The Sun.
London, England, 1863-01-13 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

SPECTATOR.—The description which Swedish
and Norwegian journals give of the present condi-
tion of Finland is perfectly horrible. The chief
crops, potatoes, rye, and barley, having failed in
two successive seasons, three-fourths of the popula-
tion of the duchy are in a state of starvation, and
thousands are said to have already succumbed to
famine. In some towns in the interior, for instance
the ancient Tayastehus, with its grand old castle
on the margin of a vast lake, the formerly flourish •
ing Kuopio, Heinola, and other places, all trade and
commerce have come to a complete standstill, the
shops being shut, and most of the inhabitants
having left their houses to seek food as beggars at
a distance. Hosts of wan and weary pilgrims flock
in long files into Abo, Helsingfors, Kumo and Wasa;
others try to creep along the shores of the Ladoga
Lake to St. Petersburg; and while soma few reach the
goal end find a scanty subsistence, many more perish
on the road, to be devoured by dogs and wolves, who
are swarming all over the country. Babies die on
the breasts of their mothers for want of nourish-
ment ; children, with ghastly faces and hollow eyes,
are met with everywhere attempting to stifle the
cravings of hunger by chewing roots and the bark
of trees ; and old people, helpless to move in the
general ship wreck, crouch down in holes and corners
to die a lingering, fearful death. While all these
seenes of unspeakable distress, horror, and wretched-
ness are beheld on the northern shores of the Gulf
of Finland, on the south side of the same inlet of
the sea, the brilliant court of the Czar, surrounded
by the elite of the Russian nobility, are revelling in
luxury, with a display of pomp and magnifience us
boundless as the misery on the opposite coast.
Balls, theatricals, and fetes of all kinds chase each
other ; troops of Italiansiegers,br, ought from the far
south, " regardless of
expense ' delight the ears
of a galaxy of princes and nobles, and the most per.
sect corps
ball* which even Paris could produce
de
has arrived to turn pirouettes, at imperial price, on
the borders of the Neva. There never was such a
magnificent season as the present at the Russian
metropolis say all the letters from St. Petersburg.
In Sweden and Norway, and particularly in Swe-
den, long connected in political union with Finland,
the fearful distress under which the country has
been suffering has excited the deepest sympathy.
For the last three or four months house to house
collections, in aid of the starving Finlanders, have
been made all over Sweden ; the merchants on the
Exchange of Stockholm have subscribed princely
sums; king and court have set the example of
generous charity, and everybody, down to the
lowest peasant, has contributed something to
the Finland Relief Fund. In fact, the people of
Sweden seem to have done, comparatively, quite as
much for the starving Finnish population as we for
our own Lancashire pour. In striking contrast
with this behaviour staas that of the Russian Go-
vernment. All along, scanty and tardy relief only
has been sent from St. Petersburg to the adjoining
province in the north; and the policy of the Home
Administration seems to have been rather to sup-
press facts than to incite the sympathy of the gene-
ral public. However, it was clearly impossible to
carry out this system for any length of time; and
seeing it fait, a month or two ago, the Imperial Go-
vernment had recourse to a new method for getting
rid of its responsibility in the matter. The semi•
official invalid* Ruses first announced to the
public, and the other more or less dependent
journals successively repeated the statement,
That the " Grand Ducby of Finland" was en-
tirely independent of the control of the central Go-
vernment, and that its own administration was alone
to be blamed for the insufficiency of proper arrange-
ments for stemming the current of famine. To give
proof of this assertion, Baron de Langenskield, the
head of the department of finances at Helsingfors,
was sent to London in the beginning of December
to ,negotiate a loan for Finland; and, being pro-
perly backed by the Russian ambassador, succeeded
in borrowing about three quarters of a million ster-
ling from Messrs. Rothschild and Ca., at the rate of '
5 9-10ths per cent. The sum {bus *obtained was
honestly applied for the alleviation of the distress.
