The Sun.
London, England, 1862-05-01 00:00:00

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THE SUN.

LONDON, THURSDAY, MAY 1, 1862.

By the time our impression of to-day has gone to
press, the Great Industrial Exhibition of 1862 will
have been formally inaugurated. The Park guns will
be still warm and smirched within by their recent
discharges—the aisles of the Great Palace of Art
and Industry, down at South Kensington, will still
vibrate with the echoes of the choral chant and of
the instrumental music, the sound of the drums
and trumpets, accentuating, as it were, the rhythmic
march of the procession. So far as the inaugurative
ceremonies of the Ist of May, 1862, are concerned,
they will be as entirely things of the Past when
these words of ours fall under the observation
of our readers, as the inaugurative cere-
mony of the Ist of May, 1851. The re-
trospect opened up to view at the mere momentary
juxtaposition of these two memorable dates—
divided from each other by an interval of eleven
eventful years—is in its way as remarkable, surely,
humanly speaking, as any retrospect of equal
brevity of which the world has record. It
is one that contradicts point blank the most
confident apocalyptic foreshado wings, if we could
dare to call them so, of that popular Scotch divine
who has been so long predicting (with perpetual
postponements) the advent of the millennium.
Alas ! the eleven years between these two May
days—that of 1851 and that of 1862—have served
effectually to dissipate the daydream, indulged in,
of yore, under the glittering arch of the Crystal
Palace in Hyde Park at the commencement of those
same eleven years ! Years crowded with sanguinary
conflicts in various parts of the world—on the Baltic
and on the Euxine, in the Crimea and in Morocco,
in- China and New Zealand, in Japan and North
America ! Eleven warlike and momentous years,
closing with armies reorganised and navies rebuilt,
and with England so far armed to the teeth against
any possible invasion, that she has now a permanent
National Guard of some 200,000 Rifle Volun-
teers ! Eleven years, in fine, that find us
at their close so formidably prepared, or
fast preparitg, for any chances of battle, whether by
sea or land, that our beau ideal of a war-ship is
an impregnable floating fortress, walled with shot-
proof iron; and our ne plus ultra (as yet), in the shape
of rifled cannon, hurl projectiles with a velocity,
and to a distance that just simply out-Warners poor
dead and gone Captain WARNER ! Yet, in spite of
all this, there are still cherished, deep in our heart's
core, hopes and prayers for the ultimate realisation
of peace throughout the world—more reasonable
hopes and prayers of this kind than those which
were but too eagerly cherished eleven swift years
ago. The wiser day-dream of to-day being aptly
illustrated by the charming fancy just given to the
world by one of the artists in our London Charivari
—The celestial form of the White-Winged Angel
of Peace seated upon a Giant Armstrong Gun, and
tenderly covering the deadly vent with the edge of
her sacred robe.

We have already contrasted the conduct of our
Lancashire operatives under their present sufferings
with what would have been that of American
workmen in a parallel case—we have just now a
fresh illustration of it. A large meeting of the un-
employed operatives has just been held in Steven-
son-square, Manchester, to make a public represen-
tation of their condition, and to appoint a deputa-
tion to the authorities praying them to adopt
means to alleviate the present distress. The
masters had their meeting, a few days ago, to con-
cert measures, but there seemed to be much dif-
ference of opinion in regard to the distress said to

exist, it being, happily, but little visible, in the
streets. The operatives' meeting seems to have
been chiefly designed to make public the fact that
the distress is extensive, and real, and to complain
of some hindrances in the way of obtaining reason-

able assistance.
Had such a meeting been called in America, be.
cause England by some quarrel with which America
had nothing in the world to do, was practically de-

priving her operatives of bread, we should assuedly

have had no end of bitter denunciation of the
mother country with threats of sending Merrimacs
and Monitors to break the blockade, Our work-
men, most creditably to their good sense, spoke on
the subject as if they had been reading Vattel or
Phillimore. If Captain. WILKEs had had half their
sense he would have saved us a deal of trouble, and

