The Sun.
London, England, 1868-09-09 00:00:00

SPIRIT` OF THE PUBLIC JOITRHALEQ

•
The iimes, remarking that it is rather sceptical auto
the aim of the International Working Men's Association,
the regeneration of mankind, as assured in the Fourth
says:—lt is not a mere phrase that we are criticis-
jng. t- The idea is still more forcibly expressed in thO
general burden of the report. This is an association
which' boasts of having its hand against every other in,sti-
tution-and against every other class. It rejoices in pro-
.voking the hostility of Governments, and the report
details, with evident satisfaction, how there is not a single
'Government in Europe—nay, in the world—with which it
is not on hostile terms. The French Government,
founded on universal suffrage, encounters the greatest
,hare of animosity ; Prussia is little better ; Belgium is
threatened with annihilation. In Austria the society is
simply revolutionary. In Switzerland it has had a struggle
for its very existence. In Italy it is subjected to restric-
tions ; even in the United States it finds itself compelled
to rely on foreign support. In England alone it occasions
no active antagonism at present, in consequence of the
pressure on the public mind of more urgent matters.
In a word, it is the enemy of all Governments, even of
the freest, and the friend of none. It cannot find a con-
genial home even in America, but supports itself in the
air by a kind of universal repulsive force. We dare
say it is better in practice, but this is the way
it describes itself. Nor is it only Governments
which are objects of this hostility. We search in vain
through the report for a good word for any body, or c'ass,
or institution, except the institution and those whom it
represents. The ruling classes are only conceived as the
authors of " bitter denunciations " against the working
men, and capitalists are characterised by the general
epithet of " rebellious." "For they are a rebellious race"
is the refrain which is heard throughout this performance.
In the same spirit it is not a compromise, or an agreement,
or a treaty of ;peace which is the aim in view, but a
" triumph." The Proletariat, as they call themselves,
are at war with every other human institution, and will
.be contented with nothing short of victory over conquered
foes.

The Anglo-American Telegraph Company's history
seems likely, the Herald thinks, to furnish a good illustra-
tion of the recuperative power of reduced rates upon net
revenue. When the prospectus of a French rival appeared,
promising to carry ordinary messages at £2 each, the
Anglo-American directors met their opponents in posse, by
giving their customers an advantage in ease. They an-
nounced that on and after September 1 they would reduce
their rates from £5 to £3, in addition to the land charges

at each end, which, it appears average 7s. 6d. The ahem-
tion has been made during the dullest season of the year,
at a time when all who can are enjoying their holiday.
That the time was unfavourable for :the change is shown
by the fact that while the daily average for the three
months, from December to February, was £1,215, it had
dropped in the period between May 1 and July 31 to
£496 10s. This latter sum, therefore, is the standard of
comparison, when we wish to estimate the effect of the
alteration which has just been made, the result of which
was to send up the receipts on September 1, to £5ll
4s. lOd. ; on the 2nd, to £545 4s. sd. ; on the 3rd, to £526
.16s. ; on the 4th, to £534 4s. ; and on the sth, to £517
6s. 9d. The average for the five days was within a
fraction of £527, an advance of nearly 8 per cent.
in the money taken, consequent upon a much more
remarkable increase in the burin- se done. In round
numbers, we may take a daily receipt of £406 10s.
as representing 100 messages at £5 each. A receipt
of £527, when the charge is £3 7s. 6d., represents 156
messages. It follows, therefore, that the immediate con-
sequence of the reduction has been to add 8 per cent. to
the receipts, and 56 per cent. to the business ; a result
with which the proprietary has every reason to- be more
than satisfied. We commend the lesson thus taught to
the attentive consideration of those southern railways
which have just been acting upon a diametrically opposite
policy, and ask them whether it would not be worth while
to try back, before the bad blood, generated by their mis-
taken tactics, has led to an exodus from the districts they
serve, and has produced serious and permanent mischief
to themselves.

The Daily News concludes that the battle with the rail-
ways is not going well for the cabmen. Four days of a
cab strike have brought no results. The public has been
inconvenienced, but the cabmen have gained nothing.
The railways make no sign. Scarcely an impression seems
to have been made on them. Privileged cabs still use their
privileges, and, however hard it may be to get to the
stations, there is no difficulty in getting from them. Nor
are the streets themselves entirely empty. The cab-stands
are bare, but casual observers thought they noticed
that during yesterday the number of unprivileged cabs
plying in the streets increased. This may be so or
not, but the cabmen are clearly not of one mind
in the strike. The horses alone enjoy the rest ; the
drivers are losing heart. Never well paid, they .are
finding that even hall a loaf is better than no bread.
They cannot hold out against wealthy corporations with
the public against them. They may suffer courageously,
as Englishmen do even when in the wrong, but they suffer
in vain. The end is certain, and can only be the impove-
rishment of the cabmen. For the sake of a much abused
but most useful class of men we hope they may be better
advised than to continue a hopeless struggle. They have
made a false move, and as they will have in the end to
confess it, why not do so at once ? Four days of idleness
may well suffice for a protest, but four weeks will do no more
to remove the grievance of which they complain. Every
day they are off the street brings them nearer to the end
of their resources, but the first four days of the strike
leave them farther away than at first from the end they
had in view.

