The Sun.
London, England, 1861-10-16 00:00:00

TH E. SUN
LONDON, WEDNESDAY, OCT. 16, 1861.

There must be no squabbling next session, and
the reason is obvious. We all know that some-
times when brothers and sisters, and occasionally,
though that is only to be whispered, husband and
wife themselves, have been hotly bickering, and
looking not exactly as members of one family
should do at each other—a rap at the door is heard—
a visitor is announced—is shown into the room, and
—forthwith, and during the whole of the visit, all
the family's faces look as bland, as smiling, as genial
as possible. The visitor never could suspect that
the same faculties which produced such a series of
smart pleasantries for the hour had been for an
hour previously producing much smarter invectives
and satires. For aught the visitor could tell,
feminine eyes were always mildly and modestly
drooping, never flashing wrath; and gentle-
men's brows were always open, never knit with the
vain effort to match the keenness of a feminine
retort. The visitor leaves happily a really
" Happily Family."
Now, so it is to be, if report speaks truly, in
1862. Visitors from all the world are to be here,
They will visit not only the Great Exhibition but
our Houses of Parliament; they will see all that
is to be seen ; and, we are told, that they are to see
Earl RUSSELL smiling on the Earl of DERBY, and
Lord PALMERSTON on Mr. DISRAELI ; that no quar-
rels are to be allowed; Parliamentary Reform not
even to be mentioned ; Mr. BERKELEY'S motion to
be handled with silk gloves, and Sir JOHN TRE-
LAWNY'S with white kid ; Mr. WHALLEY, as
successor to Mr. SPOONER, to be counted out ; Mr.
BRIGHT to be propitiated with some additional
Free-trade sop, if, indeed, Mr. GLADSTONE'S inge-
nuity can find any materials left in that line ;
some indulgence is to be offered to the Bishops
and Clergy in regard to Religious School
examinations, and they and the schoolmasters are
to be privately informed that the better they be-
have the better for them. We are to have an Exhi-
bition Session ; to put on our best behaviour before
visitors ; to look as if we never had or knew of any
domestic feuds. Some sham fights are to be exhi-
bited, perhaps, that our friends may see the aspect
of our serious tactics and evolutions, but blank
cartridge only to be thought of. As to any dis-
placement of a Ministry, with all the world in our
house, it is not to be thought of; and then what
in 1863—will Lord PALMERSTON retire, or will
he fight the strengthened Conservatives, or will
Reform, or anything else, be a subject for the neces-
sary battle— Heaven knows ! With America, Italy,
Rome and Venetia, Hungary and Poland—we may
add, cotton difficulties, all before us, he would be an
unusually bold political prophet who should write
a political almanack for 1863.

Yet there are some thoughtful men who would
like to use the present lull of agitation to prevent
by anticipation future political quarrels. At Ox-
ford the retired Judge and real Conservative, Sir
W. P. WOOD, observed the other day :—" Progress
must now he the word. I have no desire to trespass
on party politics, but I should be glad if all great
questions of progress could be settled in quiet times.
Although I do not agree upon all points with the
right hon. member for Oxfordshire, I will say in
his presence that if his views had been carried out
some time ago in reference to parliamentary reform
we should have had a measure which would have
gone very far towards a settlement of that vexed
question. Whoever may be in power, I think that
Government will deserve the-greatest approbation of
the people of this country which shall take care that
before a time of difficulty, pressure, or commercial
panic arrives, any great question likely to unsettle
men's minds shall be satisfactorily adjusted."
Mr. HENLEY, when it came to his turn, amidst
general cheering, heartily accepted the .Vice-Chan-
sellor's opinion. " With regard to the question of
parliamentary reform," he said, "I believe that it
sauiedst
was not the fault of those in Parliament that that
q
wi °int hNvgarse anot
f settled.oree
a na
with The
great
tru th—l
Vice-Chancellor
hah
have
es
always been of his opinion, and I
nave more than
once expressed it in Parliament as well as in this
city—that things of this nature are better settled in
quiet times than in times of excitement." Mr.
HENLEY threw the entire blame on people outside
—Parliament, he affirmed, was utterly powerless
through popular apathy. " It was no more possible
fur Pariitanent to settle it than for honourable'
members to fly." The 11
—onourable gentleman went
SO a.r as
r to prophecy on the probabilities of his own
life. "When the question," he observed, came be-
Commons I gave my opinion on
fore the House of C
ly I said at cnce what I was
it fairly and frank •
I left office because that did
willing to do, and
)
not suit those with whom I was acting in the

Government of the country. So far as I was
personally concerned there was an end to the
matter, but since then the whole question has
been gradually dying out until it came to a
natural death last session. Whether it will ever
come to life again I don't pretend to say, but I
must confess that in what remains to me of
my life I can hardly expect to see it again."
So Mr. HENLEY cheerfully hopes that no " ugly
rush" will occur in his days. He quitted office
rather than hazard what he thought the first step
to it, the equalisation of the borough and county
franchise, and now he hopes that for the remainder
of his life, at least, the question of Parliamentary
Reform will have no resurrection.

