The Sun.
London, England, 1841-09-30 00:00:00

F.VENING SUN

SECOND EDIIIONt

SUN OFFICE, Seven o'clock.

SPIRIT of the PEJI3-LIC JOURNALS.

FROM THE EVENING PAPERS 01., VHS DAY.
GLOBE.—The Times of this miming. indulgee in a
column of regret, which is interspersed with a due
seasoning of menace, on the course teat is likely to be
taken with regard to the Poor-law by the new Cabinet.
There is something in the tone of the leading journal so
curiously alternating between blarney and bluster, that we
are reminded etronely of the individual who expressed in
the most polite terms his profound regret at being com-
pelled to use his horsewhip, while at the same time he
was "laying it on" with an energy which proved the
zest he felt in bestowing the flagellation which circum-
stances compelled him to administer. The Ministers
have already give great ()fence to their leading organ,
by "departing from the discreet reserve which upon
other subjects they seemed to have prescribed to
themselves, for the purpose of disappointing, in a
most material point, the hopes which we (the Times)
and many others had conceived. of them." It is clear
from this that the best chance the Government has
of holding together is in standing still ; for, like a
house built with cards, motion would be fatal to the
flimsy structure, which is bound together on scarcely
any subject by one principle of union. The delay that
is asked Ministers fur the purpose of making up their
minds, is indicative of the fact that much "making
up" is requisite. The only cement the party can
boast is that- most inferior stuff which, under the
name of self-interest, binds, like bad mortar, for
a very brief period, and is apt to crack and give
way beneath the sunshine of prosperity. It can-
not be said of . the Times that it does not know
how to speak out when it is desirous there should be
" no mistake" as to what it mewls ; and we are told this
morning, as plainly as language can tell us, that unless
a certain course is taken by Sir 11. Peel's Government,
of which the Leading Journal has little hope, its con-
ductors will " wage war with as much-perseverance as
ever upon principles with which the Ministers whom we
(the Times) support will from this time be identified."
Our Contemporary evidently, by its expression, "from
this time," regards the new Cabinet as already identified
with the principles upon which war is to be waged ; and
we may therefore look for an immediate resumption of
the bludgeon, with which, in the good old times of the
Reform Bill, the editor was wont to belabour the whole
Conservative party, not forgetting some smart incidental
cuffs for the Queen, who had " done it all," when- a
check was given to the liberal hopes of the irritated
journalist. But we find, from the concluding paragraph
of the article in the Time; that it will postpoao until
next Session a further • explosion of its anger, and Sir
Robert Peel may then expect a volcano, indeed ; for the
letting loose, after a five months' bottling up and cork-
ing down, of the concentrated essence of thunder, must
lead to a blow-up of the most alarming and`desolating
character.
STANDARD.—" What is the principle of the New
.Poor-law ?" This is a question which it has become ne-
cessary to resolve, as far as we are able, notwithstanding
the proverbial wearisomeness of such inquiries. Sir
James Graham declared on Tuesday night that
he still adhered to the principle of the new
law, and as he may be supposed in this res-
pect to speak the sense of the Government, it is, in
Oe actual state of public feeling and public opinion,
very' desirable to-obviate any mistake upon the subject.
Our respected contemporary the Times gives the fol-
lowing as
_its understanding, of the principla of whice
are in pursijk.:—" A floating legislative discretionh w
in
the place of la's,' and the substitution of a central for a
local authority." lire can never dispute the interpretations
of the Times withoe't diffidence; but here we are convinced
that the journal is in i..,rror. Aprinciple must be permanent.
Now, by the very terms cf the law, the. Commission is but
temporary and provisional, and with the commission
must expire both the floating legislative discretion and
the central authority. As we encrerstand the law, the sole
purpose of the commission and of its authority. whether
legislative or administrative, was to bring the country by
discipline into' a certain order, for the operation of the
new provisions of the law, some of these provisions being
confessedly experimental, and that having Pete this,
the eonanission . will be functus officio. The com-
mission then can be no part of .te principle according to
our uni.:erstaud.ing. The Timesepreceede to say' that the
workhouse test is another principle of the law—" the
principle of the ailininiAtazt.re system." The u.'orkhous3
test has a deeper root than we could wish; it is the
necessary consequence of the union system—the origin
of most that is objectionable in the law, and itself
the effect of parsimony, whether the saving of money
was or was not the primary (deject-1d those by whom
the law was passed; but the workhouse Wet is net a
principb. Neither the workhouse test, honrner, nor the
system of unions, can be properly called a pi-lei: pie. The
first has been to some extent already departed ft-one and
must be very generally abandoned in; the end ; and tint
second is far too uncertain and arbitrary to deserve
the name of a principle. That cannot be principle
which leaves it still doubtful whether two or
20, or 200, or 2,000 parishes, shall be incorporated.
The formation of unions we regard as one of the
confessedly experimental parts of the law ; and it is
an experiment that has failcd for overy purpose,
except a momentary saving, to be balanced by a
frightful pecuniary loss in the end. It must be
given up. Sir James Graham and his colleagues
are too wise men not to see that the system of
unions cannot be permanently maintained, even were
it desirable to maintain them. For the present they
are preserved only as part of .the provisional discipline,
contemplated from the first
.as only provisional by all
the great men who supported the . introduction of the
law. These are our reasons fur 'respectfully differing
from the Times as to the proper understanding of the
words employed by Sir J. Graham.

DESTRUCTION OF KINAIEL.HOUSE BY FIRE.
—We regret to hear that this superb building was
burned to the ground on Tuesday night, and is a heap of
ruins, the outside walls only standing. The library,
Jewels, papers, and a good deal of furniture, were saved.
Fortunately no lives were lost, nor was any person hurt.
These are all the particulars which have as yet reached