The Sun.
London, England, 1869-12-04 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIO JOURNALS.

The leadership of the Conservative peers, says the
Satvrday Review, is at the present crisis one of the most
important posts of political life. The Conservatives cannot
govern, but they can control and modify the action of the
Government ; and they can do this principally by the com-
mand which their majority in the Lords ensures them.
But their power is of a kind which it requires great
wisdom, forethought, and moderation to use so as not to
abuse it. If the Lords do not resist at all, they sink into
the servants of the Commons; if they resist too much,
they come into collision with a force far stronger than
their own. If they merely cause difficulties and delays,
they will disgust the public, and make a reform of their
House demanded, in order that parliamentary institutions
may not be rendered futile and unpractical. To manage
the Conservative peers properly is a most difficult task,
and the Conservatives have no one to whom they can turn
with confidence for the task. Whether Lord Derby is a
Conservative at all, and will openly join the party now
that he is a r eer, yet remains to be seen ; and it is out of
the question to suppose that he will work in anything
like the same groove with the old jog-trot clerical party
which looks to the House of Lords to defend it, and which
is one of the great buttresses of the Conservative fabric.
Lord Salisbury would be much more at his case in guiding
Censer': ves on such matters, and he would be personally
acceptable to Conservatives of most shades of opinion. He
would also fight the battles of his party with almost too
much ardour and vehemence. But it is necessary that
the Conservative leaders in the Commons and the Lords
shall :work together, and have confidence in each other.
Can old sores heal so soon that Lord Salisbury should
make Mr. Disraeli his confidant, and share his councils
with the man who he thinks deceived him ? or could Mr.
Disraeli retain his position in the party and the House
of Commons if the Lords were led by a Conservative
peer who disliked and dis!rusted him ? Even if this
difficulty could be surmounted, it may be doubted
whether his followers could be brought to believe that
Lord Salisbury would be as safe as they could wish.
It would be perfectly easy to find some peer of inferior
eminence and ability, without any Liberal leanings, whom
Mr. Disraeli can trust to work under or with him. There
are a dozen peers who all would do tolerably well for the
post, if it is to be filled on such terms. But the conse-
quence will inevitably be, that there will be a third party
formed in the Lords, without whose assistance the Conser-
vatives will be powerless, of whom they will be both proud
and afraid, and to whom they will really look for guidance
on all critical occasions. Many of the more distinguished,
able, and prudent of the Conservative peers would prefer
belonging to the third party, which would be brilliantly
led and would leave their course open for the future,
rather than throw in their lot with Mr. Disraeli's dummy,
and with the nick of the more frantic Conservatives.
There can be no question that the Conservatives are in a
position of much difficulty, and must be much puzzled to
make their choice.

The Spectator thinks that affairs in Ireland look very
serious, so serious that if Mr. Gladstone summons Parlia-
ment and proposes to suspend the Habeas Corpus Act, he
will, we believe, obtain the support of an undivided House
of Commons. Tho Fenian leaders, exasperated by the
rapid decay of their influence among the priesthood, whose
great grievance has been removed, and among the farmers,
whose reasonable claims are about to be satisfied, are re-
doubling their exertions to secure adherents, and have
addressed themselves to a class hitherto of little account
in politics—the agricultural labourers. Almost as numerous
as the farmers, more ignorant, less subject to clerical
influence, and with less to lose, these men have, in some
counties, responded so eagerly that the agitators have
been able to establish a reign of terror of the most unen-
durable kind. Of the 10,000 persons and upwards who
hold votes in Tipperary, that is, who occupy holdings rated
above £3 a year, not £1,200 could bo found to vote for the
Fenian nominee ; but those 1,200, backed by the labourers,
were able to frighten some 7,000 voters from recording
their names, and to establish a terror so great that no
employer feels the law strong enough to protect him.
Representation in the constitutional sense is consequently
at an end. The landlords live in fear, the priests, for
the first time in Irish history, are openly threw.
tened, and the farmers complain that they receive
no " encouragement " from a Government which
does not or cannot enforce the law. We advo-
cate the suspension of the Habeas Corpus Act
with the more readiness, because we have always declared
that when ascendancy had been abolished and the tenure
settled, it would bo necessary to reform the entire ad-
ministration, civil and judicial, throughout the island, the
system now existing being equally unsuited to the genius
and to the circumstances of the people. Like the race
everywhere, they need, not the least amount of govern-
ment compatible with order—which is the Anglo-Saxon
ideal—but the greatest amount of government compatible

