The Sun.
London, England, 1869-01-02 00:00:00

TBE SUN, LONDON, SATURDAY EVENING, JANUARY 2, lt. 69

ciliatory and pacific advances. He can afford to
do this, because his so doing admits, by no
possibility, of misconstruction in the* sense of its
indicating any dread on his part of the consequences
of war. He has at this moment at his absolute com-
mand an army, in its numerical strength, and in its
magnificent discipline, and inLits possession (in the
chassepot) of an unrivalled and an unerring
arm of precision, such as no contemporary
monarch in the world possesses. Occasionally
as was very manifest once or twice during the
course of last year, the more ardent of his war-
riors, to use the felicitous phrase of SHAKSPERE,
like greyhounds in the slip, were straining upon
the start. At any moment of that kind the EMPE-
ROR, like our own HARRY the Fifth, had but to cry
havoc and let slip the dogs of war. He did not. Hs
does not. He holds them in hand; and his other
hand, as but just now said, he extends to the
world on New Year's Day, with a few
but sufficient words, with every reasonable evidence
on his part of sincere and cordial friendship. But—
while so far so good—is this all that is in:any way
desirable, not to say actually requisite on the EM-
PEROR'S part in the interests of Peace, not only here
in Europe, but generally throughout the world ?
While these enormous armaments which are now
weighing so heavily, so crushingly upon the greatest of
the civilised peoples of Christendom, and of which
the paragon armament of all, that of France
herself, is the most portentous illustration—while
these enormous armaments are maintained it would
be simply absurd to say or to think for one mo-
ment that pacific words are alone of themselves suffi-
cient. In the interests of civilization, in the interests
of humanity, in the name of our common Chris-
tianity, something more than this is demanded, not
from the French EMPEROR alone, but from all the
Governments of all the Great Powers of the earth
now in friendly relations with each other, and yet
armed, each of them, or arming to the teeth— keeping
their powder dry, as the old Puritan had it—horse,
foot, and artillery, so to speak, with foot in stirrup,
bayonet fixed, fuse ready for lighting—prepared for
any emergency, however sudden and unlooked for—
yet all the while echoing the angelic chorus, year
after year, about in terra pax hominibus !
Each nation arming like the strong man, in
the parable, keeping his house—as though all the
rest were robbers, who were only watching their op-
portunity to break in and steal ! Something more
than tranquillizing words are needed in the presence
of these stupendous armaments.

" THE Right Hon. J oHN BRIGHT also arrived,
and had the honour of dining with the QUEEN and
the Royal Family." So says the Court Circular.
Than this brief announcement nothing is more
significant of the vast change which has come over
the political aspect of the country during the last
three years. Mr. BRIGHT at Osborne means not that
Mr. BRIGHT has turned courtier, but that while he has
been standing still the nation has been progressing
until it has overtaken him. Ten years ago he was a
vox clamantis in deserto. No one would listen to
him. He warned statesmen that they must alter
their ways ; that if the people were to continue loyal
they must have some share in making the laws which
they were called upon to obey ; that if the country
was to continue prosperous some check must be put
upon its enormous expenditure, wars of annexation
must be absolutely prohibited, and the principle
of non-intervention adopted. Men called him
an enthusiastic fanatic, when they did not use harsher
names, when they did not dencknce him as a traitor
who would abolish the Church and the Throne and
"Americanise" our time-honoured institutions. Less
than three years ago the fact that he was supposed to
have assisted in the preparation of a Reform Bill
was fatal to the measure and its responsible authors;
for when it was impossible to persuade men that a
reduction of the franchise from £lO to £7 would
revolutionise the country, it was sufficient to
mention the " hon. member for Birmingham'
order to frighten those who could not
be convinced. And now Iv e see household suffrage
the law of the land, and the Right Hon. Junrt
BRIGHT a guest or Royalty. That is, we see the
country loyal and contented, and him, who is the real
author of the change which has made them so,
honoured by the sovereign, who knows that she has
no more faithful servant or loving subject.
There is in this royal dinner party a lesson for the
Conservatives, if they will only learn it. The lesson
is, that they are powerless to prevent the march of
the nation towards democracy, if they choose to call
it by that name—self-government, as we prefer to
call it—and that if they are wise they will seek rather
to guide the movement than to impede it. Conser-
vatism has a proper part to play in the politics of the
country, but that part has not been assumed during
the last three years. The Conservative party are at
the present time in the condition of a buffer
whose spring has been broken. They still stand
out apparently prepared to break the force
of a collision ; but we know, and they know,
that their resisting power is for the present gone;
that if the nation is bent upon any great organic
change there is no force in the Conservative party
to impede, much less to prevent it. This being so, it
would be wise for them seriously to consider their
position with regard to ecclesiastical matters. They
know full well that the Irish Church Establishment
cannot be maintained, but they may delay disesta-
blishment by throwing obstacles in the way of the
work. The obstacles may even prove beyond the
strength of the Government to surmount. In that
case we must prepare to see the Conservative party
called in and maintaining itself in power by proposing
a measure far more sweeping than that which they
have rejected. But is this statesmanship ? Is it
statesmanship to hold office for two years, to do the
work of the Radicals more thoroughly than the
Radicals could have done it, to be driven from place
by the voice of the nation, and to see the men whom
they have always denounced Ministers of .the Crown
and guests of the QUEEN ? Do they want to see the
Right Hon. EDWARD MIALL dining at Osborne, as
they have seen the Right Hon. JOHN BRIGHT ? Do
they want the English Church disestablished, as they
will shortly see the Irish Church ? A little more,
and they will achieve a miracle even greater than
that of passing household suffrage by the aid of the
Tory squires—they will have' brought about an
alliance between the English Church Union and the
Liberation Society.

