The Sun.
London, England, 1866-03-22 00:00:00

LONDON, THURSDAY, iILIRCII 22, 1866.

The Liberal party is thrown into a strange di-
lemma through the uncertain conduct of the
Government and the very unequal and insufficient
Reform Bill which they have introduced to Parlia-
ment. A special meeting of the members of the
National Reform Union was held on Tuesday in the
Free-Trade Hall at Manchester, to consider what
course the Union should adopt respecting the Mi-
nisterial measure, and a considerable degree of dis-
cussion took place. It was evident that the various
speakers were really disappointed, although they
endeavoured to make the best of it in this respect,
showing more Renee
and discretion than is ge-
nerally met with in extreme politicians. Mr.
GEORGE WILSON was the
chairman,
and he said
that the time had come When the
people would not
have to be satisfied with the "barren promises"
of
the last fourteen years. It appears
to US, on the
contrary, that we have lighted upon still worse days,
and that the people are now asked to be satisfied with
very "barren performances." Mr. WILSON confessed
to dizappointment at the measure, but still thought
they should give it all the aid in their power. H
very ingeniously omitted to mention the forthcom-
ing amendment of Earl GROSVENORS , and instead
alluded to the Opposition, who meant to oppose this
bill. Mr. JACOB BRIGHT proposed a resolution, in
which he called upon the earnest Reformers through-
out the land to aid the Government in passing the
Even here, however, the truth crept
out unawares, and we find this passage of a more
complimentary eh aracter.--, ' Notwithstanding it falls
far short of the just expectations of the Libe-
ral party." Perhaps since the outset of this
affair there hai been no more virtual censure
on the bill than was expressed at this meeting,
where, at every turn, the speakers found themselves
constrained to retract the unwelcome truth that the
pill was a most incomplete measure, Mr. JACOB

measure.

BRIGHT went on, after the fashion of his namesake,
to decry the House of Lords, and actually wished
that the bill might be thrown out of that august
assembly. It is not likely that their lordships will
incur the responsibility of having to pass an opinion
on its merits. This speaker showed his real illibe-
rality in stating that "in spite of what passed
with the DERBY-DISRAELI Government, none
but a Liberal Government could ever deal
with this question, and no Liberal :Government
would ever deal with it less broadly or less libe-
-1 rally than in the present bill." The latter part of
this sentence is more correct than the former one,
but surely the very cause which assembled that
meeting was a case in point to show how suicidal
to the cause of Reform had been the work of Earl
RUSSELL in persisting to oppose the Conservative
measure. It would have been certain to pass the
House of Lords, and long before this time the thino°.
would have been settled.

