The Sun.
London, England, 1864-07-26 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS,

Tiaras.—lt is the fashion at the end of every
session for the people to complain that Parliament
has done nothing but vindicate the whimsical
etymology of the old constitutional writers, and has
only "spoken its mind." Yet within a few weeks
after the three taps of the Usher of the Black Rod
have put an end to the deliberations of the Com-
mons there is certain to issue from the Queen's Prin>
ters' publishing office a bulky volume, which every
one is legally supposed to get by heart. When we say
that Parliament has done nothing this session, we
mean that the storms and tempests of Parliamen-
tary debate have passed away without shivering any
of the big trees or bringing down any of the great
edifices. We have not been handed over to the
supremacy of the mob, nor committed bound hand
and foot to the tender mercies of competing or
combining contractors. We have not been forced
headlong into an European war, nor compelled to
ruin ourselves by unnecessarily coming between the
madmen who are tearing each other to pieces on the
other side of the Atlantic. We have not even done
in this one session everything that we might have
wisely done, although we have certainly wisely re-
frained from doing many things that we have been
unwisely urged to do. The fiercest contests have
indeed sometimes produced the least result. But still
there must ba a residuum even from a burst soap
bubble, and there must be a good deal left to analyse,
examine, and to weigh when this session, which is
now expiring, shall hove no other memorial than its
annual statute book. The comfort or discomfort, the
every-day life of the individual atoms, of the body
politic depend perhaps in a much greater degree
upon the little social ordinances which pass almost
unnoticed and undobated, and which are scarcely
known as propositions until they are felt operating
as laws, than they do upon the great contests of
party. It will be our duty from time to time to
draw public attention to many of these small
charges which have ben wrought out by this See-
sion of Parliament, and which must gradually make
their way into our daily habits. It was thought,
and truly thought, so great an achievement of legis-
lation to enable a householder to send an organ.-
grinder from his door that both in the Commons and
in the Lords loud cheers, as for some unexpected
victory, welcomed the final stage of Mr. Bass's
Street Music Bill. In no other country iu the world,
perhaps, would a nuisance so pitifully vexatious
have required to be abated at such great cost. The
resistance to this measure was the intolerance of hale,
coarse men, of strong sinews, towards the weak,
sensitive persons of over-wrought nerves, It was not
that the strong men were intentionally cruel, but
they did not believe in a speciesof suffezing they had
never felt. This little bit of grudged legislation which
enables a man to send away from his door a anise
that makes him frantic is to thousands among us
a greeter boon than Universal Suffrage, and Vote
by Ballot, and Annual Parliaments, and Weges to
Members of Parliament, all rolled up in one bill
would have been to the three heroic tailors of
Tooley-street. It is almost ludicrous to picture to
ourselves the altered state of mind in which hun-
dreds, and even thousands, of persons in this city
will open their front windows, now that they know
the law has armed them with the power of handing
over to a policemen those terrible tormentors who
made life a burden to them. We hope they will not
be disappointed, for it is just upon the cards that the
police magistrates may even yet make the measure
inoperative; and a much surer plan would have
been to confiscate the organ, which never belongs
to the musician," and thus to have made the
master of the poor stroller the person interes'ed in
making him behave with consideration and civility.
At the sacrifice of half a deem organs this reform
might have been effected without the aid of im-
prisonment, and without affording to any one the
sentimental regret that—

" The tyrantsi of this iron time
Have deemed his harmless art a crime."
We, however, accept this new piece of law as we
find it, and only use it as au example of the strong
interest that may hang upon minute acts of legisla-
tion which seem but as the dust and sweepings of
the lawmaker's workshop. If people of sensitive
nerves have reason to bless this Session of 1864, the
People of acute moral sensibilities, who era fortu-
nately a much more numerous class, will also find
something to satisfy them in the forthcoming statute
book. There is no country in the world in which
there is so much private refinement and so much
public indecency rain England. The rccson is that
we scorn to touch immoralities of some descrip
tions in the only way in which they can be effec-
tively dealt with—that is, in a spirit of compromise
with a view to mitigate them by regulation. The
Grand Master of the Templars would touch no
heretic save with his sword, but he could not hack
to pieces every
Jew he saw, and we cannot by un-
compromising force bind human passions and crush
human vices, If we will not recognise them, we
cannot regulate them, and we are forced into the
opposite extreme of letting them atone. There
can be no question that the Haymarket and its
neighbourhood are a scandal to any Christian
country. All night there is held there a great
street orgie which is unexampled in the world. It
is true that decent people need not go there, and
it is not like the organ nuisance, which follows the
physfcally sensitive man even into his innermost
sanctum, and there torments him. To be grossly
shocked by it, the morally sensitive man must sit
up all night and go to a distance from his home
especially to undergo the pain of being shocked.
But still it is a scandal ; it is a breach of good
order, it is not creditable to our institutions, and
there is no occasion for such a scene. Sir George
Grey has made a praiseworthy attempt this Session
to mitigate this nightly Haymarket Carnival. A
bill now stands for the Royal assent which provides
that all refreshment rooms shall be closed between
1 o'clock in the'morning and 4. As
a general pro-
position this seems to us to be very reasonable. Vi"
itself ought not to complain of being sent home at
1 o'clock in the morning, and hpleasure is
harmless
never found seeking refreshment in the streets of
London at a later hour. As a simple police rule we
cennct think that any could be less objection-
able, and, with this in force, it may be doubted
whether any other in addition to it is of much use,
This interval of three hours will certainly starve
out the Haymarket orgie. The difficulty, of CalliNt't
is; in a city like this, to make any rule which-
shall cut off the supplies from debauchery with.

