The Sun.
London, England, 1864-10-05 00:00:00

for he considered that it was perfectly impositible,
under any circumstances, to have acceded to the
terms of the vote proposed by the Opposition. It
inferred that the great influence of England was
gone, and, exclaimed Sir JERVOISE. " Who would
dare to assert such a thing ?" It may be answered
to the hon. member that there are many who be-
lieve it, not only with feelings of shame and regret
in this country, but with sentiments of scorn and
ridicule abroad. He went on to beg the question,
by asking, Where had the influence gone, or who
had got it ? " Was it Prussia or Austria, who were
trying their rifled cannon upon helpless nations
fighting with pop guns ? Was it Prussia, who
carried on a correspondence with our Foreign
Secretary, who was supposed to meddle in every-
thing ?" It does not appertain to the question
where the influence has gone, but why it Es hould
have departed from among us, which most assuredly
to a great extent it has. Some console themselves
by thinking that we have at all events raised our
voices against the perpetration of wrong; but that
is only a sorry comfort, after all, for the people of
a powerful country to receive at the termination of
an unjust war and the commencement of a destroy-
ing peace. The Right Hon. Sir F. BARING observed
that he did not concur with those who asserted that
England was bound to go to war ou account of
having remonstrated in cases of injustice; he did
not think that the honour of the country was at all
compromised by having protested against wrong,
although afterwards it was found not convenient to
go to war. This tame style of thinking and corn- 1
promising expediency of action were not the
theories that were held by our forefathers,
who lived in the stirring days of the
world's history, and the dangers which
have been wrought in custom, and the alterations
in so many habits and practices have effected a
deplorable transformation in the spirit of the
country if such sentiments are to be the rule of the
hour, and impress and influence the intelligence
of the community. One thing, at all events, is
most noticeable in their speeches wherever and
whenever public topics are discussed and foreign
affairs are pat forward. There is a universal feel-
ing of disapprobation expressed everywhere, almost
amounting to censure and contempt for the con-
duct of the great German Powers. No man,
however much he may be imbued with
Ministerial predilections, or trained in favour
of the so called Liberal interest, ever raises
his voice in favour of the aggressors in the
late attempts to palliate the line they took. We
hear of no extenuation on the grounds of disputed
territory, no explanations of the difficulty of stop-
ping short when our quarrel had begun. It is all
plain speaking enough in most quarters. " Wrong,"
" inju3tice," "spoliation," are the terms employed
1 to designate the actions of the Prussians and their
allies. Surely something of this truth must have
by this time forced itself upon the notice of those
abroad, and at Berlin more especially, have pointed
a moral to the sad tale of Danish ruin. There are
none so blind as those who will not see; but at
times even these are compelled to read the signs
and tokens that are around them; and if ever a
nation had cause to be ashamed of its policy, it
must be that of Prussia. Through the length and
breadth of the land there has arisen a voice of
censure; and England, misguided by her statesmen
and prevented from an active mode of expressing
her feelings, has, by the popular voice, stamped
with indignant reprobation the course pursued by
the crafty powers ot Germany.

The question of the overcrowding of our la

bourers' cottages has this year attracted a good
deal of public attention. We often find, at this
season, that matters of a social or domestic nature
become prominent—thanks to the absence of the
more engrossing top:cs of political life. Even as
Lancashire, debarred from her usual industry, has
been driven to exercise her energies in useful but
unattractive undertakings, so the general public,
having no longer the excitement of a Ministerial
crisis, or the interest of a protracted debate on
some Imperial question, turns its attention to those
matters of internal economy, which, in busier

times, are apt to escape notice. But there are
other reasons why the wretched condition of the
homes of the working classes should this year be
brought more prominently forward than usual,
In the Metropolis itself large numbers have been
driven from their lodgings and have, of course,
taken up their abodes in other quarters already
crowded, while in country parishes, which railways
do not trouble, the natural increase of population
makes the evil every year greater and more appa-
rent. " A Herts Vicar," in communicating the
results of his experience to a contemporary, states
that he lives in a prosperous agricultural village,
where employment is plentiful and wages good,
Consequently the inhabitants are unwilling to leave
the neighbourhood; and all familiar with the habits
of the poor must know that mere want of space
would never drive them away from a profitable
occupation. The evils of overcrowding and bad
air, so imperfectly appreciated by the more educated
classes, if we may judge from the atmospheric con-
dition of our churches and chapels, our lectv,re-halls,
theatres, ball-rooms, and other places of public
assembly, to say nothing of the interior of many
private dwellings, are scarcely thought of among
those with whom the chance of obtaining food and
shelter at all is the first consideration. Landlords,
as we know, are not very willing to build cottages,
and in the country the investment would not be
profitable enough to attract the spectators who own
a large proportion of the London dwellings of the
poor. Tne result of all this is, as the Vicar simply
put it, that " While the population has increased,
house room has not increased in the same proportion,
so that not only have we in many instances two
families occupying one cottage, but many of the
cottages having but one bed-room, we have parents,
grown up sons and daughters, as well as young
children, occupying the same sleeping apartment—
an apartment in too many instances barely large
enough for the healthful occupation of a fourth part
of the number usually found sleeping in it, and with
&window, perhaps, opening to the extent of 24in, by
14n." It is not surprising, under the circumstances
that a strong man having to return to the family
sleeping-room after leaving it in the morning
should find the smell" almost 'enough to knock him
down." We need not wonder at the appearance of
epidemics in such a village, nor marvel that a visita-
tion of measles and fever should have carried cff a
large number of the population. But the worst
part of the case is that such an instance is by no
means e ceptional. Excepting perhi.ps that it
possesses some advantages in being able to give
good wages, and consequently good food, to its in.
habitants, it is in no way different from many
villages in England. The description given
above represents a state of things very common
amongst us, common in our agricultural districts,
in our manufacturing towns, in our metropolis
itself, and the evil is contintially on the increase
with our increasing population. We are startled
when some such statistics as these show us a
glimpse of its effects; but we see one-half of the
mischief in the returns of an epidemic. We do not
see the gradual sapping of strength—the injury
done to childhood—the dwarfiug of mind and body

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