with freedom—which is the French ono. The ideal Ad-

ministration for Ireland would be the French, plus honest
judges ; and although we may not be able to secure that,
it is towards that that our efforts should be directed.
With a Commissioner for each county, exercising

all the powers of government and controlling all police, a
stipendiary magistrate for each district, strictly subordinate
to the Commissioner, trial by judges instead of juries, and
strong detective police, there would be no necessity,

oven in times like these, for the suspension of the Habeas
Corpus, while in quiet times the owners of property would
anjoy a security to which in Ireland they have always
been more or less strangers. It is the persistent attempt
to introduce English ideas as if they were divine which
this destroyed respect for law in Ireland, as a similar
attempt to introduce the Protestant creed has made the
people Ultramontanes, while English tenure has made the
most agricultural of all countries the chosen home of every
agrarian crime.

The John Bull considers that the Bishop of Lincoln has

solved another Church problem after the same practical

fashion in which Convocation was revived some sixteen
years ago. Instead of wasting his time and putting him-
self in a false position by advocating impossible schemes,
lie has done what he could. Boldly applying to the Crown,
'le has found that whatever may be the dislike of Whig
politicians and their lawyers, it cannot prevail against the
provisions of the statute, and the lawful claims of the

iocosan. He has sent in his two names in the pro-.

cribed form, and one of them will shortly be consecrated
Is an additional Bishop in the vast diocese of Lincoln. The
ping is done the moment it is attempted in good earnest.
Solvitur antbulando. Of the names so submitted to the
Yrown, one is the Archdeacon of Nottingham, and the

Dther the vicar of the Mother Church in that town.

need hardly say that ether of Bishop Wordsworth's

nominees will be received with thankfulness by the Church

it large. Archdeacon Mackenzie is the better known, from

tiis labours at St. Martin's-in-the-Fields, and in Convoca-

u,ion. His appointment would give universal satisfaction.
Mr. Morse, too, has a high local reputation as a preacher

Ind a parish priest. Both are emphatically working men;
Ind we can trust Mr. Gladstone to choose between them.

Whichever be taken the endowment difficulty vanishes with
the rest, at the first touch of a resolute hand. We shall

look with more than curiosity to see which of our over-

burdened prelates will be the next to discard his doctors,
throw away his crutches, and—walk. Would that the