A VERY important question has just been argued
before the Irish judges. It involved to a high degree
the liberty of the press. At the general election,
greatly to the surprise of most persons, Belfast, the
headquarters of the Orange party, returned a candidate
favourable to the disestablishment of the Irish Church.
The opposite party subsequently presented a petition
against this member. The Liberal journals in Belfast
denounced this petition in emphatic language. The
petitioners thereupon moved that an attachment
'should be issued against the editors for attempting to
prejudge a case pendente lite. The journalists replied
that the matter was one of public interest, and therefore
they had a right to comment upon it ; and that, more-
over, no prejudice could arise, because the petition was
going to be tried, not by a jury, but by a judge, and
that it was absurd to suppose that any of the judges
could be influenced by anything that he saw in the
newspapers. After taking time to consider these
arguments the judges delivered their decision.
ks is usual, the youngest spoke first, and Mr.
Justice LAWSON, who has just been promoted to the
Bench by the present Administration, decided that
such a matter as an election petition ought to be
freely discussed, that the court ought not to lay down
any rule which would fetter that freedom, and that
the articles complained of had not transgressed lawful
limits. Mr. Justice Monnrs, who was appointed by
the late Government, thought that the articles

greatly exceeded the limits which the court
ought to allow. " Judge KEOGH, -a former
Liberal M.P., concurred with Judge LAWSON.
Chief Justice WHITESIDE, who owes his post to
Lord DERBY, differed from the two Liberal judges,
and held that while an action was pending no one
should enter upon its merits so as to prejudice a fair
trial. He differed as to the right of a journalist, and
held that the articles went beyond anything that was
justifiable. The court being equally divided, there
was no rule, and no costs.
This no-decision is much to be regretted. It is
the first of importance under the new Bribery Act,
and it is greatly to be wished that on every point
which may arise there may be a clear and definite
judgment. It is unfortunate, to say the least, that
in a question involving political issues the two Liberal
judges should be upon one side, the two Conservative
judges upon the other. No one will presume to
accuse them of being biassed by their private political
views. Yet it cannot fail to be seen that, while the
Liberal judges were for giving the largest possible
liberty to the press, the Conservative were for restrict-
ing that liberty. This coincidence will, we fear,
somewhat shake popular confidence in our legal
tribunals, which hitherto has always supposed that
a judge is a person without parts or passions. The
circumstance happens, too, contemporaneously with
another event which has not a little discredited
the highest tribunal of all. It is now stated that
the Privy Council was divided in its judgment on the
case MARTIN V. MAcKONOCHIE, and that while there
were three for the appellant, two against, and one
neutral, one of the first had previously to the trial
committed himself to the side which he favoured.
However that may be, it is certain, and
the matter is one of great importance, that
the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council is
always in danger of becoming a political and party
tribunal, and that decisions of great importance
may depend entirely upon the Prime Minister for
the time being. This is not a satisfactory state of
things, sand it is iosbe devotltly ho"' that we, who
have hitherto boasted of the impartiality of our
tribunals, are not about to see them the vehicles of
political partisanship.

