The Sun.
London, England, 1868-01-22 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, WEDNESDAY EVENINQ, JANUARY 22, 1868.

The Conservative members for Canterbury have
been addressing their constituents on various mat-
ters of general interest, conspicuous among which
must of course be ranked that of Fenianistn. We
cannot coincide with Mr. BUTLER-JOHNSTON in his
denunciations about the war in Abyssinia. He said
it was a most unfortunate expedition, and that
there was something ludicrous in a country like
England m. aasuring its strength with a half-frantic
savage like' King THEODORE. This sounds very
fine in arg' iment, but then we must consider that
the war was none of otir seeking, but forced upon us
by circumstances, and that to have left those
unfortunate captives to suffer death either by slow
imprisonment or by more violent means would have
been most inct nsistent with the dignity of our
country, and also conduct most unworthy of a
Christian country. It is true that there was at the
outset of this awkward business some neglect and
1 imprudence on the part of our Government, but
the present advisers of the Crown could not possi-
bly have done otherwise than they have, and it is
very certain that auy dereliction on their part
would have been censured by Parliament, and that
thel general opinion of the public would have rati-
fied the decision of the Legislature. As to its
being an expedition unworthy of the mighty strength
of England, it may be said that the power and in-
fluence of the great and important are never so
justly displayed as when they protect the weak and
oppressed ; and, besides this, one of the first duties
of a country is to take care of its subjects, near and
distant, and whether the office be easy or difficult.
Regarding Fenianism, Mr. JOHNSTONE thinks that
great exaggeration prevails, as every accident
around is attributed to that cause. It is true, as he
remarked, that with a vigilant Government, and
good citizens combined, Fenianism wassure to disap-
pear, but then it will not do to shut our eyes to its
most dangerous tendency and insidious devices.
Mr. JorissioNE thinks that the state of Ireland
is enough to cause great anxiety, which is true
enough for that matter, but we doubt if his remedy
will be an efficacious one, that the Irish members
should legislate themselves for Ireland, after the
fashion of the Scotch members. The feelings en-
tertained towards England by the Scotch are very
different from those evinced by Ireland; and another
thing, it is impossible to get the Irish to agree among
themselves as to the nature of the requisite changes.
Mr. JoHNSTONE concluded by expressing his dissatis-
faction at the manner in which the defences of
England were managed, and was afraid that some
day we should discover that we had sunk from a
first-rate Power. We never can expect to keep up
with the continental nations in point of numbers,
for their armies are far more than we can ever re-
quire ; but, of course, due attention should be paid
to necessary defence and preparation for emer-
gencies. As for Mr. JOHNSTONE'S ideal party
to be composed of Mr. GLADSTONE, Lord
CRANBORNE, and Lord STANLEY, he would
not find it a very easy task to follow
his leaders ; at any rate he could not do so at the

