The Sun.
London, England, 1863-05-18 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS,

SATURDAY REVIEW.—At last, somewhat pared
and clipped, the Budget has been accepted by the
House of Commons. It issues from that ordeal sub-
stantially the same as when it was introduced, but
stripped of all the philosophic ornaments with which
Mr. Gladstone's symmetrical mind had decked it.
Mr. Gladstone's feelings are probably much in the
condition of those with which an old maid, who has
only just caught the train, and has secured her
seat with difficulty after a desperate verbal engage-
ment with the guard, watches the fragments of her
abandoned packages as they lie scattered upon the
receding platform. The triumph of having caught
the train at all enables her to contemplate without
emotion crushed bonnet-boxes, dropped books, and
sandwiches dispersed far and wide among the por-
ters. If she is philosophical, she reflects that it
was almost a moral impossibility that she should
succeed in getting so many loose packages into the
train. In spite of their obvious disavantages, how-
ever, old maids always affect them ; and so do
symmetrical Chancellors of the Exchequer. Mr.
Gladstone has never brought in a budget without
piling upon the top of it a heap of these financial
odds and ends. He hardly ever succeeds in carry-
ing the bundle through without the loss of one or two
of them,though his mishaps have seldom been so nu-
merous and important as in the present year. Last
year he only dropped the brewing tax that was to be
exacted from the butlers of private gentlemen. The
melancholy catalogue of this year—income tax on
charities, legacy duty on Irish charities, licenses on
clubs, and duties on carriers—is a much more seri-
ous affair. There would be some consolation in this
wholesale slaughter if it were possible to hope that
the race of these financial mosquitoes was extermi-
nated at last. But the productiveness of Mr. Glad-
stone, like that of the country over which he rules,
is inexhaustible. No one who has watched his
career can doubt that next year will see him with a
fresh list of minute but ingenious projects, carefully
calculated to keep the taxpayer in a condition of
salutary irritation, without giving him the solace of
reflecting that he is appreciably adding to the re-
venue. It is unquestionably this inveterate passion
for microscopic symmetery which neutralises the
influence that Mr. Gladstone's great power sought to
exercise. It is singularly uncongenial to the nation
with which he has to do. Englishmen cannot be
accused in these days of an " ignorant impatience
of taxation." They bear their enormous burden with
great good humour, and more often force a Minister
to increase it than to lighten it. The position of
Chancellor of the Exchequer does not of itself,
therefore, involve any special unpopularity. They
know that he must take his pound of flesh, and they
contentedly bare their breas+s for the operation.
What that he should be perpetu-
ally snips in order to cut it square.
taking
gy
additionalobject to ia
Inartistic though it may seem, they prefer that the
edges of the inevitable wound should be left uneven.
He is himself aware 103 this time that these refine-
ments of financial surgery are far from popular.
theTHE from
WEEKLY his own
REGISTER.—Onniiri the But he cannot eradicate the inveterate taste for
Emperor
Napoleon has devolved the task of making a great
experiment in Government, and he is accomplish-
ing it with equal firmness and adroitness. No
truth of political philosophy is more clear than
that you cannot fit a constitution on to a people
as a tailor might a suit of clothes. If it
it is to be stable, it rrust develop gradually
from the genius of the people like the
other growths of nature. France herself has had
a bitter experience of constitution-mongering. On
p
the whole, the essentials for the stability of a people
are, a Government corresponding with its tastes
and tempers, and material prosperity. There is no
constitution in the world that is so thoroughly the
produce of gradual development as our own—none
that has so happily led individual
with the traditions of power;econci on
aspect is more thoroughly in harmony with the
ideas and principles of the day; and whose roots at
the same time stray deeper down into the past,
rnwvhidousa el liberty
whence they derive no little sap and nourishment.
