The Sun.
London, England, 1865-05-19 00:00:00

THE METROPOLITAN BOARD OF WORKS AND THEIR

ENGINEERS.
Mr. BONTEMS referred to a report of a committee of the
Metropolitan Board of Works, proposing to present gra-
tuities, amounting to £lO,OOO, to the principal engineer
(who was to have £6,000), and his three assistants, in
respect of the completion so far of the main drainage
scheme. He strongly condemned the proposal as extra-
vagant in a high degree, and the more so as the salary of
the chief engineer had been increased, first from £BOO to
£1,200, and then to £1,500 a year. Already, he said, the
two largest parishes in the metropolis—those of Meryl--
bone and St. Pancras—had protested against the proposal,
and he trusted the City of London would join in the pro-
test against what, in his opinion, would be unmitigated
plunder. The public, he said, had not forgotten the Odessa
contract, which had yet to be deodorised in the estimation
of the metropolis. He felt the extravagance tho more as
he happened to be one of a committee who had frequently
to hear and determine claims to be excused from payment
of the rates made by the Metropolitan Board, on the ground
of poverty. He reminded the Court that the Metropolitan
Board took 1314,000 annually fiom the ratepayers of the
metropolis, of which £27,000 was contributed by the City of
London. He moved, " That in the opinion of this Court
the proposal is uncalled for and extravagant, and ought not
to be adopted."

Mr. H. LOWMAN TAYLOR objected to tho proposed gra-
tuities as excessive in amount, and, at least, premature, so
long as the most difficult part of the main drainage scheme
—that of the low level sewer—remained to be completed.
He moved an amendment to that effect, but it was lost on
a show of hands, and the original motion was adopted.

THE HOLBORN VALLEY IMPROVEMENT.
A great number of the inhabitants of the ward of Far-
ringdon-without attended at the bar with a petition, which
had been adopted at a meeting, protesting against the plan
in contemplation by the corporation for raising Holborn-
valley. The petitioners stated that they viewed with
great dissatisfaction and alarm the rejection of a plan
which had been submitted by their ward to the Improve- I No less than 1,970 carts laden with forced fruit
went Committee of the Corporation, and the intention of
came into the Paris market durin the first twelve days of
the Ccrporation to execute the viaduct from Skinner-street May, and 12,805 carts of vegetables, of which number 1,301
g
to Ely-court, Holborn, which they said did not provide for
were laden with potatoes. Fro g s seem to have come into
a direct communication between the high level and Far- fashion again ; the best como
from. Alsace, whence bugs
ringdon-street (except for foot passengers by means of baokete of green frogq are sea try 11 41 to Paris.

