The Sun.
London, England, 1869-08-17 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF TILE PUBLIC JOURNALS

The Times considers that the universal amnesty of
Napoleon was at once hold and wise and gracious. It was
bold, for if it be not, as some are disposed to fear, aletting
loose of all the spirits of destruction, it throws open the
prison doors to sworn enemies of the Imperial regime; it
invites back to France exiles whose days of banishment
have been days of brooding over wrongs too often real,
and who have not unfrequently consoled themselves in a
strange land by looking forward to the happy time when
the children of the oppressor shall be served as they. The
amnesty is bold, but it is also wise. At a time vvl en the
Emperor recognises and responds to the will of France it
has become impossible to insist upon the full exaction of
the punishment from those whose main fault has beer
that they struggled for concessions such as are now
made, and were remorseless in attacking a Constitution
which has been surrendered. It was also gracious. The
Emperor might have qualified his pardon of the mass by
exceptions which would exclude those he had reason to
deem the most implacable of his enemies, and the world,
while regretting their exclusion, could not have condemned
his prudence. But the amnesty was made universal. All
aro included in it, from the least to the greatest, the con-
tumacious equally with the penitent, the offender whoa-
the accident of an hour made an enemy of the Empire,
if not against his consent, yet without any preme-
ditated deshm, and the untiring conspirator, whos(
life has been passed in plots against the throne,
almost against society. Henry V. might have
been at the Tuileries .at this hour had Charles
X. accepted and Henry inherited the position of
a Constitutional king. The failures of IE3O, of 1848, of
1849, and of 1852, contain no presage unfriendly to a
system of government which exhibits a permanent head
working in harmony with a free and representative Legis-
lature ; we may say, on the contrary, that since they
chew all other schemes to have been tried and to have
failed, they point to the adoption of this as a means of
reconciling liberty and stability. The Emperor has
frankly accepted the lesson; let those who influence
French opinion do the same, and the period of Constitu-
tional convulsions will have passed away.
The Standard is afraid that there is too much truth in
the report that the three prelates with reference to whose
circumstances the Bishops' Resignation Bill was specially
passed, have expressed their determination to allow it to
remain a dead letter. It has been understood for some
time past that, finding themselves quite incapacitated for dis-
chsrging the duties of their sacred office, they were most
anxious to resign in the event of the Legislature sanction-
ing some equitable arrangement by which a fair provision
was made for them in the way of a retiring pension. The
measure, which was intended to meet their wishes in this
respect, and which has been passed into law, with the full
sanction of their brethren of the episcopal bench, has failed
to meet with their approval, and has therefore proved
abortive before it is a fortnight old. In a word, the crux
which we anticipated, under protest, in our impression of
the 7th instant, has come to pass. Mr. Gladstone, from
motives which we very heartily respect, declined to give
his assent to the compulsory provisions, holding that the
mere assertion of the principle would be as offensive as it
was needless. We said at the time, that we thought that
was a mistake. While expressing our belief that the
omission to provide compulsory power would never be
felt as a practical inconvenience, we nevertheless
insisted that in legislating upcn a question of
this kind, "the case of a bishop utterly and
notoriously incapacitated for discharging the duties
of his position, and still declining to resign his
see, ought not to remain absolutely without a remedy."
We give the bishops credit for the purest motives, but is
it disrespectful to urge upon them the duty of taking the
course which good taste and self-respect alike dictate, and
which their warmest admirers would certainly find it less
difficult to explain and justify? We think the Bishop of
Exeter overlooks nearer and more obvious considerations
of decency and propriety when he spies out simony as the
obstacle to putting in force the Resignation Act. And,
even supposing Mr. Gladstone should supply his place
with a High Churchman, we think the Bishop of Win-

cheater would do well to wash his hands of all
responsibility for such a catastrophe, and make up his
mind to retire upon the miserable pittance of £6,000 a
year.

