The Sun.
London, England, 1868-06-08 00:00:00

SPIRIT- OP THE PUBLIC JOURNALS,

What will the Lords do, asks the Times, with Mr. Glad-
stone's Suspensory Bill?' It has passed through com-
mittee in the House of Commons, and in the course of
this week, or early in next, it will come before the Upper
House. What will their lordships do ? The leading
journal finds no difficulty in the question what they
ought to do (for they ought to accept, it) but it cannot be
sanguine that they will do it. Mr. Hardy has declareti hm
hoped and believed the Suspensory Bill would not reach
the stage of success contemplated by Mr. Gladstone, and
we may assume that the Government will we all their
influence in the Upper House to procure its rejec-
tion. When it is remembered that the practical leader
of the Ministry in the House of Lords the
Lord Chancellor—is devoted to the maintenance in
its integrity of the Irish Establishment, and the "inspiring
genius " below the gangway took the earliest opportunity
of proclaiming his opposition to all schemes for dealing
with it, it can hardly be hoped that there will be many
Ileserters from the Ministerial 'supporters to the side of

isdom and prudence.. It is still more unfortunate that
the most Liberal of the bishops have announced beforehand
their hostility to the bill, though we cannot but feel
that the essential distinction between the English
and the Irish Churches—that the one is and the other is
not the Church of the people—must become so apparent
on reflection that it may induce some members of the
episcopal bench to abandon their first hasty conclusions.
But, if the bill is to be carried, we must trust to the good
sense of that large section of the House of Lords which
is free from ecclesiastical prepossessions or the trammels
of "party. To them we appeal. What would be
the position of the House if the bill were rejected?
The Lords would appear before that tribunal to which an
appeal is to be so soon made, not merely as the antagonists
of the popular House, but also as the champions of privi.
lege against justice. This is the sum of the whole matter,
recognised more and more clearly every day. The Irish
Establishment is the application of the domain of the many
to the a lvantage of a few. We ought rather to say to the
tupposcd advantage of the few, for the healthy current of
their lives is poisoned by a gift, the possession of which
is an outrage on the feebleness of the mass excluded from
participation in it. It is sad there should be any danger
that the House of Lords will pledge itself to maintain
such a system, denounced, as it has been, by statesmen of
every generation, and thus at once put itself at
issue with a vast mass of its countrymen hitherto unen-
franchised.

The Post declares it to be very satisfactory to know that
the regulations for the constitution and guidance of the
new War Office "Department of Control" will be sub-
mitted for the approval of the House of Commons before
being authorised and published ; but the answer given I.)y
Sir John Pakington to the Marquis of Hartington, on
Friday last, although it conveyed that information,
appeared to j ustify the impression which had undoubtedly
prevailed that the Secretary of State for War had not
considered himself either pledged or bound to lay the
statement asked for before Parliament. An uneasy feel-
ing, too, prevailed that all was not as it should be in the
original draft of the proposed regulations. It would have
been the height of official folly for a Minister to have en-
deavoured to start a new and highly important depart-
ment on regulations unapproved of by Parliament ; and
Sir John Pakington has done wisely in yielding to a mani-
festly prevailing desire for an investigation of them pre-
liminary to publication.

The Herald thinks the Liverpool breakfast must h...v't
been a queer sort of affair. The English people are not
given to eating their ham and eggs in public. Breakfasts
such as that which was dignified by the presence of the
member for•Birminghamare usually associated with Exeter
Hall and the May meetings. There is something strange
and incongruous in the spectacle of five or six hundred
people assembled to discuss politics over their tea and toast;
and the chief incidents of the scene were equally anomalous.
We are not accustomed to hear English statesmen chant-
ing their own praises in public. Mr. Bright's fervid
eulogium upon himself is happily quite exceptional. It
is only fair to say that the honourable gentleman was, to
some extent, kept in countenance by the marvellous ex-
hibition of Mr. Robertson Gladstone. Our Liberal
statesmen are somewhat unfoitunate in their brothers.
On one occasion Lord John Russell's candidature for
the City of London was seriously imperilled by the
reckless zeal of a devoted but wrong-headed relative.
Mr. Jacob Bright's pathetic denunciation of his

brother's revilers exposed the latter to some cruel raillery.
And now we have the Opposition leader—a personage
conspicuously solemn and " proper "—compromised by
the well-meant but damaging advocacy of a relative
those forte appears to be silliness tempered by blasphemy.
The after-breakfast speech of Mr. Robertson Gladstone
was nothing less than a catastrophe for his bro-
ther under his present circumstances. It is under-
stood that although South Lancashire Las hied with

