The Sun.
London, England, 1864-08-29 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, MONDAY EVENING, AUGUST 29, 1864.

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS,

THE "EXAMINER" ON "As TU VU LAMBERT ?"
—The solution will never be found at the Prefec-
ture of Police, nor anywhere else. The origin of slang
is inscrutable. The source of the Nile may be
found, but the source of the facetice of potboys can
never be traced. Like the wind, no one knows
whence they came, or whither they list to go. They
are here to-day and gone to-morrow. We believe
they are like Topsey, without parentage. Who ever
laid claim to a slang phrase? Yet it is certain that
there must have been some first utterance, and more
than that, some one to catch it up and pass it on to
that wonderful circulation and iteration which a
slang phrase enjoys. The reign of these phrases is
as much a mystery as their origin. Five years seems
to be about the average. For about that time,
' " There you go with your eye out," or, " There he
goes with his eye out,' as the case might be, was
the jeering comment of all the ragamuffin tribes. Is
it in the wit of man to imagine who could first have
put these words together, putting out eyes at
discretion. Was it first said by Ulysses when
Polyphemus rushed raging from his cave
with his eye out, and no spare eye left. Homer
does not record any such speech as delivered by
°vete, or any of his followers. Some one made for
Polyphemus the complaint.—
Yeu eat my mutton and drink my wine,
And then you poke nay eye out.
A complaint of ill return for hospitality coming
with a bad grace from e host who had only fattened
his guest for his table ; but we cannot turn or twist
that distich into the origin of " There you go with
your eye out." A tallow commentator might
hazard the conjecture that the phrase applied to
persons who went abott in a blundering way, as if
they had not eyes in their heads. But the use of
the singular number keeps the slang carefully clear
of the sense there would be in such a use of the
words. Yon go with your eye out, not your eyes.
You have your eye in your hand, or your pocket, or
your watch fob. After a long course of popularity
the eye went out altogether, and was succeeded by
" How nicely he thinks he's doing it," which was
applied by the potboys, ragamuffins, scamps, and
rails to all with any air of pretension who came to
grief through any awkwardness. There was a de-
gree of sensein this slang:which shortened its reign,
besides it was too long for a winged word. Before
it could be shouted out the person to be insulted
might be out of hearing. It was not handy for the
canaille. It was not like a dab taken out of the
gutter for a fling. Moreover, it was traceable to a
source which the diviner things of slang never are
—Grimaldi had spoken it. It wanted the mens
divinior of the unknown. The next reign, and a
long reign it was, was the interrogation " Does your
mother know you're oat ?" As Lord Dundreary
would ask, can any fellow conceive who asked
those simple words for the first time with the in-
tention of impertinence ? And the genius who
could make offence of them has never claimed the
credit of an impertinence of such immense success
and popularity. Have these things then an origin ?
May they not be spontaneous like some combustions
or the stones which fall no one knows whence ?
Certainly it is easier to believe they have no
authors than that they have authors who do not
claim the honour of their productions. Good
guesses, at least, have been made as to the author-
ship of Junius, but who can pretend even to a con-
jecture as to the origin of "There you go with your
eye out," or " Does your mother know you're out ?"
At last the mother was worn out, and in came" All
Serene," applied to all possible circumstances. This
piece of slang seems without any recommendation
but its brevity. It wants objectiveness, and one
does not see how it insults, which should be an end
of all slang phrases of this current atamp. We noted,
indeed, that potboys uttered it more as for their own
internal solace and satisfaction than for taking the
shine out of any one. And it is to the potboys we
must look for the understanding of these things.
Indeed, as Venus rose from the sea, so, we suspect,
from the froth of pewter pots rose slang sayings?
If this solution be doubted, what other oan be
offered ? Here is a coinage, where is the mint.
Can all the detective force of the country discover
the source of any current piece of slang, past or
present ? Will the French police find out Lambert?
