the only Reform Bill frankly submitted to the con-
sideration of the House of Commons. Lord JOHN,
prior to the division, gave not the faintest fore-
shaaowing of his intentions in regard to any
scheme for theremodelling of the popular represen-
tation, Mr.BRIGIIT, so noisy and loquacious before
the meeting of Parliament, sat there mumchance on
the second bench below the gangway on the
Opposition side made no allusion even to
his Reform Bill, smuggled it up as incon-
venient, gave nobody the chance of accept-
ing it, or, on the other hand, of burying it under
the floor of the house as unsightly. At length,
in the midst of the factious discussion of seven
nights' continuance, the member for Birmingham
did certainly rise in his place and speak in regard
to the Cabinet proposition. The lion of the pro-
vinces, however, roared like any sucking dove down
at 'Westminster. As one of the hon. members said
afterwards in the debate—Mr. BRIGHT'S speech in
the house on Reform was milk and water mixed to
order ! His conduct afterwards was consistent. Upon
the frank and manly proposition of the hon. member
for Bodmin—the supplementary amendment in fa-
vour of the Ballot—Mr. BRIGHT, with a perversity
kindred to that of Mr. BERKELEY, refused to vote
in favour of the Ballot—rather than vote then in its
favour he walked out into the lobby, and so left it as
few supporters as possible, in one of the largest
houses upon record.
Now, really and truly, the meaning of all this is
about as plain as a pikestaff. The member for
Birmingham obsiously, glaringly, undeniably,
shapes his course according to circumstances.
Lord JOHN thought he was coming into power
again the other day, as the inevitable consequence
of his apparently triumphant division. So did
many others beside Lord JOHN deem it probable
that we were again to rejoice in the possession of
a Whig First Lord of the Treasury. But the new
Whig Ministry, whenever it comes—must—every -
body feels this—have an infusion of new blood
into it to give it strength and popularity. What
if conspicuous among those who shall supply it
with the new blood, thus yielding it the vigorous
accession of strength and popularity, what if
prominent among those new Ministers should
be the Right Hon. JOHN BRIGHT, M.P.
for Birmingham ! An admirable idea in itself,
but a wholly impracticable one if Mr. BRIGHT com-
mits himself point blank to a democratic Reform
Bill of his own; runs his head against what to the
Whig Party is really nothing better then " that
dead wall"—the Ballot ; and perpetrates with a
like obtuseness divers other kindred extravagancies.
We wonder very much, indeed, if Mr. BRIGHT
himself has been one of those to recognise sponta-
neously the exceeding advisability of this wise reti-
cence ! If not, the course he has recently been pur-
suing in the matter of Reform is really in its way
quite a delightful coincidence. It is one in which
—of course by the merest chance—he has acted in a
manner the most delightfully judicious. Listen to
those amiable and conciliatory words of his
uttered on Wednesday down at Rochdale—
when he observed with quite an effusion of
feeling, " With respect to Lord JOHN RUSSELL,
he brought the question of Reform before the
House year after year, when none but himself
scarcely advocated it." [Mr. BRIGHT omitted to
add that by the noble lord bringing it forward
thus year after year the country has gained just
exactly—Nothing.] " He" (Lord JouN), added
Mr. BRIGHT, " had then as now a real sympathy
for Reform" [nevertheless, being then as now dia-
metrically opposed to the most essential of all re-
forms—the Ballot !Mr. BRIGIIT perhaps forgot to
mention that.] "He had a real sympathy for Re-
form," observed Mr. BRIGHT, " although he was
born in a ducal palace. They must, therefore
(down at Rochdale, and such like places), make an
allowance for his shortcomings, if he did not march
at the speed they could wish." So amiably, so
charmingly does the voice become modulated at.the
mere prospect of becoming a Cabinet Minister and
a Privy Councillor. Surely these are the words no
longer of the bold Tribune, but of the Right Hon.
JOHN BRIGHT—one of the colleagues in the next
Administration.

THE DIFFICULTY.

In order to enable our readers to understand the
diplomatic events of the last few days touching the
perliminary arrangements for a Congress to take
into consideration the political condition of Italy,
we will state as briefly as possible what has taken

place :-
1. When a Congress was first proposed Austria
demanded that Piedmont should disarm, without
any guarantees. This demand was discountenancd
immediately by all tie great Powers.
2. Then Austria demanded that all the great
Powers should accept the principle of a disarma-
ment, the details and provisions of which were to
be discussed and arranged at the Congress.
3. To these propositions France agreed, as well
as the other great Powers, although Russia observed
the disarming would be more logical after a
Congress.
4. Austria was not content with this arrange-
ment, but employed England to urge France to
demand Piedmont to dlliarm under any circum-
stances.
5. France replied that she would not support
such a demand, as neither Sardinia nor the other
Italian States would be admitted on equal terms at
the Congress, nor would their voice he heard in
councils initiated to discuss the inte"est of Italy,
and remove evils registered in the protocols of the
Treaty of Paris, and acknowledged by all the great
Powers as dangerous to the peace of the wo:id.
This is a correct statement of passing evePts.—
.3/o r n ing Post.

Sir Charles Barry, we (Athenceum) hear, is
named the architect of the new Palace of Art in Piccadilly,
to be built for the Royal Academy. Messrs. Barry and
Banks are the architects of the adjoining Palace of
Science.
ROYAL FREE HOSPITAL, GRAY'S-INN-ROAD.—
The number of patients relieved at this hospital during the
week ending April 16, was 2,339, of which 603 were new
cases.
The condition of the Cambridge men after their
upset in the boat race on Friday was rather distressing.
They were stripped of their wet clothes, and they were not
many; but the difficulties were, how to get dry ones—la
difficulty not well got over till they arrived at Putney. The
bow-oar in the Cambridge boat (says the .Era) was so ill
that he was carried helpless as a child cut of the London
Rowing Club boat and kindly received by Mr. Gregory, of
the Ilex Club, at Barnes-terrace, into his house, where he
received proper medical treatment.