The Sun.
London, England, 1860-06-06 00:00:00

COURT OF SETTERS.

The Commissioners of Sewers for the City of
London held a meeting yesterday at Guildhall.
Deputy Christie presided.
Dr. LETHEBY, the medical officer, made a report
to the Court to the effect that he had examined 311
houses, and reported upon their condition. He also
submitted a list of 110 plaees that required sana-
tory improvement, and of 34 courts and alleys that
would require to be cleansed and flushed during
the expected hot weather. The monthly return of
deaths was below the average of the season, and.
showed a satisfactory state of the health of the
city of London. During the last fortnight there
had been 76 deaths in the city, the average for the
corresponding period during the last four years
being 81. There were only 25 deaths among chil-
dren of less than five years of age, and 20 of persons
over 60.. The principal causes of death were
diseases of a chronic character. There were 20
deaths from affections of the respiratory organs, 5
from consumption, 5 from pneumonia, and 10 from
bronchitis. Of deaths from the zymotic class of
diseases there were 12—namely, 3 from fever, 3'
from small pox, 2 from whooping-cough, 1 from
measles, and 1 from dysentery: 97 births were
registered during the fortnight—namely, 54 boys
and 43 girls.

The Improvements Committee reported that they
had retained the Recorder and Common Sergeant.
to oppose the Metropolis Local Management Bill
before a committee of the Houso of Commons.

The contract for cleansing the city for a period
of three years was let to Messrs. Mowlem and Co.,
at a price 26 per cent. less than the standard scale
of prices approved by the Surveyor to the Com-
missioners.

After some routine business the Court ad-
journed.

HIGH WATER AT LONDON BRIDGE.
THIS DAY.—Morning, 3h. 24m.—Afternoon, 3h. 45m,
To-moanow.-Morning, 4h. sm.—Aftemoon, 4b. 25m,

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THE SUN.

LONDON, WEDNESDAY, JUNE 6, 1860,

A respectable situation, with an advancing
salary, and for life ! The value of such a boon to
thousands was what gave half its earnestness to the
discussion of last evening. A great part of, we
might say all, the hon. members wish to have
superior men in the public service ; but hon.
members have constituents who confer on them their
special honour, and connections, who also think
that their friend or relative who can give
the Government a vote has some influence with
it ; and between his political supporters and the
others, an honourable member is not unlikely to be
pressed, sometimes dishonourably, to use " his fair
influence " to get a situaticn for a deserving and
needy young man. A Respectable Situation !
why it is the desideratum of thousands ; and we
have heard too much in times past, of the way in
which Ministers and members of Parliament have
been pressed, almost beyond endurance, for Govern•
ment appointments, not to mention the " job.
bery " in this way, which was seldom wanting.
Now it cannot be denied that the system of com-
petitive examinations for the Civil Service and for
other services too, is at least a check on undue soli-
citations and on jobbing. When the plan has been
in existence a sufficient time, every appointment of
a person who has not passed such an examination,
will be suspected and severely canvassed ; the only
question is are the evils incident to examination so
great as to outweigh those attendant on ap-
pointment at discretion by the Government. This
will hardly be pretended. Every man knows his
liability to be influenced against his better judg•
meet by such considerations as are brought
to bear on those who have civil appointments,
directly or indirectly, in their gift ; and we are
persuaded that the great insjority of such gentle-
men feel it a relief to be able to say to an importu-
nate suitor, I may help you, perhaps, if you are able
to help yourself in the first instance. There's the
examination for all. Can you pass it ?
It is true some able young men may, in this way
fail for want of the requisite book knowledge ; but
after a few years, how few will they be ? What, in-
deed, can the young man be worth, who, if his gain-
ing a situation depended upon his proficiency,
in the most outlandish subject on earth would not
determine to master it. Of course subjects which
form the basis of a good general and polite educa-
tion would be naturally chosen ; but it is a great
mistake to think that for the main object of an
examination the particular subject is of much con-
sequence. The man who is best at anything which
all had to study, would, as the rule, be best at any-
thing which which came before him in after life.
Were the subject the language of the Ojibbeway
India-As, or the details of chemical combination, or
the geography
of all the West Coast of Scotland
and of the Hebrides—we would give more for the
best young man at any of these than for the second ;
and more for the second than for the third; and
-we would not accept at all the younker who had
not pluck to attempt such " out- of-th e- way stuff."
What
we want in every department of life iq, men
who will be best at whatever is indispensable to
their success.

