The Sun.
London, England, 1870-01-27 00:00:00

filE StTN, LONDON, VitritBDA, EitEMNG, imitrAnv 27, 1870.

The spectator this week, expressing an undoubtedly
growing opinion, denounces the law. It ridiculesthe
idea of injury to affections being paid for by money,
points to the unseemliness of the usual trial ;
and argues that these marriage promises
are often such that it is expedient they
should be broken. It is better by far that a
girl should not marry a man who has not
an income to support her, and, better still, that she
should not be bound to him for an indefinite time.
The Spectator especially dwells upon the amazing
want of delicacy which is shown by a "young lady"
who will consent to tell—her eyes the while stream-
ing with tears—the story of her love to a crowded
court. Much that our contemporary urges may be
freely admitted. Such 'a scene as that which Mr.
Justice BLACKBURN denounced last week, at West-
minster is unseemly. A lady weeping before the
jury in such a case, "See what my heart suffers, and
pay me for my pain," by no means reaches one's ideal
of the right state of things. And it may be allowed,
too, that it is better for both parties that many
matches should be broken off. No adequate com-
pensation, moreover, can be given to a girl
who has learnt to love and to hope she is
loved, only to find herself rejected. Indeed,
looking at it from the point of view of the injured,
it is a subject of wonder that many of the actions
are ever brought, seeing that the plaintiff has to tell
so very much which women are wont to keep secret;
and for all her self-exposure she gets next to nothing,
the damages being swallowed up in costs. And yet
we do not think a case has been made out for a repeal
of the law.

For though, as it stands, the Act is so framed that
it involves compensation to the person injured, that
is not its only principle : it also provides punishment
for-•the breaker of the contract. And he is
punished tot merely for not fulfilling his
promise ; but for making it, and repeat-
ing it. A young man thoughtlessly, to
wile his hours away in pleasure, proposes
marriage to some young lady, and, after he has bad
some months of pleasant spooning, he begins to think
seriously, and finds he has made a mistake. Why
should he not pay for the pleasure of flirting as well
as for his other pleasures? Why should he not
be punished, if he can be conveniently, for
heedlessly inflicting pain in the search of own enjoy-
ment? If the lady he has injured will consent to
make her case public, she will do a general good by
obtaining a punishment. It is, in fact, mostly on the
ground of general good that we think these actions
should be allowed to continue. They help to
keep alive a healthful opinion. Recent expe-
rience has shewn how much the punishment of
wrongdoing helps to prevent it. Many sins, which,
if they go unpunished, are regarded as venial ones,
so soon as they bring retribution become really wicked
in the sight of the world. Thoughtlessness must
needs become thoughtful when indulgence in
folly brings such hardships with it. The
giddy, seeing the condemnation of frivolity,
are stayed by a sense of responsibility.
Thus a real good is done. No injustice is perpetrated
by condemning in damages a man who has obtained
pleasure by paining another ; and many of the
young are warned that "the great step in
life " is one which they should not unthinkingly take.
While the fear of damages does not much prevent the
breach of promises, it, by the opinion it creates, does
much to lessen the number of thoughtless promises;
and it especially discredits that miserable kind
of love-making which, though done under a form
of promise, is meant for nothing at all. In their own
way-these actions in the general courts help to
diminish those in the court of Lord PENZANCE.

THE BUSINESS OF THE HOUSE OF LORDS.
The London correspondent of the Manchester Guardian
understands that arrangements are being made for intro-
ducing a greater number of bills this year in the Upper
House, so as to equalise more nearly the press of business
between the two branches of the Legislature, and to avoid
the old scandal of the Lords having nothing to do till
Whitsuntide, and then too much. Ambng the measures
which perhaps may be. introduced into the Upper
House is that in reference to national education.
There are likewise the bills regarding naturali-
sation and the extradition of criminals, which
naturally will fall to the lot of the Foreign Secretary to
explain; and, if the rumours in clerical regions be true,
there is a proposition in shape which one must presume
must first see the light under the auspices of the spiritual
peers, as it has for its scope the making provision for the
appointment and payment of suffragan bishops.

