The Sun.
London, England, 1867-08-06 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, TUESim Y EV ENING, AUGUST 6, 1867.

SPIRIT OF

EXTRAORDINARY REAPPEAR ANC E.—ln the sum-
mer of last year, a young man named John Henderson, of
Brampton, disappeared suddenly from his native place, and
shortly afterwards a paragraph appeared in the newspapers
stating that on the 10th of June, 1866, ho was drownel at
sea while attempting to save the life of a lady who had
fallen overboard from a vessel. Everybody believed this
report, and Henderson was universally accounted dead ;
but a day or two ago, to the astonishment of all who had
known him before he had left Brampton, he reappeared
and went among his acquaintances us though he had
merely been away for a short trip: He is now employed in
the American mer-thant service.—Carlisle ✓ouraal.

THE HARVEST IN THE EAST.--harvest opera-
tions will b 3 in full swing in the eastern district in about
ten days. In the neighbourhood of Halesworth wheat
promises to be a fair although not a bulky crop. Barley
en mixed and well-farmed soils in the same district looks
well, but on the strong soils the prospect is not so good,
and an average crop is not anticipated, either as regards
quantity or quality. Beans are a fair crop, and peas are
about an average. In Norfolk the wheats aro strong and
bulky, but the quality of the sample and the weight of the
grain will depend on the weather of the next month. Bar-
leys have somewhat improved, but aro not expected to
prove a liberal crop. Oats, beans, and peas will be a full
average.

