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

THE SUN, LONDON, MONDAY MORNING, AUGUST 8, 1870.

OPERAS, THEATRES, AND AMUSEMENTS.

PRINCE OF WALES'S—A 7.30. Quite by Accident. M.P. Dearest
Mamma.

QrxEN's—At Seven, Nly Wife's Dentist. 'Twist Axe and Crown.
VArDxviLLn—Cupboard Love. Two Rosos. Don Carlos.

OilarsTY MINSTRELS. St. James's Hall, Eyery Night, at 8; Wed-

,
nesdays and Saturdays, at 3 and 8 all the year round.
ZO LOGICAL GARDENS, Regent's-park. Open daily (except Sun-
days). Admission, ls.; on Mondays. 6d. Ohildren under
twelve, 6d.

MADAME TIISSAUD'S EXHIBITION, Baker-street, from 11 a.m. till
•, •
3.0
p m and from 7 till 10 p.m. Admilision, is.; extra

HIGH WATER AT LONDON BRIDGE THIS DAY.
Morning ............22 after 11 1 Afternoon ........58 after 11

_ 2, cli) 4
gig Suit

MORNING EDITION.

in inserting his latch-key into his street door. But
a publican would call him " fresh," and advise him
to take a hair of the dog that bit him. No man is
" drunk " in the opinion of a drinkseller until he is
also "incapable" until he has to be conveyed to his
house in other ways than by his own legs. But that
last stage is not to be foreseen. - It is reached sooner
or later, according to temperament or habit. More-
over, it is not until that stage is reached that the
drink-seller thinks it time to get rid of his customer.
When he can drink no more he is turned out into
the streets, and left to the mercy of chance ; chance
in the shape of a lumbering waggon, or a recklessly
driven cab, which makes a speedy end of the poor
sot. Then comes the coroner's inquest, and perchance
there is a "reprimand." But those laugh who win.
The drunkard's money is in the publican's
pocket, and what does the publican care though
the drunkard's body be a mangled corpse,
and though the drunkard's soul be in hell ?
There is no regulating a traffic of this kind ; least of
all can it be regulated by the traffickers. The people
of England are becoming fully aware of this, and it
is for this reason that they are demanding power to
abolish it. •

THE result of the prosecution of Sir HENRY
EDWARDS will be more satisfactory to that gentleman
and his personal friends than to the public. For
many years he represented a borough where corrupt
practices were so constant, and at last so flagrant, that
Parliament has this session deprived it of its Parlia-
mentary privileges. The elections cost Sir HENRY a
considerable sum of money, besides which he paid
away annually to certain agents other sums for those
persons (who were keen political partizans) to dispose of
at their pleasure. How they performed this duty
we do not exactly know; but inasmuch as they were
told by Mr. SPOFFORTH, the accredited chief agent
of the Conservative party in London, to destroy all
their papers directly a commission was appointed to
inquire into the conduct of the last election, it is not
uncharitable to surmise that their transactions would
not bear examination. Prima facie, the case was as bad
as bad could be. Every circumstance con-
nected with the election proved that there
had been bribery on a large scale. The charities
• and the manufactures of the town were alike made
use of for political corruption. It was but natural to
suppose that the person who benefited by these prac-
tices, and who found a considerable portion of the
money for them, was an accomplice in them.
Nevertheless , the proceedings which took place on
Friday utterly broke down, the SOLICITOR-GENERAL
having to throw up the case, and the Judge directing
the jury to enter a verdict of Not Guilty.
We cannot charge Sir JOHN COLERIDGE with the
responsibility of this lame and impotent conclusion.
The conduct of his case was taken out of his hands
by the Judge. Questions, which to the lay mind
seem perfectly relevant and perfectly fair, were over-
ruled by his lordship. Evidence which it was sought
to give in proof. of agency, was rejected, for reasons
that certainly do not commend themselves to the
journalist though they may to the judge. Far be it
from us to allege that • Sir WILLIAM BRETT; was
influenced by political considerations. The fact
that ho is a strong Conservative, held office
in the last Administration, and represented a
corrupt Cornish borough, cannot be shown to have
disposed him favourably 'to the defendant, though
perhaps it may have influenced his ideas with
regard to electoral practices, and induced him to
take a more lenient view of questionable proceedings
than some of his brethren who have not reached
the bench through the House of Commons.
It would have been advisable, perhaps,
if a gentleman not personally acquainted
with electioneering practices had presided
in this Beverley -case. Anyhow, we cannot but
regret that it has been found impossible to bring
home the guilt of these shameful practices
to the persons responsible for them, whoever they
may be. No- doubt Mr. SPOFFORTH'S instructions
have stood the guilty persons in good stead. Even
the litere scripta does not avail against the flames;
and the bonfire that the ex-agent of the Carlton
ordered was an auto da fe which has frustraled thOse
modern inquisitors—the law officers of the Crown,
in their attempt to obtain a human victim.
However, even the Beverley case will not be without
effect, When a corrupt borough is disfranchised,
other corrupt boroughs will take care to sin less
flagrantly, and boroughs that have not yet yielded
to the tempter may be induced to resist him.
Even Sir HENRY EDWARDS, who owes the baronetcy
which Mr. DISRAELI gave him to his merits in fighting
the battle of the party at so much cost, in the now
disfranchised borough, must feel that the dignity
has been dearly purchased. He has lost his seat, and
the prosecution, though unsuccessful, will have cost
him probably nearly as much as he has spent in
"charity" and other Wise.

