The Sun.
London, England, 1857-03-31 00:00:00

SUN, LONDON, TUESDAY EVENING, MARCI u, 1857.

But he permitted the well-founded expectations ofl
the people to be frustrated, and was a consenting
party to the GLADSTONE " dodge," that promised
the abolition of the impost in 1860, although
•that abolition would be fatal to the removal of
obnoxious. duties Lr)rd JOHN RUSSELL must
ponder over these matters. He has a glorious
opportunity before him ; but if it be neglected or
misapplied his case will be irredeemable ; he never
can again retrieve the position from which he
has fallen.

There is another "fair penitent" before the
country. Lord ROBERT GROSVENOR is repent-
ing in sackcloth and ashes the grievous mistakes
committed on the Chinese question, and the at-
tempted legislation for the " bitter observance."
He tries to show that he was deceived on the
latter question, and promises, like a naughty
child, that, if forgiven, he will.not do so any more.
He confessed that he should have a species of
courage amounting to foolhardiness if
ho again sought b bring in such a
bill. But he gave no pledge that
he would vote against such a measure, or that his
views were really changed on the point ; and he
also spoke decisively against " the Ballot," which
ought to be the great "Shibboleth" of the Par-
liamentary Reformer's Creed. We'll have none
of Lord ROBERT GROSVENOR. He ought not to
be the man for the Great Metropolitan County.
Surely some sincere Liberal, who would allow the
poor man the enjoyment of his Sabbath, might
be obtained. We are well aware of the enor-
mous expenses attendant on a contest for Middle-
sex. But surely some one may be induced to
come forward even at the eleventh hour to
rescue the county from such hands. The
electors ought if necessary to purchase their
own independence, and not sacrifice great
principles for paltry considerations of L. S. D.
Lord ROBERT GROSVENOR has a very Yong purse.
He hasalsoahigh title, but we can discover no other
qualification. HANBURY is a suitable candidate,
but we confess we cannot approve of the Coalition
that has been formed, and which savours strongly
of a private arrangement for the overthrow of the
independence of Middlesex.

We noticed the other day Lord JOHN RUSSELL'S
apology, by proxy, for his anti-Ballot answers.
It is an unmistakeable sign of the times. Not a
sign that Lord JOHN RUSSELL will endorse his
brother's liberal hints and interpretations. Lord
JOHN has managed too cleverly for that. He has
managed to have the bill accepted by Lord C. J. F.
RUSSELL, made payable at Lord JOHN RUSSELL'S
—and the advocates of the Ballot will find
" effects" there or not, just according to the ad
vantage or disadvantage to the Noble Lord him;
self of honouring the bill. Nothing is more cer-
tain, however, than that at this election the friends
of the Ballot have most generously made large
deposits with his Lordship. Without the votes
of those who claim the Ballot, Lord JOHN RUSSELL
would have been in the position of Mr. RAISES
CURRIE. So changed are the times, that Lord Jon N
COllll not have been member for London without
the votes which his brother did his best to procure
for him. It is this fact of which the paternal
Speech was the sign ; and the mind of electors on
the question is of far more consequence than the
mind of a Lord, even of suck a Lord as the
" fruit of the BEDFORD family."
There is one of the stock arguments of professed
Liberals which always rouses our indignation, and
which we are ashamed of Lord JOHN RUSSELL for
reproducing this time. Far better, like the Cana-
dian judge, have given his opinion without his
reasons. The very obstinacy of a lord is more re-
spectable than his hypocritical arguments. Who
believes for a moment that L)rd JOHN RUSSELL
believes in the argument we allude to ? That
"the electors are but one in six or seven of the
adult public, and that therefore the six or seven
ought to know how the one votes." We affirm
that this is pure cant—or if it be more respect-
able, at least but special pleading. Those who
use this argument, and none more so than the new
First Member for London, know that there is lite-
rally nothing in it. With scarcely a solitary ex-

ception, the one elector cares not a straw what th•
six non-electors think of his vote. What harm
can they do him ? What bribe can they offer him ?
What influence can they bring to bear upon him ?

We will own that we once heard of a fifth-rate
manufacturing town where the "milt-hands" threat-
ened not to deal with shopkeepers who did not vote

for the advocate of the Ballot and all the other
points of the Charter ; but we never heard of a
single other place in which the non-electors had
the smallest weight with the electors. They there-
fere could lose nothing by the present voters ob-
taining eitire independence.
But what we hate most of all in this detestable
cant is, the pharasaical ostentation of generosity
to the non-electors, covering the grossest aristy-
cratic selfishness. Why, if it was really wished
that these tenderly-cared-for non-electors should
influence the formation of the House of Commons,
not give them votes to do it in a straightforward
manner? The poor outcasts of the constitution
are put forward, but it is those who fare sumptu-
ously under it that are the real objects of concern.
"Do not deprive the half-dozen labourers of some
honest farmers of the privilege of knowing how
their master votes 1" As if the labourers ever

thought or cared about it ; or as if any anti-
ballot lord cared a straw about the farmer's vote
being public to any one but his landlord. And so
the shopkeepers' poor customers, the master
builders' workmen, and all other of the employed
class, are paraded as those in compassion to whom
the present voters may not be emancipated ! As
if, again, the cArriage customer, and the gentry
who give their orders to the employers, were not
the only parties who could influence their votes•
We thoroughly believe that all the arguments
against the Ballot now in vogue amongst the
aristocracy are but special pleading for a foregone
conclusion, but this wretched argument of the
non-electors' interest is but impudent political
pharasaism.

