The Sun.
London, England, 1864-07-26 00:00:00

out starving industry. We must not force a tired
traveller to go to bed supperless in order to prevent
Tom Mohawk from treating the room to " cham-
pagne all round "at 3 in the morning. Nor must
we starve the hundreds of the hard-working men
and women who come into town by break of day
from all surrounding parts to supply the various
markets with the food for two millions of mouths.
The cabman must have a refugefrom frost and snow.
If ever this metropolis comes to be governed upon
the same principles, much of the heavy traffic which
now wastes the business hours of the community
will be performed soon after daybreak, and the men
who have to bo about fur these purposes will re.
quire breakfast-houses. There must be exceptions
to any rule. Sir G. Grey has, we think, met this
difficulty with success. After exempting railway
stations and excluding inmates of hotels, he gives
a power to the Commissioner or other chief officer
of Police to grant occasional licences which will pro-
tect;the holder from the operation of the Act. It is
evident that there must be some very elastic power
and some very wide discretion Tested somewhere;
and undoubtedly the police authorities are best able
to exercise such a discretion, if they can be safely
trusted with it. We cannot at any tour of the day
or night throw a net over this great city, and be
sure to catch nothing but profligates. There must
be some power to distinguish, and that power is
perhaps best vested in a well-watched police under
the control of a responsible Home Secretary. Sir
George Grey must, however, forgive us if we
remind him that the best laws are of no use un-
less they are put in force. Sir George has shown
his anxiety to render our metropolis more respec-
table at night; will tie not exercise the powers
the law has lately given him to render it more pass-
able in the day ? Fleet-street is still occupied
through all the business hours by a continuous
string of carts bearing earth to the Thames Em-
bankment, all of which might be either carted in
these long days before 10 or after 4 o'clock, or de•
livered by water. Coal waggons in unbroken pro-
cession still block up Cheapside, as if its inhabitants
required large fires in every room during the sultry
weather, and empty cabs still " tout" for hire at a
snail's pace. The City of London is still impassable
by reason of impediments which have no necessity
to excuse them—impediments which, if they are
allowed to continue, will block up any streets, how-
ever wide, and render useless all efforts to provide
new thoroughfares. All we ask is a little gentle
energy, not the spasmodic energy which, repre-
sented by a rough policeman, savours some-
times of brutality, and which, by arousing
sympathy with offenders, defeats the object,
but the energy which provides a continu-
ous, well-sustained attention to the comfort of
every one, and a prompt repression of ruffianism.
Tacitus said of our German ancestors that with
them good customs did the office of good laws. If
the great historian could see our cabmen, and wag-
goners, and carters, and the shopkeepers who insist
upon keeping the empty vehicles before their doors,
he would, we fear, think that we had deteriorated
in that innate respect for each other's convenience
which renders laws as to small matters worse than
unnecessary. These folk not only require good
laws, but an active police to enforce them, and strong
penalties certainly imposed for every act of boorish
selfishness.

