The Sun.
London, England, 1866-01-25 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

TI3IES.-Mr. Milner Gibson approaches Reform
with that wisdom of experience which all should
have by this time, and that official reserve to which
he is specially bound. As a man of business—and he
is speaking to men of business—every member of an
important concern ought to keep to his own depart-
ment. This he does, and something more ; for not
only is he diffuse, cheerful, and judicious upon the
French and Austrian Treaties, and the further
openings they offer with other nations, but when he
comes to Reform—which he could hardly escape—he
treats it as a President of the Board of Trade should
do, arithmetically and statistically. He carefully
avoids all the topics upon which knight-errants break
heads or lances, and gives us the logic of figures,
irrefragable as far as it goes. Since 1832 the popu-
lation has increased, education has increased much,
not only absolutely but in proportion to the num-
ber of the qualified age ; the savings-banks' deposits
have increased also relatively; and it follows that
not only more people, but also a larger proportion
of the people, are fit for the franchise now than at
the passing of the last Reform Bill. It so happens,
however, that the constituency barely maintains its
existing proportion, arid increased education, wealth,
and personal fitness go for nothing. It is time
to rectify. this backwardation in the working of
the machine. The watch is slow, and wants regu-
lating. Lower the franchise in town and county.
Perhaps this might be postponed—we have managed
to exist without it for some time ; but four Prime
Ministers--names and dates given—have tried
their hands at Reform, and failed, and when the
duty is thus acknowledged all round it is diffi-
cult to escape the conclusion that Reform is
coming. If Lord Russell does not tackle it,
another will. But he is not bound to propose a bill
which, however good, will not pass. Ile may do
what is plainly right, or, at least, unavoidable, and
leave something for others to do if they like ; and
Mr. Gibson intimates that he could die happy even
if he did leave that little bequest to his heirs and
executors. Such is Mr. Gibson's view of the subject,
and it harmonises singularly with Mr. Bright's,
though the latter does not always bow to the les-
sons of experience and is under no official restraint.
Lord Houghton, too, has spoken in much the same
tone. He trusts the people, smiles at those who
don't, and wishes to see a greater proportion ad-
mitted into the constituency. But let us be prac-
tical, he says, and moderate ; let us eschew theories
and needless divisions. A new popular constituency
is offered you, he seems to say ; accept it and be
thankful. Have no hobbies of your own i and we
see in the margin, as a various reading to hobbies,
redistribution of seats, &c.. This is all very wise, if
indeed it be practical. That is what it pretends to
be. It is that or nothing. So far as regards a de-
precation of all such controversies as lodging fran-
chise, savings bank franchise, or assessed taxes fran-
chise, we are inclined to agree that they are not prac-
tical. But we beg to doubt entirely the practicable-
ness, not to say more, of dealing with the franchise
ourselves, leaving the seats to those that come after.
There is nothing so easily simulated as the practical
tone, and no doubt the advice given in this tone
would often be good, if it were likely to be received,
or could even be followed. But there's the rub. Mr.
Gibson appears to think a complete Reform. Bill has
no chance of passing. We see greater difficulties in
the way of one which is confessedly incomplete.
These gentlemen appear to assume that their work
is so well cut out for them, and lies so handy o n the
ground, that they may take it as they please, . in any
order, or by any instalments. With this supposed
command of the material and of the area, they very
naturally proceed upon the ordinary contractor's
plan of doing that first which will most facilitate
what comes after. This would be very well if we
had only material and the elements of nature to deal
with ; and philosophers who live in a little world of
their own are very apt to fall into the way of re-
garding their fellow-creatures as so many stocks and
stones, or like the cabbage-stalks the young preacher
had practised upon. But the contrary is the case
here. We have to deal with antagonists quite as
intelligent, quite as capable of forecasting the future,
quite as sensitive, and quite as interested as we can
possibly think ourselves. They see the whole mat-

ter in question as well as we do, perhaps better, as :
being more conservative, more selfish as we may
think, and, therefore, more susceptible. But deal-
ing, as we are about to do, with ten thousand tender
susceptibilities and quickened understandings, it is
quietly proposed to protract the sufferings of the
patientby repeated operations of increasing severity.
