The Sun.
London, England, 1866-10-17 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF T

'HE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

TIMES.---This visit of more than a thousand of
our Volunteers to the Belgian capital, and the splen-
did reception given to them, are incidents so pleasant
and natural that it is strange they should be novel.
We are now boasting a universal brotherhood of
nations ; a universal humanity ; universal principles
of free trade, philanthropy, independence, and self-
government ; and, of course, a universal science and
art. Governments are established, if not on these
maxims, yet admitting and comprehending them.
So why should there not be interchanges of national
hospitality, besides the international Exhibitions
once in ten years—besides the miscellaneous and
aimless excursion train—besides the vagrant crowd
of summer tourists, moving in a current of its own,
and communicating only with people of its own
nation ? Upon dny principles whatever worthy to
be called principles, we ought to hail any return to
that freer intercourse of nations that we read of in
history. It is true there is no longer one religious
communion, one metropolis of the Church, or one
language spoken by all learned men. The Crusade
no longer takes myriads through Europe, and pil-
grimages are confined to certain classes and locali-
ties. This would account for the Englishman not
only retaining, but even increasing, his old insular
character. Commerce, it is true, leads to a certain
degree of intercourse for certain purposes. But it
cannot be denied that the Englishman generally has
very little to say to any foreigner, or the foreigner
to him ; and, from want of habit, the very topics
on which they might " fraternize " are only touched
on to become bars of separation. Our clergy and
our lawyers are utterly alien to those of any other
country. Our diplomatists are a peculiar class, and
socially a caste. There is, then, a want, which it
may take ages to satisfy, but which it is something
to feel and recognise. The feeling finds its vent where
it can, and one of the first results of the Volunteer
movement has been to discover chat a few hundred
men can go as well to a neighbouring capital as they can
to Brighton, and that, while a run to the coast is
only a day's outing, there is a much higher meaning
in the international visit. There is something really
expressed and actually done in it. When our
Volunteers find themselves enthusiastically received
and magnificently feted by the authorities of a
foreign capital and by brothers in arms, and when
they find themselves taking part in the national
trials of skill, they must feel that it is a matter of
European and world-wide import. They have not
taken their uniform, submitted to drill and parade,
and devoted precious time to the irksome toil simply
and solely to be prepared to defend our shores and
cities from the supposed invader, when he comes.
They are taking a part in the history of the world,
and defending not only a country, but principles
and a cause. This, too is the ground on. which
they are exchanging .civilities and pledges with their
foreign hosts. Our Volunteers, it seems, were taken
by surprise. " They had no idea it would be this
sort of thing," and that they were to be welcomed
at once as important personages and bosom friends.
They had hoped to make a passable display, just to
pass muster, to see as well as be seen, and to re-
ceive indulgence, if not kindness. They find them-
selves, on the contrary, the heroes of a city, of a
populace, of a nation, of an army, of a Court, each
vying for precedence in giving them due honour.
When they are released from the review they are
seized one by one and carried about the city by
volunteer interpreters, whose success, we hope,
has been equal to their kindness. But, in the midst
of an ovation which modesty already suggests to be
hardly deserved, there occurs the painful thought
that it is impossible to make a return. There is
every possible difficulty in the bare imagination of
such a thing. There is not even any equivalent
force to that of our Volunteers. Could that difficulty
be got over, and could there be found or created a
proper representation of Belgian patriotism to make
the return visit, then the heart sickens at the bare
idea of London being its scene. Our Court, our Go-
vernment, our Horse Guards, and our "City" move
too much in ways of their own for us ever to hope
that they will join so harmoniously to entertain or
to review the foreign visitors. "Where are the festi-
vities to be given that shall adequately return those
described in the " historic halls" where was heard
afar the first cannon of Waterloo ? Even Hyde
Park, or the Parade in St. James's, would not bear
comparison, for the purpose, with the Park at Brus-
sels, where, on an elevated site and under a clear
sky, are combined a deep grove with broad prome-
nades, surrounded by spacious thoroughfares and
magnificent public buildings. We do, indeed, pity
from our hearts the chiefs of this expedition if they
hold themselves bound to make an adequate return,
and are racking their invention for place, means,
persons, and things. We presume there is a way to
do it, but we don't see it yet; and when it comes,
the most moderate success will be a fargreater triumph
than the British progress to Brussels. But such an
occasion, we have observed, must open the eyes and
the heart of the Volunteer to something beyond the
safety of his own shores. It suggests that the politi-
cal position of a country must ever depend very much
indeed on the temper and resolution of the people
themselves. Even if a comparatively small people
are resolved to be independent, and to prefer an
honourable independence to any advantages they
might gain by- a truckling policy or by avoiding
sacrifices, they stand a fair chance of success. It is
quite unnecessary to regard Belgium 'as the most
apposite instance of this moral, for the truth is Eng-
land herself is quite as apposite. In the face of a
good many conquests recorded by history, it is ridi-
culous to maintain that England is a difficult coun-
try to invade and to conquer. The difficulty, or