It is satisfactory to learn from the last accounts,
however, from St. Petersburg that the famine in
Finland has now reached its culminating point, and
is visibly abating. The price of the famine,too, seems
to be really secured, for there are serious preparations
made for assembling the Parliament of Finland at the
beginning of April. The old constitution, which is to
be recalled into life after the lapse of more than
half a century, dates from 1772, and is similar to
that of Sweden. It provides for a Diet of four
estates, comprising deputies of the nobility, clergy,
burghers, and peasants, each estate deliberating and
voting separately, except in constitutional ques-
tions, when all tour unite together. This somewhat
cumbrous legislative machinery the Czar-Grand
Duke intends working in a now way, by means of
questions and answers. First, the Government is
to ask a series of questions of each of the four
Chambers, and these having been satisfactorily
answered, then the Chambers in their turn are at
liberty to interrogate the Government, Finally,
the quintessence of all these questions and answers
is to be shaped into constitutional formulas and
propositions by the Governor-General of Finland,
Baron Rokassowski, to be then either voted or re-
jected by the Diet. The new system will form a
eurieus inauguration of Parliamentaxy Government
in Russia.

LONDON REviEw,—Thousands of crimes are an-
nually committed, especially those of a minor cha-
racter, which are never detected or published, and
.i
thousandsN'tct of criminals are charged to whom con-
n cannot be brought home. For example, we
find for 1861 50 809 crimes recorded,
on account of
'which only 27,174;
only 16,761 were committed
were apprehended. Of these
13,879 convicted! o for trial, and only
iEnethlie more serious crimes, or
indictable offences,
sessions and assizes, the as are tried by juries at
minor vr
we have seen, 50,809. or
nrer last year was, as
from vagrancy and drunkenness
to theft, and
oaences, ranging
magistrates, there
disposed of summarily beforealue
were 394,717 charged, -which
resulted in
dh in the
conviction of 263,500 persons.
,avohonlef.
,
therefore, it appears that nearly 5 0000
fences, large and small, come annually under the
cognizance of the police, and that nearly 300,000
persons are punished for them. Great pains have
of late been taken by the authorities to ascertain
and keep an accurate record of that portion of the
population which is knoWn to live by crime or vag-
rancy, which last nearly always implies a course of
petty pilfering, or of mendicancy approaching very
nearly to the same character. Nearly all these
classes are pretty well known to the police in their
respective districts, and the returns now presented
only
include those whose trade is depredation, omit-
tingth a
those 'who, though they may have been once
convicted, are now
a believed to be pursuing
a course of
industry. The list is 1
as follows, in round'
persona,
numbers .—Known thieves
and depredators, 30
,000
3,800 ; Suspected
rsons,
Vagrants and tramps, 23,000.00 ;
Toe 34
add the number of criminals actuallythese we must
in •
Pt
in local prisons, 15,601 ; in convict •50n5,7,423;
prison, viz.
in reformatories, 3,190. Making a
gross
116,723, whose business and habit it is toBprey total
P of
society in one form or another. It must be alloweduon
that the above numbers constitute a very consider
abie and a very formidable army—one nearly as
large, in fact, as her Majesty's regular troops. Let
us see, now, what sort of a force we keep On foot
for watching, defeating, and punishing this crowd
of malefactors. It amounts to about one-fifth of
the critrinals. The total is:—police end constabu-
lary, 21,413; establishment in local prisons, 2,334;
teatablisbment in convict prisons, 1,182. That is to
'',3.'
