The Sun.
London, England, 1867-04-04 00:00:00

THE SUN, LoNuON, THURSDAY EVENING, APRIL 4, 1867.

not chemists may be inclined to attribute it most
probably to the agency of the fish which abound in
the Thames, and are the most active river scaven-
gers. As it will be at least seven years before either
of the proposed schemes for supplying London with
water from a distance can be carried into execution,
Dr. Frankland suggested that, for the purpose of
rendering the present supply more pure, large quan-
tities of animal charcoal should be employed in its
filtration. The lecture was illustrated by diagrams
and numerous experiments.

Strikes.

Strikes show the unsettled state of the relations
between labour and capital. The law is Divine th tt
man must live by the sweat of his brow. In warm
latitudes it takes little work to produce that
" sweat." In cold climates the labour is harder to
obtain the result, but in all that effect is decreed.
The question between the employers and the em-
ployed is how the workmen are to live. High
wages mean good food for the labouring classes,
good shelter, a better and more enlightened condi-
tion. So far the result would be beneficial. But
high wages to the employed mean low profits to the
employer ; low profits end in the withdrawal of
capital. The withdrawal of capital means the ces-
sation of employment, eventuating in widespread
beggary and starvation. The problem now work-
ing to a solution is intricate, and dangerous, and
might result in disaster to all concerned—which
means the whole nation. When the gold of Cali-
fornia and Australia began to lie heavy in the vaults
of the Bank of England abstruse questions of poli-
tical economy were eagerly discussed in the columns
of newspapers, periodical; and pamphlets. What
was to be the effect of an indefinite addition to the
stock of gold, the accepted standard of measure. It
was asked if the quantity of gold was doubled,
and its value fell in proportion to its in-
crease, how were other matters to be adjusted ?
Was the national debt of England to be paid off in
the depreciated ratio, and the holders of Consols to
be deprived of half their incomes ? This question
gave rise to a hot dispute, and people were warned
that if they lent their money for years it would come
back to them worth less than when lent. They were
told that land, houses, railways, ships, and such
property, would retain their value while the standard
fell, and that people whose incomes remained sta-
tionary would in the lapse of time discover that what
was sufficient now would become insufficient here-
after. The process being slow the effects were not
immediately perceived, and the subject which then
created much alarm passed out of mind. We be-
lieve it to be a fact that we are now experiencing
what was then predicted. The value of money has
fallen, and is falling. Persons with fixed incomes
feel this painfully, in increased rent, in the price of
food, in a rise of almost all the necessaries of life.
Since these gold discoveries England has been well
governed. Many excellent laws unshackling indus-
try and giving free scope to capital and labour have
been passed, which have tended to cheapen all
kinds of produce, and neutralise the natural
law in operation. But no legislation can
in the end beat nature. What legislation did
for England was made strikingly manifest to the
traveller. Not long ago England was the most
expensive country in which to live, but England is
now among the cheapest. Wander where we will
the complaint is universal of the enormous increase
in the cost of every requisite for the sustenance of
mankind. The greatest difficulty to which the
gradual change has given rise is found in wages.
Though the process has always been in operation
since men in Britain ceased to paint their bodies
and rove through their forests like Red Indians, it
was so slow as not materially to disturb existing
relations. But lately we have been galloping on,
and the rapid change requires prompt measures.
The increased cost of living necessitated an in-
creased rate of wages. Once, rudely unsettled,
where is the process to end ? The workmen feeling
the pressure, in self-defence organised associations,
which have by degrees grown into powerful com-
binations. The individual workman was nobody,
and could speak with no effect. The workman who
spoke on behalf of an establishment was listened to
with respect by the proprietor, for he knew there
was a meaning in what the man said, and a power
at his back. The secretary who spoke on behalf of a
trade carried terror over England ; and the president
who spoke for the United Trades, startled the Go-
vernment. We cannot wonder at the effect pro-
duced on the labouring classes when the results of
combination became apparent. Trade Societies are
now a power in the land, and they are likely soon
to be a power in Europe which may astonish and
disconcert some despotic Courts. The object of
these societies is to bring up the price Df labour in
proportion to the rise of the real measure of value,
which is corn and meat. So long as this new power
is used with moderation, and is confined to enforcing
the just demands of the labouring classes, it will
tend to good. It is far better that discontent should
appear openly, and in legitimate channels seek its
redress, than foster beneath the surface, and end in
convulsion. Through these organisations the skilled
and unskilled workmen of England put forth their
representatives on a platform which commands
national observation. The tailor in a Liverpool
alley, the shipwright in a Blackwall lodging, and
the " navvy" working in a tunnel, instead of enun-
ciating their own crude sentiments, know that what
they complain of is spoken in good lane
the ears of the rulers of the kin budge into
dom. Thus
the men are satisfied g , and cease ,
e them-
to troubl
selves about their grievances knowing that the
the proper man is doing this for them in the
think
proper place. Indeed, they virtually cease to
, allowing those they elect to think for them,
while they act as they are directed. They are told
to strike, and woe betide the
neglects the
man who
order. When the object
the opinion
cheerfully. Of allect is attained in of the elect, they are told to work, and they do so
the Conservative creatures the
most conservative is a good, steady Brh artisan.
The power in the hands of
the leadersitis is immense,
and we earnestly hope they may use it with discre-
tion for the true interest
of those they represent,
both politically and materially. We believe it may
he made the means of vast good if they only
recognise this truism
ployers and em that the interest of the em-
ployed are not antagonistic, but
identical.—Anglo-American Times.

