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

SPIRIT OV THE PUBLIC JOURNALS,

The Times observes that meetings where politics are
excluded and every one talks them are always peculiarly
instructive. The Cutlers' Feast at Sheffield is such an
occasion. In fact, for a number of Englishmen to come
together and not to discuss political questions would be
anywhere an extraordinary phenomenon. It certainly is
not likely to be presented at Sheffield so long as Mr. Roe-
buck is a guest at these banquets. Every one who loves a
single-minded partisan—who fights, however, forprinciples,
not men—must rejoice to find that Mr. Roebuck manifests
no intention as yet of carrying out, his hasty threat of
retiring from public life. With his ever-youthful enthu-
siasm and passionate eagerness to track a grievance, what.
ever its home and origin, he occupies a place by himself
in it. He is the nettle and dockleaf of politics in one,
for there is always perceptible a just sentiment at the
root of his vehemence which compels a liking for the
man. At present his favourite bugbear seems to be
the alleged miserable parsimony which some person or
persons not named are awned by him of applying to
the military and naval services of the country. Mr.
Roebuck complains that the soldier's friend is met
with pitiful talk about economy, and persons not
aware that party controversy finds no place at Cutlers'
feasts might suppose him to have been insinuating
that the modern my for retrenchment in military and
naval administration must originate in this spirit. But
retrenchment in itself is not incompatible with the utmost
consideration for the individual. The mere number of men
cannot, indeed, be reduced safely below a certain limit ;
but within that line it is quite possible that reduction
may be even • made a means of increasing the comfort of
those actually under arms. It is the same problem
which has lately been discussed in relation to the
agricultural labourer. In both cases there is good
ground for supposing that the employer—whether
State or farmer—can get his work better done,
and the employed a higher rate of remuneration,
by a diminution in the number of the workmen. The
same principle applies to the ships as to the sailors who
man them. The more generous the disbursements on the
vessels really needed, the more real the economy also.
But the mere number of vessels does not constitute
strength in a navy any more than the number of troops
in an army. What is required, and what the country
insists upon, is that whatever public money is spent on its
defences should be spent so as to produce the greatest real
return, and that its armies and fleets, whether large or
small, should be at all events composed of the best
materials available, and be handled in the most efficient
manner.

The Standard considers that the annual report of the
Registrar of Friendly Societies is, in many respects, a
melancholy document. It bears witness to the spirit of
forethought and economy which actuates a large propor-
tion of the working classes, and at the same time spews
how these very virtues themselves go astray through the
lack of proper information. The hard-won shilling, re-
claimed from the pot-house or the gin-shop, or perhaps
diverted from enjoyments of a more creditable character,
is handed over for safe custody to the officers of some pre-
tentious institution with a flaming prospectus, the deposi-
tors firmly believing that in the bands of these exceedingly
clever people the small periodical payments will fructify
into a golden harvest, to be reaped in the time of sickness
or old age. Cruel indeed is the blow by which too often
these fond expectations are at last destroyed. In some
instances these disasters occur through frauds but in the
great majority of cases the mischief arises from incompe-
tence, mingled with a certain amount of recklessness. It
has been stated that iu one of the counties of England a
large proportion of the inmates of the workhouses were
persons who had belonged to friendly societies which had
broken down. Mr. Tidd Pratt has received annual state-
ments from about thirty burial societies, but remarks that
" not one of them states the amount of liabilities, that
is, the amount of the assurances which each society is
liable to pay," The Liverpool Victoria Legal Society
states the amount of its property and assets to be
£19,521, " but the number of members is not stated." A
parliamentary return, however, obtained by Lord Devon,
shows that the number is not far short of 130,000. The
Royal Liver Society, Mr. Tidd Pratt observes, " has
neglected to send any return." The registrar sent out
22,026 forms of annual returns to be filled up by the
various friendly societies of England and Wales. Only
about half ever came back again. Many of these gave
incomplete particulars. The 9,494 societies whose returns
were complete showed 1,646,965 members, with funds
amounting to £5,692,937. Thus a division of assets would
afford tether less than £3 10E. per head, and this occurs in

the case of the better class of societies. What must be the
condition of the rest, some 12,000 in number?

