The Sun.
London, England, 1866-01-22 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

THE "EXAMINER" ON MR. PEABODY'S GIFT.—
The value of Mr. Peabody's gift of £150,000 for the
good of the poor of London is well shown by the
fact that only half the money is yet spent, and al-
ready homes for 200 are occupied at Spitalfields,
homes for 600 are almost ready at Islington, land
has been bought and building has been begun at
Shadwell, and two other pieces of land have been
bought and paid for at Chelsea and Bermondsey.
Eight hundred have been housed with half the
money, and two pieces of building land for the erec-
tions yet to come have also been paid out of it.
Before all is done in the investment of the original
capital there will probably have been planted in six
different parts of London six groups of buildings;
designed, as nearly as different circumstances will
permit, after the manner of the Workman's Home
of M. Godmin-Lemaire ; providing homes for more
than 1,600 of the poor, and showing house owners
how it is possible, without sacrifice of their own
interests, to lodge pleasantly and wholesomely those
who are unable to lodge otherwise than very cheaply.
The houses built by the trustees of the Peabody
Fund are not almshouses. Not a penny has been
irretrievably sunk. Every penny of the money is
productive—of suggestion and evidence to the land-
lords; of health, comfort, self-respect to the poor
tenants ; and of yearly income that accumulates
until there is enough to spend in setting up another
and another and another group of cheap and whole-
some dwelling places for the working poor of Lon-
don. Now that the railways are demolishing by
thousands the lodgings of the London poor, and
driving the ejected lodgers back on their poor neigh-
bours, whose unhealthy homes, already more than
full, they make yet sicklier by further overcrowd-
ing, the question of dwelling places for the London
poor is vitally urgent. The trustees of Mr. Pea-
body's gift rightly judged that they should rather
aggravate than help to solve the difficulty by a mere
building of almshouses. What they are doing,
therefore, is this : they place within reach of a cer-
tain number of the well-conducted, independent
poor, houses of one, two, and three rooms,
that do not cost more than the most wretched
lodgings they can hire. A miserable and unwhole-
some room is not to be had, even among the worst
wretchedness of Bethnal-green, for less than half-
a-crown
a week. Two rooms cost at least five
shillings a week ; three rooms not less than six and
sixpence. In the Peabody-buildings the charges
are half-a-crown for one room, four shillings for
two, five shillings for three. But the rent pays for
light, air, and, at night, gas; plenty of water sup-
ply, with the allied necessaries ; convenient fittings
in the way of oven and boiler, cupboards, shelving,
and so forth ; besides a clear space of common
playground for the children, where they may get
air and exercise within sight of their parents as
they work in their own rooms, and clear of all street
traffic. Not the least gain is absolute security of
property. As poor lodgers with poor houSe-tenants
who let rooms and often fail to pay the house-rent,
they were liable to have their furniture swept off
for no fault or shortcoming of their own. In the
Peabody-buildings, after they have proved their
right to benefit by the conditions of the trust, they
are entirely independent and entirely-safe. Hitherto,
also, there has been among them only one case of a
failure to pay rent: This rent would be considered
by the ordinary house-owner a fair return for his
outlay of capital, and it is a part of the business of
the managers of the Peabody fund to show that it
can be made so. Since the first buildings were
opened in February, 1864, there have been deaths
in them only of one man 'who died of a chronic
complaint), and of four children, one under five anU
two of them under two years old. El-health is said
also to be rare. The poor tenant gets, therefore, a
comparatively uninterrupted earning power, and of
very many a poor man with wife and children at
his fireside, it may be fairly said that the money
value of the good health in his family will pay
the rent of the home that has assured it to
him. Meanwhile the return made for such use
of capital goes in this case not to the remu-
neration of the capitalist, but to the continual
extension of the benefit conferred. The
Peabody fund becomes in this way perpetually
living and productive, with a rate of production
steadily increasing, as by geometrical progression.
The income from the first five or six London colo-
nies will found within a certain time a couple more.
The increased income from the seven or eight will
within less time yield another couple ; and then
there will be the ampler produce of nine or ten colo-
nies of well-housed poor with which to quicken the
rate of incessant growth. Thus the question is not
of five or six groups of fit homes for some 1,600 of
the poor,—much as that means,—but of the estab-
lishment of an unfailing system. Mr. Peabody's
gift is the source of a beneficent stream, broad, in-
deed, at the outset, but that is to widen and deepen
as it flows.

