The Sun.
London, England, 1863-11-04 00:00:00

N

I asserted, of those two unfinished steam rams down
at Liverpool, will be pronounced definitively to
have been guilty of no outrage against the laws
whatever—the seizure or detention of any one
amongst those vessels being thereby placed conspi.
cuously beyond the reach of any possible justifica••
tion. " 'Tis a very pretty quarrel as it stands"
—and we can only watch the development of the
future phases of it, with somewhat of the
complacent relish of Sir LUCIUS CeTRIGGEIt in the
comedy. The Government in this matter have
been flagrantly indifferent to the wisdom latent
in two very homely little axioms, part and parcel
of the familiar idioms of the language. `° Easy
does one of them ; " More hasteelemssssptreaetded
speed,"
the other. It yet remains to be demonstrated
whether the Foreign Enlistment Act empowers
them to deal thus rigorously with unarmed ves-
sels, constructed in British building-yards, and
floating in English -waters. The interpreters of
the law, or at any rate one of the most
authoritative amongst them, having ruled in the
case of the Alexandra that the act does not so
authorize them ! By acting thus precipitately
as they have done now more than once in regard
to these kind of vessels, the Government
have assumed a position antagonistic to one
of our own high courts of law—they have gone
far towards wantonly wounding (in the very
name of neutrality !) the natural susceptibilities of
the Confederates—they have won certainly a
nauseous compliment or two from a vulgar mouth-
piece of the Federal Government like the Rev.
WARD BEECIIER—they have, seemingly with a
strange perversity, gone clean out of their way,
quite unnecessarily, to irritate, almost we had said to
outrage, the patriotic sensibilities of the English
people over whom they have (by a " fortuitous con-
currence" of circumstances) been called to rule.

There is an old adage, familiar to us all, which is
generally admitted to be full of plain practical wis-
dom. It tells us that " Prevention is better than
cure," and most persons agree in thinking the
advice very sound and wholesome. If it were more
generally followed there is no doubt that a good
deal of very serious mischief would be avoided, and
our gaols, reformatories, and hospitals would have
less to do. But although often enough quoted and
widely diffused through other spheres of life, it is
only very recently that the principle which these
five words represent has been admitted into our
dealings with what are styled, with some truth,
"the dangerous classes." Our forefathers, when
their goods were appropriated, their houses broken
into, their lives imperilled, and their social order
generally disturbed by these troublers of society,
attempted to cure the evil by a very summary pro-
cess, despatching all such malpractisers out of the
world with all convenient speed. The idea of en-
deavouring in any degree to counteract or mitigate
the evil appears seldom or never to have been en-
tertained. The lower classes were then looked upon
too much as altogether "dangerous," and the ruling
feeling with regard to them was to keep them
down. Mrs. FRY, indeed, and other kindred spirits,
penetrated into the haunts of vice and crime, but
the wiser, more humane, and more hopeful theory
of seeking to direct the course of the young before
they enter on the path of crime, instead of trying
to arrest their progress when on the fatal down-
ward slope, appears to have been left for our own
day. It was impossible for earnest philanthropists
to labour much among the very poor without per-
ceiving the terrible temptations to which from their
very earliest days they are exposed ; and ragged
schools, reformatories, industrial asy;ums, and nu-
merous other institutions, betoken the increasing
sense that "prevention is better than cure." One
great obstacle in the way of the reform of elder
criminals has always been found in the difficulty of
procuring them an honest means of livelihood. Em-
ployers are naturally averse to engaging a man of
questionable antecedents, while there is no one to
give him a character, and yet idleness and want
are morally certain to lead the reformed criminal
back to his old courses, and the struggle after
better things and its failure only contribute to a
still darker and more hopeless ruin. Few positions
are more worthy of pity and sympathy than that
of a man who is willing and anxious to work for an
honest living, but who finds nothing but discourage-
ment in his endeavours, though plenty wiil help
him to steal. And yet to this position, one whose
experience of the darker shades of life might have
taught him its danger, and whose responsible
position should have rendered him careful of harsh
and hasty judgments, has condemned the followers
of a humble but thriving trade.
We refer, of course, to the proceedings of Sir
RICHARD MAYNE with respect to the. Westminster-
street stallkeepers. The Chief Commissioner's
acts in this instance have been marked by an in-
justice and want of consideration quite unusual
with him. It is difficult to understand his motive,
seeing that the inhabitants of the districts referred
to have warmly advocated the cause of the poor
stallkeepers, while the local Board of IVorks, on
whose representations he first acted, have withdrawn
their request and rescinded the resolution which
was the origin of the removal. Sir RICHARD
MAYNE, indeed, now refuses to admit that he was in.
any way influenced by the representations of the
Board, and told the deputation that waited upon
him on this subject, that the rescinding of the
original resolution was a matter of no moment,
seeing that he had acted independently of it in the
first instance. When he was reminded that he
had himself written to say that he had given the
orders for removal " in consequence of representa-
tions made by the District Board of Works," he
replied that, if so, it must have been done inad-
vertently. Now there is no reason why it should
have been done inadvertently, seeing that the com-
plaint certainly came from the District Board, and
they were the proper persons to raise an objection
t 0 the continuance of the stalls if they were found
to impede public traffic. If the members of the
Beard hi
ove heard evidence enough to induce them
regret
thm. n-
to re •
stilla their own decision, and even to express
previously gone so far, it is surely
not too much
consider his t°
expect Sir RICHARD MAYNE to re-
(letcomplaints
of
interoaination. There have been no public
tants of the neigehoerdence3 the respectable inhabi-
to secure the return rthretelise
and in this proceeding
the d have taken active steps
poor people to their
accustomed standing.piace
principal shopkeepers of
til
have taken a prominent Part. This is of streets in question
s a
sufficient answer to the Chief colt
olis,
io e
itelf
rnent that these Ocilla were the re us
t ' of thieves and
other bad characters. It is certainly not
at ,
bable that those who reside on the Spot, ' ad'. Pro-
and conse-
quently better opportunities of
quently have much Judging
than Sir RICHARD MAYNE, would have wished f, ,
the return of the stallkeepers, had they,been vicieuB
or dishonest persons. How far the Proceedings of
the Chief Commissioner tend to discourage crime,
may be judged by the statementof one of these
stallkeepers at a recent meeting. This man said
that he had been a thief in early life, knowing no
better, but that for the last ten years he bad led
an honest life, as the police, who knew him, might
testify. He was married, and had two children,
Whom he sent to school, and tried to bring up
honest. " Sir RICELUID MAYNE," ,:aid this man,

