The Sun.
London, England, 1867-01-19 00:00:00

THE SUN, Lo NI ON, SATURDAY EVENING, JANUARY 19, 1867.

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he panic of last spring, and the distress and weak- oldest- Meted, but Mr. GORST had proved himself
ness left in the wake of the cholera, the frost has most worf,ley of confidence during the time they
created more than usual suffering in the houses of had know n him, and no doubt ultimately both
the industrial classes. In ordinary winter weather, would stan d equally high in their estimation. Mr.
POWELL CC enmenced by stating his opinion that it
when well-dressed and hearty persons are enjoying
a good dinner and a good fire, and are talking would be nil more possible to speak in this month,
" about fine seasonable weather," there are January, 1807, without referring to a Reform Bill
always thousands of sick and struggling than it would have been last January to deliver a
persons who are terribly pinched ; but discourse and make no allusion to the cattle plague.
" No man," said he, " dare repudiate this question
this year it is not only the helpless and infirm, not
only the aged and widows, who are reduced to who has any regard to the safety of the State,
as its conaideration was demanded by a large
abject poverty, but the families of industrious and
sturdy artisans and labourers, who in ordinary times body, who, year by year, were becoming more
are able to fight their way manfully without help i capable of exercising the rights and fulfilling the I
from the outer world. All over London, but more great duties of citizenship." The hon. member
especially in the eastern districts, is the same story sought to refule an often-repeated fallacy, which is
told. From Poplar, Millwall, Limehouse, Bethnal to the effect that the liberties of England are less
Green, and their neighbourhoods, come constant than these of other lands where the suffrage is not
and pathetic appeals for help. The sad story told by iso restricted. He put this very plainly before his
the resident ministers of religion and the principal in- I hearers, by saying that if a man desired to become a
habitants of the districts are fully confirmed by the fcitizen of France and promote any principle, or if
experience of special inquirers and casual visitors. We he endeavoured to establish a newspaper to advo-
are not surprised, under these circumstances, to find cute such a thing, he would be hindered at every
that the Bishop of LONDON has summoned the turn. If he called a public meeting, he would find
members of the Metropolitan Relief Association to i expression of opinion was forbidden. Another spe-
meet daily at their office in Regent-street, as at the cimen of universal suffrage is afforded by Prussia,
Ki ng said,
time of the cholera. His Lordship, after saying when the some months ago, " that if he
that the committee on Tuesday last voted £875 to could not rule within the Constitution he would
necessitous parishes, adds " The accounts of the rule without it." As for America, nothing that
distress witnessed by a member of the committee, takes place there can strengthen our faith in such a
who had visited the east of London to make inquiries proposed remedy for our national grievances ; far
on the spot, were appalling. Since the Metropolitan from England seeking to imitate, there is much
Relief Association make it a strict rule to administer that she ought to " eschew and avoid" in the con-
relief solely with regard to the wants of the reci- duct, of affairs in the great Republic. This is all
pients, without any distinction whatever on account very true, and it is very advisable for public
of difference of creed, it' has a strong claim speakers thus to dwell upon the inconsistencies and
upon the support of all classes of the public ; inaccuracies of those who persist in upholding
and the Bishop's appeal will, no doubt, be promptly all foreign countries in preference to our own,
and heartily responded to. The Committee ex- wilfully ignoring in their speeches what they
press their willingness to co-operate with any must know to be true in their own minds that the
other well-organised association, and we observe results of these vaunted schemes are not satisfactory
that a gentleman, residing in Poplar, has made a by any means. What is the use of show without
very sensible suggestion to the effect that a general substance, of illusions of liberty when the practice of
committee of the leading manufacturers and ship- freedom is null and void. It is high time that such
absurdities
owners of the district should be formed at once, should cease from among us, and that
we should all think and consider what suits us best,
so that the sums forwarded for the relief of the
distress should be fairly divided throughout the and what changes it may be desirable to make
whole of the many suffering districts. Steps have without reference to the ways of any other country.
alreadybeen taken towards this desirable result, and Mr. POWELL did not advocate having no change
a preliminary meeting will, we believe, be held in our present plan, and adhering to what had
in Poplar this morning. The plan of district been done in 1832, but he advised caution in
committees answered so well in the autumn that it making the change whenever it really took place.
He trul
gives great encouragement to believe that the funds y said that there is no reason whatever why
a Conservative Government should not grapple
at their disposal will be well and wisely spent, and
as the richer half of London is generally very ready with this question quite as well as a so-called
to help the poorer half, provided they know how to Liberal one. We also agree with the hon. member
set about it, money is not likely to be wanting for that the matter must be treated by bold and corn-
i
immediate action. prehensive legislation if any good results are to
follow, and if we would "from the nettle danger
pluck the flower safety." In going over the doings
of late years, Mr. POwELL showed that the Liberals
had not done much to gain the confidence or win
the respect of the country. The army is the victim
of maladministration, the navy is not at all in a fit
condition or rendered likely to hold her own upon
the seas, the education question is not settled, and
many other important and interesting questions
have been let alone, if not absolutely neglected
and mismanaged.

