The Sun.
London, England, 1869-11-19 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JTURNALS.

M. de Lesseps, observes the Times, is a man of genius.
In pursuit of his great idea he has shown an indomitable
spirit of pertinacity. He has never felt discouragement.
He has not known lassitude. He has never paused in his
progress. On Wednesday night there was high pomp and
festival at Ismailia. The dream of years had come true.
The ships of two oceans met at the lake harbour in the
midst of the desert, having traversed in their double
journey tho isthmus from end to end. A numerous
fleet, bearing imperial, royal, and illustrious voyagers,
had come from the Mediterranean to this half-
way resting-place between the two seas, and,
simultaneously with these, there arrived from the
Gulf of Suez a convoy of ocean-going steamers. The
passage of the canal was thus accomplished. The asser-
tions, so confidently repeated up to the eve of Wednesday,
that many months must yet pass, and vast sums be still
spent, before the passage could be made, turned to the
discredit of their authors as the advance guard of each
flotilla saluted cue another on Lake Timsah. The triumph
of M. de Lesseps was thus ccmplcte. He had spent years
upon years in the active, constant, unwearied execution of
his scheme. He had seen experiment after experiment
tried only to The estimates of the cost of the
undertaking wh:ch he himself had put forward had been
doubled, and on every occasion Then it became apparent
that the money which had been provided was insuf-
ficient the burden had 1 cen cast upon him of per-
suading the capitalists of the world to have faith in his
promise, and to throw their gold into the sands
where so much had been lost. All this he had gone through
in the strength of his belief. Even at last, when the
moment of realimtion seemed imminent, there arose a
rumour of a new difficulty. The most careful watch that
had been possible had been insufficient for the Arab and
Egyptian workmen, and it was announced that a rock had
been discovered in the canal between Ismailia and Suez,
which would be a fatal impediment to navigation until its
removal was effected. But on Wednesday the thing was
done. We rejoice that the undertaking has been so far
completed, and to join in doing honour to the man who,
under obstacles and difficulties apparently insurmountable,
pursued his grand design with unwavering faith to the
end.

In referring to the triumphal opening of the Suez Canal,
the Daily .News remarks that the engineers of that under-
taking well deserve the honours that will assuredly be
paid them, and its promoters and constructors are equally
entitled to the gratitude of mankind. A great work of
civilisation has been accomplished; for the improved
facilities of commerce between East and West, though not
. producing all the transcendent results promised, will yet
contribute materially to the welfare of millions, both now
• and in future generations. So much we are not
only willing to acknowledge, but most cordially
to rejoice in. The Suez Canal, however, has
- apparently not eseape'd the usual fatality of
splendid and novel engineering works. There is a dazzling
gain to the world, and the engineers and and promoters
have acquired renown ; but there is little satisfaction for
the obscure shareholder, whose subscriptions wore the con-
• dition precedent of the whole undertaking. We are half
inclined to doubt, indeed, whether for some time to come
the working expenses will be more than paid. The sailing
ships by the Cape, which possess about seven-eighths of the
trade, will not, without an effcrt, be beaten out of the
field by the steamers on the Canal. Their competition
will at least retard the use of the latter route.
The railway between Alexandria and Suez will, more-
over, compete with the canal for the present overland
traffic—especially the passengers and mails. For the
'world it is an advantage that there will be so much com-
petition, but the shareholders can hardly look forward to
it with the same satisfaction. We need not continue our
.calculations, which may now be tested very soon ; but per-
haps, when Englishmen are accused of apathy, it may be
remembered that the extreme hazard of the speculation more
than justified us in keeping our money out of it. The en-
terprise is not wholly premature, though it does not pro-
mise to pay ; but it was not a work for private capitalists
:to be asked to execute.

The Telegraph reminds us that in a comprehensive and
able address at the Society of Arts, the other night, Lord
Henry Lennox drew attention, among other things, to the
subject of our meat supply. The question, how the super-
abundant supply of animal food which exists in some of
the colonies can be made available for the home country
without being salted and cured, is among the most impor-
tant problems that can engage the attention of the social
reformer ; and, as Lord Henry Lennox says, it has still
to be completely solved. If the colonies could supply the
English poor with really fresh and palatable meat at 3d.
a pound, they would effect a social revolution in England.
It is even more important that the Dorsetshire labourer
should be well fed than that ho should be well
taught. Could the East-end of London be sup-
plied with fresh meat at 3d. a pound, winter
would lose half its terrors to our Door, suph a disease as
relapsing fever would be unknown, and death wuld be less
busy. Cheap food would put an end to groundless poli-
tical discontent, and would he the teat ally of the school-
master. No doubt large supplies are already received
from the colonies, but, although sufficiently nourishing,
the meat can scarcely be called fresh. Partially the
problem has been solved ; but, as Lord Henry Lennox
observes, science has still to complete the solution of the
question, how meat may be brought from South America
or Australia to this country fresh, palatable, and cheap.
Packing in ice still seems the best method ; but at present
it is too dear, and it will continue to be so unless chemists
shall discover some method of cheaply manufacturing ice.
`How to make icebergs at a trifling cost is the great
problem.

