The Sun.
London, England, 1870-05-25 00:00:00

LONDON, WEDNESDAY, MAY 25, 1870.

The disintegration of the British Empire never
could have been seriously propoSed at a period more
ludicrously inappropriate. It is precisely at the very
time when the fasces of our rule can be, and, for
matter, are being, bound round more tightly than
ever by a coil of electric wires and submarine cables,
that Mr. GOLDWIN SMITH and his associates come
forward with their wiseacre suggestion that
the pro-consular rods of colonial authority be
loosened from one another, and afterwards one
by one scattered idly to the winds. Science
has brought the ends of the earth together.
The capital and the remotest provinces are linked
with each other in instantaneous intercommunica-
tion. The Secretary of State for India, from his
official residence in Downing-street, can flash his
wishes at pleasure to Bombay, Madras, and Cal-
cutta. The Secretary of State for the Colonies, from
his official mansion, hardby that same sacred cul-de-
sac 't Whitehall, can intimate his will in the
throbbing of a pendulum, by the twinkling to and
fro of an electric needle upon a disc—
at one moment addressing the Governor of the North
American Dominion, at another the representative of
the Crown at Gibraltar or at Malta. And it is pre-
cisely when such a point has been reached that the
Imperial Government can hold communion, day by
day, hour by hour, minute by minute, with
the whole of our complicated and widely-
distributed colonial possessions, that these
wonderful new fangled political philosophers
thrust upon the national consideration the advi,abi-
lity, according to their view, of preserving our power
by the very singular device of wantonly, perversely,
prematurely, summarily, pulling it to pieces. Never,
on the contrary, it might with far greater show of
reason be insisted, has there been a time in the
history of this great empire when its rulers,
here at home, might, by the aid of science,
bring the whole policy of its governance,
the wide world over, into more harmonious working.
Never, in the annals of England, has there been an
epoch when the Three Kingdoms might be brought
into more intimate accord, not only amongst them-
selves, but in direct and ceaseless association with
their numerous colonial possessions. Philosophy is
enabling us, like PUCE, " To put a girdle round the
earth in forty minutes 1" And it is at the very moment
when the sceptre of Greatßritain has been thus charged,
so to speak, with electric power, and transformed in a
manner into a very divining rod, that the pessimists
among our political philosophers coolly propose that
it shall be snapped asunder, as about the happiest
plan that could be hit upon for its preservation.
The pernicious and bewildering influence of these
eccentric councils have—there can be doubt about
this !—been so clearly manifested during the last
twelvemonths, that one of the most suave and
amiable of our administrators has been muddled and
irritated, by almost imperceptible degrees, into one of
the most aggravating and, at certain critical junc-
tures, it might even be asserted, into one of the
most maddening Colonial Secretaries who ever
directed the policy of England in regard
to her various and world-wide possessions. Lord
GRANVILLE'S bearing has been such, again and again,
at moments of very grave emergency, that it was with
a qualm of chagrin we recalled to mind the fact of his
being still in authority at 13 andl4, Downing• street,
when we received yesterday morning that startling
telegram through the Atlantic Cable to the effect
that the Fenians were moving towards the Canadian
Frontiers, from the three several directions of Ver-
mont, Buffalo, and Montpellier.
Scattered though her territories are over both
hemispheres, England may, now, at her own free will
and pleasure, knit them together as one homogeneous
whole, if through the agency of the electrie tele-
raph, she carries out a wise, and firm,
and consistent, and conciliatory policy to-
wards all alike, neither chilling them into indiffer-
ende, nor goading them into separation. As in the
history of religion there have been false prophets,
so in the history of science, and among the sciences
in the science of politics more especially, there have
been glaringly, time and again, false philosophers.
The last and not the least misleading among those
false philosophers, among those sham VERULAMS and
mock ARISTOTLES, according to our mind, is that ex-
Professor GOLDWIN SMITH, who would appear to
have, in a great measure, soured the temper and
warped the judgment of even so clear-witted and
amiable an administrator, under ordinary circum-
stances, as the noble earl now her MAJESTY'S Secre-
tary of State for the Colonies.

The intelligence which reached us yesterday even-
ing simultaneously from Constantinople and from
Athens told us at once the conclusion and the com-
mencement of a tragedy. From Athens we learn
that the trial of the brigands implicated in the late
massacre took place on the 21st, and after fourteen
hours' duration resulted in a sentence of death against
the seve❑ prisoners, who have achieved such
an unenviable fame. On the other hand
the telegram from Constantinople, dated the
23d May, tells us that brigandage is not con-
fined to Greece, but that Turkey can furnish speci-
mens of ruffians as worthy of the barbaric ages as
her more classical neighbour. Three shepherds
have been murdered by a band of fifteen brigands
in Thessaly, and were hotly pursued by Turkish
troops, but escaped by crossing the Greek frontier,
so that Greece and Turkey, on whose indepen-
dent existence we in England have so greatly
prided ourselves, seem to be competing
with each other in fostering these armed bands of
marauders and murderers. We may well pause and
wonder whether we are reading of events in the
nineteenth or in the sixteenth century.
Meanwhile the question remains, what course are
we to pursue in this lamentable affair ? The Greeks
will, no doubt, point triumphantly to the tragedy in
Thessaly, as evidence that, without political compli-
city or Ministerial incompetence, brigandage may as-
sume formidable proportions, andbaffle theforce of jus-
tice. English and French journals have not failed to
advise the Greek, proud of his ancestry and reputation,
to take a lesson from the Turk, whom he despises
and condems. Here is his refutation of the
charge. The Turks, he will say, cannot even suc-
ceed in securing their criminals, while ours are
brought to justice, and will receive the due reward