The Sun.
London, England, 1865-07-05 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

" Since last Tuesday there has been a complete absence
of demand for goods; India buyers especially have ab-
stained from operations. The firm position of material
necessitates high quotations from makers, but the number
of re-sale lots offered render all prices quite nominal. To-
day our market has been quite without action."
LEEDS, 4th.—Election proceedings appear rather
to interfere with the current of trade, and to-day's
markets in the cloth-halls have been quiet so far as
the sales of cloth were concerned. The purchases
were chiefly small quantities of plain and ordinary
cloths, with a sprinkling of various kinds of winter
fabrics. The sale of the latter would probably be
greater were the weather less hot. The export
houses are mostly doing a good business for the
season ; and though the home trade is rather quiet,
it is satisfactory in its prospects, and the manufac-
turers are well employed. The prices of both wools
and goods are steady.

NOTTINGHAM, 4th.—There was a small attend-
ance at the Exchange-hall to-day, and the demand
for lace yarns was less active, the prices of last week
being for the most part 'made. For hosiery yarns
the demand was by no means active, and prices
underwent no important alteration. Thrown silks
in demand, and prices tended upwards ; spun silks
were also dearer. The demand for brown nets was
quiet, owing to the very high price of the raw ma-
terial ; rates remained without material change.
ROCHDALE, 3d.—The buyers at to-day's market
have been much more spirited than last week.
Many of them operated with freedom in both plain
and fancy goods. The fancy department was
scarcely ever in a more brisk condition, and manu-
facturers are pressed on all hands not only to com-
plete current orders with all speed, but to under-
take fresh contracts for short-time delivery. The
demands of the home trade have not only been con-
, siderable to-day, but during the greater part of last
week the same parties were continually doing busi-
ness at the warehouses. The Yorkshire trade keeps
dull, and manufacturers have such prices to pay for
both wool and cotton that they cannot make any-
thing marketable at the prices which buyers are
willing to give. The high price of wool is so stoutly
maintained that consumers only purchase on com-
pulsion, and in comparatively small lots.

HEALTH OF LONDON.

(From the Registrar-General's Weekly Report.)
In the week that ended on Saturday, July 1, the
births in London and ten other large towns of the
United Kingdom were 4,446—the deaths 2,881. The
annual rate of mortality in the week in those eleven
towns was 26 per 1,000 persons living.
In London the births of 1,004 boys and 965 girls,
in all 1,969 children, were registered in the week. In
the corresponding weeks of ten years, 1855-64, the
average number, corrected for increase of population,
was 1,965.
The deaths registered in London during the week
are 1,455. The week is the 26th of the year, and
the average number for that week in ten years,
1855-64, is, with a correction for increase of popu-
lation, 1,242. The actual number exceeds the esti-
mated mortality by 213.
In the last three weeks the deaths were, succes-
sively, 1,204, 1,359, and 1,455. The increase arose
in the deaths of young persons, for in the same
periods the deaths that occurred under 20 years of
age were 602, 769, and 835. The deaths from diar-
rhoea in those three weeks were 93, 187, and 184.
Of these 184 cases, 154 occurred to children in their
first year, 20 to those one year old and less than two
years, none occurred at two or three years of age,
one at four years, one at ten, one at forty and under
sixty years, and seven at sixty years and upwards.
There were 27 deaths from diarrhoea in the west dis-
tricts, 48 in the north districts, 21 in the central, 55
in the east, and 33 in the south districts, namely,
those on the south side of the river. It will be ob-
served that though the population of the north or
east districts is less than that of the south, the
deaths from diarrhoea were more numerous in the
two first-mentioned divisions than in the last.
The complaint was fatal in 19 cases in Islington, in
16 in Pancras, in Bin Mile-end Old Town, and Bin
Poplar.
A water-side labourer, aged 48 years, died on 29th
June, at 22, Willmott's-buildings, Kent-road, of
" cholera Asiatica," after two days' illness.
The five following fatal street accidents by car-
riages were registered in the week :—ln Shacklewell,
a coal-dealer, aged 64 years, was killed by a fall
from a cart. In South Hackney, the son of a plas-
terer, aged 7 years, was run over. A carman, aged
40 years, was run over in Bermondsey-street by a
van. A fish-dealer, aged 35 years, died in Wes

minster Hotel, from injury by a van. The son of a
ship-rigger, aged two years, was brought to the
London Hospital from Limehouse, where he had
been run over by a cart.
A lad, aged 16 years, died from an ear of corn
introduced into his right lung.

