The Sun.
London, England, 1870-01-31 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF 'IRE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

The Times in referring to the Irish legislation of the
coming session says what farmers in Ireland want is
security of tenure, and the proof is seen in the fact that
wherever the feeling of security exists, although it may
depend upon no more than the traditional character of the
landlord's family, it is found to produce contentment.
Security of tenure, or the right to remain as the cultivator
of a farm as long as the land is properly farmed and
A fair rent paid for it, is the real claim of Irish
farmers ; and the establishment of local Courts,
protecting tenants from eviction unless a landlord is
prepared to substantiate the eviction upon grounds
Of bad management or of refusal to pay a fair rent, would
entirely meet the demand of the bulk of the tenantry. Tc
do less than this might disappoint expectation. To do
more would be at once vicious and unnecessary. Nothing
need be apprehended for the future security of the general
peace in Ireland if the Ministry be prepared, as we are
persuaded they are, to submit to Parliament proposals el
legislation such as have been in principle already approved
on both sides of St. George's Channel. If treated with
firmness and justice, Ireland will be contented as well
as peaceful. We do not shrink from repeating
that the practical immunity of assassins is a scandal
that must be reformed. The Government will fail in their
duty if they do not so far improve the machinery
for the detection of crime as to insure, as a rule, the
apprehension of every murderer. But, cowardly and
horrible as the deeds of assassination have been, the
mission of justice to the whole people cannot be suspended
on account of them. The punishment of wrong-doing
must be made sure, but the Government must first show
themselves firm in insisting upon right-doing. It must be
remembered, too, that the detection of crime is rendered
most certain when the people feel that the law is with
them, and that they must be with the law when, by a
change in the spirit of legislation, the feeling is eradi-
cated which suggests that the criminal may be a friend
upon whose violence alone reliance can be placed for

securing justice.
The Staudard remarks that the recent catastrophe at
Liverpool is naturally associated in the public recollection
with the disaster of Boxing night at Bristol. In compar-
ing these two events, it is remarkable in how many points
they exhibit a positive contrast, while yet leading to the
same results, and teaching to some extent the same lessons.
The Bristol crush was not a panic. The moving cause was
not the frantic dread of an imaginary danger, but was due
to the general ignorance of a real peril. At Bristol
it was needful to frighten the crowd. At Liverpool
it was in the highest degree necessary to pacify and soothe
the excited throng. In the former instance the police
raised a cry of "fire" advisedly, in order to excite some
kind of apprehension. In the other instance the word
" fire," uttered only twice, apparently by a mere boy, was
the chief cause of the fatality. At Bristol the crowd were
trying to get into a building. At Liverpool the people
wore rushing to the doors to get out. At Bristol the
struggle for life took place where the crowd diverged
into two streams. At Liverpool the dead and wounded
were found where two or more streams met. We
are not sure that the catalogue of contrasts is exhausted
when we observe that the scene of one disaster was a
theatre and the other a chapel. Except in such a case as
the Bristol catastrophe, there is one guarantee for safety
which is within the reach of all persons, and that is pre-
sence of mind. It may be laid down as a general rule—
for the comfort of the timid and the weak—that a cry of
alarm in a public building is generally without adequate
foundation. Frequently it is entirely false. It has hap-
pened again and again that people have been crushed to death
in trying to escape from a conflagration which was purely
imaginary, or so limited as to be easily subdued. Let those
who are ready to join in the general stampede on such
occasions, bear in mind that to plunge into the crowd is—
at the very best—only to add one danger to another. A
scarcely less important lesson, having reference to the
safety of other people, is that of never pushing when the
crowd is great. Nothing is gained by it, and frequently
very serious consequences arise from the thoughtlessness
with which persons in the rear of a crowd press upon those
in front. To be gentle and deliberate is the surest way of
providing that we shall neither kill nor be killed.
The Telegraph thinks if rabbits have any respect for
public opinion, or any sensitiveness to attack, they must
feel decidedly ashamed of themselves. The agitation
against them is rising high. At the Warwickshire Cham-
ber of Agriculture, on Friday, Mr. Martin,M.P.,announced,
amid loud cheers, that "the time had come when rabbits
must be dealt with differently from all other animals;"
and he added that " all the soreness between landlord
and tenant arose from that unfortunate animal;" so
that the rabbits, like that fearful agitator, John
Bright, as described by Tory writers, are wofully
successful in " setting class against class." Poor Bunny !
why is he so given, like the Irish, to early marriap.es, large
families, and an undue amount of natural affection ?
Another of his foes at the same agricultural meeting
asses ted that " three couples of rabbits would eat and
destroy as much as would feed a sheep." Stimulated by
these attacks, Mr. Martin intends next session to bring
in a short bill, delaring that rabbits are to be in
all cases the property of the tenant, who may
destroy them as he likes, and that "all agreements
to the contrary are to be null and void ;", so
that if Irish tenants are to get protection from
landlords, English tenants are to be protected from
those "little tyrants of their fields." Mr. Martin would
have no objection to add " hares "to his bill, but that ad-
dition would make it more difficult to pass. The whole
discussion throws some light on the general question of
land tenure. Everybody knows the almost universal dis-
content of tenants caused all over the country by the ex-
cessive quantity of the landlords' game; and yet the tenant
should be perfectly free, for in the absence of agreements
the game belongs to him. The inconvenience arises from
special contracts to which he has assented, and the landlord
has such paramount power that he can force the tenant to
accept almost any terms of tenure or any subsidiary con-
tract. If, then, Mr. Martin finds it essential to protect
the English tenant even against himself, why is it thought
surprising that in Ireland, where tenants are miserably
poor and are dependent entirely on the soil, there should
be a need for the law to step in and save the occupiers
from the.consequences of the bad bargains which they arc
too often compelled to accept?

