The Sun.
London, England, 1869-03-12 00:00:00

EFIRf3I OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS,

The Times, in supporting very strongly the University
Teats Bill, observes that it must be too evident to the
most strenuous friends of the Church of England that ri
choice has to be made between a definite faith and a com-
prehension upon less definite principles. We can no longer
impose upon others all we may believe ourselves. If the
universities are really to reflect the spirit of the age and
to be adapted to actual circumstances, they must be open
to all, entirely open ; and the colleges, we must say, must
at least be allowed to do what they please in the matter.
But is it wise, in the present universal conflict of opinions
and creeds and no creeds, to impose, as the condition of
office and emoluments, declarations and subscriptions
which, in a large and increasing number of instances
are only made to be explained away ? We believe
that near a moiety of the Fellows are now non-
resident laymen reading for the bar or other
secular professions. If they have subscribed the
articles, in what sense do they adhere to their
subscriptions ? Sorry, indeed, should we be to drive them
to more explicit declarations than those they have made.
Much rather would we leave them free to avow, without
scandal and without loss, what is the real significance and
the sum of their religious convictions. As it is, are they
less enemies of the faith, less able to do mischief, and less
disposed to do it, because they are compelled to go throngs
a routine of formal subscription ? The bitterness with
which orthodoxy and establishments are assailed in
new and still newer quarters is that of men
recoiling from a yoke and resenting the lash
they are compelled to endure. Since they cannot
resist effectually, they will take it out in remonstrance;
or, if need be, in quieter and more sinuous opposition.
Yet there are men of great intellect and honourable feel-
ings who- give the countenance of their example to a corn.
promise in itself indefensible. There ought not to be the
temptation or the opportunity. It is a stumbling-block
in the way of religious sincerity. If the dogmatic truth
is to be taught, and if it is to be made a motive and a rule
of life, it is not by these methods. The faith of the
Church of England does not require it. It is, we presume;
the faith of that Apostle to the Gentiles who main,
tained it on Mars' Hill against Epicureans and Stoics -
who maintained it for a year and a half against all other
creeds and philosophies at Corinth, and for two years,
" disputing daily in the school of one Tyrannus," at
Ephesus. This he did in the free arena of opinion, hold-
ing his ground against all comers, faring well with the
inquirers and philosophers, and only persecuted by Pagan
and Jewish zealots. Everybody, we cannot help thinking,
will fight best, think best, and live best under true
colours.

Leave a man to avow peculiar heterodox
opinions if he pleases, without ruin to his prospects and
estate. At all events, he can then be honest in his pro-
fessions. He will also have the opportunity of venti-
lating his opinions, and convert, or be converted, as
may be.

The Standard says that Mr. Cardwell deserves ,-cat
praise for the lucid and able manner in which he expounded
his estimates to the House of Commons on Thursday. There
are two sides to every question, and it is not Mr. Card-
well's fault if his side of this question was not placed
clearly before his listeners. Perhaps army estimates have
never been introduced in a more distinct and interesting
speech. Happy thoughts seemed to occur to the speaker
as he went on, and he warmed up with his subject.
Certainly he had a sympathetic audience. Men
whose poCkets are being drained of a little more money
than usual are apt to criticise with considerable closeness
the means by which the tax is levied. Men whose
burdens are being lightened are apt to think only of the
relief, and not to weigh too carefully the means by which
the relief is effected. It was the duty of the late Govern-
ment to call on the nation for more money for military
efficiency; it has been the pleasant task of Mr. Cardwell
to relieve our pockets. On one portion of his estimates

we most thoreughly agree with the Secretary of State for
War. He stated that he looked upon the militia, our old
constitutional force, as the backbone of our army of
reserve ; and he has taken a sum of £20,000 towards
improving the position of the officers. And he also threw
out hopes of that being shortly accomplished for which
we have so long looked with eagerness—the more
intimate union of the regular army, militia, and volun-
teers for at least a portion of every year, under the com-
mand of generals commanding districts. If Mr. Cardwell
will bring forward, as he promises, a bill to effect this, he
may rely upon having universal support—a support much
more hearty than that which is given to his reduction of
the army. This step should have come first ; the reserves
should have been thoroughly organised before the effective
of the regular army was diminished. That might have
followed. As it is we fear that efficiency has been
73 a considerable extent sacrificed in the pursuit of
economy.

