The Sun.
London, England, 1868-06-11 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS,

The Times opposes the Telegraphs Bill, It thinks that
arguments enough have not been advanced to shew that it
is wanted. The preamble, on which the Chancellor of
the Exchequer relied for the success of the whole bill, is
exactly what has never been proved at all, nor, indeed, as
is now said, ever regularly debated. According to pre-
cedent, the bill ought to have been submitted, like a rail-
way bill, to a committee of the House, before which the
preamble, or, in other words, the principle of the measure,
could have been fairly argued. This condition had never
been satisfied, and the House felt the want of the cus-
tomary assurance. Not one of the speakers against
the bill disguised the recommendations of the mea-
sure. They all thought it of promise sufficient to
merit careful discussion, but not of such self-evident
expediency as to put discussion out of the question.
It is very easy to see and to appreciate what the proposal
offers us. Telegraphic communication is not employed so
commonly as it ought to be ; it is costly, it is imperfect,
and it requires a development which, perhaps, a Govern-
ment administration would ensure more successfully than
any other agency. Many petitions had been presented in
favour of the bill, though in Mr. Goschen's judgment the
expression of opinion thus obtained was not quite
so important as the Chancellor of the Exchequer
imagined. Still there had been a movement, no
doubt, in support of the measure ; but, on the
other hand, the opposite side had not been heard
at all, and when the case was pressed for decision
it occurred to everybody how 'much that side might
possibly have to say. The proposal was to attach the
telegraphs to the Post Office, but this would be to take a
step of at least unusual tendency. The Post Office is the
only remaining example among our institutions of a
Government monopoly—a monopoly worked, no doubt, to
the public advantage, but a monopoly. still. Would it be
politic to enter upon an extension of that principle to the
inevitable discouragement of the private enterprise which
has made us what we are? Was it safe to place open corre-
spondence:under the control of;Government,or to intrust the
transmission, say, of political intelligence at a period of agi-
tation to Government officials ? Would a speech of Mr.
Bright's, it was asked, be reported with as much exacti-
tude as a "speech of Mr. Disraeli's by Conservative clerks
dismissible at pleasure ? Then, could Government ever
succeed in working the telegraphs for railway purposes?
Mr. Hunt, who acknowledged the importance of this
question, offered, on behalf of the Ministry, to do what-
ever could be done ; but it was admitted that the great
companies were all in a state of alarm at the prospect opened
by the bill, and the public will understand what this alarm
imples. We certainly cannot afford to have accidents mul-
tiplied through the derangement of the machinery-by which
lines are worked. In short, it has never yet been
thoroughly considered by the light of sufficient evidence
whether, upon the whole, it would be politic to extinguish
the private telegraph companies now existing, and transfer
their business to a department of State. That, however,
is the material question. As to the terms of purchase, no
doubt they could be adjusted, and this part of the argu-
ment hardly needed the pains Mr. Hunt bestowed upon
it. What he ought to have proved was precisely what he
took for granted—the expediency of the transfer.
Ever since Sir Robert Napier telegraphed that he had
taken charge of the son of the late Theodorus, and intended
to place him in Dr. Wilson's establishment at Bombay, the
Daily News has been expecting the beginning of a dispute
as to the religion in which the unfortunate boy is to be
brought up. It does not know whether Sir Robert is a
Presbyterian ; but Dr. Wilson is, . and, what is worse, a
Free Churchman. A correspondent of the Guardian,
writing from King's College, Cambridge, asks if
it is fair to thy' boy to place him under Dr.
Wilson's charge, seeing that the Presbyterians made
light of the whole sacramental system on which the
Abyssinian Church has, amid many superstitions and in
the utmost depth of degradation, retained her hold.
Another point raised by the same correspondent will, we
think, strike the public as of much more importance. It is
urged that Sir Robert's own experience of the climate of
Abyssinia must have proved to him that it is very diffe-
rent from that of Bombay ; and that it must be a dange-
rous experiment to transplant a boy of eight years of age
from the bracing atmosphere of those healthy highlands
to the relaxing and enervating influences of such a climate
as that of Bombay. This is a matter which deserves con-
sideration.

