The Sun.
London, England, 1869-08-28 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

The Saturday Review remarks that the habit el
attributing to anyone the opinions which you hold t° b°
the logical result of his doctrines, but which he distinctly
repudiates, is a form of argument known to be one of the
most annoying of controversial weapons. Arnengst
other commonplaces of this nature, one of the most tI
tive is to charge a man who calls himself a Liberal with
gross illiberality. There are few Conservative speeelleeLri
which this argument does not make its appearance
some form or other ; and the general favour with which
it
is received suggests that it must have a greater degree
plausibility than most attacks of the same nature. It
ie
plain, indeed, that there is a largo class of persons ""
whom it is singularly applicable. A man who is rag;
sionately attached to a certain set of destructive opinio;
is no more likely to be free from bigotry than his
antagonist. He may certainly be in favour of abolishi,rj„
the monarchy and the House of Lords, of an equal (1".
tribution of land, and of fixing the rate of wages and thet
price of beer by State legislation, without possessing thB
broad and cultivated intelligence which people are anr
posed to claim under the title of Liberalism. n"l°,le;
minded and ignorant persons are, on the whole,
majority of every party, and the fact that they hibvg,
chos 3n to fight under ono set of colours rather than iliwe.
another has no tendency to change their nature. It u,,
only when the imputation is cast upon the party at larg"
and bigotry is asserted to be a characteristic of liher3;,'
as distinguished from Conservatives, that it deserves e°,,
sideration. There are Liberal bigots, just as there art
Liberal pickpockets ; but it is worth inquiring wbetl:e„
there is anything in Liberal principles or in the cons,i
tion of the party which makes bigotry or the practice
picking pockets more prevalent amongst themo°
amongst their opponents.
The spectator says that the Duke of Albans has decd
to do his duty to the parishioners of Redbourne. Ife A
patron, by law, of the State vicarage of that naree',y
vicarage supported out of public money, and a vae:;01
having occurred, his duty was to select the TerY
clergyman he could discover to fill it, taking, of (IL°. ;
due trouble in his search. Instead of doing that he
tiia
to the leading parishioner, Mr. Hall, to say that hew In,
accept any clergyman recommended by the congreg4-ee
and requested them to perform the "important tee 0
now entrusted by law to himself. That is precise/
I'
Lord Dufferin, being Chancellor of the Duchy of ,
caster, had written to the debtors of Liverpool to elect the
County Court Judge. His motive was, we adroit, 112°,,
excellent, and as patronage has a pecuniary value' he;
entitled to the praise of entire disinterestedness ; "it of
confess our inability either to understand his :Tagl:lea
the chorus of praise and thanksgiving his action hae caw
forth. There are abuses enough, God knows, nyder ate
present system, and we should be the first to adroele
their abolition. The sale of advowsons is, in princiPa ;
just as bad as the sale of the right to appoint the i'l";eie
or the members of the House of Commons ; nvie
ble
the existence of hereditary livings, though not rise'
on moral grounds, is in practice a fruitful ee
of mischief, men training themselves for the Chileen
who otherwise would never dream of such a car at'
But the remedy for these evils is not the transfer of Pi
ronage from private and irresponsible individuals to equal go.
private and more irresponsible cliques called " c°llgre„ to
tions," but to bestow it again where it ought always
op
have remained, with responsible State officials, iateneieet
doing as well for the people as they are when they Booth
judges or inspectors of education, and as responsible no,
for malfeasance and want of judgment in their seleetwt
to
Of course, if the State ever ceases to think it exPedien
maintain a State Church, our reasoning ceases to al)
though we should still maintain that election was rti of
inexpedient and inappropriate as a similar 333° that
appointing judges; but our business now is not withote.
state of affairs, but with the management of an too
blished Church. We contend that, granted the efet
of such a Church, the action of the Duke of Albans, al
from being one deserving of imitation, is a distant steif;eo
the wrong direction, is an effort to remove the Or); the
feature in all State Churches, the independence °af
clergy, and to remove it in the very worst waY, 11,1' boo
by vesting the patronage in the hands of those wan hole
of necessity the least interest in representing the
community. A congregational system of Church orgro
cation is intelligible, and may be most beneficial, an
cap
may be a State Church ; but a mixture of the tsv° gal
but combine all the evils of both systems, the intellec'to
slavery which is the evil of Free Churches, with
driav
impunity for neglect of duty which is the grand . sere
back to establishments. The Redbourne minister lei
to be of the creed the Redbourne farmers approve, wive,
once appointed, he may do as little as any other Orn
The John Bull declares that the deans h 000
during the past two or three weeks, been (to,
a favourite Puritan phrase) "much exerciseu'
their consciences. Dean Boyd has been a
strained in the interests of the Gospel to lolll—pean
Liddon from preaching in Exeter Cathedral ;4 dog
111.`Neile has been startled out of his propriety UP: the
the name of Mr. Mackonochie included amviii'veft°
speakers at the Liverpool Church Congress; An6„estY
Stanley has become so enamoured of the "rare 11°' sire
of Mr. Voysey as to come forward as his ehanWi°ll:levi•
cannot understand the causes of this ecclesiastic' very
demic, shoving itself in various forms, among the tore
reverend guardians of our cathedrals. rfbcijorail
severe forms of cloistered life have et '9'
been regarded as unfavourable to the cleveloPre te pee
a large-hearted charity, and therefore we 'Dig i
tit had e
imagined the " cloisters" of Exeter and Ripon
Dr, sensibly depressing effect upon Dr. Boyd and —l.* 11
dtbeit
and that the severity of the chapter rule en 0 too'
attendance upon the daily services had proved t°:xt tbel,t
for their magnanimity, and so had engendered ape
that bitter spirit of intolerance which is comnroels' hooey'
to the ascetic recluses of inedieeval times. 9:lllstere 80%
however, does not dispose of Dean Stanley's I,n we cll,.
