The Sun.
London, England, 1857-06-10 00:00:00

LONDON, WEDNESDAY, JUNE 10, 1857.

Foremost among all the Orders of the Day in
the House of Commons for this present date,
Mercurii, 10`) die Junii, 1857, there appears (as
if satirically) this astounding announcement :
"a 1. Sale of Beer Bill ;---Second Reading."
We doubt it very much. "A 1?" We never
should have supposed it. Even now, although it
lies before us printed formally, in very legible
characters, upon Parliamentary Paper No. 20,
folio 397—we remain obdurately incredulous.
We don't believe it—aty more than PAUL Dom-
BEY believed Mrs. PIPCHIN'S bugaboo story about
the Mad Bull who devoured the Little Boy who
asked Questions. And, as if in timely justifica-
tion of our unbelief, there appears a little further
down upon the same page—not among the Orders
of the Day, but underneath those Orders of the
Day, so preposterously headed by Mr. HARDY'S
Folly, his Hobby, his Fancy, his "Beer Bid "
(really, in Parliamentary slang, his Beer
Bill)—There appears second among the Notices
of Motion the following :—" Mr. KER SEYMER,—
Oa Motion for Second Reading of Sale of Beer
Bill, to move, That it be read a second time upon
this day six months." Another opportunity is
consequently afforded to the House, of ridding
itself of this preposterous measure, which is an
indirect, but a very grotesque, and a very signifi-
cant reflection upon its philanthropy ! Before our
impression for this evening goes to press, the House
will, in all human probability have decided upon
the relative merits of Mr. HARDY'S Order of the
Day, and Mr. SEYNIER'S Notice of Motion. It
will be seen, consequently, by a glance from these
leading columns to that other portion of our journal
in which to-Jay's Parliamentary proceedings are
duly chronicled by our reporters, how the com-
paratively few members present on a Wednesday
afternoon's sitting have decided. It will probably
be seen—unless a sudden and unexpected success
have carried Mr. KER SEYMER'S exceedingly ra-
tional motion against the Second Reading—that
again the settlement of the difficulty has been
postponed ; that again the matter is referred
onward—this time to a detailed scrutiny in Com-
mittee. Sooner or later the crotchet of Mr.
HARDY is doomed. We cannot but think this.
Ii were an insult to the good sense of the House
of Commons t, conceive for an instant that it could
be otherwise. Upon that sound sense we place
our reliance in this matter, and to it we are dis-
posed all the mere earnestly to appeal, now, that
the Believers in Virtue by Act of Parliament are
all agog, apparently, about the old, old project
lacquered up again into an appearance of newness
—the whimsy of your thick-and-thin Tea-Totallers
—the Maine Liquor Law movement ! It ap-
pears, by a paragraph given elsewhere in our
impression of this evening that the promoters of
that movement are strenuously "at it" again
down at Manchester. A conference has been hell
there to further the. scheme for Punishing the
Sober, in order to try and do good (against his will)
to the. Drunkard.runkard. That—literally-is the mean-
ing of that monstrous folly
,called the Maine
Liquor Law ! An offshoot of which Folly is Mr.
ILIADY's Beer Bill ! Render drunkenness im-
possible, or try and render it impassible, by
causing the traffic in intoxicating beverages to be
declared illeg 0, and you deprive sobriety of any
credit whatsoever. The exercise of Free Will on
the part of a worshipper is an essential condition
for any value whatever in the exercise of Religion.
Surely every sane man must recognise this. Surely
every man in his senses must see at otice that to
carry off an unbeliever and blasphemer to Church
—gagged and in a straight waistcoat-, is not pre-
cisely the way to forward the interests, or to dif:
fuse the princ'ple,s of Right Religion. S ill less
would it be the way if all kinds of people indis-
criminately, good and bad, believers and unbe-
lievers, were so carried off gagged and
straight-waistcoated. The fanatical promoters of
Tirtue by Main force, of Sobriety by Maine force,
may, if they have a mind to it, be as strait-
laced as they please, themselves. But others
with equal reason may object (if they have
not a mind to it) to be straight-waistcoated. For
once and for all, we say The right-thinking people
of this country won't hare it—this absurd phan-
tasy of a Maine Liquor Law. And quite 4s reso-
lutely determined we believe they will chew them-
selves to bo not to have the small end of the
wedge inserted in the shape of this farce of a
tyrannical little pettifogging Beer Bill affecting
the beneficence of philanthropy.

