The Sun.
London, England, 1869-01-19 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF TEE PUBLIC JOURNALS,

Xhe Times, in commenting on the universal preparation
for war throughout Europe, remarks that for many years
the art of human destruction has been allowed to take
precedence over all other arts. The weapons of the age
are now as ingenious, as elaborate, and as exact in their
ponstrnction as a chronometer, or a philosophical apparatus.
The pace of improvement is equally brisk in the matter
of ammunition, accoutrements, carriages, and other
points comparatively unheeded by our forefathers. A
soldier is now a man of science if an officer,
a skilled mechanic if in the ranks, and expected to be a
man of genius and enterprise if in command. The science
of destruction itself is pursued with an impartial desire to
witness the greatest possible results. But what is all this
for? Whom is it for? Who wishes it? Who has any
purpose to be answered ? Who holds this enormous ava-
lanche suspended over our heads, waiting for the one fatal
footfall or sound ? There is the paradox. No nation wishes
for war. Of the half-dozen sovereigns who would have to
give the word of command, not one desires war, or feels
his interest to lie that way. Not one is naturally disposed
to war, or now inclined to it by circumstances. Of
the armies themselves, perhaps there are five men in a
hundred, if so many, who do not wish for peace, for their
discharge, and for their return to some peaceful employ.
ment. The statesmen all wish for peace. All nations are
heavily in debt, and disabled from prosecuting numerous
works long desired by the dedication of the public money
to the preparations for war. The cost of preparation,
indeed, is felt to be almost as ruinous as the cost of actual
war, and to be worse in having no legitimate conclusion.
A war may come to an end one way or the other, but the
preparation for war can only end in war. The
Continent is one vast magazine which an incendiary
may fire. One insignificant State, one man happening
to be in power, may push the first cause that sets
the mass in motion. They who would wait may
find themselves not allowed to wait. 'They who
wish to frighten may have to fulfil their threats.
They who are looking about for partners may have to enter
the dance without them. When anything is more or less
ready, the word of command is too easily given. It may
be given even by mistake, but, once given, cannot be
recalled. We ought to have something more than fortu-
nate accidents or the absence of mistakes to depend upon.
Europe is not safe for a day unless there be a common
determination not to go to war, and a consequent determina-
tion to regard as the enemies of Europe those who would
force a war upon her. Without this security we are at
war already in effect, and the actual outbreak is only a
question of time.

The Herald is not surprised at the silence of the Liberal
press upon Lord Mayo's reception in India. It was pro-
phesied by those far-seeing critics that the intelligence of
the noble lord's appointment would be received in India
with a " universal shout of derision." We unhesitatingly
say that even before Lord Mayo set his foot on Indian soil
a most favourable reputation had preceded him, and his
coming was confidently anticipated as the promise of a
sound, vigorous, and enlightened rule. Of course there
are, as in every country, certain prints which disparage all
political men who will not pledge themselves to one peculiar
set of crotchets, or, still better, to one peculiar clique of men.
They are the natural growth of free discussion, which invari-
ably lends itself, more or less, to individual piques, to private
interests, and to eccentric hobbies. But after no careless
s srvey of Anglo-Indian journalism, since the announce-
ment of Lord Mayo's nomination was made known, we
find an overwhelming balance of opinion auguring from
his policy, as inferred beforehand from his previous career,
the most valuable results. And surely there never was a
time when British India stood snore in need of a large-
minded statesman with a strong yet kindly hand to direct
her councils. It is not to those vexatious and costly
border wars that we refer, but to the ominous threat of
famine in such territories as Ajmere, where alreadystarva-
tion has had its victims, and where the distress threatens to
spread as it has done again and again, notwithstanding
the utmost efforts of the most humane administrators.
If it were this particular district alone over which the
calamity impended, its importance might not warrant any
special remark, but it is not to the credit of our Indian
sway that famine should he periodical and even almost
chronic in that region which the European imagina-
tion has always been fain to suppose bursting with
plenty.

The Post thinks there can be no doubt that the Ballot
has just now a better chance of being favourably con-
sidered by the House of Commons than it has had any
time these last twenty years. There are probably—after
excepting those who were returned without any contest—
not half a dozen members of Parliament who do not
cherish the remembrance of some influence more or less
illegitimate, and certainly all improper, employed against
them by their opponents in the particular counties or
boroughs they represent ; and there are very few
of those who cherish such a remembrance to whom
the idea of the Ballot has not presented itself more
or less forcibly as a remedy for electoral malpractices.
The fact is, however, that the matter has now got beyond
the stage of discussion of first principles ; for if it can

once be shewn, first, that there are influences at work
which prevent the elections from resulting in an honest