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

and regardless of private interests, "We do not want
these leading strings. We can go alone in our amuse-
ments, subject, of course, to a censor morum alike for
all places of theatrical and musical entertainment. In
the petty squabbles between One set of managers and
another set, we take no concern, except to regret
that they stand in the way of general improvement.
There is an evening for the theatre, and an evening
for the music-hall, and why the two institutions
should not do their best to provide us wholesome
entertainment is a question to which we want a plain
answer." That answer has never been given, ex-
cept in the form of an interested and a ridiculous
one. If you make the music-hall more attractive,
or allow it to be made more attractive, say the
lessees, we shall suffer in pocket. Our " crowded
houses" will sink to a beggarly account of empty
boxes, we shall never have the melancholy satisfaction
of turning money from the doors, and "only stand-
ing room " will no longer affright the playgoer as he
stares wretchedly in at the box entrance. Indeed,
" complet" will be as unfamiliar a word to us as to
a ramshackle stage-coach rolling on a dull day from
Paris to beyond the barriers. We have not heard
any answer but this to the demand for " free trade
in theatres." Certain writers have, it is true, hinted
something about theatres becoming taverns if music-
halls are to have the privileges at present enjoyed
by theatres ; but this notably absurd idea is repu-
diated even by theatrical lessees themselves, as an
imputation of a scandalous character. It is unne-
cessary, therefore, to do more than entertain the
question of self-interest, of pecuniary loss to thea-
trical managers, and this may be easily disposed of
as a consideration totally inadmissible, when the
broad ground of freedom from a monopoly that de-
grades one kind of entertainment is the basis argued
upon. It is not possible to maintain for long the
profits of a particular class up to a certain standard,
by shutting out the rivalry of another class. The
law may do it for a time - but, as the existing dis-
pute shows, it cannot make: monopoly permanent.
There will be ingenious evasions, as in the case of
the Canterbury Hall ghosts, and triumphant de-
fiances, as in the case of the Alhambra ballet. There
will be puzzled magistrates giving decisions to be
quashed, and an astounded people laughing over the
laboured attempts of " experts," to show the differ-
ence between stage tweedle-dum and music-hall
tweedle-dee. Allthe while, poor Mr. Donne, from the
Chamberlain's-office, will be tortured to prove that he
is absolutely hors de combat, and unable to do more
than promptly obey a subpoena. We maintain that
the present condition of things cannot last,
and that even while it does last, practically the law
will be evaded. There are
..many persons who
gravely assert that the decision recently pronounced
at the Middlesex Sessions in favour of the Alhambra
ballet was itself a violation of the law : and really
the business is so nice a one that he would be a rash
man who should maintain the perfect and complete
legality of that decision. It is all a muddle, a
muddle that .Mr. Locke's bill is framed to cure. To
postpone or burke the consideration of such a bill
is, therefore, not the best policy on the part even of
those who favour the very slight and simple case of
the theatrical managers. While everybody is in
doubt as to what is and what is not legal in a
music-hall, the benefit of the doubt will be given to
the more liberal policy of permission, and theatrical
managers will roll up to the police-court the stone
of Sisyphus, that it may be pushed down again by
higher authorities. It would be as well to ponder
these facts before trying to get rid by a side wind of
a question that requires a proper settlement.
CORK REPORTER.—The war in America being
now over, and the South having failed to establish
their independence, it is to be hoped that President
Johnson's policy will be one of conciliation, and not
one of subjugation. He must see the error com-
mitted by Russia in the management of Poland,
establishing a despotism there which has been
equally injurious to both. No doubt, his Ministers
will be in great measure guided by the advice of the
gentlemen representing foreign Courts at Washing-
ton, whose duty it is to do everything in their power
to assuage the evils of war. President Johnson
seems to have great animosity towards the Southern
planters and country gentlemen, which rankles in
all his speeches. He seems to look on one class—
the rich—as inconsistent with good government.
If his feelings for the people be carried into execu-
tion by trampling on the planters, what is to pre-
vent similar feelings against men of wealth in
the' North being carried out ? When the ban-
kers and merchants of New York and Boston see a
class legislation against men of property in the
South, it will be time for them to remember the
words of the poet, " Praximus ardet Ucalegon' "
—when your neighbour's house is on fire, &c. Mr.
Johnson in his speeches calls treason a diabolical
crime, but we must consider what is treason. Was
it treason in the colonies to revolt against Great
Britain? Was it treason in Naples, Modena, and
Pa ma to dethrone their Sovereigns ? Was it treason
for the people of England to bring in William the
Third, and substitute the House of Hanover for that
Stuart? Was it treason for France to select the
Emperor Napoleon vice the Bourbons ? It was not.
No more was it treason for the people of the Southern
States, united in their wishes, to elect Davis vice
'Lincoln. Mr. Horace Greely, on the breaking out
of the war, boldly stated that " the cotton
States had every right to secede, and that
to deny them that right would be against
all ideas • of liberty and freedom." The
constitution . of the United States did not
forbid it, but expressly stated that " whenever any
form of Government becomes destructive of these
ends (life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness), it
is the right of the people to alter and to abolish it,
and institute a new government, laying its founda-
tion on such principles, and organizing its powers in
such a form, as to them shall seem most likely to
effect their safety and happiness." The South acted
on this principle, but failed in achieving secession.
During the Hungarian rebellion, and other revolu-
tions in Europe, the United States Government were
the first to support the insurrection, having sent a
Minister to recognise Hungary to Europe, and on
this point we. must refer President Johnson to the
action of Messrs. Webster, Buchanan, Seward, and
other principal Secretaries of State, in, their corre-
spondence with their envoys in Europe, to prove
that, with the precedents of his Government, trea-
son in other countries was not considered diabolical.

