The Sun.
London, England, 1857-03-11 00:00:00

TEE! SUN,'

convocation of the new Parliament. It would
have been matter of absolute surprise to every
one had the proceedings of yesterday in the House
of Commons in thin matter been conducted one
jet less cordially amidst the acclamations of the
popular representatives. It would have been
difficult to exaggerate in any way the profound
sense entertained by the House of the urbanity,
dignity, sagacity, firmness, grace, and moderation
with which, during a most important and pro-
tracted interval in the History of the Country, the
Right Hon. Gentleman has fulfilled the delicate
and responsible duties of the Speakership.
It is a coincidence worthy of remark that
Speaker SHAW LEFETRE was originally elected to
his high office by a majority of Eighteen—and
that for Eighteen years he has presided, from the
Chair of the House of Commons, over the delibe-
rations of the popular branch of the Legislature.
Upon the retirement (on the 6th of May, 1839)
of his distinguished predecessor, Mr. ABER-
CROMBIE the present Speaker was chosen,
upon the 27th of May, as we have
said, by a majority of Eighteen-18 in a House
of 616 ; 317 voting for him, and 299 for the
rival Conservative candidate, Mr. GOULBURN.
Thrice since then Speaker LEFEVRE has been
eagerly re-elected—upen the 19th of August,
1841, upon the 18th of November, 1847, and,
lastly, upon the 4th of November, 1852—in each
instance, as a matter of course, without the
smallest show of opposition. He has consequently
officiated as Speaker of the House of Commons in
no less than Four distinct Parliaments—the
Four First Parliaments of Queen VICTORIA.
During the whole of which time, as Lord
PALIZERSTON very earnestly remarked yester-
day—addressing himself personally to the ob-
ject of his eulogiums "It is needless
to remind- those who have watched your proceed-
ings, how you have combined promptitude of de-
cision, justness of judgment, firmness of purpose,
with the most conciliatory manner ; and how that
Idignity—that natural dignity which belongs to
yourself, which is the most striking when it is
accompanied by simplicity of mind and the ab-
sence of all artificial affectation—how that natural
dignity which adorns yourself has been communi-
cated through your direction to the general pro-
ceedings of the Lower House of Parliament." The
Right Hon. Gentleman the distinguished Leader
of her MaaassTv's Opposition, almost immediately
afterwards recalling thus gracefully and
impressively to the remembrance of Mr.
Speaker LEFEVRE, some few among the more signal
evidences of his title to the grateful and respectful
recollection of the Legislature—where he observed :
" Sir, the 18 years during which you have occu-
pied that chair have been a memorable period in
the history of the Parliament of this country.
Some of the greatest measures that have ever been
proposed in this Council of the nation have been
carried during that period, and some of the greatest
men that have ever flourished within these walls
have been under your guidance. Aud, sir, I make
Rio doubt that in the page of history your Speak-
ership under these circumstances will figure
is no unimpoitent one in the history of the
Parliament of this country." The eloquent
panegyrics of Mr. DISRAELI and of Viscount
PaaseensToN, being authoritatively enforced by
the eulogiume of Lsrd JOHN RUSSELL, and re-
echoed hardly less gracefully and rhetorically by
the cordial encomiums of Sir JOHN PA.RINGTON.
According to Parliamentary usage it devolved
upon the Speaker himself to read from the Chair
the resolution strongly commendatory of his own
eareeeni---rnynnova,hy '-he Tioader of the Govern-
ment, and seconded ny the Leader of the Opposi-
tion. A striking contrast beicg afforded iu this
respect by the proceedings in the House of Com-
mons yesterday, when compared, for example,
with those which took place in the House of
Commons, in 1695, under wonderfully different
circumstances. When the then Speaker, Sir
JOHN TRETORS, formally read from the Chair the
proposition for his own ignominious expulsion !
it is not in any way to he marvelled at
that iu acknowledging the unanimous decision of
the House, a decision entered upon the Journals
at the suggestion of the Prime Minister as having
been carried nernine contradieente, the Speaker did
so in a voice " broken with emotion," the House
meantime remaining " respectfully uncovered"
while he was speaking ! As it did, for example,
when WARREN HASTINGS', in his old age, appeared
at the bar to give evidence in some case then
under the consideration of the Legislature ! As
it does invariably, by a loyal custom, when receiv-
ing messages from the SOVEREIGN !
Thus memorably, amidst fervent and unani-
mous expressions of the regret, respect, gratitude,
and affection of the House of Commons, does the
Right Hon. CHARLES SHAW LEFETRE Close his
protracted and distinguished discharge of the
onerous duties of the Speakership. Retiring to
the enjoyment, Ist us hope for many years to
come, of the honours holes so well won—a pen-
sion and a peerage—in the sixty-third year of his
age : having Occupied during no less than
twenty-seven years of that 'period a seat in
the House of Commons as one of the chosen
representatives of the people, first of all from
1330 as M.P. for Downton, and afterwards un-
interruptedly ever since 1831 as M.P. for
North Hampshire. In conclusion, we cannot
resist the satisfaction of reiterating in this
place what we conceive must have been, perhaps,
of all the most welcome tribute offered yesterday
to the recipient of so many emphatic) and de-
served eulogiums—the graceful hope, gracefully
expressed by Mr. DISRAELI, that whenever the
name of Speaker LEFEVRE shall be mentioned
hereafterin the House of Commons, he will believe
that it must be always quoted with regard and
reverence !

