The Sun.
London, England, 1869-06-23 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

The Times, in referring to the visit of the Egyptian
Viceroy to this country, remarks that there is generally
in the public mind a lingering apprehension that some.
thing awkward and shabby will mark the reception of any
one who comes to see us. One thing, at least, is satisfac-
tory—lsmail Pasha has been lodged in the royal palace,
and will receive due attention from members of the
Royal Family. Indeed, the Prince of Wales, to
whom the Viceroy shewed a few months since
so princely a hospitality, may be trusted to
do the honours of England with appropriate
dignity. It is said that the Government, anxious to
evince its recognition of the fact, presented anew to its
notice and the notice of other European Courts by the
Porte, that the Viceroy is not a Sovereign Prince, but a
vassal of the Sultan, is disposed to be particular in meting
out to the Viceroy his exact modicum of courtesy. But
there is no such indication of a desire for independence
on the part of the Egyptian family as should make it
necessary for even so Conservative a Power as England
to regulate its courtesies with cautious nicety. Most
people will think that if we were to err on the
side of liberality and politeness, no great harm would
be done by so very unusual a fan't. Sovereign or
no sovereign, Ismail Pasha r:ceived the Prince of Wales
with the most splendid magnificence ; troops wtre drawn
up on his arrival, guards and escorts were numerous and
well-appointed, and the general conduct of the business
was grand and princely. Let us not fall short in return.
If Ismail Pasha be not a crowned head, no more was the
Prince of \Vales, and yet his position was not marked by
a stinted ceremonial.. A due distinction may be observed
without the obtrusion of anything that is niggardly and
ungraceful.

The Standard says that some very ardent opponents of
Mr. Gladstone's bill are greatly dissatisfied with the
acceptance of the second reading, and in their disappoint-
ment seem disposed to look somewhat coldly on the efforts
made to remove some of its worst features in committee.
They were more zealous for the privileges than for the
property of the Church ; for the State recognition of
Protestantism than for the interests of a particular Pro-
testant communion. We think, however, that few will
be so unreasonable as not to acknowledge, on reflection, the
great importance of that for which the Conservative party
has yet to contend. Disestablishment is a question of policy;
and however we may disapprove the policy as applied to
Ireland, we cannot deny that precedents may be found
for it in our recent legislation, and that it is not intrinsi-
cally and necessarily iniquitous. Disendowment is a
question of public morality and political justice; and the
" disendowment" of a Church which is charged with no
fault, whose continued existence is allowed and desired,
which is now what she always was, the Church of the
minority, is an act per se wrongful and unjust. If it be
too late to save all that the Church may fairly claim, it is,
at least, a duty to save all we can. It is possible for the
Church to be as flourishing, as independent, as dignified
as ever without the State's aid or recognition ; it is not
possible for her to retain her present character and dis-
tinctive qualities as a communion dependent on the volun-
tary principle.

The Post comments on the difficulty of governing Ire-
land. Whether he be a Southerner or a Northerner,
whether he be Celt or Anglo-Saxon, Romanist or Protes-
tant, an Irishman persists in living in the past, ignoring
the present, and absolutely declining all attempt at fore-
casting the future. The Celtic peasant plots alike with
his fellows and with foreigners to compass the reproduc-
tion of the days of Malachi, with his collar of gold, and
the Ulster colonist is for ever trying to make a
substantial feast out of libations poured forth to
the memory of Protestant ascendancy, as he in-
terprets the phrase. Now, at this moment, at this
of all other moments, just as we have somewhat
repressed actual murder and spoken rebellion in the
South, and are striving by even-handed justice to seek
peace and establish it, up bound the Orangemen of the
North to fix a day when with wild yells and screaming
choruses to old songs they may shriek new defiance to
their countrymen in the West and South, and remind
them how, three hundred years ago, they put their feet
on their necks, trampled on their religion, ravaged their
fields, and harried their homes. On the 12th of next
month these people are going to enact this folly and
commit this wickedness. A member of Parliament, a
representative legislator, has sent forth the Fiery Cross,
summoning "the Orangemen of Ireland to assemble on
that day in their tens of thousands, emphatically to
commemorate the glorious triumphs of the past." Civil
war is not a matter for glorification but always for regret,
generally for shame as well as sorrow. And so long as
gentlemen of education, with the reponsibilities which
position and property entail upon them, see it in any
other light, or conceive that its victories or defeats, with
all their terrible and .bloody results, furnish proper occa-
sions for commemorative gatherings, for feastings and
firewerks, and calling into fresh play the hatreds that the
centuries ought to be piled over, so long will it be in vain
for the statesmen of England to struggle, and her people
to make sacrifices, in order to give unity and pacification
to Ireland.

