The Sun.
London, England, 1865-07-19 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

TIMES.—Some very important elections were de-
cided yesterday, and the Liberal party maintains its
ascendancy in the contest. The gains have been
four seats, of which three are in Scotland. In Stir-
lingshire Admiral Erskine has been elected in the
room of Mr. Blackburn • in Renfrewshire Mr. Spiers
has displaced Sir M. Shaw Stewart ; and in Bute-
shire Mr. Lamont succeeds Mr. Boyle. In England
one county seat has been won by the substitution of
Mr. More for Sir Baldwin Leighton in South Shrop-
shire. The losses have been two seats—East Nor-
folk, where Mr. Reed, the Conservative, supplants
Col. Coke, and Oxford University, where Mr. Hardy
has been elected in the place of Mr. Gladstone.
Thus, the gain to the Liberal party on the polling
of the day is two seats. The elections of East Kent
and East Surrey are also highly satisfactory, as in
both these important divisions the Liberals have
kept their position, though attacked with all the
strength of their opponents. These results promise
well for the numerous contests which will take place
during the present week. There is little reason now
to doubt that the Liberal successes will exceed the
most sanguine anticipations. One division of the
United Kingdom, Scotland, will support the Govern-
ment by an overwhelming majority. The boroughs
have always been Liberal, and now the Tory do-
minion in the counties has been attcked with vigour,
and in many places overthrown. Never since Scot-
land has had a real representation—that is, since
the year 1832—has it been so nearly unanimous in
its political principles. In Ireland the gain may be
already estimated at nine seats, and it is probable
that two or three more will be won, or steady
Liberals substituted for some who were not to be
relied on. The principal gain of the Liberal party
in that island is, however, to be found in the
break-up of the so-called Catholic-Conservative
alliance, and the return of the Catholic popula-
lation to juster views as to their political position
and duties. Even the chiefs of the Church are
said to have given their countenance and help to
the Liberal candidates, while their flocks have
been animated by a spirit far more praiseworthy
than that which, in the early days of Italian liberty,
induced them to give their support to the English
Tories. The result of the elections promises well
for the future contentment of Ireland, for it gives a
death-blow to the hopes of the party which would
purchase the right of oppressing and humiliating
Catholics at home by pandering to the prejudices of
the most extreme of their body with respect to
foreign policy. Turning to England, it is impos-
sible not to be interested by the important contests
which are to be decided during the present week.
In Berkshire and in West Kent the Liberals should
use all their efforts to secure the representation, and
to show, as was shown in East Surrey yesterday,
that the heart and understanding of the country are
on the side of rational progress. But not even
these elections equal in importance that which is to
be decided to-morrow in South Lancashire. To
gain a great and decisive victory here every nerve
of the Northern Liberals should be strained. They
have now a rare opportunity of showing their
attachment to the principles they profess, and at
the same time of rendering an important service
to the country, by placing in Parliament one the
most eminent statesmen of the time. They can-
not have a more worthy declaration of principles
than that which was made by the Chancellor of the
Exchequer at Liverpool last night. Just at the
time when the poll which excluded him from the
representation of the University was closing, Mr.
Gladstone advanced to address an immense assem-
blage of the people of his native county. Those
who imagine that the verdict of Oxford is likely to
prejudice him in the eyes of the nation may be in-
vited to consider the reception which he obtained
on the platform of the Liverpo Al Amphitheatre.
The mass of people who awaited eagerly Mr.
Gladstone's coming, and welcomed him with such
long continued applause, saw in his rejection by the
University the inevitable penalty which liberality of
thought and honesty of purpose must at some
time or another suffer at the hands of a
University constituency. There was, we will
venture to say, not a single unfriendly critic
of the old English seats of learning who did
not feel a secret satisfaction that Oxford should
have shown precisely the spirit which its enemies
charge it with, and given the scoffer so ready an
occasion for his sneers. But the meeting, though
it would doubtless have assented eagerly to any
disparaging remarks on the University which had
rejected him, was destined to hear none from Mr.
Gladstone. Nothing could be in juster feeling and
better taste than his allusions to the event which had
just taken place, and his_declaration of continued
respect and affection for Oxford. In the tribute
which he pays to the more liberal part of the con-
stituency, which, as may be supposed, comprises the
greater part of the resident body, the putlic will
readily join. " I have been dismissed," says Mr.
Gladstone, " not by academical, but by political
agencies. The great majority of the teaching
body at Oxford, the great majority of those who
devote their nights and days and the best years of
their lives in rearing youths, have at all times been
my supporters in the election, and have not now
abandoned me." This we believe to be the case,
and it is the best defence for the Universities, when
charged with ostracizing their Most eminent mem-
bers, that the deed is done not by those who are the
intellectual representatives of the place. Passing
from the subject of the University election, Mr.
Gladstone gave an able sketch of the financial
history of the Government, in reply. to the charge
that the only reductions they had made in taxation
were where they had themselves imposed it. This
allegation had been made more than once during
the elections, and the Chancellor bf the Exchequer's
time was not lost in refuting it. We rejoice, how-
ever, especially to hear from him that in his opinion
the expenditure of the country may be still further
reduced, and we hope that the country will adopt
his advice, and not fail to send up members who will
enforce on the Government the duty of retrench-
ment. Mr. Gladstone is beyond a doubt right in
saying that the influence exercised by the Opposi-
tion has not been in favour of economy, and for
this among many others reasons we hope that the
electors of South Lancashire will do their best to
return him and his two colleagues. It is only by
giving a substantial majority to the Liberal Govern-
ment that it will be strengthened sufficiently to take
a bold and patriotic course on this most important
portion of national policy.
lIERALD.--The press has not had a more pleasant
office for some time than to write up Lord Derby's
project for an Exhibition of National Portraits.