LATEST INTELL MENU.

(REUTER'S TELEGRAMS.)

FRANCE.

PARIS, Jan. 1.

The Emperor received the Diplomatic Body and
the Ministers of State at the Tuileries to-day, at
ten o'clock.

His Majesty is stated to have made the follow-
ing reply to the congratulations of the Diplomatic
Body :

"I receive with pleasure your congratulations,
and I am glad to testify to the conciliatory spirit
which animates the different Foreign Powers, and
which allows difficulties, when they arise, to be
removed.

" I hope that the year 1869, like 1868, will re-
move alarms and consolidate peace, which is so
necessary to the civilised world."

TURKEY AND GREECE.
CONSTANTINOPLE, Jan. 1.

'lhe Turkish Government has published their
reply to the Greek Note, refusing to comply with
the ultimatum.

The reply commences by declaring that no
State would have accepted so long as the Porte a
condition of affairs incompatible with relations of
good neighbourhood. It then examines at length
the various points mentioned in the Greek Note.
In reference to the bands of volunteers the reply
says that the answer of the Greek Govern-
ment to the effect that the Hellenic insti-
tutions did not permit Greece to prevent
their formation, was inadmissible, since in
that case there would be no security between
neighbouring states in time of peace, and it would
be subsersive of the law of nations. Moreover, the
Greek laws would allow the Hellenic Government
to repress these irregularities had the Government
so desire a, since by Article 127 of the Penal Code,
the punishment of death is awarded to thn. per-
sous enrolling troops without the authorisation of
the Government.

The Greek Government boasts of having pro-
tected the insurgents and in granting the Cretans
permission to return to their country. Now it is
known that the departures have only been effected
by stealth, and often been prevented by violence.
The Note refutes the argument of M. Delyanni
complaining of Turkish aggression on the frontier.
The aggression is rather on the part of Greece.
Finally, referring to the subject of the expulsion
of the Greek subjects from Ottoman ports, the
Note declares that this course was necessitated by
the proceedings of those who, while receiving gener-
ous hospitality, took advantage of their position to
form hostile combinations against the Government.
The Note concludes by stating that the Porte only
replies to the Greek Government in order to
place itself right in the eyes of Europe. Had it
only to persuade those who are acquainted with
current events, it would have left them to judge
between the silence of the Porte and the Greek
Note.

AMERICA.

NEW YORK, Jan. 1.

According to Mr. Adam Moffat's report, the
week's receipts of cotton at American ports, exclud-
ing Friday, amount to 80,000 bales. Since the Ist
of September, 1,045,000 baler. Shipments to Eng-
land, 41,000 bales ; to France and the Continent,
3,000 bales. Total export to date, 540,000 bales.
Stock, 300,000 bales. Market steady. Middling
upland, 10 3-16 cost and freight per steamer.

GUARESFONDENCE FROM PARIS.

►FROM eta o`ing CORRESPONDENT;)\

PARIS, FRlDAYt,:.:nary 1.

