The Sun.
London, England, 1868-09-03 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC 30131NALS.

The Herald balls attention to a significant blank in
Mr. Bright's prospectus in respect to the questions most
highly in favour with some of those who have recently
taken the condition of England under their care. Not
:a word does Mr. Bright utter as to the question of trade
bunions—of woman's rights—of new laws for the
idistributioU of property, or for the regulation of
labour. He hais only a small and feeble word for
;the ballot—more out of old feeling for a battered piece
Hof Radicalism, which in its day has been extremely
convenient to the demagogues, than from any real belief
in its vitality. Mr. Bright, in fact, however he may have
earned it, is presently inspired with a genuine desire for
repose. He gives us to understand that he has given up
agitating ; and that is an assurance which we may
accept with a modest thankfulness. When the great
disturber talks peace it is peace upon the surest gua-
rantee. When the Liberal of the Liberals declares
that he sees nothing to amend in the existing condi-
tion of things beyond a mechanical alteration in
the system of voting, and some trifling modifications in
the electoral scheme—when he has nothing to demand
beyond the surrender of a portion of the Church Establish-
ment to make him happy for ever, we must feel that we
are getting onward to the 2nillenium, and that this England
of ours, but yesterday so corrupt, and degraded, and
-wicked, is in a tolerably sound and wholesome state, after
. only a quarter of a century of Mr. Bright's treatment.
The Times has a leader on the East Kent election hoax,
;in which it strongly condemns Mr. Loftus Pemberton for
his indiscretion, his reckless language, and his wish to
keep the matter before the public, when it is most
damaging to his brother's interests and his own that he
should do so. The Times cannot but condole with Mr.
Pemberton, the sitting member and candidate for re-elec-
tion, on the dangerous help he has received. He may well
cry, " Save me from my friends This terrible brother
of his has done him as much damage as any man could do,
and it is evident that unless he is restrained he will yet
do more. The mock address was stigmatised by Colonel
Deedes as " a disgraceful trick upon the constituency," and
the feeling must be shared by many of the freeholders
and occupying voters of East Kent that it is not with
isuch weapons party contests should be fought. But these
.-,reckless attempts to cover a retreat by throwing out
'recriminatory charges and making no attempt to establish
them when challenged are much worse than the first
;offence. To charge one opponent with " gross behaviour "
against an intimate friend, and to be silent' when
asked to substantiate or withdraw the imputation—
to accuse another of having been the author of " a most
scurrilous squib," and to say opinions differ about the
meaning of the word " scurrilous" when asked to explain
himself—what can be worse than acts like these ? Having
them before us, it is impossible to regard the first hoax
as a joke. It is the symptom of a vicious spirit which
3nust be reprobated on all sides, if it may not be visited
with other punishment.
A recent discussion, the Daily News notices, has arisen
on the old so-called Malthusian doctrine of possible checks
to the increase of population. From time to time during
the last few years we have heard dark hints concerning
alleged systematic limitations to the increase of families
in New England, and particularly in the old and educated
society of Massachusetts. The writer who brings these
statements forward, finding the birth-rates of the North-
:astern States, and particularly those of the New Eng-
land States, very small, concludes at once that
the phenomenon is due to artificial restrictions,
representing an aversion to large families, and his
inference has been widely accepted, almost with-
out investigation as to its accordance with the facts.
The fact is, however, that the American census shows
that there are more " old maids " in New England than
in any other part of America, but that the birth-rate is, in
proportion to the marriage rate, as large as in any other
country. In no other part of the United States are the:.
so many women employed in other than domestic occupa-
tions. All the facts show that the, in many respects,
'unhappy disproportion between the numbers of the two
sexes is being largely compensated by the enlargement of
the activity and usefulness of a sex which elsewhere is too
generally absorbed in the one object of husband-seeking.