LAW EVTELLIGENCE—:(This Day).

COURT OF BANKRUPTCY.

This morning an application was male to the
Chief Judge in the matter of Charts henry
Gamblin, of Winchester, teacher of rrusic, Vl°
was adjudicated about three years, and received
from the late Mr. Commissioner Gm'burn an
order of discharge, on the condition that he
should furnish a periodical statement d his earn-
ings, and pay one-fifth of them at the end of
every six months to the official assigree until the
whole of his liabilities, which amounzed to about
£BOO, had been paid in full. Mr. Tuner, onbehalf
of the assignee, asked for an order t. rescind the
discharge on the ground that the conditions had
not been complied with. His lordship suggested
that it would be better to put the application in
the;form of a motion, and give the bankrupt time
to answer. This was assented to.

EMIGRATION.
MESSRS. TENNYSON, CARLYLE, EXTBKIN,
FROUDE, AND MILL ON THE COLONIES.

Two veryimportant meetings on emigraton were held iv
London, on Wednesday—the one in the yptian Hall of
the Mansion House, and the other at Lambeth Baths. The
first-named was the most important, the latter, the most
interesting; for while at the one the speakers were men of
eminence, to the other Mr. Thomas Carlyle, Mr.
Tennyson, the Poet-Laureate, Mr. Ruskin, Mr. Froude;
the historian, and Mr. John Stuart Mill vrote letters..

THE MANSION 1101731.1 MEETI.M.

At the Mansion House the Lord Mayor presided. In
introducing the subject, Mr. BESLEY sail: "We are mot
together to-day for the purpose of devising the best moans
to remove labour from fields where labour is not wanted
and where the labourers are abundant, to fields where
labour is wanted, and where labourers aro scarce.
We want to devise the best course to carry out that
plain and simple principle. None of us are anxious
to see our fellow-countrymen depart. We all like
to see plenty 61 bees around the mother hive; but the
time is come when some united effort to relieve the popu-
lation must be made. The question of political economy
must be set aside for the present. The benevolence of
the English people will never be found wanting if
appealed to in a proper manner, and I have no doubt the
aid of Government will be afforried when they soo that
this movement will be conducted by men who mean
righteously to discharge that which they have in view.
Emigration is not what it was twenty-five years ago. It
does not mean banishment. It wants to be
known and to be understood that the people
emigrating are not going away from us, but
will still form part of the people of England.
—Among the speakers who followed the Lord Mayor was
Sir George Groy. He moved the first resolution to the
effect that emigration affords one of the best means of
removing the existing distress. Sir Geore-o said he
thought that unless emigration was resumed there was
very little chance of England becoming again pros-
perous. The resolution was supported by Mr. Samuel
Morley, M.P. No one connected with manufactures
could, he said, doubt the existence of great
distress. Nor was this confined to London, or even to
England. Throughout the Continent there was the same
lamentable state of things. This had a deteriorating
effect on wages, and therefore, although a manu-
facturer himself, lie believed it was necessary to
relieve the labour market. It was a fact that money
had been for the last two or three years an absolute
drug, and yet during no similar period had there
.been so large a number of willing workers idle.
They were told there were millions of unoccupied acres in
Canada. He was among those who believed that there
were millions of unoccupied acres in England. Mean-
while there was an enormous amount of suffering that
could not wait, and therefore ho had arrived at the opinion
that it was his duty to urge his fellow citizens to
unite to carry out a substantial emigration movement.
The work was, however, too large to be done by
private efforts, and if anything material was to
effect it they should work on a larger scale. There should
be clear proof that the working people desired to emigrate,
and that families desired to go ; he said "-families "
because he thought all means should be used to make
emigration take this form. Then there should be perfect
security that there would be work for them when they got
out to the new country.
Mr. Morley was followed by a Mr. JoirNsoN. That
gentleman moved an amendment to the effect that
the committee was not worthy "of confidence, and that the
only effectual panacea for destitution was the government
of the people by the people, and calling on the Queen,
Lords, and Commons to resign. This motion was received
with hisses and derisive laughter, and failed to find a
seconder in the meeting. Mr. Johnson, in the course
of a rambling speech, which was listened to with great
impatience, suggested, amid laughter and hisses, that
" Royalty and the aristocracy should emigrate to the colo-
nies," adding that nothing would satisfy the people until
all the professions were thrown open. To enter any of
them at present required money.—The resolution was
carried.

