THE reflection of the day is to be found in the daily journal, and by way of contrasting the present with the past, it is curious to turn to the Times' of fifty years ago. As matters of all kind are mixed up promiscuously, the notes from the files must necessarily be a medley. And if we are surprised by contrasts with the present, we are struck by strange similarities. Take home-history first, as the most important of subjects. Many of the comments on the condition of Ireland might very well have been written today, although now we are inclined to fancy with considerable reason that our relations with Ireland were never more critical. In the Times' of January 13, 1836, we are informed, "Matters have now arrived at such a pitch in Ireland, that there must be some formal and immediate decision promulgated by the supreme authority of the State on this brief and

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pithy question-viz., whether it is the bounden duty of the magistrates to protect the king's subjects who abide by the law, or the king's enemies, who deliberately, systematically, and vi et armis resist it." January 20: "Our private letters intimate what is going on throughout Ireland, that pleasure-ground of Mr Daniel O'Connell, where outrage, robbery, persecution, and murder may, it appears, be carried on to any extent, without at all 'impairing the happy tranquillity' which has been the hourly boast of the Melbourne and Mulgrave Administration." It appears from the words satirically quoted in the inverted commas, that then, as now, an English political party insisted on crying peace when there was no peace. Then, the National Association was playing the part of the Land and National Leagues. But then the agitation of that National Association was directed against the Protestant clergy in place of the landlords, and the conspiracy was against tithes instead of rent. That Association had enlisted all the powers of lawlessness in its service, for the Duke of Wellington said, in his speech on the address of 1836, "that no clergyman could claim his dues without the certainty almost of being murdered." Then, O'Connell was giving cordial support to the Whigs, as Mr Parnell and his staunch Parliamentary following are now supporting Mr

Gladstone and the Radicals. Then, in the Irish debates in both Houses of Parliament, Fox and Burke were quoted as freely, as tediously, and as irrelevantly as at present. Then, as now, the bulk of the English representatives leant to the Tories; but we read that that Tory superiority

was more than counterbalanced by the Liberal strength in Scotland and Ireland." Then, the Liberal party was largely supported by the northern manufacturing towns and the Dissenting interest. Then, the representatives of the Irish "patriots," whatever their grievances, could not complain of being denied all liberty of speech in the hostile British press. The 'Times' might be hard upon O'Connell, but nevertheless, in its comparatively limited space, it printed epistles and manifestoes from Derrynane Abbey, some of which run to three columns in length.

Its own remarks upon current events are relatively brief. There is often only one leader; there is seldom more than two: though these are generally supplemented by one or two "leaderettes." But in those days there was little information from foreign parts, and little interest in foreign politics. As for our colonies at the antipodes, they were mere scattered Government settlements, and there could seldom be anything to say about them. The news from the Pacific coast of Southern America were so stale, that it

seemed hardly worth while printing them. For example, the letters from Valparaiso are dated four and a half months previous to publication. Yet, although there were few foreign correspondents, and no monopoly of an electric wire, the expenses of the 'Times' for Continental, and notably for Parisian "Expresses," must have been enormous. For the leading journal grudged nothing to anticipate or to outstrip competition, and although the Continental machinery might be working at low pressure for months, it was always in readiness to drive ahead in an emergency. But the best pace was slow. It was evidently considered a highly creditable feat, when intelligence of "an unparalleled conflagration" in New York came to Printing-House Square in twenty days. The notices of colonial affairs were rare and scanty. It is clear that the governors were intrusted with a large discretion, and it was tolerably safe to charge them with abusing it. There are many letters attacking those British satraps, containing charges that could only be met or disposed of with the slow return of the mails. At home, the combinations of workmen were already becoming formidable, and exciting great uneasiness among capitalists. In October 1833 we read that "the system of unions has spread widely, and is working to the serious injury of men and masters. It keeps capitalists

uncertain." It had led at Leeds to a countercombination of the masters. A prophetic leaderwriter remarks, in denouncing the unionists, that "their monstrous tyranny is not to be endured, and must work its own ruin." In the agricultural districts there were already bitter complaints against the intolerable burden of the poor-rates. It is startling to hear that in the little rural parish of Lindfield, in Sussex, £500 out of the rates had been spent in a single year upon able-bodied men. The explanation wasand we have similar statements often repeated from other districts-that farmers who had been seduced into paying rack-rents did their utmost to depress wages by keeping an excessive supply of labour. We have many examples of how labourers were at the mercy of the masters, although English serfs were understood to have been enfranchised. In October 1836, four men were tried and convicted by a bench of Norfolk justices for "inducing a strike" among farm hands. In other words, they had persuaded a single man to leave his work, so that the punishment did not err on the side of lenity. Three of the criminals were sentenced to eighteen months with hard labour. The fourth was let off lightly with twelve months, "on account of previous good character." But convicts of any age or of either sex were by no means too