The Sun.
London, England, 1869-10-27 00:00:00

SPIRIT OP THE PUBLIC JOURNALS

The recurrence of Cabinet Councils at this time of the
year, says the Times, is a phenomenon which has generally
been understood to portend an autumn session. In the
present instance it indicates no more than a just foresight
A the difficulties involved in the fulfilment of so many
promises for the session of next year. Mr. Bruce alone
has undertaken to deal with more questions than
would occupy the whole of it. Education, in
various forms, will assuredly claim a large share of
time and labour, while all the bills and motions with-
drawn by private members in deference to the
paramount exigencies of the Irish Church will struggle
for precedence in the notice-book. It is no secret, how-
ever, that at present the attention of Mr. Gladstone
and his colleagues is concentrated on the one subject of
Irish land tenure. We may even doubt whether three
months ago the Government had any definite policy on the
Irish land question, but this interval has gone far to form
public opinion upon it, and to bring it within the limits of
practicable settlement. By this time it may be assumed
that most Cabinet Ministers have matured their views, at
least so far as principles arc concerned, and arc prepared to
discuss the eutlincs of the future Land Dill. Without pre-
tending to lift the mysterious veil which shrouds all Cabi-
net deliberations, we should not despair of forecasting the
probable direction of their policy on Irish land tenure.
rnroulh all the mist and confusion of details one result
comes cut into the clearest relief, and that is, that what
the Irish farmer wants, above all, is security of tenure.
The problem being from which side the settlement of Irish
Land Tenure ought to be approached, we say, without hesi
Cation, that it ought to be approached from the side of
Ulster tenant-right. To legalise Ulster tenant-right pur et
simple, and extend it to all Ireland, would be at once an
heroic and an inadequate remedy, nor must we be:under-
stood to advocate it for a moment. We do advocate, how-
ever, a careful study of those deeply-rdbted usages exem-
plified by Ulster tenant-right, with a view of founding a
new code of Irish agrarian law on the ancient structure of
Irish agrarian custom.

The Daily News thinks it is easy to understand the mor-
tification with which some Conservatives look back upon
the history of their party since Sir Robert Peel ceased to
lead it. There is something ostensibly respectable in the
self-denying ordinance which the Quarterly Review urges
on them. tt advises them to abandon all idea of office, and
to devote themselves to tho task of steady and organised
opposition. At present it does not require much virtue in
Conservatives to surrender the hope of place, especially that
section of them which is in irreconcilable variance with Mr.
Disraeli and the members of his late Administration.
The chances of a Conservative Government are very
; and if such a portent were to come about, Lord
Yisbury, the irreconcilable,would be constrained to stand
'.oof. But these considerations do not affect the intrinsic
t.uality of the advice given by the quarterly organ of the
4.lisaffected Tories. The success of Sir Robert Peel's leader-
Oip and the failure of Lord Derby's shew where the error
of Tory tactics during the last twenty years has lain
Lord Derby's fault was not in yielding too soon, but
in not yielding soon enough. The tendencies and
forces of the time took him by surprise. Sir Robert
Peel watched them, and was prepared for them,
and met them by timely concessions. Tories of Lord
Salisbury's school propose to stereotype and
perpetuate that attitude of undue resistance which was
Lord Derby's chief blunder, and to eschew more than he
did that rational foresight and reasonable acquiescence
which made Sir Robert Peel a really Conservative states-
man, the last of his order. Lord Stanley may possibly
.cove his true successor. Lord Salisbury, unless rumour
.s very much astray as to the authorship of the Quarterly
manifesto, seems bent on chewing that his political wis-
dom is of the order of Lord Eldon and Mr. Percival,
or of the Prince de Polignac. From such advisers a
rational and patriotic Conservatism may pray to be de-
livered.

When Mr. Stansfeld, upon the formation of the present
Government, was created a Third and Extraordinary Lord
of the Treasury, with a double and extraordinary salary,
the Standard ventured to suggest that the Treasury had
been reorganised in this expensive manner solely to fur-
nish a suitable place for a gentleman whom Mr. Gladstone
could not decently or safely leave out of his Ministry.
The organs of the Premier protested, with all that
emphasis of which they have so abundant a stock, that no
notion of the kind had anything to do with the appoint-
ment. The House of Commons, of course, sided
with the Ministry, which, in its turn, its pur-
pose answered, explains how Mr. Ary ton is to
le promoted to the Commissionership of Works
and Mr. Stansfeld is to become Financial Secretary, and td
do the work both of Financial Secretary and Third Lord
Mr. Stansfeld is no doubt a man of a much higher order or
ability than Mr. Ayrton, but no one will pretend that he
has anything like the power of work in him of the member
for the Tower Hamlets. Mr. Ayrton's strength is his close
attention to his parliamentary duties, and his capacity for
sitting out the longest days and nights, and retaining to
the last moment—say to four a.m.—the same keenness ho
ibewed sixteen hours before. If Mr. Stansfeld had really
any work -to do as Third Lord of the Treasury he will
be soon overwhelmed under the weight of the labours
of Third Lord and Financial Secretary. But the
truth is there was no other occasion for the creation
of the office he now resigns, and which now ceases to exist,
than the necessity of finding a place for him; and he will
perform, we may safely assume, not only with ability but
with sufficient attention, the conjoint labours he now
undertakes. The Third Lordship of tho Treasury may be
considered a thing of the past, and its creation will be
remembered as one of the little jobs for which Radical
Governments are famous. It will be remembered, too, as
the shelving of one of the two men who have done that
party most credit in a position really, although not nomi-
nally, the most subordinate, and practically of the most
obscure, and, so far as political reputation goes, killing
character.

