The Sun.
London, England, 1863-07-01 00:00:00

LONDON, WEDNESDAY, JULY 1, 1863.

An adjournment of the debate upon Mr. ROE-
BUCK'S motion was a matter of course. That ad-

journment, it will be seen, has been set apart for
Thursday. Yesterday's discussion, however, of the
important problem now submitted to the House of
Commons for solution (thanks to the impetuosity,
or the indiscretion, or whatever else may be the

motive power actuating the hon. and learned mem-
ber for Sheffield)—last evening's discussion, we

say, was sufficiently protracted not merely to admit
of Mr. ROEBUCK himself relieving Ms mind of the
whole argument prepared by him upon either side

of the Channel in favour cf the recognition of the

Southern Str:tes of America, but to allow of that

argnment being followed up by the more or less re-
markable speeches, delivered, among others, by
the hon., right hon., and noble representatives
respectively of Birmingham, of Oxford University,
of Stamford, and of Huntingdonshire. Mr. RoE•

BUCK—all things considered—perhaps never before

addressed the House of Commons at such enormous

disadvantage to himself. Every one who listened
to him last evening must have had almost pain-
fally in remembrance the thought that Tear'em

had been over very recently, at his own free wil

and pleasure, to Fontainbleau, there to be very de•
licately and adroitly muzzled by the astute ruler of

the French nation. That very potentate, at " the
bright particular star" of whose good fortune, this
same Tear'em has hitherto been baying as the mad
dog bays the moon. Hearkening to Mr. ROE-
BUCK'S speech last evening, the effect of
his words at times was almost ridiculous.
" I know certain things about the state of mind of
the Great French Ruler which I am authorised (by
his MAJESTY) to lay before this House." The
House being—the British House of Commons !
The speaker of these courtly words about, and at
the instance of, the Great French Ruler being
—of all men in the three kingdoms—Mr. ROEBUCK!
Again Mr. COBDEN might have asked' as he once
asked on the title page of a famous Pamphlet,
46 What neat—and next." PerhaPs Next we
shall be having a panegyric pronounced by Mr.
KINGLAKE upon the valour of NAPOLEON Or by
Mr. WHALLEY upon the system of education carried
out at the College of Maynooth. Or of open voting
in contradistinction to the ballot by Mr. BERKELEY!
At any rate here was the member for Sheffield, the
cynical, stiffaccked, cantankerous member for
Sheffield, talking by the hour, in words the most
honeyed, in phrases the most courteous, with
epithets the most courtier-like and complimentary,
about that same identical man of men, the Emperor
of FRANCE, against whom he has heretofore alone
employed language of the utmost possible scurri-
lity. No wonder the opportunity, presented
to him by the recognition of this astound-
ing transformation, was altogether irresisti-
ble when contemplated by the member for
Birmingham ! N )t one of the foul terms flan-
s forth,
in the most reckless of his vituperations of the Em-
peror NAPOLEON 111., by the hon. and learned mem-
ber for Sheffield, but what Mr. BRIGHT found them
clinging tenaciously to his own remembrance—
thereupon following up the immediate instinct of his
constitutional pugnacity by hurling them back upon
—the Reviler turned Panegyrist ! " I have no faith
in the Emperor of the FRENCH !"—"Nothing but
enmity and bad faith can be looked for from the
French EMPEROR ! "—" His perjured lips
touching
that hallowed 'cheek ! "—every scurrilous phrase of
Mr. ROEBUCK'S was faithfully echoed back to him
last nigut by Mr. BRIGHT. Ail those brutal vitu •
perations indulged in by the member for Sheffield,
-whenever be had occasion to make any
reference
directly to the potentate whom he now mentions,
for3aoth, only with such ;ly
Profont,d
respect, all those rhetorical bludgeonings, as we may
call them, were yesterday showered down upon the
bludgeoner himself vicariously, by the uncompro.
mising and pitiless member for Birmingham.
Amidst the loud laughter of the House of Commons
Mr. ROEBUCK not only had, as patiently as might
f denounced by Mr. BRIGHT
as a
be, to hear himsel
" co-conspirator" with the Emperor NAPOLEON
but, worse than that, as a touch of poignant ridicule,
to hear himself and his associate, Mr. LIDSAY,
spoken of by the member for Birmingham still
more sneeringly as the envoy extraordinary from
Fontainblea•
-'l,'ll4,theenvoys "most eztraor;hinary 1"
Viewing the whole d the vitally in portaut quatjal

