The Sun.
London, England, 1857-11-18 00:00:00

HIGH WATER AT LONDON BRIDGE.

THIS DAY—Morn., 38 min. aft. 2—Even., 53 min. aft. 2
To.MOßßOw—Morn., 8 min. aft. 3—Even., 25 ca,n aft. 3

THE WEATHER—Scrx OFFICE, NOTEXBER 13.

TKIRXO3II4TER, IX TAB SHAME.
52—highest since noon yesterday.
47—lowest this morning and during the night.
53 —this day at noon.
Be.Roxrrien, 30.23.
WIND, S.S.E. ; light, with fine sunshiny weather.

-

LONDON, WEDNESDAY, NOT. 18, 1857.

Parliament is to assemble for the dispatch of
business on the 3d December. This judicious
proceeding was shirked by the Government to the
last possible moment, until the ignominious
failure of the Bank Charter Act, and the violation
of the existing law of the land, rendered the step
indispensable. The session will therefore prac-
tically commence within little more than a fort-
night ; and although the business before Christ-
mas may be exclusively devoted to monetary and
Indian questions, yet the Royal Speech must be
delivered, shadowing forth the Ministerial inten-
tions for the entire session of 1858, as well as
for the short preliminary one of 1857. It is,
therefore, incumbent on every person interested
in the welfare and prosperity of the country to
keep the Government up to its work, and to pre-
vent, by every possible means, the evasion of
positive promises, to the intense disappointment
of the great body of the people.
Already feelers have been thrown out, in order
to ascertain the state of the public mind, and to
discover whether the bold experiment of with-
holding the anticipated Reform Bill may be safely
attempted. The Morning Post, in a semi-official
article, declares that it does " not expect to hear
anything about a Reform Bill—first, because such
a calamity as that which has occurred in India, no
more than the late Russian war, presents a fa-
vourable opportunity for the calm discussion of a
question which lies at the very root of our politi-
cal system ; and, secondly, because the public in
England care very little, or nothing, about the ex-
tension or equa!isation of the franchise!" Aiding,
"They would sooner hear of the capture and execu-
tion of that execrable miscreant NANI SAHIB than
of the enactment of the most sweeping measure of
Reform, proceeding even from the Paterfamilias
of Lord JOHN RUSSELL, whose
familiar spirit, or political Mrs. HARRIS, is an
ever-threatened Reform Bill."

The Morning Post is supposed to derive
its inspirations on such subjects directly
from head-quarters. We may, therefore, fairly
conjecture that the above are the views of
Lord PALMERSTON himself, and that be has
at last made up his mind to cast aside the ill-
fitting mantle of pretended reform, and to appear,
without further disguise or concealment, in the
more congenial colours of rank Toryism. It must,
therefore, be evident that ho never intended to
bring in a Reform Bill—that the specious pledges
Which he put forward on the eve of the
" Appeal to the Country " wore hub so
many tubs flung to the electoral whalers.
An attempt, in fact, to take the wind out of Lord
JorrN RUSSELL'S sails, and to secure for himself
the support that might otherwise have been given
to his political rival. Indeed, the Premier is an
experienced adept in this sort of manoeuvring. It
is) unfortunately, but too notorious that there is

;r«5..V,7

not a single man in the United Kingdom more
strenuously opposed to everything approximating
to real reform than he is. And that he will,
should a favourable opportunity arise, strain every
nerve to reject or postpone, ad Grcecas Kalendas,
any large and comprehensive measure. But in
this instance, he may find that he is reckoning
without his host, and that his organ is altogether

