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

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TO'kiDelq, WEDNESDAY. NOVEMBER 28, 184^.

The Gazette de France states that a telegraphic
dispatch from Valanciennes had been received in
Paris on Monday, anncuncing the abdication of the
King of Paussia. in favour of his nephew, the Prince
Royal. It is scarcely necessary to state that this
rumour stands in need of confirmation, more especially
when we consider that the journal in which it appears
has always been particularly favourable to Austrian
views and Austrian policy ; indeed w ere it not for the
vacillating character of the Prussian Monarch, we
should at once treat the rumour as without founda-
tion, but we have seen so many changes of late came
over the spirit of FREDERICK WILLIAM, that we cannot
absolutely refuse to credit the rumour. There is no-
thing stated as to the causes which have induced FREDE-
RICK WILLIAM to adopt this step ; indeed, it is hard to
imagine what could have induced FREDERICK WIL-
LIAM to abdicate at this moment save mere caprice.
His Ministers have a majority in the Chambers, his
octroyed Constitution has been accepted, his
troops have been victorious in Baden and the
Bavarian Palatinate, and the Sovereigns of
Saxony, of Bavaria, and of Baden owe the
restoration of their authority so self-evidently to
Prussian assistance, that they must render their:pilicy
entirely subservient_to the policy of Pfussia; for were
the military support of Prussia to be withdrawn from
them, in one week they would be driren from their
thrones by the people. There remains, then, the
Austrian question, and so far from shrinking from, it

would be for the interest of Prussia rather to court
a collision with Austria, of which the result must
necessarily be the speedy destruction of the Austrian
empire and the permanent ascendancy of the House
of Hohenzollern over that of Hapsburgh. That
such must be the inevitable result must
be manifest to any one who for a moment contem-
plates the relative situations of the two Houses which
now dispute the empire of Germany. Both have,
during the last year, come into military collision
with their subjects, both have been actively engaged
in reactionary measures, both have promised consti-
tutions. But while Prussia put down the revolution by
her own unaided forces, and thus acquired the
prestige of strength and power, Austria, after suffer-
ing a series of disgraceful and disastrous defeats, was
obliged to proclaim her weakness to the world by
calling in Russia to her aid ; the Hohenzollern
having gained the victory used it as mercifully as
perhaps, on the whole, any one had a right to ex-
pect. Berlin was tarnished by no -such disgraceful
scenes as those enacted at Vienna, at Pesth, and at
Arad—the
,name of ETAILNAti soils not the military
annals of Prussia; and thus while the Hapsburgh is
regarded throughout his own dominions, and through-
out all Germany also, with feelings of personal hatred
—whilst he dares not withdraw a single regiment
from one of his garrisons, lest an insurrection should
break out at te point thus left unguarded,
the Hohenzollern is not regarded with feelings of
personal dislike by his subjects, and he has on more
than one occasion been enabled to lend military assis-
tance to his neighbours ; he Las, moreover, kept his
promise with regard to constitutional institutions—
he has called together the Chambers, and the Parlia-
ment has for some time past been actually assembled;
while tho Austrian Constitution, although published
in March last, is still a dead letter, and is likely so to
remain. The credit of Prussia is good, while
Austria is a bankrupt, and would be unable without
pecuniary assistance to keep an army in the field.
For these reasons we cannot believe that the state
of relations between Austria and Prussia is of a nature
calculated to occasion the least alarm to FRBDERICK.
WILLIAM, and were it not for his notorious character
fur vacillation, we should at once treat the rumour of
his abdication as a clumsy fabrication.

A spirit of inquiry into the Sources of that sad
under-current of sorrow and corruption which flows
beneath the surface of our national wealth and mag-
nificence, is now happily making itself generally
manifest. The subject is one of such vital import-
ance to the whole community, that it cannot be toe
often or too generally discussed. We owe it, doubt-
less, to the recent pestilence that the condition of the
poor has become the popular theme of the day. We
hear of it from the pulpit, it fills the columns of the
journals, it forms the topic of general discourse.
It is true there is a vast difference betwixt
talking and doing there is a wide step
between profession and practice ; yet in this instance
one might reasonably suppose that evils so flagrant
require only to be known in order to be remedied.
Experience, however, far from corroborating the
supposition, sadly attests to the contrary. Many
social plague-spots have long been manifest to the
world—their evil nature hag been fully recognized,
and yet they hare been suffered to exist in all their
odious enormity,
continually increasing in strength
and infecting the whole body politic. Shall it be so
from henceforth ? The correspondent of a morning
Contemporary has recently published /many revela-
tions of London life—of the life of that half of the
world of whose manner ofj living the other half
knows so little, and, we were about to add, cares so
little, but perhaps it would 1)3. more correct to say,
Viinks so little, for, as the poet of the poor—Tom
Iloou—so truly says,—

" Evil i 3 wrought
By want of thought,
As well as want of heart."

