The Sun.
London, England, 1864-02-05 00:00:00

the discussions upon the Royal Speech and the
Loyal Addresses commenced. The proposers and
seconders of the Addresses, arrayed—according to
the ridiculous etiquette of the Legislature in gold-
laced unifornis of some kind or another, one as a Rifle
Volunteer, one as an officer of Yeomanry, one
as a deputy lieutenant of a county, together so
many doomed oratorical Men in Buckram—had, as
usual, to bear the brunt of inaugurating the debates
of the year. Happily, perhaps, in one respect,
(though unhappily beyond all doubt in another, see-
lug that they were dreadfully long-winded) the
the Marquess of SLIGO and Lord ABERCROMBIE
were nearly inaudible, even in the body of the
House of Peers. While—in the Commons—
if the modest harangue of Lord RICHARD
GROSVENOR were (as it certainly was not) one jot
better than a mere schoolboy oration, the speech
of Mr. GOSCHEN, the new member for the City
of London, unquestionably rose, before its conclu-
sion, to a level of considerable excellence. It was
throughout a manly, straight-forward, well-consi-
dered address, and was delivered, all through, with
very good effect, the immediate close of it, as just
now hinted, telling admirably from its mere earnest-

ness.

Thereupon,withont further parley, came at once the
Tug of War " with a will"—in the Lords between
the Earl of DERBY and Earl RUSSELL, in the Com-
mons between Mr. DISRAELI and Lord PALMER-
STON. Than the remarks of the noble
Earl the Leader of her MAJZSTY'S Opposi-
tion, upon the meddling system upon which
the Foreign Secretary appears to be bent upon
♦indicating, in the most inconsistent manner pos-
sible, the Procrustian policy of Non-Interven-
tion, none, surely, could have been more thoroughly
exhilarating, because none could very well have been
more genuinely humorous in their application I—
"' Nihil intactum reliquit,' " exclaimed Lord
DERBY, quoting from Dr. Jomisort's epitaph on
Dr. GOLDSMITH in the neighbouring Abbey,
" tetigit quod non' I cannot say
ornavit,' but conturbavit.' (Laughter.) The
policy of the noble earl, as illustrated by his appli-
cation of the principle of non-intervention, may be
given in two homely vernacular words, meddle and
muddle.' (Laughter.) The course of the noble lord's
correspondence in every difficulty that has arisen
has been lecturing, scolding, blustering and re-
treating. (Cheers.) The policy of the Cabinet re-
minds me of another party of actors, who figure in
the Midsummer Night's Dream: The noble earl
himself seems anxious to combine the parts of
two members of that company—Bottom, the
weaver, and Snug, the joiner. He is, like Bot-
tom the weaver, ambitious to play every part, not
excepting that most satisfactorily played by Moon-
shine. (Laughter.) But his favourite part is that
of the Lion. He says, ' Let me play the Lion ; I
will roar so that it shall do a man's heart good ; so
that men shall say, well roared the Lion.' (Laughter.)
He knows also how to follow the other part of the
example set him by Bottom—how to aggravate his
voice like any sucking dove. (Renewed laughter.)
He has had recourse also to that ingenious
device mentioned by the dramatist,' Let not the
audience be too much alarmed by the Lion, let
us show them one side of my face under my
skin, and let us say I am no Lion at all, but
only Bottom the weaver.' (Roars of laughter.)"

Lord RUSSELL'S characteristic return in kind, for
which hard hitting—when his time came in due
course for the indulgence of a little tart and
smart telling, if not actually quelling retaliation
—was, it will be perceived, this eminently terse,
almost witty, rejoinder as the very first sentence
of his harangue in reply :—" The noble earl
has borrowed his wit from his memory and
his facts from his imagination." It is true that
we happen to have heard something exceedingly
like that before. But let that pass, for we want to
turn:our remarks now, for some brief while at least, to
the Two Speeches last night in the House of Commons,
the speech of Mr. DISRAELI and the speech of Lorl
PALMERSTON.

