The Sun.
London, England, 1867-04-08 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

THE " EXAMINER" ON NEW MOVES IN THE
GAME.—At the meeting of Opposition members
held on Friday at the residence of Mr. Gladstone,
it was announced that Mr. Coleridge had under-
taken to move the following resolution :—" That it
be an instruction to the committee, that they have
the power to alter the law of rating, and to pro-
vide that in every Parliamentary borough the occu-
piers of tenements below a given rateable value be
released from liability to personal rating, with the
view to fix a line for the borough franchise, at and
above which all occupiers shall be entered upon the
rate-books, and shall have equal facilities for the
enjoyment of such franchise as a resi lential or-au-
pation franchise." It is obvious that for a resolu-
tion so framed men of opinions the most opposite
may vote. The seceders from Lcrd Derby's Ca
binet will, it is understood, give it their support,
reserving to themselves the right at £6, £B, or £lO
a year, the undetermined line, below which all arc
to pay their own rates ; while Liberals may take
their aid to carry the motion, inwardly resolved to
fix the line at a £5 rating, which will be equivalent
to a £7 rent. The placid and persuasive member
for Exeter will doubtless put his case for the in-
struction in the mildest tone ; and it is possible
that for five or ten minutes after he sits down not a
sound may be heard indicative of the conflict
about to begin. But that the conflict is immi-
nent everybody understands. It was indeed
open to Ministers to quit their position, decamp
over night, and leave their adversaries to
follow them into the quagmire of reform of rating
through which they would take some two or three
months to struggle together, before attempting to
proceed further with the Representation of the
People Bill. And if legislation were nothing more
than high comedy, this might be the cleverest re-
joinder to so special a plea. But the country would
hardly have borne with equanimity this taking of
antagonists at their word at the cost of its peace
and comfort during another year ; for if at Easter
Parliament were to plunge into the unsound depths
of local rating as a preliminary to the consideration
of electoral reform, it is manifest that there would
be n.o chance of a settlement of the latter question
until next session. Front the highest personage in
the realm to the humblest trader who has anything
to lose, there prevails a deep and earnest antipathy
to such delay. Well-founded fear of evil is seldom
loud, even when it is wide and deep ; and we con-
fess, therefore, that we think Ministers will act
honourably and wisely in not seeking to evade
the assault of their opponents by any strategic
manoeuvre of this kind. If, on the other hand,
they accept the challenge and stand firm, next
week will be consumed in a struggle which
may possibly decide the fate of parties and pro-
bably the fate of the bill. With a view to what
was felt to be coming, Mr. Disraeli has made an in-
genious counter move. He last night laid upon
the table clauses regarding compound householders,
which would compel the insertion in the rate-book
of the names of all occupiers, and which would
enable such of them as desired the franchise to pay
their portion of the compound rate, and to have
credit for it as part payment of rent, the owner
being in every such case exonerated from the
liability. In other words, these clauses appear to be
intended to make good the right of household suf-
frage to every man who c ires for the possession of
it sufficiently to take the trouble of paying what lie
now pays in one sum called rent, the same amount in
two sums, the one called rent and the other compound
rate. Without such clauses the bill could not, in
deed, have been accepted by the friends of house-
hold suffrage • and without them it would have
e.
had no chance of passing through committee. There
can be no disguising the fact that they look with
grave distrust upon the proposal of Mr. Coleridge,
which they reasonably regard as certain to be fol-
lowed by a practical denial and rejection of the
principle for which they contend. Mr. Gladstone
has intimated that he would have been content, as
Lord Cranborne would have been, with a £6 rating
(equivalent to an £8 rent) as the basis of the borough
franchise, below which all should be excluded. The
Instruction to be moved on Monday night is the
first step towards this consummation ; and to this,
should that Instruction be carried, it is possible that
we may come. Aud if there be any members of
the Liberal party who consider that such a change
would be sufficient to settle the question, and to
content the great body of the unenfranchised com-
munity, we can understand their advocating it. We
own we are too dull to be able to comprehend by
what process of reasoning they arrive at this con-
clusion. To us it seems too fatally plain that if
the popular party in Parliament—in sudden alli-
ance with the ultra Tories, who seek to punish
Ministers for yielding as much as they do—were to
obliterate all claim to household suffrage, and to
substitute for it a £6, or even a £5 rating, agita-
tion would be certain to recommence in a spirit
more dangerous and subversive than any we have
recently known, because embittered by the loss of
all faith in the professions of Parliamentary men.
