The Sun.
London, England, 1865-07-24 00:00:00

SEEDS.

The inquiry for most seeds was on a limited scale on
former terms. New English rapeeed was in slow ieqUest

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

. .
TIMES.--Everything Mr. Gladstone has said
during his short electioneering campaign in South
Lancashire has been received with an interest even
greater than waits on the utterances of this accom-
plished orator in the llQuse of Conimons. The speak-
ing at elections has, during the contest which is now
closing,been much better than on any previous occa-
sion, and•we are not sure that in this style of oratory
Mr. Gladstone bears away the palm as decidedly
as within the walls of Parliament. But whether lie
has spoken better than anybody else or not, certain
it is that he has awakened a deeper interest. The
new and romantic position he assumed when, chosen
and approved by the intellect of his constituents but
rejected by their mere numbers, he suddenly flung
himself upon a new constituency, and in two days
carried all before him, naturally attracted sym-
pathy and awakened a new interest in his suc-
cess. In his election speeches Mr. Gladstone
has thoroughly demolished the cavils which have
been raised against his finance,. and stated more
clearly arid definitely than ever before his position
with regard to Reform. He is quite willing to be a
Reformer, provided the country is really in earnest
about it—provided the measure is not sudden or
sweeping Hand under these conditions he is in favour
of the admission of some part of the working classes.
We hope that these statements, so guarded and so
modified, will undeceive those who see in Mr. Glad-
stone the future Radical leader. His celebrated
declaration as to the presumable fitness of all men
for the franchise until that fitness. has been success-
fully impeached he now represents as a mere abstract
speculation, capable of any conceivable modification
in practice, and, therefore, of no more importance as
a guide to his Conduct than any opinion he may hap-
pen to hold as:to the course of the tides or the pro-
cession of.the equinoxes. He still adheres to a verti-
.cal lowering of the franchise, but under so many
restrictions and qualifications as to deprive his
advocacy of any practical value. Mr: 'Gladstone's
speech at the declaration of the poll on Saturday
does not add much to our information either
on general politics or the particular views of
the speaker. Very characteristically, and no
doubt with the utmost sincerity,. he adopts as his
political motto. the usual exhortation 'of the police-
man when the traffic begins to stagnate—" Just
keep moving." We have thus formally announced
from leading members of the present Cabinet the
• principle of " rest" as the doctrine of Lord Russell,
and the principle of " motion" as the doctrine of
Mr. Gladstone. We cannot agree entirely with
either of these philosophers, any more than we can
say with one Greek philosopher " that 'everything is
one and immutable," or with another " that every-
thing flows and is changeable." There. is a time for
all things; a time for rest and a time for motion.
Neither rest nor motion is good in itself, but only
with reference to the object we have in view; and
certainly of all the kinds of policy that can be sug-
gested for the adoption of this country, we know
none so little entitled to favour as what we
may call a fidgety policy—a policy of motion
for the sake of motion and nothing el-se, a con-
tinual stirring of the pot when • there is nothing
in it that requires to be stirred. When we
see an attainable end before us, we ought not
" just to keep moving," but to push on with all
our strength, as well knowing the vis inei-tite which
in this country has always to be overcome before
the most reasonable principle can be established, if
that principle only happens to be a new one. When
we have no such end in view we confess we are not
much shocked at the maxim which Mr. Gladstone
looks down upon with so much contempt. "Things
are very very prosperous ; why can't you be con-
tent ?" Mr. Gladstone descends in a shower of
graceful compliments to all his fellow-candidates,
successful or unsuccessful ; and, like Dido, being
not ignorant of defeat, he is able to condole and
sympathise with the defeated. He thanks every-
body—he thanks the Committees who have worked
for him, he thanks the Liberals who havd supported
him, and the Tories who have forgotten their party
prejudices to take his side, and he thanks
his opponents for their forbearance and modera-
tion. The hardest thing said of him by the local
press was that he was an " erratic politician." This
disorder, according to Mr. Gladstone, is. not peculiar
to himself. The Liberals, he says, 'contend that
they are more Conservative than the Conservatives,
the Conservatives that they are more Liberal than
the Liberals. . There is some truth in this
epigrammatic observation, and as far as it is
true it is the very best illustration of the
substantial agreement, not, indeed,. on ques-
tions of party politics, but of principle, which is
established between reasonable men of all parties.
The word " Conservative" has really changed its
meaning. In the old Tory times it meant the preser-
vation of whatever exists because it exists, while
the term " Liberal" implied a desire to submit ex-
isting institutions to a more searching test than
a mere existence. But the Tories have given up
arguing for things as they are because they are,
and have thus really come over to the Liberal side.
Everybody is now-a-days a Liberal in the Sense in
which that term would have been used 30 years ago.
But the. testing of institutions by abstract principle
shows many thngs to be good as well as many things
to be bad, and thus the most determined Liberal
must also be in many things a most determined
Conservative. Every one must admire the spirit
in which Mr. Gladstone terminates the exertions
of the last .active and eventful week. We will not
enter into the question started by himself, hoW far
he is justly. 'entitled an " erratic politician ;" we
wish at the present moment, when he is entering on
a new career, to make a new start and banish from
our own minds, and as far as possible from public
recollection, the occasional blemishes which it has
been our duty to regret in one so gifted. But we
would remind Mr. Gladstone just as. he is taking
his new departure in political life that many things
have been excused in him in consideration of the
great difficulties of his situation, and the impossi-
bility of conciliating the duties of a praCtical states-
man with the demands of such a constituency asthe
University of Oxford. Mr. Gladstone now repre-
sents a body which is no bad epitome of the Eng-
lish nation, and no unfaithful reflex of his own
mind. South Lancashire is eminently complex and
multiform, and Mr. Gladstone will not have the
excuse henceforth that he is turned aside from his
natural bias and principles by the untoward consti-
tuency which he represents. He will have more
liberty, but for that very reason a heavier responsi-
bility. His fate is now in his own hands, and he
has a career before him which he may make as
bright or as dark as that of any statesman in the
long annals of the English Constitution.
HERALD.—The " fortnight at Wimbledon' nas
come to an end, and again will the now famous
common resume its ordinary appearance till in July
next it shall become once more a tented..field, .with
its " Shop-street "
," and " Gossip-row, , " Glen
Albyn," and its " London-square"—in short, its
hearty, jovial, camp life, the love for which has
been so' strikingly developed by the Volunteers of
the United Kingdom. Every year this Wimbledon
encampment grows larger ; and the few courageous
Volunteers who in the earlier time of the meeting's
existence boldly set the fashion of living for a
fortnight under canvas, have found so many fol-
lowers that these thoroughly urban luxuries—
a theatre, a club, and a drawing-room have been
rendered necessary' institutions. Everybody now
admits that this National Rifle Association
is a success—a success of much the same
character as that of the Volunteer force
itself. 'The association has had to pass through
difficult phases of being, to struggle hard to keep
its head above water and overcome that vis inertia
which mostly stands in the way of co-operation
between bodies separated by distance. Those who
take an interest in the association and its proceed-
ings can well recollect how not only the industrious
Lord Elcho, but the Duke of Cambridge himself,
had to urge upon country volunteer corps the pro-
priety of supporting the central institution, and
thus consolidating, as it were, the so-called" move-
ment." The provincial corps, however, were slow to
take the hint, till they began to see that the asso-
ciation was a strong healthy body, with plenty of
natural vitality, and every determination to fight
against neglect. These facts settled, the National
Rifle Association found subscriptions flowing
in, and valuable prizes being confided to its
hands ; not the least of which is a new

