The Sun.
London, England, 1868-11-30 00:00:00

their whole :policy expressed in the name of Lord
PALMERSTON, they have gone to the country, now in
1868, with their policy expressed in the name of Mr.
GLADSTONE. Coupled, that name has been, no doubt,
with the Trish Church Question, as the Question more
immediately requiring to be dealt with by the Legis-
lature. But, otherwise, beyond all doubt the
whole mass of the Liberal candidates presenting
themselves before the various constituencies have
explained their views very simply, not only upon the
Irish tquestion, but upon all the more important
questions looming up in the f•iture through the one
comprehensive declaration that they would go to the

kept at school until the age of eleven or twelve.
" The demand for education combining religious
training with sound practical instruction is universal,
and the supply has kept pace with the demand."
The parents are not deterred by expense, and the
attendance is very regular. Mr. HENLEY in his
report speaks of the result of this training, and of the
social system generally, in the highest terms. "The
Northumbrian peasants," he says, " are as they were
described by Sir FRANCIS DOYLE in 1842—intelligent,
courteous, with a manly independence of demeanour;
remarkably sober, rarely touching beer at their work.
They bear a high character for honesty, and crime of
a serious character may be said to be unknown
amongst them." Yet it does not appear that any
exceptional privilege is possessed by the Northum-
brians, except that of very cheap fuel. The sea
is everywhere salt, and human nature every-
where the same. Where man has the means and
the prospect of improvement he rarely fails to
advance in the long run.
It is not to be expected that the system of this
rural El Dorado can be transplanted to the south of
England. But much of it may. The great cost of
improvements has hitherto deterred landlords from
doing much for their labourers, but there is much
substantial fact in this report which ought to induce
serious reflection. It is a somewhat astonishing, but
an indisputable truth, that where the condition of the
peasant is the best the cost of his labour is the
smallest. The comparison is truly remarkable. In
Northumberland labour costs seven shillings an acre
less than in the Midland counties, though in the
north the peasant is infinitely better off. The
bad food, clothing, and housing of the
labourer in the south results in mental and
physical inferiority. The Northern can do so
much more work, that though he receives alto-
gether some £6O a year as the income of his family
against an average of £43 in Bedfordshire, the
Northumbrian farmer gains decidedly more by his
labour. Of course it is not likely that the body of
farmers and landlords will perceive the force of this
reasoning all at once, but it is satisfactory to find
that the old plea of the small profits of agriculture can
no longer be urged. The better the wages the greater
the return. The housing of the labourer is an impor-
tant particular to which great attention has recently
been given. Large sums have been spent in provid-
ing better cottages, and this outlay has not been in
vain, but there is still a lamentable deficiency in this
respect, Northumberland itself being by no means
incapable of improvement. The gang system is
wholly the result of want of cottage accommodation,
and would disappear altogether if the labourer could
live near his work. In the matter of education it is
very evident that the Legislature might interfere
with advantage. Comparatively little objection has
been urged against the plan of forbidding the employ-
ment of children under ten, except at harvest-time :
the loss to the parents would be very small, and in
all probability the wages of older persons would so
rise as to make up the deficiency. All children
up to the age of 13 or 14 might attend
school during that portion of the year when they are
not employed. But education, as well as many other
necessities, is so greatly affected throughout the
country by the rate of wages, that this last conside-
ration must always be of the first importance.
In this respect the report is very encou-
raging. It not only points out that good
wages are equally beneficial to all, but
it offers an alternative in those cases where the
money payment cannot or will not be increased.
A garden attached to the labourer's cottage or a field
allotment is the best means of improving his condi-
tion when wages cannot be raised. On this point
the Commissioners speak very decisively, and produce
an overwhelming amount of testimony in favour of
the legislative encouragement of allotment. The
practice is one of great importance, both in a physical
and moral point of view, to the labouring poor.
Landowners who have adopted the system
are unanimous in recognising its benefits, and
a committee of the. House of Commons long
ago determined that it was a good which
might be obtained without any corresponding disad-
vantages. It greatly adds to the resources of the
peasant, the work of cultivation keeps him from the
beershop, and the feeling of just independence pro-
moted is highly desirable. A bill was intro-
duced in 1845 to authorise the formation
of parish boards, consisting of the clergy-
man and two others, with power to hire land to
let as allotments to labourers. The bill did not get
through the Lords ; but the testimony in favour of
its principle has since so much strengthened that
there can be no excuse for further delaying action in
the matter. The question is the most important of
those connected with the condition of the agricultural
labourer.