This is All Fools' Day in Paris. The universal practice
of distributing etrennes, or New Year's gifts, long ago
became a mania, and, finally, ripened into a hard and in-
flexible custom, which is a nuisance to all and a benefit
to none. For many days past the shops on the boulevards
have been crowded with customers making purchases for
etrepnes, and yesterday Paris, in the neighbourhood of the
vertu and bonbon establishments, resembled a fair. The
gifts embrace almost every description of object, and the
givers and receivers include everybody. Toys are pre-
sented to children, and sugar-plums, in fancyboxes, to lady
friends. Bouquets of flowers, inkstands, writing-desks, velo-
cipedes, books (not many), lace, silks, velvet, diamonds, and
jewellery are all distributed according to the means of the
giver and the importance of the recipient. The practice
has been attended with its infarible result. The first day
of the year is the most dismal of the 365. The custom is
a nuisance to the vast majority, but nobody dares to
oppose it. The young men of the day might as well attempt
to introduce a costume of the tenth century. The practice is
universal, and it is gaining ground, so that the New Year's
gifts have come to be prized in exact proportion to their
money's worth ; a trifling present is treated with contempt.
Many a gift which is thrown aside as worthless has cost
the donor weeks of privation. The fashion needs changing,
but there is nobody to take the first plunge. Franco,
unfortunately, is not endowed with a ruler who is inclined
to discourage the extravagance of his people ; the Emperor
and the Empress follow or lead the general custom, and
t'ie flock of Parisian sheep have no alternative but to do
the same. The Empress might, I fancy, put a stop to this
useless folly ; but her Majesty is not the enemy of extrava-
gance.

The Constitutionnel, stung by the ridicule of the Opposi-
tion journals, has returned to the charge on the Louvre and
Luxembourg picture question. Its argument is merely a
repetition of its previous note, and does nothing to justify
the fact that many paintings belonging to the Louvre
collection are now hanging upon the walls of the Imperial
Club and other private establishments of high func-
tionaries.

There is every reason to believe that M. Emile Lenobi,
advocate at the Imperial Court, will succeed M. Havin,
the late proprietor of the Sdcle, in the Corps Ldgislatif.
The first number of the Journal Officiel de rempire
Francais has made it appearance. It does not contain
anything about the Conference, as was expected, and is
altogetheras little remarkable as the Afoniteur.
The Budget preparation is ended. Only a few insigni-
ficant reductions, I hear, have been made
M. Haussmann, though the best abused of Government
officials, is but a scapegoat, after all. His raids upon the
city of Paris, his continual pulling down and rebuilding,
his obliteration of all that is ancient in Paris, and the sub-
stitution of a capital which reminds one of nothing but
the Second Empire are, after all, not his own work. He is
merely the agent who acts for the Emperor. Not only does
the head of the Government inspire the rebuilding of
Paris, but he arranges all the details. The present trans-
formation of Paris is merely the execution of a plan which
was drawn up by the Emperor so long ago as 1852.
M. Victorien Sardou has brought out a new piece at
the Gymnase. It is entitled " Sdraphine," and deals very
roughly with hypocrisy and sham religion, of which the
heroine is the impersonification. This piece has given
great offence to the religious societies. It was very suc-
cessful the first night, but on the second a great uproar
was made by some of the Society of St. Vincent de Paul.
The performance was, however, carried through. The
interruptions, it is said, are to be renewed.
The inhabitants of Bordeaux have signed a petition
praying for the expulsion of the Jesuits from France.
The Memorial de la Loire tells a story of a dog with a
wooden leg. A short time ago, a shepherd's dog was
assailed by a large wolf, and before he could be rescued
by his master sustained such injuries that amputation was
found necessary. Of course it was deemed impossible that
the animal could recover, but his master so greatly valued
his canine friend that the experiment of a wooden leg—
which is not altogether new—was tried, and the clog is
still alive and active.