Lord SHAFTESBURY is not a man to let asiticbjeetcot
drop. If once he has ascertained its importance
the welfare of any class of the community, he is
sure to use unremitting efforts towards accomplish-
ing the desired end. Last night, in the House of
Lords, he rose to move an address to her MAJESTY,
" praying that an inquiry into the physical and
mural condition of the dressmakers and milliners
be made by the Royal Commission now sitting, and
the state of children and young persons in trades
and manufactures not regulated by law." His lord-
ship added that he had no doubt that the commission
would find means to arrange some system that would
lead to a discontinuance of the abominations of
which they had lately heard so much. Earl
GRANVILLE said that the Government had already
referred the subject to this Commission, and that,
therefore, there was no necessity for the address.
It is to be trusted that no efforts will be spared to
make this inquiry as full and fair as possible, and
that if the reports communicated are unsatisfactory,
as they are sure to be, some alterations will be
qeedily devised to check the deleteri us influences
of the unhappy plans now being employed, which
on all bides are so condemned as a.,ke militating
, against the health and often the morals of this

working community. The habit that prevails in
some establishments, and was referred to in a letter
recently published on the subject, of supposing that
all the young persons employed must have friends
to receive them on Sundays, is a most objectionable
one. Mr. ISAACSON, in his letter the other day, re-
marked that the young ladies could not go out in
the evening because it was not proper for them, but
this rule applies with much greater force to the
practice referred to. It is putting them 'wilfully
into temptation of all kinds, and no reprobation can
be too strong for those who, instigated by the idea
of a paltry saving, allow young persons who are in
their charge to be exposed to evil. The whole mode
of procedure is bad in the extreme, whether we con-
consider the insufficient ventilation, the over-
work in the bad atmosphere, the want of
exercise in the open air, and, lastly, the
custom of turning them out in the world when their
fingers cannot be employed, the system adopted in
these establishments is objectionable from first
to last. It is a melancholy retrospection to calcu-
late the condition of so many young persons,
whose whole lives have been rendered a burden to
themselves by the ills that have followed in the
train of these numerous hardships. 'What numbers
have been forced to give up their employment
altogether, and how large a portion fill untimely
graves, it would startle some indifferent and igno-
rant parties concerned in the transaction to be
told. The present is not rendered the easier to these
sufferers, because of all the excitement that has re-
cently prevailed on the subject. -While the world
has commented on the system, and bewailed its vic-
tims, the busy toil and traffic - has gone on
the same. There has been no diminution of
labour, and no improvement in comfort to
this unhappy tribe of workers. It remains, then,
for those who have the means to use them, for those
who are able and efficient, to relax in no effort, and
to heed no discouragement, until they can rest
assured that something has been done in the right
way, and that the good cause is at least advanced in
some degree, it is too much the practice with well-
intentioned persons to lament over a calamity at the
time of its occurrence, without afterwards concern-
ing themselies. any.. mire" about it. When
the horror has passed ...away, they go
on unheedind until tbe next miafortune
occurs. But, this sad case of the dressmakers' assis-
tants has been too often the subject of comment,
and the object of scnemes and investigations, not
to have now attained a degree of importance, and to
have been invested with an interest that will not
easily allow it to be forgotten. It cannot be that,
when the season is over for the busy and the gay,
these unhappy creatures are to know that
their relaxation is never to come. There must be
some individuals too just to allow this hardship to
be definitely prolonged, and some kind hearts who
will not readily remain in inaction while these
cruel sufferings continue. No improvement was
ever easily made, and no real good ever obtained for
the industrial classes, without opposition having to
be encountered. There are necessary evils to be
endured, but none who earnestly take up this cause
will deny that the success will be worth the
struggle. The end that will crown their work will
be a noble one, and it is only surprising that more
has not been done in this quarter, considering the
claims of its sufferers and the long time it has been
before the public in various forms. However, there
is now sufficient evidence to suit the most sceptical,
and sufficient reason to rouse the most inert to take
up the cause with energy, and to continue it with
zeal, secure that they can never find a better object
for their cares, or effect more substantial benefits
by their success.