The Sun.
London, England, 1868-07-08 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS,

The Times calls attention to the statement of Lord
Hardwicke, that we should have bread cheaper this year,
and, in commenting on it, remarks : So far as regards the
mental constitution of buyers and sellers, that must be
the same whatever the article dealt with. The case of
bread, however, is exceptional, because we cannot do
without it, and a very high price involves not merely
that we shall put off the construction of railways, econo-
mise coal, curtail the allowance of candles, have a pair of
boots less in the year, or wear a coat till it is threadbare ;
but that a good many people, especially women and
children, are crying for bread, both because it is dear and
because they cannot get work. When this is the case,
and the agriculturist is the man to cry out, he has to
choose between philanthropy and philosophy, but either
will serve. We don't know how Lord Hardwicke will take
it, but that is the choice we respectfully offer him after his
speech at Cambridge the other day. His lordship reasons
that because wheat has been rising for four years, and has
now risen to a very high figure, and because there is an
increasing importation from America, not so tremendous,
after all, the market will probably soon go down with a
run. The figures his lordship presents as to the prices of
wheat are striking enough. Hero they are : March, ISO,*
wheat,2llBs.lld. a quarter; 1866, £2 4s. 11d.; 1867, 23115.;
1868, 23 129.10 d. The last figure staggers. It is too good,
or too bad, to last. We nearly got it a year ago, and we
have been rather steady somewhere about it the whole
twelvemonth. But what has been the state of the country
meanwhile ? . What has been the condition of trade, or
enterprise, of railways, of banks, of packet companies, of
ironworks, and a good many other concerns dependent
on general prosperity ? Repeatedly as we are told to
our comfort that the ordinary trade of the country has
been in a healthy state, there hardly ever was a worse
time for all that part of our trading and commercial
system which does not minister in a servile way to
our everyday wants. Nor is there an agriculturist in
these two islands, from the noble and generous proprietor
of a model farm who is content to believe he re-invests his
rent in the soil, down to the labourer toiling for a few
shillings a week, who is not deeply interested in our com-
mercial prosperity. It is that which creates enterprise ;
it is that which invites expenditure ; it is that which
makes our tens of thousands congregate round workshops
and mills, marry, and have families, in the hope that
where there are mouths heaven will send bread. There
is not a hamlet so remote from our great centres of
residence or seats of manufactures which does not contri-
bute domestic servants, workpeople, aids of all sorts, to
that affluence or that industry which hangs on the prospe-
rity of the hour. England was never very large, but
railways and free trade have made it seem much less
than it was, for it is impossible now to escape
from the circle of the great British family. Go
where we will, we find ourselves all hanging one or
another, partners in one concern, bound by a com-
mon interest, and receiving our dividends at the
same rate, be it one per cent. or ten. Wherever we go
we are sure to find somebody busily, but not always pro-
fitably, engaged in scattering upon the land the fortune
acquired in trade, improving, reclaiming, draining, and,
anyhow, employing. But during the last three years
commercial enterprise has been gradually sinking, and
it is now in a state of abnormal inactivity. There
is a want of credit in that high and genial sense
which borders on enthusiasm. No project, be it wise
or foolish, obtains confidence. Everybody, everything,
is distrusted. Of course, one account of the matter is
that a good many people have been severely bitten, and
that even if they have the money they have been taught
wisdom. But experience shews that material circum-
stances largely share with vicissitudes of sentiment the
causation of fevers and panics. Enterprise always finds
its wings clipped when food is dear, and also finds that
when the contrary is the case it can soar to any height it
pleases.

The Post says it would seem that at length some serious
attempt is about being made to relieve the Southern States
of Germany from the equivocal and embarrassing position
in which they have been placed since the termination of
the Austro-Prussian war of 1866. The Southern States
have resolved on forming a Confederation of their own, to
be independent of, though doubtless in some respects con-
nected with, that of the North. The Bavarian Govern-
ment, it is said, have propounded such a scheme, and it
has been favourably entertained by the Governments of
Stuttgardt and Carlsruhe. It is unnecessary to add,
that such a proposal has been favourably received at
Berlin. No Power is more anxious than Prussia to see the
Southern States united by some tangible bond and obliged
to join in some definite foreign policy. No one under-
stands the feelings of his countrymen better than Count
Bismarck, and he is well assured that the policy of any
confederation of the Southern States must, before every-
thing else, be German. Having at his disposal, so
far as treaties can be relied upon, the military
resources of the Southern States, he knows that he can
with more ei.se mould a confederation into compliance with
his designs than several independent States, each governed
by its own distinctive policy. And, as regards Europe,
this settlement will be regarded with approval. So lung
as the Southern States remained disunited, they furnished
a constant source of danger to the general peace. As a
Confederation, they will be less liable to be the objects of
intrigue. In one sense, indeed, the formation of the new
League may, to some at least, occasion dissatisfaction. It
is not necessary to be endowed with the gift of prophecy
to foresee that, ere long, the two Confederations will
merge into one, and the unity of Germany, with one
great military Power at its head, become an accomplished
fact.