There is one point in connection with the distress
and lack of employment at the east end of London
which has deservedly attracted much attention at
the present crisis, and which gives a most unfavour-
able illustration of the working of trades' unions. In
most of the daily papers of yesterday, side by side
with the heartrending accounts of the wants and
sufferings of thousands of families was a letter from
Mr. FORD, the managing director of the Thames
Ironworks Company. This company, as is well
known, is one of the largest firms of the kind, and
even in the present depressed state of trade are
A more disastrous or deplorable calamity than
employing two thousand hands. Mr. FORD states
that which occurred in Regent's Park can hardly be
that being on the eve of completing some large
imagined, and the full extent of the calamity has
contracts w Ihich would necessitate the discharge
I
not yet reached us. It is now almost certain that
of some hundreds of men, and as they were anxious
there are more bodies under the ice, although
if possible to avoid aggravating the existing dis-
it is as yet impossible to reach them. A
tress they bad opened negociations for building
more sudden contrast can hardly be found than
some steamers for a foreign compaity, which they
has been afforded by the scenes in the Park from
could only obtain at a greatly reduced price, which
what they were at the commencement of the week
necessitated a reduction in the cost of labour to
and what they are now. A curious instance of the
escape actual loss, though profit in any shape was
uncertainty of life in the midst of its most exciting
out of the question. The men employed by the
pursuits was afforded in the case of Mr. SPENCER,
firm were asked to accept a reduction of their wages
one of the victims to this accident. He had only
of sixpence a day, which would diminish the ship-
that very day come to London for the purpose of
wrights' wages from 7s. to Cs. 6d. daily, and
entertaining his friends in celebration of a recent
the other classes in proportion. The answer
success in Chancery. An affecting incident con-
to this offer Mr. FORD sends verbatim. It is
nected with the recent event is that a New-
signed "The Shipwrights of the Port of London,"
foundland dog, which accompanied his master on the
and states that the men find it scarcely possible to
ice, and got back again, has never left the ground
keep out of debt at the full rate of wages, and that
near the water. Food has been brought to him,
considering the high rate of food, house rents, taxes, but he has refused it. This reminds one of the
&c., as well as the losses caused by bad weather,
lines of Sir WALTER SCOTT on the dog which
holidays, and other interruptions, they will be " doing
watched his master's corpse at Helvellyn :
an injustice to themselves and their families, and
" flow many long days and long nights didst thou number
all with whom they have dealings," by accepting the Ere he faded before thee, the friend of thy heart."
reduction. It will not take any one very long to cal- A most sad and solemn scene was that at the
culate what six times six shillings and sixpence will Marylebone Workhouse on Thursday morning, when
amount to, and there is no reason to suppose that the hearses arrived to take away the remains.
A
the various losses they must take into such ample Altogether this painful affair has thrown a blight
calculation would diminish it very largely. Thirty-
over the metropolis and caused the Christmas
nine shillings a week, at a time wheu the most 1
holidays to close in gloom and darkness. We
I hope that care will be taken in future to guard
distressing poverty surrounds them would, one
against the recurrence of such misfortunes ;
might have supposed, been most thankfully
accepted by men who really wish to support but though wisdom may be thus gained from the
events of Tuesday, we must all feel that this is
themselves by their own hands, and not throw
their wives and families upon the charity of the no consolation to those who have suffered from
public. It is right to add that the firm belief that them, and have to sustain the consequences of so
most of their men would willingly have taken the sudden and unlooked-for a calamity.
offer but for the prohibition of their Trades'
Unions. So that the Trades' Unions, which were
designed for the benefit of labour and the assist-
ance of the working-man, are actually so perverted
from their original object that they compel a man
to sit at home idle, and see his wife and children
wanting food and fire, because in a time of
extreme depression of trade he cannot take a
temporary engagement of sixpence a day leas
than the regular sum. Do the shipwrights of the
port of London think it more honourable to take a
quartern loaf and a grudgingly given half crown
at the workhouse door than to receive thirty-nine
shillings in payment of honest work ? If so, their
standard is different from that of most of their
countrymen. On other grounds, too, there
is good reason for indignation against this
application of the aut Cxsar aut nullus
theory. There are hundreds of labourers
who are dependent in a great degree upon the em-
ployment of the skilled workmen who have no voice
in the matter, not being members of the unions,
and who are thus deprived of the chance of employ-
ment at a time when employment means good warm
clothing, almost life itself. Such tyranny exercised
by the higher classes over the lower might well raise
an outcry about the abuses of English liberty. From
one working man to another the act passes unnoticed.
There is reason to fear that the unjust and unrea-
sonable conduct of these men may in some degree
alienate public sympathy. It is well, therefore, that
it shoulJ be distinctly understood that the worst
suffering is among those who have uo chance of im-
proving their condition in the present state of
things.

