The Sun.
London, England, 1864-06-06 00:00:00

' the constitution radically "as a course of argument
drawn forth by opponents," there would be an end
of his following among educated Liberals. Consti-
tutional government tempered by oratorical points
is not their weal at all, But we do not believe that
he intended to make any such appeal, to recede in
any degree from the firm and visible conviction,
contained in the original speech more fully than in
the speech plus preface. The apologetic form of
the preface is, we believe, adopted for a very dif-
ferent end—is not an explanation to political oppo-
nents, but an assurance to political friends that the
Chancellor of tha Exchequer was not intriguing. The
talk all over town on the day which followed the
speech was that Mr Gladatene" intended to run his
own horse ;" that in the combinations which must
follow Lord Pelinerstom's retirement from toil he
designed to he a leader with the nation behind him
instead of a personal following. Mr Gladstone, who
though ambitious is not en le triE,per—if he were he
would have the " following " which ie his greatest
want—therefore assures the doubters that hla antech
was not " delibetate end studied," meaning not that
he failed to express his own political ideas, but that
be had not planned by expressing them to jockey
more timid rivals. He rejects the idea., that his
speech was a personal manifesto, and reaffirma that
it was a political speech, caying more or less suc-
cessfully that which he wanted to say. This is, so
far as we can comprehend an intellect which like
the Tor Stone is immovable but always reeking,
very nearly the same idea as that of most educated
Liberals, namely, to introduce into the constitution
as many workmen as will secure that class their
share of power, as much, in fact, as they can have
without impairing the proportionate shares of the
remaining classes and so stripping the nation of its
right to rule itself in order to enable one class to
impose its rule instevd. The plan for accomplish-
ing this end, which floats as it were through the
speech, end is not repudiated in the pamphlet, is
one for including the whole population in the con-
stitution while still leaving the nation intact—the
exact end the Liberals who are not Democrats have
for years put before them as their constitutional
ideal. While-, however, we entirely exonerate Mr
Gladstone from the charge of retrogression, we re-
peat that this:preface will do him no good. Apart
altogether from the truth that those who aspire to be
leadersof men should never do their thinkingaloud,
the preface has in it a tone of hesitation which Mr
Gladstone's admirers did not expect. There is one
sentence in it which smacks as strongly of political
falsehood as the conduct of the Whigs in this matter
throughout the whole of this Parliament —Mr.
Gladstone, whose first point in the speech is that
promises have not been kept, now affirming that
" the discussion is little likely to become practical
except for another generation." That is just what
Lord Palmerston says, and Mr. Disraeli says, and
every false friend of reform would say if he only
dared, and if that is what Mr. Gladstone means he
had better have held his tongue. We trust that he
does not mean it, that he really sees his way 'it) in
troduce as well as support a plan of reform which
shall fulfil his ideal, and be for the benefit of us who
pay taxes, and stiffer, and strive, and not only for
that of our children, who may do none of those
things. But it is vexatious when all through
England educated Liberals are in want of a leader
who can represent them, as well as some of their
ideas, to find that leader not only giving forth an
uncertain sound, but actually stuffing sand in his
trumpet lest its note should perchance be too clear.
This intellectual see-sawing, this determination to
define, and hopeful trust in hypothesis, is not Mr.
Gladstone's merit, but his greate©t disqualification.
Men hoped he was getting rid of it, learning to
express strong convictions in overt acts, to construct
his building as well as explain the theory of archi-
tecture; but the old habit is powerful still, and the
intellect which could best lead England is delibe-
rately bound by its owner in a net of fine distiac-
tions.