" says that I must go back to my evil courses,' and
in all human probability he will be driven to do so,
and the children, once honestly brought up, will be
trained in thieving. This is only one case, and this
speaker must not be taken as an example of his
class, since we are told on good authority that the
average time during which fifty of the ejected stall-
keepers held their standings was twenty years.
Many of them succeeded their parents at the stalls,
and the steadiness and constancy, which are always
accepted as evidence of respectability, are thus
strongly in their favour. We have not so much
superfluous employment that we should lightly
destroy an honest aid thriving trade. It is not so
easy to supply the poor with bread and fuel, that
we should be too ready to prevent them from doing
it for themselves. It is not so easy to keep out
of temptation when its force lies in famine, in want,
in bitterness of spirit against supposed injustice,
that we should wilfully put the trial in another's
way. The approaching winter already makes itself
felt, and cold and hunger are churlish and unwel-
come guests at the poor man's hearth. It is a cruel
thing to deprive men of employment at this season,
except for pressing and urgent reasons, and we
earnestly trust the Chief Commissioner will recon-
sider his decision, and leave the poor stallkeepers of
the Broadway and Stratton-ground unmolested
until as good cause has been found for their removal
as has been found for their retention of the old
itinerant market-place.

Whatever may be the consequences of Earl
RUSSELL'S extraordinary conduct concerning Mr.
LAIRD'S ships in limbo, one result has at least been
obtained from his strange poliey. We now know
what is to be expected from an iron-clad hastily
sent to sea in bad weather. That the Prince Con-
sort was severely tried in a gale of unusual severity
is clear ; and likewise, it is reported, that she left
port not quite prepared for the emergency. This,
however, was a frequent occurrence in olden times ;
in fact, the exception proved the rule, which the
late Lord DtJNDONALD'S memoirs, and those of
others, back to the days of BLAKE, testify ; but the
verdict of those on board of her, even under the
circumstances, is very severe, namely, " that no
ship could have behaved worse in a gale than she
did," and will tell more or less against all ships of
her description. The chief complaints against her
are, that she is wanting in buoyancy, in fact, that
she cannot rise over a sea, and that she rolls and
labours heavily. The question now is, how are these
defects to be remedied? Experiments are now being
made to test iron plates of six inches and upwards
would it not be prudent to try first whether ships
can carry four inches and a half in bad weather ?
The preservation of the Prince Consort is due to the
resolution and energy of her officers and crew rather
than to her sea-worthy qualities, or to the provision
which should long since have been made by the
Admiralty for a case of distress like the present,
by providing a " graving dock" at Dublin. This,
however, is not to our present purpose ; we wish
rather to draw attention to the fact that the extra-
ordinary and unconstitutional conduct of the
Foreign Secretary has taught us a lesson which
ought not to be neglected. People may be too clever,
and by attempting over-much break down completely.
We have the warning of the American's " Monitor"
fresh in our memory; let us not follow their example,
let the Lards of the Admiralty and their chief con-
structor look to these matters, and not by their
would-be improvements saddle the nation with
heavy navy estimates, and useless sea monsters, alike
unable to float or fight. Earl RUSSELL has taught
the nation a useful lesson (unconstitutionally cer-
tainly), but nevertheless he deserves a return for
the favour which we doubt not the ensuing session
of Parliament will read to him. He has yet to learn
that British laws are made to be observed by all,
from the prince to the peasant, and not to be mis
construed, misapplied, or perverted to suit the syco-
phantic or pusillanimous fancies of anti-English
