The Sun.
London, England, 1861-11-20 00:00:00

THE 0X F O R D,
6, OXFORD-STREET.

EVERY EVENING.

Auber's New Comic Opera, " LA CIRCASSIENNE," and
Verdi's new Grand opera, " Simonßocaancgra," by the entire
Company. Babe's new ballads by Miss Russell and Madame
E derssohn (composed expressly for them). Varied Comic
.Entertainments by Miss Harriet Coveney, Messrs. W. Ran-
dal:, Harvey and French (The Nerves), E. Mvrshall, and
SAM COWELL. Hall, ed. ; Balcony and Stalls, is ; Private
Boxes, 10s. ed.

HIGH WATER AT LONDON BRIDGE.

This DAY.—Morning, 3h. 22m.—Afternoon, 312. 36m.
To-MORROW. -Morning, 3h. 53m.—Afternoon, 4h. 13m.

THE WEATHER.—SIIN OFFICE, NOVEMBER 20, 1861.
THERMOMETER, IN THE SHADE.
36-3ighest since noon yesterday.
34—lowest this morning and during the night.
41—this day at noon.
BAROMETER-30.25.
WIND—South-Westerly; light, with fine and milder
weather.

40.
7',4,
15- 1
men
b r.-kiv J ir • 310 ~ ' ,),;(TIT -.--...
.'
...-=.

~~i
~~

THE SUN.

LONDON, WEDNESDAY, NOV. 20, 1861.

We shall now see whether a lowering of the elec-
toral qualification is really demanded. The Trades'

Societies at Glasgow, and the working men at
Leeds, have, each, in their own way, started a
working class movement. In those two towns we
see, of course, that the desire for the franchise is
general. It remains to be seen whether the work-
ing men of the kingdom at large have the same
desire. On this all turns. No one will move,

we might say, no one ought to move on this sub-
ject for the working man if he does not moves for

, - -
himself. Political privileges are of no value to

hose who do not care to ask for them. When the

Reform Bill was offered to the Middle classes, they
moved heaven and earth to carry it ; their eager-

ness for representation was itself the proof of their

title to it. When once a class of persons can ap-

preciate the advantage of having their representatives
in the great Legislative Council of the nation, they

ought to have them there ; it shows that they
desire to carry their objects, not by turbulence and

brute force, but by the appeal to reason.
We shall watch, therefore, with some interest
the course taken now by intelligent working-men.
Their own class having fairly and publicly put the

subject before them, they cannot now pass it by,
without, by so doing, giving a verdict against their
political enfranchisement. We shall help them,
heart and soul, if they help themselves ; but we do
not think it our province to seem to lead them.
Whatever working men really care about they find

abundant means to show that it is with them a❑

objectof interest. Whether persons thinkthem right
or wrong in the recent strikes, or in any preceding

ones, none can fail to admire the bull-dog English
courage with which they have endured privation
and suffering to attain their end. We have often
wished that some of their leaders in those strikes
were in Parliament itself, there to debate their
question, in the place where all public subjects are

discussed with every advantage ; and where, i'
information were deficient, they could sit them

selves on a committee of inquiry.

If working men value aright the advantage of
sending their own advocates to the House of Com-
mons, the men who could carry out the recent
strikes will certainly not want energy to show how
they value such a privilege. If, therefore, they
make no general sign, the Government, the House
of Commons, and the present electors, will
conclude that they do not care for the
franchise, and will certainly not put them-
selves out of the way to confer it on them.
Extravagance does no good. We should say, for
instance, strongly as we hold that the franchise is,
under free institutions, the right of every man not

disqualified by ignorance or crime, that it is inju
rious extravagance to represent English working
men—and some five millions of them, too—as placed
politically in the same positian as the same number
of persons in Austria or Russia. This is the reverse
of truth. What would English workmen say to
being denied the right of assembling in public
meetings of publishing, without fear of the
censor, full reports of those meetings —of
forming any society for any purpose, except
by leave from the Government, and under police
supervision—of publishing, as the Trades are now
doing, their own newspaper without asking any
ones leave—of signing petitions, as numerously
as they please to the Legislature, none daring to
seize and burn the sheets—of having a DUNCOMBE,
or a ROEBUCK, or a SHAFTESBURY, and others,
ready to master their case, to plead their cause
in the Senate, and to present their petitions—
surely all this, though not all they ought to
have, is great political power, compared with
that of the operatives and the peasantry of nearly
all the countries of Europe. It should never be
forgotten, that in these days, the power of pub-
licity is the great power. No bad cause which
does not ultimately fall before it—no good cause
that will not ultimately triumph by it. The free-
dom of the press is indeed the freedom of every
Englishman who has a grievance; the freedom of
discussion both in and oue of Parliament, is his
freedom also—but the advantage of representation
is that it secures fair discussion in the most ad-
vantageous theatre for it in the world, and that
it enables the represented to give earlier practical
effect to their views than they could otherwise do.
The resolutions of the conference which termi-
nated yesterday seem to be very suitable to its ob-
jects. The first one is rather strongly expressed
from the point of view we have already indicated.
Regarding all the rights we have just mentioned
as invaluable constitutional rights, we should rather
have said that the working classes do not enjoy the
fill constitutional rights acceded to those few
citizens who enjoy the franchise,and that thus they
have not the complete "constitutional protection" en-
joyed by other citizens " for their labour, their pro-
perty, their liberty, or their families." The resolu-
tions are wisely moderate in including all classes
of Reformers, from the Hon. BENJAMIN DISRAELI
to the advocates of manhood suffrage, in
Parliament, if such mortals can be found there.
They indicate, however, the extent of their actual
agreement, for while they freely avow the fact, not
to be concealed indeed, that earnest reformers differ
as to the extent to which they would lower the suf
frage, the delegates are, they say, " unanimous in
declaring that they, and those whom they repre-
sent, are deeply dissatisfied with the state of the
franchise, and claim such an extension of the fran-
chise in counties and boroughs as will give the
working classes a fair, honest, and effectual repro-