The Sun.
London, England, 1870-03-24 00:00:00

LONDON, THURSDAY, 111.41?.CH 24, 1870.

-1-w0 more nights have been wasted by the Nation-
alists. Not contented with the four nights spent on
the second reading of the Land Bill, nor with all the
nights that will have to be spent in discussing the
more than two hundred amendments which have
already been placed upon the notice paper with
respect to that measure, nor with the grand

field-nights, either past or present, respect-
Inc 4, Captain Conte _ and _ Mr. Madden
gardless of the fact that the Peace Preservation
Bill will, as well as the Land Bill, have to undergo
the ordeal of committee, they gave us first a debate
on the first reading, and then two nights upon the
second reading of the measure which was read asecond
time on Tuesday night by a majority of 413. How-
ever, we do not altogether regret this flow of talk.
Measures like this Peace Preservation Bill will, we
trust, never become common, and the powers which the
Government asks Parliament to grant ought to be
conceded with great jealousy. This jealousy has been
manifested in some degree on the present occasion,
and yet there is no doubt that the great majority of
members on both sides of the House will confer upon
her Majesty's Ministers all the authority they ask, even
though it includes a novel and grave infringement
upon the freedom of the press.

Certainly no one can say hereafter that the Govern-
ment legislated either in haste or in a panic. In fact
by far the larger number of speeches were made to
prove that the Government had been unduly dilatory.
It was to this point chiefly that Mr. Gladstone
addressed himself in his reply ; and of this fact Li.
Louis Blanc will probably take desparing note, con-
tending that even in the country of his adoption
there is no real genuine love of liberty, but that at
the first political difficulty we are for following the
example of despotic countries, where men
are sent to prison without the right of Habeas
Corpus, and the Government may ruin an objection-
able journalist. Yet let not the able correspondent
of the Temps despair. This Peace Preservation

-Bill is certainly not a satisfactory postscript to the

message of Peace, but it was written most unwil-
lingly, most tardily even; and there are those of us
who hope that the threat which it conveys will be
sufficient, and that it will never be necessary to put

the threat int) execution. At all events we
may say, pace M. Blanc,' that few govern-
ments would have shewn themselves so

longsuffering as our own. We allowed political op-
ponents and agitators to do what they pleased until
they began destroying property and taking life.
Those are employments which we cannot permit any
one to engage in, whether a politician or a mere
common robber and murderer. If any politician
suffers by reason of these propensities, he
suffers not as a politician, but because he is,
like the Manchester Fenians, a murderer.
And if through any disaffection in Ireland
it is impossible to obtain the conviction of a mur-
derer, though his guilt be flagrant, then we are corn-
pJled to alter the law of evidence and trial; and if
there are newspapers which incite to murder, then we
must suppress those newspapers.
Mr. Gladstone had a task by no means easy in
attempting to show that the state of Ireland
demanded special legislation, and yet that this
legislation was not too late. Few persons doubt the
first proposition, probably not three of the fourteen
Irishmen who voted against the Bill ; though we
suppose we must make an exception in favour of one
Englishman who found himself among the Irishmen
like the fly in the amber, wondering how he got
there. But the second proposition was by no means
so easy to establish. On the whole, however, Mr.
Gladstone sustained his position. He she wed that
agrarian crime, though it had risen suddenly in
November, subsided to some extent in the succeeding
month, and he had therefore hoped that the sudden
would also prove the transitory. lle had the more
reason for hoping this because he believed that this
Land Bill would give such satisfaction that disaffec-
tion would to a great extent die out. Moreover,
how could he have expected the almost unanimous
support which he was now receiving it he had pro-
posed the Peace Preservation Bill before the
Land Bill ? Irish members would certainly
have had a right to complain that he was
bat partly fulfilling his promises in deal-
ing another blow against the constitutional
liberties of the country before giving them the
ameliorative legislation which he had promised. It
is of no small use to a Government—the moral
strength thereby given is great—when the bulk
of the Irish members, both North and South, support
any measure affecting the Irish people. This mea-
sure, which Mr. Gladstone has introduced so reluc-
tantly, and about which he was so little enthu-
siastic, has received the support of all but 14
out of the 105 representatives of Ireland.
It was worth some delay to obtain this result. It will
do more to impress the people of Ireland with the
conviction that their best friends disapprove of their
eonduct than the most stringent measure passed in an
Autumn session specially summoned for the purpose.

IT is more than doubtful whether Macaulay's
famous New Zealander will be able to get through the
business that has been cut out for him by enter-
prising speculators. But there issome comfort in the
reflection that this hard-worked man will very likely
be spared one heavy duty. It does not seem
probable that he will ever undergo the trouble of
contemplating the ruins of the proposed Law Courts.
After years of waiting, the "Palace of Justice" is
not begun, nor are there any symptoms that this
much-needed work will be fairly undertaken at any
proximate date. The land has been successfully
cleared, and a fine howling wilderness meets the eye
in the neighbourhood of Temple Bar. An enormous
vacant space is covered with dirt-heaps. Clouds
of dust overwhelm the passer-by. Hideous hoardings,
covered with still more hideous placards, appal the
vision. And this is the whole result of long delibe-
ration, a competition of architects, and a severe dis-
pute with the obdurate Chancellor of the Exchequer
as to where the Courts should be fixed,
atter the public had fully impressed itself with
the belief that the matter was disposed of, Mr.
Lowe reluctantly surrendered his hobby, and

e question wits again "settled." But still the
waste remains in its pristine condition, and though
the work is to be done some time, nothing is now
going on except the slow demolition of a few more
houses. Surely there can be no insuper-
able obstacle to the immediate and earnest com-
mencement of this great edifice. It must at the best
be a weary while before a building of such magni-
We- clul___i)o made .ht for_ the
_public use.

"Why render this delay still greater wnen
the new accommodation is so grievously
needed, and, indeed, would be felt as a
great boon now, not to speak of an indefinite num-
ber of years hence ? The site has been twice de-
termined, the architect has been found, and un-
doubtedly the time is propitious. Labour
is cheap, ani pauperism abundant. 'Whilst
thousands of men are lacking employment,
it is hard indeed that the legitimate means of obtain-
ing it should be needlessly withheld. It is not the
business of the Government to supply national labour-
shops, but this work is one which must be done, and
the unemployed might as well have the benefit
of it. It is highly improbable that the
time will ever be more favourable for
an advantageous contract. The Government could
get its work done cheaply now, whereas should a
revival of industry take place, prices may rule higher.
It is always wisest to dispose of these great under-
dertakings at periods of slackness. And not only is it
wisest, but also most humane. It is high time the
Government explained why the metropolis is thus
disfigured, a work of public utility retarded, and
money kept out of the pockets of the poor. The
season for such delay ought to be grave.