The Sun.
London, England, 1861-08-07 00:00:00

day. And the historian of the session just departed
may certainly repeat the remark of the biographer
of AGRICOLA, when he records that an intended
long speech by Mr. SCULLY, a speech which he had
just begun, to end Heaven knows where—for the
Irish member abounding in words was just com-
mencing the endless tale of Irish grievances—that
this Irish speech on Ireland and the Government,
was ruthlessly cut short by the entrance of the
Black Rod ! some honourable members profanely
laughed—but the honourable and learned member
laughed not. Deeply did he grieve, not so much
over the grievances of Ireland, as over a much
greater grievance, the loss to Ireland and the world
or, what is the same thing, to Irishmen all over the
world, of that pathetic picture he had readyin his me-
mory and imagination. Short, indeed,was his speech,
but full of beginnings most hopeful for Ireland and
the Irish; it was big with promise of eloquent recitals
of duties omitted and sins committed against the
much-wronged land of the Galway Contract, when,
suddenly the fates, in the person of her MAJESTY'S
Commissioners, summoned him and his audience to
another place ! Col. FRENCH, WO are told, could
not suppress his evident sorrow—he looked on the
other Irish members, then on the learned member,
and again thinking of the speech so prematurely
sent to the shades, he exclaimed—
Ostendent tenis hunt tantum fata, neque ultra
Esse sinent ......
Hen miserande puer I si qua fata aspera rumpas,
Tu Marcellus eris.
But the house laughed—and thought itself happy
in dying just at that moment ! Strange that it
could listen with interest to speeches on Italy, on
Switzerland, on Nice and Savoy, on Syria even,
but world laugh at death rather than listen to an
Irish speech on Ireland. We are disposed to think
this laugh should be catalogued amongst the Irish
grievances, and amongst the greatest of them, too.
Mr. SCULLY will, doubtless, commence the next
session with the speech meant for the end of this,
just as Colonel FRENCH means to renew his Galway
eloquence, with which he finished his part of the
session, early in that of 1862. Mr. SCULLY
can then add to his long list, by which
he will endeavour to awaken to peni-
tence and reformation—the sin above all sins
against beloved Ireland through him, that the
house laughed when SCULLY was silenced. It
knew what was coming—it knew that Administra-
tive neglects and wrongs, and Legislative neglects
and wrongs, and the great wrong of doing right on
a postal contract, and the wrongs against Ireland in
Italy; wrongs against Catholics, wrongs against
Protestants even, wrongs against landlords, and still
more against tenants—it knew that it was to bear.
a tale of wrongs that might have touched political
stones, but it preferred not to be touched ! It laughed,
followed Black Rod, heard its own funeral service,
and joyfully went off as if to the Elysian fields.
Happy, but too happy, to find in sessional death a
passage from VINCENT SCULLY and Irish grievances
to the seaside and the country-seat, to anywhere
and everywhere but to the House of Commons.
During the Parliamentary session which ter-
minated yesterday—the great do-nothing session of
1861, the session of the Wednesday defeats—an
unusual number of changes took place in the House
of Commons. A brief epitome of these changes
among the M.P.'s of England we have already
excerpted in the form of a readable little paragraph
from the columns of one of our morning contempo-
raries. The circumstances therein referred to, rather,
we should say, perhaps, therein hurriedly enume-
rated, hastily massed together, are some of them so
peculiar in themselves that we cannot but deem
them worthy here of some more careful analysis, of
some more minute and deliberate examination.

Altogether, between the meeting of Parliament
early in February and the prorogation of the two
Houses early in this present month of August, there
were no less than twenty-four elections or re-elec-
tions among our representatives. There were, in
fact, six re-elections—simply pro forma—and
eighteen elections, some with, some without, oppo-
sition. The half-dozen re-elections were attributable,
of course, to the circumstance of the members con-
cerned, in each instance, having accepted office in
one shape or another—involving an appeal to
their respective constituencies. The Premier, for
example, had to demand once more the
suffrages of the electors of Tiverton by reason of
the Wardenship of the Cinque Ports having been
awarded by the CROWN to the Lord Viscount PAL -
MERSTON. Mr. JOHN LOCKE, again, had to appeal
to his constituents at Southwark upon the occasion
of his acceptance of the Recordership of Brighton,
as the successor of Mr. EDWIN JAMES, Q.C., and
late M.P. for Marylebone. Sir WILLIAM ATHER-
TON'S re-election at Durham was necessitated by
his promotion from the Solicitor-Generalship to the
Attorney-Generalship, when Sir RICHARD BETHELL
advanced to the woolsack in the robes of the Lord
Chancellor. Sir GEORGE GREY, quitting the seclu-
sion of his sinecure post as Chancellor of the
Duchy of Lancaster, to resume his old position as
Secretary of State for the Home Department, had
to be re-chosen by his Morpeth constituents. Sir
ROBERT PEEL had to secure again (a matter of not
much difficulty) the votes of the electors of Tam-
worth, on his nomination by the Prime Minister
as the Chief Secretary to the Irish Lord-
Lieutenant. The Right Honourable EDWARD
CAItDWELL had yet again to walk over the course
down at the City of Oxford, upon his removal, it is
somewhat difficult to say upon his promo-
tion, from that office of the Irish Secretary-
ship to the Chancellorship of the Duchy of
Lancaster, left vacant by the advance to the
Home Office of its present Chief Secretary.
Such use then are the half-dozen instances of re-
election rendered necessary this year either by
the acceptance of office, or the exchange of office
by these six among the national representatives.
Now, as to the eighteen new elections, making,
with these six re-elections, the full number of
twenty-four during the Session, as already in-
timated.werete resignations ex a tly n
nine)o
Half of the eighteen (for it will be
seen directluythuaptonthdereelibera
thewe parecrot ofnseqent
the late representatives. The remain-
in g nine being attributable—four of thorn to
Death—five to elevations to the Peerage. Three
out of these five elections to the peerage being
the results of new creations, the other two of

simple inheritance.
The resignations to the number of nine
altogether may be readily enough recalled to recol-
lection. Mr. JOSEPrI CROOK having withdrawn
from the further representation of Bolton-le-MoorF,
was succeeded there by Mr. BARNES. At the
borough of Bradford, again, Mr. TITUS SALT, by
his retirement into private life, necessitated an-
other election, and was succeeded by Mr. W. E.
FORSTER. The great metropolitan constituency of
Marylebone, suddenly startled by the abrupt dis-
appearance from public life of its late popular
representative, Mr. EDWIN JAMES (at a doubly pro-
voking juncture, too, in his career, seeing that the
Solicitor-Generalship was all but within his grasp)
—had to
and in so doing -
and
a new representative in his place,
cv entually carried Mr. HARVEY
LEwis's name tothe
top of the poll after a stormy
contest—putting his name, in fact, far in advance
• of all the other candidates, including -Sir ROBERT