The Sun.
London, England, 1869-06-12 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, SATURDAI EVENING, JUNE 12, 1869

shouts, again and again repeated, were not merely
those of Vice l'Enipereur and Vice l'lmpe'ratice ! but,
significantly enough, " We desire order and tran-
quillity !" During the tumults which have, off and
on, taken place wiLhin these last few days, but more
particularly towards evening and nightfall, the
cries raised were of a very indifferent character—" Vive
Rochefort !" Vive la Lanterne!" " A Bas l'Empire !"
" A Bas l'Emp?reur !" " Vive la Republique !" " A
Bas Napohion !" A rabble crowd of the most squalid
character, roaring out the choralgchaunt of " Alourir
pour la Patrie," and the great insurrectionary hymn
of the " Marseillaise," had as the last
and wildest of all these tumultuous movements, tra-
versed in a disorderly procession the most fashionable
of the Parisian boulevards. It was as the sequel, or
rather as the direct response, to these outrageous
demonstrations, that the SOVEREIGN of France with
his EmprtEss passed along the whole line of those
same boulevards in the way we have just now inti-
mated. Reverting to the previous demonstrations of
a really insurrectionary kind which had taken place
in the capital of France, under the very shadow of
the Palace of the Tuileries, it is impossible not to
have a vivid recollection of the blame attached to the
Imperial Government in themode of dealing with those
same demonstrations. If the police appeared, there, to
clear the streets of the rioters—their doing so was
said to betray a wanton irritation on the part of the
authorities. If, on the contrary, the police were no-
where to be seen during an interval when the scum
of Paris—men described by the Correspondent of
one of our morning contemporaries as looking verit-
able Yahoos—the absence of the police was attri-
buted to a deliberate intention on the part of the
Government to allow the disturbances to develope
themselves sufficiently to afford the authorities
the opportunity of interfering more energetic-
ally a little later on, with a view to their
resolute suppression. Whatever was done or was
left undone by the Government, was, in other
words, described by the implacable enemies of the
Empire as the very worst thing that could have been
dreamt of. Meanwhile it has been perfectly ob-
vious throughout, to all dispassionate observers,
that the utmost leniency and forbearance have
been displayed by the police authorities in
deal: 13g with the would-be insurgents. Casualties
have occurred, but, for the most part, the
injuries have been injuries done to the police them-
selves. Lives have not been lost, as they were lost
among ourselves the other day, down at Mold, in
Flintshire. And all the while—who is there who
knows anything at all about France, who does not

know this ?—all the while the Emperor
NAPOLEON has Paris absolutely at his com-
mand. Ti.e most powerful, and the most highly
disciplined army in the world is there, in Paris, capable
of the most rapid concentration. Troops are already
habitually, there, at this and at that central point of
the great capital of France, capable of acting against
insurgents with crushing and overwheltniug force.
Strategically, Paris is the impregnable stronghold of
Imperialism. The EMPEROR al ,y be said to hAve it
like a ball at his foot—to hold it in the hollow of his
band. The throwing up of barricades is now, and
will continue, to be heuceforth,a simple impossibility.
At any moment—supposing the political desperadoes
were out and about, armed to the teeth, as the Reds
were in the June of 1848, when CAVAIGNAC was in
supreme power as the dictatorial Commander-
in-Chief—the great thoroughfares of Paris could
be swept clear, from a series of central points,
by the roar of artillery. There is no exagge-
ration is all this. The facts are simply notorious.
A surprise to the Government is imposs;.ble. The
EMPEROR is not to be got rid of quite so easily as
Paris, as Francs got rid of Louts PIIILIPPE on the
famous February. This, be it said, quite apart from
the different characters of the two men—NAPOLEON

being simply incapable of flying ignominiously before
the face of Lis enemies, as was the case with his im-
mediate predecessor. No, as we said the other day,
he does not boast like the Citizen King of being

firmly in the.saddle—he sitnpl) is firmly in the saddle.
So firmly, that, as we have already sail, if there i 3
fated to be any bouleversenzent, the fall will be that
of rider and horse together—it will be the fall of
a Centaur.

