The Sun.
London, England, 1869-07-17 00:00:00

SPIMT OF THE PUBLIC) JOURNALS,

a
The Saturday Bev els; thiults that great as was tics
interest attaching to the explanation which Mr. Gl►d•
stone was to make on Thursday as to the intentions of the
Government, this interest was lessened by the knowledge
beforehand of the general tenor of what would be pro-
posed. Mr. Gladstone has already announced that he
should insist on his original bill as it left the Commons,
and the great Liberal constituencies had shewn beyond
mistake, not only that they would support him in this,
but that they would be grievously disappointed if he took
any other course. There can be no sort of doubt that a
commanding majority of the electoral body of the United
Kingdom has come to two conclusions, against which it
is perfectly useless for the Lords or anyone else
to strive. The first of these conclusions is that,
whereas Mr. Gladstone proposed one scheme and the
Lords a second and totally different scheme, the former
shall be accepted, and the latter rejected, The second of
these conclusions is that there shall be no concurrent
endowment. The arguments in favour of giving glebes
and houses to the Catholics retain all their force, but the
country is not prepared for the scheme. As Mr. Bright
said, the power of Mr. Gladstone, the most powerful
Prime Minister of recent years, would shiver like glass if
he proposed anything of the sort. Consequently the
Ministry had nothing to do but to restore the bill, with
the most trivial alterations, to its old shape. All the
amendments of the Lords are swept away that altered the
bill so as to give it the new character which the Lords
managed to impact to it. The surplus is under Mr. Clad-
stone's scheme, so appropriated as to shut out concurrent
endowment, but it is so applied as to give Mr. Bright
exactly what he wants. Mr. Bright himself expressly
advocated this, and stated it to be one of the greatest
attractions of the Government proposal in his eyes, that it
would enormously facilitate the operation of some such
land scheme as that which he had shadowed out. If
the Irish Church Bill is carried this year we shall
have an Irish Land Bill next year, and whatever else it
may contain it will, we may be now almost sure, contain
Proposal to use the surplus of the Irish Church as a fund from
which tenants may borrow to buy out landowners. Thus
the Irish Church Bill has been made by the Lords to
predetermine the character of the Irish Land Bill, and,
so far as the interests of great proprietors go, this has been
a serious blunder. But it is too late to repair the blunder
now, and the best use the Lords can make of it is to read
in it a warning not to legislate as if they were up in a
balloon, but to consider what will practically happen
according as they take one course or the other when an
important alternative is submitted to their decision.
" Let me act as I please," says the Spectator, " and I
will let you talk as you please." That is the substance of
the compromise which the Emperor of the French has so
" graciously " and " wisely " offered t. the Chamber and
the nation, and over which most of our contemporaries
have been singing hymns of thankfulness and praise to
the " far-sighted monarch," who has once more shewn, as
in Mexico, how completely he understands his epoch.
We regret, for the sake of France and of Europe, that
we cannot join in their paeans. The letter of the 12th July,
which they think so marvellously wise, seems to us to
contain irresistible evidence of failing insight and decay-
ing resolution. It reads like the decree of an hereditary
king, aware that the revolution is on its way, but full of the
conviction that statesmanship is but another word for wile.
Foresight the Emperor never had, as witness his forecast on
the American and German wars, the absurd menace which
produced the British Volunteers, and the total failure of
his Algerian policy ; but till now he has always compre•
hended France, always expressed in some rough but
etlicient way her latent thought. Now he fights her on
the hustings on the cne point on which she, who is
stronger than the Emperor, be his remaining strength
what it may, will take no denial, the personal govern-
ment ; mistakes the whole drift of the elections ; writes
in June to Baron de Mackau a letter swearing he will
never give way; tells Grimier de Cassagnac early in July
to state in the Pays that he regrets having neglected the
"majority," i.e., the Arcadians, the party more
Imperialist than the Emperor ; and then, on July 12th,
gives way in such a manner as to slim the
hostile world he is yielding, yet not to content that
world ; and finally, without warning, without
even informing M. Schneider, in a kind of spasm
of agitation, prorogues the Chamber. Nothing so illusory
as his reform was ever granted to an excited people.
Finally, if Napoleon is so far wiser than all France, why
does he fail? He does not wish the Empire to be weak,
yet if there is meaning in appearances the Empire is
failing, losing ground, driven to small devices in spite of
him and his farsighted policy. Opinions may and will
differ about the letter of the 12th of July ; its object, its
meaning, its results ; but on this one point, at least, w e
think, opinion will be unanimous. Had the Empire been
gaining strength, bad the elections reaffirmed its prin-
ciple, had the ground Leen solid beneath its founda-
tions, had even the builder retained the full
command of his genius, that letter would never
have been w ritten. 'The Belshazzar of to-day sees
no handwriting on the wall, or lie would read, and
reading, understand, and perhaps evade his doom. There
are men nowadays who could swindle even Fate. All he
sees is that a finger, shadowy but omnipotent, undefined
but irresistible, is writing somewhat which it imports him
to read and be strains and stumbles blinded towards the
scroll which, though invisible, he yet knows to be there,
and to be his sentence. In all history there is no figure
which so excites the imagination as this Emperor, pressed
on all sides by a force which is no force, which yields as
he strikes, gives way as he springs, seems even to buoy
him as he loses his feet, yet always sweeps him on relent-
lessly to his doom.

