The Sun.
London, England, 1870-06-07 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, TUESDAY MORNING, JUNE 7. 1870.

minds. And such is undoubtedly the case. The
Manchester school is gone, because, as the French
say, it has no further reason for existing. It was
formed to demolish the barriers built by ignorano

and self-interest against freedom of commerce.
This work is so far complete that nothing remains.
but to allow the ,seed which has fallen on good
ground to COM 9 to maturity. The Corn Laws have
vanished ; Free Trade is so firmly fixed as part of
English policy that the tempting masquerade
of Reciprocity could not induce the Conserva-
tive leaders to join the enterprise of Mr.
STAVELEY HILL ; and in other parts of the world
Protection is slowly but surely receding. The Man-
chester men wished to reduce the suffrage; they have
obtained all that they could wish in that respect.
They hoped for lesser armaments and economical
government. That hope is now being realised to at
least some extent. They preached universal peace, and
. fondly expected. that the " band of commerce" would,
unite all the different branches of mankind, that the
smooth course of international prosperity would no
longer be interrupted by idle conflicts, and that dis-
putes between nations would in future be settled by
arbitration. It has often been sneeringly said that
their efforts in this direction have been thrown
sway, and that nations are as fond of
war, .and as little disposed • to a reign of
universal peace as ever. But is this derision
quite just? Whether the Manchester school have
brought about the change may be doubted; but it is
a fact that there is less war now than at apy period
of the world's history. In America the strife' was
internecine, and, therefore, peculiar ; and, with
this exception, recent wars have been very short in
duration, and they have been few in number.
Formerly wars lasted often from seven to twenty
' years. A few months' fighting is quite enough ex-
citement in these modern times. •

And now, Nunc Dimittis. The Manchester men
are as politically fossil as the Catholio emancipators.
Never was the middle-class so strong as it
is now ; and it was the primary object

of the Manchester school to make the
middle-class strong. Further progress will be
in the direction of weakening the middle-class—

that is, of sharing its strength with the working-
classes; and this was never any special object of the
Manchester men. It is true that they have conferred
great benefits upon the working classes. So did the
Peers confer great benefits on the rest of the com-
munity when they got the Magna Charta signed ; but
it was the personal benefit of the Peers that was the
mainspring of the gathering at Runnymede. In
helping themselves they helped their inferiors ; and so

did the Manchester men. A new school of Radicalism
is now springing up, and fresh problems await the
zeal of men who are "in advance of their time."
Trade has progressed, the principles of Government
have become more popular, economical maxims
are being carried into practice; but the comfort
and well-being of the great mass of the population
remains as far off as ever. How to relieve the in-
tolerable moral, mental, and material degradation of
the poor is the problem of the future. That degra-

dation is so extreme, that it may reasonably be
questioned whether civilisation is of any advantage
all, if its net result is to elevate few hundreds to
a condition of exceptional luxury, and condemn the
millions to the most intolerable misery. Govern-
ment is not an end, but a means to an end. What,

therefore, is the value of all this flue machinery of
Constitutionalism—a popular Parliament, incorrupt
judges, an able press—if the bulk of the nation re-
semble swine in morals and intellect, and are interior
to swine in comparative conditions of physical com-
fort ? It is clear that the Manchester men thought

little of these impending questions. The attitude of
Mr. BRIGHT 18 a remarkable illustration in point. The
condition of the poor would be immensely improved
if adulteration were prevented, as it undoubtedly
might be. The mere assuring to the lower classes
of the precise article for which they paid would do

nore for their good than any amount of success to
•

. -
the principles of Free Trade. Mr. BRIGHT's
sympathies, however, are all on the side
of the shopkeeper. It would be an undue

interference with trade, if the tradesman were com-
pelled to sell what he professes to sell. He would,
in Mr. BRIGHT'S opinion, be justified in resisting
such intolerable interference. And so the work of
poisoning and robbing is allowed to proceed. Simi-
larly Mr. BRIGHT can express no sympathy with
the movement for ensuring direct representation
in Parliament to working men, and with
many other popular demands. It is possible
that a leader of the people who is so great a favorite
will learn to view these questions in a broader light.
But then he will not be of the Manchester, but of
the new school. Ile will have to shake off the tradi-
tions of the past, and look at things from a point of
view which he has never yet taken up.

THOUGH speaking under official restraint when
waited upon by the deputation at Bradford, Mr.
FORSTER cast some light on the position of the Go-
vernment respecting the Education Bill. On one of
the three important points they yield ; on the others
they maintain their position. Mr. FORSTER has obvi-
ously no objection to conceding general and absolute
compulsion, instead of the permissive system which is
now provided for in the Bill. But he is afraid the
country will not readily accept compulsion. Well, if
it does accept it at all, there should be no permission
in the matter. If the power of enforcing attendance
be left to the school boards, it is tolerably
certain that few of them, if any, would care
to take the initiative —to court possible
unpopularity by being the first to put the principle
in practice; and hence th proviso would remain a
dead letter. Better settle the question decisively ,
one way or the other. On the subject of free schools
Mr. FORSTER thoroughly disposed of the arguments
of those who imagine that the poor have an inherent
right to get education for nothing, even when they
can pay for it. A working man might,
it is true, contribute to the support
of schools by means of the rate. But
he would pay no more than others do who have
no children at national schools. Moreover, the highest
sum he could thus contribute would be a mere trifle
, compared with the value he would receive for
it. The VICE-PRESIDENT of the COUNCIL is equally
explicit, oil matter of religious teaching. The bill
abolishes the inspettion of Church schools, Which
hitherto has been made a preliminary of the whole
examination. But, on the other hand, it
will not forbid those parents who are

satisfied with the schoolmaster's religious teaching
from acceptuig it on behalf of their children. It is
certain that the vast majority will be so satisfied,
and it would be monstrous to forcibly exclude the
Bible, when the interests and wishes of the greater
number are in favour of its retention.

