The Sun.
London, England, 1861-01-12 00:00:00

HIGH WATER AT LONDON BRIDGE.

Thie DAY.—Morning, ph. 46m.—Afternoon, 3h. Om,
To-stoßßow.-Morning, 3h. 26m.—Afternoon, 3h. 46m.

THE WEATHER....-SUN OFFICE, JAN. 12, 156 1,
TH2.3.IIOMETEB, IN TUB SHADB.
36—highest since noon yesterday.
31—lowest this morning and during the night.
38—this day at noon.

BAROMETER-30.15.
WlND—South-Westerly—light ; with mild weather and
gentle thaw.

It was only as recently as Wednesday that
Lord PALMERSTON had occasion to address the
country at large through the medium of an audience
composed of brother Hampshiremen. It was Sir
CHARLES WOOD'S privilege upon the very day
after, namely, on Thursday, to promulgate his
views also, as a Cabinet Minister, upon the general
situation at home and abroad, through the medium
of a speech addressed, in his turn, to his neighbours
down in Yorkshire. Convivial and complimentary
harangues of this kind, whether delivered before
the promoters of a scientific and literary institu-
tion, or to the guests of the Lord Mayor of the
ancient capital of the North of England, can only
afford us, it is true, the merest glimpses of the
inner thoughts and motives of ministers,the thoughts
and motives guiding the policy of an Administra-
tion. Yet vague and momentary though these
purely incidental glimpses are in themselves, they
are for that reason none the less welcome or the
less worthy of observation. And acceptable though
they are at all times as expressive, however
fragmentarily, of the sentiments of our leading
administrators, they are never at any period of the
political year so peculiarly opportune or so erai-
nen tly deserving of remark, as they are immediately
before the close of the long Parliamentary recess or
vacation—or, in other words, directly prior to the
reassembling of the two Houses of our Imperial
Legislature. Even straws tossed into the air,
the proverb tell us, show which way the
wind blows. And when the companions of
COLTMBUS were all but driven to despair
towards the termination of his first
exploration of the Atlantic, they were heartened
on to the discovery of the New World, NVQ
are told, by the tangles of seaweed, And
the branches covered with leaves and fierrios
floating upon the surface of the ocean from that
unknown continent. Trivial though the reply
of a Minister of the Crown may be in respond-
ing to an after dinner tribute in the shape of a
toast to himself individually (as was the case on
Wednesday with regard to Lord PALMERSTON)
or to his colleagues collectively (as was
the case with reference to Sir CHARLES
WOOD down at York on Thursday)—from
the words thus uttered with apparent care-
lessness, upon an indifferent 'am:talon, very much
in respect to the coming sereion,may at these times,
and without much exercise of sagacity, be pretty
confidently predicated. We may draw our conclu-
sions there and then, moreover, not only from what
is said but also from what is not said by an admi-
nistrator.

Regarding in this light the speech delivered
on Thursday at York by the right honour-
able baronet the Secretary of State for India,
it is impossible not to ba impressed at once by the
significance of the fact, that rot an allusion was
made by him in this speech, either to any hopes
for the future, in reference to Parliamentary

Reform, or to any golden prospects of improvement

in the.financial position of the country. And, let
it not be forgotten, Sir CrAr.Lr.s WooD's reticence
upon the subject of the national finances cannot

but be deemed all the more noticeable, from the
circumstance of his having himself formerly held
during several years the responsible post of Eng-

- -
land'a Chancellor of the Exchequer ! Not a word,

however, said the ex-Chancellor of the Exchequer,
about the present critical state of our finances,
though it is a matter of European notoriety
that upon the treatment of that vital theme
during this next session everything may really and
truly be dependent. There was only one inkling,
and that too of a purely inferential kind, afforded
to those who listened on Thursday evening to the
remarks that fell from the lips of Sir Cans. WOOD
—only one casual inkling afforded as to the fiscal
and financial probabilities of 1861.! Meaning, that
is to say, the one yielded to view by those ex-
tremely significant observations with which Sir
CHARLES WOOD followed up his exultant allusions
to the pacific influences certain (according

to the Indian Secretary's opinion) to accrue
from the Commercial Treaty negotiated be-
tween France and England by the hon. mem-
ber for Rochdale, acting as the semi-official repre-
sentative of her MAJESTY'S Government. " I
believe," said Sir CHARLES WOOD, in speaking of
this Commercial Treaty, " that the extension of
Commerce is the best security for good-will and
peace among nations. That was the main object
of the treaty of last year, and I believe that we
have contribute to the cause of humanity and
peace by that measure. But we are not such warm
advocates of peace that we are unaware of the
necessity of being prepared for war, and nothing