Will they square the circle ? will they invent per-
petual motion ? Your plain no meaning puzzles
more than thought, and that is the puzzle of Lam-
bert. We had once our Lambert, and his name
was Snooks. Snooks was an airy nothing, wanting
a local habitation, but not a name. The French
family of the Lamberts we take to be a collateral
branch of the Suookses. Lambert is an imperso-
nation of Snooks. Still the mein mystery remains
unexplained and inexplicable. We can conceive
what is meant by Lambert, as to some extent we
can conceive what was meant by going with your
eye out, or the inquiry about your mother's
acquaintance with your whereabouts, but the
mystery of myster es is the origin of the mot,
and who first said Lambert abstractedly
and facetiously, end stranger still, who ac-
cepted it as a joke, and got it passed on as a
joke. These are the questions. Weil may the
French Police be employed in hunting oat the vast
jocular conspiracy Nshich on the Emperor's jour de
fete made the name sf Lambert eclipse his own. A
thousand years hence it may be a historical pro-
blem, which was the substance which the shadow,
Lambert or Louis Napoleon ?
THE " SPECTATOr ON PALMERSTON OUT OF
PARLIAMENT.—[t vas not without an intention that
Lord Palmerston inserted into the Queen's Speech
the unusual words vhich succeeded the accustomed
formula of dismissal. Members are always told
that they have "duties to perform in their counties"
etiquette ignoriig such low things as borough
constituencies—but they are always instructed that
theirespecial duty is to bind class and class together.
Thoughtless people imagined that the Speech had
caught the infection of the Premier's habit of chaff,
and fancied the words commanded an unusual num•
ber of dinners, archery meetings, croquet parties,
and the other reunions which make life endurable
in the spots where they cultivate vegetables for
London. The Premier, however, had another and
a more serious idea---he meant to sanction formally
the fashion which he did not invent, but which be
has so heartily adopted, the practice of speech-
making by members and ministers during the re-
cess. He never did a wiser thing for his own po-
pularity in his life. Other members are rather bored
by the necessity 01 making speeches which do not
drive on the machine, of talking literature or the
crops, science or the chances of reform, in au affable
bat not dangerously popular way for an hour at a
time, are rather reluctant to meet constituents not
perhaps quite contented with the way in which Mr
Brand has steadily overlooked the claims of local
merit. Other ministers may be a little annoyed at
the alternatives of Making about nothing a speech
very Worthy of its subject, or saying something
sure in
the dearth of topics to be examined under a
microscope, criticised, and scanned, and perverted,
and praised and abused, and everything except
digested in contented peace. Lord Palmerston alone
has no such disquietudes, no such qualms, no such
1 apprehensions of ennui. He could deliver a speech
a day, and not one throughout the six months would
toll
secret, or leave on the minds of his audience the
anybody anything which he desired to keep
impression of having wasted their time. Everybody
would go away forgetful of most that had been said
but charmed with the man who said it—the precise
effect which the Premier intended to produce. If
be is too tired to manufacture anecdotes he
Hall,
pours out a flood of praise, talks to Bradford of
the `` mass of intellect " in the Exchange
or to Tiverton of the astonishing comeliness
of the
younger generation ; if there is no incident
ready, such as a little revolution, there is always
the weather and the. American struggle; if original
ideas aro wanting one can explain that "a man tied
by the leg in London could not well be at Tiversen.o
What does it matter what is said? It is always
well put, and genial, and pleasant, and it is a groat
man who says it all, and when one dines with a
magnate one is not in a hurry to ask the brand of
the pleasant wine. Now at Bradford, face to face
with half opponents, and again among an admiring
constituency, the Premier is always ready, always
amusing, always
prepared with au unrivalled but
most happy audacity to tell free-traders how tho-
roughly
he has abandoned his own plan of a fixed
duty, to
begin by complimentirg the electors of
Tiverton on their independence, and end by pro-
'Jouncing an doge over Mr Heatheote! He will be
just 118 happy in Radnorshire praising the late Sir
Cornewali Lewis,
could, we doubt not, if he tried,
give an
opinion on the " Astronomy of the An-
cients," which everybody except the half dozen who
understand the subject would accept as very ca-
pable criticism. Wherever he goes, whatever his
subject,
he leaves behind him a pleasant impress.
