The Sun.
London, England, 1864-11-01 00:00:00

fit and efficient representative of the widely-spread
requirements of a great nation, and this truth will
sooner or latter be proved as events develope them-
selves. Peace-at-any-price is not a doctrine which
is congenial to the genius of the English nation ;
it is not that we are a warlike people like our con-
tinental neighbours, whose military ardour and
enthusiasm is their paramont influence and reigns
supreme over every other feeling ; but there is
something contemptible in the notion of such a
thing, which a high minded and superior peop:e
naturally revolt against. It implies so much in the
background, such betrayal of confidence, relinquish•
ment of rights, and forsaking of friends, that it may
well be stamped as ignoble and unworthy at the very
outset. Oaly this very year we have seen this
false system prevail in high places, and this fatal
principle takes root in our administration, and the
consequences have been alike deplorable and disas-
trous. The Conservative :demonstration at Roch-
dale may seem nothing to some, but it is by no
means positive that the sequence of the story is not
an important event in the chronicles of time. To
Mr COBDEN and his friends and admirers such an
affair may seem as the speck no bigger than a man's
hand, but those who saw the picture may discern
the likelihood of this adverse combination assuming
fearful proportions and eventually making itself felt
and seen in an unmistakeable manner before long.
Apart from the party tone which characterised the
meeting at Rochdale, there were many observations
made and principles enunciated which might justly
be said to be national ones, and to depict the .our-
rent of public opinion through the confines of the
land. Mr. BRETT, the proposed candidate in the
Conservative interest, made a spirited speech, in
which he denounced the policy of Mr COBDEN as
one fatal to the interests and prejudicial to the
principles which the community of this country
were prepared to uphold and pledged to support
alike by past associations, present convictions, and
future aspirations. So far the feeling and senti-
ment of the reflective part of the constituency wiil
go with him, and it is very doubtful if his opponent
will be able to gain an advantage over him. Mr
BRETT very properly laid great stress upon the new
foreign and colonial policy which the disciples of
the peace school advocate and will promulgate at
the first opportunity. These new notions advocate
the nonsinterference in all foreign questions, and the
abandonment of our colonies to their own resources,
so that we may reduce our army and navy to the
smallest possible proportions, and thus decrease ex-
penditure. Mr.BRETT very forcibly observed that by
this means the credit and character of the country
would be seriously compronaised,and our honourirre"
trievably assailed and tarnished. Who can tell to
what length other nations will go, when it is once
seen and ascertained for a certainty that Eegland
has ceased to be a first-rate Power, intent on keeping
her rightful place, and determined to exercise her
just influence on other nations. The picture drawn
by Mr BRETT is indeed a lugubrious one, but it
is nevertheless very likely to be realised if
full scope is given to the views of Mr COBDEN
and his friends and supporters. When the prestige
of a people is past, of what avail are their old glories
and ancient prowess ? Let us sink to the level that
the utilitarians have prescribed for us ; let us take
up their pusillanimous policy with strength and
spirit, and what will remain ? May we not
safely venture to affirm that there is every chance
of the worst forebodings being fulfilled, and the
direst prognostications realised. If the Baltic be-
comes a Russian and the Mediterranean a French
lake, what sort of a position shall we hold in E.-
rope ? Again, if our colonies are not to be a solace?
of interest and attraction to uq, what place shall
we hold among the fraternity of nations ? We might
as well be blotted out of the map of the world. It
has always,been our beast and pride that on our
empire the sun never sets, and why should this
feeling be no more powerful to prevail nor potent
to influence. Mr. BRETT brought the case home to
his hearers by saying—" Surely those who advocate
snch a policy forget that if all these things were
to take place in Canada, Australia, and India,
there is not a home or family in England that
would not be deprived of some one who is near and
dear to it." Mr. COBDEN and his auxiliaries have
mistaken their vocation and missed their destiny in
their insane attempt to put all things on their own
level, and to make the sentiments and sympathies
of Englishmen accord to their views, as PROCRUSTES
adapted his lodgers to the size of his furniture.
Such a cause will not do, and the announcement of
such a policy in regard to affairs with the outward
world, will materially militate against any effects
that a more vigorous home policy might produce.
It will be a poor advantage if we remedy deficiencies
and rectify abuses that have crept in amongst
us, and then find out that we are nobodies after ail.
It is idle to trust entirely to appearances, because
the great nations that flourished and fell before
our time were as great in their fancied security
until their doom came upon them, and they passed
away as if they had not been. All tends to prove
the truth of the saying, that "The record of all
earthly tales is but the sad rehearsal of the past."
It is the insidious character of many changes that
constitute their real danger and destruction. Under
the specious pretence and fair-seeming semblance
of reform and retrenchment, the disciples of the
Manchester School are introducing changes into
our political state, and advancing the cause of a
social system that will undermine and deteriorate
the time-honoured and glorious Constitution of
England, It will not do to be deceived or
taken in, however fair or well-sounding the de-
nomination of the new reginae. It is better to be
prepared for the emergency. If it is the intention
of this new school of philosphical politicians to bide
their time, and when Lord PALMERSTON has finally
disappeared from the stage of this world's per-
formances to inaugurate their anti•national and
un-English doctrines, then the sooner they are una
masked the better. It is always easier to go forward
than to retrace lost ground, and the lovers of pro-
gress will do better to give their votes for the most
inveterate hater of reform, than to let in one dis-
ciple of the school which counsels the mischievous
policy of peace at any price, and reform at home
with loss of character and credit abroad. The elec-
tors of Rochdale had better be prepared for the
struggle, and manifest their determination to
oppose the principles of a policy which will under.
mine the influence and stultify the progress of the
country.

