The Sun.
London, England, 1832-12-29 00:00:00

(Lined and discarded by the honest. Bad men
might be enabled through such an engine to carry
on evil schemes with more facility ; the poor
would be left by it completely in the lurch, and
in the mean time a disgraceful and withering brand
would be affixed to the noblest of our political,
institutions.— Times.

On no one subject has there been such aul
approach to unanimity during the late election,
as the necessity for affording to the electors the
weans of voting without control. The ques-
tion having been once settled who ought to be
vested with the trust of the elective franchise, it
is quite clear that the persons so vested, and no
others, should possess it. Had it been intended
that all the population should participate in
electing Members, then all would have received
the power of electing, and we should have had
what is called universal suffrage. Had it been
intended, on the other hand, that the votes
should be in the ratio of property—i. e. that the
owner of land let at 5001. a year should possess
ten votes, and the owner of 5,000/. a year fifty
votes—then the suffrage would have been con-
fined to property. The claim of the mob in some
of the manufacturing towns to compel the voters
to return, not the candidates whom they consider
the fittest to represent the people, but the candi-
dates most acceptable to the mob, amounts to
universal suffrage. On the other hand, the
claim of the great proprietors to control the
tenantry on their estates, amounts, pro tanto,
to a transferrence of the suffrage to the mere
possessors of property. It is to be pre-
sumed, that it was intended the franchise should
he exercised exclusively by those to whom it
was given by the Legislature, and no other,
and that the voters should be protected in the
discharge of their duty from all violence either
on the part of the many or the few. On prin-
ciple, then, the voters are entitled to protection ;
and the only question is as to the mode in whict,
that protection shall be afforded. There is no
blinking the fact, that the exercise of a restricted
suffrage must always be attended with difficulty.
No wan is ford of admitting his incapacity to
exercise the franchise, and therefore there must
always he a disposition on the part of those di-
reedy excluded to re-possess themselves of the
franchise indirectly, by contracting the actual
voters. On the other hand, in a country it,
which property is unequally distributed, it will
always be difficult to confine the possessors of
property to the share allotted to them personally.
In a country like the United States of America,
in which all are more or less possessed of some
property, and few possessed of much, there can
he little reason for excluding any from the suf-
frage, and the attempt of individuals to control
the suffrages of others, being unsupported by the
influence of property, would be resented as an
insult. In America, therefore, it can be of little
roneequence. as far as the result is concerned.
whether men vote openly or secretly. In England.
on the other hand, where there is great inequality
and great dependence,there will alwaysbe great dif-
ficulty, with all the protection that can be afforded,
of preventing the result being affected by the
control of the many or the few. It has beet)
often said, you cannot prevent landlords from
soliciting votes, and few persons in dependent
circumstances will have the hardihood to refuse
to promise their votes, and then you will have
a struggle between the wish of the voter to returr
the person whom he thinks best qualified, and
the wish not to violate the engagement intr
which he has entered, however improper. Adam
Smith, we remember, in his Theory of Moral
Sentiments," in mentioning a case put by the
Casuists, whether a man, from whom a robber
exacts a pledge, that in consideration of his li-
berty he shall pay him a certain sum, is bound
to redeem that pledge, justly observes, that
though the highwayman is not entitled to exact
the pledge, there are few persons of honour who
would feel easy under the thought of having
violated it. Still, as it is to be presumed tha'
the Legislature intended that they alone tt
whom the suffrage is given ought to exercise it,
and as any contrary presumption supposes tht
Legislature to have been actuated by fraud and
insincerity, there can be no question that every-
thing possible ought to be done to add to the
security of voters. If the ballot be a means, the
Legislature is bound to give the ballot. Now we
think that man must be either very insolent or
very stupid who attempts to deny that almost
every description of voters is possessed of the
strongest conviction that the ballot would add
greatly to their protection. We see that in all
the clubs where the voters have strong reasons
for concealing their votes, secrecy is almost uni-
formly attained. A man marked out as an unfit
member of a club would often resent his exclu-
sion, and the sense of danger leads to the main-
tenance of secrecy. There can be no reason for
supposing that secrecy, may not be secured at
elections of representatives for Parliament. In-
deed, the arguments on this subject only amount
to this—that some persons would themselve'
cease to avail themselves of the protection of se-
crecy. Very true ; and if they do cease to avail
themselves of the right, what harm ? This only
proves that they do not require the protection.
Persons who vote for the exclusion of a can-
didate for a club do not always conceal their
-rote ; but they may, and generally do. An
American very probably boasts of his vote.
An Indic Proprietor boasts of his vote, and
makes it a title to favour. Let them. A man
may tell how he voted to his wife or his mistress, or
when under the influence of wine. Let him. But
all these exceptions are no reason why the man
who thinks he can keep a secret from his wife.
his mistress, or his companion under wine, or
who thinks he can trust them with the secret,
and vote at the same time from a tyrannical
landlord, or a tyrannical mob, should not be
entitled to what he deems a protection. If others
do not make the most of the protection, that is
no reason why he should be deprived of it. Be-
cause one man chooses to throw open his breast
and expose himself to the influence cf the wea-
ther in a cold day, that is no reason why ano-
ther man should not be allowed to have warm
clothing. It is, perhaps, to he regretted, that
the question of the ballot in America should
have been mixed up with the question of the
ballot in England, because the circumstances of
England differ so materially from those of Ame.
rica. There may be a hundred reasons why the
ballot should be inoperative in America, for one
in England that it should be so. In England
we have seen that the ballot is infinitely more
necessary than it is in America. There is always
danger, too, of mß'representation and misconcep-
tion, when the theatre of observation is distant.
A correspondent, in another column, who sub-
scribes himself " Trans-Atlanticus," and who
is a most respectable member of a great com-
mercial house in this country, but born and
educated in America, has exposed the misre-
presentations of Mr. Stanley regarding New York,
which he had derived through the Times. He
has shorn that the Times has utterly misappre-