We repeat—if you wish to have non-electors to
have influence give it them. The friends of the
Ballot all wish it. Every elector who demands
the Ballot will, almost to a certainty, be found
demanding a large extension of the Suffrage also ;
rate book suffrage at least, perhaps household or
universal suffrage. The advocates of the Ballot
are not the men who resist the enfranchisement
of their fellow citizens, fellow taxpayers, and
fellow subjects. The opponents of the Ballot are
the opposite of extended suffrage also. Occasion-
ally, indeed, as in Lord JoaN RUSSELL'S last
Reform Bill, they may seem willing to enlarge the
electoral constituency, but examine their
schemes, and you invariably find that they
devised a cleverly-modulated extension, by which
the non-electors gain little or nothing, because all
who are or become electors will remain as exposed
as before to the power of the local constituency.
We see some hope, however, that Mr. BERKE-
LEY will have beLter support than ever in tha
new Parliament. No article of the Reformer's

creed has obtained more notice, favourable notice
frequently, on the hustings than the Ballot.
Many have had to swallow it wbo evidently do
not quite relish it. In other cases the candidate

felt his position the stronger because he was pre-
viously known to be a friend to perfectly free
voting. We do not believe any Reform Bid wilt
excite popular enthusiasm which does not compre-
hend the Ballot amongit its provisions. We are
equally confident that the people would never let
the Minister fail, that they would force buth
Houses to accept a measure in which the Ballot
was an essential feature. The Ballot, in fact, must
be the essence of the next great Reform Bill.

LATEST NEWS.

THE INDIA MAIL.

TUESDAY MORNING.
We have been favoured with the following tele-
graphic despatch :

" The Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation
Company's steam ship Valetta, with the India and
China mails from Alexandria, arrived at Marseilles
at 7 a.m. this day, the 31st inst.

" The mails were to leave for London at 10
a.m. j•

AMERICA.

LIVERPOOL, MONDAY EVENING.

The steam-ship Kangaroo, with one day's later
dates from New York than the Persia, passed Cork
to-day, and is due in the Mersey about noon to-

morrow.

LIVERPOOL, TUESDAY MORNING.

The Cunard Company's screw-steamer Emeu,
which was to sail from New York on the 19th, the
day after the Persia, is reported off Holyhead this

morning.

It is said that the intervention of the British and
French Governments for the arrangement of the
existing differences between the Austrian and Sar-
dinian Governments has been favourably received,
and 't is hoped that diplomatic relations will be rd-
stored sooner than expected.

The negotiations for the conclusion of a treaty of
commerce between the French and Russian Govern-
ments are concluded, and the treaty will s)on be
reduced to writing. M. Baudin, First Secretary
to the French Ecnbassy at St. Petersburg, is ap-
pointed to conduct the negotiations.

Intelligence of the 23d from Constantinople
announces that the Grand Vizier had' made a
communication to the various Legations to the
effect that be would expel, and confiscate the
property of, all Mussulman subjects who should
refuse the payment of military subsidies under
pretence of being under foreign protection.
The Russians are concentrating considerable
forces in Ekaterinodar and Anapa.

The successes of the Oircassia,ns are confirmed.

Mehemet Bey is taking energetic measures to
repel au attack by the Russians, which is thought
imminent.

The latest despatches from Athens mention that
the Senate had refused to hold any sittings till the
Ministry should have apologised to them.

Diet, here has already brought up its report on the
.Sound .Dues Treaty, and, both of them unani-
mously recommend the }louse to adopt it for
ratification. Tills will, doubt'ess, take place to-
morrow, as the subject is already on the list of the
business for that day. Prussia will pay her quota
in 40 half-yearly payments of 121,7314 dialers
each (18,2601.), retaning to. herself the light at any
future time that it may be convenient to pay up
the remaining instalments in advance ; the first
paymentswillamount, with interest on Oe outstand-
ing balance, to about 240,000 thalers each. Small
as this half-yearly-sum is compared to the advan-
tages gained to Prussia by the abolition of the
Sound Dues, the revenues of the State will not be
burdened by an addition of more than three-fifths
of it, or about 114,000 thalers yearly, inasmuch as
the State has always been in the habit of allowing
its own subjects a drawback of 2i per cent, to be de-
ducted from all import duties in the Baltic ports, as a
sort of palliation of the burden of the Sound Dues,
and has also paid on salt alone, of which it has -the
monopoly, on an average of the last 11 years, 11,000
thalers a year for Sound Dues ; these two sums of
11,000 duty on salt and 85,000 drawback on import
duties must therefore be first deducted from the
240,000 thalers before one can appreciate the extra
burden which the redemption of the Sound dues
imposes on the revenue, and that too only for 20
years.