The Sun.
London, England, 1866-05-29 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

TIMES.—The first Division after the renewal of
the Reform debates is one which may justly be re-
garded with dismay by all who desire to see a mea-
sure of moderate and constitutional Reform adopted.
Last night the two bills for the Reduction of the
Franchise Qualifications and the Redistribution of
Seats :were, on Mr. Bouverie's motion, referred,
without discussion, to the same Committee of the
whole House which was instructed to consolidate
them into one measure, and thereupon Sir Rainald
Knightley proposed a further instruction to the
Committee to make provision for the better preven-
tion of bribery and corruption at elections. No ob-
ject can be more desirable than the prevention of
bribery, but there is a time for all things, and Sir
Rainald Knightley's motion was resisted by the Go-
vernment as a device which would certainly smother
the Reform Bill. There can be just as little doubt
that this was the effect intended by its mover and
supporters as that the Government, in a House of
nearly five hundred members, was beaten by a ma-
jority of ten. The victory was magnificent, but
nothing will come of it. The Division may show
the temper of the House of Commons, but that is
all it can show. " Any stick will do to beat a dog,"
and the world will interpret this defeat of the Go-
vernment as nothing more than an expression of
disinclination on the part of the majority who voted
last night seriously to consider a measure of Reform.
The debate was short and spirited ; the House hot,
eager, excited ; the enthusiasm over the victory im-
mense, and all about a motion to which few attached
any real importance, save such as it might possess
as a straw to show the current of the stream. The
Government very properly declared their intention
to proceed with the bill in committee, and we only
hope the serious discussion of Captain Hayter's
Amendment will not suffer from the purely party
skirmish which preceded it. It must, however, be
confessed that the little disaster of yesterday is
ominous. We do not look upon it as foreboding
the certain defeat of the Government scheme ; in
fact, the deduction is rather the other way. It seems
as if those who like the Reform Bills were unwilling
to criticize them openly, and consoled themselves by
defeating the Government in a skirmish, which has
no effect whatever in the result of the campaign.
We must protest against a policy as paltry as it is
fatal. The grave defects and errors of the Redis-
tribution Bill were one by one pointed out last night
with great force in the excellent speech of Captain
Hayter, and we appeal to the members of the house
on all sides who desire to settle the Reform ques-
tion to dismiss from their minds Sir Rainald
Knightley's Instruction, and to devote their atten-
tion to Captain Hayter's argument. Captain Hay-
ter had, indeed, a very good case, and he made
such use of it that the Government must by this
time be convinced that it would have been better if
they had left Wells alone. He read, moreover, to
the house an opinion of one whom many members
will regard as the highest authority on what is
practicable in Parliamentary Reform—Sir William
Hayter--who condemned the bill on the sufficient
ground that it could not settle the question. And,
indeed, unless greatly amended, it is clear that the
Redistribution Bill will not in any degree settle the
question. It was concocted in haste, and has all
the faults which might have been expected in a
measure so quickly cobbled together. There is no
branch of the bill which is not easily susceptible of
improvement. It leaves untouched many old anc-
malies ; it creates some anew. One of its principles
is that all boroughs having a population exceeding
8,000 shall preserve their privileges undiminished,
and therefore any borough, however little above
thislimit, which returns two members, will continue
to return two, although none of the new groups will
have two members unless their population exceeds
15,000. This is an anomaly which Mr. Goldsmid
shows can easily be avoided. He yesterday gave
notice of his intention to propose in Committee that
one member shall be taken from all boroughs having
a population between 8,000 and 10,000 and return-
ing two members, and with the seats so obtained all
groups exceeding 10,000 can be permitted to have
two members. A graver blot in the Government
bill is the omission to couple unenfranchised towns
with those already enfranchised. This defect is so
palpable that it is not easy to understand how any
degree of haste could have occasioned it. Nothing
provokes more jealousy than the total exclusion
of a municipality from Parliamentary representa-
tion. Men can tolerate with equanimity an insuffi-
cient share, while they resent absolute exclusion ;
and even if a group has but one member, it must
be conceded as a merit of the principle of grouping
that each town in a group will exercise au influ-
ence exactly proportionate to its own importance.
