The Sun.
London, England, 1868-01-17 00:00:00

RPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNAL

The Times reminds us that a lull has followed the popu-
lar excitement on the subject of Fenianism. We can
afford to confess any extravagances we may have com-
mitted, and look things fairly in the face. Fenianism is a
spring of real danger. There is no doubt about so much.
It is, we are told, high time for us to be serious and sober
in discussing Irish complaints and Irish proposals. A
few instances will suffice to exhibit the unreasoning temper

of the public mind which seems to us an occasion of danger.
We are told by one great authority that we must learn to
govern Ireland according to Irish ideas. The orator who

threw out this phrase from his abundance was not very

careful to explain what it meant, but it seemed from the
context that Parliament ought to govern the inhabitant:,

of Ireland as it would have an Irish Parliament govern
England ; or, in other words, we should do to others as we
would have others do to us. Government "Locording to
Irish ideas" would thus appear to mean government

according to justice, against which no one can say a word.
But the phrase serves as a convenient cloak. Ireland
possesses an unscctarian system of primary educa-
tion and two universities—one unsectarian, the other

partly sectarian. England possesses a denominationa:
system of primary education, so qualified, practically, by
the Conscience Clause that no child can be denied psi-

wary education on sectarian grounds ; and two universi
ties, partly denominational, which the House of Corn.

mons has declared, by increasing majorities, shall cease to
be denominational. It is plain, therefore, that if Parlia-
ment followed the simple rule of justice in governing In-
land as it would have England governed, it would maintain
unimpaired the unsectarian character of Irish national
education, and abate the sectarian character of its elder
university ; but here the phrase " Irish ideas " is brought
in, and the author of it, departing from the sound inter-
pretation to be gathered from his own speech, would appa-
rently urge Parliament to violate its own opinion of jus
government in deference to a noisy section of Irish society.
This suggestion, mischievous as we believe it to Ise, is not.
however, so wild as the recommendations to hold a perio-
dical session of Parliament in Dublin, and to choose the
highest Irish officials exclusively from persons born
ii
Ireland, which have come from other quarters. These
pueriliti.es serve to exhibit the estimate their authors form
of the Irish character, but they are unsupported by the
experience of history. The Lord-Lieutenants and Chief
Secretaries, who, as a matter of fact, have given the
greatest satisfaction in Ireland, have been Englishmen,
and we do not understand how anyone surveying the past
can look upon a Home Parliament for Ireland as a
panacea for its disorders. It is almost cruel to refer to
the monstrous proposition that all the tenants-at-will in
Ireland should be converted into proprietors in fee,
subject to the payment of fee-farm rents equivalent
to their present rentals. Apart from the question of jus-
tice and the shock to all our ideas of legality involved in
such a suggestion, it is manifest that it could never eradi-
cate the discontent it is designed to remove. A new gene-
ration of landlords would supplant the old ; the occupation
of land would become subject to a double set of rentals—
the chief rent and the improved rent ; the experience of
Ulster during the last century warns us that agriculture
would become stationary, if it would not retrograde ; and
in less than a generation we should have a recurrence of
the present discont'ent, with a state of society affording
less hope of obtaining the sanction of the country to more

rational methods of improvement.
The Daily News thinks that the proceedings at the meet-
ing of the Midland Railway Company, on Wednesday,
were of a nature to give satisfaction to the shareholders.
Misconceptions were cleared up and fears dispelled, and if
the chairman's speech, maintaining, as it did, the too mag-
nificent policy which so startled the proprietors a month
ago, only proved how necessary it had become for the pro-
prietors to take their affairs seriously in hand, it must also
be admitted that it was a straightforward, clear, business-
like statement. True, there was a complacent impeni-
tence in his language, which abundantly justified the
appointment of a Committee of Consultation ; but it ap-
peared that, apart from the great question of policy, there
was not so very much to be repented of. The com-
pany's plans will now undergo a sober revision, which
can hardly fail to lead to retrenchment. At the
same time it would not be surprising if the main
features of the London Extension were justified
by the committee. There can be no doubt
that the time had arrived when the interests of
the company required that the line should be continued
to London, and have its own independent station here ;
and, this being admitted, it will not he denied that, as a
general rule, it must be good economy to obtain at once
the space which is certain to be required. The Committee
of Consulation are hardly likely to sanction the erection of
a costly and unnecessary hotel as an appendage to their
station ; but, as men of business, they may be trusted to
see the importance of making the arrangements for the
conduct of the proper business of the line—the conveyance
of passengers and goods—as complete and effective as
possible. These and all questions of policy will come
before the shareholders at their next meeting, and for their
discussion the report of the Committee of Consulation titi ill
have prepared the way.

