The Sun.
London, England, 1853-07-09 00:00:00

'*l* 1/.

LONDON, SATURDAY, JULY 9, 1853.

The motion, of which the Hon. and Learned
Gentleman the Member for Aylesbury had given
notice for yesterday evening, and which had been
put off until Monday on account of the indisposi-
tion of the Ministerial Leader of the House of
Commons, has again been postponed, and this
time indefinitely, without any time being fixed
for its resumption. It is, in fact, unconditionally
withdrawn—the only circumstance being the ex-
pressicn of a hope, on the part of the Hon. Gentl-
eman, that the Noble Lord the Member for
Tiverton (not of London) would permit him to
bring 03 the motion as soon as the public service
will permit. We confess that we participate in
the regret expressed by the Ron. Gentleman and
by the Noble Lord the Member for IVlarylebone at
the information which the House and the country
had every right to demand being thus kept back for
an indefinite period, during which the very na-
tural curiosity by which the public mind is agi-
tated is to remain unsatisfied, and the suspense
which has exercised so disastrous an effect on the
Stock and Share Markets, depressing matters far
below their natural value, may be continued. We
cannot conceive that the expression of the unani-
mous feeling of both Houses of Parliament--for
we can entertain but little doubt that the expres-
sion would be unanimous, or tantamount thereto,
to sustain and support her MAJESTY'S Government
in vindicating the honour of the British nation,
and maintaining inviolate the integrity of the
Ottonian dominions and the balance of power in
Europe—could be attended with ' incrnveni-
once or injury to the public service, or in
any degree prejudice the negotiations that
are still going forward, and thereby increase
the chance of hostilities, which should be .avert®3
by any means consistent with British honour
and good faith. On the contrary, we should
have thought that such an expression would have
strengthened the hands of the Government, and
conferred additional authority on the diplomatists
engaged in the important discussion, when it was
incontestibly shown that they were prepared for
any alternative, and that if matters had unfortu-
nately proceeded to extremities--that we were
unwillinglyforced into a war, which could scarcely
be a " little war"—they would 'have been sup-
ported heart and hand by the Parliament and
People of the United Kingdom. This, we say,
was, and still is, our deliberate opinion; but under
the peculiar circumstances of the case, although
we may regret the disappointment, we cannot cen-
sure Mr. LAYA RD for having complied with the
request, considering the quarter from whence it
proceeded, and the terms in which it was con-
veyed.

The matter has indeed assumed a very different
aspect since yesterday, which leads us to look con-
fidently forward to the amicable arrangement of
the entire difficulty, and the maintenance of
friendly relations with the CZAR, without preju-
dicing the important interests involved in the
result.

The mere fact that Lord PALMERSTON came
forward as the mouthpiece of the Ministry was a
new and very auspicious feature in the transac-
tion. That Noble Lord has long enjoyed the
confidence of the people in everything connected
with foreign affairs. They believed that in the
hands of the " English Minister " the honour of
their country would never be tarnished, or its real
interests damaged. The alleged division in the
Cabinet was regarded with greater " apprehen-
sion," we might almost have said "dismay," because
they feared that any vacillating or temporising
policy, of which he could not approve, must neces-
sarily prove prejudicial to the welfare of the
United Kingdom, and of Europe. These appre-
hensions are, however, materially allayed, if not
altogether removed, by the appearance of the
Noble Lord, and his interference in the transac-
tion. It affords an assurance that the rumoured
division either never existed, or that it has been
repaired ; or, at all events, that the policy of the
Noble Lord has prevailed, and that he is now
directly responsible for the management of the
flair. His language, too, was clear and unequ
vocal, befitting a British Minister addressing a
British Parliament on such a subject, wherein the
well-being andhappiness of the country was so deeply
concerned, and he gave the satisfactory assur-
ance that the Governments of France and England
" are united in a common course of policy, arc
aiming at a common object, are guided by common
interests, and inspired by the most perfect and un-
reserved confidence in each other!" When that is
the case—when the great source of uneasiness is
thus completely dispelled, it scarcely required the
addition, " that any temporary forbearance which
two such Governments, which two such countries
may have shown, would not have arisen from a
Want of determhaatioxy or that the most co

