The Sun.
London, England, 1869-11-22 00:00:00

sin it cif m PUBLIC I01:012TAli

The Times thinks that the Devonshire deputation to the
Lord Mayor has conferred on all Englishmen an obligation
which it would be ungrateful, and, indeed, scarcely cour-
teous, not in some way to acknowledge. It is always
pleasant to be reminded of any legitimate claim to dis-
tinction which we have hitherto overlooked, even if the
discovery be not much more striking than M. Jourdain's
—that he had all his life been talking unquestionable
prose ; and the Devonshire deputation has reminded
Englishmen that they possess a merit which,
though incomparably more important than M.
Jourdain's, too many of them, like him, overlook.
Everyone of us may legitimately boast of being, not merely
an Englishman, but also, it may be, a Kentish, Yorkshire,
or even a Devonshire man. Why should we not multiply
these useful and amiable. springs of progress, and make a
point of rallying round the men of our own particu'ar
county, as the Devonshire men have rallied round the
Lord Mayor? If we could be quite sure that the experi-
ment would always succeed as well as it happened to
succeed in this case, it might perhaps be worth trying.
But the risk of failure is great, and failure so unmistakably
implies a most wearisome form of social victimisation that
we should feel some alarni at hearing that the Devonshire
de)utation was considered to have established a proper
precedent. We are glad, therefore, to be informed on
good authority that the men of Devonshire have a peculiar
power, which it would be presumptuous in other counties
to emulate, of sympathising with and taking pride in
each other, and we may further, perhaps, reassure our-
selves by conjecturing that even the Devonshire feeling
of brotherhood was quite as much the occasion as
the cause of the compliment paid to the Lord Mayor—
that his admirers, being sincerely eager to pay him a
tribute manifestly well deserved, were ready to seize upon
the first excuse. In the language of the memorialists
themselves, their tribute was called forth not so much by
their fellow-Devonshireman's "success in life, or the
dignity conferred upon him," as by " the unimpeachable
integrity and inflexible independence of character that
have marked his private as well as his public career." And
it is not often that such a tribute can be so well deserved,
if we may form any estimate of the Lord Mayor's
character from the straightforward and sensible tone of his

reply.
The Daily News asks what will ibe the precise use of the
Suez Canal in the economy of trade? It is easy to con-
clude generally, on the most superficial aspect of matters,
that the world will be a great gainer. The mere notion of
a maritime canal, or rather an arm of the sea at the place
chcsen, shortening by half, and in some; aces by more than
half, the distance by sea between the ports of Europe and
the East, strikes the imagination. But such a problem
after all ran only be properly studied in detail. We must
consider what are the present circumstances and con-
ditions of trade, if we would understand the
exact kind of service which the canal will be fitted to
render. We must look indeed to railways mainly to
increase the reaction between opposite modes of civilisa-
tion and the ferment of new ideas which results. As a
contribution to the facilities of general commerce the
Canal is most important, but it comes too late to assist
much in the most important civilising effect of improved
communications. On the direction of trade it may have a
more conspicuous influence. The tendency of the trade
between Asia and Europe is more and more to bring into
importance the countries on the line of transit between the
extreme centres to be connected. These are the north-
west of Europe on the one side, and India and
China, and partly Australia, on the other. As more
direct roads come to be used, the intermediate
countries of Europe and the provinces of Turkey
receive the stimulus of an immense transit trade. And as
a direct road of this sort, helping to bring the largest part
of the trade to tEe direct channels, the canal is most
important. In time new centres cannot fail to grow up or
to extend largely in the intermediate region, advantage
being taken of the facilities of markets and conveyance
which the neighbourhood of a great traffic route will per-
mit. The older centres, however, can only gain by such a
development of their neighbours' wealth. The facilities of
the present business will be increased with the growth of
the local traffic, and there will be more new customers for
both the East and the West.

