The Sun.
London, England, 1859-02-01 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, TUESDAY EVENING, FEBRUARY 1, 1859.

ORGANIC WEAKNESS-ITS CAUSES AND CURE.

Just published (with Engravings, and an Appendix on the
Curative Powers of Galvanic-Electricity), price le., free by
post for 13 stamps,

SELF-PRESERVATION : A Medical Treatise
on NERVOUS DEBILITY and FUNCTIONAL
WEAKNESS, more particularly in reference to the INFIR-
MITIES and DISORDERS of the GENERATIVE SYSTEM;
tracing the Origin of these distressing afflictions to causes
which vitiate the very fountains of Life and prematurely de-
stroy the vigour of Manhood. With Practical Observations
on the Cure of these Diseases, and on the extraordinary re-
storative power of LOCAL GALVANISM in Spermatorrhcea,
Tmpotence, and Sterility, in which cases it is applied without
pain or danger, and is frequently successful without the aid
of medicine.

BY SAMUEL LA'MERT, M.D.,
37, BEDFORD SQUARE, LONDON,
Registered Licentiate of the London Society of Apothecaries,
3AlnemerrnbernoefnutsheiniLpornesdsoinnnHeozsittsail
Doctor of Medicine of the University of Erlangen, Honorary
Member
that Medical
u b linsanetny, tecin.
on these disorders emanate only unqualifiedfromp
but as the new Medical Act provides that npersons,
en:
practitioners shall assume any medical title,
ne
tllsreetrisatiered
are
legally qualified can readily be distinguished—a point of great
importance in cases where secrecy, confidence, and skillare
equally requisite.
In the new edition of ' Self-Preservation,' facts of para-
mount utility are brought together—facts appealing to the
prudence of all who are suffering from affections which in-
volve the enfeeblement and ultimate loss of those powers
without which man forfeits the dignity of nature, and sinks to
the most pitiable depths of physical and moral degradation.
In cases where the vital essences have been weakened by the
influences of tropical climates, by pernicious habits, indiscri-
minate excesses, improper diet, hardship, or by iniudicious
t eut the means of cure adopted bth autor, intree m , on of Local Galvanism, have
'unction with the app
rally .
cases where gene-
junction with
successful, even in
rally been
been pronounced imphorossible.
price ls., or free by post for thir-
A
Published by the ut ,
had of Allen, Warwick-lane, Pater-
teen stamps, and may be
tt, chemist, Market-street,
noster-row, London ; Westmaco
Manchester ; J, Guest, Bull-street, Birmingham; Baraclough,
Fargate, Sheffield ; Rayner, High-street, Southampton ; W.
H.
Powell, We
Love, Enoch-square, Glasgow;
who may
be costmoreland-
asulthd
street, Dublin, or from the Author,
daily, from Eleven till Two, and from Six till Eight, at his
residence, 37, Bedford-square, London

A Bums SCHOLARSHIP.—We recently pointed j
out that, in addition to the ephemeral celebration of the
Burns centenary, a more lasting tribute to his genius, by
the establislunent of one or more scholarships in our local
colleges, was desirable. We are glad to say that an ener-
getic gentleman has the matter in hand, and has already
collected a considerable sum of money. It is intended in a
few days to solicit public assistance towards this object.—
Liver/3M sigion.

TILE NEW REFORM BILL.

At a special meeting of the Law Amendment
Society- held on Saturday a paper was read by Mr.
E. Chadwick on " The methods of preparation for
Legislation by open Commissions of Inquiry, or by
the close Cabinet method, especially as applicable
.to the Reform of Parliameht.

Sir James Stephen presided.
Mr. CHADWICK commenced by stating that his
attention had been first called to this subject at the
time of the announcement of a second 'Reform Bill
by Lord J. Russell, when he was consulted as to
the organisation of a commission -of inquiry by
various persons who were anxious, before proceed-
ing to further legislation, that all the doubtful mat-
tors of fact'connected with this question should be
cleared up. No doubt, it would be said that all the
facts needing consideration in the preparation of a
Reform Bill were already sufficiently notorious, but.
in other cases in which the Same argument had been
urged the effects of commissions of. inquiry had-been
to reverse every main principle,. and almost every-
assumed chief elementary fact, on which the gene-
ral public, parliamentary committees, and leading
statesmen were prepared to legislate. The questions
of pauPerism and poor law administration, of crime
and penal administration, of pestilence and sanitary
legislation, and of the evils attendant on excessive
manufacturing labour, were conspicuous instances
of this reversal, and there must be many material
facts 'connected with the working of the; last Reform
Bill which were not at present any better ascer-
tained. An inquiry of some kind therefore must be
presumed to be necessary,.and the question for con-
sideration was how this inquiry was to be made,
whether by the close Cabinet, a parliamentary com-
mittee, or an open commission. With regard to the
first method, Lord 1. Russell in his evidence before
the committee on official salaries had complained
Atria.; antitpkinziff.filsorerzitenttbAt'
re"'

