The Sun.
London, England, 1861-07-16 00:00:00

expected to do so. Thus we had a voluntary sur-
render to- Toryism, For high as Mr. PALMER
stands at the Chancery bar, we need not say that
there are thoroughly liberal, and competent law-
yers in the house, to whom the " spoils of office,"
as our quarrelling cousins say, consistently belong.
The Opposition have indeed neither gained nor lost
a vote on most questions by the appointment, but
on Mr. ROUNDELL PALMER'S own testimony they
have the pleasure of seeing an unconverted Tory
joining the Ministry.
Next came the University Elections Bill. The
Government objected, certainly with reason, to
what is nothing better than a modified system of
proxy voting at elections. We have enough, in all
conscience, of that irrational practice in the House
of Lords. Bat the Tories completely defeated Minis-
ters, and had it all their own way. It is not, to
be sure, very likely that the University
will ever
again, at least not till " the good time coming" re-
turn any one even so liberal as Mr. GLADSTONE;
but a proxy system, by which immense influence is
put into the hands of the always Tory residents,
and by which all the professional narrow-minded.
ness of the country can easily back the narrow-
mindedness of the resident University men, makes
the Tories absolutely secure of four votes for the
mediaeval policy.
Last night Ministers had another humiliation ;
whether it will be their last this year, remains to
be seen. In the Bill on "Offences Against the
Person," Sir G. C. LEWIS had intended by a side-
wind to carry the old Conspiracy Bill, for which
Lord PALMERSTON was so deservedly censured
four years ago. It was cleverly done by the
wording of a clause, the bearing of which was
happily detected by the Opposition. Mr. HENLEY
proposed and carried an amendment that a con-
spiracy to commit murder should be a misde»leanozvr, ,
not a felony. Non-legal readers would not think
the difference important when the punishment for
the offence was to be the same ; but there was
the important difference, that, as the clause
stood, the police could enter without a war-
rant the house of the accused party, could
seize his papers, and procure evidence perhaps im-
plicating foreign patriots. In fact, the Emperor
of the FRENCH would have gained all that we
refused to do at his bidding. So strong was the
case that the Government did not even venture on
a division. This is the last humiliation of the Go-
vernment, and we may well ask, where is it to end?
Will it be possible to meet again such a Parlia-
ment with the same Ministry ; and if not, are the
changes now going on to issue in a substantially
new Cabinet ?

The example of Italy will not be lost upon either
Poland or Hungary. It was only the other day
that Italian unification was the veriest daydream
in the estimation of European diplomacy. Yet
there is Italy, if not already free from the Alps to
the Adriatic, if not as yet quite One and Indivisible—
at any rate so far on the road to those two wondrous
consummations that each may be petty confidently
regarded ere now as un fait accompli. The geo-
graphical expression sneered at not so very long
ago by Prince METTERNICH, has been articulated
at length, as the world has heard, with a different
accentuation than perhaps was ever dreamt of in
Prince METTERNICH'S any more than in HORATIO'S
philosophy ! It has been an articulation through the
horn of war, thiough the trumpet of victory, first
of all by 200,000 armed Frenchmen, and afterwards
by the combined voice of some 23,000,000 liberated
Italians. " Italy" has now a significance it has
never possessed before. Nay, the depth of its
significance is appreciably indicated by the simple
fact that VICTOR EMMANUEL has assumed an
entirely new position in the gorgeous " roll of
European Sovereigns whose names are inscribed
upon the pages of the Almanack, de Gotha. His
Majesty the Re Galantuomo then appearing no
longer as King merely of Sardinia or King of
Naples to boot [to (Italian) boot,]—but as