hctulcd the statement of the New York jour-
nalist-i-and: that the propriety of voting by
ballot has never been agitated in America. We
refer 't»ilipimication for a triumphant re-
kjeatia` --Z:Otiiitement in the Times, which
misled ►':.A:'`-‘titnley. The complaints of the
violence ised towards the consciences of
voters itkelietions, are loud and general, and

must be attended to. Who can for a moment

suppose that the electors of Kent, for instance,
will patiently submit to such indignities as they
have been exposed to at the late election, as de-
tailed in the Kent Herald of Thursday last :
" The result of the election in East Kent is
anything but satisfactory to the Reformers. In-
fluence has triumphed over principle. Nearly
all the gentry and the clergy have been united
against the cause of the people ; and the addi-
tional power which the fatal 501. clause gives
to them, has overwhelmed the numbers of the
really independent electors. On no occasion
within our memory has the exercise of undue
influence been so unsparingly resorted to. For
months have the great landed proprietors and the
clergymen, in almost every parish, been inces-
santly engaged in canvassing the voters.
Threats, bribes, and latterly, actual compul-
sion, have been used to obtain votes for Sir
Edward Knatchbull. We could ourselves name
A great many individuals who are known to
possess liberal opinions in politics, but who
have been forced, by the certainty of perse-
cution, and perhaps ruin, to violate their
conscience, and to give their vote at the
dictation of the landlord, employer, or
creditor. There could not be a sight more
humiliating, than that oft& tenantry coming in
droves, under the guidance of the wealthy pro-

