The Sun.
London, England, 1857-11-23 00:00:00

IS REFORM TO BE POSTPONED ?

(Prom the Saturday Reties.)

The recent monetary crisis and the violation of
the Bank Act are, it is true, subjects more pressing
than any reform bill ; but we have an extra session
expressly for the purpose of considering these im-
portant matters ; and even though that alone
should not suffice, it is ab,mrd to suppose that 650
gentlemen can keep up a discussion on the currency
for the greater part of a year. We have no objec-
tion to the bank charter taking precedence of every
other topic ; but really, to assume that it will leave
no time for the consideration of a reform bill
savours overmuch of a foregone conclusion that
time shall never be found for the only measure in
favour of which the constituencies expressed any-
thing like a unanimous opinion. In fact, there is
very little disguise affected in the matter, for the
parliamentary reformer is kindly advised to wait
until he can get a session to himself. Can any o❑e
guess how long that period of expectation will
prove ? An absolutely vacant session has never
occurred in the memory of man ; and if reform is
to be laid aside until so very convenient a season,
we are afraid that Mr. Roebuck will have time to
advance to universal suffrage and weekly parlia-
ments long before the question shall be considered
ripe for discussion. It may be true, as the Times
cynically observes, that men in office and men in
parliament are not fond of interfering with patron-
age, and offending persons of influ,nce and social
position, and that they will infallibly shirk the duty
if they can. But, if so, there is the more reason
for pressing on the disagreeable discussion before
the remembrance of promises, as yet recent, shall
altogether fade away. At any rate, it is a strange
way of encouraging honesty in public life to tell our
representatives that they are disposed to shirk their
pledges, and that that is an excellent reason why
they should not think of fulfilling them.
If those who were returned to the present Parlia-
ment as reformers are in earnest in the matter, there
never was a session which promised a fairer oppor-
tunity for carrying out their principles than that
which is now approaching. Such of them as desire
only to escape from au irksome duty will, no doubt,
find want of time as good an excuse as any one of a
thousand others.

(From, the Leader.)
Reform is once more a topic of the day. The
working classes are agitating it, and we have received
many declarations of sympathy with the sentiments
we have expres3ed as to value of an open and cordial
association of all classes of reformers. They have one
grand point to gain ; it is before them ; they now
know that the Government will avoid concession
until it is wrung from it ; they have seen toryism
disgraced until it has been bestridden by an adven-
turer like Mr. Disraeli ; and they have only to or-
ganise their own resources and apply them. . .
Even the Tory prints—although abundantly en-
dowed with the attribute classically ascribed to the
fly—will not affirm that every considerable town
does not contain at least ten men interested in the
promotion of Parliamentary reform. If these ten
would unite and act—in concert, perhaps, with a
London committee—the question might be taken
out of Lord Palmerston's hands. It is not for the
Liberal party to receive the dictations of any cabi-
net. All the Ministerial objections amount to no
more than special pleading, and an artful attempt
to confound the third session of 1857 with that of
J 858. Are both those sessions forestalled ? There
is now a programme before the country. What
towns will set the example of appointing commit-
tees to vote whether the principles set forth are
deserving of adoption ?

171 the letter of " Publicola" in the Weekly Dispatch.)

Having done its utmost to burke the question of
reform, the Times breaks out in a startling anxiety
and tenderness for its success. Something, it
thinks, may be made of that for the purpose of pro-
crastination. " Will not the parliamentary refor-
mer himself be better satisfied with having a ses-
sion, though a later one, to himself?" A session
to himself ? There's a bait. Only think of seven
whole months to make reform speeches in ! What
an effort to win the long-winded Unhappily this
" later" session is what we have been promised
again and again. We have run after it like boys
after a rainbow. And when is it to comet The
siege of Sebastopol stopped it once. The Bank
Charter and India stop it now. Want of prepara-
tion stopped it in the session of last spring. There
will never be wanting something or other, at home
or abroad, by which it may not be stopped. Now,
we have a promise to claim ; an express, absolute
promise. We may never have such a thing again.
Our facetious Premier may warble the old song,

I told her I'd marry her,
But never told her when.

We cannot afford to let him slip. The associated
parliamentary reformers are dealing rightly and
wisely. They start no great public agitation. No
movement is contemplated like that of the Anti-
Coru-law League. They want no popular excite-
ment. Their own views are calmly propounded,
and they invite the people to say whether they coin-
cide, and thus confirm the verdict of the last ses-
sion. Such a quiet refresher will, it may be hoped,
tell vi ith greater power on the Premier than a more
noisy demonstration,

THE CONSERFATIVE PARTY IN
BELGIUM.