lief given to all able-bodied persons wholly out
of employment. By this means much might be
effected to prevent demoralisation and loss of s elf-
reliance among the better classes, while imposture
would be readily checked. The example and
experience of the Lancashire Committee ars
practically serviceable, having carried the popu-
lation of the district safely through a tie le
of unparalleled distress. Mr. CORBETT was very
anxious that the East-end Central Relief Commit-
tee should assume the position of the Manchester
Central Relief Committee, and should be assisted
by a Central Executive Committee, to whose care
the funds should be entrusted, and by local com-
mittees, who should receive and examine all appli-
cations for assistance, should organise a house-to-
house visitation, determine the kind of relief, and the
kind 'of work to be exacted when possible. 'Ellis
plan, if not carried out in its entirety, will
doubtless influence the future action of the
gentlemen connected with the administration
of the charitable funds. It was thought too late
to have all subscriptions paid into one common
fund, but a resolution was passed declaring it ex-
pedient that there should be one executive committee
consisting of members of each of the principal com-
mittees now existing, with the object of uniting all
efforts for the relief of the distress in the East-end.
The general feeling having been thus clearly
expressed, it was agreed that on an early day two
or three members from each committee should meet
in conference. We may therefore hope that
some regular organisation may be set on
foot, by means of which the relief so
much needed at the East-end shall be administered
to the general satisfaction. One great mischief of the
present system is that the flow of charitable feeling
is likely to be checked by a doubt as to the charac-
ter of the recipients. We know that there is actu-
ally a terrible amount of distress and suffering exist-
ing, an amount inadequately represented by the
Union returns. Cases of starvation meet us every
week ; and in to-day's impression we read an in-
quest held at the City Prison on a man committed
for 21 days for begging, who died of starvation in
the prison from previous want and exposure.
The case was a very painful one. The man de-
scribed himself as a tailor out of work, and said he
had lately slept in the unions, but he had caught
cold and was starving when taken into custody.
He seems to have been treated throughout with
some harshness, though no doubt unintentionally.
His was manifestly a case for the workhouse or the
hospital, as the Coroner observed, rather than for a
prison ; but the doctor who saw him after his ad-
mission did not think he required any special care.
However, all parties were soon undeceived, for the
poor man died on Sunday evening, a day after
his admission, from long-continued want. He
might perhaps have been saved had he had some-
thing more stimulating to his failing powers than
bread and gruel, however good of their kind, but
the Governor had no power to order him anything
else until really dying. The Governor, in giving
his evidence, made a startling statement, testify-
ing to the reality of the digress now existing.
He had not, he said, thought the deceased dan-
gerously ill, as he was much in the same
condition as 34 out of the 51 prisoners who were
received during the week for begging. In
deed, some of the female prisoners were quite
worn out with starvation. The Coroner justly re-
marked that this disclosed a very sad state of things,
and though begging was illegal, it was natural that
they should prefer it to starvation. It is plain
that we want a better system of personal
inquiry. In the Registrar-General's return
for last week we find three other deaths
from want of food and privation recorded---:-one of a
widow in Shoreditch, the two others of labouring
men in St. Luke's ; and we may be very sure that
where we find every week actual deaths from want,
they represent a very large class who are only just
above starvation point. There is no lack of money
or of energy for the relief of the poor of London,
and where so much is paid by the ratepayers on the
one hand, and subscribed by the charitable on
the other, and there are so many who devote
their time and labour to the service of the desti-
tute, it is lamentable that deaths from starvation
should be no marvel. We hope that the recent
s tim ulat
e
discouragingeither workers
them to fresh and
morisgtaivkeers's, iwnsiltleaedulyof
more vigorous and united effort. There will always
be a great deal of suffering which the parish
officers cannot reach or adequately relieve, and if
the line can be drawn and maintained between
the self-reliant and industrious poor temporarily
disabled, and those who from thoughtlessness or
early habit are indifferent to the shame of begging,
a great public service will have been done. It will
then be possible to mitigate real distress without
encouraging pauperism, and to effect more real
good than can be done by casual and needless
almsgiving. We are very glad to find that the
gentlemen best acquainted with the necessities of the
East-end are exerting themselves to put matters on
a better footing ; and we hope before long to see
the same system extended more or less to all the
poorer and more populous parts of London.
Notwithstanding the prevailing distress the Regis-
trar-General's return of the public health is favour-
able, and the deaths are less by 149 than the estimated
number. The Registrar, after giving the rate of
mortality in thirteen large towns of the United
Kingdom, adds a curious and interesting fact—the
issue of a return of the births and deaths in Rome
during the first eleven days of the year. This is
supplied by desire of the Chancelier-General of
Rome, and shows that sanitary improvement is
making its way even under *the most ancient
regime.

same time, for their opinions are diametrically op-
posed to each other.
Mr. HUDDLESTON'S speech was not so extreme
a one as that of his colleague. After dilating upon
the merits of the Reform Act just passed, ho pro-
ceeded to discuss a topic of great interest—the
Master and Servants' Act, introduced by Lord
ELCHO, which has been of considerable service to
the working man, and placed him in a better position
than any which he had previously occupied. Some
opposition was made to this bill by the " Manchester
men," who are invariably against anything that
really tends to the improvement of the condi-
tion of the working classes by curtailing the power
of their employers. Mr. HUDDLESTON has just
returned from a visit to the Continent, and he is of
opinion that the state of affairs there is most threat-
ening. The conscription of Prussia is enforced
with merciless severity, and tells in all ranks, and in
France also the army is very highly organised. the
hon. member, however, took a far brighter view of
things than did his colleague, and we fully coiLcide
with him in his moresanguiue anticipations of things.
"If our army is small it is efficient, and Lord
STANLEY, so long as he was at the bead of foreign
affairs, would keep us out of war." As for the fuss
that is being made about those lately admitted to
the franchise not being duly qualified because of
their want of education, Mr. HUDDLESTON very
properly asked whose fault was it but that of the
Liberals, who had been in office so long and done
so little. There was a good deal of truth in the
observations made by the hon. member, and some
of his opponents will not be well pleased when they
peuse them.

