The Sun.
London, England, 1863-08-25 00:00:00

arrival by the allurements of the recruiting ser- of public charity will flow more copiously, there is
geant. Still emigration can only have supplied a some risk of the fountains running dry also "in the
percentage of the hosts which the North has sent long run." A good word for Pindar and Samuel
into the field. The Southerners complain with great Gurney seems, therefore, quite in season, especially
justice that their country is invaded by foreigners, in this broiling weather. Now, it is some encourage-
for Irish and Germans have formed a conspicuous meat to find that a remarkably nice peg to hang
element in the Federal armies ; but the bulk of these that word on has been supplied by an anonymous
must have been naturalised Americans, who for all patron of the limpid stream, in the shape of an offer
practical purposes were citizens of the union. It re- of one hundred pounds sterling, if by the middle of
mains now to be seen what will come of the last ap- October contributions to the amount of five hun-
peal—whether the North will endure the conscrip- dred pounds shall come in to meet his donation.
tion, and with what spirit the conscripts will fight. Though it is not to be found in the Bible in these
In the South the conscription has long been in force, very terms, yet we take it that the offer in question
and the last resource of the Confederates is shown in is a very suitable text to dilate upon in a homily on
the enlistment ofnegroes. IntheNorththerehasbeen the advantages of an abundant and gratuitous sup
no such trial, and Governor Seymour distinctly ply of pure water to thirsty souls. That the drink-
intimates to the President his opinion that it ing fountains must fall back upon the " voluntary
may be too much for the patience of the people. principle" for their support seems tolerably evident.
"I do not dwell," says he," on what I believe would To charge them upon the Consolidated Fund is
be the consequence of a violent, harsh policy before altogether out of the question. Whatever Mr.
the constitutionality of the Act is tested. You can Gladstone, the philanthropist, may think of the
scan the immediate future as well as I." These are movement, it is clear that the Chancellor of the Ex-
ominous words, and they are applied to a State chequer cannot do otherwise than frown upon it.
which has hitherto been eminently zealous in sup- To him the growth of habits of sobriety among the
plying men for the war. We shall soon learn which people is an object of deep concern in an inverse
of the two is right—Governor Seymour in his de- ratio from what it is to the moralist. And if the effect
precations of the measure, or President Lincoln in of the drinking fountains upon the revenue should
his determination to enforce it at all hazards; but happen to attract his notice, the association may
the very occurrence of the difficulty shows the think itself lucky if he does not clap a stamp upon the
straits to which the Government is reduced, goblets, and compel it to take out a drinking license
Hitherto the Federals have endured everything for for each fountain. To the benevolent public, there-
the sake of the war ; but they are now called upon fore, to those who hailed Mr. Gurney's scheme in
for a sacrifice which it is not yet certain they will the first instance, and to those who received it with
consent to make. a benevolent smile, the appeal must be made. It is
HERALD.—There is one aspect of the Polish in- scarcely conceivable that this appeal should be made
surrection which renders it revolting to the civili- in vain ; so numerous, so cogent, so moving are
station of Europe and obnoxious to the hopes of the arguments that may be advanced in its support.
liberty. Nothing can excuse the assassinations To those who are not to be touched by any but
ordered by the Central Committee, and executed by " sensation" pleas, we may be permitted to suggest
its agents. Once for all, every Christian people how greatly drinking fountains must tend to di-
should aloud refuse their sympathy to any move- minish delirium tremens and hydrophobia, as ugly
mont working by means of the dagger. No free an alternative as it is possible to hit upon among
constitution was ever founded upon murder. We "-the ills that flesh is heir to." To those whom
care not what may be the classic examples. They milder persuasives will reach we may point out the
belong to a Pagan epoch, in which the act of fact, universally acknowledged, that drunkenness is
" lying pungently," as Douglas Jerrold expressed one of the most fruitful causes of crime among the
it, was deemed a virtue. No number of illustra- lower orders ; and that, therefore, whatever has a
tions can blazon into heroism the secret and cowardly tendency to diminish drunkenness will, pro tanto,
shedding of human blood, whether by a fanatic who cause a diminution of crime. Those who look deeper
chooses to think himself a patriot, or by a desperate into the sources of human happiness and misery, we
