The Sun.
London, England, 1865-05-16 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

TlMES.—After a sufficient interval to restore its
judgment and good humour the House of Com-

mons returned fast night to the discussion of the
Union Chargeability Bill. The tone of the debate
was improved by the conviction that it is a subject
in which the country is interested, and about which
the Government is in earnest. It is not an argu-
ment against the measure that it has originated in
the recommendations of economists and philanthro-
pists rather than from any outcry of the labouring
class itself. There are, unfortunately, in every
country those who suffer in silence through sheer
ignorance and helplessness. They have never ac-
quired the mental activity to agitate or petition,
they look upon their fate as the natural order of
things, and have never conceived it to be capable of
change. The pale denizens of a London court, with
the effects of a fetid atmosphere visible in their face
and form of gait, very often do not know that there
is anything the matter with them. But the edu-
cated observer is aware that they and thousands
like them are in a state of permanent depression,
and that the existence of the places• which produce
such a class is a national misfortune. So reflecting
men have come to the conclusion that parochial rat-
ing has brought, and , is still bringing, remediable
evils on the agricultural labourer. He, poor fellow,
does not complain of his long walks to and from
work, or of the damp and unhealthy tenement, run
up by some speculative builder, in which he lives.
He is glad enough to get his week's wages anyhow,
and as to the place he lives in, he has never known a
better, and he takes its shortcomings as defects inci-
dental to all human habitations. But when the re-
sults of such a system are considered by men free
from local prejudices or interests, there can be but
one conclusion. Both humanity and patriotism
suggest that a practice which tends directly to the
destruction of the homes of the agricultural poor,
and to " divorcing them from the land" in the sense
of keeping them at a distance from the fields on
which they must do their daily work, ought to be
abandoned. In our day this conviction has always
been entertained by the foremost econemists of the
country, and it is now almost twenty years since
the principle of the measure now before the House
was received with approbation in Parliament.
When a measure has been so long discussed it is
almost useless, although it may show considerable
confidence and ingenuity, to deny the facts upon
which it rests. The speech of Mr. fienley last night
was an instance of this unsuccessful boldness. He
boldly denied the facts which have furnished a ground
of complaint to a whole generation of politicians.
Taking as his text a return which we are not at all
concerned to defend, Mr. Henley alleged that the
statements of Drs. Hunter and Simon were inaccu-
rate, and their iemarks calumnious. It had been
said that the population in certain parishes did not
increase at its natural rate ; that the house accom-
modation of the labourers was in some places deplo-
rable ; that the poor man could not find house room
on the land which he was to till ; that where he did
get a shelter it was one which would not allow
decency to his family ; and that these evils were in a
great measure attributable to the principle of pap-
chial rating, which led to the neglect of cottages,
and sometimes even to their demolition. Mr. Henley
went on to show that in the inculpated parishes of
Oxfordshire and the adjacent counties, there had
been an actual increase in the number of houses, and
he argues from this that the report is untrustworthy,
and that the Government is consequently without a
justification for its measure. We are unable to judge
how far Mr. Henley has refuted the particular 'cases
given in this report ; but we must remind our readers
that facts so notorious as the hardships and evils
which spring from the present law do not depend for
their authority on the accuracy of this report. The
two gentlemen who have conducted the inquiry will,
we hope, be able to make a satisfactory defence, but
the grounds on which the bill is supported are perfectly
established and irrefutable without their authority.
