The Sun.
London, England, 1852-09-13 00:00:00

THE SUN,

imply, on the contrary, that nobler exercise of the
prerogatives of legislative power which is discover-
able in the formation of laws peculiarly tending to
secure advantages to the humbler sections of the
community. It was precisely in this spirit that our
rulers acted when they obtained for the poorest
amongst the multitude the boon accruing from those
Parliamentary trains by which any one can travel
from one extremity of the kingdom to
the other at the rate of one penny
per mile ! It was in a similar mood that
it was rendered imperative in several quar-
ters that better accommodation should be yielded by
the companies to the third-class passengers. Instead
of being subjected to all the inclemencies of the wea-
ther in open carriages, the latter have now obtained,
through the humane interposition of the Legislature,
all necessary protection from what, in various cases,
was productive of death to the sufferer. While we
cannot but exult at efforts of this beneficent character,
we must likewise experience feelings of profound re-
gret that no endeavour of a like kind has been at-
tempted to benefit another class of travellers equally
requiring the assistance of the Parliament. It were
surely only consistent with these proceedings, in re-
gard to the third-class passengers on railways, to adopt a
somewhat similar course in reference to the unfortunate
deck passengers on board our steam-boats. Whoever
has employed this mode of conveyance must be fami-
liar with the extraordinary inconvenience to which
the unlucky deck passengers are subjected, more
especially when the voyage extends over two or three
days into a week, or in some instances even to the
better portion of a fortnight. They are without any
covering whatever—being liable
i to be alternately
broiled in the sun and soaked n wet weather. If
the seas shipped are more than usually heavy they
are drenched ; or if the rain falls, as it sometimes
does, of course, in these disagreeable journeyings, in
torrents, they are absolutely deluged. Under an an-
cumulation of all these grievances, they may occa-
sionally crawl underneath the wheels of some gentle-
man's carriage that by good chance happens to be on
board, or more frequently cluster under the wake of
the funnel, for the purpose of enjoying the unwhole-
some heat engendered by the boiler. To the strongest
man in robust health this kind of treatment, night and
day, during the larger portion of a week, must natu-
rally be calculated to prove injurious. To a sickly
female or a delicate child the evil effects must obvi-
ously be still more detrimental. It may be fancied
that the circumstances upon which we are here com-
menting are in very seldom recurrence. Such a con-
jecture we may at once declare to be, unhappily, er-
roneous. Deck passengers are, in the manner specified,
being continually overwhelmed with discomforts,
thereby having their lives unnecessarily endangered, or,
at any rate, their constitutions needlessly undermined.
The Legislature, we consider, should interfere in their
behalf as it has already interposed in favour of the
third-class passengers upon railways. Measures should
be adopted compelling the steam-boat companies to
apply to the deck passengers some portion at least of
the species of accommodation afforded by them in
abundance to the passengers in the fore-cabin and in
the saloon. It would be absurd to object to this pro-
position, that shelter of any kind whatsoever is pre-
cluded from them in their very capacity as deck
passengers. In these days of manifold contrivance
we cannot admit that such an argument would be
adequate, or that such an objection would be admis-
sible. If the unfortunate travellers here mentioned
are allowed to collect together in groups upon deck—
a circumstance clearly indicative that they interfere in
no way with the working of the vessels—there is room
enough when rainy weather comes on to admit of some
tarpaulin tent being spread over them, so as to protect
them in some measure from the otherwise inevitable
inconveniences of their position. We are not talking
in this way idly or hurriedly, but with deliberate and
earnest premeditation. We are specifying a griev-
ance which we conceive appeals directly to the hu-
manity of the Imperial Legislature. A Parliament
generous enough in disposition, as the Parliament of
the United Kingdom was some years ago, to pass
into an enactment MARTIN'S humane measure for the
prevention of cruelty to animals, may surely be
looked to with some degree of confidence for a law
prohibiting any one from the infliction of bodily
injury upon our fellow-creatures. Such is the law
we are solicitous to see enforced in behalf of
the unfortunate deck passengers on board our steam-
boats.