Suffering at the South.

Everything goes to
the South prove that the sufferings at
from want of the commonest necessaries
of life are getting to be simply appalling ; and, that
g effandective is speedily done to relieve
the starvation misery that exists there, that we shall soon have a chapter of horrors opened
forh other nations to contemplate, only second to
directedt of the "Irish fatuine." Whilst some well-
efforts efforts are making in New York to
start a ship load of supplies to the people in dis-
tress, this would seem, from the accounts that come
up thence, scarcely more than a drop in the bucket,
compared to the pressing needs at last making
themselves felt. To show what the people of a
single district are suffering, the New York 7imes
publishes a letter from a gentleman in Lancaster
District, South Carolina, under date of the 18th,
that paper vouching for the writer, as a gen-
tleman of high character well known in New
York. The letter was addressed to the Southern
Relief Commission, and says :—" This district,
owing to the disasters consequent upon the war, and
the almost total failure of the crops, is in a most
deplorable state of destitution of the necessaries to
support its people and live stock. The district con-
tains about ten thousand people, and not more,
perhaps, than twenty families of the whole number
have a supply of food for the season. There are
about five hundred individuals in a very alarming
state of want, and unless immediate relief is afforded
many of them must perish by starvation. The
balance of the population, not including the twenty
families, and the five hundred individuals, have very
limited supplies of provisions on hand." Whilst
already a vast deal has ben done to relieve ihe
suffering thousands down there, it will not do to let
such appeals as the foregoing go unheeded by any
portion of the community, unless the national cha-
racter is to suffer for such omission. With the great
NOrth and West—as ever-filled with abundance,

measures must be taken both by Government and
people to rescue the population in question from
starvation, no matter by what means caused. Likely
for years to suffer from improvidence, from bad cal-
culations, and so on, consequent upon a sudden and
wholesale breaking up of their old labour system,
they must be tided over their difficulties by the more
fortunate, unless the matter is to become a national
reproach.—Baltimore'Commercial.