There is, indeed, one way, and one only, of clearing
up the doubts that on all sides lower over the dis-
cussion of the question. Let the Liberal leaders
make up their minds before next week's debate
begins to say unmistakably what they are going for,
and to what use they would put their success were
Mr. Coleridge's equivocal motion carried. It is the
legitimate child and successor to the memorable amend-
ment of 1859, which, professing solicitude for popular
enfanchisement, delayed all Reform from that day till
now. That Resolution succeeded in breaking up a
Parliament but two years old, and in breaking lip a I
Conservative Administration ; and if the object of this
Instruction be the same, it may be equally successful.
Should Ministers treat the motion as irreconcilable
with the scope and spirit of their Bill, and, after full
discussion, should it be carried by a coalition such
as we have above described, a dissolution would be
inevitable. But what then, for the residue of the
year 1867, would become of Reform ?
TIMES.—Lord Stanley has acted energetically in
support of his late demand for satisfaction from
Slain. The Mediterranean squadron sailed from
Malta yesterday morning, and may be expected to
appear before Cadiz without delay. Its object is to
obtain from the Spanish Government a plain an-
swer to a plain question, and to put an end to the
negotiations which have been carried to so great a
length and with so little effect between the Spanish
Secretary for Foreign Affairs, General Don
Eu,eb•n
i
l de Calonge, and her Majesty's Minister, Sir John
Crampton. Although the British Government must
at last be impressed with the necessity of departing from that excessive moderation and forbearance
which the consciousness of superior strength seemed
to recommend, and although they could no longer
submit to a treatment inconsistent with the national
honour, we are yet allowed to hope that the
extremities may be avoided, and that our ultimatum
may eventually be accepted. This would be by no
means the first instance in which Queen Isabella has
in great emergencies shown more discretion than her
punctilious advisers, and it is possible that, before
committing her country to a conflict in defence of
her local authorities, she may wish to _
other
men besides those she has trusted with consult
nt
work of internal reaction. Although weerharvuecoufeten
expressed our opinion that the Spanish nation is
too desperate of success, too weary and
d disgusted
with its long succession' of unprofitable
political
changes, to venture on open insurrection, there
is no doubt that deep discontent prevails, and
that the deadly silence obtained by wholesale
execution and proscriptions does not signify order
or peace. It is only a few weeks since the Nar-
vaez-Bravo Ministry congratulated themselves on
the result of the Parliamentary elections, which, in-
deed, secured in their favour not only the majority,
but the actual unanimity of the Lower House, or
Congress. In the Upper House, or Senate, how-
ever, crowded as it is with men devoted to the Ad-
ministration, a motion has very lately been made
declaring that the arbitrary arrest and transporta-
ti▪
on of its late President, Marshal Serrano, has been
" viewed with regret." Marshal Narvaez and his
colleagues have been frightened at the results of
their own excesses, and ha''ve attempted to fall back
to some extent from that insane system of terror
they
had inaugurated on their accession to power.
They have, nominally at least, raised " the state of
sieg▪
e"iand they have recalled Rios Sosas, Salaverria
and other popular representatives from " the islands"
to which they had been sent for " forced residence.,
By this mere tender of reconciliation they seem to
fancy that their adversaries will be induced to allow
bygones to be bygones, and be thankful that the
banishment lasted only months which might have
been extended to years. They ought, however, to
have more correct notions of their resentful country-
men, and might easily have foreseen how much more
natural it is for the returning exiles to swell the
ranks of their enemies than to kiss the rod which
has chastised them. Even to so strong a lover of
absolute power as Queen Isabella, the internal
management of the State by her present Cabinet
must begin to appear a failure, and these recent
foreign complications will hardly reconcile her to
home blunders. Notwithstanding her well-known
partiality for Narvaez, this would be by no
instru-
ment the first time she bad laid aside that dread
of despotism in obedience to irresistible
reasons of State, although with a firm purpose to
recall him to her Council as soon as the storm
to which she was compelled to yield had blown
over. With Queen Isabella's Ministerial arrange-
ments or with her treatment of her own subjects we
have, however, nothing to do. Whatever reason
the Spanish Government may have had to find fault
with the language of the foreign press, we feel
con-
fident
that not a word of the reproach conveyed in
a late, circular from the Madrid Foreign Office could

in any manner affect us. We claim as full a right
to comment upon current events as the laws of our
country warrant, and we certainly never allowed
ourselves, on Spanish matters, any expression that
could be construed into hostility to the Spanish
nation or to the Government which it places, or ac
least which it endures, at its head. Neither shall
any difference arising from the violent treatment of
our vessels cause us to swerve from the course we
have hitherto adhered to. There is not, we feel
sure, any man in England who would not deeply
regret the necessity of an actual rupture with Spain.