i tory course they could pursue, could not be con-
strued into a symptom of timidity or weakness,
or that " the interests and the honour of England
and France are in safe keeping."
Theseare, indeed, satisfactory assurances, such as
may well appease the natural anxiety previously
entertained on the subject. But they are not the
only consolatory matters that have occurred. It
will be obvious to any person of ordinary capa-
city that something of no ordinary importance
had taken place, even since the preceding evening,
when the Earl of CLARENDON spoke on the sub-
ject of the appeal made by Lord BROUGHAM to
the Marquis of CLANRICARDE, for the postpone-
ment of the motion of which the Noble Marquis
had given notice--something, too, of a very
favourable character, which led not merely to a
well-grounded hope, but almost to a moral cer-
tainty, that hostilities mighthonourably be averted.
Not more than a week had elapsed since the motion
of the Honourable Member for Aylesbury was
not only not deprecated, but even invited by
Ministers, and a Government day given up for
its discussion. When that discussion was un-
warrantably postponed through the misconcep-
tion (!) or unwarrantable meddling of the Presi-
dent of the Board of Control, it was only
adjourned until Monday, another Government day
being assigned for the debate, notwithstanding
the pressing nature of the public business. We
also find that the Foreign Secretary, in the Upper
House, only asked postponement, not the with-
drawal of the motion, saying that, " after the
great delay that had taken place in bringing the
question to a solution, considering, too, the
very grave interests that are connected
with it, and the very natural anxiety which
exists not only in their Lordships' House,
but throughout the countryy to possess all the
information which her MAJESTY'S Goveinment
could safely give, he felt that he ought not again
to ask his Noble Friend to withdraw his motion,"
and yet the very next evening we find Lord
PALMERSTON (!) making an urgent appeal to Mr.
LAYARD to do that which, according to Lord
CLARENDON, "he ought not to be asked to do." It
must be obvious that new and very important in-
formation has been received, and that the matter
has been placed on a much more satisfactory
foundation.

There is another very significant circumstance,
which, although merely conveyed under the head
of " fashionable intelligence," adds additional
and very powerful corroboration to these pleasin2
anticipations. Her MAJESTY'S steamer Vivid
was yesterday dispatched to Antwerp, to await
the arrival of the Grand Duchess MARIE, the
eldest daughter of the EMPEROR, and widow of
the Duke of LEUCHTENBERG, who, with her six
children, is forthwith coming to this country,
and for whom a residence has been taken at Tor-
quay. The Grand Duchess CATHERINE, daughter
of the Grand Duke MICHAEL, with her husband,
Duke GEORGE of Mecklenburgh Strelitz, is also
about to pay a prolonged visit to the Isle of
Wight, and the Vivid is to repair to Ostend for
her reception, immediately after landing her
cousin at Dover. These matters, though appa-
rently insignificant in themselves, prove that the
CZAR does not meditate immediate hostilities ; and
with the other circumstances to which we have
alluded, show that there is at present no danger
of a formidable rupture, or of dishonourable
inactivity.

