The Sun.
London, England, 1869-09-18 00:00:00

SPIRIT-OP THE PUBLIC JOURNALS,

The Saturday Review observes that the Bishops' Resigna-
tion Act, though very decorously framed, and with great
consideration and delicacy in details, is a very considerable
innovation on what are generally called ecclesiastical prin-
ciples—certainly on all ecclesiastical practice. No doubt
the Act does not deprive incapable and inefficient Bishops,
but it puts the strongest compulsion on them short of mere
force. The Episcopate is, in the highest ecclesiastical esti-
mate, so very sacred and awful a thing that it is profanity
to touch this ark, even to preserve it from tumbling into
the mud. What the State has done by the recent Act is
this: to point out to the Bishops that there are
great and flagrant abuses—some actual, some impend-
ing, and perhaps increasing—which it is high time
should be put an end to for the present, and pre-
vented for the future. The State invites those most
concerned to see to it. The Act is only a provisional and
temporary one, and addresses itself to only a certain num-
ber of bishops. But it means a good deal. It means that
office and dignity are trusts, and that the State will take
care that those trusts shall be fulfilled; that the high
office of a bishop involves duties ranging over a vast field
of actual work, and that if any man accepts this high office,
he must henceforth do so on the condition of finding it
perhaps in the end a most unprofitable office. No doubt
the Act does not compel any bishop to avail himself of it ;
but it does put the strongest moral compulsion on him.
In passing such a measure, it would be almost impossifflo
not to come into conflict with some respectable or even
valuable ecclesiastical traditions. It is, we think, highly
creditable to the English Bench that the Bishops of Win-
chester and Bath and Wells at once availed themselves of
its provisions. The Bishop of Exeter, who has also an-
nounced his intention to resign his see, it appears has
exhibited the greatest hesitation in the matter ; probably
because the Bishop of Exeter knows more about Church
law and ecclesiastical principles than any one of his
brethren. It is unfair to one who has left an indelible mark
on English Church history to believe him to have been
actuated by low motives ; and it ought to remembered
that many years ago, under the Palmerston Government,
the Bishop of Exeter proposed to resign half his revenues
on condition of the establishment of a bishopric for Corn-
wall. However, all's well that ends well; a shower of
mitres is impending, and as bishoprics are not nowadays
sought with the avidity which recommended them as
Sleepy Hollows of the Church in the days of George 111.,
they are likely to be well filled up. Anyhow, the way in
which the Act has been received by the English Bishops is,
as we said, a strong and creditable contrast to the Non
_Possums of Rome.

The Spectator thinks that the Government would make
a very fatal mistake in granting at the present moment an
amnesty to the Fenian prisoners—the fatal mistake of
leading the Irish to suppose that they are conceding the
great Irish reforms already ,effected or proposed, not be-
cause they are determined to be just, but because they
have always been timid. We said years ago, when warmly
supporting the suspension of the Habeas Corpus Act for
Ireland, that the duties of maintaining order and of re-
dressing grievances were strictly bound up together, and
could not properly be separated; that the duty of repress-
ing with a firm hand anarchy in Ireland could only be
istly discharged by a Government that should set

itself at the same time earnestly to work to
remove what it held to be legitimate causes of
disaffection. We assert this' still, but this time
from the opposite point of view. As we believe niost
sincerely that any Government which punishes rebellion
and puts off to a more convenient season the redress of
grievances, while telieving and admitting that serious
and unredressed causes of disaffection exist, is false to
itself and to the people it governs, we believe quite as
firmly that any Government which, while sincerely and
cordially addressing itself to the removal of grievances,
does not firmly repress rebellion, is equally untrue to itself
and to the people it governs. The two duties arc really
indissoluble parts of a single whole—the duty of removing
all temptation to rebellion. In the next place, even if the
time were suitable for an amncsty—which it is notthe
bullying and insolent tone of those who ask for it should
make it absolutely impossible for the Government to grant
it. It was weak even to pardon the minor offenders, at the
time chosen. But if that were an error, the result of that
lamentable experiment is itself sufficient warning against
the extension of it now. The released Fenians only left
their prisons to heap contempt and menace on tho Govern-
ment which had released them, and to multiply occasions
for open treason on the part of all their political friends.
Are we to throw more firebrands into Ireland just on tho
eve of the exciting discussion concerning the land-laws ?
No policy could be more imbecile. And look at the speeches
of those who demand the release of the Fenians. Are they
speeches which promise security for the future, give bail
as it were, for the good behaviour of the political
criminals ? On the contrary, these speeches are as full
of loud disaffection and bombastic invective as the speakers
dare to make them without risking their own personal liberty.
As it is, we trust that some leading member of the
Government, Mr. Gladstone or Mr. Bright, will decla.re
that they will lend no countenance to the impression that
the Government is careless of peace and order because it
is earnest for solid justice, and will reprehend in no mea-
sured terms the disloyalty of the men who are thus rant-
ing to their ignorant countrymen about ancient wr,:ngs,
while they ignore sedulously the strenuous sacrifices mat
by Parliamant tha
the statute-book. Not by such mouths as these can
Ireland hope to win a remission of the just punishment
of dangerous men. To show mercy, even whore there
is' real regretland repentance for a political sin, is not
always wisdom. To let it be wrung out of you by
vulgar and violent menaces is always folly—folly so grave
as to be a political sin—folly so mean as to be rejected
doubtless with one consent by such a Government as is now
in power.