", we ha-?e 25,000 guardians of the community to
deal with 120,000 enemies of it—a proportion which,
well handled, ought surely to be adequate. The
rzcordo,l cost of and .
our repreSSlvo, punitive c.tis-
blishtnents is a
i 1,579,222 ; : followsti :—Police and constabulary,
in local prisons, £542,306 ;
outlay in convict apYri
astc; blishments abroad, 1:253731 ; cost of convict
Agafost this sum we el:11'861 ; total, £2,547,120.
perhaps, to set the
estimato,l value of the prgisot:le
it is so mere nn estimate thaas'we eareuinrg' th°l44dh
this with Inuoh misgiving. These confess
we -°
earnings are

said to be :—ln local prisons, £35,300 ; convict
prisons at home, £111,090; ditto Bermuda and
Gibraltar (?), £90,000; total, £236,309. On the
whole, we cannot state the cost of convicted
offenders to England -and Wales at a lower
figure than two millions and a half annually. The
average cost of a prisoner in local gaols is £26
a year, in convict prisons it is £33. We believe
that very few thieves and ruffians at large spend
much less than 20s. a week. But we will take
a more moderate estimate, and calculate their cost
at 125,, or the same as their incarcerated fellows,
say £3O a year. At this rate the 90,800 regis-
tered pilferers and rascals at large cost us not
less than £2,724,000 per annum. If we add this
to the figures previously given, we shall arrive
at the startling but undeniable result that our
criminal classes cost us—in guarding
against
them, in detecting them, in punishing them, and
in supporting them in idleness in and out of
prison—not less than Five Millions a year, and
this without including either Scotland or Ireland
in the calculation. Now,
£5,000,000 is about half
the sum we expend upon our navy, and about a
third of that assigned tooutrheartumbyac.coli idusty, about
and
the yield of the tea duty,
which the Emperor of
theTisxuEgasr._dTuthy
e respectively.speechwith
the French has opened the last session of his first
Parliament is such as we might rather have ex-
pected at its close. It embodies no programme of
new measures, and few anticipations of the future.
Instead of these it contains an elaborate review of
the home and foreign politics of France during the
last five years, and undertakes to show that the re-
sults of Constitutional Imperialism have been con-
formable to its grand principles. It is not, however,
on the character of his Government abroad, but on
the reforms which it has accomplished at home,
that the Emperor has most reason to pride himself.
We have never been among the flatterers of the
Imperial system, and even where the ends professed
by its supporters were laudable we have often had
occasion to find fault with the means. Still, though
liberty in France is even now trammelled in a way
which appears to us childish, we cannot help seeing
how much has been gained. "It is an usual thing
to suspect in the acts of Sovereigns some secret mo-
tive or some mysterious combination." Far be it
from us to admit that the Emperor has any right to i
complain of this tendency. His language has not
always been so clear, or his policy so free from re-
serves and afterthoughts, as to justify him in claim-
ing the confidence due to transparent simplicity.
Perhaps he has not been unwilling to profit by the
reputation of profound cunning which men are wont
to ascribe to those whom they hate or fear. Per-
haps he has slowly learnt the supreme value of
plain speaking and the danger of over ingenuity in
the conduct of State affairs. " Time, which changes
men as well as things," and above all the conscious-
ness of a secure position, and the hope of leaving a
good name to posterity, may have insensibly
moulded his public character into a more constitu-
tional type. If there be still a powerful party in
France which distrusts him and obstinately refuses
to discern any difference in spirit bet ween the First
and Second Empire, we do not blame them. lo
them we leave the task of criticising this retro-
spect of domestic policy for the last five years.
For ourselves, as Englishmen, we have no fault to
11nd. So far as he has interfered in the concerns
of other Continental States, the Emperor has but
followed the example set him by those Rho have
reigned over France under different titles for cen-
turies past. So far as be has assiduously cultivated,
and risked some popularity to maintain, a good un-
derstanding with this country, he stands almost
alone. We are, perhaps, too apt to forget that
until the interests of all nations can be shown to be
identical a certain degree of opposition must be ex-
pected from the most friendly of foreign Sovereigns.
