The Sun.
London, England, 1854-05-31 00:00:00

11)NDON, WEDNESDAY, MAY 31, 1854.

Byegones, in all sudden changes of Ministerial
opinion, had better be byegones—otherwise we
should feel marvellously tempted to take as a text
one sentence from Mr. BRIGHT'S last slashing
peroration. Allusion being here made, of course,
to the suggestive comment of the• Hon. Member
for Manchester, upon the scurrilities indulged in
by one cr two of her MAJESTY'S present Minis-
ters, in regard to a potentate now acknowledged
by them to be the faithful ally of England—one
who was vituperated by those most prescient and
sagacious statesmen little more than eighteen
,lonths ago, as among the most atrocious of poli-
tical criminals, and who, nevertheless, at this
moment, as the friend of England, has in his
possession no less than four of the great
capitals of Europe—Paris, Rome, Athens,
and Constantinople. Enough, however, has
been said through that contrast of a deplorable
Past and a remarkable Present. The reflective
and conscientious readers of The Sun will bear in
mind that from first to last this journal has been

consistent in the matter referred to in its sustained
and outspoken arguments. They will remember
that precisely as we think now upon this subject,
when our voice is only heard in the midst of the
prevailing and accordant roar of the majority—
so we thought and. so
rare Spoke
spoke when we were
almost alone in the minority,
and when to speak
plainly and to the purposeas
we (lid was only to
be howled at as a "base exception " and to be
pelted with " the pitiless storm>,
of
opprobrium.
In this matter we need only
remind
those
who have watched- ourcourse, particularly
during the lapse of the last lustre, that
have the merit at least of a bold, we
and
resolute, and unbending consistency. We, at any
rate, have not blown hot and cold merely accord-
jug to the changes of fortune towards the object
first of abuse and then of adulation. As we
thought and spoke in 1851 and 1852, we have
thought and spoken in 1853 and 1854. Our
arguments then and now will bear a careful and
minute comparison. We cannot conceive to our-
selves the reasonableness of crime being justified
by success. Neither can we recognise anything
but tokens of glaring moral obliquity in covering
the same man with panegyrics to-day who was
yesterday the subject only of your most fer,:•LitAis,
and vociferous, and implacable, and malignant
• execrations. There appears to us in all this
a glaring and.
astounding contradiction. A

contradiction none the less reprehensible, and
none the less noteworthy, whether it be uttered in
a Ministerial speech from the husting,s or from the
floor of Parliament, or whether it be printed in
the leading columns of a morning or a weekly

newspaper. Particular reference need not be
made to the harangues delivered not so very long
ago at Halifax by the President of the Board of
Control, and at Carlisle by the First Lord of the
Admiralty. Quotations, verbatim et literatim,
need not be gathered from the files, not so very
recently completed, of our numerous contempo-
raries. The sentiments expressed by both are,
without all these aids, vividly enough in the popu-
lar remembrance. It may be just as well that
they should not be altogether overlooked. Enough,
however, upon this head—Byegones are to be

By egones.
Another sentence uttered by another speaker in
the course of the same evening's discussion, from the
report of which we have taken the foregoing taunt
directed against the Cabinet by the Member for
Manchester—deserves a word of comment and a
passing recollection. Reference is here made to
a remark which that night fell from the lips, not
of Mr. BRIGHT, but of Lord JOHN RUSSELL. It was
when the Noble Leader of the House of Commons
reiterated the eulogium pronounced by- himself
four or five sessions back upon the chivalrous and
patriotic foreign policy of Viscount PALMERSTON.
It was distinctly and voluntarily asserted on Mon-
day evening in the House of Commons by Lord.
JOHN RUSSELL, that ho thinks now, as he thought
then, in regard to the foreign policy of Vis-
count PALMERSTON. If so—if so—then why,
my Lord JOHN RUSSELL, why in the name
of common sense, why in the name of
consistency was Viscount PALMERSTON (during the
interval between " now" and " then") abruptly
and. even ignominiously (because so abruptly)
expelled from his position at the head of the Fo-
reign-office in 1851 ? Why was this ? Ah l—
" thereby hangs a tale." A State secret, my
Lord, to be spoken of not even in a whisper. A
matter to be snugly hushed up as a thing irre-
levant, or, at least, singularly inconvenient. The
tabooed chamber of diplomacy with the little tell-
tale key—like that of BLUEBEARD in the nursery
tale. Mr. THA CKERAY speaks in one of the
earlier chapters of his new story about our
all having at home a grim old skeleton, bid
away somewhere in a dark cupboard. Well—
here is the State skeleton of the Government.
Shut it up. Don't talk of it. There are other
matters surely to discuss and examine into.
Granted. And yet the public at large cannot
for the life of it help thinking about that grimly
skeleton hid away somewhere, cannot help casting
further glances in its supposed direction—particu-
larly when there are still delays and delays, and war
and yet no war, and German influences and Russian
partialities everywhere apparent in the hesitations
and procrastinations of Government.
People can't help thinking about that State
secret connected somehow with the foreign policy
of England, as embodied in the person of Lord
PALMERSTON.
People can't help thinking of this any more
than they can help meditating now and then in
reference to the Ministerial inconsistency displayed
within a very brief interval from the present time,
in reference to the Imperial ally of her Britannic
MAJESTY'S Government.