POsT.—lt is to be hoped that we have now heard
for the last time of the alleged tampering with the re-
ports of the inspectors of schools by the Committee
of toe Council on Education. That the allegation
was virtually groundless is now on all hands agreed;
yet, notwithstanding, it gave rise to one of the
most angry debates of the present session. It led
to a vote which has now been formally rescinded,
and caused the temporary loss to the country of the
services of a man whom both friends and political
opponents concur in admitting to have been most
undeservedly censured. Mr Lowe is not, perheps,
remarkable for possessing that most invaluable
gift of a statesman, the knack of reconciling those
who differ with him to measures which he is suffi-
ciently powerful to carry into execution ; but that
he is a man of consummate ability and of strict in-
tegrity no one has even pretended to doubt. It un-
fortunately happened, however, that a discussion
arose in the House of Commons regarding the man-
ner in which the department over which he pre-
sides is conducted, in which the conclusions pointed
at certainly appeared to impeach his character for
veracity. A charge was made, and that charge he
met with unequivocal denial. The charge was to
all appearances proved, and a man even less sensi-
tive than Mr Lowe might have concluded that he
was thereby constructively convicted of falsehood.
It was in vain for his friends to assure him that the
inference was not justified, and for his adversaries
to disavow all intention of putting any imputation
on his honour : he resolved on resigning his official
position. He availed himself, however, of the oc-
casion on which he took this step to explain to a
very full house the circumstances under which the
apparent conflict arose between his assertions and
the evidence advanced by those who complained of
the manner in which his department was conducted,
and so clear and convincing was the statement which
he then made, that, were it not inconsistent with
Parliamentary usage, the resolution at which he
had taken umbrage would have been at once re-
scinded. As this course could not be taken, and as
at the same time it was manifestly inconvenient
that a resolution should stand recorded on the
journals of the house which had been passed under
a misapprehension, Lord Palmerston moved that
the entire matter in dispute should be referred
to a select committee. Some discussion took place
as to the manner in which the committee should be
formed, but it was finally resolved that it should be
composed of five impartial members, and not of 15
declared partisans. The report of that committee
has been published, and, as was expected, it excul-
pates the late Vice-President of the Committee of
Council from all blame. Last evening the Prime
Minister moved that the original resolution should
be rescinded, and that motion having been carried,
the amour P 7 Pre of Mr Lowe is now satisfied, and
the sting taken from the attack. so successfully di-
rected against him in the early part of the session.
The discussion which supervened on Lord Palmer-
ston's motion did not touch the merits of the matter
under consideration. No one pretended that the
conclusions at which the committee had arrived
were not just, and no one ventured to suggest that
on the evidence submitted to the committee any
other conclusions could have been arrived at. No
one hinted that Mr Lowe was not a hardly treated
man, and not a syllable of apology was uttered in
defence of the singular manner in which the house
had been brought to pass the resolution which has
since been formally condemned. No one repeated
the charge that the late Vice_Preeident had muti-
lated the inspectors' reports, and none professed to
see any inconsistency between his formal denial of
that charge and the interlined reports which Lord
Robert Cecil, on the occasion of the first debate,
circulated in the house. The objection last night
to the adoption of the Premier's motion rested on
grounds far different. It was too late in the session,
it was urged, to call on the house to rescind a reso-
lution passed in the month of April. The large
majority of members had now left town, and those
who remained being for the most part connected
with the Government, the result of the division
could not be doubtful, and would consequently be
valueless. For these reasons, therefore, and not bea
cause the report of the committee was intrinsically
objectionable, the Government were asked to post-
pone its confirmation until next session. The answers
to objections such as these are equally simple and
conclusive. If the Hcuse of Commons is prepared
to concur with its committee in acquitting Mr Lowe,
surely the sooner that the acquittal is formally
recorded the better, and the paucity of members who
took part in the discussion on the motion for entering
it on the journals of the House cannot possibly affect
the issue. But although it is certainly notorious
that at this period of the session many members
have already made their adieux to the Speaker, we
do not think that they can fairly make what is a
derelict ion of duty on their part a ground for calling
on the Government to postpone what is confessedly
an act of justice. There has been no surprise. The
matter has long been under consideration, and
abundant notice was given by the Premier of his
intention to give a practical effect to the report of
the select committee. But not merely Were the
objections groundless, but they were ungenerous.
Lord Robert Cecil's riends must know very well
that if the House were as full es it was on the night
when Mr. Dieraeles vote of censure was negatived
by a majority of eighteen, the motion rescinding
the resolution of the 12th of April would equally be
carried. But they affect to think that in a small
House at this period of the year the vote could not
be satisfactory to Mr. Lowe, and that the censorious
would have an opportunity for suggestin g that under
other circumstances the result would be different.
This is pure malice. They should not forget that
the original resolutiona was carried at dinner-time
in a very thin House, and under circumstances
which had best be forgotten. Lord Robert Cecil
snatched a victory by means which it is hoped he
will not employ es:ain, and the vote of the House of
Coremons last night may bo regarded, not merely
Ds acquitting the late Vice-President of the Com-
mittee of Council, but as discountenacing the sharp
practice by which a vote of censure was obtained
which was completely unmerited,

THE WESTERN RAILWAY OF FRANCE.—The
Pays, in speaking of the Western Railway station
in the Rue St. Lazire, states that on Sundays 203 trains
leave Paris, and the same number arrive, each having from
600 to 700 passengers and sometimes more than ],OOO,
The other days are not 'much more quiet than Sunday, the
departing trains amounting to 110, with the same number
of arrivals,