The Sun.
London, England, 1867-12-09 00:00:00

13111EIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

These are the moralisings of the Times on the cata-
strophe of Friday night, which deprived the metropolis of
one of its largest theatres :—Well, we must be allowed
our say, for we have our say, and, at the risk of seeming
evil comforters, a duty to discharge. Of course, it is idle
to say that a theatre ought not to be burnt. This edifice,
too, was built, one may say, before the days of iron, and,
as we have observed, before the introduction of the most
dangerous features of the modern stage. It is for
the future that we venture to repeat the warnings
offered on some former like catastrophes. There
is no reason whatever, we believe, why a theatre
should not be entirely fire-proof. Where a boarded
floor is necessary it can be laid over iron and
concrete, and in that situation it will only burn very
slowly, and can soon be extinguished. Walls, roofs, stair-
cases, passages, can all be made of uninflammable material.
Of course, the danger is in the scenery and mechanism,
and that must always be considerable ; but we are aware
of no reason why a fire-proof curtain should not be
usually left hanging between the stage and the orchestra,
and why the apparatus should not be left to burn
itself out where it is. The contingency to be con-
sidered is a fire breaking out during a performance,
the house itself probably unusually full —of
holi-
day folks, we will say, at Christmas -time. Had
this fire broken out on Saturday instead of Friday,
the audience would have had to make good their retreat
much quicker than they are usually able to do, and that
in the confusion of a panic. If anybody will just reflect
xi the delays often encountered even in a house not very
full, and when the ebbing stream flows regularly and
evenly, he will see the possibility of a very bad quarter of
an hour before eleven o'clock last Friday. A theatre
is, or ought to be, entirely under public control, as to the
plan of the edifice, as to the precautions against fire, and
as to the character of the entertainment, and no design
ought to pass the authorised surveyor unless it fulfils
all the conditions of safety, both as to the material
and the p'an. But, considering the facility and the
cheapness of fireproof constructions, they ought to
be held indispensable in a matter where life is so largely
concerned. The audience of a theatre during the per-
formance of a pantomime, or an extravaganza, or a sensa-
tional drama; is in the position of travellers by an express
train, or perhaps we ought to say an excursion train, run-
ning the gauntlet of any number of difficulties and possible
obstructions. In this-case everything is either guaranteed
by the State in regard to the permanent way, or under the
protection of immense penalties in the shape of verdicts.
It is true the State can never go behind the scenes, and
check the lavish use of lights and fire among the most
inflammable canvas scenes and apparatus. But the State
can secure that the plan of the building shall confine to
the smallest compass the inevitable danger from these
sources.

The Post remarks that if the population of Rome were
to rise en masse and proclaim their union with Italy, it
would be no part of the duty of France to intervene.
That much is conceded—not, perhaps, by M. Rouher, but
incontestably by the Convention of the 15th September.
Of course, if the Holy Father can rule his own house,
even as the Czar governs in Poland, ho is at liberty so to
do. That only concerns the conscience of Catholicism.
Cavour, it may be owned, strained international law to
meet a moral requirement. It is competent to the Pope-
King to put down insurrection, and to restore order to the
best of his ability. The question is whether an opportunity
of establishing the spiritual power of the Papacy on a
better, purer, and more abiding foundation should be
improved. Italy can wait, and ought to be able to dis-
count delay. But it is not given to any Power to say to
the advancing wave of an acknowledged aspiration,
" Hitherto shalt thou come, and no farther ;" and nothing
can be more irritating than an attempt to define the limits
in which a struggle for national existence is to be carried
out. The Revolutionary party andthe Reactionary party
are actively at work, and, seeing that between them Italy
might be lost in a moment of hesitation or of imprudence,
it behoves her well-washers to seta guard upon their words,
and more particularly when those words are supposed to
express the views of a friendly Government.
The Telegraph, taking up the same subject, thus writes :
The force of the words attributed to Messieurs de Mous-
tier and Rouher may in some quarters have been exag-
gerated, and it is well to remember that on several occa-
sions, in the excess of their zeal, the official exponents of
the Emperor's policy have gone beyond his real meaning.
Still, we cannot disguise from ourselves that the purport
of the recent debates in Paris is to shew that France
will not consent to the annexation of Rome. No doubt
such a statement is bitterly galling to Italian pride,
and is sure to create popular resentments, which
will operate in the future course of public events. But
until the Italians are able to maintain their own inde-
pendence, it would be undignified for them to quarrel with
the bare assertion of a supremacy to which they submit as
a matter of fact. Their Senate has acted wisely and with
dignity in reply to the menaces of French politicians, by
calmly reiterating the nation's claim to its chosen capital,
and declining to take further action upon the matter.
To know how to wait is the lesson which Cavour taught

Italy. A disregard of the truthful lesson has brought her

to her present plight, and the patient work of years will
be required to undo the evil which a few days of feverish
action have entailed upon a country which it is possible to
love, not wisely, but too well.

