The Sun.
London, England, 1866-10-18 00:00:00

laws, and to have no share in the making of those i
laws, why those men would be at once dethroned
from being the ostensible leaders of a great nation.,
and would themselves, incompetent as they are,
have to descend even to the works of common
labour which they now despise." This is very idle
reasoning, ' and it might as well be asked what would
become of those who labour all their employers,
and the wealth they have if
, were swept away.
Mr. BRIGHT is always throwing out hints, and ask-
ing, as he did yesterday, " whether it be right, and
whether it be safe," for the Tory party to say this
and that respecting the people ; but it might be re-
torted on him, if it be right for him to keep asking
these questions. If there be such glaring injustice
done, let him confine his remarks to things, and not
extend his rancorous observations to persons.
Mr. BRIGHT thinks that it is his duty to aid in the
abolition of a greater monopoly than that of the
tax on food, which some years engaged his efforts,
and he is resolved not to rest till he has put down
again the " stupid and ignorant monopoly of
the landowners." Mr. DALGLISH, M.P., proved
himself to be no sincere friend to the cause of Re-
form, because he alluded to the probability of the
present Government bringing in a Reform Bill next
Session, and " warned the people to be on their
guard how they credit it, feeling convinced it
would not be introduced with sincerity or from a
sense of justice, but simply extracted by fear." If
this is to be the policy of those who are urging on
the people to make demonstrations in favour of
Reform, we can tell them beforehand that it is a
very base and unworthy one, and Mr. BRIGHT
had better reflect before he adopts again the con-
temptible course he pursued in 1859. He will only
draw down upon himself the contempt of all really
honest Reformers, and expose the insincerity of his
own feelings. A great national work, that affects
the interests of a mighty nation, should not be
profaned by the admixture of mean motives ; but
if Mr. BRIGHT will not allow Reform to be carried
unless he can fulfil his desire of exterminating his
opponents, and dealing a deadly blow at the
higher classes, we must consider him as a most
mischievous agitator, who takes advantage of his
opportunities to act unfairly, and in the end he
will most assuredly forfeit the respect of those
whom he professes to serve with so much zeal and
,ur.

ardor

Men are proverbially inclined to delay any

necessary practical reform which has not the excite-
ment of political partisanship to recommend it, or
does not press sharply and heavily upon themselves.
The English have long been noted for the lazy
patience with which they endure undoubted griev-
ances notwithstanding their energy and enterprise

in some directions. Such indifference and laissez
faire are all very well with regard to petty
annoyances, or even where some of our own

social difficulties are concerned, but there are
occasions on which the consequences are

disastrous.

Sometimes a long course of delay

and neglect is followed by a startling catastrophe.
Persistent disregard of the sanitary condition of the
poor in our eastern parishes was succeeded by that
terrible outbreak of cholera which startled the whole
community early this autumn. In the same way,
although the calamity is on a far larger scale, the
chronic indifference of our Anglo-Indian authorities
to the great needs of the country under their con-
trol—irrigation and means of transit—has been
followed by the fearful famine which is now deso-
lating Arissa and its neighbourhood, and which is
bringing in its train a host of attendant evils.

The accounts which reached us by the last mail
pears to =VC actea 'wisely Ina' pfbmptly oy tele-
graphing full authority to the Governor-General to

make an immediate advance from the Government
funds. But the evil has reached a height which the
greatest exertions can hardly control for a time,
and, as had been all along feared, the pestilence is
showing itself iu its track. Cholera has broken out
in several of the most affected districts, and has
found the wretched population only too ready to
succumb to its attacks. In such a state of things,
which they have little reason to hope will
speedily mend, it is no great wonder that
we hear that vice and crime are prevalent, that

plunder and robbery are growing common, and
that in parts of Bengal parents are selling their
children, to be spared the anguish of seeing them

starve. This is a terrible picture, but there is, un-
happily, no reason to believe it is overdrawn.
Famine is an enemy already too familiar to many
of the Indian districts, and its features are generally
the same, varying only in intensity with the extent
of the misfortune. The famine this year, despite
all improvements, is a very severe one, and
the worst of it is that no immediate relief
is anticipated. The Chairman of the Relief Fund
in Calcutta, in his recent telegram to the Viceroy
at Simla, relative to the severity of the distress in
Arissa, and parts of Bengal, stated that it was
likely to continue for several months.
The most painful part of the business is that the
prevailing misery might have been so much lessened
by foresight and timely exertion. This is surely a
case in which prevention is a hundredfold better
than cure. It is far easier for a Government to
be wise in time, to lay in stores, to provide em-
ployment on public works with attendant depots of
food, and to organise an efficient system of relief
at the commencement of a famine than to grapple
with it at its height, when pestilence, and crime,
and discontent have added to its terror. If, on
the first mutterings of the distant storm, efficient
efforts had been made the sufferings of the people
might have been greatly mitigated, and thousands
of lives might have been spared. Famine is not a
disaster which can take us by surprise. It is not like
a pestilence which may suddenly break out in apopu-
lous district ; not like a typhoon or an inundation,
or an earthquake or a volcanic eruption, which
might find the wisest unprepared. The national
supply
of food cannot fall short without warning,
and in a country like India, with its vast and helpless
population, and its deficiency in the means of com-
munication, the first indication of danger should

arouse the authorities to action.
the lamentable loss of
independently of
life, the damage done to the prestige of the
Government is a very serious thing. A
to have everything done
people, accustomed
for them, murmur, because their rulers can-
not find them food, and the worst of it is that they
have real ground for complaint. It would be most
unfair to any one individual to lay the blame on
his shoulders ; but the malcontents in India do
not scruple to select objects for their censures. It is
a noticeable fact that the Indian press, usually so
subservient to those in power, is unsparing in its
indignant denunciation of those in authority.
themame publishes a letter from a Bengal,
in the districts, which is reprinted in
the Bengal llurkaru for the benefit of
English readers. The writer gives an account of
what he has himself witnessed in the vicinity of
of Arissa, and speaks very strongly of the neglect
of the local government. Had there, he says, been half
as much care taken to save life in India as was taken
to preserve the cattle in England during the cattle
plague hundreds might have been saved.
"
are a conquered people, and our lives are of less
Talus than the lives of the cows, goats, pad6heep