The Sun.
London, England, 1858-07-15 00:00:00

tuanca.

There is nothing too daring for commercial
enterprise. A small party of capitalists, assembled in
a board room, decide that some mighty undertaking
shall be attempted, and despite most appalling im-
pediments and obstacles, it will be accomplished.
The real "Aladdin's lamp" is at their disposal,
and they eventually dispose of every difficulty.
But laurels are not gained without labour, nor
are groat feats achieved without temporary failures.
That the cable should have been frequently frac-
tured might have been anticipated. The severity
of the weather, and the enormous burden shipped
in the Agamemnon, rendered it very unlikely
that she could weather such a storm as
that to which she was subjected, in the centre
of the broad Atlantic. That the great under-
dertaking will he eventually accomplished seems
certain ; and that its results will be of the most
beneficial character,worth the cost ten times told,
is equally sure. As we have already suggested,
the Great Eastern would be the best vessel. The
Agamemnon was too small—was overburdened.
The American vessel performed her part of the
work : and it is due to the national honour that
we should repair the temporary failure. The
Great Eastern can do it alone ; and we are sure
that both directors and shareholders will be
willing to merit the national gratitude, and gain
credit for their ship, by rendering her services
available on fair and equitable terms.

We intend no affront to our circumcised
readers, but we must say that in the matter
of the Jew Bill the Lords have attempted
to jew the Commons. Although so de-
termined not to be released from their
oath, "On the true faith of a Christian,"
they have higgled for the last pennyworth of "dig-
nity" in a style much more befitting Petticoat-lane
and Houndsditch than the " true faith of a
Christian.'' We remember, at least, no sentence
in the teaching of the Author of that faith which
instructs us to prefer contention, for the uttermost
we can squeeze from an opponent, to magnanimous
cincession ; but rather the other way. To the
best of our recollection " the true faith of a Chris-
tian" suggests the same notion of the honourable,
in a case like the present, as do the precepts of
chivalry, and even of more cultivated heathenism
itself. We must confess our surprise that a
man of Lord DERBY'S really noble mind
should be so led away by prejudice,
or, more probably, by the narrow-minded de-
mands of others, as to insist, first, on sending to
the Commons a new bill for Jewish emancipation,
instead of a clause in the Oaths Bill actually
before him ; secondly, to do fais that ho might
make an opportunity to send down with the old
Bill his reasons for not admitting the Jaws into
the Legislature.
With all due deference to one who ought to be
so good a judge of the dignified, to all of us un-
initiated outsiders, this looks like sharping with
dignity rather than sustaining it. Had the Lords,
by their acts, said frankly—" You have the coun-
try with you; it is not our part to set our opinions
against those of the nation, but to give legal
effect to its wishes. We are the country's
Ministers, not its masters ; we think the country
is wrong, but we fulfil our constitutional duty to
it"—if this had been their tone, wo could feel it
to be thoroughly dignified. But to see the Peers
of England scheming and contriving to get the
last word in a dispute, it makes them look, let
them quibble and wriggle as they may, exceed..
ingly small.
But fighting for the last word is contagious,
and seems to be a game that two can play at.
My Lord JOHN RUSSELL has always been a
pertinacious little gentleman enough ; one who
could never very comfortably put up with an
unrequited snubbing. No sooner, therefore, does
he see the Lords' little Jewish emancipation Bill
thoroughly out of danger, and know that he has
secured the main point, and even before the trio
from the Lords—the little bill, and the bigger
bill, and the five reasons have fairly reached the
House—than, he bleaches his plan ; and on Tues-
day night he instructed the Commons how they
might do the Lords. The clever little suggestion
is this :—Let the Commons, said he, pass the little
emancipation bill sent down by the Lords. Let
them next take into consideration the Lords' five
reasons why no such bill ought to be passed
as that which will then have passed both
houses ; and let them then resolve as the
bill sent down from the Lords has answered
their own "reasons," and done substantially
what the rc cte,tl el ~ngeg Iwo intended to effect,
that there is no need for replying to those
" reasons." And so the Commons will have the
last words 1 In their journals will be entered the
last record ; and the record will be, that the
Lords have reasoned black and voted white ! And
so is to end" the Dignity Squabble of the session
of 1858. The dignity of the Lords is to rest on
cursing the Jews, while it lets them easily into
the Commons ; the dignity of the Commons on
recording that the Lords have stultified them-
aa:vos. The Lords go out of the circus like Mr.
RAREY'S zebra, kicking up their heels just to
show that all the old vice is not out of them yet ;
and the Commons look at them with a smile,
saying—" but we've tamed you into doing our
bidding."
Lot the merit be given, however, to the right
parties. Sir IL BETHELE and Mr. T. Di NCOUCE
are the real victors—the latter especially. Sir
RICHARD showed the Commons a course which
they certainly would have taken, had not the old
and pledged Lords got a political outsider to sug-
gest to them (much to their surprise, Of course) a
scheme which would get them over the stile.
But Mr. T. DUNCOMBE fairly turned the counsel
of the upper House Achitophels into foolishness.
He showed the House the way for Baron ROTHE-
CHILD do everything but to sitand vote in the regular
" House. He might, and did, serve on a com-
mittee, might go up with an address to the QUEEN,
might meet the Lords themselves in conference,
might stand and speak and be a member, taking
his seat amongst the Peers who visit the Corn.
mons, and thus doing every duty of a membor