prize, emanating from China, and to be called
" The China challenge Cup," the money—£s25—
being actually sent over to the association, and by
the association returned, that China -may not only
pay for, but design and make, the cup she offers for
English competition. In short, having weathered
adversity, the prosperous time of the association has
arrived, and the country justly looks upon it as the
head and front of the Volunteer army, and one
cause of that great proficiency in •rifle shooting
which is displayed not only at Wimbledon but
at rifle ranges all over the kingdom. A slight
dispute, too, arose as. to the winner of the Enfield
Wimbledon Cup- The two gentlemen who made
the highest scores, shot, it appears, under a mis-
apprehension. They were not duly qualified, and
therefore: the cup went to the third highest on the
list. But so doubtful was the aspect of affairs that
not till the last moment—indeed till Lord Elcho had
actually informed his rudience that the prize could
not be awarded—was th. 3 Enfield Wimbledon Cup
assigned to the fortunate
.gentleman who took the
benefit of his opponents' ilisqualifieation. Then
the matter was-settled by the second highest on the
list suddenly yielding his claim and enabling Lord
Elcho to make• the distribution more immediately
behind
complete. lu this friendly way-the little disputes
of the meeting were amicably met, and the compe-
titiona n e
aeager
IdBe6s
is:ewfaesr soth
e carried
recurrence
ofs b
tot lee ave
fortnight's
camping out in 1866.