Yet we doubt whether even it would stand the test
of national misfortune and general poverty. The
Emperor Napoleon is, we think, shrewdly acting on
these principles. He is putting into the French
soil the elemental principles of constitutional liberty
that have blossomed and brought forth fruit in this
country ; and he has set himself the task of watch-
ing and guarding their development, according to
the genius of his people. It was essential for this
that he should begin with absolitism. We cannot,
in fairness, deny this. The executive must have a
strength that should take away all hope of resist.
ance. This was the most difficult part of his task ;
because it involved what appears on the surface a
glaring inconsistency. But he has succeeded so
far, and he has resisted the temptation that has
overthrown so many absolute monarchs. He seems
to be using his power as the nursing shelter for the
growth of constitutionalism. He has developed,
with wonderful success, the material resources of
the country. He has raised France to her proper
place in the Councils of Europe, and lie is consoli-
dating what was left of public sentiment, of law,
and of freedom. Of course, his difficulty is the suc-
cession. The trial that destroyed the Czesars awaits
his dynasty. But the circumstances are far more
favourable. Rome had not been thrice plunged
into the misfortunes and excesses of revolution.
Neither had Rome had the advantage of Chris-
tian civilisation. If he can contrive to open the
paths of material prosperity to Frenchmen and to
make them on the whole contented with their ex-
isting Government, his heir may y succeed to his
throne.

EXAMINER.—Of all systems for the ascertain-
ment of title to property, public registry is the best,
when clearly kept and punctually posted up, but
of all systems it is obviously the worst when these
conditions are not fulfilled. The latter was the
state in which the office at Dublin was found upon
recent official inquiry, and a person applying for
permission to search its records, in order to know
whether he was safe in buying or lending his money
on a particular landed estate, instead of being able
to satisfy himself as to who was entitled to sell, or
how much there was over and above incumbrances to
buy, was told by some drowsy sexagenarian or some
scatter-brained fop that he could not possibly have
the information he sought for weeks or months to
come. For years the delays in the Registry-office
in Ireland have been continually complained of, but
like many other things on the other side of the
channaelllowdeemd atnodigongfropmrabcta.idcatlo remedies,
emoresdies they had
been
without' any
attempt being made at legislative intervention. At
length a bill was framed and introduced by Go-
vernffient, proposing. to turn the old palace of indo-
lence into an undersized official workshop, and for
this purpose to clear out useless hands and make
new appointments. Whereupon three-score vested
interests took the alarm, and such active agencies
were set in motion to baffle the measure and to re-
prieve the condemned wen, that when the bill came
to be discussed in the House of Commons hardly an
Irish member, whether Orange or Green, was found
to support it. Had Lord Palm erston's Secretary for
Ireland been acquainted with the country with
whose concerns he is officially identified, or capable

of mastering the details of essentially practical
subjects, the ease might, perhaps, have ended diffe-
rently. He would probably have been able to win
over the support or neutralise the opposition of a
portion at least of the Irish members, and at all
events lie would doubtless have succeeded in throw-
ing upon them the responsibity of suggesting some
better measure. But the member for Tamwort la is
in himself a receipt for failure. An air of absurdity
attaches itself to everything serious he attempts;
and there is a mischievous gravity about his ill,tiined
jokees prognosticatedthat vouldseNh
tvaelo ho esssuwsacespatiphil)eoinrtaecde
ofha Is r ivsehn p
than he has to deal with incessantly by the ears.
What w
Chief Secretary has fatally happened. He has
and marredren
rendered
dy t
he question
confusion
he e
ventured
ditaond touch,
jea-
lousies only worse confounded. We cannot wonder
that the representatives of a sister country should
show little disposition to follow the legislative lead
of one so utterly incompetent to guide or govern.
We were therefore not surprised that Sir Roundel]
Palmer should be put up to take the matter out of
his incapable hands; or that finding the bill con-
demned as inadequate for its purpose by nearly all
the members for het, nd, he should have advised its
abandonment. The Solicitor-General told the house
that he was happy to be able to announce that since
the introduction of the measure the easy-going oc-
cupants of the Registry office had wakened up, and
by a patriotic effort had succeeded in wiping off the
arrefr ; so that some good had been effected after
all : and with this Parthian dart the battle ended.