,rietor or his steward, and ready to throw away

hat privilege which ought to be dearest to every
honourable and intelligent Englishman. These
poor men were led or driven to the hustings,
4atched and guarded to the poll-table by trusty
'gents, and the words Knatchbull,' or Knatch-
bull and Plumtre,' most thrust into their
mouths ! It would be much preferable that the
elective right should be vested in the landlord,
and the dependent screened from the mockery
ind disgrace of its nominal exercise—the public
would be more awake to the abuse, were the
enactment to stand openly that the proprietor
of so many hundred acres should have in his
own person as many votes. It amounts to this
at present. We some time since made a calcu-
lation from the average of twenty agricultural
Oarishes casually selected, and the result was,
iat about a fourth or fifth of the constituency
4f East Kent consisted of electors by right of
i'arming occupation. This accounts clearly
4nough for the numbers of Sir Edward Knatch-
bull. A still greater evil attends it, in-
ismuch as it will be in the power of the
rich landed proprietor to create almost as
many electors as he chooses. A remedy must
be adopted, or the liberties of England must, ere
long, again be prostrate under the feet of the aris-
tocracy. The ballot and an extension of the suf-
frage are indispensable. We have never been
favourable to the former ; but the numerous
instances which have come within our know-
ledge during the last few weeks, have brought
conviction to our minds that it ought to be
tried—nothing can be worse than the present
system. An alteration, too, must be made in
the- county suffrage—the 50/. clause must be
counterbalanced by granting the franchise for the
county to the occupier of a 101. house not con-
'erring the right for a borough—or the corpo-
iate freemen, being freeholders or renters, should
ietain their vote for the county, while voting for
the borough on the ancient right. Indeed, the
decision of the Revising Barristers on this last
point was absurd, as almost annulling the cor-
porate right which the Legislature professed its
desire to preserve intact. At present, in such
instances, the corporate right is abolished, or
property is unrepresented—either of which is
opposed to the spirit and meaning of the
Reform Bill." The arguments against ballot,
in the Times of yesterday, go to the extension
or the limitation of the franchise rather than the
protection of the voter. It has always been argued
by Reformers—and the Reform Bill was founded
on that principle—that the only security for the
proper exercise of the right of suffrage was, that
the suffrage should be so extensive as to identify
the interests of the voters with the interests
Of the rest of the community. A more limited
iuffrage of necessity opened a door to en-
Jeavours to make the elections subservient to
;hose who possessed interests separate from the
interests of the rest of the community. Before
he passing of the Reform Bill, when it was no-
torious that the electors were not identified in
interest with the community, there might be
some reason for claiming that the right should
be exercised under the control of publicity. In
fact, the dread of public indignation was one of
the checks against abuse. But, when it is now
Said that the right of suffrage is a trust, it is
saying that either the multitude or the few
should control those who, in point of intellect
and otherwise, have been selected by the Legis-
lature as the fittest for the franchise. But, that
we may not be accused of garbling, we
shall lay the whole of our contemporary's ar-
guments before our readers :—" If the ballot
be recommended as a safeguard against the
menaces of the powerful towards the weak,
by reason of the secrecy in which every voter
may envelop himself, it is surely fair to ask some
assurance, by argument as well as asseveration,
that the ballot will afford that -secrecy and that
safeguard against intimidation. Our opinion
has been already declared that men's votes under
the ballot will be as well known as they now are,
or, at least, that their promises will be exacted
with as much importunity as ever, and that he
who gains anything in the way of security by the
ballot must be he does so at the expense of his
integrity and good faith. Even granting (what
we think most unlikely) the soundness of the
protection obtained for timid men through the
ballot, is there, let us ask, no countervailing mis,
chief in the introduction of a principle of dis-
guise and mystery into the enjoyment of an
Englishman's noblest rights, under which the
most honest and high-minded man in the empire
cannot shield himself against the suspicion of hav-
ing exercised those rights unworthily? We admit,
and let it never be lost sight of, that influence has
been, as we fear it will ever be in some
cases, employed for selfish purposes,—that
evil stares us in the face. It would be unjust in
any one to charge us with a blindness or indif-
ference to that revolting abuse ; but even, once
more, assuming that influence, not merely by
threats but by promises, to be fulfilled in the
eventreati
y curtailed—demolished
certain candidate's return, might be
g
it never could be
—by the ballot—assuming this, our fear is not
unreasonable that the advantage might be dearly
bought. The elective franchise is understood by
the constitution to be a trust. Is a political
trustee to be wholly irresponsible, by shrouding
himself in darkness, and laughing to scorn the

superintendence of his countrymen and the con-
trol of public opinion ? If reprehensible things
be done in open day, things more shameful may
be reckoned on when there are no witnesses to
fear, and there is no account to be rendered.

Now, the public eye scans the vote of every
elector, and takes cognizance of his apparent
motives, are there no malignant passions to be
indulged by a recourse to the balloting urn ? If
it be of importance (and it is inapprec►able) that
representatives should always have in their recol-
lection the views and principles entertained by

their constituents, is it not essential to the ac-
curacy and usefulness of such a recollection,
that where differences of sentiment exist, as they
must for the most part among electors, the
Member of Parliament should be able to satisfy
himself and others that such and such opinions are
in truth and practice upheld by such and such indi-
viduals or classes of the constituency, so that the
weight of the authority which supports each Mem-
ber may be correctly assigned to him and estimated
by him? There is no doubt that public meetings, so
long as they are the fashion in this country, may
form (in spite of the ballot) an instrument for
ascertaining the degree of sympathy between a
Member of Parliament and the several subdivi-
sions of his constituents. Far be it from us,
above all men, to undervalue that great national
institution of popular assemblies freely;called to-
gether to discuss either local interests or ques-
tions affecting the whole state itself; but is there
no probability that with the ballot (provided it
did secure secrecy of suffrage, which we do nos
credit) might creep in a taste for general isolaf
lion and concealment, to the gradual decline, and

