The Sun.
London, England, 1866-02-02 00:00:00

Two meetings of considerable importance have
been held during this week, both being in the great
centres of industry, and both dealing principally
with the great topic of the day—Reform. The
Manchester meeting was indeed professedly a Re-
form meeting, and several prominent members of
the Liberal party were among the speakers. The
Leeds assembly took the good old English form of
a dinner, being the third annual festival of the
Leeds Working-Men's Conservative Association.
1 This lengthy title shows a somewhat unusual corn-
! bination, since the Liberals generally claim all
Iworking-men as their own supporters; but although
the preponderance may very probably be on
the side of those who take up their cause the most
loudly, still it is only reasonable to infer that
among our artisans and mechanics and agricultural
labourers there is the same variety and difference
of opinion that is found in the ranks above them.
So far these two meetings have taken place very
appropriately, since occurring on the very eve of
the meeting of Parliament they serve to represent
the feelings and wishes of our working men. Mr.
BAZLEY, M.P., was one of the princir al speakers at
the Manchester meeting, and he supported Mr.
BRIGHT'S suggestion, that the Government should
only deal with the extension of the suffrage at present.
Mr. BAZLEY confessed that he should personally
prefer a more comprehensive measure, but that
he thought it would be unwise to refuse any mode-
rate instalment. Mr. POTTER, M.P., in seconding
the resolution which Mr. BAZLEY had proposed,
showed less moderation ; and, after declaring that
any measure less comprehensive than the Bill of
18130 would meet with opposition rather than, sup-
port, he went on to discuss the reforms which
claimed attention as soon as the franchise was
settled. Foremost among these he placed the re-
duction of the national expenditure, certainly a most
desirable aim, but one scarcely to be attained by
Mr. POTTER'S suggestion, that England, having pro-
claimed the doctrine of non-intervention, should
show the example of disarmament to the other great
Powers I It is this sort of theory and random state-
ment which makes the task of Reformers difficult.
In fact, the chief part of the opposition encoun-
tered by those who bring forward the claims
of the working classes is due to their self-
chosen leaders. There is no reason to sup-
pose, from the general conduct of English work-
ing men, that they are dissatisfied with the
forms of the constitution, with the administration
of the laws, or the preservation of property. It
is when moderate men find that those who pro-
fess to be the political leaders of the working
classes, those who address them at public meet-
ings and claim the privilege of being the cham-
Vrcipoinnsolfes,their rights, and the exponents of their
advocating a policy which is totally
opposed to those traditionary principles of fair-play
and patriotism which have made England what
she is, that they shrink from entrusting too much
power to such unwise and intolerant hands. Are
we to take as the principles of the intelligent work-
ing men of Manchester or any other large town
the disarmament of the country and the trial of
Governor EIRE for murder? We should do them
great injustice were we to think so, the fact is that

they may be impressed with the grand theories of
the political economist and " talked down " by the
advocates of a new political creed, but the sym-
pathies of working men Were never won by the
non-intervention doctrine, and their English love
of fair play will never be reconciled to the spectacle
of a strong Power dismembering a weak one, while
England, stronger still, wealthy and powerful, looks
on coolly, and contents herself with upholding the
rights of peoples by threatening the aggressor in
well-turned despatches.

If there is one point on which by instinct and
reason all classes of Englishmen are agreed it is in a
hatred of slavery ; but we should be very sorry to
think that the working men of the country were
foolish enough to believe, because slavery in the
abstract is bad, and black men have been
slaves, that, therefore, in every difference between
black and white the coloured man must be in the
right. What has Jamaica to do with the English
Reform Bill ? If the objects which the Radical
leaders propose to themselves are really similar to
the anarchy and confusion, to use the mildest
terms, which the Jamaica malcontents aimed at—
if GORDON were really, as a Manchester speaker
with unconscious satire called him, the Mr. BRIGHT
of Jamaica—then it is high time they should confess
it ; but it is time also that they should
cease to come forward as representatives of any
considerable portion of the English people.
The cry of " murder" and of the ill-usage of the
blacks have been shown to be so grossly unjust, the
statements which have been put forward in this
country by the traducers of Mr. EYRE have been
so completely refuted, that we can only wonder
that any gentleman should stand up and use such
language as Dr. SANDWITH did the other evening.
" In Jamaica a ruling caste, a white aristocracy, by
bad class laws, goaded a mob into a riot. Zhe lead-
ing Liberal member of the Opposition, the Mr.
BRIGHT of Jamaica, was put to death on the
evidence of hearsay and contradictory gossip,
which would not have sufficed to hang a
cat on a charge of larceny. He trusted
that the question of murder or no would be some
day submitted to a British jury." Dr. SANDWITH
forgets that the question has already been sub-
mitted to a jury of the accused's peers—the white
men of Jamaica, not to the infuriated blacks, nor
to those gentlemen who, " sitting at home at ease,"
know nothing of rebellion but by " hearsay," and
nothing of the savage races but what they choose to
believe. The unanimous verdict of men of all
professions, trades, and employments, of all shades
of political opinion—many of them bitterly opposed
to the Governor on ordinary questions—ought in
accordance with our English principles of law to
have been accepted as conclusive.
Dr. SANDWITH, however, takes up all the old
party cries used when matters were not quite as
they are now The answers to some of them might
have startled him had they been given. Thus when
he asked, " Coming to modern times, who fattened
on sinecures at the expense of the nation ?" the
income-tax returns of sundry good old Whig fami-
lies might have supplied him with interesting facts.
But it is not in this tone of mutual recrimination and
party virulence that we want to have our political
constitution amended. Happily for all there is a basis
of sound sense and right judgment in every large
mixed class of the English people, which never fails
to carry the body politic through every disturbance
and difficulty. It is this that we want to get repre-
sented, not the views or sentiments of any party or
section. The two meetings at Leeds and Man-
chester form an almost amusing contrast in the
language of their speakers. Happily, however,
there may be a great deal of outward difference
where all agree in really desiring the same things—
the maintenance of our institutions and the general
welfare of the people.

