The Sun.
London, England, 1864-05-13 00:00:00

SPIRIT OP THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

TIMES.—That a gentleman holding the office of
Chancellor of the Exchequer with extraordinary
distinction, having sat for 30 years in the House of
Commons, and having held 1,(.1 years ape the seals
of the Colonial-office, should yet make such a speech
as was delivered by Mr. Gladstone on Wednesday
last, is a thing so strange and so startling that we
can scarcely yet realise the full importance of the
event. Had Mr. Gladstone been followed by a
keener logician than Mr. Whiteside he might have
received very serious damage in the course of the
debate. Mr. Whiteside has the real Celtic vigour
of onslaught, but also the Celtic want of persis-
tence and perseverance. He flies from subject to
subject, and loses in force what he gains in brilli-
ancy. But Mr. Gladstone suffices alone and un-
aided to prove how great is the mistake he has made.
The step, however, hasty as it may have seemed,
had been long premeditated, for Mr. Gladstone had
announced some time ago to a deputation of work-
ing men his intention to say a word on the ill-treat-
ment they have received. They have every reason
to be content with him. He has gone beyond their
utmost expectations, and argued their case on prin-
ciples which leave them nothing to desire. His
freedom does not " widen slowly down from prece-
dent to precedent," but possesses herself at once of
adormula which leaves the one side nothing more to
fear, and the other side nothing more to desire. He
has found the simplest solution possible for a very
difficult question. Men have perplexed themselves
very unnecessarily about the francise. One school
has ransacked ancient and modern history, has pried
into every constitution and investigated the history
of every popular Government, to find out the rules
whioh led to the prosperity of States. Another has
dived into the deep recesses of human thought,
and sought to evolve from our most abstract con-
ceptions, by a process of unerring logic, the doctrine
of the Rights of Man and the principles of Liberty,
Equality, and Fraternity. Mr Gladstone has a
short way of dealing with all these things. In the
hands of this consummate rhetorician the rights and
destinies of the human race for all time to come re-
solve themselves into a question of the burden of
proof. Here is a man who claims the franchise.
His appearance is not brilliant; although his ex-
terior is not prepossessing. Ordinary prudence
would seem to say, " Before we admit such a person
to a share of what is really the supreme power in
this country, had we not better institute a little in-
quiry ? Had we not better try to ascertain what
use he will make of the power which he seeks ?"
"Not so," says Mr. Gladstone, "for this wound be
to put the burden of proof on the wrong side.
Old-fashioned politicians used to think that, before
you altered a system admitted to act well and to
inspire confidence, the burden of proof was thrown
upon you to show that such alteration was needed
and that the plan proposed would do some good;
but now, unless you can convict the suspicious-
looking person we have mentioned of some crime, or
prove that political danger will arise from his ad-
mission, the burden of proof is thrown on those who
want to keep him out, not on those who want to
let him in. He is morally entitled to come within
the pale of the constitution if he has signed an ads
dress speaking civilly of those above him. Persons
entertaining such sentiments are fit to discharge
the duties of citizenship, and he is entitled to ad-
mission to the discharge of those duties. Under the
wand of our enchanter the whole aspect of society
in this country is changed. We had dreamt of an
England made up of a society rising by distinct and
well-marked gradations from its base to its summit,
each part discharging its destined functions without
envy and without discontent, with absolute personal
freedom, under an equal law, divided between
thinkers and workers, between the owners and
producers of wealth, with all that inequality be-
tween man and man which is the necessary result of
unrestricte I freedom. At a tap of Mr Gladstone's
wand we awake to a very different eeene. We have
got Equality instead of Liberty. Mr Gladstone
opens our eyes, and we see that we are naked.
The great mass of mankind are deprived of their
right—the right of governing their country,whether
they are fit to govern it or not. If they are not dis-
contented they ought to be, for the burden of proof
is on those who would exclude them from the fran-
chise, and against them no proof can possibly be ten-
dered. What a glorious discovery, that a whole
nation is kept in slavery without knowing it, and
that people who imagine themselves to be very well
treated by those under whose governnrent they live
are really suffering daily the most cruel depriva-
tion ! It is their nature, Mr. Gladstone says
—and the whole history of strikes illustrates the
truth of the remark—to follow their superiors, to
confide in them, and to Mink well of their conduct,
instead of being disposed to go together as a class.
Mr. Gladstone does his best to cure the working
classes of these amiable weaknesses, by pointing cut
to them that the franchise is not a thing to earn as
a distinction, but to claim as a right; that, instead
of raising themselves to it, the duty of the Govern-
ment is to bring it down to them ; that the true
point of departure is universal suffrage ; and that
proof is to be required before any objection can be
allowed to this just, expedient, and all-pervading
rule. Mr. Forster, a fervid disciple of this new dis-
pensation, seems to have some glimpse that what has
happened must cause a redistribution of parties.
Mr. Gladstone's speech, he says, may be injurious
to the Government, but it will be of great advan-
tage to the Liberal party, and, by way of illustrat-
ing his meaning, he rather arrogantly suggests that
Mr. Marsh, who seconded Mr. Cave's motion,
should cross the house and join the ranks of the
Conservatives. He rejoices to have got, instead of
the cautious and moderate management of Lord
Palmerston, a really Liberal leader, whose heart is
in the business, who takes his stand on the Rights
of Man, and shrinks from no conclusion to which
the doctrines of Equality may conduct him. This
is the first synipe`oin of that redistribution of parties
which must sooner
r later follow upon Mr. Glade
stone's outspoken adhes;
on to the doctrines of the
a'
most extreme Democracy. Mr. Forster has every
right to speak for the Radicate't but we know not
whence he obtained the right to et.:astitute himself
the representative of the historical l-
aberal party
of this country. If he supposes that pa:ty to be a
convert to the principles Mr. Gladstone has an-
nounced, he will find himself grievously misoken.
There are, we believe, a mei ority of the supporters of
the present Government who take the very broadest
distinction between Liberality and Democracy, and
who oppose themselves to these levelling doctrines,
principally because they fear that under an Assem-
bly elected by anything approaching to universal
suffrage consistent, liberal, and enlightened govern-
ment would be impossible. We venture to predict
that the great mass of the Liberal party will resist
this attempt to drag them into an ultra-Democrati-
cal movement ; that, highly as they prize the great
public services and the commanding eloquence of
Mr Gladstone, they will seek for leaders who will,
at any rate, be content to walk in the path! of the
Constitution, and to abstain from administering
those dangerous aliments to popular turbulence and
vanity which have often raised the men who applied
them to power, but have invariably consigned the
nations which swallowed them to ruin.
POST.—The meeting held on Wednesday, at Bur-
lington House, to take into consideration the posi-
tion and prospects of the London University,
resulted in a statement which, upon the whole, mutt
be regarded as highly satisfactory. Poorly endowed,
having no prestige of age, relyieg almost entirely
upon fees derived from its graduates, the University
of London has managed to hold its oa-n very hon-
ourably, without descending to any of these mean-
nesses by which certain universities of long stand-
ing have sought to replenish their exchequer, to
the disparagement of their own fair fame. There
has been, at the metropolitan university, no truck-
ling to incapacity ; no meretricious vending of
diplomas to unworthy candidates. In every de-
partment the London degrees rank:deservedly high ;
and not amongst the least of its merits is that of
establishing a baccalaureate and doctorate of
science, by the acquisition of which candidates for
university honours, apart from arts and the
so-called learned professions, may gratify their
laudable desire legitimately and honourably ; all
pretext being removed for the acquisition of these
spurious German doctorates of philosophy, which,
if granted to non-residents, cseinot be otherwise
regarded than as disgraceful to university and gra-
duate alike. It is a somewhat remarkable, and at
the same time very gratifying fact, that, according
to the statement of Earl Granville, the Chancellor
—although the curriculnm of study has imposed
new studies from time to time, and enhanced the
difficulty of examination in subjects previously esta-
blished—the number of candidates has gone on in-
creasing. The first effect of any accession of diffi-
culty, Earl Granville said, was to lessen the number
of candidates for a short season; but presently a
reaction was found to set in, and the number very
much increased. In 1857 the total nnmber of can-
didates for all examinations was four hundred and
thirty-nine. In 1863 they were one thousand and
twenty; or two and one-third times as many. Of
course, as the noble Chancellor remarked, this in-
creaseis partly attributable to the increased num-
ber of examinations; but, as he also pertinently
observed, the progress of the University of London
is specially marked by the increase of matricula-
tions, and the larger proportions who proceed to
degrees in the respective faculties. This will be
made evident from the following considerations.
In 1857 the candidates for matriculation were two
hundred and sixty-six; in 1863 their number had
risen to four hundred and eighty-five, or almost
double the number. Then, again, the number who
went on to the B.A. examination were, lu 1857,
seventy-five; in 1863 they were one hundred and
fifty-three or more than double. Au equally eatis-