ultimately the exclusion, of that fearless pu bla
city which has been heretofore the distinction -,
our English political system,—a substitution, of
it were, of midnight, with the mask and stilettoi
for the cudgel, the open defiance, and the broad
face of day ? On this highly interesting and
critical question of the ballot, all that we would
now suggest to our countrymen are dispassionate
inquiry and patient consideration before it be
irrevocably adopted. It is not clear that many
of those who clamour for it have much acquain-
tance with its results and operation elsewhere.
In North America it has brought with it neither
secrecy nor the abolition of bribes ; nowhere
does more rancorous bitterness arise out of the
notoriety of each citizen's vote,—nowhere are
more impure and flagitious means resorted to
for the gaining over a majority. Does the bal-
lot, then, guard the weak against intimidation ?
and if it really possessed that advantage, which,
as we have seen, is far from indisputable, might
it not be too dearly purchased ?" The public
eye must mean the transferrence of the vote to
those who are not entitled to it, or it means
nothing. In the case of Members of Parliament
nho are occasionally in France protected by the
ballot, there the voting ought to be always open,
because they are exercising a trust, and are re-
sponsible to the electors. But the principle on
which the suffrage is given is quite distinct. The
voters are taken to be all the qualified persons in
the nation. We must, before concluding, allude
to some remarks of a contemporary (the Globe)
with respect to the admission of Conservatives
into Parliament :—" It appears to us (says our
Evening Contemporary) unfair to judge—as
some even of the most enlightened Reformers
appear to do—of the provisions of the Reform
Act, not by the general result of the elections,
but by the particular issue of contests in a very
few places, which form the exceptions to the ge-
neral rule. They seem to consider, that if in
any one place a Tory has made his way into
Parliament, the fact is conclusive that he can
only have done so through some defect in the
Reform Act, and that no Reform can be com-
plete which does not exclude from Parliament
all who do profess, or have professed, what are
now called Conservative prineiples.' This is
a species of political intolerance. No man who
knows anything of England, can fail to know
that what we may still call the Tory party, em-
braces a very large number of the most opulent
and intelligent of the middle, to say nothing of
the higher classes, and (nithout entering into the
question how much of this party may have been
originally brought together and kept together by
corrupt motives) no one can doubt that a very
large number of 'Tories are just as honest and
sincere, and just as 'free from corrupting influ-
ence—except a superstitious veneration for ex-
isting forms, and a timid respect for vested rights,
and some ill-defined apprehensions of the con-
sequences of every change—as any other por-
tion of their fellow-subjects. While such a
party exists in such strength as it is known to
exist in England, it ought to be represented in
Parliament, and must have been represented
under any Reform Act not essentially revolu-
tionary. If the Tories form a sixth or fifth of the
whole number of Parliament, it does not appear
more than their party is fairly entitled to return.
In some places the Tories owe their success
probably to changes which the Reform Bill
has introduced. This result must be galling to
the unsuccessful candidates, and, where those
candidates were men highly estimable and re-
spectable, may be a local misfortune or a local
grievance; but no change so extensive as that
produced by the Reform Bill could have been
introduced without the hazard of some such evils.
One of the worst of these cases appears to
be that of Mr. Western, the very small
majority against whom was made up entirely
of the lease-holders and tenants to whom
the franchise has been given by the Bill.
It is stated, that it' the new voters were
subtracted the numbers would stand—for
Western, 1,758 ; for Baring, 1,736 ; giving,
on the old constituency, a majority of 22 to the
steady Reformer who has lost his seat—a result
which has been pointed to by the Times with
just sorrow and indignation. It is quite clear
on this statement, however, that independently,
of the new voters, the parties must have been
very equally balanced ; and as Mr. Western had
against him nine-tenths of the high authorities
of the county—magistracy, clergy, and bankers—
they might, under the old law, if the contest was
foreseen, have prevailed against him by mush-
room voters, the creation of whom has been
checked by the Bill ; and the fact that 486
leaseholders voted for him, against 544 of his
opponents, under such extremely adverse cir-
cumstances, does not speak so ill for the
general independence of this class of voters as
some of our contemporaries think of them." We
confess we do not see, if the reasoning of our con-
temporary be admissible, why the Conservatives
should be only one-filth or one-sixth.
If the
Tories are entitled to carry the election in one
county, because a majority of the proprietors,
magistrates, and clergy are Tories, as a majority
of the landholders, magistrates, and clergy are
Tories in every county in England, we do not
see why they might not have returned the whole
representatives on the same principle. The
question is, whether these personages did exer-
cise the influence they were fairly entitled to, to
obtain their influence in Parliament, or if they

