The Sun.
London, England, 1869-02-17 00:00:00

THE ELECTION PETITIONS.

The Liberals continue to be fortunate. They have
failed indeed to unseat the sitting member at Staley-
bridge, but Mr. Sidebottom had the narrowest pos-
sible escape. They have successfully defended the
seats of Sir Robert Peel, Sir 11. Bulwer, and Mr.
Grieve, and the petitions against Mr. Monk, Mr.
Price, and Lord George Cavendish have been with-
irawn. On the other hand, there is a complete
schism at Bradford. The backward and the advanced
Liberals cannot unite, and so the scandal exhibited
at the_ last two elections for this borough will b
repeated—Liberal standing against Liberal. M

Miall, who has been defeated twice, is to be broug
forward without expense to himself.
TUE AII3IY AND TUE VOLUNTEERS.

in a third letter to the Times, Lord Elcho presents
the conclusion of his scheme for organising our
military services. In his former letters he advocated
an increased capitation grant to the volunteers and
the adoption of a scheme of military districts, so that
this force, the nnlitia, and the regular army might
be united under one command. Ile now sets forth
a further plan for improvement. It includes
conscription, a new arrangement of the enlist-
ment time, and the volunteering of the militia
by regiments instead of by individual soldiers. Lord
Elcho disagrees with the increase of the period of
enlistment from ten to twelve years. Ile would
recur to the old twenty-one years' system, but with
very great " modifications." lle would divide
the time into three periods s wen years
with the regiment; seven years hi the first
reserve, to be called out once a year for training
with the militia, and with liability to foreign service ;
and seven years in the second reserve, with the same
training, but with liability for home service only.
To each period he would attach a pension of 3d. or
4d. lie would also offer facilities for employment in
Government offices to those who have completed
their time. Lord Elcho's scheme agrees in many
respects with that of Sir Charles Trevelyan's. The
one would make the period of service very short, but
increase the attractions which would lead the soldier
into the reserve, while the other would make the re-
serve compulsory.
Indeed, it is just a difference of
compulsion. Sir Charles would treat a man so well
be led on from step to step to
tdo hat he would
what was for the good of the State, while Lord
h E o would begin with the assumption that it is the
Queen's right to
to serve. command, and the citizen's privilege

PiktPERIS3I AND CHARITY.
A somewhat stormy meeting has been held at
Arundel Hall, Arundel-street, Mr. C. Reed in the
chair, to discuss the propriety of petitioning Par
ment for an inquiry into the causes of our increased
pauperism and taxation, and into the constitution of
the Poor-law Board. Many of the guardians of
different London parishes were present, and
as these gentlemen introduced some personal
topics there was some angry discussion. The chair-
man, after insisting on the necessity for amending
the laws
relating to pauperism, spoke strongly of the
injustice inflicted on the poorer parishes by the
inequality of the rates. The guardians present also
objected to the proposed metropolitan asylums, and
some resolutions embodying these views were passed.
Mr. Lumley, honorary secretary of the Statistical
Society, has addressed a letter to the Times respecting
the immense difficulty which attends any attempt to
obtain a correct report of the accont of our beneficents
societies and institutions. Such an object has often
been aimed at, but never attained, and the Statistical
Society themselves abandoned the effort in despair.

SUNDAY TRADES-G.
A conference of gentlemen and tradesmen interested
in the diminution of Sunday trading was held on
Monday at the Freemasons' Hall. The object of th
meeting was merely to discuss the subject, and letter:
were read from members of both Houses of Parliament
declaring their sympathy with the cause. The Bishop
of London, in expressing his regret at his inability to
attend, said that Sunday trading was pre-eminently
a working man's question, and that he was very glad
to see it in their hands. He thought that the
true interests of those who were supposed to
require the opportunity of purchasing on Sunday
would really be best consulted by limiting that
traffic as much as possible. The general feeling
both of those present and of those who for-
warded their opinions in writing was in favour of
a ffioderate measure. The Rev. J. Gritton, secretary
of the Lord's Day Observance Society, said that the
main argument in favour of Sunday trading was
that perishable articles would not keep for
many hours in the wretched dwellings of the
poor. There was some truth in that, but
Le had noticed that out of every six shops open, three
were drinling shops and one a tobacconist's shop. If
meat would not keep from Saturday to Sunday,
surely tobacco would: Some .gentlemen present
objected to the custom of having funerals on Sunday,
but others explained that Most Sunday funerals
were those of the very poor. It was proposed
that the hawkers and the costermongers should
be invited to a tea-meeting that their
opinions might be heard. It was incidentally men-
tioned that ;_fs-0 shops were open in the perish of St.
Giles's on Sunday mornine. In contrast to this fact