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

dpStint
`lb

OND ON; THURSDAY, FEE, 8, 1866.

It is some sort of satisfaction, at any rate, that
the Government should have laid the Papers re-
lating to the recent proceedings in Jamaica before
the house, because it will afford the members an
opportunity of judging for themselves concerning
the merits of the case, and thus they will not be
losing time in meeting for the completion of the
labours of the Commission. The tone of Mr. CARD-
WELL'S despatches seems to alter a good deal in a
short time, and gradually to change from almost
entire approval to implied censure, and grave
doubts of the wisdom and justice of the policy
pursued by the colonial authorities. The despatch
dated November 19, in which the right lion. gen-
tleman first refers to the calamitous occurrences in
Jamaica, speaks of the gratification that her MA-
JE,SIIO3 GrOVeriltaentfeel iu witnessing the " cleat

and the colony. Colonel FIFE'S letter is - very

strong, and reflects credit upon that officer. He

concludes by saying that in the mutiny in India

British sailors were not called to account for every
life that was taken, and it is only when the " rebel"

happens to be a " negro," and is supported by an

- -
influential party in England in his desire to exter-

minate the white race, that loyalty becomes a

crime, and every rebel finds a reporter and a lawyer
at his elbow.

The opponents of the Malt Tax are determined,
in popular phrase, not to let the grass grow under
their feet, and have now organised an attack upon
the very citadel of the enemy, and have been the
very first to lay their grievances and their require-
ments before the Chancellor of the Exchequer.
Moreover, they did not trust to words alone, but
supported their arguments by practical evidence,
and Mr. BALDIVIN, of Birmingham, trusting to the
logic of facts, produced a bottle of beer which he
had brewed in his own house. Possibly, he thought,
that the physical refreshment might induce the
Chancellor of the Exchequer to listen more favour-
ably to the somewhat lengthened addresses of the
deputation. At any rate upon the Chancellor of
the Exchequer's demand for a corkscrew, like the
grey man in " Peter Schernihl," immediatelyproduced
the required article from his pocket ; and Mr. GLAD-
STONE, after confessing to a prejudice in favour of
Mr. BASS, with great good humour and bonhomnzie,
accepted a glass of " home-brewed," amid the
laughter and cheers of the company. The depu-
tation, which was very strong in point of numbers
and character, and included fifty gentlemen from
various parts of the country, besides several mem-
bers of the House of Commons, among them
being Sir BULWER LYTTON, Lord EUSTACE CECIL,
Colonel NORTH, Mr. SELWYN, Mr. DUCANE, and
Mr. BASS. Colonel NORTH, who introduced the
deputation, said that they were anxious to address
the Chancellor on four points :-Ist. The injustice
to the growers of barley ; 2d. The injury to the
labouring population ; 3d. The question why free
trade should not be applied to malt ; and 4th. The
adverse influence exercised by the malt tax on the
price of meat and the fattening of stock. Different
gentlemen urged each of these several considerations
upon the attention of Mr. GLADSTONE, and their
relative importance naturally varies in town and
country. The latter argument is of especial force
at this moment, when the agricultural interest has
suffered so heavily from the cattle plague. It is
true that Mr. GLADSTONE, never at a loss for a
counter argument, had his answer ready for this
appeal, and declared that if the malt tax tended to
discourage the growth of barley for malting pur-
poses, it must favour the growing of barley for the
feeding of stock. Such, ho wever, does not appear
to be the general opinion of the farmers, who pro-
fessed very little gratitude for Mr. GLADSTONE'S
partial concession relative to the barley used for
stock, and who still urge the removal, or, if not,
the reduction, of the malt tax. Mr. READ, a mem-
ber of the deputation, endeavoured to illustrate the
injustice of the Malt Tax by a personal example.
He grew, he said, last year 220 acres of barley, of
which 20 acres were reserved for seed. The crop,
though rather poor,
f was, on the whole, a sample of
air malting barley. He received for it £1,400, and
the tax he had to pay out of that was £l,OOO. He
was compelled by the Legislature to provide cheap
bread, and all he asked was to have permission to
provide cheap beer. Mr. FIELDEN, another speaker,
entered into the statistics of brewing, and showed
that when the labourer could tako hia gel 9i

