The Sun.
London, England, 1848-06-09 00:00:00

ebNlina

LONDON, FRIDAY, JUNE 9, 1348.

If it is essential to the peace and tranquillity of
the country that the illegal and riotous assemblages,
too many of which have recently terrified the well-
disposed inhabitants of the metropolis, and materially
impeded the proper carrying on of business, should
be steadily and effectually repressed; if it is essential
that the promulgators of seditious doctrines, who call
upon the people to extort, by violence and intimida-
tion, the measures which they conceive to be desir-
able, should be subjected to the penalties prescribed
by law for such offeaces ; it is no less essential that
the Legislature should promptly and gracefully con-
cede those progressive reforms which the spirit of the
age demands, and which the wants of a free and en-
lightened nation so urgently require. We are indebted
to our free institutions, and to the deference paid to
the popular wishes for our freedom from the anarchy
and confusion that has prevailed amongst so many of
our continental neighbours. Public opinion is the
real foundation of our Government, and the more
extensive the base the more consolidated and durable
will be the superstructure erected thereon. The
voice of the nation has solemnly affirmed that the
great body of the people are not adequately repre-
sented in the Commons House of Parliament—that
there is consequently a predisposition to class legis-
lation, and that it is vain to hope for an alteration in
present impolitic and inequitable system of taxa-

in ticn, the iniquitous monetary code, or for the re- r
moval of many other grievances by which the indus-
trious classes are oppressed, until there shall be a
great extension of the franchise, and a more
equal apportionment of Members to population. The
doctrine of finality has been thoroughly scouted.
The Reform Bill of 1832 was a step in the right
direction, but it was only an instalment of justice,
and the time has arrived when another dividend must
be granted. Perhaps at that period it was all that
could have been peacefully and constitutionally ob-
tained. For centuries a dominant organized parts
had usurped the legislative power that of right
belonged to the great body of the people. According
to the constitutional theory the representatives of the
people should possess an influential voice in the go
vernment of the country, and should exercise
an absolute control over the public revenue
and the public expenditure; but under the
rotten borough system, the nominees of a
few noble families neutralized the voices of di&
representatives of large constituenceis, and what was
nominally the democratic became practically an ad
ditional aristocratic element in the Constitution.
Against this monstrous usurpation the great body ce
the people arrayed themselves. Truth and justice
were on their side, reason and argument their onl3
weapons, and after a protracted and arduous struggle
they obtained a partial victory. Some of the most fla-
grant abuses were remedied. Gatton and Old Sarum,
and other boroughs of a similar class, were disfran-
chised, and representatives were given to Manchester,
Birmingham, and the metropolitan districts. These
were undoubtedly important ameliorations, but "the
snake was scotched, not killed." Though the most
glaring anomalies were swept away, many still
remain, which it behoves the people to remove, if
they desire to be elevated to their proper position
and to exercise their just weight in the legislative
department. If aristocratic nomination was abo-
lished, vast aristocratic influence was suffered to
prevail. The enemy was too powerful to permit
the victory to be conclusive, and although the popular
voice may now be heard within the walls of Parlia
ment, and valuable improvements have from time to
time been obtained through the strenuous and un-
ceasing exertions of the Liberal party, they are yet
unduly retarded and thwarted in their disinterested
labours by the aristocratic leaven that still pervades
the popular branch of the Legislature. It is to
remedy these evils that the veteran Reformer Joseen
HuME is now organizing a party throughout the
country—it is for this purpose that meetings, such as
that which assembled in Marylebone on Wednesday,
under the presidency of the honest and uncompromising
Member for Macclesfield, have been convened, and these
efforts must be crowned with success if the sincere
and rational Reformers are not defeated by the undue
violence, the unwise and impolitic interference of
those who, seeking only a spurious popularity for
themselves, attempt to set the working classes in op-
position to, and to render them distrustful of, their
best and most faithful friends, who have laboured
in this cause with ability, fidelity, and zeal, at a
time when ridicule and odium were the only re-
wards for such services.
The greatest enemies of the popular cause at this
moment are the physical-force Chartists. They
are the chief impediments to the extension of
popular rights. By their insane and reck-
less conduct they disgust the moderate men,
who would otherwise lend a helping hand
to the good cause, but who are kept away from meet-
ings by the unwarrantable intrusion of Chartist ora-
tors, and the disturbances thereby excited. Who
could witness without shame and indignation the
attack made upon JOSEPIi HUME, and the unwar-
ranted reproaches heaped upon that consistent and
honest politician on Wednesday ? His opinions are
not those of yesterday, but have been unceasingly
urged for thirty- five years, and it would be hard,
indeed, to calculate the value of the benefits attained
by the country, the abuses prevented, the amelio-
rations advanced, through his watchful surveillance,
and his strenuous advocacy. In another column will
be found a letter written by him thirteen years since,
with which we have been favoured, and who can
peruse it without acknowledging that he is indeed a
thorough and an unflinching Reformer? Who can ask
for more than is indicated in the following passage :
" Equal laws, equal civil and religious rights, equal
taxation, and a universal system of education, with
. unsparing economy and retrenchment, will soon lead
to a better state of things. These are the best mea
1 suttee for promoting the happiness of the many,
without injustice to any."
Yes, these are indeed what the nation re-
quires, and let all those who desire the speedy
attainment thereof, co-operate with the popular
leaders in every constitutional mode; but let
them most religiously eschew the evil counsels of the
demagogues who urge a violation of the law, and
who pretend to advance the liberties of the working
classes by a direct invasion of the rights and liber-
ties of others.