of L. Ministers could spare time from
their offices to give attention to a great subject, and
since 1850, when this evidence was given, the leisure
which was left after the performance of the settled and
routine ministerial duties had much diminished,while
the subject matters necessary to be examined, and
the time required for the preparations of new mea-
sures had greatly increased. It might be assumed,
therefore, that the Cabinet had not the power of
inquiring into new facts, and the basis of a measure
prepared exclusively by the Cabinet must necessa-
rily be limited to the facts already known to the
two or three members of it forming the committee
to whom the question was confided. However fairly
intended, measures affecting varied conditions of
men so prepared must be narrow and partial, and
would, moreover, be exposed to the charge of un-
fairness. There could be no certainty as to the
:reception they would meet with, except, indeed,
they. were framed in conformity with " public
opinion," which Mr. Chadwick defined to be com-
monly the opinion of newspaper writers. Quoting
a remark of Thomas Carlyle in reference to the
late Mr. Sterling, that he "played the conjuror
very much." having to enunciate " three hun-
' dred and sixty-five opinions every year on every
subject," Mr. Chadwick proceeded to argue that
such an opinion, which must be the re-
sult of the most fragmontitious attention to a
multiplicity of questions, would afford the most
unsafe basis of legislation. Though an inquiry by
y a Parliamentary committee would be fuller and
more complete than any which the members of a
Cabinet could make, yet still it shared, in a lesser
degree, the inconvenience of having to be conducted
under the pressure and distraction of Parliamentary
duties. It has often occurred that committees which
had gone more deeply than usual into a question
had concluded by acknoWledging their own in-
ability to go sufficiently deeply, and had recom-
mended the appointment of a commission which
could give a protracted and undivided attention to
the subject. The open method of inquiry by com-
mission, besides giving the best facilities for ascer-
taining facts, would bring to light, as no other
investigators could, the state of opinion and infor-
mation in every nook and corner of the kingdom.
Mr. Chadwick in proof of this instanced the Poor
Law Commission and the Constabulary Force
Commission, which, by queries circulated all
over the kingdom and the oral examination of
persons in all ranks of society, collected a mass of
information on the subjects in handwhich could not
have been got at in any other mode. The publica-
tion, too, of the report of the commission, which
must be regarded as a quasi judicial document,
with the evidence, would have a great effect outlast
public mind, and would denude the question of all
party attributes. Opposition would be disarmed by
the display of facts and reasons required to be
grappled with, and members of the House of Com -
mons who acted less on their own views than on
the promptings of their constituents would be able
thus to judge of the form and extent of any.probable
opposition or support, and to shape their course
accordingly. Mr. Chadwick quoted from an article
in the Edinburgh Review for July, 1857, to show
that at present a very low state of information pre-
vailed in the country as to the complicated nature of
this question of Parliamentary Reform, and argued
thence that as legislation prepared on the close
Cabinet system must be in accordance with this
imperfect information, the more politic course
would be by an open commission of inquiry to bring
public information to that state of maturity which
the subject demanded. Among the points con-
nected with this question demanding elucidation
might be enumerated the failure of recent legisla-
tion to put down bribery and corruption, the refusal
of large masses of voters in great constituencies to
exercise the franchise, the extent to which the
education franchise might be conferred, whether
the possession of a certain amount in the savings
bank ought to entitle a man to a vote, the effect of
the present large electioneering expenses in keeping
able men out of the House of Commons and the
means of reducing those expenses, which a com-
mission could alone satisfactorily investigate. Ad-
verting to the proposal of Earl Grey to appoint a
Committee of Privy Councillors to prepare a
measure of Parliament Reform, Mr. Chadwick
argued that though such a committee might bo
very. usefully employed in settling issues to be
inquired into, it could not be possessed of the
machinery for conducting tho inquiry, which must
be to a great extent local. In conclusion, Mr.
Chadwick disclaimed any intention of offering
any opinion on the subject matter for exami-
nation, in respect to which he himself required
further opportunities for investigation. His only
object was to call attention to the extreme inexpe-
diency of looking for the preparation of measures
of the highest magnitude to what must be prac-
tically the weakest kind of preparation—namely,
preparation by officers so intensely pre-occupied
that, according to Lord J. Russell, " there are few
of them who can give their attention to a great
subject, and look at the consequences to the coun-
try of the measures that are adopted."
Sir JAMES STEPHEN thought Mr. Chadwick
deserved great credit for denouncing one pf the
commonest but most dangerous sins of our day—
the habit of acting on incomplete knowledge. It was
often asked why.social science made such slow ad-
vance in comparison with the progress of physical
science, but the answer was obvious. Those who
taught the laws of the material world never ad-
vanced to a conclusion until after the most ex-
haustive scrutiny, while those who addressed us with
respect to the well-being of the commonwealth were
continually arriving at broad conclusions in the most
incredible ignorance ofihe grounds from which alone
true conclusions could be deduced. Constitutional
liberty was, no doubt, an inestimable advantage,
but we paid a very high price for it. It was usually
said to consist in the submission of the Legislature
and the executive Government to the control of
public opinion. But what was public opinion? How
could it be ascertained, or how could the true be
distinguished from the spurious ? Of all the Idola
tribus there was no oracle so difficult of access, none
so easily confounded with meaner voices. The hiero-
phants of this mysterious power defined it to be-the
deliberate judgment of the great majority of the
people on all such questions as affected the people
themselves. On all such subjects it was said the
judgment of Demos must be authoritative and con-
clusive, or there was no constitutional liberty. But
the true value of that judgment must depend upon
the extent of his knowledge, and from what sources
could Demos gather his knowledge ? Not much
from books, for his best friends did not assert him
to be studious ; not much from converse, nor
much from observation, for the divisions and
pt
irloepsoutieo np
places
thees frpeople teor
atdhlee
tsoamt
hoe
subdivisions of labour confined the great
pursuits
But
Demos was not without
his sources of information.
Of late he had learnt to read, and the newspapers
comprised 99-100ths of his di rea ng. He was the
daily pupil of some such improvisat° re as Mr.
had Ster-
ling, to whom reference been made in the
papers just read. This editorial • •
znzprovzs:itore on
each of the 365 days of the year was delivered of
one or several peremptory decisions on all manner
of subjects. In their turn he travelled through the
entire cycle of all political and social questions.
He was a splendid rhetorician, his artifices of style
fertility of resources, And his promptitude of