Lord SHAFTESBURY'S speech on his Juvenile
Mendicancy Bill has, we trust, attracted already
the attention of most of our readers. It is, how-
ever, with no ordinary pleasure that we offer our
support to the measure generally of the Noble
Lord. Details may need revision, but we have
long been convinced ourselves that the class of
parents and children in question must be dealt
with on exceptional principles. Having no sym-
pathy whatever with a puling humanitarianism on
the one hand, nor, on the other, with any need-
less interference with personal liberty ; believing,
too, that the State is but a poor substitute for the
parent, we have yet no manner of doubt that
pity for children trained to thieving, and by con-
sequence to the prison and the hulks, and com-
mon prudence for our social safety and comfort,
alike demand a measure of the kind proposed by
the Earl of SHAFTESBURY. It may be difficult to
define with rigid legal precision " what is a
child ;" but, like many other things difficult to
define, the difficulty in actual life is small
indeed. It must also, no doubt, he in-
evitable that a large measure of discretion
be entrusted somewhere, and in the ad-
ministration of law, discretion ought to be re-
served for emergencies rather than called into
daily exercise. The danger, however, we con-
ceive to be of the smallest in the present, case.
It' policemen, pestered by vagrant boys, would be
sometimes liable to get rid of them on any terms,
yet the magistrates and judges are disposed
enough to be tender-hearted to juvenile delin-
quency; and, after all, almost every boy whom
a policeman would be glad to get out of the
neighbourhood, even if nothing definite could be
proved against bim, would be better in a Reforma-
tory School than with his own parents, if he
have any. Let it be borne in mind that the
worst results of abusing the powers asked for
involve no great hardship, and admit of easy.
remedy. It is not proposed to send the unfor-
tunate children to a gaol, but to a real
.Reformatory School— to place them under the
care of persons selected for capacity, and for
humane interest in the task. Such persons could
not be difficult to find through the school inspec-
tors and otherwise, and no suitable remuneration
ought to be grudged to induce them to throw
their entire energies into the work. The instances
in which individuals thus selected and paid would
fail in their duties, and prove harsh guardians of
the children, would be but few indeed compared
with those in which the children, if left with their
parents, would not be far worse used. Again,
should the children have been taken to this, really
not disagreeable, and morally advantageous,
school without sufficient cause ; should it appear
that the parents were not, after all, dangerously
neglecting the child's education and interests, it
need not be an expensive process to reclaim
their offspring upon adequate proof of their moral
right to do so.
We think it idle to indulge, in a case like this,
either sentimental. or legal scruples. Indeed, all
the former ought rather to be in behalf of the
thousands of unfortunates trained to think clever
roguery a necessity and a virtue ; and all the lat-
ter should be enlisted on the side of preventing
the education of victims for its penalties, even the
most severe of which cannot deter from crime.
Lord SHAFTESBURY'S strongest language was fully
justified in denying either the legal or religious
right of parents to bring up their children to be
the pests of society in fact, to train them syste-
matically to violate its laws. Our courts of law
now remove children from the care of parents and
guardians who prove themselves unfit to bring
them up, and may they not be enabled summarily
and effectually to prevent parentsor guardians from
training the children entrusted to them to be vaga-
bonds, pickpockets, burglars, and cut-throats? Is the
unlikely possibility of one severe schoolmaster, or
of a child or two taken for a few weeks needlessly
from their parents, to stand in the way of such
an indispensable law as. this ? We speak delibe-
rately when we say that Lord SHAFTESBURY'S Bill,
:when put in the most efficient form for working,
will be worth more. than all the Education Bills
of the present or any preceding Government ;
they have only aimed to educate those who were
fast educating themselves--his Lordship's Bill is
to secure the education of those who are not merely
neglected, but positively trained to mischief.

Lord SHAFTESBURY made out the strongest case
conceivable. In no department of public useful-
ness is he more at home, and we are always happy
to see him at work in it. His personal investi-

gations have been extensive, and his knowledge
very considerable, and he has been to original
sources most certainly for information; not only
consulting magistrates, gaol chaplains, city mis-
sionaries, and ragged-school teachers, but having
examined large numbers of professional thieves,
and other offenders of the same class himself.
The result is such facts as the following : that out

