The Sun.
London, England, 1848-04-25 00:00:00

SPIRIT of the PUBLIC JOURNALS.
TIMES.—Mr. Charles Cochrane is bent upon
thrusting himself into notoriet at all events. He is
in the surf, and waiting for the wave
yet struggling
which shall bear him up high and dry upon the de-
sired beach. Whether it be the first, the second, or
the third, muddy or clean, impure or pure, is all
alike to him, so it be frothy, and rolling, and strong.
To represent the tempestuous constituency of West li
-
minster is his object. To attain that end all he asks
is a grievance ; but then it must be a virgin grievance,
—a grievance which half-a-dozen other political car-
rion crows have not already appropriated to their own
use. Such a one is not so easy of discovery as might
be at first imagined. Ask any one you meet to name
you a good hustings grievance ; he will tell you they
are as plenty as blackberries. There are the army,
and the navy, and the national debt, and church and
state, all national grievances in their way. So they
are, but somewhat too wide for the purpose. Then
ten to one your spokesman will descend from
generals to particulars, and consider his own
peculiar case. He will talk to you of burdens
upon buttons or Lisbon toothpicks. These, on the
other hand, are too narrow. You are turned back
upon yourself. Ireland won't do any longer. If
you were as ready to gulp down the Repeal bolus as
ever Saturn was to swallow his little ones, the time
for that is gone by. Nothing less than a solemn
undertaking to pistol Lord Clarendon, and dash his
howling soul against the blue walls of Pluto's resi-
dence, would win you a single vote on the other side
of St. George's Channel. The six points of the
Charter ?—No, Mr. Feargus O'Connor and the dele-
gates have dealt with that topic. Free trade is dis-
posed of, saving a small residuum about the Naviga-
tion Laws, upon which it would be impcssible to get
up any noticeable agitation on this side of Rotherhithe
or 'Wapping. The " Fifty" are to take up fiscal mat-
ters on scientific principles. What then -remains ?
Foreign Affairs ? The Schleswig question would not
tell in Westminster, although the Eider were to run
red with blood. The Church ? Not a mouse stirring.
So on of other subjects. Mr. Charles Cochrane has
boxed round the compass for a good grievance, and
has at last hit upon the poor-law as the only point
of possibility. Now, we are as aware as any persons
can be of the defects in the administration of the
poor-law. O'ver and over again have we returned to
this subject, nor have our efforts to attract public
attention to the sufferings of the poor remained
altogether uncrowned with success. Much, very:much
remains to be done, and this subject will ere long
force itself again on the attention of the Legislature.
A merciful administration of the poor-law is the
condition of the continuance of tranquillity in Great
Britain. We should rejoice to see so noble a cause
as the poor man's taken up in some respectable
quarter—it is too sacred a one for the mere political
adventurer. The sufferings of the poor must not be
rendered ridiculous by indiscreet or interested advo-
cacy. With what antecedents does Mr. Cochrane
approach this subject ? We are not so far removed
from the time We hen, in a ridiculous costume, and
with a cracked guitar strung before him, he twanged
his way through the provinces of England as lion
Juan de Vega. Next we find him coming forward
to contest Westminster as the " lady's man."
Then followed in order the disturbance of the
most crowded thoroughfares of the metropolis for
the space of three days, of which Mr. Charles Coch-
rane was the cause. He dial nut, indeed, head in
person the rascal mob of pickpockets and idle boys
who paraded the streets in search of mischief and
plunder. He summoned them together, though, and
on the first warning of the police, relietd non. bene
parmuld, left his worthy followers to their fate. That
time it was not the "poor-law," but the " income-
tax," on which Mr Cochrane had staked his political
fortunes. That question happened to be up at the
moment. The Raja of Sattara or the Oregon ques-
tion would have answered his purpose equally well,
could either of them have been made the subject of a
" row." 'With such ereries as these upon the certi-
ficates of his political character, Mr. Charles Coch-
rane now comes forward to see what he can do with
the poor-law. The history of this last precious at-
tempt upon the credulity of the public would appear
to be this :—Mr. Cochrane has identified himself with
an institution in Leicester square, called the " Poor
Man's Guardian Society." Humanity and philan-
thropy, or at least a good deal of talk upon the
subject, are here stored up and ready for delivery on
the shortest notice. The society, we find, is given to
types and symbols, for at the head of the letter we
have received from Mr. Cochrane we find a huge
" eye of
,Providence" engraved, significant of Mr.
Cochrane 's watchfulness over the fate of his country-
men. It would now appear that this would-be re-
presentative of Westminster, not content with having
been the first to disturb the peace of the metropolis
by the gathering of his mob in Trafalgar-square, is
about to favour the inhabitants of Cimino. cross and
neighborhood neighbrhood with a repetition of the nuisance.
