The Sun.
London, England, 1863-09-03 00:00:00

sang froid to the story of doings which make for the I first acts—those initiating a series—usually are.
weal or woe of millions of human beings. A great With all their shortcomings the acts in question did
wit who is dead once observed that it would not good service. They dealt a heavy blow at a certain
spoil a man's appetite for breakfast if he were to stolid fatalism to which we English were practically
read is his morning paper that the whole empire of addicted, however strenuously we might have denied
China had been swallowed up by an earthquake. it in theory, Henceforth the laws of causation—of
Probably many persons will hear, without any sort antecedents and their coneequents—were destined
of emotion, that seventy millions of men are on the to be applied to the conditions of public health. By
eve of political enfranchisement, and see before them a consolidation and emendatory act, passed in 1855,
the commencement of a new era of prosperity and Parliament made a still farther advance in the path
greatness. It may not seem to concern them much of hygienic legislation, section the 26th being parti-
that the Emperor of Russia is about to grant a cularly conspicuous for the powers with which it
?myna citarta to his subjects. But in reality it does invested sanitary inspectors in their mode of dealing
concern them; and that very nearly. A war means with diseased food. These officers are empowered
to en Englishman so many pence in the pound "at all reasonable times to inspect and examine any
added to the income tax; such and such an increase carcase, meat, poultry, game, &eh, fish, fruit,
in the price of the necessities of life ;so much taken vegetables, corn bread or flour exposed for sale, or
from the provision for wife and children. H )wever in the course of, or in the way to slaughtering,
small the interest he feels in foreign politics, he dressing, or preparation for sale or use, or landed
knows that they may take a turn which must involve from any ship or vessel in any port in England."
the country in war. He would not avoid that war, We will come to the penalty by and by, pausing in
if it should seem necessary to the maintenance of the career of recital to intimate by way of necessary
the honour and influence of his country, but he parenthesis that a connection by no means occult
knows that he must pay his share of it, and that might once have been traced and established be-
may press upon him heavily. The prospect of a t ween fall of barometric mercury and fall in the
constitutional reform in Russia should thus be a prime cost of certain English-made sausages. A
matter of congratulation to all of us. We escape, period of stormy sea travelling is not conducive to
in the first place, the possible war which we might the longevity of such pigs and calves as may be
have been called upon to wage in behalf of Poland. subjected to that ordeal. Travellers by steamer
Had Russia continued to behave herself in the may be confidently appealed to for their experience
high-handed manner of those who will consent to in this matter; and further they may, in the in-
no compromise and make no concessions, had she tenets of truth, be questioned as to whether they
suffered us to believe that she was fighting, not severally ever witnessed the ceremonial of commit-
simply for supremacy, bat with a view to the utter ting to the deep one solitary porcine or bovine
subjugation of an unfortunate people, it would victim. As for the rest, imagination can fill the gap ;
have soon been more than the feeling of Western suffice it to say, that the Consolidation Act of 1555
Europe could have borne. But, if we are rightly enacted, "That the person to whom such carcase,
informed, the Russian Government is prepared to meat, poultry, game, flesh, fish, fruit, vegetables,
grant more than the -Western Powers have asked corn bread, or flour belonged, or in whose custody
of her. On the one hand, she is about to concede the same might be found, should be liable to a
to Poland an autonomy more complete than was penalty not exceeding £lO for every carcase,
promised to her in 1815 under the collective gua- fish, or piece of meat, flesh, or fish, or any poultry
rantee of Europe. Poland is to have her National or game, &e., so found." Apparently, the section
Diet, her national army, her separate courts of law, just quoted is adequate both in stringency and.
her separate Polish administration, and an 'cape- perspicuity to secure all necessary practical ends.
rial Viceroy. We do not know what more even Experience, however, having demonstrated the
Polish patriots can desire, and we are sure that reverse, the Amendment of Removal of Nuisances
