The Sun.
London, England, 1863-03-27 00:00:00

1!

ANOTHER LARGE ISSUE OF
THE WEDDING SUN

Is now Publishing.

HIGH WATER AT LONDON BRIDGE.
Tgis DAY.—Morning, 6h. 54m.—Afternoon, 7h. 21m.
To-moltuoic-Morning, 7h. 49m.—Afternoon, Bh. 25m.

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LONDON, FRIDAY, MARCH 27, 1863.

In the House of Lords yesterday, after a shoat de-
bate in which the subject of London railways was
considered, the second reading of the Great Eastern
New Metropolitan Station and Branches Bill was
negatived and the bill itself referred to a select
committee. The Tobacco Duties Bill was passed
through all its stages. The Lord Chancellor ex-
plained his plan for augmenting the value of small
ecclesiastical benefices in his gift, and added that
he was aware the successful operation of the bill
must depend in a great measure upon the proper
framing of its complicated details ; and be, there-
fore, proposed that if the measure were read a
second time, it should be referred to a select com-
mittee. Lord Cranworth, Lord Chelmsford, the
Bishop of London, and the Duke of Marlborough,
expressed a decided approval of the general prin-
ciple of the measure, which was read a first time,
s.nd the second reading appointed for to-day.
In the House of Commons Sir R. PEEL, in answer
to Lord H. Thynne. said that the Government had
not received intelligence that the United States Go-
venment were recruiting in Leland.
In reply to Mr. Whalley, Sir It. PEEL also said
that the disturbances which had taken place in some
Irish towns on the 10th were only the acts of a few
disaffected individuals, and entirely opposed to the
feeling of the county.
Mr. DorosoN called attention to the charges for
the diplomatic service, and moved that all sums re-
quired to defray the expenses of that service ought
to be annually voted by Parliament, and that esti-
mates of all such sums ought to be submitted in a
form that would admit of their effectual supervision
I,nd control by the house.
After a brief discussion, in which the Chancellor
of the Exchequer opposed Mr. Dodson's views, the
motion was negatived by 136 to 65 votes.
The house then went into committee of supply,
ia-ting the votes in the civil service estimates.

When the house resumed,
The Corrupt Practices at Elections Bill was read
tilhird time and passed.
The Telegraphs Bill was then taken in committee,
aul.l passed through that stage.
The Office of Secretary at War Abolition Bill was
read a second time, its object being to abolish techni-
cally an office which has merged into that of Sec •
retary for War.
The Oaths Belief in Criminal Proceedings (Scot
land) Bill, the object of which is to allow affirma-
tions in lieu of oaths in certain cases, was read a
second time. The Local Government Act (1858)
Amendment Bill, the object of which is to extend
the operation of the Act of 1858 to places to which
it did not at present apply, was read a second time.
The adjourned debate on going into conruittee on
the Salmon Fisheries (Ireland) Bill was resumed,
and the adjournment was again moved. After dis-
cussion, on a division the motion was lost by 59
•to
5, and the bill went into committee pro forma.
The CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER obtained
leave to bring in a bill to make stock certificates
transferable to bearer.

The other business was disposed of, and the
House adjourned.

Is Mr. BRIGHT labouring under the delusion that
he is the citizen of a Republic, instead of being,
like the rest of us, numbered amongst the subjects
of a Sovereign ? It would really appear so. The

honourable gentleman is still railing—in the most
eloquent manner, it is true, but still railing—per-

petually against the very shadows of Crown and
Sceptre, against the mere phantoms of what more
vulgar rhetoricians have dubbed before now the
" bloated aristocracy." In his plain thinking and
out speaking there is very much, no doubt, of the
siurdy independence of JOHN BULL. But it is
JouN BULL, Quaker wise, with his choler* up. It
is a specimen of the genus BULL, before whose eyes
the trailing of the scarlet robe of a peer is just
sheer distraction. Nothing appears to irritate JOHN
BULL—we beg pardon for so transparent a lapsus—
we meant, of course, and should have said, JOHN
BRIGHT—more than the flourishing of that red
garment of the nobility, unless indeed it be the still
more maddening gleam to him of the purple of a
Monarch. One reflection alone apparently can
soothe his agitated feelings, at the mere thought
of these dreadful symbols of old-world vanity—that

one assuaging and mollifying consideration being
the thought of the—Well, yes! the—United States

of America.

