The Sun.
London, England, 1869-11-27 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

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The Saturday Review does not commit itself to anything
like an entire, or, indeed, to any approval of the mission,
or to any eulogy on its successes ; partly because we know
very little about the ono, and perhaps should differ with a
good many people as to the standard by which such suc-
cesses should be measured. If it be urged—as in the true
spirit of his school it has been urged by a correspondent of
that pious and charitable journal the Record—that the
whole of this sudden and pretended zeal for souls is a mere
sham, and that the mission is nothing more than a cloak
for Ritualism, we connot disprove this, of course; but in
the interests of society there will be many ready to say
that, if chasubles and genuflexions do reduce the ranks of
thieves and harlots, chasubles and genuflexions are a very
cheap and easy mode of diminishing the dangerous classes.
If, as the Recordites say, they and their fathers have been
for nearly a century preaching out of the very book from
which the missionaries have at last stolen a leaf, they
must admit that they have been reviving to very little
purpose, and that they may as well let other people take
an innings. It will be asked, What is to come of it all,
supposing the mission to have been as successful as it is
said to bo ? What are the means to be adopted to retain
this sudden and spasmodic grasp upon the irreligious? We
know perhaps as little as its promoters know. The pro-
moters of the mission, if we may give them credit for com-
mon sense, do not suppose that they are going to change all
London by a religious coup de main. They do something,
only they do it is an extraordinary and emphatic way ; and
anyhow they preach conversion without the aid of souping
and coal-and-bread tickets. One consideration suggested
by this mission is sufficiently remarkable. The cry has
been for more liberty, more elasticity in the Church.
Why ; if half of tho proceedings which we are told have
just been permitted in London churches really occurred,
liberty and licence and authority are mere fallacies. Con-
fessional boxes are set up in churches, and openly used—
open-air processions, crosses, banners, and the Stations are
a matter of course. Forms and ceremonies, services,
lectionaries, devotions—all are developed all of a sudden,
and in all sorts of ways, out of nobody knows who's inner
consciousness; and all aro done in the publio services of
the Church. And this while it is felt, and half acknow-
ledged, that if all this is a success—and it will be very diffi-
cult to show that it is not a success to those who are
resolved that it shall be a success—authority is powerless,
even if disposed, to resist it. This—not the particular
things professed or done—is really the revolutionary
character of the Twelve Days' Mission.
The Spectator hardly knows whether the election of
O'Donovan Rossa for the county of Tipperary, or the un-
bounded elation of the Tory papers at that event, is the
more discreditable to those who are responsible severally I
for these political phenomena. O'Donovan Rossa is a
Fenian convict—remarkable, we believe, among his fellow-
prisoners only for the violence with which he has conducted
himself since he was immured—and he has been elected in
Tipperary by an organised system of terror. Threats of
assassination—the great implement of Irish disaffection,
which that " man of peace," Father Ryan, regards with so
humorous a complacency—have been freely circulated
against those who should vote for Mr. Heron, the ultra-
Liberal candidate who did not preach rebellion. The result
has been remarkable. Were net the better Irish moral
cowards in shrinking so weakly from popular displeasure,
in sheaving so little of the courage which, buoyed up by
principle, can calmly brave even the curses of fellow-men,
the worse Irish would not be, as they are, bullies, and
even ruffians. It is the shrinking of the better class
from the duty of giving pain which fosters in the unscru-
pulous the habit of hectoring, as well as finds it so many
golden opportunities for successful enterprise. It is impos-
sible to deny that the success of the Fenians in gagging the
mouths of two-thirds of the electors of Tipperary by the
use of terror, is a grave symptom of the social and poli-
tical disease under which Ireland is still suffering, and has
been suffering so long. Men who do not dare to be loyal
to those whom they themselves know to be their true
friends—whose courage is only equal to abstaining from
the poll altogether rather than vote against their true
friends—are not men to whom it is safe to entrust the
power of self-government. In point of fact, we do not
believe a word of the rubbish about the failure of Mr.
Gladstone's policy in Ireland. That policy is, no doubt,
passing through a trying phase of its history. It has to
prove to all Ireland that it is not a policy of fear and
dismay, but simply and solely one of spontaneous justice;
that, as the Government would not be deterred from just
reform by the howl of the Tories or the ultra-Protestants,
so now they will not be deterred from firm resistance to
sedition and anarchy by the howl of the Fenians or the
threats of Catholic priests. The Government must gain
the full respect of both parties by its steadiness of policy,
its resolute adherence to justice in spite of the loudest
menaces on either side, before it can hope to see the fruits
of a policy at once so noble and so difficult.

