The Sun.
London, England, 1867-01-14 00:00:00

scene of disorder and panic in the centr es
of Northern industry would meet with no
support from the outer world, and the power of the
Radicals, though great in one sense, is in another
only superficial. They do not represent the de-
liberate convictions of the majority of the peopae,
neither are they contending for the particular in-
terests of any class beyond the walls of Cong ress,
and therefore if they strain their authority to() far,
_ _

it is quite possible that the spell may be b token,
and that means may be devised to throw off their
dominion. At any rate it is satisfactory that the
clouds which threatened such a tempest are breaking
a little sin ce in the critical condition of affairs through-
out the States the worst consequences might have
ensued from such an audacious proceeding. Another
telegram, dated Jan. 11, brings news to the effect
that the delegates of Kentucky and Virginia have
rejected the Constitutional Amendment. This was
perhaps only to be expected, but it fully confirms the
assertions of President JOHNSON that the Radicals'
theories of reconstruction were totally impracticable.
The Northerners, indeed, might well look with
contempt on the white men of the South if they
consented to their own political humiliation in
abandoning those State rights which every
American is taught to cherish. The State
rights are no doubt important guarantees
of the liberties of the people, and after the
most formidable obstacles to that centralising ten-
dency which all Governments more or less possess.
The South ex-Confederates have submitted with
patience and dignity to the forfeiture of their dream
of independence, but to surrender their claims to
their old position of members of the Union to which
they are forced to belong would be an unwise, a
cowardly, and an unpatriotic act. It would injure
the future as well as the present, and would be a
loss totally without any commensurate advantage.
It is success which stimulates the Radicals to fresh
action, and if they believed the South would endure
more they would increase their aggression. If they
can be made to feel that it is possible they may be
successfully resisted, there will be more hope of
conciliation and compromise.

Working Classes Industrial Exhibitions are fast
becoming one of the most significant signs of the
age in which we live, and they afford a far more
cheering and satisfactory illustration of the progress
of those who take part in them than all the monster
meetings and tumultuous speeches which form Mr.

BRIGHT'S landmarks on the road to improvement.

Last Saturday the prizes were distributed to the
successful competitors at the recent Metropolitan
and Provincial Working Classes Exhibition. The

financial result of this affair was good, the Counci

having a balance of nine hundred pounds ster.
ling. The adjudicators do not, however, give
very high praise to the general character of the
exhibition, for they say, in their concluding para-
graph, that they feel bound to state that, with cer-
tain honourable exceptions, " the objects exhibited
do not attain to great excellence." This unfavour-
able decision is, however, qualified in some degree
by the intimation that there are " evidences" of
perseverance and technical skill which give promise
of more decided excellence in future industrial exhi-
bitions. The ceremony of distributing the prizes
took place at Exeter Hall, and Mr. GosCHEN,
M.P., presided, and addressed the exhibitors and the
others assembled. He said, very truly, that it was
a great satisfaction to them that all this exhibition
should have more than paid its own expenses. As
for the prizes, as Mr. GOSCIIEN said, they are not
the first object of such undertakings, and should
not be looked upon as such ; " their more impor-
tant end was to induce persons to come forward and
submit their industrial and intellectual efforts to
public examination. In this way such exhibitions
afforded wholesome, rational, and intellectual tests."
This is very true, as is likewise another obser-
vation of the right hon. gentleman's, to the
effect that a great gain of these exhibitions
is that they show that the working men
have tastes, for which some might not have given the
credit, and that they do not devote all their time
to the labour upon which they depend for bread.
It is always a great mistake to confuse things
that are essentially different, and to bring all down
to a common level when there is so much adversity
of tastes, thought, and feeling to be observed
among those who make up the different ranks of
the community. Ignorance of each other is a
frightful source of irritation and jealousy, and we
are glad to find that in his impressive remarks Mr.
GOSCHEN adverted to this point, and said that many
bitter words which were dropped on one side and
another in moments of excitement were more the
result of ignorance than of enmity. It is the more
satisfactory to meet with such opinions from him,
because he has been considered to belong to rather
an extreme school of politics, and the partisans of
such schemes do not unfortunately stop to weigh
the effect of their words on their hearers. After
those tirades with which some public meetings have
been favoured of late it is well to meet with
sensible observations like these, expressed, too,
upon a notable occasion, to an appropriate
audience. "He felt convinced that the more each
class met the other, the more likely would each be
to trust the other. He did not think that classes in
this country were separated by hostile lines of
offence and defence. They were separated merely
by a cloud, which more light would dispel ; and ho
valued those working men's exhibitions, because
they would throw light upon the private life of the
working men." Mr. BEHESFORD IlorE, M.P., also
addressed a few words to the assemblage. Ile made
some excellent observations upon the mistakes of
those who think that work and art should be
held distinct and separate. There is no
reason whatever why such should be the case, and,
as Mr. HOPE said, it is a fallacy and a heresy to
think such to be a fact. We also think that the
working men might profit by some of the advice
tendered to them by this speaker, when he implored
them not to think that there was a " royal road to
art." We consider that it is a matter for general
satisfaction to the community at large that every-
thing connected with this Exhibition should have
passed off so well, and we hope that its success may
stimulate others to go and do likewise, so that they
may advance in their several departments of in.
dustry, and be an example to others, and an encou-
ragement to do their best in their various stations.
All that tends to raise the thoughts of the working
man must be a signal advantage to himself, and to
all other classes likewise.

Provincial assemblies and agricultural meetings
do not often attract much attention in the busy
whirl of metropolitan life, but the inaugural dinner
of the Leicestershire Chamber of Commerce pos-
sesses considerable importance, and deserves special
notice. It inaugurated not an ordinary agricul-
tural society or farmers' club, but a Chamber of
Agriculture, founded on the principal of those
Chambers of Commerce which have exercised so
much influence on modern legislation. This is a
sensible and practical movement, fully in accord-
ance with the spirit of the time, and is likely to
exercise the most beneficial effect ou agricul-
turists generally. The farmers and agriculturists
generally, it must be confessed, have got the name of
being always grumblers, and in consequence the rest
of the world do not often trouble Verneelyes to in-