The Sun.
London, England, 1865-07-20 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

TlMM—Yesterday furnished another compara-
tive lull in the heat of the great electoral battle.
Only two or three polls have been proceeding in the
whole United Kingdom, and at the greater number
of the nominations no contest was announced. The
returns, however, present various changes, and the
balance continues to incline towards the Liberal
side. Notwithstanding some personal alterations,
the party representation of Carmarthenshire, Here-
fordshire, South Leicestershire, Northern Northum-
berland, and the East Riding of Yorkshire, remains
unaltered. The' same is the case with the Wick
Burghs, and in Ireland with the counties of Mayo,
Armagh, and Wicklow. In Radnorshire Sir John
Walsh is again returned ; but in Cardiganshire and
Limerick county the Government has obtained two
fresh supporters. In the former county, Colonel
Powell, the late Conservative member, has given
place to Sir T. Lloyd, and in Limerick Mr. Lynan
is substituted for Colonel Dickson, who in the last
great party division, voted against the Government.
The University of Dublin has failed to be inspired
by the good example set by the city, and, like its
sister universities in this island, has returned two
Conservatives. Dumbartonshire presents a very
unusual result ; the numbers polled by the two can-
didates, the one a Liberal and the other a Conser-
vative, are exactly equal, and both must be returned,
the House of Commons when it meets, having the
privilege of selection. If we add these results to
our previous calculations, it will make the Liberal
gains up to this time not less than twenty. If we
turn, however, from the occasionally vague distinc-
tions of Liberal and Conservative to estimate the
returns by the sharper test of support or opposi-
tion to the present Government, the advantage
must be considered to be even greater. Thus the
late members for Kilkenny city and Wexford
county, although nominally Liberals, always sat on
the Opposition side of the house. Their place has
now been supplied by members who can be better
relied upon. We must, however, balance one of
these gains by a loss of a similar nature for Bury
, St. Edmund's, where Lord Alfred Hervey, who,
though a nominal Conservative, supported Lord
Palmerston last year in the vote of censure has had
to make way for a stancher member of the Oppo-
sition. There are other changes, too, which for a
similar reason cannot fairly be reckoned as losses or
gains on either side. Thus, Mr. Whitworth for
Drogheda, and Lord 0 tho Fitzgerald for the county.
of Kildare, will be far more useful to the Govern-
ment in a party division than the late members, Mr.
M'Cann and Mr. O'Ferrall, who, though sitting on
the Liberal side of the House, seldom supported the
Government. In reviewing the general result of
the election, moreover, it must be remembered that
Mr. Hardy, who has carried the University of
Oxford for the Conservatives, will have to tacate
his seat for Leominster, and. until his place is filled
it will be impossible to be sure that the Conserva-
tives have gained even a numerical advantage by
their rejection of Mr. Gladstone. There is every
reason to hope that to these gains from eight to ten
more will yet have to be added, and we trust the
Liberals will not slacken their exertions at the
moment when so great a victory is all but achieved.
Mr. Gladstone's speeches in South Lancashire have
opportunely appeared to scatter the clouds of mist
in which Mr. Disraeli's ingenuity had endeavoured
to enshroud the less inquisitive electors. He has
shown that the Liberal Government are the sole
authors of all the recent retrenchments, and he has
sounded the clearest and most enthusiastic challenge
which has yet distinguished the contest. As he said
yesterday, the Conservatives of Oxford have un-
muzzled their great opponent. But for that
suicidal vote the remaining county elections must
have passed without the support of Mr. Gladstone's
eloquence or the encouragement of his bold leader-
ship. In Berkshire, therefore, in South Lan-
cashire, and in West Kent the Liberals will
fight to-day under el, ery possible advantage,. and
the results will, we trust, be an ample compensa-
tion for any regret which may be felt at Tues-
day's defeat. There never, in fact, was an occa-
sion on which a party have had less to say for
themselves than the Conservatives on the present I
occasion. Those who have followed the election
addresses will have observed how that tremendous
struggle for " the preservation of our Constitution
in Church and State" with which Mr. Disraeli en-
deavoured to dignify his cause has dropped almost
entirely out of sight in the practical commonplaces
of the contest. It was an ingenious stroke to con-
jure up this momentous issue, for when this has dis-
appeared the Conservatives are deprived of their
only topic of argument. The Liberals can dilate
upon a long course of successful legislation, and can
appeal equally to the past and the future. The
Conservatives can only refer to the past by relying
on the short memories of their audience ; and it is
of the very nature of their creed to avoid, if it were
possible, any future at all.

