The Sun.
London, England, 1864-08-05 00:00:00

with the established rate, which, he thought, was low
enough. He heartily approved of a Liverpool testimonial
to Sir Rowland Hill, His lordship next referred to the
Lord Chancellor's County Court Bill, which, he thought,
was a subject for grave deliberation, They had to
consider, on the one hand, whether the removal of the
punishment of imprisonment for fraudulent debtors was de-
sirable, and, on the other hand, whether too much power
was not left in the hands of the county court judges, With
regard to the petty charges of customs he cordially agreed
with the chamber. With respect to the adoption of a deci-
mal coinage and of a decimal system of weights and mea-
sures, he thought that while the former was easily enforce-
able by Government, the second was not, and that it would
take a long period and much inconvenience before it could
be established. In France it took 50 years. He had sup-
ported a scheme for decimal coinage, but was afraid that if
they brought the question before the house they would find
themselves in a woeful minority. He had been requested to
say a few words with regard to the law of Patents—a very
proper question to engage the attention of a Chamber of
Commerce. They were possibly aware that a Royal Com-
mission was issued two years ago. He was chair man of that
commission. The report was signed, and would shortly be
in print, He would not go into detail on an unpublished
document; but what they had done was briefly this. They
had proposed modifications in the law with a view to lessen
the inconvenience to manufacturers and persons engaged in
business. We could do something to diminish the extraor-
dinary cost and delay incurred by those in fighting patent
cases ; but he was bound to state that, having considered
the subject most carefully for two years, he was satisfied, so
far as he was personally concerned, that the chief objections
to the patent law were not remediable by any change in the
details of the law. They aro the price which the public
pays for rewarding inventors. Might not a time be coming
when some other mode of rewarding inventors could be
substituted for that at present in existence ? It only re
ruined for him to congratulate them upon having tided
over the difficulties of the American war, and upon the in-
creasing trade and prosperity of this town. The noble lord
returned his seat amid applause.

