The Sun.
London, England, 1863-10-23 00:00:00

LONDON, FRIDAY, OCT. 23, 1863.

MANHATTAN speaks pretty confidently, under
date the ninth of this present month of October,
about tha all but certainty of a war between the
French and the Federe.ls. " I will bet two thousand
dollars," he rays, " that war is declared against
France before the first day of January." It would
almost seem that the Northerners were " beside
themselves," by reason of the very agonies of the
frightful civil war in wl.ich they are engaged.
Like that tuft-hunting old lady at Mr. Spenlow's
dinner-party in " David Copperfield," the old lady
who was such a stickler for long pedigrees wherever
they could be found or affected—all they want
(apparently) is blood ! As if the hideously de-
structive struggle, which they have now for the last
two or three years been engaged in, with their own
brethren of the South, were not nearly enough to
satisfy their greed of ruin and lust for slaughter—
the Federals have been howling all this while alter-
nately for an additional or supplementary war, now
with England, now with France. France and
England all the while, on their part, having re-
peatedly to exercise an extraordinary amount of
self-control and forbearance, if only out of sheer
pity for the straights to which the North
has been and is still being put—by the
Confederates. If France and England had not
exercised pertinaciously an extraordinary amount
of forbearance and of self-control, in one word of
" magnanimity," there must inevitably have been
war already with one, or the other, or with both.
In spite of all kinds of revilings, insults, and out-
rages,r unprovokedly directed against the two great
qean Powers, from the opposite side of the
Atl antic, England and
France have all through the
'War maintained an attitude towards the bellige-
rents in
ain
North America of the very strictest neutra-
lity,
,r 0 ta. otherwise would not only be a
-violation or
ell truth,
truth, but would be one so
extravagantly flagrant of its kind as to be
simply ridiculous,
Once, it is true, when the
British flag and the
QUEEN'S uniform had been
insolently outraged
upon the high seas by a Fede-
ral Swashbuckler, Wildlysb.ent somehow, or rather
anyhow, upon distinguishing
began to arm, The attitt;lne"raself England
aaaumed even then by
this country, was not one in
any way equivalent
to that of an athlete shaking his fist, to that of a
knight of old flinging
down his
simply as the buckling on of the armour,
was m
was sufficient. Tardily, grumblinguetantly—
the North made the amends honorable.
Howe
made it—it made it. That for England Was ever it
The armour was unbuckled again. The storm-cloud
And.—cordially or not it matters little
otut
1d
brew over. e
—the Northern Government and their repre-
sentatives, naval, military and diplomatic,
have since then, in regard to England,
been tolerably on their good behaviour. Not so,
however, has it been with them, in their bearing
towards France, that is towards the French On.
vernment. More particularly since the successful
occupation of Mexico by the French troops under
Marshal FOREY. From that date the malignity of
feeling against France, against the ruler of France,
on the part of the Federal Power (or Weakness,
Whichever we may like to call it) has been
Wholly undisguised. The North hates France, hates
the French EMPEROR, with both a lively- and a
deadly hatred. MANHATTAN, as the most uncom-
Promisingly outspoken among his country men, utters
the wish of his heart, as well the thought of his
brain, when •.-
N"l,lng, as we have shown that he
has just now written.
He predicts plainly enough,
but it is with thfi
flourish of a Yankee Bembastes
Furioso. He not only
January" sass quite confidently, "I will
bet 2,000 dollars
thataris declared against France
before the Ist day
of but ha adds '`and
I will wager that Calfornia;
before that time will
be ready to place 100,000 soldiers,
n I
will
Frenchmen,
and with rifles and
bowie knives, in the very heart O
Mexico,
f
asking the aid of one of her sister states, without
wager that force will whip 200,000 if
LOUIS NAPOLEON can get up that quan • hty of
men to
go into !,lexica to assist in inaugurating the Austrian
Montezuma." It is file very crow of chanticleer!
But of chanticleer at a moment of the highest ex-
citement, perched on the extreme top of his own
danghill, with Lie comb trek= and bleeding, and
with his spurs dreadfully bore. Of one thing, ju