The Standard observes that there is no doubt that the
,drivers of "privileged cabs" are being subjected to treat-
ment which is rather trying to their fidelity to the com-
panies. The cab proprietors who have ordered the present
strike, or their agents, go into the railway stations and
hire a cab, telling the driver to go to some place exactly
one mile distant. The fare then keeps the cab waiting
ten minutes and gives the driver exactly the amount the
law permits him to charge, paying nothing whatever for
the time the man has been waiting. Suppose the public
hereafter followed this precedent against those proprietors
who are shewing them the use of it ? In that case the
cabmen would be the chief sufferers, for the masters
would contrive to exact their usual tariff, no matter how
little the drivers earned. Yet the cabmen are now blindly
consenting to be made cats'-paws of by their employers.
If they succeeded in the strike the drivers themselves
would be the first to smart for it, for it is admitted on all
sides that they would have to pay more for the hire of
cabs. Of all the short-sighted combinations which have
taken place within the last year or two this is the worst,
And we have a regard for the cabmen's own interests when
we express the hope that they will give up a contest
-which was certain to leave them losers from the very
first.

The Telegraph announces that Lord Elcho is far from
.comfortable. He seems to feel hie seat gradually, but
jrresistibly, slipping from under him, and his attempts to
'prevent himself from falling are the reverse of graceful.
We have fair authority for stating that the prospects of
lord William Hay, the genuinely Liberal candidate for
the county, are steadily improving. Lord Elcho's
flagrant political tergiversation has taken from the
,conscientious but traditionally subservient farmers of
the county whatever excuse they may have had for
temporising with their convictions in former elections.
And he does not please them any more as a candidate than
he has of late done as a member. We hear a story which,
if it were but partially true, would dispel the halo of
chivalrous and high-souled nobility that has hitherto
surrounded him. It is etated that he has written to the
Earl of Hopetoun's agent a letter asking him to use his
influence with the tenantry in order to secure the defeat of
Lord William Hay ; but we are glad to hear the agent has
assured the tenants that Lord Hopetoun had no wish to
interfere ; so that Lord Elcho's appeal has been
made in vain. Again, according to the same account, the
last of the Adullamites is "putting on the screw" rather
sharply with the electors whom his immediate and per-
sonal influence can reach ; and, whatever may be the
accuracy of these statements, we have reason to know that
moderate and thoughtful men who have supported Lord
'Elcho on former occasions employ rather severe language
in discussing the reports of his dealings with the consti-
tuency. May we anticipate that the noble lord will hasten
to meet these stories with a direct and complete refuta-
tion ?

In the opinion of the Star, Fir John Pakington's faint
old-lady-like protest against the disestablishment of the
Irish Church are quaint and characteristic in the
extreme. Sir John cannot consent to the destruction of
the State Church in any part of these realms, because
" we are mainly indebted to the Reformation for the civil
and religious liberties we enjoy," and he " must decline
to adopt any course which would in his judgment
'render those blessings less secure." So far all is
plain and comprehensible ; but then comes Sir John's
willingness to modify. Now modification of the Irish
Establishment, if not exactly like that improvement off
the face of the earth which was once considered a desirable
fate for the whole Irish people, must at any rate be deemed
to involve in a degree the principle of abolition. What
will Sir John modify? and how? and where? If the pre-
sent circumstances call for modifications, might not an
aggravation of these circumstances call for still greater
modifications? And if Sir John's rule of modifying is the
actual needs of the Protestant minority, is it not just conceiv-
able that the present situation might be so far aggravated
as to make his modifications, even upon his own principle,
amount practically to disestablishment? What, then, does
Sir John Pakington save by insisting on the blessings of
the Reformation ? Clearly nothing in principle, if he once
lets in the wedge of modification. By " existing evils,"
everyone must understand the presence of a well-paid
Protestant clergy, where the population is almost wholly
Roman Catholic ; but there, if anywhere, the blessings of
Protestantism need to be secured by the State. It is Sir
John Faking t mi who, to save Ireland from the Romanists,
would withdraw the Protestant Church endowments,
except from those districts where the Protestants are
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