(From Galignani's Messenger.)

The electoral committee appointed by the repre-
sentatives of the right in the late Chamber of Repre-
sentatives of Belgium has published an address ex-
plaining the conduct of the party which has just
been deprived of place. This document, which is
written with great moderation, affirms that the in-
tentions of the conservative party—that which has
lately been in power, have been systematically mis-
represented by its political opponents, and par-
ticularly with respect to the bill for granting
assistance to the poor, which a short time back
caused so much agitation in the country. That
measure, the address declares, which was made a
cause for agitation and a pretext of opposition,
contained nothing whatever of a nature to justify
the resistance it met with or the storms of indig-
nation which it had to encounter. The address
denies that a bill so completely in harmony with
the principles sanctioned by foreign legislative
bodies, and in accordance with the national tradi-
tions of Belgium, could be in opposition to modern
rights and civilisation. Ignorance alone, it
says, could credit such an affirmation, which
passion alone could dare to bring forward.
But above the law on charitable foundation',
thus alluded to, was the political situation of parties,
and it was that circumstance which led to tumult
in the street, and to distrust among the masses at
the very moment that the King, in his wisdom,
was recommending prudence, tranquillity, and mo-
deration. It was by the majority in the Chamber,
the address affirms, that the bill was supported ;
and yet the minority, by the aid of popular pas-
sions, had not only led to the withdrawal of the
measure, but, by the dissolution which was lately
decreed, had for the moment put an end to the
majority. The address then terminates as follows :
The majority, which is now called to the bar of pub-
lic opinion, is declared to be factitious, and not repre-
senting the country. Let us just examine how the con.
servative nzejority has been formed, how it has grown in
strength, and what extreme means the opposition must
have recourse to, in order to endeavour to put it down.
When in 1847 our adversaries arrived at power, they
employed, with persevering energy, all the political
means that appeared calculated to establish the supre-
macy of their opinion—dismissals from public offices, not
practised before, and not initiated by the conservatives ; the
electoral reform, destroying without compensation the
equilibrium established by the Congress ; parliamentary
reform, the dissoluti on of the Chambers, and the renewal
of the communal councils and administrations, in the midst
of anxiety arising front external dangers ; at a later period
the dissolution of the Senate, the law decreeing im-
mense public works, a vast electoral organisation com-
bining its action with administrative organisation ; and
a. pressure on all the springs of parliamentary govern-
ment. Nothwithstanding so many and such strong
precautions taken against the return of a new majority,
the Conservatives returned to power some years
afterwards by the mere movement of public opinion,
by regular elections, naturally, without convulsions,
surprises, dissolutions, or violence. Never had Parlia-
mentary majority a more legitimate course or constitu•
tion ,1 origin, and never did it represent the country
more faithfully. When tranquillity reigns in the public
mind, the coueervative opinion requires preponderance
and spreads, because it lives by tranquillity and ad-
dresses itself to the calm reason of the country. When
agitation is excited and populations are disturbed,
the opposition naturally triumphs, because it addresses
itself to the passions and lives by them. By what
means can this majority, constitutional in its ori-
gin and forma ion, and moderate in its cond &Ist, be over-
thrown, were the opposition to triumph ? The ministry,
in imposing an immediate dissolution as a condition of
its acceptance of office, has as-sumed all the responsibility
of that measure. A dissolution, a measure to which the
1-ft alone has had recourse since 1831, and which the
right has never felt the want of, is destined, in extreme
cases, to restore the balance between the powers
of the State, and outit never to be used to break
it ; it is a weapon kept in reserve in the halide
royalty, free in the eyes of all, and not an instru-
ment to be used by one party to crush anoth.r.
The cabinet of the 9th "Nov. applies an unjust electoral
system, under conditions which are still more unjust ; it
makes an appeal to the c =try at an epoch in whioh
access to the electoral urn is difficalt and often im-
possible to the rural population. The electoral law of
1848 is privilege organised against the country districts,
and an appeal to the country iu such conditions is
the exclusion of those districts. A dissolution thus
made by a minority, by such means, and with, chances
so unequal, is not an honest and prudent carrying
out of constitutional institutions—it is the despotism