The Sun.
London, England, 1864-03-09 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS,

TIMES.—The condition of England seems rapidly
returning to what it was in the old times, before
the Roman Conquest. If the world means the world
of po.itics, we are almost as completely separated
from it now as then. Such dismal lamentations and
melancholy predictions as Lords Derby, and Ellen-
borough, and Grey uttered in the House of Lords
last night abound on every side, and it seems to be
supposed that we are involved in some new and
unheard-of calamity. We look around in vain for
sympathy or assistance, and have no course left,
after a succession of anxious though ineffectual
efforts, but to watch the current of events, which
have escaped from our direction, in more or less
sulky inaction. Nevertheless, for this state of
things, so ironically commiserated by our enemies,
so ill-acquiesced in by some among ourselves, there
is no inconsiderable amount of consolation. There
is, after all, a commercial as wall as a political world,
and from that world we are not only not shut out,
but are becoming more and more its active and
thriving centre. If we cannot have our owu way
in politics, we, at any rate, possesss a number of
good things which no political combination can
bestow—wealth, peace, prosperity, and good govern-
ment. The isolation of wnich our peers complain
has not been brought about by any fault or crimes
of our own, be: is rather the result of an honest de-
sire for peace and good will among the nations of
the earth, iu which we can find no one to agree
with us. Neither is this by any means the first time
that such a temporary estrangement has overtaken
us, nor, unless we or our Continental neighbours
greatly change, is it likely to be the last. The
mainspring of our government is different, and our
thoughts and aims are diametrically contrary to
theirs. It is scarcely likely that we should tread
the same path for long together, and our doing so
at all must be a mere matter of accident. It is
rather more than forty years since England found
herself situated very much as she is now, and then,
as now, for a cause of which she had no reason to
be ashamed. The people of Spain had risen
against the wretched King whom our success in
the Peninsular War had imposed upon them. The
Holy Alliance determined to trample out this first
spark of a conflagration, which they foresaw might
overrun all Europe. England was at that time
under a Tory Government, but she was a free
country, and her foreign affairs were under the con-
trol of Mr. Canning. He did not allow his com-
posure to be ruff id by the overbearing violence of
the Holy Alliance, or by the isolation in which
England found herself. He did not feel it his duty
to imperil the destinies of the country by embark-
ing in a war in whicla England's interests were but
remotely concerned, and her slender military re-
sources would have been completely overmatched.
He was content to stand aside and let the tempest
sweep past him and expend itself. He aeas isolated,
but was not dismayed. The Holy Alliance had
completely their own way, and swept the apanish
patriots before them from the Bidassoa to the Tro-
radero, as the Germans are doing with the Danes.
But it was a barren triumph. The legacy this
high-handed proceeding left was civil war to Spain,
revolution to France, and eternal obloquy and dis-
grace to the Powers which constituted the majority
at the Congress of Verona. England emerged from
her isolation unscathed, with character raised and

influence augmented. Something similar is taking
place now. Those who most loudly bewail our
present isolation will be, perhaps, convinced of its
necessity and consoled for its continuance when
they find, what must soon become evident to the
world, that this year has witnessed the most start-
ling of ad anachronisms, the most violent of all
anomalies, in the re-establishment of that very Holy
Alliance which it was believed so many years ago
had fallen never to rise again, The three eagles of
Austria, Russia, and Prussia have met in ominous
conclave over the palpitating body of Poland. They
have awoke to the sense of a common interest and a
common destiny. They are acting in different places
and in different ways, but all animated by the
same spirit. Prussia and Austria are seeking for
unworthy laurels in a shamefully unequal combat
with the little Danish nation. Austria no longer
withholds her concurreeme from the invasion of Jut-
land, and has, besides, her own work to do in her own
province of Galicia. Russia has placed her army
on a war footing; and is approaching the frontier of
her two allies, ready to lend her aid, wherever it
may be wanted, to load subjected races with heavier
and more intolerable fetters. Can it be wondered
that there is little sympathy between England and
nations so employed, and is it to be regretted that
ell community of action between us and such allies
is impossible ? But it may he said that if England
has no sympathy with the despots leagued together
for the overthrow of freedom in the North and East
of Europe, she should at least be on good terms
with the Liberal party throughout Germany. Alas !
this is also impossible, and this also through no
fault of England. We learn from the unguarded
conversation of M. Bismark, reported in the papers
recently laid before Parliament, that the provinces
of Holstein and Schleswig and the harbour of Kiel
itself were not the real objects of attack to the
confederate forces of Austria and Prussia. Den-
mark might have retained her German duchy had
it not been for the free and liberal spirit of her
nstitutions. It was the contagion of Danish
liberalism which Austria and Prussia were deter•
rained to arrest. They are enemies of freedom in
the North just as they were forty years ago the
unprovoked destroyers of freedom in the South, and
the blood that is shed flows in the ever-renewed
and never-ending quarrel between liberty and des-
potism. But it is entirely peculiar to the present
conjuncture that the Liberal party in Germany,
false to its traditions and its principles, has given
despotism the excuse for this attack upon freedom,
and is now hounding on the agents who go forth to
propagate the doctrines of arbitrary power to the
completion of their odious work. Deluded by the
empty jargon of nationalities, and blinded by a
childish antipathy of race, the scecalled Liberals of
Germany have actually led the way in a crusade
against the liberty of Denmark, and sharpened with
their own hands the sword which will soon be turned
against their own breast. Is it to be wondered at
that England should have little sympathy to spare
for men who are thus working out their own
destruction in the effort to accomplish the destruc•
tion of their neighbour ? Isolation may be an evil,
but is far less an evil than co-operation with the
crafty politicians who have planned this alliance,
or the simple dupes who have lent themselves to
them as tools for its accomplishment. We have the
utmost confidence that these crooked paths will only
lead those who tread them to disappointment and
disgrace, and are well satisfied to bear a far heavier
evil than seclusion from such unjust counsels rather
than be accomplices in that sad drama which is
being acted by the selfishness of kings and the mad-
ness of nations.