has been of greater importance than those mea-
sures of defence for the country which
were proposed by the Government, and sup-
ported almost unanimously by the House of
Commons and the people." A sufficiently distinct
indication, this, that, in regard to our war estab-
lishments, Ministers do not propose to adventure
upon any very bold or resolute course of retrench-
ment. Rather disappointing, by the way,
to those Liberal economists in the House of
Commons, who but very recently sent their
round-robin appeal to the PREMIER, beseech-
ing him to moderate, in the new year, the
extent of our late extraordinary war expendi-
ture! Yet this was the only glimpse (and, as we
have observed, a purely inferential one in itself it
was) afforded to his hearers by Sir CHAs.WooD, and
through these hearers to the country at large, in
regard to our financial future—that financial future'
to which we are all of us looking forward at this
juncture with a more or less profound sense of
anxiety, if not even of absolute trepidation. The
solution of the problem, the answering of the riddle
he himself has helped to propound for the national
embarrassment, and in all human likelihood for his
own eventual destruction as a Financier, is left by
his colleagues (and no wonder !) entirely
to the skill and conscience of the Right
Honourable WILLIAM EWART GLADSTONE as—(we
wish him joy of those naturally heavy ministerial
responsibilities which he himself has contrived to
accumulate upon his own shoulders, almost over-
whelmingly)—as, her MAJESTY'S Chancellor of the
Exchequer. Precisely as the Indian Secretary was
dumb in regard to the state of our Finances, so
was he dumb also, as we have remarked,
in respect to the great question of Parliamentary
Reform. Sir CHARLES WOOD commented at some
length upon the satisfactory close of the war with
China, upon the negotiation of the Commercial
Treaty with France, upon the continued necessity
in regard to Italy for the maintenance there
of the principle of nonintervention, talk-
ing volubly enough, also "de quibusdam
alus," but he as wisely as significantly left the
question of Reform for the comments, later on, of
Lord JOKY RUSSELL—Ieft that topic as entirely to
Lord lonN—with none of the bloom taken off it
(supposing it to have any bloom at all now remain-
ing)—as we have already seen, that he had pre-
viously left the yet more urgent and vital question
Gf our Finances untouched for Mr. GLADSTONE!

The indefatigable Dr. LETHEBY has again called
our attention to an Act which ought to have been
among the most useful in daily life of the few
public Acts of importance passed last session-7he
Act for Preventing the Adulteration of Articles of
Food or L rink. Since his appointment by the City
to the office of Analyst, as provided by the Act, he
has had, he says, but four applications for analysis.
Why so fe*? In his own words the reason is this
" I am, he says, very anxious that the practical working of
this Act should be •of advantage to the public, anl
should be brought fully and fairly into operation within
the City. This, however, must be effected by the energy
of the citizens themselves; for however desirable it may be
to expose the frauds and dangers of adulteration, the act
has not contemplated that the exposure should be brought
about by the offices of the common informer. In every
case therefore the public must initiate the inquiry by a fair
and open purchase of the articles suspected to be adulte-
rated."

That is, the duty of verifying the genuineness of an
article offered for sale is thrown upon the pur-
chaser, and must be done in great part at his
pecuniary cost, and certainly at the cost of creating
ill will* between neighbours. For weight and
measure inspectors are appointed, and in regard to
meat, the quality is to some extent watched over for
us. But the genuineness of our flour, beer, and
other articles used for human food, is not super-
vised in the same manner. Yet, in truth, we might
with more safety to our own health be cheated a
little in the quantity of what we oat and drink
than in the quality, at least we might be with regard
to many articles.

The Act, Dr. LE.THEBY says, has not contem-
plated that the exposure should be brought about
by the offices of the common informer, and there
was, we. 'remember, much discussion on that
point, in the House of Commons. The result
vas that the traders so far triumphed, that
the Act has been almost rediced to a nullity.
If we remember rightly Dr. LETHEBY himself
wished to have persons nominated, of ceur.se trust-
of roaki'ig purchases,
qu':;.iity of what was
worthy persons, to the duty
'erruled. It seems, how-
ever, the
geeonbjoeinete,obfottehsetiwnags
othve
ever, certain that with out some such agency the
Act will be nearly a dead letter. Few, indeed, of
the humbler el:asses, the most liable to imposition,
would like to initiate an investigation in any parti-
cular ease. His obligations are to give notice to
the person of whom he has made the purchase that
he intends to have the article analysed, to enable
the seller to attend him to the analyst, and see the
article safely placed in his custody, and to pay from
2s. 6d. to 103. 6d., according to the difficulty of the
analysis, for its being made. He is to be entitled
to a certificate "if the article contains anything
injurious to health," which, as the article may be
largely adulterated with " powder of post," or:water,
or anything else equally deserving exposure, but
not directly
injurious to health, would, in very
many cases of great culpability, yet throw the costs
on the complainant. Common informers are a tribe
no one would wish to create or to encourage; but
surely there is a difference between hiring persons
as Lord BATHURST'S gamekeeper did, to make

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THE SUN.
LONDON, SATURDAY, JAN. 12, 1861.