controlled and intimidated electors ? We do
not see, if the real electors would not have re-
turned Tories if left to themselves, why they
should have been one-fiftieth any more than one-
fifth. The return for one single county, if by un-
fair means, is reprehensible in principle. If it was
intended that Tories, because they are the great
landholders, clergy, and magistrates, should have
had the returns, then the franchise should have
been confined to them.—Morning Chronicle.
The newest topic now upon the political car-
pet is that of a general disarmament, in the first
place, of France, and thence of the other great
Powers of the continent. If an event so desira-
ble were to take place, we should heartily re-
joice at it ; for most certain it is that Europe
wants repose ; but the continued state of war-
like preparation which has distinguished the two
last years has not allowed her to enjoy it. The
peace of Europe, ever since the French revolu-
tion, has been armed like Bellona herself, and
slept upon gunpowder. Let us only see a ge-
neral disarmament, and we will believe that the
tranquillity so long promised to Europe has at
length been secured. Until then industry and
commerce must languish ; because the continu-
ance of warlike preparations, and the maintenance
of a warlike attitude, on the part of the great
Powers, belie their peaceable professions, and
forbid the existence of that security and confi-
dence which a settled state of political quietude
inspires. But the public will do well to take
care that reports of this nature may not be spread
at the present time, as they were during the ad-
ministration of Casimir Perier, merely for the
selfish purposes of politicians, or the sordid
object of operating upon the funds. When
Casimir Perier and his supporters declared, in
the Chamber of Deputies, about a year and
a half ago, that the great Powers of Europe
were about to disarm, and when the Go-
vernment papers of this country repeated the
fabricated tale, with solemn assurances of its
truth, we ventured to deny it, and the event
proved the correctness of oar opinion ; as it
happened that ever since that time the great
Powers have been constantly engaged in rais-
ing fresh levies, and making more extensive pre-
parations for war. Until the claws of the tiger
are pared, and his tusks drawn, who can believe
that he will become as gentle as the lamb, and
no longer prowl for blood ? The fall of the
citadel of Antwerp, at an enormous expense of
human life, has not in the least advanced the set-
tlement of the Belgico-Dutch question, not even
if it were followed by the surrender of the other
Belgic forts, Lillo and Liefkenshoek. The peace
of Europe remains, therefore, as far as that ques-
tion disturbs it, just as unsettled as before. If
France even disarmed, without a concurrent dis-
armament on the part of the other Powers, we
apprehend that very circumstance would invite
an invasion of France. The only security the
great Powers can give for the preservation of the
peace is to throw down their arms, and return to
their peace establishments.—Morning Herald.
In proportion as the subject of the vote by
ballot engages public attention, the leading
Whigs and their organs of the Press, forgetting
that to their threats and denunciations the sub-
ject is chiefly indebted for wha'ever importance
it has acquired as a question of practical policy.
labour, with daily increasing anxiety, to discredit
the seductive innovation. The zeal of these oppo-
nents of a measure which they have contributed
to render popular seems to us, as frequently
happens in the case of new-born zeal, very far
to outrun their discretion. It is not from such
teachers that those who have embarked their
feelings and wishes in the revolutionary cause will
learn to regard with aversion or indifference an in-
novation with which Lord John Russell menaced
the Conservatives of Devonshire, so long as he
felt his election to be insecure, and which every
organ of the Whig party has been for months
exhibiting to the landed aristocracy and gentry
of England in terrorenz, lest they should pre-
sume to employ their influence at the elections in a
manner disagreeable to the Administration, as the
certain means by which the influence of rank and
property should be annihilated altogether. There
will be much difficulty, we apprehend, in con-
vincing any considerable portion of the people
of England that the ballot has honest opponents
in the men who professed so recently the opinion
that it is a specific remedy against a specific
evil, when no other ground can he alleged for
this change than that the evil which they then
imagined likely to operate against them has
happened to operate in their favour. There
can be no doubt that the Ministers and their
organs are right at last, and for the present,
with respect to this subject, any more than that
they will again be as much in the wrong as they
were a few weeks ago, whenever a general
election shall take place in circumstances which
render the return of a majority of their adherents
doubtful. Their recent conversion can only be
taken as a confession that the various kinds of
sinister influence which the system of secret
voting, if it were practicable, is expected to over-
throw, have in the aggregate been exerted in a
manner not calculated to impair their Parliamen-
tary strength, but to increase it. Of this fact we
scarcely needed their confession to convince us.
The Whigs, while they have been loudly cla-
mouring against the landlords of any other parts
who employed their influence with their tenantry
to electioneering purposes, have never failed to
do the same thing in a manner the most impe-
rious and revolting, and have always been in this
respect the most tyrannical at the moment when
they were declaiming the most vehemently
against tyranny of this description. During the
late elections they have been, we know, more
than usually urgent in canvassing their tenants.
But there is another order of recent creation in
the State, the Political Unions, who have exerted
an authority little less fatal to individual inde-
pendence than that of the most arbitrary even
of Whig landlords, and this authority has been
generally employed in favour of the Ministerial
candidates. Both these kinds of sinister influ-
ence would of course be extinguished by secret
voting, could such a thing exist ; and, so far
from the Tories dreading the agitation of this
subject, they might adopt it as the war-cry of
their party, if tsecureo
ththem
ei majoritiesropppaor
nanot
us at
th
eet
o everylecti
Whigs,on s
were an object
other, or if they, like
could descend to practise the basest arts of po-
pular delusion. It is plain, however, to every
man of ordinary reflection that the ballot could
not secure secrecy of voting, unless in the case
of the comparatively few individuals who would
promise to their landlord, or other influential
applicant for their votes, what they do not intend
to perform ; nor even in their case unless they
were to reinforce this single act of duplicity by
an habitual hypocrisy, by lies before and after.
lies at market, lies at the alehouse, lies in the
own
neverfire s dsa
ne .c t i Int isa
Tory
ys atpa
rty their
will
chhecuaruchsepothrceh,Toli
contrivance having this depraving tendency, and
not on account of its effect upon the poll at