POST.—There are times in which a single election
embodies the prevailing feeling of the country, or,
as is more frequently the case, concentrates and for-
cibly expresses the opinion of a party or the inte-
rests or prejudices of a class. It was so in the elec-
tions in Dorsetshire and at Nottingham during the
Reform Bill crisis; and, later, in the contest for the
representation of South Devon, from which Lord
Russell retreated to Stroud. Nor can it be denied
that the result of the poll which was yesterday de-
manded in Hertfordshire might, in the actual state
of public affairs and the relative position of parties,
have been a matter of some moment if the issue to
be determined had boen put fully and fairly before
the constituency. As, however, the Conservatives
have not thought fit to fight the battle on a national
field, and with statesman-like objects in view, even
if they be able to steal a victory by local finesse—
which, as we are advised, is most improbable—it
will hardly be worth the cost of its carriage to
I the House of Commons. In the elections we have
referred to, the Tories, as they manfully called
themselves, stood on higher grounds. When
Lord Ashley polled Dorset to the last hour of
the fifteenth day, he acted up to the chivalrous
though mistaken tactics of a great party ; and
when that party, organised by the genius of Sir
Robert Peel, and inspired by the eloquence of
Lord Lyndhurst, returned a political cipher to
broadly underline the defeat of the present Foreign
Secretary, they were working oat something nobler
than the arithmetic of a division. But the Conser-
vatives now go in for members without regard to
principle ; the 'principles they profess are filched
from their opponents; and their leaders have not
the courage to announce in Opposition the policy
they would carry out as a Government. Look at
what they are doing in Hertfordshire. This elec-
tion is, they say, a great party battle. That is how
they speak of it to the country. But to the farmers,
by whose votes it is to be decided, they offer the re-
peal of the malt tax—a tax, be it remetnbered,which
produces £6,000,000 a year, and they ask these
honest men to believe that a Conservative Govern-
ment would give up that source of revenue, and re-
place it by direct taxation—that is, by adding five-
pence in the pound to the income tax. Now, one
may almost venture to affirm that Mr. Disraeli has
never dreamt of anything so Utopian, that he could
not propose it if he would, that he would not if he
could, and that, if he could and would, the majority
of the Conservative party in both houses would rise
in rebellion against him. The truth about this agi-
tation for the repeal of the malt tax is, that it is
supported and countenanced by the Conservatives
because they know it is a safe horse to ride and
drive. They vote for the repeal, as Liberal members
vote with Mr. Locke King, to please their constitu-
ents or to keep some hustings pledges. But bring
their party into office, and they will immediately
discover that there are insuperable difficulties in the
way, and will entreat their agricultural friends to
be patient till the Government is more firmly seated,

