The Sun.
London, England, 1869-01-06 00:00:00

OP BIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNAIO.

The Times is strongly in favour of the proposed transfer
of the site of the new law courts from Carey-street to the
Thames Embankment. The arguments which Sir Charles
Trevelyan adduced in support of the change are con-
clusive. The architectural effect of the new courts
will be far finer on the banks of the river, especially
as they will form part of a grand line of public
buildings, extending from Westminster to the Temple.
They will have better light, better ventilation, easier
*Approaches—in consequence of their vicinity to the river
and the Underground Railway—and more convenient
entrances—from the level nature of the ground—than
they could possibly have near Carey-street. They will
'slot add to the serious impediments now offered to metro-
'filitan traffic by " the congested state of the Strand."
Their erection will involve little additional delay, although
,we quite agree with Sir Charles that even if the change
of fc4e does involve delay, "it would be better that
Fe should wait for ten years than that our descendants
hould reproach us for hundreds of years to come for
having misused the greatest opportunity England ever
bad of this sort." Why, then, in the face of all these
considerations, should the Carey-street site still be retained
in favour? When the Commissioners of 1860 had
,to make their selection of a site they found their
choice confined to three neighbourhoods —Westminster,
Carey-street, and Lincoln's-inn. Of these they selected
the sane which was probably the best, and which, as we
have seen, continued to be regarded in official quarters as
,She best, though the case is completely changed. The
Thames Embankment is no longer a more orlesspromising
scheme of the future, but a present reality, and it offers
between the Temple and Somerst House a site so much more
advantageous, as we have seen, than any of the three
already named that it is impossible to suppose that the
commission would have hesitated to take it if it had been
'put before them. We are thus allowing ourselves to be
bound by a decision which the Commissioners, in all pro-
bability, would never have formed if they had had before
theist the evidence now laid before us.
The Standard doubts whether Mr. Gladstone and Mr.
Cardwell will thank Mr. Trevelyan for his recent speech
Lon army reform. If Mr. Trevelyan had indulged in such
wild talk under a Palmerston Administration he would
certainly have received a notice to quit, but Mr. Gladstone,
not being sure of his own opinions, and in accord with his
colleagues upon only one or two points, will probably con-
tent himself with suggesting to Mr. Trevelyan not to inter-
fere in matters altogether beyond his province, and repre-
sent the Government as struggling with the Commander-
in-Chief when it desires the public to believe that it is
acting heartily in concert with that illustrious personage.
To the Duke of Cambridge, of course, as to every Corn-
snander-in-Chief, the efficiency of the army is the first
,object ; but his Royal Highness can have no objection, and
certainly has shewn none, to a reorganisation of the
service which should save the public money without re-
ducing that efficiency. To assert that the Duke or the
Court can have any desire to keep up an useless expendi-
ture is a gross absurdity, so gross indeed that it would
not be worth noticing if Mr. Trevelyan's position as a
member of the Ministry were not calculated to induce
the suspicion that an attempt may be made to excuse the
failure of the Ministry to redeem its rash and mischievous
promises by raising a cry against the Commander-in-Chief.
It would have been better for Mr. Trevelyan's own re-
putation if he had denied himself the indulgence. A
similar attack made by Mr. Bernal Osborne with much
more reason, did its author more harm than good. The
world could not bring itself to admire the ex-Secretary of
the Admiralty, who, having contentedly remained for
several years a member of the Ministry, signalised its
death throes by a violent diatribe against the administra-
tion of the sister service, and Mr. Trevelyan may be sure
that his intemperate, and, under the circumstances,
indecent attack upon the Commander-in-Chief of the
Army, will give the public a very low opinion of the dis-
cretion of the Civil Lord of the Admiralty.
The Daily News considers that the position of the
Ritualist party is very little altered by the judgment in
Martin v. Mackonochie. The effect that the judgment
will have on the preaching of the Ritualist clergy is
already apparent. We have spoken of the judgment in
this case as the close of one stage of the Ritualist con-
troversy. The question that presents itself is, what course
will the Evangelist party adopt. They may consider that it
willbe best to endeavour to get the existing Rubrics altered.
But this alternative will have its peculiar difficulties.
If Parliament is to legislate, it must do so either on its
own authority or with the consent of the Convocations of
Canterbury and York. The Reformed House of Com-
mons may display an unexpected boldness in its handling
of ecclesiastical subjects, but we shall be surprised if it
voluntarily takes the Establishment to pieces with the
view of reconstructing it on a new model. Enough has
been said to justify our original position, that the Church
of England is rather at the threshold than at the outlet
of difficulties in regard to Ritualism. It does not fall
within the province of a lay journalist to give advice to
religious parties. To Ritualists and Evangelicals
alike the question is one of conscience, and being such it
may have to be decided with scant reference either to pru-
dence or policy. Our object in writing has been to state
the facts of the case, leaving the application of them to
those whom it may concern. If the Evangelical party
think fit to continue the contest, to follow up one lawsuit
by another, and, supposing this fails, to invoke the aid of
the Legislature, they have a clear right to do so. Our
only desire is that they should act with their eyes
open, and with no more sanguine anticipations than
such as are suggested by an impartial review of the
situation.

