The Sun.
London, England, 1864-08-30 00:00:00

iilGli WATER AT LONDON BRIDGE.

Tina DA:.—Morning, 12h. 58m.—Afternoon, lh. 2Orn.
o.if ORR° w.-Morning, ld. 42m.—Afi;ernoon, lh. 58m.

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4IM ft •jernali ""lr surto

LONDON, TUESDAY, AUGUST 30, 1864.

It is a very difficult thing to compel people to
perform their domestic duties by act of Parlia-
ment ; and so little are we in this country accus-
tomed to official interference with individual rights
that any scheme professing so Quixotic and at the
some time so meddlesome a purpose, is little likely
to obtain favour on the first hearing. There are,
however, exceptions to the general rule of non-
intervention, which are very wisely practised at
home as well as abroad in these days. There are
cases in which the tyranny of the employer over
the employed must be restrained, in which the
anxiety of some to gain additional wages must not
be allowed to influence the whole trade by making
long hours the custom. It is necessary, too, to
guard against the avarice or ignorance of parents
who may subject children of tender years to labour
so exhaustingly and unremittingly as to leave in-
delible traces on the little unformed frame.
Masters are glad to employ women and children,
because their labour is cheap and plentiful. The
men are naturally glad to have their own scanty
earnings increased, and the women think it well
to provide something additional for their families.
At first sight there seems no reason to object pro-
vided the work is of a suitable character, but a closer
investigation of the results of such practice leads to a
very different conclusion. The medical officers of
the Privy Council have just issued two reports,
which treat of questions of great importance with
regard to the physical as well as moral welfare of
the people. The registration system, which is use-
ful in so many ways, does great practical ser-
vice, in showing the influence which different trades
have over the health of those who work at them.
The extremely high death-rate among factory chil-
dren led some years since to that benevolent inter-
vention on their behalf which has produced such
good results, and there is now another aspect of the
same question to which Mr. SMITH'S Report calls
attention, which remains to be brought before the
public. The rate of mortality among children
whose mothers are employed in mills or in the fields
is fearfully high. Neglect and want of their natural
food does the work of destruction slowly but surely.
The infant frets ana wails, and then the mother or
the deputy gives it GODFREY'S cordial or some other
drug to quiet it. Before long it pines away, and
troubles no one with its crying, and so many poor
little ones are year by year thus hurried into their
graves that little is thought of it. The ordinary
course of the decline is so common that it assumes
the appearance of an established infantile disease.
Very often the mothers are quite ignorant of the
mischief they are doing. It is for their
children they are 'working, and they do not con-
sider, or reflect that they are
sacrificing the life of
one in order to obtain more food or clothes for the
rest. In some instances, no doubt, tho mothers are
designedly careless and, culpably indifferent, but as
a general rule they would indignantly disclaim any
such intention. It is a very striking fact that, not-
withstanding the distress and extreme Poverty
lately felt inL encashire, the rate of mortality among
infants has been considerably lower than it was in
prosperous times, owing to the mothers being
obliged to stay at home from the stoppage of the
mills. , This is a startling fact and we should
hope will teach its own moral to the

working classes themselves, who are no more
willing to sacrifice their children's health and lives
than the ranks above them, however much they may
be compelled by force of circumstances to send them
out into the world. We may wonder, indeed, at
the mother voluntarily abandoning those duties
which should be her chief pleasure, but she is in
most cases ignorant of the risk she is running, and
the temptation is great. In the manufacturing dis-
tricts almost every girl is brought up to some kind
of work, and there are many:of the lighter kinds
for which women are peculiarly fitted, and at
which they can earn a good deal of money. The
wife and mother who finds the house-
hold expenses increase with her increasing
without any corresponding rise in her hus.
band's wages, very naturally thinks of her old trade
and resolves to bring in something herself. So
many round her do so that she sees no harm in
leaving her children to take care of themselves,
and very often to take care of the baby also. The
same thing with the same result occurs in most
of the agricultural districts, where women are em-
ployed at light work in the fields, The medical
officer of the Privy Council has brought forward
an array of facts and figures which might convince
the most incredulous of the manifold evils pro-
, ceeding from so false a system. The ques.
tion is how far the Legislature can step in
without unduly interfering with personal liberty,
and without pressing hardly on the industrious
poor. It is manifestly impossible to decree that no
mothers of families shall be allowed to work for
their living ; but something might be done to
remedy the evil without putting obstacles in the
way of those wives and mothers who are compelled
to labour for their families. It is possible to regu-
late the hours of labour on the principle of the
Factory Acts, which descend so much into detail as
to limit the ages at which children may be employed
in factories, and the number of hours they may
work. Something of this kind it is proposed to do
with regard to married women, and there is no
reason why the experiment should not answer
equally well: The women themselves have much
to coneider—tbo displeasure of their employers, the
needs of their other children, the fear of losing
work, &c. The Legislature has but one thing to
do—to care for the lives and welfare of the popu-
lation, and to guard them from those evils from
which, through ignorance or necessity, they cannot
guard themselves.