Reformers, to action t—immediate action. In
a fortnight, perhaps, your present representatives
will represent you, or m/s-represent you, no longer.
The advocates of vested wrongs, the opponents of
all change, the beneficiaires of every monopoly,
will be early up aid doing. They have ell a sub-
stantial interest in anticipating and defeating you.
The unrighteous profits of the past enable and
incite them to battle for the unrighteous profits of
the future. Monopolists of all grades will band
together. They have a common instinct. Their
modes of sponging the public differ, but their
advantage in doing it is identical. Hence we
find bank monopolists, shipping dues monopolists,
ecclesiastical monopolists, political monopolists,
army and navy preferment monopolists—monopo-
lists of all sorts--we always find them acknow-
ledging
their brotherhood, and, by a well under-
stood free-masonry, uniformly acting in concert.
In
every borough, and, it is needless to add,
iu every
County of the kingdom they have agents
ready for their work. If Liberals sleep, Toryism
and Monopoly are awake, up, and doing.
Reformers—the, coming
Parliament will proba-
bly be a long-lived one. If you suffer Reform to
be buried now, it will be long enough ere it rise
again. There will be an effort made, and it ought
to be made, to get a decisive, a working majority
on one side. Lord PALMERSTON' of course,
be professedly the head of the Liberal party,
and L
RSTON will be a Liberal if we
ordr.tLm atE

send him back a thoroughly Liberal Parliament.
Remember, it is not a question of Liberalism or
Reform on which he goes to the country. His
foreign policy has been factiously censured ; the
country justly resent 4 that censure. It is deter-
mined to reverse it, and reverse it it will. Now,
thoroughly as we support Lord PALMERSTON on
the main question of upholding the honour of
England, and compelling the barbarians of the
flowery empire to respect their treaties—confident
as we feel that any of his opponents, if in office,
must, as Englishmen, and would as pa-
triots, have done the same—deeply, therefore,
as we deplore the factious spirit which perilled
such grave interests for party objects—we yet feel
that the very goodness of his chief ground of ap-
peal to the country may compromise our home
policy in the great prominence given to foreign
policy. Lord PALMERSTON must be supported,
but Lord PALMERSTON is not a voluntary re-
former ; the greater need is there to tell him by
the elections that the reformer of our relations
with China must reform our domestic relations
also. We want an end put to Mantchou-Tartar
exclusiveness 15,000 miles off ; but that is quite
compatible to putting an end to monopolist and
aristocratic exclusiveness in the very midst of us.
Reformers—you must not be beguiled by gene-
ralities. Put no faith in the candidates who will
only promise vaguely to support "a liberal po-
licy," " every well-considered measure of reform,"
" safe and steady progress," and who equivocate,
and shuffle, and qualify, and refuse to come to
the point when some of the practical questions,
on which all honest Liberals are agreed, are brought
before them. We do not like pledger when a
subject is new, or complex, but there are three
or four liberal questions now in hand on which
every man worth a Liberal's voting for, ought to
have made up his mind ; we may mention-+•
The Ballot ;
The Extension of the Suffrage, and in particular

