The Sun.
London, England, 1869-11-17 00:00:00

SPIRIT OP THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

The Times thinks it is remarkable that of all the propo-
sitions announced for discussion at the Conference of the
Associated Chambers of Commerce, the question of the
French Treaty should be the most important. Birming-
ham, Hull, Belfast, Kendal, Plymouth, and Bradford have
sent representatives to the Commercial Congress. The
income tax is stigmatised by the representatives of Hull
as inequitable and impolitic, and the propriety of making
some impression on the National Debt by annual reduc-
tion seems to have been favourably entertained at Bir-
mingham. As for the rest, the subjects announced for
debate are mainly professional, including postal reforms,
acceleration of mails, uniformity of weights and mea-
sures, international coinage, bankruptcy laws, and so
forth. Among all these, however, there stands out
is singular relief, as a real and practical question,
the case of the French Treaty. Lot the present
malccntents just observe that the case against American
brcadstuffs is absolutely identicalwith that against French
silks. English farmers might allege, exactly like Coventry
weavers, that American agriculturists are getting the benefit
of our markets, while we are not getting theirs. Why
should Yankee corn-growers be allowed to drive British
wheat down to 45. a quarter, when they will not help our
spinners Ly ordering a y.v.-A.of calico at Manchester? What
would our working men say to this argument ? Would they
not ray thrt whatever the Americans chose to do about
buying cheap cotton, we should simply be fools if we re-
fused to buy their cheap bread? That ought certainly to
be their reply; but such a reply surrenders the whole
doctrine of modern " Reciprocity," and leaves no complaint
available against the French Treaty. It is quite true that
the necessaries of life are now dear, but that is because
the consumers have been multiplied, and each consumer's
notion of what is " necessary' has been materially en-
larged. Free Trade has, indeed, in one sense been the
cause of this result; that is to say, it has increased the
expectations and demands of every working man's family.
But what would be the price of bread and meat at this
moment if foreign importations were stopped ? That is a
question which the artisans of Birmingham would do well
to ask themselves at their next meeting.

The Daily News declares that the village poacher is not
a very promising hero. With his velveteen coat, and its
capacious pockets, or pokes, designed for the receptacle of
the game—whence his name of poaching or pocketer—
with his lurcher and well-trained and ill-fed mongrels at
his peels; the frequenter of public-houses by day, and
of coverts by night; debauched and debauching, he is the
curse of the neighbourhood which he haunts. The wonder
is, that country gentlemen should be as anxious as they
are to preserve him on their estates. He does not pre-
cisely rank as game, but the game laws are not less
responsible for his existence and multiplication than
they are for the maintenance of partridges and pheasants.
He is as entirely their creation as smugglers were the pro-
duct of high customs duties ; and unhappily the public
opinion of the labouring class is as little pronounced
against his doings as it was in former times against those
of the " free traders "of our coast towns. It is at the cost
of brawl and bloodshed that the Legislature protects the
pleasures of noblemen and country gentlemen. What is
sport to the Marquis of Westminster may be death to
the Marquis's gamekeeper. These Homeric battles over
the dead bodies of hares and rabbits mingle farce and
tragedy in pitiable fashion; Though the laws of
England and of every other country decline to ac-
knowledge property in wild animals, the petty
ITimrods have managed to evade the spirit of the
law. Our noblemen and gentlemen are in many instances
rather traders in game than sportsmen. They preserve
and kill, in order to sell. Hares and rabbits and pheasants
are the landlord's stock, which he feeds at the expense of
his tenant. tut the farmer's direct loss is, perhaps, his
least calamity. The social demoralisation, the lawless
temper, the acts of violence and murder, which the Game
Laws foster on every estate where they are strictly

enforced, are evils far more serious. These laws, while
founded upon an absurd pretence to property in animals
fence naturce, conflict equally with public policy and
morality and a sound economy. Next session, we believe,
they will be challenged. Their abolition ought to be one
of the earliest achievements of a Reformed Parliament.

" Mute of malice," That, says the Standard, will be the
verdict of public opinion upon the persistent silence of
our Ministerial contemporaries in the matter of tho
appointment of Messrs. Fenwick and Schneider as
magistrates for the county of Lancaster. We have twice
appealed to them to deny, if it be possible, that the
Government has included in the commission of the peace
for that great county two men whom a Royal Commission
has declared guilty of the crime of "debauching and
degrading" the constituency of the former borough of
Lancaster, and whom, as members of a class, the House of
Commons has asserted, in an address to the Crown, should
not receive such an honour, and if already possessing it,
should be stripped of it ; or, if denial bo impossible, tooffer
some justification or palliation of such a scandalous abuse of
the prerogative of the Crown, and such an unprecedented
insult to the House of Commons. But what can they do?
Mr. Gladstone has formally accepted corruption as the
principle cf his Administration. He has scattered peer-
ages and baronetcies broadcast as consideration for past
and fwture services. Can journalists who conjure with
his name venture, whilst corruption is thus elevated to a
principle, to protest against the elevation of notorious,