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

IMES.-11Ir. Childers and Mr. Stansfeld deserve
credit for having placed our Naval Expenditure
during the recent debate in a very clear light, and
enabled the country to consider the Estimates from
a comprehensive and important point of view. At
this moment we are at peace with all the world, and
likely, it may be hoped, to remain so. It has been
agreed on all sides that there is no present proba-
bility of a naval war, and it has also been conceded
that our naval force is certainly not in arrear, as far
as strength goes, of that of other countries. This
being our position, and there being no special obli-
gation pressing upon us or suggesting unusual exer-
tion, we are asked for eleven millions of money for
the service of the Navy. Mr. Stansfeld then bids
us say, if we can, what is the justification for this.
enormous outlay. Must we really spend so much
for purely peace purposes—that is, for maintaining
the police of the seas and protecting our commercial
interests in various parts of the world ? It is im-
possible, replies Mr. Stansfeld, to venture on any
such assertion. No naval man, he thinks, would
allow it for a moment. Then, what is our motive
or warrant for such expenditure? Clearly this,
he answers,—that we should be prepared for the
not impossible contingency of a great naval war, in
which Ise might have to fight for the independence
or existence of the nation. In other words, it is our
true policy to assert and maintain our ascendancy
at sea, and that cannot be done without-an expense
commensurate with that incurred by 'other Powers
on their military forces. This conclusion corresponds
no doubt with the instincts of the public as well as
the traditions of the country; but then Mr. Stans-
feld proceeds to argue that our practice is not at
all in conformity with any such theory, and that,
instead of spending all these millions on a
powerful fleet to assure and establish our naval
dominion, we are really frittering them away upon
small squadrons and peace services, to the neglect of
substantial strength and efficiency. What the public
safety requires is that we should be prepared at brief
notice with an overpowering naval force for decisive
action, whereas we have not got this force, and are
not, with all our outlay, going the right way to get
it. A few years ago, when men-of-war were repre-
sented by wooden two-deckers, and their armaments
by 32-pounders, we had only to provide reserves of
men, and we were safe; for we could then send such
squadrons to sea as no rival could• hope to encounter
with success. But all that is now past. We have
got the men—in fact, we are voting 70,000 this very
year--but we have not got the guns, which are now
300-pounders instead of 32's, or the ships, which
must be ironclads instead of two-deckers. Nor is
our vast expenditure directed to the recovery of this
lost power. It is lavished on small establishments
at foreign stations, and these are the very establish-
ments which Mr. Childers has called in question.
Mr. Stansfeld says that eleven millions a year make
an outlay too great for mere peace purposes ; Mr.
Childers says that these very purposes are injudi-
ciously considered and imperfectly fulfilled. At
various points of the globe, and on a variety of
pretences, we maintain a large number of ships
and men ; in fact, with the exception of the Chan-
nel and Mediterranean Fleets, our whole force
afloat may be said to be distributed among these
establishments. If we ask for a more precise de-
finition of the service which these squadrons are sup-
posed to perform, we are told that they "protect
British interests," or " keep the police of the seas."
It is not easy, however, to understand how the
former condition is fulfilled. Ihe interests of our
merchants might be occasionally jeopardised, no
doubt, in foreign ports by the injustice of foreign
Governments, and possibly the presence of a British man-of-war or two might produce a good effect, as
at Vera Cruz for instance, or at Jeddo. But Mr.
Childers, while admitting that we, a nation of
traders, may be called upon to intervene for the
protection of trade, alleges that our precautions are
taken not only on the most expensive, but the least
effective syskin for the purpose. If the theory is
good for anything, it must mean this—that in the
event of a resort to extremities the British squadron
on the station will be at hand to insure the safety
of British interests. - Bat the fact is, according to
Mr. Childers, that we enjoy no such guarantee. Ile
tells us tha in the actual event of any such con-
tingoney tliQ
would, in the majority
of cases, simply have to " cut and run" to avoid
capture by an overpowering forces. Mr. Kinuaird,
too, reminded the House on Monday that a practi-
cal illustration of the case occurred the other day at
Valparaiso, where the British squadron had not
