The Sun.
London, England, 1869-06-09 00:00:00

El O THE PIJELIU JOURNALS,

The Times attributes the rumoured opposition to Lord
Russell's Life Peerages Bill to the present political diffi-

culty. The relations between the two Houses have been
brought into sudden prominence. Unqualified Liberals,
who are content with the powerlessness of the hereditary
Chamber, look with jealousy on any scheme for increasing
its influence and authority. Unqualified Conservatives, in
spite of their consciousness of the strict limits which
narrow the power of the Lords, shrink from any public
recognition of the fact they cannot dispute. Both classes
look with unfriendly eyes upon Lord Russell's bill,
which, were they wise, would be accepted with satisfaction
by each of them. Those who watch the debates of the

House of Lords are well aware how much they have been

affected by the succession of a single man to the body in
the person of Lord Salisbury. Suppose Lord Russell's
Bill passed, and the Prime Minister advised her Majesty

to summon as two life peers men of Lord Salisbury's
mould, but of broad Liberal thought, and possessed of
special knowledge of the commercial world, or of the state
of opinion of foreign countries, or of the progress of poli-
tical speculation, their influence would be immediately
felt as his has been. A dozen men of this calibre in the

posscssion of active powers would, by adding variety

of knowledge and of view to the House of Lords,
indefinitely increase the usefulness of the assembly. It

could never become strong to obstruct the will of the
House of Commons and the nation; but it would become
a powerful engine in educating public opinion. This

should, indeed, be its proper function. The House of
Commons reflects the judgment of the people and puts it
into shape. Were the House of Lords revivified by the
introduction of a small group of members whose sole

claim to attention rested on knowledge and character—in
a word, on personal merit—it might do much to guide and
instruct the nation-while groping its way to conclusions.

The Post declares that after all the excitement pro-
duced by the announcement of the resolution come to by the
Conservative peers, and the storm of indignant invective so
lavishly showered upon the heads which could devise a
policy of blind resistance, it appears that milder counsels
are likely to prevail, and that the party so united at
Saturday's meeting has already shewn symptoms of
seceding from the enthusiasm of its leaders. If four days'
reflection has effected so much, it is not too much to
expect that before Monday next the most fervent sup-
porters of Protestant supremacy in Ireland will per-
ceive that by a system of indiscriminate resistance
they are merely playing into the hands of their adver-
saries. The Conservative peers who consent to forego
their own most cherished convictions in obedience to the
pressure from without, shew that they have a just and
wise al preciation of the doctrine of political expediency
which has in past years been the means of averting dis-
order and confusion, and conducted the most radical
reforms through the regular stages of peaceful legislation.
At such a time as this, when criticism of the most search-
ing nature, both from within and without, is directed at
the eomposition of that House of Lords, it is a happy
omen for the future that its members should chew that
they can throw aside all class and party prejudices—no
easy matter for the most liberal minded of men—and act
for what they believe to be the common weal, in a spirit of
genuine and disinterested patriotism.

The Standard states on authority that no change has
taken place in the intentions of the Conservative peers
with respect to the Irish Church Bill. The Earl of Devon
unquestionably deprecates the ,rejection of -the bill, but
this proves only that he individually agrees with Lord
Salisbury and Lord Carnarvon that this would be not the
best way of defeating the worst portions of Mr. Gladstone's
nefarious scheme. But the Earl of Derby, a few hours
earlier on the same day, in a speech which the Times, in
support of its bold assertion, very prudently suppressed,
as unquestionably and unmistakeably declared his
intention to carry out his original purpose, and called
upon the people to support the Lords in that course.
This proves that Lord Derby had not changed his
mind, and that he had heard nothing that led him to
apprehend a defection on the part of his followers. It
is now practically declared on the part of the Prime
Minit,ter that whatever the Lords do, unless they abnegate
their functions altogether, a collision is inevitable ; and
this declaration not only cuts the ground from under the
feet of those who advocated a policy of compromise, but
relieves the advocates of a more daring course from all
responsibility, by the open avowal that the consequences
would be precisely the same whichever resolution were
adopted. Mr. Gladstone is determined not merely to dis-
establish and disendow the Church, but to override the
Constitution. He is resolved not merely to carry his bill,
but to make it au instrument of degrading and weakening
the House of Lords. If that assembly should pass it
without the amendments which every Conservative peer
is known to think essential, they would abdicate their
authority, and give up even that power of revision and
correction which the most Radical interpretation of the
Constitution ascribes to them.