POST.—Mr. Ferrand is one of those persons who
never know when they have had enough of it. The
mistake which the Lord Chancellor made some time
ago, in being somewhat too ready in throwing a veil
over the delinquencies of Mr. Edmunds, has been
chosen by him as an incentive to a fresh attack,
which, at present at least, seems to fail in the first
conditions of plausibility. Twenty years ago Mr.
Ferrand was well known as one who made it his
business to purify the political world by acting in
the rather invidious character of a public accuser.
We all remember the fierce attacks which he made
upon Sir James Graham some twenty years ago ;
and, whatever was judged to be the success of his
crusade against the Home Secretary of those days,
Mr. Ferrand at any rate retired for a long time
afterwards from bringing fresh Ministerial indict-
ments. The Report of the Select Committee of the
House of Lords on the Edmunds scandal has, how-
ever, apparently lent him fresh courage. The com-
mittee having differed with the Lord Chancellor as
to the course which should have been pursued on
that occasion, Mr. Ferrand is encouraged to find
new scope for the expression of a diversity of opi-
nion with reference to what has lately taken place
at Leeds. It would have been at least as well, if
only for his own sake, if he had been content to
leave things as they were. But he rakes up a
story with reference to an alleged appointment of
Mr. Richard Bethell to the post
.of Registrar of the
Court of Bankruptcy at Leeds, asks several ques-
tions which are met with a most circumstantial
negative from the Attorney-General, and, dis-
satisfied with a reply which bears at any rate the
prima facie aspect of being conclusive, he gives
notice of a motion for the appointment of a select
committee to make full inquiry into the whole
subject. Of course it will be in the power of the
House of Commons to grant this committee if they
should think, after the explicit answer they have
received, that there is sufficient grounds to justify
an inquiry. On Wednesday, however, it apparently
occurred to Mr. Ferrand that, even in this motion,
he had not gone quite far enough. The brilliant
notion occurred to him that he might possibly catch
not only the Lord Chancellor, but also the Attorney-
General, tripping. Accordingly he gave notice of
his intention to ask the question last night by whom
this circumstantial statement of the Attorney-
General was supplied, and also whether Sir Roundell
Palmer would object to produce the letter of Mr.
Welch tendering his resignation, and also that of
Mr. Bethel]. confirming Mr. Welch's statement.
Any application more frivolous than the former it
would be hard to imagine. The Court of Bank-
ruptcy of Leeds did not lie within the department
of the Attorney-General ; and it was quite enough
surely to assume that the Attorney-General derived
his information from the department to which the
Leeds Court of Bankruptcy belonged, and further-
more, that those matters which were stated on the
authority of the Lord Chancellor, namely, that Mr.
Bethell's appearance at Leeds, if it ever took place,
was without Lord Westbury's cognisance, must
have been obtained from the Lord Chancellor him-
self, and could be valuable only as being drawn
from that source. Hoviever, Mr. Ferrand was de-
termined to have the plainest deductions drawn out
in actual words ; and last night he put his question.
We think Sir R. Palmer was fully justified in re-
fusing to produce the person who had supplied him
with information which he had stated on his own
responsibility ; and we should imagine any gentle-
man will be content with Sir Roundell's offer to
hand over to Mr. Ferrand the two letters of
the genuineness of which he insinuates a doubt.
The circumstances of the case in the Attorney-
General's statement appear plain and simple
enough, and there can hardly be much mystery
about it. Within a short time there have been two
registrars at Leeds, namely, Mr. Wilde and Mr.
Welch. It appears that certain irregularities,
not extending, however, to personal defalca-
tions, were discovered in Mr. Wilde's accounts by
Mr. Commissioner Ayrton, who reported thereon
to the Lord Chancellor.. Lord Westbury accord-
ingly called upon Mr. Wil an explanation.
The Chancellor, no dou 'the chief, if not the
only, judge of the meri f e explanation ; but it
can hardly be do 't he was both a compe-
tent and disin d udge. The Chancellor de-
cided that I..4oExplanation was not satisfactory.
That wa• doubt, a sufficient ground for Mr.
Wilde* • gnation. Next, however, comes the
questioit o f Mr. Wilde's pension. Probably Mr.
Ferrand imagines that the Lord Chancellor wished
to #4btain Mr. Wilde's resignation by a sort of
mingled principle of rewards and punishments. He
would give him a pension if he would retire at once,
in order to nominate a relative in his place. Un-
luckily, however, for Mr. Ferrand's theory, the
Lord Chancellor nominated neither a relative, nor
a friend, nor even an acquaintance. He gave the
office to a Mr. Welch, whom he knew only by the
honourable mention made of him by Sir William
Atherton and Mr. Edward James in recommending
