The Sun.
London, England, 1863-08-03 00:00:00

freedom presented to the Duke, are several bas-
reliefs—copies of some of those on Trajan's column
at Rome, recording his victories over the Dacians
and Samaritans, or inhabitants of part of the Danu-
bian provinces and Russia.
A selection of vocal music, under the direction
of Mr. Henry Buckland, was sung by Madame
Rudersdorff, Mr. Baxter, Mr. A. Austin, Mr. W.
Cummings, Mr. Lewis Thomas, and others in the
course of the evening. Mr. Harker acted as toast-
master. The company provided suitable entertain-
ment for the Volunteer guard of honour from the
London Rifle Brigade, who had received the Com-
mander-in-Chief on his arrival.

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

SATURDAY REVIEW.—The party history of the session
is soon told. At its commencement, there were indications
that the Opposition contemplated a grand assault. The
cession of the lonian Islands was a measure which seemed
to furnish a fair battle-cry, and it was generally calculated
that, with the help of the discontented Irishmen, the Oppo-
sition leaders could command a majority, assuming that

they might count the votes of all their nominal adherents,
. _

But the project was either never entertained. or was speedily
given up. Three or four of the members who were pro-
minent in the extinct Protectionist party expressed on the
first night of the session their feeling that Lord Palmer-
merston represented their views as closely as any Minister
for whom they could hope, and avowed their determination
to hinder any immediate change of Government. This
mutinous demonstration had the effect of proclaiming an
armistice for the session. Party action on the part of the
Opposition became hopeless as far as regarded any substan-
tial result, and damaging as an unnecessary advertisement
of disunion. Mr. Disraeli appears to have accepted the
situation with philosophy, and has retired for the time
from all political contests, except those in which Church
questions ate involved. On two occasions only have the
Opposition attempted a distinctly party move against
the Government—in one of which they were successful,
while they failed in the other. Both of them

were provoked by Mr. Gladstone. At a moment when

everything was smooth before him, and the seductions in

taxation which the Government were enabled to make had

almost buried in oblivion the past eccentricities of his
finance, he made a proposal devised apparently for no other
purpose than to remind the world that he was unchanged.

The tax upon charities was recommended by no other con-
sideration than that it was a pedantic exaggeration of prin-

ciple which was likely to irritate the greatest number of
persons for the smallest possible gain. After the measure
was defeated, Lord Palmerston, with characteristic gene-

rosily, asserted that it had been brought forward with the
full approval of all the Ministers. But it is difficult to be-