The Daity Ems declares that the difference between a
good and a Lad harvest is not a matter of such social con-
sequence now as it was some years ago. A bad harvest
once meant famine—now it does not mean even scarcity.
A harvest is just so mach new wealth thrown into the
nation's lap, just so much added to its pirse.
or two quarters of corn is Several millions of money
more or less in the great spending fund of the com-
munity. When the farmers do well, the rest of us
can scarcely do badly. If they are prospering. the home
trade will prosper, and Manchester, Leeds, and Birming-
ham will be all the busies with orders from home. But it
is not always that even a good harvest really enriches the
farmers. Last year the wheat was splendid, and the
bailey all that Burton and its brewers could desire, but
the drought burned up the pastures and destroyed the
root crops, and did more to impoverish the country
than even the harvest did to enrich it. This
year it was said that the root crops were splendid
and the pastures rich, and that what the scanty
harvest which was feared would take with one
hand the splendid green crops would give back
more abundantly with the other. But some seven weeks
of drought—far longer, indeed, in the Eastern Counties
and in Scotland—have partly saved the harvest, and
almost spoiled the green crops. On all hands the cry
comes for rain. And as on Sunday the cold east wind
shiftectsouth-west, and slight showers came to lay the
London dust, we may express a hope that just as the sun-
shine came in time to save the harvest, so the latter rain
may come in ample time to save the pastures and the
green crops.

The art of dining, says the Star, is properly considered
one of the fine arts. That ars bate riandi of which
ethical writers speak would probably be determined by
many of them to he the art of dining well. That, indeed,
would be a very shallow philosophy that would ignore or
deny the deep importance of the subject. An immense part
of human life is spent at the dinner table, and the accumu-
lated time that amounts to years in the long run must be a
matter of anxious solicitude. Moreover, dinner means
digestion—or indigestion, as the case may be—and it is
almost humiliating to think how the intellectual
and moral nature of the man depends on the question
whether the kind or the unkind fate attends his dinner.
Napoleon lost ono of his greatest battles by a fit of indi-
gestion. We have no doubt that his food was ill-cooked,
or he was in a great hurry and ate too fast. This is the
censtant error which men encounter in the battle of life,
and through which they make capital blunders. Many of the
Ventures of speculation have be en ill-chosen or spoilt through
a judgment clouded by the fumes of an ill-cooked dinner.
The dyspeptic invariably takes the gloomiest views on
religion and life, and is in danger of becoming a mis-
anthrope or a tyrant. It cannot be too much im-
pressed on the domestic mind that you can get a good
dinner for the same money which you pay for a bad one ;
but we are willing to admit that the difference in trouble
will he very considerable. It implies that the servants
should have the supervision of the mistress, and that the
mistress should have some general acquaintance with the
science. But the game is worth the candle. The trouble
will be a diminishing trouble, and the comfort will be an
increasing comfort. The home will be more attractive
and the meal more cheerful, Life is a lang game ; and,
to play the game with success, we need take ever advan-
tage of diet, rest, change, exercise, sleep, and not encum-
ber ourselves with avoidable causes of inefficiency in our
our work.

bad, but at
The Telegraph thinks there is something
the same time pleasing and hopeful, in military inter-
national reunions. If they are lookerlnt merely from the
warlike point of view, it may seem at first sight inconsis-
tent that people who may have some day, by an evil
chance, to direct their bullets against each other should
meet to compare weapons and degrees of skill, and
to shoot for prizes in an amicable way. Here
are to be mixed up at (the butts of the Bel-
gian Tir, Frenchmen, Englishmen, Swiss, Ger-
mans, Tyrolese, and, we suppose, representa-
tives of all the sharp - shooting people of the
Continent. They will fraternise and take "wines of
honour " together, and learn all sorts of lessons from each
other, out of which the invariable but amazing discovery
will be derived that the foreigner is " not a bad fellow
after all !" chile the Briton will be recognised as truly a
!ware garcon. After this mutual eciairci,scdicid, all these
heterogeneous comrades are not nearly Cu much inclined
to " pot " each other as they were before. They go home
full of pleasant little speeches and kindly petits soins, and
with a new respect for the foreign friends whom they have
seen and known, which bears gentle and useful fruit long
after the seedtimc is over. All evils have in
themselves the germ of their own destruction, and the
fashion of warfare is among them. It is tending towards
disuse by its own costly and distinctive refinements of
bloodshed ; and these very competitions, which have their
root in the perfection of a weapon designed to slay and
maim mankind, indirectly make that dismal issue less and
!ess likely, since they bring possible combatants together
:pen fields of amicable rivalry, and actually propagate
;he blessed moral of iutcpati)cal c9nord by Ow voico vi
Ibe deadly rifle. *