The beneficial effects of Lord BROUOHAM'S re-

turn to his place in the House of Lords are
already perceptible. The obnoxious proviso,
which, by prohibiting the guilty party from again
contracting matrimony, reduced her to the deplor-
able alternative of " prostitution or want, of
sinning or starving, of the streets or the work-
house," has been expunged by a decisive majority,
and a subsequent _ preposal, that the offender
should be prevented from marrying the person
with whom the adultery was proved to have been
committed, was also rejected. We heartily con-
gratulate the House and the country on this
auspicious result. We felt convinced that the
impolitic restriction could not bear the test
of calm and mature consideration, that their
Lordships woul'l not persevere in a course which
must have brought them into collision with the
other House, and of which tbia inevitable effect
would be to cause the rejection of the bill, if it
were obstinately persisted in. Indeed, it seems
by no meatus improbable, that the quasi amend-
ment had. been introduced and carried with a
view to that very result.

Some other decided improvements wore also
carried. Husbands deserted by their wives were
declared to be entitled to the same remedy as
women would have. This is only fair and reason-
able ; there should be full and perfect reci-
procity. The like remedy should in, every
instance be given for the like offence.
We only trust that the principle may
be rendered universal, and that the rights
or wrongs of both husbands and wives may be
placed on a precisely similar foundation. We
cannot see any benefit to be derived from the
substitution of the words " judicial separation"
for " divorce a mensa et thoro." The meaning
of the latter was clearly understood by every
adult male and female throughout the length and
breadth of the land; and the o)ining of a nsw legal
phrase, the only effect whereof would be to afford
legal gentlemen an opportunity of displaying their
ingenuity, I,hould be avoided, save on intelligible

grounds. As,, however, " the rose by any other
name will smell as sweet," there is no great rea-
son to cavil at that, the effect whereof will be ex-
actly the same as if the more familiar terms had
been used.

The only other discussion and division referred
to the substitute for the obnoxious action of
trim. cm. The issue was simply whether the
offence should be punished with fine only, or with
fine and imprisonment, or either of them. The
latter course was adopted by a majority of ten.
There is much to be said on both aides of the
question. On the one hand, it is decidedly ob-
jectionable that the personal liberty of the sub-
ject should be interfered with by the simple
decision of a Judge, without the intervention of a
jury. It is to a certain extent abolishing that
which is justly regarded as the great palladium of
our national freedom. On the other, it is certain
that there are many who would regard a mere
fine as a bagatelle, a thing only to be sneered at,
who would look on imprisonment in a very
different point of view. And, as the object is
to render the law a real terror to wrongdoers
not a mere scarecrow, where wealthy offenders
are concerned, it seems desirable that the power
of incarceration should be added. All would be
accomplished by inserting a clause that the sen-
tence of imprisonment should only be pronounced
after the verdict of a jury before a criminal tri-
bunal.

Respecting the fine there is one point which
appears to have been altogether disregarded by
all parties. It may possibly operate as a sentence
of perpetual imprisonment ! It will become a
Crown debt from which the party amerced cannot
be exonerated by the insolvent tribunals, or the
surrender of all his property in possession, re-
version, or expectancy. At present, damages
in an action for crim. con. constitute
a ground of remand, which is invariably
acted on according to the extent of the damages
and the criminality of the offender. This, how-
ever, will now be changed, and a clause or pro-
vis) ought to be added that would enable the
person in actual custody for the offence, to obtain
the benefit of the Insolvent Act on submitting t')
a vesting order, which would divest him of his
entire property, and subject him to the ether
regulations incidental t) an application to that
very efficient tribunal.

