The Sun.
London, England, 1866-06-25 00:00:00

LONDON, MONDAY, JUNE 25, 18G6.

The interval between the division of last Monday
and the Ministerial explanations this evening has
been spent by the Reformers of Manchester in orga-
nising a Reform Conference. It was held at the
Free-Trade Hall, Manchester, and wasvcry numer-
ously attended, delegates from some GO or 70 towns
and districts being present ; and these did not repre-
sent alone the feeling of the immediate vicinity, but
came from the neighbouring counties, and even
from the Principality. Mr. GEORGE WILSON, the
veteran Reformer, presided over the Conference, as
also over the public meeting which followed it, as the
most suitable occupant for the post. The speeches
delivered on both occasions were very much of the
ordinary style which we have heard for a good many
years, and which we fail, after submitting them to
the test of practical experience, to put much faith in.
It is so easy to abuse-the Tories, to declaim about
the virtues and successes of the great Republic of the
West, to declare that the working classes are
maligned by the papers that circulate among
the governing classes, that the aristocracy
are tyrannical, the middle classes selfish,
and, in short, every one is wilfully wrong ex-
cept the speakers and their immediate audience,
and everything badly managed in any old-fashioned
country, while America and Australia rejoice in
political perfection. Unfortunately we have heard
all this a good many times before, and the language
does not fit so well to the present times as it did of
old. When We find Mr. JACOB BRIGHT, for in-
stance, descanting on the 6' overwhelming claim of
fitness" for the franchise, we cannot help remem-
bQ.ring that he and his party refused to support
Mr. CLAY'S Educational Franchise, which gives a
vote to every man who can read or write. Is it be-
cause they fear that if the Reformers of Manchester
arc ready readers they will extend their knowledge
of: foreign affairs, and so refuse to accept their
B4IGHT doctrines unreservedly ? Again, when we
are told by Mr. JEFFEnv of Liverpool that " Eng-
land's Tozies are Enryi
„ and s BISMARKS," and that a
Conservative Government wouldinvolve the country
in a foreign war in a month, we are reminded
that we have to thank Earl ItussELL and his
frier.dship for Prussia for the whole European
eir:broilment which threatens eventually to draw us
in, A Conservative Government might possibly
have done the same, but Earl RUSSELL cannot boast
that he has preserved peace. " The beginning of
strife is like the letting out of water," says the vise
man of old, and the beginning of this European
commotion has the tacit permission given to the
German Powers to dismember Denmark. If we
are to accept the Honourable Mr. STANLEY
as the spokesman of his party, we find
him putting forward the ingenious excuse of the
American war for the delay in introducing a 17.eform
Bill. " Our whole interests were bound up in.. that
momentous struggle, which.was far more important
to the cause of freedom in England than any
local agitation about a £6 or £lO rental or
nth
.mere
Really we cannot see what the American war 1 *lad
to do with English freedom, except so far as to
show our people that civil liberty cannot always be

safely trusted in the hands of professing demo-
crats. But Mr. STANLEY goes further in
his American views. lie considers that the
" forbearance and generosity" of the United States
in their victory have shown the humanising and
ennobling effect of democratic institutions 1 The
Americans, whatever their political virtues or fail-
ings, certainly do not want for " cuteness" or
common sense, and would be the first to smile at
such an elegant tribute, especially if they had just
been bearing a discourse of Mr. THADDEUS
STEVENS. Why, " the forbearance and gene-
rosity" so highly praised is, however, con-
genial to the feelings of the majority of
American citizens, the work politically of
one man against whom the Radical party in the
States have exhausted every effort of abuse,
calumny, and intrigue. If Mr. STANLEY had
favoured the Manchester audience with a few selec-
tions from recent debates in Congress they might
have thought that " the reformation of home insti-
tutions" might with advantage be conducted on a
different plan. As for Mr. STANLEY'S Canadian and
Australian proclivities we advise him to turn over
a few pages of colonial history before he holds
up the management of the Australian land
question as a model to Englishmen. As for
his advocacy of the rights of Dissenters, which we
have always been the first to acknowledge, we would
remind him that it is no part of English justice to
give one man the right to control another man's
property, and that if Dissenters are to manage
Church funds, Churchmen with equal right may
claim to meddle with Dissenting institutions and
endowments, a quid pro quo which, we think, few
Nonconformists would relish ? But the speaker's
name unfortunately reminds, us that the "people's
friends," as represented by the Whigs and Radicals
combined, have been in office during the last six or
seven years, and that Lord STANLEY of ALDERLEY
has been a member of a good many successive Cabi-
nets, without any marvellous results for the public
good ! We have had quite enough of this party
declamation on the hustings, and this dolce far
niente when in power. It is not necessary
to denounce every man who opposes us as a
traitor and a tyrant. Let us have all parties, all
creeds, all ranks, all interests, fully and fairly re-
presented in the English Parliament. The agricul-
turists have a right to be heard as well as the towns-
men ; the interests of the professional man should
be consulted as well as the interest of the merchant
and manufacturer. Let us not bind ourselves to
general principles, or rather prejudices, or to any in-
dividual policy. We may, indeed, h • hesitate to plunge
the country into war lightly or wantonly ; but for
Englishmen to declare that they want nothing but
peace, regardless of the interests of humanity or
freedom, is alike unworthy of their past and of their
future.

