The Sun.
London, England, 1868-10-26 00:00:00

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LOIVDON, MONDAY, OCT. 26, 1868.

Nearly a hundred years ago one of the ladies of
the ELLIOT family wrote of the then newly elected
House of Commons—her letter is dated in the De-
cember of 1774—" There are forty young Etonians
in the new Parliament, and about 170 new faces.
808, the waiter at WurrE's, is chosen for the same
place as Mr. WEDDERB URN, upon which Lord
SUFFOLK said, he made no doubt they would make
a very distinguished figure, being both bred to the
Bar." For this pleasant little apropos souvenir we
are indebted to the recently-published "Memoir of
the Right Hon. HUGH ELLIOT," by the Countess
of MINTO. Reading it, while wo are almost
disposed to agree with an opinion recently expressed
that the family papers from which the above
extract is taken are nearly as rich in anecdote
and political information as HORACE WALPOLE'S,
we may scarcely add with Mr. JOURDAIN, " Nous
avons change,: tout cela." 808, the waiter at
WHITE's redivivus, it is true, we may no more look
to see among the ranks of the popular representa-
tives about to be returned during this immediately
ensuing month of November, than we may look to
see there the ghost of Mr. WEDDERBURN. Yet,
after all, is not all this very much of a case in point,
as to history repeating itself ? 808 was but typical
(a century in advance) of that dreaded incongruity
the working man's representative ? While, as to
" 170 new faces," there are reasonable prospects of
quite as many, if not more, being recognizable in the
new Parliament. Etonians to the number of 40 may
very possibly be there also, but scarcely young Eto-
nians. Gone for ever, indeed, are those halcyon
days for youthful aspirants, just fresh from college
and yearning for political distinction, when pocket
boroughs gave a start in life to genius at a time of
life when'genius was yet little more than a stripling.
Middle age, as a rule, is looked for now as an all
but essential qualification. The property qualifica-
tion is happily abolished; but years are the substitute.
Almost it would seem—so thorough and evident has
been the change thus effected among the mass of the
constituencies—that the electors have a hankering
by preference after the possibility of securing to
themselves, one of these days, the safeguard of some-
thing very much like a competitive examination
among candidates.
Looking back, however, not across a century,
but across the average lifetime of a generation, one
may see just now almost at a glance that we have
again in a manner run in the old rut round the ap-
pointed circle—revenant sur nos pas. There is the same
dread among some people of the depreciation of the
character of the House of Commons—almost identi-
cally the same dread of that depreciation—that was
felt and expressed very audibly thirty-four or five
years ago on the return of the newly-reformed Par -
liament. That First Reformed Parliament met
in 1833, on the 29th of January : the debate
on the Address (pray Heaven that at least we may
not be destined to undergo the repetition of that
infliction !) lasting throughout nine nights, namely,
from the 30th January to the 9th February.
RAIKES, in his " Diary," noticed with a qual:n, as sig-
nicative of the character of the new House, that the
" bone grubber," WILLIAM COBBETT, as he called
him, was returned for Oldham, and that " the
famous pugilist, and better of Newmarket," GULLY,
was elected :M.P. for Pontefract. Even Sir ROBERT
PEEL is reported, upon that same authority, to have
remarked during the early part of the first session
of the new Parliament, that he was very much
struck with the appearance of the house, the tone
and character of which he declared seemed quite
different from any other he had ever seen ;
—" there being an asperity, a rudenes4, a vulgar
assumption of independence, combined with a
fawning deference to the people out of doors, ex-
pressed by many new members, which was highly
disgusting." Pozzo DI BORGO, as a mere spectator,
was so disheartened by the whole look of things a
year after the assembling of that same Parliament,
that he went so far, in 1831, as to assert
that " the British Constitution of King, Lords,
and Commons, which had for ages been
the admiration of the world, had been de-
stroyed by the stroke of a pen—and that in
point of fact the only Government which
remained for England was the Reformed House of
Commons, or, in other words—Democracy." It is
amusing to recall to mind these wonderfully saga-
cious comments and predictions— indulged in not
by mere flaneurs, not by that absurd person Mr.
RAIKES, but by a diplomatic observer as astute as
Pozzi DI BORGO, and by that very one
amongst our own statesmen who has been
emphatically spoken of by the now Prime Minister
of England, as " the greatest member of the House
of Commons that ever lived." The character of
the Reformed Parliament has—with a due main-
tenance of its dignity as the grandest deliberative
assembly in the world—survived, during the entire
lifetime of a generation, tke mingled dismay and
derision of Sir ROBERT PEEL. The British Consti-
tution, again, has during that very same interval—
with a prospect even now of its continuance pro-
bably for a little while longer* survived the
solemn and portentous prediction of its im-
mediate downfall, in 1834, uttered by the lips
of M. Pozzo DI BORGO. Nevertheless, even
now—when we have certainly no apparent
likelihood of finding either a clubhouse waiter as
in 1774, or a prizefighter as in 1832, returned
to the House of Commons by any one of our
newly-reformed constituencies—there are the same
almost despairing anticipations of the degenera-
tion or degradation of the Lower House of
Parliament, now that that Lower House is based
upon a broader and wider system of represen-
tation. The bugaboo nowadays, however, is
neither 808 nor GULLY. It is, Forsooth, the
working man's representative. :No wonder
Haul TT, in his time, expressed that noble
scorn for what he happily designated " a
kind of toilette or drawing-room politics, which
reduces the whole principle of civil Government
to a question of personal appearance and outward
accomplishments." Adding--" The paztsans of this
school (and it is a pretty large one, vuesisting of
all the vain, the superficial, and thee selfish) tell
you plainly that they hate the smell cif the people,
the touch of the people, their lauguage, -their occu-
pations, their manners'—as if this was, a matter of
private taste and fancy; and becat lse the higher

