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

Commence at 7.

114T017EL STYLE in FRENCH BONNETS..—
French fash'on has produced Bonnets for this month
of a light go samer texture, which ace )mmodate the present
style of wearing and displaying the lady's h ir. They are of
the most exquisite variety, and, though still adhering to the
favourite colours of black. white, and neutral, are entirely
remodelled in shape, size, and substance.
Spe Sally imported from Paris for
JAY'S,
The London General 3' ourninz Warehouse,
247, :49, and 2:1, Regent-street.

/THE ASCOT-- RACE GLASSES (rhe best)
at CALLAGHAN'S, 23A, New Bond-street, W.,
corner of Ccnduit-street. N.B.—,tole agent to Voigtlander,
Vienna.

COALS.—The LILLES HAL L COMPANY'S
COALS.
Direct from their own Collieries.
Marquis' 245. per ton. I Double.. 20s. per ton.
'lop 235. „ Nut 5........ iSs. „
Deep 2ls.
Well screened and delivered within five miles of their De-
pots, Westbourne Park-road, W., and 17, South Wharf,
Paddington, W., and Maiden-lane, N.
Best Coke

Terms cash.
JOHN SCOTT, Sole Agent

THE THIRD EDITION OF " THE SUN,'
33 Containing' the Latest SPORTING INTELLIGENCE,
Dan be had Every Evening of
G. Et GLhNIE, NEWS AGENT,
No. 4, Connaught-terrace, Hyde-park.

The Weather—Sun Office, June 6, 1864.
.--

THERMOMETER.

This day at Two o'clock
Barometer-29M.

Wind—Soutth-West ; moderate breeze, and fine.

HIGH WATER AT LONDON BRIDGE.
THIS Dip.—Morning, 3h. 10m.—Afternoon, 3h. 30m.
r"-moaßow.-Morning, 3a. 50m.—Afternoon, 4h. 10,1 a.

/Few
41.
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AlltZ, 0"' ‘'iftift.),- —4411 AinaPkihN% ``,llll.a" --- •e= 41
\ ..4 4Za. ;04:: .1.4-'4‘, 4IIN' 4W 0

LONDON, MONDAY, JUNE 6, 1864.

Another six days and the armistice will come to
an end in the north of Europe. The Loudon Con-
ference, in consideration of that armistice, being
virtually powerful fur good dating' the interval—if
it can contrive somehow or other to be so, that is
On the 12th of this month, we shall know whether
the armistice is to ba prolonged or not. If pro.
longed, the session may yet be tided over by Minis-
ters—'opposing, that is, that the Conference can
manage thereby to potter on successfully so far as
to contrive the further consumption of time. So long
as the Conference continues to sit during the period
of an armistice among the belligerents—the lips of
the Opposition are closed effectually within the Lords
and Commons. Let the Conference but prove inope-
rative of any satisfactory patch up—let the armis-
tice even close on the 12th without a prospect of
its renewal or prolongation—the close of it being
annoqnced by the resumption of hostilities—and the
whole of this complex question must at length be
thoroughly ventilated within the walls of Parlia-
ment. Then at last will come the tug of war be-
tween Parties, both in the Lords and in the Com-
mons, but especialiy in the Commons. The position
so far is imminent. So imminent in one contin-
gency, we believe that it might almost bs expressed
thus vpthout exaggeration—That at the firing of
the first gun again in anger in Schleswig, the
signal will have been
.given for the pulling
down of oar shaken and, en
far as its
foreign policy is concerned, most unpopular Govern-
meat. Otherwise—by simply 'whiling away the
time—by merely
lengthening out this Conference—
by extending the armistice adroitly—this wretched
dawdling do-nothing session may yet be dully
titedover, leaving Earl RUSSELL still at the Foreign
Ofßee until next year, to the delight of the great
aggressive powers of Europe, and to the mingled
shame and chagrin of the great mass of the Earl's
own fellow•countrymen. Five years ago this very
month, the sccond PALMERSTON ministry began—
with what Sir HUGH CAIRNS aptly termed at the
time, in the June cf 1859, a dodge ! That dodge
Ai 8,3 Earl RUSSELL'S—conaistin,g, as will be
very well remembered, in his ingenious device of

those now notorious " abstract resolutions" of his
about reform. It began with a dodge, this great
Reform-burking and Foreign-policy meddling-and-
muddling Administration. It is being preserved
and continued in power by a wonderfully clever
succession of other dodges ! " See, my son !" the
old Scandinavian statesman might have said to
his heir, now-a-days—not " with how little
wisdom " but with how small a modicum of
sly contrivance "men may be governed!!" The
famous words of AXEL OXENSTIERNA run thus,
according to the original utterance—" Nescis, mi
fili, quantilla prudentia homines regantur." But
they certainly admit now—those words—of the
modification at which we have hinted.

Further rumours about General LEE having re,
treated are now brought to Europe by the last mai
from North America. Probably to be. followed—
these rumours—by new announcements that Genera]
LEE has, again, not retreated at all.

