The Sun.
London, England, 1850-08-24 00:00:00

those of Bengal by nearly 11 millions sterling, thus con-
tributing little less than five millions to a gross revenue
of six. From this revenue the reprereetatire of the
Great Mogul receives a considerable pension, other de-
pendents are similarly favoured, but the result, efrer
de ducting the costs of collewion, is a net revenue of
some five millions against a total charge of leas than
one', leaving, of course, a surplus exceeding flue. On
the whole, :her fore, if we cocsidor Bengal ac virtuall)
still including the north-western provinces, we shall find
that the net revenue of the presidency exceed% its net
charges by a respectable sum—though this surplus is
unhappily diminishing year by year. In 1845-46 it
yielded 2,120,0001 ; in 1846.47, 2,510,000/,; in 1847-48,
1,390,0001.; while for 1848-49 its estimated produce
file to reach the round figures of a million. On the
items - and charactsr cf the expenditure inducing thi.
result we shall take another opportunity to spry&
What we barn now said will serve to introduce the
render to some knowledge r f a subject seldom popu!asl,
d'scussed, and to aid in the formation of ind-peedent
opinions respecting in The whole revenue collected
from this mighty into ri'arce of the Monuls by those who
are lords of its soil from the Hooghly to the ladus does
not amount, it will be s:en, to the sum reelited by our
Excise duties at home, its land-rents producing little
more than eight millions sterling., while the stamp
duties of these islands yield nearly seven. The recent
diminution in the revenue of Bengal has occurred in
its most impere.nt branches—the land-rents, the salt
and opium returns, and the Customs; the increase of-
expenditure being mainly traceable to the " war
charges," which since 1845 hare risen from ahcut
100,0004 to more than 1,500,0004 Etch cf these points
will receive material elucidation from remarks to be
offered hereafter, but enough has probably now been
said to serve.the present occasion.
DAILY NEWS.—If in a sharp frost a cup of water
is exposed to the atmosphere where there is nothing to
shake it, the water will remain fluid after its tempera•
ture has fallen many degrees below the feeazing point.
If when it is in this condition the cup be smartly :truck,
a number of spicu'se will be seen to shoot out on all
sides, and in a short time the water will be. converted
into a solid mass. This is not an inapt type of the pro-
gress of political movements. It is frequently impos-
sible, long after public opinLn has become as.it were
saturated with the conviction that some reform is neces-
sary, to get the worshipful public to pronounce that
opinion with the degree of unanimity and emphasis
which is required to carry the reform. When this is
the case orators may cry their hearts out and writers
wear their pens to the stumps without producing any
apparent effect, so long as society remains unruffled.
Probably every reader and hearer they have assents to
what they say, but it is the languid assent men give to
an abstract proposition. But let society, when matters
are in this condition, receive some concussion, however
slight—let a mercantile crisis pinch many and remove
some topping men from the top of the ladder to a
lower round—or let the example of some neigh-
bouring state rouse the imitative propensities
of our nature—and the long-desired reform will
be effected by a transition as sudden and irre-
sistible as that which made a lump of solid ice out of
what was a thin fluid only a moment before. The seem-
ingly wasted efforts of the agitators have no mere been
resultless than tho silent working of the frost; they
made society ready to rush into the new state of being
as soon as the shake came. Now it occurs to us, that
in respect to electoral reform, public opinion is at pre•
sent in such a condition that little more than a good
rousing shake is required to !ping about a repetition of
the Reform Bill movement. No candid or dispassionate
man will pretend that the Reform Act Las been utterly
fruitless. To any one who should maintain such an
opinion, the repeal of the corn-laws, sad a few other vi-
tally important insasures that have been carried since it
passed, give a flat contradiction. But one thing the
Reform Act has not done; it has not materially altered
the distribution of political power, or the means by
which the great mass of Members find their way into
Parliament, the manner in which they there coalesce or
split into sections, and the ways by which they creep into
office. Such a change, however, was precisely the thing
which the multitudes who sung in chorus " the Bill,
the whole Bill, tied nothing but the Bill," till before the
clamour from their myriad threats the old close and no-
mination boroughs toppled down, like the walls of Je-
richo at the sounding of the trumpets, intended to effect.
The ten-pound franchise in boroughs, the r arthlction of
a certain number of boroughs, the creation of a certain
number of new ones, and the limitation of ethers to one
Member instead of two, was with them but the means to
an end; and that end has been missed. Under the old
electoral cyst. m which prevai:ed before the year of grace
1830, the aristocracy—titled and untitled—were the
masters and makers e,f the House of Commons. They
and their recruits and agents from the ranks of the
learned professions and ti e great caplialists swarmed
into the House through the close and nomination bo-
roughs, and made it their instrument. The wants and
wishes of the people—incluling under that designation all
classes as contradistinguiehed from the few who played
at the game of polities—were unheard in Parliament.
There were loud and long debates, but nothing came of
them in the way of legista ion with a view to assimilate
our institutions to the altered circumstances of society.
