The Sun.
London, England, 1868-03-05 00:00:00

T.HE SUN, LONDON, THURSDAY EVEN

THE REFORM BILL 014 1867

TO THE EDITOR OF THE SUN.
SlR,—There is an old saying, and a very true
one, viz., that " Facts are stubborn things," and

very oftentimes very sad and painful things likewise.
Nearly a month ago I wrote you a letter, wherein
I compared Lord Derby's Reform Bill of 1867 to a
beautiful sunset after a stormy day; assuming his

23 years of Tory ism to have been a mistake and a

delusion on his part. I said he began well (alluding
to his great efforts in carrying the old Reform Bill

in 1832,when he was quite a young man), and that
he had ended well in having carried the Bill of 1867

in his old age.

Alas ! 1 fear I was too true a pro-

phet in saying that the great Act which, ere this

;iine next year, will have become the law of the
and, will be the last great act of his political life.
[t would be idle, and worse than idle, to disguise

'rom ourselves the sad and melancholy fact that our

learned, talented, and beloved Premier is most dan-

gerously ill ; nevertheless, while there is life there
is always more or less hope. I hope, as I said in
my last letter, which appeared in your columns on
the 30th ult., that the life of our excellent chief may
be spared to us for many years to come ; still,
should it please Almighty God to terminate his well-

spent and valuable life, there will be one great
consolation, that a man of such really gigantic in-
tellect, a gentleman, a scholar, a statesman—in
every sense of the word—a man of a most amiable and
benevolent disposition, an individual so well fitted
to adorn the exalted position in which Providence
had placed him, I say it will be a consolation that
such a human being should have died in the field of