TIMES.--After the debate in the House of Com-
mons on Monday night our readers will not be sur-
prisedto learn that the Lord Chancellor has tendered
his resignation, and that Lord Palmerston has ad-
vised her Majesty to accept it. It was announced
yesterday that Lord Westbury would only continue
to hold the Great Seal for two days until the urgent
business of his department was despatched. The
motion of Mr. Bouverie was undoubtedly one of
want of confidence. He professed in the most em-
phatic manner that he had no confidence in the Lord
Chancellor, and had that profession been omitted the
motion spoke plainly enough for itself. In the Ed-
munds case, the fault of granting the pension to a
most unworthy officer was divided in something like
equal proportions between the Lord Chancellor
and the Committee of the House of Lords. Had
the Chancellor done his duty in laying before the
committee the evidence against Mr. Edmunds which
had officially come to his hand, or had the com-
mittee done their duty by instituting an investiga-
tion which the knowledge they possessed opened to
them, the mischief could never have happened,
while in the case of Mr. Wilde the whole responsi-
bility fell upon the Chancellor alone. If we com-
pare the conduct of the committees of the two houses
which sat on these two cases we find nothing to ob-
ject to in the conduct of the committee of the House
of Lords, and very little indeed to approve in that of
the committee of the House of Commons. The com-
mittee of the House of Lords pronounced a distinct
censure on all that part of the Chancellor's con-
duct which seemed fairly liable to animadversion
—on his permitting Mr. Edmunds to retire with
heavy charges proved against him, and on his with-
holding from the committee of the House of Lords
the evidence on which the pension was ultimately.
cancelled. The committee of the House of Com-
mons pronounced a verdict which as we showed at
the time was not supported by the facts which they
culled out of the evidence and introduced into their
Report, and which is still less supported by the
whole evidence from which those facts were selected.
The acquittal of the Chancellor of all charge ex-
cept that of haste and want of caution in granting
a pension to Mr. Wilde grated harshly on the
public ear ; and we only anticipated what has
proved to be the opinion of every impartial person
when we said that, on the committee's own showing,
a very different conclusion followed necessarily from
the evidence before them. There were, in fact, three
substantial charges ageinst the Lord Chancellor, on
all of which the committee acquitted him in order to
find him guilty of a fourth, which, in a great magi-
strate so fully occupied and necessarily dependent on
the assistance of others, can scarcely be called a charge
at all. First, the Chancellor was charged with
being cognisant of the corrupt practices of his son ;
secondly, that, although not cognisant of those cor-
rupt practices, the Chancellor ought not to have
given any weight to the recommendation of his son
in favour of Mr. Welch ; to which we may add, as
collaterally springing out of it, the appointment of
that son, who had been, as he says, " a disgrace and
a source of infinite sorrow and reproach to him for
the last ten years," to a Registrarship in the Court
of Bankruptcy; and, thirdly, the granting of a pen-
sion to Mr. Wilde, in face of his grave delinquencies,
on a certificate which any medical man might grant,
with equal propriety, to any middle-aged gentleman in
the kingdom. Of all these charges the committee of
the House of Commons acquitted the Lord Chancellor,
to find him guilty only of haste and want of caution
in granting a pension to Mr. Wilde—two faults of
which assuredly he was not guilty ; for haste in
this case means precipitancy, and want of caution
means absence of reflection, neither of which can
justly be charged to the Lord Chancellor, who had
well deliberated befor he acted, and was not in any
way taken by surprise. It is worth while to consider
for a moment the probable cause of this miscarriage.
The committee of the House of Lords was appointed
in the usual manner—indeed, it may be considered as
extravagantly favourable to the Chancellor, because
it contained no less than four of his colleagues, men
of honour and intelligence, 'but naturally disposed
to take a lenient view of his faults. The committee
of the House of Commons was appointed with a
view to the single virtue 3f impartiality ; it was
chosen of what are called "fair men," that is, gen-
tlemen of high character and undoubted integrity,
who are considered to be more free than the mass of
the house from the influence of party bias and poli-
tical animosity. To this committee were added two
eminent lawyers, without votes, to conduct the case
on either side. The result is curious, for while the
Lords' committee, appointed on the old principle of
taking a member alternately from each side, has
discharged its duty in a manner to which nobody
can take exception, the committee appointed with a
special view to fairness has produced a report which
even the Lord Advocate did not venture to propose
that the house should be content with. He, indeed,
annexed to the words of the committee a very grave