If the unenfranchised towns had been associated
with those already enfranchised, one source of dis-
content would have been removed. As for the groups
actually proposed by the Government, Capt. Hayter
yesterday exposed their shortcomings in a way which
left nothing to be said. Towns are strung together
almost at haphazard, and groups are formed by rules
of arithmetic, instead of principles of policy. No
attention seems to have been paid to local influences
or to local character. The single thing the Govern-
ment seems to have desired was to avoid any
appearance of jobbery, and even in this they were
unsuccessful. The adoption of the limit of 8.000
has exposed them to suspicions, to avoid which
was one great object of their adherence to figures.
It is plain that the Government scheme of redis-
tribution must be considerably remodelled, if we
would secure any settlement of the question giving
a promise of reasonable permanence. The Ad-
ministration must have confidence in their own
honesty, and in disfranchising, enfranchising, and
grouping act upon more rational principles than are
consistent with a slavish observance of numbers. A
physician consults the temperament and the consti-
tution of his patient ; a quack has one remedy for
every ailment, one cure for every sufferer. The
reform of our representative system requires at least
as much care and discretion as are found necessary
in combating disease. There is no doubt much that
we should like to have done which is impossible,
but, unfortunately, the Government have not at-
tempted all that is possible. It is the interest, no
less than the duty of all members of the House to
assist in amending the Government measures, so as
to secure as good a scheme of Reform as the circum-
stances of the time will allow. Whether the com-
pletion of the task is possible this Session, or whether
it must be reserved for an Autumn Session, remains
to be seen ; but we hope that an attempt will be
seriously made to have done with it now, and that
we shall hear no more of such proposals as Sir
Rainald Knightley's, or of such victories as that of
yesterday evening. The time before us is too limited
to be wasted on unreal discussions, which only serve
to discredit the House of Commons and to blunt the
edge of genuine criticism.

TIIE " SPECTATOR " ON HAIR-DYEING.—Dyeing
may be immoral possibly, but dyeing red cannot be
more immoral than dyeing black. The world does
not greatly condemn a fair woman whose beauty is
spoiled by untimely greyness for removing the
blemish—feeling, though not acknowledging, that
beauty is a gift which it is as right to preserve as
health or eyesight—and if white hair may be made
black, surely brown may be made golden. At all
events it is made every day, and if those who make
it would only remember that the golden locks of
Flavia, who has a cheek like a peach and a brow of
milk—not of alabaster, 0 minor poet ! healthy flesh
never being absolutely bleached—will not neces-
sarily suit Lalage, who has a face carved out of
Derbyshire cheese and a forehead which cannot tan,
the golden hair would add to the grace and variety
of assemblies. So rapid has been the spread of this
fashion that the resources of chemistry have been
ransacked for dyes, and we have before us a large
volume of receipts for the production of almost any
shade. They are all very nasty—nastiness is the
real objection to hair dyes, as it is to rouge and
chignons, and is not to false teeth—and all subject
to one fatal defect. They do not change the in-
herent colour of the hair, which grows every moment
as it was originally made ; the pigment therefore
must be incessantly re-applied, and the hair, instead
of being dyed, as, for instance, a topaz is dyed by
burning, is only painted, by no means a very
pleasing idea. One would think it prima facie pos-
sible to make a radical change, the colouring matter
being an oil held as it were in a tube, and impreg-
nated with substances the character of which has
been discovered. According to Mr. Cooley, " The
chemical constitution of the hair was first made
known by Mr. Hatchett, who showed it to consist
chiefly of indurated albumen, together with a little
gelatine, or maiter that yields it. Soft and very
flexible hair is said to contain the most gelatine.
Subsequently, Vauquelin discovered that hair con-
tains two different kinds of oily matter—the one
white and bland, common to all hair; the other,
coloured, and on which in part the particular
colour of the hair depends. He also found small
and variable quantities of mineral substances
in hair. In light-coloured hair he found mag-
nesia, and in black and dark hair iron and sulphur.