The Herald criticises the speech of Mr. Cardwell at the
annual dinner of the Ancient Order of the Druids. The
right hon. gentleman did not vouchsafe to give much infor-
mation on the all-engrossing subject of the army reforms,
but confined his observations to some brief comments.
New brooms sweep clean, but Mr. Cardwell's broom is
beginning to resemble an old one portentiously early in its
career. Why should not Mr. Cardwell be content with
,the confession that the Reform Bill has been attended
with solid advantages to the country, without exulting
over what he supposes to be the fact that
the enactment has injured the Conservative party.
If he were a little more alive to the baffled devices
of his own friends, and a little less so to the successful
ones of his opponents, he would have avoided that error.
Conscious, however, of the advantages which the Reform
Bill had given to the Conservatives, compared with those
of their former condition, Mr. Gladstone and his advisers
raised the standard of bitter theological controversy, and
swept Ireland, Scotland, and Wales for recruits to the
ranks now threatened with defection. There is no
denying that the trick has for the moment succeeded ;
but the fact that the Radical majority in England,
which alone contains one million Roman Catholics,
amounts to no more than twenty-one, is enough to chew
what would have been Mr. Gladstone's plight if he had
not resorted to it. He struck at the religious supremacy
of the Crown, and encouraged agitation in Ireland, in
order to gain a greater number of adherents among Irish-
men and Scotch Presbyterians than Mr. Disraeli could
muster among loyal Englishmen and true friends
of the Church. But it is the very height of effron-
tery or inconsequence to argue from the result
of this unscrupulous mancenvre that Conservatism
has been injured by the Reform Bill. It has been
enormously strengthened by it, as Mr. Cardwell and his
colleagues will find to their cost when the temporary gains
won by political chicane have been exhausted, and the
United Kingdom becomes more and more alive to the drift
of their policy. Middlesex, Lancashire, and Kent have
spoken ; and we may depend upon it such constituencies
as these are likely to gain more converts in the future than
intolerant Welsh hamlets, and the clamour of Fenian-
haunted and Rome-directed villages. The 'day of reckon-
ing has not yet come ; but what the settlement will be like
may already be forecast by the observant.

The Star, in considering the present aspect of our
English pauperism, observes that the equalisation of the
poor rates is a measure of relief which is as morally and
economically just as it is imperatively called for on the
ground of expediency. At the same time the actual
pauperism which comes within reach of the Poor Law
represents bet a small part of the existing evil. It does
not include the patient suffering of the clasS who are only
one degree removed from pauperism, and are removed from
it mainly because they have not loSt a certain noble pride
of independence. What is to become of them ? How are
they to be effectually reached, either by the operation of
the Poor Law or the discriminating agencies which are set
on foot by voluntary associative effort? Mr. Edward
Webster suggested that a system should be adopted by
which any respectable poor man could obtain
relief to the extent of his actual necessities i
without being made to feel that he had lowered
himself to the grade of a pauper. The secre-
tary of the Working Men's Union advocated the
principle of well-considered loans. One gentleman put
forward compulsory education as the great remedial
measure. Another thought that employment on public
works should be provicTed by the Government ; while Mr.
Rawlinson, who speaks with a large and valuable experi-
ence, was of opinion thaiit the work should be provided by
the local authorities and not by the Government,
and that it should be of a productive character.
All these proposals are more or less valuable,
and they will doubtless be duly considered by
the Economy Department of the Social Science Associa-
tion. But it appears to us that the suggestion which pre-
mises to yield the largest amount of immediate benefit is
that of a judicious system of emigration. There is ample
room in the British colonial possessions for the whole
British nation, if it were necessary they should emigrate,
•and how best to enlighten the industrial classes on this
subject, how most effectually to assist them to transplant
themselves to a more genial soil, is one of the Drontern3
which Await acluticu.