The Sun.
London, England, 1868-06-16 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS,

What, asks the Times is an Irish Reform Bill ? If any
man were to construct an answer from a priori reasoning,
what would he say ? An English Reform Bill has been
an occasion of interminable wrangling, which may have
been dignified, but which might also be described by other
and less flattering phrases. It has destroyed a Ministry
*ld destroyed a party, and every one is at liberty to de-
termine for himself what Ministry and what party it has
destroyed, for, whatever may be the result of his delibera-
tions, he cannot be far wrong. It has done more. 'lf
we were to interpret the fears of three-fourths of the
Conservatives; and more than half the Liberals of the
House of Commons, we should find it has destroyed the
pristine character and glory of the nation. If this be the
Cescription of an English Reform Bill, what must an Irish
Reform Bill he ? An occasion of -infinite disputes ; the
subject of discuisions protracted through endless nights,
and now that morning sittings are begun, carried onwards
into consecutive days. Nothing of the sort. The Irish
•Reforn Bill was evidently fated to confound the wise
end to put to nothing the understanding of the ex-
perienced. The very first night of the discussion, the
Te of Commons passed in committee from beginning
to cud of the Irish Reform Bill. The first night ! It was
done in half a night ; when members came back from
dinner they found the work accomplished. The whole
thing, to use the common phrase, was over almost as soon
as it was begun. Greater unanimity could not be. There
was l&t one division, and that was not half a division. It
required a diligent mind, or a soul oheditht to the least
crack of the whip, to understand it. It is sometimes plea-
sant to have the appearance of doing work, even though it
should appear on later reflection that no workhas been done.
The Times does not say this was quite the case on Monday,
but it was something very like it. It must be obvious
to every one that an Irish Reform Bill shorn of its redis-
tribution clauses is nothing, and if Mr. Disraeli desires to
make a show of completing the work he has undertaken
he must do something to correct the anomalies
of Irish representation. The original scheme of
redistribution proposed by the Government was totally
inadequate for its purpose. Mr. Disraeli or his colleagues
are not to blame, for it is plainly impossible for any
except a strong Government to propound a real
scheme for the redistribution of popular repre-
sentation. But the House of Commons comes to
the assistance of a Ministry ; and what is impossible
at the beginning is made easy at the end. We agree with
Mr. Gri-gory that it would be discreditable to leave to a
future Parliament the task of reconstructing the consti-
tuencies of Ireland. There are, in fact, already upon the
notice book of the House of Commons the materials of
a complete and satisfact, --y scheme, and the Ministry
may without hesitation adopt the best of them.
If. Mr. Pings suggestion of grouping instead of
disfranchising the smaller boroughs of Ireland be
acted nr( n, a el ffic'cnt number of seats msy be

obtained without clestrn.ying the position of the small
borouLhs. Let the eldms of Belfast and Cork city be
admitted as well as tbose of the counties, let Kingstown
be enfranchised, and a scheme of representation of Ireland
finny lie formed likely to last at least as long as that of
aro/ other part of the 'United Kingdom. We hope
betw. en this an I T .ursday the Government will be pre-
pared with propua's of redistribution which may be
accepted as the necessary complement of the Irish bill..
The Standard commends the progress made by the
House in the matter of the Irish Reform Bill. Having
gone into committee, only one obstacle of any importance
was iLtnposed to the progress of the MI Mr. Lawson
the late Attorney-General :lad member for the borough
whose representative unworthiness had been ci,) generally
al we lin the pr.lim.na y i .eussion, proposed, in regard
to the borough franchise, to strike out in Clause 3 the
words " more than f,1," on the ground that the clause as it
stood only enfranchised h useholders rated above £4. After a
short discussion the amendment was defeated by 188 to
177, and the proposal of Camel French for a reduction of
the c.nu.ty franch'sc Accidentally dropping, the distribu-
t'ol clauses w, re reached in a short time, in spite of
s ndry amerdu ents of Mr. Bearden, which that gentle-
Mal, with the test will to do it, had yet the consideration
not to press to a division. The Premier then proposed the
postponement of the distribution clauses, which was imme-
diately ns:eLted to, and by ten o'clock the bill was out of
mmittee.