It is the presence of these last that mainly gives to
dark hair its colour. Fur, wool, bristles, and spines,
in their chemical nature, structure, and mode of
formation, resemble hair ; as also, to a very great
extent, do the feathers of birds." We ought, if
that is correct, and we knew how, to be able to feed
people into hair of the wished-for colour, but then
we do not know how, and so are driven back on
devices many of which are dangerous or disagree-
able. It is easy enough and safe enough to darken
the colour. A weak solution of acetate of iron dis-
solved in water and mixed with a little glycerine
will, if rubbed daily into the head, gradually and
permanently darken the hair and benefit the_ health
besides, a hint we recommend to red-haired beauties

when popular prejudice turns against them again,
as it will one day. Lead, often used instead of iron,
is as dangerous a substance as it is well possible to
employ, and the lead comb in which our grand-
mothers trusted is of very uncertain efficacy. There.
is no swift mode which does not involve the use of
lead or silver to a dangerous extent, and no sale
mode except iron, or sometimes after a certain age
iron and sulphuret of potassium, which restores the
decreasing sulphur. In any case, too, under any
temptation, the woman who tries to change the
colour of her eyelashes is a fool, who risks for no-
thing penalties which may embitter an entire life.
Instantaneous hair dying is effected by washing.the
hair in a solution of nitrate of silver, and then in a.
mixture of hydrosulphuret of ammonia and distilled
water, which acts as a mordant, when the hair in-
stantly turns either brown or black. It is, however,
on the golden shades that intellect has been recently
chiefly expended, and here is a list which includes
every colour except one—the golden bronze--which
is caused by washing with a solution of blue vitriol,
followed by another of the ferrocyanide of potas-
sium. " A strong infusion of safflowers, or a solu-
tion of pure rouge, in a weak solution a crystal;
lised carbonate of soda, gives a bright red,
like henna, or a reddish yellow,' according t°
its strength, if followed, when dry, by a `l°°r-
dant' of lemon juice or vinegar diluted with one;
half to an equal bulk of water. An acidulated
solution of a salt of antimony, followed by a weak
mordant' of neutral hydrosulphuret of ammonia
or the bisulphuret, carefully avoiding excess, gl'i",
a 'red turning on the orange,' which tones well on
light brown hair. A solution of sulphantimonia3;
of potassa (Schlippe's salt) with a mordant of water
slightly acidulated with sulphuric acid, gives,;
' bright orange red,' or golden red colour.' Golden
yellow—A solution of bichloride of tin (sufficiently
diluted), followed by a ' mordant' of hydrosulPll°-
ret of ammonia, gives a rich golden yellow tint' to
very light hair, and a ' golden brown' to darker
hair, owing to the formation of aurum musivnin;
mosaic gold, or bisulphuret of tin. A solution '3,;
acetate or nitrate of lead, followed by
of yellow chromate of potash, gives a brilliant rich
golden yellow.' If wanted warmer' or 6 deeper
toned,' a few drops of solution of diacetate of I"—,
(Goulard's extract) should be added to the acetate
solution. A solution of pure annotta, obtained by
boiling it in water slightly alkalised with carbonate
of soda, or with salt of tartar, gives a golden Ye:o
low' or flame yellow,' according to its strengthi,
very pale hair, and corresponding tones to darif,
hair. A previous ' mordant' of alum water deepens
it, and a subsequent washing with water ware;
a mordant,
with lemon juice or vinegar reddens' it, or turns 1
on the orange: Henna, by the way, is unobjee;
tioxable, and never fails, so that if any woulAas
really wishes for bright redhair she has only to al/rr
friends with some attache of the embassy at v°l
stantinople or with Mr. Lyard. We must add thtja
there is now sold in Paris a dye which iesta°„u/o
changes white or flaxen hair into the most
gold, which is nearly instantaneous, and never faiw'
or can fail. It is called orpiment, is the video
sulphuret of arsenic, and has only one trifling dra/10;
back, which those who want it probably vril,l/3„5
mind. It kills, just as inevitably and as siviftl.
doses of arsenic would,