The Sun.
London, England, 1868-04-13 00:00:00

eiliilT OP THE PUBLIC JOUP,Ntlis

The Times asks, now that Italy has come by her own, if
she would be so kind as to take hack her organ-grinders.
It is by this time little less than half a century since our
streets and those of other European cities were first
infested by what, owing to a most unwarrantable stretch
of euphemism, were called " itinerant musicians." They
began as a droll curiosity, but soon grew into an arrant
nuisance. The housemaid on the door-steps, and cook
from the depths of the area, might be caught by the
jet-black eyes and matted hair of these outlandish
minstrels, by their quaint gibberish, by their broad grin,
not unlike that of the monkeys frequently perched on
their shoulders ; but to nerves of gentler texture the
ine,Korable strain of those set notes was raking to dis-
traction ; while to the sage in his brown study the first
squeak of the hurdy-gurdy caused such a paroxysm
of rage as sometimes gave "twice two is five" as the
re..luit of his calculations. By the time, however, that
thebe noi.sy strangers were becoming an intolerable annoy-
ance, enough was known about them to make them objects
of sympathy. It was not by any means their fault, people
said, if they so cruelly abused our hospitality. Indeed, it
was not from choice that they were our guests. They had
besa inveigled hither by false pretences. A kind of white
slave trade was going on in the mountains of which they
were natives. A set of scamps of their own country, but
having their headquarters in the dingiest purlieus of Hol-
Joorn, farmed these poor wretches out of their parents'
bawds, held them under a specious bond of apprentice-
ship, sent them forth to their begging trade, starved
them, thrashed them, used them with every kind of bar-
barons treatment. Long and loud was, years ago, the
lament over the poor Italian organ boy's grievances. As
the organ boy could not be got rid of., he began to be made
much of. He was petted and pampered ; he was plied
with crusts and scraps instead of halfpence. Old Pistrucci
opened a school for him ; Mazzini affiliated him to his
Young-Italian association. The organ boy had his own
day ; in short, he was the beat abused and the best cared
for of our street vagrants, till people got tired of this as of
all other subjects, and he was set down as one of those
social sores which cannot be cured, and which can best be
endirted the less thought and speech are wasted upon them.
Now, again, tomes the news of kidnapping the poor boys
from the home across the mountains. This white slave
trade, in the opinion of the leading journal, like brigan-
dage, is only the result of the intellectual and moral state
of degradation into which the Italian population, especially
in rural and mountain districts, are sunk, and that the
evil can only ultimately give way before the steady pro-
gress of civilisation and instruction. Mendicancy and
vagrancy, it must be avowed, cane amazingly natural to
Italians of all classes. Few men, however, who ever
looked at the organ boys in our streets would dream of
calling them an idle set, or of describing their life as one
of leisure and indulgence. Few men who ever looked at
their'. stunted and shrunken frames, almost bent double
under the crushing weight of their Mute, or trade, as they
call their huge organ, when they return late in the evening
after trudging some scores of miles in the suburbs,
at all seasons and in all weathers, would deem them
taifit for any employment requiring either strength
or endurance. But the freedom and variety, the
very precariousness of their begging life, seem to
have charms for them. They see the world ; they bask
in the smiles or grin under the frowns of fortune, and so
familiarise themselves with the ups and downs of vaga-
bond life. Should these wretched Italian outcasts be
capable of it, there would be no lack of profitable employ-
ment in their native land ; no lack of bread and meat and
raiment for three times the population of the peninsula.
The whole difficulty consists in creating the wish even for
daily bread among a people who can live on prickly pears
or water melons. " You are a gentleman ; why need you
work ?" is the saying among the members of Parliament
and their constituents. And " why should you toil and
mail when there are London and Paris, and all Europe
and America, to go begging through with your hurdy-
only ? " is the philosophy upon which organ boys practi-
cally shape their existence.
Apropos of the visit of the Prince and Princess of Wales
to Ireland, the Post remarks that if there be a tide in Irish
affairs, the Royal visit will take it at the flood. Time
and opportunity are the waves on which the Enchantress
is about to cross the Channel. The Christian world are
commemorating the "pledge of a new and nobler
covenant ;" for Ireland the last hour of a long night has
sounded, and the idea of a happy national rapproche-
ment may be realised. Now, if ever, the touch of
human nature which makes people feel that they
were not born to live alone, and without sympathy,
will rouse hopes that have overslept themselves
and call back thoughts that have gone astray.
Only in the presence of Royalty are religious differences
composed. In St. Patrick's Cathedral Protestants and
Catholics will, for once, meet as Christians. But, what is
more, the visit will prove to any one who may have
doubted the fact, that if the Irish Church was established
"as the fort of the Throne," the imperial sovereignty is
no longer dependent on such security. In Ireland, as in
England, the Crown is guarded by the loyalty and the
love of the nation. If the Irish will not allow that they
have been reconquered by the Prince of Wales, they may
surrender to the Princess, under whose feet they have
resolved that flowers shall grow up, and read in her smiles
the sympathy which still, as in bygone times, may be com-
petent to determine, by very gentle pressure, an issue that
perplexes the minds of statesmen, and searches the wisdom
of the Legislature.
The Daily News draws attention to the evident determi- 4
nation of shareholders to rebel against the despotism of
directors in joint-stock companies. The various stages
have been passed through of, first, enthusiastic approval ;
then, pensive submission ; next, feeble and modest in-
quiry ; but culminating at last into sharp cross-question-
ings, which it was equally useless to ignore or to answer.
A further step was the appointment of committees of in-
vestigation. A further stage is found in the, virtually if
not actually, compulsory resignation of the directory under
whose rule the mischief had been done. But the matter
has not closed here. Suits in civil and equity courts have
not merely been threatened, but begun. What remedy
there for this state of affairs ? The surest preventive lie
in the enforcement of the principle that if a duty is under
taken, its performance is not a question of convenience,
but of honour. One of the most grievous scandals of our
age consists in the almost deliberate abnegation of this
simple rule. Nine-tenths of the men who have supervised
the companies that failed within the last two
years have done next to nothing but allow, by
their culpable neglect, their shareholders to be ruined.
The world, at least the financial world, moves on. The
joint-stock principle has passed through many phases : the
first, one of greater or less responsibility on the part of
directors ; the second, a period of transition, when inquiries
were made necessitating an answer ; and the third (per-
haps not the final one), when shareholders are not content
with demanding explanations of previous management,
but will pursue their investigations still further. In all
probability they will not be satisfied with the revelations
of previous affairs as they stand now, but will exact a
pretty competent account of the entire results of all the
affairs in which their companions have been engaged. It
is needless to add, that where profits have been gained by
individuals from their official position, the sum must be r
turned for the benefit of the general body.
Dealing with the rumours of war between France and
Prussia, the Herald remarks that the common-sense view
of the matter taken in England is, in the first place, that
if the Emperor Napoleon wishes to go to war with
. Prussia, he will have to do so on his own account, an?
that this will be playing a somewhat desperate game. Ir
the second place, it appears that there is no adequat,
ground of war. France would not go to war to save Den
mark from being rent in twain ; why, then, should she do i
for a few square miles of Northern Schleswig claimed by
Denmark, or for an article in a treaty concluded between
Austria and Prussia? The difficulty- about Luxembourg can-
not be made into an occasion of war. France expressed
herself satisfied with the settlement of the question at the
time, and there was an end of it. it is never very safe to
predict even the event of a month ; but, taking into
account the asseverations of the French Government, and
the probabilities of the case, it seems to us that it is un-
reasonable to expect war. As to the view of the matter
taken by the French press in considering its attitude, we
most take into account the fact, that it is so muchi
debarred from occupying itself with matters of domestic
interest that to fill its columns, and rivet the attention of
its readers, it is forced to occupy itself much with foreign
affairs, a circumstance not often adverted! to, but which in
no small degree contributes to the perpetuation of dis-
quietude in Europe.

