The Sun.
London, England, 1870-07-16 00:00:00

LONDON, SAIURDAY, JULY 16, 1870.

WAR then is proclaimed. It has long been inevit-
able. In effect it has been looming in the distance ever
since Sadowa. France has declared it, but the
event has been precipitated by Prussian intrigue.
But for the secret and insidious negotiations, through
which it was designed, as a surprise to France and
to the rest of Europe, that a Prince of the Hohen-
zollern family should ascend the vacant
throne of Spain, the continent might, yet, for
some little time longer, have been spared the shock
of the dreadful collision now unavoidable. Of
course the sly arrangement, immediately it came to
the knowledge of the French Government, was pro-
tested against. The very slyness was an indication
of the insidiousness of the whole proceeding. The
project did not bear the light of day. It was pro-
jected and furthered in the dark. France, England,
in fact all the other powers of Europe, widdenly
awoke to its recognition. And the result
is now visible. Alea jacta est. The die is cast. The
policy of Berlin has been a challenge to
its southern neighbour. That challenge France
has accepted. In the dread alternative, NAPOLEON
has chosen without hesitation. The choice involves,
no doubt, an awful responsibility. But his own
throne would not have been worth a pin's purchase
had he failed to respond to the unanimous demand
of the nation. The people and the army are at his
back. The very Legislature is, in a manner, aflame
with warlike enthusiasm. The Government are
pledged to vindicate the, honour of France, which
everyone there feels would be compromised by con-
cession to the, dominating policy of Prussia—it is
pledged also to restore the prestige of France, which has
been lowered ever since the formidable victory won
by Prussian arms at Sadowa. Having regard to the
passionate eagerness now at last evidenced for the
conflict which has long been impending, like a storm--
cloud over the frontier-line dividing France from
Prussia, it is only just and fair to recognise and
to assort honestly the fact that the responsibility of
this proclamation of war against Prussia is the
responsibility rather of France generally than of
NAPOLEON individually. Powerful as he is as a
Sovereign, he could not with his single hand keep
back the rush northwards of a million armed
Frenchmen.

Tni Peers are evidently not satisfied to have a
quiet life of it. They have been offered a fine
opportunity of getting nicely over the Land Bill
difficulty, but no sooner is that peril averted than
they incur fresh trouble with the University Tests
Bill. No previous experience, no present counsel,
not even the really admirable speech of the Bishop
of Exeter, could restrain them from mangling that
measure. Their lordships would not, of course, have
acted prudently in moving the absolute rejection of
the bill on the second reading. that experiment
has been tried too often. But by moving
two resolutions—first, that it is needful to
provide for the maintenance of religious instruction
and worship in the Universities, and second, that a
select committee be appointed to consider the best
means to this end, the Marquis of SALIS-
BURY inflicted a dangerous wound upon
the bill. That the formality of a select
committee will be successfully gone through, and
time still be left at this advanced period of the ses-
sion to carry the reform, is exceedingly doubtful.
Select committees of the Upper House have tender
mercies. It is exceedingly probable that the bill
will be lost for another year. Indeed, the policy of
the Marquis of SALISBURY is merely one of
obstruction, for the appointment of a committee
to settle such a question can have no meaning in

itself ; it is merely opposition to the whole bill under
the flimsiest of disguises. What can such a
body do with this measure ? The idea of appoint-
ing a committee to determine the best means
of providing for religious instruction in the
universities is—apart from its real motives—
as absurd as a proposal to inquire into
the merits of household suffrage would be. The
question is one of principle, not of detail. The

nation has decided that principle, and nothing re-
mains for a select committee to do. All that such a
body can effect will be to introduce amendments into
the measure which will defeat its object, and thus
render it unacceptable to the Commons. Could

plain "this day six months" be more effectual at
this stage of the session? The Marquis of SALISBURY
is anxious to keep out rationalism and infidelity. To
shew that tests have no power in this direction is
simply to rehearse the whole pleading for the bill.
To urge that heresy of all kinds is .most
rampant where exclusiveness is most thorough
—Oxford, to prove that, apart from the vela-
, tive merits of this or that dogma, all English-
men have a right to partake of the benefits of the
national property, were mere reiteration. It is more
pertinent to let it be clearly understood that the
Peers are taking a course which cannot be tolerated
much longer. There must be an end to this man-
gling of the nation's decisions. It is all very well
to talk of the privileges of the Upper House,
as a branch of the Legislature, but the reply is that
institutions must accommodate themselves. to the
spirit of the age, and when a single nobleman like
Lord SALISBURY chooses to set the whole people at
defiance, very little will the moderation of his fellows
avail.

