The Sun.
London, England, 1857-06-04 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONEON, rHURSDAY

adverb, admittedly. The great Government
organ, the Times of this very morning, distinctly
and explicitly acknowledges the fact on the part

of Lord PALMERSTON and his Administration. It

does it thus. It characterises the three last years

by applying to each some distinctive phrase by
way of appropriate appellation. Just as we

might designate 1848 as the year of Revolution,
or as we might speak of 1851 as the year of the

International Exhibition. It talks of 1855 as

the year of War, of 185 G as the year of
Peace, and of 1857—as the year of What
Why, bluntly— as the year of Dissolution !
it says, to give the ipsissima verba, " The
year before last we had the War ; last year the
Peace : this year the Dissolution." Precisely.

Nothing more and nothing less—the Dissolution.
Everything else is thrown aside until 1858—
which promises, observe " promises," to be the
year of Reform. So that, for once, the Royal
Speech at the opening of the Session gave a cor-
rect indication of what was in store for us. It
said next to nothing. And Parliament is loyally
taking the hint and doing next to nothing. The
Two louses in 1857 are something like DIGGORT
and his fellow-servant in GOLDSMITH'S Comedy.
" What be you going to do ?" "Noathing."
" Then I'll help you 1" And so to-night, as we
have said, they resume their very arduous oceu•

pations.
It will be certainly the fault of the Reformers
themselves, both within and without the walls of
the Imperial Legislature—if some real advantages
are not, after all, drawn from this tantalising
delay through a whole session, if only by way of
Avenging Compensation. Leisure is afforded
them to prepare their tactics deliberately for the
ensuing campaign in the new Parliament. Upon
one thing we ought to be all of us resolved,
namely, to have nothing Less than the
Ballot. That ought to be regarded as
the—sine qua non I The Ballot at the
very least, with as much more as we can pos-
sibly obtain. A very few nights will now afford
us an opportunity of calculating the amount of
the probabilities in favour of our obtaining the
Ballot—Mr. HENRY BERKELEY having intimated
before the recess, his determination to test the
feeling of the House upon that subject iramedi-
Aely after Whitsuntide. So that Reformers
generally ought just now to be more than usually
upon the alert, and more than ordinarily observ-
ant. From the result of the next division upon
the Ballot, very much may be predicated. It will
he at once comprehensible, through that division,
what amount of exertion may or may not be re-
requisite, with a view to the furtherance of their
common cause in 1858 among the Reformers
themselves. Consequent upon that division, a
mark ought to be put upon every man's name
among the long list of our popular representa
tives. Was ho for Mr. BERKELEY'S annual
motion, or against it ? Did he pair,
and how—pro or contra ? Finally—was he
among the Non-Attendants, among those who
neither Paired, nor Voted ? Every one of the six
and a half hundred members must obviously come
point blank under one or other of those c ttegories.
Put them in those categories accordingly. WE
intend to do so. Wo promise the electors gene-
rally far and wide that we will do so. LA them
look to it. Let each constituency call to mind
what was asked at the hustings of their represen-
tatives—in regard to the Ballot ! What was there
Asked, and what was then Answered ! And
with a judgment reanimated by the reminiscence
let each reforming elector look keenly for the
" Right Man in the Right Place"—and see if he
finds him there I Let eaeh Elector in favour of the
Ballot look lynx-eyed upon the forthcoming cata-
logues.

A reform of our representation may be based
upon three tolerably distinct ideas. That of re-
presenting all clases of the community; that of
representing the Tiews of the most enlightened
part of it; and that of representing the mind of
tie people generally. For each of these something
may be said ; but, if we mistake not, the two
former will be found little better than political
partisanship or political quackery, and the latter
the only impartial and practical basis of free con-
stitutional government. Its disadvantages, though
not unimportant, will, we think, be found to be
fewer than those attendant on either of the others
—while the breadth of the base will, by the secu-
rity it gives to the whole building, more than
compensate for all defects of symmetry or appear-
SD ce.