The letter to the limes of yesterday concerning
the imprisonment of an English gentleman in
Cuba, details a case of great hardship, and it is
to be hoped that this affair will not be passed
over in the same indifferent manner which has so
often before characterised the proceedings of our
Government, It is quite evident that the chief
party to blame in the transaction was the com-
mandant of the Ulorro. This individual—doubt-•
less for want of some excitement, or eager to prove
his zeal in the discharge of his duties—made him-
self very unnecessarily and disagreeably officious,
by meddling with two innocent and harmless tree.
yellers. It does not seem that there existed the
slightest ground of suspicion against the two gen-
tlemen who were wandering about in the vicinity
of the Ulorro. The slightest pretext that could
exist of permission being required to visit the
environs is done away with by the fact that the
friends met the Commandant at the commence-
ment of their expedition, and asked him where
they could procure some water. If it were contrary
to regulations thus to visit the place, why did he
not inquire whether they had the necessary privi-
leges T instead of doing so, he only allowed them
to get fsirly into the trap, and then clutched his
prey in the most unceremonious fashion. The inci-
dents related by the brother of the English gentle•
man so unjustly detained are calculated to arouse
the strongest indignation, for it seems as if the
authorities in the town, and the troops at the for-
tress vied with each other in brutality and harsh-
ness of treatment. This strange conduct was
the more remarkable, since one of the
travellers was well known in the place, his
brother-in-law being the physician to the garrison
at Santiago. This circumstance was well known at
Santiago, and yet no attention was paid to the
fact. It was not until Dr. BERTRAM went to the
English Consul that they were discharged from
custody. This is too great an affront to be passed
over in silence, and those who would counsel each
a course are greatly mistaken ; it is by allowing ins
sults offered to our countrymen abroad to be suf-
fered with impunity that our prestige among foreign
nations has been lowered. Surely the troops were
capable of keeping these gentlemen in honourable
detention until a messenger had been sent to the
city to report what had passed, or they might have
been taken to Santiago at once. The fact was that
they were accused of taking plans of the fortifica-
tions, whereas they had not taken any materials for
such a purpose with them. If the commandant
acted under a mistaken notion, at least he might
have apologised for the error he had fallen into,
and also have shown more care in the confine-
ment of his prisoners. Nothing whatever was
proved against the accuser, and therefore there
was something very inconsistent in the whole
affair; there is not the excuse given that they
were trespassing that can be relied on, for it is
not usual among the inhabitants of the place to
obtain permission previously to visiting the for-
tress, and if an exception is to be made in the
case of foreigners, it ought to be announced in
such a place and manner that no mistake can
be made by ignorant newcomers. They were given
no food whatever during the nineteen hours they
were in charge of their gaolers, and it was not until
they reached Santiago the next morning that their
friends sent them some refreshment. This circume
stance alone proves the enormity of the conduct of
the authorities, because it was a shame, if the pri-
soners had friends or acquaintances in the place,
and it is to be presumed, according to evidence,that
had they been so situated they would have been
left to starve, or at all events to suffer great priva-
tions and injury to their health: They were
marched through the town on Sunday morning like
common prisoners under charge of a heavy crime,
and thus made a disgraceful spectacle. It is surely
too much to say that this is in conformity with the
rules and regulations of foreign countries, and
must, therefore be submitted to without a murmur.
It is not thus that reason speaks or justice should
decide upon a case. Without the shadow of a
charge that could be proved against him, an Eng-
lishman has been subjected to insults and hardships.
The Consul appears to have done his duty in insist.
ing upon his instant release, but something more j
remains to be done by those in authority at home.
They must demand an apology to be made for this
outrage, so that the world may see that our sub-
jects are net to be tamely insulted and
wantonly ill-treated to suit the fancies of
testy commandants of fortresses and tyran-
nous governors of cities. The brother of
Mr. GOODMAN, concludes his letter very properly
in these words—" I am sure that your readers will
join with me in the hope that the matter may be
duly attended to by her MAJESTY'S Government,
and that they will at least demand an explanation
and
apology from the Spanish authorities for this
disgraceful outrage on the person of one of her