siou, spreads around a feeling of liking, a sense of
personal sympathy and comprehension which is in
England
in quiet times the strongest bond of poli-
tical action. It is of no use to deny it, people are
the readier to vote for Lord Palmerston after each
of these utterances in the recess, and if the educated
classes cannot understand why, that is just one
more proof among many that the bright cheery old
man who talks as well to boors as to members of
Parliament, and snubs Radical butchers as effectu-
ally AS he corrects eldest sons, understands England
and Englishmen a great deal better than they.
The why of that vast influence signifies no snore
1.116 n the wherefore of the social power which it w

closely resembles. It is not tho able man or the
inventive, the wise man or the man of genius, who
rules opinion in a club, but the man of ready sense
and easy temper, whose judgment on the surface of
things is usually sound and always within the
comprehension of those he is trying to guide, whose
experience saves him from being ever at a loss,
and whose courage is certain to extricate him out
of any conceivable predicament. Lord Palmerston
is the Major Pendennis of the political world, as
resourceful and as brave, as full of social skill, and
we fear as wanting in higher aims than success, as
his immortal prototype. In a club, however, it is
Major Pendennis who triumphs, not Warrington,
and England just now is a club, full of a population
which has no wish to do anything in particular, but
likes to hear and discuss and pass an opinion which
is carefully restrained from developing into action.
Upon such a community sentences like those which
Lord Palmerston uttered at Tiverton, sentences full
of strong though superficial sense, of fair though
average morals, and of an intelligible though over-
optimist policy, must of necessity fall pleasantly.
The idea that the first use of a bishop is to smooth
away acerbities and not allow convictions to become
too markedly hostile to each other is just the club
idea, and is accepted accordingly with entire acclaim.
To pronounce the Belfast riots " political feuds" gets
rid of a great many disagreeable necessities—such
as the consideration or our religious system in Ire-
land—which is always pleasant when one asks chits
chat rather than discussion, and is very sound sense
besides. Lord Palmerston knows Ireland thoroughly
—is perhaps the one man alive who if untrammelled
by a Parliament could govern the island as Lord
Chesterfield governed it, put down one rising by a
bon mot and another by an exhibition of the haugh-
tiest administrative energy. The club thinks exactly
like Lord Palmerston about the American quarrel,
says that it does not like slavery (which the North
is putting down), and does like political freedom
(which the South has never supported except for
white property-holders), but nevertheless sympa-
thises with the bias which Lord Palmerston avows
for the South, and heartily agrees that intervention
would have been a mistake. As to Denmark, the
remarks that the Danes are " unfortunate," that
Englishmen "sympathise" with them, that "ships
sailing on the sea cannot stop armies on land,"
that "30,000 men cannot beat 300,000," that
in fact it was a shame, but interference in-
volved too -much risk, were exactly the comments
with which society put up with a disgrace which
nevertheless it perceived. Lord Palmerston simply
put into ordinary words the ordinary conviction of
the mass of his ordinary hearers, which is just what
the intelligent club man always prefers to do, sure
that even if he is wrong the prejudices of his
audience will induce them to condone any little
mistake. Then came a compliment to the country,
which flatters itself that it does not want "to be
cracked up," but likes to be "appreciated" never-
theless, and, mixed up with it, one of those sen-
tences in which Lord Palmerston sometimes sums
up a case it would take an inferior man half an hour
only to state :—" These things [subventions] are
only done in countries where people are paralysed
by despotic power, and where they require the vivi-
fying and electrical touch of the Government to
rouse them to an exertion which is not their natural
condition, nor their habitual practice. In this
country every man is alive, every man knows best
how to employ his capital, how to direct his genius,
whatever it may be; all that the Government has
to do is to leave things alone, to throw down bar-
riers and obstructions where barriers and obstruc-
tions are pressed, and to give that freedom to
industry and activity to commerce by which alone
the general welfare of the country can be advanced."
