The Sun.
London, England, 1868-05-28 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF TEED PUBLIC JOURNATZ,

The Times takes up the subject of the dwellings of our
poor, and laments the huddling together, the dirt, the
starving, crushing, and the concomitant evils of disease
and unhealthiness. And the course taken by the House of
Lords on the Labourers' Dwellings Bill lead one to the
conclusion that Parliament cannot deal with the evil. But
who can ? What can? Does this confession of incompe-
tency send us with hope to the new British constituency,
and the rulers, institutions, and functionaries likely to
come out of it ? On the contrary, the very hopelessness of
the case consists in the indifference, the incompetence, the
selfishness, or the jealousy of the people themselves. What
is described is not a legislative but a popular fact.
Pursue the evil round its course. Railway companies,
public bodies, or corporations make a clearance. It accords
with the national spirit of enterprise that they should
have every facility for their task, and that it should not
be encumbeeed with needless aggravations. They declare
emphatically, and no doubt truly, that they cannot
undertake to build houses for the poor, still less keep
the houses and their inmates in order. A few gentlemen
and ladies of hers is courage and kindness are found to
make the attempt, but they are as a drop in this large
ocean of life. The remedy, if any can be found,
devolves on the sufferers themselves. In spite of all
that has been said, we must say that it is hard to believe
it so utterly impossible for these people to find decent
habitations a little furtLer off. It is alleged
that they must be near their work, or with their fellow-
workmen, or in known localities, ,where their employers
may know where to find them ; but, as it happens, the
very origin of the evil, and the very fact that sets these
people adrift, is the continual displacement of the indus-
tries and operations on which they depend. The necessity
for huddling together at Clerkenwell must be diminished
LI the fact of half Clerkenwell being destroyed; nor can we
ne No. see any necessity for many thousand people wallowing
in.'llth and disease in what remains of the old Rookery, in
Bev en Dials, or in Soho. The sufferers do not take
proper care of themselves, or avail themselves of the
oppoe:tunities in their reach ; and, what is worse, they do
not IL'ce the coldly clean and well-regulated model lodging-
houses,---conducted, too, as they are, with some sort of
moral They settle accordingly into that dirt
and slcsvenliness which invariably increases upon those
who ind ni ee in it, till there is neither power to resist nor
even test eto be revolted at it. Then come in the reme-
dial laws,. administered as they must be by insti-
tutions as public functionaries. This brings us to
a general .admission still more important and more
deplorable than the incompetency of Legislatures—
the powerles en ess of public bodies and the helplessness
of the people. It is the fact of a difficulty to be every-
where surmountte at every step, and in every person con-
cerned. It is rot easy to find an " authority ;" the
authority changos or cannot be compelled to act, and a
new one is to be fc.und. English liberty compels many
cautions and notic-ese and allows long delays. If costly
alterations are ordered in the public interest, who is to
make them ? The resieent householder? The sub-tenant?
The lessee? -The owner ? The ground landlord ? The
authorities must find hung, or the law must throw itselt
into the grasp of another and a stronger authority. If
the authorities themselves undertake the expense, and
even go so far as to supptr houses for the poor, they
must do it out of the rates, thereby taxing many landlords
and householders in order to enter into competition with
them. Already there are numerous Acts for the mitiga.
tion of these evils, for the proper inspection of lodging.
houses, for the removal of nuisances, and the restraint of
overcrowding ; but they are found insufficient or ineffec-
tive, either because they are thought too great an inter-
ference with British liberty, or simply because the autho-
rities have often to choose between turning poor creatures
out of doors altogether and letting them remain in the
pesthouses which seem to the people themselves better
than no houses at all.

