The Sun.
London, England, 1869-09-30 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF TR PUBLIC JOURNALS,

The Times believes it was Lord Palmerston who said that
tenant right must not bo made landlords' wrong, and the
remark, though it may read like a truism, is singularly ap-
plicable to the demands recently advanced by Irish agita-
tors on the pending land question. Perhaps these people
really do think they can extort what they please from the
Imperial Government; perhaps they are only setting their
price as high as possible so as to be better prepared for tho
inevitable abatement ; but in any case they may as well
assure themselves of the truth in good time A Ca-
binet Minister has already announced that, whatever
Ministers may do, they will not do what they are thus
urged to do. " Although," said :Lord Clarendon at Wat-
ford, " I will not tell you what the Government will do, I
will tell you what they will not do. They will not adopt
any of those wild and subversive schemes of which we have
heard so much during the last few days." That is plain
speaking; and we may now add, for the benefit of the
same expectants, that English Liberals are en the subject
entirely in accord with the Ministry. Irishmen must
understand that what the country now purposes is, not to
confer special privileges, but to remove ascertained wrongs.
There is no reason whatever for giving an Irish
tenant what an English tenant cannot obtain
and never demands. Except for the peculiar
condition of Ireland there would be no reason for
entertaining the " Land Question " at all. The one
condition to be observed is that the tenant shall not be a
loser in respect of his dealings with the land. In so far as
he has improved it, he should be compensated for the im-
provement, either by long holding or substantial equiva-
lent. If industry had as many openings in Ireland as
in England, and if an Irishman who could not got a farm
to his liking had a dozen other trades to turn to, there
would be neither necessity nor justification for any land
law at all. It is only in consideration of the disadvantage
at which Irish tenants stand that a land law is now con-
templated ; but they must not e_zpect to be turned into
landlords themselves, or to be presented with the property
of others while receiving protection for their own.

The Telegraph says it is, of course, impossible to follow
the President of the Social Science Congress through all the
sections of his speech ; but, in most of them, a sentence or
two may be noted that might serve as epitaphs for the
very grave of Toryism. Even now, as we have hinted, the
position of the speaker colours his views. When he talks
of the agricultural labourer—a poor, forlorn item of
humanity, who has excited some interest in Devonshire of
late—he is careful to insist upon the evils attending any
sudden displacement of labour; and he insists upon them
in a strain which will perchance provoke an energetic
rejoinder before the Congress is over. Again, when he has
to deal with co-operation, he takes pains to speak of it as
something better suited to Plato's Republic than to our
actual England—just as, five years ago, he would have
spoken of household suffrage as a capital thing for a new
colony just organising its constitutional system, but
utterly unsuited for an old monarchy like Great Britain.
Co-operation has made a few strides of late, since the days
when the Chairman of the Educational Section at Bristol,
Canon Kingsley, was rebuked in open church for naming
it ; but Canon Kingsley—another Devonshire man,
and of a nature somewhat less timidly amiable
than Sir Stafford's—has lived to see that and
some other dreams of his youth come within
the pale of even Episcopal toleration. However,
we readily and most cheerfully forgive all short-
comings and hesitancies in Sir Stafford's speech for
the sake of the manly frankness with which he challenges
the fullest and freest discussion ; the point and force with
which he denounces the tricks and scandals of public
debate, advising the "police of society" at once to arrest
such ill-regulated words as "sectarian ;" and, above all, for
his hearty recognition of the "Ladies' Conference," under
Miss Carpenter's management, which sits every day with
closed doors, not even reporters being admitted : sits—as
Walter Savage Landor says of the eagle in his "Count
Julian"—" sits solitary, sits immovable, beyond the arrows,
shouts, and views of men."
The letter of the Bishop of Orleans, addressed to Father
Hyacinthe, is, says the Standard, the proper and natural
complement to that of the eloquent ex-Carmelite. He does
not insult him for his rebellion, neither does he even ques-
tion that there has been much to goad him into it. He
confesses, with an exquisite ingenuousness, of which it
were well that there were more amongst us, that Father
Hyacinthe has suffered. What a world of suppressed
meaning there is in that word "suffered," and we pray
Anglicans, who are occasionally worried with their spiritual
anxieties, to weigh it well. There is suffering, it seems,
in obedience and submission of the understanding, as well
as in its exercise and reasonable liberty. It is the worthy
letter of a worthy man, and Father Hyacinthe owns that
he is touched by it. It would have been strange, indeed,
if ho had not been. Fortunately, however, he is made of
sterner stuff than to listen to the invitations. his answer

is brief, but it is pregnant and sufficient. " What you call
the committal of a grave fault I call the fulfilment of a
great duty." Here are the two sides of the shield. We
would beg all hesitating Anglicans not to shrink from the
examination of both. That men who already bear the yoke
of the Romish Church should hesitate to get rid of it is
intelligible. The moment is scarcely propitious for Ro-
man Catholics to fly to evils that they know not of. But
that Protestants, with their eyes open, with the fate of
Lamennais, and the "sufferings" of Lacordaire, Ravignan,
and Father Hyacinthe before them, should dream of gratui-
tously submitting themselves to such a yoko fairly passes
our comprehension.

