The Sun.
London, England, 1850-01-08 00:00:00

glytnilt! .-7;itit

LONDON, TUESDAY. JANUARY 8, lsio.

The National Reform Association is now a " great
fact." Within a few months it has achieved a posi-
tion similar to that occupied by " the League" imme-
diately before the close of its labours. There is on
every side the same zeal and energy, the same
enthusiastic devotion that was so conspicuous when
the popular demand was for free and unrestricted
trade, and cheap and untaxed food. The accomplish-
ment of a great but tardy act of justice—the purifi-
cation of the Commons House of Parliament—the
extension of the suffrage to those who, although heavily
taxed, are still unrepresented—the strengthening
of the Constitution, by placing it on a
broader superstructure than that on which it is now
based and supported, and the attainment of more
righteous and equitable laws by the removal of the
corrupt and enervating influences that now taint and
emasculate the sources of legislation, are the objects
for which the British nation is now prepared to enter
on a course of peaceful agitation. There is no want
of the necessary materiel for carrying on the contest.
The people rush to the standard en masse, anxious to
participate in the glories that must await the
victors when the inevitable triumph is achieved.
All those who had lent their assistance in
the overthrow and destruction of monopoly have
already inscribed their names on the muster-roll,
while new recruits, day by day, flock to the banner
of reform on which the magic symbols are inscribed
—" Extension of the Suffrage—Vote by Ballot—
Triennial Parliaments—Equalization of Electoral
Districts—the Abolition of the Property Qualifica-
tion for Members of Parliament."
When the soldiers are forthcoming, when the
thews and sinews of an army are fully made up, but
little remains to be done. Tried and experienced
generals are seldom wanting to devise judi-
cious means for the employment of their
cohorts ; or if, through any strange accident,
there were none of established reputation
to fill the chief position, the exigencies of the
moment would produce new and unexceptionable
candidates for the post of honour and of difficulty.
In the present case, however, there is no such neces-
sity. A staff is formed of faithful men, who
have already afforded the most unquestionable evi-
dences of their ability and judgment in directing the
popular exertions ; and there is every reason to sup-
pose that any amount of money that may be
required will be placed at their disposal. It is
true that thousand pounds subscriptions, such
as those that so abundantly testified the
sincerity and devotion of the Corn-law Abolitionists,
have not as yet been effected ; but many hands make
light work, an I were the great majority of the
people are arrayed on the same side, it is scarcely
possible to suppose that such heavy sacrifices will be
required from individuals. And if the occasion should
arise, and that liberal contributions should indeed be
required, we venture to say, that they will not be
withheld.

Ministers are already exhibiting that due sense of
the pressure from without for which the Whigs are so
notorious. We are told, on semi official authority,
that a liberal extension of the suffrage, both
in England and Ireland, is to be brought
for ward by the Government at the very com-
mencement of the next session of Parliament.
The doctrines of finality are, it appears, to be aban-
doned, and perhaps a few more demonstrations may
induce the Cabinet to extend the measure, and to add
a few more of the required alterations thereto. So
be it. The people will accept whatever may
be offered as an instalment of justice, and as affording
them additional strength to struggle for the remain-
der—but they never will relinquish their exertions or
abandon their agitation until every one of the " points"
inscribed on the banner of the National
Association be conceded. It must be no mock
extension of the suffrage ; it will not
now be sufficient to add a few hundred thousands to
the number of those possessed of the elective fran•
chise. The Parliamentary voters must largely out-
number the workhouse paupers. Every man occu-
pying a tenement, and rated to the relief of the
poor must be placed upon the registry of electors.
By such means the several constituencies will, at
least, be quadrupled, and the people contented, until
the period when the spread of education, and the in-
creased intelligence of the age, shall justify
a further concession, and every adult male,
not under any legal disability, shall be
entitled to a voice in the election of the
popular representatives. In other words, when
universal suffrage, in its most extensive signification,
may be adopted.
1 But it is no less necessary to place the franchise
upon a broad and suitable basis than it is to provide
for its free and independent exercise, and to insure
that salutary control over the chosen representatives
that will prevent them from violating their pledges,
or deceiving the reasonable expectations of their con-
stituents. For that purpose, the adoption of the
principle of " the ballot," and the " limitation of the
duration of Parliament" to three years at the utmost,
are almost as essential as the extension of the
franchise. A more equal distribution of the electoral
districts is also indispensable. The existing anomaly,
which enables the representatives of a few insignifi-
, cant boroughs, that obediently follow the dictates of
some wealthy aristocrats to outvote the members
for the great marts of trade and commerce of the
metropolis, of Liverpool, of Manchester, Birming-
ham, and many other populous and wealthy districts,
mist also be removed'; and although last, perhaps not
least important, every constituency must be free to
select as representatives those who may ap-
pear most competent to carry out their
views and wishes. It is not a pecuniary
or territorial qualification that is required in mem-
bers, but those of honesty, integrity, activity, zeal,
energy,
and devotion to the cause of the people
generally, more especially of those by whom they
have been
selected to fill such high and important
situations, to make wise and enlightened laws for the
government of a free nation.

