The Sun.
London, England, 1859-04-23 00:00:00

and the thing's done ! Only make a judicious choice
like this from among the rival candidates : and let
other constituencies act in like manner, thus judi-
ciously—and the triumph of the Ballot is assured

in the new Parliament. True, no doubt, as I said
at the beginning—l don't like it—l am opposed to
it on principle. But you, on the contrary, do—
and therefore principles must slip away to a quiet
chop at BELLAMY'S, or to a cheroot in the
smoking room, or affect to be busy in looking
up some precedent in the library—at anyrate, some-
how or other get out of either lobby and out of the
clutches of any of those harpies the tellers. So—
my dear, honest, virtuous, unpurchaseable consti-
tuents, only put the weathercock upon the top of
the poll, and show the country which way the
wind blows !" That is the " high argument" of
the baronet of Netherby. That—as Mr. SNAGSBY
would say, " not to put too fine a point upon it "
is just about the English of it. A highly moral
tone this surely ! One calculated to raise the
standard of statesmanship—to elevate our estimate
of our public men—to enhance our appreciation
of their honesty, of their unswerving rectitude, of
their rigid consistency.
Finally—there is the once arch-type of Finality.
There is Lord JOHN RUSSELL, who dodged his
way into Parliament at the last general election
by one of the sharpest bits of practice recently in-
dulged in, in regard to any constituency ! There
is Lord JOHN, who contrived to get in (the third
on the poll) for the City of London, just two years
ago—because of a declaration, made rather boldly
it must now be confessed, by the noble lord's
brother, Lord CHARLES RUSSELL, the Serjeant-at-
Arms of the British House of Commons. Recol-
lect that Lord JOHN RUSSELL has very recently—
because driven to it—declared most positively
within the house and out of the house, by word of
mouth and by writing—that he is still (in 1859)
against the Ballot, that he will continue to oppose
the Ballot, and that he pledges himself to vote
against the Ballot if it should be introduced into
any further Reform Bill to be submitted to the
House of Commons by the DERBY Government.
And then recollect what it was that his own
brother, Lord CHARLES RUSSELL, said upon Wed-
nesday evening, March the 25th, 1857, at a meet-
ing of the electors of the City of London, then
holden in Threadneedle-street, at the North and
South American Coffee-house ! Lord CHARLES
RUSSELL there and then said, upon the very eve of
that critical election—" But was his brother so
determined an opponent of the Ballot as some gen-
tlemen seemed to suppose ? He had heard his
brother say that in the abstract he was favourable
to open voting, BUT TIIAT HE MIGHT BE DRIVEN
TO THE BALLOT." A great deal more to the
same effect was uttered by the same speaker, at that
same time and in that same place. We content
ourselves with a revival of those few words, how-
ever, as altogether quite sufficient. They give the
gist, the pith, the marrow of the whole " artful
dodge"—a dodge, however, so extremely artful as
not to be by any means easily repeated.
Everybody knows how it was, once upon a time,
said of the Noble Lord by the present Chief of her
MAJESTY'S Government—

"JOHNNY'S upset tho coach."

Since then he has done the same trick over again
repeatedly. And by all manner of ingenious and
disingenuous contrivances—by slipping the lynch-
pin out—by teazing the leader—by unbuckling an
important strap in the harness—by turning a diffi-
cult corner rather too abruptly—by dropping off
himself with an affected cry of alarm, causing a
general bolt of the whole train down hill just be-
fore reaching some narrow toll-bar. This last time,
however—instead of upsetting the coach—he has
only floundered,into a slough of despond by the way-
side. Will the electors of London endanger a few
splashes to themselves by picking him out of it ?
If they care not for having been dodged the last
time—if they care not for that first and most essen•
tial of all Reforms, the Ballot—if they want par-
ticularly to oblige Mr. HENRY BERKELEY—surely
a matter of the very first consideration. In any
such extraordinary contingency, then, of course,
they will return Lord JOHN RUSSELL as one of
their four representatives. Not otherwise. Unless,
that is to say—unless the electors of London have
set their hearts upon sending to the House of Com-
mons what the present leader of the House was
at the outset of his political career, down at
Wycombe, taunted with being, by a flippant Whig
aristocrat—namely, a Conservative in disguise ! It
was the first, as it was also one of the most brilliant
witticisms to which Mr. DISRAELI has, even in his
happiest moments, given utterance. " A Conserva-
tive in Disguise !" exclaimed the young author of
Vivian Grey—" I will tell you who is a Conserva-
tive in disguise—it is a Whig in place." If the
electors of the City of London want such a repre-
sentative, they will meekly do the bidding of the
Central Committee, and return Lord JOIIN RUSSELL
as M.P. for the most important of all our great re-
forming and ballot-loving constituencies.

COURT CIRCULAR.

WINDSOR, APRIL 22.

•, _ ,
His Royal Highness the Duke of Saxe-Coburg dined
with her Majesty yesterday, attended by le Baron de
Meyern, le Capitaine de Reuter, and Colonel Francis Sey-
mour, C.B.
Lady Caroline Barrington, and Sir James Clark had the
honour of being included.
The Queen and Prince Consort, with Princess Alice and
the Duke of Saxe-Coburg, attended Divine service this
morning and received the Holy Sacrament.
The Hon. and Very Rev. the Dean of Windsor offi-

ciated.
The Hon. Eleanor Stanley and the Hon. Horatia Stop-
ford, have succeeded the Hon. Caroline Cavendish and the
Hon. Flora Macdonald as Maids of Honour in Waiting.