It is old that, but then it is true, brief, and marvel-
lously complimentary, and to pat statements so
pleasant in so brief a form, yet leave them perfectly
true, is the very art, and the highest art, of the man
of conversation. The people of Tiverton were
talked to on the highest political subjects as clever
talkers talk on the chit-chat of the day, and natu-
rally and wisely enjoyed themselves as much as if
they had been listening over wine and walnuts:

THE "SATURDAY REVIEW" ON THE RAILWAY
SYSTEM.—Everybody says, The Railways must
have paid if they had not cost so plaguy dear.
Well, what have they cost ? The authorised capital
of all the railways in England, Scotland, and
Ireland, up to December the 31st last, amounts
to the trifling sum of £474,999,545 ; and
of this little total es much as £404,215,802
has actually been paid up as capital, inclusive of
debenture loans outstanding at that date. That is
to say, in less than thirty years, a sum very nearly
equal to one-half of the National Debt has been in-
vested in earthworks, rails, rolling stock, and other
constituent elements of the vast aggregate known as
railway property. From the investment in railways
we now proceed to the profits of railways. What
the interest of the National Debt is everybody
knows; how does the iron king pay its creditors ?
What is the total amount of net profits available
for distribution in the shape of interest on paid up
capital—including ordinary stock or shares, with
preference stock, loans, and debentures ? After de-
ducting the outlay on-1. Meintenance of way and
works; 2. Locomotive power; 3. Repairs and re•
newels of carriages ; 4. Traffic charges; 5. Rites and
taxes; 6. Government duty ; 7. Compensation for
personal injuries; 8. Compensation for losses arid
damage of goods ; 9. Legal expenses ; 10. Miscel-
laneous—there remain of net profits on all the rail-
ways of Great Britain and Ireland, earned in the
year 1863, £16,048,913. This, on an invested capi•
tai, as we have seen, of £404,215,802, is as nearly
as possible 4 per cent. These profits are, of course,
very unequally distributed. On one line, the
West Cornwall, the dividend on the original capital
is per cent. On the High Peak line it only
reaches 2s 8d per cent.; while the Whitehaven line
returns 13k, and the Aberdare 10 per cent. on ordi-
nary capital. The total annual receipts for 1863 on
this capital of four hundred millions, being thirty-
' one millions, and the net profits being sixteen
millions, the total working expenditure is fifteen
millions; or, in other words, the expenditure swab.
lows up 48 per cent. of the total receipts of the
railway business of the country. It is useful to get
the whole thing under this summary view, because
it explains the general policy of railway manage-
ment. Shareholders have but one cry—" Diminish
your working expenses, and our dividends will of
course rise. We aro the residuary legatees. On us
rests the whole risk of the trade. Preference shares,
loans, mortgages—all these things are a fixed quan.
thy; our dividends rise or fall as the shop answers
or not." The railway trade is like all other trades.
It may be conducted on the bold principle of extended
business, which means small profits on large returns;
or it may be conducted safely and economically, on
the principle of starving the plant and diminishing
the working expenses. The former was the favourite
policy in other days, the latter seems to be now in
the ascendant ; for whilst, as we have seen, the
working expenses in the year 1863 were in the
proportion of 48 per cent. on the gross receipts, in
the year 1862 they were 49 pet cent. Without a
very minute investigation of the special heads of
expenditure on which a saving has been effected, we
can scarcely arrive at an answer to the question,
which is of paramount importance to the public,
whether economy in management can be extended
with a due regard to safety in travelling. The
figures before us, however, will help us to an ap-
proximate solution of this vital question. And first,
it mud be borne in mind that the total mileage of
186:3 is more than the mileage of 1862. But, while
the absolute outlay under all the heads of working
expenses within the last twelvemonths has from this
cause increased, there are many heads of working
expenses which, when examined with reference to
the proportion they bear to the whole expenditure,
will be found to have been diminished.
