The Sun.
London, England, 1867-06-13 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS. possible means by which poor-rates can be le
vied at all upon the lowest class of occupiers, fo
Tr:AM—The Hall of the Merchant Taylors' Com- it is ridiculous to suppose that these either could o
would save up and keep during the long intervals of
pany is the sacred ground and the oracular shine of
Conservatism. Yielding to its festive inspiration, three months the rate due from them for that quer-
ter. The conditions of their hand-to-mouth exist-
the most cautious statesmen have become prophets,
ence would not permit them to do this were they
and the wisest have run the risk of being confronted
in an evil day with their unfulfilled prophecies. In ever so disposed to do it, and, as the vestry clerks
those merry and glorious occasions we can rernem- point out, the attempt to enforce the rate upon such
ber none that may vie in real interest and substantial people in such a manner must be attended with
enormous difficulties. It is certain that quarterly
significance with the prediction of a Conservative
Chancellor of the Exchequer, a Conservative of the payments from these sort of voters cannot be looked
Conservatives, the scourge of Peel, and the A.venir.' r for, and if any proof is required of this, the best
of Protection, as to the future working of a possible proof is afforded by the fact that they can-
measure
which in its magnitude and compass surpasses all not even pay their rent in that manner, so that it
has to be collected weekly or not at all. The com-
the reforms and revolutions of English history. Mr.
position has hitherto furnished the means of getting
Disraeli has opened the gate, walked in, s iddled, over the difficulties of the case in a manner which
mounted, and ridden off with the steed which scores
of the most Liberal statesmen have lost public confi- is obviously as fair in conception as it has been sue-
cessful in execution. What in effect is more natural
dente in by merely looking at. Ile now returns to the
than that the landlord, who is already in constant
spot where every tradition and every association is
dead against him, and undertakes to relieve the most communication with his tenants for the purpcse of
most exalted, the most bigoted, and collecting his weekly rent from them, should, while
prosperous, the
doing that, at the same time collect in weekly instal-
the most nervous of their lifelong alarms, and even ments the rate due to the parish ? That is the whole
their natural antipathies. The biol )gical professors of the composition system, and we have never been
who will make you handle a hot poker and feel it
able to see that it is in itself other than desirable,
Re-
cold, or drink milk and think it brandy, never at-
tempted such a feat as to pass off a Democratic Re- still less that it should carry with it extra disabilities
or disadvantages. If poor rates are not to be levied.
form for i bit of good old Toryism. But there can
be at all, or if they are only to be levied upon those
no doubt the experiment was successful, and that,
who can pay with equal convenience at any time
without even the pangs of repentance or the sensa- and in any manner, that is a good reason for object-
tion of going round, all these noblemen and gentle-
ing to composition ; but if, as we have been told
men did really feel that they were very consistent again and again, it is the desire of the Government
and very triumphant, and that they were rapidly that all those who can should assume the burdens of
gaining the very summit of their political wishes by the State, then the composition should have been
resigning themselves implicitly to the laws of grave- maintained as the best means to that end. It is at
Cation. Mr. Disraeli meets prophecy with prophecy, any rate easy to understand that the parish autho-
and, while others are fearing for our institutions, rities view the change with alarm, for in all those
he has himself no fear for anything this bill will parishes where the composition has hitherto been
do. His Conservatism is not a qualm, but a faith. carried on it will bring with it a very considerable
The Crown rests on that universal loyalty which is 6
strongest in the poorest, not to say the least cdu- loss upon every rate that is henceforth levied--
a loss which will be, in fact, near equal to the
cated. The House of Lords only embodies an in- whole rates that have hitherto been got in
finite mass of traditionary knowledge and sentiment from the entire body of compounders. It is true
pervading all classes, and every part of our country. that the Reform Bill offers a great advantage in
It cannot well be denied that the Church will beliable
return for this injury, but, unfortunately, the ad-
to certain dangers and attacks, but so it is now, and vantage is not offered to those upon whom the in-
there is no reason to expect much difference. 'The jury is inflicted, for while it is the parish which
Church will be the Church still, and in much the loses the rate, it is the compounder who gets the
same case. All the elements of society will be the
vote, and it is not to be expected that local autho-
same—the same classes, the same influences, and, as rides take sufficient interest in the political status
their proportions will remain the same, so also pro-
of their ratepayers to think this any compensation
bably will the composition of the House of Commons. to them. In fact, parishes have nothing whatever
All this looks like simply falling upon the natural
character, the customs, and the institutions of the
to do with imperial politics, and political considera-
.
