The Sun.
London, England, 1857-06-11 00:00:00

aIGII WATER AT LONDON BRIDGE.

T ,un DAY—Morn. 1 min. aft. 4—Even. 19 min. aft. 4
To sionnovr—uorn. 39 min. aft. 4 —Even., 59 min. aft. 4

WEATHER—SUN 07111011, Jun 11.
Timms:n BTEB, IN TFII SRI".
67 -highest arose noon yesterday.
52 -lowest this morning and during the night.
61 this day at noon.
BARomrrnn, 29.93—a sudden rise since yesterday of
one
third of an inch.
%rum, W.N.W ; fresh and ftne, but cloudy.

C ri-i-..":..6-(4-7,:it-, .
I I
44______-:
_
c......! , - --,4?---------...,-..-. ;-"....--;.€ .=K-...ii 444 4e,

LONDON, THURSDAY, JUNE 11, 18G7

.___..-_

" A very pretty little bouquet of Reform", Was
yesterday tendered for the acceptance of the Re_
presentative branch of the Legislature, but the
coy beauty held aloof and would not receive the
gage d'amour. There is, it appears, an implied
engagement with the fascinating Premier, and his
thick-and-thin adherents are resolved that he shat'
have a clear stage, so that his proposals may not
be embarrassed by any coquettish flirtation with
others. Lord PALMERSTON certainly seems " to
rule the roast," just at present. No matter what
may be the abstract merits of any suggestion, it is
unhesitatingly pcstpcned to meet his views and

wishes. Even the discussion by the popular re-
presentatives of any measure calculated to
improve the national representation is re-
garded as a species of lese majeste—a petty
treason against the Ministerial prerogative.
Mr. LOCKE KING, however, yesterday achieved
sufficient to convince all parties, that the matter
which he brought under the consideration of the
House, must be included in the new Reform Bill,
and that the property qualification is to ail intents
and purpoaes doomed.

The contemplated change is, as the member for
East Surrey truly remarked, " no innovation."
It is only the restoration of the ancien regime.
The necessity for a real estate qualification was
but an ingenious device to bolster up the landed
interest, and, for a time, it a;laieved the intended
purpose ! To it, the country is partially, if not
altogether indebted for the incubus by which it
was so long oppressed. The bread-tax was
its legitimate fruit, and as that has
been unequivocally condemned, as even
the ghost of " Protection" has been " laid," and
there is no prospect of the resuscitation of the
unseemly monster, there is no longer any reason
why the farce should still be enacted. The property
qualification is now a mere bugbear. It is noto-
rious that almost any person can obtain the neces-
sary qualification at a very trifling cost. There
is in fact a fixed tariff. An aspiring knight of
the shire can obtain his passport for 1001. ; a
citizen or burgess fJr half that amount. What,
then, can be the utility of an enactment whioh
can so easily be evaded ? What the advantage of
compelling even a few of the law makers to be-
come law breakers before they enter on their legis-
lative career? There is no qualification required
for Scotland or for the universities ! Is it for a
moment supposed that the representatives from
"The Land o' Cakes" or "The Seats of Learning"
are less eligible than those from other parts of the
United Kingdom ? Certainly not. The best and
only qualification is the possession of a majority
of votes fairly and honestly obtained, and when
that majority decides in favour of any man there
should be no further obstacle to his taking the
seat to which he is justly entitled. .
Surely the privilege is that of the electors, not
of the elected. Every constituency possesses a '
constitutional right to select the person whom
they consider best calculated to represent their
wants and wishes in Parliament. It does not
follow that the wealthy man must necessarily be
the most independent and straightforward mem-
ber. A man may be largely assessed to the in-
come tax—may bo earning many thousands per
annum—and thus, to all intents and purposes, as
independent of Ministerial favour as any person
in the House ; and it would be an absurdity to
deprive him of the opportunity of serving those
who had afforded the most flattering proof of their
confidence, unless ho should consent to evade a
law that should never have been passed !
The chief grounds, then, whereon the principle
advocated by Mr. LOCKE KING should be carried
out to the full extent, are-Ist. That it is unwise
and impolitic to maintain a law which can be
easily evaded, through which "a coach-and-six"
can be drawn at any moment, and the only effect
whereof is to put some trifling coati into lawyers
pockets.

2dly. That constituencies should not be de-
prived of the services of any person whom they
may think proper to elect Let every
possible precaution be adopted. to ensure the
most perfect freedom of election, to be certain
that no corrupt influences have succeeded in put-
ting " the wrong man iu the wrong place." Let
there he a considerable extension of the franchise,
so that every man, fairly entitled, may be enabled
to record his vote—that the number of political
cyphers may be greatly reduced. Let the
smaller electoral districts be greatly enlarged.
Above and beyond all, let " the Minot" bo
adopted in its integrity, and bribery and inti-
midation, with all their various phases, be com-
pletely got rid of. When these objects have been
attained, as 'we hope and believe they wilt be,
no further security is wanting, and the property
qualification may safely be set aside without a
single mourner deploring its well-merited doom !
It has long since beeome a mere jest, and the
sooner it is consigned to oblivion the better for
the honour of Parliament and the best interests of
the nation.

