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

- -
SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

TIIE " SATURDAY REVIEW " ON MR. GLADSTONE
IN THE RECENT SESSION.--Whether the Iliad is
made up of a series of detached lays devoted to
the deeds of particu!ar 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 tiae 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 etanding
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 riEes 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

ttiein, 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. Ho always

lived from hand to mouth. Lord Palmereton'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 announcing some
principle of e:ernel and immutable morality.
Whether he really believes that everything must be
ultimately redeced to a primordial law of the ma.
erocosm, 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 you 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
but "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, Lanenburg,
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
This
little and Zealand with the Germanic element.
little people, just the half of the Swiss in number,
resides in a country of which three-fourths ie 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 Op eold.ors very
rs of the
Duchies were disaffected, and their sa
few, and if Schleswig and Holstein C,nllin half
the ships, as they do, some more can be built
in the Clyde. Is Ireland, then, a drawback to
our military strength ? Denmark may have soldiers,
it is true, for she may drill her whole population, as
Switzerland does ; but for an army and a fleet it is
a revenue which ia needed. And where is revenue
to be obtained ? No statesmeu, save the English,
French, and Dutch, here ever succeeded in levying
taxes to the extent of more than thirty shillings a
head, and that high average would leave Denmark

rif-4
;
with a revenue of L 2,100,000.
. ,
reach even that, for ono of the m a- 4ttr
which the country has to strugt ;le ea 4,0
emigration, which year by year eruptie eds
of their most energetic childret 1, and -which any
heavy taxation would be certain ,to increase. Out
of this sum she will have to pay the inte rest on a
debt of £10,000,000, leaving her Lees than
£1,300,000 for court, army, navy' , colonies, and in-
ternal administration. We may imagine in these
days of ironclads the sort of fleet 3 he would be able
to maintain out of the balance remaining. But
Denmark, argue the men, who in weariness of the
temporary paralysis of Great Bt itain are think-
ing that they approve of Mr. Cot')den'a opinions,
may live without fleet and army. ;She may, bat it
will be a life without a future, for she is not, be it
remembered, under the Eteeopean guerantee- In-
deed if she were it would he a orthlese, for the Five
Powers were solemnly pledged to mai utales the in-
tegrity and independence of Denmark, amt broke
the pledge because it was icconveniont. The Ger-
man stream flaws ceaselessly :into Jtraland, the
traders in Zealand are German, the enure is purely
German, and once the Duthie,} a.ee gotee the rest
of the monercity can be absorbed w heuevter a Prus-
sion Pro nter desires to etave off an unnl ?Leant in-
tern :i S eitzeriand exists avitte t•,,,parato
without either fleet or army, but that there
even steel bolts "at a pound a piece" aryl wasted on
mountain sides. Denmork may avoid incessant
compulsion by entering the Confedert tion, but
then she becomes a Scandinavian pros ince. ; or
by accepting a Russian Protectorate, but then she
becomes a Russian satrapv—in any case, even the
mostlfavouranle, " there is an end of an au W sang,"
as good Lord Belhaven said, Denmai it as a
member of the European family is dead,
and the only subject for speculation is the
manner and time of her burial. In other
words, England rather than risk her corn merciat
prosperity, or risk a cessation of harmony t etween.
the Court and the people, has suffered afr se Pro-
testant maritime State to be swept from t he map
by a great despotic semi-Catholic Power. There
are but two more such States in the world., Hol.
land and Sweden, and either may now be attacked
on the same pretexts, and with the same certainty
of success. That policy may be wise, it is 'waste of
time to argue in England when all the. political
leaders are on one side, but at least let um acknow-
ledge to ourselves and the world its visibi I 3 results.
THE " EXAMINER" ON A QUESTIONAR. LE CON-
VICTION.—We have always contended for tt to severe
punishment of outrages against women, bu, I; in pro- •
portion of the severity of punishment slz ould be
the care and circumspection in coming to the con-
clusion of guilt. The charge of Miss Moody is fresh
in public recollection. She accused a middlia-aged
man, named Nash, of having indecently assaulted
her in a carriage of the South-Western Con tpany,
and she risked her life to escape from the man's.
advances, real or imagined, for she got out npt to al.°
ledge which runs along the side of the train, and
would probably have fallen and been killed bu t-for
the brave exertions of a passenger, Mr. Stoke e, of
Coventry street, who supported her when 'she
had lost the power of making any effort for
her self-preservation. A woman would never b ave
put herself in this terrible position of peril with out
cause, real or fanciful, and there could not h e a
doubt about Miss Moody's impression that she was
in danger of insult or worse; but the question was
whether that impression was warranted by Diets,
or whether it was merely fanciful. The affair hap-
pened in the middle of the day in a train stor ping
frequently. The circumstances of alarm are thus
stated by the prosecutrix :
" The defendant then questioned her as to how old ,she
was, but she did not answer the inquiry. The defendtint
then laid himself full length on the seat opposite to her,
and there remained staring her full in the face. The prose-
cutrix then stated that she began to feel nervous and rose
from her seat to open the window of the carriage with a
view to get out, the train at that moment having scarcely.
got into motion. The defendant said, "do not get out," an,'
she closed the door and resumed her eeat. The defendamit
wanted to close the window, but she objected, and stood up
to prevent his doing so. While she was making the attempt
to open the window she felt the defendant's band upc n her
shoulder. She moved, as if annoyed, and immediate! v after-
wards she felt his arm round her waist. She moved again,
and he then put his arm quite round her waist, an d then
she felt her dress quietly raised in front. She then turned
round, and, taking up her parasol and bag, opel led the
carriage door and got out upon the ledge that tuns from one
carriage to another.
It is remarkable that in such a moment of terror Miss
Moody thought more of her parasol and bag than of her
own personal safety. Sho carefully secured those a rticles
before she risked her life for her honour. The profit •ass of
nervous alarm is clearly traceable in the above evic fence.
Nash, probably a rude man, stared his fellow-passenger in
the face, which made her feel nervous, and she roseto leave
the carriage, which he, possibly repenting of his bad srt en-
ters, begged her not to do. There was next a little struggle
about the window, and it is very conceivable that the la, an,
seeing that she wanted the window open because of .ter
fear of him, might have prevented her opening it withe ut
any bad design, and merely not to let her have her wayt'n
her suspicions of him. As for laying the hand on th
shoulder and the waist, there are classes with whom these
acts are not considered as necessarily liberties, and though
Miss Moody was not one of these free-and-easy classes the
man Nash might be. she therefore may have thought much
of what he, of coarse habits, thought little. But the next
is the material point. ?'liss Moody felt her dress quietly
raised, but what was there to connect Nash with the motion
of the dress ? Absolutely nothing. 'Who travels by rail or
omnibus without seeing crinolines lifted without hands ? It
is a dress of self-exposure. Any unequal pressure deranges
it, and in Miss Moody's struggle for the window she may un-
consciously have given the motion to her dress which she,
with a foregone conclusion in mind, attributed to Nash. She
was in the state of excitement in which there is little attention
to cause and effect. For having put the girl in that fright
Nash deserved some punishment, but hardly the sentence
dealt out to him, ruinous to a man in his condition. And
whatever view may be taken of the case, the verdict is
absurd and unjust; for it convicts the man of a common
assault, and not of the indecent attempt charged in the first
count of the indictment. Now clearly if there was no in-
decent assault the man was guiltless altogether. There was
indecent assault, or no assault whatever. To what insig-
nificance, indeed, is the case reduced if stripped of all the
alleged circumstances of indecency. Let the crinoline be
underanged, and the facts of the common assault would be
laying a hand on the shoulder and waist—assaults com-
mitted in every ball-room. The acts were freedoms unper-
missible, undoubtedly, but the jury did not regard them as
indecent liberties; and considered merely as freedoms, and
vulgar freedoms, they did not amount to assault in any
sense of the word. But for this Nash is sentenced to im-
prisonment with hard labour for nine months I If the man
was guilty of the indecency charged, ho deserved four times
that measure of punishment; but if all that part of the
charge against him was false or fanciful, a ninth part of the
punishment assigned would be sufficient for an offence more
of bad manners than =rills. The truth seems to be that
the Court was perplexed, and made one of the bad compro-
mises frequent in doubtful cases. The jury could not find
grounds for conviction on the serious charge, nor were they
disposed to acquit altogether; so, as they could not find
indecency, they found assault in acts not of the character
of assault rather than let the prisoner escape altogether.
This is not justice, and we think the case deserves the at-
tention of the Home Office.

