The Sun.
London, England, 1859-09-10 00:00:00

from Gibraltar. The Urgent has had fine, weather
the whole passage home. On the 7th inst., off
Cape Finisterre, at 7 p.m., she signalled the Pent
steamer. At Gibraltar were her Majesty's ships
Vulture and Redpole. Three deaths have occurred
during the passage: The Urgent steamed into
Portsmouth harbour soon after high water, and
berthed alongside.the sheer jetty.
In consequence of the activity with which re-
cruiting for the Royal Marines has proceeded, the
Chatham division is now considerably over its usual
complement. Yesterday a number of volunteers
joined head-quarters from the 3d West York Light
Infantry Militia Regiment.

Very extensive barracks have just been completed
by a gentleman named Nurse, in Gardner's-lane,
Westminster, calculated to accommodate several
hundred men. They are intended for the nume-
rous recruits continually enlisted in the metropolis,
as well as for those arriving from the provinces
en route to join head-quarters of their, respective
regiments, the speculator undertaking to supply a
bed and the other necessary requirements, ablu-
tion, &c., for the sum of 4d. each man, as allowed
by Government. The establishment of this rendez-
vous has received the approval of the authorities, as
it will considerably reduce the number of billets
required to be made on hotel and innkeepers, and
tend to lessen the opportunities for desertion 'that
occur between intermediate and final approval.
Yesterday the Royal Eltham, sth Middlesex,
Militia, Lieut.-Col. M. Prior - commandant, now
stationed in Dublin, had several recruiting parties
out in the metropolis raising men to, make up the
required strength of the regiment, which has been
considerably reduced from the number of men who
have volunteered into the regular army.
The Essex Yeomanry, under the conimand of
Major Palmer, will muster at Chelmsford next
week for their annual training.

MR. BRIGHT AT BUDDERSFIELD.