_ The Standard declares that whatever is light in the heart
of the nation must faint and grow heavy so long as
those horrible narratives of outrage and cruelty come to us
from the charnel infirmary of St. Pancras. Count up the
recent deaths. One, the week before last, " accelerated"
by foul air; seven, last, week, similarly " accelerated ;" six,
again, lying in the deadhouse, and the guardians protesting
against the impertinence of coroners' inquiries. It is diffi-
cult to write with patience or temper of iniquities so gross
and shameful. We regret that it is impossible to accept
`the apologies offered on behalf of this too-notorious insti-
tution. No explanation can explain away the facts of
deficient air, light, ventilation, and comfort; and the
very language used by the board and its officers suffices to
convict them. Their own medical adviser appeals to their
humanity. At once they request a sanction for his dis-
missal from the Poor-law Board. He calls in two inde-
pendent witnesses, of the highest professional :standing,
-and they confirm his statements, word by word. Juries,
moreover, justify his allegations. Not one of these victims
perished without complaining of cold, or bad smells, or
habitual misery, while in the department of this glorious
British establishment allotted to the care of the sick, the
.infirm, and the troublesome poor, who are always with us.
_Here rises a guardian who objects to the truth, as told by
unhappy folks who wear Pancras uniform, or receive
Pancras fees, or have visited Pancras pest-houses.
But these gentry, guardians of the rates and not of
the poor, have before them a hill too high to climb.
Flatly to their faces they are told that the removal
of a pauper to their infirmary is no more or less than a
preliminary of carting him to the graveyard ; that the
place has not merely remained without impros ement, but
is absolutely incapable of being improved ; that the paro-
chial benevolence so bestowed is nearly equivalent to a
sentence cf death ; and—but how sickening is the report of
"laughter in the court," when such desolation of human
life is described—the dirty den is known amongst its
deplorable inmates as " the rat ward." Objections are
made to inquests in these cases, but the law will not let
the worst felon or the most hopeless lunatic die without an
inquiry, and so we thank the coroner who is courageous
'enough to insist upon knowing, for himself and the world,
how paupers are murdered off the rate-books of tit
Pancras. .

The Post, in referring to the present depression of trade.
.finds reason for it in the influence cf trades unions. It
is one of the cardinal points of trade unionism that the
work to be done shall be equally divided amongst those
who have to do it ; and that, no matter how ingenious or
industrious an artisan A may be, he shall not earn more
than his dull colleague B. Is it to be wondered at that
.the French and Germans are beating us out of the
'Market—even out of cur own market—when the brains
and encrgiC3 of the English workman are dwarfed
and crushed by so unnatural and mischievous a policy? On
'the Continent, competition iu the workshop is allowed to
take its natural course ; the best man comes to the front.
Ilis work a model to iri follow-artizan, and the craft to
which he belongs is stimulated by his example. What
would become of tl3 if the principles of the trades unions
torrid, by a sudden and general cows of insanity, be im-
ported into all tl.c vccaticns a life? Tho leader of his
of its least able

circuit WC

to tr,e

le incai
hcd 7,1

' nicyit acccrilpii.. would have to
ret his varied le: ruing, and would treat

Tares:,

:tering iL;ncrancc cf a uneral prac-
Ctioner. Eloquence would fade frc.rn the firs and theology
from the meimrks of the greatest preachers, who would
haVe thenceforth to shape their sermons open the model
of those cutpcorings of egotism, rulgaity, and bad gram-
mar which may ho heard at street corners on Sunday even-
ings when the weather is unfortunately favourable. A law
or an organisation that imposes on its 'subjects a dead level
of mediocrity cannot be good, and must be bad. If there
is to be excellence there must be freedom to strive for it.
The Trades Unions have decided that there shall not be
such freedom. That is the reason why continental iganu
facturtrfi have Int4._raridlYkrzip3 alnisLuse.

tints with the Li L;

ACTION AG A INST THE PRESIDENT OF
THE POOR-L ATV BOARD.