DAILY NEWS.—In the two great speeches which
Mr. Gladstone delivered at Manchester and Liver-
pool on the first day of his appearance before the
South Lancashire constituency, there was abundant
evidence that what is Oxford's loss is at least no loss
to England. No political orations more wide in
scope, more broad in treatment, more truly liberal
in feeling, have been uttered in this generation than
those in which the statesman rejected by Oxford
appealed to his own native county to reverse the
academical degree of his ostracism from Parliament.
Nor in all Mr. Gladstone's career has there been
given better proof of that intellect, at once large
and subtle, at once conservative a-id friendly to pro-
gress, at once reverential of the past and open to
the conviction of the new requirements of the times
we live in, than those two electioneering speeches.
Unlike the harangues of the Tory leaders, they do
not rest his claim on measures which he would have
done, but opposed somebody else in doing. Unlike
the addresses of some members of the Whig party,
they do not ask credit for the future solely on the
strength of useful services in thq past. They
point to the labours in which, as Chancellor of
the Exchequer of the present Government, and as
member in other capacities of previous Govern-
ments, he has borne chief part, and they demand
the verdict of the public on the question whether
these labours have not been approved by their re-
sults. But they do not insist that all has been per-
fect, and that no duty save the routine of adminis-
tration yet rests to be done. On the contrary, they
admit that in the past work of a Liberal Guvern-
ment, good as it has been, there hasbeen some, per-
haps inevitable, imperfection, and they show clearly
how much remains yet to be done before we can
afford to rest content. They declare that, even
while we have diminished taxation, we have not yet
arrived at the goal of the utmost possible economy ;
that while we have acknowledged the right of reli-
gious equality, we still retain badges of inferiority
on religious grounds ; and that while we have made
progress in wealth, order, morality, and intelligence,
we have not expanded our institutions so as to em-
brace the new elements which our Government

ought to embody. These are the exploits reserved for
a truly Liberal Government in the future, and it is
for South Lancashire this day to send to Parliament
the statesman who by common consent is to lead the
van in the struggle which will make us greater and.
happier by accomplishing them. In some respects,
indeed, Mr. Gladstone is the better fitted for this
task, because he is an example and type of the times.
There is a progress of ideas from the youthful poli-
tician, who first appeared as the author of a treatise
on Church and State, to the Minister who is now.
the rejected of Oxford, as striking and uniform as
from the England of the Corn-laws to the England
in which no man now owns to being a Protectionist.
The advance of both has been in one direction—not
rapid, but never wavering and never recoiling. In
both it has been founded on reasoning confirmed.
and encouraged by the evidence of facts. In both,
each early prejudice cast off, each fear proved
unfounded, each sanguine hope realised, has been
the starting-point for a fresh and firmer ad-
vance. It is, therefore, Mr. Gladstone's peculiar
merit to us that he has been large-minded enough
to depart from the first ideas of his life, taught by
that which is higher than the wisdom of the
ancients, the experience of the present day. But
while be has thus modified his views on methods,
his principles remain unchanged. He maintains
still his love for the Church of England, and all
his old desire to see her usefulness extended. But
he does not now think that such an end is best served
by maintaining laws which lay a stigma on Dissen-
ters. And although the worst of these have been
removed, and little may now remain that forms a
serious and positive grievance, yet taught by this
lesson itself Mr. Gladstone does not hesitate to tell
Mr. Hadfield still to persevere in his effort, six times
frustrated by the House of Lords, to remove the last
vestige of such offence and inequality. So, too, he
can speak of the University of Oxford in language
at once as affectionate and as sincere :—" In regard
to the University, he would not yield to his favoured
competitor in true devotion to her interests, though
their method of action might be different. If her
future was to be as glorious as her past, she must
enlarge her boundaries, she must open her doors, in-
vigorate her powers, and endeavour to rise to the
height of that vocation with which the Almighty had
been pleased to endow her." Then of Reform, in
like spirit he tells us that our times and the character
of thepeople of this country tiave changed ; that what
was well suited to our wants and circumstances in
1832 is not adapted to them now, but that " the
true and just balance of our constitution would not
be destroyed, but improved, by a fair and liberal and
sensible—not a sweeping nor overwhelming--admis-
sion of our brethren of the labouring community to
the privileges of the suffrage." And on the much
controverted phrase respecting abstract rights, he
lays down the just distinction, that there is such a
thing as abstract rights, but that such rights are not
conclusive of the question, for they are liable to be
modified by time and circumstance, and are subject
to the great leading rule that " the health and wel-
fare of the community are the' supreme law of legis-
lation." We will not admit the possibility that South
Lancashire will reject the speaker of these sentiments
as Oxford has done. But this, at least, is certain—
that England will accept no such verdict at the hands
of either. Whatever constituency he represents, Mr.
Gladstone must be the chief among our future states-
men, and we may all rejoice that we have a states-
men who can thus think, who can thus learn, who
can hope, and who can trust.