The Sun.
London, England, 1868-11-27 00:00:00

BP lEIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS,

The Times remarks that the power of the existing
Government is becoming rapidly limited to the exercise of
the Royal prerogative, alluding to a report that this sacred
fund is to be largely drawn upon, in extremis, for the
creation of a dozen consolation peerages. No doubt, there
is at least that number of fitting objects for public charity
in its most splendid form. Considering the continual
augmentation that House must receive from law, from
diplomacy, and from the army, its original character as a
representation of land and property should be well
sustained. Upon general grounds, and were these ordi-
nary times, small objection could be made. But
_every-
thing that gives a character to the existing circumstances
tells pointedly and emphatically against a creation of Con-
servative peers by the moribund Cabinet. Some Govern-
ments, after long service and after a long-continued
popularity, have fallen at last upon some temporary occa-
eional issue—some neglect, some shortcoming, some
mishap—just as an old servant might forfeit his place
without prejudice to his claim to some substantial reward.
In that case two or three peerages have been taken in
discharge of a just debt. But the merit of the expiring
Government cannot be its length of service or the
number and variety of its achievments. The House
of Lords is Conservative enough to be troublesome
to a Conservative as well as a Liberal Government.
The Times forsees the effect a new creation would have on
the question of the day, and thinks there would be nothing
for the head of the new Government but to create Pe4
enough to turn the balance their way. It would not be
right to charge on the Conservatives alone an irreverent
handling of the august assemblage under question, and a
lavish diffusion of its privileges. Both sides have offended
in this way. But there is this excuse for the Liberal side—
that in the majority of instances a Peerage, whatever the
politics of theoriginal holder and his political friends,becoines
an accession to the Conservative force of the House. The
institution itself is one of Conservative tendencies, and
in natural antagonism to popular movements. Without a
single new Conservative creation between this and the end
of the century, the House would be then found disposed
to resist all change where resistance is possible. What
the House wants is, not Conservatism, but such an amount
of popular confidence as shall widen the scope of its own
action, put more work into its hands, render it a more
serviceable ally of the Lower Houle, and insure more
respect for its decisions when they deserve it.
The Post asks what amount of power and what prestige
will the Conservatives carry with them across the floor of
the House of Commons. Upon the solution of that ques-
tion the character of the future policy and coming legisla-•
Lion of the country will be largely dependent. By the
attitude which they assume as a party in the face of inevie
table defeat, and by the course they take on their forcect
resumption of the duties of an Opposition, the policy ot.'
the Government to be formed by Mr. Gladstone must
be not inconsiderably determined. The Conserve..
Lives have been thoroughly and decidedly defeated,
but they have not been humiliated. Numerically they
are weaker than when they acceded to office, but morally,
if they comprehend,their position, they are stronger. The
army of Mr. Disraeli shews more instead of less confidence
is the astute and versatile strategist who leads them, their
organisation is admirable, and the general election, if it
has diminished somewhat their numbers, has added to their
ranks not a few adherents whose names and position will
make them count as court cards in the game. The Post
asks both leaders and their following " What will he do
with it ?" There is another problem with regard to which
speculation cannot much assist us, and which events aloneb
can satisfactorily solve. Is the majority a majority merely
against Mr. Disraeli, as a challenger, or is it a majority
determined not only to defeat the Conservative leader, but,
in addition, completely organised to give power and place
to Mr. Gladstone, and to maintain him, come who may
against him, as leader of the nation?
The Daily News thinks Mr. Gladstone's address to the
electors of Greenwich, accepting the seat they so spon-
taneously gave him, is worthy of himself and of them. It
is something for even the leader of a great party to be
returned by a large and independent constituency without
taking any part whatever in the election, and Mr. Glad-
stone may well feel that a seat thus given him is indeed a
most honourable one. Mr. Gladstone expresses his
belief that such generous and unasked confidence
is unparalleled. Parliamentary leaders have before now
sought the suffrages of other constituencies after their
defeat at home, but this is the first instance, probably, in
which a large constituency has elected its representative
without any sanction from him, and while he was still
fighting his battle elsewhere. Mr. Gladstone may
well set the " generous, unasked, and unparalleled
kindness " which has given him this seat against
the failure of his too chivalrous effort to pluck a
seat frcm the very grasp of the Conservative Mentor.
A seat in Parliament so offered and so accepted is honour-
able both to the constituency and to the representative.
Mr. Gladstone cannot be said to fall back on Greenwich.
lie has not gone there as a defeated candidate to ask for a
seat. lie was already the spontaneously elected member
for that constituency before the nomination in South-West
Lancashire, and was elected without any intimation from
himself that he would accept the honour. The electors
of Greenwich have well deserved the distinction which
Mr. Gladstone's acceptance of the seat will confer
upon them. They have dune the Liberal party a servi2C.
They have taken all trace of humiliation from Mr. Glad-
stone's defeat by conferring on him beforehand that rarest
)f honours—an unsought seat. Mr. Gladstone might
probably have preferred to sit for his native division of
his native county ; but if that satisfaction has been denied
him, he at least enjoys the honour of a seat for which he
made no effort, and to which he was elected in his absence,
and without a sign from himself ; and that is an honour
which will be unique in Parliament.
The Summary says: It is not for us to interfere in so
delicate a matter, but we may be permitted to observe
that the difficulties of the Liberal party are as great with
Mr. Gladstone as a leader, as without him as a leader.
If he is Prime Minister, he will have to elect between the
two sections of his followers ; if he is not, there can be
little doubt that he will become rapidly still more demo-
cratic in his action. In either case, Conservatives will
probably be re-called very _shortly to power. Mean-
while it is preposterous that while the Pall Mall Gazette
distrusts him for not being a man of the world, an enthu-
siastic supporter in the Daily News actually calls on us to
fall down and worship Mr. Gladstone as the only religious
statesman of the day, who is the elect of the people on that
very ground. Injudicious as Mr. Gladstone is, odd as he
has shewn himself to be, as in other ways, so, by translating
some book during the exciting hours of the polling in
South-West Lancashire, he must himself wish that so
injudicious though well-meaning a friend could be
muzzled.