Nothing to all appearance can even shake Mr.
BRIGHT'S loyalty—not to Queen VICTORIA, no
nothing of the kind! but to the United States of
America. His feelings of respect and admiration
for the institutions of the great North American

The Printer's Devil ventures to ask if this word is not
a very obvious misprint ?

Republic are clearly indes:i ectible, Through the
fiery ordeal of the present deadly conflagration of
eivilWar, there, in that afflicted country, his homage
for the perfection of that particular exemplar of a
Democratic form of Government, pass scatheless, as
if animated with the life of a salamander, and
clothed in raiments of asbestos. There is something
charming in this devotion—it is so complete. In
its completeness it is perfectly Arcadian. One
"listens delighted" to the dulcet utterances of a tender
affection so untiring and unconditional, Mr.
BRIGHT'S love of America, since first he became
wedded to her cause, seems never yet to have got
out of its honeymoon. If there were a Dunmow
across the Atlantic, as there are all sorts of other
places, such as a Cairo, and a London, and a
Rome, and so forth, under an American aspect
—if there were among those other topo-
graphical plagiarisms, anything at all like our
English Dunmow, with its porcine and marital
institutions—Mr. BRIGHT would certainly be in a
fair way to win his Flitch of Bacon at the appointed
time. Listen to him as he yesterday prostrated
himself in the dust before his own ideal of what
America is, and in the same breath railed like
another self-banished TIMON against the country of
his birth and the people who are, never-
theless, to be supposed, in spite of his
fearful language against :them, to be still his
own countrymen ! Speaking of the deplorable
civil war yet raging at its fiercest in America—
speaking of that civil war yesterday in St. James's
[Tall, Piccadilly, to an immense concourse of work-
men there assembled together as a demonstration in
favour of the Northern States and of Negro Eman-
cipation, Mr. BRIGHT asked his artisan audience in
so many words, " Have you any special interest in
this contest " Without immediately giving his
own answer to that point-blank inquiry, the hon.
gentleman went on to remark, with scorn in every
inflexion of his harmonious voice, and in every move-
ment of his eloquent lips, " Privilege thinks it has a
great interest in it, and every morning with blatant
voice it comes into your street and curses the Ame-
rican republic. Privilege has beheld an afflicting
spectacle for many years past. It has beheld 30
millions of men happy and prosperous, without Em-
peror, without King, without the surroundings of
a court, without nobles, except such as are made
by eminence in intellect and virtue [General BUT-
LER to wit, we will suppose ? or Admiral WILKES
let us say ? or BARNUM? or TRAIN ? or Nature's
nobility of that kind, Mr. BRIGHT ?] without state
bishops and state priests, [Mr. BRIGHT quite for-
gets that there have ever been such people in
existence as a JOSEPH SMITH or a BRIGHAM
YOUNG, apparently]. sole vendors of the law that
works salvation, without great armies and great
navies, without great debt, [No ! but they are
making one now fast enough !], and with-
out great taxes. Privilege has shuddered
at what might happen to old Europe if this
great experiment should succeed !" Whereupon
Mr. BRIGHT having reached that climax his
congenial audience breaks into a storm
of applause! For all the world, just as if
that " great experiment" had succeeded ! And so
on, and so on—usque ad nauseam, as the classically-
educated Captain WRAGGE would say, if not ad
infinituin. Seeing what we all see, knowing what
we all know, as to the state of things politically and
socially amongst cnrselves and amongst the North
American republicans—Mr. BRIGHT can yet de-
nounce the European system as a " rotten system"—
those are the very words he used in its regard as
recently as yesterday ! Vaunting to the skies as
nothing less than absolute perfection the free ins ti •
tutions, the blissful condition, the complete com-
mercial prosperity enjoyed by the enviable race who
look up to their Chief—not in a Windsor but in a
White House ! Beholding in that chief not a mere
Constitutional Sovereign like Queen VICTORIA, but
—again we are tempted to employ the favourite
language of Captain WRAGGE, in order in any
way adequately to express the emotions inspired by
the theme—that ne plus ultra of Dignity, Autho-
rity, Wisdom, and Beneficence, profanely called by
some "Old .ABE!" For ourselves, we are almost
tempted to call him sometimes, still more profanely,
" Old Gaby"—say, when he is making some more
than usually senile ghost of a joke to the sound of
the distant carnage among the opposing armies of
Federals and Confederates ! Or, again, when in the
midst of the ruin and desolation caused by the
feebleness of his wholly inconsistent policy he is
outraging public decency alike in the Old World
and in the New by actually receiving an absurd little
dwarf, like General Tom THUMB, with a sort of
State ceremonial. These, forsooth, are the objects
of Mr. Betecerr's unstinted admiration, while he
can find nothing but foul words to lavish from
a marvellously ample vocabulary upon the
Political Constitution, the Free Press, and the
other (in spite of `Zr. BRIGHT) still popular in-
stitutions of our own fatherland, of England, of the
United Kingdom. We certainly stand amazed
before the choice made in this matter by the
hon, member for Birmingham. It is the result
surely—Cat least we may venture to say that)—
of an astounding hallucination.