THE WEATHER TABLE-THIS DAY,

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS,

The Saturday Review is not disposed to join in the
sanguine anticipations of the future which most
people indulge in at this season. Perhaps there
is more cause for being sanguine now than we
could find usually at the beginning of a year.
But the long experience of English history, and the sad-
ness in contemplating human life which Christianity has
taught to the modern world, forbid us to find much
pleasure at the beginning of any new period in cheering
ourselves and making merry and shouting out what a fine,
prosperous, noble people we are. There are times for such
things, as, for example, when Yankees or Frenchmen
seem not to understand our superiority to them ; but the
beginning of a new year is not one of them. And if there
are no imminent dangers now pressing on England, there
are dangers of a somewhat remote kind which must fill us
with anxiety when we think of them. Patience and fore-
sight and good humour will, we trust, carry us safely
through them ; but at least we may be sure that they will
afford us ample room for exercising these qualities to as
full a degree as we are capable of exercising them. Many
special causes of apprehension might probably be found
to exist at present if we went below the surface of
English politics, but it will be enough to men-
tion two or three of the most striking. There are, for
example, the present position of the House of Lords
and the present position of Prussia in Europe. If we
begin to reflect on any one of these subjects, we soon find
that it is full of thorny and complicated questions, and
that it is only by resolutely spewing patience, foresight,
and good humour that England can hope to arrive at a
proper solution of them. What are we to do with our
good poor, with our half-good poor, with our bad poor,
with our criminal poor ? These are not questions of a
remote and speculative interest, Londoners find that they
are crushed by rates, the burden of which increases every
month, and the payment of which only seems to intensify
the misery it is destined to relieve, and they walk about in
a city where life and property are not much safer than in
Mexico or Bologna. How is it possible for anyone, except-
ing for the sort of people who believe, on the faith of
burlesques and Christmas extra-numbers, that they are
bound to be jolly at this season, to exalt much or whoop
over the new year, when we know that starvation is going
on all around us, and that if we try to diminish the evil
by giving money we only aggravate it, and that almost the
only people who can walk about London with perfect com-
fort and impunity are the fortunate beings who have been
twice convicted of a felenious offence ?
The Spectator thinks that in Sir Richard Mayne the
State has lost a servant of very unusual merit, and that
the mistake of holding office a little too long must not
blind us to the fact that forty years ago he organised the
London police on a system which for more than a gene-
ration has worked well, and that for the whole period ho
has maintained external order among a population greater
than that of many sovereign States with a force of only 7,000
men, and at an expenditure of only half a million a year.
Latterly, no doubt, owing to the disuse of transportation
and to the unexampled spread of London, and, to a certain
extent, failure of reverence for law as distinguished from
force, Sir Richard Mayne's task grew too heavy for him ;
the tendency to militarism, which is the first sign of an
overtaxed Government, grew stronger within the police,
and the old security of London, which impressed foreigners
as an inexplicable wonder, became seriously diminished.
The task of selecting his successor is all the
harder because the public wants something new
very vehemently, and does not quite know what.
We trust that whoever may be selected, the opportunity
will be taken to make a thorough overhaul of the condi-
tion of the force and a careful inquiry into its needful
strength. The public insists a little too strongly upon the
first only of these recommendations. No doubt, with
more care and higher pay, and a few better posts as prizes,
we may get a better class of policemen—more especially if
we give up regulations about size, under which Torn
Sayers would have been rejected for want of physique— but
after all, there is one defect which no amount of efficiency
will remove, and that is the want of sufficient men. Vidocq
cannot be in two places at once, any more than the
merest country lout, nor will any extent of energy enable
John Smith to patrol the street and the mews at one and
the same time. The best six detectives in the service
could not really watch a square mile of London
all night ; and that, as " Custos " has explained in a
pamphlet intended apparently to make the police a reserve
army, is the highest number that can be allotted to the
duty, a number only attained by overworking the men,
and neglecting watchfulness during the daylight and dusk.
More men, we know perfectly well, can only be secured
by more money ; but inquiry may reveal new modes of
economy ; eer if not, Londoners must either pay more, or
affirm deliberately that they prefer the partial insecurity
now felt in almost all the great cities which, under the
name of suburbs, are now left pretty much to take care of
themselves. We may murmur as much as we like, but it
is in the incidence of our London taxation, and not in its
total weight, that we must seek relief. Deduct the poor
rate, which is peculiar to England, and there is scarcely a
capital city in the world, unless it be Calcutta, which is
governed anything like so cheaply as this vast metropolis.
The London Review makes some remarks upon the state
of affairs at the Foreign Office, and the apparent dissimi-
larity cf the v.ewa entertained by the Premier and the
former under-secretary in that department. Some perplexity
exists as to the policy about to be pursued, and it is said that
anyone accustomed to the House of Commons must often
have been tickled by the absurdity of Mr. Gladstone's
position since Lord Palmerston's death in reference to that
of Mr. Layard. In the latter was recognised a politician
of no mark or character, but he was also recognised as the
sole remaining depository of the preposterous pro-Turkish
traditions of our Foreign Office. Mr. Gladstone sat and
listened to Mr. Layard with a sort of half-smile on his face,
and led everyone to think that all this nonsense would be
banished to the moles and the bats if he came into power.
He has come into power, and Mr. Layard has come into
place. He has not come into the Foreign Office, and this
impressed many people with the conviction that Mr.
Gladstone was about to give play to his own ideas. But
this is now very doubtful. Mr. Layard was the only
member of the' Government who spoke about foreign
affairs on the hustings. When he had bemoaned his
exclusion from the Cabinet he proceeded to lament the pro-
Christian tone of Lord Stanley's speech at Lynn, but he
denied he was the friend of the Porte, and declared he was
for non-intervention in the East, so long as no other Power
intervened. Is Mr. Gladstone then, with Mr. Bright and
the Duke of Argyll by his side, about to adopt a less satis-
factory Eastern policy than even Mr. Layard would
prompt ? Have we really lost by Mr. Layard's not being
at the Foreign Office? We do not suppose so, because
Mr. Layard is as much of a Jesuit as a hot-headed man
can be, and even when advocating non-intervention does
so in support of a most mischievous organisation of inter-
ference. But we ask these questions because, whatever
Mr• Layard's practice may have been, and whatever Mr.
Hammond's routine may be (which is more to the pur-
pose), the course which our Government is alleged to
have chosen is wrong, judged even by the standard which
Mr. Layard set up in the railway arch at Southwark.
England is seemingly about to intervene with the rest of
the Great Powers ; and she does so at a moment when no
one Government has provoked intervention by shewing
the smallest intention of meddling.