factory increase made itself apparent 1,1 every
faculty and every degree. Nor, as the noble chair-
man (the Chancellor) further remarked, were a here
wanting other gratifying circumstances to be . re;
garded as touching the status of the University 0.
London. Thus, for example, there is this veer
year a Cambridge senior wrangler who is member
of the metropolitan university, this being the sixth.
time that honour has been conferred; moreover,
not only fl senior wrangler, but a second and
third, both graduates of the London University.
Consideration of these most gratifying state-
ments will, we feel assured, beget a sympathetic-.
public feeling relative to the unsatisfactory pars of:
Earl Granville's report. The London Univer-
sity, high in honour, may be compared to a soul.
without a body, having hardly a local habitation or
a home. In this respect its condition is much to be
pitied, and is hardly creditable to a nation so wealthy
as England, and so addicted to the practical in
every occupation and relation of life. The very
existence of a metropolitan university distinct from
University College in Gower-street, which during
many years arrogated to itself the name, remains,
unknown to the majority not to say of Englishmen
but of Londoners. This, assuredly, is an unadvis-
able state of things, and should be remedied. Well
might the noble chairman say that in his opinion it
is a reflection on the administrative powers of the
country that such is the position of the University
after it has been now for more than a quarter of a
century established, created as it were by the Crown„
at the express desire of the Legislature, having
strenuously maintained the principles upon which_
it began its career, and exercised a profound influ-
ence upon the whole education of the country. It
appears that with respect to providing a site—s
home for the University—the Council some time ago,
put themselves in communication with the Chief
Commissioner of Public Works, whose response was
encouraging. It appears, moreover, that the archi-
tect of that department is now in communication
with the registrar, so that before many sessions
have gone by it may reasonably be hoped that the
University of London will not be under the neces-
sity of seeking lodgings for itself as heretofore. In
reference to this scheme, Earl Granville stated
something about architectural pretensions, which is
rather calculated to beget the fear lest some mem-
bers of the University may have been making too
much in their own minds of mere ornamental acces-
sories. We hope not. These things are always de-
sirable under the condition that they are within
one's means. What the University of London wants
is a building plain, commodious, expansive, like
itself ; so constructed that it may be capable of
adorr.ment at some future time.