We are all familiar with the reply of the over-
tasked " maid of all work," who, when condoled
with the hardship of her lot, replied that fortunately
it was "only for life," her belief in some subse-
quent compensating arrangements being apparently
a sufficient consolation to her. There is, however,
another bargain, which is also " for life," in which
no such compensation exists—we allude to Life
Assurance. There is something absolutely marvel-
lous in the easy unsuspecting way in which many
persons, otherwise shrewd enough, are induced to
pay their premiums, year after year, and entrust
the whole earthly future of their wives and families
to Assurance Companies, of which they absolutely
know nothing. An active agent, a friend, who is
" interested in the office," has spoken to them on the
subject, and, without a word of enquiry, they have
bound themselves to a bargain which is necessarily.
" for life," but in which the other party to the con-
tract is shrouded in darkness.

If you ask him " Did you look well into their
balance-sheet?" the reply is, " Oh, they do not
issue balance-sheets." " Do you know anything of
their management, or their system of business ?"
No, but there are some members of Parliament,
some military and naval officers, and even a
" Lord" on the Board, so that I assume
that is all right." The effects of this blind
confidence may be seen in the fact which
is too little known that within the last 20 years,
while 670 assurance compunies have been projected,
and 321 actually founded, no less than 287 have
ceased to exist.

If " the reason why" of this excessive mortality
among the offices be asked, the answers must in
nearly every case be the same—" Extravagant ex-
penditure and reckless management."
The principles of life assurance are so well under-
stood—its practice and theory harmonize so per-
fectly, that with even ordinary care the dictum of
one of the first actuaries in the kingdom may be
held as infallible, viz : " There can be nothing ap-
proaching the security of a well-managed mutual
life assurance association." But in those words
" well managed" is the petitio principii.
These remarks have been called forth by the
report elsewhere detailed of an institution which
we have for twenty-five years past watched with
considerable interest, and whose annual meetings
have been during that period constantly reported
in our columns ; we allude to the Provident Clerks'
Mutual Life Association, which has just completed
its fifth quinquenniad, and which now exhibits to
its 9,000 members an income of some £63,000 per
annum, and a reserve wanting but little of £300,000.
The perfect simplicity and intelligibility of its
balance sheets (which it was one of the first to
publish and circulate) leave no room for mystifica-
tion. Be the results of the year good or bad they
are there disclosed, and the public at large as well
as the members have the power of judging for
themselves how the office is progressing. In
his memorable speech on the Government
Annuities Bill, Mr. Gladstone referred to the
difficulty of compelling the existing offices to pub-
lish a reliable or intelligible balance-sheet. With
the pattern referred to before him, we do not be-
lieve the difficulty would be found insuperable, and
how much the system would be welcomed by the
offices of standing and character, or how valuable it
would be to intending assurers we need not say.
The operation of the Government Act does not
appear to have interfered with the progress of the
" Provident Clerks," as not only has the office re-
ceived a larger number and amount of proposals
than in any previous year, but the very class of
policies to which the Government office is restricted,
those of £lOO and under, have shown by far the
largest proportion of the increase. It may be that
the presence of so powerful a competitor acted as a
stimulus to their energies; but from whatever cause
we must pay the directors the compliment of saying
that they appear to have found and well understood
the secret of success. There is no class of her
Majesty's subjects, we are informed, who are not
represented among the assurers of the " Provident
Clerks," and if there be any truth in figures, there
is none in which they may assure with greater
safety.

DEATII OF LORD MONTEAGLE.—We regret to
learn that Lord Monteagle expired on Wednesday morning
at his seat, Mount Trenchard, Limerick. Lord INlonteagle's
health had for some time been in a failing state.
INNER TEMPLE READERSHIP.—The Benchers of
the Inner Temple yesterday evening elected the Rev.
Alfred Ainger, late Scholar of Trinity Hal, Cambridge, to
be Ruder of tilt) Wm')lit church.

