The Sun.
London, England, 1868-11-02 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, MONDAY EVENING, NOVEMBER 2, 1858.

perfectly notorious to ourselves, as independent
Liberals, it is perfectly notorious to every
sane man in the United Kingdom, that Mit/DISRAELI
has so attained power, if he so retains office, he does
so, he has done so, with the Gentlemen of England
as his accomplices! As Leader of the Tory Party, as
Leader of the Country Gentlemen of England, he
has won his way to the Premiership in the face of
day, without any adventitious aid, with everything,
indeed, so to speak, against him, even his earlier suc-
cesses as a novelist, and in thus winning his way
to power he has advanced to it, not secretly, but
very openly—under the glare of publicity secured
through the daily newspapers—his political career
being pursued all the while in that most public arena
in the whole world, the British House of Commons.

It is discreditable to the nation, it is discreditable to
Parliament, it is an outrage to the common-sense of
the whole country, to depreciate a triumph won like
this by a statesman sprung from the people—
one who originally entering the army of
letters, carrying his baton in his knapsack,
has not only long since earned the right to
hold it in his grasp, but has transformed it into a
rod of empire. As formerly in the instance of
CANNING-a triumph won like this is a triumph that
it is impossible to witness without feeling proud of it.
And we have reason all of us to feel proud of it, as
free and independent citizens of the empire, in one
word as Englishmen.
Besides—it ought to bo recognised clearly enough
by all our fellow-liberals and it ought to be recognised
by none among them more clearly than by Mr. GLAD-
STONE himself —that by depreciating the character
and career of the Leader of the Government, you are
thereby depreciating the character and career of the
Leader of the Opposition. They are contemporaries.
They are rivals. They are alike sprung from the
People. The one is the son of a merchant. The
other is the descendant of a race of merchants. Mr.
GLADSTONE had the advantage of an Univerity career.
He entered the House at an early age, when fresh
from college, as a member bounding easily
into his seat from that delightful spring-
board a pocket borough. Mr. DISRAELI htd
neither of these advantages. He hal to push his
way into Parliament as he best could, and he had
there to hold his own as he best might. An 1 yet for
all that he has distanced his great rival and competi-
tor for the highest distinctions in the gift of the
Crown. Is that Mr. DISRAELI'S crime? That he
was for many years the Leader of his Party while
Mr. GLADSTONE was yet a subordinate in Lis? That
he has for months been Prime Minister of England,
while as yet Mr. GLADSTONE has been nothing
higher or nobler that one of a Ministry as Chancellor
of the Exchequer? In either of their respective
capacities, the one as Premier, the other as Leader of
the Opposition—Mr. GLADSTONE and Mr. DISRAELI
now go before the country in a position, so far, of per-
fect equality—as the two foremost men in all
England, as men already of historical careers and
reputations, as orators of resplendent ability, as
statesmen aid administrators of unimpeachable
honour. It is for England to choose between them.
But in selecting one, she does not imply dishonour to
the other.