elections, from which they are much more likely
to gain than to lose, that good and honest
Tories will always be steadfast opponents of the
vote by ballot.—Morning Post.
It is stated in The Sun of last evening, in ad-
dition to the information which we gave some
few days ago on the same subject, " that official
steps have already been taken towards the
intended motion for the reduction of taxes
on knowledge." We expected as much, and
doubt not that the statement of our evening con-
temporary is in every respect correct. The
Ministry is pledged to the measure, and we are
assured that it will be one of the first measures
of the ensuing session of Parliament. The Con-
servatives, who have lost so much by the diffu-
sion of knowledge, will oppose any measure on
t,he subject, however moderate, or however bene-
ficial to the revenue, which may be proposed ;
but the honour of Ministers must be redeemed
—the interests of the revenue must be consulted
—and as the reduction of the taxes on know-
ledge will serve both these ends, as well as afford
great gratification to the public, we doubt not
that the righteous cause will ultimately triumph.
Let Lord Althorp be but firm, and victory will
be with him.—Morning Advertiser.
Now that the elections are almost concluded,
speculation is ripe respecting the strength of the
different parties who will figure in the new Par-
liament ; and we observe, that our cotemporaries
are trying their hands at a comparative estimate
of Ministerial,Radical, and Conservative strength
in it. The Sun casts a shrewd and pretty ac-
curate guess at the latter in stating it at 140.
We have reason to believe, however, that this
number is somewhat under the mark, and that
the Conservative interest will muster about 150
Members. With regard to the Radicals, by which
term we mean the abettors of triennial Parlia-
ments and vote by ballot, there is yet no possi-
bility of judging of their exact number ; but we
have every reason to believe that, instead of thirty
or forty, not fewer than eighty at least will be
found to decide in favour of these changes. We do
not mean by this statement that so many as
eighty Members of the House of Commons
have pledged themselves to vote for these
measures, but: simply that there are as many as
eighty who will find it their interest, in conse-
quence of the strong feelings of their constituents
on the subject, to vote for them. To these are
to be added the advocates for a repeal of the
Union between Great Britain and Ireland, who
may be reckoned at somewhere between thirty
and forty—thereby forming a minority of popu-
lar strength of about 120 Members zealous and
determined, and who, we have reason to believe,
will allow no opportunity to slip, of compelling
his Majesty's Ministers to pursue such measures
as will prove palatable and benefical to their consti-
tuents. How the Conservatives will act—whether
they will, for their own sakes, become supportersof
Ministers—whether they will remain neutral, or
whether they will join the Radical interest,remains
to be seen ; and it is, in consequence, impossible to
calculate the real strength of the Ministry.
Their direct supporters are reckoned at about
243 ; but of these there are many who are not
in any respect pledged to support them, and even
if they were, a combination of parties might be
formed for the purpose of carrying certain
measures which would completely overthrow them.
Their real strength, in fact, at the present mo-
ment, is in the people and with the people. Let
them be but true to them—let them do justice,
and love mercy—let them pursue economy and
retrenohmont—conciliation at home, and peace
abroad—and they have nothing to fear ;—but,
on the other hand, if they fail in these matters,
what hope is there in their stability ? What
salvation is there for them ?—Morn. Advertiser.

PRIVATE CORRESPONDENCE.

PARIS, WEDNESDAY, DEC. 26.

The news of the surrender of the citadel of Ant-
werp, wbich was received here on Monday, did not
create any great sensation, as it was neither unfote-
ieen nor unexpected. Since the commencement of
the siege it was the universal belief that Chasse's
resistance would not be protracted beyond the pre-
sent month, even had it been suffered to last so
long. The funds opened on Monday about one-
half per cent. higher than Saturday's closing prices,
in consequence of the news from Antwerp; but
when it came to be considered at the Bourse that
the capitulation of that citadel did not distinctly
imply the surrender of the fortresses of Lillo and
Ltefkenshoek with it, the prices of the funds took a
backward movement, and closed only a few centimes
above Saturday's last quotations.
The Greek loan has been contracted for by M.
Agnado, on terms highly advantageous to the
Greek Government. This will surprise no one
when it is considered that the Governments of Eng-
land, France, and Russia, stand security for the
loan. The first and last•named Powers long since
offered their guarantee; this Government has not
yet done so, not having obtained the sanction of the
Chambers. It will be applied for as soon as• more
pressing matters have been disposed of, and, of
course, there is not the smallest reason to fear that
it will not he obtained. The loan is contracted for
at 91'to 96 per cent., paying an interest of 5 per
cent. The terms of payment are not yet known,
but it is understood that 40,000,000 francs are to
be paid in, and that the remainder will be taken up
when the three Powers have given their formal
sanction to the loan.

