The Sun.
London, England, 1864-06-17 00:00:00

of the Union, the cold slays them no less certainly,
when aided ty its two prime agents, want of food

LONDON, FRIDAY, JUNE 17, 1864.

The oddest answer ever addressed to an Opposi-
tion by a Prime Minister, at a diplomatic juncture
of extraordinary emergency, is seemingly at this
critical period regarded by Lord PALMERSTON as
--among all answers that could by possibility be
thought of—the most triumphant ! It is this—
without a syllable of explanation as to the Ministe-
rial policy in this vital matter about Schleswig.
Holstein, as between Denmark and Germany, with-
out one syllable of explanation, as to what has been
the drift of the Ministerial policy in the past as to
what is likely to be the drift of that policy in the
future, with a carelessly scornful, and yet a distinctly
defiant air, Lord PALMERSTON flings back by way
of retort to the Opposition this wonderful poser
—"Tell us, what would you have done under Bitni•
lar circumstances !" As if that were the constitu-
tional responsibility devolving upon an Opposition !
Namely, at any time of great difficulty, when the
Cabinet happens
to have got itself into a dilemma,
into what the Yankees would call a "fix"--to
come opportunely to the aid of Ministers, with a
suggestion as to what had better bo done!! This,
moreover, being said—as though the unfolding of a
policy by the Opposition were not only the right thing
periods of supreme
at these
for the Opposition to do,
anxiety, but as if snob were actually the solemn and
bounden duty of an Oppositiou. Was there ever
heard in the House of Commons anything in its way
more utterly preposterous ? Hardly possible, we
should think ! And the absurdity here is one fall-
ing not from the lips of a Sir BoYLE ROCEIE or of
a Colonel SIETHORP, but from those of a veteran

Parliamentanan, as ripe in experience, as sagacious
usually, in the detection of an absurdity, as Lord
PALMERSTON. No wander the Loader o!
the Opposition in the House of Com-
mons disdains to offer sty further reply
to eo mnsensical an ir.; itatiun whenever
this invitation has been diodainftily tossed over to

him by the Prime Minister, than—" It is not among
our duties as an Opposition !" As it certainly is
not. No—the day of reckoning has—very adroitly,
very cleverly, very successfully—been put off now
during all this weary session, week after week,
month after month, until, through February, and
March, and April, and May, we have got
far on into the middle of June! With
the period of grouseeshooting almost within view,
as one may say, at the end of a perspective of a
very few weeks longer !
These admirably well-managed postponements
of discussion (both in the Lords end in the Com-
mons, but more particularly, of course, in the Corn
mons) of the ministerial policy as regards the Dane-
German question—these admirably well-managed
postponements of all discussion upon the question,
being effected, it will be remembered, upon a
singular variety of pleas. First of all there was the
delay caused by the absence of any reference what.
ever to this vitally and supremely important Ques-
tion in the Royal Speech inaugurating this present
session. of Parliament. In that speech not a hint of a
promise was thrown out as to the Danish despatches
being laid in due form upon the table of Parlia•
ment ! Mr. DISRAELI'S lynx eye at once detected
this sinister omission his uncompromising
index-finger at once pointed it out ! And what
was the Prime Minister's reply thereupon ! Well
do we remember the almost, we had said, imperti-
nence of the very tone with which Lord PALMER-
STON scornfully replied to Mr. DISRAELI, " Why,
of course you'll have the papers laid before you !"
As though he had said, " Cela va sans dire—You
are putting the most ridiculous inquiries to the
Treasury Bench, as though you, Leader of
the Opposition though you are, Leader of the
House though you have been in your time (and
that twice), had no more experience of the
usages of the House or of the habits of Government
than a schoolboy ! Of course, you'll have them.
Don't make yourself in future 'quite so ridiculous
as to ask any more of these silly kind of questions !
Of course you'll have them--Yes, and in good time
also—and plenty of them, too !" Nay, as if warmed
into facetiousness by the exhilaration caused by
the utterance of his flippant sarcasms in
the way of retort, Lord PALMERSTON on that
first night of the session, while, thus replying to his
antagonist, to his principal rival for the lead of the
House of Commons, indulged himself in one of his
customary pleasantries. Saying, not only—" Of
course, you'll have them (these Danish papers you
are worrying about), and plenty of them—but," in a
sort of eerio comic aside to the House, the effect of
which drowned the closing words of the sentence in
general laughter, "There are so many of these papers
in fact to wade through that, heaven help any man
who"—here it was that there oame the laughter,
drowning whatever words brought the noble lord's
sentence to a grammatical conclusion. 'Yet, while
such was the sort of reply first given by Lord
PALMERSTON to Mr. DISRAELI'S inquiries, his
very natural inquiries surely in regard to the
Danish Correspondence—in answer to further quese
tions as to how it came that no mention at all of the
correspondence was made in the Royal Speech—
what was Lord PALMERSTON'S answer by way of
explaining that silence ? Why, it was actually
this—" We didn't want to make it (the speech)
too long !" The Speech, it will be remembered,
referred to the difficulty in the matter of the
Japanese disturbances and the consequent dip-
lomatic correspondence, but, for fear of being
too long, it made no mention of the docu•
mentary consequences of the war in the north
of Europe—to wit, the Dane •Gertnaa Cor-
respondence ! 'Wonderful reticence, certainly,
under the circumstances I However, the papers, not
promised in the Speech, when asked for (so unne-
cessarily!) by the Opposition, were to be given in
due time as a matter of course. When ? asked the
Opposition. " DJn't keep worrying us in this
way !" was virtually the reply of Ministers—" In
all reasonable time, you may be quite certain
of that." Well, we remember the reasonable
time it did take! The mere commencement
of the piecemeal publication of the despatches, was
only extorted after an awfully long pause—and
How, even then ? By a series of the most pertina-
cious badgerings on the part of the Opposition !
Even when commenced at last, the correspondence
was doled out at as long and at as uncertain inter-
vals as possible ! And, at the best, it stopped
short abruptly. It bore here and there the appear-
ance of having been, as they say, very carefully cooked
or doctored. Then there was the excuse about the
Conference. In regard to that, the Opposition was
recommended to hold its peace and to delay dis-
cussion, in the national interests, because a Con-
ference was probable. Next, the Conference
would be held, and—" At least," it was said to the
Opposition, " you will wait until it has as-
sembled," Then, when it had assembled—
"At any rate, you won't spoil every chance
of a pacific settlement of differences, by debat-
ing the Dano-German Question in the House
while the Conference is sitting." Afterwards
came the adjournments of the sittings of the Pleni-