Mn. Buicarr's second election speech but partially
redeems the barrenness of his first. On Monday last
he confined himself wholly to retrospect; on Friday
he continued his historical survey, and gave but a
slight clue to his policy for the future in the expres-
sion of his dissatisfaction with the work of the past.
There is, however, a material improvement visible.
A history of politics which embraces a period of
half a century in a single speech can hardly be
rendered otherwise than bare and profitless even by
the oratorical power of Mr. BRIGHT. But a history
of the Reform struggle during the last two years is
at least something to the purpose. The ground has
been well worked before, but Mr. BRIGHT still finris
something interesting to record, and an important
item of policy to announce. The recital of the past
is decidedly better than the programme, so far as it
goes, of the future. Often as the story has
been told, Mr. BRIGHT puts the history of the
second Reform Act with novel force. Though the
fact was patent to all, it was hardly fully realised
that out of the sixty-one clauses proposed by the
Government in their original bill, only four remain
unaltered in the Act, and not one of these was of
prime importance, only one indeed of any
importance at all. The member for Birming-
ham is in many respects correct in his esti-
mate of the defects of the law, for in spite of all
the amendments, which ought to have produced
some results, it is by no means perfect. He urges
that the bill must be amended at once. That the
ratepaying clauses of the Act should produce five
thousand distress warrants in Birmingham alone is
a most deplorable result. Mr. BRIGHT has been so
long occupied with Reform, that he seems unable
to bid it farewell for a time, but with the majority
of mankind weariness of the flesh is, after all, a
serious consideration. More serious still is the fact
that human life is so limited, that after a generation
spent in deciding how we may be governed, it is
time we got a little practice after our theory. An
amended Reform Act would, doubtless, meet favour
from the new House ; but it would re-open
old disputes and animosities, and cause an igno-
minious and unnecessary delay. And whilst the
bread is making the people are famishing. A host of
questions of practical importance awaits the new
House. The Irish Church, Education, the Liquor
Traffic, and Trades Unions, stand where they did, whilst
the ghosts of countless slaughtered " innocents " rise
up to confront us. The necessities that have accu-
mulated during the Reform agitation have now
become overwhelming, and will permit of no longer
delay. The greatest benefits that can possibly accrue
from another squabble over the Constitution are con-
temptible compared with the great changes which
are necessary to give the languishing national life a
new stimulus. A short measure to relieve the hard-
ship of the ratepaying clauses might be sufficient for
the next session. When some of the arrears have
been cleared off, then will be the time to consider
more redistribution, and to discuss the results of the
experiment tried with the minority clause.

Mr. DOULTON has had a narrow escape. The
Belgian tribunal has no doubt of his guilt, and but
for want of jurisdiction would have inflicted condign
punishment. The court did not acquit him, they
quashed the indictment ; the offence was proved, but
it had been committed in England, and was there-
fore out of reach. And now that all the facts have
been published, and Mr. DOULTON has made
by means of the press the defence which he refused
to submit to the court of justice, there can be little
hesitation in deciding that the verdict of the Belgian
tribunal is just. Divested of the numerous irrelevant
complexities which have transpired in the course of
the story, the case is not one of great difficulty.
In 1865 the authorities of Brussels announced their
determination to execute great improvements in the
Belgian capital, in particular the purification of the
River Senne. These works were undertaken by Mr.
DOULTON, who then sought to establish a company
to provide the necessary capital. The company was
formed, and a contractor was next required. After
representing that he had been in treaty with
some of the leading English contractors, and had
not been able to secure terms equally favourable,
Mr. DOULTON proposed a Belgian firm of the name
of MENTION and SONS, and the contract was given to
it for £589,000. But this firm had, previously to
the formation of the company, undertaken to do
these same works for a sum less by £lOO,OOO
than that just quoted, and after the formation of the

Belgian Public Works Company, Mr. DOULTON made

a second contract with the MENTION firm at the
lower price; that is, the Belgian Public Works Com-

pang were told that they could not get the work
done for less than £589,000, whilst the MENTION
firm were really undertaking to do it for
£489,000, the difference to be paid privately
to Mr. DOI:ETON. It was therefore urged against
him that he appropriated part of the profits
granted by MENTION and SONS to the prejudice of
the company, and that he had induced the company,
by frudulent representations, to take this con-
tract, in order that he might get the differ-
ence. It has been urged by Mr. DOULTON, and with
reason, that this sum of £lOO,OOO was not applied to
his own purposes, but that it was necessary in order
to meet liabilities he had incurred in the promotion
of the scheme, and therefore was applied to the
business of the company. It is not to the purpose to
inquire how much of this sum Mr. DouLToN received

or intended to receive as the reward of his
own labour. The fault he committed—and it is the
essence of nearly all the frauds of commerce—is, that
he kept the lower contract secret, and informed the
company only of one. Ile thus misrepresented the
case to the shareholders, and induced them
to subscribe on a statement which was not a full
exposition of the facts. llow much he gained by the
business is not the prime question. The • fault he
committed lies at the root of all such transactions—
it is that of holding back the truth. It was done in
the case of the 0 VEREND and GURNEY prospectus,
in the case of the Credit Foncier profits, and in the
case of the Credit iNlobilier liabilities. The example
just tried at Brussels does not substantially differ from
the old story, except that in England these " errors"
generally bring no serious consequences, whilst in
Belgium they are rewarded with fine and impri-
sonment.

