The Sun.
London, England, 1870-06-28 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF 111 E PRESS.-THIS MORNING.

THE EARL OF CLARENDON.

Lord Clarendon (remarks the Times) was a man such
as the highest type of official life in England produces.
He was one who was trained in public employments, not
one of those who rise irregularly to greatness by success in
Parliament. One of his greatest achievements was the
government of Ireland at the time of the troubles of
1818. At that conjuncture there may not have been
more danger than during the late Fenian conspiracy,
but there was undoubtedly more alarm. This was
caused by the crash of thrones all over the Continent,
the outburts of Socialist passion in the great cities of
Europe, and also by the attitude of our own English
democracy, which was then very bitter, vicious, and
destructive. It was imagined by many who were by no
means alarmists that the State would have at
(ice two hostile classes on its hands, one in
each island, and that these would be supported by foreign
sympathy, if not by something more. Lord Clarendon
never lost his head for Ireland. He was never frightened,
and consequently he was never cruel. He brought the
offenders one after another to justice, and amid all the
menaces of 'the time the juries duly convicted them, and
they were removed from the place where they were dan-
gerous.

The Post says that the death of Lord Clarendon's is an
event not only of English but of European importance.
It has come upon us with a suddenness which sensibly in-
creases the sorrow it has produced, and there is not a
country on the Continent but will find an echo to that
sorrow, nor any dependency where sympathy will not be
felt for the loss which England has experienced. There
are few foreign Ministers of any nation of
whom so much could be said, but Lord Claren-
don had the gift of making and keeping friends
both for himself and for his country, and he
has nowhere left behind any bitter memory that can cast
a shadow upon his name. Throughout his life he devoted
himself to England's service, and now that he is no more
his remnins can only fittingly be received in the chosen
resting-place of those men who have made the English
name illustrious. When the Premier proposes that monu-
ment in Westminster Abbey which is Lord Clarendon's
due it will be his duty to expatiate upon an assemblage of
great qualities such as are rarely given to one man, and
such as will win for their possessor an honoured place in
the memory of his countrymen for all time.
The Daily News observes that after a review of all the
great events which have illustrated Lord Clarendon's pub-
lic life and service, it may be that'not one of them will be
more kindly remembered by his countlywen than his
unhesitating assumption of the responsibility of treating
with the Greek brigands for the release of their captives,
and the ardent solicitude, as of a private and personal
affection, with which he laboured night and day
during that distressing Whitsuntide. Death is
often more felicitous and more opportune than
the bitterness of survivors is willing to believe.
Seventy seems scarcely a ripe age for a statesman ; but
life for men in the thick of the battle must be weighed
by all that it has contained of pleasure and ambition and
activity, not counted by the succession of months and
years. Lord Clarendon had reached the allotted term of
mortal years. Singularly fortunate, he found, in the free
and generous use of full faculties and rare opportunities,
the consenting esteem of opposite political parties, the
well-deserved confidence of his Sovereign and his country,
and, above ail, the perfect love of those nearest and
dearest to him, and the tender affection of all who had
the happiness of knowing him in the intimacy of home.
Such a one might have exclaimed, with the Roman poet,
" I have lived." In these hurried days it may be too
much to affirm of any public man that he will 11. missed,
but of Lord Clarendon it is no mere form of wordy, to say
that he will be regretted.

Writing of the deceased nobleman, the Telegraph, says
that he was credited by those who knew little of him with
great diplomatic finesse; but the true secret of his success
in politics was that he was a thoroughly earnest and
good-hearted man. What superficial observers considered
suavity prepense was really the outcome of a natural kindli-
ness of disposition. Although a man of really powerful
understanding, yet, judged by his intellectual achieve-
ments, he was not great ; but he was, in every sense of
the term, a large-hearted man. He was never little, never
mean. He had no petty pride, no small punctilios, no
minute affectation. He was an' English gentleman hi the
simplest and purest significance.
The Standard says the Earl of Clarendon may well be
mourned for himself. There will be many who will even
more keenly regret his death because it removes the one
link which connected the present Government with the
old and great Whig party. The death of the Earl of
Clarendon leaves that party unrepresented in
the Cabinet, and signifies the complete triumph
in the Liberal party of that new school which
would get rid pf a Foreign Minister altogether as a
dangerous person, which declaims against secret diplomacy
and the cost of diplomatic missions. Lord Clarendon
must be deeply regretted by all men as an able and honest
public servant. [is loss must be even more keenly felt
when it is remembered that with him will probably die
out in the Liberal party, and in the Government of Eng-
land, so long as that party engrosses it, the rules and th©
traditions wnich have hitherto governed the conduct of
our relations with foreign powers.