The Sun.
London, England, 1869-03-04 00:00:00

,T OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS,

The Tinted thinks that the defeat of the Election
Expenses Bill on Wednesday augurs ill for its success in the
present Parliament, but Mr. Fawcett promised to perse-
vere with it upon every possible occasion. It would,
indeed, seem that he might have secured the second
reading of the measure on Wednesday had he assented to
the suggestion to refer the bill to the select committee
to be appointed on Thursday ; but, independently of Mr.
Hardy's doubt whether such a course were feasible,
it is perhaps true that the resolution, apparently
obstinate as it was, to push on the bill as it stood
was not impolitic. To refer it to a select committee
would have been equivalent to shelving it for the session,
and instant extinction is no worse than being buried
alive. It may, indeed, be better, for it provokes the
attention of the outer world, who might be otherwise
seduced into the belief that everything was going
well because the Government had taken up the
measure. We do not say this reasoning is sound, but
it is plausible, and may have been peculiarly
acceptable to a member stung by what he believed
to be the desertion of the Government. There
can be no doubt that Mr. Fawcett's bill, though defeated
on Wednesday, and though predestined possibly to defeat
in every successive session of the present Parliament, will
ultimately become law. It is marked out as one of those
measures—such as the Church Rate Bill has been—against
which after a time no Liberal member can afford to vote.
At present the suggestion that the necessary expenses
of elections should be borne by constituencies seems
to have excited the fears of some voters ; and a
few members think that by supporting it they may
estrange followers whose votes are necessary for
their success on seeking re-election. But when the
feeling in favour of the bill to which Mr. Baines, Mr.
Anderson, and the other members we have named testi-
fied on Wednesday has spread a little more, as it will,
among constituencies, a Liberal member who votes
against the proposal will lose more support by doing so
than he would retain by his opposition. The success of
the bill will then be certain, and while it is possible that
events may happen to precipitate this end, it can in no
case be long delayed.
The Standard declares it entertains no doubt whatever
that Mr. Gladstone has completely convinced himself that
in undertaking the gigantic operation of disestablishing

and disendowing the Protestant Church in Ireland he is
preparing to do a sound and even a sacred work. Only,
unfortunately, Mr. Gladstone so very easily convinces
himself. He has a fatal facility for adopting opinions,
maintaining them with extreme violence, suddenly
throwing them overboard, then accepting the very oppo-
site ones with a like fervour, and fighting for them
with as much confidence as though he had never
changed his mind on the subject, or, indeed, ever
been wrong in his life on any point about which
men differ. This is by no means the first time the obser-
vation has been made, but we must not lose sight of it at
a critical moment, when Mr. Gladstone's ardent faith in
action almost of itself suffices to convince some people
that-a politician at once so able and so obviously sincere is
not likely to be wrong. But an inquiry into how the First
Lord has come by his views about disestablishment,
accompanied by an inquiry into how he came by any
opinion he ever held, must shake this easy belief in
natural capacity and passion being equal to a cli-ar
and trustworthy judgment. Nothing is more cer.
tain than that Mr. Gladstone has never at any period
of his life been able to form a really indepen-
dent judgment of any sort. Early • converts are the
best conceivable examples of the sic ros non vol is doom.
As for the man who, unmoved by the current of a shifting
multitude, is as little inclined to abandon his ground when
be finds himself almost its sole possessor as when he
shared it with all but the entire community, it is not
difficult to describe his fate. He is denominated a bigot,
spoken of as behind his time, and it is considered that by
these facile phrases his pretensions to even ordinary intel-
ligence are disposed of. It is the man who is converted
late, who adopts the growing opinion on the eve of its
hour of triumph, that reaps the highest personal advan-
tages. He brings his sickle to the field when the harvest
is ripe. He comes at the eleventh hour, but not only is
he as well paid as those who came at the third or the
ninth ; he is even better paid than them all. Such is pre-
cisely Mr. Gladstone's case.
The Daily News attributes much significance to Mr.
Disraeli's reply to Mr. Gladstone's statement of the
Ministerial intentions, his interpretation of the verdict of
the country—an interpretation not theoretic merely, but
bearing the stamp of sincerity in his resignation of office,
foreshadows the course which he ought to pursue. The
second reading of a bill expresses the assent of Parliament
to the principle of a measure. That assent the country
has already conveyed. Mr. Disraeli has bowed
to the decision of the nation, with the protest
that the policy of disestablishment, in favour of
which it has declared, is a grave error, and
the policy of disendowment, to which the country has not
less conclusively signified its adhesion, is sheer confiscation.
Mr. Disraeli spoke in the same sense, if not in the same
terms, when the question of Free Trade or Protection was
before the country. But he submitted then, and he will
submit now. Mr. Disraeli's party obligations may com-
pel him to make a sham fight on the second reading. But
there will be small reality in his opposition. No politican
has a stronger interest than he in getting the Irish Church
question out of the way. It unites the Liberal party,
and so stands between him and office. While it engages
Parliament his practical skill in dividing the ranks of
his antagonists is thrown away. Moreover, Mr. Disraeli
is not incapable of generous feelings, and he is essentially
a man of keen and penetrating intelligence, and he would
'gladly be delivered from the necessity of repeating stupid
phrases about revolution and spoliation, in which, except
in the exaltation of parliamentary rhetoric, no one believes
less than he does. In his historic conscience be is at one
with Mr. Gladstone and Mr. Bright ; and he would gladly
hail the passing of a measure which, by making the Irish
Establishment a thing of the past, would convert it
into a subject appropriate exclusively to the historic con-
science.

