The Sun.
London, England, 1859-06-13 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, MONDAY EVENING, JUNE 13, 1859

the Ch. bdis of :LP estrangement. Whereas Lord
:IrY
MALMI7ISBURY; thoivh embarrassed by a great
Europps,ri war, has preserved intact England's

neutral ity
Dur' ing the comparatively short period of the
existence of th 6 DERBY Ministry, again, have not
two va: It portions of the globe—one in the eastern,
one in the western hemisphere been brought
directly under the jurisdiction of the Crown ? Lord
STANLEY, as Indian Secretary, has swept
down one yast monopoly—Sir EDWARD LYTTON
as Colonial ,Secretary has swept down another.
As ruling pow -ers, the East India Company and the
Hudson's Bay company are no more. And while
the noble lord th e member for King's Lynn has
left the impress a his rule over Hindostan ap-
parent in the very outlines of the grand scheme
for the imperial re organisation of the Indian
Government, the right hon. baronet the
member for Hertfordshire has raised a lasting
monument of his geniis as an administrator
in the creation and organization of the superb and
gigantic colony of British Columbia. It is in re-
cognition of their great services to the Crown and
to the country, that her MAJESTY awards to Lord
DERBY, at the moment of his retirement from the
Premiership, the insignia of the Most Noble
Order of the Garter—conferring the Grand
Cross of the Bath, at the same time, upon Sir
JOHN PAKINGTON, who has reconstructed
the navy, and upon the Earl of AIALmEs-
BURY, to whose wise caution the country
is indebted for the maintenance of neutrality in
the midst of a sanguinary war between the two
most powerful military empires in Christendom.
A coronet placed upon the brow of Sir BULWER
LYTTON would complete the royal meeds awarded
to the chiefs of a loyal and patriotic Administra-
tion. It would tally, moreover, as a national and
regal tribute to genius, with the elevation of
MACAULAY to the peerage at the close of the pre-
ceding Government.

Mr. WYLD is not in the House, thanks to the
want of the Ballot in Bodmin. It may be hoped,
however, that a petition will give him an opportu-
nity of testing the electors of the little borough
and that he will then resume the place to which
his moral courage last session so justly entitles
him. It will meantime be, we are sure, no small
consolation to him if the cause which he repre-
sented, when a forlorn hope was needed, is not
sacrificed again to Whig convenience. Lord J.
RUSSELL is plainly of opinion that a Reform Bill
?night even be introduced this session ; that if it be
not, a distinct session ought to be held for it later
in the year. Well, we quite agree with him. The
understanding was that this Parliament was to pass
a Reform Bill—to pass one acceptable to the coun-
try, and to pass it while its impressions were yet
fresh, of what constituencies desire in a Reform
Bill. The Conservatives have commended Lord
JOHN'S straightforwardness this time in not veiling
a party move under the form of resolutions on a
second reading ; and we trust they will have to
commend his straightforwardness in either laying
on the table his Reform Bill very promptly, or in
convening a session in November for the purpose.
We trust they will have to own that his speech on
this point was not opposition claptrap.
Now, taking Lord JOHN at his word, we entreat
the friends of the Ballot to lose no time. They
ought to know at the earliest possible moment,
and the country ought to know, whether we
are to have the cardinal reform or not. We
trust the Ballot Society will be alive to
its duties. Its President played them sadly
false at the London election ; they had
even to vindicate themselves by a resolution
advertised publicly, to put themselves right with
the electors. We hope Mr. BERKELEY will be
guilty of no such coquetry with Whiggism in future
—it is only by hoisting the banner of " no compro-
mise," that this Reform can ever be wrung from the
Whigs any more than from the Tories ; and what
to thoroughgoing reformers is the difference between
a RUSSELL or a DISRAELI Reform Bill, if the Ballot
be omitted ? 'What the difference ! We much fear
just this—Mr. DISRAELI would, as now instructed
by the last election, have given us a Bill within a
little, if not quite, as liberal es the one Lord JOHN
may give us ; but Mr. DISRAELI could have carried
his through the Upper House, which the Whig lord
can hardly do. We do not, indeed, justify this fac
tious preference of their own side on the part of the
Peers ; still we must acknowledge they would be
more patriotic than most parties, if they would not
concede for the advantage of their own side in the
House of Commons what they will not concede to
benefit opponents.

The Whigs, therefore, if we are not mistaken,
will not be able to carry anything for us by the
simple force of Whiggery with merely a majority of
13 in a house, including a few pairs, of 643 mem-
bers. They cannot, with such forces, coerce the
Lords, who will certainly yield to nothing but po-
litical coercion. Reformers must then rely solely
on the merits of their measure. It must be
one which the house dares not refuse—one which, if
dismissed again to the country, the country will
insist on, under the penalty of excluding for life
all recusants, and we affirm that, without
the Ballot, no such enthusiasm can be
aroused. Let this be offered, whether by Whigs or
Tories, and the country will have the bill. Let it
be withheld, and the country will say, as it has said,
"What is it to us which of two Conservative Pre-
miers and parties is in office ?" We hold the ques-
tion to be vital. Justly did a Conservative speaker,
Mr. KER SEYMER, tell the House on Thursday :
" It was said (he observed) that the great Liberal party
was now united. (He (Mr. Seymer) took leave to doubt it.
He did not believe it, because there were questions on
which the country called for a decision, and with respect to
which there were most decided differences of opinion among
hon. members opposite. He would refer to one or two of
them. The question of reform was not one on which they
could act in common. There was the ballot, a vital question.
That was not a matter of detail, and it was a question whicli
he did not see the possibility of the united Liberal party
settling satisfactorily. The noble lord the member for the
city of London might be squeezable on this point. (A
laugh.) The right hon. gentleman the member for Carlisle
was, he suspected, half squeezed already. But the noble
lord the member for Tiverton was staunch. He had made
many excellent and manly speeches against the ballot. It
would not do to say that the ballot was to be an open ques-
tion. How could it remain an open question with hon. gen-
tlemen opposite who maintained that an extension of the
franchise without the ballot would be worse than nothing,
and only placethe unfortunate labourer in a more dependent
position than the present constituency ? (Loud cheers.)"
We shall be told, we know, that we want to get