country, as if a chief were to abandon a line of for-
tions should not be mixed up with parochial ar-
rangements any more than with other extraneous
tifications costing more than its worth, and to be- matters. It would be no consolation, for instance,
take himself to, the open field, trusting to natural
to the tailors of the kingdom if they were deprived
resources and the popular spirit. If those institu-
of the power of getting their bills paid to be told It,
tions of which we have all heard so much are tu- was the only means that had been discovered to
deed -worth fighting for, they must be good for
something in themselves. The House of Commons,
enable their debtors to vote for members of Perlis.-
as actually constituted, has long boasted to be the inent ; and yet this is precisely what has been done
guardian of the Crown, the Peerage, the Church, with the parishes. What makes it more annoying,
too, is that there was no real necessity for doing
and all that we love England for. Do they, then, anything of the sort, and it is only in consequene?
depend upon it? Are they bound not only to it,
of the Reform Bill having at the outset contained
but even to its most anomalous and fortuitous
clauses which were intended to exclude compounders
arrangements ? Have they no self-subsistence, no altogether that it became necessary at last to fall
independent vitality ? Has the House of Commons •
The back up
national trustee is very proud of the trust, and on a solution of the difficulty thus gratuitousli,
made them, or they the House of Commons ?
created, which sacrifices the pecuniary interests oE
justly proud, but the estate and its owners existed the parishes to the political interests of the corn
ally
that no man should vote if he compounded ; itau
which we have heard so much, and which for more'-i
before the trust, and may remain, or even improve,
if the trust be a little reformed. But the fears of pounders. The first blunder was in laying it d
this brought about the second blunder, of laying t
down that no man should compound at all; and '
than 30 years have constituted the very stock of
is of no advantage to the parishes to be told that:
trading Conservatism, themselves suggest a suspi-
on the whole, the second blunder is not so great
cion that the great institutions of the country have
as the first ; for as regards them it is actually
not fared quite so well as they might at the hands of
greater. The vestry clerks suggest that a rem
should the great public steward. If the Crown, if the
should be applied by introducing a provision that,
House of Lords, if the Church, have indeed fallen " where tenements are let at a rate not exceeding,
into the state which these fears suppose, has the
£2O per annum for less than a year, or an agree-
Parliamentary stewardship nothing to do with it 9
went by which the rent is received or made paYs, b''.t
There are stewards whose masters . are always in
at any shorter period than three months, ,I_,.
difficulties. There are doctors whose patients are
shall be allowable to rate the owner instead of the
always ailing. Some would persuade us that, ex-
occupier, preserving, of course, to the latter ti.m°
cept the House of Commons, everything is on its
right of voting. If this is adopted it will certain.
11_
last legs; and it is just the particular balance and
go far towards getting rid of the worst part of t13.0_
adjustment of the House that props us all up, and difficulty, since it is precisely in cases where Or,
prevents us all from going .by the run, and tumbline,
rent is paid " at shorter periods than three niontla
into a heap to-morrow. The very argument brings
its own answer, for it supposes
the House of Coiii- ann.
that the composition is most useful. This would 111,
mons to be a usurper which has gradually drained effect be a return, by a most extraordinary
wade
every other institution of its independence, its round-about road, to the . proposal already extraordinary
from the Liberal side, that the mode of ratlDt
power, and its functions. It is possible to conceive
should not be allowed to affect the power of vot u,ge
a change which shall strengthen both the trust and
—a proposal which, as Mr. Gladstone rerninded.yle
its objects ; which shall give us a stronger House of
vestry clerks, was rejected by a consider.ier.