The Telegraph trusts that the Queen will lend the lustre
of her station and personal assistance to the ceremony of
the opening of Parliament. Even as a stately pageant of
our political life the opening of such a house at such an
epoch deserves to be rendered complete. The empty
throne must seem more unsatisfactory than ever
when nothing but its occupancy is wanted to
restore the half-forgotten splendourj3 of that which
is still the most august and ancient assemblage of
lawgivers in the civilised world. Ceremony may be over.
valued ; but while a just and due solemnity is confirmed
by traditional customs, and while the stateliness of
monarchy is found useful to deepen the reverence of
popular power, the grandest function of the sovereign
ought surely to have all the majesty and effect which it
can borrow from the visible presence of Royalty. The
Queen's appearance, uttering such words as should alone
be in her mouth, will seasonably reassure the country
against sinister forebodings ; and the Telegraph is
equally ready to affirm that it will imply a
like abstinence from personal feeling as regards
the statesmen who will be charged with the adminis-
trative and political duties of the day. On all
accounts, then, the presence of her Majesty is most
desirable, since it would not only signalise the beginning
of a new parliamentary era, but would place before the
newly-constituted assembly, at the very beginning of its
life, the august figure of the hereditary sovereign in that
impartial and inviolate position which she holds between
all rivalries of policies and parties.

The Times warns statesmen not to rely too much on tne
weak elements of our parliamentary system. If anything
be certain in English politics, it is that the redistribution
of seats will be carried much further, and that membersn
will within a few years be justly apportioned to population.
For good or for evil, the number of small boroughs will be
diminished, and the Marylebones and Lambeths will be
divided and more fully represented. Though nothing
can be pleasanter than a quiet little constituency,
which gives no trouble, and regards its member with
almost superstitious veneration when he makes his rare
appearance, yet such constituencies must for the most part
pass away, while the few that remain will be fought for
with desperate euergy and lavish purse by the ambitious
rich, by the local magnate, or his rival, the merchant
from town. Statesmen and men of political genius
generally must, therefore, make up their minds to woo
and win large popular constituencies.

•
The Post says the Reform Leaguers have been made tools
of by their selfish' superiors in Liberal society. They were
never intended by the higher Radicals to sit in Parliament.
There is a fiiheral scoff at their pretensions; there are a
thousand Liberal moel:eries over their universal failure.
And_ one, no doubt, has been cleverly "'hayed off against
another. The evidently approaching dissolution of the
Adelphi-terrace Reform League, through deficiency of
funds ant the withdrawal of popular sympathy, renders
tins perhaps the- less regrettable, but it will entail
the -publiclife of Mr. Edmond Beales, M.A.
lle does for the Tower Hamlets ; he
gill not 1,0 much longer the head of an asso-
ciation professes to govern the world, even
as far as Spain. But we have our comfort. Such spirits
do not rest. When they have settled their charges of
mutual peculation, when they have arbitrated between
the atheism of Mr. Bradlaugh and the public claims of
Mr. Beales, when they have discovered who, among them.
selves, connived and confederated against the rest, when
the proillem of the " mysterious funds" has been solved,
and when it is explained why hardly one worh;ii,,:-,7;iss
candidate went to the poll, or paid the
charges, thou we may learn that a new and ev.,
destiny is r'served for the dispersing pnti:. • _
Adelphi-terrace. Until then, rate, and go,:.