perfsrmance seemed half a miracle to the uniniated
—and even to the initiated his self-reliance must be
even yet more amazing. There was no subject,
either directly or indirectly related to the varied
interests of the empire of which he did not claim to
have scaled the height, spanned the breath, and
fathomed the depth. Occasionally Demos listened
to his platform orators, but always on the condition
that they said nothing to shock his prejudices or
-Wound his selfesteem ; and occasionally he studied
the. Parliamentary debates, where he found the
partisans of a Ministry in esse and a Ministry in
posse discussing the points of dieerence between
them with all the lucidity and the impartiality of
the Bens togata, whose enthusiasm for or against
any verdict was daily on sale in Westminster-hall.
Bid whoever- were his teachers his stipulation with
them was still the same—he must never be fatigued.
The leading article must be readable in five minutes,
and he must be kept from yawning over the speech
by a plentiful seasoning of personality and pointed
antithesis. Thus instructed, Demos presented him-
self at the polling booth, to decide which of the
millions in theseislands- was best fitted to enact
faithfully in the House of-Commons the laws which
he had already made up ills mind to receive. But
since by Mr. Bright's Reform Bill the powers
of Demos were to be considerably increased, and
the opportunities .for . exercising them multi-
plied, he ought-to know something of the natural
history of an Act of Parliament. His teachers
should inform him that it Was a paradoxical plant,
in whose creation three -7progenitors must agree—
the Government, the draughtsman, and the three
estates of the realm. The legislative functions of
the, Government were a. novelty introduced within
the last few years. They were unknown to the Do
Lolme and Blackstone - Constitution. After the
peace of 1815 the Administration began to hold
their offices on the condition of making annually
some notable additions to the statute book. Be-