A rainy June, observes the licrald, does not necessarily
imply a barren August. From all that can be learned the
hardy cereal which furnishes our staff of life is in good
condition, except, of course, on badly-favoured soils, which
are no criterion. True, prices are going up, and the
supply for a while threatens to fall short, unless it be
supplemented from abroad. But although the atmo-
sphere has been watery, the ground saturated,
and the temperature cold, there has been less of
insect and vermin ravage than usual. The harvest
may be late, because the season has fluctuated and the
planting was irregular. Will the sun shine when the
flowering takes place? That is the question. No mortal
—not Sidrophel himself—can reply to it. Meteorology
may foretell storms, but it cannot anticipate the evidence
of the dial. Ho ever, the backward state of most crops
is, upon the whole, a favourable symptom. South of the
Humber the wheat is not expected to be in ear before the
first day of next month. Afterwards comes the flowering ;
then follows the crisis. May we hope for a few warm,
placid, and genial days? Upon that chance depends in a
great degree the harvest of 1869. There is reason to think,
however, that much uncertainty prevails in the agricul-
tural districts. Inquiries are being made with respect to
the probable- yield of France, the north of Europe, Hun-
gary, South Russia, Turkey, and Algeria. The appre-
hension, we think, is premature. There is no good ground
for doubting that the corn returns will be satisfactory.
One lowering day after another is likely to discourage
us ; but the vicissitudes of the English climate are too
familiar,and our experience of them is too varied,to forbid
the possibility of a blazing autumn after this humid and
vaporous June.

The Daily News fears that Mr. Bruce's answer to the
question about Murphy's arrest at Birmingham can-
not be said to be entirely satisfactory. The Mayor's
excuse is one which the country at large will probably
accept, but it must not be forgotten that it is an excuse
and not a justification. We are quite willing to confess
our profound sympathy with the Mayor of Birmingham
in his difficulty, but it must be allowed that he cut the
knot instead of untying it. He is responsible for the
peace of the town, and that peace was held to be in danger.
But while we readily admit all this, we are obliged to
confess that his zeal outran his discretion. Probably, if
there is any case in which we might lo►k leniently on a
little stretching of the law in the interests of peace, order, and
freedom, it would be in the case of such a "malignant as
this Orange emissary ; but any stretching of the law at
all is exceedingly dangerous, and must be protested
against. While, therefore, not at all satisfied that
Murphy was in the right, we are convinced that, if the
Mayor acted without some clear law to execute or some
distinct precedent to justify him, he was in the wrong.
Of course, in saying this we give the Mayor of Binning-
abundant credit for the purest and simplest desire to do
what the best interests of the town seemed to require ; we
11 even admire the courage which took the hazard from the
peace of the town to transfer it to himself, and we believe
that the verdict of public opinion will be " Served him
right—but don't do it again."
The Telegraph declares that Lord Palmerston's statue
at Westminster is a complete victory for the realistic
school. There is exceedingly little in the statue to remind
us of the statesman—everything to bring back the man.
We have not the Premier of eighty, but the " jaunty
Viscount." Instead of Palmerston, the Foreign Secretary
who for years made England influential in Europe, we
have the popular Lord, the country gentleman, the genial,
happy member of Parliament, with his hand and joke
and laugh always ready. In fact, Mr. Wooln_r, has not
called up Palmerston, he has kindly given us " Old
Pam." The result is not altogether satisfactory.
Palmerston was nut made Premier by his bon-
homie, though it rendered him a pleasant Prime Minister.
His underlying qualities were as heroic as if the man had
been taciturn and grave. It was a credit to England,
ever apt to overrate solemnity of manner as if it indicated
greatness of soul, that it recognised his essential worth
under the trifling easy manner and the gay good humour
of his life. We must be content to think that Palmerston
the statesman will live, as he truly was, in the page of
the historian--a lofty sphere—rather than in Mr.
Woolner's street bronze. For if modern men will wear
such horrible garments, and if sculpture is to be real,
what is a sculptor to du? We might, it is true, send
deputations to our politicians, as they gradually grew
great, and request them to adjust their dress to the
necessities of art in the future. We might piteously
entreat Mr. Gladstone and Mr. Disraeli to forswear
trousers, if they would not mind the inconvenience, and
to go about like Father Ignatius, in a blanket with holes,
giving up their hats for wide-awakes or cowls. Then we
could have, in after years, statues that would be at once
artistic and true ; and the souls of future Woolners would
not be perplexed. Taking the statue as it is, however, we
can assure the sculptor, that if he has not immortalised the
late Premier, he has given us an excellent likeness, not of
the clothes merely, but of the man as most caell truer
him. _