The Sun.
London, England, 1864-08-08 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS,

THE 46 SATURDAY REVIEW " ON MR. GLADSTONE
IN THE RECENT SESSlON.—Whether the Iliad is
made up of a series of detached lays devoted to
the deeds of particular heroes, or whether it is an
epic whole composed of successive and connected
actions is a problem which has engaged the atten-
tion, among many other critics, of the classical
Chancellor of the Exchequer. But Mr. Gladstone's
Homeric studies must have brought before him, the
fact that many books of the Iliad have long gone
by titles connected with the specific deeds of Greek
and Trojan. We have the aristeia of Diome, the
aristeia of Ajax, the aristeia of Hector or of Achilles.
The late Session of Parliament may well be styled
the aristeia of Gladstone. He is the central figure
of this single senatorial episode. The only difference
between the epic and actual hero is that, in Homer,
the particular man of war, throughout one
book at least,- always has the best of it. Mr. Glad-
stone's acts of valour have, however, had but a
chequered succe-s. We must score up to him the
divided honours of a good innings and a bad one.
There is his Budget and his Annuity Bill on the
one side, his Suffrage Extension speech and his
Sheridan duel on the other. In his triumphs, he
could not escape the fate of offending almost every.
body ; and in his worst failures, he never omitted
to display his innate powers. To be sure, the late
session has not exhibited Mr. Gladstone in the posi-
tion which he occupied last year, when, "for this
night only" the leader of the House, he contrived,
on the occasion of the memorable debate on the pur-
chase of the Exhibition buildings, to lash the Com-
mons into a tempest and fury of open rebellion by
his bad management of a bad cause. But it may be
questioned whether the imputations, or at least sus-
picions, of bad faith to his colleagues which have
grown up in connexion with the last session have
not more seriously damaged his political standing
than any solitary, however egregious, error in
taste and official discretion could have done. To be
only an imitator of the worst parts of Lord Russell's
career is a Parliamentary disqualification for the
highest office, more grave than personal petulance
and a constitutional tendency to do and say even
the best things in the worst temper and manner.
When a statesman, in the very noon of his powers,
both rises higher and sinks lower than ever, what
forecast of his future are we to make ? It may be
doubted whether Mr. Gladstone ever displayed
so much oratorical skill and versatility as in his
speech on Mr. Disraeli's motion ; while, on the
other hand, unless it had been his wish to show his
powers of sinking, and his ingenuity in contriving
ugly holes for the express purpose of falling into
them, it is hard to conceive such an exhibition of
gratuitous folly as his insults to Mr Sheridan. Per.
haps the radical vice of Mr Gladstone's mind is his
love of large and exhaustive theories. No states-
man of commanding influence in these latter days
has been a doctrinaire. His political father—Peel
—was not the least of a theorist. He always
lived from hand to mouth. Lord Palmerston's
career has illustrated the same inglorious but
most practical rule of political life. Not that
Mr Gladstone is, in fact, a bit more consistent
than his fellows or predecessors. No man in
English political life can be consistent. But the
point in which Mr Gladstone differs from other
statesmen is, that, whatever his immediate line may
be, it must always be justified by the largest, broad-
est, grandest general principles. Now the world
hates universal propositions. Mr Gladstone could
not recommend a bill about beating carpets without
bringing it under a major premiss a
moral
principle of eternal and immutable ity.
Whether he really believes that everything must be
ultimately reduced to a primordial law of the ma.
crocosm, or whether it is only for the luxury of
curvetting on the high intellectual horse, is unim-
portant except to those who like to study personal
character; but this habit of mind is a very unfortu-
nate one for its possessor, A bill 'empowering
Government to grant small annuities might, by a
commonplace person, be recommended for its very
commonplace merits; but people are not only
alarmed, but feel insulted, when it is preached that
the whole duty of man consists in saving, that every
previous :attempt at economy has only been encou-
raged by thieves and robbers, and that---while Mr
Sheridan, in particular, is little better than Judas
—the only hope for the future destiny of mankind
is to be found in a certain office in the Old Jewry,
When it turned out, as it did, that the devil was
not half so black as he was painted—if indeed,
there was any devil in the business—the angel in-
troduced by Mr Gladstone met with cold welcome,
and people began to doubt whether the coming
spirit was bringing wreaths from heaven at all.