It is very long since any criminal trial has ex-
cited the keen and absorbing interest with which
all ranks and classes of men have followed the
details of the trial of FRANZ MULLER for the
murder of Mr. ho painful circumstances
of the ease had thrilled every heart, and amidst
the sympathy universally felt for the family so
terribly and so suddenly bereaved of a cherished
relative was mingled a sentiment of general uneasi.
ness, since each felt the same disaster might have
happened to himself, and of indignation that such
a crime should have been possible in the very heart
of our well guarded metropolis. For a few days no
trace of the murderer was discovered, and it began
to be feared that the assassination of Mr. BRIGGS
would be added to the dark catalogue of crimes
which never meet their due reward 03 earth. The
unusual reward which was offered .or the appre.

hension of the criminal at length brought forward
some important evidence, and as the love of gain
was probably the motive for the commission of the
deed, so it proved the accessory of its detection.
The circumstances of the trial, including the pursuit
and capture of MULLER, and the singular but
most convincing chain of evidence which
led to his conviction, were all of a nature
to keep up the public excitement to the
highest pitch. When it was feared that the sup•
posed assassin would elude justice the chase was
watched with intense eagerness, but when it was
learned that he was actually in the hands of the
police general relief was felt. A'l knew that there
was no danger of a hasty and incomplete convic•
tion—that all that skill and experience and judicial
hc:imen of the highest character could do
would be done to set the full details of the
case before an unpr€judiced and conscientious jury.
Those anticipations have been fulfilled to the letter.
The care of his nountrymen procured for the pri-
soner the assistance of eminent counsel, and the
whole case has been conducted in a spirit and with
a manner worthy of the impartial majesty of English
law. Never perhaps has justice held the scales more
fairly, never was her sword more carefully and
deliberately poised. No one who listened to the
clear and masterly summing up of the Lord Chief
Baroa—a summing up worthy of his high reputa.
tion as one of the ornaments of the Bench—could
have failed to be forcibly impressed by the nature
of the evidence against the unhappy man at the bar.
As the learned judge observed, there were three dis-
tinct chains of evidence against him—that relating
to the hat found in his possession, to the hat found
in the carriage, and to the watch and chain. Each