If there were any means for discovering the most
enlightened among us, and at the same time
guaranteeing their freedom from self interest, we
might, perhaps, constitute them the trustee elec-
tors for the whole country ; just as we might
give up hereditary monarchy for an election of
the wisest and most patriotic person in the whole
kingdom, if only the infallible test for such quali-
ties could be found. Unhappily neither weights
nor measures can inform us respecting either the
legislative, administrative, or moral qualities of
our fellow-men ; not even of their capacity to
choose legislators rightly ; hence our only alter-
native seems to be, to fall back, like insurance
companies, on the result of an average. Birth
gives us an average monarch, and an average
House of Lords too ; and birth must give average
electors or constituencies.

Lord JOHN RUSSELL, it is true, and the greater
number of constituency-doctors, have laboured
hard to give us a representation of classes. They
have talked so noisily on the necessity of what in
truth is an utter impossibility, that they have
almost made numbers believe that it is an essential
of representation. In a certain sense no doubt it is ;
but they mean, not that persons of all classes should
have votes ; but, that the Reform Bill maker
should group the classes as best he may, and en-
able each class to send its quota of members to
the House of Commons. Now, with all due respect
for Lord JOHN RUSSELL, this is just what we must
denounce as political quackery ; it deserves no
better name. Take the country as it now stands,
and we defy Lord JOHN RUSSELL to classify it

honestly. If any two classes have conflicting in-
terests, for instance, viewed in regard to pro-
perty, it is the two great groups of buyers and
sellers. This would at once divide each branch
of trade into two. The pet county constituencies,
especially, ought forthwith to be separated into
the landlord and tenant classes. No two interests
are more opposed than those of the letters of farms
and preservers of game, and the hirers of farms
and the sufferers by game. At present the law
is all landlord-made law, and is in all respects
as stringent as it can be on behalf of the class
which has made it.

But every trade is a class, and even the who'e-
sale and retail dealers in each trade are classes, and
more than that, the sellers and consumers of etch
article of trade are classes—the bakers and their
customers, the grocers and their customers, the
drapers and their customers, and so without end,
are all real classes. If we attempted to classify
men by their rank, education, profession, or reli-
gion, we should be equally perplexed. The other
day the Duke of CLEVELAND emphatically asserted
at the Darling'on dinner, that to give the suffrage
to 10/. householders in counties, would be abso-

lute destruction to the landed interest ; and both

Mr. DISRAELI and Lord JOHN RUSSELL are desi-

rous to perpetuate and strengthen the ascendancy
of landlords in the House of Commons. Now,
we ask, what right have they first to assume that
representation must be studiously snared with

the various and almost innumerable classes of the

community, and then to select one class for special

favour?

Could, indeed, all classes be represented as
they now exist, still every decade would witness a
shifting among them. The points on which we
really feel it a matter of interest to have repre-
sentatives in the House of Commons, are continu-
ally changing ; and the best adjusted class repre-
sentation of to-day would be antiquated ten years
hence. But the flagrant vice, the shameless in-
consistency of our Whigs and Tories is, that
demanding representation for an classes, they first
divide all the country into two—town and
country—and then require that the country
constituencies shall, in any case, have the
upper hand. We contend, on the contrary, that
there are fifty classes equally important with those
of town and country ; that, indeed, since the in-
auguration
_of Free-trade, there is no kind of
commercial antagonism between town and coun-
try ; and that true statesmanship, instead of
fostering the now useless distinction into a party
badge, would do all it could to fuse and amalga-
mate the people. The general extension of rail-
ways, indeed, has converted the greater part of
England into one vast city ; the various districts
harmonising with each other more and more every
day iu habits, manners, and fashions, and also in
knowledge awl public opinion.
In view of all these facts, and not least of the
one last mentioned, we maintai❑ that it is more
statesmanlike to deal with the people as one ;
to know no distinction of trade or profession, of
education or religion, of rank or caste ; to treat
them as Englishmen all concerned to do their
best for their country, and not as hostile sections
of a community pitted one against the other.
Lord JOHN RUSSELL has strongly asserted that
our legislators are Imperial legislators, and not
legislators for this borough or that ; for a county
in the north or the south of Britain. Be it so.
But let electors then be Imperial electors ; let
them be asked, as they ought to be asked, to send
men to Parliament not to legislate for proprietors
of rent, or for manufacturers of cotton; for makers
of hardware, or for weavers of cloth ; but for the
equal protection of the rights, and property, and
industry of all classes. Large constituencies, both
town and country, would represent best the
general wishes of the people ; and it is morally
certain that amongst a considerable number of
members some must be found practically ac-
quainted with all matters which could occupy the
attention of the house.
It is important to add that to a real representa-
tion of the national mind, as well as to guard
against the worst evils of elections, the
ballot is, of course, indispensable. No arrange-
ment of constituencies can be honestly worked
without making each vote a real one ; and the
real opinion of all can never be given at the poll
unless we get rid of that corruptor's and intimi-
dator's ledger—the polling book. We want the
honest mind of the nation, and maintain that nei-
ther the Duke of CLEVELAND nor Mr. DISRAELI,
neither Lord JOHN RUSSELL nor Lord PALMER-
STON, has any right to shuffle the constituencies
like a pack of cards, and to play them to their
own purpose ; let England be taken as it is, and we
are content. We ask only that the English party
should have fair play.