q9O thielvea 62 had begun, to to wheiz they

were under 15, and 56 had begun between the
ages of 12 and 16. To the same purpose 100
city missionaries and ragged-school teachers, in
answer to the question, " How many persons do
you think, who have lived an honest life up to
20 years of age, afterwards fall away and take
vicious courses 1" unanimously answered, " Not
two in a hundred." Pretty satisfactory evidence
this. How small would be our criminal adult
population could we but succeed in convert-
ing our juvenile vagabonds and criminals
into industrious young men. Lord SHAFTES-
BURY proposes that parents when able shall do
something towards the support of these children
in the Reformatory Schools. Reasonably enough,
for he finds 20,641 children in London, under 15
years of age, living at large, in idleness, and ne-
glected by parents who were more or less able to
provide for them. One city missionary knew 100
families in which the parents lived in luxury and
idleness, obtained by children subjected to brutal
ill-treatment, if by selling, begging, or stealing
the*did not bring home the expected sum. A
person whom the Earl had employed to make in-
quiries found not fewer than 200 practised ju-
venile mendicants and vagrants, whose parents
earned not less than 16s. per week. The number
of children of that class frequenting lodging-houses
is 3,098 ; of these 2,106 have parents, able in
whole or in part, to contribute to their maintenance
and education. Hence, though we think it would
be the best economy in the world for the public
to pay the whole charge, if necessary, it is clear
enough that we need not give a premium to pa-
rental neglect by too much gratuitous work. In-
deed it were worth the expense of making the guilty
parents pay at a loss to the public, to avoid tempt-
ing the better sort to neglect their children also.
It appears that the number of the unfortunate
children in question, either in London or in the
provincial towns, is by no means so large as to
discourage legiilation of this kind at present ;
while, in all reason, it may be hoped that the very
process itself would soon begin to lessen their
numbers. But we repeat, it were folly to cavil
about a little money for such an object as this.
If not two per cent. of those who attain maturity
in habits of honesty are seduced by the many
timptations subsequent to that period into dis-
honest courses, and if, probably, not two per
cent. of those who are trained to mendicancy and
pilfering fail to retain and aggravate their early
vices as they grow in years, can we hesitate a mo-
ment as to what is the obvious path of duty and
of economy ?
A fear has been expressed whether adequate
industrial occupation could be found for so large
a number. We do not, especially in the present
state of the labour market, anticipate much diffi-
culty in that. Though it would be preferable to
teach various mechanical trades, yet it would be
better than mendicancy to have the school where
a factory could be built in connection with it, and
the children employed by a manufacturer paying
for their labour as similar labour is paid for by
others. We have often thought (the peace gentle-
men must pardon us, for soldiers will certainly be
wanted for a long time to come) that frequent
and thorough military drilling would be an ad-
mirable occupation, in part, for the boys of all
kinds of Reformatory Schools ; some even might
possibly be so located so as to give the lads a
relish for the life of her MAJESTY'S Navy. The
class taken to these schools rarely want hardihood,
courage, mental ability, and the love of adventure.
A great part of military and naval exercises would
be entered into with zest by the boys ; and the
habits of order and prompt obedience which they
would acquire would be of admirable service as
corrective of their old vicious ones. So far as it
went, it would doubtless dispose them to enter
the Army ; and the mimic drill of youth would,
as in every other department, make them superior
in the service. All this we should think an ad-
vantage. No lad who had gained a character at
the Reformatory School would then want an
honourable employment in the service of the
State ; the involuntary crimes of boyhood would
be no stain upon the honour of the man or of the
soldier ; and even if they really were juvenile
" wild oats," it would surely be no bar to their
turning out first-rate men.

COURT CIRCULAR.

HEALTH OF THE PRINCE CONSORT.

The following bulletin of the health of Prince Albert
was issued yesterday :
. BUCKINGHAM PALACE, FRIDAY, JULY 8, 1853.

His Royal Highness Prince Albert has an attack of
measles. The eruption has come fully out, and the
disease is proceeding favourably. JAMES CLARK, M.D.
The Princess of Hohenlohe Langenbourg took leave
of the Queen yesterday morning, and, accompanied by
the Princess Adelaide, quitted Buckingham Palace at a
quarter past 10 o'clock, attended by Sir George
,Couper,
for the London-bridge Terminus, travelling by route of
the South-Eastern Railway to Dover.
Prince Arthur, Prince Leopold, and the Princesses
Helena and Louisa, attended by Lady Caroline Bar-
rington, left Buckingham Palace for Windsor Castle at
half-past nine o'clock yesterday morning, travelling via
the Great Western Railway.
The Duchess of Kent visited her Majesty yesterday.
The Queen, accompanied by the Princess Royal aud.
the Princess Alice, and attended by the Duchess of
Sutherland, took a drive ih an open landau and four
yesterday afternoon. Colonel the Hon. C. Grey and.
Lieut.-Colonel the Hon. A. Gordon were in attendance
on horseback.