lieve that it was ever formally submitted to the Cabinet
The most unobservent student of English opinion upon the
subject of charitable endowments would have been able to
predict the result of such a proposal. Mr. Gladstone ap-
peared to have an inkling of its fate himself ; for he made
a strenuous effort to carry it by a coup de main, before the
aggrieved bodies, whose movements were sure to be slow,
could be roused to action. Foiled in this manoeuvre he made
no effort to save it. He delivered a speech in its behalf which
was one of the finest of his efforts; but it was evidently
composed not for the purpose of convincing his opponents,
which he abandoned as a useless labour, but in order to vent
upon all charitable persons—past, present, and to come—
his irrepressible anger at being driven to retreat. He was
unable, however, to procure the advocacy of one single in-
dependent member, and was forced to withdraw the
project after a very brief debate. Upon the second
occasion on which the Opposition forces were mustered
against him, he was more successful. The subject of de-
bate was one of those personal questions which keenly ex-
cite the House of Commons, but are profoundly indifferent
to the country. It was the proposal to cancel Mr. Church-
ward's contract, in punishment of his electioneering sins in
1859. Though the details of the case were much disputed,
there was little question as to its main feature. The largest
charity could not doubt that Mr. Churchward had timed
his application with a view to the impending Dover election,
and had relied much upon his political merits for its suc-
cess. On the other hand, whatever his sins might have
been, it was an awkward precedent for the Queen's Govern-
ment to set, to ask the House of Commons to cancel a con-
tract that had been made by a former Government in her
name. It was a case of which the merits were sufficiently
balanced to enable men to vote according to their partisan
allegiance. A slight desertion in the ranks of the Opposi-
tion resulted in a majority of eight in favour of the Govern-
ment. A subsequent attempt on the part of the Con-
servatives to reverse the decision was foiled by an ignomi-
nious rivalry of a pigeon-match ; and Mr. Churchward's
contract was finally quashed by a majority of 14.
SPECTATOR.—The Ministry has lost heavily, as well by
the death of Sir C. Lewis—who was judgment to that col-
lective mind, as Lord Palmerston is force and Mr. Glad-
stone conscience and imagination—as by the shortcomings
of those who survive. The Premier has made no blunder,
but he is visibly older, and though time has not impaired
his audacity or visibly diminished his tact, it is slowly but
imperceptibly sapping that almost physical energy of
thought which, and not insight or foresight, is his intellec-
tual claim to reign. He is coachman, and will be; but the
observer does not feel quite so certain that he will always
turn the corners so sharply without ever touching the kerb.
It is becoming possible to conceive of Lord Palmerston mak-
ing a blunder, not from want of sympathy, as in 1858, but
from want of nervous force, which has hitherto been incon-
ceivable. Earl Russell, too, has not gained in public estima-
tion either by the Brazilian or Polish despatches. He may
be, and probably is, in both cases in the right, but there are
traces in the former dispute of an irritation which deprives
diplomacy of its one merit—freedom from personal or na-
tional passion, and in the latter of something not widely
distinguished from political feebleness. The Six Points in-
tensely irritate Russia without exciting either among Poles
or Englishmen any corresponding enthusiasm. On the
American questic n the old Whig chief—for Lord Palmerston
is no more a Whig than he is a radical—has almost alone
among the aristocracy stood firmly to his great principles,but
the rigid justice, the honest preference for freedom displayed
by the Secretary for Foreign Affairs, have been devoid of a
trace of that warmth which might have bound a great people
to us for ever. He has been judge, not politician, and plain-
tiff and defendant alike quit his tribunal with cheeks red
whit an irritation 'which does not quite subdue respect.
Throughout that discussion and all others this session
"languid Johnny," as Bulwer sang or chanted—for the
verse is very like the kind most popular in the streets—has
not once "growled to glorious John." Nor has Mr. Glad,
stone advanced. His budget, it is true, was successful, and
his speech on defence of his tax on charities raised for ever
the appreciation of educated men of his magnificent intel-
lectual power. There has not been such a speech since
Macaulay in half an hour smashed Lord Hotham's success-
ful bill forbidding the Master of the Rolls to sit in the House
of Commons. It actually changed votes on the spot, men
pledged to their constituencies murmering that it was im-
possible to resist. But, nevertheless, Mr. Gladstone has not
advanced. The death of Sir Cornewall Lewis has left him
heir apparent to the Liberal leadership, and as accidental
leader he has on one or two occasions failed. He managed
the vote of the Kensington purchase like a clever attorney
—Mr. Ayrton would have done it as well and showed a
temper which, if he wants Liberal votes as well as the ad-
miration of Liberals, he must restrain. A sort of hard
rather than fiery temper, a disposition to snub severely, is
very general among our governing men, and by no means
without excuse, It is almost the only social defence against
the pitless pressure, intrusion, and impertinence to which
they are of necessity subjected. Peel showed it always, and
so did Lord Grey, and Lord Granville is probably the only
politician of standing in whom it is totally absent. But this
attitude is not the less consistent with so much of self-re-
straint as leaves all faculties unimpaired, gives mere baiters
no hope of success, and spreads through a party that glow of
confidence which soldiers feel when they watch the grave
serenity of their leader, Tact and temper do not count in
a competitive examination, but they are indispensable in
governing men, and there was no tact in telling the house
that as it had been led on so far it must pass the next vote ;
no temper in the disdain with which the Chancellor satirised
men who had voted the purchase of ground, but refused to
pay for the sheds which lumbered it. The scene annoyed
all cool heads ; for Mr. Gladstone is our chief, be it as leader
or conqueror, and to make a great one he must be rid of this.
There is no drawback save one, which in England has always
been insurmountable. We have had vicious Ministers of the
first class, many Ministers who could not talk, two men
whose word was worthless, at least one who drunk hard,
and one a recognised coward ; but Parliament has not, since
Clarendon's day, borne a Premier with a thin skin. Sir G.
Grey failed in his single bill for amalgamating the London
Police, and adhered during the session to a condemned
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which ended in the transference of a vast section of a conti-
nent by a sale with secret conditions. As for the smaller
fry, Sir Charles Wood is what he always was, a block out
of which a peer may be hacked, but of little other value;
and Lord Granville is, as ever, the suavest representative of
an extinct school of gentlemanly politicians. The single
exception is the Duke of Somerset, whose opinion as well
as his action daily inclines politicians to try once more the
experiment of placing the Naval Department under one
man's control. For the rest, the Cabinet, though still
strong, has, on the whole, lost ground in the opinion of
those it rules.
EXAMINER.—As far as party action or legislative result
can be deemed true tests of healthful vitality, the session
just closed must be regarded as the idlest and most inane
which the present generation can remember. Nothing has
been attempted by those who would, and nothing has been
accomplished by those who could, repair or amend our
domestic institutions. On neither side of the table that
divides the Haves from the Have-nots is it actually alleged
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that nothing requires to be done. That was the old creed of
Conservatism ; but like other old-fashioned phases of faith,
then has fallen out of it, and it is only by dint of con-
soldering and tinkering that it is made to hold to-
gether at all.
AU your finest young Tories cram for a com-