fuller concessions than these have never been Act was brought in and passed last session. The
dreamed of by any of the friends of Poland. But preamble to this act states that the provisions of
you cannot mend an old garment with new cloth the Consolidation Act of 1855 are defective " with
with any expectation of its wearing well. A con- regard to the inspection and seizure of diseased and
stitutional Poland in the midst of an absolutist unwholesome moat." The gist of amendment fur-
Russia would be an anomaly, an impossibility. It nished by the new act consists in making the proof
was for this reason that the magnanimous pro- that inculpated articles were not exposed or de-
gramme of Alexander I. broke down. It was on this posited for sale, or intended for the food of man, rest
account that the constitution granted, three years with the party charged, and in a considerable in-
since, to Poland, could not possibly be carried out crease of penalty. At present the person in whose
by Russian statesmen. A free Poland would be a pessession, or on Whose premises, the objectionable
reproach to the rest of Russia, a continual cause of articles are found is rendered liable to a penalty
disquietude, a centre of -revolt, unless the rest of not exceeding £2O for every animal carcase, &c.,
Russia is to be free also. Since the accession of the so found ; or, at the discretion of the justice, with-
wicked and ambitious Catherine 11. the world has out infliction of a fine, to imprisonment in the corn-
looked on with much discomfort at the spectacle mon gaol, or house of correction, for a term of not
of the gradual growth of the great military despo- more than three calendar months.
tism of the North. We are now to be relieved from
its incubus. Russia is to be conetitutionalised, de-
centralised, governed by local parliaments, and a
central representative chamber, in imitation of the
system which is working so well in Austria. As
a self-governed country is invariably found to be
less aggressive, less mischievous, and more amen-
able to reason than a despotic monarchy, we may
hope that the charter granted to Russia may save
Europe from many future wars, and the world from
much unnecessary misery. The emancipation of
the serf's was the baptism of the regenerated Russia.
The proclamation of a representative system for this
vast empire is as the right of confirmation which
admits it into the family of civilised nations. Up
to this time Russia, though ranking in military
strength as a power of the first order, has been
.at
the best a barbarous and heathenish country. The
revelations of the private life of her nobles and pea-
sants have made the ears of mankind tingle; the
tales that have been told by her court have horrified
the world. She has turned over a new leaf. There
is no more slavery in Russia; there will be no more
tyranny. The pure life and the virtuous example
of Alexander 11. and his Empress have cleared the
precincts of her palaces from the harpies and vul-
tures that once frequented them. We shall hence-
forth find no more parallels among Russian princes
to the Neros and Agrippinas of old. The empire
has yet much to do to recover from the fatal
memory that her greatness dates chiefly from the
infamous thirty-four years of Chathcrine 11. The
future of this empire, based on such a happy open-
ing, may be expected to outdo its past. The num-
ber of its population and the vastness of its terri-
tory have been the sources of the peculiar strength
and the peculiar weakness of Russia. Other nations
of Europe had hardly a fair chance with the poten-
tate who could bring, by a single ukase, two millidns
of men into the field. Nor was it possible to over-
run by any army that could be launched against it
a territory of such vast extent that it comprises one
quarter of the globe, and that the most inclement
and the most inhospitable. On the other hand, a
country so spread out is wanting in power of con-
centration, and is in some respects hardly a match
for a people of one quarter its number if confined
within narrow limits. So long as she will keep
quiet Russia is in little danger from other powers.
Her territory, vast as it is, does not tempt them.
They are quite content that the trackless plains of
Northern Europe and Asia, where no one else will
live, should be peopled by this Sclavonic hive. All
the wars in which Russia has been engaged have
been provoked by her own desire to lodge herself
in more comfortable quarters. To some extent
she has succeeded, but not to her wishes. She
has obtained a footing on the Baltic, and on the
Black Sea. She has laid her hand on a thriving
people of Central Europe, and even now is con-
