The Sun.
London, England, 1866-08-10 00:00:00

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LONDON, FRIDAY, AUGUST 10, 1866.

The last clay of a Parliamentary session usually
presents a striking contrast to the day of its inau-
guration. There is not often, indeed, such a
change in the position of the principal actors on the
Parliamentary stage as we have witnessed this
year, but every fresh session sees a busy crop
of hopes and expectations that are destined to
disappointment, of ingenious schemes that will be
frustrated, and of individual and party projects that
will fail to realise the anticipations of those con-
cerned. Thus every day of prorogation puts the
finis to a tale, which is, after all, incomplete,
and it more frequently sets us considering how
little has been done in the session than how much
has been really accomplished.
The session of 1866, whatever its shortcomings,
cannot certainly be called an uneventful one. It has
broken the spell of the dullness which during the last
few years has hung over St. Stephen's. It has
inaugurated a new Parliament and a new Ministry,
it has been marked by several brilliant debates, and
by a prolonged party struggle. It has had a suc-
cession of narrow majorities of Government ques-
tions, of full houses and grand crises, but if we
come to consider what has actually been done in its
course we shall not get a very long record. It has
given us a change of Ministry ; it has de-
cided against Reform ; it has suspended the
Habeas Corpus Act, and passed the Cattle
Plague Bill, but very little else beyond the ordi-
nary routine has been accomplished. There has
been a series of negatives to the questions brought
under discussion. The Reform Bill, which occu-
pied so large a portion of the session,
has collapsed in toto ; the Church-rate ques-
tion is left unsettled, in spite of numerous
bills ; the measures for the amendment of the
Bankruptcy Laws and for the relief of the Irish
tenantry proved fruitless, and every part of the
Budget itself has vanished into thin air.
The Oaths Bill, it is true, was more fortunate,
but the principle of that measure had so long com-
mended itself to unprejudiced men of all parties
that its acceptance by the House was nothing
remarkable. In fact the length of time occupied in
debates and discussion left little space for the open-
ing up of new questions, though many important
legal and social reforms were needed. The treat-
ment of our sick poor, and the whole question of
poor rates, have been admitted on all hands to de-
mand immediate attention, but in spite of repeated
official reports, fully confirming the statements of
independent parties, no effort was made to reform
our national asylums, though Mr. VILLIEIZS pro-
mised to introduce a measure with that object if

he retained office. The position of foreign
affairs has been throughout the session grave and
perplexing—so grave, indeed, with the exception
of one brilliant debate there has been little refe-
rence to them in the Commons. During the last
week or two of the session the Public Health Bill has
occupied a prominent part, both sides of the House
feeling the importance of strengthening the hands
of the authorities with regard to sanitary matters in
presence of the visitation of cholera.
The accession of the new Government to office
necessarily occasioned some delay in the actual
process of legislation, and after all was
in working order again, by common consent
nothing was attempted beyond the necessary
winding up of affairs ; so that, after all, the Re-
form Bill, debated but not carried, remains the
chief feature in the Parliamentary record of 1866.
It is a singular fact that the new Parliament,
which came to its duties fresh from its hustings'
pledges, and might be supposed to give an accu-
rate reflection of the feelings and wishes of the
country, should have shown itself adverse not
only to the details, but to the principle of Reform.
Genuine Reformers, no doubt, objected to the