rather the impossibility, consists in the fact that the
English are ready to fight to the last in defence of
their soil ; that they show this by a large army and
e maintaineddie wanted,
ith out
and conscription,
byalarge
ftlrieliet leaf
navyeasi lyemb d when
Volunteers. The world knows that whoever invades
these isles or challenges Os on any other ground will at
least have to pay man for man, and sacrifices far be-
yond common treasuries. Every people that is resolved
to have life for life, and only to be conquered at a
cost utterly beyond the worth of the acquisition, is
practically safe. This is our safety. It has for
many years been a greater security than the Alpine
passes for the independence of Switzerland, and it
is the best security of the Belgians. In private life,
the powerful and the aggressive abstain from en-
counters and quarrels with smaller and weaker men,
if they know that, whatever the chance of final suc-
cess, they would have to suffer a long interval of
pain, misery, and disquiet. Nobody would like a
festering sore in his side, even if be were sure that
it would one day be healed by the slow extinction
of the cause. Of course, that is not an agreeable
prospect for the weakeemembers of either the public
or the private community ; but, if we understand
rightly such detnonstrations as the visit of our
Volunteers to Brussels, the two peoples concerned
in it are prepared for the stakes. They are resolved
to be independent or to die, for it is this, and not
the mere form of a Constitution or a Government,
that makes a nation and a people.
HERALD.—The ancient saying that half the world
knows not how the .other half lives is likely to be
quoted a good many times before we are tired of its
practical wisdom. And not that only, but also the
other proverb, which Consoles us with an assurance
that rogues are generally fools. In every great and
populous city, of course, where riches seem to burst
through the walls and windows into the streets,
there are birds of prey, more or less organised into
communities, whose lives are obscure, who exist in
the light of dark lanterns, whose ostensible voca-
tions only serve to conceal the actual nature of their
dealings. It has been a favourite artifice of romance
writers of the lower order to depict the haunts and
homes of felons, and especially of those master
criminals, the receivers of stolen goods, whose cellars
and attics are full of wealth, whose shipments to the
colonies are vast, who buy property at a tenth of its
value, whose furnaces burn by day and by night, and
who keep the thieves poor while they fatten :upon
their guilt. We have no desire to prejudge the charge
against Mr. Moses Moses, of Houndsditch, who is
under remand for having in his possession an ex-
traordinary number of articles, evidently pilfered,
but his character is not one to be damaged, since le' has been a convict and a ticket-of-leave man, so
that any particular tenderness about his personal
feelings might be wasted. He appears, however, in
addition to being a " fence," to be a simpleton also.
A mouse might as well have invited a cat upon a
visit, as he to have solicited an inspection of his pre-
mises by a City detective. Having accused two men,
now discharged from custody, of robbing him, he
allowed the officers to examine his premises in Black-
horse-yard, Aldgate, and there they hit upon the
secret of a great local mystery. The dwelling had
a squalid exterior ; but within it was a small Palace
of Aladdin. A trinket dropped upon the floor; then
were discovered gold brooches, ear-rings, and lockets
in profusion. Next, behind tons of rags, holes in
walls, niches of brickwork, a massive service of sil-
ver plate, and Mr. Moses Moses had brought the
police, by his own act and deed, within scent of this
damnifying discovery ! Valuable widths of Brus-
sels carpets, sets of new harness, saddles of the cost-
liest description, gold watches and chains of recent
make, and other valuables, turned up as if by sur-
prise, and the lucky officers thought that they might
as well get an inkling of what was at their prisoner's
private residence. Thither, accordingly, they pro-
ceeded. It was a perfect treasury. There were gold
watches, chains, necklets, bracelets, studs, bales of
costly cloth, ivory tusks, sets of chessmen—enough
to load eight cabs. It will be remembered that, a
few weeks ago, a similar den was discovered, like-
wise accidentally, in the Waterloo-road. We won-
der how many of them remain undetected. It is a
disagreeable fact that in both instances the exposure
has been due less to police supervision than to for-

tuitous circumstances. If the thieves of London had
not these markets ready at hand wherein to trade
the constant danger to property would be far less
serious. They themselves incur all possible risks;
they are vigilantly watched ; they are followed and
tracked, and have no longer a class of men to deal
with who can " wink hard" for a bribe. Yet their
industry flourishes ; and although the malefactors
generally linger out miserable lives upon precarious
gains, which are reduced to nullities in the course
of their bargains with the receivers, these latter
amass fortunes, and contribute only in a slight pre'
portion to the number of convictions at the session&
It was calculated by Mr. Colquhoun that a million
and a half's worth of property is:stolen in London
every year, and that there are 3,000 professional
receivers, not to speak of rogues in the pawnbrok-
ing trade. We must always accept such estimatel
with reserve. They are difficult to arrive at and
impossible to substantiate. Still, they at least sur
gest the amount of crime perpetrated—and they do
more. They point to the extreme perplexity which
must beset the police when they endeavour to trael,
the disposal of stolen goods. Plate can be melted ;
trade marks can be obliterated ; the numbers 00
watchcases can be effaced; and, as a rule, these
accumulations of valuables are periodically exported
to the colonies. How irksome the task of watching
where every stolen article goes. We have about
7,000 police in the metropolis to -keep guard over
about half a million of houses. Say what we "iv,ll
they cannot be turning on the bull's eight light 1).