The all-important question of Currency and
Bank Reform is now fairly before the public. A
Select Committee of the House of Commons is
actually sitting and hearing evidence on the sub-
ject, and on the Report of that Committee it will
mainly depend whether the existing monopoly of
the Bank of England is to be maintained for a
further term of ten years, and the unwise and
inequitable Act of 1844 renewed without change
or modification of any kind, or whether the country
is to obtain a circulating medium adequate to its
wants and exigencies, by means whereof its na-
tural resources might be fairly developed, an.l
full employment provided for its industry. There
can be but little doubt as to what the result will
be if the public remain indifferent and apathetic.
The Chancellor of the Exchequer has revealed his
intentions, and selected a committee likely to
give effect thereunto. Nothing but " the pressure
from without," strenuously applied, can obtain
even the trifling boon of a small addition to the
Bank issues on Securities, and a foreign trade of
120,000,0001. sterling per annum must be car-
ried on with the same amount of currency that
was provided to meet less than half the amount,
or 55,000,0001. An exorbitant rate of interest
i 3 consequently the normal condition of the
nation, and the bullionist organ has coolly an-
nounced that we cannot hope for a restoration of
cheap money—meaning thereby a moderate rate
of interest—for several years to come. It is to
enlighten the public mind on these matters by
exposing " the inconsistencies, injustice, and
anomalies of the existing monetary system," that
the Currency and Bank Reform Association,
which yesterday held its first meeting has been
called into existence, and we heartily wish it suc-
cess in the arduous path on which it has entered.

The Association are acting judiciously in point-
ing out clearly and unequivocally the practical
operation of the monetary code on the different
kinds of property, the value whereof must be
greatly depreciated by a continued high rate of
interest. They show its effects on railways, ou
land, manufactures, agriculture, shipping, min-
ing, and all distant undertakings, such as the
irrigation and growth of cotton in India, and on
different classes, such as retail traders, artisans,
operatives, all, in fact, who obtain their daily
bread by their daily labour. This is going to
work in the right way. One simple fact that
comes home to that most sensitive point the
pocket, is worth, a hundred abstract arguments.
It was because the Anti-Corn-Law League di-
rected its attention to this subject, and pointed
out the manner in which tke bread tax affected
every household in the kingdom, that the
triumph of the great principle was ensured. The
beginning was small. Seven energetic men met
together in a small back room in Manchester,
but within a short time the ramifications of tho
Society harX extended through every district in the
United Kingdom, and had attained such gigantic
proportioas that it produced the breaking-up of
one of the strongest Parliamentary Parties that
over sup•potted any Administration. Monetary
Reforme rs should not therefore be discouraged at
the small attendance at the preliminary meeting.
As wo h ave already repeatedly stated, "the public
only require authentic information as to the full
effects of this, the most unwise and impolitic law
that aver received the legislative sanction, to
shake off the unaccountable apathy that has so
long tolerated its continuance. If the int-
measu Table importance of the subject were
only partially understood—if those who earn
their daily bread by their daily labour,
and all engaged in trade, commerce, or manufae•
tures, could conceive the effect of the Bank