The Sun.
London, England, 1864-12-12 00:00:00

ince left them being a gallop, or rather a canter of
perhaps five or six miles an hour; and it would be
as absurd to charge the drivers in such ciz• s with
furious driving because their horses wer g Honing

as it is to CMCU6O excessive speed bee i se it has
been attained under the more soberly-- ; nding de-
signation of trotting. In the case o r. lway vans,
again, the horses drawing them are s Idom if ever
seen in a gallop, but the drivers are constantly
animadverted upon, and often punished, for their
furious and reckless speed. The question, therefore,
is not the particular nature of the horse's action, but
the degree of speed at which he is going, whether it
be sufficiently moderate to enable him to pull up
when his further progress becomes dangerous, and

also to enable a person of ordinary precaution to
keep out of his way. And surely Mr Yardley
cannot think that twelve or even ten miles an hour

would satisfy these conditions in the crowded tho-
roughfares of London and its suburbs. We really
think that Mr Yardley is bound to take an oppor.
tunity of retracting his observation, and the infe-
rence to be drawn from it. We have no fear of its

being drawn into a precedent by his brother magi•
strates ; for their worships carry their sense of inde.
pendence so far, that each seems to make a point
of framing his decisions so as to differ as widely
as possible from theme of his conferes. Bat our
friends the cabmen will very naturally quote Mr
Yardley's dictum as authorising any degree of speed,
provided the horse be kept to his legitimate trot,
and be allowed to break out into a gallop, and the
next old woman who is knocked over in Camden

Town, or elsewhere, must comfort herself with the
reflection that it was done by fair trotting; and
that the horse's feet, though they may have con.
signed her to the hospital or the gravy, were never
all off the ground together.

THE "SATURDAY REVIEW" ON SIR GEORGE LEWIS

.A meeting which was lately held for the purpose of for-

mally opening a monument to Sir George Cornewall Lewis
required no immediate notice, because, although the prin.
cipal speaker was a member of the Cabinet, all political
discussion was carefully avoided. Not only monuments
themselves, but the ceremonies with which they are dedi-
cated, ought to be exclusively personal. When a church, or
a hospital, or even a painted window, is erected as a me-
morial, the purpose of utility or of decorative art reduces to

a secondary place the sentiment of gratitude or admiration.
It is as improper to advocate political theories in a funeral

discourse as to combine a monumental column with a chim-

ney. The soundest opinions may be held by the worst or the

weakest of men, who have nothing else in common with
wise and virtuous statesmen. Those who were personally
attached to Sir George Cornewall Lewis have every reason
to be satisfied with the honours which have been paid to his
memory. The House of Commons formally recognised his
death as a public loss, and the general regret of the com-
munity found suitable expression in the discriminating
eulogies of many public speakers and writers. Although his
career had scarcely brought him within the sphere of
general popularity, the unusually consistent testimony of
competent observers disclosed one of those simple and
equable characters which command English esteem and ad-

miration almost more certainly than brilliancy in act and
word. The dead are exempt from the drawback or reaction

which awaits those of whom all men speak well. It would,

indeed, have been impossible for an enemy to attack his re%

putation, and there was no enemy to try the experiment.
gr Disraeli spoke of one of his most formidable adversaries

in terms of generous praise, and Mr Gladstone, having
occasion to quote Sir G. Lewis's opinion in support of a
disputed proposal, described him, in the proverbial phrase
of Virgil, as the justest of all men, and the most scrupulous
in his respect for right. The customary honours which are

paid to those who have deserved well of their country have
beenliberally awarded. A bust in Westminster Abbey and
a statue in the city of Hereford represent with more or less
fidelity his outward appearance. A monument which
seems to be more impressive and appropriate has re-
cently been erected in his native county of Radnor. In
London, memorials to the dead, like almost all other objects,
are dwarfed and lost is a crowd. The II oreford statue,
which was opened by Lord Palmerston two or three months
ago, commemorates Sir G. Lewis's temporary connection
with a county which afterwards declined to re-elect him.

The desire to repair the slight was creditable to his friends
and political supporters, and they had the spirit and the
good fortune to entlist Lord Palmerston in their service as
the chief performer in the ceremony of opening or dedica-
tion. From the account of proceedings at Radnor, it ap-
pears that, in the neighbourhood where Sir George Lewis
and his family have lived from time immemorial, no poli-
tical feeling interfered with genuine regard and admiration,
naturally heightened by praiseworthy local pride. It would
be difficult, perhaps, to justify on abstract grounds the in-

crease of self-esteem which depends on the consciousness
that a great or good man lives in the same county or the
same parish; but the complacency of reflected merit serves
a useful purpose in providing willing and effective guar-
dians of the shrines or temples of indigenous saints and
and heroes. The small county of Radnor well deserves to
emerge for once from comparative obscurity or retirement,
both as the home and birthplace of an eminent man, and
because it has felt and discharged the duty of doing honour
to his memory. At the meeting on Wednesday week judi-

cious arrangements appear to have been rewarded by de.