~h
ever over a hundred square miles of densely-buuy
territory, upon 8,000 reputed thieves, and nobody
knows how many thieves' agents, upon every door
and window of every alley, street, and square for
15 miles in a circle around Charing-cross. D 1,01
true that they often get a hint and a scent, O.:
mark a special locality with a suspicion, and tin'
reach to the bottom of a criminal mystery ; butthei
would be more frequently baffled than they are were
it not for the spontaneousco-operation of the publi;
of servants, of children, and, in a peculiar degree, of
cabmen. How else could they, under the best de-
vised system, understand the character of every
,
house in dense city labyrinths, in long reticulate
suburban lanes, in lonely and in crowded neigh-
bourhoods, where things wear an aspect of WOO
which may turn out to signify nothing, or where
they seem so aboveboard as to delude the most
critical nature ? What becomes of all the stole"
bank notes? They are stopped, and nove,r:e
theless they are turned into money on t_t,
Continent and in America. The traffic has low'
elevated into a regular system. What of the en"r:i
mous quantity of silks and other fabrics purloin
from vans and carts loading or unloading in the Citlt,
,The houses of Mr. Moses Moses, in Houndsditeki:
and Gravel-lane, enlighten us a little on this sublet
But the important fact is that the police, while
men tbv
know the, thieves do not known the receivers. They
can pick out the they suspect of being concern;
in robberies, and oftener than not are right ; it, of
comparatively rare, however, that they lay h01a.,0,
Fagin, who trains the young criminal, or limulef
who buys, as an egregious bargain, the produ.esAe,
his felony. We cannot but think that here is a,°io
partment of police busineSs which has, to a oeriaear
extent, been neglected, and the remark may apP of
justifiable if we remember how seldom the offieell!.,a
justice strike upon the right trail to the caverns an
dens of metropolitan brigandage. In former 3re!`,.;
nothing was more difficult than to ensure a convicti",,,
against the miscreants who bought bandanas of Yore;
pickpockets in Field-lane. They flaunted their 5t0,1„.0.
stock in the light of day and defied investigetly,
And, in our own days, does any one believe ths;cl
gold-dust, bank, or jewellery burglary is perpetra,,,6
without a clear scheme being laid beforehand of the
way in which the plunder is to be disposed of, 01 Ltbe
crucible for the melting of gold and silver, and,,?
workmen who are to " re-christen " the wateur..
Many a boat steals by night down the Thames, e,
tween the bridges, carrying freights of theft to war
houses perfectly well known to the moonlight
ternity, and many a market cart of simply iun"u
appearance is conveying, under mountains Of 04
bage and carrots, such treasures as Mr. Silas NT 'lt
expected to find in Mr. Boffin's dustheap• the
would be unreasonable and unjust to blame,,;ie,
constabulary, who cannot be expected to on', t,
although it is their professional duty to atternr`..so
all other men in vigilance and subtlety ;
f"
of
habitual crime is in itself a profession, is is
secrets and surprises, has a language of its ow"tle,
for ever studying new devices, is devious and de
rous beyond conception, commands an organis3,t'io
as,
of the most complicated character, has its agenlas
and, if we may so express it, its police, andipto,
trained itself into a dark, elaborate, stealthy sYs;:so,
which may well be expected to defeat, more or et
the efforts of the best-trained detective body.
when a discovery is made, then we look for the 'e;
plication of that principle of the law which declare
that the receiver is worse than the thief—w° be
since he is the instigator, the schoolmaster, of
tempter of the criminal, who enjoys four-fiftbsss.ho
his wicked gains, who has him in his power, Dial
makes a slave of him, who goads and drives
tto,t
from one act of guilt to another. It is no easy hero
to ferret out these scoundrels in their haunts, w„c.e,
they live in such confidence as to invite the insir„p
tion of City detectives ; yet,
when they do °lt to
themselves, in the interest of society they oug
be memorable examples.