The Sun.
London, England, 1864-03-21 00:00:00

wig-Holstein Question, as latterly developed into a
Dano-German war, must come speedily and bodily
under the consideration of the Legislatui.e.

It appears to be fated that in the abs ence of those
great party conflicts which often distinguish the
opening weeks of the Parliamentary Session, the
House of Commons shall this year rave a plentiful
supply of excitement in the discus! lion of personal
questions. Thursday evening was especially fruit-
ful in the material for such encounters, the greater
part of the sitting being indeed occupied by them.
The stormy debate upon the connection of the hon.
member for Halifax with the Greco conspiracy threw
into the shade the passage at arms between the
Chancellor of the Exchequer and Mr. SHERIDAN in
the earlier part of the evening, yet there was no lack
of explanation, of indignation, and shall we say it
of temper, in that same war of words. Into the
details of the matter in dispute we are not disposed
to enter. Mr. GLADSTONE thought fit to reiterate
the charges which he had made on the previous oc-
casion against a certain assurance office with which
he coupled the name of the hon. member for Dud-
ley. Mr. SHERIDAN indignantly denied the alle-
gations of Mr. GLADSTONE, and complained loudly
of the affront put upon him. The chief point
which will strike an impartial reader is the damage
which the Chancellor of the Exchequer has done to
a good cause by his indiscretion and want of cour-
tesy. Whatever may have been his motive for
citisg persons and companies by name—a proceed-
ing which was certain to provoke a tempest of op-
position to his measure—his excuse, that it was
more manly to impugn a society which
was represented in the House, can hardly be ac-
cepted. The matter was one in no ways connected
with Parliamentary life, it was entirely distinct
from the political arena, and unless Mr. GLAD-
STONE wanted to do that which he now professes
himself to be anxious to avoid, and raise an issue
not upon the merits of his Bill, but upon the
demerits of the friendly societies, individually he
would certainly have done better to avoid mention-
ing names and citing particular cases. Ihe right
hon. gentleman's word is surely enough to sue
stantiate any assertions he might have made in their
general features, and in many of the worst instances
which he mentioned he followed the more prudent
course. Discretion in this case, as in most others,
would have proved to be the better part of
valour, and we regret that Mr. GLADSTONE
should have followed such a course, chiefly for
the ill effect it has produced in the House, by nar-
rowing a question of the broadest general interest
into angry personal dispute. It matters very little
to the public whether the British Provident regis-
tered its accounts in the three years before or after
1853, or whether its receipts and expenditure were
duly proportioned; but it matters a great deal to a
very large body of the industrious poor that they
should have a safe investment for their savings.
From the tone of Mr. GLADSTONE'S attack and Mr.
SHERIDAN'S reply, a looker-on might naturally
have supposed that all existing friendly societies
were to be seriously damaged by the introduction
of this measure. The latter gentleman, indeed,
seemed to think it an unanswerable retort on the
Chancellor of the Exchequer that friends and
relatives of his own were connected with as-
surance societies, But Mr. GLADSTONE brings
forward no measure for the suppression of such
societies or the curtailment of their business. He
merely proposes to enter the field as a fair com-
petitor, with several drawbacks and the one great
advantage of undeniable security. Is this such a
very formidable opposition ? If the societies gene-
rally are half as sound as they profess to be they
have little reason to fear Government rivalry ; but
a somewhat forcible argument on behalf of this
measure is the eagerness with which the small
depositors have availed themselves of the newly
established Post-office savings banks. The amount
of insurance affected, will, it must be remembered,
be restricted to £lOO, and therefore all the large
assurance offices must at once be put out of the cal-
culation. There are a number of excellent and well
managed associations for assisting the working man
in his efforts to provide for his family. But it is
idle to pretend that in spite of these existing insti-
tutions, with whose operations no one proposes to
interfere, hundreds of the poorer classes are con-
stantly being swindled out of their money by abso-
lute and intentional fraud, or forfeiting it through
the ignorance or extravagance of managers who
know nothing of the art of management. Very
recently several melancholy cases have come before
the notice of our police magistrates, owing to a
systematic fraud carried on by two or three men who
pretended to represent a regular company, which in
reality had never existed. It is difficult for
working men and women, who have little time
or opportunity to prosecute such inquiries, to ascer-
tain the solvency cf an office if actually existing,
and they are ready dupes of showily dressed and loud
voiced impostors, who find it only too easy to profess
a respectability which does not belong to them.
It must be a matter of deep regret to every honest
man to see the hardearned savings of the labouring
classes fall into such hands, and it is to guard
against such catastrophes rather than to damage
established offices that Mr. GLADSTONE'S measure
was intended. Hon. members will do well to dis-
connect the two ideas in their minds, since they
cannot doubt that eases of imposture, fraud, and
mismanagement are common at the expense of the
industrious poor ; still if people prefer to run the
risk for the sake of lower premiums or larger
bonuses, nobody intends to interfere with them. It
is to be hoped that in the further discussion of this
matter all personal questions and references to par-
ticular societies will be avoided, and the question
entered upon in that candid, enlightened, and tem-
perate spirit which alone befits the consideration of
a measure affecting the vital interests of a large
portion of the population. Let the bill be examined
on its merits, and if it be found to offer real advane
tages to the working classes let it have a fair trial,
with any modifications of its clauses that may seem
necessary. Lord STANLEY, with his usual good
sense, interposed at the height of a somewhat
angry discussion, and pointed out the desirability
of choosing between two courses—that of adjourn-
ing the debate with a view to exhaust the argu-
ments pro and con; or of at once sending the bill
upstairs to the consideration of a select committee.
The former of these courses was ultimately agreed
to, which, under the circumstances, was the most
desirable, as it gives time for the anger and excite-
ment raised by the introduction of extraneous mat-
ters to die away, leaving room for a calm and
unprejudiced discussion.