At the political banquet recently given at New-
castle to Mr. ORD (who had been in Parliament for
half a century as a Reformer), one of the toasts was
" Lord John Russell and the members of the late
Administration." This was in the country : in
London, the seat and centre of political life, people
are not quite so apt to take it for granted that the
late will necessarily be the future Prime Minister.
Among the numerous Reformers in the metropolis
there was a growing discontent (long before he aban-
donedot office) at the do-little policy of Lord JOHN.
His new edition of the Reform Bill
ill
ex wasten in admitted
of
theo
be a dead failure—a nominal
great principle of representation, and, in many
other matters, he went rather after than
with the common sense and just demands of the
public. There was a general opinion, too (the truth
of which we shall not now pause to examine), that if
his Lordship had been sincere in his attempt to admit
the Jews to seats in Parliament, he might have carried
that desire into execution by means of a resolution of
the House of Commons, instead of trusting to an Act
of Parliament which was ever certain of being rejected
by the Upper House. Nor was the public particu-
larly enamoured of the absurdities of finance which
Sir CHARLES WOOD, his Chancellor of the Exche-
quer, annually submitted to the consideration of Par-
liament and the contempt of the country. We be-
lieve that popular opinion is in favour of Lord
Joan RUSSELL as a man, but more than in-
different—somewhat opposed, in fact—to his
again assuming the reins of power. The time and
the country require a Minister who will go a-head,
who will lead on the van in the reform of abuses, in-
stead of loitering behind, here picking up a pebble,
there plucking a wild-flower. A man of theory
might have done passably-well, some years ago, but
the temper ofithe time requires a man of action now.
The passing of the Reform Bill, twenty years since,
was evidently taken, by Lord JOHN RUSSELL, as a
deed Upon
w
hich he might take a life-long repose,
whereas an energetic statesman would have considered
it only as the
reforms the means
of a series of national
means to the great end of progres-
sive improvement,
too phlegmatic for the We suspect that Lord JOHN is
quickened
okeoprrent time. Advancing
year. have not
.his sensibilities, nor
the sluggishness
t Igshness of his nature.
He has been content
infused vitality into
oef
late get
content over each Perlis_
with its
men tary Session as best he
could,aa
being got through in any manner, lie appears
have forgotten that, in his place, not to dvooo
is t
to o
retard the movement of the great machine of Govern..
ment.
When the Newcastle Reformers drank the health
Rerssera. and the late
Ministry, the
toast
fasLt
was Lord jegil
responded to by the Earl of CeaLISLI, cer-
tainly one of the most popular, the most sincere, the
most accomplished, and the
most amiable members of
that body. No Peer has shown more sincere gym_
patty with the masses—no statesman has more con-
sistently advocated popular opinions—no Minister has
more completely identified himself with the wants,
the wishes, the feelings of the many—no man, we
are confident, has more honestly earned the regard and
the confidence of the public. If the late Ministry top-
pled over, it was not through any defect or default of
Lord CARLISLE. If public consistency and private
character could have availed, the Administration, re-
taining Lord CARLISLE, would have retained office
until now. He naturally looks to a return to office,
Should his friends again come in. And he thus stated
his opinion of the basis upon which the Whig
dynasty can
be restored :—" Gentlemen," said be,
"in my own political experience, which now extends
over a considerable time, though not over so long a
said, Period quite as that of Mr. ORD, I have heard
it often said,and he must have heard it still
oftener, and too, with much positiveness and confi-
the guished, as a political party, were ex-
deuce, that_ Whigs,
whigginn,74 tahilated, done for, smashed—and that
politicalcreed,as repudiated, spat
upon, dead, and w
true, is, that luri ed. All I can say, if this is
of politicalhave seen marvellous instances
resurrection
and political rejuvinescence.
Nay more ; even now, when the Whig leaders, the
subjects of your late toast, have been removed from