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS,

Tieres.—As Rime of the London theatres, which
used to take as their " season" so many months of
the summer or winter, now use the same name to
signify any term for which they are continuously
open, be it ~whole year round or longer, so must we
now oegin to extend in our imaginations the period
during which Parliamentary orators favour the
country with their remarks, and keep us in expecta-
tion of hearing something interesting or profound.
The speech-making season is now from the first
of January to the last of December. The penalty
of reputation must be paid by never-ending display.
Happily for the leading men in Parliament, the art
of addressing an audience in decent language on
general subjects is acquired so thoroughly that they
never need be at a loss to fill up half en hour after
dinner. They have only to go through the familiar
topics of the day till they haveexhausted them, and
then if it comes to the worst they can begin them
again. Were it not so—were these discourses at-
tended with much effort, it is hardly possible that
statesmen and members of Parliament should be
ready for them as soon as the Session is over. Yet,
as the legislative work of the country becomes
harder every year, so there seems an increasing
tendency to seek recreation by treating the same
subjects over again all through the country, and, Es
it were, chewing the cud of the Session during the
autumn months. First of all, of course, comes
Lord Palmerston. The Premier, one would think, de-
serves a little rest. He has just finished a session
of six months. It did not produce any great monu-
ment of legislation, but the labours of Parliamen-
tary life are quite independent of the magnitude of
the subjects on which they ere employed. There is
always an immense mass of business to be transacted,
of petty and yet necessary details to be supervised;
tne First Minister of the country has to manage men
as well as to devise measures, and the House of Com-
mons is not now the docile assembly that it was in
the days when to talk of independence and conscien-
tious votes was to gain the reputation of a knave and
not of a philosopher. With a small majority, doubt.
ful a month ago, end a vigorous Opposition in face
of him, Lord Palmerston's whole energies must have
been tried during the session that is past. He has,
moreover, been engaged in conducting one of the most
wearisome and ungrateful negotiations that ever fell
to the lot of an English Minister. The policy of his
Government has been violently attacked by his op-
ponents, and coldly defended by his friends. One
might presume that the end of July would find him
desirous to enjoy his well-earned repose, to fly with
alarm from any two or three gentlemen who
looked like a deputation, and to be relentless in dis-
appointing any assembly that expected a speech.
A few years since a Minister might have aSSQ med
that a part of his time, at least, was his own. But
in the present day it seems that a public man is
never to lose his publicity. The country is becoming
almost American in its exactions from celebrities of
all kinds, and most of ail from the political. Inces-
sant representation must be the lot of the man who
has gained such a name as to make people de-
sirous to see and hear him. The public man now
knows that he must be showing himself every-
where, and speaking about something or other
almost as often as he snows himself. Both Ministers
and Opposition are always on the platform, in the
City or in the provinces, holding forth, now in some
great Town-hall, now in the inn of an obscure vil-
lage, en art, or agriculture, or politics, or the Church,
on shmetbing which gives them an opportunity of
showing themselves in the flesh to their country-
men, and gratifying the curiosity of an intelligent
public. On Monday, for instance, her Majesty's
Ministers began the pose-Parliamentary Session by
accepting the Fishmongers' invitation. The weary
statesmen who had been disputing with Bismark
and Beust for half a year had within two days
after the close of the Session to go down to Lon-
don-bridge and respond to the compliments of
the Prime Warden on their character and policy.
It was certainly satisfactory to receive his congratu.
Wiens, and to know that the Fishmongers still re,
tain the liberal opinions for which they have been
distinguished. But the hospitality of the great
City Company is but the beginning of something
that will last until it is time for Parliament to meet
again. Nor does the banquet fail to give some pre•
figurement of the style of oratory which will pre•
veil from the present time to February next. The
Prime Warden was glowing in his praises of the
Premier; declared that the House of Commons had
pronounced a verdict in his favour which had been
unanimously endorsed by the country, and that
however great the complications in which the nation
might be placed, it reposed the most entire confidence
in, his consummate statesmanship. Lord Palmerston
responded in a similar spirit, and returned the com-
pliments of the Company in the happiest manner ;
but the toast of the " the House of Lords" called up
Lord Russell, and then the Fishmongers, of course,
heard all about Lord Grey, the Reform Bill, the Test
and Corporation Acts, and civil and religious liberty.
We have scarcely time, however, to think that the
Ministry must be tired of political speaking west and
east of Temple-bar, before Lord Palmerston is heard
of again from another part of England, where he
makes a speech on the advantages of steam travel-
ling, and the contrast of the goods train of to-day
with the waggon of the last generation, and the
improvement which springs from the constant com-
munication between the provinces and the capital.
In a few days he will be speaking at Bradfora, and
this strain of oratory wf.ll be kept up until the seri•
ous business of the nation begins once more. Toe
Opposition will not be behind hand. Lord John
Manners begins the season by a speech on agricul-
ture at Market Harborongh, Lord Stanley speaks at
the Liverpool Chamber of Commerce, and before
long they will be followed by every member of
their party of sufficient importance to command an
audience. Whatever may bathe value of iudividual
addresses, there is no doubt that it does " link
classes together " to have the chief men in Parlia-
ment thus brought face to face with popular
audiences, and giving a share of their attention to
those whom the French would call provincials. If
the politicians of the country go circuit almost as
regularly as the judges, the result cannot i
but be to
diffuse political knowledge and an interest n the
welfare of the State. But the public ought certainly
to be much obliged to the eminent persons who thus
sacrifice time and convenience for their benefit.
What a Prime Minister's holyday is in the present
day we are not able to make out, and two or three
of his colleagues are alm est equally unrelaxing in
their work. The ordinary work of Parliament is of
itself sufficiently exhausting, the incessant attention
which the great machine of State requires is known
only to those who are
concerned in its manage-
ment, and we are sometimes inclined to think that
the human machine is hardly and wastefully dealt
with when it is subjected to the additional strain

of provincial oratory.
HERALD.—Tne Danish Rigsraad has received the
announcemeMt that preliminaries of peace have been
signed, with a silence which it protests must not
be regarded as satisfaction. Conscious that the
nation lay at the mercy of its enemies, convinced
that only the absolute abandonment of a third of
its territory would save the Danish monarchy from
total extinction, the members of the Rigsraad must,
indeed, forbear from censuring the Ministers who
have put their hands to this degradation of their
country to the condition of a fifth-rate state ; but
they cannot, in their grief and indignation, render
fulljustice to the difficult position in which
those
Ministers found themselves, and they will not even
seem to approve the transaction which destroys
Denmark as a European power. No true-hearted
Dane will be able to find any consolation in this
peac9 of Vienna. A people proud of history, proud
of the great part it has played in Europe, conscious
that in no degree has it fallen from Its ancient