Now that the Easter Vacation has commenced,
and Parliament has again suspended business for a
brief period, it naturally occurs to the mind to in
quire what has been done during the period which
the session has already lasted. It sometimes
happens that when, events of unusual moment take
place, and there is, especial demand for the conside-
ration of Parliament that their particulars may be
duly entered into, that somehow or other the most
vexatious delays are continually interposed to re•
tard the course of business, and never ending, still
beginning obstacles spring lir, which seem to
forbid the long-expected debate, r...r the anxiously

sought-for denouement. Seldom, however, has
this Penelope style of legislation assumed a more
vexatious shape or presented itself at a more in-
opportune moment than in this session which has
so recently dawned upon us. Here is the great
recess of the period taking place, and yet no one
can conscientiously say that we are a bit forwarder
than when the opening day arose on the quiver of
hopes and fears, and the tiptoe of expectation. It
is not the fault of the Government that Easter has
fallen early this year, but it is undoubtedly true
that they are very much to blame for taking such
a mean advantage of circumstances, and making
all the incidents of time and place conduce to one
end, their retention of power. Of course the epoch
at which we are now arrived was well calculated
upon before the opening of Parliament, and the
early period of the holidays was considered a for-
tuitous concurrence by the Premier and his col-
leagues. Had Easter been as distant from the
assembling of the House as it sometimes is, it
would have been quite impossible for the
Danish papers to have been kept back
as they have been ; but as there was a
definite goal to look to for encouragement,
it urged on the officials to make a desperate effort
and tide over the intervening weeks. Also, as an
additional part of the affair, the holidays commence
much earlier than they used to, and extend over a
larger period than formerly. Thus, with one chance
and another, with this pretext and that subterfuge,
the adroit traneeuvre and the skilful plan, the end
is gained and the desired point reached without an
interchange of hostilities or a trial of strength.
All this may add zest to the delight which the
chiefs experience at a respite from their harassing
catechisms, and impart a vivacity to the retrospect
of events which their subordinates may take amid
the delassements of their reprieve; but the impar-
tial scanner of occurrences from afar, the philoso-
phical speculator on the events that loom in the
distance, all this must assume a very different
aspect and appear in a very contrary form. In-
stead of an admirable arrangement which develops
the strategic skill of statesmen, the spirit which
has distinguished the rulers in high places may be
regarded as unworthy of themselves, the affairs
treated of, and the assembly which was to have
considered them. A clever dodge is not what we
expect or desire to meet with when the representa-
tives of the people assemble in conclave to discuss
the events and criticise the policy that contains an
historic interest, and that concern the honour and
compromise the dignity of our country, now before
the nations of the world ; and even, when the actors
in these scenes have all been laid in dust, will
affect the fair fame and integrity of England in
after generations. Mr. DISRAELI made some very
appropriate remarks the other evening concerning
the length of the vacation, and it would be well if
the HOUR) generally took more part in the settle•
ment of these matters. History may authorise, and
courtesy sanction their being left to Ministers to
decide upon, but there are exceptions to every rule.
It would have been a very proper time to have de-
parted from precedent when those in authority were
not content to use their opportunity, but abused it
in the most reckless fashion. Before the House is
again in a settled state how much may have occurred
to make a " situation," and to create disasters no
afterthought can remedy, and no zeal can compen-
sate for. It is a sad and serious subject for reflec-
