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

,IT OF

JOURNALS,

The Standard observes that the death of Sir R. Mayne
has placed the most important of all the appointments in
the home civil service at the disposal of Mr. Bruce. The
Chief Commissioner is responsible for the safety of the
lives and property of a population of 3,000,000 persons.
It is essential to consider to what profession the man
should belong who is to be at the head of the police, and
there seems good ground for objecting to the appointment
of too young a man. So important, indeed, does this con-
sideration—the responsibility of the Chief Commissioner
to the Home Office—appear to ourselves, that we
are disposed to think that it would be worth while to take
advantage of the present opportunity and reconsider the
relations between the Chief Commissioner and the
Home Office. Is it really advisable that any official
should be able to exercise important functions without
owing, in the discharge of those functions, a direct
responsibility either to Parliament or to a Minister with
a seat in Parliament ? Yet the Chief Commissioner of
Police is precisely in this position. He has the power of
dismissing, as a recent trial has prcived, his subordinates
on his own authority. Ile has the power of regulating a
traffic on which the commerce and prosperity of the greatest
city in the world depend. He is allowed to sign orders
in his own name and on his own authority ; and those
orders must often be obnoxious, as they were recently ob-
noxious, to a large number of his fellow-citizens. Now
we are not saying that Sir R. Mayne exercised these, or
many other powers either wisely or unwisely ; we are
simply insisting that the power is too great to be entrusted
to any one individual under a Constitutional Government,
and we cannot help hoping that the vacancy which Sir R.
Mayne's death has occasioned may afford an opportunity
for reconsidering the whole position and status of the Chief
Commissioner of Police.

The Daily News remarks that the first day of the new
year has been celebrated in diverse fashions by Pagan
and Christian, ancient and modern, Greek, Roman, and
barbarian, Catholic awl Protestant. Cynics may declare
that New Year's Day ought to have no special recognition,
and metaphysicians may prove that time has no real exis-
tence, but these are a minority of the human race, and
men will always give to New Year's Day a place of
honour in the category of time. The First of January is
not in England, as it is still in France, the jour
des etrennes, and though Christmas boxes are
an affliction which all men make in a spirit the
reverse of that of the cheerful giver, still they are offerings
out of the fulness of the heart compared with the New
Year presents by which in France, as a correspondent
shews, dependence propitiates power and influence. There
was a use, however, before there was an abuse, and inge-
nuity, profitably Over-strained, may detect a symbolical
meaning in the practice. What are the New Year's gifts,
which, on this jour des etrennes, emperors, and rulers, and
nations will give or make up their minds to bestow?
Will Napoleon 111. give freedom to France, or France,
at the coming general elections, give security to the
dynasty of Buonaparte ? Will England give justice to
Ireland, and Mr. Gladstone make a present of economy
and efficient administration to England? Will General
Grant give law and secure freedom both to the whites and
to the negroes in the Southern States of the Union ? Will
diplomacy give peace to Eastern Europe ? Will wise
legislation give the light of knowledge to those who are in
intellectual darkness, and hope to pauperism? If the year
1.869 has these gifts in store for the world, the most lavish
dour des etrennes will but poorly symbolise its munificence.
The Telegraph believes that rumour is wrong in its pre-
dictions concerning the army reforms about to take place.
It considers that what Mr. Cardwell contemplates is to
reduce the useless and unnecessary colonial garrisons, and
this will be the proper course to pursue. Although the
new Minister has made great progress in the right direc-
tion, he must be careful to provide an efficient reserve t 3
fill up the regiments to a war strength if required.
Another improvement suggested is to wipe out
the groaning half - pay list, and to make its
useless members do useful work in the service of the
militia. It is said that in the administration of
the army there is much room for improvement. It
is well known that the War Office is overgrown and cum-
brously unwieldy ;it is also very expensive. A number of
the clerks might certainly be dispensed with, a great
number might be replaced by meritorious non-commissioned
officers, and for not a few might be advantageously sub-
stituted some half-pay officers of the army. Both the
combatant and administrative branches of the service
would thus be benefited, and both would be allied
instead of remaining in a state of antagonism. The
Minister for War has great official experience, and his
proposals and intentions are such as the country will sup-
port ; but it is earnestly to be hoped that he will go
further. While he is pledged to reduce the army estimates,
he is equally pledged not to cripple the army. His own
desires will urge him to carry on the work of retrench-
ment ; he will find a fair field to do so if he turns his
attention as keenly towards the administrative as his
predecessors have towards the executive branch of the
service.