TIMES.—At a time when the signs in our poli-
tical horizon prompt so many predictions of stormy
weather, it is pleasant to turn to a set of facts
which, so far as they go, justify the most encou-
raging anticipations. Few historical observations
are so generally true as that great political disasters
are accompanied, if not caused, by material dis-
trcs3. Ju lging by this symptom, we have not
the slightest occasion for anxiety. The return of
the Registrar-General for the last quarter exhibits
a degree of health and prosperity which is, at
least, unsurpassed, if not unexampled. The birth
rate in England during the months of April,
May, and June was the highest on record for that
quarter. It was at the rate of 3.7 42 per cent.,
and shows an increase in the number of births
over the previous spring quarter of 7,190. At
the same time, the death rate is lower than it has
been in the same season for ten years, and is below
the quarterly average. Instead of being 22 in the
thousand, which is the average, or 21, as in the
same quarter of last year, it is only 21. The total
number of births in England was 199,649, and the
deaths 112,523 ; that the natural increase of the
people in the quarter was 87, 126, or 957 daily. In
round numbers it may be said that the English race
grows in these islands at the rate of 1,000 a day,
or that in every year a town of the size of Bir-
mingham is added to the population. In England
and Wales emigration forms but a slight check
on this increase. The spring emigration has been
for the last five years stationary or declining, and
only 16,718 persons of English origin left the
country in the past three months. It follows, there-
fore, that the actual increase in the population of
England is at the rate of more than 750 a day, and
is nearly equivalent in the whole year to the addi-
tion of a town of the size of Leeds. This certainly
does not betray a condition in which " wealth
accumulates and men decay." The men are in-
creasing side by side with the wealth. We have
said that this is a most encouraging result, but it also
suggests some grave reflections. If this development
of our home population is to be continued, it is
essential that employment should be found for them
by a corresponding development in the manufac-
tures or the agricultures of the country. There
can be no doubt in which kind of industry there is
most room for growth ; and there certainly never
was a time when it was more imperative that trade
and handicrafts should be free from all restraint.
The new comers will need every opening that can
possibly be provided for them. Of course, there are
those who would pursue an opposite course, who
would look upon these fresh hands as enemies, and,
in the hope of keeping everything to themselves,
would drive the others elsewhere. That is not the
way England became prosperous, and it is not the
way to preserve its prosperity. The more hands we
get the more work they will find ; the more work
they find the more wealth they will create. It does
not make this growth less satisfactory that it is due,
in some measure, not merely to the natural fecun-
dity of people, but to our increasing success in
reducing the rate of mortality. The Registrar's
return on this head affords matter for the greatest
congratulation. It will be remembered that this time
last year we were in the midst of an alarming out-
break of cholera, and it is, perhaps, to that very cir-
cumstance that we partly owe our favourable condi-
tion at this moment. The reappearance of that epi-
demic reawakened our flagging exertions in sanitary
reform. Almost every district set its houses more or
less in order, and the clear evidence obtained as to
the manner in which the disease is propagated has
supplied a stronger motive to vigilance than existed
before. At all events, a decided improvement is
observable in the health of both town and country
districts, and this improvement is happily greatest
where it was most needed—that is, in the towns.
The town districts in England contain a population
of eleven millions, and their mortality for the last
ten spring quarters has been at the annual rate of
21 in the thousand. In the last quarter it was at the
rate of only 21 in the thousand. If this improvement
be maintained, it follows that 33,000 lives will be
saved each year in the towns alone. Of the thirteen
largest cities Birmingham was the most healthy, at
a rate of rather less than 20 in the thousand. Lon-
don comes next, with a rate of rather more than 20.
Then follow in order Bristol, Sheffield, Hull, Sal-
ford, Liverpool, Newcastle, Dublin, Manchester,
Glasgow, and Edinburgh. In the two great Scotch
cities the mortality is disgracefully high. The rate
in Glasgow is nearly 29, and in Edinburgh more
than 29 in the thousand. Scotchmen ought not to
allow themselves to be beaten in such a matter by
Liverpool. It will be seen from these figures that
London and Birmingham have been during the last
quarter more healthy than the country in general.
There can be do doubt to what such a result is to be
attributed.
THE "WESTMINSTER GAZETTE" ON A DECAY-
ING RACE.—There is always an air of beautiful
sadness surrounding the last representatives of any
race of beings. The world, in spite of all its heartless-
ness, cannot look without emotion on the last sur-
vivor of the cannibals of Tasmania any more than
on the " last rose of summer." Sensationalists
know this perfectly well. Who can enumerate
the novels bearing on their title-pages the touch-
ing name of some " Last Man !" We have the
" Last of the Barons," and the " Last of the Mold-
cans," and the " Last of the Bards," and the " Last
of the Tribunes," and the " Last of the Caesars."
The human heart will ever have human sympa-
thies, and these magic words will always elicit
them. They make us exclaim with the poet—
" Out upon Time ! which for ever will leave
But enough of the Past for the Future to grieve
O'er that which hath been, and o'er that which must be!"
The anti-Catholic world has been for some years
coming to the melancholy conclusion that one of
its grandest lineages is coming to an end. It is a
race more famous in its way than any of the fine
old historic families of England—the Howards, the
Percys, or the Talbots, and more unique than
any of the types of mediaeval society—the min-
strels, the knights, or the morrisdancers. It is the
race known by our enemies as the grand old thor-
oughbred single-minded patriotic Protestants of
England. Alas ! that it should be so, but so it is.
We might almost count up on our fingers its few
survivors of any note in this country. Among the
many-headed populace indeed, there is still a con-
siderable remnant of the ole, heroes, as was shown
a few weeks ago in Birmingham, but among the
higher classes of Englishmen they arc like the sur-
vivors of the Peninsula Campaign—few and
decrepit. About a week ago a grand meeting of
the " :National Protestant Institute" was convened
at St. James's Hall, Piccadilly, for the purpose, as
the placards announced, of making " a demon-
stration in commemoration of the great Protestant
triumphs under William 111., of glorious and im-
mortal memory, and in opposition to the Jesuit
conspiracy to Papalize Church and State." The
preparations were on a large scale, though the
attendance proved but poor, and the mottoes and
inscriptions placarded throughout the Hall were
of the most lion-taming description—"No Popery,"
" No. Surrender," " No Puseyism," " The Reforma-
tion and the Revolution," "For our God, our Queen,
and our Country." The Orange lodges of Eng-
land, Ireland, and Canada, were well represented.
The chair was filled by Sir "William Verner, M.P.
(Where was Mr. Whalley'?) Proceedings opened
with prayer and the reading of a portion of Scrip-
ture. So far so good; but, alas ! it is quite sad-
dening to have to record the bitter feelings of dis-
appointment that nestled in the bosoms of the
patriotic speakers and found vent in all their
orations. Everything and everybody, they com-
plained, were against them. The Government was
the victim of a Jesuitical conspiracy. The public
press had taken the side of their enemies. The
spirit of Protestant England was slumbering. Such
were the sentiments of the Grand Masters and
Deputy Grand Masters of the Orange Lodges of
Great Britain and Canada. Have not the com-
ments of the public journals opened the eyes of
these screaming orators by this time to see that
what they take for a mere passing slumber is
really the heavy sleep of death—that real Protes-
tantism is in its last agony, and that the wisest
physicians have shaken their heads and given up
all hopes ? Protestantism may linger on, it may
die hard, but it is a question of hours. It can never
walk about in the world again, healthy and strong.
Year by year the ranks of Protestantism are grow-
ing thinner and thinner. Its champions disappear
and there are none to take their places. Nay, the
conclusion is being gradually forced on the world
that very probably in a few years Mr. Whalley, of
Parliamentary renown, will be the sole surviving
specimen of his race, unless he fall an early
victim to his superhuman. exertions in the defence
of " the glorious doctrines of the Reformation,"
or blow out his unrivalled brains (which God
forbid) by way of a mild protest against the
godlessness of the House of Commons. It
is easy to recognise in the orators of St.
James's Hall the true descendants of the failing
stock of genuine Protestantism. The badge of
orthodoxy is not any elaborate system of theology,
any more than a high standard of life or morals.
A true Protestant is as likely to be a jolly squire
or a rollicking gamester as a pious parson or a
learned divine, but one thing he always is—a
" good hater." The old-fashioned. Protestant hates
Popery and everythingthatlodockfisniltiekegriott..inds,—
This
hatred may not be on any very
it is instinctive, yet it is a broad, strong, practical
hatred. Added to that is a clear conviction that
everything in the Popish Church is hideously and
hopelessly corrupt—faith,
morals, education, every-
thing. There may possibly here and there be a
bona fide Papist just as there may be an honest Jew
o•er, but the chances are very
or a poetical semi").