The Telegraph observes that if we could examine in
detail the lists of those who, in their confidence, took and
held original shares in many great but financially unsuc
cessful undertakings, we should find, of course, some
unscrupulous- speculators who had overreached themselves,
hut the main hulk of the cash contributed by original and
unfortunate shareholders came from inexperienced and
confiding "men, women, and clergymen." But £2OO a
year to a man with £lOO a year means an enormous change
in almost every item of his daily life. The temptation of
an increase is therefore very strong. To women with
small capital it comes even more fiercely. They cannot
use their money in a hundred ways open to a man : the
only way in which they can speculate is by taking shares.
To clergymen this also applies. All over England—in
quiet streets of cities, in suburbs of large towns, in par-
sonages, in country villages, in wayside cottages—reside
people of small but independent means, doing nothing on
minute incomes, living barely on some little pittance
derived from invested funds. Some day a prospectug-
opens to them a golden dream. They read at the top of the
Prospectus the names of religious peers, pious baronets,
respected county members. They are promised glorious
profits and solid security. They invest as "original share-
holders," and for, perhaps, a year or two they are soothed
by flattering annual reports. Soon comes a change :
there are calls then there is a crash, and they
learn that all is nearly lost, and that, if they sell, they
will obtain, in return, as many shillings as they had
invested pounds. Years after, if they are still alive, they
may read, perhaps in a workhouse, that " this great under-
taking now pays its way; and, although there is no pros-
pect of any dividend on the original shares, yet the deben-
ture interest has been punctually paid, and all the
company's property has been kept in admirable repair."
How is it that so many of our successes are founded on
bruised and shattered lives? The fact is, that we achieve
by fraud what our forefathers accomplished by force. A
lying prospectus is our two-edged sword. We cheat and
swindle where they knocked on the head and robbed.

The Standard alludes to the extreme language used by
Mr. Doyle at a tenant-right meeting at Enniscorthy. He
said that he would read one of the messages which came
across the Atlantic, and which was from John Mitchell,
a man, who had perhaps greater influence with the Irish
race than any living Irishman. Mr. Mitchell had written
recently in his paper as follows :—" If the landlord evict
you shoot him like a mad dog." He (the Rev. Mr. Doyle)
did not approve that, but yet the landlord should deal
with it as a fact, and a very important fact. Mr. Mitchell
continued : "If the landlord hides in London, shoot the
agent ; and if you cannot shoot the agent, shoot the bailiff,
or all three together." He said he did not read this as a
threat, but with such advice coming from the American
press he saw that, unless a radical change be made, there
will be terrible work in the country. The meeting loudly
applauded during the reading of the extract." It is impos-
sible to exaggerate the gravity or the guilt of such a speech.
It is a most "important fact" that such language should
have been uttered by a priest of the popular Church, a
man of education and position, a man holding influence
among the people. It is a yet more significant fact that
this invitation to murder was uttered in the presence of a
Roman Catholic peer of high rank, who made no attempt
to check cr rebuke it, and at a meeting of. considerable im-
portance,:attended by reporters who were sure to make public
every word that was there spoken. If the Government take no
steps to punish this instigation to murder, instigation ren-
dered all the more insolent and offensive by so transparent
a pretence of disavowal, the impression produced upon the
public mind must necessarily be this, that ➢linisters either
are unable, or do not wish vigorously to repress the crimes
which they allow to be thus advised and encouraged.
And if the story, as we find it told, be true, it needs no
comment of ours to prompt the spontaneous expression of
horror and contempt which will rise to the lips of
every honest man who reads it and notes under whose
auspices Mr. Doyle read and MS audience applauded
Mitchell's exhortations to the worst and most cowardly of
crimes.

The Post remarks that Mr. Leatham has delivered a
speech of considerable smartness, and shewing signs of
more careful preparation than is usually given to discourses
in the nature of accounts rendered to constituents. It is
worthy of remark that this extra care in dealing with elec-
tors is a distinctive feature of that advanced Liberal party
to which Mr. Leatham belongs, probably for the reason
that they attach a great, and, as many will think, an ex-
aggerated, importance to the representative side of their
position. They look upon themselves less as fit and proper
persons elected to do their best for the country in its C3UII•
oils, than as delegates sent to Le the mouthpiece:3 of their
constituents—an entirely vicious view, which, if carried
out, might involve such consequences as the return of
ticket-of-leave members to repraient the criminal classes,
or of members unable to write their own names to repre-
sent the ignorant. In France the same principle has
already led to the " Mandat imperatif," as it is called, the
meaning of which is that the deputy is held bound to take
at every moment and upon every vote, categorical instruc-
tions from his constituents. This we are not likely to
come to, and so long as the purely representative idea of
the functions proper to a member of Parliament does not
carry us beyond that more complete and careful method of
utterance which Mr. Leatham, Mr. Grant-Duff, and others
think it necessary to adopt, even in obscure meetings of
their constituents, it must be hpAd to he a gain for all
maned.