The Sun.
London, England, 1867-05-08 00:00:00

I could say a great deal more, if the matter could be influ-
enced, as he has sought to influence it, by bare assert ion.
He has the advantage of having delivered paid lectures
all over England, and of having advertised himself as the
founder of the movement. I say that he utilised the
movement for his own benefit after it was fairly launched.
I know he was a captain in the Victoria Rifles through
motives which it would be invidious to analyse, consider-
ing that they were at least harmless ; and I know also, so
far as that is concerned, ho was excelled by his friend
Capt. Jordan at the time, who gave rifles and accoutre-
ments to induce members to join. It is odd that Captain
Busk in issuing the pamphlet containing a paragraph re-
flecting on my attendances on parade should not have
mentioned that he afterwards sought for a commission in
the corps commanded by myself, a proposition which my
officers would never have approved, for reasons quite in-
dependent of his pretensions to the foundership of the
volunteers.

Finally Capt. Busk intimates now that he would not
accept of a testimonial. Yet in his "Syllabus" of enormous
puffs he dwells approvingly on the efforts of his friends
to start one, which afterwards apparently collapsed.—l am,
sir, your most obedient servant, •

April 28th, 1867.

ALFRED B. RICIIARDS.

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

TIMES.—A " famous victory" has been achieved
over a gentleman already well known for a certain
" alacrity at sinking," and a large portion of the
community sympathise with him sufficiently to feel
somewhat humiliated. Mr. Walpole has once more
found himself unequal to a Fabian policy. But
there remains to be asked the question which has
been asked of a thousand other victories, and which
it has sometimes taken the whole world many cen-
turies to answer. What is the worth of the victory?
In what cause has it been gained ? What are the
substantial fruits that have been won ? What prin-
ciples have been established? What has been done
by this success, and what stone has been added to
the fabric of public liberty? The proceedings in
the park ought to throw some light on this inquiry,
and we ought to be able to point to the day and
hour for the unmistakable record of what Beales
has done for us. The speeches delivered from a
dozen platforms ought to harmonise into a grand
whole as simple and intelligible as some half-dozen
popular successes won from bigotry or self-interest
even in these degenerate days. We doubt, however,
whether one of our readers has been able to find
this wheat in the chaff with which we have been
half smothered. The most palpable part of the suc-
cess, as described by the speakers themselves, is that
they have forced the Park, and established the
people's right to its use ; and the speakers generally
assume that this concession has been extorted from
the British aristocracy, at some cost to their comfort
and their pride. It is here that they love "to dis-
port themselves with their finery and their lemaus."
It is here that peers and the sons of peers spend
their ill-deserved pensions outof the public purse,
or the more general fund of public industry. It is
here that they meet and hate the honest working
classes. It is here that they conspire, crush risi▪
ng
industry, and rob men of equal rights. If such is the
case, the sooner Hyde Park is ploughed up and laid
under corn, or covered with model lodging-houses
and co-operative workshops, the better; and Mr.
Beales will be entitled to a statue, or a coronet, if
he could ever be induced to accept such a bauble.
But it so happens that Hyde-park, instead of being
monopolised,:by the aristocracy, or by any class
whatever, is the most open, most unreserved, most
popular; most democratic institution in the metro-
polis. Anybody can enter, anybody can lounge
about, look at the flowers, lie on the grass,
and sleep there till nightfall. Any half-dozen
fellows can form a circle and amuse themselves after
any quiet fashion they choose. Anybody can stand
at the rails, look at the carriages, and stare at the.
pretty faces. Had Messrs. Beales and 13radlaugh
and Zhe O'Donoghue never been heard of, there
would on so fine a day been the usual thousands of
people enjoying themselves after their several ways,
and not a quarter or a tenth of them could have
laid claim to aristocracy or even gentility. There
would, have been artisans, nurserymaids, and chil-
dren, clerks lingering on their way home, and quiet
family groups, often from distant streets. These
ordinary mortals do not at all grudge the higher
classes the more splendid appearance they
.make in
the Ring or the Row. They like the equipages as
much as they do the ancient trees, the fair eques-
trians as much as the turf and the flowers, and the
London season they think the best season of the
year. It is in Hyde-park, then, that the whole
British family has hitherto assembled in its ki▪
nd-
liest tmood, its most cheerful form, and its most
unanimous occasion. It has hitherto been in the
power of any man, woman, or child to spend the
best part of a summer's day in those Elysian
Fields, as, best of all public resorts, they deserve