THE "SPECTATOR " UPON THE POST-MORTEM
ON DENMARK.—" The late King !" said Philip of
Orleans, Regent of France,who could not endure to
hear of death, to a Secretary who talked of a
deceased King of Spain, " what do yon mean by
the late King ?" " Mais, Monseigneur," answered
the startled and pliant Secretary, "it is but a title
they take." It is a novel role for Liberal journals
to play, but the English press has all this week been
acting, with less wit and less provocation, the part
of the Regent's Secretary. They will not call Den-
mark dead,—the phrase is far too uncourtly, she is
bat "reduced," or to be very frank, "despoiled"
of part of her territories. The nationality subsists;
the fleet remains; the Danes can trade, and marry,
and eat ; and even if Denmark has ceased to be of '
any consequence in the world, why, says the Times
" the happiness of nations does not depend on their
importance; it is indeed often in an adverse ratio
to their magnitude in their neighbours' eyes and
their own." The motive of all this courtliness is
plain enough. The English public does not like
to remember that the power it was bound
to protect has been slain under its eyes, and in
the teeth of its protest, feels as it hears of
the last sad ceremonies a pang which might, if
the details were brought too clearly forward, change
into a spasm of indignation against the advisers
who have misled it, A veil therefore is stretched
over the transaction, and all its little horrors con-
cealed. That was not :the death rattle in the
patient's throat, only a stifled groan ; the surgeons
are using the knife, but it is not a post-mortem they
are making, they only prepare for healthful ampu-
tation ; the patient will be greatly relieved by the
loss of his legs and arm. It is pleasant no doubt to
sorrowing friends to hear those smooth excuses, and
their utterance is considered by many as morally
justifiable, but the fact remains none the less that
the life has fled, the European power called Den-
mark is extinct, M. de Quaade, on the Ist August,
agreed at Vienna to the arrangement described by
us last week, the cession of Holstein, Lauenburg,
and Schleswig, with their islands, and the Danish
monarchy consequently ceased to exist. There
may remain for a time a little State called by the
old name, and the tradition of independence may
linger round it, like the smell of an eaten dinner
round the table, but the reality has departed.
The " Denmark" which remains is politically
only a corpse, bearing still the old semblance
of manhood, but utterly powerless, either for
good or evil. It is a State consisting of two
small islands, neither of them so large as Lincoln.
shire, half a dozen islets, the largest less than
Brecknock, and a peninsula little bigger than
Munster, a scattered territory in all not quite half
the size of Scotland, almost as bleak, much worse
cultivated, and without an approach to its rich
mineral wealth. The population bears about the
same proportion, being 1,400,000, or rather more
than a third of that of Scotland, singularly divided
in all but feeling, and tainted already alike in Jut-
land and Zealand with the Germanic element. This
little people, just the half of the Swiss in number,
resides in a country of which three-fourths is a flat
plain utterly indefensible, and the remainder islands
defensible only by a fleet, which Denmark has no
means to maintain. The Danes, we are told, may
still have an army and a fleet, for the soldiers of the
Duchies were disaffected, and their sailors very
few, and if Schleswig and Holstein claim half
the ships, as they do, some more can be built
, then, a drawback to
strength an
Ir?elDednmark may have soldiers,
ioi
tnu
true,irstmh ei l Ct
lryfy e
odr.she may drill her whole population, as
Switzerland does ; but for an army and a fleet it is
a revenue which is needed. And where is revenue
to be obtained P No statesmen, save the English,
French, and Dutch, have ever succeeded in levying
taxes to the extent of more than thirty shillings a
head, and that high average would leave Denmark