The Sun.
London, England, 1870-07-15 00:00:00

MR. GOLDWIN SMITH ON THE POLITICAL
CONDITION OF EUROPE.

During the last days of " Commencement Week " at
Cornell University, Professor Goldwin Smith delivered an
address on the political condition of Europe. History, he
said, had been making itself rapidly of late, and all things
betokened the approach of humanity to a crisis, compared
with which even the great crisis of the Reformation itself
might prove to have been superficial. He regarded the
convocation of the General Council at Rome as the central
event of the whole. It shewed that the forces of
Authority on the one hand, and of Reason on the other,
were arraying themselves for the decisive conflict. At the
time of the Reformation, the Protestant churches had
stopped half-way, asserting reason against the Church of
Rome, but asserting authority over their own members,
and against dissenters from their creed ; but reason had
now set up her banner in defianee of all authority, and
was advancing to the battle with science and all the forces
of modern civilisation on her side. The General Council
might be the immediate work of the" Jesuits and their
party ; but it was the inevitable culmination of two natu-
ral tendencies—the tendency to push to the utmost
church authority in antagonism to the advance
of Rationalism, and the tendency in the Church
of Rome' to centralisation or to a concentration of
power in the hands of the. Pope. While the great
monarchies of Europe were Catholic, and the Papacy
rested securely on their support, there had been a good
deal of independent spirit in the national churches;
France had asserted Gallican liberties, and even Spain
had repelled the interference of the Pope in the internal
affairs of her Church. But since the Church had lost the
support of the temporal powers, it had been forced to
fall back for support upon its centre and to increase the
power of the Pope. Though reason might be victorious
in the end, the struggle might be long. Rationalism had
not yet developed a positive side, and those who could
not bear a doubt—a class including many of the best
of mankind—will take refuge in complete sub-
mission to Church authority. Rationalism also gave
cause of alarm by shaking the moral foundations of society.
The lecturer quoted in illustration of this a passage of
Mr. Lecky on the subject of marriage. Such passages,
he said, would make them tolerant of reactionary ten-
dencies, and shew them that if they took any part in the
movements of their time they would have not only to
secure a free way for truth, but at the same time to guard
the fundamental principles of society against the subver-
sive tendencies of a revolutionary era. The present
unsettlement of the human mind on the deepest questions
relating to humanity was the cause of the feebleness of
political character and the abortiveness of political effort.
France by the plebiscitum had passed upon herself again the
doom of despotism ; she was exhausted and reduced to
apathy by abortive revolutions. The other countries
were passed in review ; Spain, where dynastic govern-
ment had literally become effete ; Italy, occupied with
the task of blending into one nation populations diffe-
rent in their character, and never before united ; Austria,
struggling with the difficulty of holding together a con-
federacy whose original bond, common fear of the Turk,
was gone ; Germany, bent on completing her work of
consolidation, while she was jealously watched by
France. In England the Gladstone Government was as
firmly as ever seated in power, since Mr. Gladstone
had conciliated the mistrustful members of his party
by bringing in the Bill for the Abolition of University
Tests, and by accepting the secular principle of educa-
tion. The common school system of America was likely
henceforth to prevail in England ; and thus amid all
temporary bickerings and disputes, the great influences
still acted, and England received back from her great
colony the greatest of all boons. The Irish policy of the
Government would, the lecturer believed, restore peace
and good feeling among the Irish people in time, in spite
of the present disturbances. The speaker concluded by
referring to the two university years which had passed
since his arrival as years he hoped of prosperous progress,
in spite of all difficulties, Un- the university, and certainly
of happiness for himself.

Speaking of the rejection of the treaty for buying
San Domingo, the Tribune says :—" We accept the vote
as a declaration by the Senate of its hostility, not to the
Administration, as there will not be lacking papers and
persone to urge, but to the premature and dangerous ten-
dency of the country to swallow up adjacent lands and
foreign peoples.

- - -
INCREDIBLE INHUMANITY. - What punishment
shall be visited upon the incendiary wretch—it were base
flattery to call him man—who, with the thermometer at
91 in the shade, fired an ice-house containing 500 tuns of
that frozen nectar which the Knickerbocker Ice Company
doles out to afflicted citizens in exasperatingly small quan-
tities at exasperatingly high prices ? We have never con-
templated in our numerous and solemn protests against
capital punishment that such an offender would rise up to
make us half regret our own arguments. But hanging is
too good for such a fellow. Some special punishment
must be devised to meet his case.—New York Tribune.

MR. SPURGEON.—The Boston Journal says: It
was announced by cable a few weeks ago that the Rev.
Mr. Spurgeon was willing to come to America to lecture.
In response to an offer made to him by the Boston Lyceum
Bureau, he writee ;—Gentlemen,—l am much obliged by
your very courteous letter, but you are under a mistake.
lam not a lecturer. I now and then give a lecture for
some good object, but I do not do it well, and moreover
have no ambition in that line. lam very glad to preach,
but not if there is any charge at the door. Moreover, I
have no kind of idea of visiting :he States.—Yours grate-
fully, C. H. Spurgeon.