of these was carried out with singular distinctness,
and the threefold line of defence set up entirely
failed to dispose of the evidence. The first plea on
behalf of the prisoner was an assertion that the
charge against him was not satisfactorily proved—,a
mere general defence. The second was that he
was physically unequal to the commission of the
act—an assertion which, considering the respective
ages of the parties, and the fact of AlrßniGas being
taken by surprise and probably asleep, did not
weigh much in his favour. The third plea, an
alibi, entirely broke down, the witnesses, untrust•
worthy as they were, being unable to give any
reason whatever for their assertions as to the time.
In fact, as the Solicitor-General justly observed, the
discovery of MULLER having been at Camberwell
about nine on the fatal evening was rather preju-
dicial to him than otherwise. All the other evi-
dence—of the hatters, of the jeweller, of MuLLEn's
landlady, of the cabman and his wife—pointed
strongly against the prisoner, and was remarkably
unanimous. Little details, such as the lining of the
hat, the jeweller's box given to the child, and other
incidents fitted in with surprising clearness. Alta -
LER himself must have lost all hope as, one by
one, these condemning facts were elicited. Ile
has the satisfaction, if satisfaction there can
be to a man in his awful position,
that he has not been condemned undefended
and unheard, and that he has had all the aid that
legal ingenuity and forensic eloquence could have
given to the most innocent man. Bat nevertheless
his doom is sealed, and the unanimous voice of the
public unhesitatingly ratifies the decision of judge
and jury. There only remains the last scene in
this appalling tragedy--a tragedy that has
brought home to the most thoughtless and light-
hearted the uncertainly of human life, and the
startling but familiar truth that in the midst of
fife we are in death. It is only to be hoped that
the catastrophe will induce greater care and cau-
tion in the management of our railway lines, and
that the single retrilycion which hls in this inbtauce

'ollowed upon the crime m.ly servo to deter others

'rom so dark a deed. For the murderer himselt
,here is nothing to b:! said, He has committed a

Ourbarou3 murder without provoc ttion or induce-

went beyond the mere sordid love of gain, and has

brought desolation to a happy home only, as the

event proves, to condemn himself to an ignominious

death. Alter the fitful and fluctuating manner i❑
which our criminal justice has lately been adminis-
tered, it is some satisfaction to the public that a

case of such vital interest to society bhould have
been so carried out in accordance with the old tra-
ditionary dignity of English constitutional law;
And it only remains for the public, while shudder..

in?, at the guilt of the critnLal, to echo that deep
but audible amen which murmured through the
vast assembly as the learned judge concluded the
delivery of his impressive judgment., by praying
hat the murderer might find that mercy from the
tribunal of Heaven which he has justly forfeited at
the hands of his fellow men.

The public w:11 learn ai ith very great and gene•
ral regret that they have lost one whose gifted
pencil has for so many years delighted and amused
all classes. We have had this year to deplore the loss
of many able and eminent men, and now another
name is added. to the list. JOHN LEECH is no
more, and the wonderful versatile hand whioh has
so often illustrated the foibles and fancies of our
social life shall no more provoke us to smile, even
at our own absurdities. The caricaturist, like the
satirist in words, too often plays an ungenerous part.
He exposes with merciless hand the weak points
of his victim, and is sometimes tempted to sacrifice
every kindlier feeling to the desire of achiev.
ing an effect. No such charge can be brought
against the memory of JOHN LEECH ; and though
he has relentlessly exhibited in turn the absurdi-
ties of almost every class, he has never done it so
as to offend even their representatives. Perhaps it
was owing to the fact that his satires were general,
and aot Fereonat, that they wer,) so entirely devuld
of malice. It was pretension of any kind against
which his wit specially directed its shafts, whether
cal the " young England," who would fain be old
England, the faded belle, who would compete with
youthful bloom, the " Jeames," who aped the airs of
his master, or the hapless devotee of field sports,
who only succeeded in exhibiting his deficiencies.
The fun of his yearly almanac illustrations too,
was something inimitable by meaner pencils, while
the general literature of the day has lost one. of
its most brilliant and successful illustrators. Mr.
LEECH'S death was as premature as it was unex-
pected. He was only 47 years of age, and had in the
hops and belief of those around him many more
years to come of active and vigorous life. For some
time he had been a great sufferer from irritability of
nerves, and was one of the foremost in the crusade
against organ grinders and street cries. The ex-
cessive sensibility to noise which his friends laughed
at and he so painfully lamented, was, in fact, the
symptoms of more serious evil, and it would have
been well if, instead of roaming from house to house
and complaining now of the street music, now of the
sound of a neighbouring hammer, Mr. LEECH had
paused to ask himself why he felt these things so
keenly. The excessive irritability was a sure sign
that brain and nerves imperatively needed rest--
rest which, if he had granted with a more prompt
and liberal hand to his overtasked powers, might
have spared his friends the bereavement, and the
public the loss, which they now bewail. It would
be well if other men of genius would take warning
and be less indefatigable in the pursuit of their cal!-
ing, but the present loss is none the less great that it
might have been averted fora time, It is strange