•
The Pall Mall Gazette declares that the election contest
at Southwark is raging with unabated vigour, and is bring-
ing up among other things a lively discussion of constitu-
tional principles. Sir Sydney Waterlow has been arguing,
for example, that class representation would be a very bad
thing. Parliament, he thinks, ought not to bo made up
of a set of delegates each representing a particular
Interest. This may be, as we are inclined to think it
is, extremely true; but we do not care to discuss
the point. For, however true it may be, it cannot
possibly prove that Sir Sydney Waterlow is a better man
than Mr. Odger. Class representation may be an erro-
neous principle. but it would be a strange piece of logic
to infer that any particular class ought to be excluded
from Parliament. So far as Mr. Odger's election will be
taken as an indication that the class which he repre-
sents is to have a fair hearing, it will be
of unmixed benefit; we can well afford that one at
least of the seats in the House of Commons should be de-
anted to this purpose, even if it does not produce any
marked accession of legislative efficiency. We have
frankly pointed out, both now and on a former occasion,
the reasons which forbid us to be very sanguine on the last
point ; if there were any prospect of a large fraction of the
Legislature being formed of working men, the question of
tllnir Salents for legislation would come to be of more
ilnportance ; but as the working classes have a fancy of so
harmless a kind, we should be glad to see it gratified—
even at the cost of losing Sir Sydney Waterlow's valuable,
services. It would help to remove a sense of injustice,
though we do not believe that it would lead to any
great result at present, or be indicative of any material
alteration in the character of our Legislature for the future.
The Daily News commends the case of William Strong,
who has just been arrested for shooting a pheasant more
than Ave years ago, to the notice of the Home Secretary
ancrthe public. This story is so disgraceful to the admi-
O.Stration of rural justice that the first impulse of our
readers will be to ask whether it can possibly be true.
Before commenting on it, however, we have taken some
trouble to, verify the facts, and we have every reason to
believe that the above account is substantially correct.
We are able also to state that several magistrates on the
Tiverton bench have joined in a memorial to Dir.
Brace asking for the remission of the sentence.
lint while the needful preliminaries of William
Strong's release are being gone through, the public
have a right to ask why he should be in prison at all.
Grant that in shooting the pheasant the youth broke the
law, and that in running away from VI 1011111r1U: he cor,-•
mitted a second offence, still there is no propoiti.r.n what-
ever bet‘feen the offence and the punishment. The whole
business is but another illustration of the evil of making
artificial crimes. It is no crime to kill a bird, end any
law which makes it a crime must always be at variance
with the public conscience. Offences against the Game
Laws are artificial offences. These laws represent the
privileges of a class, and not the convictions, or the necessi-
ties, or even the policy of the nation They have no mortal
basis; no hold on the sense of right amid wrong. They
make criminals by multiplying crimes, and by making that
a crime which is not
.in itself a wrong. They therefore
represent, not a social necessity, but a social quarrel, and
are becoming not, as a law should be, a symbol of order.
but a cause of social disorder and war. This young man
will, of course, bo released at once; but the system which
has led to his imprisonment will remain, and the evil laws
against which his . original offence was committed will
exist to breed new evils and be the cause of new cases
of hardship, suffering, and ill-blood between rich and
poor.