The John bull criticises the new Cabinet Minister, and
seeks to shew that the right hon. gentleman is more zealous
than wise in his Utopian theories concerning the working
man. Mr. Bright, it is said, is the hero of the hour, and
therefore it is allowable to put him on the right
track when he wanders in a wrong direction.
Now that Mr. Bright is Right Honourable, and his educa-
tion has been taken in hand, not only by peers, but by the
Royal Family, it may be as well to point out the fallacy
of that recent declaration, that if the • tea, sugar, and
other duties were removed, the workman would be
materially bet, efited, while his wages would remain
undiminished. He may as well say if raw cotton
became cheaper, the manufacturer would be a
gainer, and calico retain its price. Mr. Bright
above all men, professes to he a political economist, and,
we believe, once recommended that Adam Smith should
be learnt by heart, as some clergymen know the Bible.
But workmen cannot be so stupid as Mr. Bright sup-
poses. If common sense does not belie Mr. Bright,
all political economists do. Nothing is more clear
than that, other things being equal, the price of
labour is regulated by the price of food ; and it makes
no difference whether food is cheapened by the removal of
duties or by any other cause. If bread were a sovereign
the four-pound loaf, no labourer would work for a sove-
reign a week ; and 'similarly, if it were no more than
twopence, cheaper means of living, reacting on compe-
tion, would lower the rates for labour in that ratio.
The same remark applies to every commodity which
the workman thinks it necessary to consume. Mr.
Bright pretends that a tax on consumable commodities is
a tax on labour; Labour only pays the tax by deputy, as
a farmer does who pays. tithes. 11 there were no tithes,
his rent would be higher, and the landlord the gainer. If
there were no taxes on consumable commoditif s, wages
would be lower, and the community the gainer.
The workman, by the removal of tea and sugar
taxes, could only gain indirectly, and to a small degree,
like any other member of the community. An illustra-
tration of what we mean is afforded by the position of
labour in the Channel Islands, where Mr. Blight's
terrestrial paradise of untaxed commodities is realised.
Except an inappreciable tax -on spirits, neither
customs nor excise exist. What is the result to
the workman ? His wages are lower there than in
any part of the United Kingdom. That commodities are
untaxed is the reason alleged fors paying less wages than
elsewhere. Mr. Bright has a smooth tongue for the
working man, and may be often sincere ; but in this case
we think his sincerity questionable. As a student of
political economy, he must have known that a reduction
in the price of the workman's food will, in its general
effect, reduce the price of his labour in the same degree.
None know better I<ivi4ll,9 that it 41 4)21-1084ble j 4 ckktiq
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