The Sun.
London, England, 1869-12-14 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS,•

The Times thinks that there are no questions in which
the public at large could have a more profound interest
than in those raised by the trial of Overend and Gurney.
Shareholders in joint-stock companies, not necessarily,
indeed, but practically, aro at the mercy of their
directors. Investors, it is true, take for granted a
certain colouring in the prospectus of a new com-
pany. Directors are as liable as shareholders to be
deluded by a flattering view of their new undertaking.
In describing, somewhat poetically, its contingent
advantages, they arc as much victims of the picture drawn
by the promoter as the public is of their prospectus.
But when facts are systematically falsified or garbled, an
offence has certainly been committed which it is of ill
example for commercial morality to let go unpunished.
As it is, the contrivers or endorsers of the fraud escape.
The only persons to suffer, if any, are not they who have
concocted the fraud, but, at the most, creditors or fellow
shareholders. It is at the cost of these equally innocent
persons that the few obtain their deli'. erance who
are fortunate enough to convince the Court of
Chancery of the existence of sonic flaw in
their acceptance cf shares. On the other hand
the criminal prosecution of directors is an engine
which should be tired with cauticn and moderation.
To employ it agaii',st every director whose company has
not been properous would be as bad policy as to Le severe
upon every petty want of judgment displayed by a
trustee. The cffice of director, in the hands of honour-
able men, is never very profitable, and would then become
exceedingly hazardous. The simple result would be that
persons of character and fortune would decline it, and it
would be accepted by few but needy adventurers. It rests
with the present trial to shew whether some medium can-
not be found. What is wanted is that the getters up of com-
panies may not be able deliberately to deceive the public
with impunity, and yet that men who have done their
best for their shareholders, or, at worst, have let them-
selves be cajoled along with them, may not be placed at
the mercy of every individual investor's caprice or disap-
pointed hopes. If the result of these proceedings proves
this to be possible, the long delay which has intervened
since they were begun will not have been without its uses.
It will exclude any suspicion that the issue, whatever it
may be, is alloyed with the passion and prejudice which
the original revelations roused at Guildhall.
The Herald, in referring to the execution of Hinson for
the Wood-green murder, observes that the man deemed
himself to be supreme judge where a question of life or
death was concerned. In the lesson taught on Monday
morning at Newgate consists the moral of this idea. The
murderer may exonerate himself, but the law will not hold
him guiltless. It denies him the right of revenge, and no
more salutary principle can be acknowledged. Of course,
all must deplore a tragedy so miserable. It might have
been infinitely more perilous as an example, however, had
any casuistry sufficed to remove Frederick Hinson from
the class of ordinary murderers. His own apologies
for himself, in fact, were of the most frightful description.
He thought ho was perfectly in the right when he killed
that man and that woman ; he regarded himself as a
martyr; and he complained of the law which brought
him to the scaffold. To tell the truth, indeed, before the
trial a somewhat unhealthy display of compassion was
exhibited in more quarters than one, and a sort of "
wild
justice " was attributed to the deed of the assassin. For-
tunately the better judgment of society prevailed, and the
"killing" at Wood-green was declared to be " murder." It
would be a grievous calamity were juries or public opinion
to condone such crimes on the score of provocation. The
penalty of passions unrestrained, being avoided, might
have been perilous teaching for those persons whoconsider
that, when injured or affronted, the law is in their own
hands to dispense, with the sympathy of the world to back
them. The expiation exacted from the Wood-green mur-
derer, terrible as it has been, and notwithstanding the
peculiarities of his case, will be of wholesome effect,
and, perhaps, disabuse the criminal class of certain vulgar
errors.