The John Bull seeks to draw what consolation it can

from the judgment of the Primate. Nothing would have
pleased us better than the Archbishop's assurance that
Dr. Temple (whom ho has known for thirty years) •`is an
earnest and intelligent believer in all the great doctrines
set forth in our Prayer-book and Articles," if his Grace
had but imparted somo of the evidence on which he has
arrived at this conviction. 'Unfortunately the Archbishop,
lika -all the rest of-Dr. Temple's friends, -in eon:tout
assume the exact point in dispute. Dr. Temple's principle
is that no principle is at stake. It matters little whether a
man is orthodox cr heterodox. He proposes to dispel sus-
picion not by sheaving his belief in Christian dogma,
but by the energy with which he will give
himself to Christian work. By this he expects to conquer.
Ho is so confident of victory that he can assure his agitated

correspondents in the diocese it will be " all right " the
moment he gets amongst them. The Archbishop's hopes
for the future then seem hardly better grounded in out-
side evidence than his conclusions from the past. He was
disappointed before, and he may be disappointed again.
Let us hope not ; true, there is every reason to expect it,
but pray let us hope. Let us believe Dr. Temple orthodox;
he has given reason to suspect the contrary; he has
refused to purge himself ; perhaps he will some clay, per-
haps he will not; he accepts nobody's advice, and sanctions
nobody's assurances; but let us believe in him. The Arch-
bishop is satisfied ; what is the use of saying more ?
When it is considered, says the Economist that agricul-
ture engages half the French people, it is evident that the
treaty is only alleged to have injured a fraction of the
nation. As the assertion of injury is besides only partial,
even as regards the trades affected, the complaints become
very attenuated indeed. At best they can be but a com-
paratively small matter to set against the improvements
in every other direction which have resulted. It must be
remembered that the French Treaty was expected to have
two different effects in France—certain trades were to be
exposed to English competition in return for the freer ad-
mission of French products to England. But in fact the
latter effect is far the most conspicuous. The pressure of
competition has been very little in spite of the inquiry or-
dered, as is shown incidentally by the small imports from
England, and might be easily shewn more in detail.; but so
patent is the benefit from the other change that no inquiry
it even suggested as to the disappointment of the industries
which were to have a larger market in England, The
Treaty is therefore to a large extent accepted without
question. The French have got the outlet they wanted,
and they have not sustained the injury anticipated. It
would be hazardous to predict that there will be no return
to protection in France, though we certainly expect none.
Sympathy with a distressed producer is a dangerous
feeling, and a beginning may easily be made which would
lead to protection all round. The best hope however is in
the strength of French industry, which does not need
protection, and the insignificance of the population which
complains of competition. Protection to be worth any-
thing at all can of course only be given to some at the
expense of others, but to be obtained, a large class with
strong political power must have their self-interest en-
listed in its favour. It is not given exclusively to one or
two out of many trades. And in France the self-interest
of the manufacturing class as a rule is not arrayed against
the policy, while the masses of the community gain by it.
The Saturdaylßeview thinks that if M. Rochefort's
vanity is of that voracious order which can feed on publi-
city of any and every kind, he must be thoroughly con-
tented with his position. At this moment he is the best
talked-of man in Europe. The more profound is the con-
tempt people feel for his character and antecedents, the
more are they exorcised to account for the fact of
his election. It is discussed in its relation to
Paris, to France, to the Emperor, to the Third
Party, to the Left, to the Irreconcilables. Those
who think him really dangerous aro perhaps few, but
this admission does but make the problem why ho was
returned a degree or two harder to work out. If N. Roche-
fort were a Danton or a Marat his popularity would be
intelligible, for even the warmest supporters of the Empire
do not profess to wonder that the First Circumscription has
returned a champion of revolution. It is his shortcomings
that make the puzzle. The question of most immediate
interest is the effect the el etions will produce on the
Emperor's own mind. They have told him plainly enough
that Paris love; hint no bett,l• in November than she did
in May. if be has cherished any illusion en this point.
Rny hope that the lesson of the spring elections bad been
misread, and the implacability of the capital exaggerated,
it is dispelled now. But, unfortunately, more than one
inference may be drawn from this fact, and on
the choice the Emperor makes between them the
future of France may in a great measure depend,
The men who originally wished to give Napoleon 111. a
warning may fairly ask for some evidence that it has been
attended to beyond the mere surmises of ingenious jour-
nalists. The wilful prorogation of the Corps L6gislatif,
the still more wilful postponement of its re-opening, aro
perfectly consistent with the theory that the Emperor is
only playing with his subjects. Till he puts the honesty
of his intentions beyond question he cannot expect to con-
vert unbelievers. The experiment of concession has not
yet been fairly tried, and therefore, whatever !neat gur