The Sun.
London, England, 1867-12-21 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

the Times thinks that a few platen rules will be easily
learnt, and common sense will teach the rest. Every man
understands how to protect his own property, and special
constables are only men acting in concert for the pro-
tection of property and peace on behalf of the public.
The service contemplated is sketched very distinctly in
the instructions we published yesterday. At first there is
nothing undertaken by a special constable, or required of
him, beyond a readiness to act on occasion of alarm. The
justification or warrant for the whole organisation lies in
the belief that alarms may occur, or, in other words, that
the public peace is placed in extraordinary jeopardy.
Lilt until the alarm occurs, and until the special constable
is summoned, no duty devolves upon him. By going before
the magistrate he has expressed his willingness to act as a
policeman extraordinary ; by leaving his address at the
police-station designated for the purpose he informs
the proper authorities where he is to be found. Then,
in case of alarm, he is available in aid of the regular police
force under the forms and with the advantages of an
organisation already prepared. We may confidently ex-
pect signal benefit from the demonstration thus made by
the community, but, apart from this moral effect, there
is no doubt that the special constables can render most valu-
able assistance to the regular police at a time like the pre-
sent. The defect of the regular force is in numbers only. It is
undermanned at all times, and although the Home Secre-
tary has just sanctioned an addition of one thousand men,
when the demand arising from an atrocious conspiracy is
added to the ordinary exigencies of metropolitan life,
the force cannot be expected to suffice for the
work. The extent of London is so immense,
and the accumulation of property within its limits
is so prodigious, that the ordinary guardians of the
public peace have enough to do at all times.
The police force is, as we have said, to be augmented,
but at present, besides the immediate urgency of the de-
mand, there is a call for a greater number of men than
could be added without extravagance to the regular
force. If the ordinary constables were twice as numerous
as they are, special constables would still be required.
We are not, indeed, of opinion that the enemy with whom
we have to deal is numerous ; but a handful of unscrupu-
lous ruffians may create not only alarm, but a feeling of
insecurity out of all proportion to their numbers. Against
them the safest precautions will be found in the presence
and vigilance of an extraordinary force of police. The.
chief duty, in short, of special constables will be to have
their eyes about them, and the more eyes there are about
the better. We have to deal with a foe at war with
society itself, and hesitating, as we have seen, at no
wickedness, however monstrous. It is a state of things
which we might well imagine we had outlived, but as it is
forced upon us we must meet it boldly, and we need have
very little fear about the result.

The Post, referring to Mr. Gladstone's recent speeches
in South Lancashire, says it was not to be expected that
the right hon. gentleman would lose the opportunity
afforded to him by his visit to his constituents of referring,
in however incidental a manner, to that marvelbus speech
in which the Chancellor of the Exchequer recently main-
tained that the present policy of his party is consistent
with that which it has always pursued. The popular
notion was that Conservatism was the opposite of Libe-
ralism, and that Tories hated change. This delusion Mr.
Disraeli was most anxious to dispel, and he proved to his
own satisfaction, doubtless, if not to that of the public,
that in reducing the suffrage to its present standard, he
had crowned that edifice which the Conservative party
have been so long engaged in constructing. This edifice
was composed of thirty-two measures, so well known to
every one that he did not deem it necessary to specify
them ; but Mr. Gladstone now rather pertinently asks
what they were. If it be true, as Mr. Disraeli says, that
he and his party have been carefully preparing the country
for the mighty change which has now been effected, it
may not be unreasonable to inquire how this result was
effected, and how it came to pass that the people at large
were entirely ignorant of the educational process to which
they were subjected.

The Daily News, taking up the observations of the
Opposition leader on ithe Irish question, feels that every
motive concurs to urge it to the course which Mr. Glad-.
stone recommends, of proceeding at once to remove those
grievances in Ireland which are confirmed and palpable,
and of inquiring with anxious care into those which are
more obscure or complicated. It is a duty which should
not for a moment be interrupted, but rather be hastened,
by the present necessity for inflicting exemplary punish
ment upon those who do not make open war upon men,
but who slaughter women and children by stealth. •We
have to enforce justice, but we have also to do justice.
We have not only to repress crime, but to remove the
causes which provoke crime. 'lle feeling which w.-.uld
defer this inquiry because of the horrible event 3 of the
moment is one which, however it may he worked by the
organs of an interested party, the nation will disclaim.
We are too strong to be either cruel or unjast. Let U 3
hope that we shall spew ourselves too 11,:,b1e to be driven
from what is right by the excesses of those who are the
unworthy avengers of wrong. Let us prove how much
worthier freedom is than despotism by letting the world
see that we can confess and amend our own errors even
while we bleed from the savage assaults of those whose
perverted• imaginations have been wrougbt to frenzy by
the consequences of our misgovernment.