The presentation of the City Address to her
MAJESTY will give general satisfaction, and is one
of the most gratifying of the incidents relative to
the Royal Marriage. Jt is the first step taken in
a direction that wi'l lead the Sovereign back again
to her subjects, after :the gloom and seclusion of
the late trying year. Right and fitting as was that
retirement it still has been attended with secondary
evils that have militated against the prosperity of
trade. Thus, many well-wishers to the community
have been anxiously looking forward to the time when
the Court mourning should cease as to a period when
better times might dawn on those whose dark days
in business have made them dejected and despond-
ing. The civic authorities presented a most appro-
priate address, and while invoking the blessing of
Heaven on this auspicious union they made special
allusion to the happy influence which they desired
it might exercise upon the present position of the.
QUEEN, and added that they trusted "it may prove
a solace to your MAJESTY under your present cares."
This truly represents the general wish of the
nation. From the time when the Prince of
WALES'S marriage was first spoken of, all concurred
in expressing a hope that this new interesting and
important event might rouse her MAJESTY from the
depre,,sion which she so naturally felt, and which is
sometimes more painfully overwhelming when the
time for mixing in active life draws near than even
in the first crushing hours of affliction. Her
MAJESTY'S reply was very satisfactory. She ad- 1
verted in touching terms, not only to the occasion
of joy, but the event of sorrow, in which her people
had shown their sympathy :—‘l I am truly sensible
of the gratifying proofs of loyalty and ...ttachment
to myself and the Royal Family which have been
exhibited by the citizens of London, not less in their
deep aththey
inm
marriage
Prince than e f
wroAni,
Et
sh. e”
heavy
ye
occasiosynalopf
This is a suitable recognition of the deep feelings
that have been everywhere evinced on the subject
, of the irreparable loss that Her MAJE,TY h
sus-
-1
tained. There is another matter of rejoicing in this
incident of yesterday, and that is, that the most
he first trial of
painful effort is over, siuce t as
such a

greatest. It is ear-
-1 nature is ate,
the
nestly to be tru._
gted that all who have
influenN with her MAJEsliv fill persuade her not
• "t to come forward
again to lapse into retirement, th.
- is' no great
on all State occasions, and where then
-flume
parade or excessive gaiety to be expected, to r,
those duties in the performance of which she so ex-
cels. Then we shall have the satisfaction of feeling
that the marriage of the Prince of WALES was twice
blessed in its results, and, besides witnessing the
improvement of many desponding classes of the
community, we shall know that the chief per-
sonage herself has the best prospect of being restored
at least to partial happiness. Nothing can divert
the thoughts from the weight of overpowering cares,
or soothe the memory that is prone to dwell too
much on natural grief, as the distraction of active
engagements. This is one great benefit bestowed
by toil on the heirs of Adam's doom, and it will be
conferring no kindness on our well-beloved
Sovereign, if her nearest advisers seek to prevent
her from incurring any fatigue or responsibility,
now that so many engrossing attractions and so
many new and engaging objects are at hand to
interest and sustain her. We trust that the
ceremonial of yesterday is an augury of the public
reappearance of one whose absence no one can sup-
ply, and who is so associated with the best wishes
and hopes of her subjects that to know she is still
in the gloom of retirement will cast a damp on all
heartfelt rejoicings and throw a sombre shade over
all coming festivities.