up division in the camp at once, to make govern-
ment impossible, and all that sort of thing. We
reply, that the settlement, to take proper effect,
must be made before the consummation of marriage
with a new Government. If not dealt with
firmly at first, they will be unmanage-
able afterwards. "Don't eml3arrass the Whigs,"
may be a very good cry for the Tory Whigs, but
we deem Whigs who are embarrassed by the cry
for the Ballot not to be the men for whom we should
care to turn Tories out of office. We want Liberals
and Reformers, not Whigs. we want men who
have the inclination and the courage to give some-
thing tangibly different from those whom they
accuse of being the party traditionally hostile to all
reform. What should the difference be if it be not
the Ballot ? Each party has approximated so closely
to the other on the franchise, and on the redistri-
bution of seats, that there is little left by which to

distinguish the sincere advocates of political liberty
from their opponents and slum friends, except the
liberty of voting. As we htre repeatedly said, we
know in reference to Reform but two parties—
those who trust the people, and those who trust to
their own master✓ of them. The Ballot is the test of
this. The party which offers it shows that it is not
afraid of an uncoerced, unboight, jury. Tho other
party, on whichever side of tie house it sits, intends
to pursue a public policy which the people must be
bribed or compelled to ratify. Political honesty
does not, and cannot, fear an honest Ballot.
We hope, then, Mr. WrID'S place will be sup-
plied in the new house—that some one will be found
to stimulate Mr. BERKELEY to early action, or to
undertake the subject himself. A few such
unquestionably honest Liberals as Mr. ROE-
BUCK and Mr. LINDSAY voted against the amend-
ment ; it is men of this stamp to whom we
must look to insist on measures without reference
to men. This was their only reason for deserting
the majority of the Liberals last week, and they
are, therefore, as it were, pledged to stand by the
measures most needed by the people, without respect
of persons. It is also, as it stiikes us, highly impor-
tant to test the new members, and the old members
too, to see whether they have benefited, as many of
them needed to do, by their visit to the country.
Let us know the quality of our men. Bud-
gets, and ways and means, and current
business, will do but little in this way. Let
us see at once, by a simple, yet great, Re-
form question—one needing little discussion, one
which every one understands ; one which is simply
asking the members—Are you for free elections or
contested elections ?—Are you for landlords en-
grossing their tenants' votes in addition to their
own, or for treating the tenant as a man ? Are
you for enabling every man to do his own voting,
or for his voting at another's dictation ?—Let us
see, we say, by the Reform which involves these
questions, what is the real character of the new
House. Not a day should be lost. Mr. BERKELEY
ought to give the notice : if he does not, we trust
some independent member will.

LATEST NEWS.

THE WAR IN ITALY.

The following telegrams have been received at
Mr. Reuter's office :

PARIS, TtptE 13.
The Moniteur of to-day contains the following

elegrams

MILAN, June 12.—A part of the French army
has passed the River Adda without striking a blow.
In the hurry of their retreat from Piacenza the
enemy abandoned a great number of cannons and
magazines full of provisions and ammunition.
TURIN, June 12.—A telegraphic despatch from
Bologna announces that the Austrians have eva-
cuated that town.

ST. PETERSBURG, JUNE 11.

The Invalide Russe of to-day announces that the
Russian Gouernment has concluded a financial
convention with Messrs. Rothschild, through the
medium of the commercial house of Kapherr and
Co., of St. Petersburg. The details of the conven-
tion are not known.

The following proclamation has been published
at Milan, and in yesterday's Moniteur

The fortune of war has conducted me to the
capital of Lombardy. Let me tell you why I am here.
When Austria unjustly attacked Piedmont, I
resolved to sustain the King of Sardinia, my ally.
The honour and interests of France made this my
duty.

Your enemies, who are my enemies, have endea-
voured to diminish the sympathy which exists
throughout all Europe for your cause, by trying to
persuade the world that I am carrying on this war
only for personal ambition, or to aggrandise the
territory of France.
If there are men who do not understand their
epoch, I am not of the number.
In the enlightened state of public opinion which
prevails, men are greater by the moral influence
which they exercise than by barren conquests, and
this moral influence I seek after with pride, in
contributing to emancipate one of the most beauti-
ful parts of Europe.

Your reception has already proved to me that
you have understood me. Ido not come here with
any preconceived plan to dispossess sovereigns, nor
to impose my own will upon you. My army will
occupy itself with two things :—To combat
your enemies and to maintain internal order.
It will place no obstacle in the way of
a free manifestation of your legitimate wishes.
Providence sometimes favours nations like indi-
viduals in giving them occasion to rise suddenly
to greatness ; but it is on condition that they have
the virtue to profit by it. Profit then by the for-
tune which is offered you. Your desire of inde-
pendence, so long expressed, so often deceived, will
be realised if yoti show yourselves worthy-of it.
Unite then for one sole object, the enfranchisement
of your country. Seek military organisation.
Hasten all of you to place yourselves under the flag
of King Victor Emmanuel, who has already so
nobly shown you the path of honour. Remember
that without discipline there is no army, and ani-
mated with the sacred fire of patriotism be nothing
to-day but soldiers. To-morrow you will be free
citizens of a great country.

Done at the Imperial quarters, at Milan, the
Bth of June, 1859.

NAPOLEON.