The national fete day has arrived. The clerk
of the weather has proved more than usually be-
nignant, kindly complying with the wishes of his
(on this occasion) numerous patrons. The showers
of Monday and Tuesday have left nothing to
be desired with respect to soil or road. Every-
thing looks auspicious, and the long pent-up and
daily increasing excitement has at length reached
the utmost pitch of intensity. It is no longer at
merely fever-heat—the " pot is boiling over"—
the crisis of the disease has arrived.

Every one, from the peer to the peasant, from
" the roses, pinks, and tulips" of Belgravia or
Tyburnia, to the " tag-rag and bob-tail" of St.
Giles or Whiteehapel, are indulging in the Satur-
nalia. Every one rushes to the spot—no chain
could bind one who has speculated to his ordinary
pursuits on this eventful day. Business is sus-
pended for the time being—no customer would make
an investment save on one of the " probable
starters." No commissions—save betting corn-
missions—will be executed. And it is just as
well that no effort should be made, for, were it
otherwise, they could not sufficiently divest their
minds of the prevailing mania to deal with any
degree of coolness. The streets are deserted—
London has really " gone out of town." It looks
for the time being like a plague-stricken city, and
the few saturnine and melancholy individuals who
are to be seen wandering through the silent
thoroughfares, clearly indicate by their woe-begone
aspects that their hearts are elsewhere—that no-
thing but direful necessity has compelled them to
abstain from running with the current, and swel-
ling the ranks of those assembled on the Surrey
Downs, to behold the satisfactory performance of
the " trick for the thousands," awl the inaugura-
tion of the fortunate recipient of the " Blue
Ribbon of the Turf."

We shall not trespass on the province of the
sporting writers by venturing on a sketch by an-
ticipation of the scenes along. the various routes
by which the appointed locality may be reached;
nor shall we assume the " mantle of prophecy,"
or speak of the probable winner either positively
or by vague intimation. We leave these depart-
ments exclusively to our able coadjutor, who,
though styling himself " A Fresh Man," ex-
hibits unmistakeable evidence of great experience
and acuteness combined, which enable him to
collect the necessary data, and to draw correct
conclusions. No, we look rather to the effect of
this strange and overwhelming excitement on the
national character—this wild enthusiasm that
relieves the " hardness of the times," and makes
us for a moment doubt whether it is indeed " the
age of iron" in which we are,living.
The " GRADOEINDS" and " BOUNDERUYS" may
deprecate the temporary insanity that diverts
parties from the pursuit of " the main
chance," and induces them to risk their
hardly-acquired savings on such doubtful events.
They question the utility of such exhibitions ;
and, if their power was coequal with their will,
would suppress the sports of the field just as they
keep the Crystal Palace closed on the only clay
in the week when the masses could visit it,
or seek to prevent the operatives of Glasgow
from enjoying pure air on Sundays, thereby
driving them into public-houses, and confirm-
ing them in habits of intoxication. But
a time-honoured adage declares that "it is a poor
heart that never rejoices," and we know that the
avoidance of play is calculated to make " Jack a
dull boy." A certain degree of amusement is in-
dispensable. It induces parties to work more
energetically and efficiently while they are at it.
And, now that the temptation to speculate beyond
the means is removed by the suppression of the
betting-offices, we know not that the parties
could apply a holiday to a better purpose than in
visiting the Epsom Downs, and inspecting the
best horses of the year, prior to the contest for
the Leviathan Stake. Such exhibitions excite and
maintain the spirit of fair play, by which Eng-
lish hearts are so strongly animated.
As it is, the Irishman does not look forward
greater devotion to the festival of ST.
;
A.TRICIC, or the Welshman to that of ST. DAVID,
than the Englishman to his " Derby Day." He
thinks of it for months' before its advent, and dull
rainy weather on the grand occasion is looked on as
a real misfortune. Itis beginning to be regarded as
a regular holiday in the metropolis and its vicinity.
Parliament has long since recognised it, by sus-
pending all legislative labours
number
m matter t
ot ef r how
urgent the business, a sufacien
mem-
bers could not be collected togethetrtos::tmincyakseoaf
House." The point of suspending bo
the Superior Courts has also been ventilated, and
may very probably be speedily adopted. The
difficulty of inducing jurors and witnesses to at-
tend is a strong argument in favour of the change,
and even the gentlemen of the long robe them-
selves would have no objection to doff their wigs
and gowns, and discuss their luncheons under the
shadow of the Grand Stand, and, in place of dis-
playing feats of intellectual gladiatorsliip,
tohob.or
nob in flowing bumpers of genial champagne—nay,