emissary, obeying the orders of a sanguinary may remind that much of the wretchedness observ-
Vehmgehricht, armed for revolutionary purposes able in the dwellings of the poor, much of the
with the stiletto and the cord ; and history will squalor in which their unhappy children are reared,
never fulfil its duty until it has made short work is owing to the large amount of money spent by the
with these stealthy butchers, and execrated them, labouring class upon fermented liquors, far beyond
if not out of human memory, at least out of their the measure of them which may be regarded in the
maudlin and immoral fame. We weigh them all in light of wholesome support or beneficial stimulant.
the same scale—Ravillac with Charlotte Corday, We are no advocates for teetotalism or the Maine
Harmodius with JohnFenton. They are felons from Liquor Law. We should be sorry to take from a
first to last. The salient voice of Mr. Wilkie Col- hard-working man his pint, or even his pot, of beer,
line's most popular novel was the apology it implied as part of his daily sustenance. What we contend
for an act of private retribution adjudged against for is, that his proper allowance of it will do him all
Count Fosoo, and inflicted upon him by a ghostly the more good if he learns to restrict his use of it to
stabber at midnight on the banks of the Seine. The a reasonable quantity at meal time, and beyond that
feeling of Englishmen recoils from the practice, no to quench his thirst with a drink of pure water.
matter how extenuated. Recapitulate the old Others, again, who think less of the improvement,
sophisms in its behalf, and still the wickedness, and care more for the comfort of their fellow-crea-
the depravity, and the cowardice of the deed remain tares, may be asked to consider what a boon a drink
untouched. A tyrant may, perhaps, stand above of fresh, pure water, always accessible, is to the
the reach of the law which he creates and admi- multitudes of men, women, and children who throng
nisters ; its provisions ought to apply to him as to our thoroughfares. They may be asked to extend
others ; but no individual subject has a right to be their sympathies to the brute creation, and to share
come the trustee of Divine justice, and pass a son- the pleasurable sensations of the horses and dogs,
tence of death to be carried, out in the dark by the to whom the trough of the drinking fountain proves
stroke of a slaughterers knife. We are not, thank a Castalian spring. Are all these delectable emotions
Heaven, a nation of Scatvolas. We never were in of human and animal sympathy to be enjoyed for
the worst days gone by. There was in Englar.d, nothing ? Fie upon such selfishness! Let those
when the plot of the Rue Repelletier exploded in a who feel their heart warmed by the thought of
shower of murderous grenades at an opera door, a thousands of throats seasonably, innocently, and
party bitterly hostile to the French Emperor; but gratuitously cooled in this hot weather transmit
to the credit of manitind be it said, that not a re- their tribute of sympathy in the shape of a sove-
spectable organ of the English press suggested any reign, a five-shilling piece, or a dozen postage
justification of Orsini and his infamous confederates. stamps, to the office of the Drinking Fountain Asso-
These mysterious tribunals, which send men to their ciation, at 4, Church-court, Lombard-street, in the
coffins by verdicts pronounced in the vaults of re- consciousness that he has done a good deed.
morseless conspiracy, are abominable violations of
right, and no perversion of argument upon ethics or
equity can by any possibility raise them above the
level of the most coarse and common murder. The
Marshal of the Nobility of Wilna, within the com-
pass of the fluctuating Polish insurrection, has just
been stabbed, under a condemnation of the Central
Committee, or subterranean government of the in-
surgents, for having signed the address of the local
nobility to the Czar. His footman was wounded
at the same time—it is feared mortally. This is
not the first instance, by scores upon scores, of poll
tical assassinations by command of the invisible
authority whose decrees convulse Poland, and which
employ not only an incendiary, a tax-gatherer, and
a trumpeter of revolt, but an executioner also. We
put it to the respectable representatives of the Polish
emigration in London and in Paris, whether they ap-
prove of these bloody and pusillanimous edicts. Do
they authorise them? Will they not repudiate and
scout them utterly ? If they hope to consecrate assas-
sination as a political necessity, where is the limit
to be found ? If the secret stabbings in the forests
of Wilna be legitimate, so, possibly. might have
been the secret poisonings of the Borgias. We can-
not draw any line between one class of murders and
another, or stamp one set of weapons as nefarious
and another as heroic. A poignard hidden under
a cloak, and driven into the heart of a surprised and
unsuspecting wayfarer or slumberer, is no less de-