On this grtound alone we should say that the
examination qu 'istions, which seemed so ludicrous
to the house, were more, than justified. If there
were candidates in vography or in geology, it is
fair to suppose there might be among them young
men who bad determined to be at home in all parts
of Scotland, Ireland, and Wales, and who would
not be at a loss for any knowledge to be acquired
from the physical atlases of the day; or who did
not mean- to be puzzled by any interrogatory on

Mr. BENTINCK has often before now been a
serious obstructive in the House of Commons, and
a most irritating intermeddler. He aspires ap-
parently to be the MARPLOT of the Conservative
Party : as—in the Liberal Party—Mr. HORSMAN
has latterly aimed, to all appearance,,at becoming
universally recognised as its ISHMAEL. These kind
of politicians are certainly and obviously the most
difficult of all to manage. They are party men, and
yet they are only such upon the understanding that
they are party men, with the somewhat anomalous
privilege of perpetual independence. They are
liable upon any and every occasion, and at moments
of all the most inopportune, to turn suddenly restiff
—to get the bit, as it were, between their teeth and
go off at a tangent in a hand gallop. Whenever
they act thus merely with the result of creating
confusion amongst the ranks of their own particular
associates— making themselves more than usually
unpleasant to their own immediate surroundings—
well and good for mere lookers-on—the spectacle
presented to view is rather agreeable than other-
wise, has often in those instances proved to the
general public an abundant source of entertainment.
But on Monday evening the member for West
Norfolk went even beyond himself—he out-Ben-
tineked BENTINCK ! Not content any longer with
merely insisting upon the necessity of an imperium
in imperio on the side of the Opposition—he must
needs absolutely go the length of trying to measure
swords, so to speak, with the right hon. the Speaker !
Now it is one of the immemorial traditions of that
most august representative assembly in the world,
that to the authority of the Speaker, both sides of
the House alike, all parties without any distinction,
every one from the leader on the Treasury bench
and the leader of the Opposition downwards, from
the Father of the House (is not this now Mr.
SPOONER ?) to the youngest and least experienced
of the popular representatives bow absolutely and
completely. The decision of the right hon. gentle-
man who occupies the chair of the House of Com-
mons is held oa all hands to be conclusive. 'The
First Commoner in the land is there in that Chair
as the First Commoner. His word is the law of
the House in regard to its proceedings. No one
dreams of demurring at his decision as to the order
of procedure. This is the tradition of the Com-
mons. This is their national instinct so to speak.
Mr. BENTINCK apparently deems the course thus
pursued to be erroneous—the course pursued back
and back until the records of the House are lost, to
use Lord MACAULA Y'S phrase, in the twilight of fable,
leading us towards the time of the Wittenagemote.
The member for West Norfolk in his supreme wis-
dom deems any further adherence to this system or
habit simply inexpedient. Insomuch that on Mon-
day evening during that untoward discussion which
was commenced upon the order of the day for the
Reform Bill going into Committee—Mr. BENTTNCK
showed himself to be not in any way amenab:e
to the decision arrived at explicitly in his re•
gard by the Speaker. Having risen to move the
"instruction" of which he had given notice, as
had been, in fact, duly announced upon the papers
of the House for that evening, Mr. BENTINCK was
at once informed by the Speaker that there was
precisely the same objection to his " instruction"
as there had previously been to the "instruction"
moved (also according to notice) by the hon. mem-
ber for Northamptonshire. This objection, more-
over, was pronounced insuperable by the Speaker,
" inasmuch," said the right hon. gentleman, " as it
was mandatory in its terms, and that in fact it
called upon the House to direct the committee not
to proceed further with the bill till provision wf..s
made for giving to the counties in England that
share in the representation of the people to which
they might be shown to be entitled by population
or property. It «as competent," the Speak .r
added, "for the committee to enter into the subject
of registration, and to dispose of it as they might
think proper." Tne Speaker maintaining yet
further, that "it was, therefore, not necessary to
move any such instruction, and in his opinion on
these grounds it was irregular and out of order.'

Mr. HUNT, the member for Northamptonshire, had

bowed at once to the decision of the Speaker, and
had readily withdrawn his notice. Not so Mr.
BENTINCK. The Speaker, as we have shown, had

spoken plainly—had pronounced the moving of
any suchinstruction to be, in his (the Speaker's)
opinion, "irregular and out of order." The mem-