more, perhaps some, if not all, of the venerable
judges of the land might feel disposed

" To do the same thing were they in the same place."
Lot not the practice, then, be altered. Let not
the trysting be broken. Let us for once enjoy
ourselves and forget the progress of the war and
of taxation, the aggression of the AUTOCRAT and
the extra halfpenny on tho pot of beer. Every-
thing promises a day of enjoyment, and let the
cup be fairly quaffed ; let the sport be witnessed,
but let there be no riot or intoxication to injure
the health, no gambling to empty the purse. The
suppression of the betting-offices will deprive the
flower of the thorn, that caused grief to many
families, and converted an innocent amusement
into a dangerous temptation.

The Abolition of the Newspaper Stamp must
soon become a serious question for the Govern-
ment to consider. The light in which it was placed
towards the close of last session as involving the
relative advantages of American and British skilled
labour, has evidently weighed much with our
statesmen of .all parties. Mr. WiriTwonnes Re-
port, as Commissioner to the New York Industrial
Exhibition, adverted in explicit and rather strong
terms to the great advantages enjoyed by an Ame-
rican artisan, iyho had his daily newspaper on his
own breakfast table as regularly as our metropo-
litan met chants and gentry ; and our Manchester
educationists have not been slow to urge the im-
portanee of a cheap newspaper press as an instru-
.
ment'of education. Our readers will doubtless
remember, that without canvassing the probable
bearing of abolishing the News Stamp on the me-
tropolitan press, we have always frankly acknow-
ledged the incalculable value of the newspaper
as an educator. We could hardly do other-
wise without discrediting our own profession, as
well as belying our convictions. Our grandfa-
thers, and even our fathers, can well remember
when very large numbers of the lower stratum in
the middle classes were quite unable to read, or
at least to read with ease ; " to mind their stops
and marks" was an accomplishnient ; and to get
through a column of their county town's chronicle
and gazette; without spelling, was almost held to
be a proof cf " book-learning." The great ad-
vance since that time is very much due to the
increase of the cheap periodical press, above all
of the newspaper press. If education has created
a demand for the newspaper, the newspaper has
created a demand for education ; it could but
foster what was essential to its own existence and
prosperity, and what must be congenial with the
sentiment of most who could wield the pen.
But it has done more indirectly. It is
surprising how soon the power of reading
with ease and intelligence, if acquired in child-
hood, is lost if neglected in youth and manhood.
The reports of our gaol chaplains prove this be-
yond dispute. Of the thousands educated in day
schools and Sunday schools, it is to be feared that
a very large proportion do not retain through life
the ability to read with advantage anything
which could much elevate their thoughts or better
their hearts. Now, so far as it has pervaded so-
ciety, the newspaper has been the great preven-
tive of this retrogression to ignorance. All who
can read a newspaper do so when they can get one.
News is the object of universal interest. Few
even of the philosophers who descant on its tri-
viality as compared with their own profound
speculations, or of those of the clergy who de-
nounce the " newspaper press as worldly, ungodly,
and infidel," choose to dispense with a daily
or weekly paper themselves ; while the vast
mass of the middle class, from its humbler por-
tion upwards, if they are readers at all, are sure
to get a sight of some journal which tells them
what is doing in the world around them ; indeed,
a very large proportion if they did not read their
paper would read nothing. Not only, therefore,
does the opportunity of reading the news of the
day stimulate the child to follow his father's
example, whom otherwise, perhaps, he would see
reading nothing else that he cared about, bat
it preserves, more than anything else, the habit
of reading when once acquired. For these