CORRESPONDENCE FROM PARIS.

-
(FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.)
PARIS, Thursday Evening.

The business in the Chambers is still of a local
and formal character, but to-day the nomination of
the Committee to draw up the answer to the Address
took place. The completion of this important pre-
liminary step of the session is expected to occupy a
fortnight. In the meantime the Chambers will
probably only discuss local matters.
The diplomatic documents presented to the
Chamber relative to the affairs of Japan are not
without interest. They describe the progress of the
negotiations of the French Minister at Yokohama,
concert with the representatives of England,
America, and the Netherlands, to insure the due
execution of the treaty of the 22d October, 1864,
and to protect French interests in the conflict
between the Taicoun and the Prince Negato.
The four allied Powers have constantly given their
moral support to the Taicoun, without infringing
upon the principle of neutrality. The result is that
the Prince Negato has submitted, and the Taicoun
has obtained the sanction of the Mikado to the
treaties concluded with the Christian Powers.

The disclosures of the yellow-book relative to the
negotiations between England and France for
another extradition treaty do not form the least in-
teresting portion of its details. England, it ap-
pears, refuses to give up condemned persons, because
the treaty of 1843 only mentions persons accused.
France, for this and other motives, is very dis-
satisfied with that treaty, not from political consi-
derations, but, according to the yellow-book, the
propositions made by France in December last with
a view to the amendment of that treaty have not
yet been answered by the English Government.
One often hears of strange effects produced by
the announcements of the electric telegraph. Here
is a fact hich has just occurred. A commissioner
was sent with a message to the telegraph office.
The unsophisticated clerk on reading it almost fell
upon the floor with horror. The message was this
--" I have thought of a better and more expeditious
mode of killing Faure." The name appended was
Miry. The messenger was detained with great care
while inquires were made, and an intimation was
given to the police of some intended terrible assas-
sination. A visit was paid to M. Miry, whose ad-
dress of course appeared in the message, and the
dreadful mystery was soon cleared up. M. Mery
wished to announce to M. Dulocle, who is engaged
upon the opera of "Don Carlos," for which Verdi is
now occupied in composing the music, that he had
imagined another kind of death for the Marquis de
Rosa (a character to be sustained by Faure) than
by means of his being shot as Schiller kills him.
The musical world is on the qui vine for the pro-
duction of the new opera by M. Victor Masse. It
will, I hear, be played at the Opera Comique next
week. The libretto, by Messrs. Michel, Came,
and Hippolyte Lucas, is founded on a romance by
M. de Lamartine. Amateurs in the secret speak in
raptures of it. It has however one feature, which
may or may not be very agreeable to the public.
It is in four very long acts. At all events this
opera is looked for with unusual impatience.
One often hears of the pleasure of residing in la
belle France, but it may not be generally known
that it is dangerous to stop in it in defiance of au
order of expulsion. This, however, was the offence
which has been committed by a lady of 46 years of
age (a fact which she would not admit, but which
was proved by official records of her time of birth).
This lady appeared at the Correctional Police office
to answer the charge of disobeying an order of ex-
pulsion, and was sentenced to four months' imprison-
ment. I must not forget her name. It is
rather a long and difficult one. Agnes-Alex-
andrine-Valentine-Leopoldine, nee Countess War-
stenleben. She is a lady of four husbands.
Her first was Baron d'Echarstberg, and at his
death she married M. Schendel-Palkorwski.
After due mourning and copious libations of