potentiaries—then the armistice of a month—then
the armistice of a supplementary fortnight ! And

so the chief part of the session has eaten itself away
" dumb expectancy !" Lord PALMERSTON'S
smartest retort upon the Opposition being—" Tell
us Your policy !" If the House of Commons con-

tinues to endure this state of things much longer,
it is certainly far more meek and far more easily
contented than we should have imagined.

The report
of
the select committee appointed to
inquire into the
administration of the Poor Law
Relief system, and its general operation, has just
been iesited. It is, as might have been anticipated,
-voluminous in extent, since it includes the proceed-
ings of the committee at their several meetings.
The members
appear to have devoted themselves to
their onerous task with 13881
Mous attention, and the
result of their prolonged and careful inquiry is now
before the public, and will tend, we
may hope, to
some amelioration of existing evils. The committee
was originally instituted with the view of ascer-
taining how far the ordinary Poor Law was able to
bear the pressure of any exceptional distress. It
was appointed in consequence of the distress preva-
lent in 1860-61, and part of the report refers to
facts connected with that short period. By a euri,
ous and melancholy coincidence the report is issued
just after another period of extreme distress, and the
circumstance is perhaps fortunate, since the public
attention is more likely to be directed to the im-
portant subjects discussed in it, while the revela-
tions of our bitter winter are still fresh in the popu-
lar recollection. Englishmen have been shocieed
and startled to find that in spite of all their costly
appliances for the relief of the destitute, a season
like the winter we have had renders deaths from
want and cold appalingly frequent. It has been
shown, moreover, on careful inquiry, that the evil
is of beg standing, and that when a sudden "cold
wave of the
iu one atmosphere" mows down its hundreds
night, the victims are gathered from the
aged, the feeble, the sick, and the very poor. These
last form a large proportion of those doomed by the
Frost King, and if they escape the publicity conse-
quent upon being found dead on a doorstep, or
being repulsed with unusual severity from the doors

