The Sun.
London, England, 1869-01-25 00:00:00

LOINDOiV, MONDAY, JAN. 25, 1869.

At the first Cabinet Council after the recess, Mr.
GLADSTONE and the members of his new party will
no doubt have plenty to discuss. There is the Irish
question, comprising as it does both land and
Church—a formidable junction. There are foreign
affeirs, more especially that standing problem in the
East, which neither sword nor statecraft has as yet
succeeded in unravelling. Thera is the great ques-
tion of economy to which the Premier has pledged
himself ; there is the Ballot, to which a fair propor-
tion of the Cabinet are already committed. It is not
unreasonable to hope that Mr. BRUCE and one or two
other recent converts to this much-needed reform
will take an early opportunity of explaining the reasons
for their change of views to their less enlightened
colleagues. In any case, however. the new Ministry
which is to face the new Parliament will find the
construction of the QUEEN'S speech no very easy or
pleasant task.
Amid all the topics that crowd upon their notice let
us hope they will not overlook some very pressing per-
plexities. The appointment of Sir RICHARD 3IAYNE'S
successor will, indeed, compel them to turn their at-
tention to the imperative necessity of adopting more
active measures for the repression of crime. Th,3 ex-
perience of every magistrate will confirm the com-
plaints raised by the public, who not unreasonably
object to burglaries by night, pickpockets by day, and
to fraud, imposture, and even actual violence going on
with impunity during both. Not the least mischiev-
ous recruits of this vast army of crime are the beg-
ging impostors, and threatening beggsre, who are be-
coming an absolute pest in many quarters. Thee
ruffians are the worst and most unscrupulous of robbers,
because they rob from the poar. The semi which
they extract from the careless or the charitable are
not only in themselves misapplied, but they are di-
verted from those who really need them and deserve
them. Where there is extreme destitution and actual
want humanity forbids us to pause and examine
testimonials of character before affording relief ; but
these begging impostors are troubled by no scruples
The widow and her children are wanting food and
fire, the sick men or woman is suffering for lack of
ordinary comforts, the aged couple have scarcely the
barest necessaries of life, while the able-bodied idler,
chanting his doeful tale of "No work to do," or
threatening timid passengers iu lonely streets, or
clamouring at the doors of every charitable institu-
tion, fills his pockets with silver, and goes from oue
pui;lic-house to another to lay it out.
On Saturday last three powerfully-built men in
labourers' dress were brought up at Bow-street,
charged with begging in the Parks, and it eppeared
from the evidence that they were well-known charac-
ters, who did not scruple to try threats if persuasion
proved ineffectual. At Westminster a still more
daring member of the b igging i upostor fratereity
male ;gig appearance in Court. ili. tut le, was eol un-
,ry, though his exit, luckily for the public, was con-
ducted in a different form. He asked for relief from
the magistrate, who directed him to the relieving
officer. He refused to go, and threatened to break
some windows. Upon this a policeman endeavoure
to remove him, when the hero immediately turned
round and assaulted him savagely. The magistrate,
however, soon restricted his energies by sending
him o'_f to prison for tees tueatht, with hard
labour. At the end of that time he will,
no doubt, be ready to prosecute his trade with
improved energies, pocketing a goodly share of
those kindly alms which should go to assist the really
poor.

However social philosophers may argue, and theo-
rists whose knowledge of the sufferings of the poor
is drawn from letters, and articles, and essay may
dcgmatise, there must always in our complex society
be a vast amount of poverty and privation among us
in winter weather. Self-dependence is an excellent
thing, and the truest charity is unquestionably
to help others to help themselves, but it is
neither just nor reasonable to expect to find all
the moral virtues and a large share of mental wis-
dom exclusively among the less educated classes
Granted that many suffer from severe privation in the
winter who might and ought to lay by something out
of their summer's wages, are we to be surprised a,
this result? How many of the naillle classes live
carefully within their means, laying by money in
' case of illness or reverse of fortune? flow many
scrupulously pay their way and keep their accounts
straight with the world? We should undoubtedly
do all that we can to encourage the poor in habits of
thriftiness and forethought, in timely self-denial, and
prudent self-respect, but we need not class half the
community as worthless paupers, because they are
too ready in this as in other things to follow the
example of their betters.
There is, however, beyond the class of open and
professe I paupers a wide circle of really strugging
and respectable poor, who are reduced by the stress
of circumstances to terrible straits. r 1 bricklayer,
with perhaps eix or se.ven children mainly deee.icleut on
him, earns in thesuminer, with regular work,lB3. a week •
Ow of thi4, with perhaps a little help from his wife,
he has to pay three or four shillings for rent and find
eight persons in f.,od an 1 clothes. How to the
-p-ilo-ophers sup; ose that h,, can lay by anythinl4 fur
times of sickness, severe frost, or sudden c,tlaotiity ?
It has grown to be the fashion to censure the free
dispensing of medical advice and medicines to the
poor. A social reformer, the other day, condemned
the system as fatal to self-respect, yet we apprehend
that, if he really knew a few every day cases of very
common distress, his opinions might considerably
change. A labourer falls ill, or meets with an acci-
dent. The children want bread, and the landlord
wants his money, self-respect notwithstanding. The
wife tries to do her part; perhaps she gets casual em-
ployment in washing or chariug, at half-a-crown a
day,for two or three laysin the week. Of courseshe must
leave the sick husband untended, and thankfully go
out for a day's work after a night's watching ; but
when she comes home with her dearly-prized half-
crown, and gets food and firing, and provides for the
inexorable rent day, where is the "self-respecting"
sum to come from for the doctor and the medicine?
Again, an epidemic perhaps strikes the children. In
their crowded rooms, if one member of a large family
catch an infectious complaint there is no escape for
the others. Four or five chill-en of various ages are
down with smallpox, typhus, or that terrible visitant
which has been this year so busy amongst us. They
have perhaps a hard struggle, and the one warning
chimed into the earn of the anxious mother is " Keep
them up—give them everything they can take." Who
could stint children at such a crisis to save the credit
of independence? Thankful, indeed, are the parents
in such a case for the free advice, the free medicine,
the kindly care, which ourihospitals and dispensaries
give. Tot, many fathers and mothers have dui