The Post, in discussing the recent convent case, says
that we must be just, and even generous, in our estimate
of those who act for conscience' sake even though they
make mistakes. And especially, in taking leave of the
paltry Starr and Saurin case, let two things be borne in
mind—first, that it furnishes no ground for an unchari-
table or ungrateful construction of the lives and chamfers
of the many excellent women of the Roman Catholic
communion who really do devote their whole lives and
energies to daily helping and working amongst our
lost poor. Such communities as " the Little Sisters of
the Poor," and some others which we have occasionally
noticed in this journal, are doing a real good at a cost
to themselves that does honour to our nature. They
have a strong claim on the gratitude and admiration
of us all. In the next and last place this miserable
case forms no argument against the establishment under
proper rules of sisterhoods in the English Church. Keep
clear of the vows, the irresponsible authority, the uncon-
ditional obedience, the silly penances, and all the essen-
tially Roman aesthetics and accessories, and there can be
no reason on earth why English ladies should not combine
to do good, and live in community as long as it may suit
their convenience and sense of duty to do so. There is
plenty of work for such to do, and the admirable service
rendered in our London hospitals is one of the best proofs
of the value of such united action. But the moment that
English sisters begin to imitate Roman convents, and to
play at being nuns, their usefulness is gone ; vanity and
vexation of spirit are all that can then remain to them.

The Telegraph comments upon the failure of the mem-
ber for Brighton, and says that Wednesday afternoon is
proverbially a half-holiday in political as in other schools ;
so, Ministers being in attendance at the Court held in
Buckingham Palace by Her Majesty, the independent
members of the House of Commons had a little -game on
their own account. Whilst the cats were away, the mice
would play all about the lobbies and the floor of the
House. We offer our sincere congratulations to Mr.
Disraeli. Under tremendous difficulties, be has come off
victorious in the largest division of the present session.
Though in a minority of at least 112, his followers,
aided by many Liberal members, defeated Mr.
Fawcett by a majority of 3, in a House of 337.
It is a great triumph. Some critics laughed at the
solemnity with which Mr. Disraeli implored the House to
allow the Prime Minister's Irish Church Bill to be read a
first time, instead of throwing it out at once. But such
ridicule, it seems, was wholly misplaced. Mr. Disraeli
has some power. He can defeat, if not Mr. Gladstone,
at least Mr. Fawcett. This large admission must, how-
ever, receive some qualification. The right honourable
member for Buckinghamshire has routed the honourable
member for Brighton because the Liberal champion wofully
blundered. That is the prosaic truth. Party discipline
is often a high-sounding name for nothing better than a
member' readiness to place his conscience in the keeping
ofn a
Min ster. But party discipline has a good as well as
a bad side, and on Wednesday afternoon Mr. Fawcett
spewed what mischief may be done when it is openly
defied.

The Star remarks that the subject of rating, so well
handled by Mr. Goschen in introducing the bill to amend
the law which is now before the public, is not a very
cheerful one, and cannot be said to fi
the educated classes like that of the ;Illienattention of
department of public policy, however,lri which rch. It is a
the
ileals very
largely with the comfort of the vast 3o dyofpeople,
and the statesman who is fortunate enough to adjust rating
in a satisfactory manner has a chance fur permanent fame
which may be denied to others. The poor know compara-
tively little of Chancellors of the Exchequer and army
and navy estimates. They cannot tell why it
their income goes such a very little way, when provisions
is
and 'the moderate luxuries of the working class are so
plentiful, but they always know all about the local rates,o
and the rate collectors, the threats of summonses, the
appeals, the whole machinery by which the hard-won
earnings of the industrious are extorted for the purposes
of local expenditure. The Reform Act, while suddenly
throwing the burden of paying the rate upon the tenant,
made no allowaace to them, but the present Administra-
tion, more just and more considerate, instead of merely
throwing the weight upon the .other class, leaving them
to adjust their relations with the tenant in the amount of
rent, gives an allowance which is an equitable counter.
poise to any liability to which the new arrangement may
subject him. The whole plan seems fair and equital?l@,
and_doervecthejupport 9f _tht.99i#l7.