ALEXANDER POPE never wrote a truer line

than—

" What mighty contests rise from trivial things."
,The frivolous origin of wars that (like -the War of
Thirty Years) have lasted nearly the lifetime of a
generation; of sieges (like that of Troy) the duration

of which may be counted by decades ; of campaigns
(like those of C2EsAn or NAPOLEON) that have devas-
tated a whole continent, would, if massed together,
after being frankly recounted, be hardly credible
as a satire upon the perversity and wilfulness of
human nature. A petulant remark accompanied by a
turn upon the heel in speaking with an ambassador,
as at the rupture of the peace of Amiens- a trench
leaped over us in the fatal encounter between
RomuLus and REMUS—the biting of a pig-greased
cartridge, as provocative of the Indian mutiny—and
now the violation of some preposterous etiquette by
M. 13ENEDETTI presuming to address the King of
PRUSSIA in the Gardens of the Kursaig, while his
Majesty was enjoying a promenade, or, as CHARLES
IL would have expressed it, the delight
of sauntering. Side by side with the
telegraphic intimation of this amazing slight
to the august dignity of old King WILLIAM, there
appears a lengthened report just now of the nonsen-
sical squabble between a couple a retired (but evi-
dently not retiring) Majors, formerly in the East
India Company's Service, Major KANE and MAJOR
GORDON, who first of all have an unseemly tussle
with one another at a supper party about a
glass of wine, the contents of which get spilt,
and afterwards have a yet unseemlier struggle
in Hyde Park, in which, among the
loungers of Rotten-row, they belabour each other
with a couple of walking sticks, by the aid of which
blood instead of wine is spilt rather profusely. The
Contrast presented to the view by the violation of
etiquette here in Hyde Park, there in the Kursaal, is
painful in its significance. Each incident is in itself
intrinsically contemptible. But whereas in one the
champions may, with Hudibrastic effect, " wipe a
bloody nose," in the other, the evil consequences threa-
tened are appalling in their probable magnitude and pos-
Bible prolongation. The divinity that, according to
SHAKSPERE, doth hedge a king, it is a pity did not
hedge this one round as in the heart of a box-
quinqunx in the scarcely (we had supposed) sacred
gardens of the Kursaal, so as to secure his Majesty
from theimpertinence of being addressed unbidden by
M. BENEDETTI, who is, nevertheless, himself, one
might suppose a person of some importance being
intrusted, as he is, officially, with the really sacred
character appertaining to those envoys of whom
Mr. DISRAELI speaks ore rotundo in his 44 Lothair "
as " imperial ambassadors." In these days of repre-
sentative Government, of railways, and electric
telegraphs, and newspapers, of freedom of
speech, and right of public meeting, and liberty of
printing, and so forth, one might have
hoped that, in Europe at . any rate, we had
co me to the end of all this preposterous farce about
the high mightiness of certain august races, but more
particularly of certain supernal personages. In China
or in Japan, in Thibet or in Persia, the old-world
notions may still prevail; but they are hardly suit-
able nowadays among Europeans. The awful
reverence of the Persians for the Shah —we
unbelieving people of the West would be
rather disposed to slight contemptuously
with the echoing comment of a " Pshaw !"
Even the Shaksperian hedge of divinity already
referred to as encircling a king, might perhaps
be more aptly defined now-a-days by a
simple English " ha-ha!" At any rate it does
appear the very height of absurdity to think
of a stupendous war springing up in the twinkling of
an eye about the fancied breach of some nonsensical
and purely conventional etiquette—because M. BENE-
DETTI has presumed to address his fellow-mortal the
King of PRUSSIA in the public gardens of the
riursaa.l.

THE amendment which Mr. M'LAGAN proposes to
make in the clause of the Post-office Bill relating to
the postage of newspapers, offers an excellent
compromise, and may advantageously be ac-
cepted both by the Government and the
body of newspaper proprietors. The mea-
sire, as amended for recommittal, proposes that
any one newspaper, of weight not exceeding six
ounces, be carried for a half-penny, but not more
than one. We have on several occasions pointed out
the injustice of this measure which mulcts a paper
of one ounce with the same postage as the Times.
In fact, that journal is the only daily paper which
reaches the full weight, and is therefore the only
one that will get the full benefit. The proper course
was plainly to allow six ounces of newspaper matter
for a halfpenny, without regard to the ques-

tion Of number. The Po STMASTER-GENE RA L,
however, refuses to agree to this, and
hence Mr. INPLAGAN offers as an amendment
that registered newspapers sent in bulk from the
newspaper offices be charged one halfpenny for
every four ounces, weight being the only consideration.
This is satisfactory. It is a fair concession in
point of cheapness. It will save time and
trouble, for there will be no necessity for stamping,
and papers may be delivered to the mail trains im-
mediately before their departure. The public may
well accept this change, and surely the Government
can raise no objection.

TOPICS OF THE DAY.