The Sun.
London, England, 1866-12-19 00:00:00

If this be German unity it is a new reading of the
term, and one that the wise will not admire nor the
independent respect, as the interpreters will find
to their cost. A more complete system of trickery
and deceit was never witnessed than that now ex-
hibited in Prussia, and yet forsooth it has found its
admirers and upholders in many quarters, but the
end of the work is not yet plainly visible.

The return of ithe Registrar-General, for the
week ending last Saturday, is on the w hole very
favourable. The mortality was less by 80 than the
average number, so that the public health is in a
satisfactory condition. We have its y;:t had no ex-
treme cold, and the milder weather spares many
who succumb to the stern rule of Kin... Frost. Per-
haps it is due to the mildness of the season that the
epidemic still lingers among us in some parts, show-
ing itself here and there, mostly among the young,
and in low, unhealthy districts. Two deaths
from cholera, and twenty-five from diarrhea,
occurred in the week, the two first tak-
ing place at Woolwich and Bethnal-green.
" Isolated cases," says the Registrar-General, "still
demand the vigilant attention of the authorities,"
and we trust that the fact of the dreaded disease still
showing itself so late in the year will serve to keep
up that vigilant watchfulness which is so very apt to
sleep as soon as the danger is supposed to be over."
The secret of the success of London in controlling
an epidemic so fatal on the Continent is believed
by the Registrar to be easily explained. " The
supply of impure water was at once arrested ; the
water engineers grew careful; the sewage was now less
inefficient than it had ever been before South London
was drained ; the health officers became vigilant ;
premonitory diarrhoea was treated ; every case as it
occurred was published to the world, and the cholera
excreta were destroyed by carbolic acid and other
disinfectants." Great credit was, undoubtedly, due
to the Mansion-house Committee, whose wisely
organised system of relief encouraged the local com-
mittees to examine personally into the condition of
the suffering poor. The liberality of the public
subscriptions enabled those gentlemen to relieve
promptly and liberally those cases of urgent dis-
tress which, unattended to, would infallibly
have swelled the list of deaths, while the
several convalescent institutions set on foot by the
benevolence and self-denying exertions of private
individuals were so instrumental in saving a great
number of lives, and in restoring to sound health
many whose enfeebled condition could scarcely have
resisted a return to the area of the epidemic.

I Englishmen and women are never wanting in
sympathy and helpfulness towards their suffering
fellows, and, unfortunately, there have of
late been continual claims upon their assis-
tance. In reading the report of the Registrar-
General of the deaths throughout England for the
week, we can scarcely fail to rememlaer how large
a number of lives have been sacrificed in that week
who are not recorded in the list before us. The
terrible disasters in Yorkshire and Staffordshire, un-
paralleled as they are in the list of such calamities,
call upon all forcibly at this Christmhs season to
do whatever lays in their power to mitigate the
disaster which they have occasioned. As the
Archbishop of York yesterday observed iu his im-
pressive address to the local meeting, " All that they
could do might fail to stanch the tears of the widows
and orphans, or reinstate the village he had that
day passed through in happiness and enjoyment as
it was a few days ago. Still, whatever consolation
arose from sympathy of man with man--whatever
consolation arose from the knowledge that starva-
tion had been warded off from the door—such con-
solation it would be their duty to afford, and he was
sure all would be willing and glad to give it."
Already the subscriptions have amounted to a con-

siderable sum, and they wiil no doubt continue to
flow in with liberality. The Prince and
Princess of WALES were among the foremost

of the subscribers, and her MAJESTY,

as was previously stated, has readily helped the
funds. No doubt ample provision will be made not
only for the immediate distress, but for the provi-
sion of those aged persons and young children de-
prived of all means of support by the deaths of their
relatives in the mine.

There has been much talk of late*years about the
deficiencies of our national representation, and almost
every class can find advocates for the neglected or
insufficiently appreciated claims of its members.
Mr. HOWE, of Nova Scotia, in his recent pamphlet*
on the Organization of the Empire, brings forward
another proposal, and would admit to the English
House of Commons representatives from those
colonies which have L?gislatures of their own, and
where the system of responsible government is in
operation. lie would not permit such members to
be
chosen haphazard, but would have them taken
from their
Cabinets, each self-governing colony
one or more members according to its size,
population, and general importance. He holds that
the millions who are influenced by British legisla-
tion, and who may at any moment be drawn into a
war by the action of the English Parliament, and
would therefore allow them to send thither men who
may fairly be taken as representing the opinions of
disputed, another
The originality of
the majority of the population.
aart similarof the
this proposal hra_sillobemesns recently disputed,
of
the Inner
rgreenmt pl el
I 1 , an,
nc
claiming to
ahgaov. e
Ipur prod
up o
that
te
scheme many years
question, however, we need not at present enter;
merely examining Mr. 110 WE'S arguments from his
own point of view.
sucham epothloidti'cws,obueld.
lie is of opinion that
have a beneficial effect upon colonial
cause in all broad questions—such tenureasthemaories in
of
land in Australia, the relations with the
New Zealand, the confederation scheme
i‘e in
British American provinces—the colonial
linisttehrse
would have to explain their policy to impartial and
highly competent judges. "No man," he says,
" would come here with a bad case;
and, if he did,
no wise man would persist in a line of policy
which
had been patiently reviewed and condemned by the
House of Commons in his own presence after a fair
discussion, in which he had been heard at large."
lle does not think it likely that all the self-govern-
ing colonies would send these members when they
had no special grievance to discuss or policy to re-
present, but the knowledge that they had the right
to send them, not only to discuss local questions, but
to take part in the great debates on issues of peace or
war, would, he thinks, add a new element of
strength and cohesion to the empire. As for the
doubts which some entertain respecting the atti-
tude which these colonial gentlemen would
assume on purely British questions Mr. Howl:
does not apprehend any needless interference on
I their part. Still less does he believe that they
would combine and form an embarrassing element
in the 'louse of Commons, since they would repre-
sent such widely various populations, and such
different interests, that they would know very little
of each other's affairs. They would bring with
them accurate information on colonial matters, and
supply the House of Commons . t first hand
with statistics and facts now only attainable in

* " The Organization of tho Empire." By the lion.
Joseph Howe. Stanford.