LC:IOXE KING'il motion ;
The Bank Monopoly ;
Church Rates ;
Abolition of Purchase in the Army, and Pro-
motion by Merit ;
A graduated Income Tax.
Here is a list which might easily be increased,
and no man deserving the name of a Liberal
ought to wince when catechised on each of these

subjects.
Take the first—the Ballot. We go to this elec-
tion under the auspices of one of Lord Joan's pet
little anti-corruption acts—an act from which
the clause was struck out requiring the returned
member to make a declaration denying any guilty
knowledge of money spent at his election ! The
election of 1852, the W. 8., and other disclo-
sures raised such a feeling on the subject that
something had to be done ; all was therefore
done that should not prevent intimidation by the
landlord, the mortgagee, the banker, and the
wealthy customer ; all that should not give the
voters real independence. Every Liberal knows
this. No men know it better than Lord JOHN
RussELL and Lord PALICRRSTON. They are both
alike at heart, we must believe, electoral Conser-
vatives. Both equally detest the Ballot and elec-
toral independence, and neither will yield the
point if they can hold office and refuse concession.
As to Locics KINS'S proposal, Lord Jolt; rea-
sonable as it is, never voted for it separately till
out of office. Then take Church Rates. We
could not bring ourselves to vote for any pretender
to Liberalism, who, especially since the last cen-
sus, could shuffle on so plain a question. If there
be a social iniquity, an annoyance -t? large seo-
turn 01 Ile community, it 13 that tribute to eccle-
siastical arrogance and meanness called Church
Rates. This infamous tax will servo for a test on
the light enjoyed by candidates respecting civil
and religious liber4y.
Let Liberal committees be prompt. Let thou'
apprise their candidates forthwith that the time
for indecision is paßt ; that they require a amp-
porter of the PALMERSTON Chinese policy, but
that they also require, and mean to have, a sup-
porter of their own home policy. sLet candida Ges
know that no equivocation or fencing will do ;
that to generate suspicion by indirect or qualifi.ed
answers will insure rejection—and it is wonder-
ful what au enlightener is political necessity. in
every constituency the section of staunch Liber ds
are essential to the Liberal candidate. They have
waited long enough for their present objects. It
is theirs now to tell their fellow-electors, and the
applicant for Parliamentary honours at their
hands, that their votes absolutely depend on ishe
votes which the latter will engage to give in Par-
liament. If he does not understand these ques-
tions, or if he refuses to vote on them as a
Liberal, then he is utterly unworthy of Liberal
support.

Once more we would remind all thorough going
Reformers in 'each constituency that promptitude
is half way to success. Put your candidate, if he
need it, in right sailing trim at once. Discipline
your electoral forces w;thout delay. Wait not
for half-hearted respectables, but organise imme-
diately the intelligent and energetic amongst you
—determine that you will win, and then win
.you
will.

The Income-Tax Bill has passed through Com-
mittee. Two amendments were proposed—the
first by Sir FITZROY KELLY, for the substitution
of sd. in the pound for 7d. ; and the other by
Mr. W. Wuwass, for the exemption of incomes
below 150/. per annum from the tax—the former
whereof was negatived without a division, and the
latter by a majority of 53 to 7. These divisions,
however, merely refer to the important questions
raised to the new Parliament. As we have re•
peatedly explained no payments will be made on
account thereof before July, by which time the
necessary changes may be effected in the ope-
ration of the existing law. It would un-
questionably have been better if the Act
of 1855 had been repealed from and after the sth
April, so that all traces of the " accident" might
be removed from the National Statute-book. The
Chancellor of the Exchequer, however, still clings
to the extra 2d. in the pound; and we must be
contented to accept what he is willing to give,
for the time being, with the firm determination,
however, of helping ourselves when the time has
arrived for energetic action. Sir F. KELLY'S
object was achieved by raising the question, and
bringing the arguments on the point before the
House, not for its consideration, but for that of
the various constituencies, who will be enabled to
pronounce final and decisive judgment thereon.

The same may be said respecting the just and
politic proposition of the Honourable Member for
Lambeth. Th.e objections against the inequitable
and oppressive apportionment of the tax tell with
double force, on the smaller class of incomes
which were for the first time since the termina-
tion of the old war brought within its operation in
1853. Persons in the position of Mr. GLAD•
STONE'S favoured correspondent, Mr. PEEBLES, of
Birmingham, felt the pressure intensely, and dis-
covered by painful experience the futility of the
equivalent " advantages " (!) which they had
been led to expect. The produce was compara-
tively trifling, while it fell with peculiar severity
on large numbers of persordill able to sustain the