or till the wars into which it has been betrayed by
the policy of its predecessors are brought to a con-
clusion. Such is the game in which the Hertford-
shire farmers are invited to take a hand. They are
not supposed to have a thought that rise above a crop
of barley, or to entertain an idea that is not connected
with their own particular interests. We have
before us the ticket on which they are requested
to vote, and it contains nothing but malt. While
Lord Derby and Mr. Disraeli are watching the war
clouds, and prudently counselling the country to
keep its armaments in a state of efficiency at any
cost, the electioneering emissaries of their party are
babbling about impossible reductions of taxation
and' copying the extravagant declamation of Mr.
Cobden, who has obligingly offered his services, as
an experienced workman, in the formation of an
Anti-Malt Tax League. And the trick, transparent
as it is, may succeed. The farmers may be more
simple than we take them to be. But what then ?
Will the election of Mr. Surtees throw a bridge
across the house, and open up a way for the Con-
servatives to pass over into the Promised Land?
We cannot think that the Opposition stands in need
of such a reinforcement. If it can march at all, it
can march without this Hertfordshire crutch. Nor
will the defeat of Mr. Cowper overwhelm the Go-
vernment. Lord Palmerston can wait till the arith-
metical calculations of his opponents are completed
before he sends them to the country for review.
Still, for the credit of Hertfordshire, we will hope,
as we have every reason to believe, that Mr. Cowper
will be returned. There can, at all events, be no
mistake about his candidature. He avows himself
a supporter of the present Administration. While
as regards the farmers—inasmuch as Mr. Gladstone
has given them far more encouragement to expect
that their claims for a remission or reduction of the
malt tax will be favourably considered than they
have ever received from a Conservative Chancellor
of the Exchequer, and, what is more, has offered
them an earnest in hand—Mr. Cowper might if he
pleased call himself the farmers' friend. But we
should be sorry to take his election on such a narrow
understanding. We give the electors credit for
looking out on what is passing beyond the boun-
daries of their own county. We had rather think
of them as Englishmen than as members of any
class in the community: They can have no interests
that are not equally the interests of the great body
of the people_ They can wish for no legislation that
would serve them at the common cost. They must
desire, as we all do, what is most conducive to the
general weal. We are confident that the honour
and prosperity of the country are dearer to them
than their barley or their malt, and we cannot think
that they will take it a compliment that their votes
are solicited on any other considerations than their
own intelligence and patriotism should dictate.

Shocking Death from Starvation in Bethnal

Green.

Yesterday Mr. John Humphreys, coroner for
Middlesex, resumed, at the Greyhound Tavern,
Globe-street, Old Ford-road, Bethnal-green, an
investigation respecting the death of Sarah Dove,
which occurred under circumstances that involved a
serious charge against the parish authorities.
The facts of the case, disclosed in evidence on the
previous occasion, were as follows deceased
was the wife of a casual labourer at the docks earn-
ing 2s. 6d. a day, and who resided at 6, Royston-
street, Bethnal-green. There were two children,
aged respectively nine and five years. The family
paid 2s. 9d.a week rent. The deceased had been
for three winters subject to asthma. She had
deficient clothing, and no blanket for warmth
at night. 0 Ning to her illness, she was unable
to earn any money for some time. Last
Saturday three weeks she got a medical order
for the attendance of Dr. E. Moore, the dis•
trict parish surgeon. He found her suffering
from want of proper food, warmth, and bed
end body clothing. On the following Thurs-

day she got worse, and she asked him then to

give her an order foe admission into the work house
infirmary. The doctor complied, feeling that it
was an urgent case for admission. The order was
taken to Mr. Christey, the esnior relieving officer,
and in the evening he came down to the husband,
who had just returned from a day's work, and
handed him an order for himself, his wife, and two
children to go into the workhouse. Dove said,
•' I do not want to let my children go into the
workhouse, sir; I can support them and myself by
my work ; I only want my wife taken into the in-
firmary, as she is so bad." Mr. Christey replied
" that they should all go in, so that you (Dove) can
work in the house to help to support your wife and
children." As Dove would not consent, Mr. Chris-
tey left, and the woman died in her miserable home
on the followng Monday. Dr. Moore had given
her wine and other relief from a fund at his personal
disposal, but at the post-mortem examination Dr.
Moore and Dr. Meldola found that there was hardly
any disease, and that the woman had, in their
opinion, expired from want and privation.

The Coroner said that it would only be affectation

to pretend to be ignorant of the feud that existed
between Dr. Moore and the parish authorities.
Consequently, although he had full confidence in
the ability and good faith of Dr. Moore, he had felt

that it would be desirable that in the present case,
which involved a serious imputation o❑ the mode

in which the guardians had relief administered to
the poor, to get the testimony of another medical
man who had no interest in the matter one way or

,he other.

Mr. F. G. Gant, F.R.C.S., pathological anato-
mist to the Royal Free Hospital, deposed that he
had made a post-mortem examination of the de-
ceased. The body was extremely emaciated ; it
prosented a dark appearance from the entire absence
of fat. The breasts had dwindled away. The
muscles were attenuated to the last degree.l The

lungs were healthy in their substance; but there
WAS a dilation of the air vessels, which was singular,
but of no importance. The heart and all the organs
were healthy. In the coarse of his experience he
had never examined a more healthy body, or one
more attenuated. There was no fat in the abdomen,
where some is almost always found. Taking the
facts of the case altogether, he arrived at this con-
clusion—That deceased died from sheer exhaustion,
consequent upon continued want of food and cloth•
ing, the chief necessaries of life. In other words,
she died from stow starvation and exposure.