tolerable
look el.:(

distinctness thtit the Liberal leader trail better
where fa his seat in the new Parliament, the
nimble gentleman is resolved upon renewing his

suit, and hopes, by a little diplomacy, and by playing his
cards very carefully, to turd the scale in Lb favour.
But is this sort of thing possible when one is so fear-
fully weighted with a brother like Mr. Robertson
Gladstone, who, with the bce, intentions in the world,
goes about bespattering cm with the praise which
is damning, not because it is so faint, but because
it is so uncommonly hot, strong, and full-flavoured ?
Mr. Bright did a rather risky thing when he ventured
the aspiration that "He in whose hands are the thoughts
of men" might "dispose the hearts of the constituencies"
in favour of Mr. Gladstone, and against the Conservative
party. But Mr. Robertson Gladstone fairly puts him to
the blush with the neat and appropriate metaphor liken-
ing his brother to the Redeemer. This was too much
even for the Liberals of Liverpool, and it can hardly im-
prove Mr. Gladstone's chances for South Lancashire.
The Daily News, referring to the " confidential ae-
viser" who raises money, and pays the debt of the bettini
lord (as long as there is any property to mortgage,
expresses a fear that some of our railway companies are
shewing too much inclination to put themselves into the
hands of this same clever, inventive, ever-ready, but most
costly gentleman. We all know how invaluable is the
service which a man of judgment, financial ability, con
science, and firmness may render to a company which he
is called in to assist in its embarrassments. Prudence
will bid such a man to have nothing to do with affairs in
which he cannot act with perfect freedom ; he will re-
quire some kind of assurance that when the cause of the
disease is declared the patient will not shrink from the
remedy because it is sharp ; and these conditions being
conceded, he will point out how the company may recover
its position with the least inconvenience or delay. A less
scientific or less conscientious adviser will proceed dif-
ferently. The confidential adviser will pretend to tak4
the symptoms for the disease itself ; he will be satisfied
if he gets rid of them even at the expense of the sufferer's
constitution ; and while displaying a fussy activity for
the patient's recov9ry he will indulge the very weakness
which has undermined his health. 'fn a lower degree the
policy thus condemned is being illustrated in the recent
action of some of our railway companies respectinirthe
issue. of debenture stock. All persons moderately
conversant with railway affairs agree, we believe, that
the existence of a_ debenture loan debt, in more than a
small proportion to its share capital, is a source of
danger to a company, and that, other things being equal,
its conversion into debenture stock is desirable.
But even gold may be bought ton dear, and it is be re-
membered that debenture loan debts have existed for
many years, without being considered dangerous ; that
they have become so through the general discredit which
has fallen upon railway management ; and that the reme-
dial action called for should be something better than the
barbarous practice of bidding for money at any price in the
market, irrespective of the permanent loss entailed on di,
shareholders.

The more rational and moderate partisans of Congress
in this country regret the failure of the impeachment, on
the ground that it wilt-perpetuate or prolong the peculiar
distribution or separation of constitutional powers which is
characteristic of the American system. It will, they say,
help to maintain the President's independence of
Congress, and prevent the gradual approximation
to the English system which they consider deifirablr
—the concentration of power in the hands of ,the
Legislature and the establishment of its coiftro.
over the Executive. There is much truth (the Standard
admits) in this anticipation ; there is also some exaggera-
tion. Impeachment is a weapon that can only be employed
under peculiar circumstances ; and even if Mr. Johnson
had been deposed for resistance to the unconstitntiona'
policy of a congressional majority, his successors might
under ordinary conditions, assert their independance as
successfully as General Jackson did. It is inconsistent wit}
the fundamental principles of the Executive Governmeme
of America— the direct election of the President by the
people (for it is really though not technically direct)—that
it should become the dependant of Congress, and change
its policy i
in deference to a vote of the representative
body. The President s not, like a constitutional King
independent of partyt-and , because irresponsible, bound tc
be guided by responsible advisers ; nor is he, like a con-
stitutional Minister, the servant of the Legislature. He
derives his commission directly from the people, represents
a popular conviction and a public choice, and can neither
be expected to carry out a policy of which he disapproves.
nor to resign at the bidding.. of an authority nowise
superior to his own. We do not think, then, that the
success of the impeachment would have established, or
could ever establish, parliamentary government in
America.

