The Sun.
London, England, 1869-07-13 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, TUESDAY EVENING, JULY

ROYALTY THEATRE.
Under the Management of Miss M Oliver.

THIS EVENING, at 7.30, IR FOR A HOLIDAY. Followed by
A ROVING COMMISSION. And THE MILITARY BILLY
TAYLOR. To conclude with CLAUDE DUVAL: Mr. Day,
Mr. Dewar, Mr. Danvers. Miss M. Oliver, Miss K. Bishop.

explicitly confided to his keeping, and which prero-
gatives are regarded by himself (not unnaturally as
the responsible party) as the essential condition of
Power, and of the preservation of Order, and So-
ciety. What more NAPOLEON 111. could do, we cannot
conceive. He has been faithful to his com-
pact with the nation. He has held the reins
of power now within his grasp for more than
twenty years—for upwards of eighteen in his supreme
capacity as EMPEROR. During this interval he has
maintained order, he has developed the resources of
the country, he has preserved peace so long as it
was anywhere capable of preservation, he has
maintained unbrokenly with ourselves 'an intimate
and most honourable alliance, he has himself in
the field conducted a glorious war as Ge-
neralissimo, and be has, now, after all those
years, and after all those unquestionably re-
splendent achievements, given new and signal proof
of his faithfulness to his own promises, by Crowning
the Edifice he has been permitted, by PROVIDENCE, to
construct—namely, by perfecting, with Parliamen-
tary institutions, the strength and glory of his Impe-
ial Government.

AT a time when there is much talk about woman's
mission and woman's work, it is well to know that
even for the childless and the unmarried woman
there is close at hand a definite mission and abun-
dance of work. There is no need for her to seclude
herself from the world or to put on a distinctive
dress. Excellent and admirable as sisterhoods are, it
is possible for the free isolated woman to accomplish
quite as much good as the pledged member
of a religious society. For proof of this we need only
turn to that very interesting article which Miss HILL
has written in the current number of Macmillan's
Magazine, under the title of " Organised Work
among the Poor; Suggestions founded on Four
Years' Management of a London Court"
Four years ago Mr. ItusioN, who, visionary
though his political economy sometimes may
be, is by no means a mere theorist, bought
nine houses in one of the worst courts of
Marylebone. They were in a fearfully, but not
unusually, dilapidated condition. Their previous
owner was a man of no capital, could not afford to
lay out money upon them, and being constantly
defrauded of his rent, acted upon the unsound prin-
ciple, popular also with West-end tradesmen, of
making the honest pay for the dishonest. Ile cared
absolutely nothing for his tenants, and as a conse-
quence they cared absolutely nothing for his property.
If they asked that repairs might be done he
told them that if their room did not suit
them they might leave it, knowing well that,
thanks to the Parliament which ordered wholesale
evictions of the poor without compensation, in order
that our lawyers might be more comfortable, there
would be no lack of other tenants. The people took
their revenge so far as they could. If he selfishly
filled the wash-house with lumber, so that they were
compelled to wash their clothes in the room in
which they lived and slept, they fed the fire with
the bannisters and other available woodwork.
This, however, was but a poor compensa-
tion for the miseries which they endured.
With plaster dropping from the walls, with grates
falling Into the rooms, with leaky water-butts, broken
pavements, no drainage, and windows so broken that
'only eight out of 192 panes were found whole, with
indescribable filth everywhere, it may easily be con-
ceived that the inmates of these houses were sickly
and wretched. As soon as they came into Mr.
RUSKIN'S hands they were converted into habitations
fit for men and women. What was filthy was
cleansed, what was dark was made light, what was
poisonous was made healthful. New windows were
made, and the old ones filled with glass ; new
grates were fixed ; a slate cistern was constructed ;
the washhouse was cleared and thrown open
for use ; drains were made ; the yard was
paved ; in fact, hovels were turned into homes.
At the same time a piece of ground was utilised
so that it might serve as drying-ground for
the mothers, and as play-ground for the children.
Flowers were cultivated, a May pole and a May
Queen were instituted. But this was not all, nor
half, that had to be clone. Mr. RUSKIN had no
intention of creating a court full of paupers. his
object was to make them comfortable and healthy and
civilised, no doubt, but also independent. Ile
entrusted the collection of the rents and the entire
superintendence of the property to Miss HILL. Ile
could not have done better. Her method was most
admirable. She combined firmness with kindness.
She collected the rents weekly, and would never
allow a tenant to get a single week in arrear. Debt
she knew to be the worst foe of the working man. It
paralysed all his efforts, it made him careless about
his work even when work was to be had and when
there was none. Debt made him careless and hopeless.
Therefore, hard though it often seemed, a notice to
quit was always given when the week's rent was not
forthcoming. ii generally had the desired effect.
Tenants
.:now when they have a good landlord, and
they will make an effort not to lose that great
advantage. Cleanliness was enforced as rigidly as
punctuality of payment. One admirable plan adopted
in order to check dilapidations was the setting aside
of a certain definite sum every year for repairs, and
if the money was not wanted for these it was spent
in making any improvements in the rooms which the
tenants might desire.