The Herald refers to the recent discussion on the Metro-
politan Poor Act Amendment Bill, and says that Mr.
Torrens objected to the erection of the infirmaries, on
which a large sum has been already expended, on the
ground that the accommodation of patients labouring
under infectious diseases contributed in a great degree to
the mortality. But the same argument would apply

to every hospital. It is admitted on all hands that

isolation in such cases would be most salutary and de-
sirable ; but how is it to be accomplished, when the
sick person is, perhaps, one of six in the same wise-

rable apartment? There is only the alternative
between the evils arising from the accumulation in
a hospital or the abandonment of the smitten and home-
less person to neglect and certain death. Hospitals must
be provided for paupers as well as for other classes of the
community ; and it would be a senseless waste to abandon
those half erected at considerable expense, and which
must ultimately prove not only useful but economical.
The best course to follow is that sanctioned -by the House,
namely, to give Mr. Goschen the powers he applies for,
and then hold him responsible for the improved operation
of the law, relying at the same time on his professed
desire to accomplish every economy which may be practic-
able in the expenditure of the very large sums to be levied
under the Act he seeks to amend.

The Telegraph discourses on the history of coffee-drink-
ing, and says that it was once observed, with equal inge-
nuity and truth, that, in a double sense, coffee and
tobacco came from the opposite ends of the earth to make
acquaintance with each other. When the coffee plant
was discovered in Arabia, the narcotic weed of Virginia
was unknown in the East. Thus the two articles crossed
one another, and America sent tobacco to the Mussulman,
taking his coffee in exchange. But we are content to
eliminate the pipe and cigar from our argument ; for
smoking is at least a debateable question, while the inno-
cuousness of coffee scarcely admits of doubt. The death of
Voltairehasbeen attributed to the sleepleSsness engendered
by his excessive consumption of coffee. The Patriarch of
Ferney is said to have drunk forty cups of Mocha per
diem, but since that wicked old gentleman attained the
ripe age of 84, the share which coffee may have had in his
death scarcely calls for serious discussion. Coffee has
become domiciled and naturalised among us, but not to
such an extent as on the Continent. It is wonderfully
cheap. Yet it is a melancholy fact that a good cup of
coffee cannot easily be procured in London, while in the
provinces it is almost wholly unattainable. Some radical
imperfection seems to underlie our mode of preparing
the beverage, and as a rule neither the aromatic
flavour, such as we find in Oriental countries, nor
the purity and clearness, combined with strength, which
distinguish it in France, seem to be within the capacity of
the English concoctor. That the shoe pinches intolerably
is plain but we cannot exactly tell where the pressure
lies in this matter of preparing that mildly stimulating,
wholesome, and social drink which the pert Madame de
Sevign4 declared "would pass into oblivion, as Racine
would"— although, since the lively letter-writer's time, it
has overrun not only Europe and the East, but also the
whole American continent and the Australasian empire to
boot.

The Daily News says that perhaps there is nothing in
the world in which the real and the ideal are so far apart,
in which the actual is so utterly different from the pos-
sible, as in a racing meeting. The very phrase " the
Turf," instead of suggesting open air sport, suggests only
the most desperate gambling. Of course if a large and
prosperous profession can live and grow rich upon the
Turf, they can only live upon the losses of the public. The
rage for betting is therefore not merely ministered to, but
traded upon. The public have no chance cif an equal
wager in such circumstances. Whether a horse shall win
or not depends not upon the capabilities of the animal,
but upon the plans and policy of his owner. The
demoralising results of this system are seen on all hands.
One year it is a noble marquis who drags an historic name
through the dirt ; another year it is a great duke who
ruins the fortunes of a great house and a great family.
These are only outward and visible eig-ns of a great and
widespread evil. The same thing happens on a smaller
scale in all ranks, down to tie shopboy, who, having no
money of his own to lose, draws upon his master's till to
make up his losses, or even to the domestic servant who
makes her " spec " with the petty speculations of her
domestic errands. The misery, democalisation, and
ruin which follow in the wake of such a carnival as
"the Derby" are impossible of estimate. Scarcely a circle
of society in the kingdom is altogether untouched by it.
It is a great social intoxication, which leaves misery and
disgust behind it, or a social earthquake which
leaves desolation in its train. A race meeting is
not only formidable- by its own evils, but it attracts almost
every other form of evil to itself, and gives it a temporary
protection. It is impossible that public attention should
not be earnestly directed to this subject before long, and
whenever that takes place, the remedies applied will be
sudden and effective,