The Sun.
London, England, 1870-06-08 00:00:00

TB E tJN, LONDON, WEDNESDAY EVENING, JUNE 8, 1870.

X
(

EVENING EDITION.

country, so far from being strictly in accordance with
the ideas of political economy is in many respects
opposed thereto. It is, moreover, unique. in no
other country of Europe does it exist. Even fixity of
tenure, which Mr. CILADSTONE repudiated with such
emphasis, exists in most other countries. Moreover,
while in England the land is every year falling into
fewer hands, and becoming the monopoly
of a few owners, on the continent the
land is in the possession of innumerable
small proprietors, and the peasant is his own land-
lord. Mr. HARRISS GASTRELL, who has written, in
the Blue-book on the land tenure of Europe, the able
report on the land system of Prussia, warns his
fellow countrymen that there is a serious danger in
the accumulation of land in the hands of a small
class. Who that has mid the history of the
last hundred years can doubt this Who that
is acquainted with the events of the French
Revolution of the last century, with the fortunately
bloodless revolution which took place in Prussia sixty
years ago, with the not wholly bloodless revolution in
Austria twenty years ago, can doubt that the land
question is one of the most important which can pos-
sibly be raised, and that we must solve it sooner or
later. We pray that it may be sooner rather than
la ter.

One thing necessary to the solution is a clear con-
viction that land is not in the same position as
other purchaseable goods, It is limited in quantity
at the same time that its profitable working is indis-
pensable to the welfare of the community. A. man
may hold any amount of diamonds, and though the
supply of them, too, is limited, society does
not suffer by the monopoly, for diamonds
are simply things to possess, not to cultivate, and
society would be none the poorer if every diamond
in the world were reduced by a blow-pipe to black
smoke and ashes to-niorrow. But the existence of
society depends upon the produce of the land, and
therefore society has a right to see that the land is
made productive. We ought almost to apologise
for saying thus much, for to many of our
readers what we have said will appear
a truism. But it has not seemed so to a hundred
and fifty old members of the House of Commons;
we suspect that it will not appear so to more than
that number of the House of Lords. It is
wise, therefore, to insist upon it at this time, when
the Land Bill is about to be discussed
by the hereditary chamber. We would not only
insist, but prove our position. We would remind all
those who doubt it that Parliament has already
removed land from the ordinary category or property.
When it said that the land-owner was bound to part
with his land to a private company, because that
cmpany was about to construct a work which was for
the public good, it established the principle that laud
is not like jewels, or funds, or a banker's balance,
things over which the State had no power,
and which the owner might misuse to his heart's
content. True the landowner was paid for his land,
but he was compelled to receive that which he did
not want to take—money—in exchange for that which
he did not want to surrender—land. This principle
will have fruitful consequences hereafter, for the end
is not yet.

LIVERPOOL is about to commemorate its former
intimate connection with the late Earl of DERBY by
the erection of an institution to be called the Stanley
Hospital. The son of the deceased statesman was
called upon to lay the foundation-stone of the me-
morial to his father. In doing so he said a good
word for hospitals. He contended that however much
of imposition there might be, hOwever much waste of
power and money there might occur in other chari--
table institutions, a hospital always fulfils the pur-
poses for which it is established, and the subscriber
to its funds may be sure that he gets his money's
worth in the shape of relief to the sick poor. In the
main, Lord DERBY it right So far as egards the
indoor patients, there can be no doubt that the per-
sons benefited are the persons who ought to be bene-
fited, for no one when sick would willingly leave
his home to be nursed by strangers, however
kind. It would not be possible to speak with equal
confidence respecting the outdoor patients. These
are often of a class who could and should pay. There
is no sacrifice involved in going to see a surgeon or a
physician in a hospital for a few minutes, and there
can be no doubt that a large number of persons
do this who ought to be seeing the doctor at
their own homes, and to be paying him
for his visit. The masters and the mistresses
of households are especially to blame in this matter.
They, in order to save a doctor's bill, will often beg
for a hospital ticket, and give it to a sick servant.
Some of them have not the grace to subscribe even
then. The force of meanness can no farther go.
But when all is said, hospitals are noble
institutions, and are, probably, the least
abused and the most productive of all charitable
undertakings. The subscriber to these knows that his
gifts will not be squandered upon secretaries and
clerks, but that the money which he intends for the
good of his really poor fellow creatures will be fully
and wisely expended in their behalf.

TOPICS OF THE DAY.

WHOM THE CAP FITS.

Mr. Goldwin Smith, with a charming mixture of
naiveté and insolence, has addressed the following
un-Professorial letter to Mr. Disraeli, as the autho r
of "Lothair." His Professorship hails from Cornell
University, Ithaca, under date May 25th, New
York :

" SIR,—In your Lothair ' you introduce an Oxford
Professor who is about to emigrate to America ; and you
describe him as `a social parasite.'
" You well know that if you had ventured openly to
accuse me of any social baseness, you would have had to
answer for your words.
" But when, sheltering yourself under the literary forms
of a work of fiction, you seek to traduce with impunity
the social character of a political opponent, your asper-
sions can touch no man's honour : they are the stingless
insults of a coward.—Your obedient servant,

" GOLDWIN SMITH,

" The Right Hon. B. Disraeli, M.P."
As the cap is fitted on by this amazing teacher of
youth in the Old World and the New—somehow (to
adopt a phrase from Blackwood), we seem to hear
" the sound as of the tinkling of bells."

Cathedral, or a modern Colosseum ; and therefore
the expenditure never clearly came out. When built
it continually needed botching-up. Now that it is
gone, it is safe to conclude that another such building
will never arise, either in Constantinople or
elsewhere, for the residence of English diplo-
matists. Hitherto it has been our policy to do
everything on a grand scale connected with the
embassy at Constantinople. It was thought to be
one of the most important missions, and therefore the
salaries of the persons connected with it were great,
thei r house was grand, and the expense generally
boundless. The downfall of the embassy is typical
of the change that has come over our Eastern
policy. It is no longer thought needful to be con-
stantly fishing in the muddy pool of Turkish politics.
Hence, when the embassy rises from its ashes the
second time, it may just as well look a little less
grand and foolish.

although many Waltonians (who go down in parties)
sometimes become very noisy and misbehaved, in
consequence of too lavish potations of beer, the per-
sons who resort to the banks of the river in the
neighbourhood of Hampton or Chertsey are generally
intent on their object, and have a successful and
satisfying return for the trouble they incur in
journeying thbre. The prospects of sport on the
Thames are this season, thanks to the Thames
Angling Preservation Society, brighter than ever.
The trout have been allowed to increase, owint, to
the manner in which the water has been watched,
and the Thames itself is made to look clearer by the
withdrawal of poisonous emanations from certain
factories. The wanton destruction of fish by gre-
garious fishermen has been well provided against,
and last, not least, the keepers of the angling inns by
the river are determined this year to merit a
character for themselves by keeping the classes of
their clients select and respectable.