THE LONDON REVIEW ON INlExteo.—The Emperor and
Einpress of Mexico have entered their capital, and have
met with a right imperial welcome. Whatever may be the
origin of the new throne, there seems every reason to believe
that it offers to the country the prospect of a stable and
regular Government. All classes of the people seem rally.•
ing around it; and, although the authority of the new
monarch is now actually established in large portions of his
dominions, there is no doubt that he will be as readily
welcomed there, as he has been elsewhere, as soon as the
marauding bands of Juarez are dispersed. Such, indeed,
is the confidence of the Emperor Maximilian and his Minis-
ters in their ability to accomplish the speedy pacification of
the country, that the last of the French troops are on the
point of leaving. Under these circumstances our acknow-
ledgment of the new empire ought not to be long delayed.
We have none but the best wishers for its prosperity; since
anything which tends to develope the recources and in,
crease the commerce of Mexico must redound to our ad,
vantage. It has long been clear that the Mexicans were
wholly unfit for republican institutions. We have acknow-
ledged President after President, only to see the conqueror
of to-day become the conqueror of to-morrow. Pro:Ably
few of the military chiefs,wha have successively seized the
reigns of government during the last few years, exercised
anything like substantial authority over a more extensive
tract of country than now owns the sway of the Emperor
'le'sbtere
chance is certainlyno one in arms against him
success,
I\wliathximthielitialnig.h t

THE HIGHEST MOUNTAIN IN BRITAIN.—A new
measurement of Ben Meedhui and the other moun-
tains of the Cairngorm group, has just been made by the
Royal Engineers presently engaged upon that part of the
Ordnance Survey of Scotland. Bon Macdhui, which was
formerly supposed to be 4,390 feet in height, is now sot
down at nearly ICO feet less than that—viz., 4,296. Some
years since. Ben Macdhui was supposed to be 17 feet higher
than Ben Nevis, the height of which was then pat down at
4,373. Ben Macdhui was therefcre at that time authorita-
tively stated to be the highest mountain in Britain. Since
then, however, the tables have taken a turn, and Bin Nevis
would now appear to be by far the highest of the two. The
Ordnance survey of Ben Nevis, so far as we are aware, has
not yet been made, but taking its height at the old rneasurc-
rient of 4,373 feet, and Ben Macdhui at its newly arm,.
tained height—viz., 4,296 feet, Ben Nevis appears by Lis
calculation to be 77 feet higher than the highest of the
Grampian range. The difference is still greater in favour
of Ben Nevis .f we accept its height as being 4,40 G, as
marked in a map lately published by Messrs Chambers in
Milner's "Gallery of Geography. Braersich is set down
in the now survey at 4,218. Cairtoul, which Was formerly
believed to be 4,245 feet in height, is now taken down five
feet, and made 4,240. The height vt Beu:thourd is fixed at
3,923 feet.--.E7ain Courant.

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