The Sun.
London, England, 1859-04-09 00:00:00

largely indebted to the factious leaders of a disor-

ganised Opposition.
If, looking at Aylesbury, we cannot say ex uno
disce ornnes, we are constrained in frankness to

regard the conduct of the nominal Reformers

and Liberals in that borough as a tolerable average
sample of the very appropriate consequences result-
ing from the late party manoeuvres in the House of
Commons. A considerable number of the so-called
Liberal constituencies really appear to be most
perversely bent upon realising, as far as possible, the
somewhat unpatriotic prediction of Lord PALMER,-
STON, when he said the other day that the Con-
stitution would be scrambled for on the hustings :

in. the event of Ministers venturing to do, what he
declared in the first instance in the most uncon-
stitutional language that he would not allow them
to do—and yet what he 'has since then consented
to their doing—viz., to dissolve Parliament.
For ourselves we need hardly say that we don't,
for one single instant, conceive that it is now any
question at all about scrambling for the Constitu-
tion upon the hustings in any one, either of the
great or the small constituencies. We believe in
the reasonableness of this extraordinary assertion
of Lord PALMERSTON 110 more than we
believed, two or three years back, in the
reasonableness of another assertion equally
extraordinary in its way—the assertion of an
august personage, once upon a time, that the
representative system of this country was somehow
orother, in some mysterious manner—upon its trial.
We don't believe in the one story or the other—
any more than little PAUL DOMBEY credited the
legend of the small boy who asked the mad bull
questions. We believed H. R. H. to be talking
frivolously and at random upon a former occasion.
We believe thenoblelord to have been talking arrant
nonsense still more recently. The Parliamentary
system in these islands is not so readily jeopardised
as German Princes may imagine—neither is the
constitution so Much of a house built of cards, as to
be capable of being thus blown down by the breeze
of a General Election. Yet, thanks, in a great mea•
sure, to the unpatriotic course pursued bythe Noble
Lord who uttered that preposterous threat about
the constitution being scrambled for upon the
hustings, thanks to Lord PALMERSTON and to his
noble friend on the front bench below•the gang-
way on the side of the Opposition—many of the
Liberal constituencies are being goaded towards a
scramble of that kind under the evil influence of
what we cannot but call that most factious exacer-
bation.

The result may be the postponement of a really
bold and comprehensive Reform Bill over more
than one session. For the which result we shall
have to thank the petty party personal projects of
the leaders of a disunited and perverse Opposition.
The disunion and the disorganisation (self-caused)
of the Liberal party will afford a golden oppor-
tunity to the Conservatives. Of this opportunity
let us rest perfectly well-assured the Conservatives
will gladly avail themselves. What has been
done at Aylesbury is being done elsewhere. Petu-
lance, passion, pique, are doing their work with
other constituencies.- There—at Aylesbury—as
we have seen, an eminent and tried representative,
a man of mark, like Sir RICHATLD BETHELL, is
driven ' indignantly to withhold his name from
being put in nomination, and retires in
dudgeon to a wiser and a better constituency.
Sir RICHARD withdraws to Wolverhampton,
leaving his old constituents at Aylesbury to make
the most they may of two Conservatives. Glancing
for a moment in another direction, we note the
same evidence of a warped judgment among the
Liberal party down at Bath. Passion, pique, petu-
lance, have there too found their way, and
appear to be in process of very rapid develop-
ment. There it is that one of the sitting
members has been hissed and yelled at vociferously
by the Liberals—though himself a Liberal, though
himself an ultra-Reformer. And why ? Because
Sir ARTHUR ELTON, M.P. for the city of Bath—a
true and honest Liberal, an earnest, a gifted, and
an eminent advocate of the Ballot—had the manli-
ness to vote like a true-hearted Reformer
against Lord JOHN'S specious and factious re-
solutions. For this honourable conduct Sir
ARTHUR ELTON. has been hissed and groaned
"at by the free and enlightened (!) electors
of the city of Bath. Bath has already disgraced
itself upon occasions before now. It did so when
it rejected Mr. ROEBUCK, after years of noble ser-
vices from him as its representative. Is the
Liberal constituency .of Bath again going to
cover its name with ignominy by a rejection
that would be equally flagrant and equally dis-
graceful ? If it be desirou; of once more covering
itself with shame in the presence of the Reformers
of the United Kingdom, the constituency of Bath
will now reject Sir ARTHUR ELTON as it formerly
rejected Mr. ROEBCCK—for being a thorough-going
Liberal, and a man of the most honourable inde•
pendence.