testable and despicable than a phial of Tophana's
distilling or a nosegay doctored by Caraffa. There
is horror in the racks, pulleys, thumbscrews,
scourges, scaffolds, blocks, and gibbets of despotism ;
there is terror in the Siberian mine or the oubliette
of the Bastille. We may abhor these institutions,
and desire that our fellow-creatures in no part of
the world shall long be subject to the caprices and
cruelties of irresponsible rulers or their more merci-
teas agents; but the lineage of Cain can never be
the liberators of Europe. Intrepid rebellion and
open battle may be pleaded for as the last resources
of a people made desperate by the misdoings of
their rulers ; but when patriotism assumes the black
mask, lurks in a dark archway, and steals furtively
forth to deal safely the blow which is to fulfil the
sentence of judges securely ensconced abroad, it be-
comes 3 crime, an imposture, and a reproach to the
cause which it scandalizes and degrades. When
Machiavelli recounted the wickedness of Agathocles,
of Oliverotto di Fermo, and of Crease Borgia, he
concluded by declaring that their punishment to be
salutary, could only have been legal. The Nemesis
that lies in the poisoned chalice, or skulks beneath
the assassin's hood, is not more moral than the spolia-
tion of a miser or a burglary in the dwelling of a
notorious reprobate. Let the Poles be well assured
that their Central Committee will only concentrate
upon itself the hatred and disgust of Liberal Europe
by this mystic dooming to death of men whose acts
are offensive to their nationality. Italy gained
nothing when " Italian chocolate" was in fashion ;
and the ablest writers even of the revolutionary
party in France have admitted that her freedom
was not advanced,by one step, but rather retarded,
by the tremendous deeds which, just before the
Revolution, were confessed amid the agonies of the
Chambre Ardente. All high-minded Frenchmen
despise Cantillon, as all high-minded Germans were
anxious to give up to the grasp of the law the miser-
able murderer of Latour, and as every Italian worthy
of the name regrets the slaughter of Rossi at Rome.
The massacre of an individual by a mob, or its
deputy, is absolutely not more to be justified,
upon any pretence whatever, than the firing upon
an unarmed multitude by a battalion of soldiers.
Human right and law unequivocally forbid both.
POST.—The principle immortalised by the great
Olympic bard—
' A pIiTTOP fLEV acop-
has taken root amongst us to an extent which
could hardly have been hoped for, under the aus
pices of Mr. Samuel Gurney and his " Drinking
Fountain Association." When that refreshing
scheme was first started by its benevolent author
many persons—not less benevolent, it may be, but
less sanguine—smiled at the idea of thirsty souls
being enticed to pass the " public" or the beershop
and to resort to the Pindaric beverage. To the
great surprise of the sceptics; to the infinite gra-
tification of those who take an interest in the phy-
sical comfort and moral improvement of the popu-
lation; and to the mortification, possibly, of pub-
licans and beer-tap keepers, the lower classes of
the community took to the novel " tap," and untold
gallons of water have been consumed by them in
all its native purity, without the adulteration !of
either malt or hops. So far the result is highly
satisfactory. It is good to see those structures, the
" drinking fountains," some of them elegant—for
art has not been lost sight of in the erection of all
—beset by crowds of customers, many of whom,
there can be no doubt, would, but for the oppor-
tune supply, have quenched their thirst elsewhere,
and returned home vs ith their pockets lightened of
the price of a pot of beer. Where, moreover, as is
the case in many of the suburban fountains espe-
cially, provision has thoughtfully been made for
conducting the overflow of the basin into a trough
below, it is pleasing to see many a panting and
weary beast " washing out its mouth" on a hot
summer's day, and not less pleasing to think that it
our dogs go mad at all, it will not be for want of a
sufficient supply of water always at their command.
't'hen) is one drawback, however, upon this satis-
factory result. The drinking fountains have refused
to obey the laws of political economy, having
seriously infringed the well known rule of demand
and supply. There is a large and increasing
demand for additional fountains, which the asso-
ciation is unable to supply. For even water—to
say nothing of the prieae cost of each fountain—
cannot be supplied for nothing, especially in large
towns where drinking fountains are most wanted.
And so it comes to pass that while the water in the
fountains of the association is running freely enough,
its exchequer is running dry; and unless the vein

COUNTRY MARKETS.

1.,

GLOUCESTER-Atm. 22.

The show of new English wheat to-day was fair, which
was sold at a reduction of 2s per qr. Foreign wheat was
much pressed, and American fully 2s lower. Beans and
oats very dull. Barley unaltered.