A meeting of considerable importance in a social
point of view was yesterday held at the Cannon-
street Railway Hotel, at the invitation of Mr.
CORBETT, Poor-Law Inspector. It was attended
by a number of the guardians and of the gentlemen
connected with the several societies for the relief of
the prevailing distress in the East-end of London,
and its primary object was to consider the best
means of securing united action in the distribution
of their funds. Mr. SCLATER-BOOTH, Parliamen-
tary Secretary to the Poor-Law Board was unani-
mously called to the chair, and the meeting ad-
dressed themselves to the work in hand in the best
possible spirit. It was agreed without a dissentient
voice that the separate existence of so many indi-
vidual associations for the relief of distress in one
particular part of the metropolis has led to great
evils. Owing to the want of concerted action there
is manifestly a very great risk of some persons
really in need of help being altogether overlooked
and unassisted, while the more pushing and cla-
morous claimants obtain help from two or three
sources at once. There is also much room for
downright imposition. Each association takes too
large an area, and in its researches and exami-
nations is likely to go over the same ground as
I ethers have done before, while other districts, per-
haps more in need, are passed by or slighted. It
is not always in the most wretched-looking courts
and alleys that there is most real distress. The
cases which all would be most anxious to assist are
those of the better class, reduced by severe and tem-
porary misfortune, and unwilling to apply for
parish relief. These are often to be found in rows
of houses, whose clean and respectable appearance
does not betoken extreme distress, and the real con-
dition of the inmates is only to be ascertained by
diligent search. It was to this class of persons
that the Lancashire Committee at the time of
the cotton famine confined their aid, leaving
the parochial authorities to deal with the
absolute paupers. Mr. CORBETT, in a very sensible
and practical address, strongly advised that this
example should be followed. He showed that all
supplementary relief given in addition to parochial
aid tends in the first instance rather to the relief of
the ratepayers than to that of the persons for whose
benefit the funds were raised. In the long run this
system acts to the detriment of the ratepayer by
augmenting the number of applicants for relief, and
increasing indefinitely the pauperism of the district.
The guardians should be left to deal exclusively
with such cases as they undertake, and cue
should be had that the relief which they
give should be really sufficient to support
the applicants. The responsibility of relief in every

The closing scene in one of the most striking and
pathetic tragedies of modern times was on Saturday
enacted with all due pomp and ceremony at Vienna.
There was no lack of the solemn state and
dignity which is customary " When a Prince to the
fate of the peasant has yielded," when another relic
of one of the most eminent, but at the same time
Emousrtue,nfortunate of the Imperial dynasties in
op
was consigned to his kindred dust. Never-
theless we have no doubt that there was some-
thing more than courtly sorrow, something deeper
than the requirements of courtly etiquette among
the mourners round the tomb of MAXIMILIAN.
Regrets such as are felt for the untimely close of a
life full of promise, for the failure of bright hopes
and noble aspirations, were expressed in palac2
and cottage, while the tears that were called forth
by the rupture of cherished ties, the bereavement
of a happy home, sympathy such as must be elicited
by the incurable misfortunes of the generous, the
affectionate, and the devoted were paid as a last
tribute to the husband of the mourner at Miramar.
A mother who refused to lay aside her robes of
mourning for the splendours of Court costume, a
brother whose own reverses have been rendered
more painful by the disastrous news from Mexico,
old friends and relations who watched with pride
and hope the career of the young and gifted scion
of his noble house, such were the mourners whom

case would thus rest upon one or other of the relievers, !r ,o Imperial pomp could blind to the reality of
either on the Board of Guardians or ou the Relief t human sorrow. And the chief mourner, she whose
Committee ; and Mr. CORBETT strongly ailvis...y.l
that work should be provided in return for the TO-

life has been darkened by her devotion to his cause,
the bitterness of whose affliction has proved too
great for her physical strength, it is saddest of all
to chronicle our uncertainty as to her knowledge of
his fate. The tragedy cf Queretaro has, it is said,
been communicated to her, but its effect is not
stated. Let us hope that, as has sometimes proved
the case, the greatness of the shock may remove the
clouds which have hitherto obscured her faculties,
and that she may be restored to that full perception
which, while it will show her fresh trials, will also
lighten her burden. She will perceive her cherished
husband has, in the words of another monarch
" lost all but honour,"
~and that she has, at least,
the consolation of knowing his name is cherished
and respected, while his and her misfortunes have
evoked the sympathy of the civilised world. The
dream of mistaken ambition, of delusive hopes, of
dangerous illusions, and deceptive friends, is played
out ; but with it ends the long anxiety, the fruitless
exertion, the bitter disappointments. MAXIMILIAN
rests from his troubles, and if his obsequies were not
without their moral, so his influence and his
memory will not be without their example.