As bold, outspoken harangues inaugurative
of the Debates of the Session, they were worthy
in every way of the two great statesmen.
We hardly remember when either the noble lord
the Prime Minister, or his formidable assailant the
right hon. gentleman the leader of the Opposition,
has begun the struggle of a session with more
energy and animation, The very tone of voice, the
mere personal bearing of Mr. DISRAELI appeared to
indicate hisdetermination to enact his part, whatever
it may turn out to be, this year most energetically.
And this—unusually for him (the exordium of a
speech of Mr. DISRAELI'S, being ordinarily delivered
almost, one might say, sotto voce, with suppressed
power and studied deliberation)—this ringing voice
and trenchant accentuation of his words, being
noticeable yesterday in the right hon. gentleman's
remarks at the very outset, in his very open-
ing sentences. Ex. gr. his introductory reference
to the Royal Speech, as appearing to him to be " a
document not addressed to the time in which we
live, and bearing no due relation to the circum-
stances of the day "—a document of which he said
afterwards, "If it were not for one paragraph, in
which an appeal is made to the unaffected loyalty
of the nation by reminding ua of the birth of an
heir to the Prince of Wales, I really see no reason
why it should not have been composed in any other
year than A.D. 1864." Could anything, moreover,
have been pore completely, more intensely seci
generis than Mr. DISRAELI'S comment upon one
little result of Lord RUSSELL'S bewildering scheme
of diplomacy, that namely, coming to light recently
in Greece—"We all know that against fate you may
guard, but no human sagacity can Mae the uncon-
scious machinations of stupidity!" Again—when re-
ferring to the English Foreign Secretary's singularly
curt and most irritating because most offensive rejec-
tion of the EMPEROR'S no doubt scarcely practica-
ble, but still humane and magnanimous project of
a Great European Congress—the right hon. gentle-
man delivered himself thus admirably of his senti-
ments : " The position of the Emperor of the
FRENCH," he said, " is peculiar. He has
publicly, almost ostentatiously, proclaimed it
to Europe, and therefore there is no in-
delicacy in referring to it—ha has told you
that he is not like the Emperor of AUSTRIA
or the Emperor of RUSSIA. He does not stand
upon tradition—he is not hedged in by the magic
of prescriptive right. Ile has been created, and
can only be maintained, by the sympathies of his
people—a proud, imperious, and discontented
people. Humiliate the idol, and the worshippers
are disquieted. A considerate ally might have
remembered this. An ally who had encouraged
the very policy which had involved the Emperor
o f the FRENCII—an ally who had been the par-
t aker of his project, and fully shared his diplomatic
.discomfiture—such an ally ought not have received
the proposition for a congress in a spirit of cynical
criticism. I maintain that the natural language of
diplomacy is conciliatory. I say that it is to be
regretted that the Foreign Secretary of State did
not find a happier medium for expression than a
sneer." The perfect reasonableness of all which,
-who is there—saving only it may be some thick
and thin apologist of the Minister—will
for one instant venture to gainsay ? Caustic,
however, though Mr. DISRAELI was last evening,

as Mr. DISRAELI can be when he lists—Lord PAL.
MERSTON was still a match for him, even when his
thrusts were seemingly the deadliest : and he was
thus a match forhiw, moreover, with the easy grace of
an imperturbable bonhommie. Taunted with having
no Policy and having no Allies, Lord P- ALMER-
STON'S reply was—if only for the mere manner of it'
the scarcely perceptible shrug of the shoulders,
the barely appreciable inflection of the voice—ex-
quisitely felicitous. Thus, when referring to the
Schleswig - Holstein difficulty, when that
difficulty gave indications of having reached
a very climax of complication, quoth the
veteran Premier last evening, "We, in con-
junction with France, Russia, and Sweden—we
have no allies—(laughter)—we are entirely unsup-
ported by any one—(laughter)—but it so happens
that, by some combination of circumstances or
other, some Powers are acting with us—call this
what you like—we, with France, Russia, and
Sweden, have called on Prussia to wait
till the the time necessary for assembling the
Danish Parliament, to procure the revocation
of the constitution." Again, a little later on, when
alluding to another incident—" We made,"
he said " many applications to prevent this,
but we had no policy.' (A laugh.) But
it was done somehow or other. We
made this proposal." The House, naturally,
roaringwith merriment at each of these good-
humoured rejoinders of the Prime Minister—a
merriment equally contagious with the Opposition
as with the Government ! Unpremeditated illus-
trations by the House of Commons, as one may
say, of—
" Laughter holding both its sides ! "

Such, altogether, were the salient points noticeable
in regard to last evening's discussions in the Lords
and Commons upon the occasion of the first sitting
of Parliament this session. The drift of those
discussions has not by one iota altered our
view as! expressed upon the instant in The Sun
of yesterday, immediately after the delivery of the
Royal Speech on the openineof the Legislature—it
has not altered, we repeat, by one iota our opinion
as to the bewildering haziness of that Speech
as a programme for the session, or as to the enigma-
tical character of the Policy of the Government,
even if it should be proved in the end to have really
any definable Policy whatever.