The Standard is informed that the Government have
found it necessary to send another healing message to
Ireland. On this occasion the bearer of peace assumes the
shape of Lord Strathnairn, and his evangelists aro "seven
flying columns under picked officers." These have been
prepared to march "at an hour's notice " to any part of
the country. Two or three regiments have also been
ordered to reinforce the army in Ireland, and at least one
or two vessels of war are already on their way to the coast'
The motive alleged for these extraordinary movements is
the possible outbreak of an insurrection in certain dis-
tricts. That which has been called the irony of
history was surely never better illustrated. We have
almost to rub our eyes while we read, before we can credit
this astounding piece of news. An insurrection in
Ireland! It sounds almost as great an anachronism
as a march of " flying columns under picked officers" under
the orders of a Government of which Messrs. Gladstone
and Bright arc members. Is this the end, then, of twelve
months of Liberal administration? Are we compelled to
fall back once more upon the carnal weapons in our
government of Ireland? Was it for this that wo made
Mr. Bright Minister, that he might range the country
with " flying columns ?" If it is true that the
Government is in possession of information which warrants
them in sending flying columns through the country, it is
evident that a crisis has come which must be met by far
stronger measures than these. If the state of Ireland is
such that a civil war is daily apprehended, there can be no
reason for postponing any longer the suspension of the
Habeas Corpus Act in the disaffected districts, except that
Mr. Gladstone has not the courage to adopt a measure
which would be a palpable sign of the failure of his
policy.

Now that Mr. Peabody's remains are on their way to
their last resting-place in the land of his birth, it may not
be inappropriate, says the Daily .News, to estimate the
permanent benefits he has left behind him in the land of
his adoption. There are, of course, some defects in the
operation of the scheme which time and experience may
cure. The chief defect which strikes us is that no provi-
sion seems as yet to have been made for a most
deserving but most necessitous class of the poor
—those with large families. So that a considerable
part of their field yet remains to be occupied
by the trustees, and that part the hardest. They have
attacked the easiest part of the work first, and have suc-
ceeded. The Peabody-buildings are orderly, healthy, and
popular. They do not pretend to elegance—perhaps they
err rather on the side of unpretentious and business-like
plainness; they aim at health, at decency, and at some
measure of comfort; and they attain it. But they have
done this for the people with small families; they have
now to attempt it for large families. This part of the
work is the more important from the necessity
there is that the children of the unpauperised
poor should be taken out of their squalid sur-
roundings and brought up under a better regime and
in a purer air. Probably the trustees are feeling their
way in this matter, and making each step secure before
taking the next. That they are working in the right
direction and on the right principle is beyond the roach of
doubt, and that they will learn from experience is unques-
tionable. Mr. Peabody himself had the satisfaction of
seeing the small beginnings of success, and that success is
now so far assured that his own wish will be realised in a
wider sense than he himself had hoped, for his gift will
"be appreciated not only by the present, but by future
generations of the people of London," but it will increase
in magnitude and grow in public usefulness and in popular
appreciation as time goes on.

The Post remarks that Sir Roderick Murchison—the
wish being evidently father to the thought—gave it as his
opinion at the meeting of the Geographical Society that
we might expect Dr. Livingstone " within a few months."
But it seems evident now that the work cut out for him
will detain him in the country for a longer period.
Ho talks of " going down the eastern line of
drainage to Baker's turning-point." This point—which it
is to be presumed is Vacovia, on the eastern side of Lake
Albert N'yanza, south of which Baker did not penetrate,
is four hundred miles north of Ujiji. To traverse this
distance, and also to explore all the region to the south
and south-west of Albert N'yanza, must, judging from
past experience, occupy much more time than
Sir Roderick Murchison supposed. The patience,
the perseverance, and the determination to do
his work thoroughly of Dr. Livingstone have
upset the calculations of even the best judges and those
who knew him most intimately. It is to be gathered from
Dr. Livingstone's last letter that he had still a tedious
and onerous task to perform. The great geographical
problem was not so near its solution as had been imagined.
The question of the northern outlet of Taganyika had
been settled, but the determination of the point as
to whether Lake Albert N'yanza has a connec-
tion with the more southern waters of Africa seemed
no nearer than when Dr. Livingstone wrote from Lake
Bangweolo in July 1363. He will not, however, be content
with anything short of a thorough and searching examina-
tion of the whole unexplored region within his grasp. lie
will not rest satisfied with partial discoveries, like other
travellers ; and whilst we marvel at his tenacity of
purpose and unfaltering energy, mental and bodily, we
can only pray for his safe return, and wish him heartily
God speed.

The accident near Wolverhampton is the Princes
End pit colliery, whereby 120 men and boys wore imprisoned
and kept from communicating, with the world abovo their,
rosulted in uothiug more. serious then. 17 howl alastiaene
from tout tingle But MI koktigniEttgillagt