DURING the last few days various letters purport-
ing to be written by royal writers have been pub-
lished. The authenticity of some o: them has
been denied, and that of others is perhaps open to
doubt. There is one letter, however, which appears
beyond all question to be written by the
Prince to whom it is ascribed. The Duke
of EDINBURGH is the writer in question.
Lord MAYO is the person to whom the letter
is add] essed, and the subject of it is his ROYAL
HiouNEss's recent tour through India. It is satis-
factory to know that the Buitt; Wto no inex-
perienced traveller, has found his last eXpedition in

every way successful. Though he has visited moSt
of the countries of the world, though he has had ex-
perience of Oriental magnificence in other countries,
iie has found that of lndia more than
realise the expectations which he had formed
The DUKE regrets that his visit happened to take
place at a time when the public revenues of India
are in a bad condition, and it is unfortunate certainly
that the " natives" should have learnt to associate.
the hated income-tax 'with Prince ALFRED'S ap-
pearance. But the Prince is young, and youth is
hopeful, and his Royal Highness trusts that the
revenue will recover itself, and so does Sir RICHARD
TE➢IPLE, and so do all the rest. The royal
letter,writer then goes on to speak of the
institutions of India in highly satisfactory terms.
In fact Lord MAYO might say to his correspondent
" you speak like a book." The phraseology is a little
less stilted when the PRINCE writes of his own
experience of Indian railway travelling. He
does not seem to have suffered from the heat at
all In fact he never travelled with greater
comfort. And then the sport was unquestion-
ably good. The letter concludes with a most
proper. filial reference to the Queen, and with the
Prince's own blessing upon L tdia,which is administered
with all the unction shewn by a ritualist clergyman or
by a heavy father on the stage. Altogether it is a most
satisfactory termination of an undertaking which
involved a good deal of anxiety to many minds in
anticipation, but which in retrospect will, we doubt
not, be pleasant to all.

MISCELLANEOUS TOPICS.

THE CAPTURED ENGLISHMEN.

Conflicting telegrams have been received in Eng-
land regarding the four Englishmen taken by
Spanish brigands, some declaring that they have
been released, and others that they have not. The
truth, judging from intelligence dated Madrid, Sun-
day, would appear to be .that one of the captives,
Mr. Bonell, senior, alone has been allowed to proceed
to Gibraltar, and that, too, only to negotiate for a
ransom, which the brigands demand before they
allow his nephew and servants to go free.

" LOTHAIR."

Nearly all the older magazines this month review
" Lothair," and without exception the verdict is hos-
tile. Deliberate reflection has reversed the indis-
criminate praise accorded by the daily press. In several
instances the condemnation is savage. The monthly
organs have obviously not confined themselves to
merely estimating the value of " Lothair " as a lite-
rary work ; they have let their pages out to men
whose criticism is guided by intense personal
antagonism to the novelist. Most savage of all is
the review in Blackwood. The appearance of
this production in the pages of the Tory maga-
zine has given rise to unbounded astonishment.
The writer evidently hates Mr. Disraeli with a hatred
that is beyond concealment. He compares the Con-
servative leader's pictures of high life to "the gin-
inspired dreams of the assistant of some fashionable
haberdasher, who enjoys glimpses of great houses
and great people when he goes out with the goods."
" Lothair" in general is compared to the romances
of the London Journal. The extravagance of the per-
formance is "equalled only by its dulness." It is
" more inflated in expression and false in grammar
than the exercises of an aspiring schoolboy of the
fifth form." In point of art the book is
"on a level with the drop-scene of a provincial
theatre." -Having paid these and many more
similar compliments to the work itself, the reviewer
rwoceeds to deal with the author, and to confess that
a portion of the Conservative party hate Mr. Disraeli
unsparingly for the Refor►n Bill of 1867. Everybody
knew that such was the case ; but, though a candid.
avowal might be appreciated in the proper place, what
has it to do with " Lothair ?"

The severity of other monthlies is mildness com-
pared with the attack in Blackwood. Never-
theless they are very severe. The Catholic Month"
speaks as a Catholic organ might be expected to
speak, after the handling the faith receives in
" Lothair." It expects that Mr. Disraeli will soon
write a book to shew how much England has lost by
becoming Protestant. Fraser is more appreciative
thaii the rest of its contemporaries. The
Fortnightly Review, which is a monthly at
present, considers the literary work of " Lothair "
well enough ; but is severe upon the moral
tone of the novel. The life represented is " rotten
and mean." "Does not the book reek with the
stifling fumes of gold, as when the idiot
puts rails of solid gold round the tomb
which covers his useless old bones ? Is
not the life vapid, aimless, arrogant as if the
world of the human race existed only to gratify its
selfish whims ? " Macmillan rails at Mr. Disrs.eli's
artificiality and snobbishness. He never feels at home
amongst his great people, suggests the reviewer; he
takes no pleasure in their society. On the whole it
would seem that these critics have less to complain of
the literary merit of the famous book than of the man
who wrote it, and of the peculiarities he introduces
into his work.

from Senegal arrived at Bathurst, the capital
of Gambia,. to take the preliminary steps
for transferring the colony to the French
dominion. This, it is said, was the first
intimation the inhabitants had of any such
intention on the part .of • their rulers. The
Gambians, it appears, entered a protest against
being made compulsory Frenchmen, and the British
public have a. right to an explanation as to the cir-
cumstances under which such an apparently arbi-
trary proceeding has been carried out.