The Sun.
London, England, 1870-02-10 00:00:00

SPIAIT or TILE 1,013L10 JOURNALS,

The Times remarks that while the representatives of
the National Emigration League have been elaborately
proving " that the surplus hands in the labour market
could be abundantly provided for in the Colonies," and
deducting from this almost self-evident proposition the
Irrelevant conclusion that the State is bound to supply
means for the transfer of population from England to her
outlying possessions, the significant silence of the
Queen's Speech on this important question has given the
definite answer to those demands which Mr. Glad-
stone, with sensitive delicacy, seemed to shrink from
giving to the deputation that waited upon him a few days
ago. We are profoundly astonished that colonial poli-
ticians of repute, and even former representatives of the
Imperial Government like Sir George Grey, should so far
misconceive at once the temper of the colonists and of the
English people as to imagine that the latter would
claim or the former concede the right of pouring
thousands of unskilled labourers, without any resource
against a possible failure of work, into a new country,
where the security of a poor law does not exist.
Nor can the element of cost be wholly disregarded.
If, as some advocates of Emigration desire or imagine, the
Colonies would gladly aid in the importation of able-bodied
workmen from the teeming labour markets of the Old
World, will they give practical proof of their good inten-
tions by supplying the necessary funds for the expenses of
the outward voyage ? The state of opinion in the
Australian Colonies does not, for the present, at all
events, encourage us to hope so much. On the other

hand, when we turn to the British settlements in
North America, we find special reasons why the Govern-
ment of the Dominion of Canada should be disinclined
to spend money on such an enterprise. Meantime, in the
direction of private effort, an appeal has been made to
the liberality of the public; but, whether it be that the
exigency of the case has been insufficiently perceived
or for some other reason, subscriptions have hitherto
flowed in a very scanty stream. The Lord Mayor,
on Wednesday, at a meeting of the British and Colonial
Emigration Society, was compelled to confess that
" the sinews of the Society were Lehr; formed very
slowly," and it appears that, although £25,000 was required
for the deportation of 4,000 emigrants as contemplated by
the society, only about £5,500 had been received. This
fact does not testify very strongly to the activity and
depth of the emigration movement. The Government are
wise in requiring some more substantial and satisfactory
evidence that a great public need is felt before they
attempt to meet an exigency which seems likely to disap-
pear before the improving prospects of trade.

The Daily 2tiews declares that the latest and, it is to be
hoped, the final act in an unworthy drama was performed
on Wednesday in Convocation. In the Upper House the
Bishop of Lichfield entreated the Bishop of Exeter to dis-
avow responsibility for the opinions put forth in the
volume called "Essays and Reviews." It would, of course,
be perfectly easy for Dr. Temple to declare that he is in
no way responsible for any opinions save those which he
has himself expressed. But this is understood by
every man of sense. No doubt he knew nothing of the
contents of the volume of "Essays and Reviews" before
he saw it in print, Possibly there is much in it from
which he altogether dissents. But, as a scholar and a
theologian, he knew very well the tendencies of the school
of thought and criticism of which that volume was an ex-
treme expression. If he did not, he was more ignorant of
modern theology than a clergyman, or, indeed, than a
cultivated English gentleman ought to be. The inti-
mate personal friend of Dean Stanley and Professor
Jewett could scarcely avoid acquaintance with
the tendencies of free criticism and specula-
tion. If there were room for doubt on this point,
the fact that in the dedication of his Commentary on St.
Paul, Mr. Jowett avows his obligations to Dr. Temple for
" numberless thoughts and suggestions," would be deci-
sive. The phrase, though it does not involve identity of
opinion, yet points to a free interchange of ideas on the
great subject with which the book deals. The tone and
spirit of the debate in the Upper House of Convocation
were commendable. Bishop Temple deserves honour forthe
firmness with which he has clung to his own integrity, and
has held fast the Christian freedom both of himself and
of others against winning and seductive appeals. No one
was ever at once more gentle and more resolute than he
has proved himself. The bluster of the Lower House was
less trying probably than the melting entreaties of the
Upper. Archdeacon Denison's long string of resolutions
in regard to the appointment of Dr. Temple to the
Bishopric of Exeter produced nothing but an idle and
intemperate discussion; for they were not even allowed to
be put. We hope that fhe end has now been reached of
an agitation which ought not to have'had a beginning.