tion, and one which displays so many grievous
points for consideration, that some may be tempted
to push it aside with the thought that it is no use
to forecast misfortune and forestall trouble; bat
evils must not be parried after this fashion, and
difficulties and dangers should be met with vigour
and watched with vigilance. It is no use mincing
the matter, and the epitome or this session, so far
AS it has gone, is a very unsatisfactory (lie. Nothing
has been done to check the arbi rary encroachments
of the German Powers, nothing has been attempted
to afford succour to Denmark, either by the aid of
moral or material support, though the Prime
Minister last year almost promised that in the hour
of peril she should not be left alone, and the Prin-
cess of those shores is the mother of our future
King. Nothing has been done to stem the tide of
insolence which America has poured forth during
the last few months, nor has any thing been effected
in the way of amending the polidy of Ministers in
Their maintenance of a miscalled non-intervention
scheme. The Roman Emperor inscribed the famous
motto, Perdidi diem, as the record of those hours
which had seen no good or great work accom-
plished, and it would seem that our legislators
might with equal candour signalise their attempts
by a like sombre definition. The future still re-
mains, and let them make a decided use of it.
Let work be done in good earnest, and with a
hearty good will. This is not a year when the patrio-
tic member, the far, seeing statesman, or the con-
scientious minister would seek to take it easy; all
foretells a storm, and the men who sneer at the
thought of danger, and cavil at the notion of pre-
paration, are not wise enough to mould the shape of
our destinies, or worthy to represent the spirit of
our great and glorious country. It is earnestly to
be trusted that when the recess is over strict atten-
tion will be paid to the sober details of the business
of the land, and no heed be taken of the petty
squabbles and angry bickerings and details which
have hitherto occupied so large a share of the time
of the House. Personalities in public, private, or
political questions are at all times most unwise;
they fritter away energies that are meant for a
nobler employment, and excite and irritate the
mind that should seek a higher sphere for its direc-
tion. This respite will claim no holiday for many
oppressed nationalities, and it is but fitting that the
all important question of our foreign affairs should
receive the respect which is its due. Hero we have
Earl RUSSELL absenting himself from the House of
Lords very much after the fashion in which Lord
PALMERSTON disappeared from the assembly of
which he is the leader. A very different demeanour
must characterise all the members of the Govern-
ment, if they hope and expect to keep the goodwill
or favour of the people. Unsatisfactory is the re-
trospective glance, cheerless the present prospect,
and dimly vagao and uncertain the future view of
nor foreign policy. With what a different feeling
were our ancestors animated when the moral earth-
quake and the mental hurricane darkened
over the previously serene and unclouded
sky. Constant resort to measures of
expediency so confuses and paralyses the efforts that
it is impossible to attain to any elevation if there
is not some guiding landmark which cannot be
moved. It is a proud reflection for a Minister to
sustain him in the times of extremity, that he pos-
sess the confidence of his countrymen, that they
look to him for guidance, and trust to him for coun-
sel, and so h'ghly esteem the memory of his past
services that in any future entanglements
"The regrets of the good, and the tears of the wise,
Shall turn to the Pilot who weathered the storm."

ROSSINI'S NEW MASS, which has born so long
spoken of, was performed this week for the first time at
M. Pellet Wille's. Meyerbeer was present, and added his
enthusiastic plaudits to those of the general company.
A 'TIGER IN CHURCII.—The Dacca News,
chronicling the ravages committed by tigers in the neigh-
bourhood of Tezgong, says that a tiger walked into the
church in broad day; the doors were closed, and he was
Ell)t dead before he could make his escape,