The Sun.
London, England, 1869-09-03 00:00:00

.„.,
SPIRIT OP Tilt PUDLIO JOURNALS.

No one can wonder, says the Times, either at tire Sonja'
tion produced by the story which Mrs. Beecher Stows
has just published of Lady Byron's estrangement from
her husband, or at the general reluctance to admit its
correctness. What Macaulay wrote nearly forty years
ago on the difficulty of separating Lord Byron's personal
from his literary character is almost as applicable now as
it was then. But it certainly is passim; strange that
what we may call the smaller, weaker parts of Byron's
character—his childish vanity and taste for stage tricks,
his womanish petulance and sensisiveness, the unutterable
meanness of his money dealings with his wife—should
not long since have dethroned him from the position
of popular idol to which his literary success
raised him. It is by no means creditable to us
as a nation that such a man as Byron should so
long have been one of its favourite heroes ; and though
his genius must command admiration while the English
language lasts, his character will, we feel sure, come,
before long, to be regarded with feelings very different
from those with which nine out of ten Englishmen regard
it now. Its present hold, however, upon the nation is
beyond dispute, and no one can feel surprised that Mrs'
Beecher Stowe's curious revelation should be by many
resented and refused all credence, not upon its own merits
or with any consideration of its intrinsic claims to proba-
bility, but simply because it throws discredit upon 00
popular a name. While, however, we see no possibility
of Mrs. Stowe's having misapprehended Lady Byron,
we think it perfectly possible—and, indeed, probable--
that Lady Byron was herself the victim of a delusion
—that she wrongly suspected her husband of the crime
with which she charged him. We can find nothing in
Mrs. Beecher Stowe's elaborate story of the whole case 93
all incompatible with this hypothesis ; on the contrary.
she now and then unintentionally confirms it. We cannot,
indeed, conjecture how Lady Byron first came to enter•
tain the suspicion—upon this point we have before us 110
evidence—but we can easily understand how, having once
got hold, she contrived first to impose upon herself and
then upon Mrs. Stowe. She would only have been doing
what thousands of unhappy wives have done before,
except that the guilt to which her unjust suspicions
pointed was of exceptional enormity ; but this fact, as We
have said, is quite accounted for by her doubts as to her
husband's sanity, and by the very low opinion which big
own unblushing confessions may have led her to form of
his morality.
The Telegraph says that a painter, renowned among his
contemporaries, and not unworthy to rank even with the
great masters of old days, has lately passed away from
this life. Jean Auguste Henri Leys is known wherever
art is loved and honoured ; but he was the especial Pride
and glory of his native city, the head of the moder°
Belgian school in colour and design. Antwerp alreadl,
possessed a catalogue of artistic names each in its kin
0
second to none which any other capital in Europe
could boast. Rubens belongs to her, with hi!
mighty force of composition and his splendl°
hues. Hers, too, is Tenier's wonderful work. -Ven.
AO':
Dyck, Jordaens, Sneyders, and Quentin M
painted in the ancient city ; but she will add
this modern name to her trophies of great artistic sons' as
.
a sufficient proof that the mantle of their genius has TIC)v
worn out its power in its descent from age to age. 121,1!
native city has buried her famous son like a prince of tu'
blood royal. Strangers arriving in the quaint Bel
town on the closing clay of the past month, and noun
torned to connect the sight of a population in menruive
pomp with the demise of kings or conquerors, might heN
been astonished to learn that the spectacle of mingle
grief and pride was due to nothing more than the death °f
as
a painter. A public commemoration like that which
been devoted to the Belgian historical painter refieeto
it
more honour on the citizen than on the city'
announces in plain and noble terms the dignitythe aristocrats of intellect and genins ; it enforces the
8
excellent truth that those most deserve homage whoa-
lives and careers confer upon their country most 1115„ a
and advantage ; and it inspires the humblest to strive ,
hope in emulation of him whom the people Oelea.o
" delighteth to honour." That long lists of
masters which Antwerp boasts, and to which she has 116
solemnly added the name of Henri Leys, is hers, hecat.,a
she has always thus reverenced and upheld the wort' rig
works of Art. Belgium is only a small country,
is
upon the reticence of her powerful neighbours ; but, by
example of sincere regard for those who are grea:
nature, not by wealth, rank, or power, might be useiu
and humbly imitated by more than one of her Puissant

neighbours.
The Standard thinks the mediums are in a PesitAi,l,
analogous to that of habitual criminal under the new
They, or others of their craft, have been exposed so ate;
that the public is justified now in assuming there
until they are proved to be innocent. And hardly a•P'4)
occurrences under their influence ought to be regardeof
except after severe tests, as free from the suspicion
trickery. If they were anxious to submit to such test
it would be something in their favour, but they I's
notoriously averse from this. They want audience°
believers ; at all events, whenever scientific reelll3ll,.°o
constituted themselves committees of investigation,
manifestations have always broken down. For some ti°ce
now spiritualism has been under a cloud in conseglie/;,,,
of celebrated exposures, and the most enthusiastic
lieverstnust admit, at any rate, that a good roanYq°,l)6
0
who professed to be mediums have turned out to he
bugs. If, however, people who honestly believe
dot
there is "something in" the phenomena which i 5 .0%
dreamed
of as yet in natural philosophy, and can V/
ra or
scientific men face to face with recurring OWme
it is of no use to talk about isolated evejl,:ntios
the past which are only reported by witnesses, a11d,c,.;
be searchingly examined ; if such people come 1°
it
and accumulate a sufficient quantity of MAllifeStatiollo,
to
wore
of
may be worth the while of scientific men once
form a committee of investigation. The revel3tra
the past will doubtless make them suspicious, but W;fi-513ith°,
all be quite sure that if the scientific world obt"-;00 ot
smallest grain of fact, fairly removed from the reg;hich
conjuring, and plainly attributable to a force with -130
NNVNie are as yet unacquainted, the intense interest which
• 11 necessarily attach to it will speedily take the whole
subject into the hands of a set of people very tinliPftojet°
who get their living by it at present, and the table 1,-I°o 00
will then be able for the first time to turn theta
the sceptics. th
The Herald remarks that if occrtsionallY:t‘b-alliprilo'd
stranger than fiction," fiction very often enj occasionally
oirlyto

