The Sun.
London, England, 1866-03-12 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, MONDAY EV E_NING, .MARCH 12, ISOG.

MARKETS.—This Day.

has taken place. The quotations are as follows : Good
Australian clothing, is hid to 2s 8d ; do., combing, 2s to
2s 8d; greasy, is 2d to is id ; gcod Cape, is Bad tots sd;
medium do., is 6d to is 8d; greasy, 10d to lid per lb. For
English wool there has been an improved demand, and
rather higher prices have been obtained. Last week's im-
port was ab out 6,000 bales.

possible that, in common with others, he may have
revolved in his own mind the chances of a Ministe-
rial crisis, and a Ministerial reconstruction. To
attempt to littila up a third party outside the pale
of the present Ministerialists and the present Oppo-
sition would be to engage in the Scriptural task of
making bricks without straw. , Materials are want-
ing for such an undertaking.;
THE " SPECTATOR" ON TIIE CONSEQUENCES OF
REJECTING THE REFORM BILL.—It iS useless to
speculate further on the contents of the Reform Bill,
nr even to urge the principles upon which it should
he constructed. Within sixty hours of the appear-
ance of this isstie all the world will know what the
Ministry propose, and before It appears the bill must
have been finally revised. Whether it has been
touched and retouched, as the country believes; or
struck out at a blow as Ministerialists would like to
assert ; whether it is based on statistics, or on a
policy only reinforced by the figures; whether it
will dismay the Whigs, or disgust the Radicals, or
be received with a burst of unexpected applause,
are all now questions beyond discussion. The bill
itself will be introduced on Monday, and we shall
be in presence of a new force—a force sure to be
great, but as yet of totally unknown quantity—Mr
Gladstone's speech in defence of a measure which,
as he introduces it, he mustbe understood to approve.
It is no use to talk any more of the effect of a rating
as opposed to a rental qualification, of the drawbacks
to lodger franchise, of the danger of swamping the
counties by the ten-pound voters dwelling in unre-
presented towns, or even of the necessiiy of disfran-
chising corrupt litte boroughs. The bill is coming,
and the only subject connected with it worth dis-
cussing this week is the duty of Liberals in reference
to their vote. Are Liberal members bound to accept
a bad bill rather than let in a Government which
they believe to be worse than the existing one ?
We are not speaking of the constituencies. If a
bud bill goes down to them, their duty is simple—
to elect Liberal members, pledging them to vote
against the particular measure. 11re speak now of
members who on some day next week will be com-
pelled to declare themselves, to decide by simple yea
or nay whether the Government proposal shall be
accepted, and who are even now wearying themselves
with speculations as to the degree of independence
their constituents will concede. Shouldthe bill prove
a bad one—one, for instance, like that the public
expects, namely, a bill which Will simply shift the
whole work on to shoulders of the next Parliament,
which will degrade the constituencies without admit-
ting the workmen—their doubt will be whether
they can resist it without surrendering the country
to a Tory Administration. We believe that they
can, that it is at this moment possible to defeat a
Liberal Cabinet without seriously endangering a
Liberal Administration. Let us suppose the bill
defeated, either as a whole, which is improbable,
though Mr. Lowe will make a strong battle, or by
some great amendment in committee, which is ex-
ceedingly likely, what is then the probable course
of affairs? The Government stands pledged if it
cannot carry its measure to resign, and there can be
little doubt that the promise will be performed. We
question, supposing the defeat to be accomplished
by Liberals, whether a dissolution would in the best
interests of the party be expedient. The House of
Commons now sitting was elected under a Liberal
Administration, contains a great Liberal majority,
and has done nothing whatever to entitle it to a
capital sentence from those who called it into exist-
ence. If members waver the country is pretty sure
to coincide with its own representatives ; the con-
stituencies, however Liberal, cannot desire a dimi-
nution of their own power with any enthusiasln ;
and the counties, with a new franchise threatening
the great landowners, will be more doubtful than
ever. Many wavering constituencies might fall
back on the Conservatives, and the great Li;seralma-
jority, with which so much might be ac,comphdied I
if it were only used, might be seriously diminished.
The Government will, we think, resign if beaten in
the Commons, as yet a pure assumption, and then
it remains to form a new Administration. The
natural resoit would be to the Tories ; but could
the Tories, hampered as they are by Lord Derby's
reluctance to take office, and Mr. Disraeli's reluc-
tance to refuse it, organise a working Government?
They cannot dissolve till the house has rejected
some proposition. They have not only no majority,
but no minority large enough to carry on daily
business. They would be compelled either to rely
entirely upon Whig forbearance, which can never
last long while so many are hungering for place,
or to ally themselves with Mr. Bright, and so as-
sume the one position which saps the fidelity of their
own party. They could not expect help from the dis-
