The Sun.
London, England, 1869-05-26 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS,

The Times says that an illusion is steadily kept up about
"the great national holiday." Why disturb this glorious
Utopia by introducing into it the stiff commonplace of
everyday etiquette? Let it have a congenial code, or no
code, of its own. Let there be a reign cf misrule, every
body doing what seemeth to him right in his own eyes►
providing only thatit be done for the sake of joviality and
fun.; and if these limits are occasionally overstepped, let
the sin be forgiven in consideration of the great fact thatit
was committed on the Derby Day. But, unluckily, the
innocent freedom thus claimed for the Derby Day is but
another creation of imaginative minds. Practically, it
degenerates into the assumption of an unlimited right to
get drunk—almost the only notion which many English'
men have of unrestrained fun. To tell them that they
may do what they like in the way of jollity is virtually to
tell them that they may drink what they like, without
being held responsible for all that they do afterwards, and
an average Englishman's notion of fun when he has
drunk too much is apt to take any but agreeable or
amiable forms. The reign of misrule which thcoreticallY
offers such a chi rming abandonment for once of stale
conventionalities and stiff etiquette, and which gives even
the most solemnly decorous of Englishmen a chance of
thoroughlyenjoying himself, becomes practicallyan excuse
for those exhibitions of unmannerly and brutal buffoonery
that so frequently disgrace " the great national holiday,'
and furnish some ground for the opinion which foreigners
are already too prone to form of us. The remedy, of
course, lies in an appeal to public opinion. Decent English'
men do not get drunk in the streets or in the dining-1.001
now that such conduct is considered disgraceful. They
would be equally careful to observe this rule even on the
great annual day of misrule if its violation were generallY
considered to involve the same disgrace. Nor can we see
that such abstinence would at all spoil the national holiday"
If so, it must spoil all the dinners and balls at which
people are now-a-days content to drink enough for health
and geniality, but not enough to make them oblivious or
reckless of the ordinary decencies of society. Even the
Derby Day thus observed would not necessarily
lose any of its really characteristic fun and chaff, while
it would greatly improve by losing what we still bops
we may consider its uncharacteristic coarseness and
brutality.

The Herald says that the great Turf festival has Veen
watched for in the remotest corners of the kingdom for
weeks beforehand. If the influence of the race is übiclui.
tons, permeating through each one of our social layers,
not less true is it that the race itself and all its accour
panying phenomena are such as you could find nowhere
else, intensely English, thoroughly national. Long may
the race live as an English holiday; and happy will it be
for all concerned when that holiday ceases to be purchased
by the frustration of so many ambitions, the shipwreo
of such high hopes, the loss, partial or entire, 0f
princely revenues so lavishly znis-epent, the tarnished
Prestige and dimmed lustre of names which, as they are
a national possesion, should be a national pride. Yet, a°
we have just said, be certain of its accessories what thel
may, the Derby is, as it will remain, pre-eminently a
national holiday. Dr. Johnson was in the habit of saying,
that no one could pretend "to have received a libero
education who had not seen Rome." Assuredly no one
can flatter himself that he has perfected his Engli3ll
training until he has seen the Derby. National character
to be studied should be studied en masse. But the conduct
of the crowd is unimpeachably decorous. Good humour
reigns everywhere, and even those continental critic°
who impeach us on the ground of our phlegenatism are
frank enough to admit that you may search Europe
through and through before you come across such N'a't
concourses as you see in England, persistently preserving
such a high measure of good nature.
The Standard does not anticipate the rejection of al:
Irish Church Bill in the House of Lords. It says tit'
the majority of the Peers are fully convinced that it
iniquitous and dangerous; that it threatens alike the
religion and the peace of Ireland ; that it violates alike the
Constitution of the realm and the rights of propertl;
Their consciences as legislators, their interests as laude
proprietors, their feelings as Englishmen and Protestant"
i
are all against it. Yet it does not think that they will
deem it wise to reject a measure which has not only
received the sanction of an overwhelming majority of the
Lower House, but the antecedent approval of the cota
try. There is a reaction of feeling, provoked by thae
manifest injustice of certain clauses and the high-hande
violence of the Liberal Government, which will in dute
time hear fruit ; but nothing could so effectually chi
its progress, and reanimate the zeal and passion 'De
Liberals, at present lukewarm and disgusted, than the
peremptory rejection of the bill on the second readingl"
the Upper House. By such a step the Lords would see°
to negative the decision of the constituencies upon the
question submitted to them at the elections; and tilere
can he no doubt that this would provoke the cagy
tuencies to reassert a decision of which they arc half'
inclined to repent. It thinks, therefore, as it has thouglit
ever since the second' reading made it plain that the
Liberal majority were determined, that the bill must P3°s,
But though it neither expects nor desires that the Lao'
should reject the bill, it looks with hope and interest tIl
their action upon it. A Most important part of the dut.rie f
the Legislature still remains to be performed, and can nil
be fulfilled by the Peers. The decision upon the principle
:a
the bill was given at the hustings. It was there (laid a
that the Irish Church should cease to be established, Olds
should be deprived of such part of its revenues as it 11°,111/
in virtue of its establishment. The shaping of the ".01
was the office of the Cabinet. Every vote on the Liher
side was assured before the amendments were made kroll'
and the bill reaches the House of Lords with no rnertal
authority, no more sanction of its details, than it 11.111,
received when it was read a second time. It is the 1-nof
not of the country, not of the House of Commons, nut I.