There is in existence a large class of well-mean-
ing but narrow-minded individuals, who in their
attempts to reform and remodel the world are likely
to do a great deal of mischief. We have many
representatives of this well-intentioned body of
meddlers among us, and though the good sense of
the community generally keeps them in check they
occasionally contrive to carry their point, and by so
doing produce a reaction which its injurious to the
real interests of religion and order. We can all
remember the disastrous results which followed the
introduction of I ord GROSVENOR'S Sunday Trading
Bill, when the Government were forced to yield to
the illegal opposition of riotous mobs what
they had refused to the common sense and
justice that generally regulates our legisla-
tion. The injustice of men, whose homes and
club-houses were furnished with every luxury,
forcing a rigid observance of the S ibbath on those
whose tables must often be bare, if not supplied on
the morning of that day, was so manifest and
glaring that the general feeling of the public sup-
ported the opposition to the bill, however unseemly
or disorderly the forms in which it was expressed.
We have now a repetition of the same mistake,
originating, doubtless, with men of excellent
principles and benevolent intentions, who are sin-
cerely anxious for the good of their fellows, but
who make the very common and serious error
of trying to drive instead of to lead them.
Experience has often enough proved the utter
futility of such an undertaking. If men would lay
down their vices at the word of command, as soldiers
do their arms, there might be some hope of good
results from the projects of Lord ROBERT MON
TACU and the schemes of Mr. SOMES. But, as if
to afford us an invincible answer to their plausible
arguments, we have an existing proof of the fallacy
of such theories in a part of the United Kingdom
which ought, according to its lawn, to be the most
highly moral and sober nation in Europe, but which
is unfortunately very much the reverse. The
practical consequences of the FORBES MAC-
KENZIE Act are not such as to encourage
the most enthusiastic of teetotallers to desire its
extension to England, yet the object of Mr. SOMES'
" Bill for shutting public-houses on Sunday " is
virtually the same. It is confidently asserted by
those qualified
,to judge that the FORBES MAC-
KENZIE Act has in no wise diminished the sale of
spirits, inasmuch as the poor.a. classes, compelled
to purchase their stimulants over night, provide
alcohol—which does not deteriorate by keeping—
instead of the comparatively harmless malt liquor
which is their usual beverage. The evil effects of
gin drinking are already evident enough among our
lower classes without the Legislature throwing this
additional temptation in their way—a temptation
which appears the greater• when we remember that
on Saturday night the artisan's pockets are full
and that the Sunday is his holiday, with which
he naturally associates some degree of convivial
enjoyment. To pass a bill like Mr. SOMES'S would
consequently be to transfer the profit from the
publican to the gin palace, to irritate the lower
::lasses, and to make them regard with disgust

the welcome day of rest—that Divine boon which,
Eike every other good gift, is given for man's use,
tot his abuse. Anything that tends to elevate the
minds of the working classes, that by degrees re-
fines and cultivates their tastes and habits, is a
step gained towards the better employment of the
Sunday ; but arbitrary legislation and restrictions,
which are felt to be unjust because directed only
tgainst the poor, will never succeed in rendering them
religious and temperate. Mr. ROEBUCK'S satirical
iuggestion, that in the event of the bill in question
being read a second time he should move that all
club-houses be shut on the Sunday, was a pointed
reproof to the ill-advised promoters of this new
social reform. The bill will, no doubt, meet with

t very strong opposition when it comes on for the
second reading, and it will, we should hope, be
finally thrown out ; but so great is the mistaken
z- al of tho promoters of such schemes, and so easy
is a consent to high-sounding regulations which do
not effect the comfort of the voter, that it will be
necessary for the real friends of order and progress
to be ready to meet it. The less our legislation
runs directly counter to the feelings and wishes of
the masses the better, and the less our pious obser•
vances depend on Acts of Parliament, the more ad-
vantageous it will be for the real interests of religion
and civilisation.