THE LONDON REVIEW.—It was the opinion of
Mr. Weller, senior—and his prolonged experience
as the driver of a stage-coach gave weight to
his authority—that the keepers of turnpike
bars are all on 'em men as has met
with some disappointment in life. Conse-
quence of vich they retires from the vorld and shuts
themselves up in pikes ;:partly with the view of being
solitary, and partly to rewenge themselves on man-
kind by takin' tolls." Since the delivery of this dic-
tum the establishment of railways has greatly
favoured their indulgence in a taste for seclusion. At
no time has the most misanthropic amongst them
had cause to fear that he was wearing away life
without sensibly augmenting the sufferings of his
race. Their exactions drove half a dozen counties to
the semi-revolt of the Rebecca riots. In many parts
of England bars hem in the country towns with im-
penetrable lines of circumvallation, which make loco-
motion a nuisance, and the possession of a horse and
a vehicle an expensive torture. Even if the tax upon
our pockets were less considerable than it is, the
constant blister to our tempers would still be a
serious grievance. No eater bodily pain is equal to
that inflicted by water falling drop after drop upon
the head. Nor can there be a worse fiscal infliction
than an impost which perpetually lies in wait for
victims, and is ever ready to punish by mean exac-
tion of coppers the slightest indulgence in a vagrant
habit. As a general rule we recognise in direct tax-
ation the convenience of making a man pay once for
all the annual sum at which he is assessed towards
any given object. Oar streets and parochial high-
ways are kept up by a parochial rate, and not by
the daily and hourly extortion of contributions to-
wards their maintenance. We know how it happens
that the expense of repairing Fleet-street is defrayed
in one way, and that of repairing the turnpike road
to Barnet in another. But to account for an anomaly
is not to justify it. As the street and the road are
equally matters of public concern, there can
be no reason why one should be supported
by a general rate and the other should de-
pend upon payments made fcr its use. In no other
country but England are the main lines of comma-
uication in the hands of private proprietors, who
are authorised to make travellers stand and deliver
at the distance of every few miles.
THE LAW TIMES —The question, whether a soli-
citor in practice should be appointed a justice of
the peace for the borough in which he practises, has
received an official solution. The Lord Chancellor
has refused the request of the Town Council of
Wolverhampton that he would place the name of
Mr. H. H. Fowler, the present mayor, in the Com-
mission of the Peace, on the express ground, as stated
in his answer to the memorial, that " the Lord Chan-
cellor will not consent to break the rule which it
has been found necessary to make against the

appointment as a magistrate of any gentleman
whose name appears upon the roll of attorneys ants
solicitors.'-' The ruler ee--tbua-stated, is certa:l3li
much wider than it was understood to be. Succes-
sive Chancellors have refused to put into the com-
mission solicitors practising in the county, city, or
borough within which they would act as justices,
for the reason—on the validity of which
opinions
will differ—that circumstances may arise in which
into
conflict. duties of judge and practitioner may come
conflict. The objection is, perhaps, more theoreti-
cal than practical. Solicitors are eligible to be
mayors; and, in fact, many solicitors are elected to
that office, and fill it with honour to themselves
and advantage to the community. Mayors are ex
officio magistrates for their year of office, and for
one year after; consequently, we do actually wit-
ness the state of things which the rule of the Lord
Chancellor professes to prevent—that is to say,
practising solicitors acting as justices in cities and
boroughs. And what is the result of this ex-
perience ? Why, that in no single instance has
the supposed difficulty occurred, and in all cases
the solicitors have discharged theirjudicial duties
to the entire approbation of their fellow-citizens.
That the objection of the Lord Chancellor is not
shared by those who would be the first to see
and feel it, is Proved by the growing desire to place
solicitors in the civic chair, mainly because they are
found to be the best magistrates. Surely, then, if
the inhabitants of the city or borough, having a free
choice, select a solicitor to be their chief magistrate,
there can be no reason for retaining a rule of exclu-
sion which, however reasonable it may appear in
the abstract, is proved not to be supported by ex-
perience.