The Reformers of the last generation used to laugh
at the process, calling it " bit by bit Reform," and
comparing it to the amputation of a dog's tail joint
by joint. The simile did not apply very closely to
the succession of small repairs which the Tories
once stood out for in place of reform, for it would
have been possible, though slow and very irritating,
to disfrancise one borough, then another, and be-
stow the seat on the foremost claimant. But it does
apply with singular exactness to the plan of opera-
tions recommended by the speakers before us. If
we began with the franchise and attempted to
postpone the distribution of seats, we should im-
mediately find ourselves dealing with the seats twice
over, and thus repeating the most painful part of the
process. At least a hundred constituencies would
be placed in a double peril—the peril of changing
hands by the immediate lowering of the fran-
chise, and the peril of annihilation or absorption
by the coming redistribution of scats. It is need-
less to instance boroughs, but every constituency
now consisting of four hundred or five hundred
£lO-householders, with some freemen, would find
itself liable to be swamped with £6-householders
this year, and next year placed in Schedule A. In
common phrase, it would find itself about to be
" robbed and murdered." The would-be operators
propose this precise succession of stages for their
own convenience. The victim, however, would see
a perfect unity in the transection, the final catas-
trophe involved in the opening scene. The battle
for dear life would begin at once, and it would be
felt to be useless to haggle about qualifications,
rents, rates, and such details, when the conclusion
of the bargain was to be the signal for execution.
Now, it is idle to be at the cost of expensive repairs
when the house is to be pulled down as soon as the
repairs are completed. It is idle to retrench with
elaborate uniformity when. it is intended to break
up the establishment altogether, and perhaps to go
into the Bankruptcy Court. It is like the old re-
cipe, how to dress a cucumber, which finishes with
throwing it out of the window. The representa-
tives of the threatened boroughs will decline to
trouble themselves with statistics, and, if they are
not in the plot, will altogether oppose the bill, which
is only the preliminary of their destruction. Thus,
whatever the terms of the measure itself, and
however carefully the promoters may chart out the
course to be taken, the House of Commons will go
at once into the very thick of the question, and ad-
dress itself to the most important points of the pro-
posed Reform. A hundred constituencies, more or
less, are to be put on their trial, and they feel, as
every accused person does, that much depends On
the constitution and composition of the Court.
They are to be told plainly,—so it is urged in some
quarters,—that the existing Court of Parliament
cannot quite be trusted to do justice upon them;
while another sort of Government would find no
difficulty in hanging them, and, indeed, would rather
like to do so. So the hundred threatened constitu-
encies and their representatives are to be invited
to assist in creating a new Parliament, quite safe
to make an example of them. Are they likely to
respond to this appeal ? Will they, like Mrs. Bond's
ducks, " come to be killed ?" If the reduction of
the franchise is to work as intended by good Re-
formers, will it make even the small boroughs more
ready to pass measures of general good at the cost
of their own petty and exceptional interests ? But
the question in Parliament No. 2 will not be decided
by the small boroughs. The populous constituencies,
still more popularised by the first instalment of the
contemplated reform, and safe themselves from
schedules A and B, will have every interest, public
and private, in the extinction of the small boroughs.
It is they that will constitute the new tribunal to
which the threatened constituencies are invited to
appeal, or, rather, which they are invited to create
for their own surer and speedier condemnation. Of
course, they will see all this as plainly as their worst
foes. There is nothing in this world that is wiser
than selfishness for the purpose of its own ends. It
makes no plans, and has none except that which is
dictated by Nature's first instincts, of which self-
preservation is foremost. There is not a borough in
this kingdom which does not contain a few heads
that can play a rubber of whist as well as Mr. Gibson
or Lord Houghton, Mr. Bright or Lord Russell ;
and that is quite head enough for the game before
them, which is to get and keep what they can.
IJERALD.—The Spanish insurrection is at an end.
After marching about in the mountains for 16 days,
General Prim and his friends have retired across
the frontier into Portugal. Pursued somewhat
closely by the loyal troops under Major Camino,
the insurgent force seems to have followed the
course of the Guadiana river, and escaped from Spain
at a point about half way between Badajoz and
Xeres de los Caballeros. There is but little doubt
that they have surrendered to the Portuguese au-
thorities at Bananco, according to one account,
or at Encenazola, if we may trust another. The
Portuguese have, of course, disarmed them, and
put it out of their power to do further mischief
for the present. It was said that a strong
detachment had been detailed for the purpose
of intercepting this retreat ; but, if so, General
Prim has succeeded in evading it, and he, too, for
the time, is safe from his enemies. The only hope
of success for this rash movement lay in the co-
operation of the friends of Prim, the enemies of the
O'Donnell Government, the Progresistas or Libe-
rals, throughout the country. The elements of dis-
order are generally so rife in Spain, the tenure of
the existing Government is so insecure, the minds of
men are so unsettled, so dissatisfied with things as
they are, and so eager for any change which may
give a chance of better, that the least spark of dis-
cord is enough to kindle a conflagration, and any
attempt at revolution has a fair prospect of success.
Spain is not governed by political parties, but by
soldiers, as Rome was iu her degenerate days.