political battle ; and never, since the death of the
great Lord Chatham, nearly 100 years ago, will any
statesman have died so completely in the actual
service of his country. We move in cycles, as I
have in the course of my correspondence often re-
marked to you. It is by no means an unremarkable
fact that the year 1869, the year in which our new
Reform Act is to come into operation, is the cente-
nary of a very remarkable year in the last century.
In 1769 were born those two great and illustrious men
and warriors, the Duke of Wellington and the great
Napoleon. Another very remarkable event in the
said above-named year was the publication of that
great and highly-talented, but unknown, individual,
" Junius." I have no hesitation in asserting that
our noble Premier is a far more faithful descendant
of this great unknown writer than any of our soi-
disant Liberals. Should Lord Derby be taken from
us before the first day of next year his death may
be easily compared to that of the death of a fond
mother who departs in childbirth without ever
living to behold her beloved offspring ; albeit I
trust Lord Derby may recover. lie is, undoubtedly,
as I have said before, dangerously and seriously ill ;
and at no time is it a more proper season to do
justice to a great and good man than during the
season of sickness or death. I therefore now pro-
ceed to the main question of my letter, which is to
prove that there was no dishonesty in Lord Derby
and our present Ministry carrying the large and
substantial measure of Reform which they did in
1867, albeit they so strenuously opposed the bill
brought in by their predecessors in 1866. Now
the whole affair was in this position. First and
foremost, it is not Ministries, in one sense of the
word at any rate, that carry any particular measure,
but the country at large. Peel, Wellington, Grey,
Wilberforce, and Derby were great and powerful
instruments in having carried Catholic Emancipa-
tion, granting free trade, passing the great Reform
Act of 1832 (now on its death-bed), and having
abolished the slave trade in 1807 ; and, later still, I
cannot forbear alluding to the brilliant speech made
by Mr. Secretary Stanley in 1834, when slavery
itself was expunged from the face of the earth ;
nevertheless they were merely the instruments in
bringing to pass these reforms ; albeit they were most
talented and effective instruments. Nevertheless
the time had arrived, and it was wholly impossible
any longer to arrest or check the flowing current of
the day. Whatever Ministry had been in office
must have done the same thing ;',if unable to do so,
must have given place to those who were able to do
it. In 1830 the late great Duke of Wellington
said no Reform was necessary, and asked " How
was the King's Government to be carried on?"
Others saw not only that it could be carried on,
but that it might be carried on very much better
than it had been for many long ages past. The
Duke of Wellington had immediately to surrender,
and;was:most ignominiously defeated; and had Wel-
lington been as thoroughly beaten in 1815 at
Waterloo as he was at old St. Stephen's in 1830,
very, very different would have been the condition of
England at the present time. Again the Liberals
brought in in 1866 a measure of Reform which was
unacceptable and unpalatable to the nation ;
example in this respect being more forcible than
precept. Alluding to the opposition of the Liberals
to the Tory Reform Act of 1859—they (the country
at large) said the measure of Reform brought in by
Lord Russell and Mr. Gladstone did not go far
enough, using the very identical words that the
Whigs had used against Lord Derby's Bill of 1859 ;
consequently the Russell Government of 1865 and
1866 was ignominiously defeated, as the Wellington
Ministry had been in 1830.
The Whigs were, in fact, paid out in their own
coin. Now, however, to the main part of my letter,
which is to prove thatr there was no dishonesty on
the part of Lord Derby in having carried his bill in
1867. It was something like a man or woman
having a tumour or other swelling in their inside,
and which is necessary to be removed. The question
that presents itself is, Who is to do it ? That sur-
geon who possesses the greatest skill and who has
the sharpest instrument ; and so it was with Lord
Derby as regards the Reform Bill of last year ;
also was it with the late Duke of Wellington and
Sir Robert Peel in carrying Catholic emancipation
in 1829, and granting Free-trade in 1846. In all
transactions of life success is nine points of the
compass ; and to quote another old proverb, " Let
those laugh that win."
In conclusion, I cannot refrain from remarking
one substantial thing, and that is, if the Whigs
consider the present Government dishonest in having
carried a Reform Bill in 1867, simply because they
opposed their own Reform Bill the year previously,
what do they say to their own conduct in turning
out Lord Derby in 1859 on the Reform Bill brought
in by his Ministry because it was not sufficiently
Democratic and revolutionary, and then directly
they became possessed of the sweets of office were
only too glad to send Parliamentary Reform to the
winds for seven long years, no small period of any
more especially in its ascent or descent?
excuse I have ever heard offered for them
nhee' s
is that Lord Palmerston was a thorn in their side.
Then they were clearly dishonest in holding office
with an individual whose principles they disap-
proved ; their best and warmest friend therefore
could only call it a case of pot and kettle.
I remain, Sir, your faithful servant,
A LOVER AND OBSERVER OF HISTORICAL
DATES AND FACTS.
February 20, 1868.

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NAVAL AND MILITARY IN7ELLIGENCE.

Her Majesty's troopship Serapis, Captain Soady,
with troops on board, from India, via Alexandria,
went into Portsmouth harbour early yesterday

