The Sun.
London, England, 1867-09-16 00:00:00

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LONDON, MONDAY, SEPT. IG, 1867.

In reply to the Speech from the Throne the Baden
Upper Chamber have sent an address which is
likely just now to attract interest, because German
matters are by no means settled so completely as
certain parties would have us believe they are. Even
in this address, which purports to make the best of
it, and seems resolved only to see with the KING'S
eyes, and to hear with the KING'S ears, some
intimations are given that all is not so success-
ful as might be desired. The most faithful
Estates accord the fullest assent to the ex-
pressions used by his MAJESTY in his
speech, and they look with courage and confidence
to the future development of the reorganisation of
Germany. At the same time, it is admitted that

the " decisive events" of last year have imposed
heavy trials and sacrifices upon the country, and
great universal exertion is still required of them.
We never heard of a change so much talked of as a
great moral and social and political benefit that en-
tailed so many hardships upon those who were
supposed to gain by it, and was so long in
effecting any of the remedial influences ascribed to
it. The " political regeneration" of the German
Fatherland is no doubt a grand idea, but the aues-
tion is how to put it into execution, and to carry
out to the fullest extent the meaning of it in its best
and most comprehensive sense. Opinions may differ
as to the most likely means to employ, but it ought
not to take long to find out that the end will not
be gained by the arbitrary mode employed by
Prussia. Her exclusive notions do not admit of the
development of individual or even of general
freedom, and there can be no regeneration
worthy of the name, while these restrictive
rules obtain sway and check all progress. II Nether
or not the small States of Germany would have been
happier, stronger, and more consolidated if they had
been joined together, is a question open to conside-
ration, but very probably they might have been.
Their position in that case would have been very
different from what it now is, crushed and weighea
down as they are by the burden of arbitrary, if not
of absolute, authority.
In this address a wish is expressed that the pro-
posed junction of the country with the North Ger-
man Confederation should take place, and the
King's determination in that line has, it is added,
a just claim upon their full support. " The poli-
tical and commercial disasters of the past, and a
deep sense of the position of the present,
warn us willingly to make the necessary sacrifices
so far as they lie in our power." Perhaps they
may find out too late that the remedy is worse than
the evil, and that they had better have remained
in a state of partial disquietude than have
agreed too ' hastily to make so momentous a
change. It is worthy of note that in this address,
which so completely responds to the sentiments of
the Speech from the Throne, we find interspersed,
here and there, some rather ominous assertions,
as, for instance, when we meet with the remark
that the tranquillity of the German nation will
not be restored until means have been found to
complete the connection between the North and
South German States, and to furnish thus to
the German people the conditions of peace and
prosperity. Now the world at large has been
given to understand, for some time past,
that Germany was in possession of internal peace.
This was the language of the Berlin official press,
and of those statesmen who profess to have a gene-
ral knowledge of affairs. Nor will Europe, it is here
mentioned, arrive at the conviction of secure peace
until the " reorganisation of Germany on both sides
of the Maine shall have been accomplished."
Thereupon follows an epitome of the necessary con-
ditions for the union of Germany, and the account
is certainly a correct one, but the drawback is that
they are not likely to be realised under existing cir-
cumstances. "The union of Germany is identical
with the observance of natural right, respect for
popular liberty, the peaceful progress of civilisation,
and the necessary restriction of all policy of con-
quest." But that the egotism and self-sufficiency
of the Berlin Governmant can allow them to credit
anything, and to make things appear exactly the
contrary to what they are, we might really fancy
that they would take this as a satire upon their
proceedings, for is,,it not diametrically opposed
to the whole course which they have pur

sued, and the policy which they wish
to prosper ? First c,f all, we may well ask
where is the respect for popular liberty, and where
is the observance of natural right in the Govern-

meat of King WILLIAM, and what security can any
State that is going to Prussia have for the preser-
vation of their rights and the furtherance of their
prosperity. It is really vexatious to find so much
trouble taken and time wasted over words and
phrases, while the real meaning of what they
express is so far off and unattainable. We
find a great deal that is true in itself
in this these addresses, but then it is not
true in relation to those it concerns. Germany has
no doubt many high aspirations after national re-
generation ; but it is sad to think that she is a long
way off from realising them, for Prussia can never
turn out a benefactor to any State or province that
is put under her control.