THE READER.—What used to be the prevalent
doctrine or style of speculation respecting the great
social experiment going on in the New World, and
its probable rebound on the more veteran and com-
plex civilisation of the Old ? Unless we are mis-
taken, something like this :—More than three hund-
red years ago our European forefathers discovered
what may be called a new check to our planet—a
vast habitable continent, previously unknown,
wherein there were scattered relics of strange races
that had roamed over it or dwelt on it ; but these
relics, so scanty and mean, in proportion to the ex-
panse and its capabilities, that it seemed as if God
had kept the land vacant, in the sheer care of the
elements and a few red Indians, until the men of the
Old World should have occasion for it, and should
be ready to enter upon the possession. Accordingly,
America did become mere new space and growing-
ground for colonies from the chief European nations
—of which colonies those of English or Anglo-
Saxon foundation gradually proved themselves the
most capable, and superseded or absorbed the
others, or distanced them in wealth, importance,
and strength. But what sort of items from her
own body did the Old World thus part with,
and send over to form the beginnings of the
body-politic in the New ? Items of all sorts ;
but with this one common character amid all
their diversities, that they were the extreme
ti▪
ps and clippings, the very last developments,
of the social, moral, and intellectual tendencies of
the Old World. Still the notion was that what was
seen there was simply a transplantation of what
was best and most advanced, or at least most ex-
treme and developed, in the social tendencies of
Europe--a transplantation into a freer space and
ampler growing-ground, where, disentangled from
impediments and restrictions, it might extend and
flourish, and where, moreover, from the very neces
si▪ ty that there should be peace and mutual tolera-
tion among so many elements of different origin,
problems of government and civil equality never
solved in the Old World were sure to be worked
out. Hence the idea was that the Great Ameri-
can Republic was an experiment of cosmopo-
litical significance, a kind of pilot-experiment for
all humanity, showing, by the actual spectacle of a
nation ahead of the rest by its constitution and in
its processes, what all the world, or at least all the
civilised world of Europe, was certainly coming to,
if it advanced at all. Something like this, we say,
was the prevalent doctrine and. style, of speculation.ii
with regard to America.
.A wise I ocquevi e, also,
sympathetically and admiringly
.studying
Ameri-
can civilisation, could see dangers
.in it ; and, while
admitting it to be a splendid pilot-experiment. for
the whole earth, could not but. recognise certain su-
perioriti.es still apparently inseparable from the
civilisation of the older and more crowded nations
of Europe. Among ourselves there were some deep
thinkers, by whom the material prosperity of the
American Republic was regarded as a phenome-
non to be explained by mainly physical causes, and
not very admirable essentially, and not likely to
last very long. Again, there were shrewd and
g
kindly travellers, like Dickens,sht
back from America, the who brow
menenand
manners there,
results of their
direct observation of
such reports as could not,
whatever were one's
philosophical prepossessions,, give one a very lofty
idea of the peculiarities of the actual American
mind, It is extrsord.
wary to note how courageously

NIT.. Dickens, in his " Chuzzlewit," set down, on
the faith of his own impressions, things about the
Aoler jeans which it was not the fashion to express
then, het which it has been common enough to say
of late. Finally, there were the liberal and
philanthropic men, who, full of admiration for
America, saw the black spot of slavery in the very
centre of what they admired, and who wondered
how and when the spot was to disappear. Still on
the whole the prevalent doctrine with respect to
America, in quarters where doctrines about any-
thing exist, was very much what we have described
.ATREN.EUM.—M. de Quatrefages, who seems to
regard all scientific doubt as to the fossil jawbone
found at Moulin-Quignon, near Abbeville, as so
much depreciation of the glory of France, continues
to fight for the authenticity. It is another Crecy,
another Agincourt, and the battle seems likely to
have a similar result. M. Quatrefages says his
first, convictions have been strengthened by a further
examination both of the jewbone and the flint
hatchet found near it. He quotes the opinions of
MM, Delesse, Desnoyers, Gaudry, tie Vilbraye and
Lyman, who all concur in considering the jawbone
perfectly authentic. M. Pictet, after examining
it with care, had declared that he had not ex-
pected it to offer such conclusive evidence, As
to Dr. Falconer's assertion that the tooth which
had been found, besides being very white still
contained a large proportion 4f gelatine, M.