There must be always the beau ideal of a good thing
in his lordship's recommendation, but the collection
he is now recommending to us is exactly the good
thing itself coming in good season. It will supply
us with much more than a record of the progress of
British art, though even under that aspect it will be
inconceivably interesting. It will be history speak-
ing to us by a new voice ; philosophy teaching and
taught by portraits. It is the charm of portraiture
that it sums up a good part of a great man's bio-
graphy. The life is photographed on those sensi-
tive plates of the face which have mirrored through
so many years the play of every emotion, and pas-
sion, and experience. It is not an idle curiosity that
excites us to desire to know of what form was the
man that accomplished great things. His face is
part of the res gestx of his life. It explains why and
how he was what he proved himself to be ; and
opening to us phases of character not suggested by
his actual achievements, gives perhaps the only key
that was wanted to open to us the concordance be-
tween the one and the other. As a record of the
progress of British art the ev-idence would have been
more pleasant if, while showing our advance from
the ridiculous to the sublime by very slow grada-

tions, it might:not show also that nothing was in-
digenous. Though the earliest of our artists—we
speak of our masters—Hogarth, was at the same
time homebred and the greatest, we had to wait for
him till the middle of the 18th century. Up to his
appearance we could hardly boast a portrait, except
in miniature, worth having from an English artist.
Holbeiu, Zuccaro, Powebus, Rubens, Vandyke,
Mytens, Vander Plaas, Lely, and Kneller, were all
foreign men. Whatever we were born, whether
sailors, or poets, or merchants, or soldiers, or ora-
tors, it is certain we were not born portrait painters.
For centuries we were content to have our art as we
had our merchandise, by buying it from the foreigner,
and it is so far fortunate for us now that we are col-
lecting our acquisitions that they were made with so
much judgment that their exhibition will repay any
conceivable cost it may put us to, and leave a
heavy balance of obligations to the noble lord to
whose taste and energetic initiative we shall be in-
debted for it. The division of the project into two
or three exhibitions, taking place in as many years,
follows from the national wealth in portraits. The
Earl of Derby proposes that not more than about
800 portraits shall be exhibited together, and that
none of the exhibitions in the series shall extend
beyond the four or five months of our summer sea-
son. The chronological order is naturally preferred
to any arrangement founded on social status or pur-
suits, and this all the more that the latter arrange-
ment may be easily made subsidiary to the other.
But the difficulty arises as to the period at which we
shall begin—and end—the series of portraits. At
the meeting over which Lord Derby presided at the
South Kensington Museum it was the general feel-
ing that we should not begin before the reign of
Richard 111. or Henry VII. For our part we fail
to see the necessity of fixing a date or epoch for the
commencement. At Hampton Court we have por-
traits which are alleged to be those of Fair Rosa-
mond and Elizabeth Woodville, on authority winch
ought at least to be respectable. In other of our
collections, national, semi-national, or private, we
ought to have hundreds of historical poFtraits of
anterior or contemporary dates, not probably in
worse preservation than those which trace back for
us the artistic history of Italy, France, or the
Western Empire. True, the art may be for the
most part contemptible, but for the earlier epochs
our desire, perhaps, should be less to exhibit art
than to elucidate history—though indeed from very
early periods our church windows show some admi-
rable specimens of artistic ability that imply
something in favour of whatever may remain of
contemporary portraiture. Even an unmeritable
performance may have an interest in showing the
state of art, which it may want as a contribution to
political history. The fixing such a date as the reign
of Richard 111. may abridge the responsibility of the
committee of selection, but might exclude, perhaps,
the most interesting " trouvaille" offered the collec-
tion. And here arises a suggestion for extending
the exhibition and its uses. As the chief riches of
our earlier historical portraiture consist of the
statuary and painting which adorn our ancient ar-
chitecture, might we not have their reproduction by
photography as a part of the first of the collections
There are not wanting the eminent artists, assisted
by able archaeologists, to form a sub-committee who
would enable the connoisseurs to place under a single
examination nearly all the personal celebrities con-
nected with the earlier history of the country. The
difficulty of fixing a date for ending the series is
more easily understood. Art has its " irritabile
genus" as well as poetry, and how stave off any liv-
ing artist who has painted a great man if you do
not shut out all ? It may be painful to exclude the
productions of Landseer's delicate and discriminat-
ing pencil; especially when they are of such extra-
ordinary interest as his Walter Scott, but how, ad-
mitting him, exclude any portrait of Walter Scott,
by any contemporary whom the great man privi-
leged by sitting to ? No rule is probably possible
but that of admitting only deceased celebrities by
deceased artists ; but that rule once adopted, there
does not seem any ground of limiting it by fixing
that anterior term of ten or twenty years which for
some time had the sanction of the trustees of the
National Portrait Gallery. Had the Prince
Consort, for example, or the Duke of Wellington
died but yesterday, the absence of their portraits
from the Exhibition would be as conspicuous as
that of the busts of Brutus and Cassius from a
celebrated procession. It is because they have
just passed away from among us that the general
sentiment asks to be satisfied by the presentation
of their effigies.