The Sun.
London, England, 1869-07-28 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF Tilli-P63-1:10

-O.

The Timcs, in referring to the passage of the TelegrAlo
Bill through committee, says that the public mind bra
been clearly made up that the acquisition of the tele'
graphs is desirable, and even if the scheme fell through
for the present it could not be abandoned. Mere pest'
ponement would, unquestionably, therefore, have no other
result than that of forcing us to pay a still higher price at
• a future day. Government, in short, can never expect to
improve upon the terms now accepted. The purchase
has become a necessity, and it cannot be completed toe
promptly. In short, the present advantages which this
measure promises to the public are immense and inda.
bitable. The only question was about the futureo
which, it was feared, might be injuriously affected hi the
monopoly clauses. The arguments on this subieel,
were more evenly balanced than the division would jai:
cate. We still doubt whether the plan of the Government
was either politic or necessary, but we acknowledge it hs°
been shewn by the discussion that the point is of lens
practical importance than at first appeared. The question
is evidently thus reduced to a very narrow issue. Ili°
absence of a monopoly would be a sligl.t advantage to the
public in insuring the adoption of improvements, and if 4
concession would also Le a slight advantage to the public
in protecting them against opposition in the most lucre.
tire parts of what will now be their own business. 1116
House of Commons have decided that the latter asivaly
tage is the greater. It is certainly true that in open
competition the Government would be hampered
by the obligation imposed on them of charging a uniform
rate all over the country ; and if it be an advantage to be
able to telegraph to every corner of the kingdom for
shilling, we must not complain of paying for it by being
unable to telegraph to Manchester for less. Moreover'
whether the Government have a legal monopoly or lit
they could not fail to enjoy a practical monopoly. 33a;
the monopoly is now restricted to " electric " signals, a°'
thus limited it will be comparatively innocuous, and we
must expect to make some sacrifice for the advantages we
bill will otherwise confer upon us.
The Standard, referring to Longfellow's becoming a
D.C.L., declares that this is not the first time that Oxford
:
has expressed-her willingness to do him honour. This is net
the only occasion on which the premier university in 01'
England has declared that she was anxious to bestow
well-deserved token of recognition upon the premier Peet
of New England that has sprung up, like the coral Tees",
across two thousand miles of Transatlantic surge. 'Wile,'
more than a year ago, when the festival of the Enceee'll
was in due course of celebration at the old academy on tbs,
banks of the Isis, the author of the " Golden Legend
received and accepted the greatest tribute of resPe°
which the greatest university in the world can bestati
But the dispensation of events was in this instance J°
an untoward character ; and whether it was attP:
butable to unpunctuality in the matter of train"
or to any other of the retarding causes which render
railway travel a question of probabilities rather thanf
certainties, Mr. Longfellow was a day too late for the
fair, and did not arrive at the City of Spires till the Ole;
bration in the Sheldonian Theatre was fairly over. I'M
he has been allowed to choose his own time, and in spite
of the fact that the streets and quadrangles of Oxford be°
at this moment an extremely close resemblance to tbef
physical features of an academic Sahara, the card
" Evangeline" and the metrical memorialist '9
" Iliawatha " donned on Tuesday, before, as we t'l/
told, " a numerous and gaily-dressed company of ladit
the impressive robes of a Doctor in Civil Laws.
fellow, irresistible as his melody is, is not the poet
every-day life ; he is the poet of our vacation
iutervamo:
He does not, he will not, wrestle with the stern facts
existence as Jacob wrestled with the angel in pray
~e 0
Holiday contemplations, placid and beautiful—that i 5
metier. And when we say that we discern a peculiars
h'e
ness in the period of the academic year at which to
American poet has received his academic honours, We
fe,
not disparage his genius ; we simply thew that we °PP-
elate it.
The Post refers to the acknowledged fact that disease is
more fatal to an army than the enemy. It was not in vais
that the Emperor Nicholas reckoned on the services ;
January and February. Put in truth nearly All ts
months, after a certain period, took arms on his side, sa
for a considerable space of time, out of every hunderes
men whom we lost, from ninety-six to ninety-eight Pe
cent. succumbed to disease. Many diseases, such as °es
fever, dysentery, diarrhoea, and pulmonary aireeti%cl
arise so obviously from the soldiers sleeping on the gnis
that they may correctly be said to be generated by tin
practice. In the Crimea the men wrapped thernselselif,
their blankets and lay down to sleep upon the]
frozen • mud, ankle-deep, at a time when
were dying at the rate of a hundred per diisse
Sick men in the regimental hospitals lay upon et
ground in wet marquees with only a single bla bat
