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

SPIItIVOP Tll2 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
ttnd 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. If
we were to interpret the fears of three-fourths of the
Conservat'.ves, and more than half the Liberals of the
House of Commons, we should find it has destroyed the
pr;stine character and glory of the nation. If this be the
ea3eription of an English Reform Bill, what must an Irish
Reform Bill be ? An occasion of infinite disputes ; the
subject of disci: lsions protracted through endless nights,
wed now that morning sittings are begun, carried onwards

into consecutive days. Nothing of the sort. The Irish
Reform Bill was evidently fated to confound the wise
and to put to nothing the understanding, of the ex-
perienced. The very first night of the discussion, the
Howie of Commons passed in committee from beginning
to end 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 brit one division, and that was not half a division. It
required a diligent mind, or a soul obedient 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
shonld appear on later reflection that no work has 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 be has undertaken
be 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. Gregory 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 satisfactc:y scheme, and the Ministry
may without hesitation adopt the best of them.
If Mr. Pim's suggestion of grouping instead of
disfranchising the smaller boroughs of Ireland be
acted tips n, a c•i fficient number of scats may be
obtained without eiestr, ying the position of the small
Lorouths. Let the cla-ms of Belfast and Cc.rk city be
admitted as well as those of the counties, let Kingstown
be enfranchised, and a scheme of representation of Ireland
may be formed likely to last at least as long as that of
any other part of the United Kingdom. We hope
betw_en this and T.:ursday the Government will be pre-
pared with propufa's of ralistributiou 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 interposed to the progress of the bill. Mr. Lawson

the late Attorney-General and member for the borough
whose representative unworthiness had been so generally
all we .1 in the pr lim.na-y ii;cussion, proposed, in regard
to the borough fraucltise, to strike out in Clause 3 the
words " more than £4," on the ground that the clause as it
stood only enfranchised h3useh old ers rated above £4. After a

short discussion the amendment was defeated by 188 to
177, and the proposal of. Color. el French for a reduction of

the cluaty franealse accidentally dropping, the distribu.
ton clauses w, re reached in a short tinno., in spite of
s .ndry arneLdn ents of Mr. Bearden, which that gentle.
man, with the Lest will to do it, had yet the censideratior

not to press to a division. The Premier then proposed the
postronement of the distribution clauses, which was imme-
diately ns:ci.ted to, :Ind by ten o'clock the bill was out of

cGmnsittee.
The Post enlrgiscs the late American Minister in Lon-
don, Mr. A 'a:us. The name of the Minister, it continue;
new accredit e Ito our Court familiar to us. Mr. ileverdy
Janson is aD.m( c ; but we have nothing to do with
his pas ty (4. Lis Ca f rm. We nay receive him as an

able constitutional lawyer and a consistent politician- one
who might Le described compalativ.ely as the Berryer
the MI el States. He is not endowed with the eloquence
or the silver voice of the illustrious French advoCate, but he
said to possess the rare and excaleat geniality whiCh M.
Berryer can throw like a spell upon all whom he cares to cap-
t i ate. In the Senate Mr. It everdy Johnson has represented
th : State in which he was I.orn, and in which he hoe
practised his profession—" My Mai yland." He has over-
' a:33(A the frontier of life that is marked by threescore

years and ten, but we need only recall the not remote
inci,le IA of his riding on a railway engine in order to reach
Washirgton in time to vote c n a question of urgency to
appraise the Fel '.r:t of the man. His intellect is matured
by age, his knowledge is comprehensive, and his
reputation 'has not been breathed upon. The
Senate unanimously ratified the nomination of the
rrssident, and if we may not take it as a compliment
there is something in such a selection that can be
honourably divided. At any rate, it is not too much to
suppose that the good understanding existing between
this country and foreign pewe s depends very much on
the character of the diplomatic representation by which it
is supported. Mr. Iteverdy Johnson will, we doubt not,
s.:ek to aid in the adjustment of differences that have
arisen mainly from a misap;,rehension of the facts to which
the law has to be applied. Mr. lleverdy 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 misunderstaning cf th2ir meaning.
Ihe Herald notes that Mr. -Moffatt, in a short bill, bee
end, avoared to deal with cur bankruptcy system. That
he should h .ve introduced :t to late in the session show
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 shear his property
and credits, with the estimated value thereof. Alterations
and amendments may be made, but they most be 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.:
meat in the London. Gazette. Assenting creditors
are in like manner to prove their claims and
detail their securities as if in bankruptcy, r and both
arranging debtors and assenting creditors are to be liable
to examination and cross-examinationl.'"Fitlse statements,
whether by affidavit or oral examiridthija, arc to be punished
wits the penalties of perjuryikandAre person is to be made
bankrtspt on his own petition-unless he can show five
shillings in thq4pouneboarecan satisfy the Court that the
eq;fisite majority of his creditors, in formal meeting assem.
bled, have agreed to take less. These are the principal
provisions of the bill, in favour of which, as a fragmentary
(rem 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 busked prematurely by the lateness' of
the :session, remains to be seen. But in either case it
Inealel be remembered that but for Mr. Gladstone's wrong-
headedness in forcing on the Irish Church question,• this
little Lill 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
eingle 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
summer. Hero is only the third week in June and
the middle of hay making actually come. The first htirvest
of the year is being already gathered, and even the wheat
itself comes on apace. The farmers grumble at the
drought, and on the hawthorn hedges here and there a
plague of caterpillars has come ; but the farmers, as
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 hay-time, 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 westeri*-
!.ephyrs bring us sweet corp try air. At midnight duel
early morning, when the chimneys haveceased to smoke
and the dust of traffic lies slid, while its roar is
not
hushed,
the pure, bright air, as clear as that. of a country toe; n,
brings the scent of the far-off hayfields. .Nature is
Duly cheerful, but gay, jocund, and blithe, as the poets
,_
say ; and gaiety, like laughter, is cont::.;*ous. 1e
I'd
are brightened by this smiling weather ;
n feel younger ; invalids get independent ui
the doct':r, and melancholy itself is cheated out
o its gloom. Even trade, so long an invalid, begins to
believe itself stronger ; and credit, so long low-spirited
awl nervous, feels a slight encourggement ; and politics,
so long muddled 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
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 on
earth like our English hayfields. But put into that setting ,
the rich jewels of our English youth—see the perfumed ,
sunny hayfields made sunnier still with the glad laughter '
and pure merriment of D glad Vs sons and daughters,—
nad you have a scene before you which brings back ths
e;itthanted visions of Old England's past, and makes one
feel that she is merry England still.
. • •

THE NOVA SCOTIA DIFFICULTY.

IMPORTANT DESPATCH FROM THE DUKE
OF BUCKINGHAM.

An address having been presented to the Queen by the
members of the 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 com-
plimenting the petitioners upon their loyalty, and ex-
pressing, regret that there should be pny 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 onethat until a very recent
date the Nova Scotians were the first to agitate in
favour of confederation, and th.tt when the scheme
was dropped by Canada it was revived by Nora
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
such measures have been brought forward ; that no such
appeal was made, for instance, when the two Canadas
were united, in 1339, 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
"louses 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 measin c 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."