contented, for rating is in England ruinous to all
politicians who cannot plead the national welfare
in excuse, and though Mr. Lowe and his friends
might join an ad interim Cabinet, a frank
adhesion to a Government carried on by Lord
Derby would cost them their political lives. Lord
Derby will scarcely be willing to try for the second
time so painful an experiment as governing through
a minority, more especially if he is to be burdened
with the care of a new Reform Bill. And he would
be so burdened. Every statesman is aware that be-
fore the Tory party can revive, that question must
' be got rid of, that, while it lasts, a Tory Govern-
ment, however powerful in ability or popular favour,
may at any moment be overset. The new rails must
be fitted in before the locomotive can move at speed,
and Lord Derby has had one lesson on the labour
of fitting them without hands specially trained to
the work. A real Tory Government is out of the
question, but is a Coalition impossible ? We think
it is, for the same reasons, and many others. Such
a Coalition must be based on a refusal to touch the
existing representation—a refusal which the Libe-
rals cannot be expected to tolerate, indeed will not
tolerate. The rank and file will resist, and the
Constitutionalists, or whatever they may call them-
selves, would in a few weeks be in the position of
the Peelites, officers without a following, and with-
out the special advantage of the Peelites, their pos-
session of a financial secret which, as• the country
justly believed, would work wonders. Unless they
took up Ireland with a will, they could have no in-
ternal policy.large enough to overpower party pre-
possessions, and a Coalition Cabinet relying on
Tories, but looking for help to a reserve guard of
Whigs, is exactly the Government which cannot
effectually take up Ireland. It could not touch the
Church without destruction, or affect the tenure
except by aid of the party which the Coalition
would be formed to resist. It could not carry on
the Government for any time, and the experiment,
if ever made, would but enable Mr. Gladstone to
reorganise his party into a harmonious whole, to
frame a Reform Bill which should satisfy the coun-
try, and march into power at the head of a party as
strong and as fully prepared to act as that which
seized the reins in 1832. Thetas not a prospect at
which any sound Liberal should quail, and it is also
one which Tories with eyes will not be very willing
to promote. Failing Lord Derby and the Coalition,
there remains a reconstruction, 'and this, as we
believe, possibly after many intrigues, certainly
after many heartburnings, would be the speedy re-
sult of the rejection of a bad Reform Bill. Is re-
construction a change to be actually dreaded by
Liberals? It is clear that it must be reconstruction
under Mr. Gladstone, for without him a Liberal
Ministry is impossible, and he cannot with dignity,
consent to serve any statesman who has not pre-
viously been the head of a strong Government. To
do so would be to resign his own ultimate leader-
ship, a resignation which Mr. Gladstone, self-dis-
trustful as he sometimes appears to be, and unaware
o f his singular hold over the country as he certainly
is, would be the last man to offer. Left to himself,
at once Premier and leader of the Commons, able
to urge a policy of his own, instead of merely
modifying the policy of another, Mr. Gladstone
could construct a strong and comparatively a young
Government, bring in a Reform Bill which the
country would accept as a settlement, and then
commence his true career—the great war against
pauperism, which it is the first duty of this genera-
tion to win. Of all living statesmen, Mr. Gladstone
has shown the greatest readiness to commence that
campaign, the keenest perception of the course by
which it may most speedily be won, namely, the
use of the strength and organisation of the state to
clear away all obstacles to free and combined in-
dustry. Of all living statesmen, too, he is probably
the one best prepared to face the great Irish diffi-
culty, to make a successful effort to reconcile a third
of the monarchy to the institutions by which that
monarchy is supported. Now that he has shown
his ability to lead the Commons his Premiership is
inevitable, and if Liberals hasten it on by rejecting
a bad plan of reform, what is there to dread ?
Simply nothing except loss to the public of a states-
man who, great as his services have been—and no
man ever deserved better of his country than Earl
Russell—is now out of rapport with its opinion, who
seldom perceives what it really desires, and, when
he does perceive, shrinks as he said in the Irish de-
bate from the risk of causing heartburnings. The
defeat of the Government on reform may cause a
temporary interregnum, but the continuance .
power‘of any Government not avowedly Liberal
is
in the present condition of English opinion an im-
possibility. Better another year's delay, to be fol-
lowed by a strong Government and a sound reform,
than a measure which will neither improve the
machine nor clear the scaffolding out of the way.

THE DUKE OF HAMILTON'SMAJORITY.—The Duke
of Hamilton attains his majority this day, and preparations
have been made for entertaining the tenants and workmen
on the estates at dinner. Upwards of 300 invitations have
been issued to the ladies and gentlemen of the district of
Hamilton for a grand ball, to be held in the Town-hall in
the evening. The comforts of the poor of the town are
likewiat tv Do liberally attemlecltv•