The Sun.
London, England, 1869-04-12 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

The Times. in commenting on the recent outrages in
Westmeath, observes that the prophets of evil find in
them cause for exultation. While the platforms of Ulster
are ringing with Orange proclamations of defiance, and
Fenian journalists are holding out the right hand of fellow.
ship to Repealers, the Riband conspiracy has again
reared its head in more formidable proportions than usual.
It has been stated, however, that within the last twenty
years more than sixty homicides have been committed in
Westmeath, and that in no single instance has conviction
been obtained. If this statement be well-founded, it goes
far to justify the deplorable sense of insecurity which now
prevails throughout that county. It was perhaps inevitable
that partisanship should pervert the revival of Ribandism
into an argument against the recognition of religious
equality. Yet an argument more fallacious and more
self-refuting has rarely been used in political controversy.
It is said the Irish Church Bill was extorted by the
Fenians, and it is denied, in the same breath, that it will
satisfy the Fenians, inasmuch as disestablishment never
formed any portion of their demands. With equal con-
sistency it is alleged that if we yield to just claims in
respect of the Church, we must yield to unjust claims in
respect of the land, and that keeping up one grievance is
the best way of silencing all complaints about another.
The real mainspring of these opinions, so far as they are
sincere, is a despair of governing Ireland by justice and
wisdom. All true statesmanship must be animated,
and has ever been animated, by a spirit the very
reverse of this—by an earnest and unswerving
faith in the constant tendency of good measures to
produce good results. What is most needed in Ireland is
a reciprocal confidence in the desire and resolution of the
Imperial Government to carry out those measures without
reserve or wavering. This confidence, unless we greatly
mistake, is beginning to spring up in the breasts of a people
among whom confidence in British rule has been a plant
of slow growth. It will require generations to mature
;itself, and there is truth in the assertion that a long period
a: rest is the best cure for the ills of Ireland—only it roust
be the rest of prosperity and contentment, not the rest of
impotent disaffection. The most hopeful feature in the
present state of Ireland is the abandonment of reliance on
foreign intervention by the leaders of the national party,
and their cordial alliance with the English and E'cotch
Liberals. By this alliance they have already gained more
in three years than had been gained by agitation and con-
spiracy since Catholic emancipation.
The Standard declares that Mr. Gladstone knew very
well, when he voted fur Mr. Goldney's resolution, and
denounced the Government for not carrying it out, that
any proposition for a tax upon charities would meet with
a most formidable opposition from both sides of the House.
What are we to think of the honesty and fairness of a
public man, who votes for the imposition upon another
Government, in a minority, of a task which, with a majority
of a hundred and twenty, he will not undertake, and treats
the suggestion that he should have done himself what he
declared that Government ought to have done as the
assumption that he and his colleagues are children in their
business, that business being, it must be supposed, to get
and to keep office? The right honourable gentleman
brought upon himself sharp and severe punishment. Mr.
Disraeli exposed his misrepresentations, refuted the
constitutional doctrines he had " fudged " for the occasion,
and rebuked and ridiculed the temper in which he had
addressed the House. If Mr. Gladstone be not incurable,
the lesson he received ought to result in a very great and
beneficial change in his manner. We fear, however, that
he is past all reformation, and that his faults of temper
and his habitual recklessness of statement are too con-
firmed to be got rid of. But if Mr. Disraeli's speech will
not bring Mr. Gladstone to repentance, it will certainly
awaken the public mind to the danger of reposing implicit
confidence in Mr. Gladstone's professions.
The Daily News remarks that it seems to be the
opinion of some politicians, in Parliament and out
of it, that with accession of the present Govern-
ment to office the function of independent Liberal
members has ceased; and that from this time forth no
subject shall be raised, motions made, or question put,
which may be disagreeable or inconvenient to her
Majesty's Ministers. This view, we confess, is not ours ;
and they are very bad friends of the Government who
insist on the rule of action which it embodies. An
Administration and a private member having the same
end in view may, often with perfect propriety, take
different lines of action in respect of it. The one may be
quite right in forcing a discussion and pressing a motion
which the other is justified in resisting. A Government
is bound to consider questions of time and opportunity,
the amount of business which engages it and the addi-
tional work which is within its powers, the feeling of
the majority of its own supporters, and the strength
of the Opposition, before it pledges itself to a given course.
But an individual member who is without the responsi-
bilities of office has, by that very fact, responsibilities of
another sort. By pressing a question at what is called an
untimely period he hastens the advent of the ripe season.
His impracticability is often the surest practicability. A
Government which has very much to do needs more than

