The Sun.
London, England, 1849-11-28 00:00:00

appalling enormity; of those evils which we have
neglected to check in their first beginnings. We
have suffered the tiny rills to flow on and mingle
tcgether, and now the swollen waters threaten to
engulph us. The greater the evil, however, the more
imperative and the more urgent is the necessity for
1 action. We have had enough of fine words, let
us now hare seeds to match them. In place of
the philanthropy which sounds so well in speeches and
looks so well on paper, let us now have a little
genuine self-denial and ;exertion. Some years have
passed since the appearance of the famous " Song of
the Shirt," which, for the time, excited such a vivid
interest in the sufferings of that:unhappy class—the
London needlewomen. That song unquestionably
did good ; it found an entrance into drawing-rooms,
where the scenes it told of. were unknown ; it drew
tears from eyes unused to the meltingniood, and yet—
and yet, after so:many:larnentations and professions, bow
much better is the condition of that class now than
then ? A few days back the correspondent of the
Morning Chronicle, in describing the meagre earn-
ing and laborious toil of these poor creatures, often
working eighteen and twenty hours a day, Sundays
and all, and earning (the best of them) on an average
twopence-halfpenny—has depicted a scene so sorrow-
ful in itself, and rendered so doubly sorrowful by the
circumstances connected with it, that its bare contem-
plation is enough to sadden the heart of the most joy-
ous, and to damp the ardour of the most sanguine.
Is this a picture of London ? we involuntarily ex-
claim—is
this a fragment of the history of the
nineteenth century ?" No longer let us boast of ot.t
public charity, and our national religion, while we
fail in the commczest principles of common jus-
tice. The poor—the hardworking and industrious
poor—are driven to sin in order to obtain the most
wretched means of subsistence. Let us close our
Bibles and build no more churches and hospitals
while such pictures as the following flisgrace the
land:—
" I now come to the second test that was adoiNted in
order to verify my conclusions. This was the concen-
ing of such a number of needlewomen and slop-workers'
as would enable me to arrive at a correct average as to
the earnings of the class. I was particularly anxious to
do this, not only with regard to the more respectable
portion of the operatives, but also with reference to
those who, I had been given to understand, resorted
to prostitution in order to tke out their sub-
sistence. I consulted a friend who is well acquainted
with the habits and feelings of the slop-workers as to the
possibility of gathering together a number of women
who would be willing to state that they had been forced
to take to the streets on account of the low prices for
their work. He told me he was afraid, from the shame
of their mode of life becoming known, it would be al-
most impossible to collect together a number of females
who would be ready to say as much publicly. However,
it was decided that at least the experiment should be
made, and that everything should be done to assure the
parties of the strict privacy of the assembly. It was
arranged that the gentleman and myself should be the
only male persons visible on the occasion, and that the
place of meeting should be as dimly lighted as possible,
so that they could scarcely see or be seen by one
another or by us. Cards of admission were issued and
distributed as privately as possible, and to my friend's
astonishment, as many as twenty-five came, on the
evening named, to the appointed place—intent upon
making known the sorrows and sufferings that had
driven them to fie to the streets, in order to get the
.
bread which the wretched prices paid for their labour
would not permit them to obtain. Never in all -history
was such a sight seen or such tales heard. There, in
the dim haze of the large bare room in which .they met,
sat women and girls, some with babies suckling at their
breasts—others in rags—and even these borrowed, in
order that they might come and tell their misery to the
world. I have witnessed many a scene of sorrow lately;
I have heard stories that have unmanned me; but
never till last Wednesday had I heard or seen anything
so solemn, so terrible as this. If ever eloquence was lis-
tened to, it was in the outpourings of those poor loin
mothers' hearts for their base-born little ones, as
each told her woes and struggles, and published her
shame amid the convulsive sobs of the others—nay, of
all present."
Any comment on such a statement is unnecessary.
We have all, doubtless, hearts to sympathise with the
sorrow of these poor sufferers. Let us prove that we
have also the will to help them. The tear of sym-
pathy may attest a tender nature and the donation of
charity may effect a momentary benefit, but better
than either—better than all other remedies—is that
spirit of justice which gives the labourer his due, and
rewards a fair day's work with a fair day's A ages. In
bringing about this great desideratum we may all,
in our several ways, co-operate.
,e our