to be called. This is the place, these the ordinary
occupants, this the family, this the unanimity,
this the happiness, this the freedom, over which
" the famous victory" of last Monday was won.
But if this was not the victory, what was it?
Her Majesty's Ministers have deprived the most
enthusiastic Reformers of the opportunity of a vic-
tory. of a more political character, and the meet-
ing in Hyde-park is not likely to add one word to
the Reform Bill, or take one word out of it. The
speakers, indeed, insisted on the duty of watchin e•the
Bill, with a view to leaving the household franchise
utterly unfettered, assimilating the borough and
county franchise, and getting more if it can be got..
But they well know that these questions will be
settled very pleasantly without their assistance, and
not quite as they would wish. This was not the
victory of the day. The words uttered went for
. nothing, and is evident that the speakers felt it
enough to be in the Park and hardly knew what to
say there. They had overcome some difficulties,
but there remained greater which they did not over-
come. They could not create a cause when there
was not a cause in existence; nor could. they make
themselves better and greater men than they were.
It often happens that by force of talent and enter-
-1 prise, and some little daring, a man may force him-
self into 9. society which is the object of his ambi-
tion, only to make the painful discovery that he is
out of his place there, and has really nothing to say.
These people had really nothing to say or do that
required carrying Hyde Park and frightening the
Home Office out of its propriety. It was " great
cry and little wool," for any political significance.
They have met, and made no sign. They could
only tell us what we all know, that our rulers are
excessively pliant and good-natured, and that the
question of the day is who shall give the people
most. There is something in this. It is what may
be called a pregnant fact ; for a good deal more
might be expected. But the speakers in Hyde Park
did not even allude to the changes which might be
expected from a compliant Ministry, and a race of
concession, and a more democratic legislation: The
single Irishman, indeed, took a flight, and predicted
that the elevation of the individual in our system
would tend to larger and closer sympathy between
various classes and creeds. The people of England
and Ireland, he thought, would understand each
other better, and be kinder one to another, than the
higher classes had been, whether landlords or rich
employers. We shall see whether this be the case.
But the consummation, when it comes, will not have
to thank last Monday's meeting. That meeting
and its success must be measured by common
rules. Who composed it? Who were they
that displayed their numbers—not so very for-
midable ; and their power, whatever it be? They
marched as Reformers, but they were Trade
Unionists; and there was probably not one in the
procession, or in the meeting, who would not have
repelled a non-unionist from his side as if he had
been a pickpocket, a traitor, and a spy. This was a
democratic. organisation of industry, whose right so
to organise itself we do not for a moment questi▪
on,
but which does it for its own interest, not for the
good of the country ; at least putting the pri▪
vate
before the public end. Such a meeting did not re-
present the population even of the metropolis,
.much
less of England, still less of the distant provinces,
The
it is the object of all combinations to exclude.
The barons who met at Runnymede and obtained
for their own order privileges which future ages saw
extended to the British people were not more selfish
and exclusive than these champions of freedom in
Hyde-park. The merits of their cause we canvass
not. No doubt the barons followed a wholesome
instinct, and did good work in their days. But
theirs was not the cause of popular freedom, nor
was theirs the cause that enjoyed an hour's triumph
in Hyde-park. It was the cause of industrial com-
bination, taking advantage of a political crisis, and
showing itself in colours not really its own.

THE " WESTMINSTER GAZETTE" ON LORD CHIEF
JUSTICE COCKBURN AND BRITISH RULE IN IRELAND.—
In our article of last week, on the subject of Bri-
tish rule, we closed what we- had to say on the
Jamaica question, and now resume the task we have
undertaken of exposing the misrule still perpetuated
in Ireland. We regard this as one of the most im-
portant considerations affecting Ilritish interests
at the present day ; for, until Englishmen are made
to understand the true causes of Irish discontent,
there can be no hope of the proper remedies being
applied for their removal; and, so long as the
causes of discontent are allowed to operate, we must
suppose that they will produce their natural effects
by generating disaffection : and with Ireland dis-
affected at her side, England can never be sure
of possessing at home the material strength neces-
sary to give force to her opinions abroad. At the
present hour we have some five-and-twenty
thousand troops employed in Ireland, besides
some ten thousand constabulary, whilst a con-
siderable portion of the British fleet 10 kept how-