A GIRLS' ROWING MATCH IN PITTSBURGH.—
There is every prospect, says The Pittsburgh Commercial,
of an exciting contest at the female regatta, which is to
come off at. the Nonpareil Club Pic-nic on the 16th of
July. The following are the names of the girls who have
signified their intention of entering into the contest :
Miss Lottie McAllice, of Pipetown ; Miss Miller, of
Soho ; Miss Sherridan, of Brownstown ; and Mary Whalen,
of the South Side. Miss Lottie is a girl of 16, and is en-
titled to the credit of originating female boat racing.
She looks like a girl who could row well and has consi-
derable " vim." Miss Whalen is said to be an excellent
puller of a skiff, although in her first efforts to manage a
scull, a few days ago, she was upset, and got a ducking in
the Monongahela. Miss Lottie takes a long walk at three
o'clock in the morning, practises constantly, and will
doubtless be in tip-top condition for rowing when the day
for the contest arrives. A letter has been received from
a young lady in Beaver, Pennsylvania, inquiring about
the matter, and signifying her intention of entering the
contest.

A WOMAN WINS A MEDICAL PRIZE.—It is re-
corded as a significant fact, that while some of the doctors
are disputing whether women have intellect enough to
master the principles of medical practice, one of the
latter sex has carried off the prizes offered by the New
York _Medical Gazette for the best clinical reports.
These articles were sent in signed by the initials M. M.
W., and turn out to have been written by Mrs. M. M.
Webster, a graduate of the Woman's Medical College
of Philadelphia. It is said that the Medical Gazette may
be regarded as an impartial arbiter in this matter, because
its editor was opposed to woman physicians, but that is
not so much to the point as if we had been told how many
competitors there were, and what was their quality.
However this may be, the fact itself is worthy of record.
Our own views of the controversy as to the admis-
sion of women to the practice of medicine are
well known. There can be no doubt that women
will continue to study for the profession, and that being
so, they ought to have the best opportunity for training.
Nor can we doubt that some of them have first-rate apti-
tude for the profession. They have demonstrated this
beyond dispute. Yet it seems equally clear that, in the
main, their practice should be confined to the maladies of
women, where their presence ought to be able to check
many a disease that otherwise might run its fatal course
without any medical advice.—Philadelphia Public Ledger.

THE FUNDING BILL.—Mr. Schenck may be
gifted wtth a prophetic vision, but certainly he is not
profound in the philosophy of finance. His professed
faith in the succcess of a four per cent. loan is doubtless
sincere, and the House may be willing to accept his faith
as the evidence of things not seen by others. When he
insists, however, that the rate of interest is higher in this
country than in Europe simply because our Govern-
ment is willing £to pay more, he substitutes fancy for
fact, and reveals a strange unfamiliarity with the laws
which govern finance. When the Government reduces
its rate of interest," he says, " the general rate of inte-
rest will fall in proportion." Now, it may be quite true
that the profitableness of investments in our six per cent.
bonds has drawn into that channel sums which
would otherwise have been available for ordi-
nary enterprises ; and that if the Government
were able to substitute a lower rate of interest, there
would be a greater readiness to accept other investments.
But the result, so lar as the aggregate amount available
in the market is concerned, would be the same, and the
general value of money would remain unchanged. That
value is determined, not by the will of the Govern-
ment, but by the laws of supply and demand.
And it is greater than the value current in Europe, be-
cause the opportunities for the profitable use of money,
consequent upon the amazing progress of material de-
velopment on this continent, are in excess of those found
elsewhere. Will Mr. Schenck explain, according to his
theory, how it happens that the Illinois or Minnesota
farmer borrows money at twice the rate of interest which
obtains in the East ?—New York Times.

BIRTHS.

On the 12th inst., at Brixton-rise, Mrs. E. W. Lawley, of

a son.
On the 12th inst., at Trotton House, Sussex, the wife of
Colonel Horace Newton, R.H.A., of a daughter.
MARRIAGES.

On the 12th inst., at St. John's Church, Uxbridge Moor,
Charles 0. Barker to Fanny, the eldest daughter of
Arthur Linley, Esq., Rockingham House, Uxbridge,
Middlesex.
On the 12th inst., at Hove parish church, Francis Adams,
only surviving son of William Henry Hyett, Esq., of
Painswick House, Gloucestershire, to Ellen Maria, the
fourth daughter of Charles Carpenter, Esq., of No. 45,
Brunswick-square, Brighton.
DEATHS

On the 13th inst., at 2, Clifton Villas, Highgate-hill, R.
Wormald, late of Kilburn and St. John's-wood, aged
68.
On the 11th inst., at 18, Tavistock-square, Francis Hay-
ward Evans, Esq., aged 38.

London : Printed by GIDEON ACLAND BOYCE, of
No. 112, Strand, Printer, and Published by him at
Txn SUN Office, No. 112, Strand, in the Precinct of the
Savoy, in t,.e County of Middlesex.
" Friday, July 15, 1870.