The Press.
London, England, 1853-11-05 00:00:00

ENORMOUS SACRIFICE.

WE have hoard before that Sir CHARLES WOOD
and his colleagues, as he told us last week at
Halifax, accepted office at "a great sacrifice ;"
and from his case we obtain a clue to the
meaning of this statement on account of
which certain of his colleagues have perse-
veringly commended their pretensions to the
public. The " great sacrifice " was not a pecu-
niary sacrifice, for that would be incompatible
with the acquirement of official income, and,
in the case of Sir CITARLES WOOD, who
emphasizes the cry, peculiarly incompatible
with a successful move which raised his peal.
cular official income from 3,5001. to 5,0001. per
annum. The " great sacrifice " must have been
a sacrifice either of party or principle, of their
friends or convictions. Mr. CrLADSTONE WON-
said at Manchester that party keeps up a high
standard of honour amongst public men, and
that the present Ministers had sacrificed party
connections. Here, then, is perhaps an admis-
sion that they sacrificed both party and principle
to no slight extent, if the sacrifice was as great
as they stoutly profess it to have been. An
" enormous sacrifice " is associated to the
public ear with fraud, and is not uncommonly
the preliminary to bankruptcy. if the Cabinet
sacrifice has involved a political fraud, how
natural will be the result in political failure,
and how deserved the retribution of political
punishment and disgrace.

THE RIOTS AT WIGAN AND
BLACKBURN.

Tim population of Wigan was at the last
census 32,000. Separated from it only by such
boundaries as little brooks and streams are
several townships. the aggregate population of
which exceeds that of Wigan ; and of a Satur-
day night. at fairs, or on any special occasion,
not less than 50,000 persons congregate in
that opulent manufacturing town. Riots con-

SATURDAY, 1

sequent on the resent strikes have occurred;
shutters and windows have in hundreds been
smashed in ; shops in scores pillaged and
sacked ; money extorted by intimidation ; and
the local authorities have required the protec-
tion of the military. In some instances, per-
haps, lives have been lost. Our purpose,
however, is, not to inquire into the general bear-
ings of these deplorable occurrences, but simply
to remark their immediate moral. Where,
under these circumstances, was the police of
Wigan ? " Chief constable SIM, a sergeant, and
nine men, with one on the sick list," arc all
on which the municipal authorities of Wigan
have to rely for the preservation of civil order
and the security of property in a population
which practically amounts to 70,000.
At Blackburn scenes similar in character,
though not so serious in extent, have occurred.
The banks and shops were closed ; two op-
posing mobs occupied the principal street, and
made it their field of battle; windows were
smashed in ; " the authorities were conscious
" of their inability to cope with the insurgents.
" and no effort was made the whole day to put
" down the riot." When the account from
which we quote came away, certain Scotch in-
habitants of the town were momentarily ex-
pecting to be attacked, with the pleasing cer-
tainty that, if such attack took place, " the
" handful of police " in the town would be
totally unable to stop it.

At Blackburn communications with the
military at Burnley by special train had been
established, and at Wigan chief constable
Sim and his army of " nine men and a sergeant,
" with one on the sick list," having been rein-
forced by three companies of the 34th Regi-
ment, a troop of the Ist Royal Dragoons, fifty
Lancashire leomanry, some county police, and
" a strong body of Lord BALCARBE►3 men," are
sufficient to maintain order for the present.
It is to the miserable parsimony, to the utter
incapacity of the municipal authorities at
Blackburn and Wigan for self-government,
that we owe scenes like these. In the hives-
tigation that has commenced, one of the wit-
nesses states that a body of rioters to the
number of fifty, meeting the police—how many
there were he does not say, but the whole
force only numbered ten men—" skriked," that
is, cried out in alarm. If the commonest, the
most ordinary precitutions had been taken
against these people who are so ready to
" skrike " before they are hurt, does any one
suppose that these disgraceful riots could
have occurred ? What the value of the
property thus abandoned to the mercy of
the mob at Wigan is, what may be
the amount of capital invested in the
works and collieries in its vicinity, we do
not know, but it amounts perhaps to
some millions ; yet eleven men—the whole
cost of whom can scarcely exceed 500/. a year
—is all that the magistrates are willing to pay
as an annual premium to ensure its safety.
Would any prudent insurance-office undertake
the risk for this amount? Yet this is the
system which Messrs. COBDEN and BRIGHT
would apply to the nation, and which, tried
on that grander scale, would doubtless be at-
tended with similar, though proportionally
larger, and therefore more disastrous, re-
sults. Well and wisely has Mr. DISaAELI said
that " efficiency is the best economy" ; and the
truth of this the magistrates of Wigan have,
when it is too late, learnt to their cost.
Messrs. COBDEN and BRIGHT would reduce the
military—it is to the military alone that the
manufacturing towns of 'Wigan anti Black-
burn are indebted for their present immunity
from riot and pillage. Those " great twin
brethren"—the luminaries—the sun and the
moon of the firmament of the platform—have
been singularly unfortunate of late. Inter-
national arbitration and peace on the Danube
was the burden of their Arcadian song—and
lo ! war has broken out at their own doors in
Lancashire. Have they tried the effects of
arbitration there ? Disband your regiments--!