The Telegraph discusses the pending prosecution of the

Rev. Mr. Voysey, and says that we have to find out what
are the limits of toleration and free discussion permitted
by the Liturgy, Some limits there necessarily must be—
for otherwise Buddhism or Mormonism might be openly
advocated by clergymen. On the other hand, the very life
of the Church requires that, within the assigned boun-
daries, freedom of thought should be allowed. No
two people think exactly alike on all religious
subjects ; even if they belong to the narrowest
of sects, there will be some difference of opinion
between them. If men repudiate association with
each other for differences in the mere human inter-
pretation of even the most sacred subjects, we may indeed
despair of Christain unity whereas the very spirit of
Christianity itself as roused by its loftiest of all examples
will invite those who cannot agree on points of per-
plexity and mistrust nevertheless to come together, and
work together for their kind, under the New Command-
ment. Hence, the truly earnest as well as the more
scrupulous statesmen of the National Church will be the
most eager to attain a widely Catholic interpretation of
its laws, the most anxious to keep its portals thrown open
as wide as possible. But another element of judicial
difficulty is introduced, when the subject-matter for con-
sideration is, not merely the conviction entertained by
individuals among the brotherhood, nut merely the pro-
mulgation of diverse or even erroneous views, not
merely the actual teaching- of doctrine—but the posi.
tive teaching of doctrine under the authority of the
Establishment. The special champions of accepted views
will be solicitous that speculative thinkers like Mr.
Voysey should not be encouraged to betray their trust m
the pulpit, for the direct and unlieguised Purposes of
Dissent ; while the advocates of a national catholicity will
strive to defend that freedom of discussion on disputable
questions which is powerfully conducive to vitality of
thought and feeling within the Church, so long as it does
not infringe the essential principles of Christian law.

The Daily Hers refers to the case of Mr. Dickons, and
says that it supplies a very important illustration of the
working of some of our institutions. When some future
Macaulay turns over the voluminous files of our daily
papers to hunt up those lesser facts which most clearly
embody the manners of the time, he may disinter this
case to shew how long the relics of the feudal system
lingered in the dawn of the new age. He will learn from
such cases that which even the public of the present
day are slow to believe, that the power of the
landlord over his tenant is still absolute, and that
however much a tenant may invest of his own substance
in the land, he has no security for it beyond the landlord's
honour. But the case illustrates yet f urther the kind of
social pressure which keeps the farmers everywhere
quiescent under the depredations of game and the tres-
passes of sportsmen. A farmer does not complain of
these things. If he does complain he finds himself
unpopular with the gentry, and looked on with
suspicion by his landlord, perhaps turned out
of his holding. Indeed, in this Mansfield case,
the farmer was unjustly suspected of hying
to spoil the sport, and was dismissed on the suspicion.
But it is a remarkable illustration of the relations of
different classes in rural districts that such a letter as that
of the Mansfield Game Association should be libellous. It
would not be libellous were it not for the despotic power
of the landlord, and his preference of good shooting over
good tenants ; and as the association profits by that pre-
ference, and actually succeeded in setting that despotic
power in motion, they have no reason to complain that
the farmer has for once profited by the law for which he
suffers, and they suffer by the law through which they
profit.

The Herald, in commenting upon the report of the
committee on the law of hypothec, observes that it is
quite true that the law increases the number of competi-
tors for land, inasmuch as it enables many industrious and
enterprising men to obtain farms which they would not
otherwise have sufficient capital to work. In some cases,
and where arable land is concerned, a credit as long as
twenty-one months is commonly given, and a payment of
rent seldom takes place before twelve months after a
tenant has first entered on a farm. With praiseworthy
shrewdness the committee intimate that rich agriculturists
would obtain farms at lower rents if they were relieved
from the competition of persons not having suf-
ficient capital to take land under the conditions
which would be requied if the law of hypothec were
repealed ; and they leave to these similar capitalists
to inquire at their sober leisure if, in agitating for
the repeal of the law, they are not the mere blind instru-
ments of their worst rivals—the catspaws who are made
to pull the chestnuts out of the fire for the more sagacious
animal that prompts them. As for the argument that
landlords are tempted by the law to admit as tenants
men who are not in a position to:work the land effectually,
it is answered by the simple but sufficient observation,
that landlords may well be trusted in this particular to
look after their own obvious interest. In conclusion, the
committee call particular attention to the evidence of
several industrious and intelligent men, who have raised
themselves from a very humble condition to be prosperous
farmers and capitalists, entirely under the shelter which
the law of hypothec provides fur landlord and tenant
alike; and they justly observe that to withdraw such
facilities would be a great mistake in legislation.

