The Sun.
London, England, 1869-04-30 00:00:00

LAWTIII AND tTS EXECUTION.

The law is now repeatedly defeated by its own
strictness. The rule that everything must be abso-
lutely proved against a defendant has made nugatory
two most important statutes within the last few
months. The Middlesex magistrates have allowed
the night-houses in the Haymarket to run their
course of iniquity unreproved ; the Court of Common
Pleas has virtually made uaaless the law prohibiting
the sale of liquors on Sunday during certain hours.
Tie magistrates are required to have proof furnished
them that the man who has been served with drink
is not a traVeller. The difficulty of getting negative
evidence is proverbial, and so nearly all prosecu-
tions now-a-days against erring licensed victuallers
fall to the ground. Mr. Ingham, the sti-
pendiary magistrate of Hammersmith Police-
court, has told the police that he is comparatively
powerless to convict, and that if the law is to be
carried out there must be fresh legislation. There
can be no injustice in setting aside the decision of
the Court of Common Pleas. A publican is sum-
moned for serving during prohibited hours. He
pleads that the person so served was a traveller. He
can have no difficulty in proving it. The law as it
now stands is its own overthrow.

THE TRADES UNIONS DILL.
The Tradei Unions Bill of Messrs. Hughes and
Mundella seems to find general favour amongst the
trades unionists. Another meeting of delegates, in
which the •ironmoulders, engineers/ carpenters,
plasterers, masons,. coach-wheelwrights, twine-
spinners, miners, ropemaliers,
coopers, ironfounders,
compositors, and smiths were represented, has just
been held, and the bill was unaniniously approved.
•

THE GREAT cENTEAt GAS COMPANY.
We have already announced that the select coat=
mittee of the House of Commons has refused to
allow the Great Central Gas Company to make up
for its deficiencies, caused by the defalcations of
Iliggs, by acquiring more capital. The committee
have now made a special report to the House. What
they say will hardly be satisfactory 0 the share-
holders. The committee state that they are satisfied
on the evidence of the promoters that for many
years there has been no sufficient audit or supervi-
sion of the accounts of the company, and that
defalcations have occurred extending over a period
of six or seven years, and exceeding in amount
£71,000,
FORtiOrt CATTLV:
Mr. C. S. Read, M.P., has issued to the members
of the Chambers of Agriculture a letter, in which he
expresses his regret at the failure of the agricultu-
rists to get a provision inserted in the Government
Cattle Bill for keeping out diseased beasts,
"I believe (he says) that the alterations we propose
making in the bill regarding our stock will meet
with little opposition from the Government, but I
am grieved to add that I find a most determined
resistance will be made to those amendments Which aim at
providing separate markets for foreign stock. We stated
our requirements on this bead in reasonable and moderate
terms, and have made every concession save those that we
regard as essential for the exclusion of foreign diseases.
Without these separate markets at all the ports where
cattle from Central and Eastern Europe are landed, the
other provisions of the bill will be almost valueless. I
therefore deem it my duty to respectfully call upon every
subscriber to our local Chambers to urge upon all members
of Parliament within his district the necessity of support-
ing these amendments, which, if carried, will increase
rather than decrease the supply of foreign meat, and
which, I believe, offer the most permanent means, short of
actual prohibition, of keeping the stock of this country
free from imported diseases."
Is it protection against disease, or against competi-
tion, that Mr. Read and his friends are really trying
to obtain ? Are they not very zealous in the former
because they know that what they propose will
include the latter ?