reasons we have always contended that even,

irrespective of the great amount of valuable
and interesting information to be found' in
almost every newspaper in the course of the year,
the newspaper itself is tho most efficient school-
master of the day, and would, if freed from all
burdens, be worth more to the cause of national
education than all the grants of Privy Council.
The latter aid education. on the old bounty sys-
tem ; the newspaper is education by Free Trade.
Our attention has been called again to the sub-
ject so soon after the debate on Mr. M. GIBSON'S
motion on the inequality and injustice of the laws
affecting the newspaper press, by the striking let-
ter of Lord STANLEY, which appeared in The Sian
of Saturday. The affirmation of Mr. GIBSON'S
motion without a division, and a favourable article
in the journal which lately received such a
splendid premium from the Exchequer, were
indications not to be overlooked ; but Lord
STANLEY'S letter is a still more important
sign of the times.. Like his letter on
Church Rates, its language is evidently that of
conviction ; it has not a tinge of party purposes
in it, unless, indeed, its advertence to the press
of small towns could be twisted to that object.
Like his former letter, it consists of calm, practi-
cal, and statesmanlike reasoning, and is a sound
proof of the anticipation we then expressed, that
his Lordship belongs to a class of rising young
statesmen, who, though belonging nominally and
in their feelings to the Conservative ranks, are likely
to give us more practical reform than too many of.
our shifty Liberals. Lord STANLEY boldly declares
that he does not fear the increased dissemination of
political knowledge ; indeed, ho thinks the tax
chiefly operates to give advantage to the incompetent
teachers of such knowledge, over the competent
he also endorses Mr. BRIGHT'S calculation, that the
number of papers which would pass through the
Post- office, and therefore still pay postage, would
probably raise, with the increased consumption of
paper, a revenue equal to that produced by the
present Newspaper Stamp.
His strong position, however, ho conceives to
be the justice of the case. The stamp is pro-
fessedly a postage stamp, yet the majority of
papers, of country papers especially, do not pass
through the Post-office. A small borough.

journal, not, lie says, an imaginary case, with a
circulation of 1,000, must pay 4/. 3s. 4d. fOr
each impression, while it does not send more than
100 through the Post-office, for which, of course,
it ought to pay but Bs. 4il. It is impossible to
deny the comparative hardship to which our country
cousins are subject, and there is little doubt that
the Conservative press of the country must feel
the burden of this tax even more than that of the
Liberals. It would be most ungenerous, how-
ever, to attribute this illustration to the slight-
est tincture of party feeling. His Lordship's
whole letter breathes a very different spirit ; it is
to remedy what ho deems "at once a great im-
policy and a grievous injustice," that he "gladly

joins in attempting " the repeal of the tax.
It should not be forgotten that the repeal of
the stamp on news will accomplish but half its
objects if unaccompanied by the repeal of the
paper duty also. Paper is rapidly rising in price,
sufficiently in the case of most journals to inter-
fere seriously with their profits, and in that of
the cheaper ones, in which the margin for profit
was small, and the dependence placed on a very
large circulation, to render them almost unremu-
nerative. It appears, indeed, from the statements
of the manufacturers little likely to be cheaper,
since the high tax compels the use of the better
class of raw materials, and of this the supply ap-
pears to be shorter every year. Lord STANLEY
and his friends must, therefore, press the repeal
of both duties.

•
DEATH ON MOUNT VESUVICS.—A letter from Naples
states that on the 14th inst. M. J. Delius, of Bremen,
having ascended Mount Vesuvius with a party of his
Countrymen, went too near the edge of the crater, and,
the round giving way under him, he fell into the abyss.
Ins groans were-heard from the.bottom, but when-some
persons descended by means of ropes he was dead.

LAW INTELLIGENCE-(THIS DAY).

COURT OF QUEEN'S BENCH.
(Sittings in Banco.)
THE QUEEN V. STIMSON.

This was an appeal against a rate made by the church-
wardens of WhWock, in Leicestershire, and the case had
been made special for the purpose of taking the opinion
of the superior court.
Mr. Sergeant Mereweather appeared for the church-
wardens, and Mr. Bovill for the respondent.