The Post declares that the Board of Trade is now under
trial, and there can be little doubt of the verdict being
that practically and to all intents and purposes the Board
has grievously failed to afford that protection to the public
which it had a right to expect. What, then, are the alters•
tions in the system and the law that the public should take
care are now carried out? First of all, open inquiries into
railway accidents should be held, at which the
railway servants and passengers would be obliged
to appear and give evidence on oath. Next the
Board of Trade Inspectors should be required to make
examinations of the lines and their modes of working
before as well as after accidents. It is a disputed poin
whether a regular system of Government inspection of the
working of railways—without reference to the occurrence
of acoidents and with the view to their prevention—would
or not be beneficial to the public. Be this as it may, there
could be no possible objection to the Inspectors of the Board
of Trade reporting on all irregularities in the working of, 0.
the defects in, the regulations of the lines they might ha.pper
to travel on in going to and returning from theii
ordinary inspections. This new function might be added
with good effect to the duties of these officers. Then
arrangements should be made for the publication of the
reports of the inspectors without the present unnecessary
delay. Every inquest, too, should be attended by a
Government inspector, whose powers and functions sbould
be clearly defined. Finally, the Board of Trade should have
some power of compelling attention to its warnings and
instructions, for it is not convenient that a Government
department should be set at defiance by private companies
performing services for the public.

" See how these Christians love one another !" It is
impossible, remarks the Telegraph, to refrain from using
the hackneyed exclamation in view of the remarkable
correspondence which has been published by a contem-
porary on the subject of Dr. Temple. In a letter a column
long, Dr. +Pusey brands the Bishop-Designate of Exeter a,
a heretic and a betrayer of the Church. Then follows a
letter from Dr. M‘Neile, the Dean of Ripon, echoing the
charge that Dr. Temple is a heretic, but adding
that Dr. Pusey is a heretic too ; cordially admit-
ting that Dr. Temple is dangerous to the Church
but adding, that Dr. Pusey is ten times more
dangerous. The Head Master of Rugby is a leper from
head to foot ; and hence, as his sad condition is manifest
to every eye, everybody can keep away from him. But
Dr. Pusey is only spotted with leprosy; and, since the
marks of the disease are hidden by his canonicals, unsus-
pecting people shake the great heretic by the hand, and
thus are smitten by the leprosy of sacramentalism. Ir
othar words, Dr. Temple is manifestly a wolf, while Dr
Pusey is a wolf in sheep's clothing. Or, as the Dean of
Ripon puts the fact, Dr. Temple is marked "Poison,'
and Dr. Pusey, although poison also, is labelled
"Syrup." With unfeigned admiration do we cite
these tokens of the fact that Christians have not lost
the art of invective. Only one thing is needed to rendez
the manifestation of brotherly love complete, and that is a
letter from. Mr. Maurice. Some years ago Mr. Maurice and
Dr. Pusey had a theological controversy which the great
Broad Church divine ended by telling the great High
Church divine that, although members of the same Churct
they worshipped different Gods. Were Mr. Maurice to give
the same mes3age impartially to Dr. Pusay and Dr. M'Neile
and were those two champions of rival theologies to return
the complimc,ut, the picture of Christian harmony and
poses woulil be complete. "See how these Christians love

cnc,‘ another

Tiv? IT-r,,1,1 observes that in the mi,ls:s of our spica:lid
improvementA We must not forget
the
existence of those diAnal localitic.!s in which houses are
ranged so close - some in the moat hideon
in scarcely wall;
neir e:;icl•l'li4, IL
fowar,ls a fall

tll,-t two per,MISS
111
tott,:ria; (litily

:nrca

then

their is ;;Fo, inflnltely r;l.l,re f.:ifht'ful, any en(
n!? who, nc.: thc nece43ar w y c.;ny of the police, ever visite'?
them can testify. Nothing is known to them of drains of
pavement: in the summer they tread dust and garbage;
the winter, garbage and mud; all the year round the)
breathe poison. No common wayfarer passes dowr
those ways; they might as well be barred wit]
iron at each end, like the old Ghettos of Europe
Large or small, the tenements are inhabited b)
misery, by crime, and by disease, engendering all three, ani
possibly propagating them. But perhaps a new day if
breaking, and, for the future, when we speak of " metropo.
litan improvements" W geed *w 119piar
mag 1442922 P4QuEL..

THE FINANCIAL .5 SECRETA.RYSILIT OF

TIIE TREASURY.

The Third Lordship of the Treasury, which was created
by the present Government to bring Mr. Stansfeld into
office, has been abolished. It will be remembered
that Mr. Lowe described the office as merely "tentative,"
and now that the right hon. member for Halifax
has consented to undertake all the financial duties con-
nected with the Treasury, no successor will be appointed
By Mr. Stansfeld's removal to Mr. Ayrton's late post, the
country will save 41,000 a year. As the new Financial
Secretary has held a position under the Crown, he will not
vacate his seat.