The Telegraph, commenting on the death of the Earl of
Shrewsbury, says : The Lord Shrewsbury who has just
passed away was " a respectable man." In our piping
times it is difficult to achieve greatness, and it was
Lord Shrewsbury's misfortune, not his fault, that the
continental war had ceased when he entered the navy,
and that but for " the untoward accident," other-
wise the " glorious event " of Navarino, he might
never have seen a shot fired in anger. Ten years
after that battle—in 1837—he went on half-payll
and never served again. Thus, there was nothing
in his warlike experiences to recall the deeds of his
illustrious ancestors. But whose fault was that ? Not
Lord Shrewsbury's, we suppose. During the twenty
years of his service at sea, Europe, exhausted after the
great war, had sunk to rest and the chief Continental
Powers were so mindful of their sacrifices and perils in the
past, that with one accord they conspired to tread out all
insurrections, and to keep the peace by helping each other
to hang and imprison refractory civilians. What, there.
fore, was left for an English naval captain to do?

THE MURDER OF A TRAVELLING

SALESMAN.

At the police-office, Wellington, near Shrewsbuii, two
men" named George Harries and Richard Hart, have been
brought up in custody, charged with the murder of
Barnatt Zusman, on the 15th of November, 1867. The
particulars of this remarkable crime, with which the
prisoners are after so great a lapse of time charged, are
briefly as follows :—On the 15th of November, in last year,
Barnatt Zusman, a travelling salesman, in the service of
Mr. Cohen ,watch manufacturer, Birmingham, left the Rose
and Crown Inn, Ironbridge, where he had been staying
for some days, With the avowed intention of going to
Dawley and Horsehay. He left at ten o'clock in the
morning, and took with him a case containing watches
and jewellery of the estimated value of £420. He
ordered dinner, but did not return to it, and not
being heard of for some days after, his employer
came to the conclusion that he had absconded with the
property, and a notice to that effect was inserted in- the
Piliee Gazette. About a fortnight after his disappearance
a gentleman was shooting, when his dog found the body
of Zusman bUried in the mud. An inquest was held, and
from the evidence then adduced it seemed that the
deceased had been murdered. The box that the deceased
had with him was found empty near the scene
of the murder. At the coroner's inquiry no evidence was
given to justify the -arrest of any one, but a verdict of
" Wilful murder against some person or persons un-
known " was returned. The affair was placed in the hands
d Superintendent Baxter, of Church Smelton, who has
been watching the parties he suspected for some time.
The circle narrowed, till Baxter's attention was fixed
upon a young man named Harries, who lived at Daw-
ley and followed the occupatidn of a chain manufacturer.
Harries is a person of respectable connections, and,
till recently, occupied a good position in the
jistrict, his father, who died a little snore than two
years ago, having left him property worth £4,000 and a
business which brought him about £4OO a year. The
young man, however, got into bad society, and contracted
a close intimacy with a gang of well-known poachers who
infest the neighbourhood, and at the time of the murder
—though he still kept on the works—had succeeded in
Iriving away nearly all the business his father had com-
manded. According to his own evidence, given at the
adjourned inquest on the 4th of December, Harries had
Dealings with the murdered man, and bad seen and
spoken to him on the the morning of his death. He had,
he stated, bought a watch from him for £2712a, paying
in small sums on account, and promising payment of the
balance by instalments. It was ascertained by the police
that Harries had, on the following day, gone over to
''brewsbuty, and there pawned the watch for £B. A few
days after the inquest, and nearly a month after the
murder, the police obtained a warrant to search Harries's
house, but they found nothing that tended to connect him
with the crime, and their suspicions were apparently with-
drawn. On Wednesday week Superintendent Baxter
received certain information which took him over to
Dawley again, and in the course of last week he obtained
evidence which led him, at a late liOur on Friday night, to
arrest George Harries without waiting for a formal war-
rant. Of the precise character of the evidence in the
possession of the police information is, for obvious reasons,
at present withheld, but it is understood to be very con-
clusive. The arrest of the other prisoner has taken the
public by surprise, as his name has not been previously
Mentioned in connection with the murder ; but he is well
known in the Dawley district as an incorrigible poacher,
Ind as such has been several times convicted. No evidence

vas taken by the magistrates, and upon the application of
3uperintendent Baxter the prisoners were remanded. A
solicitor appeared on behalf of Harries, and asked that ho
night be admitted to bail, but the request was refused.
3art was undefended.