From New Zealand comes the agreeable intelli-
gence that, at one place, the British troops have been
worsted by the insurgent aborigines. Another tes-
timony of the good reason the old Duke had in
avowing his peculiar and especial antipathy to a
"little war." Implying absolutely, and with some
she w of reason, a positive preference by him for a
great war, in comparison ! And with some
show of reason, as we have just said, for
these " little wars,"— wars such as we
are now experiencing, the protracted anguish
and worry of at our antipodes, such as we halve
again and again in past times experienced at the
Cape—really according, to use a familiar phrase in
London slang, as it were, do nothing else than
establish a raw. It is the opening of a seton at
one of the extremities of the body politic in every
instance of a little war. A seton that, once opened,
we know not when it will ever again be thoroughly
closed and healed up.

Tidings from the seat of war in China again come
to us of successes won over the Taeping revolutionists
by the Imperial troops, led, shall we say, by British
mercenaries, or Condottieri I And this too, as an
effect of our Foreign Policy, when Non-Interven-
tion is ostensibly our guiding Principle! So con•
sistent are we, or rather is our Government!
And all the remonstrance that can be
made with the develcpment thus of a flag-
rant inconsistency of this kind, far away there at
the oppcsite extremity of the eastern hemisphere
on the remotest borders of the Empire of China
—all that can be adventured upon by way of re.
monstrance, with our Governmental inconsis-
tency in thus interfering in China, at the very me.
went when no considerations will induce England
to interfere in Denmark, in Poland, or in North
America, is—what ? The introduction of a motion
into the House of Commons by Mr. COBDEN, in a
noble speech, merely to the end that, after a little
useless discussion of that motion, the motion itself
should, after all, be quietly withdrawn without any
division whatever !

It is very desirable from time to time to institute
nquiries and to ascertain in what state the laws re-
ating to certain departments of society are in. Thus
only can we expect to remedy deficiencies and to con-
form to the growing requirements of the day. No one
could imagine, until they had looked minutely into
the subject, how many discrepancies exist, and how
faulty are the workings of some of those measures
which were considered at the time of their intro-
duction to be almoit perfect, or at all events, most
efficacious in their designs. Foremost among those
enactments which call for a remedy is the statutory
law affecting masters and workmen. This regula-
tion is wrong in its fundamental principle, which
consists in this, that the breakers of contracts that
occur on either side are treated very differently,
those of the masters being dealt with according to
the civil law, and those of the workmen under the
criminal law. Such a distinction bears on the face
of it a fatal discrepancy, which necessarily militates
against the right adjustment of the difficulties to
be dealt with, and creates a want of uniformity
which is destructive of all chance of success in the
execution of the plans proposed. What could
have induced the framer of the law to devise
such a system it is really difficult to
determine ; it is quite contrary to the spirit which
actuates the generality of our statutes and makes
justice the birthright of all classes, not the heritage
of wealth or the appanage of rank. Exclusiveness
is always greatly to be deprecated, but if one case
more than another seems to demand its banishment,
it may be said to be this one in point, for masters
and workmen are not so dissimilar in some respects,
or so totally divided by the influence of rank or
position as may sometimes occur in other matters
where the upper seem to have the advantage over
the lower classes. There is always more jealousy
between those nearly alike, or, at all events, not far
dissimilar, and it is of great importance to obviate
all provocation to irritated feeling as much es pos-
sible, and certainly that mode of management is to
be deplored which fosters angry sentiments, and
gives rise to bitterness and sullen feelings. The
inequality and injustice of the system cannot be
better exemplified than by stating that, while the
workmen can only obtain redress for their griev-
ances by summoning the offending principal in the
county court, or by proceeding in the common law,
the master, on the occasion of a breach of con-
tract on the part of his workmen, can take
proceedings in a criminal court, where if
a conviction is obtained, it is not possible to
inflict a fine, but the delinquent must be sent to
gaol for a certain time with hard labour. This is
a gross inconsistency, and deals out most unfair
measure to men who are consenting parties to an
agreement. It is not at all the way to make things
work Or pleasantly in the complicated
details
business for both sides to be at variance,
to feel smoothly
of
thatno common bond of equity unites them,
beat
a e
one-sided bargain has been struck,
wherein
party may count his gains and the
o
other lament bis losses, When it is borne in mind
that the workings of the existing statute are press-
iegve
it is g
very heavilyhih time thatonthe
working Part of the com-
munity,some
remedial
attempt
be made to rectify the evil and pat an end to the
anomalous state of affairs which at present Confuses
our notion of right, and makes the administration
of the law a source of complaint and an occasion for
comment and cavil. The peculiar ideas which
actuated the framers of these obnoxious regulations
in our statutes are greatly to be censured ; but,
surely, there can be no need to perpetuate their
mistake, and to hand down their badly devised
and faulty schemes to another generation. There
ought to be brains enough among the legislators
of our own time for the difficulty to be got over,
and until it is there will be always something rotten
in the system relating to employers and employed.

Considering this present unfortunate aspect of
affairs, and the great number who suffer from the
evils of the unequal pressure of the agency now at
work, " many as 6,000 committals to prison having
taken place in one year through the working of
these laws, it is not a matter of surprise that an
attempt has been set on foot for the purpose of
obtaining some remedy for their inconveniences.
The trades societies throughout the United King-
dom have at last resolved to do something in the
right direction, and a combineimovsment has been