The Sun.
London, England, 1868-01-16 00:00:00

SPIRIT OP THE PUBLIC JOURNALS,

The right hon. member for South Lancashire, as the
Times tells him, did a public service in condemning the
theory and practice of trades unions in the speech for
which he was called to account by Mr. Potter. It is not
every public man who before a popular audience, made up
to a considerable extent of people working for wages, will
take upon himself the thankless office of telling unwelcome
truth. In this matter the press has been left almost
unassisted to fight the battle of justice, sound political
economy, and the real rights of labour. Of platform
speakers, some have shirked it, and others have contented
themselves with the commonplaces which shew timidity
and insincerity even more than shallowness, while more
than one has sought to gain popularity by justifying the
principles and palliating the excesses of the unionists.
The Liberal leader took a more creditable course, and one
which seems likely to be followed by useful consequences.
The Times trusts that the deputation which is to wait on Mr.
Gladstone will explain clearly and succinctly the exact
position of the unions. If Mr. Potter will take care that
his friends are as open and sincere as their critic, we have
no doubt that the discussion will be interesting and useful.
We shall be glad to hear something on the subject from
real working men, and not from amateurs who have elabo-
rated an ideal working man and an ideal trades unionism
gut of their own conceptions. There are some very down-
right and straightforward speakers in the class which Mr.
Potter leads, and there is reason to believe that these are
the type of men who most sway the councils of the unions.
If it be consistent with the trades' arrangements, we
should be glad to hear such men speak, for they know
most and have done most in connection with the system.
But even at present we must demur to the assumption
of Mr. Potter, that Mr. Gladstone, and, consequently,
the general public, are ignorant of trades unionism.
Though there may be something secret in its pro-
cedure, there is nothing secret in its principles. Em-
ployers have long had nothing to learn ; they
have been taught by many a bitter experience ;
nor, may we say, have non-union men been without
opportunities of studying both theory and practice tho-
roughly. It must also be remembered that a commission
has been sitting, and that examination by competent
inquirers is a powerful instrument for eliciting truth. The
persons who have given evidence, working men as well as
employers, have thrown a bright light on the whole sub-
ject. Nor will Mr. Gladstone, listening to the prepared
explanations of his visitors, draw forth such significant
information as the official questioners. The tendency of
the trades union apologies may, however, be divined from
the speech of Mr. Potter himself. That gentleman ven-
tures on a definition of a trades union which runs on into
a description, but the first sentence of it is sufficiently
precise :—" It is a combinatiOn of workmen to keep up
the price of their labour and to keep down the hours of work."
The task which Mr. Potter and his friends will undertake
is to prove, not only that this object is just and legal in
the abstract, but that the practices by which the attain-
ment of it is sought are just and legal also. It is on this
part of the subject that he is at issue with Mr. Gladstone,
who expressly declared that nothing could be said in prin-
ciple against such an association as a trades union.
According to the Post, our public men are constantly
teased by a despotic custom of writing nonsense letters,
and waste an amount of their time in doing so which is
almost incredible. There is a stupid old axiom that
every letter must be answered, no matter how absurd may
be its contents ; aad this incessant scribbling not only in-
flicts a very unnecessary amount of work upon all our
public departments, but does a great deal of harm in an
indirect way. Parsons are often the most persistent and
troublesome correspondents. Directly any Church prefer.
ment falls vacant the most unlikely clergy apply for it.
If they are answered Kith proper respect, as they always
are, they write again, and very soon begin to found claims
upon the replies which they obtain by these means. They
use such replies very frequently as testimonials of cha-
racter, and speak with such confidence that unsuspecting
people often think they have been very ill used by men in
power, who have no knowledge of them whatever beyond
that which is supplied by half a ream of begging letters.
But a far more dangerous class of applicants are pretended
inventors, and unscrupulous persons of various denomina-
tions. In a course of correspondence, which they know
how to force upon public departments, they sometimes
surprise or tr:c:: an unwary Minister, or his private secre-
tary, into a profitable admission. If his application is of
value or interest no Minister would be disposed to neglect

