The Sun.
London, England, 1867-09-18 00:00:00

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BANT E B. ONE PENNY only true exponents of the public feeling, it is
GEORGE AUGUSTUS SALA. really worth while to direct one's notice a little to
An original and exciting Romance of Life and Adventure ..
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wholly written by GEORGB A UGESTCS SALA, Will be corn- counties. " The truth is," remarks the hon. mem-
menced in " Banter," No. 5 (published on September 30th),
and will be continued weekly. No. 3 of "Banter" now ber for Warwickshire, "that the freeholders, the
ready. To be bad of all newsmen, railway book-stalls,
householders, and the copyholders, resident and
and the Office, 183, Fleet-street, London. Price One
Penny.

boroughs, vote for the county members." Referring
to points immediately connected with the meeting
before them, Mr. NEWDEGATE made some very wise
suggestions respecting the prevention of the spread
of disease among the cattle. He regretted that the
House of Commons had not insisted upon the Go-
vernment fixing upon certain ports as the only
places where cattle should be imported from abroad,
and the regulations could have been made whereby
we could have more effectually guarded against the
importation of disease from abroad. As he puts it
very plainly before us, we know that the disease
has been suppressed in England, and hence if it
break out again it must be imported from abroad.
We think that it would be a good thing if this
notion was more taken up than it is, for great care-
lessness often prevails upon the matter. It would
be far better to adopt precautionary measures in
time than to allow the evil to reach a height, when
it is difficult to arrest its fatal consequences.
It is something to hear a member of Parliament
of Mr. NEWDEGA.TE'S political sentiments declare
that it was a fortunate thing for the country that a
Reform Act had been passed. Surely an assertion
like this ought to give the lie to the repeated assevera-
tions of Mr. BRlGHTandsorne others, that all progress
was opposed by a certain section, and that Reform
must be carried in the teeth of the Tory party, if it
was ever carried at all. It cannot be disputed by any
impartial observer that there is truth in the remark
of Mr. NEWDEGATE that the bill may not be a per-
fect one, but that the House of Commons has done
its best to secure a " real representation of the in-
telligence of the people of England." It is also
worthy of notice, as the hon. member remarked,
that the House of Lords directed its attention more
to the representation of the towns, and thus
showed that they cared for something more
than the agricultural interests. By adopting the pro-
position of Lord CAIRNS they asserted a principle in
accordance with the Constitution of England, as
distinguished from that of foreign states, that where
there was a large minority it should be represented
in the Legislature.
The speech of Mr. FORSTER was fair enough in
its way, and he certainly spoke very forcibly on the
subject of Reform. He never feared, he said, that
the bill would not become law, though many had felt
alarm on the subject. With respect to what had been
a puzzle in other quarters, he said that he could not
explain how Mr. DISRAELI had come to pass a Bill
which he was ready to accept ; but, " however, as
it had been accomplished, they ought to feel grate-
ful for the result, and to Mr. DISRAELI for effecting
it." It has been said by captious individuals that
we had realised this triumph of Liberal principles
at the sacrifice of the character of our statesmen,
and it is a relief to find so great an authority on
the subject as Mr. FORSTER declare that be
cannot coincide with this view of the question.
The hon. member for Bradford gives a much
more straightforward explanation of the "remark-
able agreement" that has existed this session, and
he defines it that the Conservative party felt
their responsibility, and in seeking to settle the
Reform difficulty they had to go down to the
very principles of English politics, " and in so
doing they came to the foundation of political
feeling in their own minds, and found them to be
much the same as they were in the minds of
all Englishmen." This is taking a far larger
view of the matter than merely to regard it in the
light of party feeling, and it redounds to the credit
of Mr. FORSTER that he should do so. Respecting
the prevention of bribery, he thinks that the time
has come to obtain the Ballot, though he does no
regard that as the only means for attaining tha
object.

COVENT-GARD EN PROMENADE
CONCERTS.
COVENT-GARDEN THEATRE.
EVERY EVENING, at EIGHT.
Under the sole Direction of Mr. JOHN RUSSELL.
This Evening the Programme will include—Songs by
Madame Jetty Treffz and Mr. W. Morgan ; Solos by Mr. J.
M. Wehli, Messrs. Lazarus, %Vinterbottom, H. W. Hill, and
Reynolds; Overtures, "Lo Philtre" and " Nicolo di Lapi ;"
Gounod's Meditation ; the grand Operatic Selection from
"Der Freischn.z ;" new Valso for Orchestra and Chorus,
new Polka, and new Quadrille Ly Johann Strauss, &c.
Conductors—Signor BOTTESINI and Herr JOHANN
STRAUSS.
To-morrow (Thursday), a Selection from the works of
SPOHR.

Education furnished a topic for consideration,
and in reverting to that interesting theme, Mr.
FORSTER said that the present system had few sup-
porters. "It was unfair, capricious, and uncertain."
We concur with the hon. member in his opinion
against compulsory education, but it would be a
questionable mode of arriving at the desired end to
follow his suggestion that the State should give no
religious education. Respecting Trades Unions Mr.
FORSTER made some very sensible remarks, and did
not approve of the mode used in Sheffield of making
terms with the men who were murderers. No doubt
this is a knotty point to decide upon, but it is well
for all speakers whose views are known to
be rather extreme to take every opportunity of de-
nouncing the outrages that have been committed
by these combinations. On the whole, we may say
that these speeches are much to the credit of those
who delivered them, very fair specimens of the
utterances of Englishmen to their constituencies,
and each in its peculiar style exhibits an absence of
party spirit, and a sense of the importance of public
interests,which cannot fail to commanthrespect and
win confidence from all classes.

The story told by Mr. Joni; ASHWORTH, of
Salford, before the Trades Union Commission,
yesterday, afforded a very powerful illustration of
the working of the system. Mr. ASHWORTH is a
brickmaker in Salford, and the story of his struggles
with the Union, and their result, is not without its
moral. In 1864 he had 60,000 bricks destroyed and
the handles sawn off his wheelbarrows. The reason
!given for this outrage is not a little singular. Mr.
ASHWORTH attributed it to the fact of his own son,
who was not a union man, working in his yard.
Two men afterwards came and drew away the
unionists in his employ. But this was not enough.
The bricks were destroyed, and the men enticed
away from their work, but the justice of unionism
was not satisfied. Two Union men came to Mr.
ASHWORTH, and told him that he must pay £5O for
having given a man into custody for the first outrage,
or he would not be allowed to make any more bricks.
Mr. ASHWORTH thereupon replied, as most men
would be inclined to do, that he would not pay fifty
pence. lle made a bold effort to escape from the
grinding tyranny of the trade, and got two men to
work with his two sons. Finding it impossible to
get enough hands, he started a machine. At first he
sold a great many bricks, but the Union interfered
and prevented the bricklayers from setting those
bricks. The Union extends its ramifications from one
trade to another, from one branch of the trade to an-
ther, until they bring every one more or less within
their control. Naturally the consequence of this
interference with the machine-made bricks was that
the sale of them was stopped to a great extent, for
where was the use of men buying thousands of
bricks that the bricklayers were not allowed to set?
Nevertheless Mr. AsHWOP.TII continued making his
bricks by machine, and some time later he received
a letter, signed " A 'Well-wisher." It stated that at
a meeting of the operative brickmakers, held at their
own hall the day before, a committee was appointed
to consider the best means of shooting Mr. ASH-
WORTH, and otherwise putting an end to his busi-
ness. The writer added what was no doubt true,
that in writing that letter he put himself in quite as
much danger as Mr. ASHWORTH himself, if it should
beconi,:,, known. It was not long before there was a me-