morning, and berthed alongside the dockyard to
disembark her freight. Her troop and passenger
list comprises :-42d Highlanders—Colonel E. R.
Priestly, Lieut.-Col. and Major J. C. M'Leod, Mrs.
M' Leod, and three children, Major D. Macpherson
and Mrs. Macpherson, Surgeon J. E. Clutterbuck.
Captains—J. Wilson, W. Green and wife, M.
Macleod, wife, and four children, T. Farquharson,
V.C., and wife, G. W. Cockburn, R. K. Bayley,
and W. Underwood. Quartermaster J. Simpson,
V.C., and wife, Assist.-Surg. 11. W. Troup. Lieu-
tenants—A. W. Creagh, R. P. Hicks, R. C. Cove-
nay, A. W. Warrand, 11. R. S. Foley, J. B. M.
Cumberland, R. H. S. Brickenden, and C. J. Eden.
Ensigns N. W. P. Brophy, A. K. Macpherson, W.
K. Suther, and A. H. J. Douglas ; 430 men, 19
women, 31 children, and three female servants.
Time-expired soldiers from various corps in India
to join their regimental depots in England, 307 non-
commissioned officers and privates, with 10 women
and 22 children. Invalided soldiers from various
corps for the Royal Victoria Military Hospital at
Netley, 173 non-commissioned officers and men,
with 29 women and 58 children. Wives of officers
of various corps, the latter serving with the Abys-
sinian field force :—Mesdames Blackney, Cook,
and four children ; Butler, Goodfellow, Holt and
three children, and Langbey. Officers belonging to
various corps on sick and other leave :-77th Regi-
ment, Capt. J. Wordsw•orih ; 105th Regiment,
Capt. G. C. Therry ; 109th Regiment, Capt. C. P.
Forbes and wife ; Staff Assist.-Surg. R. Lindsay;
7th Dragoon Guards, Veterinary Surgeon C. H.
Reiley, wife, and child ; 3d Battalion Rifle Brigade,
Lieut. J. 0. Vandeleur ; 88th Regiment, Lieut. T.
Hall ; three naval supernumeraries. The Serapis
sailed on her outward voyage for Alexandria from
Queenstown, Ireland, on Jan. 26 last, and called
in at Malta on Feb. 2. She left there on the follow-
ing day, and arrived at Alexandria on the 13th.
Having disembarked there the troops she had on

board for India, and received the 42d Royal High-
landers (the Black Watch), and the detachments
of time-expired men and invalids from other corps
serving in India, she sailed again on her return to
England on the 18th of February, at 11 20 a.m.
For two days after leaving Alexandria strong head
winds were experienced, and on the 22d the ship
arrived in Malta harbour. On the follow day, at
6 p.m., the Serapis sailed again from Malta for
Spithead direct, passing her Majesty's steam fri-
gate (paddle) Terrible, Captain J. Commerell,
V.C., C. 8., steaming for the grand harbour. On
the 27th, at 4 p.m., the Rock of Gibraltar was
passed, and the Serapis made her number to the
guardship and garrison. On the 28th, at 2.30
p.m., colours were exchanged with the English
merchant steamship Calypso. On the 29th, at 2
a.m., passed Lisbon. On the Ist instant, colours
were exchanged with the English ship Cordelia. On
the 2d instant, at 8.30, observed Ushant Light on
the bow, and at 11.50 a.m., on the following day,
had the Bill of Portland under the ship's lee. She
anchored at Spithead at sunset. All the troops
were disembarked from the Scrapis yesterday at
Portsmouth dockyard, and at 5 p.m. her Majesty's
screw troopship Urgent, Captain S. H. Henderson,
sailed for Leith with the 42d Highlanders on board.
Yesterday morning the Ist Battalion Coldstream
Guards left the Tower of London for Windsor.
The right wing of the regiment, commanded by
Colonel Goodlake, V.C., with Capt. Eyre, Lieut.
Lord G. Hamilton, Lieuts. Wood and Campbell,
&c., and consisting of seven officers and 250 men,
marched to the Moorgate-street station of the Me-
tropolitan Railway, whence the troops were der
spatched to Windsor by special train, at 10 o'clock.
The left wing of the battalion, under the command
of Colonel Campbell, with Capt. and Adjutant the
Hon. F. A. Wellesley, Capt. Carter, and Lieut.
Bruce, &c., consisted of the same number of troops.
This portion of the battalion left Moorgate-street
station at 10.30 a.m., and arrived at Windsor at
11.30 a.m. The troops marched to the Sheet-street
Barracks, where the right wing, which reached
1% indsor at 11.12, had already taken up its qu'uters.
The Ist Battalion Grenadier Guards, consisting
of 12 officers and 467 inch, under the command of
Colonel Ponsonby, with Capt. and Adjt. Seymour,
Colonel Bramston, Colonel Stucley, Capt. Clinton,
Capt. Thynne, and Lints. Allix, Reynardson,
Thornton, and Cochran, left Windsor at 10 o'clock,
by special train on the Great Western Railway, for
Victoria station, Pimlico, en route for Wellington
Barracks.