The Sun.
London, England, 1868-02-07 00:00:00

s antness going on perpetually. Now, I should like
to do what is exactly right in the matter if I
knew it. I have not voted for these bills ;
there are many other members who have not
voted for them, but would have done so
if they had not feared the power of your orga-
nisation iu their boroughs; but you must bear in
mind that under the new Reform Bill your power
in the boroughs is very much diminished ; that at
present every man has a vote who pays upon a £lO
rental, but under the new bill the constituency
being doubled, trebled, and in some instances quad-
rupled, your political influence will diminish in that
proportion, and, in point of fact, will in many
places be extinguished. Therefore you cannot ex-
pect iu future to force men in the House of Com-
mons to vote against their convictions in order to
take your side. This is another ground for you to
take into your consideration, and another reason
why you should try if you cannot meet your oppo-
nents in some degree, because they are not all vio-
lent and obstructive ; a great many of them are
moderate, and would agree to some measure that
you might submit. In all this I have not given you
any answer as to whether I should vote for Mr.
Abel Smith's bill or against it. I have never
voted for it, and I have always felt that there are
difficulties connected with it so great that I did
not like to take upon myself the responsibility of
supporting a measure of that kind. But I think
the difficulties are very much greater in London
than they are here, or in the provinces generally ;
and I think that, if London were out of the ques-
tion, Parliarneat would deal with the question very
much more summarily than it does, and that, in all
probability, a bill of the sort to which you so
strongly object would be carried. There are cir-
cumstances in London with reference to the trade
which would render the passage of such a bill
an interference with the habits of at any rate
the great mass of the people, and I think that
Parliament would not very willingly consent
to pass such a bill for the metropolis. I can only
say that the subject has given me great anxiety
many times, and that I have never expressed
a confident opinion upon it in one way or the
other ; and, at this particular moment, al-
though there are very few questions on which, if
my opinion were asked, I could not give a very dis-
tinct answer as to what I should do in a certain
case, I prefer in regard to this question, and in the
present state of opinion, not to give a specific re-
ply ; but I may say that I am rather fearful no
legislation upon it is possible for some time to come.
I have been very candid, and I have been giving
you advice upon the subject. You yourselves un-
derstand how much it would be to your-advantage,
and to the advantage of your family, and I feel this
strongly ; therefore, you must forgive me for what
I have said. It has been said because it was dic-
tated by the most clear conviction of the propriety
of what I have suggested, and by the most earnest
hope that some time or other there will arise from
among the licensed victuallers themselves men who
will help the public in some degree to abate the
evil which the universal mind—l am not speaking
of teetotallers, but of the universal public—feels to
exist in the continued opening of public-houses on
a Sunday.