Mr. TORRENS made the seconl motion, calling upon the
Legislature to interfere to organise emigration. He said he
would not for a moment approve of an emigration rate
—a tax on householders—while the great owners of
the property around them, who were drawing their
£50,000 or £60,000 a year, were no; rated a farthing. If
emigration was a right thing, let all contribute to it. Let
the money come from the means aad substance of the
whole State. It was not necessary to ask the Chancellor
of the Exchequer to lay an additions tax upon any one
article of consumption, or to add an additional penny to the
income-tax, in order to do what the League wanted. What
he proposed was that money should be lent to the working
man to emigrate—what the President should demand from
the Government was, an advance of one er two millions—
not in money, but in kind—giving the peopla a free passage,
six months' subsistence and tools, and frau £l5 to £2O a
head would be ample to clench the bargaii. The foreign
trade of the country was worth 30s. a heat of the popula-
tion, while the colonial trade was vvortl 1:6 a head, and
this sheaved how advantageous colonisation was to our
home trade."—That resolution, having heal seconded, was
also passed. Mr. Beaks was one of tlx sveakers to it.
The distressed people, he said, could notwait. Working
men desired emigration, therefore he supported it. A
resolution asking for subscriptions was also carried. It
was *seconded by Mr. Charley, who promised to support the
League in his place in Parliament.

MR. STANSFELD ON THE LICENSING
SYSTEM.

On 'Wednesday Mr. Stansfeld, M.P., Financial Secretary
to the Treasury, was waited upon by a deputation from the
Halifax Sunday Closing League, on the subject of Sunday
closing of public houses. An interesting conversation
took place, after which Mr. Stansfeld stated his views at
length. He elicited from the deputation that they did
not seek to prevent Sunday travelling, or to prevent
a man obtaining refreshment on the first day of the week;
but a traveller out for amusement would not be able to
obtain liquor. The memorial stated that no law would be
effectual unless it suppressed the dram shop and gin
palace. Mr. Stansfeld thought it impossible to distinguish
between these establishments and the regular public-house.
In summing up his opinion, Mr. Stansfeld could only
say on behalf of the. Goveinment that a measure was
under consideration. It had not yet received its finishing
touches so far as he knew. His own views he would
impress as much as possible upon the Home Secretary.
They did not in their end differ much from those of the
department, but perhaps in detail. Mr. Edmondson, in one of
ohe departments, had addressed himself to the question of
total suppression. He did not agree with him in all he
had argued. The primary view was that the ordinary
liquor traffic was not one that ought to be specially
regulated, but that it was vicious in its inception--
that drunkenness was the great cause of vice and
crime, and that the best conclusion that could be
arrived at with regard to it would be not merely to
regulate and restrict, but to suppress it altogether.
Consequently with that view Mr. Edmondson addressed
ninaself to the question of vested rights, and concluded by
expressing his willingness to grant compensation. Mr.
Stansfeld regarded that willingness with great satisfaction,
because he did not think if they took away vested rights
that they could do so without giving compensation for
them. Yet Mr. Edmondson began by saying the law
recognised no vested rights. That was an are „.cent for
a lawyer rather than for a statesman or a public man
It was true that in point of law a licence was granted from
year to year, but it was also true that licenses were
renewable almost as a matter of course unless there was
some complaint of misconduct. In point of fact, the
enewal of a licence was never discussed and reviewed by
a bench of magistrates in the same way that they would
discuss the first application. Therefore, in his opinion, it
was impossible practically to deal with so many thousands
of persons who had embarked all their capital or a
great part of it, in this business.without recognising that
they had a moral right not to be ruined by any measure
which might be thought necessary for the public good.
An analogy had been suggested by the Act which was
passed some years ago for the suppression of immoral
prints. He would not admit that the analogy could stand
good, because he could not conceive that there could be a
shadow of right, either legal or moral, in a trade which
served solely to corrupt and debase the people. The
sale of drinks, under a proper restriction, could not
be regarded in that sense, and could not be treated in-the
same manner. It had been said that it was desirable
to prevent the sale of wines in shops other than
those which were open for the sale and con-
sumption on the premises of intoxicating liquors.
He had always been of opinion that it was desirable
to draw a broad line of distinction between tho sale
for consumption on the premises in a public-house, and
the sale in the ordinary mercantile sense of fermented
liquors to be taken home. Now, he did not believe that
they could interfere with the sale or purchase of fermented
liquors which had to be consumed at a man's own resi-
dence. They might interfere to restrict the sale in the
public-house. Many reasons had been urged against the
evil influences of the dram-shop and the gin-palace : but
if they objected to the purchase and consumption of in-
toxicating liquors in that way, on the other hand it would
be desirable to admit that there should be facilities for
the purchase of these things when their purchase would
not be open to the same objection. He believed that it
was partly Mr. Gladstone's object, in introducing cheap
wines, to reduce the consumption of spirits and beer, and
also that the persons who wished to consume such articles
in their own dwellings should be able to purchase them
otherwise than in a public-house. He was much surprised
that in the town of Halifax many of his friends for whom
he had the utmost respect entertained another view. He
would, however, undertake that all their suggestions, and
everything that had been said should be faithfully
reported, and should receive Mr. Bruce's most attentive
consideration. _ . _

