The Sun.
London, England, 1870-12-21 00:00:00

RESIGNATION OF THE PRESIDENT OF THE BOARD OF

TRADE.

In losing Mr. Bright, the Daily News remarks, the
Gladstone Administration parts with its most important
and influential member after its head. He quits- office
simply because he believes that the treble duties of the
Cabinet, of the Board of Trade, and of Parliament would
interfere with the restoration to perfect health which
now seems within view. How heavy those duties
are, no one acquainted with public life needs to be
informed. To receive deputations day by day, to
be in the House of Commons in the afternoon, in
order to answer questions, and to remain there till the
morning hours watching bills or waiting for a division,
and to superintend, moreover, the multifarious business
of the department, in addition to taking part in Cabinet
deliberations and parliamentary debates on great ques-
tions of policy, is an accumulation of work and respon-
sibility requiring unimpaired strength. Mr. Bright
would be imprudent if he resumed it. But the
country does not most need his services, nor the
Government require his assistance, in the administration
of a particular department. The weight of his opinion in
council, and of his eloquence in debate, would be of enor-
mous advantage to both. They might be secured by an
arrangement which should transfer Mr. Bright to some
office which did not involve departmental work and
the regular Parliamentary attendance which is its
consequence, but which left him free for the Cabinet
and for debate. Mr. Bright's ministerial careeer is, we
trust, only temporarily interrupted. His Parliamentary
career will, we hope, be resumed with the next session of
Parliament. Mr. Bright's clear sagacity and massive
good sense are as remarkable as his eloquence; and
the force which his personal character and his popularity
out of doors gave to the Government will probably be first
fully recognised when the support they gave is with-
drawn.

The Morning Advertiser, referring to the resignation of
Mr. Bright, says : In the present state of foreign affairs,
with the terrible conflict raging in France, with the threats
of the Germans in our ears, with the American and Rus-
sian difficulties staring us in the face, and, lastly, with
our armaments in a lamentably deficient state, Mr.
Bright's retirement is less to be deplored than
it might have been in another and more peace-
ful epoch in our history. The delusions of the peace
party, of which he has been the most prominent mem-
ber, have received the most signal exposure that per-
haps ever fell before to the lot of any poor mortal fallacy
entertained and promulgated by otherwise powerful
intellects, and persisted in with marvellous and incurable
obstinacy to the last. Mr. Bright, there is no deny-
ing it, would have combatively preached the millen-
nium from the highest pinnacle of Strasburg Cathedral
during the bombardment, or have fiercely denounced the
necessity of military organisation and preparation in the
midst of the slaughter and disgrace at Sedan.
We do not know exactly what to make of
him in this respect, or profess to understand what his
views really are. The doctrine of non-resistance we can
comprehend ; but then it must be consistent and
complete. Everything in the shape of defence or offence
must be laid aside, and a purely Christian theory carried
out to the letter. Mr. Bright leaves with great reluc-
tance and regret a Government which maintains
armies and navies, such as they are, and which has at
least declared that it will protect the independence

of Belgium, which may not mean very much after all.
Commenting on the cause of Mr. Bright's retirement,
the Standard says :—As to the value of the work per-
formed, we must beg leave to assess it at something lower
than the estimate which has been arrived at by Mr.
Bright's eulogists. Whatever the loss to Mr. Gladstone
himself may be, we must entreat those who have spoken
of Mr. Bright's retirement as though it had been some
national calamity, to speak for themselves and their
own friends. The political service which Mr. Bright
has done to his party is one thing, and the adminis-
trative benefits which he has conferred upon the country
are quite another ; and we protest against their being
confounded in the sweeping manner which has been
adopted by the chief Ministerial organ. And when it is
assumed that the whole country is mourning Mr. Bright's
loss, it is just as well to be candid, and to declare that
the majority of the country are certainly not oppressed
by any such feeling. That Mr. Bright is a great orator
—that he is a conspicuous politician, and that to him
the Liberal party, and especially Mr. Gladstone,
are greatly indebted for their present prosperity,
are facts beyond question. But it would be sheer hypo-
crisy for the general public to pretend a sorrow which it
does not know. We are all sorry for the cause of Mr.
Bright's retirement. We have, few of us, cause to regret
that retirement on public grounds, especially at the
41c
present moment In fact, it is but the truth to
say that it would have been better for Mr.
Bright's reputation, certainly better for the country,
had he been relieved of his functions some
months ago. Never an active or a useful
administrator, Mr. Bright, in his most robust days,
made but a most indifferent President of the Board of
Trade. Few statesmen who have filled that office have
left so little by which they will be remembered. It is
impossible to name one single good or liberal measure with
which Mr. Bright's administration is to be credited,
and it is easy to quote several instances of
his official conflict in which he displayed not only
stolid incompetency, but a singular obtuseness to public
opinion. Were the history of Mr. Bright's presidency
of the Board of Trade to be impartially written, it
would be found that it was chiefly remarkable for its
sympathy with railway companies in the matter of acci-
dents, and for the memorable speech in which the Minister
justified false weights and measures and defended adultera-
tion. The barren chapter would not show a single good act
performed for the advancement of trade, or the develop-
ment of industrial progress, by the man who, while out of
office, took to himself so large a credit as a commercial
reformer.