The Sun.
London, England, 1862-11-18 00:00:00

feature shall be conservatism of all the most extra-
vagant demands of slaveholders. We do not wish
to see aDemocraticiconservative annexation of Cuba
and Mexico, perhaps of Jamaica also. Yet we admit
it to be only right that if the conservators of such
things be the more numerous party they ought to
have the responsibility of office, and not be mere
outsiders, embarrassing the Radical opponents of
slavery and friends of freedom. We, therefore, as
well as the English Conservatives, admit the suc-
cess of the ballot in America. Majorities must be
converted by experience of the effects of their own
follies—not overpowered by mobs, provost-mar-
shals, and Government prisons.

The good work prospers. The funds now col-
lecting on all hands for the relief of the immense and
increasing distress in Lancashire increase with it :
though, alas ! they cannot possibly be said to in-
crease proportionately. At the worst, there will
come, of course, the Government grant—whenever it
may become painfully manifest that this spontane-

one charity on the part of the community at large
cannot compete with it—cannot drive away those
dire results of the stoppage of a large branch of in-
dustry in a busy and populous mercantile land—

famine and pestilence. At the first threatening of
the approach of either of those appalling scourges,
the Government would, of course, promptly and un-

hesitatingly step in. Meanwhile, the people of the

United Kingdom are astir in all directiens, to the

end by their own (spontaneous efforts to relieve

those perfectly innocent but deplorably allicted

classes of their fellow-countrymen. Sympathisers

of all classes aid the good cause by swelling the

already considerable sum of the contributions prof-
fered to the half-starving workers of the North, but

more especially of Lancashire—workers now, un-
happily, no longer ! Committees everywhere ! Public
meetings convened upon every opportunity!
Charitable sermons among all kinds of reli-
gionists! Subscription lists lying open in all
directions ! Individual contributions to the fund—

people of the most diverse characters—pressing for-
ward every day now with some affecting mite, now
with some munificent and princely offering i In a
single day, Mr. SPURGEON collects at two services
in his Metropolitan Tabernacle, collects in that one
building, on that one day, at those two services,
£750 for the relief of this dire distress in Lanca-
shire ! A fashionable lady, upon the eve of inviting
her friends to a ball, bethinks herself that the money
that would be thus frivolously expended upon rout-
seats, and rout-cakes, and fiddlers, and confectionery,

might perchance be a little more wisely expended
under existing circumstances—she postpones her
intended ball sine die, or rather sine node, and
encloses a cheque for £l2O to the Lord Mayor for
the use of the poor operatives in Lancashire. Noble-

men and merchants, country squires and pro-
fessional men, yeomen and artizans (still in
work), forward the noble design we have
all of us so near at heart, and do this, we repeat,
spontaneously and with a truly affecting unanimity.
About the latest among the public demon-
strations in furtherance of this benevolent enter-
prize, upon which we have had occasion to take
any note here in our own metropolis, is the ves-
try meeting which took place yesterday, the meet-
ing convened by the local churchwardens in the
Vestry Hall of St. Martin's-in-the-Fields, and
attended by a goodly number of the more influen-
tial parishioners—conspicuous among these being
the Right Hon. the Chancellor of the Exchequer.
The respected Vicar of the Parish, the Rev. W. G.
HIIIIPIDIEY, having duly opened the proceedings,
we might say as a matter of course, in his inevitable
capacity there as Chairman—Mr .G LADSTON B availed
himself of the opportunity to speak with most per-
suasive tongue, directly and energetically to the
purpose, in behalf of the suffering victims
in the North, the impoverished, and all but
famine-stricken operatives of Lancashire. The argu-
ment which the Right Hon. Gentleman had to en-
force was one the truth of which we have long
since learnt to recognise, and by sympathy to
realise to the full. The resolution moved by Mr.
GLADSTON E being in fact simply to the effect "That
considering the severe and widespread distress now
prevailing in the cotton manufacturing districts,
this meeting desires to express its deep sympathy
with the people of those districts, and its admira-
tion of the patience and fortitude with which they
have borne their privations." In descanting upon
this theme, the Chancellor of the Exchequer
spoke for once not so much in his high position as
a Minister of a State, but simply in his twofold
character—as a landowner in Lancashire, and as a
parishioner of St. Martin's-in-the-Fields. And,
speaking in that two-fold character, he spoke, we
repeat, after a fashion the most eloquent of all under
the circumstances—namely, in words going directly
to the point, in a strain completely to the purpose.
During the course of his able and generous-hearted
speech yesterday, the Chancellor of the Ex-
chequer remarked, in fitting terms, the noble and
magnanimous part taken by the millowners
themselves in the furtherance of relief of the dis-
tress now ravaging the North, but more particu-
larly the County Palatine of Lancaster. In de-
monstration of the practical character, and
of the magnitude, and of the magnanimity
of this relief vouchsafed to the poor. opera-
tives in the manufacturing districts by the
mill-owners there, who are themselves the most
considerable sufferers from the present calamity.
Mr. GLADSTONE mentioned one circumstance, one
incident, coming within the range of his own know-
ledge—an incident so noble of its kind as indeed
to have well deserved to be thus particularised :
" The house in question," he said, " is one of name
and of great respectability. The firm held a con-
siderable stock of cotton. They could not work it
up without incurring an enJrmous loss, so they sold
the cotton, and have since taken upon themselves
the support of every one of their workpeople, pay-
ing them one moiety of the wages which they
would have received in the mills—namely, £2oo
a week, or £13,000 a year, and I believe that it is
their intention to continue this payment.
The firm need not appear on thewitha sum
subscrip-
tion list; but if they had so appeared
which would have seemed munificent it would have
been a mean act compared with the noble course
which they have in fact pursued." With facts like
these coming to light out of the darkness
and the misery of present distress, who
can doubt but that its after consequences will
prove in the end to have been most bene-
ficent : and that, as with so much of human
grief, affliction is often a blessing in disguise !
Meanwhile, so long as the visible affliction lasts,
\ we have, as Christians and Englishmen, as fellow-
citizens and fellowmen, but one course to pursue
steadily, resolutely, and unfalteringly that,
namely, of striving to relieve it.

We have already briefly adverted, when the tele-
gram brought the subject before us, to the singular
conduct of Lord RUSSELL in regard to the 'Schles-
wig and Holstein affair. The announcement was
first made while his Lordship was in Germany,
that he had sent a despatch to Denmark, advising
the Danes to concede everything to the Germans,
advice which, with becoming spirit, they promptly
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