it, or could safely venture to do so. But it is rather too
much to expect that the time of some of the ablest men in
the kingdom should be taken up in dictating conventional
falsehoods couched in rhodomontade and involved phrases
of official jargon, but absolutely without any meaning at
all. The question is not so petty or insignificant as it
would appear to the inexperienced. The mass of letters
which pour in upon public men has increased beyond
imagination or belief.
Extremes, as the Daily News points out, are meeting in
our most curious and complicated civilisation. Last
Thursday an old worn-out gardener named Page dropped
clown and died of starvation in the roadway near Ken-
nington Church. On Tuesday last Dr. Lankester held an
inquest on the body of an elderly widow named Clements,
who, according to the evidence of the toxicologist and
the verdict of the jury, died from the effects of eating a
goose on Christmas Day. It appears, and we are
sorry to be assured of the fact, that amongst our tame
villatic fowl the goose is not to be depended on. It
is not safe t, dine off it without some assurance as
to its way of living, and especially the regularity
of its diet. Where these are not properly looked after its
fat is apt to become poisonous. Like will to like ; and so
this silly bird, it seems, is fond of " fool's parsley," among
other vegetable poisons. There is this, however, to be
said for the creature's sense : the weed to which it is
partial does not hurt the bird, but only makes its flesh
noxious to those who take it for food, and it is supposed
that the goose which was fated to cost this poor woman
her life had indulged its taste too freely. Another alter-
native was suggested by the medical witness. The geese
which are sent in such numbers to London during the week
before Christmas arrive in many cases so closely packed
that decomposition is brought on, and they poison whoever
eats them.

The Standard devotes a leader to the variety of national
convulsions which have been lately recorded in various
portions of the globe. Fifteen years ago, the entire north-
west of England was slightly, yet distinctly, agitated,
and so lately as October 1863 the centre of this island felt
a shudder which vibrated in nearly every direction to the
coast. But, again, what does it all mean ? What is the
matter with Old Mother Earth ? Why these subtemnean
rumblings and commotions, these battles of the elements,
these equivalents below of the lightnings and thunders
above ? Is there to be a general confusion and displace
went of climates ? Are the tropics on their travels ? Is
the Gulf Stream really altering its course and bringing us,

0 0 7
by degrees, the tumults, together with the geniality, of
the regions where the oceans are all purple and the lands
all gold ? We shall soon he thinking seriously upon this
point if the oscillations of our hitherto tight little island
become more frequent. It is all very well to write, like
Lady Sale, in a remote part of Asia, " Earthquakes as
usual ;" we should scarcely be pleased to keep a similar
journal in London. Historically, we turn to the utmost
East, or the other hemisphere, to Pekin, to Lima, to
Japan, to Valparaiso, and even ima,2,ine ourselves safe
because the groanings of the giant are heard no nearer, in
ordinary, than in Italy and Holland, at Zante or Rhodes,
or even at Marseilles ; but when, as in 1859 and 1860,
Cornwall feels itself, although only for a few moments,
upheaved ; when, four years ago, the central, western, and
north-western counties of England were in a tremor during
an entire afternoon ; and when, in this present winter,
people have not quite done with their experiences of a
Somersetshire earthquake, the question grows serious for
our own and for future generations.
The Telegraph reminds us that in one of his raids into
the domain of Political Economy, Mr. Ruskin expresses
his fervent faith in the coming of a time when there shall
be soldiers of the ploughshare as well as soldiers of the
sword, and when industry of every kind shall be as bril-
liantly rewarded as valour. The Emperor of the French
seems to be bent on doing something which shall give
reality to Mr. Ruskin's dream. M. Paul Dupont, the
head of a Paris printing-house, was recently created an
officer in the Legion of Honour. A day or two ago twenty-
two of the men employed in the printing-office waited on
the Emperor at the Tuileries, bearing an address of thanks,
which was signed by all their fellow-workmen, to the
number of eleven hundred. In replying to the deputa-
tion, the Eniperor said that the honour had been con-
ferred on M. Dupont chiefly because he had introduced
into his establishment the principle of co-operation, so as
to bring about a solidarity of interests between the master
and the workman. When shall we English thus honour
the successful manager of a co-operative store s

REMOVAL Or' CHARTER-HOUSE SCHOOL.—The sale
and transfer of the present school-house of Charter
house, and the lands and buildings connected therewith,
having recently been effected by the governors of the Ho,
pital of King James to the masters and wardens of the
Merchant Taylors' Company, the work of demolition
and transformation of this ancient foundation has already
commenced.

NAVAL COURT-MARTIAL.—A court-martial has
been held at Devonport, on board the Royal Adelaide,
guard-ship, for the trial of Mr. Henry George Doming.
carpenter of the second class, serving on board the
Indus, on the charges of being absent from his ship on
December 27, and drinking intoxicating liquors to excess.
The prisoner pleaded guilty, and the court—a previous
conviction being proved—adjudged him to be dismissed
from the service,