mistaken in supposing that " the public in Eng-

land care little or nothing about the extension or

equalisation of the franchise." The most cunning

schemers frequently outwit themselves i❑ endea-
vouring to take in their dupes, and Lord PAL-
MERSTON may possibly find to his cost that such
is the case in the present instance. We may
venture to remind our contemporary that
the introduction of an adequate measure of
reform would not act as a protection or amnesty
to the miscreant NANA SAHIB, and that his cap-
ture, and execution by the hands of the common
hangman, will follow as a matter of course,
albeit the franchise be extended, and its due
exercise ensured by the ballot, and freedom of
choice conferred on the enlarged constituencies by
the abolition of the property qualification. The
fatal rope will not do its work less efficiently be-
cause the English people are henceforward to be
fairly represented in the House of Commons.
Indeed, the certainty of such a course might pre-
vent Lord CANNTNG, or his umbra, Mr. J. P.
GRANT, from any further manifestations of il:-
timed clemency. We may then insist on reform
without checking the operations for the suppres-
sion of the rebellion, or the condign punishment
of the sanguinary miscreants who have so rashly
engaged therein.
The views of the Morning Post receive very
significant corroboration from another quarter.
The Times follows suit, or rather leads from its
own hand simultaneously. The Jupiter tonans of
Printing House Square is also favourable to pro-
crastination, or rather a postponement sine die.
It seems to think that the two great questions—
the Indian mutiny and the infringement of
the Bank Charter Act could not be
carried on pari passu with the unequivocally
promised Reform Bill. We cordially concur in the
opinion that neither of these great questions can
be postponed to another Parliament.
.Nor is
there the slightest necessity for such a course.
The Bank Charter Act has been so clearly con-
demned by its second suspension, that it can never
again be imposed on the nation. The Govern-
ment has ample materials for legislation. It
cannot again be permitted to resort to
the stale dodge of shelving the impor-
tant subject, until the public mind has
become weary and indifferent. We trust that
every monetary reformer, every Englishman who
has the interests of the commercial and manufac..
turing population—indeed, of the entire indus-
trial community—at heart, will refuse to pass any
act of indemnity for the violation of the monetary
enactments of 1844, until the incubus has been
removed, and a circulating medium adequate to
the wants and exigencies of the country has been
established. There is nothing to prevent such
a measure from becoming the law of the land,
even bofore Christmas. The Bank has violated
its Charter, and it has no longer a claim for con-
sideration. In 1847 this was not the case.
Although promised a bill of indemnity by the
Government, the necessity did not arise for bring-
ing forward the proposition, and it had a further
tenure of seven years, which has since expired.
The nation must not relinquish its vantage
ground, and, indeed, under any circumstances, a
year's notice is all that could be required to ter-
minate the injudicious and iniquitous contract—
s contract alike opposed to public policy, and to
the inalienable rights and privileges of the great
body of the people !
In like manner the Indian Mutiny may be
fully discussed, and if the double Government
requires the assistance of the people of England—
thus failing in the consideration, given for their
renewed tenure of office—a new and more efficient
administrative system May be organised, without
reference to the protracted term granted in 1853.
An Address to the People of England has been
issued by several consistent and well-known re-
formers, which will be found in another part of
this day's impression. The principles there pro-
mulgated will be gladly accepted by the
community at large. Of course, the de-
tails must be arranged, but they have
long been ready. It will be well for Lord
PALMERSTON, if he anticipates the movement.
But should he not do so, he may rest assured
that an independent measure will be introduced,
and if any confidence can be reposed in the faith
of public men, will be carried. He must recollect
that a large majority of the popular representa-
tives are solemnly pledged to their respective
constituencies on the subject. The matter was
only evaded last session on the deliberate
understanding that it was to be brought forward
in that which is now rapidly approaching. The
breach of promise will, if attempted, be severely
punished. "The Paterfamilias of Whig libe-
ralism," as he is contemptuously designated by
the Post, will not be slow to avail himself of the
golden opportunity, and to play out a return
innings with the Noble Lord, who in 1852 over-
threw his Government, and deprived him of his
position as Prime Minister of the " United
Kingdom."

Mr. Pin concluded one of the most memorable
speeches he ever delivered in the House of GM-
mons—his speech in 1;83, upon the then Coalition
--with that terse and felicitous close to a superb
peroration, " And if this inauspicious union be
not already consummated, in the name of my
country I forbid the banns I"
It would not be in the smallest degree extrava-
gant to put those very words at the present mo-
ment in the mouth of any true-hearted and right-
minded Englishman. Applying them to the new
and odious c3mpact entered into between the
British and Austrian GovernmentF, in reference
to the project of a continuous telegraphic con.-
muuication with the Asiatic Continent, more par-
ticularly between ourselves and our Oriental pos-
sessions in Ilindostaal.