In the Monileur Ottoman of the 24th of Novem-
ber, which you will receive by this conveyance, you
will find an article on the subject of the Sultan's
quarrel with the Pacha of Egypt, to which I beg
leave to direct your attention. I am induced
to do so by being assured that it is intended
as an expose addressed to the Governments and
people of Europe by order of the Sultan him-
'elf. Unanswerable as the facts stated in
this expose must prove, it is obvious that the
Sultan did not stand in need of any such means
to proclaim to Europe the justice of his cause.
Every Government arid individual conversant with
the modern history of Turkey are aware that the
Sultan was never guilty of any act of injustice, op-
pression, or provocation, which could in the re-
motest manner justify or excuse the attack made on
Lim by his Pacha, Mehemet Ali. On the contrary,
he had always entertained a high esteem for Mehe-
met Ali, placed an unlimited confidence in him,
heaped favours on him, and had long been looking
to the power of his aid and co-operation for the
execution of the important plans of reform which
he had contemplated since the year 1808, when an
unexpected revolution placed him on the throne.
There are persons in Europe who are individually,
interested in the prosperity and success of the Pacha
of Egypt, and who, therefore, are taking great pains
to show that his cause is the most deserving of po-
pularity of the two. In proportion, however, a,
the quarrel between the Sultan arid his powerful
vassal increases in interest and importance, Europe
will naturally wish well to the side whose triumph
will best promote the cause of civilization in Turkey.
If we were to form an opinion by the experience of
he last few years, it would not be too hazardous to
say that the whole welfare of the Ottoman empire
depends on the Sultan's making a successful resist
-
mice against his revolted vassal and the other rebels
who have joined him, and that the destruction of
that empire can hardly fail to be secured by the
latter's succeeding in dethroning their Sove-
reign, or even gaining any decided advantages over

him. Mehemet Ali is an ignorant and uneduca to
Turk, who has risen from the most obscure an
humble station, not through any particular merit o
his own, but through chance and those accidental cir-
cumstances to which every Turk in power owes his
elevation. Civilization has done nothing more for
him the assist the development of his natural sa-
gacity in discovering how far the resources of Egypt
could be rendered profitable to himself. Sultan
Mahmond is the son of a sovereign who has reigned,
who has therefore had all the advantages of educa-
tion that are within the reach of a Turk, and who
was the favourite nephew and political pupil of
Sultan Selim, by whom he was taught how to raise
the Turkish empire from the state of insignificance
in which it had been left in consequence of the
lapid strides made in civilization by the other king-
doms of the European world. The exertions that
Mahmoud has made, especially of late years, to ren-
der available the natural and great resources of
Turkey, were not and could not be intended for his
own individual benefit. Personally, he had, in fact,
nothing to gain. It is the prosperity of the whole
empire and the good of every one of his subjects
that he has undertaken and made the greatest efforts
to promote. The obstacles with which he has met
and which he has overcome were of the most for-
midable kind. He was in a fair way of seeing the
greatest part of his laudable projects realized before
the period of his natural life. If he obtain not a
signal triumph over the rebel Pacha, the rebel Pacha
will surely obtain a signal triumph over him; for
even if through mercy he were suffered to remain
on the throne, his power would receive a mortal
blow, his faculty of good be completely paralysed,
the Janissaries again be set on foot, and all the
miseries of the former system which seemed to
condemn Turkey to perpetual barbarism must be
revived. _ _

day

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Independently of these considerations, which 7'
svert
ought to induce every real friend to civilization to
desire that the Sultan may come off victorious, :as,
there are motives not less important if not as vellei
generally urgent. Russia is watching the progress '• A
of events in Turkey to regulate her own future steps
in that part of the world. The triumph of a rebel, Edinh
and the dethronement of his rightful Sovereign, ell,
would afford a pretext for Russian interference. The H
state of complete exhaustion in which the empire
would be left, were even the Sultan allowed to re- tainit
main on his throne, would leave it at the mercy of i• Ei
its natural enemy, and hasten that political destruc-
tion with which it has been threatened for the lag art o
80 years. r,up
It is said in our political circles here, that the Cana
matters which remain to be settled in regard to,
i" th
Belgium have already undergone full discussion be- ;-1(
tween the Duke de Broglie and Baron Werther, aac
the Prussian Ambassador; and it is hoped, there- jar. 11
fore, the negotiations which are about to be resumed coati,
will not be of any great duration. The affair of Thi
Luxemburg may alone require time, as the Duke de
Broglie lately declared in the Chamber of Deputies , and
that there were some differences relating to it which, a prl
had made it advisable to appeal to a third party, el
which third party, though not named, is by every he (
one understood to be the Germanic Diet. VIEt
A new expedition for Oporto is said to be in pre. t2:_'
paration at Boulogne. It will consist in a rein- 41;1
forcement for Dan Pedro of about 800 men. The 1,11 "
0 X
French Government have not objected to it. LHe
The capitulation of Chasse, published in the . ceo
Moniteur, has made a favourable impression at the
Bourse today, and the funds have risen in conse-
quence again about per cent.
H 1

CORONER'S INQUEST.