ouse—as followers of Mr. GLADSTONE. Therefore,
it appears nothing less than idle and prepos-
terous to discuss seriously the rumours afloat
as to the QUEEN-- in certain contingencies—
sending for Lord GRANVILLE or Lord CLARENDON,
and not for Mr. GLADSTONE. Without Mr. GLAD-
STONE'S co-operation, neither of those noble Earls
could construct a Liberal Cabinet. Mr. GLADSTONE
would never consent to occupy any subordi-
nate position—any position le3s than that of
First Lord of the Treasury. Even suppos-
ing he himself were prepared to do so,
were prepared to reassume his position as Leader of
the House of Commons and Chancellor of the Ex-
chequer, his 370 or 380 followers in the House would
never quietly acquiesce in his so doing—the country
itself would be in a turmoil at any such arrangement.
Nearly as certain, again, we take it as Mr. GLAD-
STONE'S occupancy of the Premiership, whenever the
hour shall have struck for the formation of a new
Liberal Government, is the exceeding probability—the
all but inevitable necessity—of Mr. BRIGHT taking no
office at all in any such future Administration. He
has too far committed himself to extreme measures
to allow of his working satisfactorily with any set of
administrators that could well be brought together
in the name of the QUEIN'S Government, and at
the same time of maintaining intact his Dwn
individual consistency. As for the Ministerial col-
leagues alloted to:Mr. GLADSTONE by flying rumours,
in the event of his becoming Primo Minister, there
are several of those above-mentioned which, seriously
considered, could hardly, by possibility, be im-
proved upon—lush, let us say, as the nomination
of Mr. W. E. FORSTER as Colonial Secre-
tary, of Mr. CHILDERS as Chancellor of the Ex-
chequer, of Sir HENRY BULWER as Foreign
Secretary, or of the Lord Chief Justice of England as
the Lord High Chancellor. Only—admitting to the

full the reasonableness of all this c'ub-talk just now,
consequent, anti we will even say naturally con-
sequent, upon the results of the General Election

—it must be remembered, at the same time,
as a simple-tnatter of fact, that one of the most
consummate Parliamentary Tacticians of the day,
one of the greatest Leaders of Party now living
one of the greatest masters of debate and manipula-
tors of legislative combina.tion3, is still —with a very
considerable and formidable array of followers at his
back, and in a great measure also at his beck—occu-
pant to this hour of the supreme position of First Lord
of the Treasury. The fact, we should have thought, was
in itself sufficiently obvious; and yet, it seems some-
how to require being pointed out thus expli-
citly—that Mr. DISRAELI must first of all have re-
signed before Mr. GLADSTONE can be called upon to
occupy his position as head of the Government.

THE employment of women and children in agri.

cultural gangs is a question which long ago passed
beyond the region of dispute. It has for some time
ranked amongst the honourable minority of British
institutions which nobody can be found to defend ;
even the stereotyped pleas by which the existence of
an abuse is prolonged have ceased to be urged. It is
now considerably more than a year since the House
of Commons decided that the unrestricted employ-

ment of women and children in agricultural gangs
was a crying evil, a public degradation of morals,
and a depreciation of health that ought to be reme-
died at once. An Act wos passed, not heedlessly
abolishing this system of labour, but subjecting it to
proper restrictions, It was provided that gang-
masters should be licensed, and that workers of
different sexes should be separated, the women and
girls being placed under the charge of a licensed
mistress. The short time that has elapsed since this
measure came into operation has been sufficient

to shew the beneficial results of the change, and to

lustify the hope that greater good will be derived

from a more extended application of the law. Some
of the worst gangmasters have been unable to find
employment ; whilst the other stipulations, though
they have been evaded in some cases, have been more
generally complied with, and the evasions may be
dealt with in the same way as the original grievance.
The ket was simply another embodiment of the great
principle that if the law cannot enforce good it
should at least not encourage evil.
The report of the Royal Commission on
Agricultural Employment,which contains the evidence
of this successful reform, furnishes much important
information bearing upon other questions of the kind.
The condition of the farm labourer is a standing
British disgrace, but the result of one interference by
the Legislature proves that similar experiments arenot

SACRED HARIsIONIC SOCIETY.—A special perform-
ance will be given by this society in Exeter-hall on Fri-
day evening next, in memory of the lato celebrated com-
poser Rossini, when the deceased's "Stant Mater," Han-
del's "Dead March in Saul," and Mozart's "Requiem'
will be performed under the direction of Mr. Costa. The
principal vocalists will be Madame Rudersdorff, Madame
Sainton Dolby, Mr. Cummings, and Signor Tagliafico.

HAYMARERT THEATRE. The play " Leah,"
which has drawn crowds to the Haymarket since the first
night of Miss Bateman's engagement, will be withdrawn
after the end of the present week to make room for a tra-
gedy entitled " Pietra," likewise from the pen of Herr
Mosenthal. This piece is in verse, and belongs to a more
elevated school than the story of the forsaken Jewess.
THE BENNFIT FOR THE WIDOW AND CHILDREN
OF THE LATE CHARLES WESTHALL.—This praiseworthy
meeting is fixed for this (Monday) evening and ti-mor-
row evening, at the Canterbury Hall, Westminster-
bride-road. The deceased was a most celebrated
athlete, scholar, and a journalist. Ho was the
author of a work on training for athletic exercises, which
is accepted as the text-book on the subject. The champions
at all sports will specially appear, including Roberts and
I)ufton, Kelley and Sadler (after their race), Join Mace
(on Monday) Jem Ward, and a host of other celebrities,
independent of the usual attractions at the Canterbury
SALMON IN THE TRENT.—At the annual meeting
of the Trent Fishery Board held at the George Hotel,
Nottingham, Mr. Worthington, one of the hon. secre-
taries, read the report, which stated that the weight of
the salmon taken during the season had been greater
than before known by the oldest fishermen of the Trent,
the average weight being above 1501bs. Many had been
over 201b5., several of 301b5., and one was reported to
be 431bs. This showed that the fish had been in the
upper waters during the spawning season, a fact for
which the proprietors of the lower waters and the public
generally had reason to be thankful. Altogether the
take of fish was estimated to be double that of the pre-
vious season.