statesmen. His lordship has not stopped at trifles
certainly, and if treating all alike (at least as regards
his countrymen) be fair play, no one can complain
much more than another. Whether it be the Royal
Navy, whose power to carry out the commands of
the Admiralty are virtually doubted by the Foreign
Secretary, the Bench, by the complete overriding
of the Chief Baron's decision, as laid down in the
case of the Alexandra, by the authority of the Cus-
tom-house officials, in whose hands the retention of
the ships in question rested ; or last, not least, of the
rights of British subjects, by contravening an ex-
isting law to please a foreign Government. This,
too, on the unconstitutional ground that a future
assembly of the representatives of the country would
sanction a measure which must necessarily de-
grade the nation in the estimation of Europe,
and that measure to be introduced by the man
who scorned to lend himself to aid the pass_
ing of Lord PALIIERSTON's redoubtable Con-
spiracy Bill in 1858. Can the Ministry never take
warning in time ? Can the Head of the Government
so soon have forgotten his late ignominious defeat,
when, in the plenitude of popularity, he was sud-
denly turned out of office for his tin-English sub-
serviency to foreign dictation. Will he again ven-
ture his place and power at the beck and call of
a Government which threatens to sweep English
commerce off the seas, and yet is obliged to
transfer three-fourths of her commerce to foreign
vessels, from the fear of two or three cruisers of
a State she despises, whose ports she in vain endea-
vours to blockade, and whose ships, with all her
boasted navy, she cannot catch. Dues Lord PAL-
meitsloN wish to drag England to the brink of
a war as he did in 1858, and then retire from
the field, and leave it to his successors as a pre-
cious heritage. The seizure of Mr. LAIRD'S ships
must soon come to an issue at Westminster, and
although by perversion of justice thent
of law,
we
doubt not the majestymay
rui
still be detained for a time by r--
of ltt law will be vindicated
by the Bench wi:,,nout favour or affection to
Ministers or Americans.

EMBARGO ON MEAT.—It would be useless at this
time to enter into any speculations as to the motives or in-
tentions of the Washington Government in instituting the
stock embargo. We have now only,to deal with the simple
facts that the exportation of stock from America is strictly
prohibited, and the prohibition rigidly enforced, and that
we must very quickly find another way to get our beef and
mutton, or starve. If we do not, before two months have
elapsed, secure a supply of stocks from other than American
territory, we shall begin by having a famine in Victoria,
and end by depopulating the island. When the miners
come down from British Columbia they will feel little dis-
posed to stay in a town where they will have to pay more
than Cariboo prices for their meat, even if they are lucky
enough to get any at all, and the inevitable consequence
must be that they will use all possible diligence to get away
from Victoria, and down to California. Thus, all hope of
paying summer expenses by winter trade will be cut off,
and the position of the merchants, storekeepers, and traders
altogether will be very little short of desperate. The colony
just now is scarcely old enough or strong enough to bear
successfully the shock of so heavy a blow as this, and it
may be considered as extremely doubtful if it would be able
to recover from it. A statement has appeared in a morn-
i_og contemporary to the effect that the long drought in
Lower California and Mexico has forced the owners of
drive them up into the mountains for pasture. It
this cattle
to
be so we roust look to the Sandwich Islands for sup-
-1 res.---- Vanco4ver Island Express,
THE ALEXANDRA CASE.—We hear that the Ve
nezuelan Government have made an offer for the Alexandra,
and that Messrs. Caring guaranteed the transaction to be
bona fule. Our
the transaction. Government, however, declined to sanction
MR. MORTON PRICE and MISS LUCETTE are in
negotiation for the Theatre Royal, webtra34-
'der (Utley's).