The Telegraph considers that it is not often a dry subject
is treated so elegantly as the army estimates were handled
by Mr. Cardwell on Thursday. A masterpiece of terseness
and lucidity, his speech chewed a profound knowledge of
his subject. The alterations in our military establishments
which he announced are such as we long ago enabled the
public to anticipate ; but his explanation was so lucid that
it would have done credit to anyone who bad for alifetime,
instead of a few weeks, studied the detail which it was
his duty to lay before the most critical audience in
the world. He commenced by demonstrating that, while
he was enabled to effect a saving of £1,106,000 in the
estimates for the next financial year, the military force
available at home or for continental war will be actually
increased by 3,172 men. This result has been achieved by
the wise determination of the Government to diminish
the garrisons of those colonies and dependencies in which
Imperial garrisons are of no avail except to stifle the
energies of the colonists in preparation for their own
defence. The present Government has resolved to reduce
the garrison of British North America from a force of
16,185 men to one of 6,249 men, and has diminished the
garrisons of all the colonies by one-third of the strength
exhibited when the present Ministry accepted office. With
a just appreciation, however, of the necessities of war, Mr.
Cardwell has made no deductions in the force of soldiery
required to man the fortifications of the maritime stations
—such as Gibraltar, Malta, and Bermuda—which would
be required as coaling depots and harbours by the navy in
case of hostilities. lie has turned his attention
judiciously to the volunteers, and, while expressing his
readiness to grant them an increased share of
the national expenditure in some form which will
proportionately increase their efficiency, he insisted
that in return their officers should be selected on
account of capability, and not of social position; that they
should exhibit a greater proportion of elficients ; and that
they should be willing to subscribe to an organisation by
which many small corps might be amalgamated into a
smaller number of greater numerical strength. If Mr.
Cardwell had possessed the courage to face the opposition
of county magnates, and place the militia under his own
immediate control, and had not made his slip on the sub-
bect of the Army Reserve force, his estimates would have
een a complete success.

The Poat thinks that the introduction on Tuesday night
of the Real Estate Intestacy Bill in the House of Commons
will at least have produced oue good effect. The debate
upon the subject has certainly been instrumental in remov-
ing some vulgar errors and popular delusions touching the
law of real property. It is not the fact, for instance, that
the law confines the freehold property of fathers to the
eldest sons, or that the owners of such property can tie it
up to the same extent they are at liberty to tie up
personalty, such as money or stock. It is true that, if a
man do not choose to make a will, his freehold estate
will not be divided among his nearest relatives, as
his personalty would be under the Statute of Dis-
tributions, but will descend to his eldest son.
Whether, therefore, it might be better for the law to be
made more uniform and equitable, so as to provide, in
case of intestacy, for a man's wife and children, as well out
of his real as out of his personal property, in such
manner as might be deemed most advantageous for the
general good, is another question. Such an amendment
of the existing law would not have the least tendency to
prevent land from being fairly accumulated any more than
money or stock—or families from being founded by men
who have risen to wealth and rank through their own
abilities and exertions. As little would it tend to break
up old families and old estates. What it would do would
be to preclude those anomalies which now exist, and those
occasional grievances which are exaggerated and made
matter of complaint.

- -
The Herald declares that it has no disposition to make
merry over the fall of Mr. Reales. His retirement
o_fruom.
the presidency of the Reform League is a mark fPrn. e
dence and good sense which we can afford to recognise
all the more freely because we urged it upon him more
than two months back. If ever the League had a mission
it is now at an end. Mr. Gladstone is in power, and the
untempered activities of his friends in the Adelphi are likely
to do himmore harm than good. The forcible intrusion of a
mob of demagogues at the official residence of a Tory Home
Secretary was legitiuiate enough, but a Reform League
deputation at the Treasury under present circumstances
would be a mischievous nuisance. Thus much, at least,
we may say for Mr. Beales—that he has ever been a
moderating influence among his followers. Bad and mis-
chievous as the career of the League has been, it might
have been infinitely worse but for him. Ile has shewn, at
intervals, onhappiiy but too rare, a power for control, a
sense of propriety and good feeling, and au independent
.judgment, which restrained the League from the excesses
into which its more r:'eldess spirits uouhl have plunged it.
Among other instances of this we place to his account the
postponement of the Ilyde.paac demonstration set down
for a Good Vriday, and his vigorous assertion in the Irish
Church agitation jf the sanctity of vested interests.

The Star pays a tribute to the political career of M
Edmund Beales, although it admits thaitiiist Ipiarisfe)ninetinieri
been impossible to avoid questioniug
taste. As a popular. leader Mr. Beales stood alonearlc
in
this : that he owed his power—which was very real over
the bulk of earnest working-class politicians—purely' t
the moral force of his counsels and example. Mr. Beales
is is not an eloquent man. It cannot be said that he
dazzled his followers ; and the constantly-published
reports of the proceedings of the Reform League proved
that he never flattered them, or shrank from telling them
the plain truth. In fact, he had none of the qualities
which are conventionally supposed to he proper to the
character of a popular hero, and he had other qualities
which are deemed positively incompatible with the
possession of influence and the exercise of leadership
over the populace. Yet Mr. Beales Las continued, as
long as he thought it necessary to continue, the
respected and well-obeyed chief of a strong Democratic
following. - -

.BRADFORD ELECTION.

THE NOMINATION.

BRADFORD, Thursday.
The nomination took place to-day. About 20,00 C
persons were present. Blue and orange favours were pro•
minently displayed.

