The Sun.
London, England, 1866-02-08 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

TIMES.-If a foreigner went on Tuesday to attend
the Opening of Parliament, lie would have witnessed
proceedings which would very much have surprised
him—a Speech from the Throne, delivered in a
splendid hall amid all the associations of feudal
nobility and tradition ; an Address moved and
seconded in each house by gentlemen in Court dress
with the utmost formality and solemnity, in answer
to a Speech touching on events in every quarter of
the globe, from Ireland to New Zealand, and from.
New Zealand to Jamaica, announcing a royal mar-
riage and deploring a royal death, treating of the
relations of the country with Europe and America,
and promising a new Reform Bill. When he had
heard all this he would' find both houses suddenly
turning short round and devoting themselves with
inexpressible readiness and heartiness to a well-
sustained debate on the present disease among horned
cattle. Politics, foreign and domestic, vanished in
a moment, the most disputed topics were left with-
out an attempt at criticism, and the greatest political
assembly in the world seemed for a time to have
resolved itself into an agricultural society or a far-
mers' club. Such a descent from the regions of
high politics to a matter so intensely practical may
appear very surprising to those who believe that
liberty and Constitutional Government consist of
high words and sounding phrases ; who go to Par-
liament with the expectation of hearing something
about the rights of man, or of being enlightened as
to the true means by which order may be con-
ciliated with liberty. But more profound observers
will probably see in this simple and homely devo-
tion to a single object a result, by no means to be
despised, of the long and uninterrupted practice
of constitutional liberty. We have been so long
accustomed to these things that we do not re-
quire to be told about them. We are conscious
that we are masters of our own destinies and
directors of our own affairs, and we show that
consciousness, not by talking about it. but by acting
on it. Of all the subjects opened in a Queen's
Speech of unusual length, and embracing an un-
common variety of topics, there was none requiring
such immediate attention, none calling for such
earnest and pressing despatch, as this domestic topic
of the cattle disease. Everything else might wait.
We have sent a commission to Jamaica, we oan only
very remotely and very imperfectly influence the
war in New Zealand. We have had four or five
Bankruptcy Acts already, and, even supposing. us
to be in a burning hurry for a Reform Bill, a Reform
Bill seems in no kind of hurry for us. The dotation
of a Princess, the death of a King, we can consider
at our leisure, but the Rinderpest awaits no man's
leisure. It goes steadily on its course, doubling the
number which it attacks every month with a regu-
larity which is truly terrible. All men are appalled
at its progress, and nobody pretends for a moment
that he sees the end of the calamity. The discus-
sion in such a case naturally divides itself into two
parts—the retrospective and the prospective. The
house has to consider not only who is to blame for
the past, but what is to be done for the future. It
says much for its practical spirit and sterling good
sense that the discussion was carried on more with
a view to the latter than the former object. The
Governnient, as it seems to us, profited much, and
might have profited more, by the extremity of the
peril and the gigantic scale of the misfortune. At-
tention was so fixed on the possible remedy that at
first, at least, it was little directed to the cause of
the evil. The Government did not escape some
severe reflections, but the whole stress of the first
three hours of the debate consisted of suggestions
for future amendment. The sum of these sugges-
tions may be stated in a very few words. It con-
sisted, in the first place, of urgent demands that the
Government should do what has so often been ad-
vocated in these columns—that it should take the
matter into its own hands, and supersede at a single
blow the inconsistent, perplexing, and inadequate
operation of local authorities. The second demand
was, in various forms, the establishment by act of
Parliament, and therefore in a compulsory form,
of a plan somewhat similar to that which has met
with a checkered, but upon the whole a considerable
success, in the county of Aberdeen. The speeches
in which this was advocated showed a very con-
siderable knowledge of the subject, and were de-
livered with an earnestness which evidently came
from deep conviction; and so the debate proceeded
until it came to the turn of the Government to give
an explanation of its intentions on the subject. It
then appeared that on the first branch of the de-
mand the Government had not the least intention
of giving way, and that whatever be the causes
which induced the Home Secretary to leave every-
thing to local authorities, whether a dislike of re-
sponsibility
or a prejudice in favour of local self-
government, he is not prepared to yield to remons-
trance. Such an opinion entertained by so high an
authority as Sir G. Grey is entitled to the utmost
respect, and yet we are very unwilling to believe
that his views on this subject are fixed and irrevoc-
able. Every day as it passes increases our know-
ledge of the discrepancies, anomalies, and inconve-
niences which surround the local system. Every
day teaches us more forcibly the extreme peril in
which we stand, and paints the future that awaits
us in blacker colours. To-day takes what has been
spared yesterday, and the remainder is swept off by
the rapacity of to-morrow. We can hardly believe
that measures imperatively required for the safety
of the whole country will be permitted much longer
to be regulated by the caprice or interest of local
bodies, many of which look to nothing beyond their
own interest, and that interest regarded from the
narrowest and most shortsighted point of view. The
refusal to entertain this question of direct Govern-
ment action seems to have turned the tide of debate
into another channel. From the moment the
Government began to defend itself it be-
came 'the object of accusation. It is
im-
possible to say, after every allowance has been
made, that this was not in a considerable measure
deserved. The rinderpest chose its opportunity
well for effecting a firm lodgment on these shores.