A considerable saving has been attained in
legal, including parliamentary expenses. This, of
course, arises from the comparative paucity of new
lines and extensions, But, in other items also, the
proportion of particular expenses to the whole work-
ing charges shows a diminution, or, in other words,
points to parsimony in management. And what is
significant is the coat of compeissation for personal
injuries has arisen from £158,169 in 1862 to
£179,569 in 1863, while some important charges
for working expenses have fallen. The proportion
of the cost of locomotive power in 1862 to the whole
working expenses was 27.79 per cent. ; in 1863 it
falls to 27.'62. The proportion of miscellaneous
expenses, including, we believe, servants, is for the
two years 6'62 and 6.40. These figures, if they do
not actually lead to the conclusion that economy in
management has been purchased by increased
danger to life and limb, seems to point to a suspi-
cion that way. On a mileage increased 400 miles
within the twelvemonth there has been a saving of
1 per cent. on working expenses, but this is pur-
chased at the outlay of more than £21,00 worth
of life and limb. The necessity of retrenching
the working expenses is now a matter of pecuniary
life or death to the holders of the original capital
stook. On the other hand, the necessity of prevent-
ing the starvation of railways by paring down wages
and the working staff is a matter of personal life or
death to travellers. It is a question, in short, be-
tween dividends and the public safety. We have
seen that working expenses are decreasing. Are
'accidents increasing? This is one question—and
it is a question which is not very easy to answer, as
a single fatal smash on a largo scale may excep-
tionally affect the annual rate of danger. And are
railway accidents of the usual character to he at•
tributed to economical, that is, parsimonious work-
ing of the line ? This is a question of special im-
portance in the face of the.fact of diminished work-
ing expenses. The Parliamentary return will help
us towards answering it. In 1862, 216 persons
wore killed and 600 injured, of whom 26 were pas-
iaengere killed, and 536 passengers injured, from

causes beyond their own control ; while in 1863
only 184 persons were killed and 470 injured, and
of these 14 are returned as passengers killed,
400 as passengers injured, from causes be-
yond their own control. This certainly shows a
diminution in fatal accidents, and may therefore be
taken as a setscfl against the increased amount of
compensation money paid for injuries during the
past year. For it must be remembered that many
of the accidents and collisions which caused the in-
juries that were paid for in 1863 must have taken
place in 1862. The comparison, however, does not
amount to much. Meanwhile it is a matter of some
little curiosity to compare the relative safety of
some of the leading lines within the same period.
We shall only trouble ourselves with what the com-
panies return as casualties beyond the passengers'
own control—which is the railway euphemism for
injuries caused by railway management. The
North-Western " system," with 1,174 miles of line,
and 17 millions of miles traversed by 19 million
passengers, injured 69 passengers. Tho Great
Western, with 1,148 miles of line, and 12 millions of
miles traversed by 17 millions of passengers, injured
37 passengers, On neither of these great lines was
there last year a single fatal accident to a pas-
songer. The Great Eastern killed 7 ; this was the
Ifunstanton, or great cow, accident. The Great
Northern killed 1. The Brighton killed 3 ; this was
the Streatham and Balham casualty. The South
Western killed 1; and 2 were killed on scotch
lines. There is another test of the relative
security of the various great lines, which has
its interest, though of course it requires checking
by the elements of length of line, miles travelled,
and number of passengers ; and, as it only applies to
a single_year, it would hardly justify any sweeping
conclusion. The Great Eastern, with 695 miles
open, raid £8,824 for compensation for personal
injuries in 1863; the Great Northern, with 433
miles, must have paid (but the returns are muddled)
more than £20,000; the Great Western with nearly
1,200 miles, paid only £2,116; the North Western,
with about the same mileage, paid £20,000; the
SouthaWestern, with 513 miles, paid less than
£1,000; the Brighton,with 243 miles, paid £19,000;
the South-Eastern' with 286 miles, paid £17,844.