By the Coroner—lf the deceased had been ad-
mitted to an infirmary a week before her death he
was of opinion that she not only possibly, but pro-
bably, would have rallied, with proper food and
clothing, as she was a remarkably healthy woman.
Mr. C. Alexander Christey was then sworn, and
he said that he was relieving officer of Bethnal-
green. The case first came under his notice on Feb,

13, when an application was made for an order for
Dr. Moore. On the 18th a person came with a cer-
tificate from Dr. Moore, advising the deceased's ad-
mittance to the infirmary. He could not find that
order now. He asked the person where the hus-
band was, and was told ho was at work in the
docks. He called on deceased, but finding a Scrip-
ture reader there, he merely asked that the husband
should come to him at five o'clock. He went back,
and got ready for Dove an order for his admission,
and that of his wife and two children to the house.
He also got tea and sugar ready for him, but he did
not come. Witness went at 7 o'clock and handed
Dove the order. Dove said he was sorry, but he did
not want to go into the house. Witness said, "I have
no desire to force you into the house, but it is my
rule and instructions to give all the house; you
are an able-bodied man. Go to the house, and
the chair will be sent for your wife." He did not
present himself at the house, Witness sent next
day, but Dove was not at home. Witness sent a
ticket, so that if dissatisfied he could go before the
board. Ha did not say he only wanted temporary
assistance for his wife.

The Jury, after a long deliberation, returned
the following special verdict :—« That deceased,
Sarah Dove, died from the Effc,cts of exhaustion,
consequent on continued want of food, clothing,
and warmth; and we are of opinion that the hus-
band has not been sufficiently watchful over his
wife, that Mr. Christey was to blame for not having
made himself fully acquainted with the deceased's
condition on his first visit; that relieving officers
ought immediately to give admission to a patient on
the recommendation of the medical officer, until the
next board day. That in the present case the de-
ceased died pending the test employed as to her
fitness for relief; that in such cases the test of the
workhouse is inadequate and not properly adapted
to its end, as life has been thereby sacrificed, and
the jury request that the coroner forward this ver-
dict to the Poor.law Board,

The Engagement of the Rolfe Krake with
the Prussian Batteries,

corEN7tAGEN, March 3.

The following letter has been rt;:leived from an
officer who was on board the Danish Opola-ship,
the Rolfe Krake, during her engagement v7ith the
Prussian batteries at Egernsund. It says :
" Nine days ago (Feb. 10) we left the roads at
Copenhagen, and sailed, in concert with the Dag-
mar, to Sonderburg. Our crew only came on hoard
the morning of our departure. The men were un-
practised, and had rarely been under fire. On the
evening of the 17th we heard that we were next
morning to see what was to be done agiinst a bridge
which the enemy had throw❑ across at Egernsund,
shortening the route to Broagerland and the posi-
tio❑ at Duppel. At 7 a.m. on the 18th we left
Sonderburg, and steered for Flensburg Bay. You
know the appearance of the Rolfe Krake. She
has two towers, each carrying two heavy guns;
apertures at the top of the tower admit light and
kir; mechanical arrangements allow of the ship
being lowered until her deck is only a few inches
above the surface.

"dire passed Holnis without replying to the fire
of the bat tery stationed there, and took up the po-
sition which had been designated. Here we an-
chored with our broadside towards two fixed bat-
teries and one movable field battery, which opened
upon us a murderous fire with round shot, conical
shell, and shrapnel. A tongue of land prevented
our seeing the bridge we had been ordered to de-
stroy. The enemy fired very well. His fixed bat-
teries were masked, and it is therefore impossible to
say how much damage we did him ; but I sent fs
couple of shell at a rifled gun that rained conical
shot upon us from the heights, and when sheering
off bombarded a mill and a house. We returned to
Sonderburg after being engaged an hour and a half.
" The Rolf Krake stood the trial well. She was
hulled 63 times, each shot being of itself sufficient
to sink a wooden ship. The towers were hit several
times; 16 shots went through the funnel, one through
the steam-pipe, three through the foremast, one
through the mainmast, two through the mizen, and
from 60 to 70 through the bulwarks, small boats,
sails, and rigging. The deck is torn up in many
places, the tackle much injured, the three boats
penetrated ; every vulnerable point was hit, and I
should like to have seen any part of the deck where
a man could have been stationed without certainty
of death. We calculated that about 5,0001 b. of iron
were expended upon us, and you may suppose that
we contributed our share. The noise was deafen-
ing, produced as much by our own fire as the mis-
siles of the enemy, whose shells flew about in all
directions. One, which burst directly over the
tower i❑ which I was stationed, sent in a shower of
pieces which set fire to two mattresses, damaged my
frontispiece, grazed my leg, smashed my telescope,
and penetrated a coat lying by my side in half a
dozen places. lam still deaf of one ear from the
din, other wise not much hurt ; one man in each
tower was also slightly wounded, and, curiously
enough, each in the left cheek."