The Sun.
London, England, 1864-03-28 00:00:00

house among the decent poor, that rather than
enter its doors they will undergo such cruel priva-
tions. The harsh repulse, the poor food, the strict
regulations do not deter the vagrant or worthless
paupers who want a place of shelter for the
winter ; but when the industrious sober man,
from some of those calamities from which
neither king nor beggar ere exempt, is unable to
procure food, medicine, or shelter, why is it that,
with all our cumbrous and costly appliances, he
dies for want of them. How is it, coming to a
minor point of detail, that parish medical orders are
not obtainable on Sunday. Most assuredly death
and disease are not obedient to the rules of the
guardians, neither will they wait the
convenience of relieving officer or parish
apothecary. This inquiry is more easily answered

than the broad general question, and we may
therefore hope for some solution of it. But the
parish authorities are not the parties to blame in
this case. The fault lay with the poor man him-
self, with his neighbours who never took the
trouble to inquire into the matter, and, above all,
with the landlord. For twelve months MYERS had
occupied his room, for eight of those months he had
paid his rental of ls. 31. a week. Since the most
casual inspection might have satisfied him that the

arrears were the result of poverty, and not of dis-

honesty, why did not the landlord apply to the
parish authorities, and have the case properly
attended to. No doubt the poor man told his
own story of illness and incapacity for work ; the
very workman who was sent to remove the door
and window could have testified to the truth of it.
But whether one man more or less died, what did
it matter ? His pound of rent was a much more
serious thing, and accordingly it was his intention,

if the window and door did not do their work, to
have the flooring taken up. It would surely have
been more rational and more economical to have
applied to the police magistrate, or the relieving
officer, than to the carpenter. A woman, it seems,
managed the letting of the rooms, but she said it
was by Mr. ROBY'S orders that the door was
taken down. How far she is responsible for the
cruelty and the neglect of the proceedings we
cannot say. We can only regret that the jury
did not express the indignation which they felt
in their verdict. But Mr. ROBY is probably well
satisfied. He has won the day, he has carried the
siege—the besieged party being literally " starved
out." Truly things have come to a pretty pass
in this our Christian England, and yet we may
thank our Night Refuges and Asylums that such
cases are not multiplied by hundreds. In spite
of commercial prosperity and increasing wealth,
in spite of the well-fed convict and pampered
felon, the honest poor may still too often exclaim,
in the words of HOOD'S pathetic apostrophe—
"Oh GOD that bread should ba so dear,
And flesh and blood so cheap l"

The King of Prussia's reply to the Conservative
address is a yelp characteristic one; and as one
peruses it the mind recalls the unhappy conten-

Cons and endless strifes which distracted the in-
ternal condition of Prusria during the past year.
King WILLIAM still attempts to play the martyr,
and with well-feigned virtuous indignation he de-
claims against those who occasion the disaffec-

tion that disturbs him. Thus we read that " In-
dustrious efforts hove been made to confuse the
people," Can anything be more absurd than this.
It is true that efforts have been made, but by
the Ministers of the Crown under the sanc-
tion and with the universally acknowledged ap-
proval of the King. It cannot be said that the
people were confused exactly by their doings, but
they were grieved and disappointed in the extreme
at the sudden loss of confidence which they felt in
their rulers. King WILLIAM is aware of the fine
he will have to pay for his dearly cherished
scheme of absolutism, for he describes in this dis-
course the withdrawal of his people's love and con-
fidence as the "heaviest sacrifice that can be laid
upon a Sovereign." It is all very well to carry
out the purport of the paragraph to go on to declare
that he is always endeavouring to establish and
secure that welfare. 'The expression of such senti-
ments sounds well in an address or a reply, but
we who can see behind the scenes, and behold
things from afar with their bold outlines dis-
played, not troubling ourselves about the minor
adjuncts, are pretty well satisfied that when
Monarchs seek to extend their power beyond the
verge of constitutional limits, and Ministers in the
plenitude of their zeal seek at all hazards to carry
out the royal desires, the welfare of the people is
put quite on one side. It may be taken as an un-
erring test that when rulers and authorities speak
overmuch concerning the intensity of their solici-
tude for the well-being of their subjects, mischief
is brewing somewhere. Profession and prac-
tice are very different things, and a melan-
choly illustration is now being exemplified in
Prassii. The King next goes on to announce
hie satisfrction at the " joyful revulsion" that has
taken place. It is to be questioned if this delight
may not be very questionable in the long run ; but,
at all events, now it is a certified thing, an acknow-
ledged fact, and King WILLIAM makes the most of
it. The army comes in for its share of compliments,
and this praise is accorded with a willing hand,
and, doubtless, the appreciation of its merits springs
quite es much from the opportune assistance it has
rendered in dispersing the enemies at home as in
gaining triumphs abroad. The sense of injustice,
the hatred of oppression, and the determination to
vindicate their rights which so distinguished the
Prussians last year, and which called forth the
admiration and attracted the sympathy of Europe,
is now lost sight of, when the victims are to be
others and not themselves. This is not as it should
be, end goes far to neutralise all the good feelings
and kind interest that were being expressed in this
country. The strange fact is, however, that the
KING does not want to make out that all is pro-
mising. He passes over this present period, and
takes a perspective glance at the time when war
must merge in peace. Of this era he does not seem
sanguine, nor can he refrain from
giving utterance
to his gloomy prognostications. "When this is
past, it is not impossible that we shall encounter
times such as we have known for two years." This
is encouraging, certainly ; the most vehement
opponent of the BISMARK faction, the most bitter
satirist of the policy that reigns supreme in the
Berlin Cabinet, could hardly have uttered a more
startling warning, or indulged in a more sinister
prophecy. It is most probably a very sapient re-
mark, but it is not a statement which bears out its
own professions, in so far as regards the tone and
temper of the Royal Address. A King who has the
interest of his people at heart now enjoys the
esteem which he deserves, and meets the respect
he merits, because the people are dazzled
and delighted with the successes of their armies in
prosecuting an urgent war with cruel, arduous, and
misguided zeal. When, however, this season is past,
all that can be looked for is a recurrence to the tur-
moils that disgraced the public condition and dis-
tracted the private existence of the kingdom. If
this is to be all that can result from so much time,
trouble, and expense, King WILLIAM may well ex-
claim, in the words of a wiser king than any that
ever sat ca a Prussian throne, "All is vanity and
ion of spirit." The ooneludin- -sepia in

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