Another " Testimonial" has this day to be
chronicled. The presentation of it took place
on the 23d ultimo, in the theatre of the Institu-
tion of Civil Engineers. The recipient was no
other than Mr. CHARLES MANBY, the Gentleman
who, during the last eighteen years, has discharged
the onerous and delicate duties of Secretary to
that Institution. So discharged those duties as
to win for himself at last the tribute of this really
noble and eminently well-deserved Testimonial.
A. Testimonial consisting of an exquisitely-
fabricated and costly Timepiece and Can-
delabra, together with a sum of 2,0001.—
the former bearing the subjoined inscrip-
tion: " Presentad by the members of the
Enstitution of Civil Engineers and a few personal
friends, with the sum of two thousand pounds, to
Charles Manby, as a token of esteem, and in re•
cognition of his valuable services, during a period
of eighteen years, as secretary of the institution"
—together, of course, with " May, 1857," the
simple date of the presentation. The manner of
that Presentation, it should be observed, was
hardly less gratifying in its way than the Testi-
monial itself. The proceedings were presided over
on the 23d ult. by perhaps the most illustrious, by
certainly one of the most illustrious, engineers
of this day —the name will have sprung to the
lips of almost every one before reading it—ROBERT
STEPHENSON. And ROBERT STEPHENSON, on the
part and in the name of his brother engineers
generally, spoke of the object of this MANBY Tes-
timonial in terms constituting of themselves an
additional and an enviable recompense. Mr.
STEPHENSON alluded to the fact of Mr. MAN3Y'S
sphere of usefulness as the Eighteen Years' Secre-
tary of the institution of Civil Engineers not being
restricted to the discharge of his official duties,
onerousas they were in themselves. Beyond all that
observed the Great Engineer, he (the recipient of
the Testimonial), "was ever ready to give advice
to the younger members, and to afford aid to the
senior members, from his welt-stored mind, in
reference to every department of engineering, as
well as in a variety of ways, rendered more pleas-
ing by the alacrity and cheerfulness with which
the friendly offices were performed." Adding
(and the words ring with a golden sound in the
ears of engineers, falling as they do from the lips
of STEPHENSON)—" The value of the information
afforded was enhanced by its accuracy, which was
to some extent to be attributed to the practical
foundation of his professional education, the early
portion of his life having been spent in the work-
shop as a ani
mec h •
cal engineer, at the period when
the profession was beginning to assume its present
importance. In some degree, therefore, Mr.
MANBY lost the official character of secretary, and
became the friend and companion of the ma-
jority of the members of the engineering
profession." A panegyric so complete in itself

that it were little les3 than an impertinence to
append-to them one syllable in addition.

Sufficient for us after this to observe in con-
clusion, that these interesting proceedings on the
morning of the 23d were adjourned to the even-
ing of the same day, from the theatre of the in-
stitution to a convivial apartment in the old
banquetting hostel of The Ship at Greenwich.
Where Mr. MANBY was feasted and toasted by a
joyous party of appreciators, the Chair again
being occupied by the gifted President of
the Institution. Everything appears to
have gone so entirely upon the occa-
" merry as a marriage bell," that
,owards the close of the evening we find Mr.
STENIENSON genially regretting the absence of
his friend, Mr. BRUNEL (another "man of mark"
among Engineers), with whom he said he had
maintained arduous struggles, which he could
now look back upon with such pleasure as almost
to desire to fight again " The Battle of the
Gauges." Fighting was not, however, the order
of that kindly day—a day for the honoured hero
of it only one of cordial, deserved, and enviable
gratulation.

Sion,

Yesterday our hopes were most happily realised.
Mr. HARDY'S Beer Bill was politely shown the
door in a House of 393-180 voting " for," and
213 " against" the second reading of that ridicu-
lous measure. Altogether, then, we may at last
say—A. good riddance of 4—and we do say that
cordially. The pertinacity of our pseudo-philan-
thropists was becoming intolerable. Only a session
or so back the metropolis, it will be remembered,
was frightened from its propriety, Sunday after
Sunday, in consequence of one of the pet moral
panaceas of these fanatical Religionists. Persons
whose principal endeavour appears to be that of
cramming their notions down the throats of their
fellow-creatures by sheer brute force—not by per-
suasion, but by the strong arm of the law.
As though Christianity itself had been origin-
ally established after the same fashion as
Mahommedanism—not by the inspired lips of
twelve poor Fishermen, but by the keen sword,
and the resolute genius, and the daring ambition
of a great military Conqueror. It appears to be
the aim of these latter-day saints—to bully the
masses into sobriety, to bludgeon them into good
behaviour. Happily, a very considerable majority
of the populsr representatives appear to be hardly
less determined than the great bulk of the coal•
munity out of doors to have nothing whatever to
say to it—to the blundering phantasy pursued
with so much fanatical ardour by these carica-
turists of Christianity. And so—Lord ROBERT
GROSTENOR'S Sabbatarian movement is abruptly
and summarily reversed in the Old Parliament.
And so Mr. HARDY'S Beer Bill receives its
conge or quietus, or exequatur, or whatever we
may like to call it, in the new Parliament. That
new Parliament has in this particular realised
to the full—we had almost said surpassed—our
expectations.

THE DIVORCE BILL.