(From the Tones.)
The vein of abuse which Mr. Bright has openeil
against Parliament and all our institutions is very
rich. It contains 70 per cent. of good metal. We
agree with him that the House of CoaamOns does
not represent the people, or England in any sense,
truly and faithfully ; we agree with him that there
has been, and still is, vast waste in the management
of our Army and Navy • we agree with him that
the Established Church does not meet, or pretend
to meet, the spiritual wants of the country, even as
those wants are measured by a good Churchman.
But what is it,all to the purpose, and what is to be
done ? Mr. Bright's answer to the question is
" Parliamentary Reform." That is meant to be the
practical inference from his arguments ; yet his rea-
soning fails at every point, and he goes on abusing
everything and ,everybody, when the argument
itself would have required some intermission of
abuse, and just a lighter shade or two in the very
gloomy picture. " The House of Commons," says
Mr. Bright, "has no principle of its own; it only
passes the measures forced upon it. Sec how it did
Ase ith Reform, with the Criminal Code, with Church-
rates, with India, with the Corn Laws, and other
sources of vexation. It only admitted the grievance
when it could stop its ears no longer." The natural
inference from all this is, the people have only to
express themselves very strongly, and Parliament
will attend to them. Why, this is not bad, as things
go. What more does anybody expect from a Par-
liament ? When you go to an hotel or a shop you
may lament that the cook has noenterprise and the
upholsterer no original genius. You may wish to
dispense with the trouble of finding out for your-
selves what it is you want, but if the cook sends up
the dinner you order, and the linendraper the pre-
cise quantity and quality of towelling you wrote
down, you have not much to complain of. It is
quite possible that an enterprising Parliament, desi-
rous to go ahead of the people, might go ahead of
Mr. Bright; but the theory of representation in-
sisted on by all. Radical Reformers is that it shall
be really representative,—representing, not the in-
stitutions, the wealth, or the character of England,
but the people, and nothing but the people. Ac-
cording to Mr. Bright, the House of Commons re-
presents the people only too slavishly. It is a dull
beast; it wants spur and whip; but it does its
work worthily, at the pace the rider wishes. What
more is wanted ? We think something more ; but
then we do not quite go along with Mr. Bright.
" But the House of Commons," says Mr. Bright,
" is slow, and without any spontaneous interest in
Reform, because a very large proportion of its
members are personally interested in keeping
things as they are. At least 300 members on one
side or the other receive from the public purse five
times as much as they contribute to it. Of course,
they will never reform Parliament, or anything
else, if they can help it." This may be a lamenta-
ble fact, but how is it to be avoided ? Were the
representation made more popular, there would
only be a still stronger necessity for administering
patronage with a view to support. There would
still be a whipper-in, and his office would be more
laborious than ever. The exercise of official pa-
tronage in this country is Utopian virtue and hap-
piness itself compared with the quadrennial trans-
fer of office in the United States. The representa-
tion of France from 1815 to 1848 was according to
a charter, uniform, and without anomalies. It also
included a large proportion of the class whose ab-
sence Mr. Bright so feelingly laments in this coun-
try. It was made the vehicle of a universal cor-
ruption, and conveyed governing influence to every
elector in the land. Let us reform the House of
Commons by all means; but if we do it ever so ef-
fectually we shall find Mr. Bright ten years hence
still considering whether to continue his thankless
patriotism or apply for the Chiltern Hundreds. In
one respect the House of Commons represents the
people only too faithfully. The people are not so
desirous of theoretical reforms but that a very
slight interest in the existing system will make them
Conservatives, or very slack Reformers. A sen-e
of public duty is the result of high principle, good
influences, and education. Of the dozen men you
may meet in Cheapside or Tooley-street, ten at
least will be quite ready to ask the favour of a
place, with the implied understanding that for the
future you will be friends, or not very bitter foes.
Go a grade lower ; descend to the £6 householders,
or lower, to those who can boast of nothing but
their " manhood," and Mr. Bright may learn some-
thing about them from the Messrs. Leatham, his
ent-rprising, though not equally fortunate,
brothers-in-law.
But Mr. Bright's most original argument against
the House is one which acquires a peculiar interest
in his mouth. Ever since the repeal of the Corn
Laws there has been no such thing as a strong
party, or an absolute or really effective majority in
the House. There has been no steady Government,
secure of its position and sufficiently at ease to
originate measures with a confidence that they
would be passed. Ministries have lasted but a
short time ; a twelvemonth has been sufficient to
throw Lord Derby or Lord Palmerston from his
seat ; a general election has left the Ministers a
trifling majority, which half-a-dozen votes this
way.or that would destroy. No sooner has the
Minister concerted his measures than he has to
leave them unfinished ; and the result is an utter
abeyance of Government in one of its chief consti-
tutional senses, as taking the lead of legislation.
The fact, as stated by Mr. Bright, is deplorable
enough, and he has not done it more than justice.
But who is to blame for it ? If any one man
is more responsible for the fact than another,
it is Mr. Bright himself, who now for many years
has pursued no other describable policy than the
weakening and destruction of the Government
for the time being. It has been the labour of
his life to bring about that which in his own
estimation is the most damning vice in the exist-
ing House of Commons. Why, what is this but the
trick of the plumber to burn your house to find
him a job ; or the horse-doctor, who has ways of
his own to bring all your stud into his list of
patients ? To make an evil, and then make that
evil an agent for something else, is a policy which
Mr, Bright shares with the least respectable class
of practitioners. Mr. Bright has repeatedly voted
for no reason whatever but to turn out a Govern-
ment; but seeing there is no doubt as to the fact,
and it is not to be denied that our Governments are
now removable at the very shortest notice, what
becomes of Mr. Bright's other complaints against
the House of Commons ? On his own showing, it
has absolute power, and even uses that power with
caprice. We will be fair, though he is not. He
says it is powerful because it represents the aristo-
cracy, and can afford to care little either for the
Crown, the people, or the Lords themselves, s a
branch' of the Legislature, and ever since the
Revolution we have been ruled by the great fami-
lies. Strange to say, the Revolution, the Reform
Bill, the repeal of the Corn Laws, have a curious