The Sun.
London, England, 1869-06-04 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS,

The TimEs asserts that a wonderful announcement was
circulated on Thursday evening through the lobbies of the
two Houses with all the particularity of detail that could
give it credibility. According to this statement, it has
been decided that the Irish Church Bill shall be rejected
on the motion to read it a second time in the House of
Lords. 11, e-. feel the utmost reluctance to entertain for a
moment the belief that the Conservative party has arrived
at so portentous a determination. What, indeed, would
happen supposing the policy attributed to the Opposition
were really pursued by them? The Government have
an unshaken majority in the House of Commons of
115—to put it moderately—pledged to abolish the
Irish Establishment. The majority was elected on this
issue. It has the power of enforcing its will. It
must do what it was elected to do. One means of accom-
plishing the end would be to call up to the House of Lords
a sufficient number of heirs-apparent or commoners to
convert the minority into a majority, and the history of a
similar crisis recommends the resolution to adopt such a
plan, The control of the supplies furnishes, of course,
another and perhaps more constitutional method of assert-
ing the power of the representatives of ilia people. But
there is a third line of action which could be followed.
An immediate prorogation, followed by an immediate
• convocation of Parliament, would give us another
session in which the bill could be pushed forward
with the certainty of- success. Ent if we thus
glance at what would be done if the Lords were
so ill-advised as to reject the bill, we do so only
because we find in the precision with which these extreme
steps have been already detailed the most striking proof
of the determination of the Ministry, Lacked by an over-
whelming majority, that the bill shall pass. We cannot
say that the report upon which these speculations are
founded is absolutely worthless, but if we may not
peremptorily reject it, we believe it has been circulated
rather to test the possibility of resistance than as an indi•
cation of a fixed conclusion. But what an appreciation
of the issues of the time and of the national judgment it
would argue if the Conservative peers flatter themselves
that the present crisis could be so dealt. with !
The Standard has it on the authority of a contemporary,
who certainly ought to know, that the chief of her
Majesty's Government has only just been admitted to
Participate in the last occult rites of august Liberalism.
Mr. Gladstone Las at length, and only at length, been
elected a member of the Reform Club ! For now more
years than one cares to count he has been discarded by the
Coneerviitive party, and meekly fetched and carried fur
Whigs and Radicals alternately ; but it appears that he
had not given sufficient proofs of his fitness to con-
sort in a club sense with the " unto the manner born'
among those jealous politicians. It seems a strange fate
for a man that he should have been the parliamentary
leader of a party and been exelsided withal from some ct
its most highly-prized privileges. The time of doubt and
of trial, however, is now over. Mr. Gladstone is a
neophyte no more. To employ the language of the con-
temporary referred to, " his valuable party services have
now been fitly recognised and rewarded," and he has properly
been permitted to enjoy " social intercourse among
Reformers." Lucky Premier ! Condescending Reformers !
The Tel( ilraph says that no wise man who can pardon
weakness, no good man who is charitable in his judgments,
can have read without real sorrow that item of intelligence
which was published on Thursday concerning the Duke of
Newcastle. Its main public interest lies in the fact that
the unfortunate nobleman is but a type of many young
in embers of our aristocracy. Plain speech on these matters
is the ti nest kindness, even to those to whom it may seem
blunt and cruel. We do not hesitate to say that the most
serious danger to the hereditary aristocracy of England lies,
in our day, in the conduct of such peers as the Duke
and others who have followed in the same paths, some
of them so fast and so far that they reached a dishonoured
grave as the goal of their journey. Never was theie a
time when the vast majority of the people were readier to
accept, with cordiality and gratitude, any attempt at
honest political and social service from the Lords ; and
never was there a time when more of the Loids were
anxious to ?zing themselves into frank and sympathetic
relations with the people. Practical Englishmen, we say,
are in no hurry to get rid of the House of Lords. But
the Lords must learn to " take care of themselves."
If we see, for instance, a noble library, amassed by
aristocratic statesmen and scholars, publicly sold to
pay the debts of a "plunger"—if we find the fate of
a Newcastle following closely on that of a
Hastings—it we know, as everybody in Landon
does know, that there are other scandals of
the same sort -which cannot much longer be kept in the.
background—then, we say, the House of Lords is in
danger—in danger from itself. Archdeacon Denison,
with all his violence, seldom says anything which has not
a grain of sharpness and sense in it ; and he said, two days
ago, that the heaviest blows against the Church were
those dealt front within. The saying holds good of other
institutions ; and unlesS the most aristocratic assemblage
in the world is the only. one which has utterly lost the
esprit de cezps, the Lords will surely come to their own
rescue, and will socially enforce that high morale without
which their order invites the eeulting reproaches of its
enemies.

