The Sun.
London, England, 1866-02-15 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

TIMES.—If it be no longer news to our readers
that Berlin is now witnessing just such a struggle
as that which two hundred years ago put our own
monarchy into abeyance and established the power'
of Parliament, it would nevertheless not be very
easy to persuade them that anything serious is to-be
expected. Upon two questions of the highest con-
stitutionalimportance the Prussian House of Com-
mons is displaying a tone so uncompromising and
resolute, exchanging defiances so fierce, and repre-
senting the popular sentiment so profoundly and so
eloquently, that an English observer must expect
something to come of it. The occasion is worthy
of the spirit it has roused. A Minister more devoted
to the service of his master, and to despotism, than
our own Strafford has led the King into what we
should think two very grave errors. By his advice
the King has taken possession of the Duchy of
Lauenburg simply as an appanage of the Crown,
and is attempting to govern it on principles dis-
tinct from those to which he is bound under the
Prussian Constitution. This is contrary to a special
clause in that Constitution, which enjoins that
any foreign realm that may be acquired by the
Crown shall become part of the Prussian people,
and share its laws. The Ministerial defence is that
Lauenburg is too small to be a realm ; that it is
not foreign; that the people themselves don't want
entire annexation ; in fine, that Lauenburg is a
political toy, and not a serious matter. The Cham-
ber feels itself trifled with, and proves its own sense
of the slight put upon it by defying the new Duke
of Lauenburg and protesting against his assump-
tion of the title, and, indeed, of the Duchy itself.
The other matter is one which our own historical
associations would invest with even a more omi-
nous import. It is just that question of Parliamen-
tary privilege upon which our own Royal Absolutist
made his worst and most fatal blunder. The Libe-
ral members of the Chamber having expressed
opinions and made assertions offensive to Go-
vernment, the latter has procured their condem-
nation by the Supreme Tribunal. This itself is
contrary not only to all our notions of freedom of
debate, but also to special provisions in the Prussian
Constitution, as they speak for themselves, and as
they are interpreted by their actual framers, taking
part in the present debate. Indeed, the case is so
plain that a tribunal had to be made for the purpose
of obtaining the condemnation. Not only was this
court a selection from the judges, but upon a hol-
low pretence supplementary judges were'added, and
their votes were employed to neutralise the free
votes of the very judges whose places they professed
to supply. The tribunal was packed, and its deci-
sion is consequently worthless. If not actually con-
demned at this moment, there is no doubt it
will be by an overpowering majority, when it will
remain to be seen whether a false judgment obtained
by intrigue or an open and all but unanimous deci-
sion of the Lower House will henceforth be the law
of that land. To the English apprehension there is
a very pretty quarrel. The antagonism is complete,
and neither party seems to have left itself a way of
escape. Indeed, neither party wishes to do so. Some
personal encounters show that the element of bit-
terness is not wanting, and betray the fact that the
battle is fought as hard in the outside world as on
the floor of the Chamber. Old politicians, judges,
and literary notables deliver themselves with a dig-
laity, a solemnity, and a wit that go to the very
heart of the Prussian people, and ought to make
some impression on the Conservatives. Viewed by
all our lights, they speak reason and truth, and can
only be gainsayed by men who have cast in their lot
with force and resolved to trample on law. The
municipalities and people of all the great Prussian
towns are coming forward to support their repre-
sentatives, and to leave no doubt that these men
have not spoken for themselves alone. All Prussia
is moved, and the issue is plain. We understand it,
because we have seen the like before, and we seem
to know what is coming as surely as if we saw on
a German stage the performance of one of Shak-
spore's tragedies. The Germans have borrowed
some things from us in return for much they have
done, and this, we seem to feel sure, is one more
British idea. They have everything, except that
v hich is necessary to bring it all to an actual con-
clusion. The tLiermans can feel, and think, and
write, and talk ; they can do this individually and
in popular gregarious fashion. They can even do
it too much and too well. It is their misfortune
that they are such adepts at this part of the busi-
ness, and they attain a success so satisfactory and
complete in itself, that they proceed no further.