hopeless. One fact is particularly worthy of note.
The great disparity in the condition of the agricul-
tural labourer in different parts of the country clearly

arises, not from any accidental circumstances, but
from permanent causes which might be partially
modified. In some districts the peasant is almost as
well off as could be expected ; in others his condition
could hardly be worse. In one part of the country
he finds abundance of employment at wages not
below the average for unskilled labour; his children
are well fed and clothed, and are able more and
more to profit by the facilities for acquiring instruc-
tion ; in another he lives a cheerless life, ending in

premature decay, and maintains a struggle for exist-
ence against hopeless disadvantages, the workhouse
awaiting him as the only prize of the creditable
career. Nothing can "be more gratifying,
nothing more unexpected, than the abundant testi-
mony in this report to the progress of the lowest
grade of the nation. Isolated facts, which indi-
vidually might count as nothing, bear an important
that signification
theagricultural
veryse hgeneseraetlhypelrt
impressionrey,
labourer
ignorance, and the lack of incentive as to be incapable
of progress, is proved to be a mistake. The result
everywhere corresponds to the conditions which
determine it. Where the wages of the labourer are
such as are reasonably sufficient to support life, the
employment of women and young children diminishes:
there is a decided disinclination to send into the fields
the mother who ought to be at home and the chil-
dren who ought to be at school. Where the comfort
of the peasant is considered by the erection of better
dwellings, a marked change in health and morals
straightway asserts itself. Where his independence
is consulted by the addition of a small plot of ground
to his cottage, he does not hesitate to abandon his
only luxury, the beershop, cultivate his terri43ory,
and both save his money and add to it. Where his
children are not condemned to incessant field-work,
the village school is eagerly sought after. The
interest which the agricultural population feel
in the great education question is one of the things
not generally suspected. Between Somerset-
shire and Northumberland—the antipoders of
rural life—there is all the difference of two
distinct countries. In the north the wages of the
agricultural labourer are not excessive, but they are
sufficient to support a family and yet permit the
children to go to school and the mother to remain at
home. The cottages are numerous and tolerably
comfortable; hence the gang system is unknown; and
though unmarried women go out to work, this is
rather beneficial than otherwise. Married women
very rarely labour in the fields, and the childri are

THE LAW ON GARNISHEES.-A question was
raised on Saturday before the Recorder in the Lord
Mayor's Court as to the law on bankers as garnishees. A
creditor claimed the balance in a bank on an attachment,
and it appeared that in the case of the defendants in a
dissolution of partnership the Court of Chancery had ap-
pointed a receiver, and the question was whether the
money could be attached. Mr. Day, for the plaintiff, said
the order to appoint a receiver might be considered as
obsolete. Mr. Talfourd Salter maintained that as the
order of the Court of Chancery existed his lordship had
no power in the matter. The learned Recorder was of
the same opinion, and made an order for the payment of
the money.
-

ICEBERGS IN THE ATLANTC.—The barque Scout,
Captain Mickleubright, which has just arrived at Swan-
sea from the Vest Coast, encountered a gnat number of
icebergs on the voyage home. Captain Micklenbright
reports that on Sept. 12, the wind blowing fresh from
N.E., barometer 89, thermometer 42, fell in with seve-
ral largo icebergs in lot 57 S., long. 75 W. From that
position up to lat. 54 S., long. 75 W., the ship passed
through upwards of 200 large icebergs, some from 300 to
600 feet high, and of great length. The wind was gene-
rally from the N.E., with dense fogs, rendering the na-
vigation of the Scout both difficult and dangerous. Tho
thermometer was down to 33 to 40,- the barometer ranging
from 29.20 to 29 40. On the 25th September, in lat. 50 S.,
long. 38 W., barometer 30.25, the thermometer fell to 36
in passing through the ice. This day the barque sailed by
two enormous icebergs of great height, and from five to six
miles in length.

MOULE'S EARTH CLOSETS.—We understand that
it is definitely decided that Moule's thy-earth conservancy
shall be introduced into the new asylums for lunatic rau-
pers which are to be built, under Mr. Gathorne Hardy's
act, iu the neghbcurhood of London. it was the practical
and very striking success of these closets at Colney Hatch
Asylum which practically led to the decision to employ
them in the new establishments.

THE SUN, LONDON, MONDAY EVENING, NOVEMBER 30, IS6B.

THE NEW PARLIAMENT.

• New Members.—t Old Members for New Constituencies.

Ll.c.i,