Prim, as a soldier, was universally popular with the
army. He had fought for Queen Christina and
Queen Isabella ; he has fought with Espartero and
against Espartero ; he had plunged into the struggle
between Turks and Russians on the Danube ; he had
signalised himself by acknowledged daring in the
war between Spain and Morocco ; had acquitted
himself bravely in the combined operations in
Mexico, and withdrawn in a dignified manner when
his purpose and that of his country seemed to have
been accomplished. He was the idol of the lower
classes, the favourite of the soldiers. Any one who
has walked, during the last year or two, along the
smaller streets or in the suburbs of Madrid must
have been soon convinced of this by ocular and oral
evidence. In the shopwindows were flaring prints,
representing hosts of Russians or Moors in hot re-
treat, and the chivalrous Spaniard charging them at
the head of his troops. By the footway men chanted
ballads which told how the Paynir fled from him as
from a destroying angel; how his arms, like that of
the Cid, was resistless in battle ; how Prim had
but to unsheathe his sword and shout Viva la
Reina, and the enemies of Spain were scattered
as the chaff before the wind. From north to
south, and from east to west ; from the slopes of
the Pyrenees to the turrets of Medina Sidonia ;
from the mouth of the Ebro to where the
Gudiana enters Portugal by oft beleaguered
Badajoz, in the length and breadth of Spain, but a
fortnight ago there was no hero to be compared to
Prim. But if the Count de Reus had gained the
hearts of the commonalty and the private soldiers,
his rival, the Duke of Tetuan, a stronger and more
taciturn man, as ambitious as he, but less demon-
strative, had founded himself securely in the attach-
ment of the great military chieftains and officers of
state, whom he had interested, by pensions and
honours, in the maintenance of the present order of
things. In the revolt of 1854 against Sartorius
half at least of the general officers sided with O'Don-
nell and Espartero. In this late abortive movement
Prim stood absolutely alone. Espartero, Liberal
though he be, stood apart and aloof from the move-
ment of the self-constituted champion of the Pro-
gresista party. The officers of the army, with
scarcely one exception,, were firm in supporting
O'Donnell. The Spanish lord lieutenants, the cap-
tains general of the provinces, suppressed with a
vigorous hand the attempted imeutes in Catalonia,
Aragon, and elsewhere. The demonstrations in
Madrid, in Barcelona, and Saragossa, were of the
feeblest description. Prim, with his two battalions,
having utterly failed in his endeavour to excite a
mutiny in the army, and a rising throughout the
country, had no choice left him but to retire as
speedily as possible. It may be supposed that no-
thing remains for him but impeachment, disgrace,
and a sentence of confiscation and perpetual banish-
ment. But Spain is a strange country, and the
course of events there is not so easily anticipated.
Another turn of the wheel, another shuffling of the
cards, and the fortunes of Prim, which are now
unpromising, may be in the ascendant. Ile may be
condemned as a traitor to-day, to-morrow he may
be Prime Minister. General Prim has survived so
many vicissitudes of the sort that he may fairly
hope to tide over this momentary check. At the
close of the year 1842 he escaped into France, an
order having been issued for his arrest, in conse-
quence of his being suspected of complicity in the
rising at Saragossa. Next year he was more suc-
cessful in the pronuncianziento of Reus, which
issued in the triumph of the Christinos
and the fall of Espartero. Raised to the pinnacle
of prosperity in 1843, when he was made Governor
of Madrid, he was disgraced in 1814, and put on his
trial for his life for having conspired against Narvaez.
He was condemned to six years' imprisonment, and
released in six months. The hero of Inzeutes and

revolutions;he managed to be on the winning side
in 1853, but his Liberal principles have made him
dissatisfied with the rule of O'Donnell, which suc-
ceeded to the short-lived restoration of Espartero.
In England a political opponent makes speeches,
convenes public meetings, indites pamphlets or lead-
ing articles, and heads the assault on his enemy in
the House of Commons. In Spain political life is a
dead letter, a form without meaning, a body with-
out spirit. In Spain the leader of the opposition
issues a proclamation, and takes the field at the head
of what troops he can muster. The masses of the
people look on with about the same indifference that
they do on a debate about the Reform Bill among
politicians in England. The inconvenience of this
form of procedure is, that if the Spanish politician is
taken by his enemy he is in some danger of being
shot. General Prim trusted in his star, and though
all Spain would follow it. He had something a
the faith which his wife seems to have had when she
boasted that " her Juanito failed in nothing." lie
has failed, however, and it is lucky for him that he
has got across into Portugal. It does not seem a 3
if the enemy was very anxious to catch him. In-
deed, the hesitating and dubious action of the
O'Donnell Cabinet, and the strange evolutions el,
General Prim, who was allowed to wander about
almost unmolested for 16 days, have given rise ,e
curious conjectures of some deep political design,
In
which men higher in authority than Prim are sup-
posed to have been implicated. However this may
be, and whether or not Marshal O'Donnell eneee;
raged this demonstration with some ulterior and!
sinister purpose, whoever were the conspirators, I.t
is enough for us at the present that the plot has
failed. Prim is a refugee in Portugal, and Isabella
11. still reigns in Spain.