The dread artillery pointed against the ancient
castle of Dublin by the Irish Orangemen still hangs
fire, " the great gun of Athlone though rammed and
crammed," one would think pretty well by this time,
has as yet but given a sort of flash in the pan in the
shape of an address of condolence, and sympathy with
the dismissed brethren of Dolly's Brao notoriety,
The " purple marksmen," under the command even
of an Enni.killen, have not been able to bring their
fire precisely to bear upon the Irish citadel. Lord
CLARENDON stills holds the reins of government, and
we suspect, despite the silly threats and furious
vaunting of the Leitrim House Caballists, is likely to
hold them "a little longer."
In common with our Contemporaries who take an
interest in Irish matters, we have been sadly disap-
pointed at the torturing procrastination with which
the collective wisdom of Orange land has delayed
giving to the world the results of its deliberations.
The high crimes and misdemeanours charged against
the Irish Viceroy do not appear to run so smoothly

in the proofs as the Orange organs would lead the
public to suppose they would. The wiseacres of Lei-
trim House find, it would seem, that it is very easy
to make a charge, bat sometimes very difficult to
prove it. They have rushed into a dilemma, which
may perhaps ultimately eventuate in good ;
for if they fail in sustaining every count in
the indictment preferred against Lord CLAREN-
DON, what man of truth or honour can remain
amongst them ? What man having the smallest re-
gard for character, public or private, can give them
countenance ? And we believe it has oozed out, not-

withstanding the strict privacy with which their pro-
ceedings have been conducted—notwithstanding that
the Lodge was duly " tiled," that many of the
charges so rashly and unscrupulously made by the
Orangemen and their organs have been unsustained
by a shadow of proof.
The Orange organs inform us that the cause of this
great delay, the reason for taxing the public patience
by so long withholding the promised " report," is the
necessity of examining a great number of witnesses,
and digesting the voluminous evidence, so as to make
assurance doubly sure, and leave his Excellency no
mode or chance of escape.

Every worthy member of the brotherhood who
formed part of any deputation to the Viceroy in 1848
has been separately examined before the Select Com-
mittee. They have been obliged to detail every cir-
cumstance that occurred, every word that was uttered
on the .occasion. Maybap we shall be enlightened
with the interesting intelligence that one of the

worthy brothers exchanged the " grip and word"
with the state porter ; we don't know whether
the successor of "BARTHoLosszw " has been
duly initiated in the sublime mysteries of
Orange-craft. A stray brother may still be found
perhaps in the precincts of the castle. In the good
old times some of those merry officials were wont to
regale themselves over a stoup of old port, or a brim-
mer of the "native" in wishing a W4rM corner to the
POPE, or toasting the glorious, pious, and immortal
memory of the great and good King WILLIAM. But
though a member of the deputation from Ulster
should happen to meet one of those obsolete crafts-
men in the neighbourhood of the castle, it will scarcely
be sufficient to prove that the QUEEN'S representative
4' entered into secret negotiations for arming the Irish
Orangemen."
One of the charges would go far to prove that
Lord CLARENDON had really established a new order
of Orangemen in Dublin. He is charged with ad-
ministering an oath, or what is the same thing, doing
it by his agents— qui facit per alium, facit per se,
and communicating a secret sign and pass word by
which these worthies were to be distinguished by the
military from their less fortunate and uninitiated
fellow citizens. The scum of Whitefliars.hall, and

the " liberty," were regularly organized and sworn in
as a sort of Vice-regal body-guard. We
.should not
wonder if his Excellency bad intended that
these new household troops should replace
those doughty heroes the ancient "Battleaxe."
TaiisnAl.c GREGG would make an excellent captain
of the ne.w corps ; he -would be a most worthy suc-
cessor of: "NOSEY NORTON." !low glorious it would
be to see this gallant band of loyal brothers rushing
through Ship-street, at the three distinct strokes of the
bells 'qf St. Anne, to rescue Brother CLARENDON from
the 'Ponds of Popish rebels_! If we happened, boa.