According to this absurd arrangement we are
pledged to the Government of Vienna to use no
other than Austrian wires between Ragusa and
Alexandria. It is the last great blunder of our
most sapient authorities at the Treasury. " If,"
say they to Austria, "you (Austria) will but lay
down a submarine wiro from Ragusa to Alexan-
dria, we (the British Government) will use no
.
other line but that ; we will transmit our tele-
grams by no other route than the, running from
Ragusa to Alex tndria ; and iu connection
with that route, we undertake to complete at our
earliest convenience the metallic fibre of the
Electric Telegraph from Suez to Bombay or Kur-
rachee." In other words, " We volunt%riiy and
deliberately bind ourselves over to place tb a magic
cord of communication from London to Calcutta,
from this time forth and for ever, in sce::ula Keeu-
lorum, entirely at the disposal, at the whim and
mercy, of the Austrian Government." That is
literally, really and truly, about the English of it,
or rather, perhaps we should say, about the
German-English of it—of this bungling, biltudel_

ing, abominable "slip of the pen" between the
wily Viennese and the purblind and scatter-

brained British Government.

Wherefore, it is, we repeat, that the memorable
words used by Mr. PITT, in 1783, may now in
1857 be placed not inaptly in the mouth of every
right-minded Englishman. "And if this inaus-

picious union be not afready consummated, in the
name of my country [he might even say, in the
name of Europe, of the World, of the whole
Human Race] I forbid the banns !" For, after all
it is positively, we are bold to assert, one of the
most egregious errors that the dullest Administra-
tor perhaps ever yet committed !
What, let us ask, now in explicit and distinct
illustration of this, What (as our Gallic friends
have it) is at this moment the precise bearing and
character of—" the situation ?" It is simply this:

—A Telegraphic communication must as speedily
as possible be secured in one way or another
between England and her E tstern possessions.
That Necessity we have long recognised. It is a
Necessity which the late bloody revolt in India
has but very recently enforced—rather, should it
be said, very empha.tical:y and conclusively de-
monstrated. All this, of course, Granted. But
—next, How may it be best accomplished, by
what means, in what direction It is a problem,
the solution of which has long resolved itself into
an alternative. Either—the Red Sea route, or
the Euphrates Valley route ! Either—the
shortest way, following the course taken by the
Euphrates through the soil of Asia Minor south-
wards to its entrance into the Persian Gulf, or

the longest way (one barred, however, only by
natural impediments) trailing the submarine wire
along the bed of the Red Sea, skirting the extended
coast line of Arabia, even round by the acute
angle formed by that coast-line at the Straits of
Babel Mandeb. To that alternative the difficulty
has been long reduced, and this notoriously.
Finally, between the branches of that same inevit-
able alternative, the British Government has at
length made its deliberate selection. It had decided
at last in favour of the Red Sea project, and its
preliminary labours for the carrying out of that
project are now, we believe, in course of active
preparation. This Red Sea route being preferred
apparently, notwithstanding its greater length, be-
causeof its being at any rate secure from interruption
by every thing save accidents by nature, Government
fearing, it would seem, the'meddling fingers of the
lawless tribes of Kurds and Arabs scattered along
the banks of the Euphrates, and doubting whether
those meddling fingers could even be securely kept
from tampering with the precious " fibre " of the
Telegraph by " blackmail," however regularly
paid and abundantly squandered. Nevertheless,
whatever the reasons for the selection of the Red
Sea route, that route has at last bean preferred to
the Euphrates Valley routs by the slowly delibe-
rative judgment of the British Government. For
ourselves, we are so heartily rejoiced at any deci-
sion of any kind being at length positively resolved
upon—in spite of all the tangling coils of red-
tape and the complicated labyrinth of circumlo-
cution that we are not unwilling, "at a
pinch," to waive our own preference for
the more direct, and, consequently, much
shorter, and obviously far less expensive route,
along the Euphrates Valley. This, we repeat,
simply from our exultation at some positive deci-
sion of some kind being ultimately arrived at by
our hesitating and procrastinating Government.
But, lo ! no sooner have we made our minds up
to something like a magnanimous concession, when
forth creeps this rieliculus mus of a conditional
agreement with Austria ! The nature of the
agreement we have explained. Its miserable con-
, sequences need no explanation. They are, un •
happily, only too app irent. They reduce the
whole scheme of the Electric Telegraph between
England and Hindostan, between London and Cal-
cutta, to something like a nullity. They place the
entire project permanently within the grasp of the
Austrian Government. That is to say, if this
preposterous compact be really persisted in ! A
supposition we are loath to entertain for a single
instant. The notion is altogether too ludicrous
and inconceivable. man this, surely " The force
of folly could no further go I" The blunder stum-
bled into by the Treasury in this matter, is al-
together of itself so glaringly conspicuous, that
it has undoubtedly only to be pointed out to be
at once and instantaneously recognised. Whatever
the pledge given upon this subject to the Cabinet
at Vienna by those incomparable wiseacres, our
Ministerial authorities at the Treasury, the
blot must be blotted out, the error must
be erased for England will never consent
(because of one absurd mistake on the part
of her rulers) to render nugatory henceforth,
in regard to her oriental dominions, the whole
glorious advantages otherwise readily derivable
from the Electric Telegraph.