The Standard comments ,-Pon an article in the
For!ri p.7711'71/ Review, by Mr. Frederick Harrison, who
unfolds to the vulgar gaze the heaven which Rridicals
hope to gain. Of this school of Radicalism we ought not,
then, in future to profess any ignorance. Its nature and
its aims have been revealed to us with a singular candour,
and we doubt not with full authority. All government in
England is to be a trade union. Parliament is to be put
clown, or permitted to deliberate only at the pleasure of
the " capable ruler." Capable ruler to undertake the
root-and-branch reconstruction of society. The time and
the man have come to Mr. Harrison also. A despotism,
with trade unions for its ba3a, and Bea les for its apex ;
such is the latest ideal cf a true Government for England.

The n
COM pa!!:
by all c,

easily unlerstamls the anxiety' of rail.,ray
in these Lad times, to increase their rev:nines
moles ; b"t their rights have obvion?
limit.s are unrinestionablv pa,sed by the
s Clau,33 in the Regulation 'Bill now before

mall

Parliament. The companies wish to put an end to the
practice of sending s:nall parcels done up in Irger ones
because the carriage of twenty ELparate articles, each
charged at an arbitrary figure, will yield much more than
the carriage of the same things do when they are made up
under one cover, and are paid for by the ton. The City
houses arc in arms against the proposal, and hope to get
it modified or withdrawn. The plain course for the com-
panies, if they find the present system unprofitable, is to
economise their own arrangements as much as possible,
and to modify their carrying rates by charging so much
more per ton all round,