Melancholy, indeed, are the results of these and
all similar investigations. All hope of effecting
any remedy is for the moment paralysed by the

rppalliQg 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
action. We have had enough of fine words, let
us now have decd 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 thatynbappy 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 melting mood, and yct—
and yet, after so:rnany 'lamentations and professions, how
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 ca.r
public charity, and our national religion, while we
fail in the commonest 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 cur
Bibles and build no more churches and hospital.
while such pictures as the following disgrace the
,and

" I now come to the second test that was adopted in
order to verify my conclusions. TH3 was the conven
ing of such a number of needlewomen and slop-workers

woulJ enable me to arrive at a correct average IN to

the earnings of the class. I was particularly anxious to
do this, not only with regard to the more reqcctsb'e
portion of the operatives, but also with referenc3
these who, I had be,n given to understand, resorted
to prostitution in order to (ko out their sub-
sistence. I consulted a friend who is well acquainted
with the habits and feelings of the slop-workers ss to tip;
po,sibility of gathering together a number of women
who would be willing to state that they bad been forced
to take to the streets on account of the low "nines for

their work. He told me ho 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 could 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 wes
arranged that the gentleman and myself should be the
only male persons visible on the cecasion, 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
Tn.:king known the sorrows and sufferings that had
driven them to fly 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 dial haze of the large bare room in which they met,
sat wemen and girls, some with babies suckling at their
breasts—others in rags—and even these burrowed, 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
:lever 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 loan
mothers' hearts for their base-born little ones, as
elch told her woes and struggles, and published her
shame amid the convulsive sobs of the others—nay, of
all present."

Any comment on such sz 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 wit/ 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 tha t
spirit of justice which gives the labourer his due, and
rewards a fair day's work with a fair day's wages. In

bringing about this great desideratum we may a
in our ioveral ways, co-operate_

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 Fan in the
shape of an address of condolence, and sympathy with
the dismissed brethren of Dolly's Brae notoriety.
The " purple marksmen," under the command even
of an Enniskillen, hare not been able to bring their
fire precisely to bear upon the Irish citadel. Lord
CLARENDON stills bolds the reins of government, and
we suspect, despite the hilly 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, but 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.
'l he 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. Mayhap 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 "BARTHOLOMEW " 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 warm 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
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 Whitefriars-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 had intended that
these new household Lops should replace
those doughty heroes the ancieenxteelil'eßnatttelaeprataein"
TEESHAM GREGG would make an
of the new corps ; he would be a most worthy suc-
cessor of "NOSFY NORTON." Uow glorious it would
l,e to see this gallant band of loyal brothers rushinr,
through Ship-street, at the three distinct strokes of the
bells of St. Anne, to rescue Brother CLARENDON from
the hands of Popish rebels) If we happened, how-

ever, on such an occasion to be within ear-shot of tLe
Chamberlain, we would strongly recommend a sharp
watch over the contents of the cellar and larder, for
we do not believe the Very Rev. Dr. SrßATT—the
Father IIIATHEw of Dublin—has many of the White-
friars hall folk on hi 3 teetotal list.

It is difficult to be serious when compelled to notice
such absurd and ridiculous charges—charges again
and again reiterated and bruited through the land not
only by the organs of the Dublin Orangemen, but by
political partizans of a different hue. Lord CLAREN-
DON will suffer little from such ridiculous absurdities
as these. The only way in which his fair fame might
be likely to be damaged would be, if he shut his eyes
to the atrocities of Dolly's
,Brae, if he allowed inno-
cent blood to be shed, if he allowed the ma-
jesty of the law to be outraged with impunity.
If the RODENS and the BRERS were allowed with
impunity to countenance scenes of crime and conflict
resulting in burning and massacre, and then shield
themselves and the wicked members of their unholy
fraternity from the penal consequences of their mis-
deeds by virtue of their high oftices—if such men
were allowed to go unpunished, and were enabled to
perpetrate crime under her MAJESTY'S commission,
then,- indeed, would the QUEEN'S representative be
guilty of a grave violation of the high trust confided
to him ; then, indeed, could Lord CLARENDON be
fairly charged with treason against the laws which
he was sworn to administer in a just and impartial
spirit, and which we trust and believe he will continue
to diepense with a firm and steady hand, alike un-
affected by the threats of the Leitrim House con-
spirators, or their senseless and unscrupulous abettors.
The men now holding secret conclave in Dublin,
the heads and leaders of the Orange confede-
racy, have at this moment a glorious opportunity
of serving their country. If they wish to
raise her from her prostrate condition, if
they would save her from continuing a blot upon
the page of history, a by.word among the nations of,
the earth ; if they would banish dissension from
their soil—the admitted curse of Ireland—if they
would sow the seeds of peace and order i❑ the land,
let them not lose the present opportunity of dissolv-
ing the unmeaning and puerile society of Orangeism.
Drinking clubs, with the, absurdities of secret signs
and pass-words, may be tolerated and laughed at in
schoolboys or college " jibs," but they are quite un-
worthy of grown-up men of comtnan sense. Let them,
►then, put an end to these nests of folly and wickedness;
they will thus have achieved a triumph over Lord
CLARENDON, by depriving his Lordship of the plea-
sure of putting the law in motion against them, and
thus adding another leaf to his Vice-regal laurels.
This, trust us, is the only way in which they can
triumph over Lim ; doing this they will earn for
themselves the praise of all good men, and the
blessings of a peaceful, united, and prosperous country.