CLEARLY man has not yet succeeded in bringing
the forces of nature under control. -Within twenty-
four hours we hear of a boiler explosion at Bingley,
by which fifteen lives have been sacrificed, and of a
colliery explosion in South Wales, which has de-
stroyed no fewen• i22A11 seventy persona. Unfartu-
nately neither class of events is so uncommon
as to excite much attention. Here are
more than fourscore persons killed instantaneously,
and, save in the districts where they were known,
this great sacrifice of life will excite little interest.
All England was horrified and aghast at the Aber-
gele accident, though that involved less than half
the loss of life, and well-nigh a year after date it has
been the subject of discussion in the House of Corn- i
mons. Whence this great difference ? How is it
that, while last year's catastrophe is a topic of conver-
versation for months, this year's double cala-
mity excites merely a languid attention, and
in a fortnight will be forgotten by the ordi-
nary reader ? The reason is to be found in
the egotism that more or less influences all of us.
We are not pitmen; we are not factory hands; we
are not in danger of being suddenly hurled out of
existence by the fiery subterranean blast or by the
breaking forth of imprisoned steam. We are all of
us railway travellers. The fate that befell Lord
FARNHAM and his companions may befall us.
Hence it is that we are so anxious to
prevent railway accidents, so indifferent about
accidents in the coalpit and in the mill. The
class to which the sufferers in those disasters
belong is not one capable of bringing its position
prominently before the public through the Press or
through Parliament. It is for this very reason that
those who have the interests of working men most
at heart should demand strict inquiry into such
calamities as those at Bingley and Ferndale.
The first thing to investigate is the cause of these
" accidents." Here, unfortunately, we are met with
the serious difficulty that the very persons who would
have been best able to give evidence are not avail-
able. It is conceivable enough that the engine-
tenter
HODGICINSON, who was one of the victims,
could, if he were living, tell something that would
enable us to make a shrewd guess. As it is, there
are statements current that the boiler had been
worked to a pressure of over sixty pounds on the '
square inch. In fact, when the noise of the ex-
plosion was first heard, and before it was known
from whence it proceeded, there were those
who, from their knowledge of this fact, at once
named the works at which the explosion had taken
place. It is even said that the whistle of the safety-
valve was tied up to prevent the fact of the engine
being worked at too high a pressure from
becoming known. If this be true, it is impossible to
conceive of greater folly and criminality. To this
disgraceful recklessness both the engineer and the
proprietor of the mill have fallen victims. Nor
is it possible to prevent the same results
again. Safety-valves have been tied down before,
and explosions have followed with more or less
loss of life; and yet if the supposed solution of this
terrible problem be correct, the stern lesson of
experience has been thrown away, and is likely to be
so again. " With folly even the gods strive in vain."
says SCHILLER ; and if a man will tie down his safety
valve, will open his safety lamp in a " fiery" pit, will
smoke upon a barrel of gunpowder, it is impossible to
prevent him. Heavy fines on discovery are scarcely
likely to have much effect upon a man who

puts his own life in peril. Motover, the discovery is
rarely possible until it is too late to be of service.
There are, however, certain pecautions practicable,
and which, had they been adoptd, m ight, perhaps, have
spared us these two tragedies ie Yorkshire and South
Wales. It is by no means cerain that the explosion
at Bingley was not due to alefective boiler-plate.
If this was so, the defect woul probably have been
discovered by a competent inspector. At all
events, such inspection ught to be com-
pulsory, and not, as now: merely voluntary.
For the sake of saving a few shillings a year there
are manufacturers who refuse to let their boilers
be inspected, even though tie inspection would
almost certainly guard them gainst accidents, and
the payment would secure thm against pecuniary
loss if an accident did occur. E Government would
insist upon inspection, the gre,t majority of these
ever-recurring calamities mightbe averted. It would
be impracticable to prevent tle erection of steam-
boilers in any crowded neighbourhood ; yet it may
fairly be questioned whether the Privy Council
might not forbid the erectioi of schools close
to a factory. It was because of such proximity
that the carnage at Bingley was so great. It was
not the factory hands so much a the children in the
adjacent school who fell victims Of the Ferndale
accident little is certainly knows. This colliery was
the scene of a similar catastroihe eighteen months
ago. The pit was, therefore, known to be liable to
such accidents, known to le dangerous, and,
therefore, precaution was doubly needed. Whether
any such precaution was taken remains to be
seen. Meanwhile it is a matter for consideration
whether colliery owners might not devise a better
system of inspection than now prevails. Frequent
visits at uncertain intervals to the different workings,
with the object of ascertaining if the men are dis-
obeying orders against sntoking and open lamps,
would probably have spared us many a holocaust
like that which has just spread fresh lamentation in
the sadly-famous Rhondda 'alley.

