The Sun.
London, England, 1864-04-13 00:00:00

organised against this bill will not succeed in mak-
ing so many changes as to defeat its purpose or limit
its power. It is worth notice that the objections

raised to the measure are mainly based upon the

anticipation of its wide and speedy pcpularity, It

is not intended to make the subscription to such

annuities compulsory as to existing societies. If
the plan be really sound and beneficial to the work-

ing
l man there can be no just ground for withhold-
ing it from him. If, on the contrary, the working

classes are foolish enough to enter upon a really

objectionable and profitless arrangement for
choice, that is a strange reason why the State
should trust them entirely to societies of
their own framing. No man is bound to
draw out his savings from the savings bank, and
invest them in deferred annuities; but if he choose
to select perfect security and moderate interest in
preference to the more captivating programmei held
out by friendly societies, it is surely fair that he
should have the chance. Many of these already
existing societies are no doubt conducted on strictly
honourable principles. Still it is no secret, as re.
vealed by the applications to our magistrates, that
there are too many designing persons who, under
the guise of agents to some mythical association,
contrive to defraud the poor of their hard earnings.
The knowledge that there is such a safe investment
in existence may prove of some service in checking
these unprincipled imposters, while there is little
doubt that a very large proportion of those whose
savings are invested in respectable societies will
• prefer to have the higher rate of interest whic h
private associations are enabled to give, and to
have their money more under their own control
than it would be according to the Government
scheme. Another serious drawback to the measure

in its competition with private companies, as Mr.
GLADSTONE pointed out in his able explanatory
speech, is its inability to insure lives under
the age of sixteen. It seems that a very
large proportion of the insurances effected
among the lower classes came under this
category, so that the existing societies will retain
one formidable advantage over the Government.
The bill is at all events one which should have a fair
trial, and it should be remembered that working
men's savings are not a legitimate object of specu-
lation or a fair field for making profit. The one
great object of all such associations should be the
advantage of the working men, not by giving him
a larger interest than can fairly be claimed for his
money, but by securing him and his family against
those dark days that are only too common among
the vicissitudes of a toiling life. The question should
not be how is the society to make the best returns,
how are its managers and promoters to reap the
larget profits, but on what terms can the invest-
ments be best secured from risk, and how can the
affair be conducted at a reasonable profit with the
minimum of expense. It is to be regretted that
Mr. GLADSTONE, in his anxiety to make out a strong
case in favour of his measure, should have excited
so mach hostility by his personal remarks, but there
would probably have been in any case a vigorous
opposition to the measure, of which it can only
be said that its merits are too apparent to
be altogether overlooked by working men. There
is no reason why meetings should be organised
among the working classes, and the moral liberty
of the subject declared to be in danger. If the
Bill is really so fall of faults it is paying a poor
compliment to our artisans to suppose that they
will not perceive and avoid them, If it really
trenches on their privileges, and interferes with
their independence, they have only to mark their
sense of its vices by withdrawing their support
from it. As we have said, no one is forced to
enrol himself among its subscribers, and it does
not hinder any person from investing his money
where he likes. We shall look with some anxiety
to its passage through Committee, hoping that
some advisable modifications will be all the changes
that it will undergo.

The intelligence received from India by the Bom-
bay Mail is on the whole satisfactory. There is
little news of note, which is perhaps the most fa-
vourable sign of the progress and tranquillity of
the country. It appears that the outbreak on the
frontier, which has fortunately been so promptly
and effectually suppressed, is now looked upon as
something much more serious than a mere disturb-
ance among the hill tribes. It is thought to have
been part of a vast organised conspiracy among the
Mussulmans for the overthr'w of British rule.
The mutiny of 1857, which owed its origin mainly
to Hindoo fanaticism, has taught us what to fear
from such a source, and if these surmises prove to
have been actually well founded, we have good
reason to be thankful for having escaped an immi-
nent danger. As it is all is tranquil, and a power.
ful auxiliary of civilisation and order is now called
into existence, the railway line being carried
from Calcutta to Delhi, a distance of 900
miles! Such a triumph of skill and
energy will work wonders in our behalf. The Pun-
jab will no longer be a world of its own, cut off from
active and rapid communication with the centres
of European civilisation. Late ligence will be trans-
mitted by the telegraph wires with a celerity that
will baffle all Mohammedan calculations, and coun-
teract the plots and intrigues of the disaffected.
Travellers will find their way to the hills with an
ease and rapidity that will tend to benefit trade and
divert the thoughts of the people from wars and
insurrections to the more profitable channels of
peace and industry. Already when the mail left
the first engine had travelled from Mirzapore to
Allahabad, and by this time the company is proba-
bly booking passengers for the whole distance from
the City of Palaces to the ancient capital of the
Moguls. It is some satisfaction, remembering the
tenacity of the three Whig families in office, that
the present head of the India office looks
with a favourable eye on the extension
of Indian railways. The noble lord takes great
credit to himself for this happy exception to
his general policy. 'Why the same reasons
that apply to laying down railway lines do not
apply with equal or even greater force to the cutting
of canals and other works of irrigation, which are
even more remunerative than the land traffic, it
needs a Whig statesman to discover. Perhaps it is
on the famous " Rest and be thankful" policy that
the works at Godavery, which are pouring in money
to the treasury and saving from famine a parched
and barren coantry,have been stopped halfway. At
any rate, Sir ARTHUR COTTON is insensible to the
merits of the system which has paralysed his best
efforts. The tidings of the cotton crop are generally
satisfactory, but the obstacles in the way of transit
are a great hindrance to business. This difficulty
will of course be gradually lessened, and in time dis-
appear altogether. Two accidents are chronicled by
the mail, both from fire. The one occurred on the
Great Indian Peninsula Railway, in which five
loaded waggons were burnt. The other, which was
of a more serious nature, took place at Calcutta, in
the river where a ship loaded with saltpetre burned
for five hours before it could be scuttled. The most
noticeable part of the affair was the utter ineffi-
ciency of the engines, and the risk that was conse-
quently run before the vessel could be got out
and prevented from doing further mischief.
It seems that the fire brigade is quite at a discount
in Calcutta, which, in a large an wealthy c:ty