Lord ASHLEY was quite correct in saying that al-
though he had frequently brought before the conside-
ration of Parliament subjects affecting the condition
of the poor of the country, yet he had never yet
introduced any one subject of so much importance as
that which formed the topic of his discourse on
Tuesday evening—the condition of the juvenile po•
pulation of the metropolis.

- lt is said that one-half of the world does not
know how the other half lives, and, much as is
said about the terrible state of the more neg-
lected portion of the community, and the imperative
necessity for some improved system of education,
we are inclined to think that but very few among the
" respectable", members of society are really ac-
quainted with the true condition of our
English poor. To all such as are in any
way ignorant on this vitally important subject
we would recommend a perusal of Lord ASHLEY'S
too sadly truthful details of the manner of life of the
poor children of the metropolis. The speech of the
Noble Member for Bath forms a new and most
striking chapter of the "Revelations of London"
—a chapter far more marvellous, more pain-
ful, and more affecting than any of its fictitious pre-
decessors. Let those who find pleasure in feasting an
appetite for the wonderful and the horrible
turn from the unnatural " revelations " of AINs-
WORTH, and the appalling records of Sue,
and they will find that a truthful his-
tory of the poor of England in the nineteenth cen-
tury contains more astonishing and heartrending
pictures than the imagination of the ro-
mancist ever suggested, or the chronicles of
the past ever recorded. Earnestly do we
desire that Lord ASHLEY'S recent speech
ehouldr be very generally and very attentively perused.
e commend it nut so much to the thoughtful and
the philanthropic as to the indifferent and careless
multitude. To these, if they could bring them-
selves to read such painful details, the perusal
wouldinevitably be beneficial. It would make
their hearts, if only for a moment, throb
with a kindly and Christian emotion of charity.
It would, or it should, make them, if only for a
brief while, feel grateful for their own superior
blessings, and especially it could hardly, one would
imagine, fail to render them anxious to do something,
however trivial, to alleviate the condition of their
wretched brethren. Many persons who may have
witnessed CATLIN'S Indian exhibition have, doubtless,
been appalled by a contemplation of the horrible scenes
of savage life there displayed, and their hearts have,
we doubt not, been filled with a pious anxiety to
diffuse throughout the abodes of the savage the civi-
lizing blessings of Christianity. But, unhappily, it
is not necessary to cross the seas to seek for savages.
They are here, by our side, under our very eyes.
" There are very few Pagans and Mahomedans in
her MAJESTY'S dominions," said Lord JOHN RUSSELL
the other evening ; but if the Noble Lord were to
catechise the inhabitants of the cellars and
alleys of London alone, we are inclined
to think that he would find that if Queen VICTORIA
reigns over neither Pagans nor Mahomedans, a very
great portion of her subjects are neither Christians
nor even Deists. It must not be forgotten, how-
ever, that important as education may be, it is
not the first consideration. The care of the
body must necessarily precede or at least accompany
the culture of the mind. Of what avail can it be to
instil precepts of religion and morality into the in-
mates of the " lodging-houses" of London ? Here is
a description of one of these " lodging-houses," as
given by a City missionary, and which Lord ASHLEY

declares to be by no means exaggerated : "The
parlour (so the chamber is styled) measures eighteen
feet by ten ; beds are ranged on each side, composed
of straw, rags, and shavings. Here, in this room,
are twenty-seven males and females and thirty-
one children—fifty-eight human beings in this
contracted space, from which light and air are
systematically excluded. It is impossible to
give a just idea of the place. The quan-
tity of vermin is astonishing. In a few moments
felt them dropping on my hat from the ceiling;
they may be gathered in handfuls. Of water there
is nothing of the sort; and one of the inmates broke
a lamp, in order to be sent to prison, which he
knew would procure him a cleansing." Is it
necessary to add one word of comment to
such a description as this ? If so, here is com-
ment sufficient in Lord ASHLEY'S assertion that he
believed seven• tenths of the crime of the metropolis
Nas perpetrated by persons living in these lodging-
houses. In a recent publication it is surmised that
in some, perhaps not very distant day, England and
the other civilized nations of Europe %ill be annihi-
lated by incursions of barbarians from the north.
In our opinion the danger is of a very different kind.
The power and greatness of England are endangered,
not from without, but from within. In the social
and moral condition of our English poor is the root
of every evil that may hereafter threaten us.
Happily there is yet time to arrest the pro-
gress of evil, but how to effect this is the difficulty.
Some new HERCULES is required to purge society
fromits more than Augean uncleanness. Without
some such semi-miraculous aid, the evil cannot be
very speedily remedied. It is left for us, however, to
employ human means, and one of the most efficient
of these is said to be a comprehensive system of emi-
gration. To this subject we shall again recur, con-
tenting ourselves for the present by recommending
Lord ASHLEY'S revelations to the attentive considera-
tion of our readers.