Is Mr. AYRTON at last bent upon redeeming his
character, if possible, as CHIEF COMMISSIONER. It
hardly does seem possible under the circumstances.
And yet, at the fag end of the session, there comes
forth the doubly astounding announcement that not
only are the, new Law Courts going to be commenced
in earnest, but that the fact of their being so com-
menced, is attributable to the indefatigable exertions
of the CHIEF COMMISSIONER. Wonders will never
cease. After this we shall hear that Mr.
AYRTON can be civil—even to a deputation. We
shall be told that he can actually sometimes move
about without -viciously treading upon the corns of
the people among whom he is walking. It will take
a considerable interval, however, to convince the
House of Commons, for instance, of his sincerity.
Members will long continue to be incredulous. So for
that matter, also, will it be with the outer public.
Even the right hon. gentleman's own constituents
down at the Tower Hamlets will find it difficult to
believe that, under his mollified aspect, this carping,
captious, cynical critic of other persons doings can
be, without some intollerable arriere ponce under-
lying or skulking behind his courtesies and conces-
sions : feeling sure (as they certainly will) down to
the end of the chapter, that even then, when appa-
rently at his very best, he will but—

" assent with civil leer
And without sneering teach the rest to sneer."

As it is, it appears about the oddest time that could
very well have been selected by this incomprehensi-
ble /Edile at which to decide at length upon ener-
getically setting to work to carry out this long
delayed project of a palace of justice. Previously,
at the time when the attention of the whole country
is distracted by the imminent probability of our
finding ourselves one of these fine mornings, dragged
into participation in the great war now
desolating the centre of the European Con-
tinent—then, but not until then—Mr. AYRTON
abruptly drops his character as an obstruc-
tive, and resolves upon having the waste
ground in the centre of London cleared as rapidly
as possible for the erection at last of the new Law
Courts on what is called the Cary-street site, that is,
the site lying immediately between the Temple and
Lincoln's-Inn-Fields. We are thinking, the majority
of us, about the urgent .need there is for the
wise application to defensive purposes of the supple-,
mentary grant to that end of I:2,00%000 sterling,
bf the necessity for the rapid supply at once to the
arinyand the militia and the volunteers of: the best
tel all the smaller arms of precision, better than the
add- z u nd geivehr; better • even than the :el:lasi:4dt

the Henry-Martini rifle, when Mr. AYRTON all of a
sudden waked up from his long torpor in regard to
the New Law Courts, and insists upon it that what
we have to think of now are—bricks and mortar, wood
and iron, stone and cement, with which to fill up that
great eyesore-gap in the middle of London, midway
between the two lanes of Drury and Chancery. The
tact is, the CHIEF COMMISSIONER must always, it
would seem, go by the rule of contraries. We are
disposed for once, however, to take him jusl
exactly as he is. Upon the laying out of the scheme
of the Law Courts he has at last adventured. Fair
and softly—let us all see well to it that he
does now in earnest proceed along the road
upon which he has so long tarried. To his
indefatigable exertions, we are told that we are im-
mediately indebted for the fact that the Law CoUrts
are now about to be commenced. Through his inde-
fatigable exertions let us look for their rapid and sat-
isfactory completion. The accomplishment by Mr.
AYRTON of a work of that kind may yet go far
towards compensating for some at least of his many
sins of omission and commission as CHIEF COMMIS-
MISSIONER.

TOPICS OF THE DAY.

onward resulted in their fi"iding themselves, after I
two days beating about to the westward, just ten
miles from where they started. A frigate of average
sailing qualities, it was said at the time, would have
proceeded 150 miles to the westward in the time; in
fact, H.M.S. Liverpool, which had started after the
ironclads in case of accident, easily kept her station.
with the squadron under little more canvas than her
topsails. At one period of this brief cruise the
signal was given to drop targets overboard, and to
fire at them in succession. The practice was re-
ported to have " been pretty fair, considering that
the gunners could not see the targets." Four days
after leaving Portland the Admiral of the Fleet was
informed that the Hector was shipping large quan-
tities of water. He therefore deemed it prudent to
bring the vessels round to Torbay, where they an-
chored. Since 1866 her Majesty's fleet has been
strengthened by the addition of the Vanguard, the
Captain, and the Monarch, all of a superior class so
far 'as sailing qualities and turret principles are con-
cerned. It is to be hoped, however, that improve-
ment has not been omitted in the case of those iron-
clads whose supremacy on the sea was so dissatis-
fying four years ago. •