THE " LONDON REVIEW" ON MR. GLADSTONE'S
APOLOGY FOR HIS ULTRA-DEMOCRATIC SPEECH.—
Mr. Gladstone has found it necessary to explain
away the obvious interpretation of his recent speech
on parliamentary reform. But, although we are
willing to believe that he has arrived at the. conclu-
sion that his sudden move in the direction of demo-
cracy was premature, it is not so easy for us to c 213-
vince ourselves that that move was never made;
nor can we reconcile Mr. Giadatone's present state-
ment, that the remarkable and elaborate oration in
question was a mere impromptu, with his promise
made some weeks previously to a deputation of
trades unionists, that he should shortly have some-
thing to say upon the franchise, which they would
find eminently satisfactory. No doubt we were
quite wrong in coupling the two things together,
but the mistake was certainly a natural one, seeing
that the performance was so complete a fulfilment
of the promise. We cannot, however, admit with
equal readiness that we pieced a wrong construc-
tion upon the words of the right hon. gentleman,
as they were spoken and reported. After every
explanation:which can be given of them, the fact
remains, that he did, and apparently does still,
maintain the abstract moral right of every man to
the franchise. He did, and apparently does, still
hold the opinion, that it is for those who stand by
the present law to make out a case for exclusion,
and not for those who seek to extend the franchise
io make out a case for admission. It is clear
enough that if the argument be rested on such a
b sis, and the onus prcbandi be thrown upon the
defenders instead of the opponents of the existing
system, the latter are placed in a position
far more advantageous than that which
most practical and tolerably Conservative
Englishmen would assign them. They would, in
feat, gain exactly the position which the democratic
party have always contended for; and their ad-
versaries would labour under all the difficulty which
must ever attend the attempt to restrict the exercise
of an admitted moral right. It is not wonderful
that the public should have given so accomplished
a dialectician credit for intending a result which his
speech was plainly calculated to produce. And al-
though Mr. Gladstone contends that the qualifica-
tions by which he accompanied his broad proposition
really deprived it of anything like an alarming cha-
racter, we must be permitted to observe that he has
stated one of those qualifications in hie preface far
more strongly and explicitly than he did in his
speech. We are told, in the first instance, that men
might be excluded from the franchise on the ground
of moral and intellectual unfitness, or of poitical
&lager ; but no explanation was given as to what
was meant by " political danger." There was no
hint that under that vague and general expression
the right hon. gentlemen intended to refer to the
risk which we might run " through the disturbance
of the equilibrium of the constituent body, or through
virtual monopoly of power in a single class." We
are happy to hear thet Mr. Gladstone is not pre-
pared to swamp every other class by an indefinite
extension of the franchise to working men ; but it
certainly does not increase our confidence in him as
a staesman, that he should, according to his own
account, have got up on the spur of the moment,
and delivered a long and eloquent speech, which left
every one—both friends and foes—under a directly
opposite impression. Nor can we accept it as an
excuse for words, which, if they have any effect,
must have that of reviving a mischievous agita-
tion, that they are but the echo of a strain,
with which five years ago we were too familiar.
Having then discovered that no one really wanted
reform—and having had no reason since to change
our opinion—we do not regard it as a recommenda-
tion of a new political utterance, that it is only the
revival of an old political hypocrisy.
TIIE " EXAMINER" ON THE SEIZURE OF THE
CHINCHA ISLANDS,—The Bourbon Government of
Spain is certainly making out its title to be recog-
nised as a first-rate Power. The claim was put
in during the Paris Conference of 1856, and sup-
ported by imperial France; but it was pooh.
poohed generally as unwarrantable, or at least
premature. To be acknowledged one of the privi-
leged class of States, a kingdom must prove itself
able to bully with impunity, and to have a real love
of violence and spoliation. That is the true test of
greatness according to diplomatic haut ton. Your
quiet, forbearing, reasonable communities that pay
their way, ask only for their own, and do unto
others as they would be done by, are naturally re-
garded as shabby and snaeking, low-born and low-
bred, inspired with no grandeur of national soul,
and no capacity for tyrannising over the rest of
mankind. No State can be accounted of first rank
nowadays that cannot point to so many quarterings
(upon unoffending neighbours), and that cannot
produce a respectable amount of plunder, in proof of
its quality. While Spain was merely occupied in
recruiting her domestic strength, and having ani-
mation restored to her long paralysed limbs, her
pretensions were treated as superciliously as those
of Holland, Switzerland, or Sweden. Who would
admit into the order of Imperial buccaneers
an associate that seemed to be devoid of
spirit of rapine, and to be devoted solely
to the peaceful improvement of domestic concerns ?
If the rulers of Spain would regain her place among
the anointed nuisances of Christendom, they must
once more take to the road. Expeditions against
Riff pirates, and bombardments of Moorish huts like
those of Tetuan,avith whatever cruelty inflicted and
whatever exactions followed, could not be regarded
as sufficient proofs of the true domineering temper.
Christian provinces must be laid hold of in a politely
perfidious way, and retained with a firm grasp in
slavery, or ravished and left for dead. Poland,
Silesia, Finland, Venice, Savoy, Mexico, Slesvig-
Holstein—there are precedents enough for all who
would follow them ; and where there is a will there
is never wanting a way. Spain has taken the hint,
and shown herself really anxious to revive the tradi-
tions of Pizarro and of Cortes. By a combination
of treachery and violence, of which Prussia herself