Chapter of Exeter tad tested with equal resolution the

long latent power of a conge d'elire

The Economist remarks that the turn of affairs in the
grain trade during the last week or two has been rather
unexpected. Just before the harvest, and almost during
the harvest, the general expectation, it would be hardly
going too far to say, was of a very deficient crop, causing
sigh prices, large importations, and the usual bad conse-
luences. These effects, it was supposed, would be modified
by the general excellence of the harvest in other respects,
but the rough opinion was in favour of a rather high
price. Our own view was different—that the price of
wheat and of bread would not be high, and that the usual
after consequences of a good harvest might be looked for;
ut a very different opinion had prevailed. The events
have gone beyond our anticipations, and have quite falsi-
fied the common view. Instead of prices going higher,
they have steadily fallen, and the result has been accumu-
lation of stocks at the ports, cautious buying by the con-
, mmer, and a steady fall of price, by which several large
firms have been ruined. There is now a great conflict of
odni m as to the prospects of the market—whether the
price will now fall or rise. Weighing all the facts before
us, we think that for some time the contingency of a ma-
terial rise in price must be considered very improbable.
The excessive accumulation and holding back of stocks
implies that there are large quantities waiting for a
market. And without believing all that is said of quan-
ties afloat or ordered, we have pretty certain evidence
that the present tide of imports will not ebb for a little.
A very large quantity, for instance, is reported to be
,:owing from San Francisco. The tendency in the
trade again is not to hold but to sell, and a very
:light increase in price will be sufficient to bring forward
upplies. There is a better chance, we consider, of
he price going lower; but we have got to a very low
oint, keeping in view what the last harvest was, and
we should not expect a great immediate reduction.
Probably there will be a great deal of uncertainty and
obscurity as to the way things will go, until the anticipa-
pations of next year's crop begin to affect the market. One
good result of the excessive importations will be cheaper
bread. The effect, which we anticipated two months since,
will be so far intensified. The masses of the people will
have more money to spend; one trade after another will
be set in motion ; the margin of profits will be increased,
although the total business may not be much larger than
in these years of depression. We shall now reap, as we
have said, an indirect benefit from the short harvest and
high prices of 1867, through the impulse then given to
wheat growing, which is the caw IM After
a barely average harveat.2'
...2e.7

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HER MAJESTY.

WINDSOR CASTLE, Dec. 3.
Her Majesty, accompanied by her Royal High-
ness the Princess of Teck, drove out this morn•

LATEST INTELLMENC3

(REUTER'S TELEGRAMS.)

AMERICA.
(Per French Atlantic Cable.)
NEW YORNIDec• 3.
The Inman Royal Mail steamship City °f
Antwerp arrived here to-day.
The steamer Europa (of the Anchor line) als°
arrived out to-day.
COMMERCIAL INTELLIGENCE.
CLOSING PRICES.
Gold closed at 1221 ; the highest quotation do'
ing the day was 1221 ; the lowest, 122.
Sterling Exchange on L0nd0n............ 1081.
5-20 U. S. Bonds, 1882 ................... 1131-
it " 1885 ................... 1111.
cc
" 1865 ................... 114/.
10-40 cc
11111101 S ......................................... 133i'
Erie ...... 26i.
Cotton—Mid. upland 2SIC.
Petroleum—Standard White.
Flour, extra state, $5.35c. to $5.95c. Corn, ola
mixed, sl.llc.
According to Messrs. Moffatt, Davidis, and CO:5
all port:
report the week's receipts of cotton at
have been 103,000 bales, and since the Ist ()
September 910,000 bales; shipments to England'
55,000 bales ; to France, 8,000 bales ; to the
Continent, 13,000 bales ; and since the Ist Sept.,
453,000 bales. Stock, 281,000 bales. Middling'
10 15-16 d., cost and freight per steamer.
QUEENSTOWN, Dec. 4.
The National Steamship Company's steat7,fr
llelvetia, from New York, arrived off here At ‘.
a.m. to-day. She landed passengers, and proceeded
for Liverpool. All well.

EGYPT.
tpe
Server Effendi, the Turkish CAIRO,Envo3, Dee
Envoy, 3
note of the Porte to the Khedive, arrived hoe t"1•-
afternoon.
The Prince of Prussia has returned from Upper
Egypt.

SPAIN.

MADRID, Dee. 3.
In to-day's sitting of the Cortes the discussio
on the sale of the Crown property was continued.
Marshal Prim brought forward a bill abrogatlno.
the law suspending the Constitutional guarantees.
The two Republicans, who were sentenced to
death for complicity in the late rising, have been
executed.

ITALY.
BRINDISI, Dec. 2.
The Adriatic and Oriental Company's steamer
Brindisi, 88 hours from Alexandria, has arrved here
with 82 passengers. She experienced severe -yea:
ther and contrary winds. Letters may be expected
in London to-morrow evening.