been strong enough to go into action, and British
interests on the spot were left to suffer in conse-
quence. Nor was the . conclusion drawn by Mr.
Kinnaird otherwise than logical. lie said that we
should either maintain adequate squadrons abroad
or none at all. That is obvious ' • but an " adequate"
squadron would mean a squadron always strong
enough at every point to meet the hostile force
forthcoming at that point—a standard of force
which it would be impossible to keep up all over the
world. There remains the alternative of keeping
no foreign squadrons at all • but this would not be
satisfactory, and so Mr. effilders su
third course, as combinin ggested his
g superior efficiency with
a considerable saving of money.
THE " WESTMINSTER GAZETTE" ON THE CONDI-
TION OF AIERCIIANT SEAIIEN.—There are 350,000
seamen of all classes serving under the British
flag in all parts of the world. 197,000 of these
serve in registered ships trading directly from
or, at least, coining occasionally to, the United
Kingdom. The remainder man intercolonial and
other vessels entitled to bear the British flag, but
having no direct communitation with the home
ports. Nine months in every year—for all the
best years of the lives of seamen—are spent on
shipboard, whilst a great portion of this time is
actually served on the hi gh .
tints from the protection of theseas Withd
laws under wrawnichh
we live, and from the still more
potent safe-
guard of a healthy and well-informed public
opinion, it should be nosubject of surprise that
seamen suffer physical ills from which we are
happily protected. It is under these circumstances
that the governance of the mercantile marine
becomes the subject of exceptional legislation.
The Merchant Shipping Act, wisely conceived in
many respects, has remained, in many important
particulars, a dead letter. The very existence of
some of the laws intended for his protection is un-
known to the seaman, whilst the machinery for
the application of others is so little adapted to
the case, that they are seldom set
in motion.
Even in the most important matter with which
human laws deal, even life itself, the seaman is
denied that protection extended to the rest of his
countrymen.
from accidental or suspicious causes it is alike the
When an Englishman dies on shore
interest and the .duty of a certain public officer
to institute a legal inquest into the circumstances
attending death. But, in the case of seamen far
away from the watchfulness of the public eye,
they may—and many frequently do--meet their
death by preventible accidents, by brutality, or,
still oftener, by a slow poisoning process result-
ing from. a well-known dietary arrangement de-
structive to health and fatal to life. Yet, in no
such case occurring on the high seas can any in-
quiry be instituted unless the body is embalmed
and brought to land. It would be futile to ex-
pect the captain to embahn what would, in too
many cases, be criminating evidence against
himself, or against his master, the owner. True,
in some of the more wholesale losses of life,
where it is also attended with loss of property,
occasional but most unsatisfactory inquiries are
instituted, in which there are none of the cha-
racteristics of a prosecution, no cross-examination
of witnesses, and no persons put on their trial.
The unsatisfactory nature of these proceedings,
even in the few cases in which they are instituted,
is well illustrated by the ineffective investigation
which followed such a conspicuous loss as that of
the " London," and which was well characterized
in the House of Commons as a " whitewashing in-
quiry." The infrequency of even such whitewash-
ing inquiries is well evidenced by the experienced
of a recent convict. It was notorious on 'Change,
and well known to the police, that the shipowner
in question had been concerned in the wilful
destruction of fifteen excessively insured ships,
under conditions necessarily so extremely dan-
gerous to life, that, though we are not told so,
it is difficult to conceive how the ships could
have been wilfully destroyed by the agency of
rock or tempest without the sacrifice of human
life. Yet no conviction followed this, by no means
singular, criminal, until after the destruction of
the sixteenth ship. Then an accomplice, who had
frequently been similarly employed, dissatisfied
with his share of the profits, gave such testi-
mony as brought his master, the shipowner, and
others within the reach of the ordinary courts of
justice. A conviction was thus, at the end of a
long-notorious career, secured, and twenty years'
penal servitude righteously inflicted. The assump-
tion in every case of shipwreck should be, that the
ship is built to-float on the surface and not to go
to the bottom, and that she is intended to be
navigated in safe ivaters and not on the top of the
rocks, When the ship fails to comply yfith