The revelations made by the Sanitary Inspector
at Norwich respecting the condition of the dwel-
lings of our apiculture' labourers are sufficient to
startle the most incredulous or indifferent. As this
gentleman boldly appends his name and address to
the statistics which he furnishes, and as they re-
main unchallenged, there is no reasonable excuse
for doubting his statements. In his official capacity
he has naturally come into contact with many evils
which might escape the notice of casual visitors,
and it is certainly high time that these secrets
should be dragged to the light of day, and public
opinion brought to bear upon the matter. The
miserable places which he now describes are, he
tells us, to be found on the estates of noblemen and
gentlemen of good position, who are ambitious of
legislating for the nation while they are incapable
of ruling their own property rightly. The evil,
says Mr. CLARKE, abounds in both open tied close
parishes, but the greater number of the instances he
has now brought forward are taken from private
estates. One of the cottages he has seen
has one small, ill ventilated bed-room occu-
pied by eight persons ! No ventilation would
suffice for sash a Black Hole unless the windows
were wide open day and night. But our pleasant
English villages abound with such Black Holes.
Mr. CLARKE has seen one in which a man, his wife,
and three daughters—the eldest 20—sleep in a
room lift. by 10ft. 4in. ; and another, from which
the commonest conveniences are absent, where
father and mother, five daughters, and two sons are
compelled to sleep in one room. One place is de-
scribed as " an old clay hut with two chambers ;"
another as. "a clay hovel cracked and tumbling
about in all directions inside and out ;" a third as
" a wretched old hovel consisting of two low rooms."
Well may Mr. CLARKE, as sanitary officer, speak of
the ravages of fever among a population housed
like this, crowded into miserable hovels entirely
deficient in all sanitary arrangements, with crumb-
ling walls and often leaking roof. What are the
landlords about ? Doubtless many of them will
readily come forward with their donations to
charities, their annual subscriptions to schools
and asylums, regardless of the fact that
they are making paupers and sufferers by the
homes to which they are condemning their
poorer tenants. Of such inconsistency, it may
be said, without irreverence, " These ought ye to
have done, and not to leave the other undone.'
Those who clamour for the political rights of the
people had better first devote their energies to
securing some recognition of their rights as civilised
human beings. Such homes as those described
above are a disgrace to any estate, and in their
tendency to produce fever, to encourage epidemics,
to lower the moral tone, and take away the self-
respect of the labouring classes, they surely bring
in some degree their punishment. The misfortune
is that that punishment falls heaviest on the inno-
cent party. It comes in broken health, dirt, and
discomfort to the parents, and it opens the way to
the direct temptations for the children. Decency
and cleanliness and comfort are consulted in our pri-
sons; they should surely not be altogether impos-
sibilities in an honest working man's home. As a
well-known writer has justly said, "To keep on an
estate, not only the marketable value must be paid
for its labour, but in that value must
be included real decent homes. If this is not done,
the labour of an estate, ever in a state of transition,
will be one continued plague to the owner and the
tenantry." This need of decent houses is greatly
felt by the poor in London, where the rents are so
high as to be a terrible drain on their scanty re-
sources. Miss BURDETT COUTTS, Mr. WATERLOW,
and others, have endeavoured to mitigate the evil,
and Mr. PEABODY'S munificent gift is being de-
voted to the same good cause. There are some
points about the new houses built by the trustees of
this fund, however, which might, we think, be
modified with advantage, if the object is to benefit
those most in need of help. The rents are above
the reach of the struggling poor who can hardly
keep their heads above water. Yet they more than
others need decent and well-kept homes to preserve
them from sinking into utter degradation. Again,
some houses should surely be built out of this mag-
nificent fund which should be for the accommodation
not of the respectable but of the most needy. It is
well, of course, to encourage respectability, bat a
well-to-do artisan, with a little furniture about him,
can with no great difficulty get clean and respectable
rooms, and it is for those sinking step by step, whose
things have been perhaps taken for rent, or pledged
for pressing need, that help is most wanted. Such
persons are often refused admittance into decent
apartments and are driven to low alleys, and dis-
reputable courts, in which they soon become
absorbed into the mass of dirty and disorderly
inhabitants. The return becomes next to impos-
sible, and habits of drunkenness and pauperism
are confirmed by their reckless associates ; the
children play with the unkempt and ill-taught
I ragamuffins round them, until they too add to the