When the brain, the tongue, and even the pen have
done their work, and the argument is triumphantly
established, the arm falls as in a trance, and the
sword is not there. It is, indeed, a strange satire
upon that philosophy, that subtlety, that know-
ledge, that command of ideas, and that mastery of
language, which is to some so lofty an ambition, to
others an object of such miserable envy. One would
think the happy possessors of these high gifts must
be the true Kings of men, ruling hearts, moulding
events, and controlling the course of the world.
Never was there a greater mistake. When these
have had their say, a brute arm, backed by a strong
will, cuts the knot of the controversy, and politi-
cians, philosophers, orators, judges, poets, essayists,
and an entire speculative world seem to melt into
controversial haze and dim memories, while the man
of the sword slices continents, parcels territories,
and shapes Constitutions. So, at least, it is in
Germany; and so it will continue to be for all we
can see. With all our admiration of that great
thinking people, we can never persuade ourselves
that they will do what they say. So we watch their
performances with every possible interest, except
that which arises from the expectation of actual re-
sults. The truth is, though there is one nation;
there are two classes before us—more than two, of
course, but two as regards this question. The aris-
tocracy, with its territorial influence and its army,
is the one ; the people, with its philosophy, elo-
quence, and high aspirations, is the other. The men
whose burning words might justly lead us to expect
mighty deeds, are good and true men, earnest
enough, and not without hope ; but they are not
men of action, and the means of action are not in
their hands. They and their Chamber do not even
hold the purse strings, for the taxes once voted in
Prussia can always be collected, and there is no
Appropriation Act which shall annually compel the
Crown to square accounts with the people. The
King of Prussia could manage to get on, not quite
as well as he wishes perhaps, but as well as some of
his neighbours, without any parliamentary concur-
rence in his policy and measures. It cost a great
struggle to wrest the command of the public purse
from our own great Absolutist, and the Prussians
have yet to do their part. Perhaps circumstances
may come to their aid. But they must be not only
much more resolute, but also more proof against evil
solicitation, before they can avail themselves of the
opportunity even should it present itself. They
must resist the epidemic passion for wars of annexa-
tion and conquest, under whatever guise. In these
wars they sell tijeir liberties instead of winning
them. They place themselves under the law of the
soldier, and the Minister who governs not by reason,
but by the greater force. That Germany will ever
resist a temptation too natural in her case we doubt;
but, till she does, she will not have constitutional
freedom, or possess liberty of speech, except for the
benefit of other nations.

POST.—In the movement now taking place in
favour of erecting improved dwelling-houses for the
working classes there lies more wisdom, and conse-
quently more merit, than in many efforts having
what are conventionally to be considered higher
objects. The philanthropy of this country, which
is constantly on the look out for fresh fields of
action, is accustomed to adopt, without much
reflection, the first to which its attention hap-
pens to be called with sufficient loudness, and as
often as not the only good it produces is the
bringing into contempt of some mistaken idea by
carrying it to a more ridiculous extent than was
contemplated by the first originators. Ticket-of-
leave men, poor curates, and pretty horsebreakers
have each in their turn been made the objects of
an enormous and disproportionate amount of
public sympathy, only to relapse again shortly
after into a state of more than ordinary oblivion or
contempt. It is therefore reassuring to see the phil-
anthropic taking up a subject which unites so clearly
the advantages of good sense an 1 good feeling as the
improvement of the workman's dwelling, and the
direction the exertions to this end are taken en-
courages the hope that for once the soft emotions of
philanthropy will go band in hand with the hard-
grained maxims of commerce, and that the effect
will be seen in a material and permanent ameliora-
tion of the condition of a large and most important
section of the community. The public ear has lately
been shocked by highly-wrought accounts of the dis-
comforts of the homes provided at the public expense
for those who cannot or will not work to provide
homes for themselves. But it must not be forgotten
that equal discomforts are endured by thousands of
hard-working independent men, who have never
received a shilling beyond what they earnt in their
lives, and who look upon the parish with horror and
contempt. The London labourer, struggling to
maintain himself and his family, who comes home
from his toil to his one room, or perhaps part of a
room, in a close court, reeking with every abomina-
tion, horrible with the accumulated filth of years,
and crowded with human beings, can scarcely be
blamed if he loses dignity and self-respect in an
atmosphere where they cannot live, or if he shows
his distaste for such a home by seeking refuge in the
nearest tavern. As so much sympathy has been
shown—and properly shown—for the miseries of the
pauper, it is not too much to expect at least an
equal sympathy for the equally great miseries of the
labourer; and the expression of such a sympathy in

a practical form is, we venture to think, likely to
be of infinitely more benefit to the class concerned
than either £6 franchises, vote by ballot, or any
other of the many schemes promoted for their special
advantage. The metropolitan railways are charged
with being the cause in a great measure of the evils
complained of, • and doubtless a deal of the
overcrowding is due to the demolitions rendered
necessary by the construction of new lines. But in
fact these evils existed long before railways, and
although aggravated, were not produced by them.