to cover them in the month of January. With 0
hope could the surgeons administer remedies to Paa°llo
whose recovery under such circumstances was next t° fi
impossibility ? In one way or another " keep the 101°v
the ground" has been recognised as a cardinal point !fa/.
observed in the encamping of an army. It does not,
rbt
ever, seem to have occurred to anyone that this m'sass
be better done by interposing a mattress of air belly:or,
the soldier and the earth. than by either cotton or strain
till some years ago, Major M`Guire, taking a hint fulist'
the sister service, hit upon the device of a Ulan. is
hammock, consisting of a blanket hung upon tw° lijssg 0
sticks, which raises the man sleeping in it ten incites
"
the ground. Amongst other testimonials to its superiebriiii
we have that of Lord Napier of Magdala, whose fiat, iss
blanket-hammocks was so great that he telegraphea
se,
one thousand five hundred of them, and the Post beloilo
Major M`Guire's plan will not be put aside unless itos
be proved that there are other and better means of a°
ing the end at which it aims.
Lord
The Daily News thinks of all living public men 100
Salisbury is the one who, during the last:few weeks 00
shewn the profoundest capacity of sinking. since has
retirement from office in Lord Derby's Government beof s
figured in the bat masque of politics under the guise
statesman. Beneath this domino few people, it is sesstis of
necessary to say, recognised Lord Robert Cecil. Pool
late some persons cleverer than their neighbours Pellu. oat
themselves that not only was the dress changed, ba"„elit
the person beneath it was altered. Baffled by Mr. Dis:ser
defeated in an unequal encounter with a man who, Pu'oe
sing genius, knowing the world, and understandilloh
spirit of his time, had three qualifications
his self-constituted rival lacks—Lord SalisburY
oder
for the moment shocked and surprised into 111,00
tion and common sense. But surprises e'"--001
last long ; shocks, after an interval, ilre.es
over. The nature of which Lord Salisbury 119° trio ell
get the better has returned. Lord Robert Cecil, w'bees'
his raw animosities and untaught prejudices, ilaassster
transferred to the House of Lords, which he is no 'Rost
qualified to lead than Mr. Charley is competent t°oser
the House of Commons. Mr. Disraeli gained An•ge
whelming victory over Lord Robert Cecil in 1861' esely
has inflicted upon Lord Salisbury a discomfiture afl
051
plete in 1869. In five or six years Lord Salisburtolie
make and shew himself fit to lead the Howie a
oess
But his apprenticeship is not yet half over. In thel3llo'
time a man who, like Lord Cairns, will do ws'gs.-slol.°
Disraeli tells him, as soon as he finds that wma"better
Derby tells him is impracticable, is, perhaps, (60
leader—we use that word in default of a mores "..esoel
one—than the man who, like Lord Salisbury, P°'Uetl°
neither the faithful prejudices of the one nor the °Asp
discernment of the other. For the present "the teripol
marquis" is as completely out of the running as
Malmesbury himself. of °el
The Telegraph calls attention to the grievances tigptt
in the matter of dress, especially with regard to the
en, so
t
hideous chimney-pot hat, and asks, Why are we, Ts but
foolish? Here are chains upon our wrists—we 11:00
to raise our hands and they will fall off ; and Ye)ust
Ae
will be the first to raise his hands. Surely, neafs ISO"
ss '
sole
Establishment, got rid of Toryism and Protection and Ole
Establishment, we may get rid of our hat°' 111
wee ere
respects we may have improved, but our heaoP`
re lift]
as hard, as tight, and as uncomfortable as they /4",!t the
years ago. There have been trifling differences A.P:e Dee/
brim. The chimney-pot has been higher or it °applied
lower ; but the same tight compression i° /Of'
to the forehead as in the days of our fathers'
to return to our starting-point, while we s°oo
bi
ourselves about many things, surely it Vi:f C
afl
well to give a thought to our beads. -I°.' ;ass
the processes of thought go on correctly within we es tbe
maintain—especially in such sweltering weathesa Us°d
present month of July—the old time-honoured rervittiss
across the forehead, the mark of our apathy and 15 tiss
true
to mere habit and custom? If
sentiments of all male Londoners this very daY, isfonicv-
o
you could get at d oosi_
persuade them to act altogether as one man, we soa just!
of us hurl our chimney-pots upon the pavement' an so
the
upon them with that " one consent" so dear ring
Psalmist. In the country, who dreams °f we t lea"
chimney-pot ? On foreign travels, who does nte took
his chimney-pot at home? It is only in the grey we
exactly where the heat is greatest, and where
ssuslaY,
sir ,
obliged to move about our business at all hours of wssioath
that the Demon of the Chimney-pot masters 0.
iiiicsols°o
and reduces us to abject slavery. Felt hats,
with
his o'0;1
straw hats—every man does what he lilies
es
t°VI
head in the country ; but in London and the great
we all go mad together.

The Gazette announces that her Alsit4,
appointed Mr. Antony Panizzi, the late i
librarian
British Museum, and Lieutenant-General Edn'ra ab
0,191
Knights Commanders of the Bath. The Gazette .ote
notifies that Dr. Norman M`Leod has been AP°IIIA
Dean of the Order of the Thistle and of the Cho.Pel
in Seotlaucl.in the loom of the late Dr. gulf,