The Sun.
London, England, 1855-06-22 00:00:00

any other irregularity the publication will be dealt with
in accordance with the regulations applicable to the book
pot.
•a 11. It is suggested that every publication should
have a notice to purchasers conspicuoußlypr'nteil, point-
ing out the net essay of exposing the stamp or staves
to view, whe:. ever the publication is sent through the
post. _ _

" 12. Un•tamped publications, or stamped publica-
tions whir • have been issued more than fifteen days,
can be warded within the United Kingdom and to
most c ,he colonies under the regulations of the book
post
" .3. Newspapers and other periodicals published in
the Islands of Guernsey, Jersey, Alderney, Sark, and
the Isle of Man, will be subjeot to the same regulations
as those which are published in other parts of the United
Kingdom.

" 14. The regulations under which stamped news-
papers may be sent through the post to foreiln coun-
tries and British colonies will form -the subject of a
separate notice."

BOWL IND lIrLL, Secretary.

MR. HENRY DRUMMOND AND THE
MIDDLO CLASSES.

Mr. Henry Drummond is the spoiled child of the
House of Commons ; and it is not very creditable to the
taste of the house that it spoils such a bantling by ap-
plauding his impertinences. What with his religious
mysticism and his buffoonery, Mr. Drummond might be
imagined to be the issue of a marriage contracted by the
late Jack Reeve and Johanna Southcote; while the gusto
with which he retails scandalous gossip would seem to
indicate that he is a lineal deseendant of the Mr. Tattle
of Congreve's "Love for Love." On Monday evening
Mr. Drummond, with his usual lack of logic, defended
the monopoly of office possessed by the oligarchy and its
retainers on the ground of some frauds detected a year
or two ago among the venders of coffee and other groce-
ries. Because some tradesmen were proved to have
adulterated the commodities they sold, he assumed that
the whole of our middle classes, " from being a nation
of shopkeepers, have become a nation of rogues ;" and
went on to infer that none of them could be trusted with
the management of public business. Were we as dis-
posed to indulge in inconsequential exaggerations as
Mr. Drummond, it would be easy to retaliate and charge
the whole of the oligarchy With, the faults of the hon.
member for Rochester and others of his class ; but we
quarrel with oligarchical exclusiveness not because of
the questionable morality of some of the class. We op-
pose it, because by limiting the range of selection of pub-
lic servants, it prevents the nation from availing itself
of the aggregate of national talent in the management
of public business.
Mr. Drummond's sweeping attack on the middle
classes for dishonesty is not, however, entirely destitute.
of a plausible foundation. Recent occurrences would
seem to show, not indeed that we have become a nation
of rogues, but that the irreproachable integrity which
was supposed to be characteristic of our mercantile
classes, and which—as the source of their credit in all
the markets of the world—has been the main cause of
our national prosperity, is becoming lowered in its tone.
The systematic adulteration of food and drinks to which
Mr. Drummond alluded is not confined to the small
traders of the suburbs, but is brought home to some
who, in virtue of their wealth, maintain an influen-
tial position in the community. • Nor can it be said
that their reception in general society has been
in the least affected by the exposure they have under-
gone. It is not our practice to prejudge legal in-
quiries by pronouncing an opinion on cases about to
undergo a scrutiny in courts of law ; we, therefore,
abstain at present from comment on the recent bank
failure. For the same reason the only remark we now
offer on the awkward stories about forged dock war-
rants, which have recently been obtruded on public at-
tention, is that we hope the unaccountable scruples of
the City Solicitor, as to instituting legal proceedings
regarding them, may be got over. In the interest of
public morals it is necessary that the subject should be
thoroughly probed. But while we abstain from pro-
nouncing an opinion on any personal accusation at -the
present stage of the investigation, we are entitled to say
it is with deep regret we find it admitted that indivi-
duals who have had forged dock warrants placed in
their hands as securities, have compromised and hushed
up the matter on a prospect being held out to them of
recovering the money advanced. If any cabman de-
tected in uttering a bad half-crown were to allege that
indeed he knew it to be bad, but that having taken it
unawares, he thought to save himself from loss by pas-
sing it off upon a customer, would any magistrate listen
to his plea ? Now, we confess that the person who
allows the forger of a dock warrant to escape, on ob-
taining indemnity, appears to us to differ from our sup-
posititious cabman only on account of the greater magni-
tude and mischief of the fraud at which he connives.
And it is with regret that we hear such a practice so
frequently spoken of in an apologetic tone as pardonable
in men threatened with extensive. losses. What is that
probity worth that is not proof against the prospect of
loss ? And how long will that credit which is the ani-
mating principle of English industrial enterprise—the
main-spring of our national greatness, survive if such a
lax code of morality is allowed to prevail ?
The penal laws are more especially of use
:to
deter the weak- and wavering of the respectable classes
from lapsing into crime. The bulk of the offenders who
figure in our courts of justice belong unfortunately to a
class who have been trained to violate the laws,--with
whom crime is a profession. They embrace it with a
full knowledge of the risks they incur, as a soldier enlists
with a knowledge that he may any day be called upon to
confront inevitable death. For them the penalties of
the law are almost entirely stripped of their terrors, and
habitual guilt has in many cases paralysed their moral
will. To guard society against these banded enemies,
who lurk within its confines, something else than mere
penal law is required ; something which the best heads
and hearts of tho civilised world have for more than a
century been labouring to discover or invent—hitherto,
alas, with very indifferent success. But upon those
whose moral nature is not entirely corrupted, wo may ,
reasonably hope that punishment will exercise a refor-
mative influence, and that the example of their chastise-
ment will deter many weak and wavering as themselves
from yielding to temptation as they have dome It is
mistaken mercy—it is treason to society—to shield de-
linquents of previously respectable standing, out of pity
for their fall, or regard for the feelings of their con-
nexisns. Such tampering with the law promotes lax moral
opinions and practice. It has justly been remarked by
Montesquieu that in absolute monarchy what is called
the principle of honour may to a great extent serve as a
substitute for virtue, but sound and severe moral princi-
ples are indispensable in a popular government. When
a free people, he maintains, become more corrupt than
their government, their downfall as a nation is near at
hand. Thera are symptoms at this Moment among our-
selves which indicate that no time is to be lost in avert-
ing a dangerous lapse from a high and severe tone of mo-
rality among our industrial classes—that is, among the
great bulk of the community.— Lally Nears.

THE BANKRUPTCY OF STRAHAN CO.

'Jai