the Liberal party, but of her Majesty's Government, nci;
more accurately speaking, of Mr. Bright and Mr.
stone.
stone. The duty of criticising, correcting, and modifYw
it in detail rests with the House of Lcrds. eat
The Daily IVeles says that the promoters of the gr-
Prot. stant meeting at Belfast succeeded in brineing
or"
great number of people together—ninety thousand ace to
ins to one computation, thirty thousand according itg
another. The former estimate is probably rhetorical• of
authors, if we may parody and reverse what Pepe Saluda
himself, deal in numbers, even when the numbers
0,
not come. The more moderate estimate is more conseleva
Coils, critical, and rrohable. But whether ninety thous the
persons or thirty thousand attended or hung about 'l4,
outskirts of the meeting is a matter of very small hied
ance. Great masses have an attractive power, $.OO
individual atoms gravitate to them. Thousand 1: fig,
doubtless summoned by curiosity to the Botanic Garae:eg
They went less to uphold Protestantism than to see
t7lO
show, just as hundreds will go to Epsom, not to seeeir,
race, but to see the crowds assembled to see the race.
Johnston, who was the hero of the occasion, has declared, la
the House of Commons, that Protestantism in Treig:e
will not receive any serious injury from the Irish Chtli;d
Bill; and that though he dislikes Mr. Gladstone's Pc",
-
he much prefers it ro Mr. Disraeli's. The real issAe-j
which Parliament and the country have deei"ele
is, Shall we level up or level down? and of
Belfast meeting could have been /Jelled, te-,e
can be little doubt that it would have endorsed the 1'; ip
of its chairman. The orators at Belfast put their trto
ceo
the House of Lords. Those who put their trust in Prii,joe
are not more foolish. The House of Lords does not 0011,
Mr. John Thomsou's contempt for " Gladstonea
toe
jority." It is not strong enough to keep the Irish ell
lab
afloat; though the Irish Church might be strong en°4o,
to keep the House of Lords under water. Knowing ito
that august assembly is little likely to venture out ° tel
depth. English and foreign politics have alwaYs
i
and reacted upon each other ; and the storm warn
which are signalled to us from France are good WO°
not beginning the policy of resistance at home.
It is said that Mr. Justice Mellish has sirmais
recommended that no further proceedings should /39
to have the Saurin case re-heard.
?Sr
IRISH NATIONALISTS AND THE FEN LA.-
.00
BONERS.—At a special general meeting of the c0n3133010,
of the Amnesty Association, recently held in their °roil
at the Dublin Mechanics' Institute, a statement W 3,1 op
by the secretary, and on the motion of Mr. J. IC. °tech
seconded by Mr. E. Carey, was unanimously .(I°Pople,
and ordered to be issued as an address to the Irish Pe,oets
It entered at some length into a history of the e'
which had been made to procure the release of the fe-of
tical prisoners, and expressed regret that the 141° Iv
the Fenian convicts La I not be ► liberated• of
committee, however, do not abandon all b°l3edooh
seeing the captives in the enjoyment of free inv
and thus conclude their address :—" The continuedoB
prisonment of the high-minded men who are still PI ti.
in English convict prisons is an act of persecution forcilt:ta
tical opinions which cannot be warranted either by De
policy or justice. Perseverance in it can only embittert"he
future relations of the two countries, and leave that
minds of Irishmen the rankling consciousnesa
i 0 eal•
they are still treated as the conquered race. It
_meet
culated to bring discredit upon the English Govecr"vopii
and country. It is the high-handed refusal to uubject
with the universal prayer of the Irish nation upon 3 S,eliec
which most mainly concerns themselves. We do nutf
o_o to
that we would yet be justified in giving
hnpress those reasons upon the English (govern ebicb
and people ; and even under the discouragements.7e
the
at moment surround us, we confidently invit_efest
co-operate,... of Irishmen of all classes in our Pvlrovol'io,
against the adole4nn of a course of- unrelenting' ;
tiveness towards men -ho are admitted by thos 'jog
up the efrir
most strongly condemn their actions to have bee_ati,d
ituenced by a deep and.dieinterested_
• land."