The Sun.
London, England, 1869-01-04 00:00:00

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LOiVDOiV, MONDAY, JANUARY 4, 1869.

society in regard to an individual member of the
community whom it has especially picked out for
that purpose. The Marquis of BUTE is that indivi-

dual. He is a young nobleman now travelling on
the Continent. The last that was beard of him was
that he was at Nice, whence it was understood he
was about almost immediately to set forth on a
pilgrimage to the Holy Land. The Marquis of
BUTE is announced to have but just now changed
his religion. A matter of that kind, one might
presume, is no theme for newspaper criticism, in
the way more specially of personal attack or personal
depreciation. It.is sur,ly a question—that in regard to
a change of religion—lying exclusively between a
man's soul and his GOD. it 13—if nrwtl.;7l(l
matter of conscience. Nevertheless, apropos to the
announcement of the Marquis of BUTE'S having be-
come a convert as the one side c ills it, a per-
vert, as it is termed by the other, from Pro-
testantism to Roman Catholicism the 7 inzes
takes occasion to direct especial attention to the fact
of that announcement by saying, " We know the
Marquis is very rich, but we have no evidence that
he is either very learned or very wise"—adding
cynically, "the presumption perhaps is against it."
Now, why the mere circumstance of the Marquis of
B UTE —being a young man of but very little more than
21 years of age, together with that other circumstance
of his having but just now come into possession of
estates yielding him a rent-roll of £300,000 a year,
should authorize or justify any derision like this
being directed against him in a matter which is in
itself, as we have said, so purely a matter of con-
science, certainly altogether passes our comprehension.
Because he is a lord, because he has this enormous
rent-roil, because he has only just now come of age,
he is to be singled out thus for this conspicuous and
scornful depreciation in a matter that—we must all
acknowledge, whatever our religious convictions and
predilections may be—is a matter for consideration by
each of us before GODand before ourown consciences.
In a matter of this kind, at least, the Times would
better have consulted its own dignity and its own
reputation by preserving silence instead of thus cast-
ing at any individual so unmannerly a jibe as this
simply because in the exercise of his own judgment
and in obedience to the dictates of his own conscience;
he has passed from one sanctuary to another.

THE intelligence from New Zealand is a reproduc-
tion on a small scale of the calamitous bulletins
which periodically arrived from India ten years ago.
A trifling outbreak has by degrees developed into a
serious revolt; the colonial forces, assailed by superior
numbers, and on ground of their adversaries'
choosing, have sustained a reverse ; and disorganisa-
tion, the loss of British territory, and the destruction
of property have been supplemented by a wholesale
massacre. The news could hardly have been worse. The
Maoris have carried on their savage warfare with
all possible impunity, and have committed, appa-
rently without let or hindrance, all the devastation
in their power. The whole force of the Maoris is
not great, and only a portion of it is engaged in the
present revolt. The attempt to excite a general
rising has not been successful. The native chieftain
had at first the command of a band of only L5O men—
a force which has since increased to three or four
times that number, largely through the defection of
natives who were formerly well disposed to the
colonists. With ordinary precaution, such a band of
savages must have been so wholly incapable of the
devastion which they have effected, that but one con-
clusion is possible : the negligence of the Govern-
ment has been the prime cause of these calamities.
It is true that New Zealand warfare is peculiar
and extremely difficult, but this consideration only
strengthens the case against the authorities.
Though well aware of the requirements of a campaign
against the Maoris, they neglected to provide for

them with an indifference which is explicable only
on the ground that they imagined the spirit of
disaffection was wholly extinct. The forces of the
colony have previously been employed against the
Maoris, and have met with better success than the
regular regiments from England. But the number
formerly engaged was equal to the difficulty of
the work. Instead of a miserably insufficient
detachment of a few hundreds, the colonial
troops, militia, and volunteers, numbered in
September 1866, no less than 6,500 men, though '
at this time there were fully 10,000 regular troops
from England stationed in the islands. The New
Zealand Government itself has recognised the first

Whatever else may be said of it, the Times still
holds as it has held for many years past, the foremost
place among the newspapers, not of England alone,
but of Europe, of both hemispheres. There is no
adulation in saying this. The statement of any-
thing of the kind is simply the declaration of a fact
already and long since recognised by every one who
knows anything at all about newspapers. Among
other organs of the press there may be one having a
perfect right to arrogate to itself the distinction
of having the largest circulation in the world,
and another that of being the largest journal
passed through the printing machine. But, size and
circulation apart, looking simply to the journals of
the earth, with an eye to their recognized rei utation,
we cannot for an instant conceive that any one with
the most ordinary knowledge of newspapers will fail
to acknowledge upon the instant that the Times is
facile princeps in the world of journalism. It would
not be by any means difficult, as we conceive, to show
how this reputation has been won. Looking to its origin
and remembering how one of its earliest promoters or
projectors was the very first to combine the hitherto
divided powers of the steam engine and the printing
press with a view to its more rapid production, the
limes, even when considered solely in regard to its
mechanical arrangements, might almost be said to
have earned a sort of prescriptive right to its pre-
eminence. That pre-eminence, however, has been
secured and maintained by other and far higher
agencies. Among these higher agencies have been,
of course, the skill, adroitness, and sagacity of its
general organisation. Equally of course, among them
also hasbeen very conspicuously indeed the harmonious
combination of singularly varied intellectual powers,
wisely selected and judiciously applied by a directing
intelligence, the sagacity of which as a rule has been
unerring and one which is recognisable at once as the
result solely of a very extended experience. As a rule
the sagacity of this directing intelligence, we repeat,
has been unerring. As a rule—but not always.
Human= est en-are. Occasion has been before
now when a meditated and gigantic fraud upon the
commercial world has been detected, hunted
down and exposed by the Times newspaper. Its ser-
vices in that way have been recognised and appre-
ciated—and the gratitude of the community has
thereupon been publicly and signally evidenced in
its regard. Having a giant's strength, however, it
should at all times, but more especially in regard
to individuals, use that strength which is at its
command generously, and with particular regard
above all things, to the courtesies of public and
private life. Appreciating to the full, as we do, the
good services done to the community at large by this
first and foremost among all our contemporaries, we
cannot but regard with profound astonishment an
instance, in its impression of this morning, in
which it deliberately violates all the courtesies o.