The comparison between the re) ative conditions
of the agricultural labourer and the felon has very
often been made, and recent cliscuss ions have The
tended to bring it once more to the surface.
degree of comfort, and even luxury to which a
man may attain as a reward for breaking the
laws of his country and injuring his fellows, con-
trasts more effectively than edifyingly with his
miserable condition as an honest labourer. The
hours of rest, the amount of labour, the food, the
clothing, the habitation, are all startlingly diffe-
rent in the prison and the cottage. The convict
enjoys his ten hours of undisturbed repose in a
comfortable hammock all to himself; the tasks re-
quired of him are light, and the regulations as
to the quantity of work to be exacted from him
are by no means rigidly enforced. We are
speaking of the county gaols as being those most
nearly connected with the agricultural labourer.
The convict enjoys a liberal supply of good and
wholesome food, pleasantly varied, and above all
he lives in a dwelling well warmed, drained, and
ventilated. The home, if home it can be called,
of the rural labourer is the very reverse of all this.
His food is of the coarsest and scantiest description,
his hours of labour long and laborious, while the
place he lives in has been described as considerably
lower in the scale of civilisation than the dwellings
of some savage races. Drainage is iecomplete and
ineffective, heaps of decaying vegetable matter is
suffered to poison the air with hurtful gases. The
roofs and walls of his cottage suffer the winds and
rains of winter to find ready admittance, while his
family, huddled together, are suffered to grow up
in utter disregard of the commonest laws of health
and decency. Such being the facts, we need not
feel surprised at their producing the natural conse-
quences. The agricultural
.labourers, as a class,
have sunk into a state of degradation from
which it is difficult to raise them, while
the general low order of morality which pre-
vails among them is only too clearly traceable to
the miserable condition of their homes. It is per-
fectly useless, perhaps even worse than useless, to
send a child to school to learn lessons of morality,
order, and cleanliness, and then to send it back to a
room in which five or six men and women, of all
ages, are compelled to sleep. Precept and practice
when directly at variance are always dangerous
opponents, but in this case they are perfectly irre-
concileable, and we can conceive no greater mortifi-
cation to the conscientious teacher than being
obliged to dismiss a hopeful pupil from the class in
which he has beerelearninOhe plain duties of every-
day life, to the hovel which renders it simply im-
possible to pat them into practice. The consequence
of this state of things is a degree of moral and social
depravity that is really startling. The old pleasant
tradition of the purity and innocence of rural life is
completely exploded. A Suffolk vicar, writing to
a morning contemporary on this subject, gives some
highly suggestive statistics of the degree of guilt in
town and country. It seems that whereas in 15
towns in Suffolk, with an average population of
5,000, the annual proportion of criminals
is 1 to every 593; in 15 villages, averaging
820 inhabitants, the number of criminals reach
the ratio of 1 to every 317, Among the culprits
actually in gaol the proportion is equally striking.
In every crime in the list the country far outstrips
the towns, and the darker the offences, the heavier
the preponderance. In burglary it actually amounts
to 10 town against 41 country, and in arson, to 4
town against 72 country. The burning of
hay-ricks is, of course, a very different thing
from firing houses, but the degree of vice
and immorality existing among our rural
population is a startling evil. The want of decent
houses is so great an impediment to all benevolent
efforts to bring about a better state of things, that
it has lately been said that " There are none who
believe that, with the existing social condition of
the working class, they can be raised mach above
the standard they have now reached." This re-
mark, too, is made, not by an interested declaimer
against existing institutions, or an angry censurer
of the upper classes, but by an established publica-
tion, belonging to the Church of England, which
would scarcely, therefore, he unduly eager to over-
throw the social fabric. It is high time that this
matter were looked into, and this disgrace removed
from English rural life. No attempt is made to
contradict the terrible assertions so positively and
perseveringly made by gentlemen, whose position
gives them every opportunity for accurate observa-
tion. On the contrary, the accounts from one
part of the country only too painfully confirm the
revelations made in the other districts, until special
blame can be attached to no particular quarter or
county, but a general state of things is brought to
light which calls loudly for examination and reform.
We cannot afford to lose the qualities which have
made our sturdy Englishmen what they are. It is
directly ridiculous, as well as unjust and cruel, to
look for a strict observance of the laws of morality
and order from a population brought up under such
fearful disadvantages, while even the pure air of
the country will not serve as a preservative against
bad drainage, leaking roofs, and stagnant water.
Our social reformers will find enough to do, if they
will turn their attention in this quarter, for al-
though much rests in the hands of the landowners,
the influence of public opinion is all powerful. All
attempts at intellectual training, and endeavours to
'
raise and educate the masses, should be preceded
by Procuring them clean, healthy, and decent habi-
tations 1f
they are to effect any wide-spread or
tacee
inc it
6,
evils,
Oar popnintion io rapidly on the
rettee
50 that the evil, if unchecked, will, like
most other
ot ef set r
mf tehaehcol civil' increase instead of diminish.
The position
Of women has often been cited as a
tion of a State, and the statistics
fatal effect prodee dto show only too plainly the
condition of the hovels
uhepelaa;htht
hras.elves ; the labourer
the dutyldliheiamtstehlfe
ehwehmiehbythetyhelive. miserable The
poorer classes caeenkstnadoattend
adodoercsenotf
t them
ream.
ceontgtaaggeed; otnheanta
above them, and heavy Will be those
sibility if they continue to neglec

Great cause to King WILLIAM has certainly gat
disappointed at the result of the elections, t t
have been almost impossible for the result 17°41`1
to have
been mere adverse to the wishes of those who seek-
to establish absolutism in the land, and, by fair
means or foul, to put down the struggling attempts
at liberty with a strong hand. All lovers of pro.
gress will rejoice at the failure of these manoeuvres,
and exult at the prospect that seems to open before
us of Prussian liberty making again a decisive
stand against the inroads of oppression, and this
time with renewed vigour, and refreshed spirit. It
is not always fair to make hasty conclusions respect-
ing the conduct of a people under trying circum,.
stances. What bears evidence of the wrath and
Contempt of •
one nation may not do SO of another;