and lack of clothing and shelter. The public have
grown somewhat impatient of hearing the same
story over and over again—want of work or ill-
ness, and consequent extreme distress, a dislike to
enter the Union, and on application for out-door
relief, sometimes granted, sometimes refused, and
so the paupers drag on a few months above the
level of starvation till the frost comes, and
they are carried to the home which no
one begrudges them. The difficulty of the question
always is the natural disinclination to assist idle-
ness or imposture, and to encourage that thriftless
vagrancy which likes to live at other people's ex-
pense rather than its own. But this praiseworthy
caution is stretched too far, and, like the bed of
PROCRUSTES, the rules and regulations of guardians
and relieving officers too often know no possible ex-
tension or compression. They have no adaptability
to circumstances. According to the statistics pub-
lished in this Report, the average pauperism of the
metropolis is 96,752, but during three successive
weeks of the frost of 1862 the number rose so
largely that in the fifth week of the frost it was
135,389. This is surely an exceptional case—not
one for the application of rigid roles and uncom-
promising systems. The applicants at such a sea-
son should surely have the benefit of the doubt, and
temporary relief might be administered pending the
necessary investigation into their circumstances. It
would be more satisfactory to find that a man or
woman in no great need had received a loaf or a
night's shelter than to find that the houseless and
the starving had been sent away uncared for, espe-
cially when illness is added to their troubles. We
are glad to find that the committee have turned
much of their attention to the question of casual
relief, and they give their opinion that the central
authority should be empowered to direct boards of
guardians to provide suitable and sufficient wards
for the reception and relief of the wandering poor;
and they also recommend that such arrangements
should be uniform throughout the country. This
recommendation, if properly carried out, will be
highly efficacious in checking and suppressing
vagrancy ; and the suggestion of employing police
constables as assistant relieving officers for vagrants
is a very good one, inasmuch that they will pro-
bably be far more correct in their discrimination
between the really suffering and the worthless
idler. It is not this class, however, that appeals so
forcibly to the public sympathies as the settled
poor, who from loss of work or other causes sink
into extreme distress; and it is these who are
the greatest sufferers from the inequalities of
the poor rate. It is cagy for the reader
who hears casually of a death from starva-
tion or neglect to upbraid the officials of the eastern
parishes, and in some cases the reproach is, no
doubt, well merited. But it is manifestly a matter
of extreme difficulty, if not impossibility, for
parishes like Bethnal-green anti parts of Lambeth
and Poplar, to support their own paupers, and there
will always be great unwillingness on the part of
the officials of such parishes to press heavily on the
rates. The question remains why an arbitrary
division of streets and houses should render it more
obligatory on a struggling tradesman at the East
end of London to pay for the relief of a poor man
whom he has never sewn than it is in the wealthy
western householder. The duties of Christianity
and citizenship appeal alike to both. The claims
of mercy and humanity are certainly not measured
by parishes and precincts. But not only is the
poor man compelled to contribute equally
with the rich, which would be sufficiently un-
fair, but he is forced to pay five or six times as
much in discharge of his share of a common duty.
The difference of the poor rate in the two St.
George's, east and west, gives a most forcible exem-
plification of the absurd inequalities of the'existing
system; but unhappily the system produces somea
thing more than abaurdity—it results in needless
suffering and those deaths from starvation of which
we are all so heartily ashamed. The committee have
had much evidence laid before them, showing the
unequal pressure of the poor rate in different parts
of the metropolis, and have inspected various plans
for its equalisation. The result is that, although
they do not expressly recommend any particular
scheme, they direct the attention of the House to the
general question, and we hope that before long a
full and careful consideration will be given
to this very important matter. When we consider
the large number at which the Report estimates
our average pauperism in the metropolis alone, we
shall at once see the necessity for some improvement
in the manner of dealing with it. The Committee
recommend in plain terms, " That any measure for
extending the area of rating should, in the opinion
of the Committee, embrace provisions for making
the whole cost for the poor in each union chargeable
to the common fund of the union." Such a recom-
mendation will not, we hope, be without its effect;
and we trust that even in the present session some
attention may be given to it. It will be neces-
sary to take some steps to provide aga.inst
the possibility of another severe frost, but it
is difficult for the central authority to secure
united action in all the parishes under its care
—and the consequence is that the charge of the
casual poor presses nearly as unequally on the diffe-
rent parishes as the poor rate itself, since the
houseless poor naturally walk on to the parish
where they know there is some accommodation for
them, and in which they are likely to meet with a
tolerable reception. Another very important matter
mentioned in the report is the classification of
inmates in workhouses. The value of this classi-

fication it is difficult to over-ostim ate, and we are
not surprised that tho Committee consider it de-

sirable that power should be given to the Central

Board to require guardians to make adequate

arrangements for such classification where there is
not at present sufficient accommodation. The isu-

portanee of separating the young and impression.

able from the incorrigible vagrant is very

great, and it is desirable that the aged and

infirm should have many indulgences which

cannot be included in the arrangements for
the able-bodied and healthy. There is no

fear, as matters at present stand, of the respectable

English poor being too fond of the workhouse ;
the great objects to attain are to secure prompt
and efficient relief for those who apply for it, to
prevent the rates from pressing unfairly on the
poor householder,' and to maintain a sufficient
BYstem of classification within the doors. It is

also desirable that the officials should not be hedged
round with such divinity that the mere approach
to them is formidable, and that those who have
seen better days' should not deliberaiely prefer
death from gradual starvation to entering the
Union.

Captain SrAIMEB has done himself great credit
by his spirited vindication of the course he has
pursued, and successfully proved his case in a busi-
ness and straightforward style. It is time, indeed,
that something was said or written in contradiction
of the many reports that have been so eagerly cir-
culated on ail sides. The only correct way in which
to look at a question of this sort, is to study both
sides and to take into consideration the pros and
cons of the affair. Instead of following this saga,.
cions plan, it has been the invariable custom of all