lege of seeming more real than truth. It was -
~ ej
~i
replywillustrationhet h oefr
hthe
the skipper
preciselysakdipepv eerr hteo
at hrtdihseo feeling eeli
Robinsonng gentlemanwhich
wchr
upor
sor
pry:.
ee tf
od:13010,:.--i
yes ; he had known him intimately ;o1 gr• '-i, boril,4--
made a mistake in his birthplace, for he was 111/".fle iSi;,,
Mythical York, truth, banu t Hull." The name of Robinson Cra;-cer,„-
inceslteabnrciedepsarfeoxrcelwlehnieceh, of the realitYi:eole:igicicoittlit
we have
tending, And is not every incident which this ~,,, pie
of the Saxon tongue has recorded crystallised WI
us_t rel°
Is not every personage which he has painted do
• ro
3 of
as any human being that ever lived? There is a :dr°
a small urchin in knickerbockers, who, seeing A. °'
wrtohufeselthfhsaeterdreeuuenoptfws ,Ftiolbrl
irihndoigkamyeE,.
nforthnd firmommetdhieatceolynstirnatirseedf ottrobjeits
his 13 the
reAmnitde „mote 1,00
in Robinson can scarcely be accounted a fict't-I.olo°-
to our boys. The shipwreck, the cave, tile ebel
,winhotmrutphe,ftoheishfaasisthhfau,l:oo3of:7„,
the parrot, the dog, the frotprints on t to ibef
are not the episodes of all these kn°,,,Wiireles ••
fer
our youngsters considerably better than tilfelost , it
their dogs'-eared Latin syntax? The island °I. t.....a0.0;
nandez as long ago as December in last Ye: 000,00,
is a painful reflection that at the time we klief Cie° 0/
whatever of the fact—was ceded to a socieYfrboan'tioos
under the guidance of one Robert of 'own° cio
engineer from Saxony, for the purpose 0f,,,c,„1 00'10
Well, we wish these colonists every good,, '''',-weit,,,„ivodY
desire. May a long and a happy lue „-t.of3P;e, °"A
Wehrhman and his compatriots in the I°7? courit. the
little island to which they have steered theilm lelbel
which our great countryman has unmistaketefore fete,
mark of his genius, and which he has, longer,'' poPtief 11,01
sturdy German adventurers proceeded' hAuebenags
with the creations of his own genius and 'l dig.
own great imagination. f the to
The Daily News declares that the bens ° beet o
raern.tbeir ea t,
established Church of Ireland are cleingfriende,,aarcn
falsify the prophecies of their quondam o,ce recote of
justify. the confidence of those whom theY, opP°liteesOnti
as their bitterest enemies. Very few of ti;
that rro el
disestablishment were willing to adnait iu the die'
Episcopalianism in Ireland would be Wettnportroiotti
keeping of its friends ; none of those wile : o'rgallollite,
establishment believed that as a religiou its rcl '
the Church would suffer by losing,
.„,resserferils
status. The expectation repeatedly, ea' ssworte 3
us was that the Church, insteact t, stsPljot sli
by the change, would find in the new zcal of its
ample compensation for the loss of State en4o„, is i:sbiza,
the prestige of Establishment. This exPeceT)bis,estab,'.`ty t°
in course of realisation. No sooner is th Ja liber"lior pct
Act passed that, the laity begin to shewg_went,o fsc,
wards the Church which i; fa of cncourp, .e.t is t.i.f, li,r,
future. What the public are interested :nw 14 MI
that since the Irish Church Bill passe(l,_.o tivALetiol
gone forth over the Church in Ireland:sa," tor tr"-eet,i:.
bones already live. Even now there I , a„,., tO ::00t141';
in its movements. The Provincial SYn°(l63r'e'sent •sPitlo
.Arrnagh and Dublin in the middle of thei, I,n tile co t. 6
they will then at once smite in one Syn;il 'ciergyfir;t 001'4
and prepare the representation of tl u
tGheenyesw•alillSylinsoetel
t, in
thNevhicls:
proceed together to form the new Clisencllh. )-t ,11;
went is healing instead of slayingth I,'
which 1 frill
is in it a vigorous and ample d life t .tit 'freeeot, les.
it has been painfully an reltic
.;,a lona, eor to
the decrepit body of a repudiated -1,-,
_...ers aria free ,
form to itself new organs fitted to its now'
it will Ito oil;
representatives S yn ooc.lf
.f {or
the
etnb eil
saci ts
vy.
A:4s:
sive of its vigour. As a Free Church,. nip
_,,,a tP,
live its own full life, and to fulfil its.inr_ltelP:c, 007.
way; and when the new organisation is „
_rser 110Lii 11
new machinery at work, we shall no at figitl
regrets over the past, but expressing ca I.'"
which life and action always give. .