The Sun.
London, England, 1866-02-02 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

TIMES.—The British Parliament holds such an
influence over men's minds, by its genius, its dig-
nity, its venerable antiquity, and its world-wide
power, that even its formalities are great public
events. Few will read the account of the ceremonies
which attended the opening of the seventh Parlia-
ment of Queen Victoria without a feeling of some-
thing more than curiosity. Those ceremonies have
been handed down from days when the civil liberty
which is now the heritage of the world was merely
the local usage of a small and not very powerful
nation. They have remained substantially unchanged,
while the people that observe them have been almost
transfOrmed in laws, manners, and pursuits. The
contrast between the traditional and the real is never
more strongly marked than when the powerful body
which actually governs this country is summoned
by an Usher to the Bar of the Lords, and directed
to return forthwith to elect a Speaker who shall be
presented next day for the Royal approval. But anti-
quated though the ceremony may be, there are few
Englishmen who would change it for any other which
might be supposed more in accordance with modern
circumstances. There is a kind of historical satis-
faction in learning that Mr. Denison was yesterday
chosen Speaker, for the third time, after the fashion
which has prevailed for so many generations ; that
the newly-elected members returned from the House
of. Lords to their own place according to the Royal
command; that the proposer addressed the Clerk at
the table; that the seconder did likewise; and that,
no other member being nominated, Mr. Denison
thanked the members in place, was conducted to
the Chair between his proposer and seconder, thanked
the members again from the Chair, and then, tak-
ing his seat, constituted the House of Commons
after the manner of so many bygone assemblies.
We must offer our congratulations to Mr. Denison
on being thus, for the third time, chosen to this most
honourable and important office. As Mr. Disraeli
justly remarked, re-election to the Chair is a greater
distinction than the original choice. It has been
owing entirely to the wisdom and discernment of
the House of Commons that so many Speakers have
presided over its deliberations for a series of years.
A man can hardly hope to attain this position until
he has given proof of the character and ability which
are required for the fulfilment of its duties. The
house, in this matter, is seldom influenced by party
spirit. It knows that the qualities necessary for a
Speaker are not to be found in many men. No one
who is not ignorant of the temper, the usages, and we
may say the prejudices, of the British House of Com-
mons will suppose that those qualities need be only
of a negative character, and that an inoffensive man
with a decent knowledge of Parliamentary proce-
dure is all that the members need look for. Judg-
ment, moderation, reserve, impartiality, unwearied
patience, and unflagging attention form a combina-
tion not usual even in so gifted an Assembly. And
in these days there is the further duty of superin-
tending the conduct of a mass of business which
threatens to overburden the industry of the most
laborious member of Parliament. In the fulfilment
of these duties Mr. Denison has, according to the
testimony of both sides of the house, earned his
right to be again chosen Speaker. But, while we
heartily congratulate Mr. Denison, we regret that
the duty of proposing and seconding him was
not committed to gentlemen who would have
better represented the representatives of the
United Kingdom than Mr. Monsell and Lord Gros-
venor. On such an occasion it would have been
graceful if the Speaker had been proposed on one
side of the house and seconded on the other. The
Conservative party would naturally have been glad
to pay a tribute of regard to a gentleman who has
acted with impartiality in party contests during a
period of nine years. We may presume from Mr.
Disraeli's remarks that the opportunity was not
offered them by the Government, and certainly a
Speaker whom both parties unanimously elected
might have been moved to the chair between two
more generally accepted exponents of popular appro-
bation. Whatever storms may be in the horizon,
there has been nothing but calm on the first day of
the session. It may be that the days of contested
Speakerships have gone by, and that the house
will seek out the man best fitted for what are
now most arduous duties with as much impar-
tiality as it would make a judicial appointment.
There was a happy unanimity in the speeches of
members, and in nothing more than in the feeling
allusions that were made to the death of Lord Pal-
merston. On this subject the Speaker, Mr. Glad-
stone, and Mr. Disraeli expressed the regrets to
which the nation has already given utterance. Mr.
Gladstone, who will have to support the burden
which Lord Palmerston .carried so lightly, stated
that he would have another opportunity of paying
a tribute to the departed Statesman, and the country
will learn with pleasure that the Government is
about to make a proposition for commemorating
Lord Palmerston by a suitable memorial. While
as yet the Chair of the House was empty, Mr.
Bright broached a subject which it appears has
been weighing upon his mind for a quarter of a
century. As is well known, it is usual for
members of the House of Commons who dine with
the Speaker and attend his levees to wear uniform
or Court dress. In these days, when Deputy-
Lieutenancies and semi-military commissions are in
the reach of most members of the House of Com-
mons, the old orthodox Court suit is less general
than of yore ; yet, unless a Speaker's guest desires
to commit what may be considered an act of ill-
breeding, he has to array himself in something
different from the ordinary evening dress of the
present day. Of this Mr. Bright complains,
as preventing certain members from availing them-
selves of the Speaker's hospitality. This is so
purely a matter of taste that we feel no desire to
argue it. Undoubtedly, if a man has an insuper-
able dislike to putting on a certain costume, it is
better to let him please himself, but it seems
as unreasonable to object to appear in a coat
of a certain shape as to take a pritle in exhibit-
ing it. The man of the world views these things
with indifference, and adopts the costume which is
usual in the society he enters. The dignity of the
Speaker, and even that of the members, is enhanced
by the formalities which have been handed down
from more ceremonious ages, and though uniforms
and Court suits are nothing in themselves, they are
signs of the honour that has been always paid by
the house to the member whom they have chosen to
preside over them, and of that regulated courtesy
which obtains among themselves. Of course, it is
open to any one to object to all special costumes
whatever. The Speaker himself might complain of
his wig or his robe, or a member might declare that
the wearing of such trappings prevented advanced
Liberals from being candidates for the Speakership.
'I he costume of a Judge is, perhaps, the most gro-
tesque in the world, and there might be some ex-
cuse for a barrister who should object to assume the
full-bottomed wig, the fur tippet, and the nosegay.
But men of the highest sense of dignity have been
Judges and Speakers, and we doubt whether it ever
entered the head of any of them to complain of the
customary apparel.. So the foremost statesmen of
this country have always put oti Court dress when
appearing before the Sovereign, and have never felt
that they were in any way lowering their dignity.
This seems to be the view taken by members of the
House of Commons, who have no objection to
appear in scarlet and silver or in Court dress when-
ever they think it their duty to wait on the Speaker;
but if there be any who think these harmless things
intolerable, it may be as well not to render them
indispensable.
DAILY NEWS.—In the short interval which has
elapsed since the arrogant demands of Spain
upon Chili were preferred by Admiral Pareja
at the cannon's mouth, the little navy of
the Republic has shown how much may
may be done by even a small Power when its pa-
triotic citizens, with minds opened by the arts of
peace and quickened by intercourse with the world,
are stung by assaults on their independence to take
arms for their own defence. Hitherto the Spanish
squadron in Chilian waters has done nothina to add
to the national renown. It has been unable to en-
force the blockade so ostentatiously proclaimed,
and, what is ,worse, unable to prevent its own
vessels being picked up one by one by those of the
Power nominally blockaded. The capture of the
Cavadonga by the Esmeralda has been followed by
that of a ship's launch, the crew of which were made
prisoners in the vessel which they too rashly boarded
as a prize ; and of a Spanish ship, the Dormitilla,
at Coquimbo ; while Chilian cruisers are upon the
track of Spanish commerce on the high seas, and
have even displayed the flag of the Republic within
Bight of the coasts of Spain. It must now be evident
to the Spanish Government that it has on its
hands a task such as the Ministers who recalled
Senor Tavira and disowned his work of peace
never contemplated. We must not, however, de-
ceive ourselves as to the tendency of exploits which
captivate the imagination and win our sympathy.
It is, no doubt, fcr the good of mankind that a
check should be given to the aggressive tendencies
of a buccaneering Power, which, for the last four
years, has done little but roam the world in search of
prey, attacking those with whom it could pretend
no quarrel, and nursing to the dimensions of war
the little differences which are always apt to arise
between independent States, but which the prudence
of honest and right-minded governments is exerted
to circumscribe. There would, moreover, be an ex-
hibition of something like poetic justice if Chili were
the chosen instrument of Providence conveying a
imich-needed lesson of international morality to the
statesmen of Spain. But dear as is the moral satis-
faction which follows a just retribution openly visited
on the offender, most persons would probably
hear with more pleasure that peace was made
than that the Chiliane were entering upon a ,