It came, or rather, to speak more correctly, its pre-
sence became knoWn just in the heat of a general
election, and it began to spread when our over-
worked officials, thoroughly wearied out by the
office, the house, and the hustings, were seeking
that repose which it was impossible to say they had
not deserved. In the very midst of the delibera-
tions of the Cattle Plague Commission the death of
Lord Palmerston occurred, and for some time after-
wards the Government was engaged in the labour of
reconstruction. If the Government did nothing to
enlighten public opinion, public opinion, we must
confess, did as little to enlighten the Government.
The magnitude of the evil was not understood, and
any attempt at a stringent remedy would doubtless
have been opposed by those very clals who were
destined to be the chief sufferers. Still, when all
these allowances have been made, there remains a
residue to blame, which different persons will esti-
mate according to their' temperament and disposi-
tion, and which remains to be borne by the Govern-
ment. They were slow in °acquainting themselves
with the true nature of the evil—they were slow in
applying remedies—and, so far from risking any-
thing by going before, they have unquestionably
fallen behind public opinion. Parliament seems to
have very wisely deferred any further consideration
of the conduct of the Government until they seethe
measure that is to be produced next Monday.
Should that measure be unsatisfactory, it is very
unlikely that a question exciting such deep and
universal interest will be allowed to rest there.
Even should the proposed measure be satisfactory,
it is very doubtful whether it will be accepted as a
settlement, unless coupled with some assurance that
it is the intention of Government to reconsider its
present unsatisfactory policy of leaving everything
to local bodies, and to apply a general remedy to
an evil that presses uniformally upon all. We
hope that the interval for deliberation which is
afforded by the announced transition of debate
to other topics will be wisely employed by Minis-
ters, and that they will not provoke a too
curious retrospect into past errors by a refusal
to grapple with a most formidable and im-
minent danger. In the representations of the
country gentlemen on Tuesday evening was to be
traced scarcely a vestige of party spirit. They felt
too much their present difficulty to turn it to any
political account. They wish, we doubt not, the
continuance of the present Government in office,
if for no other or better reason, for the sake of
avoiding an interregnum, during which no legisla-
tion can take place and no regulations can be made,
but during which the plague will not intermit for a
moment its steady and destructive progress. But
if they were once persuaded that the only way to
really efficient measures lies through a change of
Government, we cannot doubt that the excitement
and energy which now flow in one stream would
speedily be turned into another ; and if the admi-
nistration will not do all in its power to destroy the
rinderpest, the rinderpest will be found a very
serious obstacle to the stability of the administra-
tion.

POST.—The preliminary meeting of guardians of
metropolitan unions recently held at Dr. Brewer's
will not be without its influence in giving pre-
cision to the working of the Houseless Poor Act.
Few will have perused the report of that meeting
in the newspapers of Monday without having been
constrained to own that the conclave of metropoli-
tan guardians placed in evidence certain difficulties
relative to the administration of the act which,
before that elucidation, were not generally appa-
rent. Nothing is more simple than the proposition
affirmed by the Houseless Poor Act—namely, that
no vice, no crime, or misdemeanour ought to bepun-
ished by starvation. This is the simple proposition,
and to it no individual will dare, in the abstract, to
lodge dissent ; but, in giving effect to it, certain dif-

ficulties have been experienced—difficulties wilieh
are the cause of annoyance and irritation to guar-
dians of the poor. Consideration of these points of
dissatisfaction is, we are ready to admit, a matter of
importance ; but the question, after all, to be kept
in view is, whether the main object of the Houseless
Poor Act has been secured—is it the necessary fate
of any wandering pauper who may find himself
homeless in the metropolis to starve unhoused in
the streets, as it frequently was before the passing
of this:act? On this point there is happily no doubt.