THE riots which have taken place this week at
Paris, and which unfortunately have not yet termi-
nated, afford an admirable example of the evils of
too much government. Costly experience has
by this time pretty well established the general
principles which the guardians of the peace
ought to follow at election time. It is always
the interest of the authorities to allow any little
popular effervescence to die out, and, whilst keeping
a close watch upon events, to refrain as much as
possible from active intervention. In times of
political excitement, the authorities must be expected
to set the example in forbearance. People at such
periods are naturally less tolerant of restraint, and
most easily incited to resistance. Moreover,
the crowd which assembles through interest

iii politics is always augmented by another
section of the populace, perfectly indifferent to elec-
tion contests, but greatly delighting in tumult of any
description. By these a collision between the police
and the populace is eagerly welcomed as afford-
ing pleasurable excitement and the chance of
profitable crime. To disappoint the roughs the
police ought to be unusually indulgent to excited
citizens. A general election is a rare event.
In France it occurs only once in six years.
The police of Paris, however, seem to have
adopted and carried out a philosophy of
election rioting of precisely the opposite kind. It
is pretty certain that but for the needless interven-
tion of the authorities the contests of Sunday and
Monday last would have passed off as peaceably as
did those which took place a fortnight previously.
All accounts, save those published in the official
papers, agree that the crowd which gathered on the
central boulevards on Monday evening did not at
first display
any signs of rioting. The appear-
ance of Paris was, indeed, very different from
that presented by London on similar occasions. The
contests had in some cases been very keen, the
excitement had been extreme, the interest general.
Whereas in our capital half the voters can scarcely
be induced • to take the trouble of polling, in
Paris five-sixths of the electors exercised
their privilege. When the battle was over,
the combatants assembled in large numbers to
discuss the strife. The great streets were densely
filled by crowds, who did not up to a :certain
hour commit any violence. The police, however,
misinterpreted these by no means objectionable
tokens of political interest into a menace of
revolution. They came up in large troops,
insisted on the people "moving on," pushed them
about, and soon succeeded in producing the excite-
ment which had formerly been wanting. A scene of
uproar followed, which bore its natural fruit on
Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. The roughs,
who exist in Paris equally as in London, saw their
opportunity and embraced it. The riots, which
were undoubtedly at first provoked by the police, were
on succeeding evenings carried on by +I,. Ir-two-a
cooti,,ti of the populace. The particulars of the worst
riot up to Thursday shew that the crowd was com-
posed entirely of roughs and boys under twenty, who
attacked the shops of inoffensive citizens and
ravaged the whole of one street. This most serious
disturbance had no connection whatever with politics.
The greater part of those concerned in it
were not old enough to exercise the suffrage.
So far it is quite certain that the police, instead of
preventing revolution, have only stirred up the
dregs of the Parisian populace. It would be,
perhaps, premature to decide upon the reason of such
conduct. If the Government is not anxious to
frame an excuse for another coup d'etat, if the
E MPELOR does not wish once more to appear as the
saviour of his country, the behaviour of his subor-
dinates must be set down as very foolish and incom-
petent.

POLICE INTELLIGENCE.-7 his Day.

__ _____..---

MARLBOROUGH-STREET.

THE DANGER OF LOOKING AT STREET EXHIBITIONS.—
George Clive, described as a silversmith, was charged
with stealing a gold watch of the value of £7, the property
of Mr. James Armstrong, of No. 45, Cirencester-place.
Ihe prosecutor said that he was standing at the corner
of Langham-street, looking at some characters exhibited
on a board, when he felt the prisoner against it, but he
took no notice. Directly afterwards, however, he felt
his watch chain pulled, and on looking down saw it hang-
ing, and the prisoner in the act of putting his (prose-
cutor's) watch in his pocket. The prisoner seeing that
he was detected took the watch out of his pocket and put
it into his hand, with the remark, " I'll give it up to
you," and then made off, but he was pursued and given
into custody.

Mr. Edward Lewis, of Great Marlborough-street
(the prisoner having pleaded guilty) made:a strong appeal
on his behalf, urging that the prisoner, who Dad been
drinking, had yielded to sudden temptation.

Mr. Tyrwhitt committed the prisoner for three months"
with hard labour.

THE FIGHT AT BELFAST.

The affray on the outskirts of Belfast between The
Orangemen—who were coming in about 1,000 strong,
with drum and fife—and the police, narrowly escaped being
a serious collision. When the police began to take
down the names of the leaders of the party, as the
Northern Whig states, a volley of stones was flung
at them. They drew their swords, charged the mob,
and arrested thirteen ; but no one was very badly hurt.
Several of the police received slight wounds. The
thirten Orangemen who were arrested were brought
up on Thursday at the police-court and fined £1
each, with the alternative of fourteen days' imprisonment.
The magistrate said that but for this being the first case
of the kind this season, the prisoners would have been
returned to the assizes.