WILLS AND BEQUESTS.

(From the Illustrated London News.)

The Conservatives seem determined to make the
most of their opportunities just now, and to lose no
time in putting their views before the country. Per-
haps, all things considered, this is a wise determina-
tion upon their part, for, with one thing and the
other, there have been a great many mis-statements,
and Mr. BRIGHT and his friends have made so
many mis- statements that it is advisable to confute
them. On Thursday a grand banquet took place in
the Guildhall, Cambridge. Mr. BALLS presided,
and n:acle an energetic speech in proposing
the toast of the evening, " The Members for the
Borough of Cambridge." Mr. POWELL was their

The total, without including amounts which are yet
to be paid, is one milliard 262,268,000 f., being an
increase of 105,576,000 f. upon the whole of the
duties levied in 1864, and of 59,934,000 f. upon the
taxes levied in 1865. The duties upon sugar alone
exhibit an increase of 35,242,000 f. as compared
with 1864, and of 3,589,000 f. as compared with
1865. The month of December, 1866, alone pre-
sents an increase of 11,637,000 f., composed of
various items. The amount received of the direct
taxes to the end of December,lB66, was 520,189,000 f.
There still remains to be paid 15,510,000 f. for the
taxes under miscellaneous heads.

The funeral of M. Ingres took place to-day.
There was nothing splendid in the procession from
his residence on the Quai Voltaire to the church of
St. Thomas d'Aquin, not even a mourning coach.
But there was something about it " which passeth
show," and exhibits in a strong light the desire in
France to do honour to great masters of art. Many
hundreds of friends and admirers followed on foot,
and though it snowed heavily at the time many
walked with their hats off, and all were heedless of
the " pitiless pelting of the storm." Although there
was nothing gaudy about the solemnity, it was im-
pressive. A detachment of infantry marched by the
side of the procession, and muffled drums were beat
as it advanced on its solemn mission. The streets
throughout the line of march to the church were
thronged with spectators, who would not have
assembled in such weather if a love and respect for
art did not exist among the French. After the
funeral ceremony in the church there was a consi-
derable increase in the number of mourners deter-
mined to proceed to the cemetery.