al. 1."'"

long war, with the chances, however much
in their favour. We trust that if the Chilians
should be compelled still to combat their assailant,
the advantages they have already won may prove
only the earnest of others yet more signal that re-
main to be reaped. But experience shows that
when two Powers are unequally matched, the bril-
liant exploits of the weaker, far from having a de-
cisive character or hastening the end of the contest,
only intensify the quarrel, and by provoking the
stronger to a greater development of energy make
the final issue the more certain. We saw this truth
of experience illustrated anew in the American war,
and we shall be glad if the lesson is not rep,tated in
the case of Chili and Spain. We fear that the effect
of recent events will be to render each party less in-
clined than before to accept the good offices which the
Governments of England and France desire to employ
in favour of peace. Chili and Pern are ready to incur
a considerable amount of risk for the sake of teach-
ing Spain to mind its own business in future, and
already fancy themselves well able to do so ; while
Castilian pride burns for revenge, even more than
for the dollars which were probably the primary_
object of the original expedition. If the neutral
Powers of Europe cannot mediate between the
belligerents with effect, the next best thing we can
wish is, that the American Republics on the one
hand, and Spain on the other, may have a fair field
and no favour. From this point a view of it seems_
desirable that some explanation should be
a report published by the Patrie, to the effect that
" the iron-clad frigate. Huascar, built in England
upon the order of the Peruvian Government, will
be detained at Brest until the settlement of the
difference between Spain and Peru." The deten-
tion of a ship of war belonging to an independent
and Sovereign Power is an act so contrary to inter-
national law, and so purely arbitrary in its charac-
ter, that we are bound to suppose that the report
given of
must be inaccurate. The subject, however, is one
upon which further information is urgently re-
quired.