These weekly visits which Miss HILL paid to her
tenants brought her into intimate acquaintance with
them. She knew every one of them—their wants
and sorrows as well as their joys. She was able often
to relieve the first, and that, too, without sapping
their independence. She rarely gave money, though
she sometimes lent it with the expectation, generally
fulfilled, of getting it back again. She more often
found employment. At the time when the papers
were full of the terrible distress which visited the
East-end during the winter of 1867-8, she, being
then abroad, proposed to the ladies who had charge
of her work that a fund should be raised to supply
the more urgent cases of distress. The reply was
that no such fund was needed. The people had been
not only helped, but taught self-help. This is one
lesson which Miss HTLL draws from her four years'
work. Another is the good that ladies may do
among the poor by undertaking such a charge
as hers. The whole metropolis might be mapped
out into blocks if only men and women would work
together ; if men would but purchase these houses,
and women would undertake to collect the rents and
superintend the property. The male capitalist and
the female house-agent have in this instance obtained
per cent. interest upon the capital invested. At
the same time they have bestowed upon the tenants
benefits almost incalculable.

THE annual reunion of the Cobden Club is always
a pleasant gathering, and it becomes increasingly
gratifying as years roll on. It is ever an agreeable
duty to pay respectful tribute to the memory
of men who have unselfishly laboured to secure their
country the blessings of peace and prosperity ; and
assuredly this gratification is not diminished by the
consideration that those labours have been amply
rewarded, and that the fruit which they bear increases
more and more with the lapse of time. Al r. COBDEN
was the exponent of a policy by which he designed
primarily to benefit England, in the hops that it
might some day benefit the world; but he lived to
see it accepted almost unanimously by his country-
men, and it is now—four years after his death—
rapidly spreading over the entire globe. The great
Free Trade advocate was one of the most successful
as well as one of the wisest of statesmen. If
the epitaph, " Si 2nonit»ientu»t requith, eircu»zspice"—
" If you seek a monument look around you "—was
appropriate to the architect who was buried within
the walls of his greatest work, it is not less suitable
to the memory of the statesman who founded the
political edifice of Free Trade. The growth of the
movement set on foot by the party of which Mr.
COBDEN was the chief has no parallel. Never before
has any change of equal importance been effected
in so short a space of time, Fifty years ago Free

Trade as a recognised policy did not exist ; fifty years
hence Protection in all likelihood will be extinct. The
victory of Free Trade in England was achieved in
1846, and how vast is the progress made in the
twenty-three years which have since elapsed ! In
this country Protection is a creed almost without
followers. The rise of British exports from 40 to 130
millions has silenced all opposing pleas ; and
Free Trade is now well-nigh as much a matter of
course as parliamentary government. Other coun-
tries have rapidly followed this example; and though
in no case has the true doctrine so completely
triumphed, in no important State has commercial
policy failed to improve. France has adopted a liberal
system from which the best results have already accrued.
In Austria and the German States recent changes in
the duties on foreign products—and they have
been very considerable—have been almost invariably
in the way of reduction. Even semi-civilised
Russia has materially modified her protective system.
In Spain the revolution was immediately followed by
a Free Trade movement, and though little success-
has yet been achieved, all attempts to extend
the Protective duties have failed. In the
United States and the Australian colonies,
it is a . lamentable fact that an anti-Free
Trade tariff still prevails, but if these peoples have
not amended their ways, they are rapidly beginning
to see the error of them. Mr. J. S. MILL may
safely conclude that Protection in America has seen its
palmiest days. It is easy to depreciate the import-
ance of any of these results, easy to point out the
countries in which the old doctrine still holds good,
easy to shew that in the case of Russia and other
States the system now adopted is only liberal in
comparison with what it once was. But when we
reflect how slow is the growth of changes of such mag-
nitude, how great the personal interests yet brought
against Free Trade, the good work done by Mr.
COBDEN and his brethren cannot be too highly
estimated. It is progress, too, which once made is
never lost.

LATEST INTELL [GEM

(REUTER'S TELEGRAMS.)