Of all mistakes, however, the worst is forspeakers
at public meetings and in Parliament to talk as if
agitation were necessary in order to secure a good
measure of Reform. What is wanted is a spirit of
liberality among the so-called Reformers in
Parliament. If they possessed half the desire
they profess to sec the question settled
there would be an end of the matter ; but
then they would lose the opportunity of fault-
finding, and OTHELLO'S occupation would be gone
in the matter of making patriotic speeches. It is
more effective to talk of wrongs being redressed
than of rights which have been attained. It is one
of the worst features in this bill now before us that
it will not settle the question, but, on the contrary,
leave it in a more uncertain or confused state than
ever. No one will be satisfied but those who wish
to make political capital out of it. Mr. R. COOPER
made a most inflammatory speech, which was quite
out of character, and altogether to be repudiated by
sensible men of all shades of politics. Ile asked what
" those wanted who spoke against the necessity
of Reform ? Did they want another Birmingham
riot, or another Nottingham conflagration, or another
Manchester massacre ? He warned these people
that, if they rejected this bill, the people would then
know that reason, moderation, patience, and endur-
ance were no longer virtues respected by the ruling
classes." Can anything be more out of place than
the introduction of such language at a public meeting
for the discussion of a subject of great national
importance. It is quite impossible to over-estimate
the injuries that such advocates do to the cause
they profess to serve. What can be more likely to
disgust people of reflection and of moderate
views than to find that anarchy and rebellion
are always in attendance in the background of
democratic speakers. They come in at the end of
a speech to give it a flourish, and produce an effect.
It is really doing an insult and an injustice to the
noble conduct of our lower orders thus to declare
so continually that they are rife with the spirit of
sedition, and have no other way to make
their wishes known than to prove themselves
worthy of trust and confidence. He would ask
these vehement speakers how it is that no seditious
outbreaks have occurred during the long lapse of
time when it suited the tactics of the Liberal
Government to do nothing ; and why this dis-
contented feeling should be manifested just
in the nick of time, as it were to aid the passing of
a Reform Bill, of which its best friends can say no
more than that it disappointed them, and goes a
very little way.
M. RLSDEN congratulated the meeting that at
last they had got a Government which was in
earnest, and he hoped " that they would assist the
Government to break the back of the Tory party
over this battle, so as to make the way for future
victories." 'While sympathising with a great deal of
this bitterness of disappointment that had been
expresSed, he believed that if the working men
of the country had made a greater demonstration
of interest in this question the Government would
never have put such a bill before them. To some
extent, then, this disappointment was deserved."
Really it would be laughable, if the question were
one of less importance, to notice how illogical and
inconsequent are all these expressions. What a
relief it would be to hear at once if the bill be good
or bad, if the Ministers have done their duty, or if
they have failed in it. Instead of this we are told,
in one breath, that the framers of the bill have
spoilt it to please a recusant Parliament,
and, in the next, that it is a measure
which deserves the support of the party. Such
clap-trap arguments defeat their own purpose, and
we can discern no strength or character in them.
It is not thus that great works are accomplished,
and that the statesmen who occupy a proud place
in the pages of history made their names immortal
in their country's annals, and are remembered
throughout all time as the benefactors of their
fellow-men, and the shining lights of their genera-
tion. A shuffling policy can never be an effective
one, and if a Minister would be a success-
ful one he must have some standard to
act up to, some cause to stand by or to
fall for, and not trust and turn about
to suit the veering views of his supporters. The
fashion of such a policy must pass away and
leave no trace behind it. It is because this new
Bill of Earl RUSSELL'S can impress us with no
particular aim or object that it has failed to secure
the approbation of the house or the country, and in
all probability will never become law. In some
respects this is not to be regretted, for it may serve
as a warning to future Governments not to put a
factious spirit in the way of the passing of a great
measure, and also not to trifle with it to suit their
own turn, and finally introduce it in a hurried and
incomplete form.

The German steamer Hermann brings us news
of some importance from America. She left New
York on the 10th inst. The Fenians are still active
in mischief, and their proceedings are exciting a
good deal of uneasiness in Canada. By the last
mail we hear of several mass meetings having
taken place in different parts of the States, and
we have now an account of an open-air assembly,
held in front of the City Hall, Brooklyn, at which
inflammatory addresses were made by the prin-
cipal Fenian leaders. OWAHONY, in addressing
the Firemen's Association, said it rested with the
Fenians to form a regular Irish Confedera-
tion in America. He boasted that there were
300,000 sworn Fenians in Ireland, and that
in the very centre of England's wealth and power
there were Fenians ready to bring revolution to her
doors. Of
forc ourse we may take these grandiloquent
statements
what they arc worth, but there can
be no doubt that there has been, and still
wide-spread conspiracy in exist-
is, a very
ence ; and if we have happily no rea-
m)* to feel alarmed at its capabilities for mis-
chief, there is every cause to regret it on account
of its own misguided members. The activity of the
Fenians not in the United States may well give rise
to some anxiety in the British North American
Provinces. In addressing a meeting at Williams-
burg, ROBERTS said that 30,000 men would shortly
be marched across the border ; and the New York

World publishes a military plan for the capture of
Canada and the seizure of the Grand Trunk Rail-
road. It states that the Fenians Kaye numerous