r out starving industry. We must not force a tired
traveller to go to bed supperlese in order to prevent
Tom Mohawk from treating the room to " cham-
pagne all round "at 3 in the morning. Nor must
we starve the hundreds of the hard-working men
and women who come into town by break of day
from all surrounding parts to supply the various
markets with the food for two millions of mouths.
The cabman must have a refugefrom frost and snow.
If ever this metropolis comes to be governed upon.
the came principles, much of the heavy traffic which
now wastes the business hours of the community
will be performed soon after daybreak, and the men
who have to be about for these purposes will re.
quire breakfast-houses. There must be exceptions
to anY rule. Sir G. Grey has, we think, met this
difficulty with success. After exempting railway
stations and excluding inmates of hotels, he gives
at power to the Commissioner or other chief officer
of Police to grant occasional licences which will pro-
tectthe holder from the operation of the Act. It is
evident that there must be some very elastic power
and some very wide discretion tested somewhere ;
and undoubtedly the police authorities are best able
to exercise such a discretion, if they can be safely
trueted with it. We cannot at any hour of the day
or night throw a net over this great city, and be
sure to catch nothing but profligates. There must
be some power to distinguish, and that power is
perhaps best vested in a well-watched police under
the control of a responsible Home Secretary. Sir
George Grey must, however, forgive us if we
remind him that the best laws are of no use un-
less they are put in force. Sir George has shown
his anxiety to render our metropolis more respec-
table at night; will he not exercise the powers
the law has lately given him to render it more pass-
able in the day ? Fleet-street is still occupied
through all the business hours by a continuous
string of carts bearing earth to the Thames Em-
bankment, all of which might be either carted in
these long days before 10 or after 4 o'clock, or de•
livered by water. Coal waggons in unbroken pro-
cession still block up Cheapside, as if its inhabitants
required large fires in every room during the sultry
weather, and empty cabs still "tout" for hire at a
snail's pace. The City of London is still impassable
by reason of impediments which have no necessity
to excuse them—impediments which, if they are
allowed to continue, will block up any streets, how-
ever wide, and render useless all efforts to provide
new thoroughfares. All we ask is a little gentle
energy, not the sphsmodie energy which, repre-
sented by a rough policeman, savours some-
times of brutality, and which, by arousing
sympathy with offenders, defeats the object,
but the energy which provides a continu-
ous, well-sustained attention to the comfort of
every one, and a prompt repression of ruffianism.
Tacitus said of our German ancestors that with
them good customs did the office of good-laws. If
the great historian could see our cabmen, and wag-
gonars, and carters, and the shopkeepers who insist
upon keeping the empty vehicles before their doors,
he would, we fear, think that we had deteriorated
in that innate respect for each other's convenience
which renders laws as to small matters worse than
unnecessary. These folk not only require good
laws, but an active police to enforce them, and strong
penalties certainly imposed for every act of boorish
selfishness.

