The Sun.
London, England, 1869-07-15 00:00:00

.cPIRIT OF TEE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

The Times referS to the remarkable change in the atti-
tude of the Lords towards the Bishops' Resignation Bill.
Not long ago the Archbishop of Canterbury complained
that when he last brought the question forward
he had failed to obtain support, the House being appa-
rently of opinion that legislation was not called for, and
that it was not worth while to take any measures for
facilitating the resignation of bishops. On Tuesday night,
so far from allowing the Archbishop's motion to fall to
the ground for want of support, the House was disposed
to carry it farther than he himself wished. Fault was
found with a few of the details, but not a voice was
raised against the principle of the bill, except to
point out that it did not go far enough. We pro-
bably owe this welcome change to one of those acci-
dents which in this country seem essential to the
initiation of reform. It so happened that one part of
England presented the singular spectacle of three bishops
all at the same time unfit for the proper discharge of their

duties, and this was too much even for the well-bred
• repose of the Lords, not unnaturally loath to pry too
minutely into the condition of any members of
their own body. Now that they have taken
the matter in hand, we trust they_ will do it
justice. It is a grave national scandal that the order
which by virtue of its high claims should be the most
zealous to secure competent leaders is the only profession
absolutely at the mercy of incompetence. A bishop 90 years
old, who can scarcely crawl unassisted from his bed to his
easy-chair, may yet retain all the emoluments and con-
tinue nominally to discharge all the arduous duties of his
high office, pleading as an excuse for his tenacity that
there is no pension for him to retire upon. It certainly
says a good deal for the Church of England that she has
been strong enough to carry such glaring abuses as this.
We cannot help regarding it as a vital flaw in the Arch-
bishop's bill that nothing short of idiocy or lunacy, if we
are right in this construction of " mental infirmity," and
no sort of physical infirmity whatsoever, should make
the resignation of a bishop compulsory. The omission
leaves the diocese exposed to the very scandal which
has led to the introduction of the bill. Nor, on the other
hand, it cannot see what scandal could result from giving
to the archbishop or two bishops the same power in the
matter of physical infirmity as they are to have in the
matter of mental infirmity—namely, that of requiring the
sufferer to resign. They would not be likely to abuse
their authority; the temptation would lie the other way.
Until it became matter of notoriety and certainty that
this or that bishop was unfit for his position, no archbishop
would undertake the delicate And responsible duty of re-
questing his resignation, and then probably the merest
hint would suffice. But if the bill remains as it is, no
amount of pressure in any quarter can prevent the possible
recurrence of the scandal it is intended to obviate.
The Post remarks that Mr. Locke King has succeeded
in prevailing on the Reformed Parliament to read a second
time his bill assimilating real to personal property-in
in cases of intestacy, and asks, Who are the landed pro-
prietors whose estates are not bound up by settlements, or
who are so imprudent as not to make their wills ?
Assuredly not the possessors of those great family estates
which are so frequently pointed to by stump orators

as the fruits of the law of primogeniture. The men
whose property would he distributed, in the event
of Mr. Locke King's proposal being sanctioned by Par-
liament, are small landowners, or men who, having
made money in commerce, invest it in land with the in-
tention of transferring it to eldest sons, but who, through
carelessness, omit to declare that intention by will. Of
the latter class it may safely be said that there are com-
paratively few, and that the only effect of a Real Estate
Intestacy Act would be to defeat the intention of the
owners of the property; whilst as regards the former,
namely, the small landowners, its effect would be to throw
into the market for the purposes of conversion into
personal property small estates which would be greedily
purchased by the large landowners in the vicinity, and
would thus defeat the intentions of those who are most
favourable to Mr. Locke King's scheme. Small free-
holds would almost necessarily be sold in order to give
effect to the Act, and the result would be that instead of
the gross number of landowners in the country being
increased it Would be diminished. That this would be an
evil will be admitted on all bands, and its avoidance
should be sufficient, independently of any other reasons,
to secure the condemnation of the proposal to deal with
real in the same manner as with personal property in
cases of intestacy. The majority of the present House of
Commons, however, seem to think differently.
The Herald, in referring to the recent report of the
Council of Military Education, thinks there is one thing
before all matters necessary—the extermination of the
system known as cram. The compulsory acquisition of
purely useless and merely superficial knowledge, bad as
it is, is .by no means the only evil which the sys-
tem involves. The recognised existence of the
crammer, with all his short cuts to information
and royal roads to learning, is a social bane as
well. Lads are removed from school just at the age
when they are commencing to reap the fullest benefits
from school life to the unhealthy and pernicious atmosphere
which surrounds the establishment of the private tutor.
The mere prospect that they will have one day to go
thither acts upon them as a premium to idleness when
they are at school. Parental countenance is given to the
fact that they are not expected to pass the army exami-
nation till they have submitted themselves to the cram-
flier's plastic hands. Then will be the time for work—now
is the time for idleness. Against this it is hopeless for
schoolmasters to struggle. If parents enusurage the view
that we have described, there is nothing which is to be
done, and cramming will continue to flourish just as up
to the present time it has. The state of school edu-
cation, however, has vastly altered within the last
few years. If military examinations have become more
general, school teaching has become more special. Classes
are now instituted in almost every school throughout the
country purposely for the benefit of the candidates for
Woolwich or the line. If these are but used as they ought
to be the crammer will be regarded as an educational
anachronism. We have said something on the necessity
of home pressure. It is only by the, exercise of this
that the cram system can be abolished. The Council of
Military Education and the authorities of our English
schools have done all in their power ; it remains for
parents and guardians to do the rest.

