The Sun.
London, England, 1850-01-02 00:00:00

Oblening int

r,ONDON, WEDNESDAY. JANUARY 2, 1850,

We have already considered the changes which the
year that has just closed has effected in the European
continent—changes which, however disastrous they
may at first sight appear, are in reality only calcu-
lated to advance the great popular cause. If we look
nearer home we shall find a similar prospect. 1849
has been (in some respects) a year of adversity, but
of that adversity which is the nursing mother of good
things. Death has been busy amongst us, but the
premature deaths of the few have been, let us hope,
the precursors of ameliorated life to the many. For
years there has been much talk about unequal taxa-
tion, unjust laws, the sorrows and sufferings of the
poor, and the negligence, culpable or acci-
dental, of the rich ; it was left for 1849
to attest with a terrible severity the truth-
fulness of such complaints and the enormity
of such short-comings. It remains for 1850 to
realise the promises and expiate the offences of its
predecessor. It remains for the latter half of the
nineteenth century to render the boasted " progress"
and civilization of the first half a glorious reality. It
is true that the men of this country have cause to
reflect with pride on the doings of the last fifty years
—fifty years during which individuals of the three
kingdoms have signalised themselves in the several
paths to distinction—fifty years during .which the
British people—as a peopli—have reached and
maintained a political position hitherto unparalleled.
But five years of this half century had passed when it
witnessed the tearful triumph of Trafalgar, and now
at its close it has again borne testimony to the
popular lore and gratitude towards NELSON. By sea
and by land, in the heart of Europe and in the far
extremities of Asia, the laurels of war have been
bountifully gathered by British hands. In the fields
of literature the labourers have been so numerous as
almost to defy, and so celebrated as not to re-
quire, enumeration—rich indeed is the literature of a
half century whose first days witnessed the rising
genius of a SCOTT, and whose close has seen the chefs
(I*(euvres of a DISRAELI, a BUMPIER, and a DICKENS.
To attest our practical progress in the path of science,
we have only to point to those innumerable railroads
which render the transit to all parts of the kingdom
a matter of marvellous rapidity; we have only to call
in mind that " the sun has become our portrait-
painter, and the lightning our bearer of messages."
In the political world the good effects of this half-
century have been no less conspicuous and important.
The barriers of intolerance iu religion and monopoly
in trade have been materially overthrown ; Christians
of all denominations now rank among our legislators,
and the first act of Parliamentary reform has been
successfully accomplished. Without pursuing the
enumeration further, it is easy to see that these fifty
years have not been unimportant or inglorious ones
in the history, internal and external, of the British
empire. Yet, having said thus much, having thus
exclusively contemplated the bright retro-pect of
these fifty years, how false is the picture thus given
of England in the nineteenth century—how much
has been kept unsaid and of what a gloomy character.
Liko ARTHUR in the " halls of Tinto," let us seek
another test of our national prosperity, like him, let
us exclaim—

"Where stands the reople?—Genizia lift the blind!"
And like him we shall meet with the same sad an.
s wer—

g' Slow fades the pageant, and the phantom stago
As slowly fill'd with squalid, ghastly forms;
Here, per fireless hearths, cowered shivering Age."
And "Youth all labour-bowed, with withered look,"