Every nation has its prejudices and its favourite
objects; these cannot be neglected by its rulers, and
in gratifying them the vanity and even the interests
of other nations must sometimes be sacrificed. When
Lord Russell ;praised Lord Palmerston as pre-emi-
nently the Minister of England, he gave utterance
to a sentiment which would probably have grated
on the ears of a French audience. What he meant
was no more than that an English Foreign Minister
should take English, and not French or Russian,
views of European questions ; that his primary
duty is to this country, and that it is not his busi-
ness to please others at our expense. From this
point of view we are bound to judge such Sovereigns
as Louis Philippe and Louis Napoleon when they
ascend the Throne of France. They can have no
higher or more legitimate ambition than to leave
France better than they found her. If this result
be attained, it can hardly fail to follow, by a happy
necessity, that she will be a more amicable and less
suspicious neighbour to Great Britain.

HERALD.—Goethe tells us "the great thing in
' life is to know on which side we stand, and where."
What a pity Lord Russell does not study the pro-
' found German writer; our position might not then
be so very undefined as it now is with respect to all
our foreign relations. Some of our contemporaries
are anxious to know what possible subjects of dif-
ference can arise in Parliament, it must be that our
' easily-satisfied friends do not cast a glance on the
map of Europe, or they would marvel how one nigh.
' should be permitted to pass, after the open-
ing of the session, without Lord Russell being
called upon to explain his strange, incon-
sistent, weak, and vacillating foreign policy.
When Lord Palmerston was at the Foreign-office
there was no mistake about his views ; he was at
least consistent in his destructive energy. The red
hand was in the shield ; the revolutionary steam
was kept up all over the Continent ; coals were
heaped on the republican flame. He acted the part
of the bold, dashing agitator, until the name of
Palmerston was terrible to monarchical ears as
Marlbrook to French children in the days of Blen-
heim and homilies. Thus we can well imagine the
consternation at Broadlands at each fresh escapade
of the Foreign Secietary. We all of us have
laughed over the farce of " Box and Cox," and
sympathised with Box, when, from dread of a dis-
turbance, he invites Cox into his apartments, and
then groans over the mischievous, meddling, fid-
getty qualities of his guest. So Lord Palmerston,
to keep things quiet, welcomed Earl Russell at the
sagacity. mourned
Of over
all
annoyances
Foreign office, and ever since that hour must have
own
want
in life ff
the greaterforethought
said,
is to
have to deal with a man of whomd
ill b it can be
" You do not know what he will be eat next." We
will defy any one to '
predict Lord Russell's policy.
Ordinary men would have supposed that the time*
when the heir to the Crown was about to marry
a
Princess of Denmark would have been selected for
the manifestation of a sincere and earnest interest
in the fortunes and welfare of that ancient Royal
house—but great minds like Lord Russell's take
very different view of our relations. He is the evil ,
fairy of the nuptials, and writes a despatch, not only
inconsistent with all he had hitherto written or
expressed, but conveying opinions so injuries and
insulting to the Throne of Denmark the Minister is
compelled to reply—" That the acceptance of the
propositions made by Lord Russell would lead to
the destruction of constitutional life in Denmark,
and would soon even imperil the existence of the
monarchy." This is a pretty rod rap over the
~
knuckles-for Lord Russell, but this does not saiisfy
him. Anxious to be busy at something, he turns
to Montenegro, and here, miratle clictu, all his,
theory of rightsand the
of nations didappeate,
stern, uncompromising x of monarchy
springs
toview.
supponer
have b,en Prince
must
~
Gertkehakofrs feelings What
when he rcntiv(d a f0.,0 et
sentiments entirelyprinciples. Whatin°tPrelto all Lord Bussel:'s
come of tht. cause for
which namesid of fortune h.ls be
den fell? Where are the
rights of
bled and Hemp
of
le
cording to the doctrines professed'(4es ? " Ac-
England,"
says the Prince, " we ought not to contest
of 'Montenegro to the independence w,,ltihie tight
country has maintained for above a cen'tur'y that
'l
unconquerable energy." This is excellent --Lord
Russell taught a lesson on conwitutional principles
by a Rusii:ai Minister ; and Prince Gortschakeff
does not mince the matter at all, and teals Lord
Russell quite distinctly that he 3)eoi now adopted
views entirely opposed to thusf) which he l'Druierly
propounded.