Mr. Matthew W. Thompson was proposed by Mr.
Storey. and seconded by Mr. Thomas Garnett ; and Mr.
Miall was supported by Alderman Law and other gen-
tlemen.

Thespeeches were no more than dumb show, owing to
the tumultuous proceedings.
After both candidates had been proposed the crowd at
the upper end of the ground divided itself into two parties,
the Thompsonites commencing throwing stones, and
driving the Miallites off the ground.
A show of hands could not be taken, owing to this riot,
and the mayor declined proceeding.
Adjourned until declaration of the poll. Great excite.
meat in the town.

A number of prisoners and injured people were rAmoved
to the police-office.

WASTE LANDS AND SURPLUS LABOUR.

A letter of Captain Maxse's, suggesting that the
surplus labour of the country should be applied to the
reclamation of cultivable waste lands, has attracted some
attention. Captain Maxse asserts that 10,000,000 acres of
such land are lying absolutely waste, and that large portions
of them are in the pcssession of the Crown. He refers to
the successful reclamation of waste lands in Whychwood
Forest. He holds that it is within the province of the
rulers of a civilised State to take direct measures for
preserving the food-getting conditions of the poor. The
objection usually urged against such interference
on the part of Government is, that the natural laws of
supply and demand would insure the work being done if
it were remunerative ; but there are many arguments to
bring forward against this view of the question. The
owners of waste lands may be wanting in capital,
energy, or sufficient liberality to encourage specu-
lation. Captain Manse is sanguine of the suc-
cess of his scheme for employing the surplus labour of
the country on the reclaimable waste lands. The Morning
Post, in writing on this subject, is doubtful whether any
undertaking of the kind would pay, but believes that much
more might be done by the State, in the way of public
works, for the relief of distress than is now attempted.
Should there even be a pecuniary loss in some
projects, the money would have been expended
in the country for its material improvement. The Post
thinks that Captain Manse underrates the increasing de-
mand for skilled labour arising from the application of
science to agriculture ; and though it strongly advises the
immediate reclamation of the waste lands, it considers
that migration, emigration, and education are the only
reliable means of permanently improving the condition of
the agricultural labourer.

THE BATING OF SMALL TENEMENTS

i On Thursday a deputation, consisting of the vestry
clerks of Marylebone, Lambeth, Hackney, Bethnal Green,
together with members of the parochial bodies in t'—se
places, and also of Poplar, Mile-end Old Town,
other parishes in the metropolitan district, had an interview
by appointment with the Right Hon. G. J. Goschen.
President of the Poor-law Board, with reference
to the bill which he has recently introduced into the
House of Commons for amending the laws with regard tc
the rating of houses let under a weekly tenancy. The
deputation was accompanied by Mr. Charles Reed, M.P.
Mr. John Ifolms, M.P., and Mr. T. Chambers, M.P., ane
was briefly introduced by the first-named gentleman.
Mr. Russell (Hackney), entered into a statement of
some length, explanatory of the grounds of (Nee .
tion which the vestry of that parish had to the
proposed measure. Ho stated that before the passing of
the Reform Act, the number of summonses issued by
them quarterly for non-payment of rates was not more
than from 2,000 to 3,000, but that for the lass
two quarters the numbers had been 7,000 and 6,00(
respectively. The total number of assessments in Hackney
was only 18,000. Out of the number of persons who had
been summoned, it was found that in four cases out co:
every 100 the rates were not recoverable. A lengthy con.
versation ensued, in which Messrs. Ellis, Greenwell, Voss
and Warren, the vestry clerks of Hackney, Maryleboee,
Bethnal Green, and Lambeth took part, all agreeing
that the system of compounding had worked most bene-
ficially during the time it was in operation, and urging
the advisability of its resuscitation. It was suggestet
that this might be done without interfering with th.
claims of the occupiers of small property to the franchise,
by making it compulsory upon the landlords to returi
yearly to the overseers a list of their tenants, specifyint
those who bad been sufficiently long in occupation te
qualify them for a vote. Mr. Goschen fully agreed that
the plan of making the landlord directly liable for tin
rates of such houses as were let under short tenancies
was by far the best that could be adopted ; but he hae
endeavoured to frame this bill so as to remedy, as fax
as possible, existing evils, without introducing anything
that might be offensive to that party in the House of
Commcns which insisted on the principle of the persona;
pi.yment of rates. The Government were desirous
to obtain the fullest information they could from
those who had had the advantage of seeing the
manner in which the ratepaying clauses of the Reform
Act had operated, and thanked the deputation for the
practical hints which they had thrown out. The depart-
ment with which he was associated was devoting its best
energies to the task of framing such a scheme as would
produce a satisfactory adjustment of the question, and
such suggestions as had been given that afternoon were
valuable, and would receive every consideration. The
deputation then thanked the right hon. gentleman for the
courteous manner in which they had been received, and
withdrew.