The Sun.
London, England, 1861-02-20 00:00:00

c hoose to put themselves on a line with him, his
importance on the question he takes up increases as
rain 'dly as the figures in our numeration table.
Now, therefore, is the time for popular action.
Petiti 'ens ought to flow in rapidly, if sincere
reform ers are not to receive a severe check.

We admit a difference in what may be expected
from odie unenfranchised in the counties and the
unenlianchised in the town. The former have
mach less inducement to petition than the latter.
They a.we, as a body, so entirely at the disposal of
the landlords, except, perhaps, in the casual case
of a large town extending its suburbs beyond the
boundary o f the borough, that they could gain
nothing by the franchise. We do not indeed object
to Mr. KING'S Bill ; so far as it is even nominally
an extension of the suffrage, it must be supported
by Liberals ; but it will have no effect, we fear,
beyond increasing the per-centage of votes through
which the landlords express their sentiments.
The votes of both Whig and Tory landlords
*ill each have ten, fifteen, or twenty per cent.
added to the numbers they can drive to the poll ;
the relative positions of the two aristocratic parties
will remain unchanged ; but the advanced Liberals
will nowhere have the slightest chance.
With the boroughs it is somewhat different.
Working men, who there, will be the next
stratum of electors to the present one, although
much needing protection for their votes, are, we
believe, more independent by far than the county
voters vont be. Their numbers and power of
combination give them strength ; they are as neces
sary, as a body, to their employers, as their em-
ployers to them. To thousands of them, we
know, an unprotected vote would be a curse,
but on tens of thousands it would confer
the privilege of voting, as they always do
at the show of hands, for the right man.
Mr. BAINES' Bill is, therefore, a summons to the
working men of all the great boroughs to say what
they wish.

We confess we look with some interest on the
result; Hitherto, while Governments were many
years offering working men the franchise without
trouble, it was hardly to be expected they would
put themselves out of the way to get it. The
case is changed now. The Government is not
hostile, far from that ; it would probably
not dislike some proof that it was not so far wrong
last year ; but it says we are powerless. A mem-
ber who has taken great pains to show that the
working men of his own borough are deserving of
the franchise, brings forward a bill in their favour.
Left to himself, he, like the Government, is power-
less ; supported by the £6 renters, he could, we
doubt not, carry his bill even over the bar
of the House of Lords. Will the working
men petition ? We cannot predict. If they
do not they must not expect enfranchisement
for many a long year. If they do, they can so do
it that opposition will cease. Mr. WARNER told
the house that Norwich had begun ; Leeds and
Newcastle will almost certainly follow ; should the
movement spread to Manchester, Sheffield, Bir-
mingham, Glasgow, and other populous towns, it
would then become general. On this we believe
turns the fate of Mr. BAINES' Bill.

THE B ALLO7 IN AUSTRALIA.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE SUN.