CORRESPONDENCE PROM PARIS.

(FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.)
PARIS, Wednesday Evening.
Her Majesty's Speech yesterday was transmitted
to Paris yesterday in eleven minutes, five wires being
simultaneously employed in its transmission. By
two o'clock in the afternoon a complete copy was
in the hands of the Minister for Foreign Affairs,
and it was published in the evening papers. They,
however, did not appear till much beyond the usual
hour of publication. The Moniteur has no remarks
upon the document, and it will not be till to-mor-
row that the other Paris newspapers will give their
comments upon it.
Accounts have been received in Paris from
Tamative, dated January 3, which announce the
serious illness of the Queen of Madagascar. In the
fear of a fatal termination of the disorder measures
had been taken for the establishment of a regency
during the minority of her Majesty's adopted son.
At the time of the latest news her Majesty was
better. The amount of the indemnity claimed by
France had been paid.
The Gazette du Midi has an article in reference
to the extraordinary mildness of the winter, and
supplies statistics of the years when the weather was
still more like summer. In 1172, 1289, 1421, and
1527 birds' nests were seen in the trees, which were
in full foliage. In 1538 the flowers were in bloom
in the gardens near Paris, and country excursions
and swimming matches took place. A curious fact
is connected with the winter of 1763. It was very
rigorous throughout France except in the small vil-
lage of Sables d'Olonne (Vendee), and there within
a circle of 20 miles the temperature was high. So
severe was the cold in other parts of France that the
mouth of the Loire was frozen, a very unusual cir-
cumstance. The fact is proved by the testimony of
the learned Condamine, who was at Sables d'Olonne
at the time, and the attention of learned men
was called to it, but they could not discover
the cause of the phenomenon. In 1807, 1822,
and 1853 the winters were mild, but the harvests
were abundant, a circumstance which ought to
allay the fears of agriculturists, who now in France
at least begin to manifest some apprehensions on
the subject.
An amusing work has just appeared, " Les
Theatres en Robe de Chambre," by Messrs. Zveling
Ram Band and E. Coulon, which professes to de-
scribe the domestic habits of the actors of the pre-
sent day. The anecdotes may be more or less true.
As many French and other foreign actors are un-
known to fame in England, I content myself with
a sketch or two relative to the principal ones.
Faure, a leading singer at the Opera, was a chorus
boy at St. Roch. He is decorated with several
Spanish orders. Marot is a first rate billiard
player, and Mario an expert angler. Mario has a
magnificent chateau at Florence, which abounds in
works of taste and art. He has the most valuable
violins in the world. The book tells us that he is
continually beset by an English lady, who is
madly in love with him. Leon Achard, of
the Opera Comique, possessed a large fortune
before he went upon the stage. Battaille, the
bass singer, is remarkable for a terrible appetite,
which enables him to eat an omelette composed of
half a hundred eggs for his breakfast. (Perhaps he
can swallow such a repast more easily than the
reader will swallow the account of it.) Montjauze,
the Rubini of the Theatre Lyrique, is a Knight of
the Order of Isabella of Spain. Paul Deshayes, of
the Theatre du Chatelet, is spoken of as a man
" who dearly loves a joke." Lafont, the eminent
violinist, who is 71 years old, and does not look 40,
has been all over the world. Among the comic
actors are Regnier, one of the authors of " Made-
moiselle de la Sergliere ;" Corquelin, Thiron, who
travelled with Rachel and Lebel and Williams. The
latter played together 3,000 times in the " Pillules
du Diable." Lesnour gave lessons to Prince Metter-
nich, who was studying the part of a Cossack for
a grand amateur performance to be given by Ma-
dame de Castellane. Pradeau is said to be the best
whist player in Paris. Hyacinthe was a hair dresser,
Brasseur is a millionaire, and Priston a watch