him for a legal appointment.. Here, however, there
is a remaining straw for Mr. Ferrand to cling to.
This gentleman declares it only a provisional ap-
pointment, to fill up the interval between that time
and the expiry of Mr. Richard Bethell's outlawry.
The appointment, however, appears to have been
permanent, and to have been made without any
qualification. So far as regards Mr. Bethell, the
evidence of dates seems to be conclusive against Mr.
Ferrand's hypothesis. Mr. Welch's appointment
took place on the 30th of July, 1864 ; the outlawry
only dated from the 15th of December following.
With this circumstantial contradiction, it can hardly
be pretended.that any part of Mr. Ferrand's posi-
tion survives. The Attorney-General declares also
that, although the Lord Chancellor had been re-
quested to transfer 11r. Welch to London by way
of promotion, in order to make room for Mr. Bethell
at Leeds, he altogether refused to do so. It is quite
possible that this proposition may lie at the bottom
of the whole fabric Mr. Ferrand has built up. But,
be this as it may, it is impossible to conceive, after
the Attorney-General's plain and demonstrative
reply, that it can have any better foundation.
HERALD.—The ill-luck which has attended Mr.
Locke's bill for establishing " free trade in theatres,"
and for rendering theatres commodious and safe
places of public entertainment, should not so far
discourage the advocates of the measure as to make
them despair of ultimate success. This bill is not
the first necessary piece of legislation which the
inexorable Wednesday rule of the house has " put
off," and postponed till its appearance on the notice
paper became rather a sign of what was not to be
than of what would really happen. Bills which have
bloomed into acts of much greater importance than
Mr. Locke's bill have successfully passed the ordeal
of disappointment and delay, in spite of public and
private attempts to burke them, and in defiance of
deeply-interested augury. Therefore, when we find
certain interests adverse to the reform which would
be created by the bill hailing with a shout of
triumph the fact that the measure halts considerably
on its way to a second reading, and attempting, by
the aid of unpolished badinage, to laugh Mr. Locke
and his proposal out of countenance, we only recog-
nise the old tactics, and see behind the transparent
mask the would-be confident mummer. Unhappily
Mr. Locke's bill affects two classes of public caterers
for amusement who have agreed to differ, and to
consider themselves as enemies, the one class against
the other. The theatrical lessee has, in many in-
stances, taken it into his head that he is being out-
generalled and made to suffer loss by the music-hall
proprietor. He sees that while he has to obtain
" leave and licence" for his performances, his brother
of the music-hall is, in matters of entertainment, a
chartered libertine, and chartered, too, to offer his
patrons the extra attractions of the tavern or the
hotel. It is here that the theatrical lessee feels, or
thinks he feels, the shoe pinch. The English,
although on the whole a sober people, have bibulous
tendencies when they take their pleasure ; and so
terribly common has become the practice of
smoking tobacco, that where the smoker may
send up his curling wreaths between himself and
the footlights, a goodly company is pretty sure
to assemble. The bait of the music-hall, then
is very nicely compounded, and the theatrical
lessee thinks it a little too nice for the public to be
pleasant to him. He therefore asks for a counter-
balancing advantage. He wants a monopoly of
drama, ballet, and pantomime, as a set-off against
the pipe, the cigar, and the grog. It is purely a
question of profit ; not of morality or the well-being
of society. The music-hall runs the theatre very
closely in the matter of popularity, and the theatre
wants to have the music-hall weighted or handi-
capped till absolutely rivalry shall be out of the
question. " Keep these places," says the lessee,
" down to their old level : grant them their comic
songs, their tumblers, their trapezeists, their dogs
and monkeys, their irrepressible niggers, and all the
irregularities of the entertaining school, but prohibit
them from the higher grades of public amusement.
In other words, keep the music-halls down to a low
standard, and condemn their audiences to the pe-
nalty of a second or third-rate programme for their
ill-conditioned tastes. Deny them anything like ,
elevation, save that which may be supplied. in the
body of the house by the waiter, and quarter your
pipes and grog with mountebank supporters." There
is nothing more in the whole dispute than this—it is
a question of rivals in trade. The music-hall has
grown ambitious of improvement ; and the theatre
craves to nip this ambition in the bud. And because ,
Mr. Locke's bill would hinder the proceeding, and
let the two classes of establishments do what they
please under precisely similar conditions, the " ori-
ginal houses" are wroth, and the hon. member for
Southwark feels in various ways the effect of med-
dling with a monopoly. The public, however, has
something to say in such a matter; and it says plainly