The decisive vote by which the House has refused to
refer the bill to a select committee is a proof that the
elaborate statistics of Mr. Henley did not carry con-
viction to his audience. Yet in complaining that the
present was a bill for favouring the towns at the
expense of the country the Opposition had, no doubt,
a good many members on their side. The position
of a close parish in the neighbourhood of a populous
town is calculated to provoke irritability in a pro-
prietor. He has always enjoyed the benefit of being
near a large seat of population without any of its
corresponding burdens, and the alteration will come
severely on him at first. But such a shifting of bur-
dens is only what follows after every political or
financial change, and in this case those who suffer
have the consolationof knowing that they have here-
tofore possessed an undeserved immunity. We be-
lieve that in a year or two all classes will acquiesce
in this change. The extravagant anticipations which
are represented by the assertion of Lord John Ma-
nners that this is " a social revolution" seems to us
to have no foundation of reality. This is essentially
a measure of which the benefits will be out of all
proportion with the inconveniences which it may
produce. As it is more than half the sum raised for
the relief of the poor—that is, 51 per cent.—is
already paid out of the common funds of the Union,
and it is only with respect to the other 49 per cent.,
which is levied on the parishes separately, that any
question can arise. This whole sum does not amount
to more than two millions and a half, and it is the
mere displacing of the incidence of a portion of this
amount which Lord John Manners describes as a
revolution, We may now hope that the further pro-
gress of the bill will not be stayed. It is founded
on the unanswerable principle that the area of rating
should be the same as the area of management. It
is indeed strange that when the new poor law was
passed, 30 years ago, this system was not at once
adopted. To leave the parishes to provide for their
own settled poor, while the union has the manage-
ment of every detail, and can grant or withhold re-
lief to every individual, was p. compromise between
the old and new systems, and is as injurious as it
illogical. 'Where there is the right of interference
there should be the duty of contribution. Mr. Vil-
liers tells us that this was the opinion of the framers
of the new poor law, who looked upon the substitu-
tion of union for parish rating as essential to the
success of their scheme. At last the principle is
likely to be adopted, and by taking this course Par-
liament will add to the security and wellbeing of
a large class. Although the grievances complained
of may be diminishing in some places through the
good sense and right feeling of the owners of pro-
perty, yet we cannot doubt there is much that at
this time requires such a remedy as this bill will
supply. The House of Commons has clearly ex-
pressed its opinion, and we trust that the policy of
obstruction will now be abandoned.
HERALD.—Hostilities in China and Japan being
suspended for the moment, the British Government,
in the length and breadth of the vast regions which
it affects to control, has at present only two little
wars left on its hands. Her Majesty is just now at
peace with all the world, excepting only the wild
tribes of Bhootan and New Zealand. And yet there
is enough in these petty conflicts to keep us in a
constant state of irritation and annoyance. How
many noble lives may be sacrificed, how much trea-
sure expended, how many failures and humiliating
checks may have to be encountered, before the moun-
tain fastnesses in that border land of India can be
reduced and held, and before the obstinate tribes on
those islands of the Southern sea can be impressed
with a proper respect for our arms and our autho-
rity, it is impossible to foretell, for either of these
wars may last for years to come. Whether it is
mostly the fault of the savage peoples who will not
live at peace with us, and give up their lands and
possessions to our covetous colonists, or whether it
is that a cruel and inevitable destiny is driving us
on against our will to fresh conquest and continual
aggression, it seems pretty clear that our eager
white race will never consent to rest quiet, perhaps
will never be suffered to rest quiet, while there is a
single black man, red man, or brown man left wan-
dering free on the face of God's earth. We have
subdued a great many of them ; with the rest we are
perpetually fighting. The mission of the Roman was
" to curb peoples with his empire." The mission of
the Englishman seems to be either to enslave or to
destroy all inferior races with which he comes in
contact. Charlemagne gave the Germans the choice
between the Cross and the sword. England, wherever
she goes, puts a similar question to the hapless na-
tive tribes with which successively she comes in
contact. Civilisation, constitutional government,
and submission to England, if they will. The
alternative is extermination. The natives of
India have chosen the better part. The Indians
of North America and the blacks of Australia,
who cannot obey, and who will not be civi-
lised, are disappearing off the face of the
earth. A similar fate seems in store for the un-
once called 4‘ of the fortunate tribes in those isles,

blest," which dot the Pacific with Elysian oases
of verdure. The native who first saw the
white man in his white-winged barque, hailed
him as a God, but found him a destroying angel.