Some conversation followed on the subject of grocers
being allowed to sell wine. Mr. Stansfeld said the ques-
tion in his mind was whether the increased sale for home
consumption tended on the whole to sobriety, or the re-
verse. His own impression, taking a broad view, was that
it was better for the working man to do as the middle-
class man did, drink his own wino and beer at home
rather than go to the public-house for it.—Mr. Edmondson
said he was enabled to state from experience that many
women now obtained drink at grocers' shops who never
drank before, and whtt would not bo seen in a public
house.

POLICE IN7ELLIGENCE—This Day.

SIAIILBOROUGH- STREET.

OUTRAGEOUS CONDUCT TO LADIES IN REGENT-
-STREET.—William Ufer, a tailor, 4, Pollen-street,
llanover-Fguare, was charged before Mr. Knox
with being drunk and behaving in an indecent
manner to female passengers in Regent-street.
Mr. Henry Watkins, Manchester warehouseman,
133, Regent-street, said that on the previous after-
noon he was walking up Regent-street when he
saw the prisoner, who was drunk, push against and
indecently assault every lady he passed. He fol-
lowed the prisoner with the intention of giving
him into custody, and while doing so he saw the
prisoner place his arms round a lady's neck, and
one lady in running away from the prisoner, Cm e
conduct was of the most flagra,t c'iaraeter, was
nearly run over. Not being able to find a eon-
stable he c ught hold of the prisoner and held him,
and sent for a constable ; and on one arriving gave
the prisoner into custody.
In answer to Mr. Knox the witne33 said the pri-
soner was drunk and re,ling about.
Marshall, 188 C, said the prisoner was given into
his custody by the last witness for indecently
assaulting several ladies in Regent-street, and
several other gentlemen said the prisoner's conduct
was very disgraceful.

Mr. Knox asked whether any of the ladies were
present ?

The constable replied in the negative.
Mr. Knox said, as the case was then before him,
he could only deal with the prisoner for drunk and
disorderly conduct, and fine him 40s. ; but in order
to give any of the ladies an opportunity, if they
choose to do so, of coming forward to prefer other
charges against him, he would remand him till
Saturday, and he was much obliged to Mr. Watkins
for attending.