Commons, and at the same time a stronger Execu-
majority. If, however, by this or by any °Who
tive, a stronger Crown, a stronger House of Lords, means such a return can be made, it will net en
a stronger Church, a stronger People. The cry
necessary to inquire too nicely how it has beiti
long has been, "Do not strengthen the House of
effected, for the bill would thereby be relieved o
j.
Commons, lest it overwhelm and devour everything
else." The answer is that, as things now are, no' what is now the greatest blot upon it, and the Ill°shu
thing is strong enough for its proper office. The deplorable record of the past mistakes out of vbie
House is not, confessedly, with the consent of all it has been dragged to its present position.
sides ; nor is the Crown, nor the Upper Mouse, nor
any other institution. Such a solution of the pro-
blem is so simple, and it is one so calculatedto unite
the suffrages of all parties, that if it be true we may
reasonably ask how people have come to miss it.
Mr. Disraeli is forced to anticipate this little ques-
tion, and it compels him to descend from the other-
wise
high and conciliatory tone in which his speech
is conceived. The House of Commons, somehow or
other, prompted by its Liberal leaders, bad allowed
its regards to rest on a small class of men, skilled
workmen—the better artisans, whom it had got to
think more generous and noble, and much better
politicians, than the classes immediately above or
below. They are easier to talk with, they are
more citizens of the world and men of the world
than the small men of business who keep shops, or
the labourers who live by just.. the sweat of their
brow. If by some feat of political tactics
these could be embraced in the constituency,
the lower mercantile element still kept at its pro-
per proportion, and mere labour kept out, the House
of Commons would be stronger, and the cry for Re-
form silenced. The Whigs, like bad chess-players,
stuck to this game even after it had been baffled,
and, while possessing popularity, could only be po-
pular in this narrow sense. They were even so
blinded as not to take the solemn warning thrown
in their way by the operations of this idolised class
for the protection of its own industry against gene-
ral conipetition. Mr. Disraeli saw the ground thus
left open to him, and has introduced into the con-
stituency everybody who can give the usual pledge
for his stake and interest in good order and the
common weal. He conceives that both in town
and in country he has found the social basis in
which domestic and social feelings are the strongest,
and in which the institutions of the country may be
said to have their moral foundation. Find the peo-
ple who are naturally, by long tradition, and by
many associations, loyal, subordinate, respectful,
and religious, and live you have the true platform
of Kings, Lords, and Commons, and the proper
constituency of the Lower house. Mr. Disraeli
proclaims that he has found it, and that the most
anxious Conservative may feel himself safe in such
hands.
POST.--A reaction appears to be setting in in
favour of the system of composition for rates, and
after the compound householder has been publicly
sacrificed to the necessities of the Reform question
an attempt is being made to bring him to lite again,
and to re-establish those conditions which as long
as they existed were held to be sufficient to dis-
qualify those living under them for a share in
the government of the country. It is not the de-
funct compound householder himself who asks to
be revived into existence, though if he could appre-
ciate the difference which, we are told, his own
extinction will make to his pocket he would pro-
bably he foremost in so doing. But he of all
creatures understands himself and his own situa-
tion the least ; and besides this, since he hat been
admitted to the vote on the express condition of
coming out of the composition, any agitation on his
part for a return to the system would fairly be
looked upon as evidence of a desire to have his cake
and to cat it too. The compounder himself there-
fore is properly silent, and those who are his special
defenders probably prefer to wait for a reformed
Parliament before again bringing him into the 'van
of the battle. Nor is it even in the interest of the
compounder that the reactionary movement is being'
made against the abolition of the system, for it is
led by his natural enemies the parish authorities,
for whose satisfaction and at whose suggestion the
" device of old Nick's," as Mr. Henley calls it,
was first introduced. Accordingly on Saturday a
deputation composed wholly of vestry clerks from
the various parishes of the metropolis waited upon
the President of the Poor-law Board, and on Mon-
day the same body had a " conference " with Mr.