diligence in a contrary direction ; unless indeed
ro'oebeli
consider the cloister life of Westminster to he e° ber..die
tainted by the world, and remotely acted uPen bit see-
breezes wafted from St. Stephen's. Now we cannq Leap
the behaviour of these deans in a satisfactory 11gb ee the
Boyd has altogether misapprehended his p°altio
diocese
holder of a cathedral in trust for the benefit of tbs.he roe_
the Dean of Ripon has proved himself blind toll'y seenle
ordinary principles of toleration, and Dean Stan!of der
altogether to have repudiated the first princiPleptod if
matic Christianity, They are a pleasant trio,_ deal'
after-times the question, " What is the use ofploaela
should be asked, it would not require a second nal eOIY
to be ready with the answer, "To keep A &ea
science." _ Albert,
The Economist discusses the position a th:_ote_ao•
Assurance Company, and asks, Is nothing to bethal6t of ti3t.
Is there no remedy? Are such frauds as dole fl°e
Albert necessary and inevitable evils ? We„ineerall 11
Though Government should not interfere with e!te't
ainoe e
offices, there is no reason why we should laynaoteriri
insurance offices. It might be possible to haveA
Ceaul.ci,
audit of suspected companies without having r
audit of all companies. If some large numb% eeala,lo,
holders chose to petition the Board of Trade %na
gds
a company as to which they have doubts' °f 206 j
security for costs, why should not the 13° e stoPPeg
examine it ? This would certainly
the Albert years ago ; policy-holders have 13e reficalv
it for years, only they have had 11° audit? eAt
they have not known what to do. Such _ who I'ls_l
gestecl by suspicion, and to be paid for by tho_senif loPott
it, is very unlikely to stop improvement. ()_.,
__sob _4
course of bad business engenders
fp 6h
amount, at least, of diffused discredit as e be'' too
scattered policy-holders and make them agreders ore
heir
cost of a long and dear inquiry. Policy-hOl sdaeb
likely to be over fond of new advantages „00"
diswerileleurteob
tofficeospegnidv ems thoughoiley
in otherm mistaken
officesak en inregfttsosreie:stlfroerynatl:7;Aatieasities;dt.
And there can be no doubt that the conditieort:ivole..bel
ranee office ought to be intelligible and aSe e And °t
et
is not like a bank dealing in bills of Wham! a matt,
osecurities
n, theaft
egroaoldl.n e sAs
no rinbsaudrnaenscseoof whichoffice
a 11: sewi tallo
te ce,e..06
when one
rities on properties of known value, an in the
good auditor would be sure not to err nincil
of these.

twhiaati.chilled ol o 1 at
Wo aro giv -6W-sills:o1;1'
lent==c,alysin
send
An old Scotchman of Boston
Storrs, t WI
open to conviction ; but I'd like to see the wan th: r
of
convince me." Old Minister Wells, the Preclec!,.s:hior
the Rev. DrS used to Oh "rill
self a . used , h scotconi I
to be right ; for
tonal Marnrit :----"
Scotchman,to say, 'lt beliovet a ono
, if he be wrong, he will be for era
eternally wrong
Inland Revenue ....'
THE
the English 111- -r ker Tri IS'
INTERNATIONAL MABILIAGS 0-- I .o'oo
The Frankfurter
.' of Braintree, BrassachUseDo,
_O,ll
receive the most flattering advertiseme Zeitung
contains thNi c`.,,.
the
10780_56, age
Institute, officially registerecl 84.0.4 of
af Htceer
in gr 1:
ilna.creri
letterslgssfGr,.o_l_n It, London'
i--lie
sei
ex 31 : b::::0:0
numberh dn. '
aogf
eEnropeofwh‘Nn•elv‘l,-itsoh-dotn
atrmionial Agency, which continu°: ~,,
highest
honourrespectability among the nobility audgentrY,:t ti
to announce that there are At Pre° WI
widow,
Among the aspirants is a young roarchione-i3O
and
contractrich ladies
go fe etiverroiy.l;utclideo
hil;best, possessed of an income of 30,000 francs.. 0
respectability on the part of the lady clleti id
-t o°l
guaranteedthe '
by directors, who the`
greatest
the' MP ,;(0
raenfaerences at their dispoSal, and the greatest &sere:clot
delicacy arc vouched for. Applications are to ix)
so,
in writing, post-paid, and not anonymously, to ges
—, London, N.D. Lady ali ill ddross ale
pp canto w ll
lAtcl4 lithtt
11111
2 ' i 9 -tialla 712 ir Sada i WI AI2Q-V P"-