The Sun.
London, England, 1866-04-14 00:00:00

Sir Bulwer Lytton and Mr. Mal.

The following are among the opinions expressed
by our contemporaries in regard to the two remark-
able speeches delivered last evening in the House of
Commons, the one by Sir Bulwer Lytton, the other
by the new member for Westminster :
The Times says any evidence were wanting to
prove the false position in which the Ministry have
unfortunately landed themselves, it might be found
in the speech of Sir G. Grey last night. Sir G. Grey
is one of the members of the house not adequately
appreciated by the public. Possessing considerable
powers of expression, he is unequalled, much less
surpassed, in the facility with which on ordinary
occasions he can conduct a long and involved sen-
tence to its conclusion. He is singularly calm, argu-
mentative, logical, and temperate. In everything
he says there is a certain quality which we may
almost call sweetness, disarming the virulence, if
not the force, of opposition. But last night every-
thing was changed. Instead of his usual placidity
there was anger, instead of the serenity which has
so often excited the admiration of his hearers, there
were ruggedness, impetuosity, broken utterances,
inconsequent sentences, and the spectacle, in short,
of a good man struggling with difficulties not of his
own creation. The usual characteristics of the
speaker had disappeared, and the legislative tem-
per, accustomed to moderate the contests of party,
had given way to a fiery spirit indicating the hope-
lessness of his argument, and the impossibility of
any statesmanlike result of the Government policy.
No one can regret more than ourselves the conse-
quences of the fatal mistake the have com-
mitted. The solution of a great question, which
every one admits ought to be solved, was possible
when the advisers of the Crown, in an evil hour,
istened to insidious counsellors. Now the attempt
o recall the combatants to the main question at

issue is almost hopeless. It seemed at the com
mencement of the discussion of last night as if the
debate might be lifted into a higher sphere than is
usual in Parliament. The elaborate speech of Sir
Edward Bulwer-Lytton, the argument of Mr.
Mill, touched upon the deepest points at issue,
but the unfortunate way in which the Reform
question has been brought before the House
of Commons almost immediately withdrew at-
tention from them. There was in the reasoning of
Mr. Mill a singular forgetfulness, or perhaps we
should say ignorance, of the actual conditions of
political life, and a corresponding indifference to
what they might become should the Franchise Bill
of the Government be passed by Parliament. We
cheerfully admit, with Sir E. Bulwer-Lytton, with
every one, indeed, who has given any attention to
the subject, the virtues which on the whole charac-
terise the working men of England ; we acknow-
lege, with Mr. Mill, the advantage of admitting to
the national Legislative Assembly some members
who might be animated by their hopes, who might
speak their thoughts, who might give utterance to
their arguments. We will go-further, and say that
no one can reasonably expect every Reformer to
reveal all he hopes to accomplish in a Reformed
Parliament, though we must observe, in contradic-
tion to Mr. Mill, that the Reformers of 1832 told
their opponents what they expected to do, though
they did not, because they could not, tell them of
the things then un-hoped for which they have since
realised. The Reform Bill of 1832 was, however,
passed because the people of England awoke to a
consciousness that they were ill governed. The
Franchise Bill of 1866 has no such popular impulse.
Mr. Mill dreams of a time when the agency of a
central Government shall extinguish crime,
pauperism, ignorance, and even disease, apparently
unconscious of that tide of voluntaryism which
would not allow an attempt at National Education
to be made, and less excusably using language which
would seem to intimate that he was unaware of
the absolute impossibility of repressing these evils
by legislation. We pass from the discussion of
suggestions which could only prejudice Reform,
and ask what answer was attempted to Lord
Stanley's argument of Thursday ? The answer
must be nothing. Mr. Baxter, like Mr.
Mill, and others who followed on the same side,
attempted to distinguish Lord Stanley from the
other supporters of Lord Grosvenor's amendment,
and seemed to think that, having made the dis-
tinction, it was unnecessary to reply to his speech.
No error in tactics could be greater. There are
doubtless many who will vote for the amendme •
who view the Reform question in a manner d.
ferent from 'Lord Stanley, but his position is the
strength of the Opposition. Unless he is an-
swered, nothing is answered. Intrenched with him
are the moderate Liberals, the independent mem-
bers whose antagonism is the true danger of the
Franchise Bill, and to pass them by as unworthy
of notice is to repeat in an exaggerated form the
folly of Sidney Smith's 'Mrs. Partington. Mr.
Mill declared that those who opposed the Fran-
chise Bill must be of opinion that if it were passed,
and nothing more were done, it would, standing
alone, be unworthy of consideration. This issue
does not truly represent the point in dispute, be-
causepassing of a Franchise Bill would con-
fessedly be the first skirmish of a protracted cam-
paign ; but we are willing to accept the issue.
Mr. Mill is, however, a new member of the House
of Commons; he was returned, as we believe he
himself acknowledged, by the exercise of the
" heroic virtues," and we believe he has not yet
served on an election committee, certainly that he
did not serve on the committees which investigated
the returns for Totnes and Great Yarmouth, or on
the committee which is investigating the Notting-
ham election. We challenge any one to assert his
belief that a reduction of the franchise to £7, re-
taining the existing constituencies, would secure a
better representation of the working classes, a more
effective legislative body than that we at present

possess.
The Daily News oap :—" Sir g .1311115'er Lytton