The Post eulegires the late American Minister in Lon.
don, Mr. A 'ams. The name of the Minister, it continues,
now accredit e 1 to our Court is familiar to us. Mr. Reverdy
Johnson is a Dense c:at ; but we have nothing to do with
his pally (r his p'a f rm. We may receive him as an
able constitutional lawyer and a consistent politician- one
-jvho might be described comparatively as the Berryer of
the Ut:i. el States. He is not endowed with the eloquence
or the silver voice of the illustrious French advocate, but he
is said to possess the rare and excelient geniality which M.
Berryer can throw like a spell upon all whom he cares to cap.
ti x. ate. In the Senate Mr. Re verdy Johnson has represented
th.; State in which he was to:.xs, and in which he hae
l.ractiscel his profession—" My Maryland." He has over-
assed the frontier of life that is marked by threescore
years and ten, but we need only recall the not remote
incident of his riding on a railway engine in order to reach
Washirgton in time-to vote on a question of urgency to
appraise the si ir:t of the man. His intellect is matured
by age, his knowledge is comprehensive, and his
reputation has not been breathed upon. The
Fenate unanimously ratified the nomination of the
I"l%;sitl,nt, and if we may not take it as a compliment
these is something -in such a selection that can be
honourahly divided. At any rate, it is not too much to
suppose that the good understanding existing between
.this country and foreign powers depends very much on
'the character of the dip'omatic representation by which it
is supported. Mr. Reverdy Johnson will, we doubt not,
s:ek to aid in the adjustment of differences that have
arisen mainly from a misapprehension of the facts to which
the law has to be applied. Mr. Reverdy Johnson will
find that we are perfectly ready to bury the dead past on
terms compatible with justice, and to come to a better
agreement with reference to the future. We are quite
of opinion that international duties should be defined so as
to prevent any misunderstan cf th.:ir meaning.

lhe herald notes that Mr. Moffatt, in a short bill, ha:;
endeavoured to deal with our Lankruptcy system. That

