The Sun.
London, England, 1868-11-20 00:00:00

CHURCH BELLS AT ELECTIONS.

Of all the foolish uses to which church bells are
put, that of celebrating election triumphs seems to
be the most ridiculous. Dr. Miller, the vicar of
Greenwich, has set a good example in the matters
forbidding the parish church bells to be rung in cele-
bration of the triumph of either party. Any
excuse suffices to set the bells going, the
ringers trusting to somebody's vanity for a good
supply of beer and a good day's pay. A local
wedding, a national victory, and a corporation
dinner, all call forth the same clatter, and the Tory
church-steeple vies with the Liberal tower in pro-
claiming the arrival or return of a candidate. If the
bells could be devoted to a use attributed to them in
mediaeval times, they might be of some use during
the elections. Let them clatter by all means, if they
can frighten away the devil and all evil spirits.

LONDON IN NOVEMBER.

"An Unguarded Spinster " again writes to the
Post to comment upon Sir Richard Mayne's statistics.
From these she assumes that 400 or 600 determined
criminals have been engaged in 199 burglaries
during the six summer months, and only about 12
per cent. convicted. Criminals used to be trans-
ported at one time ; now, some of them, with sen-
tences altogether from fifty to seventy years' penal
servitude, are at large. She says: "It is monstrous
to ask me to protect myself, to send me tables show-
ing that 200 houses have been broken into in one
summer, and that only 69 men have been convicted.
I want the police to seize the 600 vagabonds who
are known to them, and of whose intentions they
are perfectly aware. I ask the shepherds to keep off
the wolves, and not to wait until the lambs are eaten,
and then to organise a wild battue in the open, where
they will capture only a few of the depredators.",
She does not so much blame Sir Richard as the state
Df the law, and she appeals to the new Parliament
• protection of her property and her life. The'
state of the law as it is at present enables a well-
known thief and a policeman to be on the most'
friendly terms, the former indulging in mild chaff at
the expense of the limb of the law, and the latter
mingling words of friendly caution with humorous
illusions to the " troubles " of the other. Is it clearly
understood that in certain eventualities these rela-
tions are to be exchanged for others of a less plea-
sant nature.

BEVERDIt JOHNSON AND THE LONDON
WORKING MEN.

Mr. Reverdy Johnson is just now a man whom
everybody delighteth to honour. He seems by his
speeches to have laid hold of the public heart. He
has evidently understood the English susceptibilities
well enough to flatter us where we like it best.
Such speeches from an Englishman would,
have called down more than one condem-
nation ere now from the critical press.
They are pitched higher than we in Eng-
land are usually accustomed to hear. There is a
great deal of that Americanism which has been re-
peatedly scoffed at in newspapers and books of all
kinds and degrees. But the meaning of the eloquence
was good, and, catching at this, how could one be
other than satisfied ? Now-a-days it is not one class
alone which must demonstrate its likes and dislikes.
The upper and middle classes having received Mr.
Johnson at a banquet, the working men wish to do
the same. They have therefore invited Mr. Johnson
to a dinner on the 28th inst. " His Excellency " has
accepted the invitation.