and, so to speak, convicted bribers to the judgment seat?
All their virtue oozes out at the palms of their hands, the
moment Mr. Gladstone throws his mantle over the sinners.
They probably do not like it, but they dare not
complain, and they hope to get rid of the scandal
by an os' entatious refusal to see it. In this hope,
however, they are very much mistaken, and they
will find in the long run that they would have done much
better to take the honest part at once. The scandal will
not be allowed to blow over. When Parliament meets
Mr. Gladstone will be asked to reconcile these appoint-
ments with his speech upon Mr. Taylor's motion. Mr.
Taylor himself will, no doubt, if not anticipated by some
member from the locality in which this outrage has been
perpetrated, bring the subject under the attention of the
House of Commons ; and we can but regret, for the sake of
our Liberal contemporaries and the public, that the singu-
lar diffidence which has characterised his parliamentary
career should prevent him from at once denouncing these
appointments in some ultra-Radical journal.

The Herald regrets to find that the report on "Crime in
the Army" for the year IS6B, by Captain Du Cane,
Inspector-General of Military Prisons, exhibits, a steady
and progressive increase in the number of men committed
for military offences. The report states that this increase
is in a great measure due to the prevalence of drunkenness
amongst the soldiers, and it anticipates a considerable
diminution in this offence from the new regulation, which
now punishes it by fine instead of imprisonment. After
drunkenness desertion stands prominent in the cata-
logue of military crimes, for -which 1,776 of the 7,553
sentences passed in 1868 were inflicted. The Inspector
anticipates that a time is coming when it may be possible
to refuse or dismiss men of marked bad character, when
proposing to enlist or when actually in the ranks, which
implies that such persons are at present accepted as re-
cruits and retained under arms. Yet we cannot conceive
why this should be so when, as correctly stated in a pre-
ceding passage of the report, they are more than
worthless as soldiers, and their presence tends to damage
discipline by the bad example they eet to others.
Captain Du Cane grounds his expectations of procuring
a better class of men for the army on the advantages
which a soldier now enjoys in pay or its equiralent-
combined with the prospect of remunerative em-
ployment after an honourable discharge advan,
tapes which he believes are gradually being realised
and the dread of whose forfeiture he thinks sufficient to
deter the ordinarily well conducted men from infraction
of duty. Ent in our mind the first step to be taken to
render a military career popular amongst eligible recruits
would be at once to refuse admission to the army to men
of known bad character, and summarily to dismiss them,
when their evil propensities become known, after the
infliction of a punishment which would prevent their
entertaining any desire to return again. For young men
of education and respectability will be always disinclined
to mix with such companions, or to enter a profession
which their misconduct has branded with an unenviable
reputation.

For the behoof of both makers and consumers
eof bread,
the Telegraph desires to note the fact that
of wheat and flour, which have been gradually
on MondayfaliVncgesfoorf
months past, made a further plunge downwards
at Mark-lane; the result being that the value of both com-
modities modifi tim
e
during is now almost as low as it has been at any t
during the last four years—that is, before our latest seriesre
of deficient harvests commenced. In such circumstances
bread ought, of course—taking the usual relation of the
manufactured article to the raw material--to be very
cheap. From the highest point which was reached,
for both wheat and -flour, rather more than a year
and a half ago, there had been a gradual decline,
amounting for the whole period to about 40 per cent.
But the corresponding fiol in bread has certainly not
exceeded 23 per cent., and, in the case of high-priced
Inker 3, it has been only about 20 per cent. Tn otherwords,
the quartern is only twopence cheaper, whereas, to give
the public the full benefit of the fall in the raw material,
it should have been at least threepence or fourpence
chearer. It would seem, therefore, that the bakers either
sol.d at a 1:),44 some time ago, or are reaping exorbitant
profits now. But the o admirable tradesmen are much
too sound in their political economy to work at a loss;
on the contrary, they sell in .the dearest market ; and it
may be set down as a fact beyond dispute, that
their prices always leave room, with an ample
margin, for the performance of all necessary duties to
themselves and the State. We are justified, then, in sug-
gesting that they should follow Mark-lane, and give the
public the full benefit of those purchases of cheap flour
which they have made within the last few weeks. Between
the first importer or producer, and the consumer, there are
wide differences of price, representing large profits, Mer-
chant, factor, miller, baker—each has a slice; while it is
invariablya long time before the bread-eater gets any share
of the benefit. But are not the bulk of the consumers the
poorer classes ?—is not bread their staff oflif.9l-_—__and IS
met Win* 1