The Sun.
London, England, 1865-09-12 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

L TIDIES.—The poll book of the late election for the
University of Oxford has been published within the
last few days, and will be studied with more than
usual interest. No one can fail to be struck by the
extraordinary number of votes polled in proportion
to the constituency. On no former occasion, we
believe, have more than about half the electors on
the register presented themselves to vote in person,
and if we add to these the pairs, we may probably
state the average number of those who declared
themselves under the old system at some two-thirds,
more or less. The result corresponds pretty nearly
with the percentage of votes recorded in borough
and county elections as estimated roughly by Lord
Stanley, and tends to show that a keener interest
in politics compensated in an university constituency
for the disadvantage of greater dispersion. This
disadvantage, whatever it may have been, was com-
pletely neutralised by Mr. Dodson's act, enabling
votes to be tendered on paper. Notwithstanding
the clumsy wording of this act, which rendered a
compromise between the two committees of Messrs.
Gladstone and Hardy absolutely necessary, its effeet
has been to raise the whole number of votes re-
ceived from less than 2,000 to 3,669. If we look
to the official returns of former contests, we find
that in 1847 Mr. Gladstone polled 997 votes, and
Mr. Round 824 ; that in 1852 Mr. Gladstone polled
1,108, and Dr. Marsham 758 ; that in 1853 Mr.
Gladstone polled 1,022, and Mr. Perceval 893; and
that in 1859 Mr. Gladstone polled 1,050, and Lord
Chandos 860. In the election of this year Mr.
Gladstone polled 1,724, and Mr. Hardy 1,904, being
3,628 in all, or more than double the number polled
by Messrs. Gladstone and Round in 1847. The
contrast is almost equally striking if we compare
the number of Sir Robert Inglis's supporters with
that of Sir William Heatheote's, the former having
polled 1,700 votes in 1847, and 1,369 in 1852 ;
while the latter polled 3,236 in 1865, although
no less than 415 plumpers were given for Mr.
Gladstone. Now, the exact number of quali-
fied electors for the present year, strange to
say, cannot be ascertained, but it is believed to
amount to between 4,200 and 4,300. The aggre-
gate of votes being 3,669, we cannot be far wrong
in assuming that six-sevenths of the constituency
actually took part in the election ; and when we
have made allowance for sick persons, those who
were resident or travelling abroad, and those whose
voting-papers were rejected, we can only marvel at
the vigour of the canvass which left so trifling a
residuum of obstinate neutrality. Upon the policy

and constitutional merits of Mr. Dodson's measure
opinions will continue to differ widely, but no one
can deny that it has effected its immediate objects.
The next feature which claims attention in this poll
book is the remarkable distribution of votes between
Mr. Gladstone and his opponent. To the public
outside the University may appear to be a body of
tolerably uniform composition and texture, but
such is far from being the fact. Those who know
Oxford well are aware that it combines at the pre-
sent time the most antagonistic elements of
thought and action, and is divided, both vertically
and horizontally, into sections which perhaps no
other society could amalgamate. There is nothing
invidious in pointing out, what it will surprise no
one to learn, that an immense preponderance of
those who represent Oxford before the world stood
by Mr. Gladstone, while Mr. Hardy was largely
indebted to the vis inertia of numbers for the first
time put into effective motion by the voting-papers.
To appreciate this, we have only to examine the
last page of the Poll-book, which contains an ab-
stract of the votes in each College. - It is not too
much to say that in every College of high educa-
tional reputation, with rare and doubtful exceptions,
Mr. Gladstone obtained a majority. Balliol, Corpus,
University, Oriel, Merton, Exeter, Queen's and
Wadham, all proved faithful to him ; New College,
Trinity, Magdalen, Christ Church, St. John's, Pem-
broke, Worcester, Brasenose, and Magdalen Hall
were the strongholds of his opponent. To members
of the University this simple enumeration speaks
volumes, for it exhibits almost all the best Colleges,
which happen also to be the oldest, on the one side,
and almost all the inferior Colleges, which-t happen
also to be less venerable, on the other. Yet this is
but an inadequate statement of the real case. Pur-
suing our analysis further, and distinguishing the
Heads and Fellows of Colleges from other members,
we come upon still more significant statistics. Out
of 19 Heads of Colleges, 8 only voted for Mr.