Mr. GLADSTONE a heavy pull upon his small sur-

plus. Not a commander in the American Navy,
however, but JOHN FINNIGAN, a " beamer and
twister," in proposing the first resolution, said

that " the great distress which had existed had
not been brought about by any fault of the
Government of this country, but it was owing
in a great measure to the unfortunate inter-
necine war which wes now desolating America."
With equal considerations he spoke of their
local social superiors. " There was," he said, "a

great amount of sympathy existing at the present
time for the condition of the working classes; and
it would ill become them to use one expression that
would have a tendency to retard the flow of those
sympathetic feelings. They had reason to be thank-
ful to the chief magistrate of the city for the good
feeling he had manifested in calling a meeting of
the independent gentlemen in the city, with a view
of devising means of ameliorating the condition of
the suffering. At the meeting to which he referred
which was held on Friday, a great diversity of
opinion prevailed. This might have been expected,
as no man could be aware of the extent of the suffer-
ings of the people, unless on a thorough investiga-

tion from street to street." This id not the lan-
guage of wilful, quarrelsome men, but language
which must conciliate respect wherever it is read.
In proportion to its numbers, the population of
Manchester does not appear to suffer so much as
some of the smaller Lancashire towns in the same
trade. It was stated at the meeting, that 8,000
men were working on short time ; but their mas-
ters, we are told, sympathising with their hard

ships, actually "gave them all their dinners every
day in the mill." When difficulties are met with
this spirit by masters, we cannot wonder men are
found so moderate and reasonable. But great
numbers are altogether unemployed-4,000 at least
are known to be in this position ; but now arises
the question—why then had only seventy eight
applied for relief to the Union ? Was one of the
speakers entitled to argue from this, at the mas-
ters' meeting, that there was not much distress?
The reply of the same speaker was, thht

it was due to the English spirit of the work-
ing men. "The spirit of the Lancashire ope-
ratives," he said, " had been applauded in the
highest quarters in the land. Their independence,
their patience, and their forbearance had been the
theme of statesmen ; and he for one gloried in
being associated with men who would rather sell
every article of furniture and pawn every vestige
of clothing before they would stoop to have the
name of pauper branded on their brow. This in-
nate pride in the working classes prevented them
from making application to the Poor-law Guardians,
well knowing, as they did, the humiliating pro-
cesses through which they would have to go before
they got 2s. 6d. for five days' work in a stone-yard ;
and, if they missed a day, would have sixpence
knicked off." We cannot wonder that sucha state-
ment elicited sounds which on some occasions the
meeting might have heard in the House of Com-
mons itself.

We can appreciate fully the difficulties of the
guardians with such a body of industrious men
suffering from enforced idleness, almost suddenly
thrown upon them ; to avoid imposition is the only
thing, we may be quite sure, which they desire.
Such men as assembled in this meeting know, in
the bottom of their souls, that they would not im-
pose if they could ; they would only too gladly give
full value for the best wages they could earn ; but
the men themselves will frankly confess that the
guardians and relieving-officers have no means of
knowing, almost at sight, the honest men in want
from the impostor, who makes their known want
the means of his imposture. Could the working
men devise no unchallengeably honest organisation
of their own, by which they could guarantee in a
case like the present, when wholesale relief is
needed, that the applicants they sent needed the
help ? They can better detect impostors among
their own class than the parish officers can ; and it
seems conceivable that a committee of the most
intelligent, upright, and trusted of their own num-
ber could lighten, very effectively, the labours of
the officials. One thing is obvious—hard manual
labour is not the proper test for operatives who have
not been used to it. Their muscular system fails
beneath it. Long continuance at it might, indeed,
unfit them for resuming their more delicate opera-
tions when work returned.