It appeared that a, rate of 14s. 9d. had been made
upon the respondent by the churchwardens, for the joint
purposes of the church being repaired and the burial
ground enlarged, and the respondent carried the case
before the justices there at the Quarter Sessions.
The ground upon which he refused the pay-
ment of the rate was that they, the churchwardens,
had not the power of levying a joint rate, but merely
one for the purpose of repairing the church. The
Justices, upon hearing the arguments, refused to confirm
the rate, and the appeal was by consent made special.
The argument, similar to that urged before the jus-
tices, was argued at great length by Mr. Bovill.
The Court said they were of opinion that the statute
pointed out very clearly the purposes for which the rate
could be made, and that there was no power in it given
to make one for joint purposes. There was a special
power given for making a rate to enlarge the grounds
for the purposes of burial, and, therefore, although this
rate had been made in open vestry, and with the con-
sent of four-fifths of the ve,trymen, it was bad.
The rate was, therefore, refused, and the Court
ordered each party to pay their own costs.

COURT OF EXCHEQUER.
(Sittings in Banco.)
JONES V. NICHOLSON.
This was an argument upon the question of the in-
surance of a vessel, and occupied the court all the
morning.
Mr. Cowling and Mr. Wilde appeared.
The point involved was whether baratry committed by
the captain, who was part owner of the vessel, was not
an answer upon the part of the insurance against paying
the claim of the owners of the vessel.
Judgment had not been given when we went to press.

TWO NEW WAR MAPS.

BY JAMES WYLD.

It seems improbable that we shall ever within reason-
able limits come to the end of these curious publications.
There is no perceptible diminution as yet in Mr. Wyld's
well-known enterprise either
.as a geographer or as a
hydrographer. Scarcely have we rolled up the last
bundle of maps and charts issued from his popular esta-
blishment, when others of a character no less attractive
are waiting at our elbow, to be spread open and ex•
amined. There are two additional productions of this
kind, relating to the immediate vicinage of the seat of
swear
ur ,t
iantyt he p
has
cr
oe snefinrtmme
do mtehnet lyingmp re
sbs beforep
ruosd,
uacnedd cbayr eful
tt
e
first glance, that, even with all the plates hitherto
printed off by Mr. Wyld at hand, these two supplemen-
tary maps must be regarded as really considerable and
noteworthy acquisitions. One is a military sketch com-
piled by the King of Prussia's general staff, and repre-
senting the4important tract of country extending be-
tween the Danube and Constantinople. Towards the
top of the map is Galatz, towards the bottom of it
Varna.--high up to the right, the three mouths
of the great river, the St. George, the
•Sulina, and
Kilia—about midway on the left Giurgevo. As
auxiliary sketches, introduced in the south-east corner
—otherwise a vacant space indicating a portion of the
Black Sea—are engraved distinct views of Serpent's
Island, or Fidonisi, of the Bay of Varna, and of the Bay
of Kustenjeli. The map embraces, of course, Bucharest
arid Schumla, Ismail and Brahilov, giving, as it does,
considerable portions of Bulgaria, 'Wallachia, and Bessa-
Fabix, apart of Moldavia, and the whole of both the
Delta and the Dobrudscha. The companion map is
chiefly restricted to a delineation of a division of Rou•
melia, and of a smaller section of Bulgaria—giving
northwards a part of the Black Sea, and south-
wards a portion of the . Sea of Marmora. It is
principally designed according to appearances, in order
to afford the observer a more vivid notion of the
precise geographical position of the city of Constan-
tinople. Stretching out in a north-westerly direction
is marked the trail of the road winding from the Turkish
capital to Adrianople. Southwards we see another road
extending, from Adrianople to the Gulfs of Enos and Saros.
Northwards we mark another road leading from the
same point through Karnabat to the Balkan mountains.
The Asiatic shores of the Bosphorus are defined, and so,
for that matter, indeed, is the principal outline of Anadoli
from Scutari to Nicomedia. Besides a plan of Schumla,
we find introduced into what would be the otherwise
vacant space indicating a portion of the Euxine, two
clever maps, or charts we might call them, one of the
Bosphorus and the other of the Dardanelles. Among
the many interesting works of this kind which have re-
cently been published by Mr. Wyld, none attest more
clearly by their boldness and their accuracy his eminent
capacity as a geographer.