The Sun.
London, England, 1869-12-01 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIO JOURNALS,

The Times reluctantly confesses that the Imperial speech
of Monday cannot be regarded as altogether satisfactory.
The Emperor, in fact, does not seem to understand the
immense change which he has effected, and his mind
reverts to a system which has passed away. The mot
which elicited the applause of the Imperial retinue—
" rordre Hilo-ads "—is almost a repetition of the senti-
ment in the previous speech. It is true now as it was true
then ; but Frenchmen have advanced in the interval, and
the echoes of the promise had scarcely died
away when they began to ask themselves what
will happen when the speaker's voice is mute,
the resolute will dissolved, the guardian power
powerless. Tho Emperor learns by the logic of
events, and it is his good fortune and that of France that
he differs from his predecessors in possessing this faculty;
but he is still apparently a slow scholar. He has not yet
mastered the full truth that the Ministerial responsibility
he has conceded is incompatible with the theory of per
sonal government he would fain retain. He is, as we
have said, embarassed between the two principles. France
desires the reconciliation, not of the Empire, but of the
Emperor with liberty, and we look forward to the coming
year with interest, but without anxiety. The reconcilia-
tion cannot be effected without the consent of the
Emperor, but he is probably aware that the
danger would be with him and his, rather than with
liberty, if he stubbornly opposed its development.
Everything has so far encouraged him to proceed. The
first revival of parliamentary life among the members of
the Corps Legislatif is manifested in a firm resolution to
reconcile freedom with order. The Emperor himself
properly attributes to the good sense of the nation the
discomfiture of the impracticable and extreme revolu-
tionists who seemed at one time the objects of popular
favour. If he will only act upon the truth thus recog-
nised, his dynasty may be strengthened by the peaceful
adoption of self-government by the people ; his reluctance
to "crown the edifice" would certainly not prevent its
being crowned, although it might endanger his own
throne and prevent the inheritance of his son.
Lord Derby or Lord Salisbury—who shall be leader?
asks the Daily News. This is the question which the
Conservative party and press are now debating. Both of
them have the political standing and the intellectual
capacity necessary in a post which cannot be said to have
been filled since the retirement of the late Lord Derby,
though it has seen occupied ad interim by Lord Malmes-
bury and Lord Cairns. The general sentiment is, we be-
lieve, in favour of the present Lord Derby. Respect and
regard for the father haye something to do with the not
very decided preference which is entertained for the son.
He has been for 15 or 16 years Mr. Disraeli's lieutenant
and counsellor in the House of Commons. He is versed in
all the secrets of his party, and has sacrificed much that he
doubtless values—time, strength, and reputation—in its
behalf. He is possessed of a cool and sober judgment,
which can judge very well of the exigencies of the moment.
To piercing foresight or deep insight he makes no preten-
sions. As a political leader, Lord Derby is even stronger
in the weakness of his chief competitor than in his posi-
tive merits. If Mr. Disraeli is to be the head of the Con-
servative party, and to lead it in the House of Commons„
Lord Salisbury cannot lead it in the House of
Lords. An arrangement of this kind would produce two
Conservative parties, obeying a different inspiration, and
pursuing different tactics in the two Houses. Lord Salis-
bury must change his doctrines, or the Conservative party
must admit the justice of the accusations made against
them, and consent to reverse their course, if he is to lead
and they are to follow. Opponents could desire nothing
worse for the Conservatives than that they should commit
themselves to his guidance. We have no particular
admiration for Mr. Disraeli's theory and practice; but
they are at least of a higher order than the statesmanship
and the historic philosophy which Lord Salisbury appearsl
to have derived from a too exclusive study of the writings
of the late Sir Archibald Alison.