On an average of seven years, Captain Galton
classes the chief railways as follows, as to the pro-
portion of killed or injured to the number of pas.
sengers conveyed:—
_ _

North-Western
Midland r . lin 257,000
Eastern Counties
South-Eastern
North-Eastern 1 in 350,000
South-Western
Brighton
Great Western
Bristol and Exeter

The general conclusion from these converging
data seems to be in favour of the relative safety of
the broad gauge.
"THE LONDON REVIEW" ON THE ORGAN-
GRINDERS AND MR. BASS'S ACT.--Two or three
cases have already occurred under Mr. Bass's Act
for the better protection of the public against the
persecution of organ-men. One of the latest of
these was heard a few days ago at Marlborough-
street. The complainant was a Mr. Rew (rather an
appropriate name), of the firm of Rew and Co.,
chemists, No. 282, Regent-street. It appears that
Mr. Rew has a next-door neighbour, a Mr. Sykes,
who has for years engaged an Italian to come and
play before his house every Friday evening, " at the
time he pays his workpeople." It is a droll idea,
though suggestive of the possession by Mr. Sykes
of a certain Platonical frame of mind and devotion
to harmony in the relation between employers and
employed. Monte.igne's father used to wake his
infant son every morning by the soft breathings of
a flute, becouse he thought it disposed the mind to
suavity and grace. For the like reason, Mr. Sykes
may choose to set his weekly reckonings to music,
and, for aught we know, may find his account in it,
in the absence of disagreeable disputes between him-
self and his workpeople as to the relative claims of
capital and labour. But to Mr. Raw the strains of
a barrel-organ appear anything but favourable to
the concoction of prescriptions; and on the night
in question he told the Italian to go away; on
his refusing to do which he gave him into cus-
tody. Thereupon the man rushed into the pas-
sage of Mr. Sykes's house, and was ignominiously
dragged from that retreat by two policemen, who
locked him up. The result of the case, when
-brought before Mr. Knox, was that the Italian was
fined twenty shillings; and, added the magistrate,
" I shall recommend Mr. Sykes to pay the fine."
This was certainly but fair, end we hope the lover
of Friday night harmony took the hint. The
Italian had clearly committed an illegal act ; but he
had been led into doing so by Mr. Sykes, who was
certainly bound to bo better acquainted than this
poor foreigner with the provisions of the new
Act. Street music is often a great nuisance, and it
is quite right that the public should have the
power of restraining it under certain cir-
cumstances ; yet we cannot but observe that
Mr. Babbage has sot a certain fashion for
being horrified at it, which is becoming one
of the little affectations of the day. Everyone
now seems to think it fine and intellectual to be
distracted, and incapable of thought or work, if
the wandering minstrels of the street strike up a
note. A week. or two ago, a gentleman, whose
arrogance of temper not only caused him to give an
organ-man into custody illegally, but drew upon
himself the reproof of the magistrate fer insolence,
said he was disturbed by the objectionable playing
that he could not collect his thoughts sufficiently
to write a note to his landlord requesting some re.
pairs. Mr Rew says he cannot make a prescrip-
tion if the sounds of music creep in his ears

" Soft stillness and the night
Become the touches of truo 'pothecaries."