tween'ebruary and July public opinion detu._
that the Ministry for the time being should carry
three or four considerable measures on pain of re-
signation. If this punishment were inflicted the
House of Commons decided which of the leaders
should have the task of forming a new Administra-
tion, a task which was by no means easy. In the
first place, none could be appointed to office who
were not members of Parliament. They must be
rich enough to sacrifice all other pursuits, and they
must be able to express themselves in public with
ease and propriety. Thus, if a Prime Minister
had 30 offices to fill he rarely had more than about
60 persons from whom to choose—and yet out
of these he was expected to find one man who
was perfectly acquainted with all the ramifica-
tions of our foreign relations, another who had
made naval administration his study, another who
had colonial affairs at his fingers' end, a fourth who
was thoroughly up in military matters, a fifth who
was fitted to govern the vast empire of India, and
so on. But, supposing the Government formed,
then came the work of legislation. A certain ques-
tion called for legislation. It was referred to the
head of the department in the scope of which it
came, and possibly the popular belief might be that
on that reference the head of the department would
sit down at his desk and draw up an abstract of
what ought to be done. But the process was very
different, and perhaps nothing would illustrate it
better than an instance drawn from his own per-
sonal experience. When Mr. Huskisson was Pre-
sident of the Board of Trade an abridgment of Cus-
toms law, which then filled a thick quarto volume,
was called for. Mr. Deacon Hume was summoned
from the Custom-house of London and desired by
the Minister to undertake the duty. He began
by taking a lodging in Parliament-street, exiled
himself from his family, and disappeared from
mankind for a couple of months. At the end
of that time he returned with a small loose volume
containing about as many words as a common num-
ber ofßlackwood, but embodying all that he thought
worth preserving in our Customs law. Mr. Hus-
kisson took charge of it, preserved it from so-called
amendments in the House of Commons, and just as
it came from Mr. Hume's pen the statute passed
into law. So much for two of the progenitors of an
act, the Government and the draughtsman. There
remained the third, the three estates of the realm.
Sometimes when a bill got into Parliament it was
sent to a committee upstairs, but from the constitu-
tion of this tribunal and the limited means of in-
quiry its judgment could never be thoroughly
satisfactory. For instance, in 1828 the affairs of
Canada were referred to a select committee of the
Mouse of Commons, which sat long, heard much, and
did nothing. Seven years later occured the Cana-
dian rebellion, and then a commission was sent out
under Lord Durham, which recommended the very
identical course he (Sir J. Stephen) had in vain
pressed on the committee seven years before in the
course of a protracted examination. Those
recommendations were then adopted, and perfect
tranquillity had followed, but Parliament was un-
able to see the policy of them until Lord Durham's
local inquiry had taken place. But if a bill wero
not sent upstairs, so much of importance was lopped
off, so much that was foreign engrafted on it, and
its author had to submit to so many compromises
to bring it alive through committee that the Royal
assent frequently sent it into the world in a shape
which was certain to produce very different results
to those which were originally contemplated. In
the French " Ordonnances des Rois" there were
certain passages with respect to the conseil d'etat,
from which it was evident that the devising and
arrangement of the laws previous to their enact•
meat was one of the chief duties of that body. Every
paragraph of the "Code Napoleon" was gone through
and debated in this manner before it was passed into
law. Some such committee would be of great use in
this country, if it attached to itself assessors on all the
several subjects on which the members themselves
had no special knowledge. Any one who was old
enough to remember the anticipations amid
which the Reform Bill of 1832 was passed
must admit that all the prophets, whether
they prophesied pleasant things or evil things,
were alike wrong. They were wrong because
they mistook their scanty knowledge for complete
knowledge, and the prophets of 1859 did not seem
to be taking auy trouble to remove this reproach ;
they did not seem to see a bit more clearly to the
end of the dark and most momentous road on which
they were entering. If we were to have a Reform
Bill at the mandate of public opinion we ought to
have a commission to hear what public opinion had
said or had to say for itself on the matter. It was
strange that all our institutions were to be at the
mercy of one voice, and that the utterances of that
voice had not one representative reporter.
A general discussion follow ed, and, though some
of the speakers condemned commissions as costly,
prejudiced, and irresponsible, the majority seemed
to be of opinion that Mr. Chadwick's proposal was
deserving of serious consideration.
The meeting separated after a vote of thanks to
the chairman, proposed by Lord Monteagle.

