The Sun.
London, England, 1869-01-30 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, SATURDAY EVENING, JANUARY 30, 1869

solitary appearance what it may, when put on hip
trial, Mr. LOWE had to unfold the future policy of
himself and his party. They would have been repre-
sented as full of good intentions had he not remem-
bered in time that people " seldom get credit for good
intentions except when they have done something very
wrong or very foolish ; and if he had not had some very
vague recollection of the destiny which awaits good
intentions in the future." Neither could he say much
about the actions of the Government, because glorious
though they no doubt would be, they yet remained
to be performed. We need not follow the right bon.
gentleman through those elaborate passages of his
discourse, in which be dwelt on the purpose that
would animate his colleagues in their adaptation of
the old " worn-out" cry of justice to Ireland to a new
and better meaning. When the scheme of the Govern-
ment is before Parliament it can be better appre-
ciated than in preliminary sketches and isolated de-
tails.

Mr. LOWE declares that the preservation of peace
is the earnest desire of the new Administration,
and that the best efforts of the Cabinet have been
directed to the accomplishment of this important
purpose. Like many other remodellers of ancient
usages, however, he seems to be better versed in the
knowledge of what others should not do, than
he has intimate acquaintance with what he and his
friends should do. Perhaps if the negative policy
which Mr. LOWE lays down as the law to govern
foreign policy were extended to home affairs, the re-
sult might sometimes be more satisfactory to the
country and more creditable to the candidates for its
favour. " The only way in which peace can be pre-
served is bynot thinking ourselvescritics and censors
of all the world, but leaving them to judge what is
best fort themselves, and only requiring that we
should be treated with that respect which we are
willing to extend to them." A third subject which
engages the anxious attention of the Government is
that of economy, and the public will rejoice if Mr.
LOWE'S emphatic declaration be verified in respect
to the desire of the Ministry, not to mar the effi-
ciency of the services. The principle on which they '
are to act is that of concentration, but, as he him-
self observes, their laurels are all as yet to be won
in this field, and it is to be hoped that they may
wear them, because much be done of a remedial
character, provided they are not too ready to overlook
the means by which they reach their desired ends.
It would have been more propitious for the new
regime if the Government had waited for Mr. LOWE
to foreshadow it to the public in his comprehensive
style, instead of allowing its heralds and precursors
to be the small savings and paltry interference which
are insignificant in themselves, but not in the effect
they produce and the irritation and bicterne-,s of feel-
ing which they engender.
The most entertaining part of Mr. LOWE'S speech
was its concluding portion, when he addressed him-
self to the department exclusively his own, and in-
troduced his friends to a new phase in the life of a
Chancellor of the Exchequer, that of being inundated
by letters, which contain not the supposed requests
for the repeal of old taxes, but suggestions for the
imposition of new ones. Despite his desire to be
guided by public opinion, the new Chancellor of the
Exchequer confesses to the heresy of despising it in
this particular, because his beau-ideal of the happy
occupant of bis post is that of a man who does not like
to impose new taxes, but to take off old ones. Although
he has not had an extended experience, it cannot be
said that his conclusions are very erroneous ones in
this respect, or that he will fail in finding followers
to his creed. • When Mr. LOWE declares that in the
present highly-developed state of taxation he should
as little think of taking credit for invent-

ing a new tax as for inventing a new torture,
we imagine the glorious future before him, and
the subli►ne heights to which his financial genius will
soar; but he soon dispels the illusion by confessing
that his wings are very closely clipped indeed, and
his expressions must not lead any one from fact to
fiction. The Abyssinian war is likely to cover a
multitude of sins in the way of shortcomings and
non-performance of promises, but the country will
not begrudge to pay the " small bill " to which he
refers as the stumblingbloek in the path of his bene-
ficient projects. Mr. LOWE concluded his eloquent
speech by an indignant protest on behalf of Mr
GLADSTONE. He denounced the course pursued by.
the " noble person" who declared that Mr. GLAD-
STONE was unscrupulous and insidious, and a man
actuated by the meanest feelings of revenge, "as a
person who said he would destroy every country
gentleman he saw, and kept his word, which, I am
happy to say, can hardly be literally true, and who,
having been expelled the University of Oxford,
wishes to disestablished the Irish Church out of sheer
spite." Without entering into all the particulars of
this charge, Mr. LOWE suggested to the " noble per-
son" that the next time he spoke on the subject he
should inform his hearers where and to whom Mr.
GLADSTONE said that he would destroy the country
gentlemen, or that he would avenge himself
by the disestablishment of the Church of Ire-
land? Many of those who are opposed to th?
Chancellor of the Exchequer in politics, and in other
matters also, will agree with him in his opinion of
this attack, and approve of his spirited vindication of
the characters of our public men. " They are not,"
as he said, " things to be lightly sported with ; the
public has an interest in them; and if they do not
respect them for their own sake, they ought to do so
for the sake of their country." The Government
have no cause to doubt the wisdom of their choice in
selecting Mr. LOWE as their pioneer in the path of
progress, for he has shown a bold front, and sought
no adventitious aid by disguising the real difficulties
of their position, but has frankly acknowledged them
in the spirit that at once defies and disarms criticism.