Constituency.

ABINGDON
ANDOVER
AYLESBURY

ASHTON-UNDER-LYNE
AND LESEA
BRECON SHIRE
BARNSTAPLE

BRIDGNORTH
BANBURY
BATH

BEDFORD

BERwicic

BEVERLEY

BEWDLEY
BIRKENHEAD

BIRMINGILtH

BLACKBURN

BODMIN
BOLTON'

BOSTON

BRADFORD

BRIDGWATER.

BRIGHTON

BRISTOL

BUTK/NGIIA.3I
BURN LEY
BURY

BURY ST. EDMUNDS • •

BEDFORDSHIRE

BRIDPORT
BEAU MARIS
BRECO
BUCKINGHAMSHIRE

BERKSHIRE

CUMBERLAND, EAST ..

CUMBERLAND, WEST ..

CAMBRIDGE

CAMBRIDGESHIRE ....

CANTERBUEY

CARDIFF
CARLISLE

C.kRMARTIIEN
CARMARTHENSHIRE

CARNARVON
CA RNARVONSIIIRE
CIIESHIRE, MID

CHATHAM
CHELTENHAM
CIIESTER

CHICHESTER
CHIPPENIIAH
CIRENCESTER
CLITHEROE
COVENTRY

CALNE
CAMBRIDOE UNIVERS

CARDIGAN
CARDIGANSHIRE,
CHELSEA

CIIRISTCIII.7IICII
COCKERMOUTH
COLCHESTER ...

CRICTCLADE .

CORNWALL, EAST ..

CORNWALL, WEST ....

CHESHIRE, EAST

CHESHIRE, WEST

DENBIGH .
DEVOI, PORT

DARLINGTON...
DERBY

DEVIZES ..
DEWSBURY
DOVER ....

DROITWICIT
1)131;11AM •

DURHA3I, NORTII

DURHAM. SOUTH

DoRCHF.STEE
DUDLEY
DERBYSHIRE, SOUTH

DERBYSHIRE, EAST ...

DEVON, NORTH

DEVON, EAST

Do RSETSIIIRE

EVFSHANL
Ex,TErt.

ESHEX, Sotxx

ESSEX, WEST

ESSEX, NORTH-EAST

E vE
t'INSEUItY

FIZOME
FLINT
FALMOUTH

FLINTSIIIRE
GLA3.IOItOA.NSLIIRE

GATESHEAD
GLOUCESTER

GRAVESEND
GREAT GRIMSBY
OREENWICII

GUILDFORD
GB Tild3l
GLOUCESTER, EAST

GLOUCESTER, WEST .

HANTS, SOUTH

HERTFORDSHIRE

HACKNEY

HALIFAX

HASTINGS

HELSTON
H EItTFORD
HEREFORD

HEREFORDSHIRE

HULL

Fr YTHE
HANTS, NORTII

HAnwicH

HUNTINGDON
HARTLEPOOL
HA.VERFORDW: ST
HORSHAM

HUNTIKGDONSHIRE

HCDDER,FIELD
IPSWICH

ISLE OF WIGHT
KENT, WEST

KENT, MID

KENT, EAST

KING'S LA: r; N

KIDDERMINSTER .
XNAILESBOROUCIH
KENDAL
LAMBETH

LEEDS .

LEICESTER

LEICESTER, NORTH ...

LEICESTER, SATTR

LANCASHIRE, S.W. .

LANCASHIRE, 5.E.....

LEOMINSTER
LUDLOW
LONDON CITY

LONDON UNIVERSITY.
LYMINOTON ...........
LAUNCESTON .........
LINCOLN ...............

LINCOLNSHIRE, NORTH

LINCOLN, MID

LINCOLN, SOUTH ....

LI/HUARD
Limas
LICHFIELD

LivEßrooL

LANCASHIRE, NORTH

LANCA.SIIIRE, N.E. ....

MONTGOMERYssum
MALbow
MARLow
MIDHIJEST
MACCLESFIELD
MAIDSTONE

MALMESBI3 RY
MANCHESTER

MA RY LEBONS

MERTHYR TYDVIL

MONMOUTH
MALTON
MARLBOROUGH
M t
MIDDLESBOROUGH
MONTGOAIERY
MORPETH
MONMOUTHSHIRE

MIDDLESEX

NORFOLK, SOUTH .

NLWARIC

NEWCASTLE-lIPON-TYNEI

NEWCASTLE-UNDR-LYM•

NORTHALLERTON
NORTHAMPTON .

NoRwICIf

NOTTINGHAM ..

NEWPORT. I. OF WIGHT]
NORFOLK, NORTH

NORFOLK, WEST

NORTHAMPTON, NORTH

NORTHAMPTON, SOUTH

NOTTS, NORTH