A Paragraph, which will be found elsewhere in
this evening's impression, announces to the public a
further reduction in the amount of Sunday labour in
the Post-office establishment. Every additional
glimpse obtained into the innovations projected by
ItowLtrip LULA demonstrates yet more and

more incontestably the superior morality and hu-
manity of his system over that of the Sabbatarians.
While they are ranting about a weekly cessation from
toil, and a periodical show of godliness, he is ensuring
a practical improvement in that direction—an im-
provement securing at once the amelioration of a large
part of the community, and a more certain accordance
with the recommendations of Christianity. Nothing
could have produced a more painful exposure of the
cant of his antagonists than the revelation of the pre-
cise tendency of the policy decided upon under his
superintendence. Nothing could more glaringly have
revealed the inaccuracy of the different charges entered
against that policy, to the effect that it would inevit-
ably produce an increase of the toil already found to
be requisite on Sundays throughout the complicated
channels of national intercommunication. Instead of
producing this prophesied evil—instead of enhancing the
labour of the Post-office officials—instead of rendering
an increase of their number necessary—the changes so
judiciously effected by Mr. ROWLAND HILL, in the
face of so much opposition, contumely, and vitupera-
tion, have evolved exactly the reverse consequences.
Scarcely a branch post-office throughout England,
from Berwick to Penzance, but has already experi-
enced the benefit of the new arrangements. For ex •
ample, as was well known from the outset, although
the Sunday Saints (might not Master MOTLEY, in
his cap and bells, insinuate that they are therefore,
par consequence, the Weekly Sinners ?) strove to
ignore the existence of that advantage—large numbers
of the provincial clerks would be released from their
usual Sunday avocations by the discontinuance of the
plan of granting Post-office orders on those
days to all applicants. Since the newly-
accepted, yet much-abused, improvements have
been in actual operation, it has been found
possible to alleviate still further the condition
of the subordinate officers in those branches of the
Post-office establishment. Having found it expedient
to discontinue throughout the country all post delive-
ries on Sundays, except one, it proves possible with-
out causing any perceptible inconvenience whatever
to withdraw divers dispatches on those days—dis-
patches such as must have been otherwise imperatively
required_ The result of all which is, that the Post-
master-General finds himself enabled to direct (and
that, too, without any dereliction of his duties, or
any show of indifference towards his responsibilities),
that henceforth, as a general rule, " every Post-office
in England and Wales shall, after ten o'clock in the
(Sunday) morning, continue closed for the rest of the
day, instead of opening again, as at present, at five
in the evening." Now there is another, and a most
remarkable example of the superior capacity pos-
sessed by common sense and truthfulness over lip-
piety and sanctimoniousness in the way of ad-
vancing the interests of the country and of furthering
the cause of religion.
Although perfectly aware of the obtuseness of the
intelligence of the Sabbatarians, and although entirely
satisfied as to the opacity of their judgments, we
would nevertheless most earnestly beseech their atten •
tion to the facts just commented upon by ourselves.
If they would only view those facts in the clear light
in which they will assuredly be regarded by the rest
of the multitude, they would spare themselves hence-
forth the commission of many grievous absurdities,
and scarcely expose themselves again to the derision
provoked by their pitiable affectations of godliness.
Instead of mouthing about the sinful influences of
this and that regulation of the authorities at St.
Martin's. le Grand, they would attend more sedulously
to the duties of working out their own salvation.
Let them remember this, that according to the
assurances of Revelation the labour of securing
one's own admission in the realms of ever-
lasting beatitude is scarcely capable of being
accomplished within an ordinary lifetime with
the utmost assiduity and the most unre
mitting supervision. Yet would they, forsooth,
deem it a work of such extravagant facility that it
admitted of their applying the principal portion of
their existence to the detection and exposure of what
they may happen to regard as the foibles and short-
comings of their neighbours. At least let them be
sure of this, that in the present instance their toil.s in
that regard have been squandered to no purpose
beyond that of securing to themselves the contempt
of the rest of the community. Not only have recent
circumstances shown that their interference has been
altogether ineffectual in forwarding the interests of
Christianity, but the result of the new regulations
introduced by Mr. ROWLAND HILL, the great public
benefactor, has demonstrated that the hysterical cant
of the Sabbatarians was, in the instance before us,
entirely uncalled for and misplaced.
So shameful, indeed, was the system of misrepre-
sentation adopted by the sanctimonious minority of the
metropolis, and in one or two of the more unfortunate
of the provincial localities, that it was protested by
that minority that the scheme of Mr. ROWLAND HILL
was intentionally directed to the increase instead of
to the decrease of the Sunday labours in the Post-
office establishment; whtreas one of the principal
causes of all his recent innovations in that department
of the public service has been a solicitude to diminish
as much as possible the unceasing toils of his subor-
dinates. In this endeavour he has just proved emi-
nently successful. By an addition, not as was pretended
of 25, but of merely 14 supplementary clerks at the
main office in St. Martin's-le-Grand, he has enabled
himself to release many hundreds of other clerks in
the various country offices throughout the kingdom.
Beyond which it should be especially borne in recol-
lection by the Sabbatarians themselves that, in con-
sequence of the changes late effected through the
instrumentality of Mr. ROWLAND HILL, the subordi-
nate officials in his own department are nowhere
required to work on Sundays during the hours of
Divine Service. So much for the immorality and
inhumanity of the Post-office authorities ! So much
for the reason and accuracy of the loud-vaunting
Sabbatarians !

COURT CIRCULAR.
WINDSOR, MONDAY.
The Queen and Prince Albert took their usual
morning walk.
The Royal Family took walking and pony exer-
cise in the Slopes and 'Windsor Park.
His Royal Highness Prince Albert went out
shooting this morning, accompanied by the Duke de
Nemours, the Prince de Joinville, and the Duke
d'Aumale and attended by Colonel Hon. C. B Phipps,
Colonel Berkeley Drummond, and Colonel F. H.
Seymour.
Their Royal Highnesses the Duke and Duchess
de Nemours left Windsor Castle this afternoon.