The Sun.
London, England, 1859-09-13 00:00:00

THEATRE-ROYAL, HAYMARKET.
Lessee, Mr. J. B. Buckatone.
THIS EVENING the performances will commence with
THE HAPPIEST DAY OF MY LIFE.
With THE CONTESTED ELECTION.
After which, OUT OF SIGHT OUT OF MIND.
And IMALLOWE'EN. •
Commence at 7.

ROYAL STRAND THEATRE.
Lessee and Directress, Miss Swanborongh
THIS EVENING, THE GOOSE WITH THE GOLDEN
EGGS.
And TO PAREN rs AND GUARDIANS.
After which, TRYING IT ON.
Followed by THE VERY LATEST EDITION OF THE
LADY OF LYONS. _ _ _

Commence at 7 o'clock.

CANTERBUR V HALL CONCERTS.-
EVERY EVENING.—The Music of Verdi's Opera of
MACBETH (now first made public in England at these Con-
certs). the extraordinary Violin Performances of the cele-
brated Infant DELEYIERRE FAMILY, and the usual
Vocal Concert.
Comic Vocalists —Messrs. George Hodson (the Irish Come-
dian and Mimic), W. T. Critchfield, and E. W. Mackney.
Several interesting Pictures are added to the Fine Arts
bballery. The suite of Halls have been re-decorated and
eautified, and constitute one of the most unique and brilliant
eights of the metropolis.

THE WEATHER.—SUN OFFICE, SEPTEMBER 13.
THERMOMETER, IN THE SHADE.
67—highest since noon yesterday.
55—lowest this morning and during the night.
62—this day at noon.
BAnomrrEn,-29.78—a fall of nearly half an inch since
yesterday.
WIND, North-Westerly ; fresh, with fine but cloudy
weather. It rained early this morning.
THREE o'CLocK.—Wind West and North-Westerly.

HIGH WATER AT LONDON BRIDGE.
THIS DAY.—Morning, 2h. 31m.—Afternoon, 2h. 45m,
To-Moßßow-Morning, 2h. 58m.—Afternoon, 3h. 12w,

THE SUN.
TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 13, 1859.

It is a very disheartening and discouraging view
altogether, that which Mr. BRIGHT has recently
given of the working of our English representative
system under our Taunted Constitutional Govern-
ment. Addressing himself to the -whole mass of his
fellow-countrymen through those pencilled hiero-
glyphics of the reporter, which were to be imme-
diately afterwards repeated through the quivering
needle of the electric telegraph, the hon. member
for Birmingham spoke thus, on Thursday evening
last, to 26,000,000, through the 3,000 assembled

celebrants of his brother-in-law's recent (rather

dubious) triumph down at Huddersfield: " There
has been for many years past," said he, " only
what we call wasted sessions of Parliament ; and,"
he continued—his heart apparently sinking within

him at the prospect—" I am so distressed, so weary,
so disgusted, and at times so hopeless, that I often
at the end of a useless session think myself a fool
above all other fools for spending my time, my
labour, my life in the House of Commons, and am
half resolved, as a duty to myself and my family, to
seek the only office that possibly I may ever hold—
the office of steward of the Chiltern Hundreds. I
am frequently tempted to take myself from Parlia-
ment, and to cease labouring in a field where there
is no soil to grow anything, and upon which neither
the shower falls nor the sun shines. All that we
have done of late years has been to vote with a
listless apathy millions of money for which you
have toiled. We have squandered scores of mil-
lions that under a just and economical Government
would have remained in your pockets ; we have
added tax to tax ; we have, it is true, taken some
off ; we have shifted an uncomfortable burden from
one shoulder to the other, but the burden remains.
It grows larger, and, if you do not stagger and fall
beneath it, it is because your productiveness, your
resolution, and your patience surpass those of any
other people in the world." All which is, no doubt,
perfectly true. But for all which we are mainly
indebted to Mr. BRIGHT and all that class of poli-
ticians. We maintain it. As sincere lovers of a
truly pacific policy—as advanced Liberals—as
staunch reformers—as rational and patriotic eco-
nomists—we do distinctly charge Mr. BRIGHT and
his sympathisers with those perpetually recurring
wasted sessions of Parliament—with those con-
tinual postponements of urgently-required legisla-
tive improvements—with this squandering of the
public money and this periodically increasing and
increasing taxation !
As to " wasted sessions," just to:begin with—let
us take this last wasted session by way of illus-
tration. The session of 1859 need not have been
wasted at all but for such paltering reformers as
the hon. member for Birmingham. Had Mr.
BRIGHT and his little handful of sympathisers—
those brothers-in-law of his who are such sticklers
for purity of election—had Mr. BRIGHT and his
small following but acted manfully, like the hon.
and learned member for Sheffield—the now wasted
session of 1859 might have been borne in grateful
remembrance as the year in which the problem of
Parliamentary Reform was at length solved, and
solved satisfactorily. In arguing thus we are not
in any way arguing hypothetically. We are
writing about mere notorious matters-of-fact. In-
stead of chopping and changing about like the
winds that blow, during the earlier part of this
current year the Brightites could have aided in
forcing the Reform Bill, introduced by the late
Ministry, into committee. And having got it
there into committee, they might readily have
taken an active part in transferring it from an
indifferent arid wholly inadequate scheme into a
comprehensive and sweeping enactment. An ex-
tended suffrage, a revision of electoral districts, a
possible diminution of the duration of Parliaments,
anything—even the very Ballot denied to us obsti-
nately by the Whigs—was then actually lying, as

it were, in the palm of our hand. We had only to
close our hand upon it, and grasp it. The
iron lay there temptingly hot upon the anvil
of the House of Commons—it had only to
be beaten into shape according to plea-
sure- The Ministerial measure, in the form
in which it was submitted to the consi-
deration of the Legislature by Mr. DISRAELI, was
as unseemly and as misshapen, let us say, as a lump
of clay placed in the hands of a potter—but the
clay was soft and plastic—it might have been
moulded into any shape in committee, and have
been baked in the furnace of discussion into a very
model Act of Parliament. Mr.
BRIGHT, however
would, and he would not—he wanted reform, or at,
any rate said that he wanted it—but he haggled
about who should be the reformer. And so the
session of 1859 was wasted-13y the vacillation, and
the insincerity, and the trumpery temporising of
such show•reformers as the hon. member for Bir-
mingham. ? And then Mr. BRIGHT has the con-
summate coolnEss and effrontery to go down to an
immaculate borough like that of Huddersfield, and
to protest.---,, I am so distressed, so weary, so dis-
gusted, and at times so hopeless, that I often, at the
end of a useless session, think myself a fool above
a.ll other Tools for spending my time, my labour,
y life, in';----literally causing this very waste he is
complaining of, this waste of successive sessions of
the imperial Parliament !
As to the frighi,ful increase of taxation, and the
lavish expenditure of the public moneys, particu-
larly upon the military and maritime departments
of the public service, that is a very'old story indeed
- --and hereogain we cannot in reason but recognise

-:`.-:.'.• =,,,,„--; ,
,
Vf,,„
~,,Vi au I. P,14 4! s iljr.,o •
:' ' •
4
1 11), % a qi.e..•tf:-.A
~ 14 •'1": - ,4', :1,"-- .
--1, ' .
441‘+:1.* 7X r ''RI '' --...r.r7--,..e., --', Roy' ~_ -N„f;.,,T
t,.. _ ......., , -.10.4 . _....._