Clair

'ney h;
the

Yesterday an inquest was held, at the Carvedßed ,
Lion, Islington-green, on view of the body of Ar-
thur Forster, described as a remarkably fine young
man, who.was found drowned in the Regent's Ca-
nal on Monday. The body was owned only about
an hour before the Jury assembled.
J. Cappell, a dustman, stated that he was stand-
ing on a bridge of the Regent's Canal, at the back
of Maiden-lane, on Monday morning, when he saw
the body of a man floating on the water. Witness, Id
with assistance, got the body on shore, and con-
veyed it to the church.
Lucy Herbert, a pretty-looking young woman, de-
posed that she resided at 42, Easton-street, Clerken-
well. She had seen the body of the deceased this
mottling in the church-vaults, and recognised it as
that of Arthur Forster, a young man, not quite 19
years of age, a coach.lace manufacturer. He re-
sided with his mother, a widow, and a little boy,
his brother, in the same house with witness, who
was his cousin. He was not ill, but was occasionally
low-spirited. He left his_home for the last time on
last Sunday three weeks, when he and witness went
to Tottenham, to spend the day at the house of a
relation. He left Tottenham for the avowed per"
pose of returning home, witness remaining at that
place. He left about half-past eight o'clock. He
then seemed very low-spirited ; and in the course of
the day he had gone out, as he said, to take a walk
for half an hour, but was gone more than three
hours. He had no dispute with any one on that
day, that witness knew of. Witness never saw him
alive after he left Tottenham at half-past eight. He
had 2s. when he left Tottenham, and he called
akut half-past ten the same evening at his mother's
house, and left the 2s. and his hat and gloves there-
He did not remain there more than ten minutes, and
during that time said not a word either to his mother
or to any one else. He was particularly quiet in
his demeanour, and witness never knew him to have
angry words with any one. She had never heard
of his threatening to destroy himself, or that he had
any particular loss or disappointment. Had never
heard of his having formed an attachment to any
female. He was of a solitary disposition, and fre-
quently walked out alone for hours together after
nightfall. He was rather of a religious turn of mind.
Mrs. Susan Malcolm stated that she resided in
the same house with the deceased and his mother.
She had often observed latterly that he was dull,
and much depressed in spirits. When he returned
from Tottenham, on Sunday three weeks, he was
melancholy, as usual, and was asked to join a poll
which witness had, but he said he was tired, and
would go to bed. He left the house in a few
notes afterwards. Witness knew that he had forme
an attachment to a young woman, which she also
knew was not reciprocal.
Mr. Gardner, residing in the same street, said he
spirits, s of
had s
akeedn
hteo
etthterihdeetceedasietd
ehuipeofityt hteis
Town
his inability
to support hiemother as he could wish. Witness,
questioned him as to his attachment to " Lucy
(at this moment Miss Herbert, the witness, left the
jury-room), and his reply was, he hoped she wilt"
get a better supporter than he could hope t the'
The Jury returned a verdict—" That de-
ceased drowned himself while in a state of tempo-
rary derangement."

Yield
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~,, N

SENSE AND SENSIBILITY.—This admired
Novel, by Miss JANE AUSTEN (whose productions he*
been always referred to as models of good taste and ele-
gance of style) will be published in the next volume °'
the Standard Novels and Romances, printed and embeb
lished similarly to the new edition of Scott's Noveler
" Emma," " Northanger Abbey," "Man.fi:ld Perk,
" Persuasion," &•., will al o shortly make their appearance
in this popular series of modern works of fictior±_......,4

Isllfria
On the 27th inst. at the Vicarage, Burrs St.
the wife of the Rey. Arthur Hanbury, of a son. dy
On the 24th inst. at Dartmouth House, Blackheath,
Barbara Newdigate, of a son. Mary, Suffbll4

MARRIED.
On the 26th inst. at Paris, at the Ambassador's Chapel, A„roj
brose Poynter, F,sq., of Poet's corner, Westminster, to 0..
Forster.

DIED. Cot
On the 28th inst after a lingering illness, the Marquis of
nyngham, K.P. in Hamilton-place.
On the 26th in Devonshire-street, Portland-place, I jeut.-
General John Gordon, of the Hon. East India Company's In
r-
vice, eldeSt son of the Hon. John Gordon, and grandson of Jo,
third Earl of Aboyne.
On the 24th inst. at Brighton, Captain Edward Wethered,
of
the 3d Regiment of Dragoon Guards, son of Thomas Wetheren ,
Esq , of Great Marlow. •
On the 27th inst. at Richmond, Frances, the wife of Edward
Bellasis, Esq., of Guilford-street, London, aged 22.
.a.of

PRINTED ♦ND PUBLISHED BY MU R D 0 YOUNG, AT THU
SUE OFFICE, 112, STRAND LONDJI4,