JOSEPH SURFACE is not, it would seem, without
his modern imitators ; and it must be a great satis-
faction to our modern moralists to fiad that the
Manchester Brickmakers' Union have so keen a
sense of what is right and proper that a member
is fined twopence for swearing ! It is no wonder
that the Secretary of so well-mannered an asso-
ciation should find his refined feelings so deeply
hurt by the unceremonious conduct of the Com-
missioners that he should destroy a book on which
they desired to lay their profane hands. The newly-
elected Secretary, HENRY GREEN, said that on
Saturday night, the 7th, after the court's officers
had seized their boxes and safes, he was so disgusted
that he put the cash-box in the fire. "If they had
come like gentlemen and asked for it, it would have
been given with pleasure." How grievous was the
mistake of these rough and unceremonious officials !
They were evidently quite unfit for the company
with which chance compelled them to associate, and
they acted as though the law empowered them to
confiscate the property of suspected criminals and
conspirators, instead of politely requesting gentle-
men of refined manners and undoubted respec-
tability to favour them with the inspection
of some necessary statistics. This rash and heed-
less conduct on their part is the more to be
regretted, since we have in consequence lost the
chance of acquiring some valuable information. A
new code of morals might have been unfolded to
our view, and we should have learned the money
value of our sins and of our virtues. An oath we
know costs twopence. The hamstringing of a
neighbour's horse, the firing of a stable, the throw-
ing of bottles charged with naphtha at sleeping
women and children, have various degrees
of value in the scale of that virtue which
does not find its only reward in bread. Then there
aro other degrees of praiseworthy endeavour, such
as breaking tools, putting needles in the clay, and
poisoning fruit. It would have been satisfactory
to the uninitiated to ascertain the respective merits
of these several acts, and the degree of immediate
pecuniary recompense which a body of competent
and high-mindco. judges thought proper to award.
On some occasions the severity of justice
is relaxed, and grievous offenders; are treated
with merciful indulgence. A master brickmaker
at Dukinfield committed the direful offence of
employing non-union men. This, as we know, was
a crime deserving of capital punishment, but his
sentence was commuted as follows :—" In 1862 em-
ployed non-union men. Had 50,000 or 60,000
bricks destroyed. Had complained of the work,
and a meeting of men fined him £5. Had stopped
work, and thrown up his contract in 1860 and 1861
through fines of this kind. In 1864 he had a horse
stabbed in the stable, but did not know it was done
by union men. The union men had been very
lenient to him." Upon being questioned a little

tore cl, mely by the Commissioner, the representa-
th 'e of _English law as opposed to the equity of
Trades I Inioaism, this witness explained that he
meant tb at he had a great deal of property ex.
posed' which -was not destroyed.
Mr( hear -a great deal in times of war and danger
of the eourr Lge and endurance of the English people,
and the: -readiness with which they pass from the
pursuits. .of peace to the risks and hardships of war
is often, . commented upon. But it seems that the
moat earl inary affairs of life demand the same qua-
Ham as a campaign. The attempt to break through
ordiwar y rules is a forlorn hope, and the dan-
gers .and sufferings incidental to what
seem very pacific and homely callings
may rank with the revelations of the
military hospitals after a desperate action. A
soldier knows his risks and carries his life in his
hand ; but even he invariably prefers active service
in the field to waiting in the trenches, or in any
other position in which the enemy may take them
unawares at any moment. But the brickmakers and
other offenders against the union are constantly in
this position. A man goes to his work and finds
his tools broken ; he looks at the door of
his shed and sees a threat to take his life.
He begins working at his bricks and finds
the clay full of nails and needles. He walks
home through the fields and sees apples lying in his
path; he cuts them open, luckily for him, and finds
traces of poison. He goes to bed, and bottles crash
through his windows, or fires break out on his pre-
mises. The consequence of all this is that masters
and men get cowed. The Union works by relays,
but the victims are perpetually on the rack. It is
not the same men who watch the offender going to

and fro who break in at night, and haunt him
wherever he goes, but it is the same man who
is subjected to the constant strain. The conse-
quence is that masters and men alike give way.
It needs a very remarkable degree of endurance
and determinaion to hold out against this sort of
intangible danger year after year, and few are
capable of it. The masters give up contracts, and
sometimes, as in the case of Mr. ITIBBERT, give up
the business which is the ground of offence alto-
gether. The men submit to a system of dictation
which is almost intolerable, and both sides subscribe
for the maintenance of a system which they alike
feel to be grinding, unjust, and oppressive.