Emerson on President Lincoln

---e

The following address was delivered by Ralph
Waldo Emerson in Concord, Massachusetts, on oc-

casion of the funeral services in honour of Mr.

Lincoln :

We meet under the gloom of a calamity which darkens
down over the minds of good men in all civilised society,
as the fearful tidings travel over sea, over land, from coun-
try to country, like the shadow of an uncalculated eclipse
over the planet. Old as history is, and manifest as are its
tragedies, I doubt if any death has caused so much pain to
mankind as this has caused, or will cause, on its announce-
ment ; and this not so much because nations are, bymodem
arts, brought so close together, as because of the mysteri-
ous hopes and fears which, in the present day, are con-
nected with the name and institutions of America. In
this country, on Saturday, every one was struck dumb,
and saw, at first, only deep below deep, as he meditated on
the ghastly blow. And, perhaps, at this hour, when the
coffin which contained the dust of the President came for-
ward on its long march through mourning States, on its
way to its home in Illinois, we might well be silent, and
suffer the awful voices of the times to thunder to us. Yes,
but that first despair was brief ; the man was not so to be
mourned. He was the most active and hopeful of men ;
and his work had not perished; but acclamations of
praise for the task he had accomplished burst out into a
song of triumph, which even tears for his death cannot
keep down. The President stood before us a man of the
people. He was thoroughly American, had never crossed

the sea, had never been spoiled by English insularity, cr
French dissipation ; a quiet native, aboriginal man, as an
acorn from the oak ; no aping of foreigners, no frivolous
accomplishments, Kentuckian born, working on a farm, a
flatboatman, a captain in the Blackhawk war, a country
lawyer, a representative in the rural legislature of Illinois
—on such modest foundations the broad structure of his
fame was laid. How slowly, and yet by happily prepared
steps, he came to his place. All of us remember—it is only
a history of five or six years—the surprise and disappoint-
ment of the country at his first nomination at Chicago. Mr.
Seward, then in the culmination of his good fame, was the
favourite of the Eastern States. And when the new and
comparatively unknown name of Lincoln was announced
(notwithstanding the report of the acclamations of that con-
vention) we heard the result coldly and sadly. It seemed
too rash, on a purely local reputation, to build so grave a
trust in such anxious times ; and men naturally talked of
the chances in politics as incalculable. But it turned out
not to be chance. The profound good opinion which the
people of the West had conceived of him, and which they
had imparted to their colleagues, that they also might jus-
tify themselves to their constituents at home, was not rash,
though they did not begin to know the richness of his
worth. A plain man of the people, an extraordinary fortune
attended him. Lord Bacon says, "Manifest virtues procure
reputation • occult ones fortune." He, offered no shining
qualities at the first encounter ; he did not offend by supe-
riority. lie had a face and manner which disarmed suspi-
cion, which inspired confidence, which confirmed goodwill.
He was a man without vices. He hada strong sense of duty
which it was very easy for him to obey. Then he had what
farmers call a long head ; was excellent in working out the
sum for himself, in arguing his case and convincing you fairly
and firmly. Then it turned out that he was a great worker,
had prodigious faculty of performance, worked easily. A good
worker is rare ; everybody has some disabling quality. In
a host of young men that start together, and promise so
many brilliant leaders for the next age, each fails on trial ;
one by bad health, one by conceit or by love of pleasure, or
by lethargy, 9r by au Jingly terapeP-0,4 j i 09123,0 dig-