'Mr. Cochrane is to head another rabble of rogues and
pickpockets to the Home-office, under pretext of their
being persons who are suffering or who have suffered
under the administration of the poor-law. But, as
would appear from the report of the proceedings of
the board of guardians at the Marylebone workhouse,
which we printed on Saturday, by way of mixing up
a sprinkling of Simon Pures with his questionable
myrmidons of Trafalgar-square notoriety, Mr. Coch-
rane has written circular letters to ,Tom Smiths, Jack
Robinsons, Robert Joneses, &c., in the various London
unions, on the chance of their containing inmates who
may be distinguished by these uncommon patrony-
mics. That was the statement made on Saturday
at the Marylebone hoard of guardians. Mr. Cochrane
has written to lie a letter, which we print to-day, in
which he states "that he did not wish the inmates
of the establishments to take part in his demonstra-
tion of public opinion, but that they should urge on
their friends, more fortunately situated than them-
selves, out of the workhouse, to devote an hour or
two to aid him in his arduous but glorious under-
taking." We leave the charge and the answer to the
judgment of the public. This letter is accompanied
with a kind of circular, in which Mr. Cochrane
recalls to the recollection of the poor of England the
circumstances attendant upon the fault of the ex-King
Louis Philippe—" The oppressed and persecuted
people have simultaneously risen, and demanded
justice and retribution. The sovereigns, con-
science and panic-stricken, have acceded to every
just demand, and have become so powerless
as to be compelled to appeal to the people
for mercy and protection The victories.
gained by the people over their despotic Sovereigns
are producing a powerful effect on the minds and
feelings of every inhabitant in our own country" &c.,
lac.; and all this farrago of incendiarism and absur-
dity is addressed to the inmates of unions and work
houses,Cochrane."
and signed " Charles Sir G.
Grey,
we see, on Saturday informed the House that
every due precaution had been taken to prevent such
a procession as that one contemplated by Mr Coch-
rane from proceeding throughth streets. The
regular police will, no doubt, easilyr dispose of the
otherwise, assemblage. Should it beand if these
few remarks, unhappily, have effect of serving for an
trust,efh also, theye 200,000
advertisement to Mr. Cochrane, we
will serve as a notice to any recipients
zzt
staves distributed a fortnight ago who m
in the line of this contemplated processionatdw ell
are authorised to make use of their sticks for a periodhey
of three months from the date of their takin the
oath of office.
HERALD.—Yesterday (Sunday), the 23d April,
must ever be considered a memorable day, either for
good or for evil, in the annals of France—if indeed
France is henceforth to have any annals, which seems
to be a matter sufficiently problematical, in the opi-
nion of a majority of the writers for the English
press. But, though we are ourselves not without
anxieties and misgivings—not to say fears—we are
more inclined to be hopeful, than to be despondent;
because we have a saving faith in the progress of mo-
derate opinions, and because we believe Providence,
in its goodness and mercy, will spare a great and a
civilised people the horrors of an internecine civil war.
On the result of the elections, to be cornntenced yes-
terday morning at six o'clock, however, must depend
—we will not conceal it from our readers—the safety
or the ruin, the weal or the woe, of France. The
aintenance of order at home and of peace abroad,
the resuscitation of credit, the return of confidence,
the
distribution of labour, the fixation and fructifica-
tion of capital,
of he settling down to honest industry,
the resumptionor piece-work, of the usual daily routine of task-work
head, all—all work of the hands or work of the
If the people depend
otrao° the elections of yesterday.
nce feel any portion of that
fraternity which
they
so ostentatiously and so
diurnally proclaim—if
they
desire to act towards
each other without proscriptions—without menaces
—without cries of vengeance—without
allow
constraint,
.to every man
or without violence—they will
liberty of opinion, and permit eachovcistizen freely and
off yesterday,
fairly to give his vote for Republican
itlh-morrow,
Republicans of to-day, or Republicans
as may suit his principle or his passion—his
his whim. Without perfect freedom
thine
etilisisfarneesypeocrt
there can be no liberty of choice—
must perish
r can be no
order ; and if order perishes, liberty
degrees
along with it. There are many
ckltdses s ahnadv e known
of tyranny, as Frenchmen of all
and felt for the last sixty years, but the
The desee4ism
worst of all
tyrannies is the tyranny of anarchy.
cif a mob is the most unbearable of all despotisms, -
o f a multitude
for it is the capricious fancy
of cruel and unreasoning tyrants.
of the provinces of France
Of the elec-
tions in a majority
we have, however, no great fears. We believe
that the great body of the electors will return men
of senile and substance, and known in their vicinage,
who will rally round the Republic,—first, because it
already exists ; and secondly, because it is the only
form of government at present possible, without a
civil war and without the shedding of oceans of
blood. Many of these men who will be so chosen