The Sun.
London, England, 1870-06-17 00:00:00

THE EDMUNDS SCANDAL.

The question is raised whether the prerogative of
the Crown has not been unduly strained by the arrest
and lodgment in prison of Mr. Leonard Edmunds.
Mr. Edmunds has just given notice of an action
against Mr. Gladstone and other Treasury
officials for libel in connection with the
late celebrated lawsuits. Immediately on
this fact being known, Mr. Edmunds was appre-
hended for the amount of the award given against
him. It is now thought by some that the liberty of
the subject has been somewhat summarily
dealt with in a case where it was advan-
tageous that a troublesome assailant should
be rendered as far as possible harmless.
Be this as it may, the question will probably have to
be settled in court, as a summons is said to have
been issued to try the validity of the case. By the
Debtors Act of 1869 it was enacted that no person
should be arrested after January, 1870, tor " making
default in payment" of money. Some exceptions
are certainly provided for, but Mr. Edmunds's friends
allege that they do not touch upon his case in any way
whatever.

SCHOOL TREATS AND THE EXCISE.

The good people who make sacrifices in order to
give poor children a glimpse of the green fields,
thus awakening a feeling of heartiness in the enjoy-
ment of the beauties of Nature in the minds of the
little ones, have lately met with a new obstacle
by the intervention of the excise officer. This
übiquitous personage, who haunts us with a perti-
nacity that may well cause Burns's lines to stamp
themselves upon our memory, has lately discovered
that the lending of conveyances for the purpose of
taking school children into the country for a
holiday is an infringement of the law, unless 16s. is
paid for a license. Luckily, however, a gentleman
has had the good sense to ask the Chancellor of the
Exehequer for a confirmation of the legality of this new
impost, and Mr. Lowe has intimated, that the gra-
tuitous employment of a waggon and horses for
these charitable purposes does not entail the neces-
sity of a license, if the vehicles and horses are other-
wise entitled to exemption.

SLAVERY IN CUBA.

The deputation of the British and Foreign Anti-
Slavery Society which waited on the Earl of
Clarendon, has performed a public duty in directing
the attention of the Foreign Secretary to the con-
tinued existence of slavery in Cuba, in contravention
of the treaties existing between Spain ' and Great
Britain. Under the present circumstances it
is hopeless to expect that the Government of Marshal
Prim will be able to devote its attention to a subject
so full of interest to the British people. Unable to
arrive at a solution of the difficulties that
press for an immediate answer, the question
of Cuban emancipation is likely to drag
its slow length along until the Spanish people are
awakened to the true importance of a matter which
may end in a dispute with the country that has so
lately washed its conscience of the frightful evil.
There can be no doubt that the immediate
abolition of slavery in Cuba would bring
to the mother country greater sympathy
from European nations, and would accelerate the
settlement of the soreness long existing between the
finest of the West Indian Colonies and Spain. That
the question of emancipation should have been suffered
to lie dormant for such a long period, is another evi-
dence of the characteristic injustice of this once
great nation.

MR. CHARLES DICKENS AS A RELIGIOUS TEACHER.

A singular opinion on the writings of Charles
Dickens is vouchsafed by the Guardian. That
journal says many passages in the late author's
writing show clearly that his religious sentiments
were strong, yet, that he found it hard
to conceive that there are times when
the Gospel of Truth, just because it is
truth, "sends not peace, but a sword." Mr. Dickens
was, the Guardian goes on to say, perhaps among
the chief of those who have influenced the tone of
public thought in a direction now rather too fashion-
able, by inducing men to believe that the knowledge
of God is the only kind of knowledge on which any
real philosophy is misplaced, and that if men feel
reverently and charitably, it matters not whether
they think earnestly and truly. It is rather difficult
to discover what view the Guardian exactly means
to convey, but it may be that it has omitted to re-
member that Dickens was not so much an expounder
of the true and earnest thoughts of high and noble
characters, as of their acts, and that he apparently
left the pureness and reality of the thoughts to be
judged of by the works they are reported to have
undertaken or accomplished.

A LITTLE LEARNING IS A DANGEROUS THING.

Variety is said to be charming, but it is scarcely
agrpeable to find people infatuated enough to set
forth the advantages of ignorance, and to regard
learning of the simplest kind as an evil to be avoided.
For some time past it has been a mystery to house-
holders why the dustmen did not call when they saw a
card in the window with a large D on it. it has been
ascertained that their disregard of the signal was due
to a very simple cause—they did not know their
letters. Bad as this news is, there is worse to come,
for it appears that their superintendent glories in
the deficiency of their acquirements. He thinks
they might get better employment if they knew how
to read and write. He appears himself to be an
adept in that ignorance which he admires in others,
and to overlook the fact that whatever is worth doing
is worth doing well. These dustmen do not seem
sufficiently educated for the position they now fill,
and therefore there is the less cause for anxiety
as to their too rapid rise in the social scale.
(( Where ignorance is bliss 'tis folly to be wise," ex-
claims the poet ; but it has been reserved for this
superintendent to shew that knowledge is perilous
because it may lead to better things, and that it is for
the advantage of employers to have the most unin-
formed persons about them. He may at least have
the negative satisfaction of knowing that his own
acquirements are not likely to necessitate his ad-
vance.