At Cadiz, at Malaga, and in most other Spanish
ports, English interests would be almost as much
compromised by either blockade or bombardment as
those of the native people themselves. Nor should
we be greatly tempted by the prospect of the Philip-
pine Islands or other Spanish colon!es as " material
guarantees." Our remote possessions beyond sea
are already too vast and too numerous for us to
harbour any covetousness for those of our neigh-
bours. We have been staunch friends and faithful
allies to the Spaniards in our time, and we wish
nothing better than to continue on the same amicable
footing. But the position taken up by Lord Stan-
ley seems, to the most moderate among us, perfectly
just and reasonable. It remains to be seen whether
Don Eusebio de Calonge cannot give way, or
whether his Royal mistress finds she cannot dis-
pense with that gentleman's and with Narvaez's
services, and listen to the advice of less stiff-necked
and less wrong-headed statesmen.
THE " WESTMINSTER GAZETTE " ON THE DANISH
LNVASIONS OF IRELAND.—In noticing the Chronicum
Scotorunz, in a recent number, we observed that
that and another work were the only two volumes
of the " Chronicles and Memorials," published
under the direction of the Master of the Rolls,
which were specially devoted to Irish history.
That second work is the volume now before us,
which may be truly described as one of the
most important contributions to the history of
Ireland which have been published for many
years. Its text consists of an ancient Irish his-
torical tract called in the Celtic Cog(zdh Gaedhel
re Gallaibh, that is, " The War of the Gael, or
Irish, with the Gaill, or Foreigners ;" which nar-
rates the principal events in the various descents
of the Danes and Norwegians on Ireland, their
partial conquest of the country, and the final
overthrow of their power in the decisive battle
of Clontarf, A.D., 1014. It is written partly in
poetry, and partly in poetic, or rather bombastic
prose; and has been generally ascribed to Mac
Liag, who was bard and secretary to King Brian
Borumha, and who is known to have died in
1016. It contains a great many interpolations of
later date, the more bombastic passages being
clearly such ; but there is satisfactory internal
evidence to show that the writer of the bulk of
the work, whoever he was, was a cotemporary, and
most probably-an eye-witness of the battle of
Clontarf. One proof which appears conclusive on
this point would have delighted the laborious
authors of " L'Art de Verefies les dates." The
ancient tract states that the battle was fought on
Good Friday, 1014 ; that it commenced at sun-
rise, when there was. high tide in the Bay of
Dublin, and terminated at sunset, when the tide
was also full, and when, by intercepting the pass-
age to Dublin from the battle-field, it aided con-
siderably_ in the destruction of the defeated Danes.
-D__l'..Todd, the learned editor, obtainedthe aid of Dr.
Haughton, the eminent mathematician of Trinity
College, Dublin, to test the accuracy of the narra-
tive from this statement, and the result of the cal-
culation shows that on the 23rd of April, 1014,
on which day Good Friday fell in that year, the
time of highwater at Dublin coincided precisely
with those of sunrise and sunset ; a circumstance
which could never have been divined by a medi-
aeval Irish chronicler unless he had been eye-wit-
ness of the fact, or obtained his information from
an eye-witness. The Irish text was well known
to the Four Masters, and to Keatinge and O'Fla-
herty ; and in our own time Dr. O'Donovan made
ample use of it in his annotations to the Irish
Annals; but the English reader has now for the
first time an opportunity of examining its con-
tents ; and the manner in which it has been in-
troduced and annotated has left nothing to be
desired. Dr. Todd has, indeed, spared neither
time nor pains on his task ; and he seemed only too
for, believe,
maxim
,
well inclined to carry
npdremtraatnusrlaint.annum,"
actually in the press years ago, during thelolnifewtiemree
of the late Dr. ‘t‘laNe°lltlelnixotlatae on the occasion the
O'Donovan.The great feature of
the volume, however, and the most recent portion
of Dr. Todd's work, is the elaborate introduction,
mininz-tletileyh the whole substance of the text is
analysed, and many elucidations of Irish
history, topography, and manners incidentally
introduced. Sometimes these elucidations are of
considerable value, and this is the more enhanced
as the principle events described exerted an in-
fluence upon those of subsequent ages, with which
we ourselves become more immediately concerned.
The first Danish invaders found a kind of par-
triarchal state of society existing in Ireland, but
their devastations disorganized the whole face of
the country ; and from this disorganization Ire-
land never was able to recover, for the brief in-
terval between the Danish wars and the Anglo-
Norman invasion was spent in a series of intes-
tine struggles which forbid anything like social
improvement. At no time, at least within the his-
toric period, was there a regular centralization of
power and regal authority in Ireland, and the
patriarchal state failed to hold society together.