An appeal motion, Field= v. Goschen, was concluded

in Vice-Chancellor Stuart's Court on Thursday. It was vir-

tually made by Mr. Fieldcn and Mr. Mount against Sir Samuel
Morton Peto, and at the time when the bill was filed Sir
M. Peto had stopped payment, and inspectors were
appointed. Since that time he had become bankrupt,
and his assignees had been brought before the court.
The bill asked that it might be declared that Sir
Morton Peto had become in respect of a certain conces-
sion granted for making a railway, a trustee for the
plaintiffs as regarded two equal third parts of the benefits
of such concession, and that it might be declared that the
plaintiffs were entitled to a lien amounting to the sum of
£30,000, which Sir Morton had agreed to pay, and that, in
default of this payment, the right of the plaintiffs to the
concession might be realised, and that the money might be
paid after deducting a dividend of £30,000 to £40,000,
paid out of the estate of the bankrupt Peto,
and that an injunction should be issued, for-
bidding the defendants to part with the concessions.
Mr. Kerslake, Q. 0., and Serjeant Served appeared for
the plaintiffs, and Sir Roundell Palmer and Mr. Kekewich
for the defendants. The case, as stated by Mr. Kerslake,
was to the following effect :—The plaintiffs and Mr.
Hammond, a civil engineer, had obtained a con-
cession from the Government of Russia. Messrs. Peto
and Goschen were anxious to obtain the concession but it
was granted to the plaintiffs. Mr. Hammond had been
induced to place himself in the hands of Sir Morton, acting
as agent for Peto and Goschen, to get the first concession
forfeited on the ground of delay in performing the stipu-
lated conditions. Through the influence of Mr. Hammond
the interest of the plaintiffs, his co-adventurers, was
destroyed. An agreement was proposed that a sum of
£40,000 should be paid to plaintiffs for the surrendering of
their rights,and£lo,ooo was paid by a cheque of the defend-
ants. Thebalance was secured by promissery notes of Sir M.
Pete. Having detailed the circumstances attending the
obtaining and surrendering of the concession granted to
the plaintiffs, the learned counsel stated that the plaintiffs
were respectively the chairman and contractor of the
Dunabcrgand Witepsk Railway, and the plaintiffs obtained
in 1365, in conjunction with Robert Hammond, a conces-
sion for a line from 'Vitespk to Orrell. Hammond, after he
had had certain negotiations with the defendants, neglected
to make the necessary arrangements for the completion of
the contract with which he was entrusted. He had deter-
mined to throw over his co-adventurers, and on their
becoming alarmed and telegraphing to his residence
in London, ho replied that in ten days after-
wards the whole of the caution money must be
deposited. Hammond, in conjunction with the defendants,
had so cajoled the plaintiffs with assurances that he would
procure a contractor, that they had neglected to prepare
the caution money. The defendants paid Hammond a
sum of £l,OOO, and an engagement for a further payment
of £40,000 was entered into as a consideration of his ser-
vices in procuring the forfeiture of plaintiffs' concession,
and in assisting in obtaining a new concession for the defen-
dants and himself. Hammond's solicitors wrote to the
plaintiffs informing them that all connection between him
and them was at an end. This being the state
of affairs the plaintiffs, Mount and Fielden,
prepared to file a petition against Messrs. Peto, Hammond,
and Goschen, but to avoid this an agreement was made by
the defendants that a sum of £40,000 should be paid
to the plaintiffs as purchase money of their rights,
of which sum £lO,OOO was paid by cheque, and
that the defendants would have the option of paying
the balance either in money or by 2,000 shares of the pro-
posed railway fully paid up, and of the value of £2O, or
by a smaller sum of shares of £lOO each in the Dunaberg
and Witepsk Railway. Although Mr. Goschen had on
his appointment as Cabinet Minister apparently given
up his connection with the firm, he had and still
has, according to evidence, a considerable interest in the
firm, and especially in that: particular concession. The
learned counsel said there was a clear case of collusion on
the part of Hammond, who, thinking he was about to join
a millionaire, abandoned his co-adventurers on behalf of
Sir Morton Peto.

Mr. Kekewich, on the part of Mr. Goschen, denied that
Hammond had any concession from the Russian Minister
of Finance, although there had been an additional promise
given to Hammond—viz., the payment of the caution
money and the security of £6,000,000 for the construc-
tion of the line. He believed also that Hammond
had received a letter from the Russian Minister. Except
in connection with his firm as bankers, he had no interest
in the proposed line. Having denied other allegations
in the bill, he stated that Mr. Goschen, when
a copy of the bill proposed to be filed in
Chancery had been sent him, said that he had nothing
whatever to do with the firm of which he had been a mem-
ber, adding that he would hold any persons prosecuting a
bill liable to criminal proceedings. Mr. Goschen, in con-
clusion, denied that any such company as that described
had h'en eztablishcd, and that he had ever signed a cheque
for £lO,OOO.

The Vice-Chancellor expressed his surprise at the man-
ner in which the case had been conducted, documents
being read which were not in the bill, and new allegations
being introduced which the defendants had no means of
answering. No ground had been shewn to induce him to
make a decree in favour of the plaintiffs. The case had
entirely broken down, and was disproved by evidence read
on behalf of the plaintiffs. The appeal must be dismissed
with costs.