The Sun.
London, England, 1869-04-30 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS,

The Times, in commenting upon Mr. Sumner's recent
/speech on the Alabama Treaty, says that he wants some-
thing more than reparation from us ; he wants contrition
and public humiliation. But in truth, as Mr. Sumner is
well aware, the wrong alleged to have been done by our
Government consists in acts which are the main topic of
dispute, and must be the main ground of arbitration.
To require from us an acknowledgment of moral liability
beforehand is to prejudge the whole controversy, and not
only so, but to stultify the proposed settlement.
Coming to the next great point of the speech, it
is wholly erroneous to assert that our right
to recognise the Confederates as a belligerent
Power can only be justified, if at all, by the casual
use of the word "blockade" in President Lincoln's
proclamation, and that if he had chanced to use the words
"closing of ports" instead, our plea would have been
barred. This is a most lawyerlike, and not altogether
ingenuous, perversion of the position taken up by those
who uphold the course of the British Government. That
course has invariably been defended on the broad ground,
adopted by Mr. Sumner himself, that belligerency is a
matter of fact, and that belligerency did, in fact, exist
when it was recognised by Great Britain. Mr. Lincoln's
proclamation has been properly quoted as conclusive evi-
dence that it was known to exist by the United States
Government, which claimed, by virtue of its existence, to
exercise rights which nothing but its existence could war-
rant. The British Government has always taken its stand
on the simple fact of belligerency. What Mr. Sumner
calls " a mere technicality "has, indeed, been imported into
this grave question of international law, but it has been ime
ported by himself, and not by the advocates of Great Britain.
Upon Mr. Sumner's principle, all this anti-English feeling,
which finds vent, too, in the encouragement of Fenianisrn,
might be proved in aggravation of damages against the
United States in the event of arbitration. Against any
such principle we protest once and for all, not only as
beneath the dignity of great nations, but as inevitably
barren of any practical result. Let atonement be made
for the insulting language of individuals, whether in
England or America, by the retrospective verdict of
public opinion, and the cultivation of mutual respect in
private relations. Nations as such can only deal with overt
acts, and overt acts are the only possible subjects of pecu-
niary compensation.
The Star says that when Mr. Sumner rises from the
contemplation of the Alabama case with a determination
to make us pay, not only for the losses actually inflicted
on individuals, but for the accruing damage to the
nation by the sale of merchant ships to the neutral
flags, the war rates of insurance, and all the in-
cidents damaging to commerce which necessarily occur
during war, we must express our amazement at the
character of his demands. The extravagance of the
propositions must strike everyone who knows how
anxious the British Government in the main was,
during the war, to deal fairly and justly by the
United States. Blunders there may have been, and
there were, but considering how the passions of mankind
were aroused by that vast conflict of the powers of dark-
ness
and light, the British Government kept a course
remarkably free from any exhibitions of unfriendly
feeling towards the United States. France, the old
ally and sworn friend of the Republic, was ready
to recognise the rebels as a nation ; we, its old
opponents and chief competitors, refused to do an
act which might have been the crowning event of the war.
Since the war has closed we have shewn in every way
a desire to arrive at an understanding with the sister
nation. We have waived our objections to arbitration,
we have waived our objections to have the recognition
of the belligerent rights discussed, we have conceded
almost every point in favour of the special envoy
lately sent to negotiate a treaty ; but if all these
concessions are merely to be used as the standpoints for
farther, and till now unheard-of, demands, we must care-
fully consider our own position, lest we establish a worse
precedent than even the burning of ships on the high seas,
by admitting a discussion of demands which are utterly
untenable and ought to be resisted.
The Standard says that the debate which closed a'
seven o'clock on Mr. Disraeli's amendment to the 28th
clause of the Church Spoliation Bill marks, as we are in-
clined to hope, the beginning of a new phase in the present
aspect of politics. Mr. Gladstone informed the committee
that he had reconsidered the matter and peremptorily
refused to consent to any modification of his proposal. A
more animated debate than has lately taken place upon
the bill was the result. The more independent and con-
scientious Liberals were hurt and affronted at the slight
put upon them, though the memory of Mr. Laing, Mr.
Roebuck, and Mr. Horsman, of the unseating of many
and the humiliation of more who dared last year to
have an opinion of their own upon party questions, and
the fear of Mr. Glyn's vengeance at a future election,
restrained them from giving vent or effect to their irrita-
tion. The friends of the Church were justly indignant at
a flagrant breach of faith, and were subject to no such
restraints. The result is not of much direct importance.
The sum at stake is not a very large one, and it is quite
cA•tain that the bill will not pass until the decision of Thurs-
day has been reversed and the proposal of Mr. Disraeli
substituted for it. The Church will receive her parsonages,
and she will receive them on the same terms on which
Maynooth retains her college buildings, free of all charge
whatever. But the impression of bad faith which this
transaction will make on the minds of all persons inte-
rested in the question will not soon be effaced ; the
deliberate repudiation of Liberal promises will long be
remembered against the party and its leader ; and the
Protestants of Ireland will feel none the less resentful and
hitter against Mr. Gladstone and his Roman Catholic
allies because the heavy fine with which they were threa-
tened, if they should insist on retaining the ancient
residences of their clergy, will not be actually enforced.