testing with them their meadows and corn-fields.
She has failed in her great ambition of trans-
ferring the seat of her empire to Constantinople.
It is worthy of note that the triumphs of Russia
have been obtained over second-rate powers, and
that she has generally been worsted by powers of
the first rank. Peter the Great, the founder of
modern Russia, prevailed against the Swedes after
many disasters to his arms. Daring the seven
years' war the Empress Elizabeth gained vic-
tories against the Prussians, whose power was
then in its infancy. Catherine subdued Poland,
and wrested much territory from Turkey in the
bloody campaigns of her lieutenants, Potemkin
and Suwarreff. It was not Alexander, but the
elements, that drove back a French army in 1812.
The Russians were defeated tit Borodino—as be-
fore at Austerlitz—when side by side with Aus•
tria. The Polish revolt, and the Hungarian re-
volt, were successively put down by Nicholas;
but he succumbed to the Western alliance in the
memorable campaign of the Crimea. It is foolish
to make a bugbear of the Russian power, as
some people seem inclined to do. That power is
no menace either to us or to France. There is
no reason at all why we should not be on the
best of terms with it, not for state reasons merely,
or as a question of the balance of alliances, but
in the interest of the 70 millions that are under
its rule, who have yet in great part to be edu-
cated and civilised, who have a work before them
which will last for centuries, in the conquest and
cultivation of the soil which they people but
thinly. This vast dominion cannot solely be ruled
from St. Petersburg. Its inhabitants are to be
called upon to take their share in its govern-
ment. We wish all success to the plan—all pros-
perity, present and future, to the Emperor, his
simple-minded people, and their " Holy Russia."
POST.—According to a certain proverb, no British
Act of Parliament was ever yet drawn up and
passed, through which a coach-and-four might not
be driven by a law-breaker of sufficient courage
and ingenuity. The presumption is somewhat bold,
but, like many other towering figures of speech, it
rests upon a solid foundation. Our friends across
the Channel, with their fondness for abstract prin-
ciples and tendency to analytical neatness, may
vaunt codification, smiling at an Englishman's need
of acts of consolidation, of explanation, and amend-
ment falling thickly upon each other session after
session. Nevertheless, by that means, clumsy
though it may seem to our neighbours, we gene-
rally manage to carry our point in the end. n The
Nuisances Removal Act for England (Amendment),"
which passed on the 28th July, is a case in point.
If scanned with moderate attention, in sequence
with other acts to which it refers, the metaphorical
carriage-drive which its provisions are intended to
bar will at once be obvious. Inasmuch as there are
more agreeable occupations than the perusal and
study of Acts of Parliament at any time, and consi-
dering that September is the month least congenial
of all the twelve to that purpose, we may
not do
amiss in summarising in few words the purport of
certain antecedent Acts of Parliament to which the
provisions of the supplementary Act passed in the
session just concluded refer. It would not be far
wrong were the assertion made that, prior to 1848
and 1849, the science which is inadequately trans-
lated into English by " public health," had no legis
lative and public recognition amongst us. Beyond
the provisions of quarantine
(in respect of which
there are good reasons for behaving they have done
more ham than good) and of vaccination, the es.
ternal circumetances effecting public health were
taken less cognisance of by the State here than on
the Continent. At the same time 1,0 injustice
should bo done to the provisions of municipal
enactments; the fact, indeed, being that the post-
ponement of imperial legislation is doubtless in
some measure attributable to the circumstance
t hat municipal
and therefore local fore-
need of Parliam t
eight has lessened the ary inter-
vention.
The Nuisances Removal and Disease Pre-
vention Acts were passed under the immediate pres-
sure of that terrible epidemic, the ceolera. No great
marvel, therefore, if they were not more perfect than

COUNTRY MARKETS.

~.

NEWARK-WEDNESDAY.

A moderate supply of wheat at our market, and prices 6d
to is per qr higher. Malting barley a fair show, at former
rates. Oats 6d lower. Beans a ready sale.
White wheat new, 43s to 48s I Barley, grinding.. 29s to 32s
Red do. 43s to 45s i Oats, old, .. 2ss to 30s
Old white 44s to 49s 1 New do 22s to 27s
Red do. 41s to 41s I Beans.. 40s to 44s
Barley, malting.... 35s to 40s I Beans, new.. —s to —5