The Herald speaks of the necessity for making all
haste with the chastisement of Theodore. Every motive
=tut urge the British commander to march to the rescua
as swiftly as is compatible with the safety of his 'army.
Our contemporary cannot believe the improbable story
that his preparations have been suspended in consequence
of Theodore having given guarantees that he would com-
ply with all our demands. What guarantee can possibly
be given by the beleaguered king, whose fate will proba-
bly be decided by the hinds of his infuriated subjects
before we can penetrate far enough into his country to
punish him ? Who can take the simple word of a man
who cannot be trusted on his oath ? Nothing- surely would
satisfy us short of the actual delivery of the prisoners into
our hands ; and how can Theodore accomplish that when
he cannot march for two miles in his pretended dominions
without fighting for his life, and is cut off from all poisible
means of communicating with the coast ? It is very pro-
bable that by this time we are not dealing with Theodore
at all, but with some other prince as intractable and fero-
cious as he.

At the expense of several lives, and of terrible suffer-
ing to many innocent persons, the Saturday Review thinks
that the Clerkenwell explosion will produce a wholesome
effect. It is•to be hoped that society has at length heard
the last of the moral EiOphisms by which anarchists, and
their patrons or dupes have sought to procure immunity
for crime. 111-trained intellects and dull imaginations
require to be startled into the perception of even obvious
truths, and the impudent pertinacity of Irish sedition had
apparently raised a doubt in the minds of some peaceable
and well-meaning persons whether the murder of a Man-
chester policeman was an act of questionable moral
character. The criminality of a conspiracy against
society has now been written in still more legible cha-
racters ; and it may be doubted whether even an Ameri-
can politician or an Irish Roman Catholic archbishop will
venture to elevate the Clerkenwell murderers into the
rank of heroes and martyrs. The perpetrators of the
atrocity must have intended to sacrifice innocent life to
their immediate object, and although they were disap-
pointed in their attempt to rescue the prisoners,the explosion
produced the effect which was undoubtedly contemplated.
If the Government henceforth acts with vigour and con-
sistency against the avowed enemies of the country, the
community at large will unanimously support the vindi-
cation of the law. English demagogues at least will be
afraid to express their sympathy for promoters of sedition
who are bolder and more practical than themselves. The
long-continued prevalence of order in England, combined
with unbounded political and personal liberty, has natu-
rally produced a laxity of opinion which leads to culpable
toleration of treasonable practices. Mere grumblers who
have no deliberate purpose of disturbing existing institu-
tions ally themselves too readily with revolutionary con-
spirators for the idle purpose of annoying the Government
or the ruling classes. The Fenians have the merit of
going directly to their object, and of revealing to careless
politicians the alternative which must he substituted for
the supremacy of law. If Mr. l3eiles ventured to object to
promiscuous attempts at arson, even his colleagues would
be afraid to censure the timidity or lukewarmness of their
leader. The assassin exercises discrimination in the selec-
tion of victims who, if they arc not pers:maily unpopular,
are perhaps official guardians of the public peace ; but fire
and gunpowder pay no respect to persons, or to the
nature of the property which may be destroyed. When
all cla:;ses of society thoroughly understand the issue
raised at Manchester• and Clerkenwell, there is no doubt
that the supporters of order will be too strong for their
antagonists. Even in Ireland a large prtion of the com-
munity disapproves of the crimes and of the insolence of
the rebellions faction ; and English understandings will
not be embarrassed by any excess of sympathy for Ame-
ricanised Irish intruders. The opinions which will be
expressed when the Clerkenwell atrocity is reported in the
United States will be awaited with some degree—of curio-
sity. hitherto the Republican and Democratic leaders
have competed with one another in expressions of good-
will to the cause of the Fenians, but perhaps here and
there an American politician may venture to disapprove
of the latest expression of anarchical malignity. Poli-
tical animosity to this country may possibly, in some
instances, stop short of the conclusion that the real or
imaginary wrongs of Ireland furnish an excuse for whole-
sale murder perpetrated in the heart of England.
The Sivectopr, taking up the same subject, points to the
unanimity -with which all classes have renrobated the nut.