The John Bull says there is a tradition among the elders
of the better evangelical school of thought that when some
very ambitious and worldly-minded young man was boast-
ing of what he should accomplish, some pious friend kept
saying to him, "And then?" The young man answered
glibly enough, as in anticipation he scaled the ladder of
fame, till he got to old age, when the mentor brought him
to book, and the moral of the story of course is the vanity
of all earthly hopes. Now we shall not be accused, lee us
hope, of irreverence, if we have thus prefaced a very short
article on the present crisis. For our Liberal friends keep
asking us what will happen in the end should the Peers
refuse to do so suicidal an act as to cut their own throats
by eating humble-pie to the Commons. On concurrent
endowment they will yield to the undoubted opinions or
prejudices—whatever they may be considered—of the
people ; and if they were to allow the ConemonscompletCly
to destroy their handiwork, and deny them any power in
the State, far better would it be for them to close their
doors at once. If they exist only to register the decrees
of the Commons, they had far better voluntarily abdi-
cate. But we have no fear that they will so stultify them-
selves. They will throw on the House of Com-
mons, or rather on its dictator, the responsi-
bility of the answer to the question—" And then ?"
In refusing to consent to see themselves ignored, and the
Irish Church scandalously robbed, they will rally
round them all that is best and noblest in the country.
Mobs may rage, excited public assemblies may be called,
and the Reform League may do its worst, but the Hcuse
of Lords will be supported by the intelligence of the
country. Mr. Gladstone said that the Lords up in a
balloon were unable to appreciate the relations between
an individual member and his own constituents. We can
assure the Prime Minister that their lordships gauge
accurately the tyranny of constituencies, and the morbid
dread of them by their members. But they likewise
trust the common sense and' fair dealing of their fellow-
coußtrymen, when they really understand all the bearings
of the question ; and hence they will not regret if Mr.
Gladstone's obstinacy secures a further appeal to the
country. For resistance now is of little avail, unless their
lordships intend to remain firm, if the bill is presented again,
and insist on a further appeal to thepeople. Till the matured
convictions of the people have been expressed, the answer
to the question "And then ?" is not difficult. If the
people ultimately determine to rob the Irish Church, as well
as to declare that the State will as a bo.dy acknowledge Him
by whom alone kings reign and princes decree justice, the
question then we admit will be a portentous one.
The Economist thinks that Exchequer Bills are now in
great part, and with a very little improvement might
easily be made an almost perfect security for a State
which does not fear moderate liabilities fur borrowed
principal, and which lives close to a rich money market.
What is wanted is a security pledging the credit of the
English State of which the value shall always be nearly
the same ; and the theory of Exchequer Bills is that they
are such a security. They become due at a fixed day ;
after they have been issued a certain time they are re-
ceivable in payinents of duties, and the interest is variable.
These peculiarities were intended to keep Exchequer Bills
at a fixed value, and to attract floating money at low
interest. It is indeed true that the theory of Exchequer
Bills is not in piactice fully worked out. In practice the
interest is fixed for six months in a.lvance. and in conse-
quence Exchequer Bills may 1 e at a pn•miuni or a dis-
.t,ont; because the money market changes. This is, indeed,
a mere matter of practice not prescribed by law.
At present, too, by practice, though not by law, the bills
become clue at two periods of the year, and this is an
unnecessary evil. They might become (he at 'various
IL.tes. Suppose there 'were .£13,000,( 00 of Excheener
:P•iile in the market, f"-;0),000 might become due every
fortnight. Nn one need fear such a liability as that for
the English Government. Indeed, under our present
system, at a time of l ank Bank of England always
does advance to I,o!ders of Exchequer 13illg, and it would
not he an additional strain on the Bank if the bolder
eoull require payment from the Government, and the
Bank bad to lend the Government the means of paying
the holder. The Bank would have to lend to one person
instead of another, but it would not have-to lend more
money. A person unused to such considerations might
think that a great number of Exchever Bills would
make them less saleable. But, other things being Otinni,
a "large stoelc." as it is called, is always more saleable
than a " small stock." The transactions in it are com•
nioner, the dealers are more ready to buy it, for they flnd
it easier to het rid of it ; it is legs of a faney article, end
more an article of general consumption, The Kaleability
of Exchequer would, we believe, be enhanced lmy
increasing the number and the Clovernmoot would §AVY
a eonfilderabi(l snumi J,l irttertjgt, While ty Cefttlin Cllllll of
lenders would tee.; a Idol vf security that would suit gum
almost perfectly,