THE SUN,

classes are better off than they, that alone gave
them a right to treat the others as they
pleased, and make them ten times more

wretched than they are." Happily for the
credit of the common sense of the vast ma-
jority of those referrei to by HAzLITT as the " higher
classes," lugubrious anticipations, like those' formerly
indulged in are become the inheritance only of the
select few. Craig idiots, there may be, just pos-
sibly, such as are prepared to recognize—in the per-
son of a genuine working man's representative—
some " poor chap in a sleeved waistcoat," like the
Cheap Jack Dr. MARIGOLD. But the name of
these crass idiots is happily not Legion.

We are within three weeks of the elections, and by
this time most electors have determined for whom
they will vote. There are two classes, however, who
are still undecided—the highly conscientious, and
those without any conscience at all. The second
are waiting for arguments in the shape of
bank-notes, or places for themselves or their
relations. The first are waiting to see if they can
persuade a candidate to vote for or against some
question to which they attach especial importance,
and for the sake of which they are ready to sink all
minor questions. To the second we have nothing to
say. It is useless to appeal to the conscience where
it is entirely absent ; and if a man is so
deficient in the sense of shame as to receive
money for exercising a public trust, he is not
likely to be influenced by any words that we can
write. We would only point out to the clergy and
ministers of " all denominations " that they might
perform a useful and noble function if during the
next few weeks they would devote themselves to
instructing electors in their duty, not by telling them
how to vote on the Irish Church, but how to vote in
accordance with their honest convictions.

With regard to the first class we have something
to remark. We contend that they have a perfect right
to make any one question the condition of their
political support. A good deal of cynical writing has
been published, especially in the Saturday Review,
about the wholesale way in which candidates swallow
pledges. That, at all events, is no fault of the elec-
tors. If there should be in any borough where
parties are evenly balanced a certain number
of voters who think that the Permissive Bill
is of more importance than the Irish Church, than
Parliamentary Reform, or any other question, they
are perfectly justified in making a vote for the Per-
missive Bill in Parliament on the part of the candi-
date the condition of their vote for the candidate at
the polling-booth. If the candidate promises com-
pliance, believing that the bill is a bad measure,
the blame rests with him. No compulsion is
placed upon him. A voter has a perfect right
to say " I will give my vote only to the men
who will assist the measure which I think all-
important." It is in fact only natural that he should
do so. He does no wrong in withholding his vote,
for the candidate's only claim upon him for it con-
, sists in the willingness to promote the legislation
which the voter deems requisite for the good of
the country. We cannot, therefore, blame
any elector who at the forthcoming election
leaves the party with whom he usually associates
in order to forward the measure which he deems far
above party politics. But while we admit this, we
would point out that an elector may commit the
error of attaching exaggerated importance to pet
measures. We do not say that the Permissive
Bill is one of these, for its importance cannot
be exaggerated. But there are others which
will occur to everyone—the game laws, the
opening of the British Museum on Sunday, and
the like, which are of infinitesimal importance when
compared with the great question now before the
nation. What we would say, therefore, to politicians
whom, without any offence, we would term crotchety/
is—Be quite sure that your crotchet is worth the
trouble you bestow upon it; be quite sure that the
country will profit by the adoption of your favourite
panacea more than by the policy which is now set
forth by Mr. GLADSTONE on the one side, or that
advocated by Mr. DISRAELI on the other.