I
regard to France, the Federals may be and tl'.e apparent quiescence that has reigned among
absolutely certain—namely, that the ruler of the 'Prussians does not testify their ignorance nor
France is one in no way to be sneered, i yet their indifference to the momentous events that
or even for that matter to be reviled, into a war
•
We know that ourselves here in England—f;•o 01
experience. NAPOLEON 111. is one who era 'bide
his time (the time of his own choosing) w',th extra-
ordinary equanimity, we will even say with extra-
ordinary magnanimity.

have been taking place around them. There are
two ways of offering resistance to an inimical
valuable in their ulti-
mateepro-
ceeding,ffect ctho ne
swhichoenqeu ennscaterhsee, equallyaud
other,
accordingproduce
oas
the
h e much
adapta-
bility of the occasion on which they are severally
employed. The active mode of opposition is the
most congenial generally,
and most frequently su-
persedes all others; but experience has shown that
a tacit line of defence has often proved the most
efficacious. Much may be done by those who bide
their time, and maintain their purpose unflinch-
ingly, without making any unnecessary confession
in so doing. Thus it has happened that those
whom many have called indifferent, and some even
denounced as faithless to the interests of their coun-
try, have, at the opportune moment, come forward
and vindicated themselves from reproach, while
they have effectually served their cause. The
accounts given of the results of the different elec-
tions are most significant, and augur a period of
vast moment as approaching. The present peace
and future welfare of Prussia may depend on the
issue of the struggle now impending. In Berlin,
which is, of course, the centre of power, and the
most trying test of strength for either side, the
majority of liberals has been increased. This
speaks volumes for the fact that independence is
cherished in the heart of the kingdom. It may be
for a time stifled in its utterance and stultified in
its course, but its source springs eternal and incon-
trovertible in the heart of the nation, and the stead-
fast spirit that can move mountains and combat un-
numbered difficulties seems to be vital and vigorous,
notwithstanding all assaults and in spite of
all rumours to the contrary that some
have propagated so lavishly around them.
So far as discernible at present the provinces are
following the good example. Without going so
far as to quote the old adage in regard to Prussia
that hats been circulated relative to France, Paris
c'est ?empire, it may be confidently expected and
fearlessly reckoned upon, that the capital will in-
augurate the idea, and lead the van in the march
of improvement. The question that now occupies
men's minds is the inquiry regarding the course
likely to be adopted by the KING and his Ministers.
Will they accept defeat as a conclusive answer to
their late proposals of remodelling the Constitution,
or will they be goaded on by the mortification to
continued resistance, and even incited to fresh acts
of retrogression, and new attempts at absolutism.
Unhappily there is but too much reason to dread
the more litigious course will be the one that is
chosen, and that this success for the time being will
have to be followed up with zeal and activity, or
the time will be lost that is precious and unredeem-
able. King WILLIAM cannot be persuaded by his
advisers that there is no cause for fear regarding
the tone and temper of the people. They
have
manifested their displeasure with dignity and de-
corum, and the result is as effectual as if they had
signified their discontent with all the fierce de-
fiance and loud vociferations with
which some
nations testify their love of liberty, and their
hatred of oppression. A change has come over the
spirit of the dream as regards the satisfactory state
of public political existence in Prussia, dark clones
are lowering in
the horizon, and wise men
shake their heads at the prospect that may be
before them. It is surely
a significant fact
when a calm and cautious people are so wound up
by the recollection of their wrongs, and so fearful
for the maintenance of their rights, that they can-
not be induced to exhibit any tokens of respect for
their Sovereign; and that King, who was once so
popular, has to keep aloof from any occasion that
may bring him into immediate contact with that
people he has assumed to govern by Divine Right.
Well would it be if, at this eleventh hour, the voice
of reason, the claims of justice, and the welfare of
his kingdom, could form pleas that might be urged
upon the KING to pause before it is too late. It is
lamentable to reflect into what fatal errors many
distinguished individuals have fallen in their rash
resolves to maintain at all hazards the line of policy
they have marked out for themselves, it may be in
pride, in obstinacy, or self-aasertion. Dark are the
annals in which history has traced the sequel of
such courses. Thus far shalt thou go, but no
further, might be the motto of such lives, and it is
sad to find a prince in this enlightened age clinging
so pertinaceously to the vanishing customs that im-
provement and intelligence have banished from the
foremost nations of the world. The new Chamber
is not likely to abrogate its rights, and it cannot be
wished that it should do so; but before the trial of
strength is begun in good earnest, it is to be trusted
that timely concessions may be made to prevent the
conflict assuming that dangerous and disastrous
character which future generations will regret to
chronicle as a disgrace to the advance of civilisa-
tion, and a slur on the memory of their KING that
no time can efface, nor circumstances extenuate.