A modification or a change in the Cabinet, A redistribu-
tion of the honours and emoluments of office among the
aristocratic ,crawblers for them, was all that was at
any time accomplished or aimed a'. Fur the first few
years after the Reform Act became law there appeared
ro be a change for the b t:er. But this charge seas only
apparent. The aristocratic factions did not learn all at
once how to manipulate the new coe.stitusecies. Mary
of them had lung in their hearts been convinced of the
necessity or harmlessness cf some of the changes de-
manded by public opinion, and were not unwilling
to concede them with a good grace, in order to earn
a character that might be useful to them. But the
short list of reforms which a section of the aristocracy
was prepared to grant has long been exhausted. A new
generation has grown up to manhocd, and advanced far
into it since 1830. New wants have begun to be felt by
society, and new wishes to be entertained. But these,
however urgent, have not yet found their aay to the
aristocratic understanding. The select circle cf the
noble and wealthy, within which office and political
power are contested, is once more in its views and sea-
titnents
isolated from the general public ; and it has dis-
covered that the new constituencies are little, if at all,
less manageable than the old, and has reconstructed its
shattered electioneering egencies. The Reform Bill has
been a failure, inasmuch as under it the real wants and
wishes of the people find a voice in the House of Com-
mons no rarely and with as little effec as over they did.
Out of doors you scarcely meet wish a man v. ho, in
the frank confilence of private conversation, does not
edmit as much. Even in public discussion it is but
faintly denied. A general .spirit of dissatisfaction
with the profitless waste cf time by Parliament' per-
vades society. A rcotei conviction that a further and
searching change in eur electoral system is indispensable
and inevitable, is daily gaining ground. And yet itcan-
not be said that the course of Parliamentary reform is
making any visible progress. This is certainly rot at-
tributable to any lack of z a,l or ability in its advocates.
The leaders cf the Parliamentary and Financial Reform
Association are as indefatigably active as men can well
be. To look no further back than their last reported
meeting, more masterly and telling speeches than those
of Mr. George Thompson and Sir Joshua Walmsley
cannot well be imsgined. Yet the visits of these pea-
ticmen and their colleagues to various localities are not
followed by co-operative action on the part of those who
receive their doctrines with assent and rapturous ap-
plause. All the work is left to them and the few who
originated the agitation along with them. No new
labourers flock in to claim a share in the honour of
promoting the good work. SaVsSed with expressing
ecquiescence and approbation, their auditors betake
themselves egain to their ordinary avacations. They
wish for 'dorm, doubtless, but expect, or, at least,
wish it to drop like an over ripe plum into their mouths.
And thus. it will be till the shako comes which is to
awaken men to earnest and decided action. Meanwhile
the labours of the Reform Association, though producing
at present little visible fruits, are not lost. They are
maturing convictions, end making purposes more definite
against the arrival of the hour cf action. Nor can that
hour be far distant. A few such resuitless sessions as
the last will work wonders. Nay, the present cmti-
nucus rains, and sudden lowering of the temperature to
an autumnal chill—the cx:ention of the Belgian floods,
to a fiw more countries—the short-coming in the Ame-
rican crop of cotton—or a final rapture between Prussia
and the other great Poe ors, may accelerate its advent.
Meanwhile, if W 3 might take the liberty, we would
venture to hint to the Reform Association that their
missionary operations, with a view to prepare men's
minds against the coming of that hour, would admit of
isn;rovement.
We think they have judged wisely
in generalising,
as they have done of late, their enun-
ciation of the objects they aim at. What is wanted is
such a change in our electoral system as will ensure a
1 large infusion of new blix:d into the House of Commons,
and by that means compel the class who have hitherto
monopol:zed administrative office to adopt a policy more
in consonance with public opinion, and admit colleagues,
from classes hitherto excluded, into offices of note and
influence. To this end such a change must be effected
in the constituencies as will ensure the admission of
men to Parliament who are really animated by popular
5) tela ethics, and who participate in the convictions of
the people. This is only to be accomplished by an ex-
tension of the suffrage, that will bring classes now utterly
excluded within the pale of the const.ruticn, and by
such a re-distritution of the electoral districts as will
prevent the Hume of Commons from being packed w;th
nominees of the aristocracy. To disseminate a c.:nvic-
tion of these truths is the espr&al task of the rnornenn
To expend thought and breath in devisiog and recom-
mending special plans for rca!isirg them is sheer waste
of t:no.. Manhood suffrage, scot and lot suffrage, the ex-
tinction of small boroughs and the creation of new, or
tLe introduction of r ntirely new electoral districts, a
time will come for the discussion of these specialities.f
The business of the day is to convince men that the st;
frage must be widely extended, and that the closet.covn,e-
stituences, by means e f which the aristocracy, pta_c_,
fact
House e f Commons, must be extinguished. Le •t
at:rtmen
be firmly rooted in public opinion, and when the h t
furbes
best adapted
eat idoaup
tceodmt cornea ,c thearr
carry
statesman
into
ne
twho
i
1
onward in triumph by the people. willhimself borne
Only te the It.. form
propounds t e plan
AMOitni9ll has um oud wore encentrated its eirp-