THE " LAW TIMES" ON LEGAL RUMOURS OF
THE WEEK.—We understand that a strong remon-
strance against the recent selection of Silks has been
addressed to the Attorney-General by members of
the Co.nmon Law Bar,who feel themselves aggrieved
by the preference given to others having inferior
claims. We ventured last week to offer an expla-
nation of a choice which at the first glance appeared
to be strange and unaccountable. But to this ex-
planation it is answered that three of the gentlemen
selected have refused to pledge themselves to con-
fine their practice to Parliament, or to refrain from
appearing on circuit in precedence of those above
whom they have been exalted. Such a pledge might
be refused, but, having received their silk gowns
purposely to give them position:on the committee-
rooms and not on circuit, it is not probable that
they will use them for any other purpose than that
for which they were given. We regret much to
learn that criminal informations are filed or in pre-
paration against the Hon. R. Bethell and Mr.
Welch, based upon the evidence given in the Leeds
Bankruptcy Inquiry. The affair might well have
been at rest. If the offence was great, the punish-
ment has been greater. If Mr. Bethell has feel-
ings, they must have been already sufficiently
racked by the sight of his father hurled from his
high place—not for any sin of his own, but for
the sin of his son. Lord Wesbury's gravest
fault—and his many enemies can find no greater
one in him—was that of listening too kindly to
domestic importunities, in entire ignorance that
those requests were stimulated by corruption.
It is a fault, certainly, in a public man to suffer
himself to be importuned by those he loves ; but it
is a fault so nearly allied to virtue that it may b e
readily forgiven. Lord Westbury's too great kind-
ness of heart has already been more than amply
punished. He has, with becoming dignity, with-
drawn from the place he could not continue to hold
while that cloud was over him. The cloud is pass-
ing—has passed—the weakness has been condoned,
and he may now be restored to the place of honour
from which he properly retired :for a time. Total
oblivion is the best fate that could befall his un-
happy son, and Mr. Welch has been 4illy paid for
his error in anxiety and pecuniary loss. No advan-
tage„`public or private, can arise from stirring
again the muck that has been buried and is for-
gotten. The rumour of the contemplated retire-
ment of Dr. Lushington is revived. It is said that
he will do so on the conclusion of the great case of
the Banda andKirwee Prize-money. Such a rumour
has been sent about before, and, if repeated often
enough, it is sure to be right at last. The probabi-
lity of truth is greater than before, for the vener-
able judge was born so long ago as 1775, and has
presided in the Admiralty since 1838. He is the
oldest of our judges. Mr. M. D. Hill has resigned
the Recordership of Birmingham, to which he had
given almost an European reputation by his charges
to the grand juries at the quarter sessions, in which
he promulgated both his reflections and his expe-
rience on crime and criminals, reformation and
punishment: These compositions were lectures,
and being delivered from the judgment-seat they
commanded a degree of attention not usually
bestowed upon essays, whether spoken or written ;
and the periodical impulse so given materially
assisted in securing public attention to a subject
previously limited to a few thoughtful minds.

THE ANGLO-AMERICAN TIMES ON MR. MASON JONES
AT COVENTRY.—Three years ago Mr. Mason Jones—then
known in England only as an orator of considerable
power, and a young politician of rather extreme views—
went to the United States, and began a lecturing tour
in that country. He made his first appearance, un-
heralded and unknown, at the little Irving Hall in New
York. His audiences were at first meagre enough, but
gradually the feeling became prevalent among New Yorkers
that the new comer was a man of genius, and that ho had
something to tell them which they desired to hear. On
all occasions when the opportunity presented itself, he de-
fended the cause of the negro, and denounced the sin of
slavery in unmeasured terms ; and, ere he was aware of it,
he had raised a storm about his ears which would have
dismayed a less courageous man. At ono of his meetings,
on uttering a more than usually earnest denunciation of
the great crime of which the United States stood convicted
before humanity, in keeping one-tenth of its people in a
state of bondage, he was assailed on the platform by somo
of the pro-slavery "roughs" of New York, and something
like a riot ensued, in which he showed himself capable of
dealing other blows than those of more argument.
The result of that cowardly attempt to "put him down"
was a fortunate one for Mr. Jones. Ho immediately en-
gaged the Academy of Music, the largest public building
in New York, and commenced a series of lectures, which
were attended by the elite of the city by thousands, and
which were admitted to bo the most brilliant efforts
of the kind ever delivered in New York. Thenceforth
his tour through the States was one continued triumph.
Everywhere, at Boston, Philadelphia, Buffalo, Chicago,
St. Louis, crowds docked to hear him. He was feted and

honored in every city he visited, and at Washington
received invitations to visit the President and other dis-
tinguished officials, from all of whom he received assurances
of regard and gratitude. We think we aro safe in saying
that no foreigner, not even Mr. Thackeray, had suc-
ceeded in so completely gaining the ear of the American
people, and in carrying away the good-will and personal
regard of so many of the foremost citizens of the Re-
public. Since Mr. Jones's return to England the Americans
have, therefore, watched his career with much interest.
They know and feel how nobly he espoused their cause in
this country, encountering prejudice and often calumny in
their defence. Their principles are now triumphant.
Their liberties are achieved, and they now find him
battling for freedom in England as ho battled for freedom
in America. His late visit to Coventry, and the reception
he met with at the hands of his friends and supporters in
that ancient borough, cannot fail to be read by Americans
with much satisfaction. An immense public meeting was
held at the Corn Exchange, for the purpose of presenting
him with a suitable testimonial, as a recognition of his
valuable services in the Liberal cause during the recent
general election. The building was densely crowded in
every part, and it is estimated that there were upwards
of six thousand persons present. Mr. and lirS'
Jones, on making their appearance on the- plat-
form, were loudly cheered. The present to dr.
Jones consisted of a valuable gold watch, made in ever"'
part by his own constituents, who had voted for his return
to Parliament, and a massive Albert chain, valued at about
£BO. The presentation to Mrs. Jones comprised a costly
silver tea service, with an illuminated address, setting
forth the untiring energy and ability her husband bad
displayed throughout the late contest. It is not
our intention to repeat Mr. Jones's speech on the
occasion, which has already appeared in the London
papers, but we can assure our readers and his friends in
America that it was just what they would expect of him.
He declared that the great doctrine of manhood suffrage--
that doctrine which had prevailed and been such a glorious
success in free America—had never been sufficiently preached
in England. He honored and respected intellect rather
than property; and he would give the suffrage to the man,
not because he liVed in a £lO house, but because he had a
rational and immortal principle within him which would
live when time shall be no more. This was the burden
and text of his speech—

" The rank is but the guinea stamp ;
"The man's the man for a' that."

And the fact that his remarks were received with enthu-
siastic delight and approbation by the- thousands who
heard him is a proof, if proof were required, that his doc-
trine is becoming more and more popular, and will even-
tually carry everything before it, even in aristocratic
England.