In the Queen's Speech Parliament, says the Telegraph,
has been recommended to consider the expediency of re-
vising the system on which licences are granted to public-
houses, beerhouses, and other establishments of that
description.
,Few more important subjects could occui)y
the attention of the Legislature, if drunkenness he—as we
have no doubt it is—so largely auswerable fur crime and
vice throughout the country. We de line any further
discussion on the propriety of taking action upon the
matter in one form or another ; for we hold that public
opinion is ripe for the change. What we do ask, however,
is, that those who are anxious for improvement should
look the evil boldly in the face, and make up their minds
at once that there must be a fundamental change in the
system. All reasonable regard being hal to vested inte-
rests, which are really entitled to consideration, we flatly
deny that there is any such thing as a vested interest in
the drunkenness of the country. To make our meaning
clear, we deny that the brewers and distillers have any
vested rights in tho perpetuity of the present system.
Some device could assuredly be found to obviate any real
injustice, and we think little doubt will be enter-
tained that the existing police tribunals constitute the
best machinery for working the new Act. Above allthings,
let any man say of them what he will, they are incorrup-
tible and beyond suspicion, which is certainly not the
case with the present boards of licensing magistrates.
There must, then, be a total change of system ; there
must be a separate bill for the metropolis ; and in
the present stipendiary magistrates we have found
our proper tribunal. Whether or not it would be
well that the ratepayers should be allowed to
exercise a concurrent jurisdiction—or whether they
should merely declare how many houses were wanted,
leaving the magistrate to decide to whom the licenses
should be grantd—is a point of detail which we would
rather leave open for discussion. Would any stipendiary
magistrate dare to resist an appeal made by a deputation
of the really influential and respectable inhabitants of his
district, who told him that more or fewer houses were
wanted ? Lastly, we would say, let the judgment be
without appeal. To grant an appeal to the justices at
sessions is simply to perpetuate the present abominable
condition of affairs.

The Standard thinks that the Ministerial chiefs are not
remarkable for their felicity in after-dinner speeches, but
considerable allowance must be made for the Lord-
Lieutenant of Ireland when called to a task of this kind.
Officially, the person principally responsible for the dis-
asters of Whig rule in Ireland, while these disasters are
still fresh in the memory of the public and in the feeling
of his auditory, his task at the Lord Mayor of Dublin's
banquetb was to pour out the usual quantity of formal
ngs which constitute Viceregal utterances. To
Lord Spencer's credit be it said that he did not seek
on Monday a refuge from his unpleasant position. in vague
or frivolous discourse. With a heroism worthy of a better
cause he faced the difficulties of his position and attempted
to overcome them. His speech is a manly defence of his
policy, or rather of the policy which his colleagues have
adopted, and if it is utterly ineffective this is due to the
nature of the case, not to the mode of handling it.
When the awful catastrophe of 1317 was ap-
proaching—when all the sufferings, and miseries,
and struggles of that period of Irish history were
gradually culminating in the tragic period of 1848
and 1849, agrarian murder was nothing to be surprised at,
awful as it is. Then the landlords were almost as help-
less and desperate as the tenants, and both foresaw the
doom of famine and confiscation which awaited them. It
is now that the crisis is past; that landlords are no longer
a set of bankrupts, but have passed with heavy loss through
the drastic process of the Encumbered Estates Court; now
that all classes of the community are accumulating wealth
and enjoying comfort, that we find agrarian crime, in Lord
Spencer's words, increasing very much, and without being
dealt with. This is really the difficulty which Lord
Spencer has been powerless to explain. All that wealth,
all that prosperity, have only given fuel to the flames of
disaffection enkindled by the reckless words of politicians.
Lord Spencer has candidly admitted the facts which Irish
affairs present, and he has not attempted to evade them.
Explain them he cannot without the condemnation cf the
policy which he represents.

The Post considers the accounts of the Rochefort dis
turbances given in the French papers—even in those
which might be expected to colour the narrative in a
manner favourable to the rioters—merely record a series
of the broadest kind of burlesque attempts at in-
surrection. The programme was throughout the
same. In this ignoble way has collapsed the
" Revolution" which M. Flourens declared he
was about to begin when he bade his friends seize
the solitary Commisssary of Police who was present at
Vie meeting where the whole affair originated. A little
broken glass, a few broken heads, and ignominious flight
at every point, not before guns and bayonets, but before
handfulls of police, are all that the Rochefortists have to
show after. their boasts. The Government have acted
with the greatest possible moderation. The necessity
of prosecuting Rochefort in the first instance
was al solutely forced upon them, and so also
vas the necessity of actually arresting him. To
most French Ministers so palrable an opportunity
of enforcing ,respect by severe measures—which might
have been fully justified, and of which none could have
complained—would have been most tempting. But M.
011ivier and his colleagues have been calm throughout,
and have sliewn to he would-be insurgents an unpreco-
den-ted indulgeece,. It is of good augury that they should
so temperately have used the power confided to tnem, and
they will have their reward in the increased confidence which
must attend them in the task of constitutional govern-
ant. 'There has seldom been an attempted.risin,g in Paris
or so much pretension disposed of with equal facility, and
tha fact is the best proof that could be given by the
Ministry that it is conscious not only of strength in itself,
bat also of deserving the confidence reposed in it by the
people upon whose support it rests. France knows that
011ivier is, as he rays, contending "not for order but
for liberty," and it will assuredly not fail to give him its
co operation in dealing with the mere handful of madmen
who affect to refuse Liberty without Revolution.