Speaking of the Rlue..tional Cenferenca at Manchester,
the Star observes that, although no unanimous conclusion
has been come to as to the advisability of compulsory
rating, clearly the feeling of the Conference is in favour of
Mr. roister's proposals to give a Government initiative
for the benefit of neglected districts, and to extend Govern-
ment aid to secular schools. This is, indeed, a tide of
educational enthusiasm, and it should be taken at the
flood. The less we hear of Mr. Bruce's " enormous pres-
sure of religious and financial opposition" the sooner shall
we perceive that a recent revulsion of public feeling has
made that opposition insignificant.
Referring to the proceedings that have been instituted
against Louis Lavenburg, a pawnbroker, the Herald ob-
serves that the accused evidently knows how to make the
most of his opportunities, and does not trouble himself
with any conscientious scruples. His plan is to split each
single pawn into as many items as possible, charging sep.
rately for the ticket and the interest upon each. For in-
stance, a poor widow pledged a clock with this fellow for
half-a-crown, for which he was bound to give a duplicate
at a charge of one halfpenny, and to be paid interest at
the rate of a halfpenny per month, from the time of
pledging until redemption, Instead of this, he split
the half-crown clock into three, making out one ticket
for the works, a second for the pendulum, and a third
for the weights, thus getting three time a.s much
as he was entitled to for duplicates, while, as
the same interest is chargeable on all sums not
exceeding half-a-crown, he trebled his claim for in-

terest by the same smart stroke of business.
There were three other summonses against this man for
as many offences under the statute, of all of which he
was convicted, and ordered to pay £l4 2s. in all. But
we suppose he has made his business answer pretty well,
for it was stated that there were no fewer than seventy
other well-known cases against him--sa number which pro•
bably represents twenty times as many of which the world
will never hear, because the sufferers are too ignorant to
know their rights, too poor to take out a summons, or too
much ashamed of their poverty to let their resort to the
pawnshop be known. It is, therefore, satisfactory to note
that as tilts defendant had been previously fined, the
magistrate inflicted substantial penalties, and warned the
delinquent against appearing before him again. It is
only fair to other pawnbrokers to observe that several of
them were in attendance to deny that it was the custom
of the trade to practise Lavenburg's tactics, or to adopt a
system which should be held up to universal opprobrium,
because of the cruel and heartless exactions it levies upon
those in the East of London whom a concurrence of mis-
fortunes has steeped to the lips in poverty and privation
Many persons, remarks the Telegraph, prophesied that
the negro released from slavery would go too far in the
" other" direction, and would want more liberty than
white men enjoy. The truth of the prediction is clearly
proved by the news that a negro delegate in Georgia has
proposed a resolution that " no man and woman of either
race be allowed to intermarry unless he and she, the con-
tracting party, want to." Really our friend Sambo is
going very fast. Do we not know from our best instructors
that maidens are but mantraps ; that men are entangled in
mother's wiles and forced to the altar ; and that all our
people of rank compel their daughters to marry dukes or
millionnaires, while Strephon, with only six hundred a
year, is dying of unhappy love ? Yet this audacious dole
gate wants to escape the common lot of man and not to
marry unless he "wants to." He may be quite sure that
when his hour has come no law will save him, and the poor
Predestinated darkie may well go up smiling and take
his dusky br“i\lve.hyLdeiedenh,t-dyrasoeuw
geta surly driver scolding his
conductor.
"'They slid they didn't want tot at
'ereyarty to come
want to come ! I like that! WharlaesTl" They (Han:,
thati,is to do with
it? D'ye call that conducting a 'bus ?" negro notion
that he does not " want to marry, and tliiereforeineed
not, is equally absurd. If Dinah wanes h
made up her mind to have him, " what has thamt'toali with
it ?" his "not wanting " will not save him, nor •
his proposed new constitution of the United States.w even
The Standard replies to the arguments of those who, in
effect, say, " Let the colonies go." It considers it some.
thing very much the reverse of a "rational policy," the
idea of so ruling the empire that it may be the most quickly
and conveniently dissevered. Ought we not rather to
govern with the opposite intent, to preserve the unity and
to keep from dismemberment ? At least, the colonies have
a right to ask that they shall be consulted upon the ques-
tion of separation. At present it is certain that they have
no wish, no thought of a severance ; that, as the reception
of the link, if Edinburgh proves of the Alitralians at
thiAns,:kv; as much a part of En,qla,ll
rn,ji t!.,ln,eivi•!. We have no t-4;lit to ant:yi-
pate that anytitint7 harpen ti 11:,:tilrb this fooling. It
i-; thee enolPfli to talk of the ili;iii,n;l;,.rm,nt of the empire
when the 1:)1;; cannot hang to the and wIL-n
time it will prove not 1111101 t,l::`,t. the limb art!
superfluous a.; that the trunk is rotten.
The Post thinks that in the present condition of affairs
in Europe it is much to be regretted that a general nail
simultaneous disarmament between the Great I'ower3 can
not be arranged. If Prussia will only consent to wear het
new honours a little more meekly, there need be no enmity
or ill blood between her and France. They need not come
into collision if they do not stand constantly scowling at
each other ; but it is undoubtedly a very awful thing for
two immense armies in the highest state of efficiency to be
constantly drawn up in array within sight, and only too
ready to come to blows on the lightest cause of Quarrel.