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The English prison of last century, says the Telegraph,
was simply a hole in which men and women languished
amid dirt, damp, squalor, and semi-starvation. In many
provincial gaols the allowance of bread was barely suffi-
cient to keep body and soul together ; and when a blunder:
ing philanthropy endeavoured to contribute to the suste-
nance of the " poor prisoners," the donations of the bene-
volent were often appropriated by brutal and unscrupu-
lous gaolers. But civilisation made progress. Howard
was thanked by the House of Commons for his
book on " The State of the Prisons." Jeremy
Bentham was allowed to elaborate his plan of
a Panopticon or " House of Occupation" at Mill-
bank. At a later period, Fowell Buxton, Elizabeth Fry,
and Edward Gibbon Wakefield, developed their plans of
reform; and we now possess new, improved, civilised,
clean, orderly prisons. The cells are beautifully venti-
lated. Prisoners no longer go half-clad, dirty, unkempt.
For all this, in the opinion of most thinking people, a
modern prison is as much a curse and a scandal to the land
as any of the old dens of filth, hunger, and nakedness,
where the outcasts or victims of society, or the objects of
injustice, lay on straw with the iron of the gyves eating
into their limbs and entering their souls. The county
magistrates and the Legislature would do well to weigh
the most significant passage in Mr. Sergeant
Payne's amendment, " that the imprisonment of
old offenders who have been many times con-
victed has altogether failed to produce any good
effect." These few words embody the gravest criti-
cism which could possiblybepassedon our highly elaborate
prison system. We treat our prisoners more humanely;
we give them chances of thinking on their former ways,
and discerning the possibility of a better and more
honourable life. But, so long as we hold that our duty is
done when a man hostile to social order is shut into a
clean and comfortable cell, we shall profit little by our
superior humanity and more systematic regulations. That
costly fixed machinery of architecture, healthful precau-
tion, and well-planned discipline, is practically wasted so
long as it is not informed by the life of reformatory effort ;
and, until we earnestly set ourselves to turning a man out
of prison a better creature than he was at entrance, all our
labour and ingenuity may be very nice for the prisoner,
but will be merely useless, if not absolutely mischievous
for the community.

The Post observes that a ease has just occurred which
deserves special attention, as an illustration of the perse-
cution which may be carried on under cover of obsolete,
but unrepealed, Acts of Parliament. A Mr. Jackson a
few Sundays since saw a crossing-sweeper at work. He
told him that if he did not stop sweeping during church
hours he -would summon him, and then he went
on his pious way. However, as the crossing-
sweeper " did not desist " at the word of Mr.
Jackson, Mr. Jackson took out a summons against him
under an old Act passed in the reign of Charles 11., and
procured the infliction upon him of a fine of ls., which,
with the costs, must probably have amounted to something
like 16s. or 17s. Now, when we see a crossing-sweeper
visited with a penalty which it must be impos-
sible for him to have paid, and brought thereby
to misery, and possibly, through providential interposition,
to starvation, we must be thankful that we live in
a country where there are to be found men and means
capable of making the Lord's Day to be respected.
Seriously, it is lamentable to find such a spirit of narrow
and petty persecution abroad ; but the way to put a stop
to it is to insist upon its being carried out thoroughly and
impartially. That, at any rate, would furnish a method
for trying the amount of popularity which the statute
would command when brought to bear upon others than
crossing-sweepers.
It is not to be wondered at, remarks the Standard, that
the Ministerial organs should be out of humour with the
Tipperary eleetiOn, and that they should receive with an
ill grace the congratulations which we have addressed to
them upon that event. After all the elaborate attempts
to fit Tipperary with a proper candidate, the rejection of
the Government Fenian in favour of the people's
Fenian is something more than flesh and blood can
bear. To assume from our satisfaction at this event
that we are disposed to "arrest the progress of
reform," and to resort to "force alone" for the cure
of Irish evils, is an impudent conclusion which not
even the occasion of this great Liberal discomfiture can
warrant. None of the Conservative journals have used
language so violent and so threatening against Ireland on
account of Mr. Heron's defeat as the Times itself in the
very article in which it pretends to deprecate the appeal
to force. Never before has its sense of the disordered and
lawless state of the country been so keen as since the
Ministerial defeat at Tipperary. All this is excellent
wisdom; but we protest against the journal which is
moved to it only after the Tipperary election, giving
itself airs of superiority for its freedom from the ordinary
tricks of faction. If such is the duty of the Govern-
ment, it was its duty just as much before Mr. Heron had
been defeated by O'Donovan Rossa. That event cannot
have enlarged in any way the functions of a Liberal
Ministry. The affront to the Crown had been given even
before the electors had been compelled to choose between
the Fenian and the Fenian's advocate; and it is absurd to
pretend that any new outrage has been added `to the list
since the Government have lost a seat in Tipperary.

THE GOLD DISCOVERIES IN NEW ZEALAND,—
The New Zealand papers give very favourable accounts of
the gold discoveries. Some stone crushed at the Kuranni
Company's battery yielded 4oz. of gold to the pound. A
large reef lately struck at Karaka Creek has yielded on an
average 2oz. to the ton. The result of crushing 35 tons
from 91, All Nations clslip ga,ve kliapka,244s