LATEST INTELL LGENCE.

(RETITErt'S TELEGRA)LS.)

TILE WEST COAST OF AFRICA.
30'
LIVERPOOL, Nov. 1.

The West Coast of Africa Royal mail steamer
Biafra arrived in the Mersey this morning. Her
dates are :—Old Calabar, Sept. 27, Cameroons,
29th ; Fernando Po, 30th ; Bonny, Oct. 3 ; Benin,
4th ; Lagos, 6th ; Jellah Coffee, 7th ; Accra, Bth ;
Cape Coast Castle, 9th ; Cape Palmas, 11th : Mon-
rovia, 13th ; Sierra Leone, 16th ; Bathurst, 19th ;
Teneriffe, 24th ; and Maderia, 26th. She brings
2,118 oz. of gold dust.

Benin and Bonny were rather unhealthy, both
the captains and chief officers of the vessels Lily
and Julia Mellen having died of fever. At all
other ports trade was brisk and oil plentiful. There
is no other news of itnpsrtance from the coast.

ROUMANIA.
BUCHAREST, Nov. 1.

The Chamber has been convoked for the com-
mencement of regular Parliamentary business on
the 27th inst.

Prince Charles has entirely recovered, and is
gone to the country seat of M. Bratiano, where he
will remain for a short time.

OUTWARD INDIA AND CHINA MAILS OF

17-23 D OCT.

SUEZ, Nov. 2.

The Peninsular and Oriental Company's steamers
Surato and Carnatic sailed at noon yesterday for
Calcutta and Bombay respectively.

MARSEILLES, Nov. 1.

The Messageries Imperiales steamer Peluse, with
the India and China mails, arrived here to-day at
two p.m.

FRANCE.

BOURSE, Oct. 31.—Three o'clock.—The market
closed as follows :-
41 per Cent.
End of month... —•— Italian Loan
3 per Cent
End of month 7O 70 Mexican Loan ... 23 75
Credit Mobilier

End of month... 278 75 Spanish Threes 35
Credit Foncier ...1467 Homo Debt 32 25
End of mouth_ Deferred ......
Cash
Orleans ... 900
Northern
Lyons and Mediterranean
Southern..... l67k
Western
Eastern • • 5475721.
Sardinian
Austrian
Lombard 4lBl
North of Spain
Sztragossa,
Roman

RAILWAYS.

ALARMING ACC IDEN7 ON THE SO UI
lI-
EAS7 ERN RAILIVAY.-THIS DAY.

A railway collision, at one time threatening to
destroy hundre Is of lives, took place this morning
on the South-Eastern Railway, at the point
known as the Cannon-street Junction. A train,
made up of first, second, and third class
carriages, technically called " main line emp-
ties," had been despatched from the Brick-
layer-arms station for the use of passengers await-
ing it at the chief terminus at Charing-cross, and
just as it arrived at the point just mentioned it
came into collision with a train which had been
running up to the moment of tke accident on the
North Kent line. The effect of the concussion
was very severe, and nine passengers received
very severe injuries, hut up to the present
time we have not heard that any have terminated
fatally. The officials at Charing-cross refused to
give any information on the subject, and although
they could not, when our reporter applied for infor-
mation, deny that an accident had occurred, he was
coolly referred to the general manager ; but where
he was to be found at that particular moment the
closely buttoned up official refused to say. That an
accident of an alarming nature has occurred is cer-
tain, but for fuller information we must wait.