Gladstone, and 10 for Mr. Hardy, but the former
comprise the names of Dr. Liddell, of Christ Church,
Dr. Scott, of Balliol, Dr. Hawkins, of Oriel, Dr.
Lightfoot, of Exeter, Dr. Cradock, of Brasenose,
Dr. Plumptre, of University, Mr. Pattison, of Lin-
coln, and Dr. 'Williams, of Jesus. Here, again, com-
ment is needless, especially as a far more conclusive
and less embarrassing illustration of the same fact is
furnished by the votes of Fellows. It is well known
that most Oxford Fellowships are now open, and
constitute the highest reward of academical distinc-
tion. The Fellows of Colleges are thus, beyond all
question, the elite of the Uiversity, and in this picked
body Mr. Gladstone had a majority of 205 to 92, or
more than two to one. There are three Colleges--
Merton, Oriel, and Corpus—in which not a single
Fellow voted for Mr. Hardy, and only one—St.
John's—in which he gained a majority. Considering
that in most Colleges a good deal of the old leaven
still works in senior Fellows elected for other reasons
than merit, and ever inclined to high and dry poli-
tics, the value of this testimony in Mr. Gladstone's
favour can hardly be overstated. But an equally
important test remains to be applied. If the rising
energy and intellect of Oxford be embodied in the
Fellows, the mature learning is assuredly concen-
trated in the Professors. Twenty-three out of
thirty-six voted for Mr. Gladstone, ten only for
Mr. Hardy, and, to say the least, this numerical dis-
proportion very feebly represents the impression
which an inspection of the two lists will convey to
our initiated readers. Every page of the poll book
tells the same story, and it is impossible to rise from
a perusal of it without a conviction that, however
respectable a candidate Mr. Hardy may have been,
it was the dunces who rallied round him and suc-
ceeded in swamping the votes of the classmen. Other
reflections of a different nature are suggested by this
return. It has been noticed in a letter addressed to
one of our contemporaries, that of the clergy 1,166
voted for Mr. Gladstone, and 1,328 for Mr. Hardy,
whereas among the laity Mr. Hardy only headed
Mr. Gladstone by 18. It is also stated by the same
correspondent that of .Mr. Hardy's supporters 133
had voted for Mr. Gladstone against Lord Chandos.
The presumption clearly is that most of these deser-
ters belonged to the rank of the clergy, and that
presumption is entirely in accordance with what we
should have expected. At all events this defalcation
was more than enough to turn the election even
without the aid of the voting papers, and so far con-
firms the opinion of those who maintained that Mr.
Gladstone had nothing to fear from that innovation.
It appears, moreover, that Mr. Hardy had a majo-
rity of 52 upon the votes of M.A.'s added to the re-
gister within the preceding year. Hence we might
be tempted to infer that Mr. Hardy enjoyed the
confidence of the younger graduates, were it not
probable that greater efforts were made by his com-
mittee to induce B.A.'s to qualify, and that many
such Bachelors of old standing were induced to re-
place their names on the books of their colleges.
There is reason, indeed, to believe that the victorious
party owed their success, in part, to superior organi-
sation ; but no superiority of organisation could have
prevailed had not the voting papers brought the
country clergy within its reach, and had not the battle
been fought on a new ground. Hitherto academical
have on the who'e outweighed political influences in
Oxford elections ; henceforth it is to be feared that
ordinary party spirit directed from London will for
some time rule supreme. If so, the true friends of
Oxford must be content to see themselves repre-
sented, as of old, by Tory country gentlemen, and
to exercise, as best they may, the virtues of a
minority, not holding aloof, like the Spanish Pro-
gresistas, from University politics, but devoting
themselves with redoubled zeal to internal reform.