POST.—It is to be hoped that we have new heard
for the last time of the alleged tampering with the re-
ports of the inspectors of. schoois by the Committee
of the Council on Education. That the allegation
was virtu ally groundless is now on all hands agreed;
yet, notwithstanding, it gave rise to one of the
most angry debates of the present session. It led
to a vote which has now been formally rescinded,
and caused the temporary loss to the country of the
services of a man whom both friends and political
opponents concur in admitting to have been most
undeservedly censured. Mr Lowe is not, perhaps,
remarkable for possessing that most invaluable
gift of a statesman, the knack of reonciling those
who differ with him to measures which he is suffia
ciently powerful to carry into execution ; but that
he is a man of consummate ability and of strict in-
tegrity no one has even pretended to doubt. It un-
fortunately happened, however, that a discussion
arose in the House of Commons regarding the man-
ner in which the department over which he pre.
sides is conducted, in which the conclusions pointed
at certainly appeared to impeach his character for
veracity. A charge was made, and that charge he
met with unequivocal denial. The charge was to
all appearances proved, and a man even less sensi-
tive than Mr Lowe might have concluded that he
was thereby constructively convicted of falsehood.
It was in vain for his friends to assure him that the
inference was not justified, and for his adversaries
to disavow all intention of putting any imputation
on his hcnonr : he resolved on resigning his official
position. Ho availed himself, however, of the oc-
casion on which ho took, this step to explain to a
very full house the circumstances under which the
apparent conflict arose between his assertions and
the evidence advanced by those who complained of
the manner in which his department was conducted,
and so clear and convincing was the statement which
he then made, that, were it not inconsistent with
Parliamentary usage, the resolution at which he
had taken umbrage would have been at once re.
scinded. As this course could not be taken, and as
at the same time it was manifestly inconvenient
that a resolution should stand recorded on the
journals of the house which had been passed under
a misapprehension, Lord Palmerston moved that
the entire matter in dispute should be referred'
to tr select committee. Some discussion took place
as to the manner in which the committee should be
formed, but it was finally resolved that it should be
composed of five impartial members, and not of 15
declared partisans. The report of that committee
has been published, and, as wets expected, it excul-
pates the late Vice-President of the Committee of
Council from all blame. Last evening the Prime
Minister moved that the original resolution should
be rescinder], and that motion having been carried,
the amour propre of Mr Lowe is now satisfied, and
the sting taken from the attack so successfully di-
rected against him in the early part of the session.
The discussion which supervened on Lord Palmer-
ston's motion did not touch the merits of the matter
under consideration. No one pretended that the
conclusions at which the committee had arrived
were not just, and no one ventured to suggest that
on the evidence submitted to the committee any
other conclusions could have been arrived at. No
one hinted that Mr Lowe was not a hardly treated
man, and not a syllable of apology was uttered in
defence of the singular manner in which the hotise
had been brought to pass the resolution which has
since been formally condemned. No one repeated
the charge that the late Vice_President had muti-
lated the inspectors' reports, and none professed to
see any inconsistency between his formal denial of
that charge and the interlined reports which Lord
Robert Cecil, on the occasion of the first debate,
circulated in the house. The objection last night
to the adoption of the Premier's motion rested on
grounds f'ar different. It was too late in the session,
it was urged, to call on the house to rescind a reso-
lution passed in the month of April. The large
majority of members had now left town, and those
who remained being for the mast part connected
with the Government, the result of the division
could not be doubtful, and would consequently he
valueless. For these reasons, therefore, and not be.
cause the report of the committee was intrinsically
objectionable, the Government were asked to post-
pone its confirmation until next session. The answers
to objections such as these are equally simple and
conclusive. If the House of Commons is prepared
to concur with its committee in acquitting Mr Lowe,
surely the sooner that the acquittal is formally
recorded the better, and the paucity of members who
took part in the discussion on the motion for entering
it on the journals of the House cannot possibly affect
the issue. But although it is certainly notorious
that at this peried.of the session many members
have already made their adieux to the Speaker, we
do not think that they can fairly make what is a
dereliction of duty on their part a ground for calling
on the Government to postpone what is confessedly
an act of justice. There has been no surprise. The
matter has long been under consideration, and
abundant notice was given by the Premier of his
intention to give a practical effect to the report of
the select committee. But not merely were the
objections groundless, but they were ungenerous,
Lord Robert Cecil's friends must know very well
twhha
et
ni f e.
DHi House
siegrvheottaeese
nof uf, lt ha
censure
imt vtaiwso
naosnr
net
sehegei
anntaii
vgi
nehgdt
by a majority of
the resolution of the 12th of April would equally be
carried. But they affect to think that in a small
House at this period of the year the vote could not
be satisfectory to Mr. Lowe, and that the censorious
would have an opportunity for suggesticg that under
other circumstances the result would be different.
This is pure malice. They Should rot forget that
the original resolutiona was carried at dinner-time
in a very thin House, and under circumstances
which had best be forgotten. Lord Robert Cecil
snatched a victory by meads which it is hoped he
will not employ again, and the vote of the House of
Commons last night may be regarded, not merely
as acquitting the late Vice-President of the Com-
mittee of Council, but a dis
eountenacing the sharp
practice by which a vote of censure was obtained
which was completely unmerited.

THE W.ESTEnN
Pays, in speak RAILWAY OF FRANCE.—The
ing of the Western Railway station
in the Rue St. Lazar° stated that on Sundays 203 trains
leave Paris, and the same number arrive, each having from
COO to 700 passengers, and sometimes more than 1,000.
The other days are not 'much more quiet than Sunday, the
departing trains amounting to 116, with' the same number
of arrivals,