The Daqy News says that the sudden death of Lord
Taunton removes from the House of Lords another of
those veterans of Liberalism who have found in that
assembly a dignified and not inglorious repose. The long
and honourable political career which was so suddenly
closed on .Tuesday was divided into two unequal parts,
and it was in the first and longer of them that his lord-
ship made the name by which he will be known in history.
He wore his honours as Lord Taunton, but he won
them as Henry Labouchere, and it is in this his
ancestral name that he will be known to posterity, as it
was by it! that: he was best known to his contemporaries.
Mr. Labouchere closed his career as an active politician
when, in 1859, he accepted a peerage from Lord Palmerston.
His political experience may be said to have exactly
covered the political era represented by the first Reform
Bill ; and his character and position marked him out as
one of the characteristic Liberal politicians of that era.
He bad had long experience of office, had fought a good
fight during the struggle against the Corn Laws, and had
been in the forefront of the parliamentary campaign
against the Navigation Laws, and had earned dignity
and repose. Hence a peerage was offered him, which
he accepted, and for just- ten years he has con-
tributed large knowledge, ripe experience, con-
siderable readiness of speech, and some eloquence
and dignity of expression to the debates of the tipper
House. He was, however, in every respect a Whig
statesman of, the earlier days of the Deform Bill.
His tact, patience, good temper, and devotion to duty
rendered him an invaluable colleague, while he had that
sympathy with Liberal principles which stood him in
ample stead of that larger sympathy with popular aspira-
tions which is the feature of the newer Liberalism. He
was a good speaker without being a great orator ; his
style was the parliamentary style of the olden days, and
was not much suited to popular impression. He was one
of the excellent men who mediated between the present
and the past. He was one of the youngest of the veterans
of the first Reform era, and his decease reminds us how
rapidly we are leaving that era, with all the triumphs it
won and the honours it conferred, behind us.
The Telegraph thinks that Scotchmen should be decidedly
proud of the Colonel of the London Scottish is natural
enough. Their young Highland champion has won a
second victory which will be remembered as long as there
are any traditions of rifle-shooting either north or south
of the Tweed. The Queens rrizeman of one year is
usually forgotten by the general public before the next;
but this patient little north-country teetotaler has done a
feat the like of which few men could have performed. It is
not to steadiness of hand and eye alone that such a triumph
is due, but to the steadiness of the brain and heart that
control both. Young Angus Cameron, living a quiet life
in the healthy Highland air, does not know the
meaning of " nerves "—those troublesome "nerves" that
so often fail the man of the cities when he enters upon a
decisive test of courage, or strength, or skill. The boy of
nineteen who conquered in 184;6 has developed into the
man of twenty-two, who has 'conquered in 1.569 ; and
surely there is matter for grave thought in that double
victory. How many of our young athletes have kept
themselves up to Cameron's standard during those three
trying years, when the passions are at the strongest, and
the judgment that should restrain them is comparatively
immature? Depend upon it, the greatest of all "the little
corporal's" achievements has been the magnificent way in
which lie -.has conquered—himself ! Perfectly consistent
with his prudent manliness of character was his refusal
even of a_ glass of champagne to celebrate his victory.
It would-have done him, in our humble opinion, a
great deal more good than harm ; but he was a true.
hearted Scot, a loyal teetotaler, a Cameron who stuck to
his teapot as gallantly as his forefathers would have
rallied round Lochiel ; and so, just waiting until the first
excitement was over. and not much troubling himself
about the hopping of corks in all directions, where his
enthusiastic countrymen' were drinking his health, he
quietly sat down in a tent and had a cup of tea.
With that pleasant little picture we leave Wimbledon for
the present, mince there is no room on our limited canvae
for the aza nil of other figures that to press forward. 7
men of all climes all creeds, and all countries—
MaiailnalajAAM4