The Herald expresses its approval of the line of argument
taken by Mr. Baxter, the Conservative candidate for Hull,
on the Irish Church question. Mr. Baxter picks out the
strong points of his opponents' case, and grapples with
them fairly. For instance, it is always worth while to
remind public gatherings of constituencies that the plea
of justice to majorities will not hold water in the present
instance. It is said that under the existing system we
are making four millions and a half of Irish Roman
Catholics pay for the support of a Church of 600,000
members, constituting the wealthiest section of the Irish
people. That is an argument which tells immense y
with a miscellaneous audience not very well up in
the facts, and always obedient to the "inevitable logic "
of delusive statistics. When it is added that eight-ninths
of the funds from which the revenues of the Irish Churcl-
are supplied come out of the pockets of the Protestant
landowners, the case for confiscation breaks down. As
lir. Baxter asks, Is there anything like oppression of ti.e
I:ornan Catholics in this ? The whole argument relied upon
by the disruptionists is equally applicable to individual rights
and to the tenure of land. If it be held that a tithe rent charge
payable out of land belongs to the State, whenever the State
chooses to lay its hands upon it, we are not far from thi
contention that the land itself belongs to the nation. Il
endowments are not to be held sacred it will next be main-
tained that ordinary bequests, or property held by SUCCO.I
sion, are equally at the disposal of the Legislature. It is
rot to be supposed for a moment that a religious-minded
man will build and endow a church in connection with s
certain form of religion if he is confronted with a precedent
for alienating his bequest to a wholly different object. II:
will know that he does so at the risk of the State coming
in and appropriating it to purposes which possibly might
be utterly abhorrent to him.
The Daily News, in an article on the Abergele accident,
observes that the whole narrative, as given by Sara, the
engine-driver, reflects strongly on the general arrange-
silents made for the mid-day luggage train, and especially
for its shunting and reconstruction at Llandulas. These
were in some respects, indeed, so defective and unsatisfac-
tory that the only wonder is that some accident did not
happen at this point before. The luggage train was too
long to be shunted as a whole, and with the greatest
despatch it could only be put out of the way a
few seconds before the mail train should dash by.
Under these circumstances the only protection against a
terrible accident was the signal " danger" at the Llandu-
las station. This is, however, an extremely inadequate
protection, especially as the line curves soon after leaving
the station. And whether sufficient or not, it cannot
excuse the flagrantsneglect of established rules. If at th;s
point the goods traln is usually only a quarter of an hour in
advance of the Irisitt mail, ample provision ought tobe made
for shunting the whole at once. There ought to be sidings
long enough to receive the longest ordinary goods train.
Another matter'which requires consideration is, that had
the guard been in the van, he would have been conscious
of the first tendency to move, and, by tightening the
screw and beeping it firmly down, might have arrested it
at the outset. At Llandulas, however, both guards were
helping to shunt the train, and were therefore at some
distance from the trucks and waggons when they began to
move, and their efforts to arrest them were thus useless. The
lesson taught by such an experience is at once too obvious
and too urgent to need enforcing. Every goods train
ought to have a sufficient number of breaksmen not only,
to assist in the shunting, but tea take charge of any port's
of the train left for a time on. the main line.
That all persons are equal before the law is a maxim
which has been, says the Telegraph, amusingly exemplified
within the last two days. On Monday, in London, a prize-
fighter was bound over in recognisances of £1,500, that lie
might be prevented from battering the head of another
pugilist, all in the kindliest spirit ; and on Tuesday in
Manchester, William Murphy, the notorious Protestant
lecturer, was called upon to find security in the sum of
£4OO that for three months to come he would not be
guilty of inciting anybody to break the peace of her
Majesty. We can hardly hope that Mr. Whalley on
the Marquis of Westmeath will experience a
.true sense of the reproach that has been brought
on the name, not of religion, but of Protestantism as
they understand it, by the remarkable parallel which the
law has drawn between their apostle and a distinguished
and aspiring member of the "fistic brotherhood." Yet a
certain amount of injustice is done to Allen by
the comparison. If his heart's dearest wish had
been gratified, and he had gone forth to " deal
come doleful dumps" upon the cranium of Joseph
(loss, at least he would have entered the ring without
malice and bitterness, would have shaken hands with his
opponent in manly good humour, and would have spurned
the thought of using any trickery or violence, or resorting
to any weapons but those which nature gave and the con-
ditions of the fight allowed. How different in demeanour
and spirit do we find the champion of Christianity, who,
in his zeal for the truth of that religion which is " peace
on earth and good-will to men," comes down to Manchester
with a loaded ten-barrelled revolver, a store of spare car-
tridges, and a "knuckle-duster," pronounced by the chief
constable to have been one of the most formidable weapons
of the kind he ever saw.

A FLOCK OF BEES IN THE ROOF OF A
C lIIIRCH.—It having been known that bees were working
in the roof of All Saints Church, from which honey had
been observed to flow for some time past, Mr. Barber, the
church clerk, obtained authority from the churchwardens
to remove them, and in doing so on Thursday last obtained
no less than a hundredweight of honey. —Bury and Nor-
wich Post.