There was, indeed, always a nominal Ardrigh, or
Chief King, but his authority was more poetic than
real. This office was held alternately for centuries
by the Hy Nial of the North, or of Tyrone, and
the collateral branch of the Hy Nial of the
South, or of Meath. The latter branch generally
produced the weaker monarchs, and a King of
that branch, Malachy 11., happened to reign at the
close of the tenth century, when Brian Borumha,
King of North Munster, of the Dal-Casian race,
headed a revolution which transferred the sceptre
of Ireland from the Hy Nial monarch to himself.
Thus, the prestige of the old dynasty being de-
stroyed, and the dignity of Chief King being, in
effect, thrown open to any of the provincial chiefs
who might think themselves strong enough to
claim it by force of arms, a state of perpetual
anarchy was inaugurated, and all chance of estab-
lishing a fixed central authority apparently lost.
Dr. Todd thus describes the constitution of the
Irish clans, and it will be observed how fatal its
defects must have been to the peace and pro-
gress of the country
aThe whole body of the clan were summoned to decide
upon the question of war or peace. Every petty chief-
tain of every minor tribe, if not every individual clans-
man, had a voice, not only in this primary question, but
also, when war was declared, in the questions arising upon
subsequent military operations. This constitution of the
clans was one of the evils of ancient Ireland. It weak-
ened the power of the kings or supreme chieftains. The
kings or chieftains were themselves chosen by the clan,
although the choice of the clan was limited to those who
possessed a sort of hereditary right, often vague and open
to dispute, and complicated by a comparison of the per-
sonal merits of rival claimants. It is not wonderful that
such elections should have led frequently to abiding ani-
mosities and faction fights, ending in savage bloodshed.
To this essential weakness of the government, even in
times of peace, must be added the relation of the supreme
chieftain to his army in the case of war. The army was,
in fact, a rope of sand. It consisted of a number of
minor clans, each commanded by its own petty chief-
tain, receiving no pay, and bound by no oath or any
other obligation of allegiance to the king or chief com-
mander. Each clan, no doubt, adhered with unshaken
loyalty to its immediate chieftain ; but the chieftain, on
the smallest offence, could dismiss his followers to their
homes, even on the very eve of a decisive battle. lie
was ready at every personal insult, or supposed insult, to
abandon the national cause, and for the sake of a selfish
revenge, disguised under the name of honour, to expose
the whole national army to inevitable defeat."
Hence, as Dr. Todd remarks, " the inherent
weakness of warfare in ancient Ireland, and the
ease with which the Irish were always subju-
gated by a handful of disciplined men." To this,
as another cause of weakness in war, should be
added the contempt which the ancient Irish had
for the use of defensive armour. Their bards
loved to describe the beauty of the " silken
shirts" which their chiefs wore in battle when
they encountered, hand-to-hand, the Norsmen
clothed with scale armour or other mail ; and
both in Ireland and Britain the Celtic warriors pre-
ferred strength and agility to any amount of brass
or steel plating in warfare. It is quite certain,
however, that those who employed defensive
armour derived a considerable advantage from it ;
and the signal defeat of the well-armed Danes
at Clontarf could only have been achieved at an
enormous sacrifice of life, as well as by extraor-
dinary bravery on the part of the Irish in their
" fine silken shirts." The position of the Danes
in Ireland, after their overthrow at Clontarf, is
thus correctly described by 1)r. Todd :
" The Norsmen of Ireland were not seriously affected
in their position by the victory of Clontarf. They;retained
their hold of the great seaports, and the Irish Annals,
for some years, continue to record the usual amount of
conflict between them and the native tribes. We read,
however, of but few new invasions, and the design of
forming in Ireland a Scandinavian kingdom, which seems
to have influenced such men as Sigurd, of Orkney, and
the Viking Brodar, was certainly abandoned. The na-
tional distinction between the Irish and the Danes, how-
ever, continued until after the Anglo-Norman invasion ;
the Danes then in several places sided with the native
chieftains ; but in many instances they appear to have
recognized in the new comers a kindred origin. In the
seaport towns especially a common interest produced
alliances by which the peculiarities of the two races were
gradually softened down, and both were at length con-
founded by the Irish under the same generic name
of Gaill, or foreigners."
To the period immediately following the battle
of Clontarf is to be traced the final conversion
of the Danes of Ireland to Christianity, although
many OX the race had income Clixisthuis Wag be-

fore that time. On this point Dr. Todd writes in
a style which we scarcely expected from him, and
quotes such works as Laing's " Sea Kings of
Norway," to cast a slur on the religion of the age.
On the whole, the book is a most important one,
and we trust that it is not the last work of Irish
history which Lord Romily intends to give us in
his invaluable series of the Rerum Britannicarum
Scriptores.