The Sun.
London, England, 1867-12-24 00:00:00

THE LATE EDITION of " THE SUN" at
JAMES SPEEDY'S, " The 'Wellington," Wellington-street,

Strand.

r ONDON, TUESDAY, DEC. 24, 1867.

For an autumn season to pass without a speech
from Mr. BRIGHT would indeed be a marvel, and
though late he has yet contrived to make an ora-
tion before Christmas. A public meeting at Roch-
dale for the purpose of presenting an address to
Mr. JACOB BRIGHT on his recent election for Man.
chester has afforded him a rare opportunity, of
which he has not been slow to avail himself.
Those who can spare time at this merry season to
turn from foreign affairs and Fenian outrages
will have the pleasure of perusing a lengthened
discourse upon things in general, delivered
by one who can always make the matter of his
speeches worth attention, however devoid of right
or reason the meaning may be occasionally. It
must be expected that upon such an occasion as this
one just referred to the hon. member for Birming-
ham would be more than usually ferocious, and ac-
cordingly no surprise will be experienced by those
who are well versed in his tactics to find some flam-
ing denunciations of the powers that he, and some
well-timed allusions to the insolence of Lord DERBY,
the invective of Mr. DISRAELI, and last, but cer-
tainly not least, to the " scurrilous vituperation
of the Tory press." It is really amusing to find
Satan reproving sin after this fashion, but consis-
tency is virtue too mean for Mr. BRIGHT'S notice,
and he leaves it for the use of second-rate nota-
bilities, while genius towers aloft and leaves such
paltry attributes far beneath him. We suppose
that some allowance must be made for the dis-
appointment which he naturally experiences at see-
ing his favourite schemes carried out by others. Wo
learn in the course of his remarks: what
the great crime of Lord DERBY has been
he has ventured on forbidden ground, and actually
had the audacity to invade these precincts supposed
to be sacred to the great regenerators of our day
and generation. "To crown all, we have seen
Lord DERBY, best defender of protection, the last
and firmest bulwark against democracy—we have
seen him exhibiting himself in defence of free trade
and household suffrage on the platform of the Free
Trade ball in Manchester." What a failure to the
great exertions of Mr. BRIGHT to prove the con-
trary, of what has happened. If those walls
could have spoken, what fierce invectives, what
bitter reproaches, what fearful denunciations
might they not have recorded, delivered by the so-
called tribune of the people against the lack of
patriotism, and the determination to resist all pro-
gress that distinguished the Conservatives:; and
now to find himself proved a false prophet must,
in truth, be mortifying.
All this, however, is of no consequence. Nothing
that Mr. BeiGHT says about " Tories," " Reform,"
or any of those hackneyed phrases can surprise
any one ; but what we do deplore and
denounce is the course which he has taken
with respect to the agitation now rife in some quar-
ters, and the consequences:of which have filled the
minds of the people of this country with horror and
indignation. We can tell Mr. BRIGHT that this
speech of his last night has been a grievous error,
and the opinion of the country will ratify the asser-
tion. This is not a time to be told of the wrongs of
Ireland, this isnot a fittingseason to be lectured about
the "other Ireland" which exists beyond the Atlantic,
" an Ireland which does not fear the Government
in Ireland, an Ireland which is full of passion with
regard to what they believe to be the sufferings of
the country they have left. We are further told
that many of these men are desperate, they have
been accustomed to deeds of cruelty and blood in
the course of a sanguinary war, and, freed from
that war, " what is more likely than that they
should turn the instruction they have received to
purposes which they believe in some degree patrio-
tic." According to this line of argument we
might excuse and account for all murders and
every degree of crime, give this or that provocation,
and considering these insults and those disappoint-
ments then follows the grievous result. But what
is to be condemned in this speech before us is the
absence of all comment and the avoidance of all
condemnation concerning the important transac-
tions now taking place among us. Mr. BRIGHT is
not free to choose what subject he should take and
what he should not take when he addresses a meet-
ing of his fellow-countrymen after this fashion. No
greater contrast can be afforded than the speech
of Mr. GLADSTONE the other night to that of the
hon. member for Birmingham. The statesman-like
manner in which the leader of the Opposition de-
nounced the conspiracy that has unfortunately
gained ground among us is the best satire upon
the tame and inefficient way in which Mr. BRIGHT
slurred over a subject which has caused greater
excitement among us than any other for some
years. This is not as it should be. When the
most trivial events are singled out for commentary,
it is extraordinary that no mention, in the right
spirit, is made of the great offences committed in
the name of Fenianism. Mr. :BRIGHT calls himself
the friend of the poor. He has, over and over
again, arrogated to himself the right of being the
champion of the people ; then why has no question
been made of the unprovoked attack and the cruel
sufferings inflicted upon harmless individuals.
Ihe ruins at Clerkenwell, the sick beds
in the hospitals, the graves at Finchley,
can awaken no sentiment and find no words but
those of indignation against those mistaken and
misguided men, who do not know what they want.
We can tell Mr. BRIGHT that he is quite wrong if
he thinks he will reform people by this mode of
acting. Does he not see what all this excess of
ill-judged sentiment, and misguided zeal lead men
to ? Is it not the fault of some of those
heroes beyond the Atlantic that the horrors
of the other day were perpetrated, and has
not their unbridled license of thought and action
led to the commission of crimes which they will
shortly have to answer for at the bar of justice,
and further on to account for at a higher tribunal,