The Sun.
London, England, 1868-08-14 00:00:00

hundred per cent., and this is naturally felt to be
a " gross injustice." In the course of some speeches
at the meeting it was said that the fares from West
Dulwich had been increased twenty-five per cent.
in the first-class, thirty-three in the second, and
sixty-six in the third, which was an extraordinary
thing for a railway company to do. Especially
must the rise in the third-class be objected to,
because it presses so hardly upon the poorer
classes of passengers, and is in every respect in-
considerate. Several resolutions were adopted,
among which it was decided that in the forth-
coming Parliamentary elections no support should
be given to any candidate who will not " pledge
himself to advocate Government control in the
working of the railways and regulation of fares,
and oppose railway oppression in every form."
This is what it will come to in the end if these ex-
periments are made, and the public and passengers
are called upon to pay for the losses incurred
by over speculation and unwise schemes
too hastily entered upon. It is quite evident that
a determined effort will be made to resist the in-
creased fares in all directions, and it is high time
for the railway directors to look out if they are un-
willing to incur freshlosses. This is not the sort of
hardship that people will put up with quietly, and
the more they dwell on the unnecessary inconve-
nience to which they are put the more eagerly will
they enter upon plans for the redress of their griev-
ances. A monopoly is always to be regarded with
some suspicion, and the fears and doubts have
in this case been more than realised. Thanks were
given at this meeting to Lord REDESDALE for his
advocacy of the rights of the public, and it may
turn out now that some of the opinions of the noble
lord were more correct than many believed at the
time. Altogether this furnishes a most unfortunate
episode in the railway travelling of the present day,
and this season of the year is also as unlucky for
the contretemps, because so many are availing them-
selves of the opportunity afforded by a respite from
their labours to take a holiday, and increased fares
are a great hindrance.

The death of THADDEUS STEVENS, though looked
for, will not 'be heard with indifference either in
this country or iu America. Whatever opinion
may be formed of his policy or his conduct, no one
can deny his ability, his energy, or the prominent
position which he had achieved for himself among
American statesmen. 'fhe Radical party has
played the foremost part on the stage of American
politics during the last few years, and THADDEUS
STEVENS was the most uncompromising of Radicals.
lle was indeed plus Ara Lie que l'Arabie, and far out-

stripped his party. The main body of Republicans
were opposed to slavery. THADDEUS STEVENS
hated it with an honest and unmitigated hatred.
It was he who did North and South good service
by insisting upon abolition as a result of the civil
war, and he did not shrink from putting his own
principles into practice by associating with the
freedmen of the North and admitting him to his
table. The Radicals disliked the Southerner in the
abstract, so far as they believed he was encroach-
ing on their power and his interests were
opposed to theirs. THADDEUS STEVENS went
much further. As he hated slavery, so he hated
the white men of the South, only where the one
feeling deserved respect the other could only call
for censure and condemnation. Confiscation,
exile, imprisonment, execution were always on his
iicks when speaking of the Confederates ; and the
mainspring of his bitter antagonism to Mr. JoHN-
SON was the President's resolute and magnanimous
determination to preserve the Southern people from
destruction. Again, in this very questiun of op-
poing the PRESIDENT, Mr. STEVENS out-Heroled
his party. They were prepared for opposition and
the ordinary forms of Congressional warfare, but
Mr. STEVF.NS would be content with nothing less
than the impeachment and confiscation of his ad-
versary. Iu this, as we know, he failed, and the
failu,•e may perhaps have been partly due to his
eni'ecbled health, which at the time of the im-
peachment was rapidly declining. Ile appeared at
the bar of the Senate, indeed, as one of the ma-
nagers of the impeachment, but he was unable
himself to read the long indictment which he had
prepared against Mr. JOHNSON. No doubt he was
mortified at the result of that trial, but
nothing daunted his energies, and only a few
weeks since he was bringing before Congress fresh
charges and demanding a fresh impeachment.
THADDEUS STEVENS was an implacable hater, and
the unremitting animcsity he displayed towards
Mr. JOIINSON was typical of the man. In the PRE•
SIDENT, however, he found his match. Mr. JOHN-
SON was as resolute as himself, and as little inclined
to yield convictions which he believed to be sound.
It has been said that Mr. STEVENS'S distinguishing
characteristic was a love of the doctrine of
equality, and it was this which animated him
in his crusade against the Freemasons in Penn-
sylvania. If such were indeed his rulin g
passion, his ideal must have represented a world in
which all the rest were equal and he himself the
leader. His dogmatic and dictatorial rule often
chafed his followers, who sometimes rebelled, but
their adhesion or secession appeared alike indif-
ferent to him. If the Radicals decided upon a
measure with which he did not agree he would
forthwith oppose it, and did not scruple to vote
with the opposite party, so as to defeat his friends.
Like many other prominent Americans, THAD-
DEUS STEVENS was a self-made man, having been
born of humble parents, and risen to
fame and fortune comparatively unaided.
He was born in New England, but
early migrated to Pennsylvania, where be was
called to the bar, and soon appeared in the State
Legislature. Here he made himself obnoxious by
his extreme measures, and was compelled to retire
from public life for a while, but subsequently was
returned to Congress, where he rapidly achieved
distinction, and has during the last ten years or
so been one of the most prominent of the Republi-
cans. The Civil War, of course, gave him the op-
portunity of coming more conspicuously before the
public, and he did his best to intensify and perpetuate
the bitterness of the strife. His hatred to Secession-
ists was almost fanatical. No measure of repression
or of punishment could be too severe for him, and
when the passions of the war time had died away
in other men's hearts, Mr. STEVENS was still burn-
ing with undiminished wrath, and advocating ex-
treme measures. His party opposed only too suc-
cessfully Mr. JOHNSON'S humane and conciliatory
efforts to restore tranquillity and confidence to the
South, and the reconstructive policy which they
forced upon the country was manifestly partial and
unjust. The treatment of the South under Radical
guidance, the maintenance of large bodies of troops
and military districts, pressed heavily on the re-
sources of the North, and unnecessarily augmented
the national burdens. The taxpayers of the States
have indeed no reason to honour Mr. STEVENS'S
memory, for the complication of the national
finances is greatly due to the mismanagement of the
majority in Congress.
The death of THADDEUS STEVENS will remove one
of the most formidable champions of the " green-
back" policy, and will, we hope, diminish the
chances of its success. To the Southern people his
loss will be a gain. They can hardly find a more