expression of national political opinion by those to whom
the right of expressing that opinion has been delegated ;
and secondly, that the Ballot furnishes the only means of
escaping from these influences, there will not be found
many politicians in the present day who would con-
tinue to withstand its adoption. To those two points,
therefore, the Ballot party must at present
address themselves, and it was to them that the
best speakers on Friday last mainly adverted. Mr.
Milner Gibson pointed out the several descriptions
of undue influence and coercion which were brought to
bear upon electors, and he specially referred to those com-
binations among the working classes which are gaining
such power in the State. These, then, and such as these,
are the influences which prevent the voter from exercising
the franchise freely under the present open system ; and
it is asserted with great force by the advocates of the
Ballot, that it furnishes not only the sole means which has
ever been suggested, but the sole means possible of sweep-
ing them away for ever. That it would do so to a very
large extent is certain ; that it would do so entirely may,
however, be doubted ; and it is a serious and will soon be
made a pressing question whether it is not worth while,
for the sake of a great certain and a still greater possible
gain, to disregard the almost exclusively sentimental
objections which alone have hitherto been openly avowed
against a system of secret voting.
The Telegraph thinks that every good Liberal should
thank Providence that Lord Granville is not a Tory. It
would have been too great a gift to the " stupid party; "
since his lordship has such a fascinating and airy manner
of talking people round, that only Providence knows what
might have come of it. In every Liberal Cabinet a special
portfolio ought to be reserved for the earl, and it might be
called " The Department for Making Things Pleasant."
Discharging its agreeable but important duties, Lord
Granville ought to go to Ireland and reconcile the deans
and rectors of the Establishment to their impending fate ;
a task which would take two public dinners and
one meeting at the utmost. Then he might appear
at Mr. Mackonochie's church, and compliment his
candles and vestments out of existence. That done, it
would be the easiest thing in the world for him to per-
suade the great landlords that primogeniture was a mis-
take ; and afterwards, if his lordship bad no objection, we
would have him attend the (Ecumenical Council, when,
ten to one, he would talk the Holy Father into offering
Rome to Italy, and sending red hats to Dr. Gumming and
Mr. Spurgeon. Not long ago the noble earl discoursed in
public upon education before the female students of art,
and that subject, which is usually like senna to the public
taste, became in his hands a very pastoral, an elegant Ana-
creontic, a bewitching topic scintillating with wit, interest,
and universal complim en ts. On Saturday last, at the dinner
of the Shropshire Chamber of Agriculture, he talked
about that serious and embittered question, the Game
Laws. Now, to talk about Game Laws before a mixed
assemblage of landlords and farmers requires one of two
things—either you must be Lord Granville, or you must
be even as Mr. Figgins, M.P. Perhaps some rash people
may think that it is an easy matter to talk upon rabbits
at a Shropshire county dinner table ! They know little
about the exquisite art of which Lord Granville is a
master ; for though " the coneys," as we are told, " be but
a feeble folk," they make an awful amount of trouble in
the shires. The philosophy, morality, ethics, and
economics of rabbit-preserving and rabbit-shooting are all
packed in the noble earl's remarks as neatly as powder
and shot in an Eley cartridge.

The Standard declares that a subject which it has been
/or a long time endeavouring to impress upon the public
mind is becoming so patent as to receive attention in all
quarters. These columns have repeatedly borne witness
to the fact that the distress of the working classes has
gone beyond the power of the poor law. We have asked
for something more than the poor law, and for something
better. We have pointed out that the problem was not
likely to solve itself, and that it was a perilous thing to
leave this state of affairs to be dealt with solely by hoards
of guardians and relieving officers. Where the distress
is real the repressive system is worse than futile— it is
a redhot iron to au ulcer. The common cry has been that
we should trust to the poor law. To a great extent
the public have so trusted ; but at length a failure of the
law is too palpable to be denied. indiscriminate charity
has been condemned, and very properly so. But the
poor law is by no means remarkable for its discrimina-
tion, and by its treatment of the poeor tends to destroy
that very element of character which it is most important
should be presevved ---self-respect. The extent to which
the poor law is— we ir?i!zlit almost say—idolised by many
who have considerable influence in society, is only equalled
by the degree in which the same law is loathed by those
who are cast upon its mercies. We have treated pauperism
as a disease—a plague— a leprosy, and we have made it
such. The list modicum of sympathy and kindliness has
been weeded out, until, rather than eat such bitter bread,
some of the more impetuous of the poor resin to suicide.
The general effect is either to irritate or to paralyse. It is
not possible for such a state of things to last. No doubt, if
charity were to stay its action, the crisis would come all
the sooner. But in what shape would it come? In multi-
plied deaths by starvation, in fever, in pestilence, in open
riot and civil commation. The old pauperism which the
New Poor Law was to put down was a thing compara-
tively easy to be got rid of, because much of it was artifi-
cial. But the pauperism of the present day is born of
distress and aggravated by law. It is real and terrible,