Quatrefages contended that n6c44xj,stence of
gelatine had occurred ere this-in fossit teeth of
much greater -antiquity than any which could be
found in drift. Messrs. Prestwich, Falconer, Burk,
and Carpenter are in Paris, strong in their convic-
tions, and we hear that many French inquirers are
already of their opinion as to the spuriousness of
this extraordinary discovery in the drift.
SOCIAL SCIENCE REVIEW.—The vast amount of
money kept in greater or less sums on the premises
by retail dealers, farmers, and others, and hence
kept exposed to depredation as well as to the loss of
interest, is highly discreditable to the good sense
and frugality of the persons who do it. Of this
publicans are a common example, and they are fre-
quent victims of depredation. In the course of some
investigations of systematic depredation, a police-
officer stated to us that when the extent of culpable
exposure of property was considered, there ought to
be little surprise at the extent of habitual depreda-
tion. Thus he said he might almost undertake to
find blindfold large sums of money kept by publi-
cans as well as by other tradesmen. He would
grope his way to the bedroom on the second floor,
and he would find a chest of drawers with three
large drawers, and two small drawers at the top ;
in the right hand small drawer, which had the com-
monest lock, one that might be opened by a nail or
a piece of bent wire, would be found a bowl in which
there was silver and gold, and now and then notes,
kept for paying the brewer and the distiller. These
stores are from time to time swept away by thieves.
And so it is frequently with other tradesmen, who
keep for months as well as weeks their quarterly
collections in the most exposed manner on the pre-
mises. One common course of depredation in Lon-
don is on the Sunday, when a tradesman goes out
on a pleasure excursion with his wife and children,
leaving a servant girl alone in charge of the house
and shop. A young fellow, a thief, pays court to
her, and gains admission to the premises, finds
out where the money is kept, and in re-
gular course it is stolen. I do not see why some
of the more popular banks should not make
arrangements for receiving cash boxes with the
money collected up to Saturday after banking hours
and save the risk of keeping it on the exposed pre-
mises during the Sunday.
THE MEDICAL TIMES.—Dr. Richardson, on the
9th instant, conducted an inquiry which may ulti-
mately be often resorted to in those medico-legal
investigations in which the question of identity is
involved. On the preceding Wednesday an inquest
was held by Mr. Humphreys, the coroner for East
Middlesex, on the body of a man who bad been
found drowned in the Thames, and who was assumed
to have been the murderer of the unfortunate girl
Emma Jackson, who was found some weeks sites
with her throat cut in a brothel in St. Giles. The
witnesses who knew the supposed murderer were
taken to view the body of the deceased man on Wed-
nesday, but the body was so decomposed, the face so
black, and the tissues so swollen, that they were
utterly unable to offer any opinion. To prevent the
1
-ow from -failing- througbr--Dr.—.lttetnitdson Bug.
the id, first to Dr. Lankester, and afterwards to Mr.
, nphreys, that probably the features of the dead
wan might be greatly restored. Mr. Humphreys
thereupon requested Dr. Richardson to make the
attempt, end deputed Dr. Edmunds to take part in
carrying out the operation. The process adopted by
Dr. Richardson consisted in immersing the body in
a salt water bath for two hours; then the face was
raised from the water and exposed to chlorine ; and
finally the arteries leading to the face were injected
with chlorine water containing chloride of zinc and a
little sesqui-chloride of iron. The decomposition of
the tissues was so great that the operations were at-
tended with mach difficulty, but the resultajudicially
were all that could be desired. The face was brought
from dark black to a pale ash colour, the tumefaction
was reduced and all the witnesses on viewing the body
after the process were enabled to depose without
hesitation that the body was not that of any man
whom they had ever seen ; while one witness
(Stoke) swore positively that it was not the person
who attended Emma Jackson when he saw her last.