The Herald lays down that an attempt to bring about
social revolution and to establish a fresh set of conflicting
interests in every family in the empire may indicate either
the crudity of immatured thought or the vaultings of
excessive ambition. It may also shew that the innovator
is a man wonderfully in advance of ;his age. Our cortem-
porary is afraid, however, that it cannot accept the latter
of these alternatives as likely to happen in the case
of Mr. Shaw Lefevre, whose scheme for recon-
stituting society on a new theory of the marital
relation, was on Wednesday discussed at the morning
sitting of the House of Commons. The honourable
and learned gentleman has doubtless given some attention
to the subject, and it is equally certain that he has under-
taken its public advocacy with the very best intentions.
Still, it might have been as well if he had left so important
a matter to be dealt with by some one with greater claims
to authority than can be advanced by himself. Yet the
bill which he has introduced is one which, if carried, would
change the aspect of affairs in every family in the kingdom,
and would rejoice the heart of every strong-minded
female, with advanced views on woman's rights, though
in that event we should probably hear a great deal more
than we now do about husbands' wrongs. Mr. Lefevre
has been impressed with the hardships occasionally re-
sulting from the power over his wife's property, which the
law gives to the husband, in virtue of which all her per-
sonal property not settled to her separate use becomes his
absolutely, and very extensive rights are obtained by him
over the rents and profits of her real estate. Of course,
everyone has met with instances ih which some worth-
less or luckless fellow has used this power to his wife's
disadvantage, has squandered her money in dissipation,
or has lost it in unfortunate ventures. It is, however,
already possible to prevent these mishaps by mar-
riage settlements, though the policy of doing so has
been not unfrequently questioned. But Mr. Lefevre's
bill proposes to go a great deal farther. If it should ever
be carried, every household would have two distinct and
separate sets of pecuniary interests. The married woman
would retain her fortune, and with it her right to sue and
her liability to be sued, just as if she were single. Nor is
the operation of the bill designed to be prospective only.
Existing marriages are to be brought under its influence,
and all the incidents of a separate estate are to attach to
the parties who contracted them.
The 'Standard declares Lord Elcho to be a victim of
political rattening. his lordship (says our contemporary)
took a most prominent, indeed a leading part, in effecting
an amendment of the law relating to masters and work-
men, the alteration sought and obtained being wholly in
favour of the latter. It was natural enough that those
who as a class had benefited by this piece of legislation
should be anxious to shew Lord Elcho in some way or
other a sense of their appreciation of his services. Accord.
ingly the executive committee which was some years ago
appointed at Glasgow to forward the good work—now,
thanks largely to Lord Elcho, completely effected—
proposed to entertain his lordship at dinner. Forthwith
there arose a chorus of dissentient voices. A meeting of
working men was held, and resolutions condemnatory of
the executive committee and disclaiming any connection
with the proposed banquet were passed. It was quite
true that Lord Elcho had laboured strenuously to put them
on amore advantageous footing with their masters and had
been entirely successful ; but he had presumed to differ from
pendentcourse in the matter of therfory Reform Bill. For
this divergence of opinion between him and them they
washed their hands of him entirely, and considered all
obligations to him fur his labours in their behalf more
than cancelled. The dinner took place, it is true, for it
was after it that Lord Elcho gave vent to the not unnatural
bitterness of his feelings. But we gather that it was not
a very triumphant affair. Only fifty people sat down to
dinner, and the tone of the speakers shewed that they were
in a small, and as the suggestive phrase of the day has it
a " miserable" minority.
The Telegraph devotes a leader to working men's clubs.
The movement is still very young, and may not be quite
strong enough to stand alone. Theref3re, a union is re-
quired to keep it on its feet. A child that is unable to
walk is not disgraced by being carried ; but the child well
tended grows apace, and often becomes big and strong
enough to carry his nurse. A nascent cause mustieerforce
have supporters and patrons. The Anti-Corn Law agi-
tators had their League; Catholic Emancipation would
not have been carried without the Catholic As-
sociation ; and in both these instances men of
rank and fortune were mingled with the more
plebeian friends of the enterprise. Even in the essentially
democratic Society for the Diffusion of Useful Know-
ledge, the original committee comprised many noblemen,
without
their of Parliament, and professors ; and
their aid and patronage the Penny Maga:ine could not
have been established. But in the course of a few years
it was discovered that on the foundation laid in that work
a whole edifice of cheap literature had been established.
The chill, in fine, had grown up. There was no longer a
raion clYtrc for the Penny Magazine. It had done its
work, and it was wisely discontinued. So may it be
with working men's clubs. The union is at present in
the pincer stage—the epoch of felling the forest,
of digging and delving, and sowing seed ; and the public
gratitude is (111,3 to those personages of high rank and in-
fluence who have so valorously undertaken the part of
backwoodsmen. By and by a comely settlement will
emerge from the wilderness, and the pioneers may turn
their attention to some new jungle to be cleared.
There are waste lands enough about us, Heaven knows, to
keep the whole House of Peers continually busy with the
axe and spade of reformation. Nor need the work-
ing men who are members of these clubs feel
in the slightest degree ashamed at having to pass through
a preliminary stage of tutelage, or even at receiving some
material support from the wealthy at the outset of their
club career. More than one of the lordliest club-palaces
in West-end London could never have been built or opened
without the substantial help of rich and public-spirited
noblemen and gentlemen, who in the beginning took up
debentures towards the necessary capital, and subse-
quently most generously surrendered their securities.

