The Sun.
London, England, 1849-08-02 00:00:00

great deal bitter bad—and a vast portion most indiffer-
ent—yet in the way of useful legislation almost nothing
has been done, and even the little t ffected is of question.
able utility, when not positively and unmistakeably mis-
chievous. But of " words, words, words," as Hamlet
says, we have had bushels and tuns—a very wide waste
of at best of times a most worthless and inexpensive com-
modity. _ _

" Words are like leaves, and where they most abound
Small store of fruit beneath is rarely found."
Some portion of this evil of wordiness is no doubt inci-
dent to and inseparable from a Reformed Parliament, in
which every half-informed coxcomb or every dull ob-
scure opsimathist and blockhead is desirous of being
heard and reported. But a good deal of the evil also is
owing to the state and position of parties, and to the
attempt made by the Peelits—an attempt in which they
signally failed—to erect themselves into the neutral ar-
bitrators and critics of a Government which they had
the desire to supplant, but not the courage or the ho-
nesty to attack openly. On the part of the second and
third-rate Peelites, there has been for the six months
last past, both in the House and in the press, a great
deal of wearisome snarling—witness the Efforts of Mr.
Gladstone and Lord Lincoln—which considerably im-
peded the flow of public business; and on the part
of the Member for Tamworth there was that
elaborate and pompous patronage which cer-
tainly did not tend to lubricate public affairs. For
three or four nights the Right Hen. Baronet occupied the
Lower House with details relative to his tariff—with his
views and opinions relative to the condition of Ireland—
with his sham scheme of Connaught plantation—sod
with artful and grossly-discoloured views of the opera-
tion of his measure, or rather, Cobden's measure, adopted
by him at the twelfth hour, of free trade. But, apart
from these egotistical questions and considerations in
which the personal pronoun was used many thousand
times, we do not find that the "distinguished states-
man," as the M orning Chronicle fondly loves to call him,
contributed one new idea to legislation—that the " dis-
tinguished statesman" produced one new Bill—that the
"distinguished statesman" said one brilliant, original,
or witty thing (when did he ever do so from 1809 to the
present day ?), or did any one feat, or performed any one
Parliamentary part or passage that could relieve him from
the toilsome repute of being one of the most hard-working
—one of the most painstaking—men of good faculties, to
whom God has denied literary and political genius, poli-
tical courage, political honesty, and its general conco-
mitant, political wikdom. Independently of this position
of the Peelites, the efforts of the Government have also
been in some sort impeded by the Humeites and Cob-
denites, who, though occasionally speaking strongly
against the Ministry, have, in general, when matters
came to a pinch, voted with them. But a more formid-
able enemy to Ministers than the Peelites, Humeites,
and Cobdeeites—a greater impediment to public busi-
ness than any opposition, open or covert, was their own
rashness, ignorance, and incompetency. This is not the
place—nor is to-day, perhaps, the occasion—to completely
and systematically review their measures. But when
they put into their Royal Mistress's mouth the as-
sertion that the state of the public business enables
her to dispense with their attendance, they know-
ingly and wilfully utter the thing that is not.
What question have they settled in domestic affairs?
Do they fondly imagine that the Irish poor-law is set-
tled ?—that the rate in aid is settled ?—that the ques-
tion of Irish emigration is settled ?—or even the working
of their Encumbered Estates Bill, in which they have
not yet filled up the names of the Commissioners ? Far,
indeed, from it. All these measures are sure to come on
us again and again in the next session, revealing sins of
commission and omission innumerable; showing that
Ministers have done what they ought to have omitted,
and have omitted what they ought to have long since
done. Even with respect to Irish landlords and tenants
—even with respect to the power of Irish leasing—
or to Irish public works—or to provisions for another
Irish famine (which God in his mercy avert !)
Ministers have done little or nothing, and if the
potato crop fail in the present year, we firmly be-
lieve we shall find these incapable men as unpro-
vided with a remedy—as unprovided with any " large
and comprehensive measures"—to use their own
words—as they were in 1846, 1847, and 1848. How,
then, can the men have face to :ay that the state of
public business enables her Majesty to dispense with the
attendance of her Parliament? Where is the country
in Europe that is tranquil or at rest? Is France? Is
Germany? Is Italy? Is Switzerland? Is Hungary?
Is Poland? Is Turkey? Is Wallachia? Is Greece?
Is even Russia itself ? Alas! no. Though the preli-
minaries of peace, as is stated in the Speech, have been
signed, under the mediation of her Majesty, between
Prussia and Denmark, yet this convention may not prove
the forerunner of a permanent or definitive treaty, and even
though such treaty be signed within a week from this
day, the position of the French in Italy, and of the
Russians in Hungary, is such as to awaken the solici-
tude of the least apprehensive and the most hopeful
among the sons of men. One hasty, one rash word—one
imprudent act—on the part of any one of the powers,
may light up a war in Europe, of which the youngest
amongst grown men may not see the consequences or the
termination. On the Russian interference in Hungary,
on the French occupation of Rome, the Speech is alto-
gether silent. Is this silence wire or politic? Is it
dealing fairly with the people to pass over, or, as certain
newspapea writers say, to " ignore," these facts, inter-
fering with and greatly deranging the European balance?