The Star remarks that the reorganisation of the judicial
system of England is one of the first, as it is one of the
grandest and most arduous reforms that can engage the
attention of the renovated House of Commons. The pro.
gross of legal reform for many years has gone forward
•slowly and fitfully. The institution of the county courts
and the gradual extension of their powers was the most
important attempt to reduce the chaos of English law
to order and method, and render justice attainable
in a brief space of time and at a small cost.
Some enthusiasts in the cause of legal reform have hoped
to make a radical change in the very basis of our judicial
system, to sweep away at one blow the whole super-

structure of our Chancery jurisdiction and Common
Law Courts, and the minor powers of the Probate
and Divorce, the Admiralty, the Central Criminal Court,
and the Bankruprcy Court, as well as the privileges of
quarter sessions. It has been proposed to reduce
the machinery of English law to a gradation of three
orders of tribunals. The petty sessions courts, in which
justice should be administered, at least in part, by
stipendiary magistrates, would, under the proposed
scheme, represent the courts of first instance; the
county (or district) courts, with enlarged powers, would
constitute the second order, and take the place
of the existing courts of assize ; _and a supreme
coi:rt of appeal in London would crown the edifice.
A practical reformer will perhaps be wise in contenting
himself with less ambitions projects for which the way has
been already prepared. Obviously, the simplest as well as

the most effective plan to cheapen and simplify the ad.
ministration of justice would be to give the county courts
jurisdiction in ordinary actions to at least as large an amount
as is allowed in equitable proceedings, As much reason can be
shewn, at all events, for this as for the amal,ramation of
Eankruptcy and Admiralty practice with the ordinary
business of the county courts : while the public benefit
would be much more direct and extended. In this case,
however, it would be necessary to improve the status of

the county court judges. They now complain that every
year their work has been increased, without a correspond.
Ing improvement of their position and remuneration. It
is to be hoped that the new PArliameiiit
vigorously, and at the same time liberally with the whQle

aiegtimi

The ..tmes remarks that the law of primogeniture is
pretty sure to receive the first attentions of the new Par.
liament. There is hardly a topic on which people speak
with more vehemence, and even bitterness. It is generally
felt, indeed, that much more is in question than is
expressed in the first instance, and that what is actually
proposed is only to open the way to establish the rule, to
familiarise people with an idea hitherto foreign to our
institutions. What the innovators are driving at,
it is assumed, is the indefinite subdivision et
landed property, the reduction of the great landed pro-
prietors to less formidable or less enviable proportions,
and the consequent weakening, if not final extinction of
various institutions depending on a landed aristocracy.
The social and political bearings of the question vastly
preponderate over the personal interests involved. The
younger sons that now are must remain younger
sons for the rest of their days, but may naturally
be disposed to see their own side of this question.
The living generation of manufacturing and mercantile
gentlemen unable to obtain at any price landed properties
within reach of their business, or where they may happen
to want them, will have to manage as well as they can ;
but they will naturally feel it keenly in behalf of their
successors. There are two sides to all these questions,
and when a man has seen and felt the whole of one side
it is always possible that a glance at the other side may
add to his information or his ideas, even if it do not
absolutely guide his decision. What we have to consider
as paramount to all particular cases of convenience or of
supposed injury is the genius of our institutions and the
predominant tastes and customs of the country, or, as our
correspondent calls it, the established sense of the people.
Are the British people generally in favour of a landed
aristocracy—that is, ancient families bearing names that
shall everywhere carry weight and win deference, and
endowed with patrimonies preserved and held together in
a great degree by the operation of our customs and laws?
There is not a question in the world that can be
answered more readily and certainly. This is the
taste, and more than the taste, of the British people,
for it is a passion and almost a religion with them.
There is no reason from without, or contingency looming
in the future, from which the internal economy and old
institutions of this country should be violently changed.
The British people do not shew the least inclination or
tendency to a democratical stage of being. They have
not this end in view at all. No measure can ever be
recommended to them without a preliminary argument
that it will not lead that way, or will stop immensely
short of that result. That preliminary attempt will
have to be made in any proposition affecting the descent
of landed property, and it will have to be successful before
anything is actually done.