RECENT revelations seem to shew that the poor
are the last thing which the guardians of the poor
guard. In this they only too faithfully represent their
constituents. The opposition bythe Holborn guardians
to the establishment of pauper infirmaries has already
been noticed as indicating the, obstinacy with which
the ratepayers resist all attempt to relieve the horrible
sufferings of the sick poor which have been revealed
by recent investigations. A story is now going the
round of the papers which shews what manner of
men these ratepayers are. In the Isle of Dogs,
London, there has grown up a large district called
Cubitt Town. During the inflation of all kinds of
enterprise which preceded the great collapse there
was a large demand for shipwrights on the banks of
the Thames, and Cubitt Town owed its origin to
that demand. Since Black Friday it has almost
entirely ceased, and the population has been
reduced to the direst distress. The workman who used
to have a house to himself and family, is now
compelled to huddle in one room. The
reo angusta domi is destined to become
narrower still. He has to sell off one article
of furniture after another, and to feel grateful
so long as he has any left. When all is gone there
is the workhouse stone-yard and Bd. a day, 4s. a
week, out of w:hich is. Od. has to go for house-ren'—
room-rent, rathee.. Through the circles of this
Inferno a man nailed SPENCE, his wife, and their
infant have just pasoed. They had been connected
with the iron-shipbuilding works which had closed
in consequence of the crash at the " Corner House."
They had betaken the ma elves to a miserable room,
whence the furniture has departed piece by piece
until there was nothing le& but a small box On a
broken chair to serve for table, two broken trays
(not wanted for food, for food there was none)

fastened against the paneless windows, a piece of.
salt, a tract entitled " The Goodness of God," and a
bundle of rags, whereon lay two corpses. Some
kind missionary had given the tract, no doubt,
with a Be ye warmed and be ye filled." A hundred-
weight of coals would have given more warmth ;
and as for filling, there was nothing but the piece of
salt aforesaid, and a portion of this was the last food
that had entered the mouth of one of the two
corpses before famine had completed its work. The
husband had applied for relief, and received a pound
of meat, two ounces of tea, and a pound of sugar,
and an order to the stone-yard. He did not go
there, for by the wisdom of the guardians it is
ordained that a man shall never receive more than
Bd. a day, even though he may earn twice that
amount. But, it will be said, better half a loaf
than no bread. Undoubtedly a sane man will
think so. But SPENC E was insane ; his
misery had driven him mad, raging mad.
He was taken to the asylum, but it was
full, for between one circle and another in this
East-end Inferno, between poverty and insanity
there is but a step, and asylums are apt to be full in
such localities. So they took him to the workhouse,
where he had to be " looked after," and what that
means in the case of a pauper maniac we shudder to
think.

Meanwhile how is it going on at "home "? The
wife has long ago sold all her clothes for food;
she has nothing wherewith to buy ; she cannot go
out to beg. First of all the baby dies, the feeble spark
of life goes out for want of oil. Then the mother,
vainly endeavouring to' assuage the horrible pangs of
hunger by eating salt, gives up the weary struggle,
and finds that she must seek in another world for
" the goodness of GOD," whereof the missionary's
tract spoke so pleasantly. There had been no inquest
on the child, for babies are born to die in the Isle of
Dogs and parts adjacent. But when a dead woman
is found lying in an empty room upon a bundle of
rags there is need of inquiry. The surgeon makes a
post-martem examination, and finds a stomach perfectly
empty. No need to hide the cause of death under
learned talk about extravasation and syncope. Nay,
rather there is great need. One juror began to
denounce the stone-yard system, and said that men
had told him they could not keep' their families on
Bd. a day; had said, " I will not go there ; it is no use.
The parish must bury me." Up rose another juror, " a
large employer of labour in the island," and protested
against a verdict of death from starvation. It
would get into the papers and cause the island to be
talked about. Clearly SPENCE had, in this juror's
idea, gone mad out of spite to the guardians, and his
wife had died only that she might make the parish
bury her. He would be one with them, however.
" What use," he said, "were people when they are
Why not bury them in an egg-box, or,
dead ?
er still,
without any coffin at all ?" Really, view-
ing the matter from this large employer of labour's
standpoint, we do
not see our way to an answer.
Here is " only a pauper whom nobody owns," whom
even the good GOD seems to have disowned. Of
what use are such to large employers of labour ?
Why should large employers of labour have to pay
for burying them ? There is the Thames or the
dust-heap for the dead body of pauper LAZARUS in
this world, and for large-employer-of-labour DivEs
there is in the next the parched tongue and the great
gulf.