A Cabinet Council was held yesterday at the officia
residence of the First Lord of the Treasury in Downing
street. The Ministers present were—Viscount Palmer-
ston, Eerl Granvi,le, the Marquis of Lansdowne, the
Earl of Harrowby, Sir George Grey, the Earl of Claren-
don, Mr. Secretary Labouchere, Lord Panrnure, the
Chancellor of the Exchequer, Sir Charles Wood, the
Right Hon. R. Vernon Smith, Lord Stanley of Alderley,
the Duke of Argyll, and the Right Hon. M. T. Baines..
The Countess of Sefton and Lady Cecilia Molyneux,
and the Earl of Sefton, have returned to Croxteth, near
Liverpool, where they intend shortly to receive company.
Their Royal Highnesees the Prince and !Princess
de Joinville returned yesterday to Claremont, from
their recent tour in Turkey and the Crimea. Their
Royal Highnesses are observing the strictest privacy,
consequent on the distressing family bereavement they
have lately suffered.
Field-Marshal Viscount Combermere, accompanied
by the viscountess, has returned to Combermere Abbey,
from Leamington. The noble viscount bas entirely
recovered from his recent attack of influenza.

Viscountess Jocelyn and her youthful family have
arrived at Cambridge House, from Windsor.
Lady Milford has left town on a visit to her father,
the Earl of Wicklow, at Silwood House, Brighton.
A passenger by the Emeu steamer, from Melbourne
for London, via 2dareeilies, states that net only the
Marseilles portion of the mail was taken by the Ad-
miralty agent in the boat, when the Emeu got en shore,
but also those marked Southampton. This refers ode
to the letters ; the newspapers were kept on board the
Emeu.
The Australasian, with the passengers!, gold, and
newspapers, may ho expected at Southampton on the
20th, and probably the missing letters will arrive by
the ner; Indian mail, due about the 30th instant, and
which will be telegraphed perhaps on the 27th.
The Wolverhampton and Staffordshire Bankirg Com-
pany, which closed its doors yesterday, was a bank of
issue, with an autborised circulation of 35,3781., and its
general liabilities we supposed to range between
400,0001. and 500,00 C/. It had a nominal capital of
500,0001., of which 100,0001. is paid up, and accordir g
to its last return 7,000/. had been appropriated to a
reserve fund. The number of shareholders is about 200,
and the principal losses will fall, it is presumed, on
persons connected with the iron trade.
CORPORATION REFORM BILL —We can state, on the
best authority, that Government have resolved on rein-
troducing the Corporation Reform Bill, in the short
session which is to commence in December, in order to
ensure its passing into a law before the close of the
sg.siien of 1358. The bill will be substantially the same
as that of last se sion. The City is to be divided ieto
1(3 wards, giving six member:: to each ward ; but ce
have reason to believe that Sir George Grey, if pressee,
will so far yield to the wishes of the Corporation as to
allow seven members to each ward, making 112 C m-
oron Councilmen and 16 Aldermen.
PRICE: OF GOLD —The quotation of gold at Paris is
about 9 per mills premium, and the short exchange on
London is 25.35 per 1/ sterling. On comparing tb s •
rates with the English Mint price of 31. lie. 10A. pe
ounce for standard gold it appears that gold is abuts t
2-10_hs per cent, dearer in Paris than in London. By
advic•es from Hamburg the price of gold is 424 p
tnerk, and the short exchange on London is 13 51 per
1/. sterling. Standard g.ll at the English Mint price
is therefore nearly 5-10ths per cent dearer in Lund( n
than in Hamburg. The course of exchange at New VO) k
on London for bills at 60 days' sight is variously quoted
at from par up to 108 per cent., the latter being for
first-class paper only. There is, consequently, at pre-
sent no advantage in sending gold from this country,
as compared with drawing bills from America.