The Englishman, in an evil hour for the inhabitants,
planted his foot on the fair islands of New Zealand,
and the tribes of tattooed warriors have waned in
his presence. In a few years more the noble Maori
will be a thing of the past. His numbers are rapidly
diminishing. In the southern island he has already
accepted his fate. In a few districts of the northern
island he is still fighting a desperate fight for inde-
pendence and supremacy. The news just received
from New Zealand is exceedingly disheartening, as
showing the utter futility of the truce concluded
last year by Governor Grey with the insurgent na-
tives. The tribe •of the Wakaito are still in arms
in the hill country of the Upper Wanganui. The
heathens of Tauranga on the eastern coast are
waging a desultory war with more ferocity and less
respect for civilized usage than the Christian natives
of the west, In both districts certain advantages have
been gained by the loyal side, but the details are
such as to convince us that the conflict, so far from
being at an end, is likely enough to continue for
years to come. Itis not enough for the poor Maories
that they have the English against them. The hor-
rors of civil war are added to those of foreign ag-
gression. There are tribes of what are called
" friendly natives," which make war in the name of
the Queen upon the other tribes. To pit the New
Zealanders against each other may be the readiest
and most politic, but is certanely not the most
humane, mode of stifling their hostility. Not the
least unpromising feature in the news is, that Wil-
liam Thompson, the able and intelligent native who
originated the " King" movement, so far from
having giving in his submission, as was lately
asserted, is still actively aiding and abetting the
tribes of the Waikato now in arms for their inde-
pendence. " Make roads," was the curt but preg-
nant advice of the late Duke of Wellington to
General Cathcart when departing on his mission
of subduing the Kaffirs of South Africa. We are
glad to learn that General Cameron, in New
Zealand, is acting on this advice, instead of prose-
cuting difficult and dangerous enterprises in the
interior. From the Patea river, in the district of
Taranaki, the westernmost point of the north
island, he is driving a military road towards the
mouth of the Wanganui, twenty miles to the south.
The road is ruin to the native wherever it runs. It
deprives him of the shelter of the bush, and gives
his more civilised opponent an easy base of opera-
tions, a means of communication for offensive or
defensive purposes. With his base at Taranaki
General Cameron will reach the lower waters of th t
e
Wanganui river, and push his advantage along tha
stream to the northward into the very heart of the
insurgent country. In his successful operations last
year along the valleys of the Waikato and the
Thames he asserted the authority of the Govern-
ment up to the sources of those rivers, the moun-
tainous and wooded country which is the centre of
the northern island, the watershed between the rise
of these streams, which run to the northwards, and
that of the affluents of the Wanganui, which rill!
southwards. This country of the Upper Wanganui
includes the highlands of New Zealand. To the
north of it is the volcanic Mount Bidwell, 10,000
feet high ; to the south is Ruapaho, with its caP-
ping of eternal snow, This is the upper end of the
Waikato tribal district—the last refuge of the poor
hunted Maori. A victory of the friendly chiefs over,
the insurgents is reported in the neighbourhood:
and where the native allies pave the way General
Cameron can follow. On the opposite side of the
island to Taranaki, on the north-eastern coast,
there is a long district of disturbed country between
the Port of Tauranga and the mouth of the riser
Opotiki. Here, too, there has been.a battle between
the friendly tribes and the rebels, the latter belong:
ing to a sect of heathens known as the Pai Mari°.
fanatics. One of the chiefs of these people
been taken prisoner, and the high priest of the see
has been captured and led away. That they ar.?
desperate and sanguinary ruffians, with whont,,i;
must be difficult or impossible to remain on good
terms, is proved by a horrible story which rear At
us from Sydney of a late exploit of theirs. 11
Opotiki they circumvented and captured a British
schooner, taking prisoners several missional
clergymen. One of these, the Rev. Mr. Volko
er,
was beheaded by these barbarians, some of 101°11/
afterwards made a cannibal feast on his remaint
It is to be hoped that thiS outrage will be promptly
and signally avenged. The natives of the east die:
serve far less consideration at our hands than
Christian tribes of the west and the centre, o'
arms for what they believe to be a patriotic cause'
and waging war, to their credit be it said, with
due regard to the usages which prevail amongst
civilised nations.