The Star, in referring to the recent riots at Mold, says
there are one or two considerations which are suggested
by the wretched state of things which has arisen in this
Welsh town. The spread of popular education would not
necessarily prevent such outbreaks altogether ; but it is
only reasonable to assume that the colliers of Mold are
an ignorant body of men ; for ignorance, and that
condition of mind which begets lawlessness—which,
under the influence of a supposed grievance, resorts to
the bludgeon, and is incapable of self-control—are so
closely allied as to be practically inseparable. If we
looked beneath the surface, we doubt not that the
exceptional turbulence of these pitmen takes its root in
thekalmost• total want of that elementary knowledge
which is essential to make men feel the moral and legal
responsibilities of their position. When crime is com-
mitted we are too apt to overlook those remoter causes of
its perpetration for which the State should justly be made
to bear its share of blame. The State cannot do every-
thing in the way of social or intellectual amelioration ;
but this is no reason why it should almost entirely
ignore its duties to the neglected classes, espe-
cially as these comprehend no insignificant num-
ber -of men who will work, as well as of those
who prefer to live at other people's expense.
We know not whether any attempt has been
made to establish councils of arbitration and conciliation
in this disturbed district. Probably there has been no
such attempt, and if so, when masters and men fall out—
and in every state of society, however theoretically per-
fect, such disputes are certain to arise—there is very little
of reason, but a great amount of brute passion to appeal
to. There roust be something essentially wrong in a com-
munity in which even so irritating a circumstance as a
strike leads to scenes of violence on the part, not of the
few, but of the many. Moralists may moralise, and
preachers may preach ; but until the evil, is probed to the
bottom it will never give place to a healthier industrial
life in these distant parts of the kingdom.
The Daily News remarks that n fatal riot is happily a
rare occurrence in England, and a collision of rioters with
the military still rarer. Such an event however, has now
to be recorded, with the exceedingly disagreeable feature
that it is the culmination of a dispute respecting wages.
It appears that for some weeks past the relations between
the colliers working at the Leeswood Great Pit, near
Mold, in Denbighshire, and their employers have been in
an unsettled state. The facts connected with this lament.
able loss of life must shortly come under the review of the
highest criminal courts of the land, and it is the duty of the
press not to prejudge their decision, so far as the responsi-
bility of individuals is concerned. We are all, however, at
liberty to discuss its more public aspects, as it will be our
duty to do as soon as sufficient materials for a judgment
have been =emulated. Seldom as a sanguinary repres-
sion of an Outbreak is necessary in this country, and
jealously. as Englishmen are accustomed to watch the
employment of the military force in dealing with civil
tumults, the public will be prepared to uphold the acts of
those o have done what appeared best under most
trying circumstances. Assuming that the facts are cor-
rectly reported, it would appear that the action of the
magistrates in calling upon the military, and of the
commanding officer of the latter in ordering his men to
fire, was of a purely defensive character, and was abso-
lutely necessary, if life and property in Mold were not to
become the prey of an infuriated and powerful mob.
Tinder any circumstances the loss of life reported must be
deeply lamented ; but it will be a matter of thankfulness
if regret is unmingled with self-reproach.

The Herald thinks there can be no doubt that a large
proportion of the misery, and even crime, prevalent among
the rural population due to the discomfort and squalor
of the labourer's home. It is made hateful to the main by
its dirt, its crowded Aate its total want of snugness, andall else that can render a:tenement intolerable. The Bath
and West of En;:rand Society are conlidering the subject
in a practical light, and much-hope may be•derived from
their conclusions. Of course no one affect.: to believe we
ploughman and haymaker
can . give to every
those little Paradises of" poetry which are go
charming in Gainsborough—Ltudllcapes with thick.
eaved roofs and showers of jasinin over
idyllic
porches. • But there is a medium between this sort
of eentiment:l hope and the worse than _African barbarity
of the hnt in many an Enelish labourer is, with
hi,: cramTicd. Alt present thousands of families in
the rural districts of this hin:elom inhabit structures
which are ni,t houses at all, be ~..liius thqt would disgrace
a hillside in Connemara. I,- no chimneys, still
mr,re•iirneently their floers inad;: of Lea' :arth.
o er-sehl.h the rainfall overiiows,; an entire c!uster of
acrn upon a solitary pump, noxious with
f a liorse:pDnd ; other arrangements
for proi..tiety aro iitt,,rly•• negketel : and pissing
through . villagcst hardly eiepa.ct crime:di to
deserve name, P, pedestrian migl,t imagine him-
sdi -to bi.:Tisiting one of those primitive hamlets
whieb'in tkonineteeutil c.eitory represent a considerable
part of thecivilisation extant in France. We are far
that this is a general picture of cottage life
in thiglatec.,hnt, on the other hand, it is no imaginary
picture. We haVe set ourselves earnestly in our large
towns to provide improved homes for the artisan. Many
great landlo.rds.have given in the provinces examples of a
wts_egeneresily in tl;i3 respcot, but it must he
retneinberel tli;Lt we ! millions, and it
will never be- inae to sk,cLie.; :4ntil.we, can look
without shame: upon.thelothes th:-.,et3 who Gat
sattila aub eruct !oil of thii-ccv.a;iy,Li-;,t,••:gef..- _ .