In the work of education consists the true life of
Oxford, and here the 400 who plumped for Glad-
stone may prove more than a match for the 1,900
adherensts of Hardy. The future belongs to them,
for every year adds to their strength in the govern-
ing bodies of the College and of the University ;
and if this power be in their hands, as it soon must
be, it matters little whether they are outvoted once
in five years by a number of non-residents on a
political issue.
HERALD.-It has been no easy task to follow the
windings and changes of party politics in the
Northern States of America, since the termination of
the war. The old names remain ; the old party or-
ganisation is still in some parts entire • and, as com-
petitors for seats in Congress and offices under the
Government, Republicans and Democrats seem still
to be united among themselves and hostile to each
other ; but upon the great public questions of this
momentous crisis men are taking sides with compa-
rative independence of mere party ties, and it is
sometimes difficult to say to what party such a man
belongs, o#what course either party will take ; or,
again, whether any party exists which can act to-
gether resolutely and consistently upon a definite
line of policy in regard to the great problems of the
hour. Secession and coercion divided the Democra-
tic party between the war and peace factions—be-
tween those who preferred the Union as the object
of all their long struggles against Northern section-
alism, to the avowed principles in whose name those
struggles had been made, and those who, preferring
their principles to the Union, maintained consistently
that doctrine of State rights which they had inherited
from a political ancestry older than the Union itself.
Conquest has again divided the Republicans. On
the one hand the Abolitionists are mostly clamorous
for a policy of favouritism to the negro and severity
to the white people of the South. With them the
object of the war was the destruction of slavery ;
and they think slavery still but half extirpated so
long as the negro remains in a state of political
pupilage, and is not admitted to a full and absolute
equality with the white man. Their hatred of the
Southerners is intense and almost savage. It dates
from a period long before the war, when Theodore
Parker preached with a pistol on his pulpit cushion;
when Mr. Chase harangued on the duty of commit-
ting perjury in the interests of abolition,when Demo-
cratic mobs threatened Abolitionist orators with tar
and feathers, and Abolitionists taught that murder and
pillage were the shortest road to emancipation, and
that Sharp's rifles and Colt's revolvers were the
only agency capable of converting the slaveowner.
Now the South is prostrate, and these men would
fain set the foot of military despotism on her neck,
and hold it there till their vengeance is satiated. On
the other side, the so-called Conservative section of
the Republicans desires nothing so much' as the
speedy oblivion of the war, and the reconstruction
of the Southern States on a Northern model. They
are perfectly willing that the Southerners shall go-
vern themselves, provided they will govern them-
selves on Republican principles ; and though they
intend never to allow State rights again to interfere
with Federal authority, and will, if they can, reduce
the privileges of the local governments to little more
than the shadow of what they were, they repudiate
the proposal to keep the conquered States in sub-
jection to military pro-consuls, courts-martial, and
the arbitrary law laid down for each occasion by
commanding generals or Freedmen's Bureaux. The
former section is led by Mr. Chase and Mr. Sumner,
the latter by Mr. Seward. The well-known leaders
in the cause of abolition, when Abolitionists were a
hunted and persecuted sect, are active in the de-
mand for negro suffrage • but they refuse to go
along with the politicians who have superseded them
in command in clamouring for vengeance on the
Southern people and for the blood of the chiefs of
the Confederacy. In the meantime while victory
has divided the Republicans, it seems to have united
the Democrats. A few extreme men are accused
of still denouncing the war, and of encouraging the
South to persevere in a policy of passive resistance,
with a view to acquire eventually from the weariness
of the North what they failed to extort at the point
of the sword. But if there really be any politicians
SO obstinate and so ill-advised, they are few and
insignificant. The great body of the Democratic
party seem to be agreed upon the course to be fol-
lowed. They accept with satisfaction the restoration

of the Union ; and claim that it is or ought to be
restored in its integrity by the termination of the
war ; that on the submission of the seceding States
they become ipso facto entitled to.resume their rights
and privileges, to re-establish their state govern-
ments, to regulate their own affairs, and to send
their senators and representatives to: Washington.