The Daily News informs us that as the year 1867 draws
to a close there appear but few symptoms of that revival
of public confidence which has been so anxiously awaited
during the last eighteen months. Trade remains inert.
Certainly the totals of our foreign exports appear fairly
good, but against this,must be set the fact that our internal
commerce—a far greater question—is even more inactive
than could be expected from the financial and political
circumstances of the day. People seem afraid to
buy or sell, merchants to traffic, manufacturers
to produce. Yet there is no mason to believe
that the intrinsic wealth of the country has ex-

perienced any diminution. Some individuals must have
directly suffered severely, or perhaps been utterly ruined,
by the great joint-stock failures of the past and present
year ; but, nevertheless, the unfortunate losers form but
a small minority of the nation. The indirect effect of

these scandals still remains. Distrust appears, for the
moment, nearly inerasable. As a rule, capital is every-
where kept back. Probably on no previous occlsion have
the deposits in the banks been on so large a scale as now.
The effect on the money market is seen by the low rates
of discount which still prevail, notwithstanding the with-
drawals of gold from the Bank of England. A year and
a half ago similar operations caused the Bank rate to be
maintained at 10 per cent., with its consequent pr • lsure
on commerce. Now it is somewhat languidly deJa,ted
whether the same movement will end in a rise of from 2
to 2 per cent.

In commenting on the conviction of Baker for the
atrocious crime of the 24th of August, the Herald says :
If it be conceded that there was actually no motive for the
crime, we think no stronger instance could be found of that
peculiar form of mania which has been denominated moral
insanity, which, according to those who believe in its
existence, consists of a disordered state of the feelings,
passions, and emotions, and which may perfectly well co-
exist with an entirely undisturbed condition of the purely
intellectual faculties. This kind of insanity is said to exist
apart from any sort of hallucination or illusion,and to exhibit
itself merely in a radical perversion of the moral sentiments.
The existence of such a malady, however is most stre-
nuously controverted by a very large and authoritative
section of those who have devoted their attention to the
consideration of the subject, and it is certain that as a

practical theory it is unknown to the law of this country,
wllich, whether philosophically or not, makes the exist-
ence or non-existence of delusion the test of insanity when
that plea is put forward to absolve an accused person from
criminal responsibility. Of any such aberration of mind
in the present case there was not a tittle of proof; and if
Baker had been acquitted, the jury would have lent their
sanction to the doctrine, which, however plausible in
theory, is mischievous and inapplicable in practice, that
moral depravity when it becomes sufficiently aggravated
is to be denominated insanity, and dealt with as such,
The Standard considers that it will bc-necessary for the
President of the United States to act with extreme cau-
tion and tact. He is not popular, his sympathies with the
South are suspected, his constitutionahsm is stricter than
the people altogether approve, as it would seem to involve
the complete restoration of all—except slavery—that the
South has lost by the war, and any assumption of autho-
rity on his part to decide a constitutional question or
to undertake reconstructive measures of nl own—

nay, any expressions too violent or too severe against
his adversaries, would probably once more turn the
tide of public favour. All that he can safely or
wisely do is, to watch for the blunders of his enemies.
If he can be patient enough to wait, cool enough to refrain
from angry expressions or hasty deeds, and wise enough
to hold his tongue as to any ulterior hopes or purposes
beyond the immediate preservation of the constitutional
rights of the people, he may probably defy the utmost
malice of Congress, resist its threats of deposition, and
live to witness the accomplishment by his successor of
that reunion which he cannot now achieve himself. But
any imprudence or outbreak of temper on his part may
involve the greatest misfortunes ; may entail on his policy
a severe defeat, on the South a protracted military
tyranny, and permanent industrial ruin ; on the United
States at large a political entanglement out of which we
can sec no other issue than the despotic government of a
ininorit3r, or civil war for its destruction.
in referring to the dreadful case of starvation at Brom.
ley, the Seer regrets that false pride should have kept the
un:1e),1,3: man Pritchard from the workhouse. Indepen-
dence is very well, but it may be carried too far ; and there
is no independence in abstaining from recourse to the
proper national fund for the relief of unavoidable and
otherwise remediless 4istress. We may be very sure
that this poor man Pritchard paid his rates reg,u.
letrly when in health and possessed of means, and
the State to which he did his duty is bound to
sec that lie and his shall not perish of hunger and cold
when he can no longer earn food and fuel. There
ought to be no sense of obligation in the matter, and if
there had been none Pritchard would probably have kept
his health, and found? after an interval, some means of
supporting his family in credit and in honour. Depend
upon it, there is no pride more false than that which makes
honest and respectable people prefer starvation to the
union. It is a relic of days when poor relief was corruptly
and disgracefully administered. It should be entirely
baaished in these days.