The Sun.
London, England, 1859-01-28 00:00:00

to say, much more with Whigs and Palmerstonians
than with Tories. If representation in proportion
to population is talked of, immediately you hear a
piping behind you of—" Our glorious Constitution"
—perhaps also an old, new, song too is announced,
commencing, " It's balance would you quite de-
stroy ?" till you almost exclaim impatiently,
" Bless us, we did not know our constitution was a

tight rope dancer !" You happen to be speculating
on the comparative advantages of a rating, or a
household, or a manhood suffrage,—round goes the
organ handle again, and you can hardly hear your-
self speak for the discordant grinding out of the ever-
lasting old air ; you are almost ready to curse the
constitution itself because you can never get out of
the sound of it. You wish there were some politi-
cal policeman who could bid the nuisance " move
on." Perhaps you advert to the ballot, and venture
to see some reasonableness in what commends itself to
the reason of twenty million Anglo-Americans and
many millions of the freest States in Europe, and to
our own colonies on the other side of the earth, and
for what looks like an efficient protection against the
dry rot in our own electoral independence,—forth-
with your ears are deafened with the dirge of "Our
glorious Constitution," till you are ready to wish it
really dead and buried. The thing being so
eminently reasonable there is nothing for it but to
collect the whole band of street musicians and to
give you a Dutch concert for the salvation of the
English Constitution. And, there are Statesmen,
and respectable journals, who can fall back on this
trumpery device ; who utter themselves tones of
affected sadness, and tip the hint to the crowd of
humble plaguy cant singers around them, who
know no better ; who, having no cue of their uwn,
stand ready to grind or sing as they are bid. We
may always be sure enough that arguments on the
merits of a case there are none when its supporters
resort to the everlasting cant of " Our glorious

Constitution.
At the present moment there is another piece o
cant absurdly in vogue with the argumentless. I
seems that take what test you will—population—
registered electors—real property—income tax—
other taxes—it will come out that the mctropoli
tan and manufacturing districts ought to have a very
large increase of representatives. Every device has
been exhausted to prove that acres of arable and pas-
ture, and even of moor and heath, ought to have
votes, rather than population and property gene-
rally ; yet, after all, will it look unfair to give votes
to clay or sand, rather than to human beings ? The
" Old Constitution" air has been tried, but at unavoid-
able pauses a counter song of a merrier strain was
heard, in which the words of years long gone by
are revived; and it seems that merry England once
held that every man paying taxes called " scot and
lot" had a vote ; and the older song seemed most
popular. Hereupon has arisen the new cry, which
has been taken up by one after another ; a bit of
precious cant, too, about things as they are, and
which may have the special advantage of making
some of the stouter Radicals blush for themselves
and their constituents. The cant consists in decry-
ing the present representatives of large constituen-
cies. " See," it is said to us, " what you have got
now for Manchester and Marylebone, for Birming-
ham, and even the City of London, for Lambeth
and the Tower Hamlets. Match these men with
the representatives of many small boroughs, which
must be wholly or partially disfranchised by your
proposed bills." And this is said with an air of
triumph, as if it were quite an axiom that we are
to be ashamed of the representatives of our large
constituencies, and that an argumenturn ad verecun-
diam had been found, to which we could not reply.
It is, however, cant and nothing else. It will
not bear looking at for one moment. The old
seasoned debaters may perhaps be chiefly found
amongst the class which has hitherto engrossed
the management of affairs ; but are orators altoge-
ther wanting amongst the sons of the middle
classes ? One, just now in full feather, another
rusticating for awhile, not to mention inferior
names, may answer the question. But two facts
dispose of this current cant. First, the members
for these large constituencies are the members who
vote right. They have voted on all such great
questions as we have mentioned at the beginning
of this paper, as the professed orators and states-
men who opposed them at first had to vote at last !
If we want men to do what wants to be done, not
men to entertain us with splendid orations against
what they at length deliver splendid orations for,
then our large constituencies return the right men.
At this moment all this class of members will vote
for what the other class will soon vote for too, or be
" nowhere." Secondly, if the candidates of higher
pretensions to intellectual power and education
will but consent to vote right, these constituencies
would prefer them. Edinburgh was proud of
MACAULAY, but she would not tolerate his voting
wrong on the Corn Laws to suit his party, even to
secure his genius. But how soon and handsomely
was the offence forgiven ! Let the men of
genius and high talent in the house know
that none would our larger populations elect so
readily as themselves, if they would vote for the
people, and not for aristocratic cliques. The pre-
sent members themselves would many of them
willingly retire, if an eloquence superior to their
own could be heartily employed in the same cause.
The fault, therefore, is in the men themselves, who
are obliged to run to earth in some petty borough.
Let them become worthy of popular election, and
hey might carry it by acclamation.

A Cabinet Council was held yesterday afternoon
at the official residence of the Chancellor of the Exchequer,
in Downing-street. The Minister. present were—The Earl
of Derby, the Right Hon. B. Disraeli, the Lord Chancellor,
the Marquis of Salisbury, the Earl of Hardwicke, Mr.
Secretary Walpole, the Earl of Malmesbury, Sir Edward
Bulwer Lytton, General Feel, Lord Stanley, Sir John
Pakington, the Right Hon. J. W.'Honley, and Lord John
Manners.

The Address in reply to the Queen's Speech will
be moved in the House of Lords by the Earl of Winchilsea
and Nottingham, and will be seconded by Lord Delamere.
The Duke of Buccleuch and the Earl of Dalkeith,
M.P., are expected to arrive at their new residence in Bel-
grave-square, on Monday next, from Dalkeith Palace, near
Edinburgh.
The Duke and Duchess of Manchester come to
town for the season on Wednesday next, the duchess, as
Mistress of the Robes, having to attend on her Majesty at
the opening of Parliament.
The Marquis of Clanricarde has arrived in town
from visiting Mr. G. G. Harcourt, M.P., and Frances,
Countess Waldegrave, at Nuneham Park, Oxfordshire.
The marchioness came to town yesterday from visiting the
Earl and Countess of Cork at Marston House, near Promo.
His Excellency the Marquis d'Azeglio and Count
Louis Corti have arrived in town from Broadlands, Hants,
where they have been visiting Viscount and Viscountess
Palmerston. .-.
His Excellency the Prussian Minister and the
Countess Bernstorff have returned to the Prussian Lega-
tion, Carlton House-terrace, from visiting Viscount and
Viscountess Palmerston at Broadlands.
Earl and Countess Spencer have arrived at
Naples from Rome. The noble earl and countess intend
to return home by the 9th of March.
Lord and Lady John Russell and family will
arrive at their mansion in Chesham-place to-day, from Pem-
broke Lodge, Richmond Park, for the season.
At the meeting of the Electric and International
Telegraph Company on the 4th of February, a dividend is
to be recommended for the half-year at the rate of 6 per
cent. per annum. _ .

The Speaker of the House of Commons will give
his first full dress Parliamentary dinner on Saturday, the
12th of February, to which the Ministerial members of the

Lower House, as customary, are invited. The banquet will
be given at the right hon. gentleman's official residence, at
the Palace at Westminster.