any other to have its attention called to subjects which, in
the multiplicity and absorbing character of its engage•
meats, it may ahcrwi; e overlook. It is apt to go to
sleep on a large and docile majority, and, like the sages of
Swift's satire, it requires flappers to keep it on the alert.
When there are many conflicting candidates for attention,
those who make their voices heard most persistently will
be most likely to have their claims allowed. A just cause
or a necessary reform, which might urge its justice or
necessity in vain, will often find its importunity irresis-
tible. The plea for a convenient season is sometimes best
met by making delay inconvenient.
The Telegraph says that if the Tories "cut" Mr.
Gladstone and his bill, they achieve the rather difficult
feat of sending all England "to Coventry ;" they treat
John Bull as Beau Brummell did "Our fat friend," the
Prince Regent. We hardly believe that Mr. Disraeli
can give any advice that would sanction such absurd:ty.
The bill is now before the House awaiting the examina-
tion of its clauses. The Tories have resisted the principle
on the second reading. They made a fair fight in debate.
They manfully mustered all their men. They were hand-
somely beaten. But if they could not win in a pitched
battle, there is no reason why they may not gain succsss
in detail. They are still free to pelt the measure with
such adjectives as "undesirable," " pretna.ture," or any
others that they choose to employ; but why not make the
best of the situation ? They are still free to object to any
" confiscation " at all ; but, if " confiscation " is inevi-
table, why not soften its effects? Now that the Irish
Church is dead, its best friends may dry their eyes, and
consider the most equitable mode of administering its
effects so as to secure the remnants of the property for the
natural heirs. In Ireland, to-day, the irritated Pro-
testants indulge in extravagant language, perhaps
pardonable in the first flush of pain after their
great defeat. But their English friends—above
all, a man like Mr. Disraeli, who despises
English as well as Irish prejudices—can afford to
be calm ; can plead their cause in their own permanent
interest without passion and without spite ; can, in fact,
make for his enraged clients better terms than even they
now demand or desire. It would be cruel kindness were
he to take them at their word, and fling the bill on the
floor of the House, to be practically discussed by the
Liberals alone. Broadly viewed, the question of policy
wii!cii will ccm b fa() them is, whether the Conser-
vatives shall blindly attempt a hopeless and wasteful
resistance, or shall take their part in the effort so to
shape the measure that it may be completely suited
to the actual conditions of the day, without doing unne-
cessary harm to any of the grave interests which are at
stake.

The Star says that life peerages are on the cards. A
growing sense of the necessity of bringing the House
of Lords into rapport with the country has pro-
duced a great change, and the Peers no longer talk
as they talked even so lately as 1856. Lord Cairns
and Lord Salisbury agree with Lord Russell and
Lord Granville that the creation of Peers for life is
desirable. The Star thinks the question is one of minor
importance to the nation. Lord Salisbury believes, no
doubt, that there would be much more Conservative
strength in a real representation of the rich and powerful
classes in this country than there ever will be again in an as-
sembly of hereditary nobles, who are put aside as legislators
whenever they have a will of their own. The tendency
of rich men is to become conservative, and real social power
is very apt to take good care of itself legislatively when-
ever it gets the chance. Lord Salisbury relies on this, and
probably thinks several deluges might have been post-
poned if the House of Lords had been strengthened in
time, and kept thoroughly representative of powers
corresponding in later times to those which it truly and
solidly stood for in earlier centuries. The whole discussion
is more or less chimerical ; but as the strongest House of
Lords that can be devised will never again successfully
resist the will of the people, by all means let the Peers
take Lord Salisbury's advice, and make their House as
modern and sensible a Legislative Chamber as possib!e.

The London correspondent of the Birmingham
Gazette (Conservative paper), Eays that there will be morf
than ono vacancy en the episcipal bench icforo long. •
RARE ALTTOGRAPRE.,—At a sale of interesting
autograph letters and historical documents, now going on
at the rooms of Messrs. Sotheby, Wilkinson, and Hodge,
in Wellington-street, there occurred two letters that may
be deemed worthy of note, viz., one by Daniel Defoe, the
celebrated novelist, occupying three pages, addressed tc
Robert llarley, signed "D. F.," which produced DIO ; the
other by John Dryden, addressed to Lord Latimer, in
which he says, " The King's Comedy lyes in the Sudds
you please to semi me on to Northam t b e "
brousht
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