What, however, strikes us throughout with the
greatest admiration is, the excellent spirit of the
suffering population ; may it long continue, but
never let it be a pretext for neglecting to contri-
bute to their relief. A potato rot and a cotton rot
cause, it may be, equal distress, so far they are
alike—but the former was due solely to that will to
which we all must bow, there was nothing in it to
irritate us with our fellow men. The cotton failure
is, on the contrary, caused entirely by the ambition
of Northern Americans to force into political union
with themselves a people who bitterly hate them—
and, for this ambition, tens of thousands of our
workmen, and of French workmen too, are
to be starved, or thrown on charity ! We do
say that to us it is wonderful that such sufferers do
not exclaim " We have paid onr share of £300,000
for the Warrior, our share of the £11,000,000 for
the navy—we demand that you go and reopen our
communications." The American blockade, we
must say ourselves, touches so closely on a reduction
of our case to that necessity which has no law but
itself, that, if long continued, it will certainly raise
the question how much the Governments of Europe
will sacrifice to Northern lust of territory and power•

A Liverpool contemporary inserts a letter from
Turin which makes some very curious revelations.
Our contemporary's knowledge of the origin of the
letter and the channel through which it was re-
ceived are, of course, our only guarantee for its
trustworthiness, but we have certainly no reason to
doubt the reliableness of the Liverpool Mercury

n such a matter.
The story, in brief, is that the Heir Apparent
of the Italian Throne, Prince HUMBERT, wishes to
come to England at the time of the Great Exhibi-
tion, and to come via Paris, but .that the Emperor
of the FRENCH puts his veto on the journey by that
way, and, virtually by any other. The KING,
like our own SOVEREIGN, is desirous to fit his son
to occupy his own throne, not only by giving him a
good education, a far better one than he received
himself, but to qualify him to rule at home by see-
ing what he can of nations abroad. England was
to be the first country visited by him, and the year
of the Exhibition was thought to be a specially in-
structive one for a young man of eighteen. But he
must needs go through France; he has a married sister
there, and the political relations between the two
Governments might have given it the air of intended
evasion if he went round by Gibraltar, or by
Germany and Belgium. Still it was desired to
make a mere formal visit to France, and to be
received at Court there afterwards, perhaps on
his return ; but to proceed at once for England.
This arrangement was just the one which the
EMPEROR is said to have made use of to forbid
the journey. The EMPEROR was in every way
courteously notified of the intended visit, but a
reply is sent that " Prince HUMBERT cannot, even
in passing through France, dispense with paying
a visit to the Court." At first sight this would
seem nothing more than a bit of over-sensitive
ceremoniousness. There seems, however, to have
been a much deeper meaning. The Prince, as
representative of the House of Savoy, is supposed
also to represent antagonism to Popery, while
the fair Empress is equally supposed to represent
femine devotion to it. Hence, if the Prince went,
to Court, its most essential personage must either
be present, and receive him with damaging Coldness,
or with equally damaging effect must, on that day
leave the Tuilleries for St. Cloud. She could not
very graciously receive the son of the King, who
has been excommunicated by the Holy Father, the
object of EUGENIE'S most tender religious affection.
At present, therefore, all parties, Emperor, King,
and Empress, are described as annoyed or exaspe-
rated. The Emperor is said to have requested the
King to put off his son's journey till a more conve-
nient season, and to save him from a family quarrel;
the King's answer is not yet known, it seems,
however, to be assumed that the Government and
Court of Turin are not in a position to send the Prince
by Switzerland, the Rhine, and Holland, which
would certainly be for him the pleasanter route. It
!s vexatious to see how even in such minor matters
as these the false position of the Emperor in his per-
tinacious occupation of what is really VICTOR EM-
MANUEL'S capital, brings its annoyances with it.
Louis NAPOLEON and the French have no better
political right to cccupy Rome than VICTOR EM-
MANUEL and the Italians to occupy Paris. A deep
consciousness of wrong must pervade the hearts of
a Sovereign and people who feel themselves thus
trampled on by a man to whom they freely confess
they owe much. The consequences of the occupa-
tion are bad enough, but its ungenerousness is, if
possible, even worse, The Southern brigandage
which it inevitably fosters and protects—the mili-
tary weakness, in the face of the Quadrilateral, of
which it is the cause—these are, of course, great
material evils. But, in combination with the
Savoy and Nice affair, this mean advantage taken
of the comparative weakness of Italy by the Power
which began as her deliverer, deprives France of all