he should h eve introduced it co late in the session showe •
his opinion of the urgent need of the measure which the
action of his own leaders has thrown over. That he should
have borrowed the essential features of the Government
bill is a token of the estimation in which he holds the
measure which the law officers of his political opponents
had prepared. In brief, his object is to prevent frauds
• upon creditors through debtors' composition and ar-
rangement deeds, by making proof of bona fides obliga-
. tory. Should the bill pass no deed will bind creditors
unless the debtor deposit with it in the Court of Bank-
ruptcy two written statements verified by his oath. The
first is to specify all his debts and liabilities, the names
and addresses of the persons to whom they are due, the
manner in which they were contracted, and the value of
the securities held. The second is to shew his property
and credits, with the estimated value thereof. Alterations
:led amendments may be made, but they must he verified
in the same way, and the original statements, the addenda
and the affidavits are to be left for inspection at some
place to be notified, at the debtor's expense, by advertise-
. meet in t 1 e London Gazette. Assenting creditors
' Pre in like manner to prove their claims and
detail their securities as if in bankruptcy, and both
erranging debtors and assenting creditors are to be liable
to examination and cross•examination. False statements,.
whether by affidavit or oral examination, are to be punished
• with the penalties of perjury, and no person is to be made
bankrupt on his own petition unless be can show five
' shillings in the pound, or can satisfy the Court that the
• requisite majority of his creditors, in formal meeting assem-
• bled, have agreed to. tale less. These are the principal
provisions of bill, in favour of which, as a fragmentary
piece of legislation, one can only say that it is intended
to cure a crying evil and remove a great public scandal.
Whether urgent necessity will secure its passing, or
whether it will be bucked prematurely by the lateness of
the session, remains to be seen. But in either case it
be remembered that but for Mr. Gladstone's wrong.
headedeess in forcing on the Irish Church question, this
little bill would have been rendered unnecessary by the
passing of a measure which would for the first time have
given us an effective and economical system of bankruptcy
• law, in the compass of a single statute and the period of a
iingle session.
. If what everybody says must be true, then the Daily
News declares surely never was such a beautiful spring as
that which for five weeks past has made us believe it was
;manner. Here is only the third week in June, and
the middle of hayrnaking actually come. The first harvest
of the year is being already gathered, and even the wheat
itself comes on atesee. The farmers grumble at the
drought, and on the hawthorn hedgest
thehere afanrdzutelriezeun,
t. -plague of caterpillars has come ; but
usual, while they grumble work, and are making bay
while the sun shines, as the proverb bids them. In the
country there is that scent of sweetness in the air which
only comes in haystalne, and the perfume invades the
towns where it comes like a message from .Nature to call
•- us away to the fields. Even in London these westerly
sephyrs bring us sweet country air. At midnight and
early morning, when the chimneys have ceased to stlee
and the dust of traffic lies sti.l, while its roarishushed,
the pure, bright air, as clear as that of a country town,
brings the scent of the far-off hayfields. Nature is no
. only cheerful, but gay, jocund, and blithe, as the
_e
poets_,
say ; and gaiety, like laughter, is contagious. I%_
are all brightened by this smiling weather ; old
rna u feel younger ; invalids get independent of
the doctor, and melancholy itself is cheated out
of its gloom. EVen trade, so long an invalid, begins to
believe itself strabger ; and credit, so long low-spirited
and nervous, feels a slight encouragement; and politics,
so long mndilled and confused and foggy, begins to clear
and brighten. The weather is quickening everything.
Even our national opinion of our insular climate rises
with the barometer day after day. We have said
hard things about it, and never harder than in the
• dark days before and after Christmas ; but we all '
begin to retract, to feel that we have spoken ill of 1
the weather and done injustice to our English sky.
No spring after all can be like an English spring, no
meadows like our English meadows, and no fields or.
earth like our English hayfields. lint put into that setting
the rich jewels of our English youth—see the perfumed
sunny hayfields made sunnier still with the glad laughter
an 1 pure merriment of Et glane's sons and daughters,-
and you have a scene before you which brings back the
enchanted visions of (did paet, and. makes one
feel that she is merry England - • • • -

THE NOVA SCOTIA DIFFICULTY.

IMPORTANT DESPATCH FROM THE DUKE

OF BUCKINGHAM.

An address having been presented to the Queen by the
members ()Vile Nova Scotia Parliament, complaining that
the Confederation of British North America was carried
out without consulting the Nova Scotians, and against their
wish, the Duke of Buckingham replied in a despatch dated
June 4, which has just been published. After corn-.
plimenting the petitioners upon their loyalty, and ex-
pressing regret that there should be any dissatisfac-
tion, he goes on to say that there are two points—
the one, that the confederation Was accomplished without
properly consulting the province; the other, that the re-
sults may be prejudicial to its interests. In answer to the
second point, the duke points out that until a very recent
date the Nova Scotians were the first to agitate in
favour of confederation, and that when the scheme
was dropped by Canada it was revived by Nova
Scotia. As regards the first point, that the colony had
not been previously consulted, it is shewn that it has not
been usual to appeal to the people in the provinces when
melt measures have been brought forward ; that no such
appeal wrt a made, for instance, when the two Canadas
were united, in 15:39, although much difference of opinion
existed. The proposal to appeal to the pro-
vince was, moreover, actually rejected by a large
majority in the Nova Scotia Parliament. Both
Houses of that Parliament subsequently expressed their
approval of confederation. The despatch goes on
to say that vast obligations, political and commer-
cial, have been already contracted on the faith of
a measure so long discussed and so solemnly adopted,
"and that the Assembly and the people of Nova Scotia
will not be surprised that the Queen's Government
feel that they would not be • warranted in advis-
ing the reversal of a great measure of State,
attended by so many extensive consequences already in
operation, and adopted with the previous sanction of
every one of the Legislatures concerned, and with the
subsequent approval of the Legislatures of Nova Scotia
and New Brunswick." •