The Sun.
London, England, 1870-02-05 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

Tho Saturday Review thinks it is unlucky that column-
&cation both by telegraphs and by cabs should be thrown
into confusion at the some moment ; but the difficulties
with which Mr. Scudamore has to contend are temporary,
and are not of his own creation. If it was desirable to

transfer the management of the telegraphic system to the
Post Office, some inconvenience during the process of
transition was obviously inevitable. The companies made
a great many mistakes ; their clerks were often stupid in
d,-..,cyphering and inaccurate in spelling, and when any
miscarriage had occurred it was difficult to obtain redress
or explanation. For some time to come it is probable that
the new operators will be still more incompetent than their
predecessors, especially as many postmasters and postmis-
tresses have reached or passed middle life ; yet there is no
present reason to believe that the Post Office will
inflict the wanton annoyance on all concerned, and
the increase of charge, which will be caused
by Mr. Bruce's ingeniously per verses regulations.
Although allowances will be made for the difficulty of
beginning an experiment, the increase in the charge for
local messages will, as long as it lasts, constitute a serious
grievance. The great majority of Londoners will grudge
the payment of a shilling for some trivial domestic mes-
sage, which may, nevertheless, be highly convenient.
Although uniformity is, as a rule, advantageous, it might
perhaps be worth while to have a separate and lower rate
for messages confined to the limits of the metropolitan
delivery, or of similar districts in large towns. If a trader
at a counting-house in the City is willing to pay four-
pence for the opportunity of telling his wife that he has
asked a friend to dinner, the Post Office will be the richer
for forwarding a message which probably might not be
thought worth a shilling. The Act by which the telegraphs
were transferred provides for more important messages a
security which scarcely existed under the administration of
the companies. All the operators are bound to secrecy, on
penalty of misdemeanour if they interceptor publish any

information confided to their care. It will, perhaps, not
be possible absolutely to restrain the garrulity of post
mistresses ; and correspondents will do well to wrap up
their meaning in some safe form of expression when they
have to do with the remoter districts. It seems that in
one or two places Corporations hav o already quarrelled
with the Post Office authorities on points of detail re-
lating to the course of the wires or the situation of the
offices. It is highly probable that in some cases the rail-
way station may be a more convenient place of resort
than the post office : but there may nevertheless be
sufficient reason for adhering to a general rule. In all
considerable towns the post-office, which is not only an
office for transmitting letters, but a bank, an insurance
office, and a telegraph office, will become more and more
the centre of a public business, requiring in many places
enlarged accommodation.