Dr. Richardson and Dr. Edmunds were also enabled
to determine that the dead man was a young man
of 21 or 22, whose beard had not been shaven, and
whose whiskers were imperfectly developed. While
we may look upon this inquiry as fruitful in its
results practically, we may add the fact that Dr.
Richardson believes that in future much more per-
fect results may be secured, and we may hope that
by improvements in the different steps of the pro-
ceedings, any dead body, the tissues of which are
not actually destroyed, may be so far restored as to
be identified. This is a new feature in Forensic
Medicine, and one which may render service to the
public, and reflect credit on modern Medical science.
SPECTATOR.—Since the untimely death of Sir G.
C. Lewis Mr. Gladstone is recognised by common
consent as the heir apparent to the leadership of the
Liberal party; and those, therefore, who, like our-
selves, are not quite so ductile to the rash timidity
and dangerous caution of the times as to look with
equanimity on the prospect of a long series of years
in which the Government of this country should
cover with its aegis every rotten abuse, and wave
aside every noble cause till it has ceased to need our
aid, must henceforth watch the Chancellor of the
Exchequer's career with mingled anxiety and pride.
He alone can pretend to lead the Liberals ; but it is
useless to ignore the fact that he will be a leader
whom all the Conservatives will delight to assault,
and not quite all the Liberals will delight to de-
fend. Nay, we must say more,—though he will
be a leader to be followed with enthusiasm,—
with far greater loyalty of sentiment than one
can readily feel for Lord Palmerston's pleasant
and politic expediency,—we must often, too, fol-
low him with anxiety and trembling, as a leader
whose thoughts and ways are not very easy to anti-
cipate—one of the greatest defects in the leader of a
popular party—and whose mind is too inventive for
any large measure of that political sagacity whitlfinds the true track rather by scent t.hand
intellec-
tual effort. Great parties like to havetenaowers whose
thoughts and measures they seemogocegat
least—We
before-
hand. Lord J. Russell (
would not say the same o-wf hheimnt ins
leader of opposi-
tion) had this advantage, tha hisa
views were a sort
They were
of familiar liturgy to his party
accus-
tomed to his constitutional forms
of praise and
prayer, and too
came prepared to chime in at theri
right
moment. Mr. Gladstone ja,
however, at once
original, and too discursive in the plan of his
ori-
ginality, for a model leader. A parliamentary part
ie, in this, like a volunteer army ; it wants
leading,
but it wants to be led only where it is well prepared
to go. Few men can persuade or convince like Mr.
Gladstone ; but after all, a convinced regiment
especially if convinced against its will, and therefore
is not a 'gel; manageable
of the same opinion still,
regiment, and the convincing art should be reserved
Issues, not 'lavished on
for great occasions and great •
small expedients. Mr. Gladstone's moral sympathies
are one of the secrets of his great oratorical influ-
ence in the House of Commons.
Pacific, and
hioefull of that temperyt
e
eminently generous in
of what we may Call Christian expediency, which
gives so amlab
eas sobriety to his political hopes and
wishes, Mr. Gladstone is the natural link between
the commercial spirit of his country and the higher
culture of the age. One of Mr. Gladstone's most
eminent characteristics._ as a Parliamentary leader,
a
which is closely llied both with his great qualifi-
cations and some disqualifications for the supreme
post, is his wonderful power as a debater—which
is, indeed, in some respects, too great. His mind
may be said to swarm arguments, all of them at least
telling, and for the time converging on his point; but
still of that independent and tenacious vitality
that they do not perish with the occasion, but are
apt to return upon their progenitor at inconvenien. t
seasons, when they are not likely to strengthen his
position. There is none of that parsimony of logic
about Mr. Gladstone—that disposition to use up the
same considerations again and viola till they are a