Gladstone in order to state their case, which cer-
tainly appears to have some very strong points
about it. In the first place, it seems rather hard
that an arrangement which has subsisted for years,
which originated in a mutual agreement between
the rarties to it, and which, so far as its own objects
are concerned, has-completely succeeded, should be
suddenly overthrown without either of the parties
being so much as consulted, and for reasons which
have actually no earthly connection with it. Mr.
Henley may think that to collect poor-rates from
the humbler classes of occupiers is to rob them,
but if this were so, it must be held that any scheme
of taxation which presses, however remotely and
however slightly, upon those classes is a robbery of
the same sort ; and the arguments against the com-
position system are equally strong against customs,
excise, and all taxes whatever which are not
strictly limited to the rich. To those, however,
who hold it to be desirable that all taxes should be
collected in their proportionate shares from rich and
poor alike, the composition system must fully
ooLnuiend itself. It furnishes, indeed, the only

COUNTRY MARKETS.

• lIULL.—TUESDAY.
At our market to-day there was a fair supply of wheats,
for which farmers early in the day were firm, at the price
of last week. On the part of intending buyers, howev°r'
there was a great disinclination to operate except at re-
aline
1:
and where business was done it was at a decline
of is to 2s for English and is for foreign. Barley rather_
scarce, and fine samples saleable at late terms. Oats
moderate show, but steady. Beans quiet, at full price
Peas disposed of at recent rates.
English white wheat, 64s to 68s; red, 62s to 64s ; D3nt'
sic and Konigsberg, 64s to 72s ; Baltic red, 62s to 60 ;
Danish and Hamburg, 62s to 64s ; Russian, 57s to 595.
Barley, English, 36s to 49s ; grinding, Mediterranean,
34s to 35s 6d. Oats, new English, 26s to 28s; Russian,
26s to 275. Beans, old English, 58s to 60s; foreign, 435
to 445. Peas, English blue, 42i to 44s Od; foreign white,
44s to 455; grinding, 43s to 44s Od per qr.

LYNN—TUESDAY.
Our market to-day was thinly supplied with wheat, and
the demand was not active. To get on with business
sellers had to take is to 2s per qr less money. Barley was
very dull. Oats brought about last week's money, and the
supply was short. Beans in slow demand, and scarcelY
maintained their late values.
New wheat, 68s to 72s ; new nd, 62s to 66s ; old white,
—s to —s ; old red, —s to —s per 36 stone. Barley for
malting, 47s to 51s ; secondary, 42s to 455. Oats, ne,
24s to 26s per 24 stone. Beans, small, 43s to 48s. r3sl
37s to 41s per 28 stone.

MONMOUTHSHIRE—TUESDAY.
Only a small quantity of home-grown wheat has beet
offered for sale at the local markets, and there was no 'Tit
'nation whatever evinced in business, buyers being
unwilling to enter into largo transactions. The tendenewr
of prices has been downwards, and a decline of about 10 Pid
qr. has taken place since last `week. The same may bo 671),
of foreign wheat. Barley steady, grinding selling fre
at the current rates. Oats a fair sale ; beans uncinoge,
The following are the average quotations:— infers
To 3d to 7s 9d per bushel; white, 7s 9d to 8s ; rin
6s Od to 6s 6d ; malting barley, 42s to 44s per qr; g 2, 7.6
ing ditto, 34s to 36s Od; beans, 43s to 45s ; white oats,
to 29s 6d ; black ditto, 20s 6d to 27s Od.

SALISBURY.—TUESDAY. A 010
The supply of wheat shown was very limited, an'-`
,„., if
could not be effected except at a reduction of 15 PI 'oats,
not more. Iu grinding barley nothing doing; a!'n t lardbeans, and peas wore likewise moderately dealt ill a
quotations. Flour receded is per sack. . fro:11
The following are the quotations :—Wheat realiseu_. 444
62s to 72s ; barley, 32s to 40s; oats, 26s to 33s ; bet!irt'ia to
to 58s; and peas, 40s to 48s per qr. Tares, fro!' 151'
7• Gd per bushel ; Best bread, 16d ; household ditto,
per 81b loaf. Flour, 46s to 50s per sack.