The Star declares that for the present there is great
uncertainty on that all important issue—are we to have
fine weather for harvest? If the glass were high and the
Wind in another quarter, there would be an assured pros-
pect of fine weather. But with a north wind the glass is
always high, arid yet the north wind may have rain
behind it. The general aspect of the weather does not,
however, disturb- good judges. Unfortunately, fine
weather at harvest time does not make a good harvest.
If the wheat crop suffers this year, as suffer more or less
it undoubtedly will, it is to a wet June and not to a cloudy
August that we shell have to attribute the shortcoming.
Vortutintety, there is a much greater extent of land sown
with wheat this year. This will probably bring to market
an increased supply of a million quarters, so that if the
harvest falls short about two millions it will follow that
there will be about a million quarters more than usual to
obtain from foreign sources. There is no doubt of these
supplies being obtainable. Indeed, our demands having
been comparatively small this year, it is believed
that about a third of our usual allowance is
stored in foreign granaries. All that the best
authorities seem able to prophesy at this juncture is, that
in any case the produce will be very variable ; that even
in the same fields the wheat will be kund very uneven ;
that with moderately fair weather during the remainder of
August the yield on many farms will be an average [crop,
but that on the whole area in cultivation there will be a
shortcoming ; and that about half that shortcoming will
be made up by the increased breadth of land under wheat
Cultivation. In using the supplies which will he necessary
to meet the other half of the deficit the nation will enjoy
the be4eo of_, Mr. Lowe's repeal of the shilling
duty
urn, - •

THE CLERGY 111UTUAL ASSURANCE

SO CIE7 Y.

The fortieth annual meeting just passed hss
been been one of the most satisfactory that 130
taken place since its formation. The proposals for
assurance have been of greater number than in
former years, and new policies have been completed
for considerably over a quarter of a million, whilst
others to the amount of £22,000 are under tonal'
deration. The death claims have been below those
of former years, and the assurances for " provision
during sickness" has been of the greatest value to
those whose foresight induced them to make such a
wise arrangement. An addition of £88,482135. id•
has been made to the fund accumulating Of
meeting future claims on existing assurances'
making the amount of that fund no less £1,693,970
Is. 63. One of the great features in this social'
is that it has been framed to meet the special Case
,f the clergy, amongst whom mortality is less that/
in persons of other callings, and such his been the
effect of the working of the special tables of the
Alice that a saving of £395,120 has been made In
excess of what IN otild be the case had other offices
end the usual tables been used for the saw°
~umber of assurers and death claims since the for-
,nation of the Clergy Mutual--in fact that the
leaths would have been 1,183 instead of 743, befog
149 in favour of the Clergy Mutual. If the elergl
as must be supposed to be the case, have a real
care for their own interest and the interests of the'r
wives and children, they will be glad to avail they:l.r
selves of the privilege to which they and their
families are alone entitled in this office, which has%
admirably answered the special purposes for whichl
was founded. Its special features are that the greatest
advantages are held out to the clergy at the loves
rates ; and when the tables, all of which 113.0
stood the test of 40 years, of the " Clergy " Are
compared with other offices, the advantages beccr°,
at once apparent. This circumstance is produced
not by a desire to outbid by taking greater risti4o
but merely by taking that which has been pro.vacite
be correct, viz., that mortality is less amongst
clergy than any other body of men.