The Sun.
London, England, 1864-07-21 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOUIi7ALS,

TimEs.--If there is one thing more annoying than
the case of a man who has suffered a wrong, and
can get no redress, it is that of the man who has
done the wrong, and who can neither repair it nor
confess himself to blame. Though Mr Maguire
should every session present himself with a larger
list of failures, of mills stopped, abandoned, or on
sale, and of enterprising papermakers reduced to
poverty, he will do so at the cost of being more and
more•unwelcome to the numerous class who, if they'
can get a cheap thing, don't care how they come
by it. Certainly paper is wonderfully cheap.
Much of it, indeed, is hardly paper, but it is some-
thing to produce so good an imitation of paper su
cheaply. So the majority of the lct!er-m riling
public, charmed at the solid mass, almost as large
as a good-sized brick, they can buy for a shilling,
hear with complete resignation that hundreds of
papermakers have been ruined in making it ; that
millions of capital have been sunk without pro
fit ; that mills are closing every week ; and that
thousands of artisans are starving. Paper, cheap
on such terms, is like the salvege stock
from lamentable shipwrecks or fetal confla-
grations. The feeling that you must gain by
others' losses is deep and general. Many a man is
all the better pleased with his hendsome new house
if the contractor becomes bankrupt. In that case
he must have a good deal for his maney- and be very
clever, or at least very lucky. This is the spirit
which Mr Maguire has; to encounter. But it his
prospect be bad, still worse is the case of the Chan-
cellor of the Exchequer, who has to salve over and
relieve with fresh hopes one of the grossest over-
sights over committed. The closing advice to the
papermakers is worthy of the whole negotiation
which has disposed of them in so summary a fashion.
It is simply, "Be quiet. If yoi will hold your
tongues for a few months, then, perhaps, your zea-
lous and vigilant defenders may be able to do some-
thing for you. Bat so long as you keep up such a
cackling, your rivals will be on the watch, aed the
Emperor of the French, with his Continental neigh•
hours, will not be able to do you justice." Common
experience, in ordinary affairs, does not justify the
hope that a man's interests will be the,better attended
to for his consenting to shut his mouth about the
matter altogether. If we could suppose these gentle-
men speaking only through the list of bankrupts,
or the auctioneers' advertisements for the next year
or two, we will frankly say that much as we appre-
ciate Mr Gladstone's research, we do not think he
would ever coma down to the House or enter a
Cabinet Council, with a spontaneously prepared list
of bankrupts, forced sales, stoppage of mills, and
other catastrophes in the paper trade. On the con•
trary, we feel very sure that he would only Infer
from the silence that all was right, and that if there
had been any misfortunes they were only those
to be expected from the dearness of cotton, or under
almost any circumstances, whether prosperous or
not. Mr Gladstone would still have his totals, his
imports, and his exports, which may mean almost
anything or nothing, but which certainly cannot
mean that, as concerns the great staple of paper,
two men can compete on eqaal terms, or with the
chance of equal results, when one of them buys his
materials cheap and the other dear. All manufac-
tures aro reducible to a simple calculation, and if
Mr Gladstone or his staff of subordinates could make
out a bare possibility of competin g with the foreigner
in paper made of rags, we are sure they would. No-
body is so fond o: a little contention as Mr. Glad-
stone, and nobody is better able to give us the pith
of a mercantile or industrial question in one or two
sentences. But this is just what he avoided on Tues-
day night, taking care to make no allusion what-
ever to the exact figures of prime cost, quotations,
export duties, and prices in Mr Maguire's speech.
This omission was more significant than any attempt
to grapple with the question, however unsuccessful.
All that could be done was to declaim, to generalise,
and to hold out some hopes, whether to do more
than add to the melancholy list of commercial
wrecks exhibited by Mr Maguire remains to be seen
next Session.

POST,—The House of Commons in its meridian
sitting of yesterday got through some routine busi-
ness with great rapidity, and adjourned after a
duration of little more than two hours. By the for-
tunate absence of one or two members questions were
postponed which can bear procrastination without
serious damage being done to the commonwealth.
Debate or discussion that is not absolutely practical
and strictly ad rem is deemed sadly out of date at the
approach of the dog-days, and the massacre of the
innocents is a silent as well as a rapid proceeding.
the verbosity of even metropolitan members is
doubly tedious and quite unendurable when every
conscript father is dying to be off to the moors, the
continent, or the seaside. Grouse shooting, travel,
yachting, and bathing have charms towards the
close of a hot July superior to ora►ory the most effec-
tive. and political topics tlao most momentous. Much
credit is due to the Government and to the house