As, however, these professions of faith are generally
followed by a conditional resolution to support the
policy of the President as against the extreme
Abolitionist party, it would appear that the real
policy of the Democrats is to " appropriate" (in the
phrase of their opponents) as far as they can, the
influence and policy of the President, and, in return
for their support, to obtain whatever modification
they can of those portions of his system which bear
oppressively upon the feelings and interests of the
South. What the President himself may intend it
is difficult to say. Many recollections must embitter
him against his countrymen ; the animosity of an
apostate, and the remembrance of wrongs and in-
sults interchanged, separate him frdm that Demo-
cratic party of which he was once an active and
even a violent supporter. But so far as he can be
judged by recent acts and expressions, he seems to
incline to a policy more lenient towards the South,
and more nearly in accordance with the principles
of the Democrats, than could have been expected
from his antecedents and from the language which
he used upon his accession to power. The respon-
sibilities of office seem to have sobered him ; and
we hear of no more violent speeches about the duty
of punishing treason, and no preparations to carry
out the threatened confiscation of the property of
all Southerners possessed of even a moderate com-
petence. On the other hand, he receives with great
-favour the resolutions of the Convention of Missis-
sippi, which assert on behalf of the State every
right which, under . present circumstances, any
Southerner can hope to retain, and present a plan
of reconstruction as favourable to the State and to
the defeated Secessionists as could have resulted
from the repudiated propositions of General Sher-
man's Convention. Mr. Johnson is, moreover,
reported to have declared that he disapproved alto-
gether of the attempt to force negro suffrage upon
the South ; that it was for the Legislatures of the
several States to determine to whom the electoral
franchise should belong ; and that he had no wish
to deprive them of their right. If the President
'has really held this language it is clear that the
present inclination of his mind is towards a just
and liberal course • it is to be hoped that no error
or accident may throw him back upon the extreme
measures pressed on him by the Abolionists.
The South has frankly accepted her fate, and
consented to resume in good faith her place in the
Union. The calm, dignified, and sensible letter of
General Johnstone, which we printed on Friday,
expresses the feelings and intentions of the men
who, like him, fought to the last for their country's
independence while the hope of independence re-
mained. They admit that their States are once
more members of the Union ; they frankly aban-
don the whole system of slavery ; and they are
prepared, though with saddened and humbled
hearts, to do their part to render their several
States as content and prosperous as her present
situation admits. That their should be difficulties,
that there should be collisions, and misunderstand-
ings, and offences, is natural and inevitable. The
relations between conquerors and conquered will
not at first run smoothly ; still less those between
mortified masters and insolent slaves. If it were
true, indeed, that there had been massacres of
negroes by Southern whites, or even that a general
disposition to ill-use and quarrel with them existed,
we should see great reason for alarm. But we do
not believe any more of these rumours than of
former tales of roasting slaves alive or flogging
them to death. The stories are almost always vague,
general, and untrustworthy, and rest on the autho-
rity of journals wholly disentitled to credit. Here
and there we light upon a probable story, which
seems to explain the rumours—as in one case, where
the negroes had seized a vacant plantation, were
ordered to quit by the owner, and on refusing were •
expelled by force, not without bloodshed. Such
collisions as these are sure to occur in a country
where as yet law is suspended, and where a white
man has no hope of obtaining justice against a
negro before the special tribunals to which alone
the latter is amenable. But that there is any
general conspiracy, or even any general feeling of
illwill, against the negroes on the part of their late
masters, we do not believe ; on the contrary, we
regard all these rumours of negro massacres as fic-
tions invented to serve a purpose—to render the
same service to the cause of negro suffrage that
Mrs. Stowe's fictions performed for the cause of
emancipation. The South, we repeat, has sub-
mitted to her fate ; she has given up slavery much
more willingly than independence ; and she has as
little idea of evading the former concession by fraud
or force as of attempting to renew the struggle for
the latter object, .which has cost her so terrible a
•
price.