PROPOSED 3IEMBER FOR CHESTER,

FIELD.

It is now several years since we urged on the
inhabitants of Chesterfield the policy of exerting
themselves to obtain a representative in Parliament.
The proposition at that time met with comparatively
little response, but time, while it has furnished, in
the increased and increasing importance, popula-
tion, and prosperity of the town and neighbourhood,
stronger arguments in its favour than we could
then urge, has convinced many prudent and sen
sible men of the perfect justice and reasonableness
of the claim of a member for Chesterfield.
The statistics produced by the Mayor, in his
excellent and judicious speech at the meeting last
week, supply evidence which cannot be refuted that
the claim of the town for a member is fair and just.
It is a fact that no county in England or Wales,
containing a population now upwards of 300,000,
returns so few members as Derbyshire. There arc
the two members for each of the Northern and
Southern Divisions, and there are the two members
for the town of Derby with its population of between
40,000 and 50,000. Can it be fair that Devonshire,
for instance, with a population not twice that of
Derbyshire, should return 18 members for towns and
boroughs, and that Dorset, with little more than
half the population of Derbyshire, should return 11
borough members ; Sussex, only a little more popu-
lous, 14 ; and Southampton the same number ?
There are numerous other glaring inconsistencies of
a similar kind which are patent to every one who
bestows the least trouble in the examination. It is
perfectly true that there are comparatively few
towns of any importance in Derbyshire, but that,
we conceive is an argument why those which are so
should be represented; and, without disparaging
the claims of other towns, we cannot but place those
of Chesterfield in the foremost rank. It was clearly
shown by the Mayor that Chesterfield and its
suburbs now comprised a town population of
13,000, with a rateable value in the township of
Chesterfield alone of £18,400 in 1851. In North
Wilts there are 10 members representing on an
average 6,.566 each, and in West Cornwall 6 mein-

hers representing 6,931 each; and numerous similar
inequalities might be adduced.
But if the growing elements of a town popula-
tion be impartially considered, Chesterfield will
appear to have peculiar claims. There can be no
doubt that from very early times of our history,
.representatives were returned from towns in which
any peculiar manufactory or trade was carried on.
It was supposed that towns distinguished by any
special kind of trade, such as the woollen trade,
mining, ship-building, or what not, had peculiar
interests to support, and ought, therefore, to have
representatives fully
.acquainted with their local
and special interests, in order that such traders and
manufactures might receive no detriment in the
laws enacted in.the Great Council of the Nation for
the common good. The great principle on which
our Anglo-Saxon forefathers acted was that. neither
population alone, nor property alone, should be re-
presented, but that every class in the community
—classes forming minorities, as well as those form-
ing majorities—should be fairly represented in the
Witenagemot, the. Great Council. As, therefore,
towns grew into importance, and their interests re-
quired special consideration, their representatives
appeared in Parliament. And it has been just
because every class, the noble, the priest, the agri-
culturist, the merchant, the trader, the workman,
the very poor man, and the very. rich man, and the
middle classes also, have been fairly represented in
the Commons House of Parliament, that a system
has grown up in England by which no class inte-
rest has been allowed to predominate, and under
which, whatever may be its faults and imperfec-
tions—a greater amount of civil, religious, and
personal liberty has been enjoyed by all than ever
has been, or is, the case, in any country in the
world.
Returning -to Chesterfield, we affirm that this
town, with its rapidly increasing collieries and iron
works, making it the centre of the iron district of
Derliyshire' and its teeming population, is exactly
the place `which ought in justice to be admitted to
a share in the representation.
Mr. Bright has been too intent in his fanatical
crusade against the landowners, and too bent on
his system of the centralisation of all political power
in the large town populations, to bestow a thought
on the claims of such a town as Chesterfield.
But there are statesmen who can rise above the
paltry injustice of class legislation, who will be
found, we doubt not, willing to attend to our rea-
sonable demands. We do not, therefore, despair of
seeing Chesterfield raised to the rank of an inde-
pendent borough, with an honest, intelligent, and
patriotic constituency.—Derbysliire Courier.