The reply is an emphatic negative; even the outcry
against the abuses of this piece of social legislation
suffices to prove it. In its main intent therefore
the act must be spoken of as successful, and if in
the mind of anybody the expectation was ever raised
that every minute detail and working of the act
should have been provided for from the first, then
all we can say is, the expectation was not oirte war-
ranted by the history of any previous social act of
Parliament. Reviewing some of the major difficul-
ties that have been experienced in giving effect to
the Houseless Poor Act, the finger may be laid Oa
one, at least, that a little foresight on the part of
guardians themselves might have avoided. Even to'
the most stolid apprehension the case is plain that a.
uniform dietary and a uniform equivalent of task.
work should have been agreed upon by the entire:
conclave of metropolitan guardians so soon as the
provisions of the act came into force. Casual paupers
are not fools, and the criminal lot of them have more,
than the average endowment of acuteness. With
the choice before them of being housed and fed at
the expense of any particular metropolitan work-
house at will, they would obviously bestow their
company on those establishments which had acquired
greatest notoriety for comfortable beds and appe-
tising victuals. It was more than to have been ex-
pected—it might have been predicted—that the me-
tropolitan unions best in repute would be, night
after night, most thronged ; and, if certain unions
have had undue pressure laid on their resources in
this way, the fault rests with the general body of
guardians. Notwithstanding a recent amateur dis-
closure of casual hospitality, we are quite sure that
the public are not disposed to reflect unfairly on the
general body of metropolitan guardians. We alto-
gether demur to Dr. Brewer's statement that they
were subjected to more than ignominious treat-
ment and misrepresentation ; neither do we con-
cur in his view that the promoters of the House-
less Poor Act appeared to have little confidence
in it. Such points of misstatements as have
come under our notice have been alleged in good
faith ; and to the general conclave of metropolitan
guardians they imply no ignominy. The case simply
stated is that the sense of common humanity of the
British people—happily not extinct, or even dor-
mant--had insisted, and will continue to insist,
that no casual pauper—albeit a criminal—shall be
punished by starvation. Although recognised diffi-
culties in giving fair and full effect to the working
of the Act do exist, yet they they are mostly such
as in our opinion can be remedied ab interno by
mutual agreement and co-operation amongst the
metropolitan guardians themselves. The chief—if
not the only--difficulty to be met ab externo is one
to which we have already called attention. It
originates in the superiority of board and lodging
in prisons over the board and lodging of workhouses.
The concession must be freely made that unions
will be unduly taxed with the charge of casuals so
long as this absurd and, we will add, unjust distinc-
tion in favour of prison life remains. In this country
no change comes about, or is sought to be effected
suddenly, without preparation. Tho more than
comfort, the luxur7 of English prison life, is the
result of an overwrought and ill-directed philan-
thropy fast waning, since it has been found to be
injudicious. All who note the prevalence of public
sentiments, the heralds of events, must feel assured
that the time is not far distant when casual male-
factors will not elect the prison as an agreeable
house of refuge. In the course of the discussion
on Saturday evening, a casual's own suggestion, as
enunciated by Dr. Brewer, merits more than
passing attention. The advice contained in it
would assuredly put a stop to the abuse, now s°
frequently complained of, that food and lodging
having been given, the recipient cannot be obliged
to render an equivalent of work. The casual's
suggestion is that no vagrant should be admitted
later than five p.m., and then made to work till
dark •, not before he had been fed, it seems, but be-
fore he had taken up his night's quarters. Although
the idea is suggestive of a certain degree of cruelty,
yet it involves a countervailing element of benevo-
lence ; for whilst, on the one hand, it may seeni,
harsh to force work upon a casual already worn and
tired, yet the proposed arrangement, if carried into
effect, would leave the whole of the next day clear
for remunerative out-of-door labour. A further
advantage from its adoption would be the following
—The law makes it imcumbent on the guardians 0;
a union to find quarters for casuals in some certified
lodging-house, if the union casual wards should hap-
pen to be full. The question therefore arises ho't
—by the force of what discipline—refractory casuals
lodged out of doors can be brought back within the,
union walls, to perform their quantum of task work
In adverting to the management of casual wards by
the police, we take exception to the utterance of Dr.
Brewer, that the police could not discriminate, for.
any practical purpose, because the Act rendered
discrimination unlawful. Active discrimination, in-
deed, the police cannot exercise, and for the reas°ll,
alleged ; but their passive influence is great, and n°'
to be disputed. If a criminal vagrant presents hie;
self for admission, he must of course be admitted;
but the presumption is that a large number of cell;
minal vagrants would not present themselves 1°:
fear of being laid hold of on criminal charges"
Evidence, indeed, seems to be conclusive on the
point, as gathered from the testimony of the reasT:
and guardians of every union to which the expert"
rent of police regime has been applied.