The Committ3e now sitting on the Bank
Charter Act cannot possibly ignore the fearful
consequences that must result from a continuance
in the present exorbitant rate of discount. As
the Times recently acknowledged, " a return to
cheap money"—i. e. a moderate charge for pecu-
niary accommodation—" cannot be anticipated
for several years 1" It is scarcely necessary to
point out the inevitable results that must follow
" increased labour with gradually diminished
means"—and these only obtained " at usurious
rates of interest." The fact is, as stated in a
communication which will be found in another
part of this day's impression, that "the drones
are cared for to the injury of the working bees, and
the r ultimate exhaustion is certain, unless some
decided effort is made," and that very speedily.
The Chancellor of the Exchequer, by deciding
to pay the redemption of the Sound Dues in
Specie, or its equivalent, within three or four months,
has precipitated the crisis. Under the existing code
we cannot maintain the struggle very long, and
then Mercator and his disciples will be in the
position of him who " killed the goose that laid
the golden eggs." There is, however, no limita-
tion to the greed of gain. As the schoolboy pro-
verb declares, "the love of money increases as the
money itself ;" and the put ►tive parent of the
Act having acquired an almost fabulous fortune
by the use of what he now terms " worthless
rags," is willing to kick down the ladder by which
he has ascended, to prevent others from attaining
a similar elevation.

The phrase "pig on bacon" was well known in
Lancashire in the olden time, nor is even yet
altogether forgotten. We do not by any means
complain of the mode in which the Leviathan
fortune was accumulated, but certainly the man
who derived such almost miraculous advantages
from legitimate and well deserved " credit,"
should be the last to deprive others of similar

Many plans have been suggested by which
" free trade in currency " could be obtained with-
out the slightest risk of depreciating the circulat-
ing medium. An issue of Exchequer Bills of small
and omvenient lenominations, say II 2/. and 3t.
would, as recently suggested by a respected
correspondent, answer every purpose. No
person would refuse that which would
sat .sfy the demands of the tax-gatherer,
whose visits are unfortunately neither " few nor
far between." But the laziness of a for.
mer Comptroller of the Exchequer prevented
that desideratum from being carried into practical
effect. If, however, Parliament should sanction
the principle, not only would the interest of the
I Unfunded Debt be saved to the Exchequer, but
there would be an unobjectionable currency, which
could not possibly be depreciated. The amount would
be regulated by Parliament, and the whole would
be redeemed within the year by almost daily
inst tlments. This would liberate a large quantity
of gold now required for the business of every-
day life, and render it available for our foreign
commerce, for which alone it is wanting. We
trust that the new Parliament may show,
ere it is too late, that it is neither
indifferent to the exigencies of the community,
nor incompetent to deal with a subject on which
the welfare and prosperity of the industrial popu-
lotion so greatly depends, and which can alone
ensure that great blessing—" A fair day's wage
for a fair day's work."

General ASIIBURNHABI and Lord ELGIN either
have arrived, or will soon arrive on the coast of
China, and we may hope, therefore, before long to
hear what course will be taken ; the reinforcements,
however, seem to linger, and the Raleigh is pro-
bably hoplessly wrecked, her valuable stores of
shells being, it appears, rendered useless. We
fear, therefore, the hot season will render it
impossible to effect anything till the autumn, by
force of arms. There are, however, symptoms of
increasing difficulties on the side of the Chinese.
It i 3 stated at Shanghao that the Imperial Go-
vernment has actually proposed to levy a tax on
opium there, to which, as implying the legalisa-
tion of iti sale, it would never have condescended,
had not the Imperial Exchequer been as empty as
that of the CZAR at the fall of Sebastopol. Its
troops also were greatly in arrear of pay. The
rebels, too, iu Central and Noithern China, had
gained considerable fresh successes.; and in the
South, in the province of Canton, notwithstanding
the savage executions by Yen, the rebels have
become very numerous, and in the adjoining pro-
vince of Kwang-se have captured Kwoilin, the
capital, a well fortified place, which has hitherto
resisted all their attempts. YETI himself, it is
said, cannot keep his troops together for want of
money.

Pending the arrival of important news, it may
be interesting to our readers to be apprised briefly