itself for the manner in which public business during
this session has been conducted. Senators are become
gradually more and convinced of the expediency
of spending August out of London, and in no very
distant future we may perhaps realise the excellent
suggestion made by Lord Stanley of having a Par-
liamentary sitting before Christmas, which would
make the London season earlier and enable us to
spend a part of June and all July out of town.
Among the bills yesterday withdrawn in conse-
quence of the lateness of the session were two,
any delay in reference to which is on every ground
deeply to be regretted. Wo allude to the lons of
Court Bill and the Bill for a Court of Appeal in
Criminal Cases. Oa the latter of these two we
propose to make a few comments. Sir Fitzroy
Kelly, in moving its withdrawal, expressed with
earnest eloquence his deep regret at the fact of
legislation on this subject being longer postponed.
We entirely sympathise with the remarks of the
hon. and learned member. Fortunately, law reform

ie nor, and has, happily, never hitherto keen made,
a party question. Those who in both Houses have
done their utmost to improve, expurgate, simplify,
and amend our statute book, have belonged to all
shades and opinions of politics. Liberals and Con-
servatives, Tories anal Radicals, hereditary Whigs
and philosophical Whigs, Whigs of the school of
Charles Fox and Whigs of the school of Sir James
Mackintosh—from the ranks of all these have come

nobles and commoners who have in a spirit of real
patriotism sought to improve our laws. Such re.
forms, however, it must be admitted, are very slowly
carried. We are all as Englishmen, if not we are
so as politicians, in all matters, social and econo•
mical, essentially conservative at heart. We do
not parry out nowadays, in a dogged or defiant spirit
of prejudice and non•prcgress, " Nolumus leges
AngEre mutari ;''
but at the same time wo do
not wish to see what Sir William Jones called
" The gathered wisdom of a thousand years "
disturbed and altered, trimmed and clipped, widened
here and narrowed there, according to the taste and
fancy of every restless and fidgety renovator, who
might be an amiable legislator in Utopia, but is too
transcendental to be appreciated in our sublunary
and mundane council chambers. Vie are, however,

sometimes too slow, and in this instance of the
Court of Appeal in Criminal Cases there is no
argument that will bear the test of fair examination
that can successfully be set up against it.

GERMAN PORTS.—RAISING OF THE BLOCKADE.
Foreign-office, July 20.—Sir,—With reference to my letter
of the 17th inst., I am directed by Lord Russell to state to
you, for the information of the Committee of Lloyds', that
her Majesty's Minister at Copenhagen reports by telegraph
that a military convention was signed yesterday, establish-
ing a suspension of arms by land and sea between Denmark
and the German Powers, to commence at noon this day and
terminate on the 31st at midnight, and that all the block-
odes are to be raised during that period. I am, sir, your
most obedient humble servant, E. HAMMOND,—Captain J.
A. Halstead, R.N., Secretary, Lloyds.
REPRESENTATION OF KINCARDINESHIRE.—Gen.
Sir Hugh Arbuthnott, who for nearly 40 years has
represented the county of Kincardine, has intimated to
his friends that at the end of the present Parliament he
intends vacating his seat. The gallant General, who is
the " Father of the House of Commons," it is under-
stood takes this step in consequence of being unable from
increasing deafness to give the saree attention to his
Parliamentary duties that he has done so faithfully dur-
ing his long lease of office. Mr James Dyco Nicol, of
Ballogie, one of the most popular and liberal landowners
in the county, is already in the field for the seat, and with
every prospect of being returned whea the election takes
place. Mr Nicol, it is understood, is a supporter of the
Palmerston policy, and a firm upholder of Church and
State.
A MONSTER PEACH CROP.—The peach crop in
New Jersey will be large. One man, Benjamin Reed, of
Hightetown, has 180,0 M trees, and has prepared to send
224,000 baskets to market. —Missouri Democrat.
A MATRIMONIAL ADVERTISER.—Aa individual
advertised for a wife the other day, end requested
each applicant for the situation to enclose her oarted • 5/to.
One of his correspondents closed her rePlYhe terms;
"I do not enclose my carte, for thought. these
is es
Borne au.
_
thorif y for putting a cart before a horse, know of none for
putting one before an ass."—American raper.
LACORDAIRE AND THE LITTLE CHILDREN
gaiety of the little ones and their evident affection
for the Pyre were a pretty sight. As we went out of the
chapel, no of them, a little fellow of 10 or 11, ran from
behind us, snatched with a laughing face Lacordaire's
hand, and kissed it. Lacordaire smiled and patted his
head. when I read the other day in M. de Montalem-
bert's book how Lacordaire had said shortly before his
death, "I have always tried to serve God, the Church, and
' our Lord Jesus Christ. Besides these I have loved—oh,
dearly loved—children and young people," I thought of
this incident.—Nat how .41rfiolcl iu " Afacinillan's Maga-
. zinc, ,September,