THE RECENT PANIC IN THE CORN

TRADE,

In an interesting article in the Daily New on the corn
Dade, it is stated that, owing to the splendid weather
luring the last few weeks the British corn trade has
experienced several 'violent changes, almost partaking
of the character of a revolution, occasioned by the
irresistible fear of a coming extensive fall in prices.
In the import trade there has also been a heavy
panic, the like of which has not been experienced for years
in that important branch of commerce. One the first day
of the present month, which proved a kind of Black
Monday, the actual price of several kinds of wheat sud-
denly declined from 14s. to 16s. per quarter. The effect
was astounding. The corn markets throughout the
country instantaneously became seriously agitated,
Abroad the startling news was quickly telegraphed to
every wheat-exporting port, to every leading city and town,
thereby producing corresponding excitement and depres-
sion of prices, besides checking the further export of grain
to this country. For a time enterprise became com-
pletely paralysed, and neither buyers nor sellers appeared
to know what to do. As the true state of affairs became
known the panic gradually abated, and prices began
to resume their old position. The real effect of an abund-
ant harvest will probably be to prevent further rises in
price rather than to bring about any marked decline.
During the week ending May 30, 1864, the average price
of wheat in this country was 395. sd. In 1865 it had risen
to 41s. 11d. ; in 1866 it was 475. 5d.; in 1867 it rose yet
further to 655. sd. ; and during the corresponding
week this year was 725. 3d. Had the old corn
laws remained unrepealed, bread would have been abso-
lutely at a famine price, and the country filled with suffer-
ing and discontent. As it is, the supplies from abroad
have hitherto prevented wheat being so dear as it must
otherwise have become. Still there is little reason for
hoping that the price of wheat will exhibit much of a down-
ward tendency this year. Granted that the harvest of 1868
proves unusually good, that it is heavy in the ear, and is
safely stacked , still a very considerable proportion of it
will be required to replenish our now almost exhausted
granaries, and to make secure provision against the pos-
sibility of a bad harvest in 1869. It is the same abroad.
Consequently, should the coming harvest prove ever so
abundant, it is not likely to produce any material or
continued decline in price. But are our harvest pros-
pects so very good ? Are they so very encouraging ?
Seldom has the wheat-plant been in ear so early as during
the present season. It is thirty-four years since we have
had a corresponding forward development of our wheat
crops, and should no unfavourable circumstances inter-
vene we may look for the commencement of harvest
operations in our southern districts about the second
week in July—an unusually early period. So far
matters are promising ; but from abroad we have less
hopeful accounts. Complaints come from France, Italy,
Hungary, the Danubian Principalities, and the South of
Russia- In Germany, the rye crop, which fur-
nishes the staple food of the people, has been
unfavourably reported of in several places—frost,
rain, drought, hail, and thunderstorms having in suc-
cession tended to render it doubtful whether the
actual yield will reach the level of previous years.
Although during the last four or five weeks symptoms of
a slight fall in prices have been perceptible, the quantity
of grain sent to market has diminished week by
week. It is contrary to all precedent, to all rule,
for the farmer to sell his stock when prices rise,
or to hold it back when they are falling. There
cannot be the least doubt that the quantity of grain
actually existing in this country and on the continent
is extremely limited. The harvest of 1868 will be required
to repair the deficiencies of the harvests of 1866 and 1867.
This alone ought to show that low prices are not yet
to be thought of. Last year we imported 9,031,564
quarters of wheat and flour, the whole of which was
consumed as fast as it arrived. At least an equal quan
tity will be required also this year, but it will be pro.
curable only on condition of paying a price higher
than that given on the Continent. The quantity of wheat
and flour imported by us during the first five months of
the present year was 3,442,000 quarters, leaving a
balance due for the remaining seven months of 5,590,000
quarters. Little mention has been made of
America, but what has been said of the Continent
applies also to that country. As to importations from
Australia, there exist difficulties in the way of profitably
importing antipodian grain produce, except on a scale too
limited to produce any appreciable effect on the home
market. Altogether, even under too most favourable
conditions, there exists little probability of the price of
wheat in 1868 descending to that prevailing in 1864 or
1805.