Mr. DAVID WARD CHAPMAN has contributed a
fresh chapter to the history of " Overend, Gurney,
and Co." The substance of his letter appears in
another column. If it serves to exculpate him so
far as his transactions are concerned, it certainly
does not improve the position of his former
colleagues. Mr. CHAPMAN states that the
connection between Mr. EDWARDS and the
old firm began by Mr. EDMUND GURNEY'S
asking the advice of Mr. EDWARDS with reference to
some bankrupt estate in which the firm were inte-
rested. Remembering that Mr. EDWARDS was the
official assignee of the court through which this
estate had to pass, we need not dwell on the
extreme impropriety of resorting to him for counsel.
The counsel was not only Italica, but givt4na was
found to be so valuable, or, to use Mr. CHAPMAN'S
words, Mr. EDMUND GURNEY was "so pleased
with the sagacity which he thought was shewn by
EDWARDS " that " he consulted him during the whole
year upon many of what I may call the illegiti-
mate advances which the firm had then made."
The "illegitimate advances" gave rise to illegitimate
consultations, which became more and more frequent.
At length Mr. EDWARDS was found so necessary to
the firm that, as Mr. EDMUND GURNEY said in paying
him £5,000, " Friend EDWARDS, I do not see how we
are to get onwithout thee." So this public official in the
put in charge of the
:seem to have examined
firerincei,sptacoefoatinhtasn. handsome edsoaeslarynowt
them very strictly, for it was left to Mr. JOHN HENRY
GURNEY, of Norwich, to find out that "the house
was in a mess," and to inform this confidential adviser
and accountant thereof. Mr. CHAPMAN would have us
believe that Mr. EDWARDS was so pleased with this
state of things that he tried to force himself upon
is, finding a business on
bankruptcy and making enormous
losses, he was so enamoured of the prospect that he
wished to take a share of the impending ruin. What
was to be done ?
tthhee fi
bnrl kas a
ofpartner ; that
Mr. CHAPMAN and his partners
could not afford to part with any portion of their
splendid property. They had no alternative but to
place £20,000 to Mr. EDWARDS'S credit as hush-
money, in order to prevent him from forcing them
h e
ir.
K eitp s
to put up their shutters by revealing the secrets with
which
made himself
of the story as correct, acquainted. Taking
i‘
he was in no way responsible for the " wild" advances
to the Dlillwall Company, Mr. LEVER, and
STEFANO S XENO S. Still, he thought that the
firm could pull through the enormous losses in which
it had involved itself. He was, however, not
sufficiently sanguine, or was too cautious, to
put his name to the prospectus which announced
the formation of the limited liability company.
It is thus he has escaped the unpleasant position
in which his colleagues now find themselves. They,
according to Mr. CHAPMAN'S letter, sold for
millions a business which was so thoroughly rotten
that if they had not paid their confidential adviser
£20,000 hush-money, he would have " forced them
to put up their shutters within twenty-four hours."
Bad as was the case for the defendants in the
recent investigation, it is fortunate for them that
their quondam colleague had changed his residence
from London to Tours. But for that change they
would have fared even worse.

THE ZRO,TOCOL OF TJIJ ReIRTS

CONFERENCE;

The Levant Herald publishes the full text of the protocol
agreed to at the Paris Conference. The following
is the more important part. "After careful con-
sideration of the documents exchanged between
the two Governments, the plenipotentiaries have
agreed to regret that, yielding to impulses by which
its patriotism has misled it, Greece has given
ground for the complaints preferred by the Porte in its
ultimatum addressed on December 11, 1868, to the Minister
for Foreign Affairs of his Majesty the King of the
Hellenes. It is, in fact, beyond doubt that the
principles of the law of nations require of Greece, as
of all other nations, not to permit the recruitment of
bands on its territory, nor that ships should be
armed in its ports, for the purpose of attacking a
neighbouring State. Persuaded, besides, that the
Cabinet of Athens cannot misunderstand the thought
which inspires this appreciation on the part of the Pro-
tecting Powers of Greece, as on that of the other Powers
who signed the Treaty of 1856, the Conference declares
that it is incumbent on the Hellenic Government to
observe for the future in its relations with Turkey
the rules of conduct which are common to all
Governments, and thus to comply with the demands
preferred by the Porte as regards the past by at the same
time reassuring it for the future. Greece should therefore
for the future abstain from favouring or tolerating the
formation within its territory of all bands meant
to act against Turkey, and should take the
necessary measures to prevent the armament in its
ports of vessels intended to aid, in whatever manner,
any attempt at insurrection within the possessions of
his Majesty the Sultan. As regards the private damage
incurred by Ottoman subjects, the Cabinet of Athens in
no way contests the right of Turkey to recover judicially
whatever compensation may be due ; and Turkey, on its
side, having accepted the jurisdiction of the Hellenic
tribunals, the plenipotentiaries do not consider
themselves called on to investigate crimes nor
to discuss complaints preferred on this point. As to the
demand of the Sublime Porte which concerns the return
home of the Turkish subjects who have taken refuge on
Greek territory, the Conference takes note of the declara-
tions made by the Cabinet of Athens in its note of Decem-
ber 9, and is convinced that it will, so far as depends upon
it, facilitate the departure of such of the Cretan families
as may wish to return to their country."