The John Bull says that it would be almost impossible
to exaggerate the invaluable services rendered not only to
Lord Palmerston by his wife, but to the whole country by
Lady Palmerston's shrewdness and wisdom. It was in no
small degree owing to her influence over the wives and
daughters of Radical members that those gentlemen were
kept so quiet in the House, and Lord Palmerston's brusque
answers to troublesome questions might not have been se
efficacious had not feminine influence at homo compelled
the politician to accept without murmuring a snubbing
givtn by one whose wife never forgot the existence of sa
Liberal member's belongings. True, Lady Palmerston had,
fortunately for her, very little experience of the vulgar
nobodies, who now form so large a percentage of the
House ; but one, who was not only a queen of society, but
the cleverest of whippers-in, would no doubt have managed
even the most bumptious spouse of a Radical M.P., and
very possibly found a suitable Conservative mato for the
fastidious daughter of some outrageous snob. Lady
Derby never could crowd her rooms with people who had
only political, and not social rank ; though fortunately,
with the Conservatives there was less loss from this
circumstance. But she has never been a really keen
party politician, though glorying in her husband's
triumphs. Viscountess Beaconsfield has no doubt been
a more watchful observer of political events ; but neither
she nor Mrs. Gladstone, while being the best of wives, seem
to have the qualifications for taking Lady Palmerston's
place. Let us hope that in the Conservative ranks some
Tory lady may be found to be the social leader of the
party. The Duchess of Marlborough at present seems the
chief entertainer, and we know no cause or just impedi-
4nent against her being elected to the honourable post.
That Lady Palmerston should so soon have been, we will
.not say forgotten, but have filled so small a place in the
public eye, shews how soon in this bustling world the past
As forgotten. In the present day few of the gallant officers
who cross and recross the steps of Cambridge House, or
stand smoking thereon, reflect on the genial Minister and
his peerless wife, or on the important destinies decided
within walls which we cannot but think desecrated by
being converted into a club, though we are free to confess
that with Lord Palmerston's pluck and fondness for the
army, if any club is allowable on such a site, it is a mili-
tary one.

The Economist would not have been surprised if the
policy of Free Trade had been subjected to a more severe
criticism after its trial than it has yet met with. The
absoluteness of its triumph, and general acceptance by all
parties in the country during a period of less than thirty
years from its first experiment in 1842, is rather a cause of
Wonder. The structure of society b so complicated, the
operations of business are affected by so many different
causes, and the effect of legislative changes is so difficult to
trace, that Free Trade is very singular in its fortune not
Only to have held its ground so long, but to have done so
without question—without any misfortunes occurring to
furnish an opportunity for its opponents to seek a reversal
'of the policy. It is not till twenty-five years after trial
that the depression following on a great war, a panic of
unexampled duration and intensity, and a change of some
'permanence in the production of one of the most important
raw materials, furnishes the occasion of which such small
use is made. Wo believe it can be shewn that the fortune
of Free Trade is not altogether accidental, that there were
grave events before, such as the crisis of 1817 and the fol-
lowing period of revolution, and the Crimean IVar, which
were likely to be rude tests of economic legislation, that
the great success of free trade is due to the surprising
strength and theoretical truth of the policy;
but that conspicuous success and .freedom from
after questioning were not to be anticipated beforehand.
As for the present agitation, we do not suppose that much
answering will be required. It has not got beyond the
limits of the most insignificant local question. But for
the curiosity of being an attack on Free Trade, which had
come to be a received axiom of our policy, it would hardly
have attracted any general notice at all. There will be no
occasion for inquiry, because the Protectionists do not
Make statements of fact which the defenders of Free Trade
will find it worth while to dispute. What the Protec-
tionist:is gloomy about—the excess of foreign importations
ever our exports—is precisely the fact upon which the free-
trader would congratulate the country. To, make out a
case at all.the Protectionists ought to shcw the connection
between the depression of trade and the facts which are
Common to them and the free-trader, and this they do not
even attempt.

THE CONTAGIOUS DISEASES (ANIMALS)

ACT.

A virulent epidemic having mado its appearance to a
considerable extent among cattle in Yorkshire steps have
been taken in some parts of that county to prevent its
spread. It appears, however, that in the North Riding the
"local authority," consisting of the magistrates in Quarter
Sessions, have hot yet adopted any measures for " stamp-
ing out " the disease. Tho Lord President of the Privy
Council has appointed a committee, to whom has been
referred certain questions relative to the supply of suffi-
cient food and water to animals conveyed by sea and land,
and their protection from unnecessary suffering. A
meeting of the Council of the North Riding Chamber
of Agriculture has just been held at York to consider
what reply should be made to the Committee of the Privy
Council, and also to consider the state of Yorkshire
at present with reference to cattle diseases, and the best
method of proventiong their spread. A committee was
appointed to prepare an answer to the Privy Council,
and it was next decided to memorialize the Quarter Sessions
to carry out strictly the Order in Council of August 10
without further delay, the meeting considering that the
regulations provided in it were sufficient to prevent the
spread of the disease without closing the markets. It
was also resolved that unless all cattle, sheep, and pigs
imported from abroad were immediately slaughtered on
their arrival at the ports where they were landed, there
was no probability of the country being free from lung
disease or foot and mouth disease for any length of time
together. A motion was also passed in favour of the
country taking upon itself the risk and expense of impor-
tations of cattle.