The Post declares that the ease set up for the Fenians
may be dismissed with two words. Tho truth is that they
contemplated a rebellion which there was nothing to
justify, and in which they could not hope for success; that
they were fools if they were not knaves ; and that, any-
how, they richly deserved the punishment which vindi-
cated the majesty of the law. While therefore it may be
proper to consider whether the requirements of justice
are now satisfied, it would be highly inconvenient
to grant an amnesty on grounds which, if
not clearly defined, might be misapprehended. The
dignitaries of the Roman Catholic Church have a diffi-
cult part to play. It would not be consistent with the
Pope's docti ines for them to preach sedition ; and, on the
other hand, they have to keep abreast of the Fenians, who
are ready enough to take the monopoly of demagogism out
of the ecclesiastical custody. Fortunately, they are not all
like Father O'Connor. There can be no permanent
improvement in Ireland, or in the relations existing
between England and Ireland, which does not proceed from
the recognition of that pure patriotism which exalts and
arms a nation ; but it is madness, and worse than madness,
for it is sheer blasphemy, to inscribe "God save Ireland"
on the emblems of a faction which, in vainly compassing
her destruction, trampled under foot every law human and

The Daily News observes that the carrying out of the
plans which led up to the murders, and the fury with
which the victims were assailed in the act of murder,
suggests that murder had become a passion in Tropman's
mind. He is said to have made a hero of the wholesale
murderer in the " Wandering Jew." He is also said to be
an imaginative and excitable youth—a mere boy of 19—
just the boy and just the age to catch a passion for horrible
adventure from stories which make villains heroes. Many
a lad has become a thief from the mere infection of his
imagination by stories of Jack Sheppard and Dick
Turpin. Tropman's imagination had probably become
possessed with the idea of making his fortune
by a coup which would strike the world with
horror; he seems to have pursued this idea with all the
skill and coolness which persons thus possessed generally
exhibit ; but when the murderous passion, thus nursed,
cherished, and obeyed, found its victims before it, it broke
out in a mad rage to inflict wounds and see blood. Hence
the insatiate fury which could not oven spare the child of
five years old, and which was not content with murdering
its victims, but must cover them with superfluous wounds.
Trauppmann must have been possessed by the demon of a
desire to kill. He is perhaps the extremest example this
age has produced (.' the tyranny which the imagination
can exercise when bIICC it is possessed of an absorbing
thought. It was probably his object to create a sensation,
to do something original and striking, and he has accom-
plished it by the commission of one of the most horrible
and astounding crimes the present generation has
witnessed.

Considering the active part which Mr. Lange has taken,
in the great undertaking of the Suez Canal, which is des-
tined to revolutionise the means of intercommunication
between Europe and Asia, the Star cannot blame him for
pointing out the advantages we may hope to derive from
the canal in the event of war with the United States. Mr.
Lange, however, manifestly exaggerates the danger
of such a calamity ; and this tono of exaggera-
tion, when combined with the line of argu-

merit he has pursued, is adapted to impart In-
creased vitality to whatever of turbulent feeling there
,taype in both countries. It is true that the shortening of
the uLtanco to India and China, and the contraction in the
same proportion of the line to be defended, must prove a
great boon to the commerce of this country, whether
in peace or in war. But wo are afraid that, if the even-
tuality upon which he speculates were really to ari-.:, his
vaticinations would only be partially borne out by the
result. When corsairs are 011C3 let loose they roam over
the sea without limitation as to degree-; of latitude and
longitude ; and the change in the route to India would
give very little security to our traders in travenl-
h g
the highways of the Indi,:n Ocean. There remains'
the question as to the o4tont to which the Suez
Canal will really divert the trade of the East into t henew
This resolves itself int) a simpslPfivmatter of
enable kitipowners in all, or even thei majority- of
Will the tor
Shillings, and pence.
ontherrouitsoLe'dfhaot tollten
cic:.:l:ipt:Aaegnl ,
y.
ed by the
cases, to give the preference to the sh o•
for the passage from one sea to the
francs per ton measurement, and an additional two francs
A simple arithmetical calculation
amount to as regards a
per ton for towage,
will shew what this tribute will
whip of any given tonnage. On thea other hand,circumstances
eandt
com-
pany is always able to adapt itself to
itstar;
thatd the new
therefore,nLeawngreoandaso India. pjl a
may, at
reason;i o 4
revisee
for anticipating
tant day, entirely eclipse the old one, .