All is quiet enough, indeed, just now, on the sub-
ject. That Sir W. P. WOOD and Mr. HENLEY
should advert to it seemed quite a novelty. Earl
RUSSELL himself was perfectly silent at Newcastle
upon it ; the great battle of 1830 and its
great results were all he could think or talk of. Not
a sentence was there deploring his own failures to
perfect the Great Reform Bill after so many trials.
One might almost suppose he had reverted to the
conclusion of bygone days, and that he accepted
finality again with the peerage. Yet it cannot be
doubted that the two Oxford speakers are
right. Such a grotesquely gross absurdity as our
present representation cannot long remain En-
assailed. The ARUNDELS and THETFORDS are not to
last for ever. Earl RUSSELL showed that slavery,
if not got rid of now, must give rise some years
hence to another civil war ; and so, assuredly, a
political monstrosity, like the absorption of almost
all electoral power by a minority, will, sooner or
later, stir again the waters of political strife.
One or two of our political contemporaries are,
indeed, very fond of repeating the assertion, that
no one cares about Parliamentary Reform, because
there is nothing of consequence now left for Par-
liament to do. We cannot accept this view of the
question. The influence boroughs, the corruption
boroughs, and the political slavery of the counties,
are alone something to be done. The unfairness of
the present system is as much an object to deal
with as the old unfair corporation's, and the reli-
gious disabilities, on which Earl RUSSELL and
his fellow speakers dwelt so much. If no
great changes were effected in consequence of
rectification of all this—the rectification itself is
one which would place the constitution on a juster
and therefore firmer basis.

There can be no doubt, however, that Govern-
ment
would be much better carried on by a larger
infusion of the popular element giving greater
weight to really liberal principles. There is, indeed,
one subject which has been made very prominent
in late Parliaments, which would be better settled
in a Parliament more perfectly representing the
intelligence and mind of the nation—we refer to
what we may term Lord STANLEY'S question—that
of Religious Equality. We agree with him that it
is the next great question which must occupy Par-
liament. In most of our colonies it has already
received the. solution which it must eventually
find at home. No observer of the progress of
things can fail to see this. Half the nation already
worships unaided by the state, and is free, religi-
ously, from its jurisdiction. That half will demand
Equality. Privileges of every kind have almost all
vanished—the Boroughmongers, as such, lost their
privileges ; the Corn-growers theirs; the old Corpo-
rations theirs ; the West Indians theirs ; the Pro-
tected Trades theirs ; the Colonies theirs ; the Ship-
ping interest theirs ; not only have disabilities been
removed as utterly intolerable, but the special
privileges conferred on some, have been felt
to be almost direct injuries, in a free country, to
those who did not share them, and they also have
vanished successively.
It is folly to doubt the ultimate effect of such a
tendency on religious establishments; either by
disendowment, or by equal endowment of all,
equality must be reached. It is contrary to all
the sentiments of the day that one man's mode
of worshipping his GOD should be regarded as
so much better than another, as to deserve all
the emoluments of every kind which the
nation can confer ; while the others are
so entirely rejected, that the word " Religion " in
all deeds is held to mean the Religion of the
Prayer-book and Articles ! What form the agita-
tion will at last take it is impossible to tell—
but when it has come to this, that all special
privileges to every class are gone, and that the
Churchman could hardly be found who dare
attempt to prove that his religious service had
more intrinsic claim to State favours than his Dis-
senting neighbour's service, the day cannot be far
distant when the equal claims on the State of all
Churches will be the great subject for Liberals
and Reformers.

No part of Earl RUSSELL'S comprehensive
speech on Monday at Newcastle-upon-Tyne was
more cordially applauded than that in which he
pronounced so very graceful an eulogium upon
bis distinguished colleague and leader—Viscount
PALMERSTON. Yet the noble Earl's speech, it will
be remembered, was applauded vociferously
throughout, from the exordium to the peroration.
Upon his first rising to respond to the toast of his
own health, he was greeted with acclamations.
And those acclamations were renewed and reiterated
for a lengthened interval, after he had resumed
his seat. It has seldom fallen to the lot of a
public man to receive a more enthusiastic welcome
than Lord RUSSELL received on Monday at New-
castle. And yet, as we have said, almost the
heartiest plaudits among all the frequent rounds
of cheering accorded to Earl RUSSELL during the
delivery of his very comprehensive speech,
were those elicited by his panegyrics upon
the veteran Premier. Nor can this be very
well wondered at. For among all our states-
men, Lord PALMERSTON stands forth at least un-
rivalled in popularity. If he is not the greatest of
our administrators—and but very few, indeed,
would venture for one instant to assert as
much—he is, at any rate, the most universally
liked ! If he is—as he most certainly is—very far,
indeed, from being the happiest or even the readiest
speaker among our leading public characters, there
is, undoubtedly, not one amongst them who is even
listened to by a mixed audience with a more lively
interest or a more eager curiosity.
Occasionally, too, Lord PALMERSTON justifies,
by the mere merit of his oratory (though his speak-
ing but seldom rises to the dignity of the oratori-
cal), the noble Viscount, we say, justifies at times by
the intrinsic merit Of his oratory the interest and the
curiosity of his listeners. Generally it is true, if a
total stranger to the House of Commons, who has
never before heard Lord PALMERSTON addressing
any assembly whatever, perhaps has never pre-
vtiaoulesl, and beginyevense seen him, beholds the Prime Minister
rpisaerifiraommentltl Treasury sury Bench, put his hat upon the
b
otneetaletsthraisegoerrdintearythe Housedisplays o
ii
Commons and to the Prime Minister, we will
venture to assert, will find himself doomed in..
evitably to a very painful disappointment. He
will hardly credit either his sightor
whitihs hear-
ing--that g —that that elderly gentleman
after-dinner air, and the how-bow voice,
and the gloved hands in one everlasting see-saw