Mr. MILL'S new theory that it is a member of
Parliament's daty to oh3y his political leaders with
the same fidelity and promptitude with wllie'n a
suldier carries out the orders of his military com-
mander does not 520.111 to find favour among the
City of London Liberals. Mr. MILL, who is openly
recognised as one of the ruling spirits of the new
school of philosophic Radicals, has been a hearty
and consistent supporter of the representation of
minorities. It is true that in the opinion of an im-
portant section of his followers Mr. MILL made a
blunder in not ascertaining what effect the clause
would have upon the ranks of the Liberals. As
there seems to be some ground for the apprehen-
sion that the minority clause may effect a change in
the representation of the City of London, the long-
looked-for reform so eminently advocated by
theoretical Liberals in and out of Parliament
has become " a great bugbear—a miserable three-
cornered thimble-rig system of voting." As the
best means of securing the renewed suffrages of
their constituents, the four gentlemen now repre-
senting the City on Friday addressed a meeting of
the electors at the Cannon-street Hotel, and were
listened to with attention. Mr. Alderman LAW-
RENCE was the first to come forward on the plat-
form, and devoted himself principally to the ques-
tion of the expenditure. No doubt every tax and
ratepayer would be very glad.to see the expendi-
ture reduced by some millions, but very few will be
sanguine enough to anticipate such a result
from the labours of the next sossiMl !
Where these millions are to be saved Mr.
Alderman LAWRENCE does not tike the trouble
to inform us. Perhaps the task would have been
too arduous for him, but we are glad to find that
on one important point he is prepared for energetic
reform. Alderman LAWRENCE believes that it
would be an act of simple justice to equalise the
poor rate throughout the metropolis, and if this
conviction gains ground in the City, we shall
have hopes of seeing it accepted westward.
Mr. CRAWFORD spent a good part of his time
in defending himself from the charge of inatten-
tion to his Parliamentary duties. According to
his own account, he has " been almost always in
the House soon after four, and remained almost
to the hour of rising." Even with the qualifi-
cation of two " almosts" this must have been
pretty hard work, but Mr. CRAWFORD is quite
ready, if he finds himself among the chosen four,
to continue his Parliamentary labours with the
view of reinstating Mr. GLADSTONE.
Baron ROTHSCHILD was the next to address the
meeting, which he did briefly enough, chiefly
dwelling upon the question of the Irish Church, on
which he contended he was especially qualified to
form an- unbiassed opinion since he has personally
no interest in it.

GOSCIIEN having spoken at some length last
week on the Minority clause turned his attention
to other subjects, complaining that the Liberal
party were heavily handicapped by the restriction.
It is amusing to notice that all speakers entirely
forget that the Conservatives are under the same
disadvantage, and that every Conservative elector
los •s a vote as well as his Liberal or Radical
neighbour. To judge by their indignation; we
might suppose that while the Liberal voter has only
his three votes, the Conservative elector retains the
privilege of four, and certainly the same lamenta-
tions over the " constitutional innovation" on the
" ancient traditions" of the City of London ought
to be equally applicable to both parties. However,
so long as the citizens are allowed the free and

independent expression of their sentiments and the
unbiassed choice of their own representatives, it
matters very little whether each man has three votes
or four, so long as all parties stand on the same
ground and the influence of the City in Parliament
is not diminished.

LATEST INTELLMENCE.

(REUTER'S TELEGRAMS.)

THE lIANSE TOWNS.

HAMBURG, Oct. 26, Noon.
The English mail of Saturday has not arrived,
and can only be expected this afternoon.
A gale from the south-west prevailed yesterday
and caused a high tide, and rain has now set in.

SOUTHAMPTON, Oct. 26.

The North German Lloyd's steamer Bremen,
from New York, arrived in Cowes Roads at 7.45

a.m. to-day.