We may admire and respect the American people
and rejoice in their successes, but to attempt to
fashion our Political institutions upon theirs would
be simply preposterous. If it were even possible to
transport Washington to Westminster Englishmen
would not tolerate the system a single day. We
have good reason to prize our constitution, and be-
cause some matters of detail may need reform we
must not believe that others are more ex-
cellent. An old house may need repair, but
he would not be a wise man who would pull it
down so as to build a new one on its ruins: It is
this sort of language that alarms the timorous and
disgusts the moderate, so that in the end it is pre-
judicial to the interests it would advocate. The
Reformers have good right to denounce the Liberal
party who have 'failed to fulfil their pledges, but
their conduct serves the more to prove
to us that we must not trust in names and
bycwords, but judge men by their acts. Whether
Earl RUSSELL'S Ministry resign or retain office
is a matter of comparatively little moment. The
great point to be understood is that the people
expect a Reform Bill, and will look to the merits of
the measure rather than to the men who bring it
forward. They wish for no violent changes, no
social convulsions ; they only ask that Parliament,
which professes to represent our ever-growing and
varying community, should expand with its require-
ments, that its increasing intelligence and its rival
interests shall be fairly represented, and that some
security shall be provided not only that the votes
of the member shall represent the constituency,
but that the votes of the elector shall represent his
own political opinions, not his pecuniary necessi-
ties nor his personal apprehensions. Neither Whig
nor Tory has yet offered such a bill, but the
present erisis may teach them that it will have to
be done before any new Reform Bill will receive
cordial and general support.

The news from the Continent which reached Lon-
don yesterday is very important, but not at all satis-
factory in some respects. A great battle was in
progress yesterday between the Austrians and the
Italians, near Verona, and both wings of the Italian
army had been repulsed. So far this looks favour-
able for the Austrians, and we hope that their good
fortune did not desert them. It is indeed high time
that some decisive advantage should be gained by
the Austrians to set off against the many successes
of the Prussians, and the Italians deserve a defeat,
for they had no right to interfere in a dispute that
did not affect their interests, and there was something
very mean in their manifest desire to take advantage
of their enemy's difficulties. Such tactics are un-
worthy of success ; and the Italian policy had
another great drawback to its consistency, inas-
much as it was in union with Prussia, who is the
sworn foe of all freedom, domestic and foreign, just
now. It would have been bad enough had the
Italians
combined with the army of a free country
to
,attack the Austrians, but to side with a Govern-
ment that had incurred the just censure of Europe
for its reckless abuse of power and violation
of all constitutional rights was indeed a des-
picable act, and all defeat and disaster
that may accrue to them will be their just portion.
There was no particular cause for dispute between
Austria and Italy until the differences between the
two great German Powers assumed a serious aspect,
and therefore the course pursued by Italy is the
more remarkable and the more reprehensible.
The Austrian course of proceeding may indeed
puzzle the most astute, and bewilder the most clear-
headed. Much valuable time is being lost by their
extraordinary dilatoriness, which the Prussians are
making the most of in all kinds of ways. The last
news concerning the Hanoverian forces is most vexa-
tious. It is stated that they had capitulated with
the Prussians* The officers are to be permitted to
withdraw
rna w with all the honours of war, together with
their arms horses, and a free choice of a future
residence to be left to the KING and CROWN PRINCE
of li rlan
right the officers have to the
honours warvieeare quite at a loss to perceive,
and so will any one
The only consolationhei s wthhoa
thsaus
ch t
fuoteeds tchaennaofftabire.
of much avail to any one, but still of course it is
a loss to the Austrians for the Prussians to have
succeeded in cutting off
the junctions of
these troops with those of the Federal army.
Why, it may well be asked, in the name of common
sense, did not the Hanoverian force 3 make
more
haste to join their allies? They should have gone
on at once, without waiting for anything, and if