The Standard, apropos to the announcement that a
medal is to be given to the New Zealand troops, and, it
assumes, to the Abyssinian soldie:s, asks whether nothing
can be done to break through the hideous monotony of the
silver cheese-plates which appear upon, but do not deco-
rate, the breasts of our soldiers and sailors. Must every
so-called decoration consist of a medal, with a bad likeness
of the Queen on one side, and an extraordinary
allegorical device on the reverse, and worth
from four-and-sixpence to five-and•sixpence for the
melting-pot, but nothing as a work of art? Of
course, the first wish of a sailor or soldier is to get
a decoration of some sort ; the next to get as handsome a
decoration as possible. That is why both officers and men
value the Legion of Honour, or the Medjidie, or the
French war medal, or the bronze star of the Punjaub, so
much more than any ordinary medal. A good oppor-
tunity was lost when the Indian mutiny medal was
struck. That dark and bloody episode might well have
been specially marked by a black enamel order with a
blood-red cross ; but there was no difference made. And
now that the subject again comes up, the Standard suggests
that a universal war decoration should be designed, to be
granted for all these smaller campaigns, with clasps to
mark the special service for which it is gained, instead of
a number of silver medals being struck, exactly alike on
the side which, during the Queen's life-time, is always
exposed to view. Such a decoration might be made
elegant, and at the same time no more costly than the
wretched five-shilling pieces, ands if once the idea were
entertained, there would be no difhculty in obtaining good
designs from the best art designers of the day.

With the evident desire, remarks the Daily News, to
conciliate the foreign citizens of the -United States who
are ready to give their votes to the men or the party that
will most openly display hatred towards this country, Mr.
Seward has thought fit to renew a protest against the
maltreatment of American citizens by England. He com-
plains of the " jndicial severity" of the British Govern-
ment towards those who maintained that to plead American
citizenship was to ensure impunity for all the crimes with
which Fenians have been charged. Now, we do not quite
understand the import of the words "judicial severity," as
applied to the conduct of our Government. The Government
has uo control over the proceedings of a court of law. If s.
man be fairly tried and justly convicted, it is not within
the province of the Government to interfere. When the
trial is of doubtful legality, and the sentence either unwar-
ranted or unnecessarily severe, the prerogative of pardon
may be exercised by the Crown, on the advice of a respon•
sible Minister. It is only when the pardoning power is
not duly employed that the Government is open to an accu-
sation of severity. Can this be truthfully said with regard
to the Fenians ? Has mercy been withheld from the
transgressor who sinned through ignorance ? Have the
forms of law been abused that the innocent might suffer
and the guilty go free? A specific charge might be
answered, but this vague denunciation of unfairness must
be passed by without further notice.

What, asks the Telegraph, is burglary? To the laity,
the act of a fellow who, finding your door open, walks
upstairs to your bedroom, helping himself to the contents
of the plate-chest en passant, and filially makes off with
your wife's jewel-case, is about as near an approach to
impudent and flagrant burglary as can well be imagined.
But, in the eye of the law, the spoiler of ycur spoons is only
a little more advanced in the criminal hierarchy than
an area-sneak. He has not yet reached the dignity of A
burglar. lie Las committed a " robbery in a dwelling.
house." To constitute a burglary there must be actual
" breaking and entering." So says the English law, and
so, also, says the Code Napoleon, which draws distinction
between a rot avec effraction and a rol qualifie. One
Williams, a cook, has just been tried at the Old Bailey for
burglary. lie was found, after midnight, in a bedroom
of a house at Woolwich. The explanation he gave
was that ho was starving, and had come to seek
a piece of bread. It was elicited that in consequence of
the warm weather a scullery-window had been left (Teti,
and by that aperture the prisoner had entered, using for
the purpose a ladder which he bad taken from a boat-
house. The Recorder told the jury, that as Williams had
entered by an opening large enough to admit his
body, there was an end of the charge of " breaking and
entering," but that he might be dealt with on the
ground of his motive in entering the premises.
So the jury found him guilty of entering with
intent to commit a felony; and another felonious attempt
in the same neighbourhood having been proved against
him, he was sentenced to twelve months' hard labour. It
is rather alarming in this torrid weather to be told that
ruffians who take advantage of open windows are not
punishable as burglars ; but such is the law, and the fact
that a similar doctrine prevails in France is somewhat
in favour of its acceptance. But we may ask what the
legal gentlemen were about who drew the indictment
against this man, and sent it up to the grand jury. Had
they never conned the lesson on the law which the case to
pointedly illustrates - -