The further these inquiries go on the more
startling become the revelations, not because the
crimes brought to light are so much greater, but
because the evil is of such vast extent. When the
Sheffield atrocities were first brought to light there
was an outcry among the friends of Trades Unions
against the injustice of blaming the system for the
particular offences of individuals in a particular
locality. But no one can pretend that Manchester
men are not fully up to the average in intelligence,

in knowledge of the world, in all that is gained by
contact with their fellows. No doubt every one of
the men who have given their evidence before the
commission would, if they had attended a public
meeting, have cheered loudly the praises of free
trade, and have applauded to the echo any perora-
tion about the high standing and public spirit of
English working men. There is something to be

learnt at Manchester as well as at Sheffield, and we

strongly apprehend something to be learned in the

other great centres of industry, if these inquiries

are extended in new directions.

• The Oxfordshire members have been discussing
upon public affairs, and Col. NORTH delivered a very
interesting speech, much to the purpose, and which
was well received by those present. The annual
gathering of the Thames Agricultural and Horti-
cultural Societies was the occasion that called the
the
Colonel together.NOßTH
responding
the
totheAbyssinian
toast for
expedition, and said that he was certain no
alluded to
Englishman would think that we were doing
wrong in entering upon the campaign, because
the unfortunate captives had been badly treated in
the first instance, and when the QUEEN had sent
a gentleman to intercede for them the barbarian
KING put him in prison also. In reverting to public
affairs generally, the gallant Colonel said that some
subjects authorised them to depart from their rule
not to trespass upon political matters. Reform
had been talked of year after year, but nothing
decisive had been done until this session. Lord
DERBY had been called to account for saying
that they had taken a leap in the dark ; but, as
Colonel NORTH truly added, who can tell exactly
what may be the consequences of the measure until
it has been fairly tried. " Lord DERBY felt he could
trust to the good sense of the people, and he was
sure that his lordship would not be disappointed."
Further on the speaker turned his attention to the
strictures made against himself and others who had
" turned their coats." This had not been
done for any personal advantage, and all
the alterations they had made were be-
cause they acted upon their convictions, and
sought what was best for the country. Col. -.PANE
also spoke, and stated that, personally, he was
himself against Reform, but that the House bad acted
in accordance with Mr. HENLEY'S advice. "If
you pass a bill, pass one that will go the whole
hog." He, however, hoped, with Colonel NORTH,
that now the measure had become law, it
would prove to be a satisfactory and a
successful one. A most entertaining speech
was made by Mr. HODSON, who declared that
" Radicalism and Conservatism was very much
alike, particularly Conservatism ;" but he trusted
that the recent union that had taken place between
them might conduce to the good of the country, and
that the spread of education might " qualify every
one to make the best use of the faculties which
the ALMIGHTY had given them."

CORRESPONDENCE FROM PARIS.

(FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.)
PARIS, Sunday Evening.

The following is the news of the Moniteur :
" The Emperor and Empress of Austria, accom-
panied by the ex-Queen of Naples, arrived, on Fri-
day evening at Munich, on their return from Swit-
zerland. Their Majesties were received at the
station by the Duchess, wife of Duke Maximilian of
Bavaria, and mother of the affianced bride of King
Louis the Second. The Emperor was to meet King
Louis the Second yesterday at Fossenhosfen. His
Apostolic Majesty was expected to-day (SuLday)
at hail.

"To judge by the unanimity of the language of
the Vienna journals, the negociations which re-
cently took place between the Ministers of Finance
of Austria and Hungary have been brought to a
satisfactory conclusion. 'ihe matter in question is
to regulate the various points connected with the
division of the public debt between the Empire and
the Transleithan kingdom.
" A telegram has brought the news of an amnesty
granted by the Sultan to the inhabitants of the
island of Crete. According to the decision made
at Constantinople, every individual who, compro-
mised by late events, shall return home and deliver
up his arms, will enjoy security and protection. A
delay which will expire on the 20th of October is
awarded to the foreign volunteers to leave Candia
on board ships, whether foreign or Turkish. The
natives who wish to leave the country with their
families are authorised to do so, on condition that
they shall give up all they possess in the island, and
on undertaking not to return to it without having