The Sun.
London, England, 1869-03-30 00:00:00

`SPIRIT Or TEE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

The Times asks what will the historian writing a genera-
tion hence say of Lord Stanley's inaction ? The Opposition
policy must be sought for from three men. Mr. Disraeli
evades the exigencies of the occasionwith paradoxes which
reveal nothing and conceal nothing. Mr. Hardy
clamorously contends for mere resistance till the end comes
and he and his party sink overmastered. Lord Stanley is
the third man of the Opposition, and from him we get—
silence. England cannot afford to lose Lord Stanley,
and the danger of becoming tied and bound in
the chains of a hopeless position would seem to
be never so great as now. There is no man in the House
of Commons whose judgment is more sound, more honestly
formed, more impartial—no man more free from the mists
of prejudice and the heat of passion. Lord Stanley's earlier
career, however, was conspicuous by nothing so much as
by its evident proofs of political courage. One of his first
acts in Parliament was to speak and vote for the total
abolition 'of church rates when the maintenance of church
rates was the distinctive feature of Conservatism. We
shall not willingly believe that this courage has wholly dis-
,pppeared, although we are being reluctantly dragged to
&is conclusion. The vote of Wednesday morning was
another circumstance binding Lord Stanley to an associa-
tionaltogether unworthy of him ; and, unless the false act
be quickly undone, it must leave him hopelessly enthralled.
We deceive ourselves in thinking we may always regain
our freedom at a wish after we have consented to years of
bondage. Lord Stanley has but to look at the leader of
the party among whom he is ranked to be convinced of
that error. There he will see great genius doomed to ste-
rility, the most vivid powers of perception and intelligence
resulting in inaction, a will all but indemitable curbed and
Powerless by a series of concessions to the temptations of
circumstance.

• The Post observes that although we have no carnival in
this country, we contrive to amine ourselves after the
fashion of Englishmen at Easter. It is in the eyes of
foreigners a curious fashion. We are, perhaps, slow at
receiving ideas of pleasure, our laughter may be out of
time, and the tendency of our excitement may be to bru-
tality. The' truth is, however, that in the countries where
holidays are enjoyed with temperate equanimity,
and where there is none of the drunkenness and
boisterous mirth through which they have come to
be regarded almost as evils in this country, every
Sunday is a holiday : and in that sense, and in
that sense only, can the question of religion, which is
commonly interpolated, be considered as not irrelevant.
Since holidays are connect ed with holy days, with the
festivals of the Church and the events they commemorate,
is inferred that our dulnws arises from living, as we are
supposed to do, under the Ahade of an unsentimental reli-
gion ; and although the inference is far-fetched and absurd,
,it is indisputable that where the Church permits and the
Government encourages recreation on the day of
rest, public decorum Is better respected. Whether
the arrangement is moral in itself, or practically
conducive to morality, is, however, by no means
certain ; and indeed it would appear that the
abatement of nuisances which, as it were, stare us out of
countenance, contributes not a little to the mass of vice
which is barely screened from observation, or thinly plated
with gold. It is true, therefore, that if we look at our
Easter holidays as they are kept by the working classes
from a continental point of view, something may be dis-
cerned which we would like to have changed altogether ;
but it is also true that if we want continental refinement,
we must adopt the manners and customs from which it is
acquired, and give up feelings and convictions which are
deep-rooted in the national heart, and which have formed
and moulded our national character.
The Herald is apprehensive that the proposed conces-
sions to the natives of India in reference to the Civil
Service will gb beyond the bounds of prudence. To aug-
ment the new appointments to an extent sufficient to give
general content would be impossible, even though the

entire service were placed at native disposal. And what
would be the result of giving up the service to the natives
in any considerable degree, say to the extent of enabling
it to exercise any strong countervailing influence to our
own ? Was the rule which we supplanted so much supe-
rior in justice, in humanity, in care for the political
freedom, social advancement, and material progress of
the people to that which we have substituted as to warrant
recurrence to such a retrograde policy ? Were the natives
of_lndilt as fit for the work of government as ourselvea,we
should certainly never have been able to monopolise it,
and find ourselves in the position of considering how far
they shall be admitted to a share in the administration of
their own affairs.

The Standard says the Beefsteak Club is gone ! It is

to be formally dissolved this week. That pleasant little
company, consisting of an exclusive twenty-four, is to
melt away, and its goods and chattels—its furniture
plate, oil portraits, and prints—are to be sold by public
unction. How many will regret the end of a history once
so triumphant ! We go back unavoidably to the past ;
we see ancient figures ; we listen to uncommon gossip ; we
live in a different life, and see persons as they are not seen
now, in the old doings, habits, and rules of the Beefsteak
Club, which used to meet so familiarly in a room at the
back of the Lyceum Theatre. At present the club is
merely a convenience. But we cannot part with our
good old friend, the Beefsteak Club, without a
reminiscence of it. A peer of the realm, calling
upon a famous actor, found him, not rehearsing,
but cooking on a gridiron, in the immortal Professor
Wilson way, a dinner of beef. Forthwith, he said, let an
association be founded to cultivate and perpetuate this
neglected art. Of course the hint was taken. Fox,
Sheridan, and Brougham sat down at that simple table
with the Duke of Norfolk. However, it is vanishing ;it
is being sold up ; and it will presently have no better
claim to existence than the Reform League. For, in fact,
that kind of life has long gone out from among us. The
modern club is not what the former clubs used to be. It
does not take up a man's life as they did ; it represents a
totally different social aspect. Of course there are still
" Bohemians" and " Scribblers," " Savages" and " Hooks

and Eyes," but these are merely nominal. They willnever
have their histories written ; and if they expire, as they
do, for all the world knows to the contrary, every day,
they will not deserve an epitaph such as may be written on
the tombstone of the Beefsteak.