Her Majesty, accompanied by the Princess Royal and
the Princess Alice, honoured the performance of the
German play with her presence last evening. The
Queen was attended by Viscountess Jocelyn, the Hon.
Eleanor Stanley, the Hon. Flora Macdonald, Lord
Camoys, Colonel Bouverie, and Lieutenant-Colonel the
Hon. A. Gordon. The Duchess of Kent, attended by
Lady Anna Maria Dawson, Baroness de Speth, and
Lord James Murray, also honoured the performance
with her presence. _

Colonel Bouverie has relieved Lord Alfred Paget as
Equerry in Waiting to the Queen, and Viscountess
Jocelyn has succeeded the Countess of Mount Edg-
cumbe as Lady in Waiting.
The Duchess of Gloucester visited the Duchess of Kent
yesterday, at Clarence House, St. James's.

The Birmingham Assay office deputation, consisting
of Mr. Harrold, Mr. Rotton, and Mr. Westwood ; and
the Coventry deputation, consisting of Mr. Rotherham
and Mr. Troughton, had an interview with the Right
Hon. E. Cardwell, yesterday, at the office of the
Board of Trade. The deputation was accompanied by
the following members of Parliament, viz., the Right
Hon. Edward Ellice, Mr. Newdegate, Mr. Spooner, 'Mr.
Leach, Mr. Scholefield, Mr. Muntz, and Mr. Hadfield.

The Cathedral Commission had a meeting yesterday.
Present—The Archbishop of Canterbury, the Earl of
Harrowby, the Bishop of London, the Bishop of
Oxford, Sir John Dodson, the Rev. Dr. Wordsworth,
the Rev. Canon Selwyn, and the Rev. Richard Jones
(secretary).
Mr. Dundas had an interview with Viscount Palmer-
ston yesterday. Colonel Freestun had also an interview
with the noble viscount, at the Home-office.
Dispatches for the Governor of Malta and also for the
Lord High Commissioner of the lonian Islands, were
sent off yesterday from the Colonial-office. Dispatches
were also sent to the Governor of Canada.

POSTPONEMENT OF THE VISIT OF THE QUEEN TO
IRELAND.—We regret to state that in consequence of
Prince Albert being attacked by the measles, the Queen's
visit to Dublin is postponed for the present. The two
yachts and the Blenheim, which had sailed on Tuesday
from Portsmouth, having been ordered back, and the
preparations for the reception of her Majesty in Dublin
have been stopped,

THE KING OF HANOVER.—His Majesty the King of
Hanover has conferred on Mr. S. W. Fullom, the author
of "The Marvels of Science, and their Testimony to
Holy Writ," the Hanoverian medal of the arts and
sciences, as a mark of his approbation of that work.
DEATH OF THE MARCHIONESS OF ANGLES/a.—
We are sorry to announce the demise of this lady, who
expired yesterday morning, after a very brief illness,
from which dangerous results were not anticipated until
a short time before her death. Her ladyship was out
in her carriage on Saturday last, and only complained
of slight indisposition on Sunday. From her general
delicate state of health no serious apprehensions were
entertained even then. Dr. Ince, the family physician,
saw her, and, as she appeared to him to be somewhat
more affected by illness than usual, on Tuesday Dr.
Locock was called in. From the first he gave no !pope.
She expired at half-past 9 o'clock yesterday morning, in
the presence of the Marquis and several of her children.
The Queen sent to inquire after the Marchioness yes-
terday morning at 10 o'oclock, and the Royal messenger
conveyed back the tidings of her death.
NOTICE TO THE PUBLIC.—GENERAL POST-OFFICE,
June, 1853.—0 n and from the Ist of July next the
postage upon letters addressed to the Principality of
Lippe Detmold, when sent in the mail to Prussia, vid
Belgium, will be reduced to Bd. for a single letter not
exceeding half an ounce in weight ; ls. 4d. for a l'Ater
exceeding half an ounce, and not exceeding one ounce,
and so on, according to the scale for charging inland
letters. This postage includes both the British and
foreign rates upon letters for Lippe Detmold, and it may
be paid in advance, or letters may be forwarded unpaid,
at the option of the sender,