served success. The parts in the ceremony were happily
distributed, and the speakers did justice to the occasion and
to the subject of their discourse. There was fortunately an
excuse as well as a reason for excluding all political ele-
ments. It happened that Sir John Walsh, who represents
the county both as member and as Lord Lieutenant, has
always belonged to the Conservative party. His speech was
perfectly free from any controversial bias, and it contained
in a short compass a just and able summary of Sir George
Lewis's career. He was first known as a scholar, and, as
Sir J. Walsh observed, he would perhaps have been thought
in his youth fitter for a professor's chair than for the conduct
of public business. When, however, he succeeded his father
in the Poor Law Commission, he proved that his patience
and industry, his even temper, and his calm judgment were
asapplicable to the details of administration as to philological
and historical inquiries. The additional qualities which were
required when he rose to the rank of Minister were also a
part of his moral and mental constitution. Sir John Walsh
expressed the opinion which prevailed among all parties in
the House of Commons when he described, as the test of
Sir G. Lewis's capacity for Government and for Parliamen-
tary success,his power of acquiring confidence, The reasons
for reposing tru.3t in a statesman are various, but the indis-
pensable condition is sincerity, combined with a healthy
intellectual conformation. Even a faint mixture of char-
latanism, even an occasional propensity to the cultivation of
crotchets, prevents either a deliberate assembly or a political
party from feeling at ease in the presence of a debater or a
leader. Passengers object to steersmen who try uncertain
channels, or who show their wit by going too near the shore,
It is extremely disagreeable to practise perpetual vigilance,
and to bo prevented from relying tranquilly on that authority
in matters of opinion which are analysed in one of Sir G.
Lewis's Essays. It is but respectful to the spectators in
Parliament or in the country, to display the foundations of
a political measure, and to point out their fitness to sustain
the practical superstructure; but the task is greatly facili
tated when men take it for granted that the architect
understands hfs business. Sir G. Lewis never hid a flaw
with plaster, and was incapable, even in the most insignifi-
cant part of the building, of trying to balance a pyramid
upon its point. Lord Clarendon, as Sir Cr. Lewis's near
connexion and colleague, accepted in a singularly graceful
speech the tribute which had been paid to the worth and
services of his friend. He repeated and confirmed Sir John
Walsh's statement that no man had ever been more remark-
able than Sir G. Lewis for his devotion to truth. His
simplicity and manliness of nature deprived him of all in-
ducement to take any advantage of an opponent, or even to
profit by a misconception. There were no mysteries or
puzzles in his language or in his proceeding, and he pos-
sessed two important securities against all temptation to
insincerity, in his freedom from vanity, and in his keen and
enjoyable sense of humour. Love of fame was no infirmity
of his mind ; and, except as far as the opinion of others
might involve substantial benefit or disadvantage, he pro-
bably never considered for a moment what was said about
him in his absence. The hearty amusement which ho
derived from watching the little contrivances and affecta-
tions of others would alone, perhaps, have disinclined him
from falling into similar obliquities. Another form of his
love of truth, as the Bishop of St. David's pointed out, was
exemplified by his laborious investigations of abstruse sub-
jects in which he thought that erroneous doctrines had
been propounded. Scarcely any critio has been so syste-
matically sceptical, and a fine instinct for the discovery of
imposture taught him always to suspect error or pretence
when marvellous propositions were enounced with unusual
gravity and positiveness of assertion. Unless the inhabi-
tants of Radnorshire exceed ordinary English communities
in cultivation, the majority of the audience may probably
have,been contented to have received the statements of the
Bishop of St. David's, without exercising too independent a
judgment of their own on the merits of Sir George Lewis's
examination of early Roman history or of the astronomy of
the ancients. It was,lhowever, highly fitting that one of the
greatest of English scholars should testify to the learning
and literary honesty of the same man who had already
bsen eulogised as a statesman. Regarded from every side
Sir G.Lewis produced the same impression of ,characteristic
sincerity and truth.
THE " LONDON REVIEW" ON THE LONDON" NEEDLE-
womEN.--There have been negrophilists who has's) refused
to use sugar because it was slave grown, and who -would as
soon put:on the poisoned shirt of Hercules as wear cotton.
But we have never heard of people feeling uncomfortable
about their linen because it may have been stitched by the
trembling hands of a half-starved Englishwoman. To be
sure, the Englishwoman is free, and the slave is not ; and
a very delightful consciousness it must bo to her whifai she
is making shirts at seven farthings apiece that she can take
those seven farthings into any market she pleases, and buy
with them what she likes. As a citizen she has certainly
the advantage over the slave. She is free to work c not
to work ; no public conveyance, no place of entertainm mat is
closed against her. She has the same rights in the eye fed
law as a countess or duchess. Yet practically she is no be tter
than a slave and in some respects indeed, not so happy. The
balance of evidence is in favour of the belief that the eh tve
is sufficiently fed. That is not the case of the Lond on
needlewomen. How these poor creatures manage to em Tat
it is difficult to understand, except upon the
.explanatii