qualifying fault that throws him out of the career.
But this man was sound to the core, cheerful,
persistent, all right for labour, and liked nothing
so well. Then he had a vast good nature, which made
him tolerant and accessible to all ; fair-minded, leaning
to the claim of the petitioner, affable, and not sea'
sible to the affliction which the innumerable vists paid to
him. when President, would have brought to any one else.
And how this good nature became a noble humanity in
many a tragic case which the events of the war brought to
him every one will remember, and with what increasing
tenderness he dealt when a whole race was thrown on hie
compassion. The poor negro said of him, on an impressive
occasion, "Massa Linkum am eberywhere." Then his broad
good humour, running easily into jocular talk, in which Is
delighted and in which he excelled, was a rich gift to this
wise man. It enabled him to keep his secret, to meet ever"
kind of man and every rank in society ; to take off the edge
of the severest decisions, to mask his own purpose and
sound his companion, and to catch with true instinct the
temper of every company he addressed. And, more than 814
it is to a man of severe labour, in anxious and exhausting
crises, the natural restorative, good as sleep, and is the pro'
tection of the overdriven brain against rancour and insanity.
His occupying the chair of state was a triumph of the god
sense of mankind and of the public confidence. This middle'
class country has got a middle-class President at last. yes,
in manners, sympathies, but not in power, for his peva
were superior. His mind mastered the problem of the dal;
and, as the problem grew, so did his comprehension of it.
Rarely was man so fitted to the event, In the midst of fears
and jealousies, in the Babel of counsels and parties, this
man wrought incessantly with all his might and all his
honesty, labouring to find what the people wanted, and 1301
to obtain that. It cannot be said there is any exaggeration
of his worth. If ever a man was fairly tested he 108'
There was no lack of resistance, nor of slander, nor of
ridicule. The times has allowed no State secrets; the
nation has been in such a ferment, such multitudes had t°
be trusted, that no secret could be kept. Every door Was
ajar, and we know all that befel. Then what an occasion
was the whirlwind of the war! Here was place for 11°
holiday magistrate, the fair-weather sailor; the new pilot
was hurried to the helm in a tornado. In four years—the
four years of battle-days—his endurance, his fertility of
resources, his magnanimity, were sorely tried and never
found wanting. There, by his courage, his justice, ill'
even temper, his fertile counsel, his humanity, he stood all
heroic figure in the centre of an heroic epoch. He is the
true history of the American people in his time. Step hi
step he walked before them; slow with their slowness,
quickening his march by theirs ; the true representative of
this continent; an entirely public man; father of his count*
the pulse of 20,000,000 throbing in his heart, the thought of
their minds articulated by his tongue. Adam Smith remark
that the axe which in Houbraken's portraits of British
kings and worthies is engraved under those who have suf.
fered at the block adds a certain lofty charm to their Pie"
ture. And who does not see, even in this tragedy so recen‘
how fast the terror and ruin of the massacre are already
burning into glory around the victim. Far happiek this
fate than to have lived to be wished away ; to 10"
watched the decay of his own faculties ; to have seen'',
perhaps, even he—the proverbial ingratitude of statesmen'
to have seen, mean men preferred. Had he not lived long
enough to keep the greatest promise that ever man made
to his fellow-men—the practical abolition of slavery ? P
hid seen Tennessee, Missouri, and Maryland emancipate'
°
,7
their slaves. He had seen Savannah, Charleston, and Rich'
mond surrendered ;'had seen the main army of the rebellioe
lay down its arms. He had conquered the public opinion
of Canada, England, and France. Only Washingtcfn can
compare with him in fortune. And what if it should toil
out, in the unfolding of the web, that he had reached tll°
term; that this heroic deliverer could no longer serve us
that the rebellion had touched its natural conclusion, and
what remained to be done required new and uncommitted
hands—a new spirit born out of the ashes of the war ; and

that Heaven, wishing to show the world a completed:We-
factor, shall make him serve his country even more 191
death than by his life. Nations, like kings, are not
cowls
0051 v 4
:14
facility and complaisance. " The kindness of Vs c
in justice and strength." Easy good nature s .been tb
dangerous foible of the republic, and it was necessary til*,_A
its enemies should outrage it, and drive iw to unwon:t
firmness, to secure the salvation of this country in the heft
ages. • -