NOVEMBER 5, 1853.

dismantle your ships, they exelaim ; who wants
soldiers who's afraid " ? they gaily and
merrily ask ; and the question is intended to
create, and generally does create. a laugh.
Funny rogues! who can resist their facetious-
ness" But we answer and in sorrowful
earnest—the master inanufactitrers of Pres
ton. Wigan. anti Blackburn are afraid, and
with good reason ; anti they want soldiers
to ensure to them and their property that
safety which trey risked and lost by their own
miserable parsimony : which parsimony, in
their madness. Messrs. COBDEN anti Batton
would, if they had their will. and practised what
they preached, apply on a grander wale. to be
followed by a catastrophe more appalling.

MR. DAM lAN AND IRISH INDUSTRY.
HITHERTO failure has been so often associated with
Irish projects, that we may well rejoice at the an-
nounced success of the bold and public. spirited pro-
position of Mr. Patinas. Vast crowds from all parts
of the empire visited the Exhibition, and, unlike the
case of the Americans at New York, the Irish kept
their words punctually with exhibitors and the
country. The building itself was very beautiful ; in
its erection the industrious energies of Irishmen
were employed ; Protestants and Catholics, Impe-
rialists and Bepealers, were seen rejoicing together
at a triumph which reflected honour on them all.
But far superior even to these advantages one
great fact results from the Exhibition. In the fame
and honour won by Mr. Dainty.; the mass of the
Irish people behold a conspicuous example how
utterly false were those self-styled "national leaders "
who, with equal ignorance and injustice, have as-
serted that Irishmen cannot win honours under the
British empire. Without political influence—with-
out the aid of metnber4 of Parliament, or popular
eOquelc?—the Irish have seen one of themselves
honoured in a manner al ogether beyond precedent.
They have beheld the Sovereign visiting at his private
dwelling an Irishman who had no other advantages
than the capacity to raise himself by his superior
industry. integrity, and good sense. Compared with
such brilliant success, the petty promotions of political
adventurers look paltry and commonplace; and the
public honours won by Mr. Dainty; disenchant
"agitation" of its fascinating spells. HOW high an
Irishman can attain by being loyal and industrious
is now popularly known. The triumphs of industry
have eclipsed the bubbles of Milesian imagination.
The worker stands erect and honoured, pointing to a
happy futurity ; the agitator, cowering and crest
fallen, shudders at the dreariness of the past, to
whose social horrors he was a principal contributor.
Our only regret connected with the Dublin Exhi-
bition is one to which we have heard utterance given
by Irishmen of opposite parties. Brilliant as the
Exhibition was, it would have been still more so if
the Irish Government bad been more genially repro
rented, as it would have been if Lord and Lady
Eta.ticros occupied the Viceregal posts of honour.
Various opportunities, which were lost for want of
tact and skill in addressing mixed audiences, would
have been taken advantage of by Lord EOLINTON,
with that winning grace and manly eloquence which,
with other qualities, gained for him a personal
popularity denied to his predecessors, and not con-
tinued to his follower in office. The brilliancy of
Lord I.7.eilicrois's court would have saved the Vice-
royalty from being so completely overshadowed by a
commoner.

LORI) CLONCCRRY, THE LAST OF THE

AGITATORS.

I x the modern history of Ireland the word " Agitator "
is specially applicable to the politicians identified
with the " Catholic Association" and the " Repeal "
bubble. The late Lord CLoNcranv, whose death we
record elsewhere. may he considered the last " leader "
of that particular class. Fond of popularity, and not
a little vain of his aristocratic rank, he pursued a line
of polities which rendered him alternately obnoxious
to the friends of order and to the mercenary fomenters
of discord. Like some of his more eminent contem-
poraries, be was for several years a constant target for
most virulent attacks from the late Mr. O'Coxst.f.L.
Ills intentions were, in the main, worthy, but his con-
duct was often highly injudicious. At an advanced
period of his life he dictated his " Memoirs "—a volume
containing several "revelations "—against the publi-
cation of which good taste should have protested.
The work is ill-compiled and very inaccurate, and
will not secure its writer a high place amongst
"noble authors." The successor to the title has
followed a more guarded course in politics than the
late rer ; and, as he is universally respected by all
parties, the titlo of Cloncurry will lose no lustre in
its trantaniaeiou,