The Telegraph observes that by a majority of 91 the
House of Commons has declared that the disestablished
Church of Ireland shall notget the parsonages for nothing.
After the question had been hotly debated on Monday
night, the settlement was postponed until Thursday.,
and by many members of the House it was fondly hoped
that in the interval the Ministers would make up their
minds to "be generous with other people's money." At
the outset of Thursday night's labours Mr. Gladstone rudely
dispelled the delusion by announcing that the
Government was resolved to abide by the hated
clause. None of his decisions in committee have
been so unequivocally challenged by members of
his own party ; and as one Liberal after another implored
him to have mercy on the poor Irish Protestants, it might
almost have seemed that a new "Cave " had been dis-
covered. Ultimately, however, the defections were few,
and the majority in favour of the Government reached
the usual proportions. Tory gentlemen say that the
Prime Minister and the President of the Board of Trade
have not kept faith with the country. The truth is, that
they would have broken faith with the country if, under
totally altered circumstances, they had acted in accord-
ance with the letter, while they violated the spirit, of their
original intentions.
The Herald considers that the condition of Ireland is pet-
fectly appalling. Murder succeeds murder with abnormal
rapidity. The assassination recorded by the press on one day
is thrown into the shade by the greater brutality of that
perpetrated on the next • and those seho committ them in
every instance escape discovery. It would be unfair to
attribute the law's failure to the inertness or the inca-
pacity of the police, for it is evident that those who com-
mit such atrocious crimes act upon a system whict•
renders detection almost impossible. It may be -
how are we to account for such an - asked,
crime when there is in office an A
'some outburst of
vated to power in a great mease elegy
-
Irish peaseantry themselves ministration
eee by the vote
promised more for wile'. • s of the
of wltntre members have
it will ever be pose. • -is tertned their advantage than
, --easure el tai
poptiletrity,are hurrying through Parlia-
'
to maintain to --ote forany Ministry to effect, and who,
nwnt a re —cer
gned to remove a badge of ascendancy
is said to wound their feelings, although it does not
couch their pockets ? The answer, we think, is readily
par-
tiality of their professed friends
mint largely on the given. The discontented ill
they would not venture to indulge in
take liberties which
those represented to be their political
einteiers the rule of
The Post thinks the general idea that `" everybody
oil
of ciently
ealpmpiliiledddtoo as
v all aae
dangerous when
have order
epe and contentment;
tllll
etiirt
etyheesto factis,
applied to Ireland it i
that now that statesmen
y
existence of real grievances in nned and seriously ad-
Inrielinaous
dressed themselves to the consideration of how those
have
thatfallen into the
Ireland can
grievances may be removed,
givingit,yhey.t
strange hallucination of supposing
be petted back into loyalty
sugar. plums
sas:re left un
whenever it cries. :N °thing is to e denied to the
c;apltriivsihty rieblerlisshauresassirelne
/spoiltbisief
veryehild briefnw
after
punished and Irish agitators are allowed to
spout
wherever and whenever they please. This
spiss treason
which can attain no good end; it must disgust th•a Policy
and loyal ;it certainly will not pacify the disorderly
disloyal portion of the population. We trust thater
itY and
soon be succeeded by more vigorous measures ; and it to he remembered that no more favourable time could 1)2 found for resorting to minsual severity against thecriminal
and the seditious than the time when the claims f the
Irish people for the redress of some real grievancu
meeting with such calm and generous consideration.
e are
The Times asserts that the Ministry were
in some het
plexity in dealing with the glebe-houses. The Opposition,
supported by Sir George Grey, Mr. Martin, and Mr
Bagwell, Tweed that they should be surrendered
gratni
thusly, and appealed to lclr. Brig,ht's language as implying
a pledge to leave them in the hands of the clergy. The
choice wae one of pure policy, and, considering"tas h
suc .
it was impossible, without ,keying the princip'e of the
bi:l, to to their lie,ille3t3.r. f:.riglit
ex
plained Tlierelay night that when he sueeest
the prepriety allowi.e.; the c!ereymen It;
Lind to retant their re,:idences, lie coripb-d it with
a proposal to allot a million for the purpose of lai3
in',
glebes and erecting lmusz.s on them for the Romar
Catholic priests. These proposals could not be dis
severed one from another. It would, perhaps, have beer
wisest to adopt both, butt if one be impossible, Parliament
cannot stif i cling to its fellow. Religions equality is ill,
be all niel end-all of the Irish Church Bill, and this must
be secure,l at whatever cost, to kindly feelings, which
would, indeed, have been most gratified by leaving thirig;
entirely as they were. The decision on the question of
glebe houses was important because it was a test of the
thoroughness of the House cf Commons in adhering to the
erinciple of the bill • but we regard the controversy which
subsequently raged ever the date from which. private
endowzgatkiag tr,JlCei al9l_llll4..lesasktui*
4016 •
,