The Sun.
London, England, 1869-02-12 00:00:00

THE LICENSING SYSTEM.

ELECTION PETITIONS.

WESTBURY.—A second address has just been issued by

Mr. C. P. Phipps, of Chalcot, brother of the unseated
member for this borough, Mr. John Lewis Phipps, the
Conservative candidate, asking the suffrages of the
electors, and expressing his determination to contest the
seat with Mr. Abraham Laverton, the Liberal candidate,
on independent principles. Mr. Phipps will not pledge
himself as to the Irish Church, although expressing him•
133 favourable to an adjustment of the question. lie is
in favour of a seduction of the public expenditure.
DUMFRIESSHIRE.-At a crowded and enthusiastic meet.

ing, of the electors of the county, the following resolution
was carried unanimously :—" The Liberal electors of
Dumfriesshire having been informed that the petition at
the instance of Major Walker has been withdrawn, and
that, in consequence, Sir Sydney 11. Waterlow is duly
elected and returned as member for the county, desire to
express to Sir Sydney their assurance of their continued
confidence and support, and request him to maintain his
rosition as their representative."
CITY OF LONDON.—The Globe says :—" Calculating the
results of the last election, and estimating the probabilities
of a single-banded contest, the supporters of
the distinguished baron entertain little or no
doubt of his success. The Conservatives and Con-
stitutionalists of the City of London must not be idle.
The struggle is well worthy of their noblest and best exer-
tions. At the recent election the party asserted its repre-
sentative importance, and evinced its strength. Strong
and united action will be needed to justify the promise
given on that occasion. There is not a moment to be lost;
if it be intended to retain the seat, immediate steps must
Ile taken to secure it."

THE TREATY BETWEEN ENGLAND AND

AMERICA.

The New York Nation publishes on the Alabama Claims
Treaty au article, which may be taken as a fair expr
Nation
notices, moderato American opinion on the subject. The
notices, first, that whilst there are heights of national
indignation and depths of national feeling for which
'here is no remedy but war ; yet when once a nation
agrees to arbitration it passes out of the domain of
feeling into that of reason, it lays down its wrongs and goes
Into court. Hence the spirit of the English nation dui ing
he war, or the moral complexion. Laird's share in the de-
struction of American commerce ought not to affect the
national judgment on the convention. Further, it is nothing
against the proposed tribunal that it will not, under any
circumstance; award the full amount of damage the United
States has sustained at sea,or take from England the full amount
of the gain which has accrued to her through the rebellion.
" There is no human mode of exacting of everybody who
participates in or instigates a great war the proper
amount of retribution. No court is adequate to any
such task. Nobody can say exactly who is responsible for
a great war, or to whom it was owing that it was attended
with such and such atrocities or did not end at such and such a time. We might as well attempt to put the Demo-
cratic party on its trial for the rebellion." As it appears
to the Nation the Convention does contain one
great fault, flagrant and patent, and that is the mode of
appointing the umpire who is to decide in case the commis-
sioners cannot agree upon the same person. This umpire
is to be chosen by lot out of two previously selected by
both parties, so that even the question of Eng-
land's liability might be decided at the outset
by an Englishman or a pet son selected by Eng-
land. If the arbiter may be chosen by lot under such cir-
cumstances, the whole question might as well be decided at
once by tossing up a cont. The object of the commission is
not simply to give a decision, but to give a decision which
both parties are likely to respect, and a decision arrived at,
even in part, by blind chance would command nobody's re-
spect, and probably would not be enforced. But then the
Senate is at least as likely to see this, as well as other weak
points of the convention, as anybody out of doors, and we
may feel rosured that it will be satisfactory in any form in
which it issues from their hands. Evan Mr. Seward's great
point, the submission to the commission of the propriety,
in point of timo, of the concession of belligerent rights
to the insurgents by Great Britain, would hardly give
troubl; even if England had refused to agree to it, because
nobody has ever been able to see how that, or any other
notorious fact, could be kept back from the consideration of
the commission." From this it will be seen that the Nation
assumes the reference of our recognition of the Southern
blllligerency as a matter of course.

Two women were committed for trial yesterday at
Bow-street for a daring burglary. They broke into a house
In Bedford-place, and stole plate to the value of £5O.
A fearful story is told of the sufferings of the crew
of the barque Cadet, which left Liverpool for Philadelphia.
She was provisioned for thirty-five days, but being driven
out of her course by violent gales, the men were reduced
almost to the point of starvation. Their provisions were
reduced to ten pounds of fi u when they fortunately spoke
a vessel and obtained a small supply of food, which enabled
them ultimately to reach Philadelphia. But for this timely
assistance they must have all perished.

At the annual meeting of the Nottingham Ragged
School, Mr. Mundella, M.P., trusted that the time was at
hand when there would be no need for ragged schools as
they now existed; but in the present states of our educa-
tional system they filled a most important void.
It was the duty of the State to educate the neglected chil-
dren of the poor, and he hoped it would do so soon. In
Manchester alone there were 6,000 neglected children about
the streets, and be did hope that Christian men would deal
with the question of education in the right spirit, and not
allow theological differences to stand in the way.

At the annual meeting of the Leeds Chamber of
Commerce Mr. Baines, M.P., was present, and spoke at some
length on the prospects of commercial legislation. 2lr.
Baines said that he hoped the Bankruptcy Bid would have a
good chance of passing this year. Ho thought there had
been a needless delay in obtaining the returns, which
were called for a year ago, respecting the amount
of machinery and the number of hands m-
loyod iu the factories of the country. Mr. Baines
touched upon several other topics connected w:th commer-
cial reform, including the Austrian and American tariffs
and the registration of partnership, and expressed himself
favoural le to the establishment of courts of concillati6n.

RITUALISM'.—The Rev. Charles -Voysey, vicar
of Healangb, in the diocese of York, propounds a simple
and ready cure for ritualism. It is that an Act of Parlia-
ment should be passed abolishing the ceremony of conse-
crating the elements at the Holy Communion. Mr.
Voysey thinks this "slight change" would be accepted to
Parliament, because, among other reasons, the proportion
of communicants in time Church of England, as eon.pared
with the number of her members, is absurdly small. His
ctxraordinary proposal appears in the form of a letter to
the Yorkshire Gazette.

The fey. S. A. Steinthal read a paper on the amend-
ment of the licensing system, at a meeting of the Man-
chester Statistical Society. He said that the first point
upon which the advocates of restriction were
agreed was that uniformity was required in the law.
At the present time a man could go and get a
license for the sale of wine and beer, although the magis-
trates and inhabitants of a district concurred that no such
license was needed ; and the applicant for a magistrate&
certificate had, when refused, the power to appeal
to the quarter sessions, where he might obtain
a certificate in the teeth of all local opposition.
He recommended the formation of a licensing
board, the members of which be annually elected
by the ratepayers, to whom they would be responsible, and
who would send the members of whose actions they disap-
proved back into private life. Having only one special
duty to perform, the board would be able to do that duty
well and efficiently. It was his conviction, founded on
more than twenty years' study of the question, that
when every possible amendment had been intro-
duced into the licensing system, the resuit would still
prove unsatisfactory in removing drunkenness and its
attendant evils ; for, so long as the public sale of drink
was allowed, so long a proportionate amount of intern-
perance would afflict the community. Mr. Steinthal coif- I
eluded by expressing his approval of the measure pro-
moted by the United Kingdom Alliance.