It has long been the practice to sub-let the poorer
classes of dwellings in batches, and these batches are
often split up again and re-let. The poor are in
fact the victims of a class of middlemen who have
contrived a scheme of living upon their very poverty
and helplessness. The landlord himself is probably
a well-to-do, and possibly a humane person enough,
but the middleman or the middleman's man, with
whom the labourer actually comes into contact,
knows no pity or compassion. He lives by squeez"
ing blood out of a stone, and, as he has to provide
for two others besides himself, he has to squeeze
three drops where one should suffice. Hence the
labourer has always paid enormous rents in propor-
tion to the accommodation he has enjoyed, and
hence, too, the object of those who reap their har-
vest from his labour has been not to keep his dwell-
ing in habitable condition, but to allow it, to fall
into the very utmost state of filth and dilapidation
allowed by law, in order to get the highest poesible
rent at the lowest possible outlay. The remedy for
such a state of things was not easy to find. For the
philanthropic the subject presented few charms,
lacking as it does the sensation element so plenti-
fully present in most of the schemes of benevolence
presented to the public. To say that a man is ac-
tually in want of the necessaries of existence shocks
at once the feelings and opens the purse-strings Of
the most indifferent ; to say that he is destitute of
spiritual instruction awakens the zeal of the pious
but to say that he is simply living in a small and
dirty room, overcrowded and evil smelling, awakens
no particular sympathy. It is perhaps fortunate
that it is so, since, after all, it is not an extended
scheme of charitable contributions that is needed, nor
is it advisable or proper that a man who is capable of
paying for his own home should be even partly in"
debted to charity for it; but what is wanted for him
is fair play and the power of obtaining his home
for what it is honestly worth—neither less nor more.
Nor would capitalists regard with favour the idea
of investing their money in any scheme for erecting
dwellings for the poorer classes. When ranging
over the financial world for an investment, with all
the glittering baits before them held out by joint- ,
stock companies and foreign loans at incredible
interest, few would bestow a thought upon all
scheme for making a good thing of letting rooms
at half-a-crown a week, or would even believe ill
the possibility of many of the half-crowns being
paid at all. The event of a trial, however, has
proved that the poor pay their rent with a punt'
tuality seldom to be found in classes better to
do, and that, if properly managed, there is 14
certain a profit to be made out of Bethnal-green
lodging-houses as out of Belgravian mansions-
To Mr. Peabody we are indebted for the first
illustration, on a large scale, of the fact that in
this particular it is possible to do a positive and
indisputable good without violating sound econo;
mical principles, and that those who are so dispose'
may, at one and the same time, do their duty to
their neighbour and make five per cent. by the
transaction. Still, there is a lingering suspicion 0
a plan bearing so strongly the marks of a beneiro•
lence not usually associated with commercial vim'
tures, and some extraneous aid is still needed to
give stability and permanence to any general scheme
of the sort. That aid is of a nature which can more
properly be given by the State than by any other
means, and it is gratifying to find that the Govern-
ment has determined to give it. The bill intr°-
duced by Mr. Childers provides for granting load,
at a low rate of interest to be employed in the erec-
tion of improved lodging-houses, and it is to be
hoped that it will give just as much assistance as
induce a proper outlay on the part of capitalists'
and so promote a permanent improvement in v.‘"‘T
homes of the working class.