and pointed censure, implied in the recommendation
that some further check should be placed by law
upon the grant of pensions to the holders of legal
offices ; in other words, that the conduct of the
Lord Chancellor had been such as to render it neces-
sary that no future Chancellor should be allowed to
possess the power which he had enjoyed and abused.
It was a strange spectacle to see the members of the
committee rising one by one and giving their assent
to the amendment of Mr. Bouverie, which, coupled
with the speech by which it was introduced, entirely. '
negatived the finding of the committee, and substi-
tuted for it a verdict of Guilty, on the very points on
which the committee had pronounced a verdict of
acquittal. This seems to complete the proof, if any
fresh proof were wanting, that these gentlemen,
acting, no doubt, with the best intentions, were not
equal to the investigation which was intrusted to
them. The truth is that at the time in which we
live party spirit is so languid, and the business of
life has become so intricate and complicated, that in
an investigation of this kind we have much more
need of ability than impartiality. The great power
of public opinion, the discussions of the Press, and
the high feeling of honour which, we are happy to
think, actuates public men, guarantee fairness, but
give us no security for vigour of mind or keenness
of insight. To the House of Commons as a body
the greatest credit is due for its conduct inthis case.
It really seems as if, in their desire to act fairly be-
tween the public whom they represent and a great
magistrate of commanding ability and considerable
public services, they had thrown aside the conside-
rations of party and risen to the height of judicial
impartiality. They acquitted the Lord Chancellor
of any knowledge of the corruption of his son, and
they convicted him, not of haste and want of caution
in the abstract, like their Committee, but of " a
laxity of practice and a want of caution with regard
to the public interests in sanctioning the grant of
retiring pensions to public officers against whom
grave charges were pending, which in the opinion
of this house are calculated to discredit the adminis-
tration of his great office." On the second charge,
that of acting on the recommendation of a son who
had been " a disgrace and a source of infinite sorrow
and reproach to him during the last ten years," the
house pronounced no opinion ; and, although we
have not hesitated to do so, we do not the least
question the propriety of their silence, especially as
the censure which they thought fit to pronounce
was not accompanied, like the Resolution of the
Committee, with a sweeping acquittal on all other
charges. We confess it is always with very serious ap-
prehension that we see a personal question with which
the prospects of political parties may be considered
to be mixed up submitted to such an Assembly as
the House of Commons. History informs us that
it has not been in its judicial capacity that our great
Assembly has gathered its brightest laurels. There
is danger that the individual should be sacrificed to
the heats and interests of the moment, or that the
welfare of the public should be sacrificed to con-
sideration for the individual ; and if this danger
always exists, more especially is it to be apprehended
when the House sits, as at the present moment, in
daily expectation of dissolution. The House of
Commons has, we think, happily avoided both ex-
tremes, and, while sindicating with unmistakable
earnestness the cause of public morality and in-
tegrity, has refused to deal with more than was
absolutely necessary with the faults which it found
it impossible to overlook. It is only due to Mr.
Bouverie to record that in coming forward as he
did he has done good service to the country and the
Liberal party, of which he is an honest and con-
sistent member, by relieving them from the appear-
ance of unanimously postponing the public interest
to the ties of party and the mistaken necessities of
Government.

PosT.--Yesterday the Americans of the United
States celebrated the anniversary of the Declaration
of Independence, and congratulated themselves on
the restoration of the Union. The former event
has lost all political significance. After the lapse
of nearly four score and ten years the secession of
the British colonies has not only been forgiven, but
almost forgotten in this country. The rebellion we
attempted to put down succeeded, and the Declara-
tion of Independence records our defeat. We ac-
cepted the fait accompli, and Englishmen of the
present day have no reason to regret the discretion
which their ancestors exercised. The reconstruction
of the lately divided republic is a matter of imme-
diate importance. We trust that the Americans will
be able to carry out an object for the attainment of
which they have made tremendous sacrifices. It is,
however, one thing to pour out libations and deliver
speeches on the restoration of the Union, and an-
other to give practical effect to the idea. Nor can
it be dissembled that the military subjugation of
the Southern States was, as compared with the
work which remains to be done, an easy operation.
There are problems war fails to solve, knots that
are not to be cut by the sword. For a time it might