The plain fact is, that Mr Rew does not like street
organs—a feeling in which many people agree with
him ; and he has every right to set the law in
motion to prevent their being played in his vici-
nity. But why not be content with this without
making a parade about hie inability to compound
pills and potions unless the unpleasant sounds be
hushed ? Mr Rew seems resolved to enter the
lists as a formidable rival to Mr Babbage. In a
letter! to the Daily News he makes the following
grand suggestion, which he thinks will meet with
" general accord :"—" Musicians of tested ability
on the tiarp, violin, flute, concertina, and other ob-
jectionable instruments should be licensed under
police regulation, stations appointed to the crowded
courts and alleys where they might play daily. A.
box set up at these stations to receive public con-
tributions would ensure ample support, and en-
courage native talent" (!) Who are yo test the
abilities of these musicians, and who are to judge
what instruments are or are not " objectionable."
does not appear. Perhaps the police band. Se-
riously, however, if all this nonsense is to be en-
couraged, it will soon be found that Mr Bass's
act is unworkable. The public undoubtedly re-
quired protection in cases of real hardship; but if
we are to be overwhelmed by the outcries of weak
nerves and foolish heads, we are threatened with a
fresh nuisance greater than the old.

THE " LAW TIMES" ON MRS. YELVERTON.—
Miss Longworth has brought an action in the Scotch
courts against the Saturday Review for an alleged
libel contained in an article • of very questionable
taste—to say the least of it—on the recent judgment
of the Howe of Lords. To English readers, it will
doubtless be a perplexity by what process a journal
published in London can be " pursued" in Edins
beegh. The subject is not new to our readers, for
a few years ago the publisher of the Law limes was
subjected tO the same infliction, only with far less
cause. The complaint against him was a commen-
tary on Madelein Smith's ease—remarks which were
freely made by every newepaper in England, and
which no English judge or jury would ever affirm
to be libellous, but which it would have been im-
possible to have submitted to the alien d
prejudiccon-
es of
a Scottish jury. In vain we app
ele to our
temporaries to unite in resistance to a power pos.
sessed by Scotland over Englishmen for which no
equivalent is enjoyed by ourselves, and the exercise
of which might at any moment threaten any one of
them with indefinite oppression. They would not
exert themselves even to denounce the wrong, and
demand redress from Parliament. Now that the
same blow has been inflicted upon ono of them-
selves, we may hope that the common danger may
be discerned, and a common effort made to avert
it. Thus it happened to our publisher. A letter
from one of the news agents in Edinburgh informed
him that he (the agent) had received notice of at-
tachment for a judgment for £3,000 that had been
obtained against the publisher in the Scotch courts.
This was the first intimation that there had been
a complaint, much less au action and a judgment.
On inquiry it was found that, according to the law
of Scotland any Scotchman may bring an action
against any Englishman living inEngland by merely
posting in the court a notice to the defendant to
appear, without any personal notice whatever, and
that if the defendant does not appear to the action,
of the very existence of which he is wholly ignorant,
judgment is pronounced against him by default for
the full amount of damages demanded, and upon
that judgment the plaintiff can attach all debts due
to the defendant from any person in Scotland, or
any property ho may have there, or take his body
in execution should he venture over the border. The
judgment obtained by this most iniquitous procedure
can only be set aside by the defendant coming in and
submitting himself ta the jurisdiction
and paying
costs,
in which case he is graciously permitted to go
to trial with all the disadvantages of an alien tri-
bunal. In the instance of our publisher, the sum
of which he Was thus mulcted was upwards of £6O.
And this is the process to Voice the Saturduy
Remo; has been or will be Subjected, save perhaps

that judgment has been actually obtained without
previous notice of action. At all events, our con-
temporary will be compelled to try ft question in
which feeling and prejudices are strongly enlisted,
before a tribunal that will certainly have a very'
decided leaning against the defendant. That which
formerly happened to the publisher of Law Times,
and now has been inflicted upon the Saturday Re'
view, may be employed at any moment against any
of the English journals, a single copy of which
chances to cross the border. As soon as it comes
to be known that such an engine for extortion.
exists, it can scarcely fail to bo set in motion. This
is a matter which directly touches the whole press of
England, and for once the newspapers should throw
aside their jealousies in the common danger, and use
the power they possess to secure legislative protec-
tion against a palpable injustice.
by an enactment that all actions for libel against any
hi
registered journal or other publication shall be had
only in that part of the United Kingdom in Wch
the same shall be registered. This may be done