True, her Majesty states that her Majesty's efforts will
continue to be directed to promote the restoration of
peace in those parts of Europe in which it has been in-
terrupted. But for now near a twelvemonth a struggle
has been going on in Hungary, and in Italy for more
than a twelvemonth, and peace seems as far distant as
ever. Venice still holds out—Garibaldi's band is not
extinguished, but lives, moves, and has a being; and
even Mazzini boldly proclaims that the Roman Republic
is not dead, is not extinguished, but will yet arise again
from its short sleep. How, then, we ask, can Ministers
talk so confidently as to the future ? We are not
told, as we usually are, that her Majesty
continues to receive from all her allies assu-
rances of amity and friendship. All we are told
in general, ambiguous, and most suspicious terms, is
" that the friendly character of her relations with foreign
powers affords her Majesty a just confidence in the con-
tinuance of peace." This, in the present state of Europe,
is, indeed, but a frail and feeble guarantee. Such are
some only of the neutral and negative points (if we may
so speak) of the Speech. if we look to the positive
points—to the actual performances—all we find stated is
that the Navigation Laws have been amended (query ?),in
the full confidence that the enterprise, skill, and hardi-
hood, of the British people will assure to the traders of
this country a full share in the commerce of the
world. We trust it may be so, and that all
our prognostications and previsions may be frus-
trated. But if so, such a result assuredly will be
accomplished, not because, but in spite of the legislation
of her Majesty's Ministers. In the congratulations ex-
pressed on the termination of the war in the Puujaub,
we can cordially concur. We extend also a full measure
of praise to the exertions made by the Government of
India, and to the valour displayed by the British and
native army. But apart from these topics we see
nothing in the Speech that commands approval, and
little that commands assent. It will be some compensa-
tion for what the Times in barbarous language would
call the " short-comings" of a most barren session, if
her Majesty is, by this early prorogation, thus enabled
to see Ireland in person—to judgo of the land and of the
people—and, while making a just, laudable, and neces-
sary excursion, is all the while laying in a stock of health
and information, calculated to enable the best of Sove-
reigns the more fully hereafter to perform her duties to
a people who, though misled for a moment, have ever
been loyal and well-disposed at heart.
POST.—Upon the very interesting subject of mar-
riage the quarterly return of marriages, births, and
deaths, published by the authority of the Registrar-
General, gives the following information :
" Looking at the circumstances of the country, the
general result of the return is favonrable: The mar-
riages continue steadily at the average, neither swelled
by speculative expectations, nor depressed by idle doubts
of the adequacy of the industry, science, and nature of
the country to supply its wants."
This is a gem in its way. It must be highly consola-
tory to the people of Great Britain that they have the
privilege of paying not only for this kind of
authorship, but also for its publication in blue books.
The Registrar-General is, it seems, no vulgar recorder
of facts—no mere arithmetical compiler, but a supplier
of philosophy to her Majesty's public. lie not only
tells us what it is deemed necessary we should know,
but the conclusions which we should draw from this
knowledge. The general result of the return we are in.
strutted to regard as favourable. But the most curious
part of this Itegiitrar's proclamation is the
new view which he affords us of the phy-
losophy of motives lending to marriage. It
used to be thought that people married because they
liked each other, and because they expected or hoped to
be able to keep house in their united state. But these
enlightened times have got far beyond that. Marriages,
it seems, are now "swelled by speculative expectations,"
or, on the other hand, they are " depressed by idle
doubts of the adequacy of the industry. science, and
nature of the country to supply its wants." We, in our
simplicity, did not know before that when young couples
thought the times were too bad to make it prudent for
them to marry they bad previously entered into a calcu-
lation, or at least a consideration, of the adequacy of the
science of the country, together with industry and
i
nature, to supply the wants of the country. There san
old-fashioned book called the Book of Common Prayer,
which also enters briefly into the philosophy of marriage,
but it is not half so scientific in its views as the. publica-
tion of the Registrar-General. Itis laid down in that old-
fhshioned book that marriage is the symbol orsignifica-
tion of a religious mystery, no less than the union of the
Christian Church with its Divine head. It is described
as an honourable estate, which is not to be taken in
hand unadvisedly, lightly, or wantonly; but we do not
find that any consideration of the scientific capabilities
of the country is even mentioned as a desirable preli-
minary. It is, indeed, admitted that population is one
of the purposes of marriage, but it specially refers to the
training of such population in the fear and nurture of
the Lord—a point which is not touched upon in the
Registrar-General's report. Moreover, the o'd-fashioned
book represents marriage to have been ordained for a
remedy against sits, and for the mutual society, help, and
comfort that one ought to have of the other, both in
prosperity and adversity;.
so that even speculative ex-
pec!ations of increased fortune, or idle doubts of the
adequacy of science to supply the wants of the country,
would not exactly . apply to the augmentation or
diminution of matrimony when thus contemplated.
It is worth while to mark the growth, in this our
day, not only of statistical information, but of that re-
flective philosophy which so naturally accompanies sta-
tistical tables. As matters are proceeding, the world
will, no doubt, be, in a few years, wondrous wise. Per-
haps we ought to mention that, according to the Regis-
trar-General, while marriages continue steadily at the
average, influenced by the philosophical considerations
already adverted to, the births are increasing, and the