The Spectator says that Parliament meets once more on
Tuesday, and it is natural, even if it is rather foolish, to
forecast a little the progress of its work. Ono has always
to reckon with the unforeseen, more especially in politics,
but apart from the unseen, the business of a session has
rarely been more clearly mapped out. There is the debate
on the Address, during which we shall hear a great deal of
the terrible condition of Ireland—which is as it were
sending out vapour, like lime when it is slaked
far building—and something of the anti-Imperial
tone of tho Ministry in their treatment of our
colonial possessions, and a good deal, possibly even a great
deal, of the wrongs of poor Mr. Madden; and then the
Address will be accepted, and there will be a mo-
mentary lull until, on Thursday, the lith, it is
said, the Premier lays his tenure bill before the
country. The speech which introduces this measure
ought to be, and probably will be, an event even in Mr.
Gladstone's oratorical life, for he has warned the country
beforehand that the difficulties of Irish tenure are the result
of Irish history, and no topic is better calculated to arouse
that passion of moral earnestness which is the Premier's
motive force, while there must be just enough of finance
in his plan to set his marvellous fancy in a glow, and
make him fling light on' every detail, and brilliance on the
one little impracticable suggestion without which he has
seldom introduced a grand reform. There will be
debate enough over the measure, but it has survived the
criticism of a Cabinet on this point strangely com-
posite, a Cabinet in which the Duke of Argyll sits by
Mr. Bright; the Liberal ranks will close up steadily is
Its support; the real Opposition, the Conservative land-
ords, dread discussion about tenure a'most as much as
they dislike innovation in tenure, and we should not be
surprised to see the bill sent up to the Lords by Easter.
The only question as yet perceptible which may assume
grand proportions is that of the Game Laws, which are
being attacked all over the country with a vigour and per-
sistency that indicates irritated feeling. Thefifty Chambers
of Agriculture seem disposed to disagree with Scripture,
and rise in insurrection against rabbits as if they
were not in truth " feeble folk ;" and if their spirit is that
of the farmers at large, some radical alteration must be
thought out and fought out before county members again
present themselves to their constituencies. A regular
game-law fight, with borough members all awake and
eaunty members at once angry and disconcerted, would
Perhaps seriously interrupt the programme of the session,
" but that is the only little cloud visible as yet. To all ap-
pearance, we shall have six months of hard, steady, fruc-
tifying, but comparatively silent work.
By this time, remarks the John, Bull, Mr. Gladstone
and his colleagues must have discovered that a Liberal
Government may incur the displeasure of English work-
ing men. The soreness created by the reductions in our
military expenditure should have been a reason for
shewing the utmost consideration to the victims of
economy. There are three stages in our relations
with our dependencies. There is first that in which
we think we may treat them as we will. This
notion leads to resistance on their part, and then comes
the second stage, that of sulky coldness, in which we tell
the colonies to take their own course, and do what they
please, only so long as they do not trouble us. Both those
stages are unsatisfactory and full of danger. The first led
to the loss of the present United States, and very nearly
led to the loss of Australia and the Cape. The second
stage is that through which we are now passing, and
the end of which we have yet to see. That
end may be the entire separation of all our colonies. Yet
we think we see signs of a better conclusion than that;
we think we see indications that we are entering upon the
the third stage—the third stage of perfect justice, and,
therefore, of complete confidence and union between the
two parties. England is coming to understand that she
has duties to her colonists as well as rights; that she owes
something to the men who went forth into the wil-
derness to prepare a way for future emigrants, and
that it would be the height of folly to throw away
all the advantages which these enterprising men have
secured. At first, we saw in these new possessions only
depots for depositing our moral filth in ; and we shipped
off our rogues and felons until nearly all Australia and the
Cape were ready to throw off their allegiance. If we spent
large sums of money in thus deporting felons, cught we to
be so squeamish about spending much smaller sums in
conveying emigrants ? If it be said that we resorted
to transportation for our own advantage, and that those
who profit by emigration ought to bear the cost, we say
that we—the British nation—reap, at least, a portion of
the profit. Every starving man who is taken to the
colonies relieves our rates of his keep and renders exis-
tence and a livelihood easier for those who remain behind.
The objection that we are sending away our bone and
our sinew will have some force when we cease
to hold inquests on starved Whitechapel paupers.
When human beings are a drug in the market at home,
and are worth any money in the Colonies, political
economy, no less than philanthropy, should induce the
Government to assist by every means in its power the re-
moval of its subjects from a country where they are
perishing by famine, to lands which will yield them not
only subsistence but abundance as the reward of that in-
dustry for which in England there is no room.
The Conservative party seems to the Economist to stand
greatly in need of a word of caution from its leaders.
Actuated apparently by a feeling of despair, arising partly
from its weakness in the Commons, and partly from asense
that it is for the moment far less united than usual, it
appears inclined to give ear to counsels of a very dangerous
kind. It is trying in every direction to conciliate the
working classes by concessions of economic principle—
concessions which are most injurious in themselves, and
which even if accepted for a moment will not help to
make the working classes Conservative. Reciprocity,
State-supported emigration, liberal poor relief, every one
of the unsound ideas which for a moment attract workmen
whose intelligence has been diminished by distress, is sure
to receive more or less of Tory support. The leaders
it is true stand aloof, or, like Lord Derby or Sir
Stafford Northcote, even condemn such schemes;
but many members of the party and some of
its most powerful organs in the Press eagerly
seize on every occasion to tell the workmen that
Conservatives, after all are their real and only friends.
The Tories will find, we suspect, that in their impatience
they are risking an ancient influence much more mpolt int
than any new prestige they are likely to obtain. It is not
for us to advise Tories, but we confess we look upon the
present disorganisation of the party in both Houses with
something of alarm. Such a party so situated is apt to
become desperate, and cease to represent what always in
England needs representation—that solid body of Conser-
vatism which desires that change should be slow, should
bo well considered, and should be as little revolutionary
as possible. That kind of feeling always tends to spread
with the diffusion of wealth and comfort and the inevi-
table reaction from rapid movement ; and if the mode-
rate Conservatives would only wait, protest where their
principles were threatened, and support the moderate
Liberals who are so near them, instead of purchasing
Democrats who aro so far away, they must in no very
long time again gather an army. They will gain by defec-
tions, by adhesions, and by the rising of new men,
till, at the inevitable time when the country wearies
for a change, they will find themselves strong enough
to take power, with the privilege of carrying out their
own views—not to take it with the obligation of carrying
out views which artisans in their distress have been
deluded into accepting, and whioh are directly hostile to
their creed. Let them just imagine the noeition of a
Tory Ministry compelled to propose a vote of millions for
emigration—that is, to introduce a project taxing farmers
to enable their labourers to go away to another country,
and there be more comfortable. To hurry reaction, as
some among them are now trying to do, is only if it suc-
ceeds to win the race without throwing away the weights,
without which even victory will not secure the prize.