The Post, dealing with the acquittal of President
Johnson, denounces the policy of the Republicans in
bringing pressure to bear on the members of their party
who refused to say that President Johnson was guilty. How-
ever, that pressure has failed to have any effect, and it is
to be hoped that Mr. Johnson's opponents will now allow
him to serve the brief remaining period of his term unmo-
lested. They have fought their fight and have been van-
quished, and they ought honestly to abide by the result.
And indeed we think that it is matter for congratulation
to the Republican party rather than otherwise that they
have been worsted in this encounter. It certainly ought
to be matter for unmixed satisfaction to the American
people. If Mr. Johnson had been deposed by what
would have been a purely party vote for purely party con-
siderations, the executive power in the Republic would
have received a blow from the effects of which it would
never have recovered. The weapon of impeachment was
placed in the State armoury by the founders of the
American Constitution rather for the purpose of shewing
the world that in the model Republic which was then
being formed no man would be beyond the reach of the
law, than for actual use. Whether the office of President
be one which it is expedient to retain or to abolish is a
matter of which the American people are the best judges;
but, if it is to be retained, it should he placed beyond the
reach of assaults directed merely to serve the interests of
a political faction.
The Daily News finds it easy to account for the acquittal
of the President. The Republican majority in the Senate
has been distinguished through all the crises of the last
three years for the strong and even controlling element of
moderation it contained. A considerable number of the
Republican senators care more for the victory of the Repub-
lican policy than for the welfare of the Republican party,
and when Mr. Johnson has put that policy in peril they have
gone with their party against him ; but when that policy
has not been endangered, and their party has been the
assailant, they have refused to move. low, while the
impeachment trial has been going on, reconstruction has
also been going on, and it has become abundantly evident
that the policy of Congress has already succeeded beyond
Mr. Johnson's power to binder it. His removal is, there-
fore, no longer needful to the success of the Congressional
policy. There was room for moderation, even for leniency,
and some of the Republican senators determined to
exercise it.
The Standard rejoices at the acquittal which has taken
place (it says) in spite of a most unscrupulous use of every

form of political terrorism and coercion, in spite of threats,
abuse, summonses to resign, newspaper vituperations, and
anonymous letters threatening them with assassination.
It is a sad and shameful thing, and inexpressibly deplor-
able, that thirty-five senators could he found to pronounce
the President guilty. By what they have done they have
lowered the tone of the Senate.

The Times congratulates the people on their fine Derby
Day, cracks a joke about all their prophecies being
wrong, and concludes by moralising on the event. It says :
If on the off day we may be allowed to moralise, we
would ask whether it be worth while to go so far in
speculating on these chances as to stake great fortunes,
and fine estates, and even good reputations on the issue?
It is one thing to amuse oneself and others with such an-
ticipations as we have been discussing, but they assume a
different aspect when they are regarded as part of a busi-
ness, and that business a gigantic gambling. If this misuse
of the turf increases, the sport may lose a great part of its
attraction. The time, however, is doubtless far distant
when the harmless pleasures of the Derby will be lost to
the mass of the public. Among the contributors to these
pleasures we count the prophets who have shewn them-
selves superior to such repeated discouragements. Let us
continue to have the satisfaction of deciding the race
beforehand, and then the additional satisfaction of a sur-
prise. We are all children for this occasion, and the more
purposeless our enjoyment the better.

The Daily News complains that it is not really a love
for horse-r; sing that takes so mary English people of the
lower orders to Epsom on Derby Day. It is the passion
for gambling that takes them to the turf. It is the
vicious industry that surrounds and infests the sport of
horse-racing, and degrades it from its original national
purpose to the basest uses, that has raised it to its present
height of passionate popular favour and universal interest.
The Telegraph, (which ever since the Clerkenwell explo-
sion has been complaining bitterly of our police system
and advocating its thorough reform) has been startled by
a provision in a Government bill for giving 2300 more per
annum to each of the Assistant Commissioners of Police.
What for? asks our contemporary. For their incapability
in the Cierkenwell explosion ? Locking the stable-door
after the steed is stolen is proverbial ; but what can we
call rewarding the stable-boy on such an occasion by way
of encouragement to future neglect? Fancy the feelings
of a Clerkenwell ratepaying artisan when the tax-collector
comes to him and virtually says, " Your children were
killed ; your wife is a maniac ; you have lost the sight of
your right eye. For permit Accg this, which they might
have easily prevented, the three Assistant-Commissioners
,re to get extra £3OO a year each, and Parha,
decided that you are to bear the expenses.
at once." Of course the taxpayer will pay;
Jclin Bull may grumble; but there are few things he
A be made to endure—and pay for.

of Poi

TION

TO S3IOICER

—A fire broke out a few